E very single time I made a movement with my head, it was like my scalp screamed for mercy. I’d managed to close my eyes, nodding off for a few moments until the image of Jasmine and Yuri flooded my mind. I would evade sleep happily if it meant not having to see that cross my mind again. The look on their young faces, filled with so much fear. Leah had tried to look strong for them and I knew she was anything but weak, yet being stuck in a Hell prison can make everything feel damn near impossible.
I felt like I was belittling myself with the way I had to make it out to be like I had no power at all, when all I wanted to do was rip Dimitri’s head from his body and give it to Garrett as a prize for even considering touching a hair on his family’s head.
Was I doing them a disservice by not doing anything at all? Making them rot in that disgusting place they were in.
Maybe Dimitri was bluffing and I was the one keeping them here longer. Perhaps if I just killed him and all his guards then I could set them free. I stood up from the ground and ran a dirt covered hand through my curls, getting my fingers caught on a tangle. I ripped through it in frustration, yelping at the pain in my scalp.
I scoffed, maybe I deserved this pain.
I gently moved my hair over my shoulder, letting my mind wander to things that lifted me up. I thought about how once I was out of here, tangles would be the least of my worries since I had my angel to carefully remove them for me. He had gotten so good at meticulously finger-combing my hair when I washed it. Time could tick by and Nick wouldn’t even so much as let out a groan of annoyance when he had still another section of my hair to go.
The pain in my scalp wouldn’t even be something to consider since Nicholas was insanely too good at giving scalp massages. I caught myself smiling, at the soothing feeling of someone delicately alleviating this pain in my head.
I rolled my neck and shoulders, my happy ideas halting when I heard the door opening. It didn’t feel like Dimitri though outside of it. No, two of his bodyguards stalked into the room with their eyes trained right on me. I scanned my eyes over both of them. One was bulky and extremely tall; he reminded me a little of Zane but with shorter hair. The other was of average height, but his thighs and biceps bulged, even under his clothes.
“Can I help you?” I wasn’t intimidated if that’s what they were going for. All I felt was annoyance at their intrusion.
They casually looked over at each other, giving one short nod. The shorter one cocked his head towards me. “Grab her arms.”
I reared my head back, blinking rapidly. “The fuck you will,” I protested, backing up.
The taller one snickered. “You can make this real easy and just oblige us.”
He took one long step over to me, reaching for my arm, but I swatted it away. “I’m not a fan of making your lives easier.”
The short one rolled his eyes, lunging at me. I jumped back, nearly laughing when he almost fell flat on his face. The other one trapped my arm in his grasp, twisting it so that the bones there were on the verge of breaking. Before the shorter one could grab hold of my other arm, I collected shadows into my hand and reached over my shoulder. I shoved the dark magic into the larger one's face, thrusting backwards to get him off of me. He stumbled backwards, shaking his head and clawing at his face.
I pulled my hand back, shooting the shadows towards the shorter one. I spun around but had to lean back to escape the flying fist that was aimed at my face. The larger one huffed, moving a few steps to the side quickly when I shot out another stream of shadows. The other one pushed out his own dark magic, hoping to battle against mine.
The taller one saw that as an opportunity to gain the upper hand on me, but I’d let shadows rise from the stones, wrapping their ribbon like appearance around his legs, up his thighs and around his ribs. They cinched him in, letting me give all my attention to the one currently thinking he could win in this shadow fight with me.
I was about to propel a large amount of dark magic at him, something that would likely send both of them into unconsciousness when I felt something wrap around both my wrists. I instantly felt the burn. My eyes flicked to my wrists, ropes of black and dark red had a hold of me and the heat it created was fucking unbearable.
My power stopped flowing and everything the shorter guard had thrown at me hit me all at once. It looked so much like simple transparent wisps but they felt like stones. I tried to raise my hands and shield myself but the ropes at my wrists kept me in place. The larger guard broke through my shadow holds, beginning to barrel towards me, but he halted when he was so close he could have picked me up.
I started to turn around and add yet another person into this fight, but my head was yanked back by another rope that circled my throat. I didn’t get a chance to catch my footing when I was pulled backwards, my back hitting a hard chest.
I knew that chest and I tried to force my hands up to my neck. I wanted to rip away Dimitri’s hold on me, move my body as far away from his as possible. He still had a solid grip on my wrists, the burning a slow continuous feeling. It was a never ending heat cycle that thrummed through my veins and it was starting to make me sweat. I felt his hands move my hair away from my ear, so he could touch his lips to the shell. “Always the little fighter, aren’t we?”
I looked straight ahead, refusing to even give him an ounce of my attention. I focused on the two men in front of me. They had gotten themselves together again and seemed to be waiting for his instructions.
Dimitri sighed in disappointment before directing his next words at them. “Grab her and hold her in place. One simple task, for fucks sake boys, do I need to do everything myself?”
“We had it, boss, I swear…” The taller one started, but suddenly there was a long cut along his neck, blood trickling out. I peeked over to my right as much as I could, seeing that Dimitri had extended one of his fingers at his guard. His fingernail had become long and pointed, the same way it had when we fought with him in his office at Leviathan.
He didn’t have to take a step at all to cause harm and the tip of his fingernail was coated in blood. The guard’s hand flew up to his neck, but before he could get any words out the blood started to bubble as if it was boiling. The color red caught in my peripheral vision and I knew Dimitri’s eyes had turned. He wasn’t angry enough to shift into original demon form, but he was pissed enough to make things count when he needed to.
“I am so sure you did.”
We all watched as the blood started to rapidly pour out of his skin and sizzle as it hit the ground. Blood started to come from his mouth and his body shook with pain. His hands flew everywhere, not knowing where to go and how to help himself. His body fell to the ground, soaking up his blood.
Dimitri chuckled, grazing my ear again with his lips. “Oh, no, look what you caused. Don’t worry, what I plan to do to you will be much less horrifying—on the outside.”
The air turned cooler when he finally let me go. I didn’t get a chance to enjoy it when his hand dug into my hair, tugging backwards, then forcing my head against the stone wall. Black dots decorated my vision and I blacked out.
My wrists stung with pain as I tried to stretch them out but to no avail. I pulled and tugged but nothing worked. I slowly blinked my eyes open to see the stone ground below me, but also that I was on my knees. I realized quickly with a few more tugs that my wrists were now placed around my back and secured. Pieces of my hair clung to my mouth and I blew tiny breaths out, trying to get them away from my face.
I tried to conjure up my own dark magic, but I felt nothing happening. I knew it was in there; I could even feel the light magic bottled up in myself, but nothing was willing to release itself from my fingertips. I couldn’t feel anything wanting to come from my skin or any thrumming in my veins. I almost felt human and I ground my teeth together at the thought. I rallied when I brought my thoughts back to my captured wrists. Heaven’s Gate had their golden magic dampening handcuffs, so what would stop Hell from having their own version of it.
I hadn’t noticed the two guards standing on opposite sides of the room, staring at me as if they had nothing better to do. One of them was the shorter one from earlier, but there was a new one to my left. He had cropped blonde hair and dark brown eyes that looked black in the dim lighting of the cell. I glanced over at where the other guard had seized and died in front of me, his blood still staining the stones.
A throat cleared as the door opened and a smiling Dimitri sauntered in as if he was the biggest piece of shit in the realms. He wasn’t alone though. Lilith walked in after him, her black silk dress flowing behind her. Her platinum blonde hair was swept up in a high bun and it almost looked as if she was about to attend some elegant dinner party rather than come and torment me with her presence again.
“Ah, you’re awake. Excellent.” Dimitri rubbed his hand down his fitted shirt, nodding at his guards.
They rushed over to me, grabbing my elbows and lifted me up. My knees ached and my legs felt wobbly from how I’d been placed on the ground. Dimitri stood in front of me, taking my hair in his hand and brushing the curls over my shoulder. His green eyes looked at my face as if he was considering something but then thought better of it.
“I admire your work with her Lilith, but I think you were quite foolish in how defiant you made her. I love a woman with her own mind, but hmm, I do believe it is a bit misguided.” He looked over his shoulder at her, tilting his head towards me as if to tell her to come closer. She obeyed, standing next to him. He brought his gaze back to me. “I had a lovely meeting with your delicate little angel. I forgot how good his darkness tasted, although perhaps he isn’t quite as delicate as before. He put up a fight and I probably have you to thank for making him so resilient. I could taste his need for you, his need to find you. It was actually kind of pathetically sad. Poor sad, simple Nicholas, loving a girl who was never his to begin with.”
I tried to pull away from him, hating the way he said Nick’s name. I hated the way he thought he was better and that somehow I was the missing puzzle piece in his deluded love story.
Dimitri raised his hand and placed his fingers at my shoulder. He twisted his hand so his knuckles slowly ran down my arm. “You don’t want to work with me Dani, well then unfortunately, I will need to use a method I’ve tried to avoid with you. You really do bring out the worst in me.” He looked over at Lilith. “Watch and learn.”
I furrowed my brow, when Dimitri’s long nails extended, pressing into the skin of my arm and slicing downward. Lilith took in a sharp breath, but it wasn’t from shock, but as if she was impressed or awestruck. An excruciating pain ran along my arm and I closed my eyes, biting down on my tongue to keep the whimpering sounds I wanted to make at bay. I heaved out a breath, glancing at the damage he’d done. Blood ran down towards my elbow, dripping onto the stone.
Dimitri ran his fingertips along my open wound, smearing the blood there. I watched with my mouth half open as he brought his fingers to his lips, tasting my blood. He sighed as if he was so content with what he was doing.
“Such rage. Such overwhelming hatred for me, when all I’m trying to do is help you. We wanted the best for you and you went and decided that living with them was a better choice.” He laughed. “We should be enraged with you , yet, I desire you too much to show you such malice.”
Lilith reached out and touched my bleeding arm, pressing her fingers into the long cuts. I grunted, her nails digging into the broken skin.
“You can keep me here forever and I still won’t want you. I will never want—” The back of his hand came down across my face, his knuckles connecting with my jaw and fuck , it hurt. I tasted blood on my lips, verifying that he had in fact, busted my lip open. I looked into the fiery red that were now his eyes and the way his face began to distort, but then he pulled himself back together.
Dimitri flexed his hand, chuckling. “I told you that I will break your spirit and I wasn’t lying. I will see that power of yours, pretty girl. You will give me what I want.” He nodded over to his guards who came up behind me, wrapping their hands around my wrists.
The Son of Hell ran his entire palm over my blood soaked arm, squeezing so that more of the dark red liquid oozed out. He pulled back, creating that reddish black magic in his hand, clouds of smoke coming from his palm. “I really do hate hurting you.”
That was all he said before I felt the dampening magic at my wrists release but the guards still held my arms in place. Dimitri slapped his blood soaked hand over my eyes and it was like I was seeing multiple visions at the same time.
I tried to rip myself away from the guards holding my arms, tried to use my shadows now that they were free to run rampant, but it was like I was stunned into focusing on the things Dimitri was forcing me to see.
He had me seeing every single soul I’d tortured and I felt a shiver of pleasure roll down my spine from it. There were images of blood, so much blood. Blood I had spilled and the fact that I had desired more of it. He played off of my need for applause of lower demons and those that enjoyed my shows of torture. It was as if he was letting me know I could have all that again, that I could evoke pain and be praised for it.
My shadows molded and submitted to this idea, snaking around my arms with the need to do something like that, be something like that again.
I felt his hand press harder down on my face, his Hell shadows filtering into my eyes and it stung. I wanted to cry from how much it hurt and burned. It wasn’t enough to fuck up my eyesight but I knew what was coming would be painful in a way I wasn’t prepared for. Dimitri had tasted my blood and he would have found things he was knowledgeable of, but then he would have also tasted my desire for Nick, my love for him and everyone else I had let myself care about.
I flinched as he slammed image after image into my mind. The way he’d sliced down Nick’s arm and the amount of agony he’d put him in. My angel’s declining attitude at the fight outside the hostile and how he’d so much as put himself in the fetal position to make it stop. Dimitri sent feelings of despair and fear into my mind. He made me feel hurt and scared. I wanted to pull his hands away and make him stop.
He kept showing me Nick bleeding and then I would be the one over him as if I’d done it. Nick’s screams and agony filled pains echoed continuously in my head.
Make it stop! Make it stop!
The warmth in my hands started to surge. I felt the familiar pull of my shadows rally around the warmth as if it wanted to protect. I willed the sparks to stop and I pushed myself to not explode. I couldn’t give Dimitri what he wanted, I couldn’t give up because the visuals were too much to bear.
I squeezed my fists together as he pushed images of him tearing Nick and everyone else to shreds. Blood flew everywhere and it was almost like I could taste it in my mouth. I wanted this to stop.
“Let me go! Stop it! Stop it, now!” I shoved the light down and it retaliated by nearly burning my insides with its rage to get out. For something that was supposed to be light magic, it had quite a temper. I used all the strength I had to force one of the guards away from me, while driving the other in the opposite direction. I grabbed Dimitri's hand, but it burned my palms the minute I made contact.
I wasn’t scared of him. His power could shake me to my core at times, but I wasn’t scared of him. I reached back up and hissed at the sizzling sound that came from our hands connecting. I tugged while screaming and pulling.
A growl of frustration came from his throat as he released me and I staggered back. The guards moved towards me but stopped a few feet from me as Dimitri grabbed my throat before I could get too far from him. My eyes burned and seeing him was a struggle but I could see that his eyes were tinged red again. “Silly, frustrating girl, you are.”
He tossed me backwards and I fell, landing hard on the ground. I didn’t get up immediately, I just placed my hands on the stones and let my breathing try to get back to an even level.
“You care far too much. Caring for them in the first place was your initial mistake, my love,” Lilith said, the look of pity in her eyes was nauseating.
“How would you know a fucking thing about being cared for!” I screamed at her.
Dimitri rolled his eyes as if he was bored and annoyed at this entire interaction. He moved his hand to the side of him, the image of Leah and her children appearing. “You truly care about an entire realm of angels who would rather use you and fear you, than save these precious little faces right here, right now.”
He made things sound so easy, but Dimitri was also a businessman, just like his father. I knew the things he said weren’t always as simple as he made it seem. There was always some caveat that no one noticed. I stared at the image of Yuri and Jasmine; they were sleeping, their mother huddling around them to make sure they were safe.
I blinked and then blinked again, thinking my eyes were playing tricks on me when I saw a shadow in the back of the cell. It swished back and forth, almost like….
Like a tail.
Like a dog tail.
No, not a dog. A hellhound.
Before I could let myself be happy that they were being watched over, Dimitri took the image away and shook his head. He had shown me horrible things, things I would be haunted with when he left me alone in this cell for the next few hours.
Dimitri shrugged. “Or maybe you are waiting for your adorable group of friends to find you and then you can make everything right in the realms and pretend like you will have made any difference at all. If that is how you’d like it well then…I promise, I have my plans for them if that plan should come to fruition as well.” He ushered Lilith along with him towards the door.
The guards followed after them and once they were on the other side, I pushed myself off the ground, running to the door. I grabbed hold of the bars at the only opening the stone door had. With all the confidence I could muster I said, “he will find me. Nick will find me.”
Dimitri’s shoulders stiffened before he turned around. His larger tattooed hand crowded my smaller one as he held it against the bars. “Oh, I sincerely hope he does find you. I’m planning on it.” His mouth curved into a smirk and my stomach turned.
I felt my hands tingle as tiny light sparks trickled out. Not enough to do any damage, but enough to give Dimitri something to grasp onto. His eyes danced with delight as he watched the light drift away into the dust that percolated in the air. “Well, well, isn’t that interesting. Next time, I advise you to be a bit more forthcoming with what I know you can do. It brings me so much pleasure to crush every little piece of hope you have, pretty girl. Though, my patience will run thin, even for you.”
He let go of my hand and walked away, leaving me alone. Leaving me to my own thoughts. I pressed my forehead against the bars and felt my eyes burn from the tears that threatened to fall. Lilith had offered him so much before, while he only had to do so little. He hadn’t gotten what he wanted, so he was ruthless enough to take matters into his own hands. Dimitri wasn’t the kind of prince-like hell born demon that preferred to just sit back and he was proving that now. He was greedy, like Lilith, but he had all the power to back it up and no one to answer to—except for his father and Lucifer, but from the looks of it he was doing a pretty good job of maintaining his stature while mapping out an entire plan for a domination of realms. The Son of Hell, honestly, didn’t even need me, but the fact that he wanted me to just gain power and hurt others…
I made sure the tears stayed where they were as I looked into the darkness of the hallway. There was a part of me that knew Nick would find me, but there was an even worse part of me that hoped that he wouldn’t.