Fashionably Dead Down Under (20 page)

Crude stone walls and uneven rock floors were
illuminated by torches. The odor was putrid and exactly how I had
thought Hell should smell. Where were the Demons? With great
caution, because of my heels, the floor and the simple fact that
any slight movement could expose my knockers, I made my way down a
dank hallway. Go toward the sound . . . the horrific sound of
wailing souls being burned till the end of time.

How was I going to get out of here? The
portal had disappeared once it spit me out and I had no clue where
another one might be. As I passed the torches the flames
extinguished. Did the Demons know I was here? Were they going to
pop out and yell surprise? Fuck.

Silence. An eerie silence stopped me in my
tracks. What happened? Why weren’t the souls screaming? Did they
get turned to ash? I was under the impression they had to burn for
eternity. God, I wanted out of here, but that was clearly not in
the plan thanks to Lust. Time to deal with the icky Demons and
hopefully not have to kill a ton of them. I wasn’t sure how that
would go over upstairs.

“Hello,” I called out. “Anybody home?”

As soon as I spoke the shrieks and wails
resumed at a level even higher than before. Words were intermingled
with the howling and I heard garbled begging and pleading. WTF? I
was close to the mouth of what looked like a large room. It was lit
up like Christmas, a holiday I was certain they skipped down here.
Go into the light, Carol Ann
kept running through my brain
and I laughed without humor. This was not a movie. It was real
life—my life.
Poltergeist
was G rated kiddie crap compared
to this shit.

Taking a deep breath and tamping down my gag
reflex at the stench, I sauntered into the bowels of Hell.

A huge wall of fire blasted out of a crevasse
in the floor that had to be at least ten feet wide and spanned the
entirety of the room, which from my estimation was the length of
several football fields. The soul lights darted around in the
flames wildly, although some were sluggish. Were those the older
souls—the ones that had become accustomed to being on fire? My
stomach roiled at the thought. Did Satan come up with this
punishment?

The Demons roaming around were identical to
the ones that had dragged me to Hell. Their bloody skinless bodies
were muscular and oozing with pus and disease. They undulated in
and out of each other, stabbing and prodding the less powerful ones
with their sharp and filthy claws. Had they really looked like the
Demons on the main level at one time? It was difficult to wrap my
mind around that. Huge blood covered teeth clicked as they ate what
looked like flesh and organs.
Fucking awesome, I had arrived in
time for dinner
.

Had no one noticed me, or was I being
ignored?

The Demons amped up their attacks on each
other and the sounds of moans and grunts joined the wailing. As
wonderful as all this was I had no time to watch a real life horror
movie. I needed to get the hell out.

“Excuse me,” I shouted over the cacophony.
Everything halted, including the soul shrieking. Hmmm, not sure
that was good. At least fifty pairs of beady bloodshot golden eyes
turned to me.

A huge reeking Demon stepped forward. It took
everything I had not to step back. Shitfuckshit. His eyes went red
and his teeth clicked ominously. He had bits of skin on his arms
and chest. They were rotten and peeling away. The edges were black
and runny. Had he tried to redeem himself and failed or was he
working on getting out of here?

“You’ve finally come,” he said in a voice
that hurt my ears and make my throat clench. It was like my
father’s. It sounded as if his mouth was full of glass shards.

“Well, I wasn’t really planning on it, but,
um . . . yep. Here I am. I was wondering if you knew where a portal
was?” I was sure my smile resembled a grimace, but if he was being
polite, I could certainly do the same.

He turned his back on me and addressed the
crowd. “Our Queen has come home,” he shouted. My stomach sunk and I
felt sick. This was not going to end well.

The Demons cheered and dropped to their bone
and muscle exposed knees. The souls began screaming again at a
volume that vibrated through my body. I slapped my hands over my
ears and bent forward.

“It will stop in a moment,” the Demon told
me.

“Why?”

“It is the way. They are given a moment of
peace so each time they burn it will be more devastating than the
last. They can never be allowed to forget what it feels like to be
free of pain. It would defeat the purpose of the punishment.”

“That is fucked up,” I said before I could
stop myself. I mean, who in the hell came up with this sadistic
kind of torture?

“Yes,” the Demon smiled and licked what I
supposed were lips. “Your father was a brilliant man.”

“This is my father’s doing?” I gasped and
wondered why I wasn’t more screwed up.

“He took the more violent Bible passages
quite seriously.”

“Maybe he should have taken some meds more
seriously,” I muttered and scanned the room for alternate exits.
“Look, um . . . ”

“Lance.”

“Right. Lance. I’m flattered that you want me
to be your, ah . . . queen, but I am not queen material at all. I
am so fucking grossed out by this,” I said, gesturing wildly around
the cave. “You really don’t want me to be your queen.”

“It is not our choice,” he grunted
dismissively. “You made that choice when you killed your father. We
would have never chosen a woman to lead. Women are weak and
inferior, but we will deal with what we have been given.”

WTF? Was he kidding me?
Inferior, my
ass
. I did not want to be the leader of Stinkyland, but I’d be
damned if they didn’t want me because I was a girl. “Look, Buster .
. . ”

“Lance,” he corrected.

“
Lance
, I don’t want the job. However
if I did, I could lead the shit out of you filthy asswipes.”

He growled and advanced. OMG, he picked the
wrong girl to fuck with. I was done. Done. I’d been dragged to
Hell, made to talk to walls, watched my mate get manhandled by a
Sin, got bitten by Hell Hounds and then shoved through a flaming
door into a place that ten thousand years of therapy couldn’t
erase. I was done. I mean WTF—how much was a hormonal pregnant
half-Vamp half-Demon with semi-exposed breasts supposed to
take?

“Back off,” I hissed.

“Make me,” he snapped and moved faster. He
came at me with his claws raised and his mouth open.

He asked for it. I swung my arms and slashed
through the air. I had no real idea what I was doing, but winging
it had worked so far. The room turned a hazy red and I would bet my
undead life that my eyes had turned the same color. Glittering
black and crystal white sparks flew from my fingertips and attacked
Lance with a vengeance. I closed my eyes when I heard him scream. I
let my mind float and I entered his, fully prepared to destroy him.
The pop of his body blowing into thousands of tiny pieces was so
close and a sense of excitement filled me.

“
Do it
,” his mind screamed to me.
“
Do it
,” he begged. “
End me
.”

What? He wanted to die? For real and
forever?

I pulled my mind back from his and stared at
him. My magic held him in a stasis and he writhed in pain. I
touched my angel wings again and created a shield around myself. I
didn’t want one of these fuckers sneaking up from behind while I
figured out what Lance meant and why I was becoming such a
blood-hungry psycho.

The Demons made a menacing circle around us
and I wondered if I could take all fifty or so out at once. I
seriously hoped I didn’t have to find out.

“What did you mean?” I demanded. “Why do you
want me to end you?”

“I know nothing of what you speak of,” he
snapped. The circle of love surrounding us growled and began to
keen like mourners at a funeral.

“Yes. You do,” I ground out. “Tell me.” With
a wave of my hand I increased the magic. He panted and convulsed on
the ground at my feet. “Tell me.”

“Fine,” he gasped. “Look at us,” he cried.
“Look at us. See how many have tried to turn decent. Look at the
tiny pieces of decomposing flesh on our bodies. We can’t do it.
There is no way out.”

“We were lied to and used by your father,” a
Demon yelled from the circle.

I rolled my eyes. “It takes two to tango,
idiot,” I shot back. “Don’t try to tell me you’re simply innocent
bystanders and got fucked over by my big bad daddy.”

“We are not innocent.” Lance wheezed some
nasty goop. Whatever insides he had were beginning to come up. “But
we were no more evil than the Demons on the main floor until your
father came along.”

“Free will, Mister. My dad may have been
certifiable, but you had a choice.”

“No,” he groaned. “No choice.”

“He ate my child,” one shouted from the
circle.

I almost threw up in my mouth. “He did what?”
I whispered. I eased off on the magic trapping Lance. He now lay
still at my feet. He watched me closely and his eyes still begged
me to destroy him.

“He killed family members and threatened us
with destroying each of our lines if we didn’t comply,” Lance
explained.

“So, I’m supposed to believe that you were
all blackmailed into becoming the lowest form of Demon imaginable
by my dead pappy.”

Not one of them said a word, but stared at me
with eyes that had seen true horror. It was hard to buy. I was in a
place where lying was the norm and most sins were overlooked. Why
was I starting to believe this?

“How did he have so much power?” I asked,
looking for a chink I could find in their story.

“He was Satan’s brother. He had magic beyond
the normal realm of a Demon and he had his brother’s ear in the
beginning . . . before Satan shunned him.”

“Okay,” I said, pacing back and forth, being
careful not to get too close to the edge of the circle. “I get that
he had you by the balls, but are you telling me you’ve done nothing
wrong? You are innocents sent here by mistake?” I asked
sarcastically.

“No, we no longer deserve another chance.
Ever. But we don’t deserve this. We were deceived and did not
choose this of our own free will.”

Holy Hell, talk about some gray areas . .
.

“What do you do down here?” I asked.

“We watch,” Lance said and shook his head in
disgust.

“That’s it? You just watch souls burn?”

“Yes. We watch and we go just a little more
insane with each passing hour.”

I glanced around at them. They were so
disgusting it was nearly impossible to see the people they might
have been at one time without the influence of my father. Could
they be redeemed? Many of them did have decaying skin, so clearly
they had tried. What did they want? Could I speak with Satan about
them? Would he care? If I stayed with them I wondered if I could
help them change. Was my purpose here to undo the damage my father
had done? Hell, was that even possible?

“I can speak to Satan for you,” I said.

“No,” a smaller Demon yelled. “He cares
nothing for us. He associates us with your father and will show no
mercy.”

“And you think I will?” I laughed and shook
my head. What did they want from me?

“You have to,” Lance said. “You are our only
hope. We have nothing left.”

“Look, Lance, I am sorry for the sins of my
father, but I am not my father. I am not staying down here and if I
have to kill each and every one of you to leave . . . I will.”

An excited murmur went through the circle. I
could swear the sons of bitches were smiling at me . . . or they
all had gas. Every single Demon dropped to their knees and leaned
forward. Placing their hands on the ground they began to weep. Some
shuddered and some laughed with joy. What the hell was
happening?

“Thank you,” Lance said. “We cannot thank you
enough.”

“For what?” I asked, completely confused.

“For killing us.”

Wait. WTF? When did I agree to kill them?
“Um, Lance?”

“Yes, my Queen?”

“Not gonna happen. You guys can’t just ask me
to kill you and then I kill you. I wouldn’t say that I want to hang
with you, but I kind of like you and as alarmingly scary as you are
. . . I feel sorry for you.”

“Show us mercy, my Queen,” someone cried
out.

“Please,” another sobbed.

What was I supposed to do? This could be a
trick. I could kill the fifty or so Demons and five hundred more
pissed off Demons could show up and kill me or, God forbid, want me
to kill them too.

“Is this all of you?” I asked in a voice I
didn’t recognize. It was thin, tinny and far away. I was shocked I
was even considering this. Did I truly need to atone for the sins
of my father?

“The others are not here. They’ve been taken
away,” Lance explained.

“What does that mean?”

“I don’t know,” he admitted in his gravely
voice. “One day they were here and one day they were gone.”

“Like gone, gone. For real gone?” I asked,
wondering if an army would seek me out for retribution.

“Probably not.” Lance shrugged and forlornly
laid his huge misshapen head back down on the floor.

Okay, think Astrid. You could right one of
your father’s many wrongs and kill a bunch of Demons . . . which in
turn could piss of the Prince of Darkness and set in motion a large
bounty on my head. That would suck asswads. You could try to
escape, but you have no fucking clue how to get back to the main
level and there could be other areas of the Basement worse than
this one. Hard to imagine, but this was Hell.

Glancing around, I saw the Demons peeking up
at me. They reminded me of little children . . . disgustingly ugly
little children. Fuck.

“Stand up,” I barked. “This feels like an
execution and I am not at all happy about this.”