Storm of Sin

by Patricia D. Eddy

  I can’t lift my head. There’s blood in my eyes, dripping onto the stone floor beneath me. Within minutes of pulling me from the small, iron cage, Thorn had Gregory and another man remove the chains and shackles, but any illusion of freedom was short lived. Too weak to do more than bat helplessly at them, I couldn’t stop Gregory from binding my wrists with a thick, plastic zip tie, or the other man from lowering a hook from the ceiling and sliding it between my hands.

  The balls of my feet barely scrape the ground, and they cut off my skirt, leaving me in just my skimpy red top and panties. And that’s when they started in on me.

  The skin of my back burns, that fucking metal-studded whip leaving me bloody from my shoulders all the way down to my thighs. The pain steals my focus so Thorn can delve deep into my mind. Or try to, at least. So far, I’ve managed to fight him. To at least keep the knowledge of who and what I am hidden away in that dark, swirling void.

  I can’t scream anymore. My voice is gone. And Thorn is getting frustrated. I have to give him something soon, or I’m afraid he’ll push me so hard, so long, that I’ll end up giving him everything. But I need a break. A few minutes to conjure fears not my own and find a way to trick him. He has Dion, and I can’t let her die down here—or let Thorn find a way to use me against Sin.

  The incubus bastard grabs a chunk of my hair and pulls my head up so I’m forced to look into his glowing red eyes. “You belong to me now, Zoe Dawes. Tell me about your partner. Tell me how to get to him.”

  I won’t. I can’t. Sin is—was—the best part of my entire existence. Of both lives the seraphim gave me. I won’t betray him. And I’ll do anything to stop Thorn from getting his hands on the man I love.

  “Tell me what I need to know, and all this pain stops. Perhaps, I will even let you go,” he says, his voice soothing, almost like a balm to my wounds. The constant agony eases, and I sigh. “Yes. You want to feel better, do you not? I can make that happen.”

  Like Sin with my migraine.

  His power pushes into me, a disgusting, vile presence that causes my legs to flail helplessly and my eyes to roll back in my head. No. I know what you are. What you are doing. It won’t work on me, you piece of shit.

  I try to embrace the pain, to use it to focus, but the ephemeral wisps of Thorn's talents wind their way deeper. I can feel them slithering along my nerve endings, turning them off one by one, until half of my body feels like I’ve just spent a week at a spa while the other half is consumed by burning agony.

  He’s so close, my breasts push against his broad torso, and his free hand cups my ass. “Give in, Zoe. You are mine now. Why keep fighting? Tell me what you are. Give me Sinclair. You will fetch the highest price at the auction, and you are strong enough to last for years. So much stronger than any of the others. I can give you endless luxuries in exchange for your service. The finest food, a room fit for a queen, even pleasure, if you desire it, but I require your mind in exchange. You know I will have it in the end.”

  He’s right. I may be stronger than I was the last time he had me, but I’m weaker too. Because now I know the truth. I love Sin. And love is the weapon he’ll use to destroy me. Unless I end him first. I just don’t remember how I’m supposed to do that.

  Damn Seraphiel and his idiotic idea to block all of my memories.

  You will remember when it is time.

  The angel’s last words to me play on a loop in my head just beyond Thorn's reach. Well, it’s time now, you divine bastard.

  Frustration churns in Thorn's dark gaze, and the all-consuming agony returns with a vengeance. Digging his fingers into one of the wounds on my back, he laughs when a hoarse, choking cry escapes my cracked lips.

  “Your body cannot take much more, my dear Zoe. Nor can your mind. I can feel it.”

  Drawing on the last of my physical strength, I bring my knee up to catch him in the balls. My demon captor stumbles back with a yelp and doubles over. With his shock comes a lessening of his power, the tendrils retreating, slinking out of my mind as quickly as they can.

  Think, Zoe. Focus.

  If I can convince him that he’s broken me, he’ll make a mistake. Underestimate me. Drop his mental shields. I don’t need long. I’m supposed to do something to him. Use his own power somehow. I’m so close to remembering.

  Think!

  Visions of Sin flash through my mind.

  I don’t want to lose him. Not again.

  But I will. I have no choice. This is what I was sent here to do. Sacrifice myself to save so many more. Including Sin.

  Thorn straightens, a look of pure, unadulterated rage twisting his already gnarled features. I only have seconds before he’s in my head again. I have to hurry. To create a false world he’ll believe is real.

  Breathing hurts. With every heartbeat, I lose more blood this human body cannot spare. My greatest fear. I need to show him something he’ll believe is my greatest fear. Something that’s not Sin.

  Vampires. Velma. Her fangs piercing my neck. When I thought I was human, she terrified me. Maybe…if I can just channel that…

  “You will pay for that, you pitiful creature,” he hisses as he nods at the human men behind me, ready with their whips and canes.

  The blows rain down on me harder than before, and Thorn sends every ounce of his power to invade my thoughts. They pierce my defenses, no longer vines, but sharp, jagged rocks that tear through me, searching, until he locks on to the one thought I offer up on a silver platter.

  Yes. Take it. Use it. Give me time to remember how to end you.

  Twenty-Nine

  Sin

  I pace outside the massive, gilded doors of the archangels’ inner sanctum, waiting for Gabriel to emerge. I hate being here. I cannot do a fucking thing trapped in the celestial realm, but without the angels’ help, I will never find Zoe.

  When Gabriel pulled me out of Hell to serve the remainder of my sentence on earth, he forbade me from returning to this place, and in order to bring me here now, he bound my celestial powers so the other angels would not see me as a threat.

  Because I am. Or would be if I had even an ounce of my angelic strength.

  Entering this realm left me defenseless, but my memories, which have been muddled by darkness for centuries, are now as clear as if the events happened yesterday.

  Thorn has a schedule. A plan for each of his victims. By my estimation, we have been in the celestial realm for an hour, but time moves differently here. Eighteen hours have passed on earth.

  By now, Zoe will have been beaten so brutally, she will wish for death. She will be hungry and cold, dehydrated, and her mind...he will have assaulted her mind time and time again. I hope she is strong enough to resist, but what if she is not? What if she has already broken?

  I have to get out of here. Back to the mortal realm where I am at least closer to her. I left the commander a terse message before Gabriel touched my arm and transported me here, so the whole of the Bureau will be looking for Zoe, but Thorn has had centuries to perfect his wards. The mages will not be able to scry for her, the shifters will not be able to track her scent. Only those with the power to see the future have any chance, and they have never been able to find him before. I have little hope they will be able to do so now.

  The doors open, and Gabriel strides through, his golden eyes ablaze and his wings ruffled. “Seraphiel is the most infuriating being I have ever met. Even worse than you, Sinclair.”

  “What happened in there?” I fall into step at his side, unsure where he is going and why, my patience at an all time low.

  “He ‘has a plan.’ One that will see Zoe—Genevieve—whatever you wish to call her—die and take Thorn with her.”

  Grabbing the archangel’s robes, I stop him in his tracks. “No. I will not lose her again. I have paid my debt a thousand times over, Gabriel. Two centuries as Lucifer’s plaything, another two working for the Bureau... How many souls have I saved?”

  “More than your share,” he says, the resignation in his
tone obvious. “There are those in this realm, Sinclair, who will never allow you back. You know this.”

  “I do not care if I ever see this realm again. Banish me permanently. Take my wings if you wish. But do not force me to go through eternity without the woman I love. The woman Thorn's torture stole from my memories.”

  Gabriel shakes his head and pries my hands from his robes, then stiffens. “Thorn did not take her memory from you, Sinclair. Seraphiel did.”

  My entire world halts. Turned upside down with those two words. “What?”

  The archangel reaches out and lays his hands on me. One over my heart, the other on my forehead. His palms warm, then start to glow, and he whispers, “Remember.”

  With a violent shudder, I am thrown onto the rocks surrounding Hell. My body has wasted away from my time as Beelzebub’s prisoner, and three angels stand over me. Gabriel, Azrael, and Seraphiel.

  “Sinclair,” Gabriel says, “the Almighty has seen your suffering and has granted you a brief reprieve to speak with us. Tell us why you should be freed from Hell.”

  “I deserve to burn,” I rasp, my throat parched and scarred from two centuries drowning in Lucifer’s river of blood and fire. “I should have fought harder. Or ended my own existence so Thorn could not use me to inflict such pain on others.”

  Azrael frowns. “We are not unreasonable, Sinclair. You helped end many lives, but you did not wield the blades, and you brought the demons down to Hell knowing you would be trapped here with them.”

  “He killed the woman I loved. She was so strong. She saved me. And he destroyed her.”

  “She failed because of you,” Seraphiel says, his tone edged with judgment. “That is your true crime.”

  Pushing myself up to my knees, I grab on to Seraphiel’s robes. “What do you mean?”

  “We created her, demon. A daughter of seraphim. Of celestial origin, though with a human body, a human mind. We sent her to the mortal realm to stop the demon who calls himself Thorn. But you interfered. She fell in love with you. That is why she did not use her power to trap his consciousness in Hell for all eternity. Because it would have consumed her as well. She hesitated, and Thorn seized that opportunity to end her human existence,” Seraphiel says, his disgust for me obvious from the sneer curling his lips.

  “Her...human existence? She lives? In the celestial realm?” Knowing the woman I love is not gone forever gives me a reason to fight. To try to redeem myself, and I clasp my hands together in supplication. “Please. Show her to me. For only a moment. Grant me this one indulgence, and I will never ask for another.”

  Gabriel snaps his fingers, and a window to the celestial realm opens before me. She is as beautiful as I remember, but there is no life to her. No movement. Her chest does not rise and fall, her eyes, bright as emeralds, do not see.

  “What have you done to her?” I cry.

  Seraphiel snaps, “She was inconsolable when she returned to us. Because of you. Our most powerful weapon against the scum of demonkind, and you made her as weak as any other human. So, we have remade her. Trapped her in a prison of her own physical body and wiped her mind clean so that one day, should we ever decide to release her, she might possibly be useful again.”

  The mournful scream rises from deep in my soul, and Azrael grabs me by the arms and hauls me to my feet. “Your time in Hell is over, Sinclair,” the angel of Death says. “You will serve out the rest of your sentence in the mortal realm. There are many souls that need your help, and when you have saved enough of them, perhaps, we may allow you to return.”

  “No,” I whisper. “Please, send me back to Hell. I cannot live with the knowledge of what you have done to her.”

  Seraphiel steps forward, anger burning in his golden eyes. “Then you will live without it.” He takes my head in his hands and rips away my memories one by one. Her smile. Her laugh. The scent of her skin. Her touch. The agony is a thousand-fold worse than anything Lucifer has visited upon me over two centuries, and when he is done, I collapse onto the stone, my thoughts jumbled, knowing I have lost something, but having no idea what.

  Seraphiel arches a brow and gestures to a window into the celestial realm. The frozen image of a beautiful, yet sad woman flashes before my eyes. “Do you recognize her, Sinclair?”

  The window shrinks into nothing when I shake my head, and through my confusion, I think...the seraphim smiles. “He is ready.”

  “Gabriel?” I croak. “Ready for what? Why am I here...?”

  The archangel drops to one knee and cups my cheek. “For redemption, Sinclair. It is time to wipe your ledger clean.”

  “Sinclair. Look at me.” Gabriel kneels over me, but we are no longer on the rocks surrounding Hell. The celestial realm is so fucking white, it is almost blinding, and the archangel’s face swims in and out of focus.

  “How could you let him do that to her? To me?” I shove him, and he lands on his ass a few feet away.

  “I had no choice. He outranks me. I swear, I did not know who Zoe was when I first saw her with you.” Gabriel makes no move to rise. Smart. I may be powerless in this realm, but my fist still packs a punch.

  “Neither did I. Obviously. It was not until we...”

  “Fucked?” A dry laugh escapes his lips at my shock. “Being an angel does not stop me from swearing. Or fucking, to be honest. Not that I have in centuries.” He shakes his head and fixes his golden eyes on me. “I am the revealer of truth, the bringer of justice, and the interpreter of the Almighty’s plan, and I swear to you, Sinclair. This is not what I signed on for. I cannot do a damn thing about your banishment to the earthen realm. Nor do I think you want me to. But I can help right the wrongs visited upon you and—?”

  “Zoe. She is Zoe now, and will be forever more if I can find her in time.”

  Gabriel rises and offers me his hand. I do not hesitate to take it. He nods as he pulls me to my feet. “We will find her. Save her. And see Thorn and his lover brought to justice once and for all. But we may need a little help.”

  Thirty

  Zoe

  My stomach twists in on itself. I’m so hungry. I don’t know how long I’ve been here. At least a full day. Maybe two. I haven’t seen anyone other than Thorn and his human automatons, but I can hear the other women scream.

  Dion’s cries are the worst. My only friend. She’s here because of me. Because Thorn and Regina needed a way to get to me so they could get to Sin. She broke hours ago. I heard it happen. She doesn’t curse him now. She begs. Pleads for water. Food. Mercy. If I’m starving and so dehydrated my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth, she must feel so much worse. Her body needs twice as much food as mine, and Thorn isn’t giving her anything.

  I can’t hold out much longer. He’ll sell me soon. To some vampire who’ll drink my blood, glamour me, or turn me. I can’t let him.

  So many centuries ago, he auctioned me at least a dozen times. But I was less powerful then. I remember now. What I’m supposed to do. What I was supposed to do back then. I can get into Thorn's mind in much the same way he can enter mine.

  Before, my power was weaker. Seraphiel believed it would take weeks to destroy the incubus. But now, I can trap him in an instant. When I do, my own mind, my entire consciousness, will be shackled to his. My physical body will die, and our souls will be sucked into the void, consumed by the Underworld for all eternity.

  Every time he comes for me, I think I should just get it over with. But when Thorn dies, all the women caged down here with me? They’ll die too. My connection with Thorn's mind offers me insights I didn’t have last time. He holds the keys to the cages and the thick iron gates leading to the surface. Regina won’t free them. Her mind is so far gone, so tied to Thorn's, she might not even survive his death.

  No one knows where we are. Hell, I don’t even know. These tunnels and caverns are old, but not as old as the ones in Italy. Maybe a hundred years? But we’re very deep underground. I can’t hear any traffic above us. Can’t even feel the rumble of cars or truc
ks or cable cars.

  Soft footsteps approach, and light floods this old, crumbling space. Regina. My heart races, and I try to shield my mind, but while I can fight Thorn—for a time—I can’t resist the Fae.

  “Bring her,” she orders, and Gregory unlocks the cell, grabs me by my ankle, and yanks me out. I lunge for his hands, but I’m too weak and slow. “You will not fight back, my dear. You want to obey. To please me, yes?”

  No!

  “Yes, Regina.” My voice holds no emotion, like I’m suddenly two people. The real me, and the mindless shell she controls who only wants to do her bidding.

  “Pick her up and follow me,” she says, and Gregory throws me over his shoulder where I hang limp, unresisting, even as my mind struggles to break free from her control.

  Regina hums as she walks, a tone I remember from my first life here. “Tie her down next to the other one,” she says when Gregory stops moving, and two sets of hands maneuver me face down on a hard, cold block of stone. My wrists and ankles are each bound to a corner, and Gregory presses my left cheek to the rough slab, while someone else buckles a leather strap around my head so tightly, I can’t move it at all.

  A few feet away, Dion sobs quietly, bound just as I am, and our gazes lock. So much fear and pain churn in her amber eyes. She’s in her fully human state, and along with the bloody wounds on her back that mirror mine, there’s a strange symbol drawn on her forehead. My powers aren’t limited to Thorn, and I reach out and try to connect with Dion’s mind.

  Oh, God. I understand now. That symbol is a rune to stop her from shifting. She’s trapped in her most fragile form, unable to heal herself, unable to use her enhanced strength to fight back. And she’s hungry. So hungry.

  “Zoe,” she whispers. “I’m so sorry...”

  “Not your fault.” My eyes burn, but I’m so dehydrated, I can’t cry.