She mentally shook her head. He sure didn’t look the part of the usual souls she collected for Lucifer. There must be something obvious that she was missing. New minions didn’t just fall into Hell unannounced. She should have been notified. Lucifer would question this, she was sure of it.
She disregarded the thought and focused on the stranger. Why was he so interesting?
She’d left Murry dissatisfied, and promptly turned him away after only thirty minutes. She couldn’t concentrate on sex with him when the only face she saw in her mind belonged to the minion standing before her now. She despised being distracted, especially from sex, so her next move was to face the distraction head on, like always. Surely she could move on after squashing him like an irritating bug.
She glanced at Pogo. The miserable git was hardly worth more than the dirt on her stiletto boot, but maybe he could be of some use to her, where the stranger was concerned, anyway. But he’d been keeping secrets from her. She would deal with him later, she thought, as the urge to look back at the stranger become too much to ignore or deny.
Abigail took another slow step forward, moving into the stranger’s personal space. He didn’t move, but she could sense his discomfort with her being so near and invading. She liked that. She like that a lot.
Her eyes closed involuntarily as she caught his scent on the wind. He smelt of the forest floor with pine needles scattered about and the mist from an ocean breeze just before the sun sets. There was something else, something familiar and almost exotic. Brief pictures of his hands on her body and his lips demanding her complete and utter attention flashed through her mind. She caught herself before she fell into him and disguised the moan as a cough as she righted her form back to a solid vertical position.
He still hadn’t moved, but she could tell the tension in his body had intensified greatly. She wanted to peek in his head, but that would make her too vulnerable to him. Allowing her guard to drop for even a second around this minion was not an option.
She had to get away from him until she could think rationally and get everything sorted in her mind. Nobody had ever made her crumble so easily, not even Lucifer.
Abigail took a step back from him. A low growl came from the male’s throat, but that wasn’t what stopped her from turning and running as far from him as she could get. He had a hold of her arm, not so much as to cause discomfort, but enough to get her attention. She was stunned. Nobody had ever been so bold as to touch her.
“Leaving so soon, sweetheart?” he asked, tone gruff and low, just the sort of sound she loved to hear growl out her name in the heat of her every lusty desire. The voice she had once only fantasized about in crazy love filled dreams…until now.
In the next instant she was caught off guard. The breath was knocked from her lungs as she was spun around and pulled hard to the unyielding stone-like pectus of the stranger.
His breath fell heavy by her ear and she fought to regain what was left of her sanity before he had total control of her.
“Now look who isn’t prepared,” he said, and she could hear the smile he wasn’t trying to hide.
His words, although extremely sexy and obnoxiously luring, held just what she needed to bring her back to reality. This was her syde, and no fool would make her look weak.
He had his left arm across her chest, trapping her own arms to her sides. She did have one advantage he evidently hadn’t thought of in his race to get her under his power. Her right hand slowly snaked around behind her, seeking the one thing that would instantly make him her slave.
Abigail’s fingers closed around the impressive bulge between the male’s legs. She smiled when his body went rigid against her and the muffled curse passed through his sultry lips.
She squeezed the most sensitive part of his anatomy even tighter and was pleased to feel the bulge growing even larger—against his will; she was almost positive.
He wailed and released his hold on her enough for her to turn on him. Abigail grabbed his throat, raising him until only the tips of his boots scraped the dirt under his feet. She looked up at him and grinned behind her hood.
“Don’t ever underestimate me, boy,” she said, then wrapped them both in the satin of her cloak and disappeared.
Chapter 8
Rhyan
I sat in a chair in one of Heaven’s many recreational rooms with my left boot on a foot stool and my legs crossed at the ankle. A feeling of déjà vu washed over me and my head jerked up to look at the closed door. I knew any second Josselyn would walk through it and tell me that Kendra was happy.
My anxiety rose higher as I waited. I got to my feet and slowly began walking to the door. I knew I’d been in Hell only a few moments ago and I was prepared for this to be a mind game. The wait was killing me. I broke into a run. The door opened and Josselyn appeared before me with a smile a mile wide. Mind game or not, I was happy to see her, and I didn’t stop running until I had swept her off her feet in a spin that had us both laughing.
My eyes misted over. I couldn’t contain the happiness I felt at that moment. I knew I wasn’t really there, and that my visit would be a whole lot shorter than I wanted it to be, but if there was a way I could talk to Josselyn, then there was possibly a way I could get out of Hell altogether. I couldn’t let myself lose faith in that.
I could feel Josselyn physically trembling in my arms. I pulled out of the embrace to look at her face. It was soaked with tears and my heart fell to the pit of my stomach. I hugged her fiercely again.
“I’m okay,” I said.
“It’s all my fault…”
I pushed her to arm’s length and forced her to make eye contact with me. I shook my head. “It is not.” I shook her gently by the shoulders to make sure she was actually listening. I could tell the tears were obstructing her vision. “Do you understand, Josselyn? It was my fault. Don’t you dare try and take the blame for my stupidity.” I pulled her to me again, enjoying the comfort of her arms around me. Something I never would have allowed only yesterday, even between friends.
“We didn’t know if it would work, and we still don’t know how long you will get to stay each visit,” she said, and I cut her thought short.
“Wait…who’s we?” I said, then looked up as the door opened again and Malcolm walked into the room with a gloating grin. I wanted to be irritated, but if I knew anything at all, it was that Malcolm had somehow been the one to find this loophole so they could talk to me. He was a genius on Earth, and his smarts had followed him into the afterlife, along with his cockiness. “I see,” I said, then let go of Josselyn to shake hands with Malcolm.
“How much do you know?” he said as he took a seat and motioned for me and Josselyn to do the same. “And which syde did you fall into?”
“Syde? I think I heard Pogo mention it, but I’m still dumbfounded. I don’t really know anything except it’s definitely Hell and totally different—but not in a good way—from what I had imagined it would be.”
Malcolm and Josselyn shared a nervous glance, then looked back to me with dispirited expressions.
“Look,” Malcolm said, “I’m going to run through what I know pretty fast, so try and keep up. I don’t know how long you have before you wake up. Oh, and try to sleep often. It’s how we can communicate with you. And also how we can slip you small amounts of power to keep your health up.” He leaned forward, elbows on knees and lowered his voice. “There are seven sydes of Hell and they follow the seven deadly sins: gluttony, greed, pride, lust, sloth, envy and wrath. Did, um…Pogo happen to say any of those words?”
I thought for a moment, but couldn’t recall that he had. I shook my head. “I don’t think so.”
Malcolm huffed. “Fine. What is the environment like around you?”
My mind drifted to the horror I’d seen upon arriving in Hell. “Um, there is a lot of poverty, no water or food. The people are covered in sores and infection. Acid constantly falls from the sky like snow.” I looked at the blisters on my fingers. They seemed t
o be getting worse. The redness was spreading from the affected area.
Two fingers touched the fluid-filled bubbles, and I watched as they slowly disappeared. I looked up to Josselyn’s smile, then took her hand in mine and kissed her knuckles. “Thank you.” I looked at Malcolm. “Thank you, both.”
Malcolm shook his head. “Don’t thank me yet, Rhyan. You have a long road ahead of you. And I can guarantee you aren’t going to like it one little bit.”
I tucked Josselyn’s hand in between mine, then rested the lot on my knee. I took a shaky breath and gave Malcolm my full attention, bitterly regretting to hear what he would say next. I only had two choices, it seemed. Suffer in Hell for all eternity, or do what was necessary to get the hell out. I nodded and he smiled.
“Like I said before, there are seven sydes of Hell that follow the seven deadly sins. I’m only going by what I’ve heard, so don’t hold me to any of this.” I nodded again and he continued. “There are guardian princes or princesses over each syde. They control the amount of punishment the minions will go through.”
“Yeah, I think I’ve met my princess. She’s definitely an itch that you can never quite reach.” Just thinking about the witch stirred unnatural urges of me holding her head under water for, well, ever.
Malcolm raised an eyebrow quizzically. “I take it you two got off on the wrong foot?”
“You could say that. Though I couldn’t imagine there was a right foot.”
Malcolm smiled, but didn’t comment further on the subject of feet. “From what I gather, you have landed in the Syde of Gluttony. The souls for that syde will endure an eternity of poverty, hunger, thirst, sores, boils, famine and acid-ash.”
“What gluttony have I ever committed? I would think I should have landed in the Syde of Wrath with my last remark.”
Malcolm held his hand up, silencing me. “You aren’t in Hell because of the remark, Rhyan.”
My eyes grew wide in surprise. “No? Well, I very clearly remember saying Hell couldn’t be any worse than the hell I was already going through, then woke up on Hell’s floor and hurting from the fall. If that isn’t the reason, and I’m destined to spend an eternity there, I would sure like to know what the exact offense is.”
Malcolm’s eyes shifted to Josselyn and I looked at her, too.
“What? Somebody tell me something, because I’m sure not getting any straight answers down there.”
“You weren’t told you can return to Heaven?” Josselyn asked, clearly confused.
Was this a joke? I shook my head. “You can’t exactly count on anyone telling you the truth down there. If I had been told that, which I wasn’t, I would have never believed it. Is there a way to return?” I was getting my hopes up; I knew I was, but if there was even an inkling of a chance for me to get back into Heaven, I would take it or die trying, no questions asked.
Josselyn dropped her eyes to her lap before speaking. “Isaiah and the head guardians thought it best for you. It is for your own good. They saw it as the only way to lift your spirits.”
I jumped to my feet and shouted, “By sending me to Hell?”
“By introducing you to your soulmate,” Malcolm said, and I looked at him like a third eye had just popped in the center of his forehead. “That’s why you landed in the Syde of Gluttony. She must be there, somewhere. You have to find her and…”
“I have to find a woman covered in sores and boils, because she couldn’t make herself consume the right amount of food or drink on Earth? And then what? Ask her to move into my mansion in Heaven? Yeah, I don’t think it works that way, Malcolm.” I shouted my last words at him, but he didn’t flinch. He didn’t even blink. His damn eyebrows popped and he nodded.
Malcolm held his finger and thumb slightly apart from each other. “With just a teeny bit more effort on your part, yes, that about sums it up,” he said.
“You’re kidding, right?” I said as I looked to Malcolm, then Josselyn, then back to Malcolm again. They only gave me blank stares. This couldn’t be happening. I ran my hands through my hair and fell to the seat behind me. I would do anything—anything to get out of Hell, but even thinking of looking at another woman the way I had Kend…I was on my feet and had a hold of Josselyn’s shoulders and shouting in her face before I even knew what I was doing. “How is she? Is she okay? Talk to me, damn you!”
I was suddenly knocked off my feet and to my butt on the hard floor. I rubbed my jaw; I was sure there was a crack in it.
“If you know what’s good for you, you won’t ever do that again, and you’ll stay down there until you understand that completely.”
I glared up at Malcolm through my lashes, then looked at Josselyn. Her eyes were as big around as silver dollars. “I’m sorry,” I spat.
“Really?” Malcolm said. “Maybe I didn’t hit you hard enough. I think the lady that is taking care of your charge in your absence, and that is trying to get you reinstated into Heaven, deserves a better apology than that. If you don’t agree, then I wouldn’t expect either of us to show up in any more of your dreams.”
I got to my feet slowly and walked to Josselyn. Her tears had started falling freely and I felt like a total horse’s ass because I knew I had been the one to cause them. I wrapped her in my arms and let her cry. I knew she was going through her own personal Hell, and it was my fault. Everything was my fault.
“I’m sorry, Josselyn. I’d just realized I hadn’t even thought about Kendra’s welfare and I panicked. Please accept my sincere apologies.”
She nodded and wiped at her eyes. “Kendra’s fine,” she said without making eye contact with me.
I studied her facial features for a moment. Something was wrong with Kendra, or she would have at least looked at me. “Tell me,” I said sternly, but refrained from touching her.
She looked up at me, then instantly grabbed her head and sat in the chair behind her knees.
My eyes grew wide in shock. Angels didn’t feel pain, so I had no idea what could be wrong with her. I looked to Malcolm with the same wide eyes.
“Kendra had a nightmare last night that Murry visited Ben. When she called for you to help, you never showed, and Murry informed her of why you never would again. Kendra is demanding answers, but the guardians won’t allow for Josselyn to have a meeting with her to explain.”
A feather could have knocked me over, I was so stunned. My stomach twisted in anguish and I wanted to throw up. Kendra finding out was never my intention. “He…” I swallowed back bile, then cleared my throat. “He told her what happened. How did he even…”
Malcolm shook his head. “No. Kendra lost the connection when you fell, and it brought on a nightmare. Her own subconscious told her what happened. As far as I know Murry still doesn’t know you’re on his playing field.
Malcolm’s words about the playing field brought to mind Princess Gluttony and I wanted to vomit again. Anyway, there were seven sydes of Hell. What were the chances of being stuck in the same one as Murry for all eternity?
A sharp pain ripped across the flesh of my abdomen. I screamed out in pain as my hands covered the injury. Malcolm and Josselyn both rushed toward me, but there was nothing either of them could do to help me. Hell was dragging me back.
I looked down and removed my hand from the source of the pain. There was a welt an inch wide and eight inches long slashed diagonally across my lower abdominals. With shaking hands I watched as blood broke through my flesh. My eyes glazed over with unshed tears and I looked up to two very shocked angels. Angels didn’t bleed.
Another gash whipped across my back so violently my spine arched at an odd angle and I fell, powerless, to my stomach. I knew I was going to pass out any second from the pain.
I could hear Josselyn’s sobs by my ear as she tried to figure out what was happening to me. I rose up to look at Malcolm. Everything was blurry, but I managed to locate him through my tears. “What’s her name?” I choked out, but he didn’t have time to answer before my right thigh was sliced open. I screamed a
gain, fighting off nausea as I pulled in deep lungfulls of clean, pure, heavenly oxygen. “What is her name?” I shouted at the top of my lungs, then collapsed to the floor, unable to move, too exhausted to try.
As I floated back to my body from the dream, I heard Malcolm say a single name. Abigail…Abigail…Abigail…Abigail…Abigail. It echoed in my mind as I fell back to my fate.
Chapter 9
Rhyan
My eyes opened to new and unfamiliar territory. It definitely wasn’t the Hell I remembered under the bridge with Pogo and Princess Gluttony, but the sting of the welts from my dream was still very real and extremely painful. I could feel the tickle of warm blood pouring freely over my skin from my wounds. I would have screamed out in agony, had I not been gagged. The burning, sharp sensation was almost more than I could bear.
I took in shallow breaths through my nostrils and blinked several times, trying to clear the salty liquid from my eyes so I could better see my surroundings.
I was tied at all four points by black leather straps with gold buckles that hooked to a vertical standing contraption. I didn’t have to question who had gagged and tied me up. It might take me a while, but Princess Gluttony would definitely regret the day she met me.
I glanced around again, but couldn’t see anyone else in the large room. The lights were dimmed, but I could tell the chambers were fit for a King. My jaw clamped on my ball-gag in irritation as it dawned on me exactly where I was. The room would also be fit for a Princess.
There was a large black canopied bed in the center of the room. I could tell the sheer gold fabric that wrapped around it hadn’t been hung there for privacy. A plush leather sofa and two matching chairs sat vacant off to my right, and there was a door directly to my left.
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