River
“Come with me,” he said and stepped away from the tent.
I frowned at his broad back, but followed him down the hill toward the town. The moonlight lit the way well enough that a lantern wasn’t required to see. The red lights on top of the wall cast shadows over the ground as they blinked on and off repeatedly. I’d grown accustomed to the lights over the two months I’d been here and rarely noticed them anymore, but now their red glow seemed almost ominous.
“What’s going on, Kobal?” I asked when we were halfway down the hill.
“Afraid I’ll hurt you?”
I didn’t blame him for being surly, but I could feel my pride pricking as I glared at his back. “I never have been before. I’m not going to start now.”
He glanced over his shoulder at me, his eyes narrowing when he found me giving him the death stare. “Because you can take care of yourself?”
My teeth might fracture from the amount of pressure I put on them while trying to remain somewhat pleasant in my response. “I can.”
That wasn’t a lie; I could take care of myself. I may not be able to tear off someone’s head or have waves of fire erupt from my hands like him, but I’d gotten a lot better at harvesting power from the life I felt pulsating in the earth around me. I could also shoot enough flames to set his ass on fire.
The flames he knew about, but I’d kept my growing ability to wield the power of life to myself with the intention of surprising him with it. We’d stopped talking before I could show him how much better at it I was getting, and we hadn’t trained together since. I also kept my growing ability hidden from Bale and Corson, the two demons who had taken over my training when things between Kobal and me had ended. It wasn’t that I didn’t trust them, I did, but Kobal had once warned me to keep the extent of what I could do a secret, and I was still taking that advice.
“It’s a good thing I trained you so well then,” he said and turned away from me.
Well, that officially ended any softening I’d been feeling toward him. I was tempted to throw a ball of life-filled energy at him to show him how well I’d also trained myself lately, but though I wanted to choke him half the time, I’d never do anything to hurt him, physically.
My nails dug into my palms, and I glowered at his back until we reached the school where the people ate their meals every day. Curiosity tugged at me as I followed him into the building, but I didn’t ask him what was going on again.
Our feet slapped against the tile as we walked. The fluorescent lights above us reflected on the floor, causing it to be almost blinding. Whatever was going on had to be important as all the lights in the building were always turned off at night. Electricity was precious and most of it went to maintaining the wall now separating the destroyed states from the still-intact, outlying areas.
I’d resided in one of those outlying areas and been happily oblivious to the war humans and demons waged against Lucifer and his followers, until my mother turned me in for being different. The soldiers had taken me away from my brothers and brought me here afterward.
We rounded a corner and my step faltered. Standing in the hall were the rest of the men and women I was supposed to be leaving with today. They all glanced at me before hastily looking away and finding something else to focus on. Ever since I’d flame-broiled an ugly, boar-like creature known as a madagan, they’d been uneasy around me. They’d really avoided me since my ex popped the head off one of them like she’d been nothing more than a Barbie doll.
Gathered with the humans were the five demons who were closest to Kobal. Corson leaned against the wall, chewing on some gum while he smiled flirtatiously at a pretty, redheaded woman. Yellow birds dangled from the tips of his pointed ears. Kobal hated that Corson wore the earrings the women he slept with gave to him; I found it funny and it made him stand out as the only demon with a sense of humor.
Kobal had once told me Corson was an adhene demon, a mischievous elf-like demon, and it was entirely fitting for him with his ears, personality, and lithe build. His black hair was so dark in color it looked almost blue in the lights shining down on him. It stood out in spikes around his narrow face.
His citrine-colored eyes locked on me; he popped a bubble with his gum as he gazed between Kobal and me. I could feel the tension radiating from both of us as we stood rigidly in the hall and resolutely refused to look at each other.
“Is someone cranky when they’re woken up or are we having another lovers’ quarrel?” Corson inquired of me.
I suddenly understood why Kobal had said he often had the impulse to rip the earrings from Corson’s ears. Kobal spun toward him. Corson straightened away from the wall and tugged the earrings out. He grinned at me when Kobal turned away; I scowled back at him, which only caused him to chuckle.
Corson and Bale had become the two I’d spent the most time with recently. Bale was always reserved when she was around me; Corson was slowly becoming my only friend in this place. As much as he annoyed me at times, I enjoyed his company.
He may be my only friend here, but I knew he would always choose Kobal over me. Kobal was his king, and they’d been together for centuries as they fought and battled together to fix what Lucifer had torn apart when he’d entered Hell. I was simply the woman fate had saddled Kobal with, and fate had one twisted sense of humor when it came to the two of us. The king of Hell’s Chosen was the descendent of his worst enemy and a mortal to boot. Oh yeah, someone was getting a good laugh somewhere over this one.
“What’s going on?” I whispered to Corson when Kobal moved on to speak with Bale and Morax.
“You’ll find out,” he replied and slipped the earrings back in.
“Corson—”
“It’s a good thing,” he assured me.
I glanced at him questioningly, but he conveniently turned to speak with Verin. Stunning, was the only word I could think of for Verin. If she’d been glimpsed from our dimension by humans who could see beyond the veil, as some things from the demon world had been, Verin would have been the origin for the legends about sirens or succubae.
Her hair and eyes were the color of the sun. The ends of her hair brushed against the curve of her tiny waist. Most of the men, and some of the women, would stop to watch her when she walked past, but she was Morax’s Chosen, and no one was going to mess with him.
Morax appeared formidable and strange to any human he encountered and probably more than a few demons too. His green skin had the appearance of scales due to the deeper shades of green swirling across his flesh. Add in his six foot two height, long powerful tail, razor-sharp teeth, two sets of simultaneously blinking eyelids, orange snake eyes, and most people were ready to run before they ever saw the six-inch horns growing out of his bald head and curving toward each other.
No one was going to hit on Verin with Morax in a mile vicinity. I had no doubt he would make the death of anyone who tried as unpleasant as possible. My gaze landed on the bites on both of their necks, marking them as each other’s Chosen.
Even before I’d known what those marks on them meant, they’d fascinated me in a strange way. Now I knew it was because the demon part of me had instinctively recognized what they were.
Kobal’s marks on me were fading. The ones I’d left on him were nearly gone, and I wanted them back so badly I could almost taste Kobal’s flesh yielding beneath me as I sank my teeth into him. I shook with a racking need and closed my eyes against the pull trying to draw me toward Kobal. A pull I would never be free of no matter how much distance I attempted to put between us. Our bond would never be broken.
Feeling a little more in control of myself again, I opened my eyes as Shax approached Verin and Corson. Most of the women’s eyes turned to follow Shax as he moved. At six foot one, he was the most human looking, and the most handsome of the demons. His blond hair hung in waves about his chiseled face, a face probably better suited to an angel than a demon. His sunflower-yellow eyes glimmered warmly and the clothes he wore fit his body like a glove.
“They’re filling the last truck full of food now,” Shax said to them.
“Good,” Verin replied.
Movement at the front of the row of people drew my attention as Colonel Ulrich MacIntyre, or Mac as most called him, poked his head out from the cafeteria. He said something to Bale and Kobal who nodded in return.
Bale’s fire-red hair flashed in the light when she turned to face the people standing behind her. Her red-hued skin made her look as if she were made entirely of fire. She flashed a feral smile at the guy closest to her, who had made the mistake of getting caught staring at her ample cleavage. Eyes the color of limes raked over the man as he became riveted on his boots.
Kobal spun and walked down the row of people to stand beside me. My skin pricked at his nearness. His fiery scent filled my nostrils as I deeply inhaled it into me. I resisted the urge to hug myself in a vain attempt to hold myself together when he turned to face the others.
“Once you step through that door, you will all be closely monitored. Everything you say will be overheard, so keep that in mind. If even one of you reveals anything about what is on this side of the wall, every person within that room will be forced to stay here,” Kobal said. “There will be no turning back for them either.”
Murmurs slid down the line as people tried to figure out what he was talking about. I stared up at the straight line of his jaw as I puzzled over his words.
“Nothing is to be revealed about what we do here, absolutely nothing, or you and your families will all be made to pay the consequences of your actions,” Kobal continued.
My eyes went to the door as the murmurs in the crowd died instantly. It couldn’t be; no one who hadn’t volunteered was allowed to come to the wall. I’d been one of the exceptions, taken unwillingly when they’d still been trying to find Lucifer’s descendent. They’d finally hit the jackpot with me.
Mac held the door open further. People glanced at each other before starting to move forward into the connecting room. When the first people disappeared and cries of joy could be heard, the line moved faster and faster through the doors. I stood, frozen, as I tried to process what was going on and my heart hammered in my chest.
Were my brothers in there? Were they waiting for me? I was too frightened to find out the answer, too scared my mother had somehow managed to mess this up and I would go through the door only to find no one waiting there for me. As the last person filtered through the door, sobs and laughter drifted down the hall toward me. Mac pushed the door open a little further and looked at me expectantly.
“River?” Mac inquired.
Kobal’s obsidian eyes were unreadable when they met mine. He’d told me he’d try to arrange it so I could see my brothers again before we left on our mission, but that was before I’d told him to get out of my life. Had my refusal of him changed his mind about me having a chance to see my brothers again?
No, he wouldn’t do that. He may have little regard for human life, but he wasn’t cruel. He wouldn’t have brought the families of the others here and not my brothers, but I still found myself unable to move.
Something in his expression changed; there was an easing to him I hadn’t seen in days. “Go on,” he encouraged, his tone far kinder than it had been earlier.
It took everything I had to make the first step. Once I did, I didn’t think my feet hit the floor again until I was on the other side of the door. The cafeteria was a teeming mass of people, crying and laughing as they embraced and spoke eagerly. Rising onto my toes, I frantically searched over the crowd for Gage and Bailey.
“Pittah!”
I spun to my right, tears filling my eyes when I spotted Gage running toward me with Bailey in his arms. It had been months since I’d heard him call me by his nickname for me and seen their beloved faces.
A strangled cry escaped me as I took a stumbling step forward before running toward them. Bailey lifted his head from where it laid on Gage’s chest when he caught sight of me. He removed his thumb from his mouth and cried out my name, “River!”
I flung my arms around them and hugged them close.