by Tara West
At that moment, I didn’t care if he destroyed me. If Ash had become Satan’s servant, she was lost to me and to herself. I knew her soul had been obliterated, too, and I wanted nothing more than to join her in oblivion.
Tears pricked the backs of my eyes when Satan handed the scythe to Ash.
“Obliterate him.” The force of his simple command stung my heart like a whip.
I closed my eyes and held my breath. How had our once beautiful romance come to this? I loved this girl with every fiber in my being and I knew I would continue loving her even in obscurity.
“No,” Ash’s refusal rent the air like a thunderclap.
My eyes shot open. Ash aimed the scythe at the ground, her back bowed over as she clutched her stomach.
“What?” Satan bellowed, pointing his scepter at her as his face turned flame-red. “Are you disobeying me?”
She shook her head, her body shaking as if she bore an incredible weight on her back. “I love him,” she cried out before falling to her knees, foam coming out of her mouth.
Good God. This demon’s blood had bound her to him, and her disobedience was causing her very blood to turn against her.
“Fight it, Ash!” I cried. “I love you!”
Satan rolled his eyes to the ceiling, heaving a dramatic sigh. “You’re both boring, monogamous, love-struck fools.”
She spit a wad of blood on the floor before looking up at him with a whimper. “If you didn’t want me to be loyal, you shouldn’t have made me a dog.” Then she cried out again, falling on her face. “Oh, God, it burns.”
She writhed on the floor, screaming, as her skin cracked open, blood pooling down her arms like raging rivers. Monkey Hitler squealed and bounced around her before kicking her in the ribs.
“Stop this! You’re hurting her!” I swung my fists before biting down hard on my captor’s arm.
The Taurus bellowed and then dropped his arm, though he still had my waist pinned with his other hand. Then my love did something amazing. Even as blood pooled out of her eyes, she turned the scythe on Satan.
The Devil arched back, the whites of his eyes shining against his flushed skin. “Don’t you dare, bitch.”
Monkey Hitler latched onto Ash’s arm with barbed teeth. Her screams of agony pierced my very soul, but she refused to drop the scythe.
I twisted and turned, fighting my captor’s hold when I saw a glint of silver. I yanked a large knife from his belt, driving it into his arm. He howled and dropped me to the floor, just as Satan was aiming his scepter at Ash.
“No!” I screamed and then took off at a run.
I skidded to a halt, falling to my knees when a winged angel fell from the sky, his landing shaking the room like a sonic boom.
“Cam!” I’d never been so happy to see my friend in all my afterlife.
“Leave her be,” Cam bellowed, slapping his chest. “It’s me you want.” The angel walked up to Satan with slow movements, like a predator stalking his prey, while clutching a golf club behind his back. He grabbed a golf ball out of his toga pocket and threw it directly at Monkey Hitler’s head. The primate flew off Ash with a squeal, falling off the dais and slumping onto the floor.
I balled my fists, wanting so badly to go stomp the dictator into oblivion, but my focus was on Cam’s next move. I didn’t want to interfere with his plans. I only hoped Cam knew what he was doing. Why had he brought a golf club to wage battle with the Devil? Did Cam really think it was a match for the Dark One’s powers?
The Devil’s eyes shone like a love-struck schoolboy as he fluttered around like a butterfly while clapping. “Excellent shot, Cameal. How nice of you to finally join us. I was beginning to think you’d abandoned your friends forever.”
Cam’s face was a mask of stone. “I’d never abandon my friends.” He looked around the hall with a scowl. “You’ve done some redecorating.”
The Devil threw up his hands with a flourish. “Isn’t my hotel lovely? Have you come to bargain?”
Cam shook his head while slowly straightening the arm that clutched the golf club. “I don’t make bargains with the Devil.”
“Too bad.” The Devil’s lips turned down in a pout. “I suppose I should acquaint you with my hotel rules now.”
Cam braced his legs, wielding the club like a sword. “I already know your rules. It’s time you learned mine. Rule number one. Keep your filthy hands off my friends. Rule number two. Those who disobey rule number one will be taught a lesson.” He banged the club on the floor before swinging it around his head.
A deep rumble sounded from beneath my feet, rattling my insides and shaking my soul to the core. A deafening crack sounded from the floor, and I watched with fascination as the wall behind the dais split like plates in an earthquake.
The Devil spun around, his eyes bulging as more walls began to split apart. “My hotel!”
Cam tossed back his blond mane and laughed. “Looks like you’re going to need to do some more remodeling.”
“How dare you!” the Devil bellowed, pointing his scepter at Cam.
Cam aimed his golf club at the Devil, and a bolt shot out, zapping the Devil’s scepter out of his hands. It flew out of a hole in the wall, spinning toward the lake of fire.
“No, how dare you think we would bargain with the likes of you.” Cam puffed up his chest. “Now if you’d excuse us.” He pointed the club toward the sky and then stepped back right before an elevator came crashing on top of Monkey Hitler, stifling his squeals with an ominous thud.
I shielded my eyes as displaced tiles and earth, along with one detached monkey tail, flew into the air from the elevator’s impact. Then I raced for Ash, hoisting her bloody body in my arms before running for the elevator as debris fell down around us. Cam followed after me with Katherine in his arms.
“My hotel! My hotel!” Satan shrieked right as Cam and I slipped onto the platform.
The steel doors shut just before the roof split open, revealing at least a dozen flaming dragon jowls. The guests of hell’s hotel were in for a rude awakening, and I doubted they’d be given a refund.
I leaned against the door, clutching my bride-to-be as the elevator lurched. I watched the console with bated breath, my shoulders slumping when the intercom announced we’d left sub-level thirteen. I sent a silent thanks to God as Ash transformed from a dog back into the woman I knew. She was still badly bleeding, her veins bursting through her arms and neck and rupturing the skin. She coughed and moaned, holding my scepter tightly to her chest. Her body turned stone cold as blood poured from her mouth.
Cam set Katherine down on the floor beside him. “Don’t worry,” he said as he slipped his wishing star off his neck. “We’ll fix them both up.”
He pressed the star against Ash’s heart, and her skin miraculously warmed as her lacerations healed.
“Sh-she was his blood slave.” My chest was so tight, I was amazed I could speak at all.
“Not anymore,” Cam said with a wink. “She just needs rest, and she’ll be back to her old self.” He bent over Katherine, pressing the star against her neck. Her red, puckered flesh gradually healed.
Ash heaved a satisfactory sigh, snuggling against my chest. Her skin was the delicate pink of a newborn babe.
I couldn’t hold back the tears as I looked down at her soft smile.
“How can I ever repay you?” I rasped.
Cam stood and crossed his ankles, leaning against the club as if it were a cane. “No need to repay me. Friends look out for each other.”
Thank God for loyal friends.
I wondered the significance of a golf club. It appeared to have had the power of a magical scepter. “A golf club?” I asked.
“Yeah, the Big Guy prefers it to the traditional scepter.” Cam leaned against the elevator door and slapped his palm with the shaft. “He let me borrow it. I need to get it back to him. I promised I wouldn’t lose it.”
I couldn’t believe the Big Guy actually let Cam use his scepter to save us. “Tell God tha
nks.”
He pointed the club at me. “You can tell him yourself. Your bravery down there has earned you quite a bit of credits.”
I gaped at Cam before gently shaking Ash. “Did you hear that, sweetheart? We get to go back to heaven.”
He frowned down at Katherine. “I need to drop off the priestess first. I doubt she’d be allowed past purgatory.”
That’s when I looked at the console and saw that Cam had hit the buttons for sub-level one and the penthouse.
“What about the spiders in the pyramid?” I asked. Though I wasn’t as concerned for Katherine’s eternal fate, I did worry about my brother and my friends.
“All taken care of,” Cam answered. “Your ghoster friends have been doing extermination duty for the past three days. They had a little help from my fellow Archangels. But we’ll just drop the priestess off, if you don’t mind. I figured Ash could use a rest in her old penthouse.”
God was going to let us back in heaven? Though I’d never had the desire to live out an eternity of luxury, I was willing to give up my dreams of being a grim again, just to keep Ash safe. I let out a deep breath before leaning against the wall, careful not to disturb Ash’s slumber.
“Mmmhmmm,” she mumbled before wrapping her arms around my neck. “I want a strawberry margarita.”
“As soon as we get to your penthouse.” I laughed as the tension that permeated my skull and neck slowly eased, replaced by a bone weary fatigue.
“And a big slice of cheesecake,” she breathed.
Cam laughed out loud at that. After what we’d been through the past few weeks, I figured we were going to need the whole damn pie.
Chapter Fourteen
Melanie
I held Wendy, a fellow priestess, in my arms, letting her cry on my shoulder. Wendy had been badly burned by the lava, her entire backside raw and bleeding. I suspected she’d needed to lean on me for emotional support more than physical. She’d died young, caught up in a Wild West shootout after a failed bank robbery, and she’d paid for her sins ten times over. I watched Sister Cara with envy as she sobbed into Callum O’Connor’s shoulder while he circled his arms around her waist. What I wouldn’t give to have a man hold me like that.
Mother’s words echoed in my brain like the grating percussion of a brass drum. “He will never love you, not after what you’ve done to your child.”
My spine stiffened as I held Wendy tight. “You’re hurting me,” she cried.
“Sorry.” I loosened my grip, resting my chin on her forehead.
After I’d found the courage to obliterate Mother, the creature I’d held as a deity for what felt like decades, I’d finally realized that I was worthy of love. Never once while I served Mother had she ever told me to let go of my past and forgive myself. Why had she wanted me to live out an eternity of self-loathing? Was it so that she could control me?
Obliterating Mother had been the hardest thing I’d ever done, and yet I had no regrets. She’d tried to destroy my friends. She’d told me Santiago would never love me. Was I a fool to believe he and I might have a chance?
I stole a secret glance at Santiago. He’d been a naked green giant when we’d trekked through hell—big and buff and hung like a horse. Though he’d looked like some beastly demon, I knew he was still Santiago on the inside. After we’d fallen into the elevator, he’d transformed back into the Santiago I knew. Well, I hadn’t known him that well. I wanted to, though. Lord, how I wanted to. He had a glorious body, tight round buns, thick legs, and a barrel chest. He clearly kept in top physical shape. What I wouldn’t give to have a man like that warm my bed each night.
If only.
* * *
Sergeant Santiago Sanchez
I leaned against the wall, expelling a groan of relief as the elevator slowly moved up the levels. A priestess had been kind enough to lend me her tattered robe. It barely wrapped around me, but it beat having to stand in the nude, cupping my nuts while the priestesses gawked at me. My gaze flickered to Melanie. I’d wanted so badly to hold her close to me as soon as we’d reached safety, but she was holding another priestess in her arms, stroking the woman’s hair while she sobbed into Melanie’s shoulder. The cramped chamber smelled like burnt flesh and blood, a grim reminder of our trial by fire.
I worried for Ash and Aedan. Had they defeated the dragon or would we need to go back down and save them? I looked over at Callum. He held his girlfriend, Cara, against his chest. Like the priestesses, his skin was blistered and charred from the fires. The stark whites of his eyes glowed against the elevator’s dim light, his brow creased with worry. I knew he was thinking of his brother and Ash, too.
And then there was the matter of where we would go. Though Callum and I could easily escape to purgatory, the priestesses had been damned to hell, and there was no way we were leaving them behind. What level was safe for them? Had Cam secured level one in our absence? Only one way to find out.
At least my leg had grown back. It materialized as soon as I’d stepped onto the elevator, giving me some relief. Protecting my friends from an army of spiders would be hard enough on two legs. When we reached sub-level one and the elevator door dinged open, I cautiously looked outside, surprised to see my friends from the ghosting squad and several Archangels scrubbing the walls and floors. Everything was so stark white, it looked like it had been bleached. They had to have destroyed the spiders. They wouldn’t have been cleaning the place if it wasn’t safe.
Crow pulled off a face mask and blue rubber gloves, his ebony skin a stark contrast to the gleaming walls and floors. “You’re back.” He leaned against a mop while peering into the elevator. “Everyone make it?”
I shook my head. “Not everyone.”
Boner’s girlfriend, Ash’s great aunt Mar, rushed to the elevator as the priestesses filed out. “Katherine?” she cried, her eyes wide as she grabbed Melanie’s shoulders. “Where is my daughter?”
Melanie shot me a pleading look as she struggled out of Mar’s grip. I knew it took all of Melanie’s willpower not to cry out. The smell of her burned flesh permeated the air, but Mar was too worried about Katherine to notice.
I grabbed Mar by the elbow, steering her toward a nearby chair and forcing her to sit while I sat beside her, relieved to give my tired bones a rest. I looked directly at Mar, still amazed at her resemblance to Ash. They could have been twins. They both had the same green eyes, wavy auburn hair, and pale skin. And just like Ash, her Aunt Mar had the kind of sweet face that made me want to stare at her all day. Well, at least she did once upon a time, back before I’d met Melanie.
“Aedan and Ash have Katherine.” I tried my best to sound reassuring. “They should be up any minute.”
In truth, I feared they hadn’t escaped the fire dragon, which meant I’d need to form a rescue party and go back down there, but I wasn’t about to tell Mar that. She’d be inconsolable if she knew of the danger we’d left behind.
Her eyes crossed, and I could tell she wasn’t easily fooled. “A minute up here is days down there.”
“I know,” I grumbled, reluctant to face the truth. For every second that passed, it was less likely that Aedan and Ash had escaped the dragon. I grasped her shoulder, trying to give her my most reassuring smile. “We’ll give them a few more minutes and then we’ll go after them.”
She shot up, wagging a finger in my face. “We should go after them now.”
Mar’s boyfriend, Boner, knelt beside her, his long, strawberry blond hair falling over one eye as he took her hands in his. “Don’t worry, babe. Cam is with them now.”
I jerked back. “Cam went down?”
Boner nodded. “Moments ago.”
I clenched my fists as a jolt ripped through my body. “The Devil was setting a trap for him.”
“He knows. He has God’s scepter,” Boner said casually with his typical ‘fuck it’ attitude. “Have faith,” he added with a wink. He stood, holding a hand out to Mar. That’s when I noticed he was wearing his usual surfer short
s and flip flops while everyone else had on protective scrubs. No doubt he didn’t give a shit about spider germs. This was the same guy who frequently wore ‘recycled’ underwear and ate week-old pizza after it had been sitting out in his room.
He and his prim and proper girlfriend couldn’t have been more unevenly matched. Then again, I supposed Melanie and I weren’t matched well, either. I’d died fighting for my country, after all, and she’d killed her child. For the first time in days, I actually took a moment to process her confession. Did I truly want to take a chance with a girl like Melanie?
I searched for her, instantly drawn to her shock of crimson hair tumbling down her back like wild strands of ivy. She was with the other priestesses at the far end of the hall. They had gathered on a bench while Melanie poured a pitcher of healing water into a bowl. She leaned over another priestess, dabbing water onto her cut, yet even from a distance, I could clearly see Melanie hadn’t attended to her burns first. This came as no shock. Melanie was always putting her sisters before herself. She hardly struck me as a murderer. Whatever sins she’d committed back on earth, surely she’d atoned for them by now.
Crow walked up to me rubbing his lower back, which was no longer hunched at an awkward angle since he’d discovered Nephilim healing water. He waved a hand behind him. “So what you think of the place?”
He handed me a water goblet. I peered inside, afraid of finding blood in the cup. I supposed I was still shell-shocked from our ordeal in Hell. I was happy to see clear liquid, and greedily drank the entire cup in a few swallows. It instantly soothed my parched throat, and I knew it to be Nephilim healing water. Good thing, too. There was no telling what kind of parasites I’d picked up down there.
I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand. “Looks great. Thanks.”
“Yeah.” Crow’s knees creaked as he sat down beside me. “We done fixed the bottom floor. We done the best we could in the atrium. The priestesses need to plant again. We fixed the healing baths, if you and your lady want to go for a swim,” he said with a wink.
