The demon snickers as I whip my head its way, some of the slime flinging off and hitting it in the chest. The black outer shell of its skin smokes, burning the residue off immediately. Pretty handy in situations of exploding deaders, I suppose. Why can’t I do that? This outfit is now ruined. The demon’s eyes widen as it lowers his head, avoiding my gaze.
“Hey, you could have warned me sooner! Look at this mess.” I motion up and down my body. “You think I want to smell like death for the next few centuries?” It rolls its eyes before turning its back and hobbling away out of sight. “Yeah, screw you too, jackwad,” I mumble, while grabbing clumps out of my hair and throwing it on the floor.
“That stuff won’t come out without a shower, and even then, you’ll be lucky not to smell like a dead corpse for quite a while.”
With just the sound of his voice, my skin flushes and my pulse spikes. Not out of excitement either. Narrowing my gaze, I spin around and meet the glistening stare of Aries. Is he laughing at me? His lips are pulled up at the corners as his eyes rake me over from top to bottom. He’s standing a few feet away, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest. I see them move slightly up and down with each restrained laugh.
“If you would have been at your post, none of this would have happened. Now I look and smell like a rotting chicken.” I stomp my foot like a petulant child, causing another chunk to fall to the ground.
“Do you even know what a rotting chicken smells like?” This time he laughs out loud, while rolling his eyes. “And I tried to warn you with the whole ‘I would back up if I were you’ comment.”
“No, but I assume it smells like death. I mean, I don’t really have much to compare smells to down here, not with everything being coated in death and decay. This though, this reeks worse than anything I could conjure up.” A dry heave racks my body as I try to breathe through my mouth. “What in the name of Hell happened?”
He starts toward me but diverts at the last second, holding his breath as he goes around me to the door I just shut the melted deader behind. “These doors have a safety switch I added a few months back. You have to disable it before walking the deader in. Otherwise, they kind of explode. It’s a preventative measure in case one tries to escape.” He places his hand on the door handle, getting ready to pull it open.
“Don’t do that!” I screech, backing away from the massacre on the other side of the door.
He shifts the handle and yanks the door open, revealing a big puddle of goo. There’s no deader inside, but it definitely smells like there’s one in there. I take a small step forward, peering around the corner to see if it’s hiding out of fear of me torturing it again.
Aries shakes his head as he pushes a code into the wall panel. “It’s not in there. You destroyed it, princess. Now the poor sap is gone from existence.”
The demon from earlier reappears, grumbling something under its breath as it hauls a mop bucket into the room. I snicker at the change of events, causing the demon to shoot me a death glare. When it turns its back to me, I stick my tongue out. Stupid asshole.
Aries’ eyebrows raise, but he doesn’t question my sanity. Can’t really blame him. I wonder if I’m sane ninety percent of the time too. Maybe I’d have more control over everything down here if the demons actually feared me instead of mocking me.
“I need to get back to work. Are you done screwing up my routine I have going on down here?” he grumbles. His gaze narrows like he’s chastising a child.
“Hey, if you were here in the first place, none of this would have happened.”
He rolls his eyes as he turns his back to me, heading down the hallway farther into the south wing. “I think you drove that point across. But you forget, Your Highness, if you would have been doing your duties the past few months, instead of freaking out over being in the south wing, you’d know how to accept a deader without melting them.”
My skin heats as his retreating form blurs in my vision. If I could throw daggers at his back and actually damage him, I would. Immortal son of a bitch. Did he really just accuse me of lacking in my ruler of Hell status? Maybe if I stop avoiding my duties, then I won’t need his stubborn ass anymore. I’ll send him to purgatory for a few years. That should teach him.
5
The bright halogen lights glare in my bedroom as I pace the length of it. I run the towel through my hair, wringing out the excess water. It only took a full bottle of shampoo to get the gunk out of it. I lift a strand to my nose and take a short sniff, cringing as I roll my eyes.
Of course he was right. The smell is impossible to get out. I need to figure out what my next plan of action is with his condescending ass. Speaking of which, how the hell did he just appear today? I thought he was off duty as he called it. I know they’re up to something.
Wrapping the towel around my head, I dig through my clothes, looking for a clean pair of pants. I could snap my fingers to get dressed, but the problem is if the clothes aren’t clean, I won’t know what’s safe to snap myself into. Another shitty tidbit to being the ruler of Hell—I still have to wash my own clothes. No fancy magic to make that happen.
I grab a new hot pink corset and leather pants. Most of my clothes consist of different colored corsets and leather. I can’t help it—I enjoy looking hot. Getting dressed, I plan out my day or night. There’s really no sense of time down here. It’s hard to tell if it’s morning or night when you live in eternal darkness. Which makes the days long since we don’t really sleep either. Tossing the towel off my hair, I let it fall into a clump of wet curls down my back. The smell is slowly dissipating with time, or I could be getting used to it. Who knows.
I glance around my room to make sure I’m not forgetting anything. Mr. Pickles is lying in the middle of my four-poster bed, the purple velvet comforter matching his dog bed in my office. My room accentuates the light gray flooring and the bright yellow walls. I like bright colors; after being in the dark down here for so long, I need some sort of happiness in my day. Otherwise, I might try to figure out how to implode myself like I did to that deader.
Thinking about it, I know exactly where my first stop is going to be now that I’m no longer smelling like death. Let’s see what those four are up to. Maybe I can find a cool new place to hang out, or at least a way to torture them for some entertainment. Throwing one last look over my shoulder at my vicious hellhound, who is snoring loudly, I shake my head and shut the door on the lazy beast. At least someone can sleep around here.
The west wing is decorated in dark grays and browns. The worst color combination for a dull and drab existence. I run my fingers along the walls as I go, feeling the cool stone beneath my fingertips. Nothing says torture like freezing cold conditions on top of drab interior. Each wing has multiple hallways filled with individual doors. They’re cells essentially, just not as strong as the ones in the south wing for the deaders. Each door is steel, but thankfully there’s no self-combust feature on these ones. Not many of the souls think about escaping. Most know they’ll never get out if they do.
Skipping along the corridor, I peer into one of the doors’ windows. Inside is a soul of a rapper, who died in some type of violent ending. I’m not really sure on the details since every story starts to run together down here. He’s sitting on a hard wooden chair. Barney is on television, and the Teletubby theme song is blaring through the speakers of his room. He’s assembling a small casket with blue ribbons on it, tears streaming down his face but not a word slipping past his lips. I watch as he ties the last bow into place, and the image of a young boy appears in the casket. Everything stops at once in the room. The speakers crackle, and the rapper hides his face in his hands, obviously aware of what’s to happen next. The child’s mother’s voice sounds over the speaker, sobs tearing across the room as the memory of her mourning her lost child bounces against the walls. It ends, the casket disappears, and just wooden planks with the supplies needed sit in the corner waiting for him to build it all over again.
&nb
sp; Backing away from the door, I leave the soul to play out his redemption over and over. I used to feel bad for the victims portrayed in these renderings. My heart would have ached at the mother’s cries, but I realized early on that I couldn’t get too close. I may be the devil, but I still have a heart, and it could still be broken.
I move along the corridor, listening for Levi. He should be doing his rounds soon, and I want to make sure he doesn’t accidentally see me. I can’t have them stopping my plan called take down the princes. The name for the plan hasn’t really stuck just yet, but it gets the point across.
Shuffling and grunting sounds from up ahead and around the corner. I slow my pace to creep along the edge of the wall. Peering past the stone ledge, I see most of the demons not so gracefully scattering into the large dining hall. It must be suppertime. Good for them, sucks for the souls. I’m not a huge fan of watching demons eat; they tend to be messy with their food.
A flash of blonde hair catches my attention from behind the hoard of demons. Levi is instructing the souls on the duties, as most of them peer into the dining hall in disgust. There’s a few standing there with terrified eyes watching the mass of scaly skin and red-glowing-eyed creatures. They must be the newbies. Poor suckers. Although, if they didn’t deserve it they wouldn’t be here in the first place.
As the last demon walks inside, the souls reluctantly follow. Levi starts to head in after them, so I slowly ease my way around the corner. I’m sure he’s still all smug about getting out of our conversation earlier. Although, I never did find out why he randomly showed up at my door. Adding that to my list of things to double-check.
A low whistle causes my heart to thunder and my foot to misstep, barely catching myself before I fall face-first onto the floor. I quickly wrench myself back around the corner before anyone sees me. Super graceful, I know. My heart pounding in my ears, I slide on my hands and knees to peek around the corner. Levi is facing Lex. Lex’s gray eyes scan the area but miss me entirely. Probably because I’m at floor level and not eye level. Thank Hell for small clumsy favors.
Lex nods and they both head around the side of the dining hall. I seem to be in a dilemma. Do I follow them and hope they don’t see me, or do I wait here and miss out on whatever they are obviously up to? Who am I kidding—this isn’t a dilemma, and I’m nosy as shit. I would never miss this opportunity. Scrambling to my feet, I try to sneak around the corner with a little more grace this time.
The sounds coming from the dining hall block out my hurried footsteps. Looking into the room as I pass by, I regret my decision. An arm flies through the air and lands at the edge of the door, and a few demons break out into a snarling brawl over some items on a table. The souls look defeated and petrified. Shaking my head, I run past so I can catch the conversation before Levi gets summoned back to the disastrous family meal.
As I get to the edge of the hall they disappeared down, I ease my steps and my racing heart. Listening, I can make out their voices, barely. I should get closer, but I’m not sure how far down the hall they are. Glancing across the way, I notice a little alcove where there’s a small space behind an old statue. I listen carefully, and judging from their muffled voices, I determine they may be far enough to not see me. With a quick glance, I dart across the way and slip behind the statue. Now that the dining noises are muffled out, I can make out their conversation.
“He said we need to head back,” Lex states.
I slip over to the side to look between the crack and the wall. Levi stands across from Lex, his arms crossed against his chest and his feet planted apart. He looks pissed.
“I told him we need to be more careful. People are getting suspicious,” Levi mutters.
“He knows, and he’ll deal with that. And her. But there’s no choice. If we don’t, then we royally fucked up. Not that we don’t need souls, but I don’t really want that shit on my conscience.”
Levi runs his hand through his hair as his shoulders slump. “Fine, I’ll meet you all at midnight. Same place by the back of the gates.”
Lex claps him on the shoulder. “Don’t worry, we’ll figure this out.”
Lex disappears and Levi stays there a moment longer. He doesn’t move, and I’m too afraid to breathe, thinking he’ll hear me. Without warning, he slams his fist into the wall, water cascading down from where his hand just left. “We really did fuck up this time,” he mumbles as he heads back to his duties. As he passes by, I see the droplets of water hitting the ground in his wake. Well, now I’m really curious what in Hell is going on.
6
Midnight seems to take forever to show. I figured, though, if I came down here a few hours early, I could find a better hiding spot and I wouldn’t chance missing them. I toss another rock at the wall, trying to hit the small circle in the stone. I hit it dead center again. This is what happens when you have nothing to do for long periods of time—you get good at useless parlor tricks. Murmured voices float to my ears. Scooting back, I press myself against the wall while I wait. About damn time. Could they move any slower?
The guys appear, all of them dressed in their colorful clothing. My eyebrows raise as Aries walks past in a bright red shirt. He seems almost human, until he speaks.
“We’re only going up to find them. As soon as we have eyes on them, then we meet back at the portal. Do you all have your communication devices on you?” he commands like a leader. Nope, he’s definitely not human.
They all hold out little square lit-up items. He seems to be appeased because he shakes his head before heading over to a blank wall. “Remember, we only need eyes on them. Do not interact,” he barks and stares at Levi a little longer than the others.
“I got it. You don’t have to be an asshole about it.” Levi growls back.
Lex steps between them, his soft eyes and turned-up smile breaking the tension. “Let’s get this thing started! I’m ready for some fun.” He claps his arm around Levi’s shoulder as they both chuckle.
Aries pinches the bridge of his nose, while Ryce sighs at the two idiots. Without another word, Aries turns around and starts chanting in Latin. “Salvus Ibit Quae Sola,” he repeats.
The walls slowly rumble as I watch the red lines appear around the center, carving out an archway. My eyes widen as the walls separate and the guys confidently walk through. I want to follow, but fear they might see me has me holding back. The walls begin to shake as the opening starts to close. Worried I’ll miss my opportunity, I rush through, hoping they’re already gone from sight.
My feet hit the ground first, but my balance knocks me over. I brace myself with my hands out and eyes closed, waiting for the impact. Soft, bristly padding hits my chest as the wind knocks out of me. My face is lying on something cool and sturdy, but it tickles my cheek each time I gasp for air. As I regain oxygen, the scents around me start to assault my nose. It’s cold and goose bumps spread along my skin. A burst of not musty or stale air hits me first, so I know I’m not in Hell anymore. It smells fresh but with a hint of…dirt?
I open my eyes slowly, adjusting to the darkness of the night. The stars illuminate the area around me. Holy shit, there’s stars! I lie on the ground, my face still pressed against the surface as I stare up at the tiny balls of light in the sky. My eyes widen as the moon filters into view too. I run my hands along my sides, feeling the tickling prickles of what I’m assuming is grass against my skin. I take a deep breath and let the cool fresh air coat my lungs, and for the first time in millennia, I feel truly alive.
Pushing myself off the ground and onto my knees, I take in my surroundings. There are hundreds of stones protruding from the ground, names carved into them with dates. Of course the portal to Hell would lead to a freaking cemetery. As I look around, I almost forget to look for the guys, but they’re nowhere to be found. I guess whatever they’re up to was more important than making sure the devil didn’t sneak out behind them.
I chuckle as I open my arms and stare up to the sky. “Look at me now, Dad! I escaped. I bet yo
u didn’t think I could!”
I wait for the impending smiting or cursing me back to Hell. When nothing happens—and I mean literally nothing, not even a flicker of a star—I realize maybe no one actually knows I’m on Earth. Sucks for them, but man is it good to be me right now.
To quote Lex, Let’s get this thing started! I’m ready for some fun!
7
Fun wouldn’t be the first word I’d use to describe Earth. After wandering through fields for at least two hours, I’m finally coming up to a city full of lights. My feet are killing me, I’m actually sweating—which I didn’t even know I could do—and I haven’t had any fun yet.
I hear the sounds of life in the city just beyond the hill I’m on. People talking and horns blaring; why anyone would be blaring a horn at night is beyond me. With the noise, all I picture is people walking around with a little horn in their pocket, and I can only assume it’s some weird part of being in the human culture. Maybe I should get a horn so I fit in.
I stumble down the slight incline and head toward the first building I see. It’s darker over here, not as many humans, which is good. I can scope out the area first, make sure the guys aren’t lurking nearby. The sounds of life are a little farther away as I inch toward the brick wall of the empty-looking building. My boots clatter against the sidewalk, leaving a loud echo in their path.
Earth seems so drab compared to what I expected based on the stories the souls told me. Where’s all the excitement? The nightlife I hear about all the time? As I pass the building, I take in my surroundings. There are at least ten empty buildings, all three stories tall and a bland tan brick color. There are a few streetlights here or there; one is flickering a few buildings down. A stray cat runs across the alley chasing a rat. A shiver runs up my spine. I may be queen of the underworld, but rats are just plain disgusting. We used to have them down there, but I’d find them hiding in my bed or in my closet and I killed them all. Poof, and they were extinct in Hell. Too bad they’re not extinct up here too.
For Hell's Sake (Queen of the Underworld Series Book 1) Page 3
