Hell on Earth (Hell on Earth, Book 1) (Hell on Earth Series)

by Brenda K. Davies

  What did that say about me? Was I so cold, so broken by everything that I couldn’t feel sad over the death of my one lover?

  I supposed someone didn’t watch their mother get slaughtered and turn out normal. The world going to shit hadn’t helped with the whole “being normal” aspect either.

  Unlike with Todd, when I watched Corson, I felt desire.

  I hadn’t gushed about Todd and sex, like Jolie and some of the other women did. After Todd, I’d assumed they were exaggerating what it was like to want a man and be with him… until Corson. Now I better understood what they were talking about, but Corson wasn’t simply a man; he was also a demon.

  Why couldn’t he be human?

  Looking at him, I realized I didn’t want him to be anything other than what he was.

  Another crash of thunder rattled the windows and shook the house. The next flash of lightning illuminated Corson and the curtains as rain began to tick loudly off the windows. Seeming to sense my attention on him, Corson’s head turned toward me.

  There was something primitive about him as he gazed at me, something I’d never seen in him before. The glow of the candle reflected in his eyes as he studied me with a predatory hunger. My heart hammered when I realized I was the prey trapped in the hunter's stare.

  I didn’t know what to do. Part of me contemplated bolting from the room, but the far larger part wanted to open my arms to him. Corson could make me forget, if only for a bit, all the death lurking around every corner.

  I dealt with people all the time, but I’d never dealt with anything like him. With Todd, things had been almost mechanical between us. He’d initiated things by kissing me while we were searching for food, and I didn’t stop it when it progressed further. Quick and efficient, that had been Todd. If I remembered correctly, we’d both left our socks on every time, and he’d still had his boots on too.

  There’d been no flirting, no searing looks making my toes curl, but then there was no way Todd had the experience Corson did with his millennia worth of women.

  Three different earrings, I reminded myself. He was wearing three different earrings the first time you met.

  That helped to brace me against him again, but not much. Why did I care who he’d been with before? I shouldn’t, yet the thought of him with so many women made jealousy churn in my stomach.

  Corson was all hunting grace when he stalked toward me. I tilted my head back to stare at him as he stopped before me. When his hand cupped my cheek, I didn’t push it away as I should have. I craved his touch against my skin. His thumb traced the arch of my cheekbone before sliding down to caress my lips. My breath caught and I waited to see what he would do next.

  “You’re exquisite,” he whispered.

  Shock rolled through me. I’d seen myself in enough mirrors to know I wasn’t ugly, but no one had ever said anything like that to me before and I didn’t know how to respond. “No, I’m—”

  I stopped speaking when his eyes shot up to mine and his lips thinned out. “Yes, you are. I do not lie.”

  “You spout pretty tales to get women into your bed though,” I retorted, hating myself for saying it, yet unable to stop myself from doing so. What was it about him that drove me so crazy in every single way and turned me into a catty bitch?

  “No,” he said. “I don’t spout anything to get a woman into my bed. I have no reason to. Women come to my bed because they want to be there, not because I talked them into being there. Every woman I’ve been with has known there would never be anything more than sex between us. Some of those women I took to bed again, most I didn’t.”

  “I see,” I said. “And now I know it too.”

  “Are you coming into my bed then, Wren?”

  “No.” Yes! My body screamed at me. I felt as taut as a bowstring right then, and I wanted him to be the one to release me.

  “If it makes any difference, I don’t want you to know it.”

  I frowned at him. “What do you mean?”

  He shook his head as if confused by his words and pulled his hand away from my face. “What of you, Wren? What have you told the men you took to your bed?” he asked. “Did they believe it was something more with you?”

  “I didn’t tell him anything.”

  Something dark flared within his eyes. It was something I’d never seen from him before. Was it possessive? Angry?

  “Him?” he asked, his voice hoarser than normal.

  I threw my shoulders back and lifted my chin as I stared defiantly at him. “Yes, him. I was curious; Todd was there. It happened a few times. I didn’t see the big deal about sex and ended it with him. Now he’s dead, as are so many others.”

  He went to grip my chin, but I leaned away from his touch. “Wren…” His hand fell. A lost look flashed over his face before he bowed his head and stepped back from me.

  I despised that lost look on his face.

  “I’m curious about you too,” I admitted on a whisper.

  Corson

  I wasn’t sure I’d heard her right, and then her words sank in. My eyes fell to her mouth, and it took everything I had not to pounce on her. I’d scare her if I did, so I remained where I was, barely.

  “And what are you curious about?” I inquired in a hoarse whisper.

  Her soulful blue eyes held mine as she responded. “If it would be as mechanical with you as it was with Todd.”

  “Mechanical?” What had that man been doing with her if she considered sex mechanical?

  “Yes.” A line appeared across the bridge of her nose as she pursed her lips. “Maybe there’s something wrong with me. Maybe, after everything, I’ve become broken or frigid or something.”

  “You’re not frigid or broken,” I assured her.

  “And how do you know that?” she demanded.

  “Because there was nothing frigid about you in the tunnel.”

  A blush crept into her cheeks. “Maybe it’s different if I’m actually having sex and it would be mechanical with all the men I slept with, human or demon,” she continued. “But I’d have to experience it with someone else to know.”

  My teeth scraped together at the thought of her with any other man. If Todd had been standing before me, I would have slaughtered him. If she tried to turn to another… The skin on the backs of my hands tingled as the tips of my talons prodded against it.

  The more I considered it, the more certain I became she was not just any other woman to me. Whether she was my Chosen or not, I couldn’t say for sure unless we had sex, but she was special to me, and there wasn’t anything I wouldn’t do for her.

  “And so you’re considering experimenting with me?” I asked her.

  I couldn’t tell if that idea pleased me or pissed me off more. She might be curious enough to have sex with me, but I didn’t want to be an experiment she would move on from afterward.

  “No, I didn’t say I intended to experiment with you. I said I was curious. That’s all,” she replied, breaking into my thoughts.

  “I am more than willing to ease your curiosity, Wren, and I can guarantee there will be nothing mechanical about it.”

  “You don’t know that,” she muttered.

  I stepped closer and bent over to rest my hands on either side of her hips. She leaned away from me, but she licked her lips when her eyes briefly fell to my mouth.

  “I do,” I assured her. “But know this. If you decide to experiment on me, I might not let you go afterward.”

  Her eyes widened on mine. “What?”

  “You heard me.”

  “You can’t possibly think that I’m your Chosen?” she blurted.

  “I don’t know if you are or not, I’m simply letting you know that I may decide to keep you.”

  She swallowed heavily and, removing my hands from the couch, I stepped away from her. I stared down at her, hoping she’d open her arms to me, but she slid her knife back into its holster and rose to her feet.

  “I’ll take this watch. You should rest,” she said.

>   I hid my disappointment as I moved further away from her. It would be best if I got as far from Wren as possible when we returned to the others, but I trusted no one to protect her as savagely as I would. Being this close to her, and not having her though, might drive me to do something I would never do under normal circumstances.

  I’d never take her without her permission, but I may snap and kill someone else if she tried to be with them. I’d never believed such a thing would be possible, not with me. However, Wren pushed the boundaries of my control more than anyone ever had.

  For the first time, I wished Kobal were here instead of at the wall, ruling with River as he should. Kobal would have answers for me, he would know what to do, and he would take me down if it became necessary.

  “I’m not tired,” I told her, “and I don’t require as much rest as you do.”

  She didn’t reply as she walked over to the window. Pulling aside a small corner of the curtain, she peered into the stormy night as the rain beat harder against the glass. A flash of lightning illuminated her lovely features and made her hair appear nearly white. She didn’t look at me again when she settled the curtain back into place.

  “When you watched humans from Hell, was it because you enjoyed it, or was it simple curiosity?” she asked.

  “At first, because I was curious.” I perched on the end of the couch and lifted my leg to prop my foot against the side of it. “But then, I came to almost like your species. No matter what, the human race found a way to keep going against some pretty steep odds, but then, I guess demons faced some bad odds while evolving in Hell.”

  “Hell would be steeper odds than Earth, but you do have that whole immortality and regenerating body parts thing going for you that we mortals lack.”

  “We do have that,” I agreed with a laugh.

  A loud screech outside whipped Wren’s head toward the window. Her hand fell to her knife as she stepped away from the glass. “What was that?” she whispered.

  “Not sure.” I lowered my foot to the ground and rose. I strained to hear anything beyond the deluge of rain hitting the windows and pounding off the roof. “Some Hell creature, but not one I’m familiar with. I’ve had about as much experience with the things locked behind the seals as you.”

  “The seals of Hell falling means the apocalypse, or at least that’s what I was taught.”

  “Not the apocalypse, not unless we allow it to become that. Remember, humans twisted a lot of what they glimpsed in Hell into different mythologies. Some things they got right, others they got completely wrong, and some they made their own. Demons are not all that is evil; angels are not all that is good. Things are never so simple. The falling of the seals left Hell a far different place than it was, but it doesn’t mean the end of the world.”

  “Sometimes, I think the apocalypse happened fourteen years ago and we’ve all just been waiting for it to get around to ending us.”

  “I can understand why,” I admitted. “And there is a possibility everything we know might still come to an end, but we’ve worked relentlessly to keep the world going for this long.”

  “Yeah.”

  Glass blew inward with a loud crash as something smashed through the window beside her.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Corson

  “Wren!” I shouted and lurched toward her as a tentacle lashed through the curtains and wrapped around her arm.

  She didn’t scream as she stumbled away from the wind whipping the curtains back. Rain pelted through the window, soaking her and the wood floor as whatever held her started drawing her toward the window. Jerking on her arm, Wren tried to wrench it free as she reached across her body for her knife. The Hell creature yanked her back, slamming her against the wall and knocking her blade free from her hold.

  The knife clattered to the floor, but Wren still made no sound as she dug her fingers into the blue-gray tentacle in an attempt to pry herself free. Arriving at her side, I unleashed my talons and sliced the tentacle, severing it in one swipe. The detached appendage flopped across the floor, spewing gray blood from it.

  I spun toward Wren, my eyes frantically searching her to make sure she was okay. The arm of her shirt was ripped open, and red welts marred her skin. I’d slice this thing to shreds for touching her, never mind leaving marks on her.

  Something screeched in the night, and my lips skimmed back. I realized what creature was outside before another tentacle emerged through the window and whipped into the living room. Seizing Wren’s arms, I pushed her behind me and released her. When the end of the tentacle brushed over my face, I sliced it off. Before I could stop her, Wren darted away from me and scrambled to retrieve her knife.

  “Leave it!” I shouted as the front door burst open and more monstrous arms unraveled until they filled the doorway. They slithered up and down as they stretched into the room.

  Wren released a startled cry and threw herself onto the ground. Rolling across the floor, she avoided the tentacle swinging toward her, reclaimed her knife, and bounded to her feet. When another tentacle shot toward her, she sliced off the tip before dashing out of the way of the spewing blood.

  She ran toward me as I jumped over another tentacle to land beside her in the center of the room. I stepped forward to block her from the tentacles unraveling through the window. They slashed back and forth, extending further into the room as they searched for us.

  “What are these things?” she demanded breathlessly.

  “It’s a macharah,” I told her as I nudged her further behind me.

  “It? There’s only one of them?”

  “Yes.” I leaned back to avoid taking a tentacle to the face. “We’d be surrounded by them if there was more than one out there.”

  “I feel surrounded now!”

  Shifting her grip on her knife, she swung it sideways to implant it into a tentacle. Her momentum pushed the tentacle into the wall where she embedded it there. The end of it flopped and curled over before Wren yanked her blade free and sliced the tip off.

  Snarling, I lifted my hands and swung them back and forth as I used my talons to hack my way through the tentacles and toward the door. The wind whistled as the appendages whipped around my head, seeking to batter me into immobility. I dodged back and forth to avoid having my brains littering the floor. Lifting my hand, I speared a tentacle before it could go over the top of me for Wren.

  As I worked my way forward, Wren stayed beside me. She stabbed and sliced her way through the appendages as she dodged the attack with ease. All around me, severed tentacles fell and flopped onto the floor where they melted into a gooey ooze that slid through the floorboards. The macharah pulled away its amputated limbs to allow them to regenerate, but no matter how many tentacles I cut off, more pushed through the door.

  When I neared the door and the source of the attack, I turned my shoulder to keep Wren partially behind me and better protected. I caught brief glimpses of the thing attached to the tentacles through the lashing appendages. The macharah had settled itself on the walkway.

  “What seal is this thing from?” Wren panted as she sliced off more tentacles.

  “The macharah were behind the one hundred-third seal.”

  The macharah drew some of its tentacles back and placing its arms beneath it, the creature lifted itself off the walkway and plopped down in front of the door. The color leached from Wren’s face when the tentacles peeled back to reveal more of the hideous beast.

  Thirty-plus, smaller tentacles circled the bottom of the macharah and propelled it forward until it stood in the doorway. The macharah moved fastest through large bodies of water, but it was capable of traveling on land too. The rain probably helped its movements.

  Without any eyes or ears, the macharah navigated by scent and touch. Once the tentacles latched onto a victim, they drew their prize into the macharah’s mouth, which encompassed the entire top of its nearly four-foot-wide, flat head.

  Thousands of teeth lined the inside of that mouth, and I cou
ld hear them all clicking together as the teeth swirled about in anticipation of a fresh meal. Looking at the beast, it was easy to tell it had feasted well on Earth. The blue-gray skin covering its torso was stretched so thin that it revealed the bodies of the macharah’s recent victims sloshing around its stomach.

  Rising on the smaller tentacles beneath it, the macharah’s blob-like shape filled the doorway.

  “It’s hideous,” Wren breathed.

  I sliced away another tentacle, but one slid past me toward Wren. Before I could blink, it slithered around her arm and yanked her forward. Releasing a bellow of fury, I hacked it off her and raced forward to leap at the macharah.

  I dodged the tentacles trying to latch onto me as, on my descent, I plunged my talons into the spongy flesh of the macharah and sliced downward. Blood spilled around me; unrecognizable things tumbled from its stomach to scatter around my feet. I dodged the obstacles the stomach contents created to slash at the macharah again.

  Screeching, the macharah reeled backward and battered its tentacles against me. I grunted when a couple of my ribs gave way with a crack before digging my talons deeper into the remains of the macharah’s belly. I pulled my hands apart, tearing the creature open from side to side. It gave up trying to beat me off and retreated down the porch steps. Rain lashed my face, flattened my hair to my skin, and poured down me as I followed the macharah into the storm.

  It had hurt Wren. It would not leave here alive.

  A savagery unlike any I’d ever known boiled through my veins as I repeatedly tore at the creature until the macharah faltered and slumped toward the ground. The clicking of its teeth stopped, some of its tentacles rose lazily before flopping down. I found myself kneeling on the macharah’s flayed remains as they turned to liquid around me. Swept up in the downpour, the last bits of the macharah were washed away by the rain.

  My shoulders heaved as I lifted my head to take in the night. The freezing rain pelting the ground formed puddles and ran in streams down the street. I pushed my dripping hair away from my forehead as I searched for more enemies amid the swaying trees and abandoned homes. Lightning tore across the sky in a zigzagging pattern that caused the air to crackle with electricity.