Hell Bound

by Maribel Fox

  Besides, I’m here to see Lili, not the other guards. Not seeing anyone on my way in just means I don’t have to make small talk with anyone. Perfect. I can just go right in without delay or detour.

  As I’m walking through the gate — also deserted, which seems more concerning — I feel something move behind me, turning to see nothing but shadows.

  Being alone here is just making me paranoid. Especially because I know I’m not here for any good reasons. I’m not here for a shift, and if Valephar knew that I wanted to visit Lili after hours, he’d probably have me reassigned right away. This is the kind of thing that’s kept turnover in this position so high. And I’m falling right into her trap.

  I sigh and shake my head, trying to snap myself out of it.

  Suddenly, there’s something cold pressed against my throat. I freeze, the sharp bite of a dagger nipping into my Adam’s apple. The guy appeared out of nowhere, like he materialized from nothing, and he’s holding me tight, making sure I can’t budge as he presses the blade to my throat.

  “Nice necklace. I’ll be needing that,” he says, accent thick as stroganoff. He presses the knife into my throat deeper, the blade nicking my skin. Then he growls. “Suka sin, you have to be alive for your jewels to work, da?”

  I swallow, eyes darting, trying to see the guy, but he’s behind me and I’m not going to slice my own neck just to turn my head. “Yeah, that’s right,” I say, mouth dry as a desert.

  “We go together, then. Nice and slow,” he says, nudging my shoulder to propel me forward. I take a step forward and he follows, then another. We walk in together, slowly, my mind racing.

  There’s no one else around — and suddenly I’m figuring out what happened to all my coworkers — and I’m wondering if I should sound some kind of alarm.

  Maybe he’s connected to Lili? The thought occurs out of nowhere, but then I remember she’s been here for a long time, so it’s probably not her. The other guy? He’s a recent arrival.

  No point in trying to figure it out with a knife at my throat anyway. I’ll just have to wait and see.

  Most prison guards would probably be a bit more upset about being pressed at knife-point and frog-marched into the very prison they’re meant to guard. Most, but not me. I mean, I’m a little upset that this guy ambushed me and doesn’t even have the time for politeness, but this is the second-most exciting thing to ever happen to me.

  And the other thing was this morning!

  Helluva day.

  “Which way?” he asks me once we’re inside. I shrug.

  “I don’t know where you’re going.”

  He curses under his breath, and turns me. “That way,” he says, shoving me toward the door I guard. The door that leads to Lili’s hallway.

  Walking down here again feels surreal. Like what happened earlier today was only a dream, not reality. A dream I want to repeat ASAP, if I’m being honest.

  Lili’s pacing in her cell, looking agitated as we approach, and the other guy in the cell next to her is lounging on the cot with a smug smile, stretched out casually with his hands behind his head, the lights in his cell constantly flickering feebly.

  “I brought you necklace,” my kidnapper says.

  “Aw, buddy, you shouldn’t have. That’s so sweet,” the prisoner says, grinning our way. Through my fear, some part of my brain notices that the shadows surrounding him aren’t quite as… shadowy… And it’s not nearly so hard to make out the features of his face as before.

  Lili stops pacing, eyes roving over my captor with definite interest before sliding over to me.

  “You!” she says, eyes narrowing.

  “Me,” I answer, grinning. She can be suspicious or angry. I’m just happy to see her again. To be near her. To drink in her beauty and—

  “Snap out of it!”

  “W-what?”

  She’s glaring at me, hands on her hips. “You’re in a sex daze thinking about earlier. Just focus. If you don’t play this exactly right, the nice wolf back there is going to eat your face and snap your neck. In that order. You don’t want that, do you?”

  I lick my lips, having trouble dragging my eyes away from hers as they form around every threatening word.

  “No, Ladyship, I don’t,” I answer, everything falling into place with a bang. She’s not just Lili. Holy shit, how did I not realize who she was until just now?

  I really was in a sex daze.

  “Ladyship?” she asks, head tilted, eyes narrowed.

  I clear my throat, dipping my head as much as I can without beheading myself. “My apologies. But you are her, aren’t you? Ardat Lili, Ruby of the Seven Flames?”

  “How do you know that?” she asks, her voice as cold and dangerous as the dagger at my throat.

  “It took me a little while to recognize you, but there’s no mistaking it… When you went missing there wasn’t a street in Hell you could walk down without seeing your face on a poster. I even joined your brother in his search for a little while — mind that was nearly a hundred years ago. I doubt he’d remember me, but there’s no forgetting you.”

  “Wait… What? When I went missing…?” Lili looks genuinely confused. I guess she would be. She’s been stuck in here. How would she know what’s going on outside?

  “Yeah. Bali Raj led a massive search effort after your disappearance. If I remember correctly, he had quite the fight with your commanders about it, got himself publicly rebuked. They claimed you went AWOL and he didn’t believe you’d do that.”

  “I didn’t,” she says, a dark edge to her voice.

  “Clearly.”

  For a moment she’s quiet, looking down at the floor, her arms wrapped around herself before she shakes her head.

  “No, that’s not right. My family didn’t want me anymore when they found out I was half-dragon. They disowned me, they—”

  “Who told you that?” I ask.

  She falls silent.

  “Valephar,” she growls, hands balling into fists. “My parents? What about them?”

  “Yeah, they made a few statements about it all too — not as vocal as Bali Raj, a bit more concern for the House than him, I’d wager, but they were definitely torn up about it. Offered a big reward to anyone with information. Your brother’s the determined one, though. Been looking for decades — I’d say he’s probably still looking except…”

  “Except what?” Lili asks, voice going shrill.

  The wolf twitches, and I feel his knife bite into my skin again, wincing as I pull away on instinct.

  “Look, I’m happy to tell you anything I know about your family gossip, but can we put the knife away? I’m not going to fight you guys.”

  Lili stares at me coldly for a long moment before she nods. “Sit on the ground where we can both see you. You try to get up, the wolf kills you.”

  “I don’t take orders from you,” the Russian grumbles. I don’t wanna get involved in this fight, so I just raise my hands, the universal sign for ‘hey, I don’t want any trouble here,’ and sink to the floor, sitting cross-legged.

  “Ay cabrón, can you open these cell doors?” the prisoner asks.

  “No,” I answer, more than a little bitter at the realization. “I wasn’t ever given instructions or keys. I don’t have codes for the locks, anything. Apparently I was just here to be food.”

  The guy’s sniffing the air, being kind of weird, if I’m honest, and it’s still hard to see him, the shadows around him too dark.

  “What are you?” he asks.

  “Excuse me?”

  “What kind of Hell critter are you? You smell kinda… Just answer the maldito question.”

  “No need to get snippy. I’m just a Devil, nothing special.”

  “You’re not,” he says.

  I snort. “What?”

  The guy lets out a string of curse words in a language I don’t know.

  “I’ve gone how many centuries without seeing another dragon and now there are two of you? Who knew Hell was keeping so much
hidden away? Come ‘ere,” he says, his hand through the bars, beckoning me.

  I narrow my eyes at him, sure it’s a trick. The moment I move the wolf’s going to behead me. I look up at the wolf specifically. He shrugs.

  “If it is no problem with Ocho, I will not touch you,” he says.

  “Hey, it’s a problem with me!” Lili protests. “We need him to get us out of here—”

  “That’s what I’m doing,” Ocho says.

  “I do not give any shits what you want, woman,” the wolf growls at Lili. She gives him an odd look, but I don’t take the time to try to parse it because I’m getting up slowly, getting closer to Ocho’s cell.

  This close, I can see him better, but I still don’t want to look at him. He seems to draw in the light from around him, extinguishing it before it can highlight his features. He takes a long inhale through his nose, clearly taking a good thorough sniff of me. Suddenly, he smiles — something that looks alarming cast in shadows like this.

  “Perfecto,” he says, chuckling softly. “Put your finger right on the lock of this cell,” he instructs, waiting for me to comply. I don’t know what I’m doing here, but I’m not eager to find a dagger pressed into my soft body parts again.

  “Now think cold thoughts,” he says, once my finger’s in place.

  “Cold thoughts?” I ask skeptically.

  “Yeah… Uh… I know you probably don’t have much of a reference for that down here, but anything cold you can think of. Snow? Ice? Do you know what that is?”

  “Do I know what fucking ice is?” I ask disbelieving. “It’s Hell, not the Dark Ages. We’ve got the internet.”

  “Great,” Ocho says, disregarding my smartass comments. “Think as hard as you can about ice and snow. Pretend your finger’s about to fall off from frostbite if you can.”

  This sounds like the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard of, but I don’t have any better ideas, so I comply. I think about being cold, about shivering, about ice closing around my whole body until the cold is all I know. Nothing’s happening.

  “Concentrate,” Ocho says.

  “What’s it look like I’m doing?”

  “Focus harder, don’t let your mind wander. Only cold thoughts.”

  I roll my eyes before looking back at the lock. Cold. Cold, cold, cold. In my head, I picture ice crystals forming, snowflakes growing, whorls of frost spreading across glass.

  “That’s it, keep going,” Ocho says. I look down at the lock and have to doubletake. Frost is pouring from my finger, hungrily licking across the metal. I want to pull away, take a moment to digest this, but Ocho pushes me to keep going. Finally he’s satisfied. “Dima, whack it with the hilt of your dagger,” he says, pushing my hand away from the lock. The wolf follows his instructions, and just like that, the lock shatters.

  Ocho slips out of his cell, landing one brief clap on the wolf’s shoulder. His eyes immediately shoot towards Lili’s cell, and for a moment his face is wracked with such raw longing I almost feel like I’m intruding. Then Lili looks up, meeting his eyes, and his face shuts down. He backs up, out of view of her cell door, and turns his attention back to me.

  “Elemental ice,” Ocho says smugly as I look at my hand in disbelief. I know those locks are spelled to withstand all kinds of magic. Apparently not elemental magic?

  Surely he’s mistaken though. Maybe I have some latent ice powers from gods-only-know-where, but I can’t be a dragon. My parents would’ve mentioned something like that. Still, this ice thing is a handy trick, and even easier to do a second time on Lili’s lock. The door to her cell opens, and she stands firm inside, frozen, like she can’t believe it, can’t take it all in. Her eyes are far away and unfocused, and I can tell she’s replaying some past horrors that have happened to her here. I don’t even want to try to fathom what could put that look of vacant fear into the eyes of such an incredibly strong woman.

  All at once, her eyes clear, and she steps forward, breathing heavily — excited, maybe? This is her chance for escape.

  “Dmitry, may I borrow your dagger?” she asks.

  He frowns. “What for?”

  She jerks her thumb at me, and all I can do is gulp.

  “You give it back?” he asks.

  “I swear,” Lili says, the steel in her voice making me more worried.

  I thought we had a good rapport, but I realize that was a stupid thought. She’s a prisoner, I’m a guard. Now the tables have turned. Why should she be kind to me?

  The wolf offers his dagger, somewhat reluctantly, and Lili takes it with a little dip of her head in thanks.

  “Against the wall,” she orders me, jabbing the knife in my direction. “Strip,” she adds, with a hint of a purr.

  Against my will, my cock’s responding to it, to the nearness of her, to the memories of our last time. I swallow thickly, hoping to inject some levity into the situation as I follow her commands.

  “I thought you weren’t a rapist.”

  “I’m not going to rape you,” Lili says, stepping up to me with the knife at my throat.

  I’d be lying if I said I’m not disappointed as fuck.

  “We should be going,” Dmitry says.

  “Yeah, Lil, we should really get out of here before someone else comes in for rounds,” Ocho adds.

  “We have time,” Lili says. “No one will be in here for another half hour, at least. And Maal here… Well, I think he might have some useful information,” she says, dragging the tip of the knife down the middle of my chest. It’s cold against my skin, and sharp enough that I know one slip could do some serious damage. I shiver, trying to hold as still as I can while she caresses my torso with the blade.

  Why is this turning me on so much?

  “Tell me more about my family,” she says. “What is going on with my brother?”

  I swallow as she pulls the flat of the knife over one of my nipples, making me gasp.

  “He… he’s left Hell, hooked up with a Fae on Earth last I heard.”

  The wolf butts in, impatience clear on his face. “Woman, I met your brat back on Earth. I tell you all about him, after we are somewhere safe.”

  Lili turns to glare at him, her mouth opening a closing a couple times. “You met him?”

  “Da, da, da. Yes.”

  “When?”

  “I tell you after we are gone from here. You cannot threaten me with my own knife.”

  Lili growls at him. “Wanna bet?”

  I can’t help but smirk at the brief look of surprise and maybe interest that flashes across Dmitry’s face.

  “We’ll go when I’m finished with this one. No use in walking him out of here if we’re just going to kill him later,” she says.

  I gulp at that last thing and her snarl as she whirls back to me, dancing her blade around my pelvis.

  “What House do you belong to? To whom are you loyal?” she asks, the knife point whispering in the grooves of my hips.

  “I’m… not,” I pant, struggling to focus. The mixture of fear for my life and desperation for her is almost too much. I can’t keep my thoughts straight. “I’m no one important, Ladyship,” I pant. “No one.”

  The knife is dangerously close to my cock now, and I’m harder than I’ve ever been. Even with the audience. Ocho’s watching with this satisfied smirk that should make me feel much more embarrassed than it does, and Dmitry has his back turned on the whole affair, muttering about having to sanitize his knife.

  “Fine,” she says finally, pulling back, leaving me gasping, panting, on the verge of begging her for more even though I’m pretty sure that was an interrogation, not foreplay.

  It’s Hell, why not both?

  She turns away from me, running the blade through the fire of a torch on the wall.

  “Mmm, I’ll have to remember this for next time,” she says slyly, eying me purposefully as she does it. I shiver, not sure what to make of that as I scramble to gather my clothes.

  Lili returns the knife to the wolf and says to b
oth of them, “Let’s get out of here. We’ll bring him along; he’ll make for a good snack.” Then to me, she adds, “Get dressed… Except for this,” she says, snatching my shirt from my hands. It’s my uniform shirt, a black, button-up shirt that on her just barely skims the tops of her thighs.

  “I have clothes for Ocho in bag if you want his pants?” Dmitry says.

  Without waiting for her to answer, Ocho’s stripping out of his sweatpants — the only thing he’s wearing — and standing there completely naked without a second thought.

  I can’t help but watch Lili’s gaze raking over his body as he pulls on his fresh clothes, her admiration unmistakable. Rather than preening, as I might’ve expected from a guy so cocksure and so willing to be naked, he shrinks away from her, all but hiding behind Dmitry. The wolf rolls his eyes but says nothing, just crossing his arms and glaring at Lili as the shadow dragon gets dressed behind him. It’s not that he cares about being naked, I think to myself. He just doesn’t want her to look at him.

  I sigh — relief, frustration, all kinds of things mixed into one. I’m not dead — that’s a great point in my favor — and I’m going with this goddess on some kind of grand adventure.

  Everything I’ve always wanted, right?

  But goddamn these blue balls. She’s left me with an erection that could double for a crane boom, a very large, very uncomfortable erection.

  Wait a minute… Did my dick get bigger?

  15

  Ku

  “You have a disappointing lack of texts about dragons,” I grumble, perusing Alistair’s shelves yet again, hoping this will be the time the pertinent book jumps out at me.

  “Your kind aren’t exactly known for sharing their secrets,” the vampire says drolly.

  I can’t argue with him. Nor should I. Alistair’s been kind enough to lend me use of his personal library — a collection that’s far superior to the paltry offering of the so-called city library — and I have to admit I appreciate him being such a kindred soul when it comes to our love of books and learning.

  “What exactly is it that you’re looking for?” he asks, moving around the library so swiftly and silently that he might as well be teleporting.