Chapter 11
Chapter Eleven
Seline shoved her hands against the beast’s body. It was heavy and hot and?—
It licked her.
Her breath rasped out as she pushed against it. She couldn’t get the thing to budge. It was too big. Its breath smelled of death, and she knew the thing was going to rip open her throat at any moment.
The beast licked her again. Then it whined low in its throat.
What?
The hound wasn’t attacking. Not ripping and tearing out her throat.
Rogziel’s laughter had stopped. Now he was shouting, calling out for the beast to kill, but the hound wasn’t hurting her.
Why?
The hound’s head rose, and it stared down at her. Its breath was horrid. The creature’s face was like a nightmare, but it looked at her like—like it was her pet.
Hellhound.
Whispers and half-forgotten stories floated through her mind.
“Get off me,” she told the beast quietly. “Be a good, um, hound, and get up.”
The beast whined but actually began to shift its body as if it were going to rise.
Her breath expelled . Maybe I am like my mom.
Then the hound flew through the air because Sam had just grabbed the beast by the tail and yanked it away from her.
Or maybe not.
Seline pushed to her feet. Sam grabbed her arm.
“Sammael!” Not Rogziel’s scream this time. Az’s. The Fallen was racing toward them.
Sam pulled her closer. “Don’t be afraid.”
Way too late for that. She had hellhound saliva on her neck.
Sam started chanting. It sounded like Greek—no, Latin. Then smoke swirled around them, closing tighter, tighter, rising...
Seline screamed.
And the world disappeared.
“No!” Rogziel bellowed as Sam and Seline vanished.
The Fallen shouldn’t have been able to escape, not without— magic. His eyes narrowed. Trust Sammael to be dealing with the witches. But at least he still had one sinner to punish.
Az stumbled to a stop in the middle of the charred earth. The hound rose to its feet.
Rogziel announced, “It’s nothing personal, Azrael.” He’d known the Fallen for centuries. “But the job has to be done, you understand that.”
Az blinked slowly. “Rogziel.”
“You knew I’d come for you sooner or later.” Not too long ago, Azrael had been an angel with power. Now he was just another Fallen on the road to hell. Rogziel sighed. “Unfortunately, your death won’t be quick. You didn’t earn that mercy.”
Az straightened his shoulders. No wings. Pity. What did that feel like? To be stripped of everything you were and cast out?
Rogziel pointed to the Fallen. The hellhound’s ears perked at the signal. Rogziel nodded and said, “Prey.” The hound would understand and attack.
The beast whined.
Rogziel frowned. He glared at the hellhound. “Prey.”
The hound hurried forward but didn’t attack. The beast put its nose against the charred ground and sniffed. Then its body stiffened, and it looked to the right.
Ah, now Rogziel understood. The hound had caught the scent. Sam and Seline hadn’t truly vanished. They’d just moved too fast for even his eyes to track, but the hound would be able to track them. “Kill him first,” Rogziel ordered, “then we’ll hunt the others.” Power flowed in his voice. Hellhounds always obeyed their masters.
The hound turned its head toward Rogziel. The beast’s lip curled back to reveal bloody teeth. Took a good bite out of Sammael. No wonder the beast caught the Fallen’s scent so easily.
But then the hound leapt up—and raced away from the parking lot. Away from Azrael.
Impossible. “No! Come back!” The hound couldn’t get too far away or it would?—
Vanish. The hound disappeared in a flash of smoke. When a hound hunted, it could vanish. Become a ghostly demon that stalked its prey. The hound was of two worlds. Hell and earth. So it could have two bodies. One insubstantial. The other a true monster that would make even the most hardened of paranormals tremble with terror.
The roar of an engine reached Rogziel’s ears. He spun back, too late. Az plowed a motorcycle right into him. Rogziel flipped and slammed into the ground. Az drove away, spewing gravel in his wake.
Rage burned in Rogziel’s gut, dark and ugly, as it twisted within him. They will all suffer. They will beg for death, then hell will claim them.
When the smoke cleared, Seline was still screaming. Sam’s ears ached, and nausea rolled in his belly. The next time he bought a transport spell from Mateo, he’d make sure he read all the warning labels.
“It’s okay,” he told Seline, “you’re safe.”
She stopped screaming. Her eyes narrowed, and she slugged him.
He took the hit on the chin, figuring he deserved that one.
“You set me up!”
True. He tasted blood in his mouth. “I needed to draw out Az.”
“Well, you did, and we both almost died.” She yanked away from him. “Where the hell are we?”
Not safe. Not yet. “The spell dropped us about fifty miles away.” His lips twisted. “Mateo refers to it as his get-the-fuck-away spell.”
Maybe he’d use it again. Maybe. The spell had sure worked at getting them free from Rogziel.
Handy.
“Are you hurt?” he demanded as his gaze swept over her.
“No. It didn’t bite me.”
He frowned at her. The hound had been so close to her.
She glared right back at him. “Did you say ‘spell’? What kind of spell?”
“A transport spell.”
She swallowed. “I don’t like spells.”
“Well, you would have liked dying even less.” They could bitch and moan all day, or they could get moving.
They were on the side of an old, dusty road. No one was to the left. No one was to the right. No one, nothing.
Seline suddenly stiffened. She glanced over her left shoulder. “Did you hear that?”
He hadn’t heard a thing. “What?”
“It sounded like…” She sidled a bit closer to him. “A growl.”
Fuck. Yes, that would bring them to their next order of business—right after they got out of there. “Come on.” He took her hand, threaded his fingers through hers, and started walking. Blood pumped from his wounds, but he could already feel the torn muscle and skin beginning to mend. Since he was away from the hound, he could heal.
Hellhound. Rogziel had certainly pulled out the big guns this time.
Their shoes crunched over the gravel that littered the side of the road. “You…left Az back there,” she said, her voice hesitant.
He grunted. “I thought he might enjoy tangling with the mutt.”
Still no sign of cars.
“But…” He heard the soft exhale of her breath. “That was your chance, right? Your shot to kill him?”
His gaze slanted to her.
“You left me as bait.” Spoken without inflection. Her gaze was on the road stretching ahead. “So you could get him.”
His stomach knotted. No, that weird twist was just from the healing wounds and not from any kind of guilt. The hellhound’s claws had scraped down his chest and ripped into his stomach. “I was watching you the whole time.”
She stopped walking but still didn’t look at him. “Well, you sure took your sweet time coming to save me!”
“I got shot!” Four times. “I came as soon as I could.” As soon as the human died. But the man had been a sharpshooter, and it had taken a few precious moments to get touching close.
An old pickup truck rattled up the road. Y es.
“Az didn’t start that fire,” Seline said.
Her words pissed him off. “So now you’re defending him?” The truck was closing in. Sam stalked to the middle of the road. The better to stop the truck.
“He saved me.” Quiet. Confused. She didn’t follow him, but instead waited on the side, looking a bit lost. “If it hadn’t been for him, I would have burned.”
His jaw clenched. “The blast threw me out. I didn’t—I didn’t leave you.” He’d been ready to race back in and fight the fire for her, but Az had beat him to the punch.
So the bastard had done one good thing. Now I owe him for that.
“Why do you hate him so much?”
The rattle of the truck should have drowned out her words. It didn’t. He heard her far too clearly.
He heard her, but he just didn’t answer her.
The pickup was slowing down. Sam caught sight of the man driving. Older, thinning, gray hair, rounded shoulders.
He could almost smell the fear rolling off the human. But then, the man’s truck was being blocked by a blood-soaked Fallen. Smart people would be afraid in that situation.
“Az told me what you did.” Seline’s voice was so quiet. “He said you just…slaughtered. That it was why you fell.”
Fury spiked, but Sam lifted his hands and focused on the driver. Az, dammit, you always twist the truth so well.
“He said you fell because you killed—you killed and you wouldn’t stop.”
“I told you the truth already. You believe whoever the fuck you want.”
The truck’s engine idled. Their voices had been too low for the driver to hear. The driver’s side door squeaked as the man rolled down his window. “No quiero problemas.”
Sam nodded. The man was saying he didn’t want any trouble. Too bad, he’d found some.
The driver wasn’t a demon, and he didn’t have the look of a shifter. He just seemed human.
Sam eyed the truck. “I’ll give you five hundred American dollars for the truck,” he said in Spanish.
“You got the cash on you?” the human fired right back, in English.
Yes, luckily, he did. One thing he’d learned, money talked in the human world, so Sam always made sure he was well stocked. He pulled out his wallet. The leather stuck a bit, courtesy of the fire. He waved the bills in the air. “Right here . ”
The man smiled, then he lifted his right hand—the hand that was holding a weapon. “Then put it down, cabron, and walk away with the puta, or I’ll put more holes in you.”
“Are you kidding me?” Seline snapped.
The gun barrel slid to the side and pointed at her.
The man’s already small eyes narrowed even more. “Or maybe I put holes in you?”
Sam closed the distance between him and the bastard in less than a second. “Or maybe you don’t .”
Sam slammed his fist into the man’s jaw. Then he grabbed the gun and pointed it right at the old asshole’s forehead in a lightning-fast move. “Maybe I keep my money,” Sam growled. “Maybe I take your truck, and maybe I leave you with a few holes to remember me by.” The dumbass had picked the wrong Fallen to fuck with.
But the idiot just laughed, then he said, “No bullets. Just messing with you?—”
Screw this. Sam head-butted the guy. The asshole fell back onto the vehicle’s seat.
“Is he dead?” Seline asked as she crept closer.
Sam climbed in the truck and tossed the gun out behind him. Bullets wouldn’t do him any good against Rogziel and his hound. “Despite what Az told you, I don’t kill every person I meet.” Just most of them. “You’re still breathing, aren’t you?” He grabbed the human’s body and tossed him into the road. He’d wake up soon. The blow hadn’t been that hard.
She opened the passenger door and slid onto the cracked seat. “You’re saying that Az was wrong?”
Sam gunned the engine. The truck just screeched. As getaway vehicles went, this one sucked. But beggars couldn’t be fucking choosy. “No.” Because he couldn’t lie to her. “I’m saying, sweetheart, that Az isn’t lily white when it comes to sin. His hands are dirty.”
“Dirtier than yours?”
He didn’t answer. She just had to keep pushing. If she wasn’t careful, he’d push back soon. Yes, he got it—she was furious that he’d used her as bait, but he hadn’t been given a lot of options.
The truck lurched forward. Dust spun in the air. Sam glanced in the rearview mirror. The old guy was already standing up, shaking his fists in the air, and screaming.
“I don’t think Az set those fires,” she told him, and it was the same song she’d been singing—one that was royally pissing him off. Why did the woman keep defending his brother? “I think Rogziel did it,” she continued in a determined I-Know-The-Truth voice.
Ah, yes, let’s not forget the other fun player in their little game. Now just how had Rogziel been able to?—
The bed of the truck suddenly sank to the ground, as if something very big had jumped onto the back. The vehicle swerved as Sam fought to control it. Cursing, he risked a glance over his shoulder, but he saw nothing.
But he could swear that, through the broken back window, he felt the hot stench of hell’s breath.
“Sam! Sam, what’s happening?”
Metal grated. The few bits of glass still on that back windshield broke away. “You tell me,” he shouted, but he knew what was happening.
He’d fallen for lying eyes. Innocence that he should have known was a trick for a demon. He lunged forward as far as he could and drove the gas pedal down to the ground as he deliberately jerked the steering wheel from the left to the right in an attempt to dislodge their new passenger.
Sam knew a hellhound had hitched a ride with them.
Sonofabitch. A succubus shouldn’t be able to summon a hellhound.
Invisible claws ripped into his shoulder, and deep rivulets of blood sprayed into the air.
“ Sam! What’s happening?” Terror and fear seemed to cloak Seline’s lying words.
He grabbed her hand and held tight even as he fought to steer with his left hand. “Call it off,” he shouted. Because he understood—finally—just what was going on. No wonder the hound hadn’t so much as scratched Seline’s skin. The beast couldn’t.
A hellhound could never hurt its master.
He risked a fast glance at her—even as claws raked him again—but he didn’t free her hand. “Call it the fuck off.”
“Call what off?” She didn’t try to tug free. Her eyes were wide and scared—and black as night. “There’s nothing back there!”
Nothing that could be seen, not yet, but the beast’s claws and teeth could sure be felt.
“It’s your hound.” Why hadn’t he seen this before? He’d been so unconcerned with Seline’s “other” half. A hybrid. Hell, he’d been so blind.
The hound hadn’t attacked her.
The beast had found them too fast, and there was only one way a hound could track this fast.
The hellhound had honed in on its master.
And the next words had to be said, because that last swipe of the beast’s claws had come too close to his neck. “Call it off…or you die.” If a hound’s master wouldn’t call the beast back, then the only way to stop a hellhound was to kill that master.
Without the master, the hound went back to hell instantly.
“What?” Her hoarse whisper.
His hold tightened on her. He could hear the beast’s snarls now. Hungry growls. The hound wanted a soul to feed on. Too bad. His wasn’t on the menu. “Pull the beast back, or go to hell with the hound.” Betrayed. All of it had been a setup, and he’d been too blind to see the truth.
Lust had made him stupid.
The hound’s growls kept rumbling in his ears, and he had to dodge more swipes from those claws. The truck pushed forward faster, faster, and he felt razor-sharp teeth press into the back of his neck.
“I-I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Now Seline was fighting to pull free of his grip. “Sam, you’re scaring me!”
She wasn’t going to call the beast back. Damn her. “The hellhound…” Those teeth clipped his throat. Fire burned along Sam’s flesh. “Send the beast back, now! ” Another fast glance at her.
Her eyes were huge and filmed with the glimmer of tears. Tears . He’d never seen her cry. Fear had her face paling, and he knew she understood as she stared at the wounds spreading on his body. Those growls and snarls filled the truck as the hound gained strength from Sam’s blood.
“I-I can’t. I don’t know how!” Her painful confession. She stopped trying to pull away from him. “I’m sorry.”
So was he. Power pumped through him. He had to do what was necessary for survival.
The truck thundered faster, its bald tires wobbling.
Faster, faster.
Those invisible teeth snapped at him again.
“Go back!” Seline cried desperately.
Sam slammed on the brakes. His chest rammed into the steering wheel, but those teeth—those damn sharp teeth—tore free of him. A giant gaping hole appeared in the windshield—a hole that had been made by the hound’s body. He could see the ghostly image of the beast struggling to take shape on the dirt road. The beast was bloody, and its hind legs were broken.
Seline slumped beside Sam. Her head had hit the windshield an instant before the beast had gone through and sent glass shattering, but she hadn’t been thrown from the truck.
Sam still had his hold on her wrist, and his grip was far more unbreakable than any seat belt ever could be.
Her eyes were closed. Blood trickled from the wound on her head, and he was pretty sure he’d dislocated her shoulder when he’d stopped her from flying out of the vehicle.
The hound’s ghostly image began to vanish. With Seline unconscious, the hound couldn’t marshal enough energy to focus and attack again.
Sam’s fingers curled around Seline’s limp hand. He glared at the disappearing beast. “Fuck you,” he snarled and drove the truck right at the hound. Just as the front bumper reached the beast, its image completely melted away.
Her shoulder hurt. Seline felt the throbbing pain push through the cloaking darkness that surrounded her.
“We’ve got a big problem.” Sam’s angry voice.
She tensed and wondered why she couldn’t open her eyes.
“You’re sure she summoned him?” A voice she hadn’t heard before. Male. Deep. Not angry like Sam’s. More measured.
She tried to lift her lashes. Not happening. What’s wrong with me? The last thing she remembered was being in that old, beat-up truck with Sam. He’d told her… Call it off…or you die.
Then the world had stopped. No, not the world. That crappy pickup truck. Glass had exploded, and a hound’s roaring cry had filled her ears.
Then, nothing.
“The minute she went out, the hellhound vanished. The beast didn’t hurt her, not even once, but it sure tried to take more than its pound of flesh from me.” Sam again. She could feel him, knew he was close.
Sam threatened to kill me. The thought had rage building within her. She’d saved his butt, and he’d actually said that he’d kill her?
She hadn’t even seen anything in the back of that pickup. Yeah, something had been there. Once the blood started flowing, there had been no denying that fact. But she hadn’t summoned anything. She didn’t even know how to do something like that.
As for killing her? Kiss my ass, Fallen. The way Seline figured it, their deal was now over.
And the fact that it felt like Sam had ripped her heart out? Well, she’d find a way to deal with that later. She was good at dealing with disappointment.
Shouldn’t have trusted him. She knew better than to trust anyone.
Seline tried to talk, but only a moan slipped from her lips.
What happened to me?
“How long are you going to hold her under?” that other male voice asked again. No anger. No judgment. Just mild curiosity.
Then she understood what was happening. Sam had put her out of commission. Damn him. He’d used his powers to trap her inside her own body. A psychic shutdown. She’d heard of this happening before, but Seline had never thought it could happen to her.
Or that he’d be the one to do this to her.
Bastard. Just when she’d started to care, to think that, maybe, she’d found a guy who understood her.
Can’t trust anyone in this world. Or the next.
Another weak moan slipped from her.
As soon as she could move again, he’d be hurting.
But the memory of that truck filled her mind. His blood had been everywhere. He’d been attacked, again and again, by something she couldn’t see.
Hellhound?
Talk about your living nightmare.
“She…looks familiar to me.” The other guy again. “Her nose, her cheeks.” A sharp inhalation. “I swear I’ve seen her before.”
“This hellhound…” And who the hell was talking now? A woman with a soft voice and the hint of the South drawling below the words. “Will it come back if she wakes up?”
I’m awake now! Awake, but not able to open her eyes. Or talk. Or move at all. Freaking paralyzed.
Why had she thought that she could count on Sam? She knew the stories about him, the mile-long list of enemies that he had. But still she’d gone right in and thought he’d be different with her. Obviously, she was delusional.
“If she’s the hound’s master, she’ll be able to summon it from hell anytime, anywhere.” Sam’s voice was flat, but his fingertips were on her cheek, gently brushing back her hair. The light touch felt strange. It should have felt wrong, but it didn’t. Just… damn him. “Doesn’t matter where or when, she has an attack dog at her beck and call,” Sam finished.
“A dog that can kill you and Keenan?” The woman asked, and even Seline heard the fear in the chick’s voice, particularly when she said, “Keenan.”
“No one’s killing me, Nicole,” the guy, had to be Keenan, promised.
Something creaked. Probably a floorboard. Which brought up a new question. Where was she?
“The hound can kill you, though?” Nicole pushed. Her voice had risen with fear.
“A hellhound can kill anyone.” It was Sam who answered. “It doesn’t matter how strong the Other is, a hound can still drag them down to hell.”
“And she can summon one of these hounds?” Nicole asked in a voice that trembled.
No, I can’t. Could she?
“Yes.”
“Then why are we wasting time?” The woman’s southern accent got a little thicker. “Let’s kill her now.”
Oh, no, the chick just hadn’t said that. Bad plan.
“Nicole.” Keenan’s calm voice.
Yeah, that’s right, pull back your girlfriend or whoever the hell she is.
“Just touch her, and the threat’s gone.” Nicole was talking fast. Seline really didn’t like this woman. “Sam, why haven’t you killed her yet? If you know she’s this dangerous, then why is she still breathing?”
Sam touched Seline’s cheek again. She wanted to flinch away yet couldn’t move. But his touch didn’t kill. Didn’t hurt her at all. “Because I’m addicted,” he answered, the words rumbling and low.
Not exactly a giant declaration of love.
“She doesn’t look like an angel,” Nicole muttered.
If she could have, Seline would have laughed. She knew exactly what she looked like. Sin. She’d been told that often enough over the years. Both by lovers who thought they were seducing her and by humans who thought she should be repenting.
“You said she was a succubus.” Now Keenan was talking again. “A succubus can’t control a hound.”
“She’s only half-succubus.” From Sam. His fingers trailed down her throat and rested over the pulse that beat at the base of her neck. “As for her other half, well, there’s no doubt about it.”
“She’s angel,” Keenan decided.
And there was the shame she’d tried so hard to hide. Seline was the mixed-blood daughter of an angel and the incubus who killed her. Abomination. Living sin.
“She’s crying.” The woman’s voice was soft now.
Seline realized a tear had leaked from her eye.
“I thought you put her under,” Keenan charged, and for the first time, she heard anger vibrate in his voice.
“I did. ”
More creaking of floorboards. “She’s hearing everything we say.” Nicole was the one to state the obvious. “And she sure doesn’t like what she hears.”
“She’s fully aware.” Keenan’s voice had taken on a definite edge. “Hellhound callers don’t have to be able to speak to summon their beasts. They’re linked psychically. If she’s screaming for the beast in her mind…”
“Then it’ll be at the fucking door,” Sam growled. His hand slid under her hair, and he tilted up her head. “Seline.”
She felt a push of power, and it was like a curtain lifted from her body. Her eyes opened. She blinked away the teardrops that blurred her vision.
“Tell me you didn’t call the hellhound. Tell me. ”
Her right hand curled into a fist. She licked her lips. She could move everything again. So she moved that fist and swung for him.
But he caught her hand before it could hit him. “I gave you one free hit. No more, sweetheart.” He dropped her hand.
Bastard.
Seline leapt from the bed she’d been lying on. She lunged for the door.
Only to find it blocked by a woman with pale skin and black hair. “Not so fast,” Nicole told her, and Seline caught the flash of her fangs.
Vampire.
No wonder the woman had been so quick on the whole kill urge. Vamps were made that way.
Seline squared her shoulders and sucked in a deep breath as she prepared to punch and claw her way past the undead lady. But, before she could attack, Sam grabbed her left hand. Pain stole Seline’s breath as the agony throbbed down from her shoulder. Jeez, what had happened to her shoulder?
Sam forced her to face him. “The hound is coming.”
She glared at him, feeling so angry that she expected her skin to start burning. “I trusted you.” She’d been so foolish. “I fought for you!” He’d wanted to kill her.
Silence in the room.
“You’re an asshole, Sam.” An asshole who’d— dammit! — broken her heart. She’d actually thought he was different. A man strong enough to stand beside her, no matter what came.
No one else had even come close to hurting her like this. It seemed as if she were splintering apart on the inside. “I didn’t turn on you! I didn’t set you up. I helped you!”
The others—the female vamp and the deadly-looking male with the shadow of black wings on his back—weren’t moving.
“I’ve never summoned a hellhound in my life. I didn’t even know they were real until that thing came out and attacked us. Us, okay? Not just you. The hound came for me, too!”
“But the beast didn’t so much as scratch you.”
No, it hadn’t. The hound had been ready to rip out her throat. She’d never forget the smell of its breath. Brimstone and death. But it had stopped. She blinked and fought to remember. “It smelled me.” Then the beast had licked her.
And it had stopped growling.
Sam frowned at her.
“Why am I not dead?” she asked him. He was touching her. He thought she was some kind of deceitful bitch. And she had been, but not with him. Not since they’d become lovers. “If you think I’ve been setting you up all along, if you think I’ve sicced a hellhound on you, why am I still alive?” Screw the two watching. “Because you like to fuck me? Is that why I’m still standing here instead of rotting in the ground?”
A muscle flexed along his jaw.
“You’re addicted ?” The word grated in her throat. It was just lust for him, but it had been so much more for her. She’d gotten all weak with him and hoped for an actual chance of happiness.
Ridiculous. When the chips were down, men couldn’t be trusted. Humans and Other were all the same.
Sam wasn’t speaking, and that just made her angrier. Her head throbbed. Her shoulder ached, and her heart hurt. “There’s no hound breaking down the door right now.” She stated the obvious. “If I was this all-powerful hound master, don’t you think I would have called the beast in by now?”
The seconds ticked by.
“It’s Rogziel.” Couldn’t Sam see that? “He wanted you to doubt me. He knew we were working together, and he wanted us to turn on each other. He sent the hound after you.”
“Rogziel’s a punishment angel.” Keenan had moved to stand beside the vamp. Seline glanced his way in time to see him nod. “Only punishment angels can summon the hounds. You know that, Sam.”
Seline’s heart squeezed tighter at his words. No. Oh, this was not good.
“Punishment angels can walk between heaven, earth, and hell,” Keenan continued, and his words seemed too loud as they echoed in her ears. “And when they enter hell, they can bring anything back to this world with them.”
“Seline.” Sam’s voice pulled her focus right back to him. “Tell me about your parents.”
She didn’t want to tell him anything. She wanted to run away. Why couldn’t a woman run once or twice in her life? Run as if hounds from hell were on my trail.
But a Fallen and a vampire were now blocking the door. And another Fallen had his hands on her.
Addiction.
She wrenched away from him. Fine. “My father was an incubus. I already told you that.”
“What was his name?” Keenan wanted to know.
“Brion.” So she’d been told. “Not that I ever met him. He died right after I was born.”
“Died?” Now Sam was the one pushing.
Whatever. So she’d strip bare what was left of her soul. Maybe then he’d let her walk away because she sure needed to get out of there. It felt like she was suffocating in that room.
“He killed my mother, so, in turn, he was killed. By Rogziel.”
She heard Keenan whistle.
“Who was your mother?” Sam’s eyes had never looked so dark.
“Don’t you mean… what was she?” Seline laughed, but no humor filled the hard sound. “She was an angel. One charged with the task of punishing an incubus who’d been seducing human women.” The shame was there, just as it always was when she thought of her father—and how like him she truly was.
Addiction.
“But instead of punishing him”—the words came quickly now because she wanted this story over—“she fell for him.”
Literally. Her mother had traded heaven for a night in her demon’s arms.
“Too bad for her,” Seline whispered. “She trusted the wrong man. He killed her.”
Just like I trusted the wrong one.
A bit of blue bled back into Sam’s eyes.
“Rogziel was sent for Brion then. He succeeded at his job.” And he’d kept her alive. All those years, Rogziel had always been around. Watching. Monitoring her as she grew up. He’d placed her with a family, the O’Shaws—humans who guarded her but reported directly to him.
Then he’d eventually come for her and started to train her.
Time to punish. Make your mother proud. Earn redemption.
At first, she’d tried for that sweet promise of redemption. Only later, she’d realized that Rogziel’s punishments weren’t always just, and she’d wondered how much of her soul he was stealing away with each kill.
She looked at her hands. She expected to see blood. Two months ago—when she’d found the woman Rogziel had “punished”—her blood had dripped onto Seline’s hands.
Seline glanced over at the vampire. Unlike many of Rogziel’s flock, Seline didn’t think all vamps were evil.
And that poor girl that Rogziel had “contained” had barely looked twenty. H-help me…
Only the girl had been past the point of help. Seline had only been able to hold her hand as death came.
“So now you know,” Seline told Sam as she forced her chin to rise. “I’m the daughter of an incubus, made for sin, and the child of an angel who fell for her addiction. ” She stepped back. “I’m not controlling a hellhound. I’m not betraying you. All I want, all I’ve ever wanted, was to just get away from Rogziel and my past.”
Why was that so much to ask?
She stared into his eyes. “Our partnership”—was that what it had been?—“is over. You think I’m betraying you? That I’m setting you up? Then when I leave, I guess you won’t have to worry about that any longer, will you?” Her lips twisted in a smile that she knew wasn’t pretty. “Wish I could say it’s been fun, but really, I guess it’s just been hell.”
Then she turned on her heel and walked for the door. The vampire’s gaze met hers. Would she have to fight her way out? It would be hard, especially with the memory of another vampire weakening her.
But Nicole’s head inclined slightly toward her, and the vampire pushed the one called Keenan aside to clear Seline’s path.
She left, and didn’t look back, not even when she heard Sam whisper her name.
Yeah, it’s been hell, but for a moment there, I was hoping for heaven.
She should have known better. Demon half-breeds didn’t get to glimpse heaven. They spent too much time tasting hell on earth.