To Hell and Back (Eternally Blooded)

by Brandy Sullivan

  Valerie licked his lips, flicking her tongue across them before making her way to his ear. She nibbled on his lobe, whispering her needs to him. Her hot breath almost sent James over the edge, but he wanted her there with him.

  “Release for me.” He moaned pinching her nipple between his fingers.

  “Almost, more James, please more.” Valerie panted.

  James could feel it building inside her, thrusting deeper Valerie’s warm center gripped him as the tremor began to build. Crushing his mouth over hers she moaned into him as she spilled her sweet juices. James couldn’t hold out any longer and let go inside her. Clinging to each other as the warm water flowed over their bodies they forgot about Hell for at least a few moments.

  Valerie began to giggle. “Do you think Bart heard us?”

  “Probably, but I am sure he enjoyed every minute of it love.”

  “Oh god.” Valerie said, untangling herself from James.

  “Don’t be embarrassed, Bart probably thinks this was tame in comparison to his sessions. That is something I will have to remedy later.” James said with a playful wink.

  “Down boy, lets finish getting cleaned up. I am still starving and I can smell the food even in here.” Valerie chastised.

  As if on cue Bart’s Voice carried into the shower. “Soups on!”

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  Valerie was too busy shoveling chili down her throat to pay much attention to the conversation going on around her. James and Bart had been debating Erra’s motives for sending a rogue after Valerie. They didn’t understand why if the god wanted her dead he hadn’t either done the job himself or hired someone other than a young rogue who was still considered a weakling. Valerie didn’t know who this Erra was but she was a bit curious as to why all these gods and immortals had taken an interest in her. From Karma leading her to the wood shed that fateful night, to rogues trying to sacrifice her, to James claiming her as his blood mate, and now the god of war from what she heard, Erra, wanting her dead, Valerie just wanted to crawl under a rock and hide.

  “Marion had a vision of her.” James was explaining to Bart as he emptied a bag of blood, a sight Valerie was still not used to. He hadn’t fed since coming to Hell and she knew he had drained some of his own blood healing her. She wondered what the blood to mortal food ratio was for their kind. Knowing she would be turned soon she figured her question would be answered in due time.

  “Well what did he say was in the vision?” Bart asked.

  Valerie resisted the urge to lick her bowl as James let out a frustrated sigh.

  “You know Marion, no meddling with fate and all that bull shit he prides himself on.”

  Valerie addressed both men as she pushed her empty bowl aside. “I know I am knew to this whole immortal and god world, but from what I gather Karma wants me to aid in some war that is coming, Marion probably saw that in his vision, and I am assuming Erra wants me dead because he is part of the war and afraid I might muck up his plans.”

  Bart started laughing hysterically. “Simple as that huh, well since you put it that way let me point out that Erra would not be afraid of a mortal.”

  James contemplated what Valerie had said instead of just laughing at her like Bart. “But she won’t be a mortal when the blood mate ritual is completed, she will be an immortal. Maybe that’s why he sent a young rogue. In his cockiness over the weakness of humans, no offense babe, he probably thought it wouldn’t take more than a weakling to do the job.”

  “Except,” said Bart, “Erra would have known you would be with her, so again why send the rogue? I mean you take out rogues for a living.”

  “Damn it,” James said, pounding his fist on the table hard enough to splinter it. “None of this makes any sense. I could choke the life out of Karma for this; she should have just kept her nose out of it years ago.”

  While Valerie partly agreed with James’s statement, she also wondered if she would still be alive today if Karma hadn’t interfered. Her father’s abusive ways had been growing with age and who knew what would have happened to her if she hadn’t burned him alive. Karma told her it was her strength to actually end her father’s life that put a bulls eye on her for being ‘touched’ by the gods. Valerie wished she knew what in the hell that meant.

  “When you head out tomorrow you are welcome to any of the weapons I have here.” Bart said.

  James grunted. “Yeah, that’s all we need is me running around Hell with a fistful of silver. That will have the Judge on her like a pack of dogs on a three legged cat.”

  “Don’t worry about the Judge. I’ll find something to keep him busy with tomorrow.”

  “Not big foot again.” James said, rolling his eyes.

  “Hold up.” Valerie interrupted. “I’ll buy immortals being real, I’ll buy gods being real, but big foot? You’re yanking my chain.”

  Both men started laughing.

  “Hardy har har, lowly human over here.” Valerie said waving her arm in the air. “Mind letting me in on the joke.”

  This only made Bart laugh harder but James calmed down enough to explain. “Not big foot per say, a shape shifter named Lauren. Last time Barty wanted to have some fun with the Judge he had her shift into something that looked like big foot. Barty went screaming to the Judge about this mythical creature being real and running amuck throughout Hell, even claimed the beast had tied him up and done nasty things to him.”

  Valerie almost choked on the water she was drinking. “Nasty things huh and the judge bought that?”

  “The Judge may be an asshole but that doesn’t mean he is operating with a full deck.” Bart explained. “Plus everyone knows how irresistible I am, why wouldn’t big foot want to have a roll in the hay?”

  Valerie was starting to wonder if all immortals were arrogant perverts, not that she minded that side of James. In fact it was something she adored about him, always so sure of himself, always so sexy. She wondered if that is how she would be when she turned. If she turned. She knew Hell was going to be rough, but truth be told she was starting to wonder if she would make it through alive.

  Dealing with the circles of Hell alone was enough to test her resolve without having to worry about being assassinated along the way to prevent something she was supposedly going to do in the future.

  Part of her wanted to ask James if they could just turn back, but then she remembered Dante had said the only way out of Hell was to continue going down. No matter what they were going to have to finish this trip, she just hoped she made it out alive.

  “Okay gentlemen, I am exhausted and need some sleep.” Valerie said, standing up and stifling a yawn.

  “You should both get some sleep, take the back room. I’m going to stay out here and keep an eye out for unwanted visitors just in case.” Bart said.

  James stood up, wrapping an arm around Valerie’s waist. “I am forever in your debt Bart. Thank you, at least even in Hell there are still good friends to be found.”

  Sleep came easy for Valerie wrapped in the comfort of James’s arms but it was a restless sleep. Visions of a god dressed all in black flitted through her dreams. His clawed hands caressing her, his body taking hers, she could hear herself screaming as she tried to pull away but it was no use.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  The ground shook and it sounded like an earthquake. Valerie clung to James’s hand as she watched a sick game being played in front of her. They were in the pit of the hoarders and the spenders. It looked like an explosion had taken place in the middle of Walmart and everything ended up here.

  The damned souls were scurrying around like rats in a cage, gathering everything they thought they could carry. When a few of them got a good armload and began climbing the side of the pit a winged demon, standing in a tower at the top, would push a button spinning the pit around in circles. Every poor soul climbing the side would go barreling back down into the rubble, their arm loads of stuff crushing them. The demon would laugh and the process would start all over again.

/>   “That is just sick.” Valerie said, feeling bad for people who were driven by sheer compulsion to repeat their actions over and over again for eternity.

  James only shrugged. “Even the demons need to have a little fun once in a while. For them this is their entertainment. Sick maybe, but it is far better then what happens in some of the other circles.”

  James pointed to a walkway that followed the top of the pit. “That is where we are going, if you look across you can see a beacon in the distance. That is the lighthouse and where we will find the Goddess Styx. She rules over the river from there.”

  “Do you think she will give us her blessing and allow us to make the oath?” Valerie was suddenly nervous. What if Styx didn’t want her to become an immortal either? With the way their luck was going Valerie wouldn’t be surprised.

  James gave her hand a reassuring squeeze. “Of course she will. I don’t know what Marion saw in his visions, but I do know that if there is a war coming Styx would be on our side in this. Just because she reigns in Hell doesn’t mean she is evil.”

  “Let’s get going then, I don’t want to sit here and watch this anymore.”

  “You really do have a kind soul.” James whispered, lifting her hand to his mouth.

  The walkway may have been outside the pit, but it still shook and rumbled whenever the demon sent the pit spinning. Valerie was focused on keeping her balance and didn’t notice an elderly woman who had somehow managed to keep a firm grip on the walls of the pit below. The woman was just breaching the top when she called out to them.

  “Wait, please wait. I can’t hold on much longer, won’t you help an old woman?”

  “Don’t stop.” James whispered in Valerie’s ear, but she had to stop. Hadn’t he just said she had a kind soul? She couldn’t just ignore this woman.

  Bending down Valerie stuck out her hand to pull the woman up, but instead of the woman’s own hand Valerie was rewarded with a fistful of jewelry.

  “Be a dear and hold those for me please.”

  Valerie was shocked but did as she was asked. The woman, even in her battered state, had enough strength to pull herself up on her own. The minute she was standing firmly on the walkway she ripped the jewelry back out of Valerie’s hand, holding it to her breast, as if in fear that Valerie was going to steal it.

  James snorted. “You could have at least said thanks instead of treating her like a common criminal.”

  The old woman ignored him, staring hard at Valerie. “Why you’re a human, I can tell I see your sweat. Immortals and demons don’t sweat.”

  Valerie glanced at her armpits, expecting to see sweat rings or something, but there were none to be found. “Yes I’m a human, my name is Valerie.”

  “My dear lady you still have your clothes on, that means you are going to leave. Take me with you, please take me with you.”

  James quickly positioned himself between the old woman and Valerie. “You know that she cannot or else she would risk being kept here herself. We will not alert the demon to your presence, you may rest on the walkway until you get caught, but that is all the help we offer.”

  Valerie wanted to protest but James gave her a look that made her clamp her mouth shut. He knew the rules of Hell far better than she did after all and the last thing she wanted was a permanent residency.

  The woman sat down, with just her feet dangling over the edge into the pit. She still had all the jewelry clutched to her breast and was murmuring something about immortals being selfish muppets.

  “I have been called worse.” James called over his shoulder as he led Valerie away.

  Valerie was still laughing about someone actually using the word muppet as an insult when she felt herself falling. Something hit her from behind sending her over into the pit, she watched in horror as televisions and broken lamps rushed closer to her. She closed her eyes bracing for impact, but all the air was sucked out of her lungs as she felt her body shooting up in the air away from the pit. A pair of arms were wrapped tightly around her but she didn’t open her eyes until she felt her feet safely back on solid ground.

  She expected to see James standing in front of her but a scream tore out of her throat when she saw the winged demon instead. He was much taller up close then she had realized, standing around seven feet tall, his wings were massive. His entire body was covered in red scales.

  Before the scream died in her throat the demon reached behind her, grabbing the old woman out of James’s choke hold. All the carefully protected jewelry lay on the ground.

  “Are you alright Valerie?” James asked. “She pushed you, that old bitch pushed you.”

  Valerie couldn’t answer him as she watched the bloody display enfold in front of her. The demon was ripping the woman limb from limb, but the limbs kept growing back. Each new tear of flesh and bone brought a round of screaming from the recipient. Valerie leaned over the side of the pit and threw up.

  James was rubbing her back. “Would you mind doing that another time?” He asked the demon.

  The demon shrugged and tossed the woman over the edge back into the pit. “I have eternity. Is your blood mate alright?”

  Valerie stood up turning to face the demon who had saved her, but James had him by the throat.

  “Why did you save her? What are you up to?” James demanded.

  Valerie was confused, shouldn’t James be happy she was alright?

  The demon smiled. “Maybe I felt like doing my good deed for the century today.”

  “I’m not buying it, you have never saved a mortal in all your years in this realm or on earth.” James pulled out one of the silver knives Bart had given them.

  “I don’t think you want to do that.” The demon said. “Killing me for saving your blood mate, I have a feeling you would be sentenced to death for that. Not that I wouldn’t mind seeing you around here, I could have some fun with you.”

  James released the demon with a grunt of annoyance. “Keep your hands off my wife, or next time I will gut you.”

  James grabbed Valerie’s hand and fled the pit, dragging her in tow. Valerie was getting sick of being dragged around like a puppy and was incredibly confused about the demon they had left behind them.

  “That demon is one of Erra’s lap dogs. It makes no sense that Erra would send an assassin to kill you, yet one of his demons seemed hell bent on saving you. That bloke plunged off the side of the pit before I could even blink. At first I thought he meant to harm you, but the next instant he was setting you down safely in front of me.” James explained.

  Valerie was just happy to be alive, regardless of motive. Everything about this new life was complicated. Her brain desperately longed for a break with reality so it could have to time to catch up and decipher all the new information.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  Styx wasn’t in the light house when Valerie and James finally arrived. Instead she was down in the river, or rather on it. Valerie watched out the window as a woman in white with silver hair floated above the red liquid that flowed down stream over and around the condemned souls that bathed in it.

  “That’s blood isn’t it?” Valerie gasped.

  “Yes, blood from the never ending wars on earth. It soaks into the ground and feeds the river. When there is war and things get particularly bloody the river swells. The War on Terror actually caused a flood not too long ago. The blood spilled over into the hoarder’s pit. That caused a big commotion; they were more concerned with their stuff being dirty then the possibility of ending up here if the blood had risen high enough to carry them away.”

  It shocked Valerie how blasé James was about these things, but she reminded herself he had been living this reality for centuries.

  They made their way down the winding stairs on the side of the lighthouse to the bank of the river. Valerie saw that Styx wasn’t actually floating, she was standing on the heads of two souls in the blood, every now and then grinding her heal into their skulls, forcing their faces under. She glanced up and waved hello wh
en she noticed them approaching.

  “These two have been arguing all day, their bickering has given me such a headache.” Styx explained.

  “Goddesses don’t get headaches Styx, hop out of there and come meet Valerie.” James called out to her.

  With a final thrust of her feet she became airborne as the poor souls sank under again. Landing without a sound in front of them she grasped James by the shoulder kissing both his cheeks before turning and doing the same to Valerie.

  “So good to see you James, it seems like it has been ages. And Valerie I am delighted to see such a lovely lady in the company of my favorite immortal. I was beginning to think he would never settle down. Of course you would be mortal, our James has never done anything the conventional way.” Styx rattled on. “Always the rebel, no immortal woman was good enough for him.”

  Valerie was blushing and eyeing James quizzically. It seemed like everybody they came across knew him far better than she did. Doubt began to cloud her mind. Maybe they were rushing this, they barely knew each other.

  “Oh dear, don’t fret you will have eternity to spend learning all about each other.” Styx said.

  Valerie realized the goddess was answering her unspoken thoughts. Why couldn’t everyone just be normal?

  Styx laughed, her sea blue eyes swirling with amusement. “Normal is boring. Right then, you are here to ask my blessing and make an oath. If this isn’t what you want speak now or be forever condemned to marriage counseling and separate bedrooms.”

  “Haha Styx, very funny. I see your sense of humor hasn’t improved any over the last few years.” James quipped.

  Styx face turned serious as she turned to Valerie. “Has James asked for your full consent, explained our laws regarding blooding, and claimed you with his flesh?”