Hell Raiser (Hellscourge Book 7)

by Diem, J. C.

  “Tsk, tsk,” the first boy said mockingly when I tried to shout. His friend’s hand over my mouth muffled the noise. “This is the punishment you get for breaking and entering.”

  His hand went to his belt and my blood tried to run cold. My anger rose at the prospect of what they planned to do to me. This is not going to happen, I said to myself. I’d nearly been violated by a creature that was a lot more dangerous than two boys my own age. If I could escape from Bob’s demonic clutches, then I could get myself out of this.

  Turning my head sharply to the side, the hand over my mouth slipped enough for me to sink my teeth into a finger. Cursing quietly, the boy yanked his hand away and let go of my arms. I lifted my elbow up high and swung it backwards. It connected with his nose with a satisfying crunch.

  I turned around to confront his friend, but Zach was suddenly there. The look on his face as he spun the boy around was frightening. His lips were pulled back from his teeth in a soundless snarl. He punched the kid in the face and his legs wobbled as he came close to losing consciousness. “Don’t ever touch her again!” he said in a low, dark tone. “She belongs to me!”

  He punched the boy again and he sagged in semi-unconsciousness. “That’s enough,” I said and darted forward to push him back a step. The last thing Zach needed was to be arrested for assault. His father would punish him for getting into trouble.

  “Get out of here before I tear your heads off,” Zach ordered the pair quietly.

  They slunk off and I felt a surge of satisfaction when I saw blood dripping from the kid’s finger. Human bites were nasty and it would serve him right if it became infected. He had to support his friend, who was still dazed from Zach’s punches.

  “Are they your friends?” I asked in a whisper. None of the other kids even knew what had almost happened. They were still making out and were lost in their own little worlds. Our tussle had been short, vicious and quiet.

  “No, they go to a different school,” he said and put his hands on my shoulders. “Are you okay? Did they hurt you?”

  A normal girl would have been hysterical after almost being raped. Sadly, a lot worse than this had happened to me. He had no way of knowing that two of my friends were close and that they could have come to my rescue if I’d called out to them. “I’m a bit shaken up, but I’ll be okay.”

  He pulled me into his arms and I sank against him. “I’m sorry I’m late,” he said and kissed my forehead. “I was held up.”

  I could smell perfume on him and jealousy reared its ugly head. “It was Candy, wasn’t it?”

  He nodded and held me tighter when I tried to pull away. “Don’t be mad,” he said with a hint of desperation. “We were just talking.”

  “I can smell her on you,” I said flatly. “You must have been standing really close to each other when you were ‘talking’.”

  “We weren’t as close as you and I are right now,” he said then kissed me before I could protest.

  I managed to resist his charm for a couple of heartbeats before I gave in and kissed him back. It felt so good to be pressed up against his muscular body. He’d grown again and was Nathan’s height or maybe even a little taller now. My hands roamed up and down his back and his settled on my butt. He pulled me even closer and my lust ignited.

  Pushing me against the wall, he picked me up and I wrapped my legs around him. We were breathing heavily and I forgot that six kids were making out only yards away.

  One of Zach’s hands slipped down the back of my jeans and cupped my bare backside. I made a sound that articulated the lust that I felt for him. I wanted him to strip me naked and put me out of my sexual misery. He wanted the same thing, but he wasn’t filled with a legion of demons who were heightening his emotions.

  Pulling back, he stared at me intently, judging my reaction to his exploration of my naked skin. Feeling his body’s reaction to me, I ground myself against him and he closed his eyes and gave a silent gasp. I felt powerful and sexy that I could affect him so strongly.

  “Is that you, Zach?” a male voice said from behind him. He turned to see one of the couples had heard us and had come to investigate. The boy goggled when he saw me. For a horrible moment, I thought he recognized me from the news reports. “Candy is going to freak out if she sees you with another girl,” he said, putting my fears to rest.

  “She’ll probably kill you both if she finds out about this,” his girlfriend said solemnly. “She’s kind of obsessed with you.”

  “Are you going to tell her?” Zach asked. He slid his hand out from my jeans and put me down. I hid behind him, trying to keep my face in the shadows and to hide the fact that I didn’t belong here. One look at my clothes and they’d know I was an interloper.

  “Hell no,” the girl scoffed. “I hate her guts. Everyone knows you’re only dating her because her Mom will bring business to your father’s bank.”

  Zach sent me a rueful look. His personal business clearly wasn’t so private after all.

  “I don’t blame you for wanting a bit on the side, bro,” the boy said and clapped Zach on the shoulder. He winked at me then the pair returned to the others.

  Remembering something Zach had said, I drew him in close. “So, I belong to you, do I?”

  It was too dark to tell, but I was pretty sure he flushed in embarrassment. “Did I actually say that?”

  “Yeah. Just before you said you were going to tear their heads off.”

  Scratching his neck uncomfortably, he shrugged in self-defense. “I’m a guy. We can be pretty territorial at times.”

  So could I and I couldn’t really point my finger at him. “I liked it,” I said with a grin. Pulling the necklace that I’d given him out from beneath his shirt, I pulled him down to my level. “I want to belong to you.”

  His brown eyes darkened with desire as he kissed me. Nathan flashed through my mind before all thought was wiped away by my rising lust. I desired my guardian even more than I wanted Zach, if that was possible. My body was crying out to be satiated and it was getting harder to deny myself the urge to just let go of my inhibitions.

  ₪₪₪

  Chapter Six

  Several other couples being nearby was the only thing that kept Zach and me from taking things too far. He had enough presence of mind to keep our clothes on. Feeling his cell phone vibrate, he broke off our kiss reluctantly. He groaned when he checked the message. “It’s from Candy,” he said with a scowl. “She’s looking for me.”

  Checking my watch, I saw that we’d been making out for nearly an hour and I became alarmed. Sam would sneak inside and check on me any minute now, if he hadn’t already. “Maybe you should head back to the party,” I suggested. I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to contain myself if we kept this up for much longer. My body was on fire and I couldn’t do anything to quench it.

  Sighing, he nodded in agreement. “I don’t want her to get suspicious.” Peering at the other kids, he gave me a rueful look. They were still making out and were lost in their own worlds. “I think you’ll be able to leave without anyone bothering you.” He gave me a final quick kiss then headed for the door. It would have been easier to call Leo to come and get me, but I decided to walk.

  None of the kids gave me a second glance as I made my way to the door and out into the hallway. I followed the service entrance and stepped outside. I took a couple of steps then two people emerged from the shadows. For a moment, I thought it was Sam and Leo. Then I saw their faces and realized who they were.

  Grabbing me by the arm, the boy who had tried to assault me slammed me into the wall. “I thought you’d sneak out this way,” he said with a nasty grin. His bottom lip had split open when Zach had hit him. It was still bleeding slightly.

  His friend leered at me. His nose was swollen, but the bleeding had stopped. “No one is going to save you this time,” he said. His voice sounded clogged as if his nose was blocked.

  “You are quite wrong about that,” Leo said from right behind them. They turned to see Leo
and Sam glaring at them frostily.

  “What happened?” Sam asked.

  “They tried to attack me,” I said and that was all they needed to know.

  “Get out of here before you get hurt,” the first boy snarled. Leo and Sam were smaller than him and he didn’t see them as a threat.

  Sam wasn’t a fighter, but his fist snapped out and connected with my assailant’s already swollen mouth. His lip split open even more and blood spurted.

  “Nice one,” I complimented my best friend. Leo punched the other boy in the nose and he howled in pain. Before the first boy could take a swing at Sam, I did what every sensible girl would do in this situation and kneed him in the groin. Folding over with a pained squeak, he went down to his knees. Leo sidestepped a punch from the second boy and his hand flashed out so fast that I could barely see it. The kid reeled back, stunned by the punch he’d had no chance of evading.

  A taxi slowed down as the driver spotted our altercation. The window powered down and the man stuck his head out. “Break it up or I’ll call the cops,” he warned us.

  None of us wanted to be caught, so we scattered. Looking back over my shoulder, I saw the second boy help his friend up and limp off in the opposite direction from us. I managed to make it a block before I was overcome with giggles and had to stop.

  “Why are you laughing?” Sam asked.

  “Why are we running when Leo can teleport us anywhere in the city?” I replied.

  Leo grinned sheepishly. “I think my vessel’s instincts overwhelmed my own for a moment there,” he said. “I had a panicked thought that I had to run and I heeded it.”

  Still giggling, I felt almost drunk from the pleasure that Zach always brought me. It wouldn’t be a good idea to head back to the store when I was in a mood like this. If I saw Nathan, I’d most likely try to jump his bones.

  We didn’t hear any sirens, so the taxi driver must have been bluffing. It was still early enough that Nathan and Sophia wouldn’t be worrying about us yet. I decided not to head back straight away.

  It was a warm summer night, but the streets were almost deserted. It was a stark contrast to when I’d first come to New York. It had been on the verge of winter and the sidewalks had been busy even late at night. Well over two hundred people had been murdered since then. The populace was terrified that they would be next.

  Cars still clogged the streets even if there were few pedestrians. Cab drivers watched us suspiciously, yet they were desperate for work. Gone were the days where they could just pick up customers from the street. Anyone who still ventured out now ordered taxis so they didn’t have to stand out in the open. It was just too risky to go out on foot. They had no way of knowing that the people who had been murdered had been possessed by demons. Not every victim had been, though. Some of them had been my distant relatives. It made me sad to think of my cousins and knowing that they were doomed. There had been twenty of us to start with and now only a few of the girls remained.

  “Why do you look so gloomy all of a sudden?” Leo asked.

  I flicked a glance at him to see he was holding out my dagger. Sam must have given it to him to hold onto. I took it and slid it back into my pocket. “I was thinking about Hannah’s descendants,” I replied.

  “How many are left now?” Sam asked.

  “Six, including me.”

  “Do you think they will be safe?”

  I shook my head. “I hope so, but I doubt it.” One by one, they were being whittled down. Heather had said that it was almost like this was a movie about my life and that she and the rest of the descendants were just extras.

  Thinking about all the dead girls that looked so much like me was one sure way to destroy my libido. It was even better than a bucket of cold water to the face. Not even seeing Nathan’s perfection would be able to salvage my mood now.

  A cop car came towards us and slowed down when the officers spotted us. “Are they demons?” Sam asked Leo.

  Using his bracelet to see their auras, he shook his head. “No. They are human.”

  That didn’t mean we were in the clear. My face and hair were far too recognizable. I could see one of the men reaching for their radio. “You’d better get us out of here,” I told him. He saw the danger and teleported us to another street a few blocks away. His celestial magic would befuddle the two cops. They would be confused about where we’d disappeared to. They hadn’t acted suspicious enough to have identified me and I was pretty sure we were in the clear.

  “Your hoodie would come in handy right about now,” Sam said.

  “Wearing it in summer would be a terrible disguise,” I pointed out.

  “Have you considered cutting your hair short?” Leo asked.

  My hand went to my long blond locks and I stared at him in horror. “I’d rather lose one of my hands than chop off my hair!”

  “It would only be temporary,” he said in bafflement to my reaction. “It will grow back.”

  “I’ll be dead in a few months and I’m not going to my grave without my hair,” I said belligerently.

  “It must be a female thing,” Leo said to Sam out of the side of his mouth.

  “I do not get it either,” my best friend muttered. “You are not going to die,” he said to me firmly. “We will not allow that to happen.”

  I saw fear beneath their bravado and slung my arm around their shoulders. “I love you guys, but you know you can’t stop this from happening. Sophia saw it in a vision and her visions are never wrong.”

  “There is always a first time,” Leo said. “We will do everything in our power to see that her vision does not come true.” That would involve finding the mysterious cure and we were still no closer to discovering what it was.

  ₪₪₪

  Chapter Seven

  We walked for nearly an hour. I kept my eye out for the next portal to hell. I tended to find them by accident most of the time, or so it seemed. In reality, Fate had been guiding my steps the entire time. Knowing Nathan would come looking for us soon, I nudged Leo in the side. “It’s time to head back.”

  Nodding in agreement, he zapped us to the living room of our base. Leaving the boys to watch TV, I headed to the bathroom. Stepping inside, I shut the door, closed my eyes and leaned back against the door. Sensing a presence, I opened my eyes to see Nathan standing in front of me. My pulse picked up at our close proximity. All I had to do was activate the silence rune that I’d constructed on the door and we could have privacy.

  “How did your date go?” Nathan asked me coolly, shattering the moment.

  “Apart from a couple of guys trying to rape me, it went fine,” I said and pushed past him to wash my makeup off.

  Spinning me around, his annoyance that I’d spent time with my boyfriend was gone. It had been replaced with concern. “Are you alright? What happened?”

  “I’m fine,” I said a little breathlessly. But I wouldn’t be for much longer if he didn’t let me go.

  Realizing we were trembling on the edge of kissing, he took a step back. “Tell me everything,” he commanded.

  Filling the sink with water, I told him about the attack while scrubbing my face clean. I played down how close I’d come to being violated. I glanced into the mirror to see him smiling when I explained that I’d bitten and elbowed the boy behind me. “I am glad that Leo and I have spent time training you to defend yourself,” he said.

  His smile disappeared at what I said next. “Zach showed up and punched one of the kids in the face a couple of times. Then they ran off.”

  He was silent for a moment then nodded in reluctant approval. “It is good that he came to your rescue. It was a noble act.”

  The things Zach had done after that had been far from noble, but I wasn’t about to tell Nathan about any of it. “We talked for an hour then Candy texted him and he had to return to the party,” I said to finish off my story.

  His lips tightened and I suspected he knew that Zach and I hadn’t done much talking. “Why did it take you so long to
return here if you only spent an hour with your beau?”

  “The two boys were waiting for me when I left the building. Sam and Leo got into a fight with them and a cab driver stopped and broke them up.” I grinned again when I pictured us running like scared kids. “We ran before he could call the cops then we walked around for a while.”

  “How do you manage to find trouble so easily and so often?” he asked and handed me a towel so I could wipe the water off my face.

  “I’m just lucky I guess,” I replied. The real reason was that my soul was missing and death was trying to finish me off. It wasn’t natural for a human to be walking around without a soul.

  Studying my makeup free face, Nathan brushed a fingertip across my cheek. “You do not need to wear enhancements. You are beautiful without makeup.”

  Even with the faint scars that the raven had left on his right cheek, he was flawless to me. I’d drawn the toxin from the Hellmaster out of him and into myself. It was the first and only time I’d saved his life and I’d do it again in a heartbeat.

  Words stuck in my throat at the longing I saw in his eyes. Sam might be addicted to TV, but Nathan was my vice. Being near him was both sweet and torturous. We loved each other and we couldn’t do anything about our feelings.

  Leo knocked on the door in warning then pushed it open, snapping me out of my misery. “Sophia wants to know if you would like some tea,” he said. It was an obvious ploy to break us apart before we did anything stupid.

  “That would be great,” I replied. It wasn’t late enough to go to bed yet. I’d just lie there brooding about my uncertain future.

  Nathan followed me out of the bathroom. I stepped into my bedroom long enough to take the contents out of my pockets. I put the angel carving and the sapphire rune stone in the top drawer of my nightstand. They nestled next to the stones that Dom and Jed had given me. I could call on any of my angelic friends or allies as long as I had these items with me. I lay the dagger on top of the nightstand so I could grab it in a hurry during the night if I needed to.