Hell's Gift (7 page)

I was suddenly knocked off my feet and to my butt on the hard floor. I rubbed my jaw; I was sure there was a crack in it.

“If you know what’s good for you, you won’t ever do that again, and you’ll stay down there until you understand that completely.”

I glared up at Malcolm through my lashes, then looked at Josselyn. Her eyes were as big around as silver dollars. “I’m sorry,” I spat.

“Really?” Malcolm said. “Maybe I didn’t hit you hard enough. I think the lady that is taking care of your charge in your absence, and that is trying to get you reinstated into Heaven, deserves a better apology than that. If you don’t agree, then I wouldn’t expect either of us to show up in any more of your dreams.”

I got to my feet slowly and walked to Josselyn. Her tears had started falling freely and I felt like a total horse’s ass because I knew I had been the one to cause them. I wrapped her in my arms and let her cry. I knew she was going through her own personal Hell, and it was my fault. Everything was my fault.

“I’m sorry, Josselyn. I’d just realized I hadn’t even thought about Kendra’s welfare and I panicked. Please accept my sincere apologies.”

She nodded and wiped at her eyes. “Kendra’s fine,” she said without making eye contact with me.

I studied her facial features for a moment. Something
was
wrong with Kendra, or she would have at least looked at me. “Tell me,” I said sternly, but refrained from touching her.

She looked up at me, then instantly grabbed her head and sat in the chair behind her knees.

My eyes grew wide in shock. Angels didn’t feel pain, so I had no idea what could be wrong with her. I looked to Malcolm with the same wide eyes.

“Kendra had a nightmare last night that Murry visited Ben. When she called for you to help, you never showed, and Murry informed her of why you never would again. Kendra is demanding answers, but the guardians won’t allow for Josselyn to have a meeting with her to explain.”

A feather could have knocked me over, I was so stunned. My stomach twisted in anguish and I wanted to throw up. Kendra finding out was never my intention. “He…” I swallowed back bile, then cleared my throat. “He told her what happened. How did he even…”

Malcolm shook his head. “No. Kendra lost the connection when you fell, and it brought on a nightmare. Her own subconscious told her what happened. As far as I know Murry still doesn’t know you’re on his playing field.

Malcolm’s words about the playing field brought to mind Princess Gluttony and I wanted to vomit again. Anyway, there were seven sydes of Hell. What were the chances of being stuck in the same one as Murry for all eternity?

A sharp pain ripped across the flesh of my abdomen. I screamed out in pain as my hands covered the injury. Malcolm and Josselyn both rushed toward me, but there was nothing either of them could do to help me. Hell was dragging me back.

I looked down and removed my hand from the source of the pain. There was a welt an inch wide and eight inches long slashed diagonally across my lower abdominals. With shaking hands I watched as blood broke through my flesh. My eyes glazed over with unshed tears and I looked up to two very shocked angels. Angels didn’t bleed.

Another gash whipped across my back so violently my spine arched at an odd angle and I fell, powerless, to my stomach. I knew I was going to pass out any second from the pain.

I could hear Josselyn’s sobs by my ear as she tried to figure out what was happening to me. I rose up to look at Malcolm. Everything was blurry, but I managed to locate him through my tears. “What’s her name?” I choked out, but he didn’t have time to answer before my right thigh was sliced open. I screamed again, fighting off nausea as I pulled in deep lungfulls of clean, pure, heavenly oxygen. “What is her name?” I shouted at the top of my lungs, then collapsed to the floor, unable to move, too exhausted to try.

As I floated back to my body from the dream, I heard Malcolm say a single name. Abigail…Abigail…Abigail…Abigail…Abigail. It echoed in my mind as I fell back to my fate.

Chapter 9

Rhyan

My eyes opened to new and unfamiliar territory. It definitely wasn’t the Hell I remembered under the bridge with Pogo and Princess Gluttony, but the sting of the welts from my dream was still very real and extremely painful. I could feel the tickle of warm blood pouring freely over my skin from my wounds. I would have screamed out in agony, had I not been gagged. The burning, sharp sensation was almost more than I could bear.

I took in shallow breaths through my nostrils and blinked several times, trying to clear the salty liquid from my eyes so I could better see my surroundings.

I was tied at all four points by black leather straps with gold buckles that hooked to a vertical standing contraption. I didn’t have to question who had gagged and tied me up. It might take me a while, but Princess Gluttony would definitely regret the day she met me.

I glanced around again, but couldn’t see anyone else in the large room. The lights were dimmed, but I could tell the chambers were fit for a King. My jaw clamped on my ball-gag in irritation as it dawned on me exactly where I was. The room would also be fit for a Princess.

There was a large black canopied bed in the center of the room. I could tell the sheer gold fabric that wrapped around it hadn’t been hung there for privacy. A plush leather sofa and two matching chairs sat vacant off to my right, and there was a door directly to my left.

I stared at the door for a moment, wondering which would be the lesser of two evils: staying in here with her or escaping out into the acid-ash without protection from the storm. I jerked at my bindings. If I could find a way out of them, I was leaving this room.

I glanced around again, looking for something that might help me out of my current situation. There was nothing, not that I would’ve been able to reach anything if I’d wanted to with my wrists and ankles in shackles.

I stiffened as I heard a soft noise behind me, and waited for another blow from the whip. It didn’t come.

“Looking for this?” a female voice said, and a gold chain with a small key as the charm was dangled in front of my face, then securely fastened at the nape of my neck. “Or maybe you want this.” A silky, soft material was rubbed across my bare back, then the black satiny fabric of the Reaper’s cape was tossed over my shoulder to the floor in front of me. I pulled at my restraints again and she laughed.

I should have known she would want to play games. I was all for playing, just probably not what she had in mind. I’d take the whip away from her and choke her with it, but from the look of my surroundings she would enjoy that way too much. Princess Gluttony was obviously into BDSM and I didn’t aim to be her submissive.

“If you can release yourself, you’re free to go, boy,” she said, then I heard the soft click of her high heels walk away from me. The sound of my pounding heart beating against my ribcage was all I could hear for a moment. I thought maybe she would leave me in peace to figure out a way to escape.

The sound of a whistle on the air was only brief before the leather whip cracked and my flesh broke between my shoulder blades. My jaw clamped the gag viciously. The spasm that shot through my body involuntarily thrust my weight forward. The leather at my wrists and ankles was unyielding, not letting me move more than a few inches from their resting point.

The pain was extreme, but even if the ball-gag hadn’t been in my mouth I wouldn’t have made a peep. I couldn’t give her the satisfaction of knowing she was winning the current game. Although it was hardly fair; if she’d only freed me from the manacles she’d so kindly trapped me in, the odds could’ve quickly been evened up.

I forced my resisting legs to obey my mind and stand upright again. It took every bit of strength I had, but I did manage it. I couldn’t take many more blows from the whip. I had to do something, anything, to keep her from lashing me again.

I tilted my chin up, defiantly, then looked as far over my right shoulder as I could manage. The dim lighting cast her shadow on the stone floor and I could see the whip that was still in her hand. I tried to speak around the gag, but my words were incomprehensible.

I watched as the shadowed figure’s head turned to the side in what appeared to be curiosity. Good, Death was thinking about something other than beating me for the moment. I was making progress. Hopefully.

“Have you had enough, boy?” she said, putting heavy emphasis on her pet name for me, but I didn’t say anything; she wouldn’t have understood me anyway, and I sure didn’t want her to mistake my muffled words as a no.

After a few moments silence I heard the leather whip fall to the ground. I didn’t bother hiding the exhale of relief that passed through my nostrils. That comfort didn’t last long, because in the next moment the sound of metal scraping metal sent chills up my spine. Was it possible to die in Hell? If so, I could only pray it happened quickly. And where would I go then? Limbo? Purgatory?

The footsteps moved closer to me, each one seeming louder than the last. There was no way to prepare for the type of pain that was headed my way. I almost wished she would’ve picked the whip back up. I could use a few more lashings, no problem.

I felt the cold steel touch the center of my back, my knees locked and every muscle from head to toe flexed under my skin. I was a tense mess. My breathing was fast and heavy through my nose and there was nothing I could do to prevent her from knowing how scared I was.

“You want to keep the gag, or would you like to hear yourself scream?” She giggled, making me want to choke her until her eyes popped out of her head. She ran the tip of the blade in swirls over my back and shoulders, then stopped. “Let us play a different game. I’m boring of this one quite quickly. If you play by my rules, there should be no need for you to feel any more pain…for now. I’m sure you agree. Nod once if you do.”

That was actually the first thing we agreed on, so I didn’t hesitate; I nodded.

“Good. Now, I’m going to remove your gag. If you try to bite me I promise you will not enjoy the consequences of your actions. Are we on the same page? Nod if we are,” she said.

I lifted my head, then let it fall in agreement with her. I didn’t want to bite her. Biting her was way too mild for what I really wanted to do to her.

I felt the blade slip under the material holding the gag in place and then watched as the silky fabric fell to my feet. A hand quickly grabbed the gag and pulled it from my mouth.

I took a second to adjust my jaw, then took a deep breath and let the exhale pass through my lips in a low whistle. “Was all this necessary?” I said after a moment.

“I didn’t want you to make the mistake in underestimating me again. I will not be so lenient the next time you decide to rank yourself equal or higher than me. It was really for your own good.”

My head jerked in the direction of her voice, but I still couldn’t see her. Why the hell was she hiding? “For my own good?” I’d been hearing that a lot lately. Why was always someone else deciding what was best for me? “Come around here, where I can see you!” I shouted. “I feel like I’m talking to myself. It’s the least you can do after chaining me up like a dog and beating me. And I would never dream of being your equal. I’m not a coward.”

There was silence for a moment, and I almost regretted saying what I did. I waited for the knife to go in my back, but it didn’t happen.

I heard the soft clicks of her heels before I saw her. I half expected to see a hideous beast with red-tinted skin or snake-like scales, horns protruding from her ugly head, and the classic tail humans always pin on a demon’s butt to make them seem more like a fairy tale creature instead of the evil they actually are.

Without the four inch spikes she walked on her slim build couldn’t have been any taller than five-six. Black fishnet stockings stopped mid-thigh and were attached to a black and gold garter belt. I glanced away, suddenly uncomfortable with the situation. Kendra had been the only woman I’d seen in such garments, and that had only been by accident. Well, most of the times had been by accident.

The thought of Kendra knowing about what had happened to me made me ill. Did she know why? I closed my eyes and took in several deep breaths.

Death laughed. “Are you shy? I wouldn’t have guessed it with you having a body like you have. You could make a nun have wet dreams.” She walked closer and inhaled the air around me. “What is that intoxicating smell you have on your skin?” When I ignored her question she ran her fingers from my chest to the waistband of my pants. “You can look at me, you know,” she whispered. “If you can swallow that pride of yours I will keep you as a minion to serve my personal needs. Then we can discuss you touching what you see. I allow very few men to touch me, but I would consider letting you.”

Embarrassment long gone, my eyes fell to hers. I couldn’t deny they were the prettiest almond shaped, pale green eyes I’d ever encountered, or even how perfect every angle of her body was, of what I could see, but I could ignore it. And ignoring my natural male urges was exactly what I had to do. I was not going to be her love slave. Nothing would change my mind about that.

I looked at her lips, then leaned down so she could feel my breath on her skin as I spoke. “Pride isn’t what’s keeping me from touching you, nor am I waiting for your approval, sweetheart.” I heard the quick intake of breath and knew I had her attention. “It’s the bile that rises to the back of my throat when I think of having to touch your disgusting body for even as little as it would take to choke you to death.” I smiled, then kissed the air in front of her blank face before standing back upright again.

The sharp pain I felt in the next instant was indescribable. I hadn’t seen her move at all, but as I looked down it was clear she had, at some point. The black hilt of a dagger was sticking out of the center of my chest.

I could feel myself drowning in my blood. My lungs were filling with the thick liquid I had only recently acquired in my body. The intense burning was only getting worse. Breathing became impossible, and I began to panic. I fought to free my hands from the straps imprisoning me, but only succeeded in moving the knife deeper within the cavity of my chest, tearing and ripping my insides to shreds.