“Yes,” she replied.
She settled onto the grass near the blankets Shax led us to and pressed her palms against the grass poking up through the burnt-out earth. The others gathered around us, watching as the earth beneath her hands revitalized her. A rosy hue crept into her face once more. My heart swelled with love when a beautiful smile curved her full mouth.
“I never realized how much it nourished me,” she murmured.
“You wouldn’t. You’ve never been apart from it,” I replied. “I knew some of your powers were fueled by the force of life, but I didn’t realize it nourished you too. Like the trees around us, the earth feeds you.”
Her fingers slid through the grass. “I will learn to absorb nourishment from Hell also.”
Already part demon, she could throw fire and mark her Chosen as I marked her. But as part angel, she had the most beautiful violet eyes I’d ever seen and fed from the flow of her surroundings. As part human, she had one of the most protective and passionate natures I’d ever encountered.
What would the absorption of Hell do to her? Would it bend her, break her? Could that be what had also helped to twist Lucifer into the creature he was now? On Earth, I could keep her connected to this world. I could not protect her if she absorbed Hell into herself upon entering it and it changed her.
“That was never supposed to be part of this,” I told her.
“Make a deal with the Devil,” River said with a laugh.
“Kobal—”
“I do not like this,” I interrupted Corson. “What will absorbing Hell do to you?” I demanded of River.
“There is only one way to know,” River said and turned to the others. “Could you please leave us for a bit?”
“Of course,” Corson said.
They slipped away into the shadows of the woods or headed back toward where the humans were gathered. Rising to her feet, River came toward me. Her hips swayed and her hair fell about her shoulders in tumbling waves as she walked. Stopping before me, she slid her hands up the front of my shirt and flattened them against my chest.
Her mouth parted as golden-white sparks danced across my flesh beneath the material of my shirt. Those sparks were the same color they’d been before we’d entered this more deadened area of the country and she’d started having a more difficult time drawing on the life force of the earth.
“You are my greatest source,” she whispered. “The one who keeps me grounded and makes me feel the most alive. Nothing else can make me feel the way you do. With you by my side, I can face anything.”
“I’m worried about what being around Hell and feeding from it will do to you.”
“I’ll withstand it.” Her hands slid down my stomach to the waistband of my pants. She believed it. I longed too, but the idea of losing even a small piece of her was more than I could stand. “Together we can get through anything.”
My arms swept around her, pulling her firmly against my chest before crushing my mouth to hers. She moaned when I slid my tongue over her lips. Her mouth parted and her tongue brushed against mine as I delved in to taste the sweet recesses of her mouth. More sparks shot across my flesh as I pressed her against the trunk of a tree.
Pulling away from me, she impatiently tugged my shirt over my head and tossed it aside. Her eyes lit up when they landed on my chest and her tongue slid out to lick her lips. The hunger in her gaze caused my cock to swell against the front of my pants. I’d never grow tired of this woman, never be able to get enough of her.
Her hands rested on my chest as her fingers trailed over my markings there. Beneath her touch, my flesh rippled and power surged toward her, causing the sparks on her fingers to grow until they danced within her spectacular eyes.
“Chosen couples are stronger together,” she whispered. “Always yours.”
“Yes.” My hand entangled in her hair to pull her head back before claiming her mouth again.
CHAPTER 47
River
Over the next week, the six of us traveled back inside the bar and to the gateway every day. Each day, I was able to withstand the harrowing effect it had on me a little more. I was even able to get closer to it, though I had yet to reach its side. Kobal remained taciturn and watchful, but he didn’t drag me away from the gateway like I’d dreaded he would on that first day.
After we left, he would take me away from the others and allow me to take energy from him. I felt like a battery in need of recharging every time, but the recharge time was steadily decreasing.
The one good thing about not being able to charge straight up to the gateway and try to figure out a way to close it was that five other demon and human groups from different sections of the wall joined with us over the week. Some arrived with only a handful of survivors, but some arrived with more survivors than we’d had. At the end of the week, there were over eighty new humans and twenty-eight demons added to our numbers.
“What will the humans do if we have to go into Hell?” I asked Kobal when we made our way back out of the bar after a new record of five hours near the gate.
“They’ll stay here and hold the ground as best they can. The other humans are here to protect you, and that’s all that matters.”
“You make them sound expendable.”
“We are.” My head shot toward Hawk as he uttered those words. “We all knew it when we left the wall. Your life was always the most important, but none of us knew why. Most still don’t.”
“No one’s life is more important than another,” I bit out.
“But in this case, it is.”
I refused to argue with him further as we stepped outside. It was like entering a warm house after being trapped out in the cold for hours. My fingertips tingled, heat traveled through my extremities, and life flowed through my veins. I was becoming better attuned to the gateway, feeling less malnourished every time we left there, but I still craved this. I burrowed closer to Kobal when he lifted me up and carried me away from the others.
Later, we reemerged from the woods to rejoin everyone. I settled in beside the small fire Hawk and Erin had started near the edge of the woods while Kobal went to speak with the group of demons gathered near the stairs of the bar. Vargas sat across from me, turning a spit with a rabbit on it over the fire. Behind Hawk, a group of some new female arrivals had gathered. They whispered and giggled behind their hands as they watched him.
Since we’d settled in, a fair amount of the new women in the camp had been drawn toward Hawk. They flirted as they batted their lashes and tossed their hair over their shoulders. Hawk was handsome, there was no denying it, but it was almost as if these women had never seen a man before with the way they acted.
“They are so hard up,” Erin muttered and tossed a stick into the fire.
Hawk glanced over his shoulder at the women. “Annoying is more like it,” he replied.
“You’re simply irresistible,” I teased, but the stiffness didn’t leave his shoulders and he continued to scowl at the flames.
“Go get some,” Vargas said. “I would.”
Hawk draped his arm over his bent knee. “Already have, or at least one of them, and she needs to move on now.”
“You’re a pig,” Erin told him.
“Maybe, but I never made any promises.”
“Which one is she and what’s her name?” Erin asked.
“The skinny blonde over my right shoulder. Her name’s Sarah, or clingy pain in my ass, but I guess once you have the best, you forget about the rest.”
“Ugh!” Erin and I groaned.
“You’re gross.” Erin threw a handful of grass at him before resting her chin on her knee.
Over Hawk’s shoulder, I noticed Sarah glaring at Erin. An uneasy feeling twisted in my gut, but I had no idea why I would feel that way. I tore my attention away from the girl and back to Hawk. “I have to agree with Erin,” I said to him.
He smiled at us, but his eyes were distant and troubled.
“How are your wounds?” Vargas inqu
ired of Hawk as he rotated the rabbit. The delicious scent of roasted meat made my mouth water.
“Healed,” Hawk replied.
“Completely?” I asked, unable to keep the shock from my voice.
His eyes lifted to mine before darting away. “Completely. There’s only the scars now and they’re fading.”
“Amazing,” and odd, but I kept that to myself. Hawk was troubled enough about his rate of healing. He didn’t need the fire throwing, energy-harvesting girl using the word odd about him.
Kobal had said Lilitu’s blood had closed Hawk’s gashes faster, but it was still an amazing rate of healing. My gaze drifted past Hawk to where Sarah and the other women stood. My hand ran over the grass as I watched them. Had Lilitu’s blood done something more to him?
“Impressive,” Vargas murmured. He pulled me out of my reverie when he touched my arm.
“Huh?” I asked.
“That’s impressive,” he said and gestured toward my hands.
I’d been so lost in thought that I hadn’t realized golden-blue sparks were dancing across the tips of each one of my fingers. I pulled my hands away from the earth and flexed my fingers. They may know more about me, but I still felt exposed when my powers sparked to life around them.
“What percentage of everything are you?” Erin asked.
“Human mostly, or at least that’s the way I feel, but that’s also what I spent most of my life believing I was. I always knew I was different, but I still felt entirely human.”
“And now?”
“Now, I don’t know. Part demon, part angel, and none of it makes any sense to me still.”
“How is it possible you’re any combination of angel and demon?” Vargas inquired.
I’d been waiting for that question and was fairly surprised that it hadn’t come sooner. Maybe they’d been trying to figure it out on their own, or maybe they’d been afraid to ask and curiosity had finally won. They deserved to know, but I still hated the whole Lucifer as an ancestor thing so much I found myself reluctant to tell anyone.
They wouldn’t think less of me for it, I knew, but acknowledging it made it all the more real. Settling back, I kept my fingers curled into the ground as I explained Lucifer being cast from Heaven to die on Earth, but somehow finding a way into Hell where he survived.
I also explained how he’d managed to leave offspring behind during his time in our realm and that I was the last of his descendants. I didn’t say he was my father, like the demons and fallen angels insisted on calling him. I simply couldn’t bring myself to do that, but I did admit he was my ancestor.
They looked as baffled by it all as I still felt, but they didn’t call me a liar and none of them got up to walk away and leave me behind.
Vargas kissed his cross and turned the rabbit once more. “It’s a miracle to be able to do and see such things as you.”
Those words took me back for a second. “I guess.”
Unable to look at them any longer, my gaze traveled to the bar and the demons still gathered by the stairs. With his height and size, Kobal stood out from the rest of the group, but then I knew I’d be able to find him anywhere.
With the doors of the bar closed, I could barely hear the strains of the piano playing. It was a sound that never ceased as I’d come to learn the skelleins rarely slept.
I blinked when Angela suddenly materialized on the porch of the bar. Her hands folded before her as she watched those gathered in the clearing. Every night around sunset, she would materialize there to watch. I didn’t know what to make of her presence. All the other times she’d appeared to me, something bad had happened or it had been in warning, but I’d had no visions of anything coming and nothing had happened on the other nights she’d shown up here. She seemed merely curious as she watched everyone gathered around the bar.
Still, the sight of her made me uneasy, and I couldn’t help but worry it was a harbinger of something bad coming.
Kobal stepped away from the crowd of demons, blocking my view of Angela as he walked toward us until he settled at my side. When I could see the porch again, she was gone. My gaze returned to the clearing, but all I saw were the other humans gathered around their small fires, cooking their dinners. The girls behind Hawk finally gave up and walked away. Sarah remained for a few minutes, staring at Hawk with such yearning that it made my skin crawl. Finally, she walked away too.
Corson, Bale, Verin, Shax, and Morax left the other demons behind to join us at the fire. Kobal slid his arm around my waist, drawing me into his lap. Sitting here, feeling the heat of the flames on my skin and his warmth enveloping me, I could almost believe everything would be okay.
We’d made it this far, farther than so many others who had set out on this journey with us. I’d gained friends along the way too, more friends than I’d ever believed I’d have after being torn away from my home and thrust into this unknown world.
A world that had given me the gift of Kobal. My hand encircled his and I drew it into my lap, holding it there. We’d reached our destination, attained part of our goal, but there was still so much further to go. I had to figure out a way to try to close the gateway. What that was going to be, I had no idea, but I’d figure it out once I could get close enough to stand at the edge of the gateway.
And if I couldn’t figure out how to close the gateway, that left only one other option: entering Hell and confronting Lucifer himself. That prospect wasn’t as terrifying as it should be, not with everything else we’d been through so far. Lucifer might just be puppies and kittens after gargoyles, Azote, killer vines, and canagh demons. I seriously doubted he would be, but I was much better prepared to face him now than I had been when we’d first left the wall behind to come here.
Until the day came where I closed the gateway or came face to face with my ancestor, I planned to enjoy what time I had left here with Kobal and my new friends. I kissed Kobal’s smooth cheek before resting my head on his shoulder and snuggling closer to him. It didn’t matter what lay ahead of us, I knew we could get through it together.
The End
The Road, Book 3 in the series, will be releasing 1/3/17 and is now available for pre-order.
Read on for an exclusive excerpt from The Road.
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Description:
River,
Standing at the edge of the gateway, I understand two things… One, I have no idea what I’m doing and two, the gateway to Hell is not closing. Now, there may be only one option left to me, to all of us. I may have to enter the one place I’d hoped to avoid throughout this journey. I may have to enter Hell.
Unfortunately, a change in events takes the choice away from me.
Kobal,
I always knew the idea of River entering into Hell could become a reality, but I expected her to be by my side when, or if, it happened. I expected to be there to protect her, but she’s gone in alone. Now, not only am I trying to catch up with her, but I know Lucifer will soon learn of her entrance into my world, and he will be after her too.
I just don’t know which one of us will reach her first.
THE ROAD excerpt:
Kobal
Everything flashed by me in a blur as I raced deeper and deeper into Hell. The longer she’s in here…
I broke the thought off. She couldn’t be that far ahead of me and she was strong enough to give anything in here a run for its money, including Lucifer. The heat of my home enfolded me, brushing over my skin as the familiar scents of fire and brimstone assailed me. They were scents I never could have forgotten, I bore them on my skin and in my genetic makeup.
Turning a corner, I leapt over the charred and mangled remains of a lanavour lying at
the edge of the pathway. River. She was still out of their grasp, still moving deeper, or at least she had been ten minutes ago judging by the smoke curling off the remains.
I didn’t look back at Corson, Shax, and Bale as we traveled further into the pit. Hell had been my home for over a millennium, the place I’d been created to protect and rule over, yet all I wanted was to find River and drag her from here as fast as I could. This was not my home, not anymore. She was my home and she was in danger.
I was moving so fast, I nearly crashed into Erin when I turned another corner. Her blue eyes were bloodshot, her face looked sunburned, but she remained standing when many of the other humans were leaning against the wall or each other.
“Where is she?” I demanded.
Erin adjusted her grip on the woman she and Vargas carried before pointing down the hill. “Leading them away,” she croaked out. “Hawk’s with her.”
So she could withstand Hell well enough to keep moving through it, and Hawk could too. Bale and Corson exchanged a pointed look, Shax leapt forward and clutched Erin’s arm when she swayed on her feet.
“We couldn’t keep going,” she rasped out, sounding as if she’d eaten a pound of dirt.
“Shax, get them out of here,” I commanded.
“What of you?” he inquired as he kept hold of Erin’s arm.
“We’ll be fine, but they won’t make it out of here on their own. When you get above, have Morax contact me.”
Shax lifted an eyebrow at this, they all knew I didn’t tolerate anyone else in my mind, but there would be no help for it now. Morax’s ability to communicate telepathically was something I kept resolutely shut off in my mind, and something he knew better than to do without approval or necessity if he didn’t want to eat his tail. This situation definitely qualified as necessary.
Turning away, Shax nudged Erin aside to take hold of the shoulders of the woman I now saw was the one who had become attached to Hawk. A purplish bruise marred her temple. I didn’t have time to ask what had happened to her as the earth beneath our feet began to quake. Startled cries came from the humans, they clustered closer to the walls when the earth gave a mighty heave and the ground shifted three inches before falling back into place.
Carved (The Road to Hell Series, Book 2) Page 33
