Into the Abyss

by Brenda K. Davies

  Unfortunately, it was not the last one either. As we traversed the pathway and discovered more side paths, lightning hit the monolith again and again. Some of the bolts we never saw the people or demons whose deaths they signaled, but a few of them belonged to a couple of humans and one demon we encountered along the way.

  We’d tried, and failed, to get through to all of them before their deaths were distributed throughout the Abyss. And the closer we got to the monolith, the stronger the force of the lost lives washing through me became.

  One thing was certain; I would not return to live with my parents when this was done. I didn’t know what I would do, but it wouldn’t involve standing complacently by while they and the other jinn destroyed lives.

  Trudging beside Magnus, I kept my head bowed as I dreaded and hoped to come across someone soon, but someone we could help, like Erin.

  “Why don’t we take a break?” Magnus suggested after what felt like hours of roaming the pathway.

  He led me into another side path that dead-ended in a rock wall. Settling on the ground, I drew my legs against my chest and dropped my chin on top of them while Magnus leaned against the wall beside me. I didn’t require as much sleep as a human, but as a demon who wasn’t fully matured yet, I needed more than other demons, and sleep tugged at my eyelids.

  “What’s this?”

  My eyes opened at Magnus’s words and alarm shot through me. Then I realized there was no enemy as he was kneeling at my side. My skin came alive when his fingers encircled my arm, and he turned it to the side.

  “What’s what?” I asked.

  “This.”

  My attention was drawn to the bruise on my arm, and I recalled Mara punching me near the lake. My sleeve mostly hid the bruise, but the deep purple edges of it poked out.

  “It’s a bruise,” I murmured and stifled a yawn. “Do you not know what a bruise is?”

  He lifted his head and frowned at me. “I do, but when did you get it, Freckles?”

  “Freckles? What does that mean?” I demanded. Did he just insult me?

  He smiled as he brushed his fingers over my nose and cheeks. “These small marks are freckles.”

  I tried to understand what he was talking about, and then it dawned on me. “You mean the dots on my face!”

  He chuckled. “Humans call them freckles.”

  “Oh. I never had them until I came to Earth. At first, I thought something was wrong with me, but then two of the other Faulted developed them too.”

  “The fae were described as very fair,” he said. “I’m not sure if they had freckles or not in Hell, but the sun causes some people to develop them.”

  I almost searched for the big, beautiful orb in the sky before recalling we were in a place more like Hell than Earth. “I didn’t know that.”

  “Now you do, and I like your dots.”

  I couldn’t stop a blush from creeping into my cheeks. I didn’t think I’d ever blushed before, but his words caught me off guard.

  “For not knowing much about humans and Earth, you speak English extremely well. The language wasn’t around before the jinn were sealed away,” he remarked.

  “When we came to Earth, we knew we had to adapt or be destroyed,” I explained. “The jinn are highly intelligent and learn fast. However, there are some words we still don’t know, like freckles.”

  “Hmm,” he murmured and leaned forward to kiss the tip of my nose before doing the same to each of my cheeks.

  My breath caught at the tender gesture as need coiled within my belly. I craved curling into his arms and shutting out everything else. Instinctively, I knew he could make me forget this place and all the horror that came with it. I shouldn’t want to forget, I should get up and return to searching, but my legs wouldn’t move.

  “Magnus,” I whispered as his lips brushed across mine.

  Demons didn’t kiss. My parents did, but I never saw the jinn kissing each other while having sex, and I hadn’t seen it from any other demons since coming to Earth. This was different, not wrong, but there was something more here, something I couldn’t quite put my finger on….

  It felt like fifty jolts of life from the monolith went through me when he took full possession of my mouth. His lips branded mine as liquid heat spread from my belly to between my thighs. When his tongue traced my lips, I opened my mouth to his invasion.

  His tongue ran across mine in a slow, torturous dance that had me craving more. I melted against him while our tongues entwined, our breaths mingled, and the kiss hardened. I couldn’t get enough of his fiery taste, and when our teeth clicked together, I didn’t care. I had to feel this harsh wildness from him.

  I needed to know he was as out of control for me as I was for him. And if the sounds he made and the increasing demand of his kiss was any indication, he was as eager to be inside me as I was to feel him between my thighs.

  Lowering my legs, I lifted my hands and slid my fingers over the buttons of his shirt. I undid them and pushed them aside so I could touch his smooth flesh.

  Oh yes!

  I almost screamed the words aloud as I desperately shoved his shirt to get it free. I had to feel more of his bare flesh and finally know what it was like to scream in ecstasy while riding someone until we were both too tired to move.

  Demons saw sex as a simple scratching of an itch between each other, unless it was with their Chosen. Once demons scratched this itch, they moved on from each other. And I had a big itch that I’d been ready to scratch since I was old enough to understand what the jinn were doing while they writhed over each other.

  There were plenty of jinn I would have had no problem having sex with before going to the next one. I’d picked out who my first would be. I’d informed him he would be my first, and he agreed to it, but I’d also picked out my second and third. I’d watched them all enough to know which ones I wanted to start with, though I’d planned to use them all.

  But would I be able to move on from Magnus, or would he haunt me in ways that no other demon would?

  The more I touched him, the less I cared about the answer as I found myself fascinated by his lean body and the way it moved against mine. His desire for me inflamed mine for him until my mind swam with the hunger radiating between us.

  I shoved his shirt back from his shoulders and squirmed closer when my hands were finally able to trace the dips and hollows of his etched abs. Lithe in build, every inch of him was rock solid beneath my hands. The power racing through his whipcord frame vibrated against me.

  My fingers fell to the button of his pants, and I undid it as he pulled the front of my dress down until my breasts spilled free. Magnus broke our kiss as I slid down the zipper on his pants. His shaft brushed over my hand when it sprang free. Leaning back, his eyes were nearly black when they latched onto my puckered nipples.

  “Delicious,” he murmured.

  His breath sucked in when I wrapped my hand around his shaft. I’d seen many naked men while behind the seal. I’d admired their different shapes and sizes, but I hadn’t anticipated how hot and throbbing their cock would be against my palm. Hadn’t expected the silken feel of the skin stretched taut over it or how rigid it would be in my hand. I hadn’t anticipated feeling each pulse of his heartbeat searing into me while I ran my hand over it.

  Leisurely, I explored him and learned what made his breath quicken and his body lean toward me. Most times, I would prefer not to have my empath ability, but this was not one of those times as it helped me to discover how to please him better.

  I thrived on holding him in the palm of my hand.

  Then, one of his hands cupped my breast, and the balance of power shifted as I lost myself to him once more. Crying out, my back arched into his touch when his thumb traced my aching nipple before he bent his head to run his tongue over it. The torturous tease of it had my hips thrusting toward him.

  “Magnus,” I murmured as I squirmed against him. I couldn’t take this anymore.

  Releasing his shaft, I placed
my hands against his chest and guided him back against the wall. I hiked my skirt up and straddled his lap as lightning split the sky. Someone’s life force rushed through me.

  I froze against Magnus, my lips curled back, as my skin crawled with the need to be scrubbed clean. We sat and stared at each other while his dick pulsed against my core. I could so easily ignore what was going on here and take him into me, but more would die while I was doing that. And I would never forgive myself.

  When I met his eyes, I knew I didn’t have to explain. Reluctantly, I untangled myself from him and rose. I didn’t look at him as I adjusted my dress to cover my breasts. If I met his stare, I might stop caring about anything else, curl up in his arms again, and shut out all this atrocity with him.

  “Amalia.”

  Lifting my head, I met his nearly black eyes. He’d also risen and fixed his clothing. “Yes?” I inquired.

  “Sometime soon, I will have you.”

  My breath trapped in my lungs. It burst free when I finally found the words to reply, “That’s a very bold statement.”

  The grin he gave me almost had me saying screw it and jumping him.

  “I’m a very arrogant demon.”

  Why did that make me want him more when I’d always found the most arrogant demons annoying? Before I could respond, his eyes returned to my arm.

  “Why isn’t that bruise healing?” he asked.

  I struggled to ignore the unfulfilled lust coursing through me as I recalled the bruise in question. “Probably because I haven’t stopped aging yet.”

  His head shot up, and his nostrils flared. “You’re not immortal?”

  “Not yet.”

  His eyes shot over the rock surrounding us before he clasped my arm and drew me closer to him. “You can’t be here anymore.”

  “You’re at far more risk in the Abyss than I am.”

  “But this place—”

  “Is the place of the jinn. As much as I hate it, and as much as every flash of lightning makes me feel like scrubbing the skin from my body, a part of me does feel as if I belong here. This place will not hurt me. The jinn will be mad if they find me here with you, but they won’t harm me.”

  His body vibrated with tension, and though I was correct in my assessment of our different danger levels here, he didn’t release me.

  “You should have told me you weren’t immortal,” he stated.

  “Why? What difference would it have made? In the beginning, neither you nor Corson would have cared if I died here.”

  He opened his mouth, I assumed to protest my words, but he closed it again when he probably realized lying to an empath was pointless.

  “Besides, it changes nothing,” I continued. “You still need to attempt rescuing your friends, and I’m still the only way you can get in and out of here.”

  “We can figure something else out so you don’t have to be here.”

  I couldn’t deny his protectiveness gave me a small thrill of pleasure, but this argument was pointless and wasting time.

  “I’m close to my immortality. It’s right there.” Like a shadow, I could sense it there before me, but I couldn’t grasp it yet; I would soon. “And I’m safer here than I am in the human world. I don’t know if you’ve noticed this or not, but the jinn aren’t exactly welcomed with open arms. Many would kill me before they ever got the chance to learn anything about me.”

  A muscle in his eye twitched as frustration rolled off him. “I knew you were young, but I didn’t know you were this young.”

  “I’m twenty-three. I may not be some ancient demon or anywhere near as old as the other jinn, but I’m not a child. How old are you?”

  “I celebrated my nine hundredth birthday this year.”

  “You’re a babe compared to the rest of the jinn.”

  A small smile curved his lips, and his eyes turned silver again. “I suppose I am.”

  “You’re still old,” I teased, and he released me. I missed the feel of his flesh against mine the second it was gone.

  “Not too old to please you though,” he replied with a wink.

  “Maybe, one day, I’ll be the judge of that.”

  His smile slid away, and he leaned closer to rest his lips against my ear. A shiver ran through me, and any progress I’d made toward getting my body under control vanished as he spoke. “Oh, you will be, and I guarantee you’ll judge me very favorably while screaming my name.”

  “Arrogant demon,” I huffed, but I couldn’t stop my toes from curling. “We should go.”

  “Yes,” he agreed, but his lips lingered against me for a little longer before he moved away.

  CHAPTER 16

  Magnus

  “What was Hell like?” Amalia asked as we traversed what was becoming an increasingly twisted pathway through the Abyss.

  From this angle, and with the walls closing in on us, I couldn’t see the monolith. Being unable to see anything beyond ten feet of our surrounding area had me contemplating climbing the rocks to take a look from above. I could cloak myself while I was up there, but I doubted the view would reveal much more than what I saw from the top of the hill when we first entered the Abyss.

  “Magnus,” she prodded.

  “It was Hell,” I said when I recalled her question.

  When her delectable mouth pursed, and her eyes slid sideways to meet mine, an increasingly familiar tightening started in my groin. Had there ever been a woman I desired as much as her? I tried to think of the answer, but I couldn’t recall anyone before she walked into my life.

  I could only remember what it felt like to have her lips against mine and her flesh beneath my hands. And out of all the women I’d been with, she was the first demon I kissed. Some of the humans insisted on kissing during sex, and I obliged when I had to, but I’d never felt the compulsion to taste a woman as I did with her.

  And I would taste her again as soon as I got her out of this place, alive.

  She’s still mortal.

  The reminder caused my teeth to clench. She was right, she was safer here than I was, but I hated this vulnerability in her that I hadn’t known she possessed until recently. No matter what happened, I would make sure she attained her immortality. My protective feelings toward her had me questioning just what she was to me.

  Is she my Chosen?

  The more I pondered that, the more it made some sense. I experienced a draw toward her from the beginning. I wanted her, badly; I felt more protective of her than any other, but I’d never wanted a Chosen and wasn’t sure how to deal with the possibility of having found mine. I’d seen the loss of a Chosen destroy demons before, and I’d vowed not to be one of them.

  I was not a demon to fall in love, but discovering a Chosen didn’t guarantee love between them. However, all the mated demons I’d encountered loved each other deeply.

  The Chosen bond made demons inherently stronger. It also gave them a weakness they’d never experienced before as they now had someone else walking around whose death would equal theirs.

  Lucifer killed my parents, but I’d learned later in life that my father’s death propelled my mother into going after Lucifer without any concern for herself. She’d handed me over to Kobal. Then, she went to hunt Lucifer and died. Her love for my father drove her to such reckless behavior, and because of that, I’d always seen love as a weakness.

  Amalia could be my Chosen, we could one day complete the bond between us, and I could keep myself from falling in love with her. If she were my Chosen, I would welcome the strength the bond would bring me, but if I kept from loving her, I might also be able to live without her should she perish. The idea of her death caused my teeth to clamp together; it would not happen.

  “I could see the fires of Hell through the windows of my seal, but what was it really like there?” she asked. “What was Lucifer like? What is the king like?”

  I stopped walking and turned to face her. “It was a hideous pit of misery. Demons slaughtered demons, angels slaughtered demons, Lucifer wa
s a prick who deserved to die, and the day I watched it happen was the best day of my life. He slaughtered my parents when I was two.”

  Her hand flew to her mouth. “I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t be; it was centuries ago.”

  “Do you remember anything about them?”

  “My mother’s hair was dark, and my father’s was the same color as mine. I recall being hugged between them and sitting on the ground playing with them as they wove illusions around me. They loved me, and I loved them, but that’s all I remember.” I could still feel the warmth of their love for me, but it wasn’t enough to keep my mother alive. “They died before either of them could teach me what I was capable of, and there were no other illusion demons to do that either. I am the last of my kind.”

  “What happened to you after they died?”

  “Kobal, the king, brought me to a Chosen pair of visionary demons who had lost their child ten years before, during a surprise attack from Lucifer and the angels.”

  “How awful for them,” Amalia murmured.

  “We should discuss something else,” I said when her eyes turned ochre again.

  “No. I want to learn more about Hell and you.”

  Those words pleased me more than I’d expected.

  “What happened after that?” she asked and started walking again.

  I fell into step beside her. “The visionary demons raised me. They never had another child before they were killed by the craetons twenty-eight years later, a year after I stopped aging.”

  “That must have been difficult for you.”

  “It was.” I didn’t like recalling the sadness their passing caused. “I may not have been theirs, but demon children are rare and precious, and they loved me as if I’d been a product of their love. I started fighting with Kobal once I aged into my immortality, but after their deaths, I plunged into the battle. I wanted Lucifer dead in the worst way, and I was reckless in my youth. When I look back on those days, I know only luck, Kobal, Corson, and even Bale kept me alive throughout those centuries of my life. Then, once my grief, youth, and bloodlust were spent, I started to reevaluate what I was doing.”