Chapter 17
Chapter Seventeen
Roxy
Dinner had been long and exhausting, but now I knew for sure that Drake, the idiot, had Lucifer’s number one most wanted squirreled away somewhere in this creepy freaking house. Either he wised up and handed Beelzebub over, or we would tear this place apart until we found him.
I glanced over at Lothar again. He stood just inside the bathroom, holding Beelzebub’s shirt again.
His feet were bare and on the stone floor, and he was trying to tap into the house’s vibrations and, hopefully, pinpoint where B was hiding.
If we were going to take the lord of Hell by force, it would be handy to know where possible danger lurked, but more importantly, where our target was.
Distance could make it more difficult, especially if someone was blocking him, but we were within the same walls, I was sure of it, and Lothar said if he was close, he might be able to break through whatever was surrounding B and pinpoint him. I really freaking hoped he was right.
Lothar’s eyes were closed, his head tipped back, the same way I’d seen him standing in the forest when we were in Limbo.
His throat, thick and corded, worked when he swallowed, and I did the same, my mouth suddenly going dry.
His jaw was square, strong under his beard.
I bit my lip. Yeah, I wanted to climb him like a tree and sink my teeth into him.
I wanted to lick him, kiss him everywhere, wrap myself around him and cling to him like a freaking limpet and never let go…
Stop.
I dragged in a deep breath, pulling myself back from the edge, or at least tried to.
Lothar finally lowered his chin and opened his glowing, golden eyes. They looked distant, as if he wasn’t here in this room with me but somewhere else. Until he blinked.
As soon as his focus was back, that gaze burned into me. My belly swirled. “Anything?”
He lifted a hand to the doorframe, and his bicep threatened the seams of his shirt. “Think I’ve found him. Unless Drake’s playing some kind of game.”
Shit. “Are you locked on to him?”
“Yeah.”
I paced to the window and back. We needed a game plan, but our options were limited. “We have two choices: hunt him down in this house, whatever it takes, and drag him back to Hell…or give Drake some time, a chance to do the right thing.”
“Drake betrayed Lucifer by hiding that fucker here, why give him an out?” Lothar screwed up his nose, then pressed it to his sleeve.
“I can’t see Drake risking his alliance with Lucifer easily. Maybe B has something over him? Or maybe he’s just made a really stupid mistake. B could have convinced him he’s not trying to overthrow Lucifer and Drake believed his friend?”
“Or maybe he’s a traitorous fuck as well?”
He crossed his arms, and I was momentarily distracted by their bulging magnificence.
He quirked a brow, waiting for me to say something, and I shook off my ever-growing lust. “Yes, you could be right, but all I know is, as soon as we take the choice from Drake, we’re all but signing his death warrant.
I’ve killed, many times, but in cases like this, I don’t like to kill without just cause.
At least if Drake hands over B himself, he could survive this.
” It would also make our task a hell of a lot easier, but more importantly, end it.
Lothar grunted, then scowled and sniffed the shirt again. His scowl deepened, and he literally tore it off and tossed it aside with obvious disgust.
I winced. “Sorry, is my stench all over it?”
Lothar’s chin jerked back, his brows lowering.
“No, it’s not you.” He shook his head. “Honestly, I think I’m starting to get used to your scent…
you smell, I don’t know, different now.” He kicked the shirt he’d shredded into the corner.
“It’s Grimmel, the fucking weirdo kept touching us whenever he served our meals.
” Lothar seemed to be fighting his instincts again.
He bared his teeth and his fangs elongated a moment before his eyes flashed red. “Fuck, I can smell you all over me—”
“Sorry—”
“No, I told you, that’s not the problem. I want you all over me. I…fuck, I like it. A lot. What I don’t like is Grimmel’s scent on me as well, near yours. It’s messing with the beast for some reason.” He reached over and turned on the shower.
Holy shit. His back and shoulders rolled like waves. “Lothar? Are you okay?”
His chest vibrated, I could see it moving as a rumbling growl reverberated from him like rolling thunder. “If I don’t get that fucker off me now, I might have to kill him.”
I realized he was stone-cold serious when he quickly stripped off the rest of his clothes and, eyes still glowing red, got in the shower and started scrubbing the hell out of his skin and hair. It was as if he’d forgotten I was even there, so focused on washing Grimmel’s scent off his skin.
I forced myself to leave him to shower alone. My ogling his magnificent body was not something I wanted to be caught doing.
Something wasn’t right with him. I’d seem him struggling with his control several times now. He was constantly on the verge of shifting, snarling and growling all the time, and now suddenly my scent wasn’t offensive anymore?
I sat on the edge of the bed and rubbed my hands over my face. This had to mean something, right? Luci said the scent thing was a safety measure to keep us apart. To keep Lothar away from me.
If I didn’t smell bad to him anymore, did that mean…
A vicious snarl came from the bathroom. I jumped up, ran across the room and flew into the bathroom.
Holy fuck.
Lothar was in the throes of a fight, as what looked like the wall attacked him.
The hard marble had sprouted arms and a face, and spindly arms were wrapped around Lothar from behind, hanging on desperately, while whatever it was said lewd things about me in a strange, distorted voice.
Lothar jerked forward, and more of the face was revealed.
Holy fuck, it was Grimmel.
Drake’s loyal sidekick lashed out his tongue and ran it up the side of Lothar’s neck. “Be a good boy and give her to me,” he said to Lothar. “I’ll take good care of her.”
So focused on Lothar, he hadn’t even seen or heard me enter the room.
Lothar reached back, fisted Grimmel’s hair, grabbed one of his arms, and with a vicious snarl tossed him across the room.
Grimmel hit the wall, then landed on his back.
He lay there panting, his skin still a deep green, the color of the wall.
His dark eyes were locked on Lothar. His bony body naked and misshapen.
His gaze finally sliced to me, and he hissed like a wild cat.
“What the fuck, Grimmel?”
His creepy gaze burned into me, then sliced back to Lothar. “I want her, you can’t have her,” he chanted in that strange singsong voice. Then he lurched forward a little and hissed again. “You can’t have her. She’s mine.”
“The fuck she is,” Lothar snarled.
With another hiss, we watched in horror as Grimmel’s arms and legs cracked and bent at weird angles, and his skin returned to its original shade of sickly white. He stopped contorting when he resembled a fleshy spider, then scuttled across the room.
Snapping out of my shock, I snatched a blade from the sheath at my hip and tossed it. It was too late, though, and the blade sunk into the wall where Grimmel had run right into, then disappeared.
“Motherfucker,” Lothar snarled and stormed out of the shower. “I’m going to kill him, and fucking Drake as well.”
Lothar was right about one thing. No more waiting. Drake’s time was up. Still, none of what just happened made any sense. Why would Grimmel do that? If he was attracted to me, he had to know what he just did was pointless. There was no way he could overpower Lothar and take me.
“This is some kind of setup,” I said as we strode out into the hall. “You were possessive over me at dinner and they’re counting on you losing it and going after Grimmel.”
“Agreed,” Lothar said reluctantly and obviously still furious. “But if we stay where we are, we’re sitting ducks. This house is messed up, dangerous. We need to get the hell out of here, but then we’ll be walking into their trap.”
He was right about that as well. “We’ll just have to be prepared for anything.” Lothar nodded, and we grabbed our bags and rushed from the room. “Be careful,” I said as we jogged along the hall.
The floor jerked beneath my feet, and I was suddenly standing in front of a wall, the new configuration forcing us to turn a corner.
“How’s Drake doing that?” Lothar bit out.
“He’s powerful. He has to be to rule over his own realm, but I’ve never seen him do anything like this. His powers have to be connected to this house somehow.”
Lothar grunted his agreement.
It happened again, and again, in quick succession, the walls shifting, the house configuration changing.
“He could have us running around in circles for eternity if he wanted. I’m starting to think this house is not just a house, that it’s more a realm—”
“Within a realm,” I finished.
Shit. He was right.
The ground beneath our feet jerked to the side again, and I almost collided with another wall.
I sidestepped it and turned, heading down the next hallway, this one dark, eerie.
None of them looked the same—different flooring, wallpaper, furniture, paintings.
There were no doors off any of them, just long, shadowed corridors, one after the other, appearing in front of us, the floor shifting beneath our feet as we were sent down yet another, then another.
I glanced at Lothar. “He’s forcing us to go where he wants.”
His eyes flashed with fury. “Herding us like cattle.”
The floor dropped out from under me, and if Lothar hadn’t been quick and fisted the back of my jacket, I would have tumbled down a sharply angled set of stairs.
There was a wall in front of us now—and one behind. “He’s not giving us any choice but to go down.”
Lothar lifted me before I could take another step and put himself in front of me. I didn’t argue, there was no point, his protective instincts had kicked in. Nothing else mattered, definitely not the fact that I was more than capable of taking point in wherever Drake was leading us.
Lothar’s eyes glowed in the darkness as we headed down the steep stairs. Actually, it was probably a good thing Lothar had taken the lead because it was almost complete darkness down here, and Lothar had far better night vision than me. “Can you see anything?”
“Yes,” he said gravely. “Grab on to the back of my shirt, baby, and don’t veer off the path.”
Baby. He’d said it before, but when we were giving each other pleasure.
I quickly put it aside. This was not the time to start overthinking things.
“There’s a path?” My boots squelched with each step.
“More mud?” Though it didn’t smell like mud, it had a tinny scent, a scent I realized I knew all too well.
Blood—gore. Then something revolting hit me, and I gagged. “What am I stepping in?”
“Corpses.”
“If the path is rotting corpses, then what the hell is on either side?”
“Let’s just worry about getting to wherever this fucker is sending us,” he said, instead of answering.
Something seriously bad, then?
Every step we took released another waft of rotting flesh. My foot slipped on what I could only assume were limbs, but thankfully I managed to stay upright. The path seemed to be never ending, at least it felt that way when I could barely see a foot in front of me.
“Where do you think all these corpses came from?” Lothar asked.
“I don’t know, we could be anywhere, and if this is some random realm we’re in—or worse, one he’s sent us to—almost anything could be possible.”
Lothar stopped suddenly, one of his arms flying behind him to wrap around my waist.
He held me tight to his back. “What is it?” I whispered.
“Do you hear that?”
“No, what did you—” Something warm and smelling even more like death than the sea of corpses beneath our feet wafted over the side of my face.
“Roxy?” Lothar said.
A weird sound came from behind me, a repetitive, thumping rattle.
“I think I’ve got a problem back here.”
Lothar’s leather vest creaked as he slowly turned. “Don’t move,” he rushed out under his breath.
I jammed my mouth closed as something warm and slimy hit my arm, then slowly slid down it. Drool, I was sure of it. Drool from something vicious—and I was only guessing here, but the evidence pointed to me being correct—after some fresh meat to add to his rotting collection.
“He’s focused on you, Rox, but I don’t think it can hear. I think the only thing it can sense is movement or it would have attacked already.”
Oh fuck. It’d been stalking us, and as soon as we’d stopped, it’d lost sight of us.
I could tell it was big, and going by the amount of drool sliding over my shoulder and soaking my shirt—and now burning into my flesh—it had a big mouth and a mean set of teeth.
“I can see light ahead. It’s faint, but I think we can make it if we run like hell.”
My burning skin grew worse, and I was sure I could smell my own singed flesh. If we didn’t move soon, I’d quickly be joining one of the decomposing corpses on the path below my feet.
Lothar’s hand tightened on my waist, and I knew instantly what he planned. Oh no, you don—
One moment I was behind him, the next I was flying through the air.
I hit the path a couple yards in front of him, landing on one knee, my hand deep in warm, wet gore.
I heard Lothar’s boots slapping as he barreled down on me.
Jumping to my feet, I pumped my arms and sprinted toward the light up ahead.
The ground shook as the monster made chase, its roars causing my ears to ring and covering us in more toxic drool.
There was an open gateway just ahead. We were almost there. Lothar was right behind me.
Another roar followed, so close my drool-soaked hair was blasted over one shoulder.
Lothar barked a curse—then he was slamming into my back, knocking me to the ground.
My body crashed down onto severed limbs and blood and guts, and we slid along the path at break-neck speed as if we were on some gruesome slip ’n slide.
I turned back, and now that there was light spilling in from the gateway, I could finally see the monster clearly. It was huge, like a wingless pterodactyl with razor-sharp teeth, vicious claws, and a shorter beak, and all around it, bodies, corpses of all shapes and sizes, hung from spindly trees.
The monster was gaining on us, mouth opened, roaring. Lothar threw a hand out behind us and, with a roar, blasted it with a steady stream of hellfire. It shrieked and flailed but kept coming.
Lothar wrapped himself around me then, forcing me into a tight ball as we hurtled toward the gateway, and whatever fresh horrors waited for us on the other side.