Unchained Desire

by R. C. Alvarez

  They were making themselves at home, much to Val’s dismay.

  “Val, it’s okay. They’re Ram’s friends. His family.”

  “I know who they are. Self-righteous hypocrites.”

  Each set of eyes passed over her before returning to their individual tasks.

  “We’re the B-Team,” Tammy quipped with a bland voice.

  Tru turned to smile at them with one of the paintings in her hands. “I don’t think we have been formally introduced. I’m Turiel, also known as Tru. That’s Tamiel. But you can call her Tammy. We’re here to protect you.” The last comment was pointed at Kyria.

  “Tamiel and Turiel,” Val interjected. “I’ll never remember which one of you is which with those stupid names. And y’all aren’t exactly the towers of commanding light and fire y’all used to be.”

  Tru’s expression turned sheepish.

  Tamiel exuded disinterest. “Yeah, it’s been a few boring years.”

  Val grabbed the artwork from the other fallen and put it back on the wall. “What I want to know is why they think they can come into my home uninvited.”

  “We were invited.” Tammy peered over her glasses and shrugged. “We’re here for Kyria.”

  “She’s not going anywhere with you.” Val stood in front of her. “I don’t care if y’all are Ram’s family.”

  A kettle in the kitchen whistled. Tru flashed to the stove, pulled a few cups from a cabinet, and poured hot tea. “Disowned family really. Considering he kinda hates us right now.”

  Tammy scratched her eyebrow. “He doesn’t hate us. He’s just going through a phase. He’ll get over it.”

  The artistic, earthy angel returned to the living room, placing four cups of tea on the coffee table. Then she turned and sat in the middle of the leather sofa, cradling a cup in her hands. “He told us to keep you on the ranch until he took care of Nema. Seems you’re on house arrest.”

  Tammy appeared suddenly, sitting next to her friend. She reached for a cup of her own. “I don’t think you were supposed to tell her that part.”

  Bishop’s cryptic words hit her with more clarity. She had her suspicions already, but now it was certain. “He traded himself for Darius. She’s going to rip off his wings again.”

  Tru frowned, looking a bit conflicted. “He told us to keep you on the ranch.”

  “I know you didn’t deliberately abandon him last time,” Kyria searched Tru’s face. “But you’re aware this time. Are you really going to leave him there again? I’m not. Even if I have to go alone.”

  Silence filled the room.

  Tamiel broke it after slurping some tea. “Well, I’m not surprised.”

  “You never are. Why bother saying it all the time?” Tru sighed and hopped off the table. “Well, she’s right. We definitely have to go get him now.”

  Tamiel set her tea aside. “Fine. But this one’s on you.” She fished out a phone from her back pocket. “I’ll call the rest of the team. I might actually have a little fun with this one.”

  Val cursed and paced the room. “If you go, I’m going with you. But how will you get to Hell? Bishop has portals, but…”

  “I know a way.” Kyria bit her lip. “David can take me, once I’m there with him I can flash us there.”

  Val narrowed her eyes. “I’m not allowing David—”

  Kyria put her hand on Val’s arm. “He’s already been there in his visions. He won’t actually go with us. That’s how I flashed to New Zealand. I can see what David sees. I can’t explain it. It’s like our powers…meshed. The same thing happened with me and Ram when we helped that ghost. I’m not sure what it is, or what it even means, but it can help. So, let us do this, Val. Please.”

  Val nodded reluctantly. “Okay. Let’s get your dad to the bunker first.” She turned to the other angels. “And you, call your friends.”

  Tamiel pushed her sunglasses up the bridge of her nose. “All right. Let’s storm this bitch.”

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Stepping further into the torchlight, Ram came face to face with the biggest pain in his ass. Nema, sitting in her chair of infant skulls. She smiled down at him, her perfect face set in a smug expression.

  Ramiel moved closer to the foot of her seat. The hellhounds at her sides stirred, thorny hackles rising. With a wave of her hand, his clothes were gone, and slowly the demon bitch stalked to him. “I’m surprised you came. But I guess any angel of the Lord is naturally driven to honor their word, no matter how far they’ve fallen.”

  “Just get it over with.” He fixed his sight on a random spot on the wall as she circled him. Stopping at his back, she dug her fingers into his short hair. Don’t satisfy her with a reaction. Think about Kyria.

  He relaxed.

  “Fine.” She gripped his short locks tight and harnessed the darkness within her, black unholy magic that forced his hair to grow until the long dark waves brushed the middle of his back and turned blond. “That’s better.” Smaller demons hiding in the dark corners of the room giggled. “But this time, you’ll never go back. You’re mine. My angel. Forever and for always, every day.” She smiled. “Say it.”

  “No.”

  “SAY IT.” Her face changed, for just a split second. She yanked his hair back.

  He closed his eyes. “I’m yours.”

  “For what?”

  “Ever and always.”

  She loosened her grip on his hair. “Good. Now kneel.”

  Without another word, he dropped to his knees. The ice floor burned his skin as he bowed his head.

  “Wings.”

  Teeth gritted, he unfurled them for the last time. Like a viper, her hand struck so fast he didn’t have time to brace himself. She ripped into his back. His roar of pain drowned out the sound of his flesh being torn from the muscle of his shoulder blades, of Nema pulling at the strings of tissue and tendons. She forced his wings to remain on display and ripped them to shreds. The wings Kyria had given him.

  Nema took his freedom for the second time. The pain splintered his soul.

  Then, she dropped what was left of them with a messy thud on the ground. It was done.

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Kyria pulled her wool jacket tighter around her. Everything was cold. No human could have lived here. It was exactly the way she’d seen it with David’s help. Walls of ice. Frozen death. Faces stuck in stages of horror for all eternity. Images she would never get out of her head.

  “This is hell?” Heavy fog followed each word as the cold air crystalized her breath.

  “Not exactly the burning rings of fire you were expecting?” Tam’s voice fell flat as ever.

  “Like so many things, it started off as a misinterpretation of the bible. Then Dante really did a number on it.” Tru walked closest to Kyria. “Each region has its own theme, depending on the demon lord.”

  “Her Highness needs a new decorator. These faces are so…cliché.” Tam ran her fingers across the ice as if to touch the souls trapped inside.

  Dan shook his head. “We aren’t here to analyze interior design. We’re here to find Ram and get the hell out.”

  Sara eased around another corner, a dagger ready to stab. “Aren’t you the funny one.”

  Val picked up the pace.

  “Get the hell out of Hell. Good one,” Tru chimed in just as a sound of claws on ice greeted them.

  Dan threw his hands out. “Prepare.”

  They rounded a corner and ran into a group of small, scaly creatures.

  The angels all immediately surrounded Kyria, their swords and daggers up and ready for an attack. Creepy little beasts swarmed from the very cracks of the icy walls.

  Kyria palmed her own salted daggers and stood back to back with Val in the center of the circle. They sliced anything that managed to get through the rest. Frosty puffs of breath soon mixed in with the chunks of black demon blood flying through the air.

  While Val and Tru used the same type of salted blades as hers, Sara had a huge broadsword that had
to weigh a ton. Dan and Tamiel switched back and forth as he used a fiery white light and she flicked her wrist, mumbled a few words, and the little minions exploded.

  They worked as a perfect unit. Seamless. Flawless. Like they’d been doing it for ages. It was exhilarating.

  She was a furious gopher that had somehow become part of a well-trained wolf pack.

  “Don’t let that one get away,” Sara screamed as she slashed the heads off a few of the creatures. Dan lifted his hand to the ceiling and zapped the little one trying to run.

  “We don’t want any of them to go back and warn the demon bitch.” Sara wiped the edge of her sword when the demons stopped coming.

  The four watchers crouched in silence, studying their surroundings.

  When it was evident the danger was over, for now, Kyria bent over with hands on her knees to catch her breath.

  “Hey, now, no puking allowed.” Sara’s sword vanished.

  “Unfortunately, there are more where those came from, so be ready at all times.” Tru kept her short sword out.

  “I wouldn’t be surprised if another group of them came around the corner.” Tam wiped goo off her jacket.

  Kyria groaned when Tamiel proved to be right. Shadows danced across the walls as a clattering noise of laughter and hissing rose through the frozen air.

  “Let’s boogie.” Sariel pushed past Val to take the lead. “Try not to step on my boots, Cowgirl. They’re Givenchy.”

  “Then don’t step on mine. They’re Ariat.” Val slit a creepy crawly in half.

  Swinging her broadsword in a high arc, Sara smiled. “Ooh, I like you.”

  They continued to fight their way through the corridors, searching for any sign of Ram. Walking in endless circles. Chasing their tails.

  Kyria was covered in demon gore. She had it under her clothes and all up in her hair. It was disgusting. For now, though, she ignored it as best she could and called for Ram, looking in every hole and cell they came across.

  Going down a flight of stairs made of ice, she put her hand on the wall to keep her balance. One of the faces stuck in the wall slowed her steps. She hadn’t been able to really get a good look at them until now. Slick nausea slithered up her throat.

  Tamiel, the only one behind her, had to stop when she did. “You have to keep moving. It’s not safe to wander.”

  “I’m not wandering,” she absently defended herself, frowning at the screaming face. A girl, no older than herself. What did she do to deserve a fate like that? A shudder ran through Kyria, and it had nothing to do with the cold environment.

  “Well, your ward won’t protect you forever. It’s starting to fade.” Tamiel brushed past her and kept moving to catch up with the others.

  “What ward?”

  Tam paused. “The one around your neck. I used to make some like that back in the day and traded them off. Now I just sell them on Etsy.” She kept walking. Before Kyria could ask any more about it, the colorless angel disappeared around the corner.

  Kyria touched her charm. It made sense her mother would leave behind something to ward off demons. And of course, her father kept it a secret.

  A soft grating noise shook the stairwell. Kyria hurried to follow Tam, but the others were nowhere to be seen. Just a big frozen wall sitting right in her path, cutting off the rest of the steps. There was no way around it, no way under or over. She was completely blocked off.

  Kyria pressed her hand against the barrier, trying not to panic. A muffled voice beyond the ice called her name. She tried to answer back but her words were just as muted.

  She poked and pressed every part of the wall as the five figures of her group reappeared on the other side

  “It shut me out. I can’t find a way through.” She pounded a fist against the ice.

  A figure that might be Tru struck the wall with her sword. Nothing happened. Someone else stepped back and drew another weapon. Gunfire went off, but the ice didn’t even crack. Tam mumbled something, raising her hand, but even that did not open the wall.

  Dan yelled to stand back. A white light burned the wall on their side, but it froze itself over rapidly between them again.

  It’s not going to budge. I’m on my own.

  “It’s no use. Just go on without me.” Kyria shouted through the ice.

  “Kyria, flash to the ranch.” Val hit the wall with her palm. “We’ll get Ramiel.”

  “I’m not leaving here until we have him.”

  They stood in silence for a moment. Then Val pressed her hand to the thick, frozen wall. “Be careful.”

  “You, too.” Turning around, Kyria jogged back up the steps. Now she was more aware of the shifting walls, of following the path that Hell gave her. She couldn’t fight it, so why bother?

  Squaring her shoulders and palming another dagger into her free hand, she soldiered on. She would find Ramiel, even if it was the last thing she did.

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Ramiel regained consciousness and found himself pinned to the wall with iron spikes driven through his shoulders and wrists. Blood soaked his skin and trailed down his body, pooling into stone bowls on the floor.

  Ginger filled his lungs, and he wanted to cry. Had his days with Kyria been a hallucination? Maybe his brain had finally hit a breaking point.

  No, I definitely had my wings ripped out a second time. The newly torn flesh between his shoulder blades was very real.

  The icy wall burned his skin as enchanted metal stabbed into his wrists and ankles bound him to it. Moving made the pain worse.

  Blood flowed from him freely, wounds refusing to close. But that was familiar. Just last week he’d been here in this exact situation. The only difference was the new hollowness in his chest.

  I’ll never see Kyria again. Never touch her soft auburn tresses. Never hold her in his arms again. Never comfort her when she cried.

  When he twisted his head, the molten shackle on his neck sizzled with fresh skin to burn into. Breathe through it. He just had to buy some time. Then, when Nema drew close enough, he’d cut her. Her blood mixed with his was necessary to end this.

  One moment he was glaring at the icy bars of his prison, and the next, the walls of the very cell moved. His wall went first, shifting into darkness and taking him to another familiar place—Nema’s throne room.

  The pillars of ice that lined each side of the room caught his eye first. No longer fogged up, they displayed the dead abominations floating inside. I fucking hate her. She’s dying tonight.

  Her throne was empty. Ramiel opened his mouth to call for the demon, but an approaching noise echoed from one of the corridors and distracted him. He straightened and braced himself.

  A feminine figure came through the shadows of the doorway then faltered, red hair tied back, a delicate chin pointed high. The smell of ginger hadn’t been an illusion. Ramiel leaned forward, ignoring the new burns it cost him to move.

  Kyria? It was her, turning frigid in the face of Nema’s experiments. Shock ran across her features. Her blue eyes widened when they landed on him, those golden flecks glowing in the den of evil surrounding them.

  “Ram,” she breathed, running to him.

  A hellhound jumped into her path, and she slashed its throat.

  Anger rushed his body. She couldn’t be here, not after everything he had done. He opened his mouth to warn her, to yell at her, but his throat closed. Something dark and twisted approached. Something familiar. No. No. No.

  “Get out. Now.” In his struggle, his shoulders popped out of place. The cracking noise echoed off the ice. If he pulled hard enough, he could rip out of the shackles and get to her. Tearing flesh didn’t matter. Only she did.

  He had told her not to do anything stupid. She was supposed to be happy with her father. She was supposed to be better off. She was supposed to listen. Dammit.

  He didn’t have time to explain. “Leave.”

  Nema would catch her. All deals would be off because she had delivered herself right to the demon bitc
h. Mother of all that is Holy and Just, if you could do something do it now. Please. He was a fucking idiot.

  Kyria tossed the now dead monster to the side and started for him again.

  He pulled against his restraints, and his skin sizzled. “Flash, damn it.”

  But it was too late. Nema appeared in a cloud of smoke right in front of Kyria, blocking her path. Ram strained to see her.

  An evil laugh bubbled up from within the demon. She put her hands on her hips. “I knew it. I just knew it. The little whore came after my man. That’s okay, we can share. My homecoming gift to you.”

  Kyria dug deep for some resolve to stop the fear from spreading through her entire system like an oil stain. It was so cold, she could hardly breathe. And the corpses, the dead fetuses floating in those tubes. Some too large to be real, some too small, with only half their bodies formed. Wings, horns, tails, hooves, with multiple arms or legs. One even had two heads and some of its bones on the outside of its body.

  “This will never be my home.” She dug her nails into her palms until it hurt and slid one boot forward to brace herself. “I came for Ramiel. You can’t have him.”

  “So, it’s going to be like that, is it? Little girl, it’s the best offer you’re ever gonna get. Ramiel came back to me. He loves me,” Nema taunted. “He said you couldn’t satisfy him. Just like all those other women he plays with upstairs.”

  The demoness circled Kyria as she tried her best to keep her cool. Nema was extraordinarily beautiful—a tall, long-legged blonde, wearing a short paisley dress with long sleeves and a pair of bright yellow knee-high boots. But she couldn’t hide the evil.

  Kyria gritted her teeth. “You can’t have him.”

  “You’re so cute, like a little spitting kitten. Face it, Ramiel left you.” Nema became a dark mist before Kyria could even touch her. “He came to me. Willingly. Begging on his knees to be my slave again. He didn’t want you.” She whispered from behind, “He’s so strong. A real alpha. And look at you. You have potential, but so much work needs to be done.”