Hell's Phoenix

by Gracen Miller

  He nodded, as she stepped into the portal and vanished. Zen retraced his steps, not wanting to jump to conclusions until he had more answers.

  “Here.” He offered the blade to Georgie.

  Everyone present went silent.

  Georgie must have recognized the knife because she grinned at Zen. “Perfect.” Gripping the hilt between both hands, she said, “You realize I might get nothing.”

  “Try.”

  Chapter Twenty-one

  The dead drop snatched Madison’s stomach. The stench hit her second, and putrid just didn’t cut it. Brimstone and sulfur clogged her nostrils with heavy smoke. Screams bombarded her from every direction, along with wild, wicked laughter.

  Elias’s too-familiar hand slid all over her belly and his lips brushed against her ear and neck. Never had she wanted to crawl out of her skin as much as she did when he touched her.

  They landed on solid footing and he released her. His smug and triumphant gaze converged with hers before dizziness drove her to her hands and knees.

  Score one for the demon, getting you into Hell ahead of schedule. Pandora giggled. Madison ignored her and concentrated on getting her equilibrium back.

  Elias palmed the back of her head. “I’ve fantasized about you on your knees.”

  He chuckled at his perverted joke. On sensory overload—too many sounds, too strong a smell and the descent too swift—Madison fought back nausea.

  “Still no sense of humor?”

  None, Pandora confirmed.

  Madison vomited. Elias tripped backward from the spew. Too bad she didn’t spatter his expensive shoes. She could sense him watching her and a moment later, he stepped to her side and fiddled with her hair. His fingers rummaged through the locks. Lifting a swath of it, he released strands as Madison’s world slowly came back into focus.

  “I like the long hair,” he said, his voice husky with appreciation. “A much better look than the shoulder-length bob you kept while playing Micah’s arm-candy.”

  Feeling a little more grounded, she knocked his hand aside. “Don’t fucking touch me.”

  “Learned a new vocabulary. Impressive.” Tangling his fingers in her hair, he pulled her head back. “You’re too thin, though. I preferred you when you were more voluptuous.”

  “I’m heartbroken.”

  “I could sink my teeth into breaking that attitude.”

  I could sink my teeth into you. Madison slapped mental duct tape over Pandora’s mouth.

  “That’s Micah’s challenge.”

  “Lucky bastard.” He released her with a smirk. “Maybe Micah’s right about you yet.”

  Right about what? But she didn’t ask. She glared up at him, but didn’t feel stable enough to get off her hands and knees. A slight transfer of her weight to even out her balance and she winced when her hand struck a sharp, protruding object.

  Elias watched her with his astute gray eyes as Madison shifted again and came in contact with another jagged item…and a rounded one. She scanned the floor as she sat back on her heels.

  Skulls and bones besieged the terrain. Some broken, some whole, and poking up from the floor were femurs, fingers, toes, ball sockets, skulls, and more skulls.

  Shooting a quick glance around her, the landscape offered a wasteland of bleached whiteness. She vaulted to her feet and stumbled over a skull. Elias laughed, offering no aid, as she staggered over bones. The crunching and snapping beneath her feet crackled against her spine in a horrifying cringe.

  “Welcome to the Field of Bones, princess.” Madison winced as he crushed a skull beneath his foot. “That’s a common sound, along with the screams and suffering. You’re one of the lucky few.”

  Her gaze shot to him. Lucky? Did he seriously believe she felt lucky about any of what Micah planned?

  “You get to dole out the punishment, not join them.”

  “I’d rather join them.”

  “You’re ungrateful. You’ve been handed the world and you scoff at it.”

  She hadn’t asked for the world, just a normal life.

  “Micah should’ve raised you in Hell, forced you to submit. Your doggedness will be the downfall of us all. And when Hell falls, regardless of your good intentions, you and Amos will crash right along with us.”

  Her focus jerked to him. Her surprise must have shown because he gloated. “That’s right. Both of your lives are interwoven with ours. Go ahead and resist what you are. You’re damned either way.”

  “You’re lying.”

  “I wish, bitch. I so fucking wish.”

  They glared at one another, neither looking away. Something about his unflinching stare convinced her of his sincerity. Uncomfortable with that statement, she shoved snark into her tone. “I’m a Queen, not a bitch. You’d be wise not to forget that.”

  “So you are. And once we have that rebellion snatched out of you, I’ll give you the respect you deserve. Not a moment sooner. Until then, you’d be wise not to forget I’m a King and I outgun you here, princess bitch.”

  Micah stepped out of thin air, Nix beside him. “My kitten has arrived home.”

  He sounds crazy. And she hated that pet name and wished she could stuff a kitten down his throat every time he used it.

  “You should know I don’t have any long-term plans to remain.” Madison wouldn’t pretend she desired to be here, but maybe it would’ve been better to keep that to herself.

  “You’ll change your mind.”

  “As always, against my will.”

  He smiled, a frightening affectation when it held the tinge of victory. “Your free will became mine the day you said ‘I do’ and covenanted with me. Your marriage wine had my blood in it, and you’ll recall I bit your lip to ingest yours.”

  Madison blanched at the reminder and hope threatened to abscond with the revelation. Micah had planned it all. He’d handpicked her parents, made a hellish deal with her succubus mother, and Madison had entered into a covenant with him freely, if not blindly.

  Micah hooked a thumb beneath his shirt and flipped out a crystal in the shape of a tree with leafless branches. “Your human soul.”

  The missing half of her soul. Zen was wrong. Micah possessed her human half, while Zen held her demonic side.

  “I want your demon spirit, kitten.” He kissed her, nothing sexual, just a touching of their lips, even if they remained compressed together too long for her comfort. She didn’t kiss back, but didn’t resist either.

  “I just vomited.”

  He grinned. “I don’t care.”

  She wedged an arm between their bodies and shoved him back. “Why do you want the demon half of my soul?” Shouldn’t it be enough that he had the decent part of her?

  “So I can own you fully, of course.”

  “That will never happen.”

  “We’ll see.” Micah wrapped an arm about her shoulders as Nix approached. She watched him. Being in his presence meant she was one step closer to succeeding with her plan and thwarting Micah. She hoped.

  Nix captured her hand and interlaced their fingers. Madison tugged against the hold, but his grip tightened. “Don’t be that way, Mads.” He kissed her knuckles. “I have a surprise for you.”

  She attempted to shift out of Micah’s embrace, but failed. Unless she wanted to create an altercation, she wouldn’t be going anywhere. “Come out of Hell with me, Nix.”

  “No.” Nix stepped into their personal space. Micah palmed his nape in an intimate gesture. “Even if I wasn’t bound by our covenant, I like it here. With you joining us, we can be one big happy family.”

  Only when Hell freezes over, she vowed.

  Yes! A threesome with these two hotties, Pandora contradicted. All my fantasies fulfilled at once!

  Chapter Twenty-two

  “What happened to the two demons?” Zen asked the others as he waited for Georgie to get one of her visions.

  “When they realized the other demon wasn’t going to stick around and help them out, they took off.” Alessa
delivered the news. “One host was already dead. The other, we tied up in the kitchen.”

  “Cowards left their bodies so fast we didn’t even get to kill them.” James’s jaw ticked from clenching his teeth.

  “The demon that took Madison was Micah’s brother, Elias. Be glad you’re alive because if you’d been his focus, you’d be dead before you knew he approached.” Zen wished Georgie would get something a little faster.

  “Petra said as much.” Zoe chewed on her fingernail. Gage’s arm draped along her shoulder and he held her close, lending silent support.

  Georgie shook her head and made a frustrated sound. “I’m getting nada, Zen. Nothing but blackness and”—she swallowed uneasily—“screams.”

  Zen processed that, and came up empty-handed. “Have your visions ever been wrong?”

  “Yes.”

  “Have you ever known Amos’s visions to be wrong?” He hadn’t, but she’d known the child a little longer than him.

  “No.”

  Bothered by the fact that when it meant the most, Amos had suffered a false vision, Zen pinched the bridge of his nose. “Someone get Georgie something of Phoenix’s. I want to know what his future holds.”

  Gage handed over Phoenix’s spray bottle that contained holy water instead of breath freshener. The object wasn’t in her possession twenty seconds when her brown eyes struck him with the weight of the world’s cries. “We should talk in private.”

  “Georgie, this is no time for private conversation. Nix is like our son.”

  Screw Phoenix! Ark of Heaven or not, Zen’s loyalties remained with Madison and Amos. And screw James Birmingham and his plea of family. Zen’s family was in danger and that preempted James’s. He didn’t allow James to finish his statement, but clutched the psychic’s elbow and teleported her to safe house thirteen.

  Chapter Twenty-three

  If not for Nix’s performance at the Sherlock bar, Madison would’ve believed he’d executed the best acting job ever. The look in his eyes said he believed that crap he spewed about being a happy family in Hell. Dear God…the very idea disturbed her!

  “Tell you what, Micah, you release Nix back to earth, retract your covenant, and I’ll do anything you want.” She nearly stumbled over the word ‘anything’ because the idea of following through set her stomach to heaving in protest.

  “Anything, Madison?”

  She nodded, even though the confirmation left her recoiling.

  “Even if I asked for an orgy between you and the other Kings?”

  Madison swallowed hard. A quick peek at Nix verified he showed no emotion over Micah’s question.

  Nix is worth anything. Nix is worth anything. The repetition of the thought didn’t soothe her frazzled state of mind. She’d already planned to come to Hell to save him and Zen said he was more important than she, so that meant she would do anything for him.

  She took a deep breath. She would do anything for Nix without Zen’s proclamation.

  Her sights landed on Elias and a gloating smile tipped the edges of his lips. An orgy with that man would leave her cold and dead inside.

  Hot and awesome is what it’ll leave me.

  In no mood to spar with Pandora, she cleared her throat and focused on Micah. “As much as I abhor the idea, yes.”

  Elias whistled. Nix shot him a hard glare.

  “Aww…that’s so sweet, kitten. But I don’t want the other Kings touching you, so the amazing offer is denied.”

  She breathed in relief.

  “Your happiness hurts my feelings, princess.” Elias mocked her with a wink.

  “Good.”

  He laughed, walked to her, and kissed her on the forehead. “Welcome home, sister.” Afterward, he vanished, leaving her perplexed by his actions.

  Micah drew her out of her confusion. “Releasing Phoenix is out of the question. He’s gone too far to come back from the things he’s done with all his marbles”—he tapped his forehead— “intact. He’d go crazy if I released him.”

  “You’re lying.” He’d better be lying or Amos and Georgie were wrong and this trip into Hell had been doomed from the start.

  Micah shrugged. “Believe as you wish. Soon enough you’ll understand the ways of Hell without my help.”

  “I won’t be here that long.”

  “We’ll see. Phoenix has something he’s dying to show you. Been working on it for almost four months.”

  “Not interested.” Not that she really expected to be given a choice, but she didn’t have to make anything easy for him either.

  Micah chuckled and kissed her temple. “You said she’d be a handful, Phoenix.”

  “Yep. Come, Mads.” Nix tugged on her hand and she went with him because she really possessed no choice.

  The floor stretched beneath her feet and the walls reminded her of her grandmother’s patch-worked quilts stuffed in her hope chest. She poked the wall and received a shriek. She bit back a scream, slowly discovering the walls and floors both were made from sewn-together flesh.

  “Nothing goes to waste in Hell. You should see what we do with teeth and intestines.”

  Recoiling at the possibilities, she didn’t wish to know.

  Micah led them into a room, cave-like with dark walls frozen in grisly scenes of murder. To her right a pool of sorts churned with dark fluid. She tried to pretend it wasn’t blood. Strapped to a table in the center of the room lay a young female blonde, green eyed, of average height and naked, with no pubic hair.

  Yanking her hand out of Nix’s hold, she turned and strode right back out the door. Or what posed as a door since it was just an opening. Micah caught her before she got too far down the hallway and dragged her right back into the room.

  “Qiyr.” Lock, he said as they reentered the room.

  That easily, he sealed her inside and she slammed into an invisible door when she attempted another exit. Resting her head against the unseen shield, she placed her palms on it and tapped into her demonic mojo, willing it to release her.

  “Imal. Mqauja imal.” Open. Please open. The door wouldn’t budge. Why wouldn’t her commands work in Hell? They’d worked so conveniently on earth.

  “It will open only to my commands. Come, Madison, and see the creation you helped make.”

  Not a muscle twitched to do his bidding. “I don’t want to watch you hurt anyone, Micah.”

  “They’re in Hell, kitten. Torture is what we do until the soul breaks.” He sounded so patient, like he spoke to a toddler still learning the dos and don’ts.

  She flinched away when he touched her shoulder and she heard him sigh. The woman strapped to the table screamed and Madison swung around. Using a bizarre hook-like apparatus, Phoenix opened up an angry gash down her arm. Blood dribbled into a sieve and ran into the pool.

  Madison tackled Nix from behind, dropping them both to the floor. He didn’t fight her as she expected, but she straddled his waist and said, “Hioyt tak uvuel ulx E’qq oja htuh ummukuhoj il cio.” Touch her again and I’ll use that apparatus on you.

  Madison kicked the torture device across the floor, which spawned a chorus of shrieking from the creepy skin-floor.

  “I do this in your honor, Mads.” Nix cupped her hips and held her firmly in place.

  “Don’t do anything in my honor ever again.” She shoved his hands aside and climbed off him, sending both men a disgusted glare. “I’ve never felt so dishonored in my life!”

  “There is power in their agony, Madison,” Micah explained. “The pool holds all the blood of his victims since shucking his humanity. He erected it as a monument to you.”

  “I’m not fucking impressed.”

  “Don’t curse. Some Kings might like it, but it makes you sound like a common whore. You are not common. Neither are you a whore.”

  “Micah?” she said and waited until he blinked. “Fuck you!” And in case he didn’t understand it in English, she repeated it in his language. “Woyr cio!”

  His blond brows created deep gouges in
the center of his forehead and his mouth thinned with disapproval. Did he really think she’d easily fall to his dictates?

  “I wish to share the power with you.” Nix ran his fingers through her hair.

  “No thanks.” She caught his wrist and shoved it away.

  Micah burst out laughing. “You’ll enter the pool, attitude with you, if necessary.”

  Making a fist, Madison fantasized about punching them both in the nose. “Go to Hell, Micah. Oh, wait, you’re already there. So…go to Heaven!”

  Lame, Pandora chided.

  “We’ll have to force her into the pool, Phoenix.”

  “Wait!” She slammed her hand in the center of Nix’s chest. He halted and watched her expectantly. “I appreciate your gift, but I really don’t want to get in all that sticky, gooey blood. You remember how girly I am about blood and stuff.”

  She could tell by his expression he didn’t remember any such thing. Technically, she didn’t have an aversion to blood, just going into it and swimming around in it.

  “Mads, you’re not squeamish about anything.”

  “Um….” She came up with nothing, so with desperation driving her, she flung herself against Nix and kissed him.

  He chuckled, but dug his fingers in her hair, twisted her head to the side and parted her lips. His tongue plunged inside and Madison forgot everything…even the whimpering soul and Micah’s presence.

  The taste of Nix was just like she remembered, no different than before he went into Hell. She would’ve expected some type of discernable change with his new powers. But, for the moment, in his arms, with his tongue in her mouth, she forgot their locale.

  His hands slid down her back, cupped her ass, and added pressure to the back of her thighs. Following his silent command, she wrapped her legs around his waist and he started to walk.

  Nix severed the kiss. Their gazes caught and held. “Hold your breath, baby.”

  He stepped over the edge and into the pool of blood.

  Chapter Twenty-four