"That's it," he murmured. "Higher. Yes. Right there."
He shifted subtly and I realized he was leaning over me, his eyes bore into mine, held them captive. I imagined clouds and caramel and gossamer wings. In the next instant, I felt him pressing something hard and unyielding against my side, urging it into my free hand.
"Almost there," he said.
His cane handle, I realized. I would have to take it or touch it and I sucked in a breath, scared and reluctant.
"I'm opening myself to you, Ayla," he murmured. "Can you feel it?"
"Yes," I said because it was the only word that I could form. Every piece of my skin seemed to be on fire. For an instant, I had the horrific sensation of hurtling through open space, feeling as though every tissue straight down through my bone was flaming.
"Ignore it," he said. "It's residual memory, that's all." His breath was coming faster.
I thought for a second, I wouldn't be able to breathe.
"Push through it," he said. "You're almost there."
It was as though I were pulling off a Band-Aid. I thrust my hand upward, planted my palm on the same spot as his was on my solar plexus. I splayed my fingers out like his. Something shifted. I felt as though we were joined. I sucked in a breath, all of the pleasure of eating caramel and candy floss striking my brain like dopamine. I was giddy with it.
"Now, Ayla," he said. "Touch it."
I dropped my hand onto the top of the cane, curling my fingers over the shoulders of the grieving angel. I tightened my grip.
In that second, both of us sucked in a breath in unison.
CHAPTER 17
Hell was nothing like I expected. Quite frankly, it was beautiful. The walls of the passageway I found myself in seemed to be made of crystal. They refracted light and images of rolling meadows and blue sky back a thousand times, each one glowing more brightly than the next. The tiles beneath my feet were smooth and warm. Gold, I thought as I looked down. How I'd ended up barefoot was a mystery, but I wiggled my toes to test that, yes, I was standing there, realizing that Hell was a breathtaking landscape of unsurpassed beauty.
Along the edges of the passageway floor was a gunnel much like a street gutter except filled with running silver. The streams caught light from somewhere and winked at me. When I looked up to see if the illumination came from a sun or lamp of some sort, the tawny sky rolled with mottled golden clouds as though the sun was just beginning to set above me.
I turned around, circling on feet that squeaked against the tiles, to find Azrael.
What I saw as I spun to find him behind me stopped up my throat. The words hooked into my voice box, unable to free themselves as I regarded the Angel of Death the way he truly was.
If I thought he was beautiful in the human realm, he was magnificent here, terrifyingly beautiful and not the human looking man I saw and sparred with on Earth. While I grudgingly admitted to feeling an inexplicable compulsion both toward him and against him, I understood right then where the heart of it lay. It was this seed of incredible beauty, hidden beneath whatever facades he elected to show that my human heart must have known was lurking and connected to. It lurched at the sight of him even as I wanted to rail at him for deceiving me.
He towered over me with shoulders at least three times the width my own. The black hair that he so often shifted from buzz cut to a man bun in the human realm trailed behind him here like a cloak with black curls at each end. The only thing that belied the fact that he was the Angel of Death and not a regular angel was that each ringlet was tied off with a tiny bone.
Something stirred within, some memory like a dream batting at my consciousness like a kitten with a thread.
Even as I noticed that his chest was bare and gleaming like marble, silky black material scuttled over it to join together with tiny silver buttons. He was gathering energy from somewhere, clothing himself from nothing but air and thought. In that instant, I realized we had entered naked, and I jerked my chin down, frantic to see if I was still nude.
With relief, I realized I was wearing a long gauzy dress much like a silk nightgown. It had a Gothic novel feel to it with ragged edges and a tank style top that molded to every curve perfectly and made me feel even more womanly than the gown Sarah had ordered for me to go to the gala. A sob tried to squeeze up my throat as I thought of her. Without thinking, I squeezed my eyes closed and reached out for the wall. She was the reason I was here. We had work to do.
I opened my eyes to see him watching me and it wasn't until I caught his gaze trailing to my collarbone, I realized material was still gathering over me and he was carefully trying but failing to avert his gaze until I was fully clothed. For some reason, the delicate scalloping of the tank top edges shifted to a cowl top and the womanly dress into a tunic style garment that was too loose fitting to feel anything but chaste.
"I thought you might be embarrassed," he said and came up next to me. Strangely enough, as tall as he was, towering over me when I looked up at him, when he came within my space, it was as though he was exactly the same size as me.
"Thank you," I said. And I did feel grateful. I spun in place, testing how practical the gauzy dress might be.
"I might have thought yoga pants would be more practical," I said, peering up at him.
He shrugged, but a hint of a smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. "Yoga pants are a more evil human creation than the string bikini."
I couldn't help smirking at him. "Don't worry," I said, recalling Callum's similar reaction to the clinging material. "You're angelic virtue is safe with me."
While I had intended it to be a joke, his expression went stony and a long tense silence drew out between us. I crossed my arms over my chest defensively, not sure what to say.
"So," I said. "How do we get to Sarah?" I said.
He smiled down at me, encouraging. "You'll find her," he said. "Whether I like it or not, you have a bond with her. You'll find her."
"Is this where we go?" I whispered. I thought it might not be so bad after all. Golden floors, crystal walls.
"No," he said with a shake of his head. "As bad as this place is, where the fallen go is far worse."
"This is bad?" I said, sucking my teeth. "So far, Hell is a piece of cake."
"Would you rather see Hell for what it is?" he said. "Or what I'm transforming it into for you?"
In that moment, I realized that whatever the realm truly looked like or felt, he was warping it for me just like he had given me clothes.
"You don't have to do that," I said. "I can take it."
The corner of his mouth tugged as though he wanted to smile. "Very well," he said.
In the next instant, everything shifted. Sensations, optics, everything was different. The crystal walls I'd thought had been refracting light, transformed into molten mercury, running down over grotesque gargoyle faces. Mouths gaping and closing. Eyes opening, spilling liquid fire.
In the same moment the crystal walls fell, the soles of my feet stung as though a thousand hornets had stung them all at once. Not a golden walkway after all, but a floor of burning orange coals. I yelped and hopscotched about, finding the gunnels of silver liquid and dunking my feet in. Except the silver liquid was as hot as the coals and although my skin wasn't consumed, I wanted to get off just to escape the pain.
I let out a shriek of pain. Before I could register Azrael had moved, I was lifted into his arms and relieved of the pain in my feet. He cradled me in his arms and I could feel his heart thrumming beneath his chest as he strode unaffected across the coals. I watched his face for signs of pain. There was none.
"You could have just given me shoes," I said.
He chuckled. "That wouldn't have been any fun at all."
A raucous din of noise, like a million voices whispering manic things in my ear began to swell around me. Everything sounded worse than mere pain. They sounded terrified. No doubt along with the visual alterations, he had also buffered the sounds from me.
"Is this it?" I s
aid, watching the mercury walls blur past me. I wasn't sure he could hear me through the din of voices, but he peered down at me. Those cerulean eyes of his wrinkled at the corners.
"We won't have much time," he said. "We can't stay here long. The longer you stay here, the more used to it, you get."
I nodded, making a mental note. Get Sarah. Get out. Never come back.
"Where is she?" I said.
"You'll have to reach out to her," he said. "Don't be surprised if you don't find her right away."
A flash of images ran across my vision, frightening enough that I quailed in Azrael's arms. I hadn't expected it and even as I cringed, I was pretty sure someone had reached out for me with long bloody fingers and black talons and I only narrowly missed capture by Azrael swerving sideways.
"Hmm," Azrael murmured. "That was a nasty bit of business."
I could feel his heart thrumming harder against my rib cage. I tried to crane over his shoulder to see what had made a grab for me, but he adjusted me with a bouncing hoist so that I couldn't see anymore.
"Best you hide your eyes here," he said, peering down at me with shifting colours in his eyes. "But don't worry. I won't let anything happen to you, Ayla."
Something uncomfortable squirmed its way through my chest, and it got worse the longer he looked at me.
From somewhere past me, I could hear growling and snarling. I was always one to want to see what was coming at me, but equally as certain I didn't want to face it when it arrived. But this wasn't some make-believe bogeyman lurking outside my bedroom door. This was hell. So I did as I was bid, and hid my eyes in his shirt. I pressed ever closer as someone let out a horrific shriek. My heart was hammering. My mouth went completely dry and I could barely swallow.
"It's okay," he said. "I've got you."
Got me. The further we advanced, the less confident I felt he actually did have me. Twice, I felt him lurch, as though I was falling from his grip and he had to catch me. The noises were awful. The heat was terrible. Something snarled close to my ear and I was certain I felt a rush of air just as something clapped down a hair's breadth away from my earlobe.
I thought he might be running, but I didn't hear the tread of footsteps, just that blur of crystalline walls passing me by and the occasional flash of open mouths and snarling teeth.
"There," he said, at length. "The worst is over for now."
He hiked me up into his arms higher. I peered up at him.
"That's her over there, is it not?" He jerked his chin in the direction opposite us. I twisted in his arms, peering out. Yes. There she was. I would know that black hair anywhere. Even if she was balled up on her bottom, knees to her chin with her arms wrapped around her legs. Even at this distance, from across a broad lake of shimmering silver, I would know her.
"Yes," I said, getting excited. "That's Sarah."
I didn't dare hope that the worst was over already, because it really hadn't been that bad. I almost didn't dare think that maybe everything would be okay.
I twisted around in his hold, looking up at him. He chose to show me his bluest gaze, one with pin prick pupils and long black lashes.
A flutter went across my chest. He really was gorgeous. Magnificent was the only descriptive word. Whatever things he had chosen to show me as a façade in the other dimension, was nothing compared to this. He was almost painfully beautiful to look at. My throat ached as I tried to swallow down something that felt very familiar. It almost felt like longing.
"That wasn't so bad," I croaked out.
There was a wry twist to his mouth as he peered down at me.
"Hmm," he murmured in a dry tone. "Easy peasy."
"How will we get to her," I said, ignoring the sarcastic tone.
I felt him shrug. "We walk."
As simple as that, then. I started to twist out of his grip, and I thought he might have let me at first.
"Can you swim?" he said.
"Of course I can," I said.
"Good," he said and dumped me onto my feet. It was only when my soles touched ground, I realized he had put shoes on my feet for me. It seemed inconsequential in the moment, however, because a sudden and fierce growling had begun to sound around the both of us. It seemed painfully close, and when it was followed up by a vicious sort of snarling, I thought my legs would go out from beneath me. I didn't like the sound of that one bit.
"Azrael?" I said.
He put his palm on my chest, pushing me ever so gently away from him.
"I know," he said. "It's been stalking us for quite a while now."
Stalking? A clog of fear made my bladder twitch. My heart stuttered as I leaned sideways to see past him arm, a very large, three-headed dog braced for attack.
"Has he separated into three yet?" he said almost too calmly.
"Into three?" I said, confused, and then even as I finished speaking, I watched as the beast split into three even larger wolves. Foam curled from the edges of it each mouth and dripped onto the floor to sizzle like acid into the coals. We were only a mere four yards from the shore and the beasts had already fanned out behind us, each one of them advancing. They seemed to grow for every step forward until I could've sworn they were two stories high. I had the irrational urge to turn my back on the thing and run.
"You're trembling, Ayla," Azrael said.
"Shouldn't I be?" I couldn't tear my eyes from those muzzles.
"I told you," he said. "You're safe with me."
As though to dispute that fact, all three of the beasts leapt at once.
The one on the left seemed to leap higher, its paw swiping out at the same time. If Azrael knew it was coming, he didn't so much as flinch. Instead, he remained still just long enough for the gargantuan strike to miss him and then he leaned sideways, pushing me at the same moment toward the water's edge. I felt him thrust a round object into my hand. It burned as it touched me, and sizzled. The grieving angel cane top, I realized.
"Go," he said. "Touch her solar plexus with it."
I pin-wheeled back, arms flying over my head in my haste to escape. Even so, I couldn't stop staring at the trio of snarling beasts and the one angel squared off to hold him back. One wolf launched into the air and landed square in the middle of Azrael's chest. He staggered backward and landed on his shoulders. With a great kick, he launched the mutt into the air.
"Run, Ayla," he yelled.
"Not without you," I yelled and searched frantically for something I could use to beat the next dog off of him. "I can't leave you here to face those things."
He shot that wry grin at me again. "Easy peasy. Now go."
He rolled over, scrabbling to find his feet. I had expected him to be more graceful, but I imagined even an angel can get his wind knocked from him time to time.
He found a wavering stand as the dogs circled him.
"Go," he yelled. "I've got this."
I hesitated. I took a deep breath, telling myself I could do this. I was a good swimmer.
The water was close. The edge was just right there. I launched myself, headfirst into the water.
But as soon as I touched it, there was no wet liquid to cool me off.
Instead, it was nothing but a rising sea of roaches.
CHAPTER 18
A wave of insects closed around me and I went mad with panic. There was no rational thought. No Sarah. No Azrael. There was only my skin and the way they scuttled over my arms, finding their way up beneath my dress and into my hair. I needed them off me. I needed out of the sea of bugs and I needed to set fire to the lot of them so they couldn't so much as lay a sticky foot down on another bit of flesh.
Adrenaline soaked me through and through. And if I would have let the drenching of it take me, I could have stood there in one spot forever, screaming silently, flicking at anything that touched me.
I could feel myself shutting down. I was human. Not a spirit. I didn't belong here. What had made me think I could do this? I had expected pain, terror, but not this. Every sensation seemed some
how heightened because I was real flesh and skin and bones and hair. The Sarah I had caught sight of before I dove into the lake had been curled up in a fetal position on the other side. She wasn't writhing in terror like I was, swimming in an ocean of creeping scuttling bugs. She was alone and I knew for her, that was probably all the Hell she needed.
I had to remind myself that she was the reason I was here. She needed me and she needed me rational. I don't know how I did it, but somehow through the adrenaline soak, I was able to draw a hitching breath, and force my limbs to still.
Standing as quiet as I could, I let the insects crawl over me. Twice I shuddered in revulsion and that seemed to agitate them. So. My fear was what they fed on.
At least I hoped to God that was what it was. Perhaps if I didn't show any fear, perhaps if I forced myself to walk carefully, quietly through the writhing mass, I might make it to the other side.
I tried. One step and they swarmed again and I sobbed out loud. The lake had been incredibly wide. Even swimming it, I knew it would take me an hour, at least. I couldn't just couldn't wade through a sea of insects for an hour.
But I had to. I knew I had to. I shuffled one foot forward.
Several of them crushed beneath my foot. The slime of their bellies ran along my ankle. The stink of insect guts wafted to my nostrils and I gagged, doing my best not to double over. I could hear my own breath coming in ragged gasps. I was pulling in harder than I was letting go. I was acutely aware of every shiver that crossed my skin. Every step I took, I told myself that the bugs were just little buttons cascading over my skin. I was able to do that for at least four steps until one of them decided to burrow into my ear.
I flipped out. I swatted my ear, shook my head, screamed out loud for Azrael to save me already. I couldn't do this anymore. I needed him.
Azrael and the three-headed beast were out of view. No doubt the moment I'd stepped into the pool, Hell had swallowed them from my sight. I had to do this alone. With tears running freely, I sucked up the snot. My chest spasmed with every breath, but I kept moving.
Rise (Reaper's Redemption Book 3) Page 13
