Searing heat. Pain. The stench of brimstone in the thin air. Barren mountains, desert winds that carried the scent of death, triple suns setting the dry, cracked ground ablaze.
Gabriel was home.
Just fucking great.
Adrianne squirmed, and he loosened his hold on her a bit.
As soon as they’d fallen through the rift, he’d yanked her into his arms and pressed her head into his chest so that she’d be protected when they hit the ground. She’d come through unscathed.
His shoulder, he noticed with a pained grimace, hadn’t been as fortunate. But he’d deal with that later.
They had bigger problems at the moment.
Gabriel rolled to his feet, pulling Adrianne up with him. “Are you OK?”
Her eyes were wide as she took in the barren landscape. “I don’t know,” she said, her voice raspy. She laid a hand on her chest. “I can’t…breathe…very well.”
That was going to be a problem. Gabriel had forgotten how little, well, air there was in the air here. “If you’ve ever been at a high elevation, it’ll feel like that for a while until you get used to it.”
Only, you know, with actual fire and brimstone all around. And that’s assuming you can even get used to it because I’m only guessing. No humans have ever been here before.
But he didn’t say any of that out loud. No reason to terrify her.
He was already terrified enough for the both of them.
“What…do…we…do?” she asked, her lips taking on a scary bluish tinge.
Gabriel shoved a hand through his hair and glanced to the sky. The suns would be setting soon. That’s when everything really got intense here.
“We get to shelter,” he told her, trying to inject as much we’re-absolutely-not-going-to-die-here into his tone as possible. “I know a place not too far from here.”
Her adorable little nose crinkled up. “Where’s…here?”
“This is my backyard. The far edge of my father’s land. I grew up here.”
The pity in her eyes as she thought about him as a child, here, almost undid him. He’d never wanted her to see any of this.
I’m so, so sorry, Moonshine.
But there was no time for that now. They’d be sitting ducks out here when the suns went down.
The monsters that came out at night, though, weren’t their immediate concern.
Because they wouldn’t make it to nightfall if his father found them.
The good news, Gabriel thought as he carried Adrianne across the threshold of the cave, was that everything seemed to be exactly as he’d left it.
The bad news was that the cave was exactly as he’d left it.
Gabriel supposed this cave was the equivalent of a tree house or fort where Adrianne came from. He’d used it to escape his father whenever he could while he was growing up—and he’d used it as a place to recover from his wounds before leaving this godawful pit of a world through the rift.
That didn’t mean it held any pleasant or nostalgic memories for Gabriel.
It was dark, dank, and depressing. The bed of old rags and tanned animal skins was exactly where he’d left it. The dried out, partially rotted tree stump he’d used as a bedside table was still there, too.
The only big win so far was that he could still hear the natural spring that bubbled at the back of the cave, which meant they’d at least have fresh water for bathing and for Adrianne to drink. Fresh water was a luxury in this place, not a necessity. Demons didn’t need to drink, and most of the inhabitants here had bigger problems than whether or not they could bathe.
Gabriel threw a handful of flames at the torches in the corners of the cave to light up the space.
It wasn’t more attractive in the light, sadly.
Settling Adrianne on the makeshift bed, he knelt next to her. She hadn’t been able to walk more than half a mile on her own without getting too winded to continue, and her hands were surprisingly cold, given that it was probably over a hundred degrees outside the cave.
“Talk to me,” he urged. “How are you feeling?”
“Tired,” she said on a breathy whisper. “Still…hard…to…breathe.”
He closed his eyes. Damn it! He’d been afraid of this. She wasn’t going to adapt to the air here. And since he had no idea how long it would take them to find their way back (or for Riddick and Harper to mount a rescue operation, because he was sure they would), it was time to consider extreme measures.
Gabriel took her hand and placed a quick, hard kiss to the center of her cold palm. “I think I know a way to help you breathe easier.”
When he hesitated, she slow blinked at him, then said, “What…are…you…waiting…for? Christmas? An…engraved…invite?”
He snorted. Still snarky, even when oxygen deprived. “Anything good in this place comes at a price, Moonshine. I can help you, but…there will be consequences. The permanent kind.”
“More…permanent…than…death…by…asphyxiation?”
Well, when she put it like that…
Gabriel swallowed hard. “See, here’s the thing. Humans aren’t meant to be here. Only demons. If I infuse you with demon energy, my energy, you’ll be able to tolerate the air here.”
She nodded. “But…”
Yep. There was always a but. “But if I do this, you won’t just be less human here. When we get you home—because, Moonshine, I swear to you, I will get you home—you’ll be less human there, too.”
Her brow furrowed, and her chest rattled as she tried—and failed—to take in a deep breath. “Spit…it…out. How…much…less…human…are…we…talking?”
Good question. “I can’t say for sure because I’ve never tried it. This is all theoretical. But I think that if I infuse you with my energy, you’ll tolerate the environment here, be harder to kill, and you might…develop extra powers.”
Adrianne’s eyes widened comically as she mouthed, “Extra powers?”
“Maybe pyrokinesis like me. Maybe an enhancement of your psychic abilities. Maybe something new, based on anything that might be dormant in your bloodline right now.” He shrugged helplessly. “Maybe all of the above. Your aging could also slow considerably.”
Considerably meaning it might stop altogether. She might end up damn-near indestructible like him. He just couldn’t be sure.
She was thinking about it. He could see it in her eyes. Her powers had given her nothing but grief over the years, and now he was telling her that her survival in this horrible hell dimension hinged on possibly gaining even more powers? She was supposed to willingly become more like him?
But, as usual, she shocked him by lifting one cold palm to cup his cheek and smiling weakly at him. “I’d…take-…any…superpowers…right…now. Breathing is good.”
He leaned into her touch. “There’s one more thing. Here, sharing energy is more than merely feeding. Sharing energy, exchanging energy, is more of a…mating. It’s the closest thing we have to marriage in this land. But even back in your world, you’d be bonded to me forever, basically. It’s a connection we can’t sever. And after we’re done, forever might be a very, very long time. Please don’t take it lightly.”
He didn’t add that if they did this, he’d only be able to feed from her for the rest of his days. And if something happened to her, or if she decided she didn’t want to feed him anymore, he’d die. She’d be able to go on without him because she wasn’t a born demon, but after today, he’d cease to exist without her.
She didn’t need that kind of pressure. Being bonded to him and gaining extra powers she didn’t want was bad enough. Being saddled with the knowledge that she could kill him was just too much.
The thought of giving her so much power over him should probably be scarier than it was. But if he did nothing, she’d die. And he didn’t want to be in a world—this one or any other—where Adrianne didn’t exist.
So, he held his breath while she took it all in. It took exactly twenty-seven seconds for her to make up her mind.
Adrianne used what seemed to be every remaining bit of her strength to sit up and press her forehead to his. “I decided when I was…thirteen that you’re it for me. I…trust… you, and I love you,” she whispered. “So…are you going to… demonize me, or what?”
A single tear trailed down her cheek, and he brushed it away with his thumb. “You deserve so much better than this. Than me.”
She fisted her hand in his hair at the nape. “I deserve…whatever I want—and I want you. I always…have. There’s really…only one problem…now.”
“What’s that?”
“Haven. She was right. It…would seem you are going to…marry me. She’ll be…unbearable with all the I-told-you-so’s.”
He couldn’t help but bark out a laugh at that observation. Sunny was never going to let anyone hear the end of this one. “She’s not the only one who was right,” he said. “Your vision. It’s about to come true, Moonshine.”
“How?”
There really wasn’t any way to explain this without it sounding terrifying, so he was just going to lay it all out on the table now. “The way I share my energy? I’m afraid it’s through fire.”
He leaned back and watched as comprehension hit her. It only took a moment for her to realize the truth.
She was about to burn. Just like she had in her vision.
In all the times they’d talked about her vision, no one had ever considered the possibility that it had been Gabriel who intended to burn her alive all along.