Chapter 2 #2
Ursula smirked. “Questions are welcome here, pup. Anything you want to know, you just ask Loth. That’s what big brothers are for. Isn’t that right, Loth?”
Gus was still basically a pup, only around a year old.
Hounds made by Lucifer, like Gus, were created full grown, body and mind.
We considered him a pup, but mentally, he was more like a naive, emotionally stunted, overly horny twenty-year-old human, only way more aggressive and, on occasion, bloodthirsty.
Lothar shook his head at her. “Sure.”
Gus brightened. “I have one now.”
“Of course you do,” Loth said.
He nodded. “When you mount a drystan demon, which hole do you stick your co—”
“Not the right time, pup,” Loth said while Ursula cackled. “Later, when we stop to rest. Right now we need to shift and get moving.”
Gus nodded, stripped, and shifted. Urs gathered his clothes and shoved them in her pack. Lothar stripped as well, shifted, then lowered to his belly and turned my way, his golden eyes hitting me. I had to stop myself from taking an abrupt step back.
Nope, no way was I riding on Lothar. Urs was about to get on Gus’s back, but I shoved her toward Loth before she could get on and quickly threw my leg over Gus’s back.
“Smooth,” Urs said under her breath, then strode over to Lothar and scooped up his clothes and bag.
She was right, that was way too obvious. I needed to be more careful. Urs bounded up onto Loth’s back, and as soon as she touched him—my blood turned molten in my veins.
Oh no, I didn’t like that.
Not at all.
Gritting my teeth, I gripped Gus’s fur tight. “Let’s go.”
He yapped, and we took off at top speed.
As long as we stayed in front, and I didn’t have to see them, I’d be okay.
At least I freaking hoped so.
We’d ridden for hours before Lothar finally stopped for the night.
Ursula jumped off his back, and when Loth shifted, she tossed him his jeans. “I’ll get us dinner,” she said and strode into the trees.
Skull Forest was one of many. Yes, the name was utterly unoriginal, but it was literal, making it easily identifiable since the ground was covered in the skulls of ancient demons.
Hell was vast, had multiple levels, and passed through a variety of different landscapes—and despite what people thought, it wasn’t hot all the time.
This was only one of several forests we’d pass through before we reached Asmodeus’s quadrant.
I dumped my pack on the ground and stretched, then sniffed my shirt and grabbed a hunk of my hair and did the same.
I stunk of brimstone. Sighing, I shook out my hair, and ash drifted to the ground around me.
I was covered in a fine layer of hellfire soot from the pits we’d passed during the ride here. I freaking hated feeling grimy.
Lucifer had shelters all over Hell, but nothing close for tonight, so we’d have to rough it. Sliding off my jacket, I paced around, getting my blood flowing again after sitting astride Gus for so long.
“I like looking at you,” Gus said from his spot against one of the trees.
“Do you now, pup?” I said and bit back my laugh.
He nodded. “Your breasts are very nice. They look soft, and your ass is—”
“Okay, Romeo, that’s enough. You need to learn when to keep shit to yourself,” Lothar said, his voice a gravelly rumble.
That roughness sent little zips of electricity through my belly and shooting down between my legs—and nope, no fucking way could I allow that. My anger spiked.
“I don’t need you to speak for me,” I fired at him. “I’ve been dealing with males who want to fuck me all on my own for thousands of years.” What the hell are you doing? You sound insane.
His head jerked back. “Not trying to piss you off, Rox. I was just—”
“Well, don’t.” There was no stopping me, apparently. The growing, and yes, irrational, anger was unstoppable. “Whatever you thought you were doing, just don’t.”
He straightened from gathering firewood and his head tilted to the side, his golden gaze moving over me as if he were trying to figure me out.
His perusal was too much, and my gaze dipped to his wide, muscled chest. It was dusted with dark hair.
Hair I knew was soft to the touch, and nestled among it was a darker patch of skin, a scar that he’d carried for so long it was as if he’d been created with it.
Did he think that? Did he ever wonder where it came from?
“Roxy?”
My gaze sliced up to his face, clashing with his. “What?”
His chin jerked back again, his frown deepening.
Shit, I really needed to pull it together.
This was why I avoided everyone this time of year.
This snappy, surly bitch routine was not me.
I was the bubbly, happy, fun one. I was the handmaid who all the hounds adored because of the liberal hugs I dished out.
Lothar was looking at me now like I was possessed by some evil, deranged mutant. Well, I felt possessed, honestly.
“Sorry, I’m just a bit cranky,” I said and strode over to him, tilting my head back.
“I shouldn’t have taken it out on you.” Then I wrapped my arms around his waist, giving him a hug like I always did, even though I didn’t want to right then.
I hadn’t wanted to hug him for months, honestly.
Touching him had seemed far too dangerous recently.
He immediately wrapped his big arms around me, hauling me against him, giving me the kind of hug only a hellhound could dish out.
“All good, babe. You had me worried there for a minute.”
I laughed, even as my heart squeezed in a way that was painful. There was a reason that bards and poets wrote of heartache—it was real. The organ beating in the chest was the center of it all, love, pain, and yes, heartbreak.
I’d worked hard to lock everything down when it came to Lothar, because I’d had no other gods-damned choice. For a really long time I’d successfully bottled my emotions up tight. I’d locked them behind a steel door and thrown away the key. Why was this loss of control happening now?
I released him and quickly stepped back. “There’s a swimming hole not far from here; I’m gonna go wash up.”
He nodded. “I’ll get a fire going.” He gathered the firewood he’d collected and dumped it into a pile, then opened his hand and hellfire licked up from his palm instantly. He aimed it at the pile, and blasted it, setting it on fire.
I grabbed my soap.
“I’ll go with you,” Gus said, quickly standing.
“Sit your ass down,” Lothar barked at him.
Gus did as he was told but didn’t look happy about it.
“Sorry, pup, not this time,” I said as I headed off.
It took everything in me not to sprint away, gods, not to keep on running.
Lately, that steel door I’d been relying on so heavily felt as if the hinges were rusted and loosened, that the door was flaking away, and all that volatile and brutal emotion I’d locked up tight was slipping free.
It wasn’t all of a sudden though, was it?
I realized now, that it had been slowly decaying without me realizing it, and I was terrified it was too late to seal it back up.
I rubbed my hands over my arms as goose bumps lifted across my skin. What I was feeling right now, the lack of control I had over it—and what it would mean if I wasn’t able to lock it back up—was too much to even contemplate.
But still, despite all of that, a small, twisted, pathetic part of me that I hadn’t been able to smother wanted to fucking bask in it.
The masochistic little bitch wanted to let every emotional wave crash into her, let it pull her under and drown her because, sweet Lucifer, I’d missed it.
The way Lothar made me feel was intoxicating and terrifying all at once.
I wasn’t sure what to do, because for the longest time, I hadn’t allowed myself to feel anything around him. I still didn’t want to, because nothing could come of it, but I didn’t know how to shore up my defenses—or what had weakened them in the first place.
The clearing opened up ahead and I spotted the swimming hole.
My sisters and I had bathed here more times than I could count.
The water came from an underground spring and was clean, fresh, and warm.
Shoving all the unsettling thoughts from my mind, I stripped off and sank into the water, sighing when the warmth immediately soaked into my skin.
Dipping my head under to wet my hair, I popped back up, grabbed the soap I’d put in easy reach, and lathered up my hair. I usually used a coconut-and-lime-scented shampoo, but I was traveling light. I dipped under the water to rinse it out—
Someone fisted my hair and wrenched my head back, hard. A sharp blade flashed toward me.
I flipped in the water, and whoever had hold of my hair was thrown off-balance, plunging into the pool with me.
They still had hold of my hair, and I grabbed their other wrist to stop their blade from slashing my throat under the water.
Shoving my feet against the rocky side of the swimming hole, I ran up it and flipped again.
Their fingers slipped from my hair, as we changed positions, and I finally got a look at my assailant.
Verahn demon.
Still gripping his wrist, I slammed it against the rock edging the pool, once, twice.
The knife clattered out of his hand, and in one quick move, I snatched it up, locked my arm around his throat, and stabbed him in the chest three times.
The demon shrieked as I slashed through the tendons behind each of his shoulders, then did the same behind his knees, before I yanked his head back so I could see his face. “What do you want, why are you here?”
Demons hanging out here in the forest was no big surprise, this was Hell, they were everywhere. Sensing them close, or in the hound’s case, scenting them, wouldn’t set off any alarm bells, because normally they wouldn’t be stupid enough to attack me.
More demons rushed forward, surrounding me. Verahn were built for fighting, which was why a lot of them made up security for most of the lords and some other immortals as well.
I tossed the flailing demon from the pool and bounded out. “How very impolite of you,” I said and smiled brightly. “Attacking a girl while she’s trying to take a bath. Why don’t you tell me who you are and what you want and we can talk?”
“Your head for a start, then...” His gaze trailed down my naked body. “We’ll see what else pops up.”
“You’re not going to give me your name? No problem, I’ll call you…hog face. Hey, hog face, did you just imply that you were going to rape my decapitated body? That’s pretty fucked up. You know that, right?”
He opened his mouth and shut it, confusion covering his extremely swinish features before he snarled. “Shut the fuck up. We’re going to kill you, bitch.”
I giggled. “No, you’re not.”
He waved around the cleaver he was holding but looked unsure all of a sudden. Then one of the very lonely brain cells in his thick skull betrayed him and convinced him that he had this. “You don’t have your backup with you now, handmaid. There are three of us and only one of you. You’re fucked.”
“You know what, hog face, you’re kinda adorable when you say stupid shit.” I lifted my hands. “I’ll give it to you, you have balls, no doubt big, pink, disgusting ones, but still, kudos to you. Question?”
He snarled.
“I’ve been wondering something since you showed up.”
He scowled, his gaze darting to his friends, then back to me. “What?”
I tilted my head to the side, then dropped my gaze to his groin. “Do you have one of those little weird, curly pig dicks as well?”
He roared and charged.