by Tara West
Sarge let Jack drink some of his water before he capped it and handed it back to me. “So the top level isn’t so bad?”
I slowly stood, eyeing the great mouth of fire with a heavy heart. “It’s all bad, soldier.”
He made the sign of the cross and held a hand against his heart. “Lord have mercy.”
Ash
After escaping my cell, I followed the dragon through a tunnel. I didn’t know why I was expecting my escape to be easy, end up at an elevator and hitch a ride to Purgatory. What I was not expecting was for the dragon to take me to the edge of a monster cliff overlooking the flaming basin of eternal damnation. For a moment, I imagined I was at the Grand Canyon, except instead of a placid canyon below, I was staring down at a lake of fire so hot it burned crimson and blue. Giant bursts escaped from the lake, creating thunderous explosions that rattled my insides, followed by a brilliant display of flaming fireworks that illuminated the top of a massive black cavern. Wow. Hell was a giant cave with a bubbling cauldron at the bottom. So not my ideal afterlife.
The heat was all around me, burning me from within and radiating outward. Damn, it was hot, and I did not care to get any hotter, as in being pushed into a lake of fire by a sadistic dragon who claimed to be my boyfriend’s long lost brother.
“What do we do now?” I yelled over the roar of the flames.
“We fly,” he answered as he unfurled huge crimson wings. I’d had no idea they were tucked behind his back. They were magnificent, with brilliant blue membranes and skin so thin in places, I could see the outlines of rock formations behind him.
“Uh, I don’t think so.” I took a hesitant step away from him and farther from the edge of the monster cliff.
I stole a glance over my shoulder, at the mouth of the cave we’d just fled, and wondered if I wouldn’t have been safer taking my chances with Shadow.
“Come on.” He held out a clawed hand. “It won’t be bad. I promise I’ll help you if your wings don’t hold up.”
“Excuse me?” I jerked back. “Wings?”
Before I could stop him, he’d grasped my shoulders and spun me around.
“What are you doing?” I screamed and tried to elbow him as he tore open the back of my shirt and ran his claws down my spine. I nearly fainted as I heard a loud rip, like a zipper being opened, only I knew the zipper was the flesh on my back. Then I felt something poke through, the feeling of relief rushing through me as my wings stretched and flapped, easing sore tendons.
Holy shit! I have wings!
I spun around as he unfurled the two giant sticky flaps across my back. I bent one wing to my face, touching my nose with the wet golden tip, amazed I could move the extension as I would an arm. Then I touched a finger to my lightly feathered wing, shocked to see my hand was a bright yellow hue. What the heck had happened to me? Last I remembered, I hadn’t fallen asleep in a tanning booth, but I was definitely yellow now, or else I’d caught a bad case of demonic jaundice. When I pulled my hand away, there was this gooey stuff stuck to my fingers. It was all over my wings, too, kind like a mixture of blood and mucous. Gross.
“The membranes seem strong enough,” Dragon said as he stroked the outer edges.
A shiver stole up my spine and shot straight to my girly parts. Yikes! My wings were super sensitive, maybe too sensitive, as in holy heck, I might just have an orgasm if he continued stroking them. This was not good.
“What happened to my skin, and where the heck did these come from?” I asked as I spun around, flapping with the movement. Nasty wet stuff sprayed everywhere. Oops.
“You’re in demon form.” He flicked a bit of my goo off his arm without making a face, as if slimy appendages sprouting out of one’s back was no big deal. Then again, he was covered in scales.
The throbbing in my skull returned, deep and sore like the time I’d had an abscessed tooth, only the pain was on both sides of my head. I gasped when I touched my head above my temples; twin spikes were growing out of my hairline.
“Holy heck! I have horns!” What was I supposed to be? Some kind of Big Bird she-devil?
“Hold still,” he said as he latched onto one wing. “Let me dry you off.”
I flinched when his heat poured onto my backside, feeling vulnerable and exposed with him behind me, and then I coughed at the acidic smell of smoke that shrouded me like a cloak. Gag. Dragon steam was worse than dog breath!
When he released me, my feathers were crisp and dry. I tried flapping again, amazed at how fast my wings moved. I felt like a hummingbird. I spun around laughing and flapping, but then stopped when my feet lifted off the ground. Heck no was I going to try flying. I wasn’t a fan of heights, after all. I couldn’t even get on an airplane without a barf bag.
An ear-splitting howl erupted from the cavern behind us, and I instinctively shielded my ears with my wings, wrapping my body in a cocoon.
“Shadow knows you’re gone.” He latched onto my arm and steered me toward the edge of the cliff. “We need to jump.”
Hang on! Did he just say jump?
I jerked out of his grasp, stumbling backward. “I’ve never flown before.”
He rolled his eyes and flapped his arms like a crazy chicken. “It’s just like flapping an extra set of arms.”
My mouth had gone bone dry. Somehow, I didn’t think it was due to the heat. Unable to speak, I took another step back and shook my head.
He lunged forward, digging his claws into my arm as steam shot out of his nose. “You either jump with me, or I push you. What’s it going to be?”
Well, shit.
The second roar was much louder, and I knew we were running out of time. All I had to do was summon the nerve to—Holy shit! Help!!!
The dragon latched his talons into my wrist and dragged me to the edge of the cliff. And then he pushed me. The jackass actually pushed me. I screamed bloody murder as I spiraled toward the flaming pit, but instinct took over, and I flapped my wings with all my might. Then I soared above the flames and smoke, into a night sky as black as pitch, the wind ruffling my hair and tickling my skin. The sensation was so amazing, I couldn’t help the squeal that escaped my throat.
I’m flying. I’m actually flying!
A plume of fire erupted beside me. I gasped and nearly lost my balance until I saw the dragon flapping his wings, his huge scaly chest heaving as he chuckled. I laughed alongside him. But then my heart nearly stopped when I looked into his eyes. He had Aedan’s gaze. He also had Aedan’s smile.
This dragon had been telling the truth. He was my boyfriend’s twin. The realization hit hard, causing my throat to tighten with emotion. How had they been separated? Had Aedan’s twin deserved to go to Hell, or had he been tricked, like me? If so, what chance of escape did I have if Aedan couldn’t save his brother?
Aedan
Sweat poured down my back and brow as we neared the elevator to Hell’s gate. I knew once we got inside, there was no turning back. I only hoped this soldier understood the risks, because there was nothing in it for him. The girl we were saving was mine. There would be no reward for him other than surviving the impossible and coming back to share the tale.
After passing through a curtain of black smoke, I could barely make out the gleaming red doors of the portal to Hell. The massive elevator sat precariously close to the edge of the flame, a lone beacon, a promise of hope and escape to all those poor souls below. To risk facing down the guard and reaching the elevator almost always resulted in death, and death for a demon meant being knocked down another layer. Like Purgatory, Hell was made up of many levels, only between each layer was a huge flaming pit, a deterrent for those trying to escape. The only way around the fire was the elevator, and the only way onto the elevator was past the guard, a three-headed dog the Greeks had named Cerberus. He was as mean as he was ugly. Since Hell had thirteen levels, there were thirteen of these dogs, each one more ferocious than the next. Hopefully, Ash was on the top level of Hell. We had a chance, though slim, of defeating that guardia
n.
“Where are we?” Sarge asked.
I let out a slow exhale. “We are at Hell’s gate.”
When we came to a standstill in front of the gleaming doors wide enough to hold an elephant-sized demon, he cautiously examined our surroundings. “Why did we have to come here? I thought Grims could summon elevators from anywhere.”
The guy was observant. I had to hand it to him. Now, if he was only this observant when it came to women, he’d know Ash had already pledged her heart to another.
“The portal to Hell only appears when a demon is present. Otherwise, we have to come here. This is the portal demons use to cross over to Earth.”
The demons who passed through Hell’s gate and terrorized Earth had been given permission by a gatekeeper. Only gatekeepers could grant escape, but there was always a catch. Those demons sent to Earth were haunting on borrowed time, and if they did not return with captured souls, there was usually Hell to pay. Literally.
Sarge motioned to the skeletal formations. “Why aren’t there demons everywhere?”
“They require special permission from the gatekeeper to ascend.”
We stopped at the elevator. I swallowed hard as I turned and looked at the expanse of bones behind us, at my last look of freedom before I sacrificed my soul for the woman I loved. I thought about telling the soldier to go back. That this wasn’t his battle. I looked down at Ash’s dog as he scratched the elevator door and whined. He was anxious to get to his mistress in Hell, though instinct had to have warned him he might not return.
“Will we need permission to come back up?”
I chuckled at that. The gatekeeper’s mission was to keep souls in, not let them out. “I doubt the gatekeeper will grant it.”
“Then how do we escape Hell?” There was no mistaking the nervous tension in his voice. The soldier was finally scared. Good.
I leveled him with a hard look, making sure he understood what we were in for. “We fight our way out.”
He held up the scythe I’d lent him, lines of worry crinkling his dark eyes. “With these?”
With a shaky finger, I hit the down button, expelling a nervous breath when the doors slid open. “We may have other powers as well. When we descend, we will take on demon form.”
“Demon form?”
“Don’t be surprised by my appearance, or yours for that matter.”
Before I lost my nerve, I stepped onto the platform. Jack followed eagerly behind me. Leave it to a dog to teach me a lesson in loyalty and bravery. Though I could read the dread in the wide pools of the soldier’s eyes, he did not hesitate to step on, either. The doors slid shut with a heavy thud, and when the elevator lurched, the contents of my stomach burned the back of my throat. I held it back. I would not let fear rule me. I would not let Ash down.
Ash
We did not have to fly far before Callum was leading me to the opening of another cave suspended over a cliff much like the one we’d just escaped. Geez, Hell dwellings had no character, and they certainly had no curb appeal. This cliff had a shorter ledge, so I was literally landing and tumbling into the mouth of the cave at the same time. As fun as my flight had been, I was relieved when I hit solid ground.
There was just one major problem. I lost my shirt during the flight, so now my only top was a torpedo tit bra I’d borrowed from my grandma. Luckily, 1950’s fashion covered my girls a bit better than the lacy things I’d left back on Earth. Still, to say I was embarrassed to have Aedan’s brother see me like this was the understatement of the century.
Pretend it’s a bathing suit top, Ash.
“Where are we?” I asked, as I awkwardly covered my chest with my arms. Then I froze when I heard gruff voices inside the cavern.
“My den,” he answered, his eyes bulging as he caught sight of my tit missiles. He quickly looked away, folding his wings back.
I arched a brow as I flapped my wings, trying to get them to cooperate and fold into place, but since I sucked at origami and folding socks, the wing thing wasn’t working out so well, either. Finally, I gave up and groaned as I blew a wayward frizzy lock out of my eyes. “Your den?”
He circled me and pushed my wings back. Again, every time he touched a sensitive spot, I felt my lust-o-meter start to rise. So not good. Somehow, I got the feeling this demon would be hot in the sack, although sleeping with him would have been wrong, very wrong, no matter how right it would have felt.
“I share a den with a dozen other demons. We are part of a pack, and I am their Alpha,” he said.
That was probably a good thing, right? That meant if any of them wanted to eat me, they had to obey him when he said to back off. The gruff voices were louder, and I was pretty sure I heard grunts and slams, as if they were involved in a brawl.
“Are they nice?”
He spun me around, searching my eyes with a force that made my knees weaken. “They’re demons. Most of them were criminals back on Earth. If you want to survive, you will have to go along with my plan.” He averted his gaze for just a moment, and I thought his pink cheeks colored even brighter.
I swallowed. Somehow I got the feeling I wouldn’t like his plan one bit. “Which is?”
This time, he did flush a bright shade of red. “You’re my bi—”
“What you got there?”
I spun around at the sibilant voice behind me, so creepy, it was like a thousand tiny spiders burrowing into my skin. The green lizard man assessing me between two eye slits nearly made me wet my pants.
Callum pushed me behind him and puffed up his chest. “Back off!”
I felt the heat radiating off his body as the smell of smoke filled the air. I was tempted to step back, but I didn’t want some other demon to catch me.
“What’s this?” A low growl snaked across my senses. “Dragon’s got himself a bitch?”
Callum’s massive back shielded me from the other demons. I had nothing to stare at except the ridge going down his spine and well-formed muscles beneath glistening scales.
“That’s right,” Callum grumbled, “and if any of you cusses touch her, you’re toast.”
Wait a minute? I’m his bitch, now?
This was his plan? To pass me off as his woman? Correction. His bitch? If I had to be someone’s bitch, I guess I’d rather belong to Aedan’s twin than any of them.
He reached back and wrapped a protective hand around my wrist. Instinctively, I struggled to break free, but he squeezed so tight, I thought he’d snap me in two.
“Ouch!” I screamed. “Let me go!”
Before I could stop him, he spun me in his arms and growled into my ear. “Play along.”
Then he threw me over his shoulder, slamming my gut onto his hard scales, causing me to gasp in pain.
“This bitch is mine,” he roared, and then smacked me on the ass. Hard.
I howled, and the other demons laughed.
“Hey, asshole!” I punched his armored back, which stung like hell. It was like hitting granite. I howled again, calling him every swear word in the book and then some.
“Feisty,” the lizard demon hissed behind me. “When you’re finished with her, I’d like a go.”
I froze when I heard a chorus of ominous chuckles. Just how many freaking demons were there? Too bad I was draped over a massive back and couldn’t see shit other than a really nice set of tight, rounded dragon buns.
Bad, bad, Ash!
What was I doing, thinking about dragon ass when I already had a perfectly nice Grim Reaper ass waiting for me in Purgatory?
I felt his chest expand beneath me and then massive heat along my backside. I screamed when I heard the roar of flames, especially since my legs felt the burn. Thank goodness for rugged denim. Too bad he’d probably singed holes through my jeans.
“Anyone else want a go?” He stomped forward, rattling my brain with each step.
I heard a lot of shuffling of feet but not another word. As we descended into the cave, I caught a glimpse of the lizard demon, or what was l
eft of him, a blackened and petrified carcass whose frozen features seemed to blend with the dark cave walls.
Nice.
Remind me to never cross a dragon.
Aedan
By the time the elevator dinged, we were already in demon form, and I understood why our portal needed to be so big. Jack had morphed into a black two-headed beast twice the size of a buffalo. His shoulders came just above my head and his massive jowls dripped saliva in a puddle beside me as both of his tongues lolled to one side. I was almost afraid to look up at him as I clutched my scythe in one hand, but when I saw a familiar spark behind those big brown eyes, I breathed a sigh of relief. At least he was the same Jack on the inside, Ash’s loveable and loyal dog. I was glad to have a companion like him along for the journey. He’d come in handy when we were being attacked by hordes of demons.
Sarge had grown, too. He was a hulk of a man with bulging arms and two horns growing out of his skull. There was a spiky ridge down his spine, the points looking sharp enough to do some serious damage. Gone was his prosthetic leg, and in its place was a clawed foot with long talons. He gawked at Jack and me, a frightened look in his eyes, as if we were more horrific than he was.
I already knew what I looked like. I’d seen my image reflected back at me enough times in the shiny elevator door. I was the Grim Reaper from childhood nightmares, tall and skeletal with large, glowing eyes concealed beneath a heavy cloak. I was meant to instill terror in those damned souls before they were delivered to Hell. If they only knew how frightened I’d been during those rare occasions when they’d clung to me, trying to drag me with them through the elevator past the point of no return. Though I didn’t want to, in those instances I had to use my scythe and either maim them or chop off their heads. Yeah, I had a hazardous occupation. I’d thought working for the ghosting squad would be safer. Oh, how wrong I’d been.
