The Road (The Road to Hell Series, Book 3)

by Brenda K. Davies

  Unlike the ghosts, there wasn’t a grayish, misty appearance to him. No, he was full-on color and looked solid dangling there in Kobal’s tight grip.

  I inhaled a labored breath as cold encased my lungs once more. My father’s eyes flicked toward me, but his lips remained clamped together. Were those freckles on his nose? Had I gotten those from him too?

  I tried to clear my head of the conflicting emotions battering against me. This man had taken off before I’d been born. I’d never known him, never dreamed of him riding in to rescue me from my mother. He’d proven he wasn’t the rescuing type when he’d rode out of town and never looked back. Besides, I’d never been one for fairy tales.

  Despite my lack of any connection to this man, other than DNA, sorrow and pity tugged at me for him. He had created me, and now he was one of the twisted things the demons fed from, and he was in Hell.

  He’s in Hell!

  The implications behind that realization sank into my dazed mind. He’d done something to deserve being located on this side of death. Not only that, but he was also helping to bring down the seals. How was he doing it? Why was he doing it?

  Because he’s helping Lucifer.

  The answer hit me like a bullet between the eyes, and my vision crossed for a minute. Even dead, my father had the power to help Lucifer, which meant I might too. I’d already helped Kobal to hold up the seal; it made sense that I could help topple it.

  Bile burned my throat. I’d accepted the fact that both my parents cared less for me than a dog did for their young, accepted I was a mix of all three worlds, but now I was to accept this too?

  “Shit,” I moaned. My hands fell to my knees as I bent over.

  “Corson, help her!” Kobal barked.

  I held up my hand to hold Corson back. “Give me a minute.”

  Corson remained where he was, looking completely helpless and uncomfortable as he tried to figure out what to do. I lifted my head to look at my father again. I’d kept myself detached from Lucifer by thinking of him as only a distant ancestor, but I couldn’t do that with this man.

  No, with this man, there was no denying the direct tie between me and evil. Despite the discomfort in my bones and the chill in my body, I rose back to my full height and met his gaze head-on. I had questions, and damn it, this man owed me answers.

  “What did you do to end up in here?” I demanded. “Or does abandoning your child qualify as a big enough sin?”

  “It doesn’t,” Corson said when my father simply stared at me with his lips flattened into a thin line. “But there are more than a few ghosts who have done it.”

  “I wasn’t prepared to be saddled with a child so young,” my father replied. “Your mother was only a fling.”

  “At least you’re honest,” I said. “What did you do to end up here then?” I didn’t really want to know the answer, but I felt I had to know. To live in denial of what he was, of what I was, would only catch up with me in the end. There would never be any burying my head in the sand again after this.

  Kobal’s gaze was drawn away from me as he focused on the man within his grasp once more. “Answer her,” he commanded, and pain filled my father’s face.

  I didn’t know what Kobal was doing to him, but whatever it was caused words to tumble from his lips. “I may have killed a few people. You aren’t the only one in our family who can do things.”

  “Obviously.” I didn’t ask who he’d killed or why; it didn’t matter. If he’d done it because it had been an accident or in self-defense, he wouldn’t be here. “Why would you help Lucifer bring the seals down?”

  “You have no idea what it’s like to feel these things feeding from you.” He waved a hand at the demons surrounding him, earning him a scathing look from each one of them. “Satan found me, and saved me from them.”

  “How did Lucifer know you were here?” Kobal inquired.

  “I have no idea,” my father replied, and I suspected that if he did know, he wouldn’t tell us.

  Kobal’s hand tightened on his throat. My father’s legs kicked in desperation; his fingers clawed at Kobal’s as he turned bright red and agony altered his features. Kobal’s skin took on a deeper brown hue as the marks on him darkened to a jet black. I’d seen this happen to him when he’d fed on the wraiths before, and I realized he was drawing enough life from my father to make him speak.

  “I really don’t know!” my father cried.

  Taking a deep breath, Kobal’s grip on him eased, and my father’s frantic movements calmed. “How are you able to bring down the seals? You are powerful, but not nearly so much as she is.” Kobal’s golden eyes burned into mine as he held my gaze. “I can feel the difference between you two.”

  I blinked back the tears in my eyes; he’d known I needed to hear that right now more than anything else.

  “Because it’s all a form of life,” I said, not knowing how I knew the answer to his question, but I did. “It’s all a cycle, as you once told me. I can draw on the power of life, and he once could too. Maybe he never knew he could do it while he was alive, but in death he’s learned how to draw on the power of the dead. He thrives on it; that’s why he’s colder than any of the other wraiths. Colder to me than all of those wraiths on the hill combined, because he feeds from them.”

  A muscle twitched at the corner of Kobal’s right eye. “I see.” His attention focused on my father once more. “How long have you been in Hell?”

  “Fifteen years,” my father replied.

  He’d died when I was seven, and I’d never known. I couldn’t understand why this saddened me, but it did. This man had helped to create me, and he’d vanished off the face of the earth without me ever having sensed or known of his passing.

  “And you’ve used the other wraiths to keep you hidden from demons as you’ve fed from them. That’s how Lucifer found you,” Kobal said. “Your power was growing, and he had a new way for you to focus it.”

  “None of us were here to notice it growing either,” Bale said and glanced at Magnus who shook his head.

  “I’ve heard no rumors of such a thing amongst the wraiths or demons,” Magnus replied.

  “Lucifer has only known of him for a short time. The seals have only been falling for two months at the most. If Lucifer had known about him sooner, the seals would have started toppling as soon as he found him,” Kobal said.

  “I learned quickly how to protect and hide myself after the first demon fed from me,” my father said.

  “How many others like him do you think there have been over the years?” Bale asked.

  “Not many, maybe not any. They would have been destroyed if uncovered,” Kobal said. “And I have a feeling if that first demon had taken more from him while feeding, he would have been too weakened to do what he’s done.”

  “Could there be others like him in here now who could do the same?” Corson asked.

  Kobal studied my father for a minute. “No, the angel lines have been thinning down for centuries now. He was most likely the last of the descendants left before River. Any of those souls who have entered here would have been uncovered by now if they had grown in power as much as he has. If there are any still here, they have become far too weak over the years to be a threat anymore. Also, I’m sure once Lucifer uncovered this one, he went in search of others like him. They would be here helping if they existed.”

  Leaning against the wall of the broken seal, I stared at the man across from me as he watched me. “And now I have chosen the winning side,” he said to me.

  I snorted and Kobal’s lips skimmed back to bare his fangs while he spoke. “As I said before, you’re powerful, but she’s more so.”

  Something shimmered in my father’s eyes; a superior air surrounded him as he smiled at me. My gaze instinctively shot to the ceiling, but I saw nothing there. However, I couldn’t shake the feeling something more was coming. Something bigger.

  CHAPTER 40

  River

  “He must be weakened, Kobal,” Mag
nus said. “And you are the only one with the ability to drain a soul to the point where they are completely incapacitated.”

  “Can’t we… ahh…” Hawk trailed off as he flicked a guilty glance at me.

  “Destroy him?” I finished when Hawk wouldn’t.

  “We can neither create nor destroy a soul,” Magnus replied. “But Kobal can feed deeper and longer from them than any of the rest of us. This wraith will be of no use to anyone after Kobal is done with him.”

  I swallowed the lump in my throat and stepped away from the wall. Kobal’s gaze slid from my father to me and back again. I sensed his hesitation. This man had never been a father to me, but I wouldn’t be standing here if it wasn’t for him, and Kobal knew it.

  “Kobal, he must be incapacitated,” Magnus pressed.

  “Go on,” I said quietly to Kobal. “He has to be stopped.”

  “Are you so different than me if you allow this?” my father asked me.

  “She is far different than you!” Kobal snarled at him.

  There was almost a sadness in my father’s gaze as he studied me. “You look so much like my mother,” he murmured.

  I was taken aback by his words as I tried to grasp everything that was happening. He’d probably said that to gain sympathy from me, but I couldn’t stop the ache spreading in my chest. I’d had a whole family out there that I hadn’t known.

  Grandparents, I’d had grandparents. Well, of course I’d had grandparents; he hadn’t been spontaneously born onto the earth, but I’d never really thought of them before. My mother’s parents had passed before I was born; she’d had no siblings. I think a part of me had assumed it had been the same on my father’s side too.

  “Is your mother… is my grandmother here too?” I croaked out.

  Was that actually compassion in my father’s gaze? “No, my mother never would have been sent here. She deserved and earned better.”

  For some reason, those words made it impossible for me to hold his gaze. He’d done something horrible to end up here, and he was helping Lucifer, but the love in his eyes for his mother had been unmistakable. It had been fleeting, but so raw, so human. I stared at my battered boots as I inhaled one tremulous breath then another.

  Finally, I felt strong enough to look at him again. “What is your name?”

  He looked surprised by my question. “Your mother never told you?”

  “No.”

  “My name is Rio.” My heart plummeted into my feet at his response. “It’s Spanish for…”

  “River,” I said the word with my father.

  A smug smile curved his mouth once more. Kobal took an abrupt step toward me. He stopped when I shivered and backed away from them.

  “My mother named me for you,” I murmured.

  “Probably because you are very much like me,” he replied.

  “The fuck she is!” Kobal roared.

  Kobal’s denial didn’t matter though. I knew that wasn’t the reason my mother had named me for my father. No, she’d had an entirely different reason behind the choosing of my name. Kobal’s hand constricted on my father’s neck, causing him to squirm and twitch within his hold once more.

  “Do whatever has to be done,” I said and forced my wooden feet to turn away from them. I walked back toward the entrance of the broken seal. I knew this had to be done, but it didn’t mean I had to watch it. My legs wobbled as I walked. Corson moved to help me, but I waved him away.

  “I need some space,” I told him.

  He hesitated for a minute before stepping away from me. He remained where he was in the center of the floor while I made my way toward the doorway. Leaning against the wall, I stared across the ruined seals spreading out before me in a long tunnel of death as I contemplated my father’s words.

  From the second I’d been born, my mother had been looking for a way to distance herself from me, a reminder to keep herself from loving me. She’d discovered a way to do that when she’d named me. Every time she said my name, every time she thought it, she was reminded of the man who had left her behind with his child.

  She had not named me after my father as a way to hold onto a man she’d loved; I doubted she’d ever loved anyone. He’d most likely been a fling for her too, one who had left her knocked up and alone, and she’d resented him for it. Perhaps she hated him as much as she did me.

  When I’d been younger, I’d tried so hard to win her approval and earn her love before finally giving up. Now I realized I’d never had a shot of succeeding. I never should have had to try and earn it to begin with. I had no idea why the realization she’d always been determined to hate me rattled me so much, but I found myself grappling to keep myself together as I stared across the blood-soaked carnage before me.

  I’d sworn, after she’d sold me to the government, she’d never be able to do anything to hurt me again. I hated that I was wrong. I hated that I now realized, no matter how far I distanced myself from her, she would always have the ability to slice me deep.

  An echoing scream pierced the air behind me at the same time I thought I heard the ringing clash of steel coming from the beginning of the seals. I tried not to think about who Kobal was feeding from as my father’s cries drowned out all other noise.

  The higher the scream went, the warmer the air around me became. The wraith’s strength was draining. My father’s strength was draining, and I was becoming stronger once more.

  “Don’t feel bad for him,” I whispered before a shadow fell over me.

  My head shot up, and I took a step back as my eyes latched onto the creature flying across the top of the ceiling. Panic curdled within me when I spotted the gnarled black wings stretched out at its sides. I stumbled back and collided with the wall when it turned its head to look down at me. I barely had time to assimilate what it was before I saw another one soaring in behind it, followed by another.

  Turning, I sprinted for the intact seal and the others. “Angels!” I shouted and pointed to the ceiling.

  Kobal’s head shot toward me, and his hand tightened around the throat of the emaciated and twisted wraith within his grasp. I couldn’t recognize anything about the creature he held now, as my father’s visage had vanished to be replaced with his wraith form once more. Its jaw had extended until it was nearly two feet long, and its mouth revealed nothing but gaping emptiness within it. The once blue eyes had sunken into its black and twisted face until they’d stopped being visible. It resembled what many imagined the Grim Reaper would look like.

  Before I could make it two more steps, something crashed into my side. Arms wrapped around me as I tumbled across the ground. A scream rose in my throat and strangled there when Corson’s citrine eyes filled my vision from his position on top of me. I only had a second of relief before he was plucked off me and lifted high into the air.

  CHAPTER 41

  Kobal

  The angel swooped away from River with Corson in his grasp. Corson drove his talons straight upward, plunging them through the neck of the fallen angel. The angel’s wings gave another flap before he released Corson from his arms. Corson curled his talons in, holding onto the angel as he soared toward the roof.

  Three more angels flew into view. One of them swooped down, his arms out for River as she scrambled to her feet. “River, down!” I bellowed.

  She threw herself to the floor and rolled to dodge the angel’s grasping clutch. “Take him!” I shouted at Magnus and thrust what little remained of River’s father at him before running for her.

  The angel drew himself up and flipped over in midair to dive back at her. River regained her feet when I released a ball of fire that smashed into the angel’s back, knocking him off course and sending him careening into the wall. The hounds raced forward as one, their ferocious snarls filling the room as bone crunched and a wail from the angel reverberated off the walls.

  One of the three remaining angels turned back for River. I saw the exhaustion in her eyes, the shadows surrounding them. She’d been drained working to
keep the seal up, and her father’s presence here had affected her deeply, yet her eyes burned with determination.

  Turning, she threw her hands up. She released a blast of dark blue light that caught the female angel in the chest and sent her careening toward where her brethren had fallen. The hounds pounced at once.

  Finally reaching her, I wrapped my arm around River’s waist and lifted her against me. Her hand fell to mine; her body pressed closer as she sought to recover some of her strength. I cradled her to me, trying to give her as much strength as I could.

  “Kobal!” Bale shouted. “Look out!”

  I threw myself backward, spinning to keep River out of the clutches of the angel diving straight toward us. Fiery flames burst over my back when I felt his hands grasping and tearing at me. He shrieked and fell away from us as the stench of burnt flesh and hair filled my nostrils. I flattened River against the wall, pinning her there before spinning to face the remaining angels.

  Overhead, Corson swung up, driving the talons of his free hand into the belly of the angel who had captured him. The angel screamed as blood spilled from his stomach, raining down across the hounds. Bale and Hawk circled the angel I’d burnt. Magnus released the wraith and bowed his head as he folded his hands before him.

  River turned herself around against my back as the next angel came at us, its wings swinging back and forth to protect it from any fire I might unleash on it. Around us, a dozen River-like images came to life, but the angel was not deterred by Magnus’s mirages. Against my back, I felt the spark of River’s power brimming up to dance across my flesh. Fire burned around my wrists as the angel stalked closer.

  Everything in me protested against moving aside to let her unleash her power. It was my job to keep her protected from these creatures. I couldn’t just step aside and expose her to their attack, yet my fire would do little against this angel’s wings, and they would not be expecting me to move away from her. They would not be expecting her.