Damned and Desperate (20 page)

Mar shrieked and slipped onto the ground with a thud, landing next to Katherine, who was still knocked out and lying motionless beside them. Wow. So they’d dumped Katherine and started fucking? They made my rough pecker pummeling look a lot less psychotic.

Mar gaped at Katherine, then at Boner, who was still braying and prancing around in a circle, his donkey dong so huge it nearly scraped the floor.

“Oh my goodness!” Mar’s hands flew to her mouth as her cheeks flushed a bright crimson.

I knew it was cruel, but I couldn’t help but laugh as I envisioned the description of their porn flick: Prudish princess takes horny horse for a wild ride in the underworld. Viewer discretion advised. Anyone with a weak stomach may find graphic visuals too nauseating.

My poor doggie. No matter how many times Aedan and I called him, he continued to hump that boulder like it was my long-lost stuffed rabbit, and he was intent on fucking the fluffing right out of it.

Holy heck. Could Hell get any weirder?

Callum O’Connor

When I woke from my slumber to pitch darkness, I had a feeling Shadow was in the room, for no one else could blot out not only all light, but almost all coherent thoughts as well.

Instinctively, I jerked up and punched the air, swearing as the tear in my wing ripped even farther. I punched the air again with the other arm, but my fist felt as if it was flailing through a void. I sucked in a sharp breath, my chest expanding with heat as I prepared to unleash my fire.

“Hold your fire. I have not come to hurt you,” Shadow’s dark rumble filled my brain. “I have come to apologize. You must understand I was not myself when I was controlled by Scorpius. I am reborn now and free from his mind control.”

“What happened to Scorpius?” I asked, anticipating and fearing the answer.

“Ashley blasted him with her lightning, casting him down several dimensions, no doubt.”

Could it have been true? Scorpius was banished to the bottom of Hell? “So the Nephilim army won?”

“Yes,” he answered.

My chest deflated as smoke poured out of my mouth. “How can I trust you speak the truth?”

The darkness slowly faded, replaced by the glowing light of the wall sconce. Shadow was standing beside my bed. He looked just as I remembered, tall and lean with skin the color of rust. “You would have been a dragon’s slave had I not saved you, controlled by Zahaka as Scorpius once controlled me.”

He had a point. If he wanted to rid himself of me, he would have let them sacrifice me to the dragon. Still, there was something about the spider I didn’t trust. She wanted to keep me below, that much she’d made clear. But why? Was it really for my safety, or did she have an ulterior motive? I shook my head, gesturing toward the open doorway. “Seems to me this spider is just as controlling.”

His frown was sullen, like the rest of him, as he jabbed his hands in his pockets. “You are right, but she has kept her followers safe from torture for over a thousand years.”

“By trapping them against their will?” Surely, he didn’t think living with this monster was a better option.

His brown eyes darkened to onyx. “Would you prefer the alternative?”

“The Sergeant is up there, and so are the Nephilim slaves Scorpius cast down. What happens when the Nephilim army comes for their kin? When my brother and Ash come for their friend?” Somehow, I suspected this spider wouldn’t be too amenable to having an army of giants invade her territory.

Shadow cast his gaze to the ceiling. “That is why I must return to the top. I’ve only come to see that you are well.”

“The spider lets you go?”

“Of course. I am the only among our number who can cloak himself in darkness.”

I was amazed he’d gained her trust in such a short time. Could he have been right? That this spider was truly trying to save souls condemned to Hell? Still, there was the question of what would happen to my friends once they met up with her.

“And what would you do when you find them? Bring them down here?”

“Yes. They will be safe here.”

His unwavering stare unnerved me. Not that I thought he meant me harm. No, not that. But I now realized why he was so open, so direct. He’d gone mad, and his madness would be my brother’s undoing. White hot rage seared my skull as I jumped to my feet, waving my hands wildly in his face. “But my brother and Ash belong in Purgatory, not in some God-forsaken hole!”

He stretched his body toward the ceiling, a lean shadow peering down at me with condescension in his raised brows. “And certainly not in the belly of the beast.”

“Listen to you!” I roared. “You’re so used to being controlled, you’ve just traded one master for another. Think for yourself, man. If you want to help them escape the beast, then get them back to Purgatory.”

“There is no way back up.” There was a hopelessness in his voice, and I feared he believed it to be true.

“Who fed you that lie?” Though I already suspected it was the spider. “If there’s a way down, there’s a way up. “

The darkness that contorted his features faded as he contracted toward the ground. “Things will get easier for you once you learn to accept your fate, once you learn to embrace the web of light.” He spoke as if in a trance, confirming he was once again lost to the mind control of an evil demon.

Clenching my fists, I stomped toward him. “I won’t learn to embrace a foolish religion that was forced down my throat.”

His eyes widened and then narrowed, right before he disappeared in a shroud of darkness. If he insisted on hiding behind a web of lies, so be it. I wouldn’t be so easily fooled.

Though Shadow had disappeared, I sensed something was amiss when a chill stole up my spine. The light on the wall flickered as the slightest of breezes blew into my small chamber. Inhaling deeply, I stoked the embers within my chest as I backed up, scanning the room for any sign of Shadow.

Someone was here, of that I was certain, for I could feel a strange presence. But where? I spun in a slow circle, examining each crevice in the wall’s stone surface for something that didn’t fit. And then I chanced a look up, at the thousands of spiders blanketing the ceiling.

I fell to my knees, releasing my fire, even as they descended upon me. I burned as many of them as I could, their piercing little screams like bullets to my brain, causing me to recoil. Despite my fires their numbers were too many, falling on me like bees swarming a hive. My breathing came in gasps as my fire burned out. They raced across my limbs, coating me in a sticky substance, making it impossible to move. I tried to swat them away as they wedged beneath my scales, but the more I struck, the harder they stung me, sending shards of flame coursing through my veins until I fell over, immobilized by the pain. They crawled across my brow, coating my face in the sticky substance, reducing each strained gasp to a shallow wheeze.

Ash MacLeod

Anak had discovered a hidden chamber, but it took a lot of cajoling on my part to get him to allow the “devil woman” to come with us. Couldn’t say I blamed him for mistrusting Katherine. She wasn’t exactly on my list of favorite demon bitches, either. Luckily, she and her snake were still knocked out with no signs of waking up anytime soon. After we proved her restraints were tight enough, we draped her across Boner’s back and were on our way.

We had to leave Jack behind, though. He wasn’t finished with that boulder, poor horny doggie. Anak assured us we wouldn’t be too far away.

True enough, the secret chamber was only a stone’s throw from Jack, hidden behind an outcropping of sharp stalagmites. One by one, we slipped inside a tunnel barely wide enough to fit Anak. It was a good thing Jack was preoccupied, because I didn’t know if he’d be able to fit. I was shocked and pleasantly surprised to find the chamber inside was roomy and immaculate, lit with several candles draped from the tall ceiling and decorated with pristine Grecian urns, marble benches, and stone statues. The floors looked clean and polished, and the walls were a smooth, pale stone. Whoever lived here sure was tidy. I hoped he or she was nice, too.

“Whoa! What is this place?” The first thing I thought of was the Nephilim pyramid, a little slice of Heaven smack in the pit of Hell.

The giant straightened his long neck and puffed up his chest. “Anak make sanctuary.”

“How did you make it?” Aedan asked.

The giant motioned toward our surroundings. “Anak find melted candles and broken things here. Someone live in chamber first.”

I ran my hand up the smooth side of a Grecian urn nearly as tall as me. “You made this?”

“Anak make things nice.” He crossed the room to a stone statue of a beautiful angel playing the harp, and with one sweep of his fist, smashed it into a thousand pieces.

I mourned the loss of such beauty, but sadness turned to shock and then wonder as Anak held a hand over the broken pieces, and they fused back together until the statue was once again whole and flawless. Okay, so that was a cool power to have. I wondered if it also worked on living things. As if on cue, that volcano on my shoulder started to throb again, a grim reminder Hell sucked big fat demon balls.

“Can you heal my shoulder?”

“Yah.” Anak crossed to me. He placed a hand on my wound, and I was instantly infused with a soothing warmth that radiated all the way to my toes. Imagine my surprise when my awful bloating and cramps also subsided. Had Anak erased my period, too? Holy shit! Sure, he’d just eliminated my excuse to gorge on chocolate, but there was no chocolate in Hell, anyway. This giant would be every girl’s best friend back on Earth.

He stepped back, flashing a wide, goofy grin. “Angel no hurt now.”

I twisted my neck and gaped at my shoulder while flapping my dry wings. Not only was my skin smooth and flawless, but the pain was gone. My ripped tank top was fused back together and looked brand new.

Aedan pulled my shirt to the side and ran a hand over my skin, causing a trill of pleasure to race through me. “Amazing,” he breathed.

I smiled up at him, pretending the horny water still didn’t have me in its grip, but it did. It really, really did. I eyed a narrow tunnel at the back of the chamber, hoping Anak had created a suite and a king-sized bed with satin sheets and a wedge pillow. Heck, since it was my fantasy, throw in some edible undies, a big fat vibrator, and a jar of body butter. Honestly, though, I’d settle for an empty cave as long as I was alone with Aedan.

“Can you fix me?” Boner asked as he clomped up to us. He frowned at his swinging testicles. “It’s getting hard to walk.”

When Anak placed his hand on Boner’s back, I expected Boner’s balls to shrink down from watermelons to coconuts. Imagine my surprise when Boner turned into a man again. A very naked man with a very large hard-on. Seems Anak didn’t have a cure for horny water.

“Oh, wow.” Boner crossed one leg over the other, trying to shield his flagpole with his hands. “I should have brought clothes.” His face flushed a bright crimson. “Sorry.”

Weird. I’d never seen him self-conscious about his dick before. As he batted his eyes in Mar’s direction, I sensed a weird vibe between them.

“It’s okay,” Mar said before ripping off the bottom of her toga. She’d torn off enough to reveal her legs all the way up to her kneecaps.

My word! How risqué and improper. All her prude friends in Heaven will be clucking their tongues when they hear of this.

Mar’s cheeks flushed as she draped the fabric around Boner, tying it at his waist. She didn’t even flinch as the eye of Boner’s flesh snake popped out of the top. She just adjusted the fabric higher.

Aedan loudly cleared his throat, sounding like a hungry bear. “Anak, where are the other Nephilim?”

The giant’s face fell. “Anak no find them.” He pointed a long finger toward the floor. “Anak fell through dirt and land here.”

The lines around Aedan’s eyes lengthened. “I hope the others didn’t land on the other side of that web.”

“It can’t be any worse than Tombstone,” Boner said. Then he pointed a finger at Aedan. “By the way, how did you keep Doc from reading your mind?”

Good question. Supposedly, the doctor could see our next move before we could, but Aedan had completely blindsided him when he’d produced a silver sword.