Good Intentions (The Road to Hell Series, Book 1) (31 page)

“He told me what is inside of him is also inside of
me
. He expects me to help him take down the only one who has managed to elude him,
you
!” she cried as her eyes became more turbulent.

My breath froze in my chest, and my body stiffened against hers as her words sank in. I didn’t believe for one second anything he’d told her, but his words had taken root within her mind. She had asked before if she could be evil, but I’d believed it to be a concern of the past; I knew now I was wrong. Lucifer had been able to detect her worries and turn them against her.

“He’s a master manipulator, River. None of what he said is true.”

“You can’t know that,” she whispered, “not for sure. He said I am
his
child and that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. You all consider me his child too. He also said he’d be sending me a gift and to look for it.”

Tears!
The sight of them shimmering in her eyes tore at my heart. What had that prick done to her?

I had always known I would one day kill him, but now I would make Lucifer’s death an excruciating experience that would make all the tortures of Hell look like a day in Heaven in comparison. Unlucky for him, I had over a millennia of torture and suffering to draw on once I had him in my grasp.

“He’s lying to try and keep you from growing stronger, to keep you from learning more of your powers, and to get between us. He knows demons become stronger when they find their Chosen.”

Corson’s words from earlier drifted through my head,
‘But with more power comes new weakness.’
I shoved them aside. They may be true, but in no way or in any dimension could River ever become like Lucifer. She would strengthen me more than she weakened me. I would not lose her.

“He knows both of our powers will only increase because of our bond,” I told her. “It was a ploy. He pulled you in to implant these doubts in your head. He can’t find you, so he found another way to attack you. Discovering you were my Chosen only made things easier for him to manipulate.”

“I’m the one who drew
him
into my dream. I didn’t mean to; it’s certainly not something I planned to have happen. But I did it somehow and for some
reason
.”

I brushed the tears from her cheeks as I leveled my body over hers. I used my thigh to nudge hers apart as I contemplated her words. She bit her lip as her hips instinctively rose toward mine.

“You’re about to start a journey that’s going to take you toward him; of course you’re curious about what you will face. Unlike the humans, you have the ability to ease some of your curiosity. We’ll have to try and shut that down from happening again,” I said.

“It
will
be shut down.”

I smiled at her as I brushed a kiss over the tip of her nose. Her legs lifted so her knees pressed against my sides. Her distress continued to beat against me, but her body instinctively sought to ease it. Her eyes remained latched on mine as I slid into her wet sheath.

“Do you feel me?” I inquired as her muscles gripped my aching cock.

“Always,” she whispered.

“What this is between us is stronger than him,” I told her as I nuzzled her neck. “Stronger than
any
powers.”

“He’ll come for you,” she whispered, “or for me. What becomes of you if something were to happen to me?”

“That won’t happen,” I told her as I moved deliberately out and then back into her, allowing her body to ease the burning need to kill something her words had awoken in me. She was everything I had ever needed or wanted in the world. She was my heart and I would not let her go.

“But if it did, what would happen to you, Kobal?”

I smoothed the hair back from her pale face before bending to kiss her lips. I refused to entertain the possibility of anything happening to her. I was strong enough to keep us both alive. “A Chosen is left broken and hollow without their other half,” I told her. “But that will never be us.”

She paled further as her hands rested against my cheeks and her gaze latched onto mine. “I can’t be used against you; I won’t allow it.”

I smiled at her as I drove into her, causing her to cry out in pleasure. “Neither will I, Mah Kush-la, but you have no reason to worry about any of this.” Taking hold of her wrists, I gripped them in my hand before dragging them over her head. “Now, I’m going to make sure you’re too tired to dream again.”

A small smile curved her lips, but sadness remained in her eyes. I couldn’t help but feel like something had changed, as if she were pulling away from me even as she gave herself over to me.

River

Standing on the hill with all the humans who had been training to become a part of the mission to leave, I watched as Kobal, the demons, Mac, and a handful of older soldiers moved to stand before us. They were grouped together, talking between themselves as they scanned the humans gathered before them.

Kobal’s eyes latched onto me, and my toes curled at the ravenous gleam in his gaze. I loved him more than I’d ever believed possible, but after last night, I was beginning to question if what I’d thought was so right may actually be the worst thing to ever happen to him. If he wouldn’t end up hating me as much as he hated my ancestor.

The possibility caused something inside of me to shrivel. I’d rather be dead than ever have that happen, but if we continued to get closer it might. I just didn’t know how I could ever let him go. The idea tore at my insides, shredding them to pieces and leaving me as raw and exposed as I’d felt when I’d first awoken last night.

Because of my curiosity about my ancestor, I’d reached out to him in my dream and now Lucifer knew what I was to Kobal, what he was to me. He would do everything he could to exploit that knowledge. And what if he’d been right? What if one day I became like him and clung to Hell. What if what I could do turned me into a twisted version of what he’d become?

Kobal might be right and Lucifer had been lying to keep me from getting better with my powers, I definitely wouldn’t put it past the bastard, but he also could have been telling the truth. I had no idea what had caused him to become the way he was; there may be something that could do the same thing to me.

It was all so confusing, and I found myself unable to breathe as the bodies pressed closer against me and a sense of impending doom weighed heavily on my chest.

Mac stepped forward and approached the soldiers fanned out before him. Only one hundred of the original two hundred remained, the others had already been cut. They all stood rigidly, their shoulders thrust back and their chins tilted up. I tried to assume their proud postures, but I felt like a wilting weed in a field of tall stalks. I’d never been a good soldier; there was no point in trying to pretend to be now.

“We’ve made our decision about who will be joining this vital mission,” Mac announced. “A mission that will present horrors and dangers we have yet to come across, but these horrors will become a daily part of all of humanity’s existence if something is not done to end it now. We have an opportunity to do that, and we are going to take it.”

A ripple went through the crowd as some murmured in excitement about what was to come. These people may not have known what they were getting into when they’d originally volunteered to come to the wall, but over the course of my time here, I’d come to learn more than a few of them excelled at being a solider.

“Due to the necessity of trying to keep a low profile, there will only be fifty men and women joining the demon faction on this journey. If I call your name, please remain where you are until you are told to do otherwise.” Mac paced before the group, calling out names as he strode back and forth before us.

Eyes swung toward me when my name was called. Questions traveled through some of the people gathered. I was a volunteer; I wasn’t supposed to be considered for this journey. I hadn’t gone through the special training with them, but then none of them knew I was the whole reason this mission was taking place.

They knew where they were going, what they might face, but they hadn’t been told it was me who had set it all into motion to begin with. Kobal had decided to keep that from them until the end.

“Whore slept her way into this.”

My gaze didn’t waver, but my jaw clenched at the familiar, hated voice. Over the past week, I’d heard the terms whore and slut more times than I’d ever thought possible. I’d also learned the name of the woman who threw those words at me with such spiteful glee. It was Eileen. I’d come to despise that name as much as her.

“They’re only taking the best,” someone else murmured. “They wouldn’t take someone because she’s sleeping with one of them.”

“She’s screwing the leader,” Eileen hissed back.

“And so did you, once.”

I resisted the urge to tear every blonde hair from Eileen’s head. Kobal wouldn’t have cared if I’d had a thousand lovers before him, but I despised the reminder he’d had many before me. I really hated that one of them had been
her
.

Jealousy wasn’t something I was accustomed to, but she brought it forth so easily in me. I really hoped her name wasn’t called for this. I may end up throwing her into the pit of Hell myself if it was.

“I don’t see him taking you with him though,” the man who had been speaking with Eileen continued. “And from what I’ve heard of her, she’s more lethal than you are.”

I bit back a laugh, and my gaze darted to the side to see who it was that had caused Eileen’s face to turn redder than the lobsters from back home. The man who had uttered the words wasn’t looking at Eileen; his eyes remained focused ahead.

He was handsome with his brunet hair cropped short against his skull. He stood proudly with his broad shoulders thrust back and his hands folded behind him. His indigo eyes followed Mac’s every move, but his head never wavered from its forward position.

Eileen glared at him before turning to focus on me with the hate-filled look I’d become so accustomed to since my relationship with Kobal had intensified. She stood in the row behind me and three people to my right. I smiled back at her and gave a little wave of my fingers, something
none
of the other soldiers who would be chosen for this mission would do, which made it more fun.

Turning back around, I focused on Kobal as Mac recited the last of the names and returned to the center of the group.

“If your name was called, please come forward now!” Mac announced.

People moved forward amongst the crowd, walking proudly toward Mac and the others. I was happy to see the man who had been speaking with Eileen heading toward the front while she remained unmoving, her face turning redder and her mouth hanging open. She must have hoped to get accepted for this mission with the goal of getting Kobal all to herself.

Suck it
.

I’d taken five steps forward when the world faded away from me, and the image of Eileen lunging at my back with a knife filled my head.

I gasped when I was thrust back into my body. I twisted to the side as a foot-long blade slid past my stomach. It was so close it sliced open the front of my shirt and nicked my skin. If I hadn’t seen her coming, she would have stabbed me clean through with it.

Her startled brown eyes met mine before she swung the knife at me again. Keeping my stomach sucked in, I jumped back, barely managing to avoid being gutted by the blade. The movement caused me to crash into the side of someone.

“Get off me!” they snapped.

I lunged to the side to avoid the next lethal arc of the blade. I could release a ball of fire at her, but I was nowhere near as good at controlling it as Kobal was and I didn’t want to take the chance of setting someone else on fire. Plus, I really would prefer not to torch a human, even if it was
her
.

I wasn’t supposed to let anyone know about my ability to draw on life, and after what it had done to the earth the other day, it might be more dangerous than my fire. My only choice was to stay back from her, until I had a chance to take her down.

Eileen grunted as she swung violently back and forth in a desperate attempt to make my intestines visible for everyone to see. Finally realizing what was going on, the crowd fell away from us to avoid the lethal arc of the blade. I jumped back, tripping over a young man who wasn’t fast enough to get out of the way.

With a scream of frustration, Eileen lunged at me again. I wasn’t fast enough to get completely out of the way this time and the blade sliced across my arm. Twisting to the side, I brought my other arm down on hers and knocked the blade free. I grabbed the back of her head and drove it down at the same time I lifted my knee and slammed it into her nose.

She howled and clutched at her broken nose as blood burst free. I smiled in satisfaction when I realized I’d pancaked it, much like I’d pictured doing days ago in the cafeteria. Swinging my hand out, I backhanded her across the face, knocking her to the side and causing her to sprawl on the ground.

Inhaling rapidly to calm my racing heart and the rush of adrenaline coursing through my body, I took a few steps away. My body pulsed with the need to do more, to go at her again. I longed to make her pay for every snide comment and for ever having known what it felt like to be with Kobal.

I’d never felt this out of control and so close to brutal violence before. It rattled me almost as much as her attack had.

Not like Lucifer, I will
not
be like him
. If I went back after her, it would be the first step to going over the edge, to becoming more like him. He would have walked over to Eileen and finished her off without a second’s hesitation; I couldn’t.

The crowd had formed a circle around us, but I could see them being shoved apart as Kobal thrust his way through the group. The thunderous expression on his face caused my knees to go weak.

Almost at the small circle Eileen and I stood in, he shoved aside a young man so remorselessly, he sent him sprawling to the ground. His eyes burned with amber fire when they latched onto the blood spilling from my arm and then the slice in my shirt. People scrambled away from him when a snarl tore from him.

The earth shook beneath my feet as he stalked toward me. If I hadn’t known him better, I would have scrambled to get out of his way too as fury emanated from him in waves I could feel pulsating against my skin.

Despite the color of his eyes and his lethal air, his hands were tender when he took hold of my wrist and elbow. He inspected my arm before releasing my elbow. His fingers fondled the slice through my shirt as his eyes latched onto my belly. Beads of blood had formed along the scratch there; one slid down my flesh.

His eyes burned so hot I thought they might set my clothes on fire. Lifting his head, his gaze slid past me toward where I’d last seen Eileen. I couldn’t bring myself to look at her again yet; I needed a few minutes to regain control of my rocketing emotions over what had occurred. I was afraid I might kill her if I didn’t.

“Why would you do this?” Kobal demanded of her.

“Kobal,” I whispered, “don’t.”

I clutched his arm when he took a step toward her. Bracing myself, I turned to find Eileen back on her feet and two men holding her arms. One of them was the man who had been defending me to her. Mac stood to the side, turning the knife over in his hand as he studied the blade.

“Attacking another soldier is absolutely not permitted,” Mac said. “Take her to the cells where she will be held until we can try her for her crime.”

“She is to be put to death,” Kobal grated.

“If that is what a judge decides,” Mac replied before handing the knife over to another soldier.

“
I
am deciding,” Kobal declared.

The color drained from Eileen’s face so fast her knees gave out on her. The two men had to brace their legs in order to keep her up. “Let them take her,” I said quietly.

His gaze barely flickered toward me before he pulled his arm from my grasp and closed the five feet separating her from us. No one had a chance to react before he grabbed hold of her head and twisted it harshly to the side.

The crack of bone caused everyone around me to wince, some cried out as they fell back from him. Kobal didn’t stop with the breaking of her neck but kept twisting until the rending of cartilage, muscle, and flesh could be heard in a sickening wet, crunching sound that caused my stomach to lurch.

The two men holding Eileen’s arms dropped them as if they’d caught on fire and stepped briskly to the side as Kobal tore the head from her body. My hand flew to my mouth as a spurt of blood shot out, spraying over the men who had been holding her and Kobal. Some of the hot wash hit me in the face, staggering me back a step as the beads of it slid down my cheeks to drip off my chin.

Turning to the crowd, Kobal raised Eileen’s head in the air as her body collapsed onto the ground. Bile surged into my mouth, and by sheer strength of will, I managed to swallow it back before I could spew it onto the ground. Others weren’t so lucky as they retched onto the grass surrounding us.

In Kobal’s grasp, Eileen’s mouth hung ajar and her eyes were open in unseeing, endless horror. The last thing she’d seen was the man she’d been so obsessed with ripping her head from her body. That realization made me almost vomit again.

Blood dripped from Kobal’s hair, slid down his face, and splattered his clothes, but he didn’t appear to notice any of it as he continued to hold Eileen’s head high in the air. Part of her spine and muscles dangled from the bottom of her head. Some of those around me swayed unsteadily.

“Anyone who dares to attack her again will have their arms and legs ripped from their bodies before I tear their heads from them!” Kobal declared.

Mac stood beside him, his face abnormally pale, but he didn’t say a word as Kobal thrust the head at Corson. The demon started when the head hit his stomach, but he took hold of Eileen’s hair.