by AJ Mullican
And what makes you think I can be of assistance? I am a lover, dear Molli, not a fighter.
Oh, no. He’s not getting out of it that easy. You’re a jackass. Now plane shift to us and take us all to Ben.
What, pray tell, do you plan to do once you’ve found my grandson? I can guarantee that neither your fae magic nor Lena’s carnal magic can expel Satan from Ben’s body. Asmodeus sighs and snaps His fingers.
My world flips upside down, and I struggle to hold my stomach contents as I find myself shoved back in my body without so much as a “How do you do.” I blink to clear my vision, and I’m back with Lena and my fae—and Asmodeus Himself.
“Dear Elena, could you really not stop Hell on Earth without my help?”
Lena answers his question with an elegant middle finger.
“Well, then, shall we?” The demon Prince snaps his fingers, and reality warps around us.
Chapter 25
After being forcibly ejected from the astral plane then plane-shifted across who knows how many levels of literal Hell, my efforts to keep my food on the inside fail me.
Oren rubs my back as I bend over retching, and his healing magic settles my nausea.
“Fuck, Asmodeus, You couldn’t warn us You were going to do that?” Lena doesn’t sound like she’s sick; she sounds like she’s about to smack her Father-in-law, but not sick. “You know Molli’s not used to plane shifting.”
He adjusts the cuffs of his suit sleeves and sniffs. “It is not my fault. You can hardly expect a demon’s main mode of transportation to be amenable to humans. Or, in this case, former humans.” Asmodeus grins, baring perfect white teeth, and damn if I’m not turned on by it in spite of my annoyance. “But, seeing as how you are here to help my family, I will apologize, Molli. It was not my intent to weaken you.”
It’s my turn to flash Him a choice finger, though I give Him a double dose.
The bastard just laughs. “Ah, well, as you can see, we have arrived.”
He spreads His arms wide, gesturing to a huge spire of black rock behind Him. It extends all the way up into the miasma surrounding this plane, and wicked orange lights flicker at weird intervals that I assume are windows of some sort in the rock face. Black, scaly winged creatures soar in circles around the structure, like sick, twisted vultures, lobbing fireballs at the ground below. One of those fireballs descends right at us, but just before it hits it disperses in a flash of sparks as it comes in contact with a ward of some sort. Whether Lena or Asmodeus cast it, I can’t tell.
“I present to you Satan’s palace. My grandson has been spirited away to the top of the tower. Shall we make haste?”
“Wait a sec.” Lena scowls at Him. “If You can get us here like that, why not bring Your sons and the wolves, too? Why aren’t You rescuing Arman, Aistan, and Samsher?”
He shrugs. “They have had wards placed upon them that I cannot break. Until Satan is expelled from young Ben, there is nothing I can do for them. They must rely on the wiles of the Hunter clan and their brother if they are to escape His clutches.”
“’His clutches’? Does that mean they’re here, too?”
I answer Lena before Asmodeus can. “No. I can still follow their lifelines, though, so they’re all alive. Just not here—wherever ‘here’ is.”
“Damnit!”
Finn puts a hand on her shoulder. “We will get them free, Lena, but you chose to rescue your son first. You must be patient.”
“Finn, buddy, if you don’t remove your hand, I’ll burn it the fuck off. I am not in the mood.”
He backs away with palms up in surrender.
“Lena, calm down. We’ll get Ben back, we’ll get everyone free, and we’ll get the hell out of Hell. Just don’t freak the fuck out on us now.”
Lena bites her lip and gazes up at the top of the “palace.” She wrings her hands and shifts from one foot to the other. “Can you see that far? Can you tell if we’re too late, if Ben’s been aged already?”
“No. It’s too far up, but my guess is they aren’t wasting any more time. We should probably go in there expecting Ben to be mid-twenties and evil as fuck.”
“My baby…” Lena’s eyes well up with tears, and I feel about as out of place as, well, a fae in Hell. What am I supposed to do? She doesn’t want physical support, she doesn’t take well to pep talks, and even if I were good at either of those, what can I say or do to lessen the blow of her only son being abducted and possessed by Satan Himself?
Oblivious to Lena’s pain, Asmodeus starts off in the direction of the gaping maw at the base of the spire, which I assume is the front door. He doesn’t stop to see if we’re following, so I grab Lena’s arm and half-drag her along as Oren, Kalen, Finn, and I scramble to catch up.
Time to woman up and just do this.
“C’mon, Lena. We’ve got to get inside and get our steps for the day in.”
To my relief, the circling demons ignore us as we close in on the tower. It seems that the one fireball that almost hit us was a fluke, as no others follow suit.
Lit by hundreds of small fires, the interior of the palace glows with flickering yellow and orange lights. Our shadows dance on the stone walls around us, and a steep, narrow spiral staircase hugs the circular wall.
I see no elevator, no railing, and no other way up.
“Asmodeus, why didn’t You port us to the top? Even You have to dread walking up those steps.”
“I cannot. My brother has warded the whole of this castle against plane shifting. This was the closest I could get us without destroying us in the process.” He starts taking the steps two at a time, His long legs taking Him up faster than my short little legs can follow. “Come. We must get to my grandson.”
I huff and puff my way up about twenty steps before I lose my fucking shit. “Damnit, Asmodeus, slow your roll! I can’t physically keep up with you at this rate.”
He turns and looks back over His shoulder from His place fifty steps above us. “What do you mean?”
I stomp a foot on the step I’m standing on and almost knock half the step off. Tiny rocks tumble down the side of the stairs. “I’m short, dude! My legs can’t take these steep fuckers two at a damn time. So either slow down or expect to face Satan Yourself when You get to the top, because I can’t move like that.”
The pause is long enough that I worry He’s going to ignore me. Finally, He stops and sits on a step. “Well, then, carry on.”
That sex appeal isn’t going to save His ass when I get up there.
We climb for what feels like days, but my watch still says three fifteen. It also says I’ve gone seventy thousand steps and climbed fifty flights of stairs, so maybe it’s not as dead as I thought it was. I wonder how much time we’ve lost in the real world.
A massive stone door bars our entry to what serves as a penthouse in this hellish palace, but Asmodeus hefts it out of the way like it’s nothing. We all file out onto a rough stone landing, and I take a moment to assess our surroundings.
Directly across from the trap door to the stairs is a raised stone dais, atop which stands six feet three inches of utter hotness. Soft, dark brown hair frames a chiseled face, and the demonskin pants hug every single toned muscle. His chest is bare, free of tattoos, and cut like nobody’s business. My fingers ache to trace those delicious abs, and my legs want to wrap around those slender hips. I have to bite my lip to keep from running up to the man and mounting him right then and there.
That’s when I remember that Satan chose a half-incubus as His host, and I tell myself it would be really inappropriate for me to jump Lena’s son’s bones with her and my boyfriends right here.
“Sweet baby Jesus…” My words trail off as my eyes follow the V at his hips to No Man’s Land, cupped nicely by the skintight scaled leather.
“Sweet baby Galley!”
Lena starts forward, but Satan raises a hand and twists His fingers, and she stops cold.
“Ben, honey, it’s Mommy! Ben, you have to let Mommy go, okay? Yo
u’re not in trouble. Just let Mommy come to you. Let Mommy get the bad demon out of you, and we’ll get you safe. Come on, Ben. Listen to Mommy.” Lena’s voice trembles as she struggles to move her jaw against whatever spell Satan zapped her with.
Satan crouches at the edge of the dais, His neatly-trimmed black fingernails tapping at the stone. “Well, ‘Mother,’ how nice to meet you.”
Oh, my God, that voice! The timber in it sends a chill down my spine, and I fight the urges inside me. With my fae sight, I see waves of red pulsating from Him, and I realize He’s using Ben’s incubus magic to try to seduce me … and maybe Lena, too.
Satan-Ben hops down from His perch and strides up to His frozen mother. He tips her chin up with a gentle touch, and the grin that spreads His luscious lips makes my knees weak.
“I was so disappointed when My minions left you behind in the wastelands, Mother.” He clucks His tongue and points behind Him, and as my eyes follow I swallow back bile at the sight. Mounted on the walls around us are dozens of demons’ heads, each still dripping thick black blood. “Don’t worry, though; I made sure none of them would ever disrespect you again.”
Holy shit! Did Ben—Did Satan really kill that many of His own demons?
“Release your host’s mother, cur, and vacate his body!” Kalen’s words, though brave, fall on deaf ears. With another wave of His hand, Satan paralyzes the rest of us. Though I can see the red sparks of His magic all around us, I can’t figure out a way to break through it.
Lena starts shaking where she stands, though I can’t tell if it’s from fear, shock, or just the effort of trying to break free. “Please, Ben. Mommy’s not mad at you. Mommy just wants to take you home.” Her voice cracks on the last word, and my heart breaks for her.
Satan leans in close and licks a tear from Lena’s cheek. “Why, dear Mother, I am home … and now, so are you.” He turns to me and the fae with a scowl. “You four, however, do not belong here.”
He snaps His fingers, and the next thing I know we’re standing on the corner of a street in downtown Nowhere, back on Earth—for what it’s worth, that is. Though Satan deposited us just outside of the border between Nowhere and Hell, my heart sinks into my stomach at the sight of where in Nowhere that put us. The warehouse district has disappeared, replaced in its entirety with Hell, and that Hellscape encroaches well into town. We’re miles away from where we entered Hell to begin with. Panicked humans run screaming in all directions, but I don’t have time to worry about that right now.
I’ve been kicked out of bars and clubs before, but getting kicked out of Hell? That’s a new low.
Oren slams a fist against the brick wall of a storefront next to us and curses. “Fuck! We almost had Him.”
Finn shakes his head. “I do not believe we had Him in the slightest.”
With a shaky hand, I reach out to the border and encounter a strange pushback when I try to put my palm through the divide between here and there. “Shit. We’re locked out somehow. Kalen, Finn, Oren, can any of you get in?”
They test the barrier as well, but no dice.
This is crazy! We walked right the fuck in earlier. What the hell?
“What will we do, Molli?”
I look to the screaming throng and back. I could shift my focus, worry about the people out here, but …
Lena, Cherry, Holden, Callie—Fuck! We left them all behind when Satan rejected our presence in His new domain.
No. I have to take responsibility. I accepted this task, and I can’t leave Lena and the others alone in there. I can’t ditch the only people who’ve stuck with me through some weird shit. And I certainly can’t leave a fucking baby to stay possessed by Satan.
“We don’t have a choice. We have to find a way back into Hell.”
Hang tight, Lena. Be strong. This is on you until we can figure out a loophole.
< The End >
About The Author
A J Mullican
AJ is an international and USA Today best-selling author of dystopian sci-fi, horror, romance, and more. She started her novel journey with the self-published supernatural thriller Whispers of Death in 2015, and her catalog continues to grow as her Muse screams at her to keep writing.
While working at her day job in the medical field, the 2020 pandemic has presented some unique challenges—and even more interesting opportunities. With her other hobbies on hold, AJ has found more time to write. Though 2020 may go down in history as the year the world went to Hell in a flaming handbasket, it was AJ’s more productive year yet, with even more planned for 2021, 2022, and beyond.
Books By This Author
Whispers of Death
Sera Miller has woken up straddling a corpse more times than she can count. During her blackouts she leaves a mounting trail of mutilated, dismembered bodies in her wake. Inventing an alter ego to cope with the destruction she causes, Sera struggles with the knowledge that any tryst she engages in will ultimately end in her date’s gruesome death. It doesn't help that men constantly seek her out; her inhuman charm and beauty draw them to her no matter how hard she tries to avoid it.
Sera is perplexed to learn that the FBI is seeking two individuals in the serial murders. Does she have a stalker, or is her alter ego working with someone? It's as much a mystery to her as it is to the authorities. Complicating matters further, Sera's best friend and roommate begins dating FBI agent Jeff Robertson, who suspects something supernatural at work in the killings.
Can Sera stop her inner killer before the FBI closes in, or will her demons take over?
Abnormal
“I didn’t mean to kill them.”
In Heaven’s Light, the difference between a genetic Gift and an Abnormality is determined by the number of credits in your parent’s bank account. Gifts are reserved for the wealthy, and Abnormals are terminated—in the parent’s best interest, of course. Clare Rhodes is used to life under the radar. She uses her abnormality on a stranger at the club and finds an oil-slick of nightmares. The horrific visions invade her mind as she slips deeper... Knives. Fists. Fire. He knows more about her than anyone should. He even knows her Norm-ID is a fake.
She didn’t mean to kill him. On the run and off the grid are Clare's only options.
Too bad she's being tracked...
Escaping the Light
Nine months after her capture, Clare Rhoades remains a prisoner of Head Councilman Ezekiel Howard, hidden away in a secret room in his penthouse at the Council Tower in Heaven’s Light. Loneliness and despair threaten to consume Clare, and if not for a strong telepathic bond with the daughter in her womb, she might well go mad from the silence brought on by the PsyBlock in her brain.
Once her daughter is born, Ezekiel rips her out of Clare’s arms and puts his dastardly plan into motion. Within weeks she’s pregnant again, though this bond is tainted, marred by Ezekiel’s oily influence.
Clare has one chance to save the child growing within her: She must escape Heaven’s Light and seek out the safety of the Dead Cities before Ezekiel’s corruption becomes permanent. Little does she know, however, that other plots have been hatched. Ezekiel’s not the only threat to Clare and the Abnormals, and an enemy even more sinister waits in the shadows to assume control and rise to power.
Witching Hour: The Stroke of Three
A girl, her three lovers, and a mystery weapon set to self-destruct ... What could go wrong?
When Abnormal Telepath Kylie Martin and her three male companions steal a dangerous weapon from the Gifted Squads to discover its secrets, it’s a race against time to unlock the device before the self-destruct goes off and the data is lost forever.
Will she and her lovers complete their mission before the Witching Hour strikes?
This is an intense reverse harem novella with multiple love interests where Kylie does not have to choose.
The Mage Asylum Trilogy: Palmore's Home for Wayward Mages Paranormal Romance Collection
*Enjoy three novellas for the price of one with this c
ollected set!*
For enchantress Karrye Gibbons, being committed for nymphomania isn't too bad. The facility is coed, at least, and offers plenty of eligible mages for her to choose from...until, that is, a patient is admitted who's immune to her charms.
Enter Whittaker Franklin, an ex-military interrogator who happens to be an anti-mage. No magic can work within twenty feet of Whit, but that's not going to stop Karrye. She's determined to win him over, but when strange new therapies begin in the basement, things get complicated. Can Karrye and Whit find out what's going on at Palmore's and stop it before everything goes to hell?
*These books contain graphic sex and are not suited for readers under the age of 18.*
Pact with the Pack: Bargains Struck Book 1
Cherry Duvall's had a rough week.
After escaping an abusive, controlling ex with her jugular barely intact, Cherry finds out Eric's skipped bail—and he's out for her blood. Cherry jumps on her motorcycle, and it's through the woods to grandmother's house she goes in an attempt to get out of town while the getting's good.
Too bad Eric beat her there. Cherry's too late to save her granny, and things get hairy when Eric threatens her with his knife.
Things get even hairier when five larger-than-life wolves appear in her granny's cabin to battle Cherry's attacker.
Dive into a world of sexy shifters and pack dynamics in this steamy reverse harem romp!
Fed by the Fae: Bargains Struck Book 2
Molli Brighton’s backpacking trip to Ireland has turned into a soggy mess.
