Hellhound (5 page)

Gunner stood there for a minute and then started to walk out again. I got up and followed him to the door and touched his arm. He stopped and turned back, his face looking softer as if the memory bothered him.

“I mean that is the text book story, but what was the truth?”

He took a slow breath and then looked at me. “You seem to have studied Rome well.”

“I did, in school…college I mean.”

“Well, it is true, all of that. We did decide to end his life from fear of a tyrannical state, but my reasons were much more personal.”

“In what way?” I asked him.

“Caesar was a dictator, a ruthless leader. His rule was long and hard. He had no morality, only a lust for power.”

“Sounds like Rome.”

“Not all Romans were devoid of honor.”

I stepped back and shook my head.

“I did not mean any disrespect to you at all.”

He walked to the window and looked out at the starry sky. I followed him as he started to speak to me.

“At the beginning of 44 BC I was starting to come into my own, politically that is, I had hopes of one day leaving the senate and possibly ruling but as I studied politics more and watched the governing body I seriously started to doubt it’s validity. I started to side with the Liberators, of which were led by my friend Gaius at the time. I wanted to fully immerse myself in the political arena, but as my popularity grew so did the attention that I brought upon myself and to my family. At the time it was just my Father and my sister who had survived the last bought of sickness that Rome had endured. My sister never fully recovered from her illness and spent most days in her room resting, she had regained her physical strength, but her mind was weak. When she finally started to feel some strength returning to her she agreed to attend a party that was arranged by Caesar to celebrate the upcoming elections. She came with me as a favor I asked of her. It was against my better judgment.”

He stopped as I stepped up next to him and saw the moonlight on his face. He truly is a beautiful man, so full of compassion and strength. He glanced at me and I looked away as he continued on.

“During the party I was busy trying my best to impress other members of the senate. This was the first time that I met Caesar in person, I mean I had seen him many times, but to have him step up to me and speak was an honor I did not expect to receive. He did so with all the charm of a snake, only to rival Lucifer himself with his ability to weave his lies.”

His tone darkened as he reached up and placed his hand on the glass that separated us from the outside world.

“The party went late into the night and it was not until the morning that I realized that Tercia, my sister, had been raped and half beaten to death. She would not speak for weeks, but when she finally did she only said one word “Caesar”. It was then that I knew what I must do, not only for my country, but for her.”

“Wait, if Tercia was your sister then that makes you…”

“I am Marcus Juneus Brutus.”

“Oh my God, no way.”

He turned to me and raised an eyebrow.

“What is not to believe?”

“I just thought he was older and…”

“We did not have the life expectancy that humans do now, so we did everything much earlier in life.”

“I just can’t believe it, I mean I can. So what happened to you and to your sister?”

“She took her own life, but with regret. I was killed for my sins against Caesar.”

“I am so sorry.”

“There is nothing to apologize for, this is my story, not yours.”

I paused and then asked him one final question.

“So why me, why was I chosen to become a Hellhound?”

“Because a Hellhound fell in battle and it allowed another to step in. You see Lucifer’s only power is how many of us there can be at any given time, other than that he controls nothing past trials. There can only be 5 like the points on his pentagram”

“So one of you died then allowing for me to take their place?”

He walked to my door and opened it up and then turned back to me and nodded.

“Who?” I asked him.

“My sister.” He said and with that he was gone as my appetite faded and my heart ached for his loss.

Chapter Three

Bittersweet Kiss

“My lips parted, a tongue slipped into my mouth. It searched every corner of it like the hunger it had was insatiable, but my hunger…my need to get fucked was so overwhelming. My breasts ached, my pussy hummed and my muscles tightened in my ass as a firm hand slid down and squeezed it. I jerked at his thick hair, blue and beautiful, just enough to wind my fingers into it tightly and pull. His moan told me that he enjoyed it and I needed that from him. I needed the pleasure and the pain. His lips left mine and then nibbled at my neck, I grinned, but hoped for more, I needed him to bite into my flesh and set my senses on fire.

His teeth were sharp, almost like that of a vampire as he bit into me. The blood tasting sweet on his lips, the release of it making the incredible orgasm creep up my abdomen, like that of a snake. I hissed, allowing the pain to mingle inside of me. I had never been this way, in fact my sexual exploits had always been mild compared to some, but with Gunner, well, I wanted for him to make a toy out of me, to fuck me until screaming his name was no longer a possibility because my throat was hoarse and aching...”

Lucifer stopped talking as he then raised his eyes and stared at me.

I tapped my fingernails on the desk as Lucifer laid the piece of paper down and grinned at me. He leaned back in chair and watched me closely as I looked annoyed and I should be. He had just recited my dream, the one I had just had the night before. Fucking prick, and creeper. How dare he…

“Halo, there is no need to fucking internalize your conversation, I can hear it all…Jesus Christ.”

I leaned back and stared him down.

“Fine.” I said as I raised an eyebrow and he stood up and fingered at the paper in his desk.

“It seems you would like to fuck Gunner, badly from what this reads.”

“I don’t know why you felt it necessary to invade my dreams.”

“Necessary?” he said as his voice deepened and the room got colder. I sat up and held onto the arms of the black leather chair and then noticed that the leather felt extremely smooth, unlike any I had ever felt before.

“Human.” He said to me and I looked up at him.

“What?”

“The chair, it is human skin. Holds up better.”

“Oh shit.” I said as I stood up and stepped away from it.

“Oh shit indeed, it is not easy to skin one of those monkey’s, especially when they are squirming.”

I swallowed hard; the thought of it bothered me, as did everything about Lucifer.

“Anyway…vampires? Really? I would have taken you for a werewolf kind of groupie.”

“I don’t know why…”

He stopped me with a wave of his hand. “I blame Hollywood. They have romanticized the bastards to hell and back, if they only knew how their insides were eaten away and their hearts were filled with cobwebs. It even grossed me out.” He said as he walked to a large black cabinet and opened it up, I shook my head as a boy hung in it, his arms above his head and a ball gag in his mouth. Lucifer pushed him aside and then found what he was looking for. He ignored him as he closed the doors and the boy squirmed a bit. I took a breath and decided to clear my mind. Nothing bothered me more than when he…

“Halo, for shits sake, please shut the fuck up already.” He said as he walked to me and then held up a sword. I stared at it as he grinned and licked his lips. A terrible habit he seemed to have, something that made him appear even more evil, at least to me.

“I want you to have this.” He said to me and I narrowed my eyes.

“Why?”

He tilted is head and paused for a second then decided to continue.

“It was mine.” He said to me and I stepped back from him.

“Yours?”

“Is everything a question with you?”

I shook my head ‘no’ as he walked towards me and held the sword out like he was presenting it to me.

“I can’t.”

He then was in front of me with the same speed he had demonstrated to me before. He stared me down as I tried my best to fight back the nervousness creeping up in me.

“I was once an angel, just as my brother was. The only difference was that I was the one who had to handle the ugly business, the war…he was more of a politician and of course his words flowed from his lips and poisoned everyone against me. I was cast out, but I brought one thing with me and that was this sword, the sword I carried as a warrior of heaven, but I have no need for it here. I would just like to see someone who is worthy of it use it as it should be used. To kill.”

I held my hands out as his words mesmerized me then he turned me and pushed me towards the door and out I went. I turned as he slammed the door in my face and Gunner leaned against the wall. He was looking down and then finally straightened up and stared at the sword in my hand.

“Well shit.” He said as he took it from me and held it up, checking the blade. He ran his finger across the edge of the metal and it did not cut him. He smiled and then handed it back to me.

“Do you need me to bite you?” he said and I blushed as I then realized that he knew everything, my dream about him and the fact that it was dirty as hell. He walked down the hallway that led us to a large elevator and he stood there as we could hear the gears turning above us. He placed his hand on the black panel and when he pulled it back I could see the impression of his hand print left behind but it had no print to it, almost as if it had been stripped of anything that could identify him.

I cleared my throat and looked upward as he glanced at me. I tried my best to ignore him, but my inability to not say what I was thinking took over.

“It was a dream, that is all.”

“Really?” he asked and I took a slow breath and then let it out.

“Yes, I mean I am under some stress here. I just fucking killed my boyfriend and then died.”

“Uh huh.”

I stared at the elevator and laughed under my breath. He glanced at me out f curiosity.

“What?”

“I just always thought it would be a highway.”

“Highway?”

“To Hell… not an elevator…never mind.”

“You mean the song.”

“Yes, I do.” I looked at him kind of impressed that he knew what I meant.

“What? I have been here a long time, I know things.”

“Cool.” I said as I watched doors open. Two faceless creatures stepped out in black suits with a girl by each arm. She looked as if she had been crying really hard but when she passed me I could see that her eyes were filled with bloody tears. I tried to ignore that too as Gunner stepped into the elevator and then I followed him. We turned as the girl tried to fight them and they drug her along as she moaned.

“What was that?” I asked him and he crossed his arms on his chest.

“That was a rogue.”

I looked at him and then upward at the mirrored ceiling. His shoulders looked strong; in fact he just looked like a badass, like a man who could truly handle anything thrown at him.

“A demon?”

“Yes, sometimes they escape and then try to be “good”, it never works out well.”

“How is that possible? I mean a demon is evil.”

“Don’t be so fast to judge, just because they came to hell and became a demon does not mean they are all evil, they just failed the trial to become a Hellhound.”

“Well that sucks.”

He looked at me as I looked upward, I realized he was starring and I looked at him.

“So, how good was I then?”

I looked down and bit into my lip as he had been so clever to hop back on the sex subject with me.

“You rocked.” I said as I looked at him and suddenly shed my nerves. I mean at this point I need to start acting like I can hold my own. I am a Hellhound, I will be hunting demons and if I cannot handle a bit of Gunner and his jokes then what good will I be? The answer would be none at all. He then turned to me and looked me over as I raised an eyebrow. He stepped forward and I stepped back, we played this out until I was against the mirrored wall of the elevator and he was about 2 inches in front of me. I felt the cold mirror to my back and the even colder sword in my hand. He reached down and wrapped his fingers over mine on the hilt of the sword and brought it up so that the metal was between us. I looked past the cold steel and saw the reflection of the blade in his eyes. His eyes, deep and brooding and I could not imagine everything he had seen. The idea of him being a Roman, and the Roman that he actually was, that of Brutus. I tried my best to keep my heartbeat at a regular rhythm but his skin against mine was engulfing my thoughts and the fact that he was so close to me.

“This is a powerful weapon.”

“I hate it.” I said as he looked past the sword and into my eyes.

“Why?”

“Because, it was his.”

“Oh Lucifer, I get it. I do. I mean you should despise him.”

“I do hate him, he is pure evil.” I said as my muscles tensed up in my jaw.

“He has never offered a weapon to anyone else, but to my sister. He must favor you as he did her.”

“Great.”

“Be grateful that he does not hate you.”

I stared at him as he remained to close, but I would never tell him to move away from me. In fact the longer her stood there the worse my ability to ignore his beautiful lips became.

“I…” I started to say as the sword started to lower. His hand relaxing and yet he remained close to me.

“What Halo?” he asked and I started to speak as he leaned in and let his lips touch mine. I left my eyes open, which was just awkward as hell. He parted my lips with his tongue, his kiss was soft and sweet and he raised a hand and cupped my face as I closed my eyes and melted into him. How I could feel this way for him so quickly was beyond me, but the feeling was real. I mean, perhaps it was the memory of seeing him holding me, the look on his face and how he seemed to become my protector in the moment of my death. His strength consumed me as did my feeling of security when he was near me. The dream of having him did not help, not one bit. I lowered the sword and he leaned up, pressing against me, but only slightly. It was as if he wanted to take his time or perhaps tease me. I could not be certain. Then the elevator stopped and the doors started to open as he quickly backed away and looked at me, his facial expression telling me that he was just as confused as I was as to why he did it to begin with.

“Gunner.” I said as he stepped from the elevator and into the house, the one we would call home on the surface of the earth. I watched him walk away from me and I touched my lips, as his bittersweet kiss lingered on.

***

Ari and Finna both stared me down as I adjusted the vinyl dress I had on. The straps across the front of it led down the front of me and I had nothing on but my panties beneath it. There was no need for a bra and the straps let a bit of skin show through. My fishnet was torn slightly on one leg, I had ripped them while putting them on but I did not care. My black combat style boots were laced up tight. I sighed and looked up at the two of them.

“How will you fight in that ridiculous shit?” Finna asked as she stared me down. Ari said nothing as his eyes lingered and she smacked him and he nodded, crossing his arms on his chest.

“Can you move okay?” he asked me, like it was a serious inquiry. I knew as much as Finna did that he was just eyeballing my goodies. Then I heard footsteps behind me and turned to see Dorin coming from the shadows. He looked yummy as he had before.

“Interesting outfit.” He said to me as he eyed me, walking past me. He stopped and turned to look me over.

“Is this what you will be fighting in?”

“Yes.” Gunner said as he walked into the room and looked at everyone. “She will be fine. This is what she felt most comfortable with and so it is what she will be wearing.”

“I remember when we just fought in what we died in.” Finna said as she half laughed.

Gunner looked at her. “Things change, Lucifer changes the game as often as he wishes to. I don’t control it.”

“I never said that you did.” She said as they watched him walk to the wall and he pulled two axes. He came back and tossed one to me and I caught it a lot easier than I thought that I would. It felt as if it weighed nothing and yet I knew that it had weight to it.