Read Good Intentions (The Road to Hell Series, Book 1) Online
Authors: Brenda K. Davies
Good Intentions (The Road to Hell Series, Book 1) (34 page)
“One thing though,” he said quietly.
“What’s that?”
“He’s not going to be able to let you go. It’s not possible for us. You’re going to have to decide, when you’re not so angry and frightened.” I shot him an irritated look, but he merely smiled in return. “Your feelings for him terrify you. They’re far deeper than anything a human would feel and you know it. Lucifer has unnerved you, and what Kobal did to the woman was disturbing, but you must realize by now it was an instinctive reaction for him to protect you and not meant as one of maliciousness.”
I recalled Kobal’s words about the mark Ziwa being a blessing and a curse, and how there was nothing more dangerous than a hound when its mate was threatened. He’d warned me many times he was capable of being vicious, but I still had never expected to see that from him.
“I do,” I admitted.
“You reacted out of panic and shock.”
“Yeah,” I muttered.
“You are going to have to decide if you really
can
live without him, or if you just need some time to come to grips with who and what you are now. Because if you can live without him, you are going to have to get far away from him after all of this is settled. Your presence will only bring him more hurt.”
My head canted to the side as I stared at him. The easygoing, earring-wearing demon was far more perceptive than I’d believed him to be. If Kobal knew he was discussing this so openly with me, he may kill him.
“I know.” Though I couldn’t picture my life without Kobal in it. We may not be speaking or touching right now, but I was still able to see him every day. The idea of not being able to do so nearly drove me to my knees.
“Will he survive without me?” I whispered in a strangled voice.
“Will you survive without him?”
No.
He grinned at me and sidestepped to avoid the leg I kicked at him. “I can understand keeping your distance if you think it really will help protect him; you have to figure that out on your own also. Your instincts are strong, maybe a little frazzled right now, but they’re there, so listen to them. The sooner the better would be good too. Kobal was never a ball of laughs before; now I’d rather play keep away with a madagan than deal with him.”
I couldn’t stop the burst of laughter his words caused to escape from me. I chanced a glance at Kobal to find him glaring at us across the clearing. “I’ll figure it out soon,” I promised.
“Thank you.”
I stayed focused on Corson as we moved around the clearing. Everything had been moving so quickly and become entrenched so fast it had overwhelmed me. What mattered most was stopping the looming threat to the humans and demons and possibly even the angels.
What mattered was in two days’ time, we would be leaving here, and we would be exposed to things I’d never dreamed of before. Things that would make my worst nightmares seem like pleasant daydreams in comparison. I couldn’t allow the hole in my heart to drag me down and distract me. I couldn’t let anything stand in the way of what was to come.
I would survive this. I would do what had to be done to keep Bailey and Gage alive, and one day, I would return to them.
My entire life my mother had told me I was evil, that I was the spawn of Satan. I wondered if maybe somehow she’d known my heritage, or if her rotten mind had accidentally latched onto those vicious words and repeated them often. My ancestor, the one I refused to call my father, believed I would also become evil, but I would prove them both wrong. I simply had to.
Kobal didn’t believe in pure evil, but after meeting Lucifer, I knew he was wrong. I’d endured years of my mother telling me I was a monster, and now Satan himself had told me it would one day come to pass. I didn’t entirely believe him, but I did believe something had made him the way he was and that there was a possibility it could happen to me too.
Kobal would never believe I could become like Lucifer, and because of that, I worried I could be his downfall. I wouldn’t be used as a way to destroy the man I loved. I would figure out some way for that not to happen. Even if it meant I had to put distance between us, and I could never be with him again.
I kept that thought firmly in mind as I continued to do a fighting dance with Corson. I’d been weak and lost when I’d been forced to come here. I’d had no idea why I was different from others or what I could be capable of. Now I was a trained fighter with a better understanding and growing control over the powers that had once ruled me.
I may not have liked the revelation of my heritage, but I now knew why I had these abilities. Instead of being frightened of them, and what would happen if someone else found about them, I’d come to enjoy the fact they were a part of me and I no longer feared discovery.
My world had been completely turned upside down these past couple of months, but in two days, a new journey would begin, and I was ready to face whatever awaited us out there.
The End
Carved, Book 2 in the series, will be releasing 10/11/16 and is available for pre-order now.
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Description:
River,
As the perilous journey across a country I’d long thought destroyed begins, I don’t know who I am anymore or what I’m becoming. My abilities grow stronger with each passing day, as does the fear of what comes next. All I know is that I will do anything to avoid becoming like Lucifer, and to protect those I love, even if that means protecting them from me.
Kobal,
No matter what it takes, I will keep River safe, even if my actions end up driving a wedge between us. River is mine to protect, no matter how hard that might be to do now that our journey has begun. I won’t stop until Lucifer is destroyed, won’t stop until I claim my throne, and she will be by my side when I do. It’s all just a matter of keeping her alive until then.
Doors closed around me as the humans exited their trucks and moved in closer. In the stillness following, I could hear something flapping in the breeze and spotted the tattered remains of a curtain hitting the side of the building as it blew out of one of the windows.
Corson and Bale moved to flank River. The seconds turned into a full minute before a single ticking sound drew my attention to a broken window higher up. A single, gray claw had appeared to curve around the edge of the steel frame of the window. My gaze fixated on it as the claw tapped against the frame. It was impossible to tell exactly what kind of demon or Hell creature we were facing without seeing its whole body.
Then a head poked over the top of the window. My lips skimmed back, and my fangs lengthened as flames erupted from my fingers and licked toward my shoulders.
“Gargoyles,” Corson growled.
“Are you serious?” a human blurted.
“Yes,” Corson replied.
I watched the creature crawl out from over the top of the broken window. It’s scaled, slate-colored skin cracked and flaked off as it leisurely climbed down the building on all fours. The sticky, glue-like substance on its palms gave it traction as it moved. Its three-foot-long tail flicked back and forth like a bored cat on the hunt, and there was no doubt this monstrosity was on the hunt.
There were few things in life I found truly ugly, gargoyles were one of them. They had pushed in snouts, mustard-colored eyes, and razor-sharp teeth that clacked together as they closed in on their prey. That clacking sound increased in intensity as it continued its descent and its tail twitched faster.
Slate-colored wings unfurled from its back and flapped once. They crashed against a remaining pane of glass, causing jagged fissures across the surface. Startled cries escaped a few of the humans. They had to keep it together, or they would all be slaughtered, and we couldn’t afford to lose them so early in the journey. I needed their extra protection for River.
“Guns ready!” I commanded. “And whatever you do, don’t let them scratch you with their claws!”
“Them?” a soldier asked.
As if on cue, at least fifteen more gargoyles emerged from inside to perch on the broken edges of the building. They sat as still as their stone counterparts in the human realm. Humans had come so close to recreating things they’d glimpsed through the veil that had once separated our worlds; gargoyles may have been one of the closest.
The gargoyle’s stillness and their ability to remain unmoving for years on end was well known by the demon world as they often entered a hibernation state when they were unable to kill and feed. Kept separate from all demons in Hell, behind the second seal, gargoyles were often reserved to punish demons who tried to launch an uprising and failed, or for the worst souls who entered Hell.
They were a special form of punishment as their claws contained a paralyzing agent they used on their prey. When their victim was paralyzed, the gargoyles would peel the skin from their victims, one strip at a time, and leisurely eat it in front of them.
Once there was nothing but muscle and bone left, the creatures would wait until the skin regenerated before starting the whole process all over again. I’d witnessed it once, and though I’d appreciated the brutality and torment of the act, I’d never gone back to watch it again.
They all fluttered their three-foot-wide wings at once, causing a breeze to blow down the building and over all those gathered below. A wailing cry escaped them before they launched simultaneously into the air. Gunfire exploded in the air as they swooped down on us.
Carved will be releasing 10/11/16 and is available for pre-order now.
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http://tinyurl.com/j74d4w4
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