“Honey, you don’t know who he really is,” I whisper.
Her eyes flash as she slaps my hands away from her.
“I don’t know? Of course I know. He loves me. He told me so. You’re just jealous. He said you would be. He said you want him to love you, too.”
Andrew reaches down to help me to my feet, I shake my head and he backs up.
“He’s lying to you, Marilyn. Please believe me. He doesn’t love you, not really.”
“Don’t listen to him, my love.” Xander steps out of the darkness. His voice is smooth, yet commands attention. A long, leather duster style coat hangs off his shoulders and almost touches the ground.
I scramble to my feet as he crouches by her, cupping her face. She stares lovingly into his black eyes as he wipes her tears.
I stop breathing for a moment when Devin steps out behind Xander wearing a similar coat. He meets my eyes with his yellow gaze, his long hair brushing his arms. I expect to feel the same as I always did when I saw him, but this time I don’t. All I see is a handsome man. I don’t want him now. There’s no lust, no animal desire. It’s all faded away.
Somehow, it still leaves me sad. He holds my eyes for too long, and I don’t understand why it hurts my heart when he looks down, away from me.
Andrew watches him, staring as if ready to leap between us, his fists clenched at his sides. He remains stoic, and silent.
“She’s just jealous, isn’t she?” Marilyn asks.
“Of course. Of course she is.” He helps her to her feet, then kisses her hands the way a gentleman would.
“My dearest, Cora.” He curls his evil tongue around my name, releasing her as he looks over a shoulder at me. “You have returned to us.” He cocks his head to one side.
I struggle to maintain eye contact. He can’t hurt me, not really. I play this information over and over in my head to remind myself that it’s okay to stare into his eyes. The evil still radiates off him.
“Well, I had to come say goodbye, after all we’ve meant to each other,” I snap back.
Xander grins at me. Devin steps to his side.
“Awe, hear that? She wants to say goodbye to you Devin. How do you feel about that?”
Devin crosses his arms, holding my eyes. He doesn’t answer.
“See that? You’ve left him speechless.” Xander puts an arm around his shoulders. I watch as Xander walks over to Andrew, circling him.
“How was it, Devin. Tasting her? Did she enjoy the way you pleasured her? Did she lay back and spread her lovely thighs and beg for more?” He hisses in Andrews’s ear.
Nausea threatens the back of my throat. I swallow it, coupled with the bile that follows. I should have expected this.
“She did,” Devin’s voice booms in the silence.
“Of course she did.”
“Don’t let him bate you, Andy,” I say, softly. Andrew looks sideways at me, the pain in his eyes stabs me like a spear.
“I won’t.” His answer is simple, but his gaze says so much more. I can see the question hanging there. He wants to ask me if it’s true.
“I’ve always found it so amusing that our Father’s lovely creation has always assumed that everything that comes out of my mouth is a lie. In reality, the truth is far more fun. I think my darling Cora would agree, and I dare say, Andrew. Judging by this look on his face. Cora, why don’t you tell your loving husband what he so desperately wants to know? Tell him how you begged for Devin to bend you over? How you begged him to stay with you?”
Devin watches me for response for a moment, then looks to Andrew. He’s strangely silent, Devin. I expected much more taunting from him, but he’s barely uttered a word.
“Andrew, what do you want to know?” Xander whispers the words in his ear.
I feel tears burning my eyes. Suddenly, I feel that I should have been more afraid to walk into this place, I should have had more doubt. Did my sudden clarity give me false strength?
“God, help me,” Andrew mutters the words, stepping away from Xander.
Xander lets out a laugh, his coat swinging as he twirls.
“You think God can hear you in this place?” He puts his hands together in mock prayer. “Our father…” He throws his arms wide, as Christ on the cross and tosses his head back and the words boom and bounce off these walls. “…WHO ART IN HEAVEN, HALLOWED BE THY NAME.”
He waits for a moment. “Nothing. Hmmm. Let’s see, maybe if I kneel.” He drops to his knees, a mocking grin on his evil face.
I watch with horror creeping into my bones.
“THY KINGDOM COME, THEY WILL BE DONE, ON EARTH, AS IT IS IN HEAVEN.”
He hops up to his feet. “MY GOD, MY GOD, WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME? WHY HAVE YOU LEFT THESE POOR, INNOCENT CREATURES TO ROT? ABANDONED?”
He circles me. I glance from him to Marilyn, who watches him with wide, dark eyes that are so full of worship that it makes me want to cry.
Xander walks up to me, touches my cheek with the back of his fingers gently.
“My darling, don’t you know that your precious God gave me permission to torture you?” His chuckle sends barbs into my skin. “I’m the only one that really cares. No one loves you but me, Cora.”
Marilyn’s brow furrows. She takes a step, her eyes falling on me.
“No, he loves me. You can’t have him, Cora.”
Her words confuse me. I push them out of my head and try to concentrate. I have to stop this. Standing here letting him taunt us isn’t getting anyone any closer to home.
“And this, it’s been pleasant, has it not?” He stops, spins on his heel so that his broad back is to us, and snaps his fingers.
I feel the color drain from my face and cold set into my veins as the air around is suddenly filled with sounds of me moaning, panting, begging Devin to move faster and harder. His grunts.
Oh, God, no.
I glance at Andrew, he has his hands fisted in his hair and his eyes closes, as if it might shut out the sounds of my sins.
“Stop!” I shout.
Xander snaps again, and suddenly we are assaulted with the soft wet sounds of sucking, slurping, and Devin groaning in ecstasy.
“How did his dick taste, Cora?” Xander turns, tossing the question to me, but staring at Andrew.
“I present you with your bride.” He bows grandly, coming up with a grin.
“Awe. Tell him you’re sorry, Cora.” Xander wipes a tear off Andrews’s cheek and licks it off his finger. Andrew screams, thrusting his arms out and shoving Xander out of his face.
“Stop! This is all a childish game. You think I can’t see that now?” I put myself between Xander and Andrew. “You think I don’t know that all you can do is throw out taunts like a child on the playground? You have no power, not really. You can’t change our will to be free, to choose right from wrong. All you can do is whisper lies and play tricks like some demented magician. It’s all just a grand card trick.”
Xander walks with a confidence, leaning on the wall by Marilyn. He bends and gently kisses her lips, whispers something in her ear. She beams, and then turns to me.
“I don’t have the blinders on now. All you are is a man behind a curtain pulling strings. You are nothing to fear.” I laugh, turning to Andrew.
He meets my eyes, and I search his face for any sign that he’s not alright.
“Don’t worry about me,” he mutters.
“Yeah, why would you worry about him now? You never did before when you were taking off your panties for Devin. Better watch out for this one, Marilyn, she will try to seduce me too.”
Marilyn turns her face to me, her eyes gone wicked and angry.
“Don’t listen to him. He’s nothing but lies, He knows he’s too late, that’s why he’s brought you here.” I touch my stomach.
“Too late?” she shakes her head, not understanding.
“Oh, Xander. Can’t you see? If not for this… game… I would never have been here. Andrew and I never would have found that holy place and conceived the child you ha
ve tried so desperately to prevent. Your desperate antics created the very thing you were trying to prevent. Now it’s too late. You see, you have no power. You have no upper hand. It’s all a trick. Why would anyone fear you? Why would we fear what was already defeated?”
Suddenly I feel Andrew at my side. “You’re pregnant? How can you know that?” he touches my stomach.
I look up at him. “I do. I feel the new life. I suppose in this realm, anything is possible.”
Xander’s smile vanishes. His taunts cease. Closing the gap between us in a few long strides, he stares down into my face. I smile up at him, unafraid of his black, empty eyes. They don’t make me dizzy now. They don’t swallow me any longer.
“You lose.” I wink at him.
He turns to Marilyn, just looks at her, and then walks past her.
For a moment, I think he has accepted defeat, but then the world comes crashing down.
“You stole my baby! He promised me that child. You can’t have it!” She charges me, slaps me so hard across the face that I stumble and fall.
“What the fuck?” I scream, trying to kick her when she falls on top of me, pinning me with her body weight to the ground. “He lied to you! Stop! Can’t you—”
My words are cut off by her hands around my throat. Her long fingers close in on my airways, I gasp and claw as she puts her weight into the grip.
I try to scream, nothing comes out. I try to suck in a breath, only a trickle. I slap and claw, I throw punches, she shifts her weight and pins my arms under her ass, now sitting on my chest, making breathing even harder.
She’s going to kill me. Tears slip from my eyes as I buck with all my weight, knowing my strength will soon wain with no oxygen to feed my body. I look up into murderous, dark eyes. These aren’t the eyes of my friend. The eyes that shed tears at my wedding. The eyes that laughed with joy when I told her that I was pregnant the first time, and then cried with me when I lost the baby. This isn’t her. It’s this evil inside her.
“Stop! Let her go!” Andrew screams the words; his voice is shaking. Out of the corner of my eye from this vantage point, I see that he is struggling against his own invisible bonds. Seemingly held against the stone walls by some unseen force.
Devin stands, his eyes a bit wide, his fists clenching and unclenching as the edges of my world go dim.
“Devin, why don’t you tell your princess goodbye?” Xander offers from somewhere out of my field of vision.
Devin looks between us, and to Andrew. I beg him with my eyes, knowing it’s hopeless. I’m slipping away.
My baby will die with me. Maybe I’ll get to hold her in Heaven. I’ll finally get to see my other children. I can almost see them, falling to my knees on streets of gold, my babies rushing me and falling into my arms. The children I lost, but still love so dearly.
And Andrew, what will become of him? I don’t have time to tell him to live his life. To remember me, but don’t lose himself in grief. Find someone to heal his heart and know that I’ll always be with him.
I try to gasp, buck once more. I can’t. Tears stream, my vision blurs, my lungs scream and burn for a breath, just one.
As I struggle with consciousness, I see Devin fall to one knee. A dagger is in his hand, he plunges it into the ground only a few feet from where I lay dying. Almost within arm’s reach.
The ground starts to quake, and roll. Rocks fall from above; the sound is deafening. Beside where I lay, a great chasm opens.
Sorrow and pain leak out of it, like a volcano spews lava. The hole sprays crippling pain and despair on us all, but Marilyn keeps squeezing my throat.
Flashes of my life blind my vision. I’m no longer in this hell, this darkness. I’m in my bedroom playing with my brother.
I’m opening presents on Christmas morning.
I’m at my grandmother’s funeral, crying with my mother.
I’m fighting with my brother before he turns his back and walks away and I never see him again.
I’m making love to Andrew.
I’m crying over my first positive pregnancy test.
I’m in Andrew’s arms finding comfort.
I’m laughing.
I’m crying.
I’m looking into his eyes and telling him that I love him.
My life in moments.
As I reach up, ready to take the hand of the angel that stands ready to guide me to eternity, the weight from my chest lifts. I can breathe. My vision comes back and I’m in hell again, my throat crushed and burning, but sucking air, coughing. Andrew falls at my side, gripping my face and staring down at me with tears streaming down his cheeks.
I can’t hear him, but his mouth is moving.
I turn my head and see Devin; he has pulled Marilyn off me. He throws her into the chasm beside me, pulls the dagger out of the ground in one easy fluid motion, causing the pit to close around her.
Devin saved me.
Devin moves on swift feet, taking Andrew by the collar in one large fist. For a moment, my heart stops.
He’s going to kill him.
“Love her, do you hear me?” he screams the words in Andrew’s face, spit flying off his lips, his eyes wide and desperate to get the words out as Xander approaches him. “Love her like I can’t. Love her for both of us. And I’ll always protect you. Just love her.”
Devin meets my eyes and holds them, just as Xander grabs him by the hair and pulls him off me in one easy, violent motion.
“What have you done, you fool? You have ended us all.” He hisses the words at him.
“Cora,” Devin calls my name as Xander drags him away, further down the tunnel and into the darkness. “Cora, you are safe. Cora….” His words fade as he disappears, calling my name.
“Cora, baby.” Andrew’s voice finally reaches my ears. “Are you with me?”
“I’m here. Oh, God.” Sobs overtake me. Pain racks my body, despair permeates my very being.
Andrew pulls me into his arms, crying with me.
My friend is dead. In Hell. I clutch his shirt in my fists, fighting the pain, trying to pull him closer as it might relieve me of the agony.
“Baby, it’s over. It’s all over.”
He rocks me like a child, and all I can do is hold him tighter, and cry in his arms.
I can’t spend much time wallowing in this place, so with Andrew’s help, I get to my feet and we turn to leave this behind. Drained, we walk out of the apartment door, leaving the gateway behind us. Just outside the door, a young boy sits, as if waiting for us.
“That’s him, the boy that sent me here,” Andrew says.
The child walks up to us and stares up at me with pale eyes that contrast his olive features.
“Cora, your womb is blessed.” He begins, touching my stomach with a gentle hand. “Your children will live, and be safe. A son and a daughter. He is her protector.”
I look up at Andrew. He seems to be stunned. “Two?” I touch my own stomach.
“Yes, twins. Now take my hand, I will take you home.”
He wraps his small hand around each of ours. I meet Andrews’s eyes, and he laughs, tossing his head back, wiping tears of joy from his eyes with his free hand.
I can’t help but smile.
The End
About Rachael Tamayo
Rachael Tamayo has written romance, paranormal, and now this bestselling author is trying her hand at thrillers. “I’ve discovered that I love writing thrillers and believe I’ve found my genre. I doubt I’ll be returning to contemporary romance anytime soon, but everything I write will always have some element of romance.” When she’s not writing, you can usually find her with her family. Mom of a four year old son and infant daughter, and wife of thirteen years. Her full time profession as a 911/police dispatcher in the Houston area gives her an interesting perspective into people that others might not have. Rachael was born and raised in Southeast Texas, where she lives with her family.
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Amazon Author Page: http://viewauthor.at/RachaelTamayo
Acknowledgements
Thank you to Solstice Publishing, for taking a shot on me and getting me this far.
Thanks to my friend, Tishawn Marie with Celestial Caring Enterprises for her ongoing endevours as my publicist.
Thanks to my Husband, who is always supportive of my writing and proud to tell everyone that he’s married to a writer.
Special thanks to my beta readers for this book, Jen Wozniak, Jamie Buzak-Smith, and Mandy Guin. You guys are amazing and I couldn’t do it without you.
I’d like to also call out my brainstorming buddy, romantic suspense author, Ana Calin. Girl, you keep my brain working.
If you enjoyed this story, check out these other Solstice Publishing books by Rachael Tamayo:
Friend Zone Claim Me
Adrienne Lawrence loves her friends. It seems, however, that she doesn’t get along with her family as well. One hot Texas summer, Adrienne manages to fall headfirst over her own big mouth when she lies to her Mom about a long term boyfriend in efforts to squelch her Mom’s nasty comments about having a date for a family wedding.
Clint Montgomery, one of her best friends, kindly steps in agreeing to play the part of the devoted boyfriend during a week-long venue wedding across the country.
After a week of pretend kisses and smoldering looks, the lines between what is fake and what is real seem to become fuzzy. The only problem is, Adrienne doesn’t want to become one of the women that Clint leaves in his wake, but fighting what she’s feeling is becoming almost impossible.
https://bookgoodies.com/a/B01HSDJTLW
Friend Zone Reach For Me
The bitch is back. We loved to hate her the first time around. This time, find out the truth behind her stony heart.
When Ashley’s high society life crumbles around her in the space of one afternoon, she’s forced to swallow her pride and move back home to Dallas. Having lost both her husband and her career, she takes a job at her father’s restaurant, managed by none other than her little sister, Adrienne. After months living with her parents, Ashley decides to move in with her coworker and friend, Shane. She vows never to let a man bring her life crashing down around her ever again. Never will feelings cause her to make “stupid decisions.”
Lucifer's Game Page 19
