Three years later, the police led him away in handcuffs for doing things to his daughters that no child should have to endure. Then the FBI went in, raided his house, and pulled out boxes of pictures and videos. The community was stunned; it couldn’t be true, he was such a great guy, but the life sentence with no chance of parole calmed the chatter.
And now, I was staring at a woman who had me on the verge of screaming monster all over again. My finger twitched on my gun and slid toward the trigger. I was better off putting a bullet in her head right now, but before I could pull the trigger, six more figures emerged from the mist. None of them were as corrupted as she was, but maliciousness tinted every one of their souls.
They’re humans, but as I thought it the fog shifted around us until the whirling, disorienting pattern caused me to sway. I closed my eyes but quickly opened them again. I didn’t dare take my attention off the woman who was smiling at Hawk in a way that made me want to rip her mongrel soul out of her body.
Chapter Twenty-One
Hawk
I stepped closer to Aisling when more people emerged from the fog, but my gaze returned to the woman at the front of the group. She oozed sex as her eyes ran over me, and she smiled before licking her lips. I didn’t smile back.
Usually, a woman like her would have excited me, especially since I was hungry, but the idea of touching her repulsed me. Something was not right here; I had to get Aisling away from this woman and this place.
“Who are you?” Lix demanded as he pulled his sword from his back.
“I’m Amber,” she said. If she was surprised to find herself talking to a walking skeleton, she kept it hidden. But, if she lived in the Wilds, nothing probably surprised her anymore. “And you are?”
“A Guardian of the Gates.”
I’d never heard Lix give this response to someone. It was true; before humans tore a hole into Hell and blew it open, the skelleins had guarded the gateways to Hell with the hounds and the varcolac demon. The first step to passing through the gates was to have the balls to approach the skelleins; the second was to answer their riddle.
“I see,” Amber murmured before she looked questioningly at the rest of us. No one offered their name. “And what are you doing in our valley?”
Aisling shifted beside me, and her lips compressed into a flat line. I’d never seen the hardness in her eyes before. Her finger rested against the trigger of her gun, and something about her demeanor said she was close to firing it.
“What are you doing in this valley?” Wren countered. “I didn’t see any sign of Wilders in the area.”
“Wilders?” Amber’s voice dripped disdain. “We’re not Wilders.”
“Then, what are you?” Bale asked.
“Just a simple group of people looking to survive the apocalypse. Obviously”—she waved a hand at Lix—“you are something more, but we came to offer you help.”
“She’s lying,” Aisling whispered so low her words didn’t travel past us. “She’s hideous.”
Amber was far from hideous, but Aisling saw more than I could of the woman. I rested my hand briefly on her arm and felt the tension in the honed muscles beneath my palm. Aisling’s eyes flickered toward me before locking on the woman again.
“We don’t need any help,” Bale said and whistled for the hounds. “Let’s go.”
The hounds slunk out of the mist and prowled closer to Bale. All of them kept their heads low and their attention on Amber’s group as they surrounded us. Aisling hesitated before falling into step behind Lix as Bale led the way through the fog.
“Are you sure that’s the right way?” Amber called after us. “The mist can be disorienting.”
Bale didn’t reply, and Aisling didn’t put her gun away after we left the humans standing in the mist.
“What do you think she meant by that?” Wren asked.
When we were on the hill, the fog hadn’t seemed that thick, but standing in the middle of it was like standing in the middle of a moving room. The walls followed us everywhere we went.
“She’s evil and repulsive,” Aisling said.
“I don’t think she’s up to any good,” Lix said, “but she wasn’t repulsive.”
“Yes, she is.” When Aisling stopped walking, so did the rest of us. Her hand trembled as she rested it against her chest. “On the outside, she’s perfect, but inside she has one of the most corrupted souls I’ve ever seen, and those people with her were also malformed.”
“What do you mean?” Corson asked.
“I can see souls. Not born demons, of course, because you don’t have one, but I can see the souls of humans and demons who have human DNA in them like Hawk and Wren. I’ve always possessed the ability, and I’ve run into some pretty shitty humans in my lifetime, but that woman is one of the worst. Whatever she’s done, it’s turned her into a monster, or maybe she was born one. I don’t know, but she’s evil.”
“No one is born evil, and there is no such thing as good and evil. There are shades of gray in all things,” Bale said. “The angels aren’t all good, and demons aren’t all bad.”
“Fine,” Aisling said impatiently. “She wasn’t born evil, but her piss-poor life choices have turned her into a monster. You don’t understand how rare that is. I’ve seen the corrupted souls of people who have hurt others and who are cruel and manipulative, but until today, I’ve only encountered one other soul so corrupted it was a beast inside a person. And all the people with her were corrupted, but none as bad as her.”
Panic tinged Aisling’s voice, and she glanced nervously behind us when she stopped speaking. I gripped her elbow and drew her closer.
“They’re watching us,” she whispered.
And I knew she was right as I could feel eyes boring into us as the mist rolled around us like a living, breathing thing. I didn’t know how, but I suspected Amber or one of her friends was controlling the fog.
“We should have killed them all,” Aisling said.
Corson’s eyebrows shot up before he nodded approvingly. He gave me a thumbs-up that Aisling couldn’t see and flashed a grin. I shook my head at him. Demons often didn’t understand the more emotional side of humans, but they did understand destroying their enemies, and apparently, Corson approved of Aisling’s words.
I stroked Aisling’s arm as I tried to ease some of the strain from her. I’d seen her ruthlessness during the battle, and she may kill when necessary, but she wasn’t cruel. She wanted them dead because she’d seen something that terrified her.
“We have to get out of this valley,” Wren said. “We only saw seven of them, but there could be more.”
Aisling shuddered at Wren’s words, and I bent to kiss the top of her head. “It will be okay,” I promised.
Corson rested his hand on the small of Wren’s back as Bale started into the fog again. I released her elbow but stayed next to Aisling as the mist thickened until I could barely see Corson and Wren before us.
The scrape of metal against leather rebounded off the mist as Bale pulled the sword she wore on her back free of its sheath. I saw her do it, and she was no more than two feet away from me, but I couldn’t tell if the sound came from beside me or a hundred feet away.
From the corner of my eye, I saw something darker slip through the fog. As soon as I turned toward it, it vanished. I slid the blade hanging from my side free and gripped it in both hands as something darted through the fog. Laughter trailed behind it.
“Son of a bitch,” Corson muttered.
I could barely see him anymore, and I had no idea where the hounds were. I stepped closer to Aisling; I’d tear every last one of these assholes apart if they hurt one hair on her head. I never should have brought her with us. She would have been safer at the wall. It would have pissed her off if I left her behind, but better her anger than her death.
“It’s her,” Aisling whispered. “She’s having them do this.”
“She’s not controlling the fog,” Bale said.
“And how do y
ou know she’s not?” Lix asked.
No one had a reply for that as we had no idea what Amber could do. The laughter increased until the maniacal sound rebounded all around us. The almost mechanical sound of the laughter reminded me of those toy monkeys that laughed as they crashed their cymbals together. I kept waiting for the bang of those instruments, but there was only the endless laughter.
“I’m not playing with these fuckers,” Corson spat.
When something flashed past me, I lunged out with my blade. A gasp came from the fog, and when I pulled my knife back, blood dripped from it. The laughter ceased as suddenly as it started. In the ensuing hush, I sensed an increased hostility emanating from the fog when it thickened around us and pulsed in a way that reminded me of a throbbing vein.
“Maybe she is controlling the fog,” Aisling said.
If I’d learned one thing since arriving at the wall, it was that anything was possible. Aisling had seen Amber’s soul, so she was at least part human or had been human, but she could be something more too.
“Keep going,” Lix said.
“Going where?” Bale asked.
“Straight.”
Straight into a trap? Bale didn’t ask the question, but I knew we were all thinking about it when no one moved.
A low growl came from my right, and a startled cry died away. One of the hounds had found its dinner.
“Follow me,” Lix said.
He took the lead and started into the fog as something else flashed by us. Aisling spun and aimed her gun at the fog but didn’t fire.
“Shit,” she muttered before returning her gun to her holster and removing a trench knife. “I don’t want to accidentally shoot a hound or let the horsemen know we’re coming.”
I nodded as something else darted out of the fog. I yanked Aisling back as a knife arced toward her. I didn’t have time to do anything more than drop my arm in front of her. The blade cut through my skin and muscle before the tip embedded against my bone.
The man’s mouth parted as shock over stabbing me registered on his face. When his eyes went to Aisling and I saw the malicious gleam in them, a snarl tore from me. I grasped the back of the man’s head and threw him to the ground. He’d been sent here to kill her, and I had no doubt the others would come for her too.
It seemed Amber disliked Aisling as much as Aisling disliked her. My blood pounded in my ears as I restrained myself from plunging into the fog and breaking her neck, but I couldn’t leave Aisling unprotected, and I had to get her out of this fog.
I planted my foot on the small of the man’s back and gripped the knife handle. Black blood spilled from my arm when I ripped the blade free. Human or not, he was going to die for attacking Aisling, but before I could drive the knife through his back, two more figures charged out of the fog. The noises they emitted reminded me of a cross between a hissing snake and a pissed-off squirrel.
They’re insane.
That much was evident in the twisted glimmer in their eyes and the chatter of their jaws as they raced for Aisling. Corson’s talons arced through the air and carved through the midsection of the first one like a Thanksgiving turkey.
I plunged the knife into the chest of the second one. When I yanked it free, red blood spread across the man’s chest as his hands clawed at his shirt. I shoved him into the fog before bending to slice the throat of the first one who went after Aisling.
When I rose, Aisling grasped my arm and dragged it toward her so she could inspect the wound. “Are you okay?” she demanded.
“I’m fine.” The bleeding had already stopped, and my skin itched as it worked to close over the healing muscle.
“Your blood—”
“Canaghs have black blood,” I said as I gently pulled her hand away from my arm. “It’s already healing.”
She opened her mouth to say something more but closed it again when an eerie chatter started from the fog. It took a minute for me to realize they were clicking their teeth together to create the noise.
“Keep moving,” Corson said.
Clasping Aisling’s elbow, I pulled her against my side as we started forward again. They had targeted her, and there was no way I would let one of these teeth-clattering fucks get their hands on her. They were humans; if there were no fog covering them, we could take them out without a problem, but this was their world, and they were using it to their advantage.
More shadows slid through the fog, but they didn’t try to attack us again. Most of the hounds stayed close to us, but some of them vanished into the mist before reappearing again. The clattering of the teeth didn’t ease until it abruptly silenced.
Aisling stepped closer as the fog shut out all sounds of the world beyond it. Behind me, a hound emerged from the mist while in front of us two materialized. They fell into step beside Corson and Bale and directed them toward the right.
The mist lifted so suddenly that I recoiled from the sudden influx of light and squinted against the sun. I kept Aisling moving forward as I turned toward the fog. A tendril brushed against my cheek, and I thought the chattering resumed, but it was difficult to tell as, outside the mist, a rush of sound returned. The singing of the birds and the squirrels jumping from tree to tree grated against my previously dulled eardrums.
I watched to make sure no one followed us from the fog; I didn’t see anyone, but I could still feel their eyes following our every movement. I didn’t have to see them to know they weren’t happy about our escaping them.
“What was that?” Wren asked.
“Just another part of Hell on Earth,” Lix said as he uncapped his flask and gulped some down.
“But they were human, or they had souls…” Aisling’s brow furrowed as she pondered this. “I guess you could call them souls anyway, but they could have been like me or Wren and Hawk.”
Lix recapped his flask and returned it to where it hung on his waist. “And they’ve discovered a way to trap and kill others.”
“But could one of them create the fog?” Wren asked. “It’s definitely not natural.”
“Yes, and it was probably Amber who created it,” Corson said. “Humans have abilities, such as Aisling’s talent for seeing souls, and many demons and angels have different talents. Some demons can control the elements. Besides, anything is possible now that Hell has come to Earth.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Aisling
Caim was leaning against a tree when we arrived at the top of the next mountain. He had his black wings folded behind him and his arms over his chest as he smiled grimly before waving a hand at the valley below us. “Aren’t they a bunch of assholes?”
I cast a nervous glance into the valley below us. The wall of fog shimmered in the sun, but nothing followed us, and it wasn’t expanding. Still, I didn’t like being this close to it or the vile people inside it. I wouldn’t relax until we were miles away from Amber and her crew.
“You could have warned us,” Corson said.
“I didn’t get the chance. I got a little lost in the fog, as did the horsemen. I landed to try to get a better view, and that was when I met Amber and her bunch of merry fucking nutsos. You were already in the fog by the time I came out. Instead of getting lost in there again, I figured you were at least smart enough to find your way out and, my goodness, so you have!” Caim exclaimed; Corson glared at him.
“Where are the horsemen?” Bale asked.
“Where indeed,” Caim murmured. “They went into the fog, and I went in after them. I’m the only one I saw come out. Personally, I think those assholes down there are working with them. I’ve searched the mountain for the past hour, but I can’t find any sign of them.”
“You lost them?” Corson accused.
Caim blinked at him before replying very slowly. “They went into the fog. I went in after them. They disappeared. I. Can’t. Find. Them.”
Corson scowled at him, but Caim pretended not to notice the furious glint in his eyes or the blood dripping from his talons as he yawned and scratche
d the ear of one of the hounds.
“Now, what do we do?” Wren asked as she rested her hand on Corson’s arm. He visibly relaxed beneath her touch, but his anger still simmered beneath the surface.
Caim glanced at the sky. “I’ll keep searching for them, but…”
“But?” Hawk prodded when Caim stopped speaking.
“But I don’t think I’m going to have much luck,” Caim finished.
I glanced back at the mist. “Do you think they’re still in the fog?”
“I don’t know,” Caim said, “but I don’t think so. If the horsemen are working with them, then it was to distract me, which they succeeded at doing. They would have used that distraction to get as far from me as possible.”
“If they were still in the fog, the hounds would know,” Corson said. “It probably distorted their senses too, but they would have detected the horsemen. I think Caim’s right; I think they used it as an opportunity to lose him.”
“Then we have to find them again,” Bale said. “Let’s go.”
* * *
Aisling
When night descended, Bale and Corson called a stop to our journey, which was beginning to feel pointless. Before there had been a goal, but now it felt aimless. Caim had spent a lot of time in the sky and covered a lot of land, but he discovered no sign of the horsemen.
I didn’t know what we would do if we couldn’t find them; we couldn’t go back to the wall without destroying them, but we couldn’t keep wandering the Wilds with no idea where we were going. That wouldn’t accomplish anything and seemed like an excellent way to end up dead.
I took off my pack before releasing it and resting my back against a rock as a giant raven descended with a flutter of wings. Caim transformed from his raven form and sauntered over to a cluster of trees. He slid down one of the trees to sit with his wings spread out like he was cooling them.
Kiss of Death: Hell on Earth Series, Book 3 Page 14
