Banshee Seduction (Montgomery's Sin Book 1) (29 page)

“Stop!” he roared. His dragon begged to be released so it could tear the head from the screaming banshee and halt the unrelenting torture. “Stop!” The beast inside him roared louder, and utter silence dropped, immediate and deadly.

Matt didn’t know whether to be more concerned at the insistent memory of a wrinkled old breast grasped firmly in his hand, sending a quick ball of nausea straight to his throat, or by the glowing white banshee in the corner of the room. “Ginny?” Surely, she could not be his love. If she was, he’d destroyed her with his carelessness.

Bright light flooded the bedroom, and he blinked rapidly to adjust his sight, wishing someone could block it all out again.

Two middle-aged women faced him. One still sat in the corner where he had flung her, wearing thick tartan pajamas, and the other stood by the door, one hand on the light switch. She grasped her orange dressing gown to her limp chest. Her hair was rolled in curlers, and a lit cigarette dangled from her creased lips. The lips he’d kissed when he’d scored his touchdown and Ginny had fireballed on him.

“What the fuck are you doing here? Lorna? Ellie?”

Unimpressed, the two women simply stared at him. Ellie’s eyes still glowed a vibrant red. Her eyebrows arched. Her lips pouted. He’d never noticed her breasts came down to her waist before. She must have been wearing a bra with the strength of Ra to hold those demons pert.

Exhausted, he sank back onto the bed and blew out a breath. “Where is she?”

“She belongs in neither Heaven nor Hell.” Their voices combined in sniveling stereo.

It really wasn’t the time for them to be mysterious. She didn’t belong anywhere but on Earth. With him. He tried to tamp down his temper, but the pathetic mewling wail the two women emitted was starting to annoy him. “Agreed. So where is she?”

“You rejected her, so she made her choice.”

“Choice? What choice?”

“Why, Heaven or Hell, young man.”

He turned to face Lorna as she leaned casually against the doorway. Her eyes smoldered with luminescence, and the raw heat of guilt rushed to his face. “Why did she need to choose?”

“She wasn’t allowed to stay, once you made your decision. She had to go.”

Sick worry constricted his chest.

“I don’t understand. Why did she have to go?”

The older woman rolled her eyes and puffed out a breath as though she thought he were utterly stupid. Perhaps he was. He certainly didn’t understand.

“She was only allowed to remain here, in the in-between world, until she found the love of her life. Her soul mate. Once she committed heart and soul, she could choose to remain here if she wished. As a banshee, you are only given one choice. Once you give your heart, it is bound for all eternity to one person…” She flicked a quick glance up and down his entire length and pursed her lips in disgust. “…being.” She shook her head, and her sorrow-filled eyes created a wave of panic in him. “Once you rejected her, it seems she could no longer tolerate living on this plane. So she needed to make a choice between the two remaining places she could go—Heaven or Hell.”

“Where?”

“I told you…”

“No, Lorna. Where did she choose?”

The woman flicked her hand across her cheek to catch the tears as they fell. “Hell.”

He knew he didn’t have the power in his legs to get up. Knew also it was essential he found the strength. “How do I get her back?”

Both women stared at each other for a long moment. He could hear the whispering moans in the background, as though they communicated between far more than just themselves.

When Lorna turned back to him, it was with glowing crimson eyes filled with tears. She opened her mouth, but no sound emerged, just the baleful whine of banshee mourning.

“I knew this would happen.”

Matt whipped his head around. “Daniel?”

“Yeah.” Daniel walked across the room. Ignoring the two women, he approached the bed. A golden key dangled from a long chain he held between his thumb and forefinger. “You have to walk over the hottest fires of Hell, risk the flaming, screaming voices of lost souls, and hazard the skin being flayed from your body by desperate, grasping fingers.”

“How did you get in here?”

Daniel rolled his eyes. “The door was open.”

He extended the key and offered it to Matt. “You have to unlock the box and dip your hand into a billion souls. Only if your love is true, and she does not reject it, will you be able to rescue her.”

The mournful weeping rose, and the women’s voices bemoaned the loss of Ginny.

“He can’t do it.”

“He doesn’t love her.”

“He rejected her.”

“He has no soul.”

“He’s a dragon.”

“He has no inner strength.”

“Poor Ginny.”

“Poor lost Ginny.”

“He doesn’t love her. He doesn’t love her. He doesn’t love her.”

He covered his ears, closed his eyes, and lowered his head to rest it on his knees as the voices consumed him.

“Enough.” Daniel’s quiet tones brought an unearthly hush to the room.

An electric zap filled the air, and the sharp sting of teeth in Matt’s neck threatened to sever his carotid artery. He froze. The vampire stroked her talons through his hair and hissed as she readjusted herself on the bed behind him and allowed her powerful jaw to flex.

Daniel stepped forward, and with a swift flick of his hand, he swatted Roni off the bed so she landed with a loud thump on the floor.

“Get off already, bloodsucker. You’re too late—again!”

Roni stared up at them from her reclining position on the floor. Her black eyes filled with tears and shone like burnished jet.

“You hurt her, Matt. I tried to find her, but I can’t follow where she’s gone. Why did you hurt her?”

“I didn’t mean to.” Matt’s heart constricted, and he fell to the floor to comfort Ginny’s best friend.

She jerked back and raised a hand to halt him. “You do know you’re naked, yeah?”

“Oooh, shit. No.”

The yellow cotton sheet fluttered down to cover his modesty, and Daniel tutted, rolled his eyes once more, and gazed at the ceiling as though praying for a miracle. With a hefty sigh, he turned to stare at the two older women, who shrugged and fluttered their eyes in feigned innocence.

“We had to have some kind of diversion from our distress.”

Matt goggled at them. Unrepentant, they didn’t seem too worried regarding the whereabouts of their favorite niece—more interested in the state of his undress.

He tucked the sheet firmly around his hips and absently patted Roni on the head. “It’s okay. I’m going to save her.”

Howling banshees screeched their objection in his ears.

“I. Am. Going. To. Save. Her.”

“She is lost.”

“She’s lost.”

“We can’t bear it.”

“She’s screwed!” Roni crossed her arms over her skinny chest and stared at him with disgust. “You’re a pathetic quarterback.”

“Fullback.”

“Pathetic. See? You can’t even leave your ego behind long enough to see the issue here. You are not a warrior.” Roni stared intently at Daniel, who shrugged once more and met her eyes with an indolent stare. “He’s not a warrior, Daniel.”

“He’s a dragon; of course he’s a warrior. He’s a fullback!” Daniel huffed out a disgusted breath, but he still had a small look of doubt that curled a worm of worry in Matt’s stomach. The guy had never shown any doubt in his abilities before. “Of course he’s a warrior.”

Ellie sniffed, and Lorna picked her long, sharp teeth. Matt stared at her fingernails and couldn’t recall them being so black and gnarled when he last met her. In fact the last time they’d met—and the time before—they’d seemed like pretty normal middle-aged women. Now they resembled…well…screaming banshees.

Tired of them undermining him, he stood, gripped the sheet around his hips, and stared at Lorna.

“Where do I go, how do I get there, and have you any suggestions as to what weapons I will need?”

Silence greeted him as all four of them stared at him as though he were mad. Ellie was the first to break. “Get a cab, go to the Empire State Building. Wear chainmail, take a sword and shield.”

“Is that it? What do I do?”

Daniel screwed up his face, rubbed his forehead, and grimaced.

“No, Ellie. That’s how to kill a dragon.” Daniel’s darkened, swirling stare met Matt’s. “Take the gold key, put it around your neck, and dive off the balcony. You have to visualize the fires of Hell in your mind’s eye, and you will get there. Then you need to find the golden box, open it. Plunge your hand inside. Your head and heart have to be full of Ginny. Take out her scarred, burned soul and swear to keep it safe for all eternity.” He gave a hefty sigh. “And mean it when you say you love her.”

Matt’s mouth fell open as he stared agog at Daniel. “How do you know this shit?”

His friend raised a weary eyebrow and tutted. “I just do. Now, go.” Daniel offered the gold key. The fine chain dangled in invitation.

The wailing voices of doubt rose to a sudden crescendo.

“He’ll never make it.”

“He isn’t strong enough.”

“He’s going to fail.”

“She’ll be lost to us.”

“She already is.”

“Lost. She’s already lost.”

Anger boiled his blood. “Shut the fuck up!”

Matt dropped the sheet, grabbed the key, and slipped the chain around his neck. He shifted so fast into dragon, a burning pain seared him as his bones lengthened and his skin stretched. He peered down at the other beings in the room and gave in to the urge to send a shot of fire over their heads. With a little snort of satisfaction, he turned, pounded through the living room, and stepped on Ginny’s side table, reducing it to splinters. He was going to catch hell for that when she realized what he’d done.

Blind to all but the thought of Ginny, he hurled himself through the balcony doors and off the building. He tucked in his wings, narrowed his eyes to concentrate, and arrowed straight at the black asphalt. He flinched only momentarily as his dragon obligingly burst into an inferno and melted everything in its path, diving straight into the screaming fires of Hell.

•●•

It was bad enough facing two old banshees and a bloodthirsty vampire, but nothing had prepared him for the caterwauling in his head, strong enough to wipe out all thought and leave his memory blank. Except for the small kernel of hope and love he had for Ginny.

Ginny. The one woman in two hundred years to tether his heart and capture his soul. It seemed she’d taken it to Hell with her, and he’d willingly sacrifice it if it meant he could have her back.

Not even his dragon had been able to persuade the devil to allow him through the gates of Hell. The portal through to the underworld would only admit the human part of Matt. Where the beast would have been of most benefit, he was unable to help. Matt’s fireproofing had been lost to him, and his skin bubbled and boiled, peeling off in strips to leave his flesh exposed in raw, crimson streaks. Soot blackened him, and the temperature seared through to his bones, threatening to desiccate them.

One foot in front of the other, he padded, naked and vulnerable through the underworld for an eternity. The sting of his feet dulled with the pain in his heart. Each step became a drag on his energy. His mind filled with the mournful sadness of a billion melancholy voices, and he struggled to hold on to any one single thought as he wandered aimlessly. His chest ached with pity, and his soul filled with sorrow weighing down his legs so they moved with leaden apathy.

The deeper he ventured into the flames, the harder the grieving souls wrenched at his heart and broke his will. His feet dragged, barely able to move. He scanned the vast wilderness, empty but for the burning inferno. The flames became denser, licking his flesh. Voices rose and fell in plaintive rhythm. Cool tears tracked down his burning cheeks in sympathy for all the unwanted souls, the lost, the lonely. The unloved.

But he loved. He knew he loved. And her name was…

Her name was…

He glanced down, pried open his fingers, and stared at the tiny golden key clasped in the palm of his hand. He released it, and it dangled from the chain around his neck. Parched, he opened his lips and dragged in another burning lungful of air as he gazed at the key, which swung like a pendulum. There was something he needed to remember, but his brain refused to cooperate