by Emma Shade
EMMA SHADE
Touched by Hell
By Emma Shade
Copyright © 2019 Emma Shade
All Rights Reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form whatsoever without the prior written permission from the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews
This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Touched by Hell (Only Human, #1)
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 7
CHAPTER 8
CHAPTER 9
CHAPTER 10
CHAPTER 11
CHAPTER 12
CHAPTER 13
CHAPTER 14
CHAPTER 15
CHAPTER 16
CHAPTER 17
CHAPTER 18
CHAPTER 19
CHAPTER 20
CHAPTER 21
CHAPTER 22
CHAPTER 23
CHAPTER 24
CHAPTER 25
CHAPTER 26
CHAPTER 27
CHAPTER 28
CHAPTER 29
CHAPTER 30
CHAPTER 31
CHAPTER 32
CHAPTER 33
About the Author
Acknowledgments
Cover designed by Book Cover by Design
www.bookcoverbydesign.co.uk
Cover model: Alaina Justice
Photographer: Evond Photography
“Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness.”
Desmond Tutu
CHAPTER 1
The stink of death.
My sword slid through the demon’s neck in one quick slice.
Vomit rushed up my throat as I breathed in the sulfuric stench from the aftermath. With a gag, I wiped the orange gelatinous blood from my face.
“God, I need a new job,” I groaned, flinging the goop from my hand. “What should I wash my skin with this time?
Raven laughed. “Mara, I’m not sure bleach will remove that disgusting odor.”
I glared at my best friend, who happened to be the daughter of Death. Yep, that was right. She was the child of the Grim Reaper. For as ancient as old Grim was, he had some sex appeal. It appeared my friend’s looks ran in the family, too. Raven was beyond beautiful if you could see past her dark, dramatic makeup and her scary-as-hell Reaper performance.
Shoving past the fact that I had thought the Grim Reaper was hot, I grunted. “A shower is a must.”
“Look, girlie, I like you and all, but you’re not getting in my car. No way. Nuh-uh.” Raven’s blonde hair bobbed in her ponytail as she shook her head. “I’d never get that smell out.”
I sighed. “Where am I supposed to go?”
“There is a small pond about a half mile from here.”
“Raven, don’t make me walk to a pond when you have your car. We rode together, we leave together. I promise I’ll clean your car tomorrow.”
Her eyebrows lifted. “I think I remember you saying that with the demon from last week. I had to have it professionally cleaned and hedge questions when the detailing shop asked why my car smelled like vomit and death.”
As a last-ditch effort to get a ride home, I rushed from behind the building in an attempt to beat her to the vehicle. However, because I was human and she wasn’t, she beat me to it, locked her car so I couldn’t get in, and then gave me a smirk. “Sorry, babe. Love ya!”
With a poof, she disappeared, leaving only a whiff of black smoke and her locked car in her wake.
“Dammit, Raven!” I shrieked and flipped my middle finger at her last location.
With a scream of frustration, I made my way to the pond I hoped was there. Otherwise, I was walking all the way home reeking like a sour fart. Damn Raven, and damn the stupid demon I had killed.
This wasn’t what I had planned with my life, and I sure didn’t expect to be doing this at twenty-six. No, my mother made that decision for me. When I was a kid, she’d tricked me and sold my soul for money. Useless paper apparently worth more than her child. However, as with most deals with the big man downstairs, it was never what it seemed. There were always catches and loopholes. Ten long years after I signed my life over, she finally got her riches as promised, but she also died the next day. Life was a bitch, wasn’t it?
That was how I had met Raven. The young reaper-in-training was with her father the day they came to collect my mother’s soul. I don’t think I was supposed to see them, but the damn loophole in my mother’s contract allowed me to see all matters of supernatural creatures. I gave myself away when I screamed, not really grasping what my mother had done to me. I was just a child, an innocent and a deal with the Devil. I hoped she was rotting in Hell for all eternity.
Shortly after seeing my mother’s black soul screeching as they ripped her away from this world, an enormous, familiar man came to see me. I knew I had met him before, but couldn’t remember when. He had felt creepy, powerful, and old. That was when I found out what had happened. I didn’t own my soul anymore. I was the property of the Devil himself. My own mother had sold my soul to Satan, all for something she got for less than twenty-four hours. Remember that life is a bitch thing? Yeah, it applied to me too.
Instead of being dragged to Hell—literally—I had somehow talked my way out of it with Raven’s help. Then again, there was that loophole bullshit. In exchange for my soul to stay on Earth, Raven had to train me on weapons and demonology. Then, after my eighteenth birthday, I had to hunt the unruly demons that slipped to the surface. The pay was shit, demon blood coated my hair and skin more than I wanted to admit, and the only true friend I had was Death’s daughter. After all, I couldn’t hunt down demons with human friends. That was a disaster waiting to happen. Possessions were the real deal, even if they were rare.
By the time I reached the pond, my feet screamed at me for wearing heeled boots on a hunting trip. And, of course, the pond was in the middle of a residential neighborhood. Go figure.
“I’m going to kill you, Raven,” I grumbled and dropped my sword and scabbard on the ground as I wobbled my way down the muddy embankment.
I jumped in and let the cool water wash off my stink. Okay, most of the stink. At least I wouldn’t be heading home smelling like I’d spent the night in a sewer, right?
Floating along in the water, I stared up at the glittering sky and wondered if my biological father was still alive. I’d never known him and I assumed my mother never told him about me. I also speculated how my life would’ve turned out if my worthless mother hadn’t sold my soul and my father had been for us. With an exhausted breath, I sighed. I didn’t need a father, not after all this time. I could take care of myself.
Closing my eyes, I tried to ignore the moon and my wandering thoughts. The upcoming full moon was a calling card for the lower demons and I had a job to do. Still, it would’ve been nice to know my father before all this bullshit started. On the other hand, my mother probably would’ve done it anyway, or sold his soul instead, so his presence didn’t mean anything.
“You know, I can tell when you’re in a melancholy mood,” Raven said, scaring the living daylights out of me.
Water splashed as I attempted to right myself and calm my beating heart. “Good God, don’t do that to me.”
She sat on the grass near the pond, her face obscured by her hooded sweatshirt. I guarantee she smirked as she replied, “I know God. He’s nice. Way too nice. Too bad you won’t get to meet him.”
“Don’t remind me,” I barked, splashing water in her direction. “Now, help me out of this water so I can go home and shower.”
“So cantankerous.” Raven tsked. She helped me as I stumbled out of the muddy embankment and onto the grass to take my ridiculous boots off. She held her nose. “You still reek.”
“That’s because of the putrid orgallas demon.” I peeled off my soaked socks. “I don’t see how you can even smell it, seeing as how you grew up in the underworld.”
“Febreze, girl. Febreze.”
“Febreze can’t even mask that,” I grumbled, wringing out my wet, multicolored hair. I removed myself from the ground and attempted to wipe some of the water off my arms. “Now, how am I going to get home if your car is still next to that bar in town?”
She grinned and then let out an evil laugh.
“Oh, no. No, no, no!” I cried, taking a step back as she reached for me. “I’m not taking a ride on the reaper express.”
Raven laughed again and snatched my arm with supernatural speed. My body screamed in pain as my skin splintered, and right before she transported me out of there, I called her every name in the cussword dictionary.
A few seconds later, I landed unceremoniously on the hardwood floor of my bedroom, my elbow banging the nightstand in the process.
“You still haven’t figured out how to land after transportation?” Raven said with a giggle. “Even lesser demons know how to do that.”
I cut a glare in her direction. “Yeah, well, I’m not a demon. That shit hurts.”
She opened her mouth to say something, but sighed instead. “Daddy’s calling. Gotta go.” And with her little magic trick, she vanished the hell out of my room.
With a sigh, I stood up and headed to the shower. As I stripped, I cussed Raven again. I had a distinct feeling she had lied because she didn’t want to hear me yell at her again for the awful joyride to my apartment. For such a badass, she hated confrontation. I often wondered how she brought souls to the veil when they tried to stay. Then again, when they’re dead, I doubted they put up much of a fight.
Cleaning the dirt and demon stench from my tattooed skin in the shower, I let the hot water wash away the night. Once I entered my room, I noticed my sword and shoes had miraculously arrived. Instead of cleaning the blood from the blade, I crashed on the bed in only a towel. I needed as much rest as possible to prepare for what lay ahead of me tomorrow evening. I’d make the sword shiny in the morning, or leave it covered in demon blood out of spite. Maybe leaving the blood would be a warning for the assholes to leave me alone.
However, I knew that would never happen. I apparently had a sign on my forehead that read: Demon hunter, kill me.
CHAPTER 2
Let the bridges burn.
Insomnia made me clean.
That was why I cleaned out a closet at four in the morning. The number of boots I had was shocking. Some I still wore, while others appeared too worn to be salvaged. A few ruined because of demon blood. At least I had gotten my money out of them.
I threw some old boots in a black garbage bag and tackled the top shelf. Sandals, high heels, and a few boxes sat covered in dust. I threw some shoes I could donate to a local charity in a separate bag and then looked inside the first box.
I sat cross-legged on the floor and smiled as I read my first love letter from a boy in high school. He was a cute football player with freckles and killer abs. My smile fell as I read the letter for a second time. How normal my life could’ve been. I may have married this boy and had children, or maybe owned a furry, loving pet.
With a morose sigh, I flipped through the pictures of my past life. My old friends together at parties, at school, at the Friday night football games. Unbelievably, I had been a cheerleader. I snorted at the audacity of it all. Now I killed demons and could handle a sword better than I was able to do a backhanded flip.
Slamming the lid down on the box, I shoved it to the side and moved to the next. At first, I saw myself as a child in a few of them, my pale, gaunt face staring back at me from the image. The last one was my mother and me. Anger surged at the sight of the vile woman. I hadn’t realized I had any mementos of her.
Without warning, the memory came flooding back.
A deep voice echoed down the hall. Curious, I peeked around the corner. A large man with dark eyes sat across from my mother, his leg bouncing in impatience.
“There she is,” he said. “Come on out, Mara.”
I stepped out from behind the dingy wall as the microwave dinged. Mommy’s smile made me smile, too.
“Hi, baby. Why don’t you come here for a minute, okay?” she asked.
I bounced over to her and giggled at the man sitting on the opposite side of the coffee table. He looked too nicely dressed to be on the ugly couch.
“Do you love me, Mara?”
I hugged my arms around her neck. “Of course I love you, Mommy.”
The man smirked and slid a yellowish paper across the scratched wooden surface of the table.
She wrapped her arms around me and kissed me on the cheek for the first time in a long time. “If you love me, would you do anything for me? Even give up something very important?”
“Yes!” Leaning into her embrace, I looked at the creepy guy on the couch.
She gave me another kiss on the cheek. “Can you show this man how you can sign your name like a big girl?”
My nostrils flaring, I shredded the picture. I tossed the scraps in the bag with the ruined boots. Then, I dug out all the fragments of the picture and decided to burn them. I stepped out on my balcony with a candle lighter and began to incinerate every shred of evidence that she existed.
The ashes floated on the breeze and I took a deep, cleansing breath.
Raven’s voice was soft so she didn’t startle me. “What are you doing?”
“Burning a picture.”
She stood next to me and watched the charred remnants drift away. “An ex-boyfriend?”
“My mother.” I wiped the ashes from the balcony ledge.
She was silent for a few minutes and said, “Good riddance.”
“I hate her for what she did to me,” I whispered, my gaze traveling over the twinkling lights of the city below. “Along with the abuse.”
Raven slung an arm over my shoulder. “If it makes you feel any better, I hate her for what she did to you, too. But, without that horrible woman, I wouldn’t have met you. So there is some silver lining to the whole ordeal.”
I didn’t reply. The night was becoming more emotional than I had wanted to deal with. Life sucked. That was how it was, and there was nothing Raven, her father, or I could do about it. Still, I thanked my lucky stars I had seen Raven and her father that fateful night. That damn contract with Lucifer had ruined and blessed my life at the same time. The inevitable double-edged sword known as my existence.
As the sky lightened with the impending sunrise, I watched the headlights of the early-morning commuters. Something blocked the light from the passing cars and I squinted to see better in the low light. A shadowed being stood unmoving on the sidewalk below my building. The humanoid shape appeared oblivious to its surroundings, but I had an unnerving feeling the thing watched me with red, glowing eyes.
I glanced at Raven to see if she had spotted the same entity I had, but she seemed unaware as she observed the sun slowly rise. I glanced back down, but the shadow was gone.
“Well,” Raven said, causing me to start, “I better get some rest before I have to reap souls again. I suggest you do the same.”
Nodding, I kept inspecting the sidewalk to see if the dark mass came back. I had spotted them occasionally, but thankfully, they hadn’t done more than disappear. Maybe they were ghosts of some sort.
My friend surprised me when she wrap
ped me in a hug. I remained stiff and uncomfortable at the show of emotion.
“Don’t do anything stupid,” she whispered.
Letting out a laugh, I replied, “I never do. I only fight demons and send them back to Hell. It’s an awesome stress reliever, and very few humans get to let out aggression with violence.”
“Just don’t let the years of violence change your heart, Mara.”
I whispered, “Never.”
She faded away, her arms dissipating from around me.
I strolled back into my small apartment and slid the glass balcony door closed. Yawning, I went to slide the blinds shut and fear rocketed through me. Standing on my balcony was a tall shadow. The being was so dark I couldn’t see through its form. While the one on the sidewalk hadn’t moved, this one tilted its head as it watched me with red glowing eyes on the other side of the glass.
“Get the hell off my balcony,” I growled with more courage than I felt.
With what appeared to be a nod, the thing vanished. I slid the lock closed and placed the bar at the bottom of my balcony entrance door. That thing was not getting inside.
There was no way I was getting any amount of sleep now.
CHAPTER 3
Magic is the devil.
The supernatural being hanging from my ceiling barely registered as I went to start the coffee.
The machine gurgled and spewed the black concoction into my mug that read I like my coffee as black as my soul. I added the necessary sugar. The spoon clinked against the glass as I stirred slowly. Then, I finally glanced up to see a light-haired figure plastered against the ceiling.
I took a long, slow sip before I said, “Nice try, Raven. Will you stop screwing around and get down from there?”
“You’re no fun.” She let herself fall and land on nimble feet.
“Well, you’re lucky I didn’t stab you with a butcher knife for trying that stunt before I’ve had a full cup of coffee at”—I glanced at the clock on the microwave—“ten in the morning.”
I gave her my best death stare. She beamed at me.
