Well, that’s downright intriguing drama. I lean forward, interested in this conversation.
“Maybe so, but her timing is still undeniably suspicious,” Kai reminds them.
They move away from the dark romance and back to the subject at hand. I lose interest again, for the most part.
“Regardless, we should at least ask her about the men who came here last night,” Ezekiel says quietly. “Keyla! We have you a name,” he yells, like he’s trying to make sure I hear him throughout the massive home.
Rolling my eyes, I stay hidden, even though I do like having a name now.
“She only has ten minutes where she doesn’t have to see us,” Kai points out.
My smile spreads. It’s been over ten minutes since I laid eyes on them, but I’m still not in pain or desperate to peek out. Just their presence being so close seems to sate my need for them.
How did I not notice sooner?
In fact, it was like that all night, but I didn’t notice then either, since I was sort of distracted. Maybe I did level up, just not the way I thought I would. Well, clearly I leveled up with the weird ways the assassins seemed to die, but I’m talking about a personal level-up.
“Well, then, where the hell is she? Because it’s been at least twenty minutes since I saw her last,” Jude states, frustrated.
When I see the handle of the weapons closet start to turn, I step through the back, passing through that wall, and end up in Ezekiel’s bedroom.
Staring at the wall, I continue to listen as the door opens, waiting for my chance to dive through and trail their siphon.
“Found her,” comes a voice far too close to my back, causing me to jump and whirl around.
Ezekiel is smirking as he stares down at me with his arms crossed over his chest.
His hair is the lightest, a rich blond hue that highlights his tan. His eyes sparkle with that gold hue that happened when I passed through him.
His broad shoulders lead down to a very impressive chest, and all that leads down to a tapered waist full of ab muscles. Which are easy to count, since he’s shirtless.
Why did he take off his shirt?
Before I can slap myself back to my senses—which I can’t literally do—three other shirted men are in here with us, fortunately covering up their distracting bodies.
“What happened last night?” Kai asks me seriously, skipping pleasantries.
“You drank some spiked rum; I watched some TV and killed some men. Other than that, not much,” I say with a shrug, averting my gaze.
A hand passes through me when Jude tries to grab me. He curses as those wonderful little tingles slither over my body. Funny how none of that happened with the numerous men I passed through last night.
“What happened?” Gage asks me this time, his gaze on my face.
“I just told you,” I say with a tight smile. “But just so you have the facts, it was eleven men. Not seven.”
I act like I’m counting my fingers, then lift only middle ones when I give them a cruel smile. Gage’s lips do that twitching thing they do when he’s trying to suppress a smile.
“You killed eleven men yet claim to have no ability to—”
“Just stop there. I’ve already heard these discussions,” I state dryly, holding a hand up in front of Kai’s face. “For whatever reason, my protective instincts are on overdrive with you four. Things I can’t do normally come a little too easily when I’m saving your lives.”
I take a step back, almost passing through the wall again, and they all four crowd my space like they can stop me.
“Here’s the new arrangement,” I say to them, crossing my arms over my chest. “You don’t leave without me. It fucking hurts when you do,” I tell them, certain that will still be an issue if their presence is gone. “Or I’ll let the next team of ruthless assassins kill you while you dream of ponies or whatever it is you dream of. You need to give me a reason to want to save you.”
“You supposedly need us,” Ezekiel reminds me.
“Yes, but what’s the point in existing if it’s just to feel like an unwanted burden? I need a reason to want to keep from fading into nothing, because honestly? Nothingness is sounding better than this hell you four are putting me through.”
They exchange a look, and Jude’s jaw tightens as he looks back at me and speaks. “We’ll have a new spell up by nightfall. I’m not sure that it won’t evict you as well.”
“You can try. I’m sure you’re dying to get rid of me even as I save your ungrateful lives over and over,” I tell him as I pass through the wall.
They appear in the room just as I finish, and I barely stop myself from making some embarrassing noise of surprise.
Jude’s eyes darken as his smirk forms. He likes scaring the shit out of me, it seems. He’s the one who has cut me the deepest, so I look over to Ezekiel, breaking up the eye contact.
Ezekiel steps closer, his eyes wandering over me. “What in hell are you wearing?” he asks incredulously.
I look down at my warrior princess outfit. It’s leather, a little sexy, and downright awesome. It also has the illusion of a bunch of weapons strapped to me, even though they’re not real.
“Something a badass wears when she’s saving lives all night and about to go to a gauntlet of unforetold dangers,” I deadpan.
“Is so much cleavage necessary?” Kai asks, his eyes a little distracted as they continue to trail down.
“And does the leather have to be so tight?” Jude asks from behind me, sending chills throughout me when his hand passes over my ass.
“I prefer to feel pretty when killing. Not sure why, but it seemed to be ideal last night,” I state as I look around. “By the way, my terms also include the four of you not ignoring me and not being cruel to me anymore. Either fake being nice and treat me better, or I’ll take a spectator’s seat the next time men with enchanted swords try to drain you, cut off your heads, stab you, or cut off your junk.” They all give me an incredulous look, so I add, “Yes, a lot happened last night.”
Jude adjusts his cock in his pants as he arches an eyebrow at me.
“You’re asking us to trust you, acting as though we owe it to you. Surely you understand our reservations,” Gage tells me, regarding me warily.
Something cold and detached washes over me as I drop my hands to my sides.
“I told you all my story. I explained I’ve spent five years able to do nothing but watch you. Without you, I faded. Without you, I didn’t exist. Only in your presence did I seem to have a purpose. I exposed a vein when I cut open so many vulnerable details of my very lonely existence, laid it all out there for you like my most precious secret. Naively, I expected you all to welcome me with open arms, telling me I was no longer alone. Yet none of you could spare a second to put yourself in my shoes. None of you had an ounce of concern for the fact that I’ve held on by a thin thread all these years, not knowing anything about anyone else but the four of you—I didn’t even know myself, but I knew you. You’ve been all I’ve had.”
My gaze flicks from one set of eyes to another as they all stay quiet.
“Not one of you bothered to tell me good night, or even good morning,” I go on, admittedly getting just a little choked up, much to my chagrin.
A few surprised and very bewildered expressions don their faces, but I clear my throat and go on.
“The only thing you’re concerned about is how my presence affects you, while I’ve spent my entire existence thinking of nothing but the four of you. Not one of you could spare me a single thought.”
Again, I’m forced to clear my throat of any emotion, refusing to let these assholes see me do my ghostly cry.
“Not everything is about the four of you. I exist too. Now you can see me. In fact, you’re the only ones who seem to be able to, mostly. And you treat me like shit. So, no, I can’t be bothered to understand your reservations if you can’t spare a single minute to view me as an actual person instead of a thing you don’t trust.”
They say nothing, and I grow tired of the intense silence.
“Who’s taking me to the gauntlet?” I ask, looking at the four of them. “With any luck, I’ll be able to stop someone from killing you when your backs are turned today. And then you can all bypass any gratitude and start wondering how I benefit from that as well.”
Ezekiel blows out a breath before he grabs a weapon from the closet, since we’re back in the weapons room. Then he steps into me, and I feel the tug of the siphon.
When we reappear, we’re in the middle of a huge, gorgeous room full of elegantly dressed people. Meanwhile, I’m next to a shirtless barbarian by comparison.
The other three boys appear around us, and they all start walking.
When I’m certain eyes aren’t landing on me or noticing my presence, I follow close behind them.
Today, I learn what the hell a gauntlet is.
Chapter 8
A gauntlet, as it turns out, is an inhumane, monstrous death trap designed to cull the weak from the herd.
Yay me.
This sucks big donkey balls.
It’s like a protective spirit’s nightmare, since my four ungrateful charges are about to run this thing.
I’ve decided that’s what I must be—a protective spirit who has been cursed to watch over the most self-centered brats in history, who are willingly about to run through this deadly thing.
It’s a long, seemingly endless crater. And in it are monsters I don’t even have a name for, and they’re crawling around everywhere below. It’s also filled with blades that swing, fire that shoots out of unseen crevices, and something I assume must be acid, since when the mist sprays, it destroys anything in its path.
We’re in a half arena type thing, standing on a platform far above it, as the crowd fills into the stadium seats behind us like they’re readying for a show.
“What’s the point of this?” I ask, not expecting an answer.
“To see who ascends and gains access to the underworld,” Gage answers automatically.
A little surprised, I turn to face him. “Why would you want to go to the underworld?”
“To gain a boost in power and find out what we really are,” Jude says from beside me.
“You don’t know who you are?” I ask, confused.
They continue to talk quietly so as to escape the ears of others, surprisingly answering some of my questions.
“A while back, we found each other by accident, all of us ending up in the same place at the same time on the same day like we were compelled to go there. When we did, our souls bonded, and we gained access to our powers just before someone tried to kill us,” Kai tells me as he moves in from behind.
Ezekiel picks up where he left off. “Whatever we are, no one ever wanted us to find each other, because they’ve been trying to keep us out of the underworld ever since. And we’re different from all of them.”
“How so?” I ask, confused.
“To become one of them, you have to die first and endure the underworld from the less privileged side,” Kai explains.
“Demons? They’re demons?” I whisper-yell, acting like someone other than them can hear me.
Jude’s lips twitch. “Demons have no mind or capacity for reason, emotion, or even individual thought,” he goes on. “These are upper level dark angels. There are hundreds of varieties, but they fall into two categories: Righteous and Damned. We’re of the damned, yet we never died,” Gage whispers softly, his eyes shifting as though he’s seeing if anyone can hear us.
His lighter brown hair is so smooth and sexy with the way it spikes up. The piercing in his tongue is always a fascinating focal point for me. Maybe Ezekiel should get one of those, since he’s the nipple lover.
“Purgatory is where ascension is decided. We’ve had access to purgatory for almost a decade, but we haven’t been able to get chosen for the trials until this year. They’ve tried to keep us away from here, because they’re terrified we’ll win. If we get below and get our power boost, we’ll also have access to people who might can tell us what’s going on,” Ezekiel states quietly.
“We’ll discuss this more later,” Jude says quickly. “Manella just arrived.”
My eyes swing up to find a set of fully black eyes glaring down at my boys. Thank goodness he’s unable to see me. I’m thankful for my spirit-body right now.
“Stop staring at him,” Kai tells me.
“It’s not like he can see me staring. His eyes have passed over me a number of times so he can glare at you assholes. I’m wondering if I can channel some of that protective mojo to kill him.”
Before they can say a word, I’m suddenly behind Manella, dizzy with how fast that just happened.
I’m up in the stands, my legs passing through the body of a man who has no idea I’m standing through him.
Manella turns like he feels me, his eyes searching briefly behind him, trailing past me without an ounce of recognition.
I can see the guys below staring at me with wide eyes before they school their features and look away. When Manella turns back around, I hold my hand out, straining, feeling…nothing.
No great power surges from my hand to make toxins appear inside him and burn him inside-out the way it did the others.
“Several groups of quads survived the night, I see,” a woman with bright red hair states in an almost muted tone as she joins him at his side, smiling graciously at the people around.
I smell a snake.
I hate snakes.
“It appears so,” Manella says with a cold smile. “I heard there was a hit for some of them.”
“Lamar has been taken into custody. Rumor has it he attacked an Elder last night.”
Manella stiffens, his hands closing into fists.
“One said he might be recycled,” she goes on.
I’m assuming their version of recycling is a little less green and a lot gorier than the human definition.
My eyes keep moving to the guys, worried they’ll leave and I’ll lose sight of them.
Before I can hear Manella’s response, I’m suddenly surrounded by the quad once again.
“What the hell?” Kai hisses.
“Seems like I can move places if I think a little too hard about it,” I tell them on a shaky breath. “And it makes me dizzy, just for the record, so I’m going to try really hard not to do it again until I can work my powers and kill him. But he’s definitely the one who wants you dead. I think.”
“That much we already know. Manella has been the one holding us back from the trials for some time,” Gage states in a whispered tone.
“What happens if you win the gauntlet today?” I ask.
“We go back home, continue to reap souls, and wait for the last of the trials,” Jude answers with no emotion.
“And the soul reaping is your job?”
“We’re surface guardians,” Kai tells me as more and more people crowd in, the stadium getting louder as the obstacle course goes eerily silent, a slight fog creeping over it to hide things.
“What just happened? And what are surface guardians?” I ask, staring uneasily at this unnatural fog.
“They’re moving the obstacles around and don’t want us seeing where they’re going,” Kai explains.
“And surface guardians stop the breaches so the damaged souls can’t possess a human and run around freely. When demons expose us, then we run into a lot of issues between us and the other side.”
“I’m going to pretend you don’t mean heaven,” I say with a nervous laugh, looking up at Gage.
He just stares blankly at me.
“There has to be a balance. Yin and yang. Good and bad. But there are rules constantly being broken by both sides to keep things tilted instead of balanced. It’s something that happens from time to time, but never this often. Lately, more and more souls are breaching the surface. The escapes are becoming so frequent that we’re possibly on the verge of being purged.”
“Purged?” I ask,
looking at Jude since he’s the one who said that.
“It means someone is setting these breaches to force our hand. If it looks like Lucifer can no longer control the underworld, he’ll lose his crown and his six heirs will battle to see who takes control.”
I swallow thickly as my gaze shifts to Ezekiel. “Lucifer? As in the devil?”
He smirks. “They’re breaching from hell’s mouth. We’re the main thing holding the purge at bay, because we’re sending the souls back before they can possess a human or before they can expose us if they do manage to possess one. But if we can get underground, we can get closer to proving Manella is the one doing all this. He knows we’re trying to out him to his father, so he’s trying to eliminate us before we can get below and meet the devil.”
“Life goals, I guess,” I state uneasily.
“Better the devil you know than the one you don’t,” Jude says with a shrug.
“In this case, quite literally. If Manella takes the crown, he’ll release the souls into the world himself, and life as we know it will cease to exist. Hell on earth will become very literal, and from what I’ve heard, the non-royal areas of hell are quite distasteful,” Gage goes on conversationally.
A hand passes through my hip, like Ezekiel is trying to get closer but can’t.
“Now you know why we’re questioning your timing,” Ezekiel says so close to my ear. “Are you part of the problem or the solution?”
Rolling my eyes and not letting him know how much his proximity affects me, I answer, “Considering I’ve kept you jerks alive, I’d say I’m helping you save the devil. Though I admit, now even I have reservations. I didn’t sign on to save hell. Maybe we should discuss you lot finding healthier life goals.”
Chapter 9
“The first twenty to emerge will go onto the final round in one month,” the weird little troll guy announces.
If he’s the same thing as my guys, he has to be hating life, because life has certainly not been fair to him in the attractiveness department. His face looks like the inside-bend of an elephant’s leg. I’m not even sure where his eyes are, if I’m being honest.
Four Psychos (The Dark Side Book 1) Page 5
