All Hell Breaks Loose (Hellscourge Book 9)

by Diem, J. C.

  The room where I’d been imprisoned twice lay at the far end of the hall. It was almost too dark for me to see inside it from here. The door stood open, as if welcoming me back. I had no intention of setting foot inside it ever again.

  Leo was in the second cell on the left. Knowing better than to touch the door, I looked through the small barred window. My friend sat on a thin mattress with his back to the wall. He knew he was being watched, but he stubbornly refused to look at me. His sullen expression was like a balm to my wounded and missing soul. Apart from being slightly dirty, he seemed to be intact.

  “Are you going to stare at me like I am an exotic animal in a zoo forever?” he asked in a bored tone.

  “Gee, that’s the thanks I get for coming to your rescue?” I said in mock hurt. “I can go if you want me to.”

  Surging to his feet, he stared at me in astonishment. “Violet? Is that really you?”

  The hope in his voice nearly broke my heart. “It’s really me.”

  He strode over to the door, but he didn’t touch it. He searched my face through the bars and tears stood in his eyes. “What happened to you after Hagith and Brie almost killed you with holy fire? The rumor is that you somehow escaped.”

  “Hag teleported us both out and she handed me over to Vepar.” She’d either found a way to circumvent the spells that prevented them from teleporting, or she’d ensured that she was exempt from them somehow.

  His eyes widened then narrowed in anger. “I will never forgive Brie for torturing you like that.”

  “It wasn’t her fault,” I said. “She only did what I asked her to do.” He looked confused, but now wasn’t the time to fill him in. “I’ll explain everything after I break you out of here,” I told him.

  “You should hurry,” he urged me. “Another guard will be here to keep watch over me soon.”

  I’d come prepared and pulled a container of demon blood from beneath my hoodie. I took out a paintbrush then moved to the cell next to Leo’s. It only took me a couple of minutes to construct a rune. When it became active, a misty doorway appeared. It would disappear if I stepped through it, which meant I would have to create another one to get us both out. Hearing the door at the top of the staircase open, I knew my time had run out.

  Sticking my hand through the doorway, I gestured for Leo to take it. His fingers closed around mine and I yanked him out. Drawing him back against the wooden boards of the wall, I made us both disappear just as the magical doorway winked out of existence.

  Leo went stiff with shock from being pulled through the doorway, but he remained silent as the new guard came to check on him. “What the?” she said when she glanced inside his cell. It took her a few seconds before she could no longer deny the obvious. “Hagith is going to kill me for this,” she said forlornly then turned and ran for the stairs.

  Leo barely waited for the door to slam shut before he peppered me with questions. “How did you make us invisible? Did you know you could pull me through the doorway like that? What are we going to do now? Can you teleport us out of here?”

  Before I could answer him, the door opened and multiple feet descended the stairs. Hag was in a rage when she stalked past us and came to a stop at Leo’s door. One of her lackeys chanted a spell to unlock it and she stepped inside. “Vepar has to be responsible for this,” she hissed. “Her arrogance knows no bounds if she thinks she can steal my prisoner away from me again.”

  That was the excuse she’d used to explain my disappearance. Her lie had actually worked in her favor now that Leo had apparently disappeared as well.

  Over a dozen angels milled about in confusion. Waiting until they were leaving, I tugged Leo forward. I reached out and lightly touched two of the lackeys then took Leo’s hand. I made us both assume new faces and followed the others up the stairs.

  Working my way through the group, I deliberately bumped into Hag. She spun around and glared at me. “Show some respect for your leader!” she snarled. Putting my hand in my pocket, I lowered my head submissively and kept hold of Leo to maintain his camouflage. Turning on her heel, Hagith strode over to the dais with Orifice at her side. “The demons have once again infiltrated our base,” she declared. “This time, they have taken Leo. Spread out and search the city. I want him found and returned before the night is over.”

  It was an impossible task and they all knew it. They were so cowed that they immediately scattered and headed for the exits. Keeping hold of Leo’s hand, I merged with the crowd. Once we were beyond the boundary of the anti-teleporting spells, he whisked us back to our old base. He had no idea that we’d shifted location, but I’d been planning on coming back here for a few things anyway.

  Our illusions dropped away and he hugged me tightly. “It took you long enough to rescue me,” he scolded me when he stepped back. “I was going out of my mind with boredom being stuck in that cell for so long.”

  “Sorry. I was kind of busy killing the final two Princes and rescuing Nathan from Vepar.”

  Sorrow replaced his mock outrage and he shook his head. “I could not believe it when Brie told me Hagith had removed Nathan’s grace. That would have been bad enough, but to learn that our supposed leader had made a deal with a Demon Lord defies belief.”

  “Yeah, Hag’s gone off the deep end,” I agreed. “Luckily, I can fix Nathan now.”

  “How? I have heard that Hag keeps the vial of his grace on her at all times.”

  “You mean this vial?” I asked and reached into my pocket to take it out. Long and thin, the glass container didn’t look large enough to contain the essence of an angel. White light blazed from it. It was so bright I had to squint.

  “How did you get that from her?” he asked in amazement.

  “I stole it from her pocket when I bumped into her.” I felt smug that I’d managed to pick her pocket without her knowing it. I’d never robbed anyone before. Max, the imp who had helped me escape from Prince Valac, had been my inspiration. He’d mastered the art of stealing without being caught. I’d figured that if Hag was upset enough, she might not be as alert as usual and hopefully wouldn’t realize my hand was in her pocket. It had been my best and only chance of taking the vial from her and it had worked.

  “Where is everyone?” he asked as I tucked the vial away again. We were standing in the empty front room of Sophia’s store.

  “Demons managed to unlock our doors, but they couldn’t get inside. It isn’t safe here, so we moved to another base.” Our friends would be anxious for us to return, so I headed for the stairs. “I’m going to grab a few things. You should, too. Unless you want to wear my clothes?” I said over my shoulder.

  “I do not think your shoes would fit me,” he replied with a smirk.

  Tears filled my eyes from sheer joy that he was back and that he was his usual playful self. I couldn’t have stood it if his essence had been taken as well. He put his arm around my waist, knowing I was barely holding on. I slid my arm around his shoulder in return as we took the stairs to the second floor.

  I packed a few items of clothing in a backpack then retrieved the fragment of metal from the drawer of my nightstand. Lastly, I took my favorite faux leather jacket off the hook on the back of my door. I still had one last trip to hell to make and I wasn’t about to leave my lucky jacket behind.

  ₪₪₪

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  “Where is our new base located?” Leo asked after he’d gathered his belongings into a small suitcase and met me in the hallway.

  “It’s in the building we were using to spy on the angels,” I replied. “Sophia rented the entire suite of empty offices for a few months.”

  “We will be hiding right beneath their noses,” he said with a grin then teleported us to the room that had been Nathan’s cell for a few days.

  Sophia saw us a few moments later. She gave a glad cry that we couldn’t hear due to the silence rune I’d cast in the kitchen. Leo met her in the hallway and they shared a long hug. “I am so glad you are finally bac
k with us,” she said when she finally pulled back. Nathan hugged Leo next then Elijah took his turn.

  “I have obviously missed a lot while I was incarcerated,” Leo said as we entered the kitchen and sat at the table. He turned to me impatiently. “I would really like to know how you managed to rescue me like that. It was almost like you had become Sam.”

  “He gave me his power in a dream,” I said. “It only happened a couple of days ago and I’m still getting used to it.”

  He shook his head incredulously. “What about the way you used the magical doorway?”

  “I had no idea I could pull you through like that until I tried it,” I confessed. “I heard the guard coming and knew we were out of time.”

  The others looked confused, so Leo described how I’d stuck my arm through the doorway and dragged him through to me.

  “It would seem that it was safe for him to traverse through the portal as long as he remained in contact with you,” Sophia surmised.

  “It was a risk,” I said. “I trusted my instincts and they didn’t let me down.”

  “What else did I miss while I was an inmate in Hag’s insane asylum?” Leo asked.

  I sniggered then filled him in on my trip to hell. I didn’t go into a great deal of detail about Zach’s betrayal. Leo’s mouth dropped open again to hear that my ex had been a Nephilim. “How could he have hidden his true nature for so long?” he said.

  “We were all fooled,” was my response. He grinned fiercely when I told him about killing Prince Valac and how I’d used Max the imp and a crab beetle as an ally.

  “Trust you to make friends with a creature everyone else shuns,” he said and rolled his eyes.

  “Watch it, or I’ll sic my hounds on you,” I threatened.

  “You should send them after Zach,” he muttered. “He deserves to be torn limb from limb after what he put you through.”

  “That’s tempting, but he’s already dead,” I said and he blinked in surprise. I finished telling him about killing the final prince and my transformation into a Demon Princess. Nathan, Sophia and Elijah had heard it all before, but they listened raptly anyway. I told him about Fate’s champion from another dimension of Earth and how Lexi Levine had put me back on the right track. I didn’t mention that Nathan was supposed to be my mate. I merely said that Lexi had told me he was in danger and that I had to save him.

  “When we returned to Earth, Nathan went in search of help and came back with Dom and Jed,” I told him. “They zapped me with holy fire, which I’d figured by now was the only way to get rid of the Wraith Warrior.” Leo took the news of my internal evil beings fairly well. I knew he was still angry at Brie and needed to make things right between them. “I knew it would take a huge amount of holy fire to drive the warrior out of me. We came up with a scheme for me to get caught and Hag punished me, just like I knew she would. When she stopped too soon, Brie jumped in to finish it. I asked her to keep zapping me until the Wraith Warrior was forced out.”

  Leo nodded in understanding. “I heard a commotion after you stopped screaming, but I could not see what was happening.”

  “They tried to zap the warrior, but he took off for a portal to hell,” I explained. “Then I passed out from pain and spent a week in the nowhere lands in my head. When I woke up, Zach was electrocuting me with a cattle prod. Vepar was there as well and Bob made an appearance a bit later.”

  “I cannot believe Bob is still alive,” Leo said darkly. “He is like a bad penny that just keeps turning up to haunt you.”

  I skipped over the part where Vepar had stripped the skin off my arms and made Bob heal me a few times. “Sy told me that the runes I’d had engraved onto Zach’s necklace weren’t my initials, but I woke up before he could tell me what they were. I figured out they were a spell and taunted Zach into breaking my ribs.”

  Nathan blanched at that and I took his hand. I had a gift for him, but I wanted to bring Leo up to speed before I handed it over. “I started to choke on my blood and he unshackled me and rolled me onto my side,” I continued. “I made sure I got some blood on my hand then grabbed his necklace and activated the spell. Usually, the runes need to be drawn with blood, but I’m a Nephilim and my magic is different, I guess. The metal spread up the leather rope and it grew shorter and shorter until it cut his head off.”

  Nathan’s hand tightened on mine and he smiled grimly. “He deserved far more pain than he received, yet at least he will no longer cause you any anguish.”

  “His essence oozed out of his corpse and I couldn’t stand the thought of ingesting it.” I shuddered again at the idea of having my ex inside me. “I called on the power of the angels that are inside me and I obliterated his essence. They healed my wounds at the same time.”

  Shocked to hear that, Leo didn’t know what to say at first. “You can destroy the evil essence of demons?”

  “I’m not sure. I know I can destroy Nephilim and I used the power to zap Vepar a few times to force her to release Nathan from their deal. I haven’t tested whether I can evaporate a full demon’s essence.”

  “I wish I had not been locked up for so long,” he said enviously. “I have missed out on all of the excitement.” His expression turned sad and his shoulders slumped. “I hope I will be able to speak to Brie soon. I need to apologize to her for how mean I have been.”

  “You didn’t know I asked her to purge me with holy fire,” I said in his defense.

  “Still, I feel guilty and I need to make it up to her.”

  “We’ll find a way to make sure you get to talk to her,” I promised him. Turning to Nathan, I couldn’t wait any longer. “I have something for you,” I said.

  His lips curved upwards in a smile. “What is it?”

  “It’s a surprise. Close your eyes and hold out your hands.”

  He did as I asked and I took the brightly shining vial out of my pocket. Sophia gave a soft gasp of recognition. Elijah’s eyes widened as he saw the angelic grace. I placed the vial in Nathan’s hands and he opened his eyes. Staring at his essence in disbelief, he was speechless. He pulled me in close and hugged me hard. “Thank you,” he said gruffly. “I can never repay you for returning this to me.”

  “You don’t need to,” I replied. “You’ve already saved my life too many times to count.” I nearly burst into tears at the love I saw on his face. I wished things could be different between us, but he was an angel and I was an abomination. Fate might have made him say that he would rather see me dead than to restore my soul to me, but what if he was right? What if I did turn into a monster like Zach when I was whole again?

  It was a risk we were going to have to take. Now that most of my legion had been destroyed, I needed more power to take on the Hellmaster. I couldn’t face him in my current weakened condition.

  Nathan could see what I was thinking and his expression turned sad. He was the only one who knew where my soul was. Everything would change once I had it back and neither of us wanted to lose what we had together.

  ₪₪₪

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  “How are you going to ingest your grace?” Sophia asked Nathan. “If you release it from the vial, it will be drawn straight to Violet.”

  “I will need to step through a portal that leads to the shadowlands,” he replied. “That is the only place where I will be able to ingest it safely.” That was the plan I’d come up with, too. He’d already figured it out for himself.

  Leo shuddered and wrapped his arms around himself. “That might not be a good idea. I became very ill when I was in the portal.”

  He’d been with me when I’d stumbled across my first portal to hell. We’d found Sam in the damp, dark passageway. Leo had been badly debilitated just by being in the crossroads between dimensions. He never would have made it into the shadowlands, let alone hell itself.

  “I’ll drag him out before he gets too sick,” I said. I would be stronger in the portal and would have the necessary strength to get my guardian out.

  “Wh
en do you want to do this?” Leo asked.

  Nathan looked at me hopefully and I couldn’t make him wait any further. Angels were scouring the city for Leo, so we would have to be careful. At least they didn’t suspect that I was involved in his disappearance. “We might as well go now,” I said.

  “Take us to Tudor City,” Nathan said to Leo. “We will use the portal that is there.”

  Leo nodded and waited for us to take his hands. He then teleported us to the park across from where the portal lay. Sensing we wanted to be alone, he dropped our hands. When Nathan was restored to his normal self, he would be able to transport us back to our base. “I will see you soon,” Leo said then disappeared.

  Nathan took my hand. I was surprised when he led me away from the stairs that would take us to the portal. “Where are we going?” I asked as we left the park.

  “There is something I want to do before my grace is restored,” he replied mysteriously. Intrigued, I didn’t protest as we turned the corner onto a quiet street. He led me to an elegant apartment building that was old, but in excellent condition. It was only nine floors high, which was small in comparison to some of the nearby buildings.

  We entered a small foyer that had moss green carpet and cream wallpaper. Nathan led me to the elevator and we rode it to the top floor in silence. He sent me a glance that held a hint of nervousness when we stepped out into a long hallway. We turned left and he stopped at a door halfway along the passage. He opened it to reveal a small maintenance closet. I waited outside while he searched for something. When he returned, he held up a key. “I had a feeling this would come in handy one day. I just never realized it would be useful because I had lost my grace.”