Hotter Than Hell (15 page)

He lifted his head and fear rose in a heated rush when she saw his tortured expression. He pressed his lips to her forehead, then rolled onto his side so they faced each other and she was in his arms.

He didn’t. He couldn’t have stolen my soul
.

Ericka forced herself to take a deep breath.
Don’t panic. Don’t panic
.

“Most likely you will hate me when I tell you the truth.” Aedan brushed her hair from her forehead as her heart pounded harder. “I am not what you think I am.” His golden gaze was so intense she couldn’t say anything. “I am Incubae, and I was sent to take your soul.”

More heat prickled her skin and a slight dizziness overcame her. She opened her mouth, but he placed two fingers over her lips, not allowing her to speak.

“However, I will not take anything from you.” His features relaxed and he gave her a sad smile. “Your soul is your own. I only wish I could share your life. That would be my greatest dream.”

Relief whooshed through her and she relaxed against her pillow. He hadn’t taken her soul.

Then she realized what he’d said about sharing his life with her and a strange feeling settled in her belly.

“Aedan,” she tried to say behind his fingers, but he pressed them harder to her lips. Smells of sandalwood and sex mingled with the vanilla-scented candles.

“I must go.” He sighed. “I cannot return.”

Ericka’s eyes widened. “What—you have to come back.”

He moved his fingers and pressed his lips to hers. “I hope you will remember and think well of me.”

He started to move away from her when she grabbed hold of his hand. “Wait.” She clenched his fingers tight. “I already figured out you’re an Incubus. I won’t give you my soul, but I don’t want you to stop coming.” An ache grew tighter in her chest. “Please.”

Aedan gave another melancholy smile. “It is not my choice. I answer to the gods and goddesses and I must face my destiny.”

“What is it?” Her hand started to tremble, but she didn’t let go of his. “Your destiny.”

He stared at her for a long time and she tried to imagine never looking into his golden eyes again. “The Realm of the Dead.”

Ericka caught her breath. In her research books that place was a version of Hell. Where one burned for eternity. “No.” She shook her head as she tried to unscramble her thoughts, attempting to remember more of her research. “Isn’t there another place, a good place? An—An—”

“Annwn.” He gently took her hand from his and eased off the bed as she sat and faced him. “But I have failed in my last mission and my fate does not lie there any longer.”

“Stay, Aedan.” Her whole body felt like she was going to shatter. “Stay with me.” She knew her words were crazy. He was a demon.
A demon
.

“I have grown to love you.” He stroked her cheek with his fingertips. “Thoughts of you will carry me through my destiny.”

Tears burned in her eyes and she felt like she had already started breaking apart. He moved away from her and she scrambled out of bed and tried to follow him. “Wait!” Panic laced her voice. “Isn’t there something we can do?”

Aedan gave her an intense look of longing before cupping her cheeks with his hands and brushing his lips over hers. He whispered, “I love you, Ericka.”

The unreality of it all made her mind spin. “Aedan, please!” She tried to grab his arm to stop him.

He vanished.

“No, no, no.” She held her palm over her mouth as tears burned her eyes and her body shook. “That can’t be it,” she said as she let her hand drop away. “I won’t let it!”

Ericka grabbed her robe that was draped over a chair. She wrapped herself in it before running to the living room straight for her mountain of research books. There had to be a way to save him.

Aedan knew the escorts would be waiting. Hideous demons wearing cloaks that rippled like fire. Aedan didn’t bother dressing himself with his thoughts. The clothing would simply burn away even though he would not.

Jett and Kyne stood to the side. Jett’s eyes were wide and fear was on her features. Kyne clenched his fist so tightly his muscles bunched. “Give him another chance.” Kyne’s voice had a rough edge to it as the guards took Aedan by his upper arms.

“I will miss you,” Aedan said to Jett and Kyne as the guards started to take him away. “May you find much happiness in Annwn when you should go.”

Jett choked back a sob. “Aedan, why? Why throw your life to the fires for a human?”

Aedan shook his head then stared forward as the guards escorted him from the Chamber of Veils.

During the long walk down the Hall of the Lost, Aedan’s heart grew heavier. He pushed aside his fear with thoughts of Ericka and smiled knowing she would be safe.

When they reached the doorway to the Realm of the Dead, heat blasted Aedan. He closed his eyes for a moment. He opened them before he and the demons stepped through the rock entryway and down steps leading to another archway. Flames singed his cheeks even before the guards pushed him into fire and lava.

Hours flew as Ericka flipped through pages of book after book after book that she had piled beside the couch. Something had to be here. Hadn’t she read or heard that an Incubus could be kept from facing such a horrible fate? Or was it merely her desperate desire to save him that made her imagine things that couldn’t be?

After Aedan left, she put on a pot of coffee and even had to brew another batch as she pored over the books. Her eyes burned, her vision swam, and she was so jittery she spilled a few drops of coffee onto her robe.

She set the cup down and picked up another book, held it in her palms, and stared at the worn cover. It was merely a book of very old tales of faeries, elves, demons, and other fables.

As she opened the book to the table of contents, she blinked the tiredness from her eyes. She glanced at the table of contents and noted the section on demon fables before rifling through the pages until she reached the first tale. Disappointment tore at her gut as she saw a picture of a stereotypical demon with a hideous face, horns, and a forked tail.

Ericka bit the inside of her cheek, trying for control. She didn’t have time for tears. She flipped the next page and the next. She came to an abrupt stop when a few words caught her eyes.

Butterflies batted her belly and she forced herself to slow down and read the passages. Annwn a place of beauty, almost Heaven, but not quite. The Realm of the Dead—it was Hell.

The butterflies dropped like lead as she read descriptions of each place in the afterlife.

A section brought her to a complete stop.

Ericka’s heart raced and she could barely breathe. Half of her soul. Was she willing to give that much to save Aedan?

She closed her eyes tight. Imagined all the times he’d come to her and the bond she’d felt between them. He had sacrificed his own future for hers.

Ericka sucked in another breath and released it, her skin tingling from the magnitude of her decision. She slowed and read the ritual carefully. She no longer felt tired. Instead, her body buzzed with energy, and it wasn’t just the caffeine.

She’d need three white candles, a lock of her hair, and three flat, water-smoothed rocks. After she gathered all of her supplies, she’d need to make up some kind of rhyming chant that expressed her desire to share her soul with Aedan. That would be the hard part.

Still in her robe, she dashed out of the condo to the beach and combed the line of kelp for smooth rocks. The salty air was moist and humid and wind tugged at her robe as waves slapped the shore. Over and over in her mind she worked on the words for a chant.

The sun peeked over the horizon, the faint morning light just enough to see by. When she’d found the rocks, she hurried back into the condo and grabbed three candles from her bedroom, along with a black marker, a lighter, and a pair of scissors. Slightly out of breath from rushing, she knelt on the kitchen’s tiled floor as she snipped a lock of her hair, then lit the candles. She tossed the scissors aside, along with the lighter and they clattered across the floor.

She grabbed the marker. Her hand shook as she drew a circle on the kitchen tile, around herself and the items beside her.

Ericka eased onto her haunches and stared at the candles. The flames danced, almost mesmerizing her. She swallowed then picked up the lock of hair.

God, she hoped the chant would work.

As she draped a third of her hair over each flame, the strands hissed and curled as they caught fire. The smell of burning hair overpowered scents of the vanilla candles.

Her heart pounded in a harsh rhythm and she chanted as she placed the hair on the candle flames.

Tears stung Ericka’s eyes as she placed the three smooth, flat stones, one at a time over each flame. She snuffed them with the rocks, pressing the wick into the melted wax and burned hair.

When she finished, a breeze immediately swept the room, lifting her hair from her shoulders. Goosebumps prickled her skin and butterflies skipped in her belly.

Everything around her wavered like she was looking through a window of water.

Ericka’s lips parted and her heart thundered as she got to her feet. A stone archway appeared and she couldn’t see the condo’s kitchen anymore. On the other side of the wavering air was an enormous room with lots of other archways.

She raised her hand. Instead of air, she touched a rubbery surface. She pushed—

And tumbled through the archway.

Ericka screamed when the sucking sensation grabbed hold of her and the condo vanished. The sensation of being engulfed in goo surrounded her before she stumbled out of it and dropped to her hands and knees on a polished marble floor.

If her heart didn’t stop beating so hard it was going to explode.

“What the hell?” she said as cool marble chilled her knees and hands.

She glanced up from the floor.

Someone was in front of her.

Ericka’s gaze slowly traveled up the blue-robed form until she met the golden eyes of a gorgeous blond woman. Her beauty was marred only by her hard expression.

“Rise.” The woman motioned with her hand for Ericka to stand. “I wish to see the woman who cost my son his future.”

Ericka’s cheeks burned as she got to her feet and stood eye-to-eye with the woman. “I never wanted Aedan to go to the Realm of the Dead.” She spoke so fast she stumbled over her words. “Don’t let him be taken.
Please
.” When she finished speaking she was clenching her hands so hard her nails dug into her palms.

“It is…too late.” The woman’s voice softened. “My son has been banished to the flames.”

“No.” Ericka shook her head as her mind began to reel. “No, he can’t be.” Heat flushed her as if she was in the fire as a vivid image of him burning alive seared her mind.

Something the woman had said clicked. “You’re Aedan’s mother?”

She inclined her head. “I am Belisma, the water goddess.”

“A-a goddess?” Ericka’s brain stuttered at Belisma’s statement. But she managed to grasp one obvious thread. “If you’re a goddess, can’t you save him?”

Belisma stepped closer to Ericka and raised her hand. The goddess’s fingertips were cool as she brushed them along Ericka’s cheek.

The goddess stared thoughtfully at Ericka as she stroked her fingers through Ericka’s wild red hair.

She wanted to scream and stomp her feet but instead she felt the power of the goddess’s hold and didn’t move.

Belisma let her hand fall away. “You have offered a great gift to my son. Perhaps only half your soul, but you have also given of your love.” The goddess nodded as if to herself.

She continued. “I believe my son has earned his peace and his reward. His choice to spare you and love you is a powerful thing. In the eyes of the universe he should be free of the Realm of the Dead by right and fairness.”

Ericka swallowed, hope welling up within her, but she said nothing.

The goddess now had a faraway look in her eyes. “I will call for a Council session.” Her gaze met Ericka’s again. “They may disagree. Nothing is certain. You both may be saved, or both condemned.”

“Condemned?” Ericka whispered.

“If the Council does not make this exception for Aedan, you could be forced to join him in the Realm of the Dead—if you indeed choose freely to give him half of your soul.” Belisma’s expression hardened again. “Are you willing to take that risk, as he was willing to send himself to the Realm to spare you such a fate?”

Ericka hesitated and closed her eyes. Would she choose an eternity of being burned alive and never seeing her family or friends again? Would she risk all of that to save Aedan?

The right and true answer came from deep within as she opened her eyes. “I will take that risk.”