Hell's Gift (24 page)

Its tail slithered around the trunk of the tree and my body twice without moving its face from in front of mine, then it contracted, squeezing my chest cavity, leaving me gasping for air and failing terribly at receiving any.

I should have been near passing out from lack of oxygen to my brain, but something was keeping me conscious. It may have been the fear or it may have been the pain from the cracking of my ribs and the collapsing of my lungs under the pressure of the massive snake’s body trying to squeeze me to death.

Why hadn’t I fought?

Why had I just sat there and let him win?

I should have at least died fighting.

“Give up, angel. You cannot win against him. He will never let you have her. She is too valuable a commodity for someone as lowly as you.”

I blinked a few times and shook my head to clear my thoughts.
Was I hallucinating? It wasn’t possible the snake was talking to me…was it?

“Huh?”

I watched, completely mesmerized, as the snake snickered.

“Oh, Jesus, it’s Damien. It’s a good thing I didn’t give you any force or you would be totally screwed right now, buddy.”

I acknowledged Malcolm’s comment with a mental nod, but kept quiet otherwise. I didn’t know how much power the demon prince had. I knew Abigail couldn’t read my thoughts, but I wasn’t counting out every unholy because of that fact.

Now that I knew it wasn’t some hungry snake looking for a meal, I wasn’t worried about him eating me any longer.

“I will not give up. It matters not how many times you kill me, I will keep coming back until I complete my mission. The contract is binding. He has no choice but to give up her soul and let her leave as long as I follow the rules.”

“You’re a fool,” the snake hissed. “You will not make it through the sydes without losing your holy mind. God himself could not do it.”

“You underestimate him, and you underestimate me.”

“I doubt that.”

His heavy body began to loosen, uncoiling from around me and the trunk. The instant he slithered away from me I got to my knees and gasped for air. I still felt like my lungs had been punctured by my ribs, but hopefully my chest was only bruised. Josselyn wasn’t around to heal any mortal injuries. If I died there, I could only hope Malcolm was a good enough healer to patch me up enough so I could continue.

“But I am curious about you.”

I glanced up from my kneeled position to a man dressed in black leather pants and a black fitted shirt, his bow shouldered and his quiver strapped across his chest and nestled at his back, holding what looked to be at least a dozen arrows. His physical appearance seemed to be a few years my elder, but age hardly mattered after the mortal life was over. Angels and demons didn’t age, and most could choose the way they would look for all eternity.

I chose not to change my appearance and I was thankful Abbi hadn’t changed hers, as well. My wife was beautiful.

The demon’s brown hair was short and his steel gray eyes held a millennium of wisdom and something else: danger. Yes, the man was dangerous.

I imagined him helping me instead of working against me. I wondered how close he was to my Abbi. Would he help her or side with Lucifer?

“Hey, maybe you can get him on your side. He hasn’t killed you yet,”
Malcolm said, and I shook my head and sighed.

“Are you mistaking my thoughts for your own, Malcolm?”

“Keep him talking while I explain something to you. Try and keep up with us both. This may be the last time you get a chance to speak with him.”

The prince had said he was curious about me, I thought. “Why is that?” I asked Damien.

“Abigail said the seven heavenly virtues are the keys to get out of each syde. That you making the decision not to give in to your thirst is what earned you that door back there,”
Malcolm said, but I continued to stare at Damien, waiting for his answer with a big gloating grin spreading across my face. I couldn’t contain my happiness at Malcolm’s discovery and Abbi’s willingness to help.

“So, what is the heavenly virtue that would match up with sloth and help me get my door out of here?”
I asked.

The prince studied me, but didn’t comment on my unusual expression for the current situation. “Until today, I’ve never seen anyone stand up to him. And to think that you did it in a way that he couldn’t retaliate…well, that just impresses the shit out of me.”

I got to my feet without showing fear that he might attack me. All my defenses were down. The fact was, if he wanted to hurt me I couldn’t really do anything about it. I had no more than mere mortal power and even my mortal shell was injured. I could not physically compete against a demon prince and expect to win. The cards were just not in my favor. I was hoping to change that soon.

The Prince of Sloth didn’t move. He only eyed the arm I was favoring.

I heard Malcolm huff irritably in my head.
“Diligence.”

“What?” I asked out loud, and got a confused look from Damien, so I cleared my throat and spoke only to the demon. “Is he listening and watching me right now?”

He chuckled, then glanced at my too small boots, then looked back at me and raised an eyebrow in amusement. “I’d imagine so—”

“Assiduity, integrity, labor; you have to keep your ass moving, Rhyan, no matter what.

“How can you be sure—”

“Nobody knows when he is watching, but I’d wager he’s not going to miss your attempt to beat him at his own game.”

I knew from what Malcolm had seen in the meeting that the royalty were supposed to try to stop me, make me give up, or there would be consequences they wouldn’t want to face. I couldn’t protect this man if he got caught helping me, but looking into his eyes I realized that he was reading my expression like a book and knew what I wanted him to do.

He confirmed my thought by shaking his head. “I will not help you, angel. Why have you come here? She is not worth even a hint of the trouble you are about to get yourself into. You should leave. You still carry your soul within you. I can smell it.”

“Even if I wanted to leave, I couldn’t. My soul is bound to the contract, the deal I made with Lucifer.”

Damien sighed. “So it is. Stupid move on your part, I’d say. There is too much evil in her to ever turn it back into good. You had the best of that woman when she was human. We’ve all been settling for your sloppy seconds.”

I couldn’t contain my rage. I charged him. He never moved, except when I got almost to him he jumped in the air and spun around. The whole thing was in slow motion. I could see his leg swinging toward me, but I’d been moving so fast I couldn’t prevent the impact that was sure to come. And swiftly it did. His foot caught my right shoulder and knocked me back into the tree twenty feet behind me. My breath had left my lungs in a whoosh, and I lifted my head just in time to see his body twisting in the air, his leg aiming for my head this time.

I ducked and rolled under him, and was back on my feet in time to see him take one, two steps up the trunk and kick off into a twisted back-flip, then he landed on the balls of his feet in a fighting stance.

I held both hands up in a sort of surrender. I didn’t want to die then if I didn’t have to.

Damien smiled. “How’s that shoulder?”

I looked at my arm and moved it freely.
Had he intentionally angered me so I would charge him and give him the chance to set my dislocated shoulder without it looking as though he was helping me?

I glanced back up to Damien and his perfect white teeth. “It seems to be all better now. I suppose I should say thank you?”

“I wouldn’t, if I were you.”

I nodded and dropped the subject because that’s what I assumed he wanted me to do. “Lucifer promised me an object to help me on my way for each syde I graduated into. I haven’t received my object for this syde yet.”

He held out his empty hand, palm up, and a long spear appeared atop it. He closed his hand around it, then said, “If you were planning to avoid the royalty as you passed through our sydes, then you would go without your promised object; you have to grace us with an introduction before you can receive it. We hold what was promised to you, angel.”

Almost quicker than I could follow, he threw the spear at my head. I dodged just in time and my hand immediately thrust out and grabbed it, stopping it just before it stabbed the tree.

He chuckled as he turned to leave. “You just keep impressing me, angel. Good luck. Oh,” he turned to look at me from the shadow of a bush, “I wouldn’t go to sleep again if I were you. Matter of fact, I wouldn’t do any resting at all if you want to get out of here in one piece.”

“All they can do is kill me.”

“Aye, but I’d imagine my minions would have fun torturing you first. How many times do you think you can die before you lose your mind? I’m excited to see the outcome. Try not to disappoint us. We do enjoy good entertainment.” He turned and then he was gone.

“Well, damn!”

“What? Were you rooting for him to kill me?”

“No, I was hoping he would help us.”

I stared in the direction Damien had gone. “He did help us.”

Chapter 30

Thoros

Thoros lay in his bed, tossing a small ball to the clay ceiling of his chambers, then catching it as gravity took effect. He hadn’t requested any female companionship since his meeting with the pretty blond angel guarding the human charges. He’d actually even turned down Lameria when she’d propositioned him after he’d returned from Josselyn’s.

“Damn it!” He threw the ball across the room with so much force, it burst when it came in contact with the stone wall some seventy-five feet away.

It wasn’t Josselyn’s house. He wasn’t there to focus on Josselyn. But Josselyn was all he could seem to think about. He was there to monitor the human family, and actually he hadn’t even been asked to go the second time. He’d done that completely on his own.

Which reminded him, he needed to report to Murry and make up some bull-shit story to keep him away a little longer, just until he could get the information he needed, and then Murry could do what he wanted with the humans. They were of no importance to him. Josselyn was just going to hate him in the end anyway. There was no way around that.

He was going to screw her brains out before they got to that point, though. He hadn’t ever been with an angel before. Humans yes, demons…so many he’d lost count, but an angel? Never.

He growled as he glanced down at his lap, and the sheet that was posing as a teepee at the moment. “Why do I have such a hard-on for that damn female?” he mumbled, and then glanced around for something else to throw.

He was a demon. She was an angel. He was in Hell. She was in Heaven. It could not work! They couldn’t meet up on Earth in some dirty, roach-infested motel twice a week for a quickie before he had to report back to his evil duties as the grim-fucking-reaper and snatch up a soul or two to carry back with him to the Syde of Lust. It wouldn’t work.

Unless…

His head shot up and he froze as the most genius thought he’d ever had passed through his mind. A sly smile spread across his face and he began to laugh.

Josselyn

“Are you alright?” Kendra asked, keeping a wary eye on Josselyn as she stood for the third time and paced to the window. “Did you see something we should be cautious about?” Her eyes widened. “Did you see him? Is Murry here?” She held Benjamin a little tighter to her chest, but didn’t loosen her grip when Josselyn shook her head.

“No, Murry is not here. I may have bought us some time, but at what cost, I’m not sure.”

“Time? You bought time from whom?”

“Someone even worse, maybe…” When Kendra’s body tensed even more and her eyes threatened to spill fresh tears, Josselyn smiled and rubbed her hand across the soft hair on Ben’s head. “Don’t worry; he doesn’t seem to be a threat to you and yours. I will protect you at all costs, Kendra. I promise you that.”

Josselyn placed her hands on each side of Kendra’s face, her thumbs settling on her forehead above her eyes, and then she took away the anxiety from her mind.

Adam was there to take Ben from her arms. “I’ll make sure she gets some sleep,” he said, and made eye contact with the angel, then he turned the exhausted Kendra and led her to the bedroom.

Josselyn watched the human family go, but her mind wasn’t there. It seemed to be wrapped around the fact that she had only gotten them into even more trouble by agreeing to work with a demon, a very sexy demon at that.

She was petrified and ashamed. She wasn’t ashamed because she wasn’t focused on Rhyan’s victory, or that Murry could pay her a visit anytime and she wouldn’t be prepared, which would result in him taking Kendra and her family. No, none of that. She was ashamed because she was scared to death that she was falling for a demon, and not just any demon, but a prince…the Prince of Lust.

She looked to the two male guards and nodded for them to take their posts outside the Chamberlain bedroom door and window. They complied without question, and she was grateful. She didn’t have the energy for such arguments.

She had to talk to Malcolm. He wasn’t going to like what she had to say, but as bad as it seemed, she still felt it was the best decision. She was just praying her selfish reasoning wasn’t so she could see Thoros again.

God help her soul.

She closed her eyes and popped out of the Chamberlain home.

Rhyan

I’d been walking for what seemed like days, but I knew it could have only been about an hour, at best. I struggled to stay on task and not let my mind fall prey to fatigue. I realized the sydes were playing tricks on my mind, and knowing that made it a little easier for me to place one foot in front of the other and keep marching on. I knew I couldn’t stop and rest, least I wanted to wake up to a tiger at my jugular.

I was surprised I hadn’t seen anyone else about. It wasn’t possible I was the only person in the Syde of Sloth. The world had always been full of lazy people. Of course, it was possible that Damien ordered all of them to stay away from me so I couldn’t get any help, not that they would know how to get out.