by Diem, J. C.
I was surprised when she answered me. “I take them to the Scriptorium. Dantanian has been tasked with collecting them by the Hellmaster. I have no idea what they are used for.”
She didn’t appear to be lying and now I finally had the answer I’d been searching for. Sophia was crestfallen to hear where her grace had been taken. It was unlikely that I’d be able to retrieve it for her now that we knew where it was.
“We have made an agreement and I have answered your question,” Vepar said. “I demand that you let me go immediately.”
Her arrogance made my anger rise, but there was no point holding her captive any longer. Sam was probably right that it was too dangerous to let her go, but our agreement would hopefully keep her off our backs.
She hadn’t cast the spell that broke through our runes, which meant she was trapped here. Crossing to the rune that was stopping her from leaving, I scraped the edge of my dagger over it to break the symbol. With a final smirk, the Demon Lord disappeared.
“We need to leave before she returns with her lackeys,” Sophia said. Vepar had agreed not to search for our lair, but she hadn’t promised not to take us captive if she found us roaming around.
Cursing myself for my shortsightedness, I shifted closer to Nathan as the others gathered around. He zapped us back to our base and Sophia headed straight for the kitchen.
I felt a bit lighter now that we wouldn’t have Vepar and her goons searching for us. Then I frowned when I remembered what the lord had said to Nathan. “Did you make some kind of deal with Vepar that we don’t know about?” I asked him. I couldn’t imagine a scenario where an angel would lower themselves enough to bargain with hell spawn.
“It was a long time ago and I am not at liberty to discuss it,” he said.
Leo and Sam exchanged a look of concern. “Why not?” Leo asked.
“It was part of our bargain and I am bound by it,” my guardian replied stiffly.
A sick feeling of dread spread through me when he flashed me a guilty look. I had no idea what their deal had been, but I knew what Vepar would want as payment. I’d made Nathan a promise that I wouldn’t sleep with Zach, but he’d never promised that he would remain innocent for me.
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Chapter Twenty-Six
It wasn’t necessary for me to spend most of the day on patrol after the deal I’d made with Vepar, yet I’d grown used to walking the streets. My health was already beginning to deteriorate again, which meant the toxin was getting stronger. Walking didn’t tax me too much though, and I didn’t want to be cooped up inside all day.
It was Leo’s turn to escort me the next morning. Sam came along to give us company. Feeling my cell phone vibrate in my pocket, I took it out to see a message from Zach. His father was keeping him busy during the summer break by dragging him off to meetings he didn’t want to go to. The rest of his free time seemed to be spent with Candy. He had to use a secret cell phone to be able to stay in contact with me. We couldn’t see each other in person, but we texted nearly every day.
“What did your beau say this time?” Sam asked.
“That he misses me and he hopes he can see me soon,” I replied. It was sappy and romantic, but he was just that kind of guy. He was secure in his masculinity and he didn’t feel the need to hide his emotions from me.
“What did you say in return?” Leo queried.
“I told him I’d find a way to see him before the break is over.”
“He is not having much of a vacation from what you have told us,” Sam said. “His father is trying to turn his son into a younger version of himself.”
Hearing how Mr. Orion had treated Clarice Weller, I didn’t think that was going to happen anytime soon. Zach was nothing like his parent. He was kind and affectionate. He would never lift a finger to hurt a female. “I hope not,” I muttered, but I knew my boyfriend would have no choice but to do whatever his dad said. I’d seen the bruises that he’d received for attempting to defy his father.
My mood had turned sour and I walked in morose silence. I wasn’t concerned about being recognized as we traversed through Greenwich Village. My hair was up in a bun and my face was shadowed by my cap. I had a feeling it was nearly time to return to hell, so I was on the lookout for the next portal to hell.
Leo nudged me in the side and I turned to see four uniformed police officers standing on the sidewalk in a cluster. Their faces flickered, giving away that they were our enemies. Momentarily distracted, I didn’t realize I was in danger until I heard a triumphant caw.
I instinctively ducked and talons tore the cap from my head. It had saved me from claws digging into my scalp. My feathered nemesis shrieked in frustration and dropped my hat. Its feet weren’t wreathed in the Hellmaster’s shadowy essence this time, but the raven was still dangerous. I had no desire to pick the hat up. It was probably covered in undead bird cooties now.
“Look out!” Sam shouted and I realized I’d forgotten about the other danger.
Demonic hands seized me and I was teleported away before I could block their magic. Thanks to the raven bringing us to their attention, the four cops had recognized me. As per Bob’s orders, they’d taken me to their headquarters.
My hands were cuffed behind my back before I could reach for my dagger. They were only lowly soldiers, but I was outnumbered and my wrath was nowhere to be seen. I was no match for them without my weapon.
“Inform the Captain that we have Hellscourge in our custody,” the only female in the group said to one of the others. With a curt nod, he disappeared. I looked around to see we were in a long, dim hallway. I was marched over to a door with a sign saying ‘Storage Room’ on it.
Gulping down my fear, I tried to struggle as the female used a keycard to unlock it. The entire building was warded, which meant Nathan couldn’t come to my rescue here. Sam had saved me the last time I’d been imprisoned in this building, but he hadn’t been able to follow me this time. Reynolds might work here, but he couldn’t let the demons know he was aware of them. Doing so would endanger his life. I was on my own and none of my friends could help me.
Pushing the door open, the female entered first. The room was bare except for a few metal shelves and two pairs of shackles on the wall facing the door. Glee danced in her scarlet eyes as her true face appeared. “Our Captain is going to be very pleased that you are back in his custody,” she said and grinned evilly. “He is going to teach you a lesson about what happens to anyone who defies us.”
My mouth went dry with terror as I was stripped of my dagger and valuables. Thankfully, they left my clothes on. It appeared that Bob wanted the honors of removing them himself. I felt bereft without my things. Without the rune stones and the angel carving, I had no way to call my friends to me. It would have been pointless to even try. Demonic spells would have instantly incapacitated them anyway.
Satisfied that I wouldn’t pose a danger, they dragged me over to the wall. The handcuffs were removed and the two male demons pressed my back against the wall. The female forced my wrists and ankles into the cold metal manacles. They were too tight and bit into my vulnerable flesh.
Although the room was cool, sweat beaded on my forehead and pooled at the base of my spine when they left. I looked around, desperate for a way to escape and saw nothing that could help me.
Reynolds had warned me about Bob’s plan, so I knew I was in the basement of their headquarters. The storeroom wasn’t near an outside wall. Even if I hadn’t been shackled, I wouldn’t have been able to escape easily. A magical doorway would only get me out of the storeroom. I’d have to find my way out of the basement to have a hope of escaping.
The walls were dense concrete, which muffled outside noise. I knew I had company a few minutes later when I heard the latch click and the door swung open. Captain Lancaster, better known as Bob, stood in the doorway. His vessel had brown hair and eyes and was ordinary in every respect. The monster inside him was a very different story.
As if I’d called his evil to
the surface with my thoughts, his face shimmered and morphed into his true form. His horns were far less impressive than mine, and he was a head shorter than I would have been if we’d been in hell. It occurred to me that he’d look small standing next to me if we were in his home world. Unfortunately, he was far more powerful than I was in this dimension.
Stepping into the room, he pushed the door shut and leaned against it. He silently contemplated me for a while before speaking. “You have caused me more humiliation than any other being in existence,” he said. It came out as a low growl in his native language. Considering he’d been trapped in hell for thousands of years and had suffered beneath the torment of his masters, that was saying a lot. “I had hoped that I would get the chance to repay you one day and now here you are.” He grinned and I flinched away from the twisted pleasure on his face.
“You should think twice before you do anything that you’ll regret,” I warned him. My voice was close to shaking from fear.
“Oh, I will have no regrets about the things that I am going to do to you, Hellscourge.” He stalked closer and I tried to melt back into the wall. He came to a stop a couple of feet away. His eyes remained on my face rather than roaming up and down my body like they usually did. “I am going to pleasure myself with you, but first I believe I will enjoy some payback.”
His hand flashed out and my head rocked to the side when he slapped me hard enough to make me see stars. The inside of my cheek had been cut open by a tooth. I spat blood onto the bare concrete floor and shook my head groggily. “Is that all you’ve got?” I said scornfully. “A little girl could hit harder than that.”
His lips pulled back at my sneer and this time he punched me. My cheek fractured and I had to bite my tongue to hold in a scream of agony. My eye started to swell shut, but I didn’t give him the satisfaction of letting him see my pain. He wasn’t very intelligent and it was easy to goad him to fury. I’d rather die than live through being raped by him. With luck, it shouldn’t take much to push him to the edge.
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Chapter Twenty-Seven
Gaining control of his fury, Bob refrained from punching me again. He had another plan in mind. “I have had a lot of practice at torturing souls and I am something of an expert at causing pain,” he said. He moved over to the shelf where my belongings had been placed and picked up my dagger. It had once belonged to him, but I’d stolen it from him. “It seems fitting that I use my weapon to carve open your flesh.”
I tried to brace myself for the pain when he crossed to me and put the blade against my cheek. The blade remained dull silver rather than flaring scarlet and he frowned at it. “What’s the matter, Bob?” I taunted him. “Have you lost your mojo?” My right eye was swollen completely shut now and my fractured cheek throbbed sickeningly.
“There is nothing wrong with my magic,” he snapped. “The dagger is obviously defective, but I do not need magic to cause you harm.” The edge was blunt, but even a dull knife could cut if enough pressure was applied. Fresh pain sprang to life as he dragged the blade from just below my left eye all the way down to my jaw. I clenched my teeth to contain my shrieks as blood sheeted down my face and dripped down my neck.
It was the first of many wounds that he inflicted on my face and neck. I wasn’t sure how long I lasted before I passed out. Before I could be drawn to the shadowlands of my mind, a different kind of pain swept through me. If felt like my entire body was filled with pins and needles. When the sensation faded, I realized that my wounds were gone. Even my fractured cheek had stopped throbbing.
Bob had removed his jacket and had rolled his sleeves up so they wouldn’t get stained. His hands and forearms were covered in my blood. My shirt was drenched in it and red stains spotted the floor. “I have been waiting a long time for this,” he said then took hold of the hem of my shirt. The dull blade of my dagger hacked a small tear in it and he ripped it open all the way to my neck.
His eyes roved over me and he blinked in shock when he saw the ugly red scar on my left breast. “Where is your soul?” he snarled.
It wasn’t easy to shrug when I was manacled to the wall, but I managed it. “Beats me. Someone took it when I was a baby.”
“What is this?” he said and poked the thick black scar on my abdomen.
I tried to hide my flinch at the stab of pain. Right now, I was willing to talk to him just to delay being cut open again. “I got that from a Wraith Warrior.”
Startled, he squinted at it and noticed that the tendrils were slowly moving. “You should not have survived that,” he said uneasily.
“The normal rules don’t apply to me. The things that should kill me only make me stronger.” That was a flat out lie. The toxins were killing me and it was only a matter of time before they would finish me off.
Instead of taking my warning to heart, Bob recommenced carving into my flesh. He’d been telling the truth about his skills as a tormentor. He managed to inflict shallow wounds that bled a lot, but didn’t kill me. I wondered how many people he’d tortured to the edge of death only to bring them back again by healing them over and over.
Rousing from unconsciousness after another version of his healing, I saw him grinning at me nastily. “I thought I was going to lose you that time. That last cut was a little too deep.”
He’d worked his way up and down my torso, searching for the most painful areas. He hadn’t cut any more of my clothing off yet. That would come when he grew tired of cutting me and switched to another form of torture. “I’m going to kill you, Bob,” I said in his own language. He flinched at the demonic growl in my voice. It was how I sounded when I was in his homeland. “First, I’m going to make you pay for this.”
“You are powerless and your hideous little sidekick is not here to save you this time,” he sneered. “You can do nothing to me while I have you shackled to that wall.”
“You’ll have to set me free sometime,” I said and he almost recoiled from my smile. I knew it was as wintry as the storm that had frozen a portion of the fourth realm of hell.
Bob didn’t like being threatened. He placed the blade against the thick black scar on my stomach. Something moved inside me and I almost gasped out loud. “I am your master now and you will bow to me,” he said.
I stared him squarely in the eyes and sneered. “No amount of torture could ever force me to bow to you.”
“Is that so?” He grinned and inserted the blade into the scar then yanked it sideways. This time, I couldn’t hold back my screams. They rang around the room as agony burst inside me. Bob’s grin faltered and he stared down at the wound with a look of fear. Leaving the blade inside my stomach, he backed away.
I looked down to see black mist swirling out of the wound. The blade became dislodged and fell to the ground with a clatter as something clawed its way out of me. Even in my agony, I stared at the mist in awe as the shadows coalesced into a seven-foot-tall Wraith Warrior. The creature turned to contemplate me. “What is your will, master?” The voice was far too feminine to belong to a male.
Bob’s back hit the door and he scrambled for the handle. My innate magic had kicked in and was stopping him from teleporting to safety. “Don’t let him leave!” I ordered her. I was losing too much blood and I was going to bleed to death. He had to heal me before it was too late.
My warrior strode over to Bob just as he managed to get the door open. She took hold of him by the nape of the neck with one hand and slammed the door shut with the other. I wasn’t sure why he was so frightened of a Wraith Warrior, but he was bleating in terror as she dragged him over to me. He was already full of evil and I thought her toxin wouldn’t have any effect on him while he was on earth. Maybe I was wrong about that.
“Heal me,” I said and it came out as a bare whisper. White spots were dancing in front of my eyes and I was on the verge of passing out.
“Obey her,” my warrior said and shook Bob like he was a ragdoll. Rolling his eyes like a terrified horse, he put a hand on my forehead.
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Pins and needles swept through me again. The cold metal manacles bit into my wrists as I sagged in exhaustion. His healing wasn’t as good as Nathan’s, but at least the bleeding had stopped. “Get me out of these things,” I said and glanced at the shackle on my right wrist. Sending frightened glances at my warrior, Bob took a set of keys out of his pocket and undid the locks. I didn’t have the strength to stand up and immediately sagged. My warrior caught me by the shoulder while still holding onto Bob with her other hand. He knelt and undid the shackles on my ankles.
Pulling the tatters of my shirt around me, I looked down at the demon who had tortured me for the past hour. I wanted to kill him like I’d promised, but I didn’t want to ingest his memories. I felt soiled just being near him. My threat to make him pay had just been idle, but now I could make it a reality. Sy had told me of a surefire way to incapacitate a demon and Bob had just pushed me to the point of inflicting it on him. We’d made a bargain that I wouldn’t behead him, which meant I couldn’t do the deed myself. It was lucky I had someone close by who could do it for me.
“We have a bargain,” Bob said, reading my expression and knowing what I was thinking.
“Yes, we do,” I replied. My voice sounded rusty from screaming even after he’d crudely healed me. “But she doesn’t,” I said and gestured at my shadowy minion.
“The Wraith Warrior is an extension of you,” he said desperately. “Any bargain that you made with me includes her as well.”
He might not be very bright, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t an accomplished liar. There was only one way I’d discover the truth. “Cut his head off,” I ordered her.
My warrior’s face was made of shadows and she didn’t have features, but I felt her anticipation at the thought of being able to do violence. She called on a sword made of the same evil essence that she was made from. Still on his knees, Bob cowered away from her and raised his arms in defense. She swung her sword and it passed through his arms without damaging them. It swept through his neck and exited from the other side. For a moment, I thought it hadn’t worked. Then Bob made a gurgling sound and his head came loose. It fell to the ground with a sickening thud. His eyes rolled up to me beseechingly before fluttering shut.
