Hell's Phoenix (21 page)

Dear God
. Micah hadn’t just planned her conception; he’d been involved in her entire life.

“Where are the other Genesis children now?”

“Dead.” She flinched and he ran the back of his knuckles along her cheek. “We can be good together.”

Madison blinked. Forget good. They would probably be stellar together. Just one problem: she cared about her son’s future. And she gave a damn about the world’s survival. An embittered fallen angel with daddy issues benefited no one.

If we accept his proposal to renew the marriage vow, I don’t know if there’ll be any coming back
, Lynx admitted.

Is Nix worth the sacrifice
? Madison asked her inner demon.

According to Zen, he is
.

As if he understood she thought of him, Nix skimmed her arm with his fingers. She worked hard at ignoring his gesture.

“I want to remember everything, Micah.” She rotated her arm, exposing the sigil he’d burned into her flesh. “Our relationship begins anew, the way it should’ve been in the beginning, with no holding back. I want to know everything. Got it?”

Micah kissed the sigil on her wrist as Nix’s knuckles slid up and down her arm. Gooseflesh prickled her skin, but which man caused it?

“Got it loud and clear, kitten. My prior stance remains. Before I’ll agree to give you my seraph, you’ll commit yourself to me.”

Madison closed her eyes with a ragged sigh, uncertain if she was prepared to make such a sacrifice. After he left, she believed she would never trust Micah again, and swore nothing could bring her to bind herself to him once more. Not ever. But Nix…he was worth her fall.

“Mads, is this what you want?” The hesitation in Nix’s voice gave her hope for his salvation.

She gripped Nix’s hand, laced her fingers with his, and squeezed.
Nix is worth my sacrifice
. If those words needed to become her mantra to get through this, then she’d repeat them until she grew sick of the chant.

She took a deep breath, but it didn’t alleviate her nerves. Nauseating butterflies swirled in her belly. No, nothing so nice to upset her stomach, pterodactyls disrupted her equilibrium.

Madison released Nix’s hand. Instead of going out in a flame of glory, she feared caving to her husband’s devious whims. She cupped Micah’s face between her palms and damned herself to save Nix. “Micah Dominus, I commit my heart, body, and soul to you and our marriage. Everything I was, everything I am…is yours.”

Chapter Twenty-nine

“Momma, no!” Amos screamed when Momma accepted Daddy’s offer.

More than a little stunned to discover Momma’s childhood held similarities to his, it gave him a better understanding of Daddy’s plan for them.

Daddy grinned at Momma’s vow and Amos blinked back tears. If Zen knew the promise she made, he’d kill her. He had to keep this to himself, but he couldn’t remain in Hell. Daddy’s angelic power would have an indeterminate effect on Momma, but Amos bet it wouldn’t be good.

He jerked his soul out of Hell and blinked as he re-entered his body. Next to him, Petra gasped and jumped from the sofa. She visibly shook as she stared at him.

“What happened?” Zen stood over them, his gaze intense and his body coiled for action.

Amos ignored his teacher and scanned the room until he located Alessa. “Momma wants you in Hell bombing it with the marbles. Await her commands afterward.”

Momma would need Alessa to get Nix out. No way would he tell her the rest of Momma’s message to leave Hell after throwing the marbles. Amos had no problems sacrificing a mortal woman for Momma or Nix. Maybe that exposed the demon inside him; maybe that showed how much he loved them both. His cold view of the world wasn’t an attribute Momma would praise, but he wouldn’t attempt to suppress it.

Zen stepped closer. “Did you locate Madison and Phoenix?”

“Yeah.” Amos fidgeted in his seat and hoped it came across as a casual shift of position. “Momma found Nix and sent Alessa’s message through me. They should be able to talk mentally when Alessa arrives.” He turned to Petra. “She needs to go now.”

Petra nodded and hurried to Alessa.

“Is everything under control?” Zen asked, as Petra opened a portal to Hell and Alessa went through.

“Uh huh.” Amos waited for Georgie to call him out for the lie. Petra hadn’t let on.

Zen placed his fingers beneath Amos’s chin and forced him to meet his penetrating silver eyes. “Don’t prevaricate, Amos.”

Amos released a pent-up breath and jerked his chin free. He should’ve known the ancient would hear his lies in his head. A ten-year-old should be able to lie on occasion!

“Momma’s in control right now.”

Petra flinched as if Amos struck her, but she didn’t share the truth of what she’d seen with him. At least he could count her loyal to him.

“But?” Zen persisted.

Amos shrugged. “I don’t know what’s gonna happen.”

“No visions, Amos?” Georgie prodded, rubbing her forehead.

“None. Momma’s future is mixed. Nix…he’ll come out.”

Zen crossed his arms over his chest. “That’s not the outcome Georgie saw for Phoenix.”

“Georgie’s wrong. Nix will come out of Hell. I don’t know about Momma.”

Chapter Thirty

The words Micah had longed to hear for almost a decade were delivered with honesty shining from Madison’s face. As she was intelligent enough to fool him, more than once, he struggled to trust her sincerity. “Will you anchor yourself to Hell and to me?”

“Is that part of our new commitment to one another?”

“No.” A demon being anchored to Hell gave it more power to draw from. “It’s a ceremony where you ingest the blood and seraph of all four Kings.”

“I’ll do it, but only on one condition.”

Micah braced himself. “What condition?”

Phoenix wore a perpetual frown. The Ark’s emotions over Madison’s future meant little to Micah. The Lynx inside her would be a powerhouse. The only question remaining, would it benefit Hell, or humanity?

“I want ownership of Nix’s covenant.”

“No.”

“Then no deal, husband.”

“Madison, this trickery—”

“How important is it for me to be anchored to Hell?”

The ramifications of a demon as powerful as she not being bonded to Hell could be catastrophic. Not just for him and his plans, but for Hell’s continued existence, too.

“By the expression on your face, I’d say it’s pretty damn important.” Madison shifted out of his embrace and snuggled against Phoenix, who, of course, did not resist her proximity. Using a fingertip, she traced a path along Phoenix’s jaw and peered at Micah through her lashes. “You would ask something monumental of me, but refuse to return the favor? That’s not very husbandly of you.”

Micah stared at her, intrigued.

A sharp intake of breath escaped Madison as Phoenix tried to shift his fingers through her blood-matted hair. “Sorry, baby.” Phoenix massaged her scalp. “If you owned my covenant, what would you request from me?”

No hesitation from her. “Your complete loyalty to me.”

“I like the idea of being submissive to your domination,” Phoenix teased, a grin exposing his dimples.

Micah stepped closer to her. “And to whom will your loyalty be pledged, kitten?”

“I thought we already established that.” Their gazes touched and held. “I would be anchored to Hell.”

“It doesn’t mean your loyalties would lie in Hell.”

Madison hooked two fingers inside the waistband of Micah’s pants and his eyes widened in surprise at her shamelessness. She tugged him against her until she was flanked by both men.

“My loyalty will be to you, Micah. Always to you.” Her fingers moved and the button on his jeans slid free. “Where else would you have it lie?”

“If you’re lying, I’ll find out when I give you my seraph.”

“Then give it already.”

He caught her wrist when she attempted to slide her hand lower into his pants. “Not yet, kitten. Not until I know with certainty you’re not attempting to distract me.”

She nipped at his chin. “Distrust is such a damn turn-on.”

“Stop cursing.”

“Stop procrastinating.”

Micah chuckled. “I want us naked for the transaction.”

“Whatever you want, Micah,” she said sweetly. “Let’s do that shower now, shall we?”

Chapter Thirty-one

Micah led them through a maze of halls while Madison’s belly churned. She’d bolt and claw her way out of Hell if not for Nix at her back. She gave no credence to the title Ark of Heaven, rather it was the man who claimed the label who’d earned her devotion. To save him, she would be forced to claim her genetics and accept a future she’d resisted. Surviving Hell hadn’t been expected, so she’d venture down the demonic side-road and count on Zen to end it all.

Nix tried to take her hand more than once, but she avoided his grasp. Comfort came from his touch. Her fragile psyche couldn’t tolerate reassurance from him, not when she planned to embrace her DNA and commit herself to Micah.

When she got to that shower and Micah gave her his seraph, she would lose her humanity. She was prepared for that outcome, hoping all the while she could sustain her human focus long enough to get Nix out of Hell.

An arm shot outward from the wall and she slammed to a halt. Nix bumped into her, but caught her shoulders and kept her footing steady. Madison gaped at the wall and a face emerged. A silent scream rounded the soul’s mouth and then a pitiful, whispered, “Help me,” trickled across her mind.

All the walls were made of the same gyrating bodies. The flooring was the same throughout as well, human skin stitched together, offering a squishy, elastic type of stride. With each step they took, the mortal floor screamed for deliverance.

“
Xea
.”
Die
, Madison said in Xapil to the soul seeking mercy.

“No!” Micah shouted and spun around. “You granted the damned redemption.”

The soul smiled and vanished in a flicker of rust-colored dust. “Redemption as in heaven?”

“No.” He gripped her arm. “As in ceases to exist completely. Hell can be worse than not existing.”

“When you say things like that, it makes me wonder how I could’ve ever fallen for you. Why I’m agreeing to anything with you right now. How can I love a man who enjoys torturing souls?”

A slow, satisfied smile greeted her, and she tried to decide what she’d said that pleased him so much. He didn’t make her wait long.

“You still love me.” His thumb whisked across her jaw. “Good to know with what’s to come.”

“I didn’t—”

Micah held up his hand and she fell silent. “A slip of the tongue, maybe, but there’s enough truth in your words to satisfy me. We torture souls because they believe they deserve it. In return, I eventually grant them a newfound life, by creating new breeds of demons loyal to me.”

“You enjoy all this screaming and sobbing? It doesn’t bother you in the least?”

“It may have in the beginning.” He shrugged. “That’s been too long for me to recall. The anguish is necessary for the dynasty we Kings have built and continue to erect. A legacy crafted for you and Amos. If I could omit their hardship, I would expedite them into their improved afterlife. Souls have proven time and again they need the pain or they fail to adjust to their new state of existence.”

Was he a monster or a savior of souls? If God rejected them, were the Kings giving them something better in the vast wasteland of eternity? Where would they go without Hell?

“I see the truth has failed to appease you.” He rubbed a lock of her matted hair between his fingers. “Come, you’ll understand all with my seraph.”

Feeling like the proverbial lamb being led to the slaughter, she followed him with a numb acceptance of what she would soon do, what she would become.

His bathroom was seriously fucked up. The flooring was the same as everywhere, but a human skull served as a showerhead and water sprayed from the mouth, eyes, and nose. The pipe disappearing into the wall looked like a human spine.

Gruesome.

Awe-inspiring
, Lynx disagreed with pride.

“Is all this real? Skulls for showers? Skin as floors? Walls that come to life with moving body parts?”

“It’s real, an accurate view of Hell.” His fingers trailed down her arm. “A little, unknown secret about Hell, kitten. It’s created from magic, just like Heaven. And it takes a lot of magic to hold it all together.”

“You don’t really get the bodies, just the souls, so…how?” She motioned at the room in general.

“We get the bodies. What’s left behind for the mortal world is a manifestation of the person’s former self. Most of them have bought into the idea that Hell is nonstop agony. Few realize they could have more joy and pleasure here than they ever could in Heaven.”

“Amen to that, lover,” Nix agreed.

Blasphemous words to her Christian father.

Madison shivered. “And the pool of blood? Real or a hellish hallucination?”

“Very real. And when it is stripped from the soul, it’s very powerful.”

The energy in the sanguine fluid Nix thrust them into had been evident the moment it closed over her head in the pool.

Madison studied the brand on her arm. It ached, but not as much as the Lynx inside her. Her demon called for more power, more food. Pandora had grown mute and cowered inside her box.

We can take Pandora’s power as our own, wipe her from us completely
. And the ancient parasitic entity recognized that reality. As her succubus spoke, Pandora quivered so hard the box she crouched within rattled.
When Micah gives us his seraph, we use it to suck Pandora dry. Claim her power as ours! Ingest all of her and we’ll be able to defeat Micah. Beat him at his game
. The chuckle of anticipation coming from Lynx scuttled up her spine. Her demon would never cringe over making the undesirable choices.

Okay
, Madison agreed.
Let’s go hardcore. What is my demon name?

Usha.

There’d been a time when the extra voice in her head would’ve frightened her, or she might have believed she suffered from schizophrenia. No longer.