“Focus, Hound.” Lucifer had zero patience.
“We hunted everywhere and barely found a single malanum. It was like they were eradicated from the district. Then we were sitting in a café and I see this kid walk by. She was all by herself. I kinda freaked a little, ya know? Scared she was going to get kidnapped or some fucking shit. It was late at night. So I followed her. Figured I could stay back, keep my distance, and watch to make sure she went home. If she ran into any trouble, I’d be able to stop it. But she went right into an alley we didn’t even see was there until it was there.”
Lucifer’s head started to hurt. He hated when Tanner talked like this.
“So I get closer and that’s when I see where the malanum are. They’ve got like this… hive or something.”
“They saw us and came after us,” Eli said.
Lucifer stiffened. “They initiated the attack?”
“Fuck yeah they did. We started opening random Hell holes because there were so many. Some fell right through, not expecting the ground to drop out under them.”
“And there were no humans in sight?”
“Fuck no,” Tanner huffed, “You think we’d open that many holes if there were? Come on, Luce.”
The Devil frowned. An idea popped into his head…. It could just be a coincidence, but it might not be. The streets of Paris were cleared away the night the twins were rescued too. A barrier had been set, but not without being noticed…. Shit. Lucifer didn’t want his mind to go where it was heading, but the signs were all there and he needed to do something about it. But first he’d have to discuss it with his brothers, just in case he was already going out of his goddamned mind.
Holy fucking shit. Lucifer seriously needed to get out of Hell. Before the Devil could do that though, he was going to have to give up power to his brothers so they could stay in Hell and for that to happen... Fuck him sideways, he didn’t even know if he had the strength to pull it off now.
But it was time to find out.
Chapter 25
Sebastian couldn’t tear his eyes away from Tills. Watching her merge into a Hell Hound was equal parts exciting and excruciating. His heart pounded in his throat, sweat trickled down his spine. His mouth watered. His dick was so hard it hurt.
As much as he wanted to touch her, she wasn’t ready for him yet so he kept his hands down at his sides. Tills was on the ceiling, panting.
“You’re okay,” even though Baz doubted she could hear him, he kept his voice calm, “You’re not alone, Tills. We’re right here. Your pack is right here.”
“Maiden, Mother, and Crone,” Valor said when he entered the room.
Bishop stood off to the side. “She’s strong, she’s got this.”
The men kept their focus on their woman. Tilly’s form flickered in an out. She sputtered and cried, curling into a ball of rage and pain. No one could touch her yet. They knew it, but that fact didn’t lessen the overwhelming need to still try.
With her hair damp from sweat, Tilly shook like a wet kitten in the freezing rain. Tears fell down and hit the ground along with her spit.
“She’s got to let this out,” Drake rubbed the back of his neck, “She needs to release it.”
Funny, Baz thought, this coming from the guy who keeps everything in. Aaaannd Sebastian was the pot to Drake’s kettle. “She’s not going to let go of her control. She’s holding onto it so tightly,” Baz moved around, keeping his gaze still locked on the newborn Hell Hound.
“But she could hurt herself like this, brother.”
True. If Tills wasn’t strong enough to fight her inner beast, she could die going through The Merging. He wanted to be scared for her, but there was no room in his heart for fear. Fear ate too many things. Instead, Sebastian swelled with pride that she had gotten this far so soon. “She’s got this. She’ll be fine.”
“If by fine, you mean she’s already snapped her nails off clawing the ceiling and has bit her tongue twice, then yeah, she’s fine.” Drake pushed past his twin and tried to go after her.
Valor didn’t stop him like Sebastian thought he would. Instead, their alpha joined in and started climbing the walls with his Hell Hound powers too.
Bishop and Sebastian stayed on the ground. Bishop stood by the door – no doubt having a silent war in his mind over being trapped in this space – and Sebastian’s boots seemed to be glued to the floor. As much as he wanted to touch Tilly right now and help her, he knew damn well he wouldn’t be able to control himself once he laid a hand on her. Either he’d fuck her like crazy or initiate a fight. The beast in him liked to dominate and not being Alpha didn’t change that. If anything, the desire felt enhanced lately.
“I don’t think I can touch her,” Bishop stepped in close to Baz. “Bet you’re feeling the same, huh?”
“Mmm hmm.”
“Fuck, this is harder than I thought it would be. I hate seeing her suffer and having no way to make it stop.” A burden they knew many Angels dealt with on a daily basis – especially their maker.
Sebastian and Bishop watched Drake approach Tilly, head on, while Valor closed in from behind. They moved at a snail’s pace, so they wouldn’t spook her.
“What the fuck are they doing?”
“I have no idea,” Sebastian whispered, “but this is against the rules.”
Lucifer made it very clear that no one was to be touched or helped during their merging phase. If Satan made a rule, you followed it. The end.
But Valor had done nothing but break every rule in the book when it came to this woman. They should have known he wouldn’t let her suffer if he could maybe lessen the blow.
“Easy lass,” Val cooed and tried to reach for her ankle.
She probably couldn’t hear him. During this phase, you lost all five senses and slowly regained them back, one by one, and sometimes you got an extra gift. Like Val, for instance. He was given the gift of bringing back life. The twins didn’t have anything extra. Neither did Bishop. Baz often wondered what made Valor earn such a miracle, but never asked because it didn’t matter. If Lucifer wanted to give you something extra, that was his choice, not yours.
Tilly’s next scream broke Baz’s heart. Her voice cracked. She continued clawing at the ceiling, engraving long strips into the drywall and bloodying her fingers in the process. When Tilly tried to scream again, blood poured out of her mouth. It was hard to tell, but it looked like a few of her fingers were broken now too, and the ceiling was going to have to be replaced. Gods, this house had seen and been through so much. This particular room was off limits unless one of the Hounds got too far unbalanced and didn’t go to Hell for help, which, sadly happened more often than they’d ever care to admit.
“Three digits broken by the looks of it, and her tongue’s about halfway severed,” Drake’s tone was all business.
Holy… shit. Baz wanted to puke. What if she didn’t survive it? What if they all watched her die and did nothing to try and prevent it?
Before he knew what he was doing, Sebastian started climbing the walls too. There had to be something they could do for her. “Can’t you make it hurt less, Alpha?”
“No,” Valor swiped his hand over his mouth. He was only about ten inches away from her. “My instincts say help but I doona ken how without causing damage.”
“Agreed,” Drake nodded. “I don’t want to fuck her up. Lucifer gave us something here, we can’t ruin it.”
“We can’t watch her die, either.”
“She’s not going to die,” Bishop was now on the ceiling, slowly approaching their woman too. “Death can kiss her ass, just like she always wanted. Our girl’s going to get through this.”
Tilly jerked and cried out again. Her chaotic energy faded for a moment and she dropped from the ceiling. Drake reached out and caught her before she fell to the floor.
Valor dropped down as well. “Give her to me,” he grabbed Tilly from Drake and held her tightly in his arms.
The minute Valor held her, Tilly cried out and tried
to fight him. Her response time was quick – and that was both good and bad. Good, because it showed she was taking in her powers. Bad, because… well, now Valor most likely had a broken cheekbone. Tilly was much stronger now.
“Surround her,” Valor commanded. “We do this together.”
They obeyed. Dropping down and gathering around Valor and Tilly, everyone approached carefully.
“If we fuck her up,” Drake warned.
“Then we fuck her up together,” Valor grunted while trying to restrain the wild animal they all loved. “And if we can save her, we save her together.”
Sebastian nodded once and bent down to grab one of her kicking feet. He snatched Tilly’s ankle and held it still while Drake grabbed the other and said, “This is a bad fucking idea.”
“You got a better one, brother?”
“No,” Drake grunted and doubled-down on his grip. “But I can feel her. She’s hurting and terrified right now.”
“Ye can feel her emotions?”
“Yeah, through her soul.” Drake’s brow was covered in sweat. His perfect hair fell down into his eyes and his jaw clenched.
“Good, then ye can tell us if we help or hurt her more.”
“Fuck, this feels like we’re overstepping somehow.” Bishop pinned Tilly’s arms over her head. A bone cracked, and she let out another cry. “Fuck me, her shoulder just popped out of the socket!”
“We’ll fix it later.” Valor grabbed Tilly’s head so she couldn’t smash it into the easy-to-clean tiled floor and fracture her skull. “Just follow my lead for now.”
Drake roared a ferocious growl at his alpha, “We can’t help her through this! We’re going to do more harm than good!”
Valor looked right at him and what he said next had all the Hell Hound’s blood run cold. “I can see her aura, Hound. She’s already dying.”
Chapter 26
I’m dying. Those two words rang true like Tilly was the church bell at her own sorry ass motherfucking funeral. No sound. No sight. No smell. No feeling. She couldn’t even taste the blood that filled her mouth. Shit, what did she do to her tongue? Bite it off? God, she hoped not. She was going to need it to cuss Lucifer out for this when it was over.
If she survived… which, by the way everything felt on her insides, looked highly unlikely.
Tilly was lost in a swirl of chaos shrouded in black. The air was too thick to breathe. The pain in her bones was absolutely excruciating. There were no words to describe this level of hell. Hounds! She wanted to cry out for them. Ask them for help. How does one survive this?
Give up? Do you just give up and let these waves of agony take you under? That sounded like the only option she had.
Nothing about her functioned properly. What Tilly once called arms and legs were now balls of fire and electricity. Her stomach twisted so tight, she might as well have swallowed a blender. Her head had been jammed with spikes. Pinhead had nothing on her now. For all the pain she felt on the inside, Tilly truly felt nothing good on the outside to balance it out.
Strange though, right? Why should she crave a balance when everything she was made of was blowing apart? If she could see right now, maybe Tilly would notice that pieces of her – all broken and bloody – were strewn about the backseat of the truck.
Wait, was she still in the backseat of the truck? Was Bishop still laying on top of her? Was that the weight she felt pressing on her chest so hard she couldn’t breathe right now?
Tilly opened her mouth to say something and choked on fluid filling her mouth. Coughing and sputtering, she yelped and couldn’t figure out how to move right. Were her limbs torn off? It felt like it. Was her head severed? If so, why did it still have to hurt so much?
And why, for the love of all things unholy, did she want to kill the whole world right now?
Seriously, the rage boiling beneath her skin made her weirdly numb. Numb was only good when you didn’t want to feel. She wanted to feel. Feel anything but this excruciating pain. She needed to touch and be touched. Someone! Anyone! HOUNDS!
Tilly tried to reach out into the darkness. She didn’t know if she succeeded or not. If she grabbed something right now, she would have no way of knowing. She couldn’t feel a fucking thing but this horrible pain.
So help her God, when she got through this, Tilly was going to kick Satan’s motherfucking ass. Cocksucking piece of shit. Tilly latched onto the idea of revenge. The promise of kicking Lucifer in the nuts was going to pull her through this phase. She’d be the strongest Hell Hound on the planet when this was over. And she was going to march right into Hell and gouge Lucifer’s pretty blue eyes out for making her go through The Merging with no warning. Then she was going to have her revenge on the fucker who murdered her. Then she’d pay a few other people a visit.
Revenge would be sweet and hot as Hell. Fuck moving on. Fuck letting the past go. Tilly was going to pick up all her pieces, glue them back together, and march her Humpty Dumpty leather-clad ass right to Paris when this was all said and done. She had a bone to pick and more to bury. Her enemies weren’t going to be able to hide from her. Not once she was a full Hell Hound.
Tilly struggled to get to her feet. Was she standing yet? She couldn’t tell. She let out another cry and tried to turn it into a howl. Were her Hounds close?
A flash of something - a light too bright - made Tilly squeeze her eyes shut. Curiosity got the better of her. Tilly squinted. There it was again! Something… bright.
Oh. My. God. If that’s the white light dead folks go to, she was not going to be happy. It would be just her luck that she’d be killed, sent to Hell, sell her soul, re-die, and then be allowed into Heaven. Fuck that. She wasn’t going. Her place was here where revenge waited and Hell Hounds bayed.
Wait… Hell Hounds bayed.
The bright light flashed again and with it was a subtle noise in the background. High-pitched and strained, it was the most glorious sound in the world.
Was her hearing coming back? Her vision too?
Tilly quieted her thoughts. The pain still rocked her hard, but the idea of gaining her senses back dulled the agony enough for her to focus. She kept very still. Held her breath.
“She’s not moving, Val!”
That was Bishop yelling. There were more muffled sounds. Blood swished in her ears and sorrow swallowed her up. Tilly opened her eyes and blinked through the tears from the too bright lights. Everything was a white fog with a hazy glow around the edges.
Something big and dark moved into view. Tilly blinked a few more times, praying her vision was coming back and this wasn’t madness. Oh god, what if she’d gone crazy? What if this whole thing wasn’t real?
What if she never met the Hounds? Never found the twins? Hadn’t fallen in love? Hadn’t died? Hadn’t sold her soul? What if there was no Valor? No Bishop? No Sebastian and Drake? What if that last spell she’d worked in her apartment right before her sister came over had taken a turn for the worse, and she’d hurt Vivian again and then Viv had her committed…. AGAIN?
Was that where she was right now? In a white, padded cell?
Fear spiked so fast in Tilly, she turned into a feral animal that would eat her way through the walls to escape. For all the flailing around she tried to do, her arms and legs were pinned. Something snapped and she howled in pain. There was a bark. A howl. A roar.
Jesus, did the doctors give her drugs to fuck her up more? Why? Why her? Why now? WHY?!
And if there were no Hell Hounds, did she want to stay in the madness where she could pretend she was part of the pack, or did she want to face her reality and crawl out of this mindfuck?
Her belly roiled at her answer.
She’d rather stay mad and drugged if it meant she could still have them for just a little bit.
Oh god… Tilly wasn’t fit for the living. She needed to be locked up. And when the day came that she died, she hoped she did indeed to go Hell just so she could ask the big bad himself if Hell Hounds even existed.
Zaza. Wo
uld Zaza know? She needed to ask him. She needed to –
Tilly’s heart felt like it exploded and oozed blackness into her chest cavity. It was ice cold and the blood that poured out of it shot through her veins like shards of glass, tearing and shredding. Was it more drugs? Were they killing her now?
Pulling at her shackles, Tilly prepared to rip her arms off if that’s what it was going to take to get out of here. Pop! Her right arm was free and she reached out into the white light. Gulping down a lungful of air, Tilly screamed for all she was worth. If she was going to die in an asylum, then her last fucking word was going to matter.
“VALOR!” Her voice shredded, copper tasting blood poured from her mouth, hot and wet. Her body spasmed and something big and warm pressed down on her. Into her.
She cried and tried to hit the thing on top of her. Oh my god, what are they doing! She kicked her legs and her foot caught something that made a grunt. The weight on her chest lifted. She could breathe, which meant she could scream.
“VALOR!” Tilly shook her head from side to side while she screamed her alpha’s name. “Hounds!” she cried out when something pressed into her again.
Her vision began to clear. The blurry shadow turned colors. Red. So much red.
“Hounds,” she whimpered. Tilly’s arms weren’t shackled anymore. She was able to press her hands against a broad chest.
Red.
There were barks and yips, a terrible animalistic noise ripped through the air and into her bones.
Red. So much red.
Why was everything red?
“My,” she panted as something pushed and retreated in her body, “My Hounds.” Tears trailed down her temples and got lost in her hair. She blinked hard and the red shadow was now a red face. Valor loomed over her, his gaze was filled with a fear so raw that it made her cry harder.
“You aren’t real,” she pressed her palms into his shoulders, “You can’t be real. Nothing is real.”
“We’re real, mo leannan.”
But that wasn’t true. If this was real, Valor wouldn’t look so terrible or sound so broken. Her Valor was strength and power, controlled and fierce. Whoever this Foxy Boy lookalike was, he was none of those things.
Hard to Kill (Hell Hounds Harem Book 6) Page 22
