by Sam Cheever
He met my angry gaze across the top of the vehicle, something dark sliding back into his eyes. “Does it make you angry when someone calls you something you don’t like?”
I blinked, pulled air into my lungs and then inclined my chin. “Point taken.”
“Disengage locks and open,” he told the Vamp.
As the doors glided silently upward I couldn’t help getting in the last word. “However, you’ll notice I didn’t try to kill you for it.”
Silence beat between us for a moment and then he chuckled softly. “Touché, partner.”
CHAPTER FIVE
Hell Sucks
Dragoyles, snapes and fiery pits,
Yeah, this is gonna end well.
Hell is...well...you can probably guess what the place is like. I’ve only been there a handful of times, helping Astra save the green dragons, helping Astra save Dialle, and as the unhappy prisoner of a seriously oversexed royal devil.
Don’t ask me about that last thing. I don’t want to talk about it.
But though I knew Hell to be an ugly, unpleasant place, I couldn’t help noticing its further degeneration since the last time we were there. Is it just me or does Hell look like...well like hell warmed over?
Slayer chuckled. It has seen better days. Believe it or not. He frowned in my mind. If the situation here is a reflection of the situation on the mortal plane, that doesn’t speak well for humanity, does it?
He’d read my mind. The interplanal correlation was a well-known phenomenon, going back to Biblical times. It had been written about in prophecy back when Jesus walked the earth. The health of one was supposed to be directly tied to the other. Maybe this is a reflection of Dialle the First being vanquished and has nothing to do with the other planes.
Slayer shrugged. It’s possible, I guess. If we’ve learned anything over the last few years with Dialle and Astra, it’s that prophecy is malleable.
He didn’t sound convinced. But you don’t believe it?
I didn’t say that.
The giant red dragon we were riding through Hell suddenly roared, fire emerging in a thick, ragged column from its muscular throat. Slayer responded with a few guttural squawks that I couldn’t understand. “What’s up?” I asked him.
He turned his head, his profile worried. “We’re about to have company.” Slayer lifted a hand to signal to the other red. Gerch rode the huge male with confidence, his massive form upright and his scaly red face stoic. He nodded when Slayer motioned toward the ground below, where Caninra and her two warriors easily kept pace with us. As I looked down, I saw another line of thick, gray bodies approaching them. Unless I missed my guess, the gargoyles had been sent out from Dialle’s castle. “Torre.” I frowned, my heart still hurting at the thought of him. Especially after learning he was having a crisis of conscience. I couldn’t help feeling as if I was to blame for him embracing the darker side of his nature.
An answering roar speared the super-heated air in front of us and my gaze jerked skyward again. A handful of enormous, winged creatures flew toward us in the distance. The dragon-gargoyle hybrids had massive, brown bodies, wings that looked too small to be effective, and huge heads sporting oversized, tusk-like teeth. I remembered the strange creatures from the last time I’d been in Hell. Astra had dubbed them gargoyle surprise and the name was apt. They were Hell’s response to the absconding of the green dragons from Hades when the sulfur levels began to threaten their very existence.
“Gargoyle surprise. Wonderful,” I murmured.
Slayer lifted his arm, pointing toward the charred black husk of a castle. Gerch barked a command to his two soldiers and they swung in that direction. I knew what they had in mind. They would circle the broken carcass of the building and come in behind the attacking dragoyles, creating our own version of gargoyle surprise.
We’d used the same maneuver the last time we’d invaded Hell. I only hoped it worked as well the second time. At least, unlike that last battle, we didn’t seem to be as severely outnumbered.
No sooner had I had the thought then a pain-filled cry rose up, reverberating on the smoky air. I glanced down and saw two more dragoyles dropping down on Caninra and her hounds, slicing at them with razor-sharp claws. “Damn them to Hell.”
Slayer turned a grim smile in my direction. “Too late for that.” His muscular thighs tightened around the red. “Hold on.” We dipped sideways on a tight turn and I grabbed him around the waist with a yelp of surprise.
His answering chuckle made me wonder if he’d done it on purpose. “Very funny.”
“Sorry. But it was necessary.” He jerked his chin toward the spot where we’d just been.
An inverted vee of nearly featherless birds was heading directly toward our bubble. About ten feet across from wing tip to wing tip, the large birds had charcoal-colored scales coating their bodies rather than feathers. A few bent, ragged feathers stuck out on the crowns of their pointed heads and at the ends of their pointed butts.
“Snapes.” I grimaced, resting my hand on Seraphim’s hilt. Though the rare Hell-living birds were goofy-looking creatures, they had razor-sharp claws and beaks and could be especially aggressive when hungry or scared. “They look mad.”
Even as I said the words, one of the gangly creatures speared upward, driving its beak into the red dragon’s soft underbelly. The red twisted sideways, roaring in pain, and spat fire toward the snape, setting the feathers of its butt aflame. It shot away with a cry but two more of its friends speared toward us.
“Hold on tight, Darma. This is gonna get squiggy.” The red flapped its wings and shot skyward in a near vertical climb. I held onto Slayer as tightly as I could, but still found my butt sliding out from under me.
A beat later the red flung its wings out and slammed to a halt. My butt crashed back down and I barely had time to catch my breath before Slayer was flinging power arrows into the sky around the snapes.
I joined him, pulling my own power forward and sending it toward the nasty things with such adrenalin fueled exuberance I turned the first one to ash with my power bolt.
Slayer killed the one behind it and the last three swung off and flew away.
Unfortunately, we weren’t out of trouble yet. The dragoyles were almost on us.
Slayer tensed, his muscles turning to iron beneath my hands. “Gerch should be here by now.”
Realizing he was right, I scanned the area around the charred castle and saw empty air, with only the usual layers of smog overlaying the gray skies. “That’s not good.”
Slayer sighed. “No. And neither is that.”
The handful of dragoyles we’d seen approaching had multiplied tenfold as, in twos and threes they dropped from the smog layer above our heads and formed into straight lines facing us. They stopped mid-air, their small wings easily keeping them afloat on the smoggy sky.
But it wasn’t the sight of the nasty looking creatures with smoke billowing from flaring nostrils that turned my blood to ice. It was the dark eyed devil sitting astride the lead dragoyle, looking larger than I remembered him and twice as fierce.
I swallowed hard.
Slayer glanced over his shoulder. “Looks like the ex came to say Hey.”
My lips opened but nothing came out except air. Something low in my body tightened at the sight of Torre. I hadn’t cast eyes on him for months and, despite my protestations to the contrary. I’d missed him. A lot. “We need...” The words were wrenched from my throat as if dragged through the jaws of a vise. I cleared my throat and tried again. “We need to get out of here.”
Slayer nodded, but I could tell by the look he gave me that he was wondering if my inclination to flee had to do with being badly outnumbered, or due to the fact that my pitiful heart was in danger of being sliced into ribbons again.
“Now, Slayer.”
His thighs tightened on the red and the big reptile’s head flew up, fire sheering through the smog. With a flap of its huge wings, the dragon speared skyward like an arrow.
Slayer’s arm covered mine around his waist. “Hold on, Darma.”
“Why? What’s...?”
Energy prickled against my skin. Like an army of fire ants nibbling their way down my arms. The world spun upside down without warning and I screamed as the red dropped belly up for several beats before rolling upright again and taking off like a shot. I wondered that we’d stayed on the thing’s back but the surge of energy I’d felt probably meant Slayer had something to do with that.
“Sorry, Princess. Our only hope was to reverse course the fastest way possible.”
A shout went up behind us and the air suddenly throbbed under the wings of hundreds of dragoyles in pursuit.
“Whatever, let’s just get out of here.” My nerves fizzed under a dread so heavy it made me nauseous. Thick, smoky air beat us in the face like a physical force as we flew back toward the mountains, where we’d slipped through the barrier of one plane into another. Despite the dragon’s determined impetus, forward motion through the charcoal smog was like swimming against a determined tide. We seemed to be moving slower and slower with every passing moment.
Another shout sounded, Torre’s deep voice flowing over me like dread, and I realized they were right on our heels.
“Can’t we go any faster?” I shouted into the haze.
Slayer barked something to the red in its own language and the creature beat its wings against the air, its sides heaving from the effort.
The Hades mountain range rose into a smoky sky, too far away to save us. The moment I realized it would come too late was the moment my worst fears were realized.
A roar...the snap of something whipping toward me on the air...and Slayer’s outraged cry as a lasso of sparkling energy wrapped itself around me and yanked me from the dragon’s back.
Super-heated air enveloped me as I left Slayer’s protective bubble. Scorching heat sizzled in my chest when I sucked in a terrified breath, burning its way through my body. I couldn’t even scream. The agony of the boiling air against my unaccustomed skin was beyond endurance. I was burning alive without fire.
My mouth came open and my body writhed as the air roasted me alive.
Then I slammed up against a broad, hard chest and cool energy rushed in to heal the damage done by Hell’s horrific atmosphere. “Hello, gorgeous.”
Shoving a heavy curtain of blonde hair from my eyes, I twisted around to look into Torre’s face. The sight of his sculpted lips and perfect cheekbones made my knees turn to rubber. “What the hell, Torre?”
His yummy lips turned upward in the corners, he grabbed Seraphim and yanked it from its sheath, flinging it to a soldier hovering nearby. “You came to see me, correct? I thought you’d be pleased.”
A strident cry tore through the air and my gaze whipped toward the airspace where Slayer had last been, searching frantically for him.
Firm, warm fingers captured my chin, pulling my gaze back to him. “Your partner is beyond pain now, my delicious one. Time to focus on you...and me.”
Fear for Slayer had me jerking out of Torre’s grasp, desperately calling Slayer’s name. The red we’d been riding was strung between two long lassos like the one which had snagged me. Its long back was empty. Roaring and belching flame, the red fought its capture with everything it had, but the dragoyles pulled the beast inexorably forward, laughing with pleasure at its struggles. Fear made my chest tight. “Where is he?”
Torre smiled, his gaze sliding downward, where I saw what looked like the fallen bodies of two Hellhounds. Their bodies burst into flames, setting the surrounding area on fire with them. If Slayer had fallen there...
Tears burned my eyes. I should have known Torre would come to us. I should have warned Slayer. “You bastard.”
Torre sighed. “All’s fair in love and war, my heart.” He lowered his head, placing his lips against my cheek. “And I’d fight anyone for your love.”
The words were spoken so softly I was certain that only I heard them. Though I felt the conviction behind them, my rage and fear for Slayer overcame any softness I might have felt. “If you think killing one of my friends will win my love, you don’t know me at all, Torre.”
He stiffened slightly and then nodded. “So be it. You’ll come around eventually. In the meantime...” He lifted a hand and his ugly army split in the middle, swinging into wide turns in opposite directions. Torre’s beast jerked into motion, flinging me against him as it performed its own about face. Once we were headed toward Dialle’s castle, several soldiers slipped in behind us and on either side, surrounding us with protection.
I was distressed to see Gerch and his small group of soldiers being escorted with us, their heads lowered and their wrists bound in angel chain.
I cast a wistful glance downward but saw only roiling flame and dense charcoal smoke. My heart ripped in a jagged wave of pain. Slayer dead? It didn’t seem possible. Even as my eyes told me he couldn’t possibly have survived, my heart couldn’t grasp it. I couldn’t believe he was gone.
CHAPTER SIX
Into the Dungeon
Misdirection is actually a direction,
But surprise isn’t necessarily a prize.
The dragoyle we rode flew clumsily through the entrance to the dragon’s nest and flailed to a messy landing. Despite my anger and sadness, I was forced to grab hold of Torre or be thrown off the nasty beast and trampled by the equally inelegant beasts on either side.
As soon as the thing slid to a stop, I shoved away from Torre and slipped down the creature’s heaving, gray side to the ground. I took off running, hoping I remembered my way around the castle enough to find a way out of there.
The air in front of me shimmered and Torre appeared, a sad smile on his lips. “I see you’re still reluctant to use your magic.” He shook his head, reaching for me. “Come, I have a room prepared.”
“I don’t want a room. I want to go home.”
He lifted a slim, black brow. “You are home, Darma. I’ve been waiting for you to come to me. Now that you’re here...” He pulled me into his arms, his eyes swirling with the colors of passion. “I don’t intend to let you leave.”
The door from the castle opened and Caninra strode through, her beautiful face elegant and cold. She stopped before us and bowed. “Prince Torre. I’ve kept my end of the bargain. Now it’s time for you to keep yours.”
I sucked air, immediately regretting it as the dragoyles’ stench filled my lungs. “You bitch!”
She slid me a look, her expression unreadable. Then, dismissing me entirely, she looked back to Torre. “My Liege?”
Energy sizzled beneath my skin as rage bloomed. The keeper might be done with me, but I wasn’t done with her. I strode forward, slamming an energy-infused fist into her smug face. Her head jerked back and dark blood ran from her delicate nose. She stared at me with something like pity and brushed the blood away with the side of her hand. “I am sorry about your partner,” she said, though her tone was far from sincere.
“You’re about to be a lot sorrier.” I lifted both hands, silver balls of energy sizzling in my palms.
Laughing softly, Torre grabbed my arms and pulled them down, wrapping me in a stifling grip. To my chagrin, my energy fizzled under his touch. “I’m delighted to see you use your gifts, gorgeous. But I’m afraid I can’t let you harm the keeper of my hounds.”
My eyes went wide. “Your hounds?”
Caninra shifted slightly, a pained expression flitting over her features.
“Yes. Mine. Your sister and my brother have no use for war dogs but I certainly do. I’m happy to give them a home.”
“What are you going to use them for?” I asked.
“You’ll find out soon enough,” he said dismissively.
“Prince Torre, please.”
It was clear Caninra wanted something from Torre and she wanted it badly. I had to wonder what a woman who considered herself the Queen of the Hellhounds would want that Torre could give her.
Torre motioned toward the sold
ier standing just behind us. Judging by the hardware attached to the man’s crimson and gold uniform, I guessed he was Torre’s captain of the guards. Gerch’s equivalent.
“Take the keeper to her mate.”
Caninra frowned. “You promised you’d release him.”
Torre grabbed my hand, pulling me toward the door. “I will keep my promise.” The door swung open at our approach but Torre stopped, turning back. “See that you do as you’ve been ordered.”
Caninra’s gaze flared briefly and she skimmed me a look before returning her attention to Torre and nodding. “You have my word.”
Dread thickened in my belly at the look on her face. Her lips curled as Torre turned away. I caught her gaze, sending her a pleading look that I was pretty sure she’d just ignore. To my vast surprise her features softened and, as Torre pulled me through the door, I was pretty sure I saw regret dancing in her fiery gaze.
He pulled me down a long passageway lit with flickering lamps attached to the stone walls. As always, I wondered why Hell didn’t pull itself out of the eighteenth century and update its infrastructure. But then, since they used damned souls as human slaves to do all the work, they probably didn’t care about things like electricity and flush toilets.
“Where are you taking me?”
Torre’s fingers tightened briefly around mine. “To your rooms. You’ll eventually share quarters with me, of course.” He slid me a glance. “Once I can trust that you won’t try to kill me in my sleep.”
I tried tugging my hand free from his but he held me without any apparent effort. “It’s going to be a long wait.”
We approached a pair of etched metal doors and they swung silently inward. Torre barely glanced at the two massive guards who stepped aside to let us enter. He strode to the center of a large suite of rooms and stopped, tugging me into his arms as he turned. His lips found my throat and he kissed his way down to the spot where my shoulder met my neck. There, in the tender flesh at that juncture, he tasted my skin with a swipe of his hot tongue. The mark he’d placed there months earlier tingled with his touch, sending a quick jolt of awareness to my sexual core. Unfortunately, like the mark that fed it, the arrow of lust died a quick death.
