Kobal
I glowered at the creature who purposely ignored me as River tugged her hand away from him. “I am no one’s savior,” she told him.
Lix adjusted his tie as he spoke. “We are each trying to find our own way in the world. Some have no idea who or what they are yet, but you will find out soon enough.”
River’s eyes widened on the skellein as he turned away from her to speak with the one wearing a yellow sun hat sitting beside him. I squeezed River’s neck gently, drawing her attention away from Lix when she continued to stare at him. She turned to face the skellein behind the bar, waiting for her order.
“What would you like?” the bartender asked River.
River tapped her finger on her chin as she stared at the taps lining the bar. “I don’t know, something strong.”
“How about some mjéod?” the bartender suggested.
“What is that?” River inquired.
“It’s a demon brew,” I told her. “It’s what we often drank in Hell. It’s far too strong for you.”
Her eyes lit with curiosity. “I’d still like to try it.”
Arguing with her would get us nowhere; besides, she’d hate it after one sip. “I’ll get one and we can share it.” I focused on the skellein behind the bar. “I’ll take a mjéod for the both of us.”
The bartender turned away and came back a minute later with a glass of the deep red brew. She placed it on the bar before me. River stared at the glass before leaning forward to sniff it. Her nose wrinkled at the pungent aroma, and she sat back.
“What an odd color,” she murmured.
“It’s brewed from the rivers in Hell,” I told her.
“There are rivers in Hell?” Vargas inquired.
“Of course,” Corson replied. “They are not the blue of many of your rivers here on Earth or as numerous, but they are there. We all evolved from the same beginning after all.”
“How do the fires and heat not vaporize them?” Erin asked.
Corson shrugged. “The water is not the same as yours. It has evolved in its own way as well.”
“Can we drink it?” River asked.
“Humans have come here and consumed mjéod before without a problem,” Lix replied. “While they couldn’t stand afterward, they did not die. They have tried our water too. They may not be able to survive our fires, but they survive drinking our waters.”
“Interesting,” River said and grasped the glass.
“Careful,” I cautioned. “It’s far more potent than the wine you’ve had. It’s been known to knock more than a few demons on their ass before.”
I growled and stepped closer to River when Lix leaned over to nudge her in the ribs with his elbow. Lix jerked his arm back and leaned away from her as he spoke. “It’s why we stopped drinking mjéod when we discovered beer. Not enough meat on our bones to handle it.”
River blinked at him before bursting into loud laughter. I couldn’t help but smile as her laughter filled the bar, and the skelleins all turned their grinning skulls toward her.
“I think the skelleins like their queen,” Bale said from behind me.
“I think she likes them too,” I replied.
River lifted the drink and took a small sip. I expected the same reaction to it as she’d had to the wine I’d given her. Instead of making a face and pushing it away, she licked her lips as she stared into the glass.
“It’s delicious,” she murmured.
This statement was met with silence around the bar before the skelleins all cheered loudly. “The queen likes her demon brew!”
“She’s more one of us than we thought!”
“Drink more! Drink more!”
They all started shouting over the top of each other as River took another sip of mjéod. I didn’t know what to make of this development. She’d always been such a solid combination of the three species, but I’d never expected her to like mjéod.
When she lifted the glass to her mouth again, I realized she’d already consumed half the contents. “Easy there, you’ll fall off the barstool if you keep that up,” I said to her.
She relinquished the glass to me when I took it from her hand and downed the rest of the contents in one swallow. The potent flavor of it seared my tongue and burned all the way down my throat. I groaned at the familiarity of the flavor that reminded me of fire; it was a piece of home I hadn’t tasted in years.
I placed the glass on the bar and nodded when the female skellein behind it lifted it toward me questioningly. The strains of the piano filled the air again. Turning on her stool, River tapped her foot to the beat of the music as the skellein in the coattails started another song.
I rested my elbow on the bar as I listened to the melody flowing from the piano. What little music there had been in Hell had consisted of the screams of the damned and the few strains of melodic sound that would sometimes travel across the barrier from the human world to us.
Over the past couple of weeks, I’d heard the skelleins playing their tunes often, but it had been background noise to me. Now I found myself actually enjoying the noise. I didn’t know how they’d taught themselves to play the instrument, or if they had been watching humans do it for centuries, but at least one of the skelleins was always at the piano.
Glass scraped on the bar surface when the bartender placed our next drink down. I didn’t pay it any attention while the notes of the piano drifted through the air. I found my eyes closing as the beat of the melody pulsed in my blood. No, we demons most certainly would not be locking ourselves away in Hell again.
River leaned closer to me. Her fresh rain and earthy scent filled my nose when she rested her hand on my forearm. Opening my eyes, I found her gaze on me. “It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” she asked.
The mjéod was already beginning to have an effect on her as her cheeks were turning a deep red hue. I brushed back a strand of her hair and bent down to rest my lips against her ear. “Not so beautiful as you.”
The color crept higher into her cheeks. I couldn’t tear my eyes away from her face as I lifted my glass and took another sip. Her gaze followed my every move. I lowered the glass to the bar top, and she reached out her hands for it. She’d end up drunk at this rate, but she was offering up her life for countless others, so she deserved a night away from it all more than anyone else I knew.
“Just take sips,” I cautioned.
Her eyes lit up as she accepted the glass from me and took a small sip. She licked her lips again before handing it back. Turning, I spotted Vargas and Hawk at the end of the bar ordering drinks. Erin had approached the piano and stood beside the skellein pounding away at the keys.
Bending down, she spoke with the skellein who nodded in response. Corson and Bale remained beside me. Bale leaned around River’s other side to order two mjéods for them. The last notes of the upbeat song died away; chatter filled the bar in the brief interlude before the piano player began a slower song.
River’s head lifted, and her black eyebrows drew together as she stared at Erin and the piano player. When Erin started signing, River’s body began to sway back and forth with the song.
One by one, the skelleins settled down and turned toward the young woman. Not a single one of them moved as she continued to weave a haunting melody in a clear, strong voice. I’d heard the siren’s songs before, and while this song didn’t weave the same kind of spell as the siren’s did, it definitely got the attention of all those in the bar.
Tears formed in River’s eyes as she listened to the song about rainbows and birds flying. I drew her against my side as the rest of the bar remained silent with awe. I’d never heard the song before, but there was something about it that made me realize I wouldn’t forget it anytime soon.
After the song came to an end and Erin’s voice faded away, everyone remained still for a moment before the skelleins burst into loud, raucous applause. River wiped the tears from her eyes and rose to her feet to clap enthusiastically for her friend.
Erin beamed at everyone in the bar before giving a sweeping bow. Hawk and Vargas slapped Erin on the back when she walked over to join them at the bar. River took my drink from my hand and finished off the last sip.
“Look at you, enjoying something human,” she teased me.
My eyes raked over her slender frame before resting on her face once more. She drew her bottom lip between her teeth and nibbled on it while she watched me. “I’ve been more than enjoying something human for a couple of months now.”
Her breath hitched as I took hold of the empty glass and pulled it away from her.
“I’m ready to go now.” She hopped off the stool. I grabbed her elbow when she swayed briefly. “I didn’t drink that much of it,” she murmured.
“More than enough,” I replied and refrained from telling her she’d consumed almost an entire glass.
She grinned at me. “It was really good.”
I couldn’t help but chuckle as I slid my arm around her waist. “I can tell.”
“I have to say good-bye.”
Despite the heightened color in her cheeks and the slight sway when she rose from her stool, her gait was steady as she made her way to where Hawk, Erin, and Vargas now stood by the piano. Bale and Corson remained by the bar talking with some of the skelleins when I followed River to the piano.
“You were amazing!” River said to Erin.
“It made me think of you,” Erin replied. “For when you’re on your way back to us tomorrow.”
For a second, tears shimmered in River’s eyes again. “Works perfectly.”
Erin placed her mug on the bar and turned to hug River. She stood awkwardly for a minute before she lifted her arms to embrace Erin back. River stepped away from her and gave a brief wave to Vargas and Hawk before turning away from them.
“I have to speak with the other demons,” I told her as I led her down the stairs toward the exit. “To let them know what will be happening tomorrow.”
“I’d like to lay down,” she said.
Glancing at her, I noted the weary slope of her shoulders as the world settled onto them once more. The effects of the mjéod were wearing off far faster than I’d anticipated. I didn’t want to let her out of my sight, but I wasn’t going to make her stand through a meeting with the demons, not when it could possibly end up lasting all night.
Stepping outside, River inhaled a greedy gulp of fresh air as she soaked in the light of the stars and the moon. The vehicles parked around the edge of the clearing and the people sleeping in the center of it were easy to see beneath the radiance of the full moon. Patrols of humans and demons moved back and forth at the edge of the trees while some of those not on patrol sat around campfires playing games.
I watched as a smile played across River’s face and some of her weariness diminished. The easier flow of life away from the pit imbued and fed her like the sun fed the trees. The gateway and being so close to Hell may not be as taxing to her as it had once been, but it still took its toll.
And you’re going to let her walk into it tomorrow. My grip on her elbow tightened.
“Everything will be fine tomorrow. I’ll be fine,” she said without looking at me. “Stop worrying.”
“I have to worry. Look at what being close to the edge of Hell does to you. You feed on life, River. There is nothing but death within that pit. Going in may be a huge mistake.”
“There is still a form of life within it, and I am able to draw from that. It may not be the same, but I’m adapting to it. Staying here for much longer may be a bigger mistake. We’re only giving Lucifer more time to gather his troops and plot some way to take us down. I may not be able to go that far into Hell, but we won’t know until we try.”
“And if you are able to go in and you lose all connection to the Earth?”
Her hair danced around her face as it stirred in the breeze. She turned over the hand I held in my grasp and squeezed my hand. Sparks arced across her fingertips and onto mine.
“You’ve always been my biggest source of life and power. I’ll be fine if you’re there,” she said.
Grasping her nape, I pulled her against my chest and held her close. “I’d give anything to keep you from having to go in there.”
“I know,” she whispered as she wrapped her arms around me and dug her fingers into the flesh of my back. “But our lives were never ours to control, not really. Destiny took them over years ago.”
My body stirred at the feel of her lush breasts against my chest and the potent scent of her growing arousal. The need to ease her body caused my cock to swell in anticipation. The door to the bar opened. Corson and Bale stepped out to stand behind us on the porch. Gritting my teeth, I made myself step away from her before I couldn’t.
“Gather the others and tell them I must speak with them,” I said to Corson and Bale. They nodded and strode away as I turned my attention back to River. “I have to do this.”
She brought her hands forward to run them over my chest. “You do,” she agreed. “I’ll stay near you, but I have to… to rest for a bit.”
“I understand.”
Keeping hold of her, I led her down the stairs and over to the truck we’d driven in to get here. Stepping back, I opened the door for her. She crawled inside and rested her fingers briefly on the head of the angel sitting on the dash. I hated that angel figurine, but she insisted upon keeping it and had a strange affinity to it for some reason.
I stared at the small statue with her blonde hair and green eyes as she looked toward heaven. River said it reminded her of the little girl she’d started seeing a few weeks ago. She believed the ghostly child was a sign of good, and though I trusted her instincts, I didn’t like the fact that it only appeared to her, and I didn’t entirely trust it.
She lay down on the front seat and rested her head on her hands. “I’ll get you a pillow and blanket,” I told her.
“No, I’ll be fine.”
Sitting up again, she turned toward me and clasped my face tenderly in her hands. Her pure violet eyes blazed with love when she leaned forward to kiss me. One of her hands stroked over my face before sliding down my chest and lower.
“Hurry,” she murmured as she rubbed my still swollen dick through my pants. Her eyes darkened with desire, and a sultry smile curled her full lips.
“I’ll be back soon,” I promised.
It was more than my physical condition making it difficult for me to walk away from her and over to where Bale and Corson had gathered the other demons; it was also my intense reluctance to part from her when I knew she needed me. The demons bowed their heads to me when I neared, and Bale, Corson, Shax, Verin, and Morax moved to flank my sides as I stood facing the group.
I stood between Shax and Verin in the center of the small group I considered to be my most trusted allies and strongest fighters. Each one of them had their strengths and weaknesses, their own opinions of action or caution.
Shax was ever the voice of reason, and whereas the women liked Corson because he was more easygoing around them, they loved Shax for his looks. The humans trusted him because he was the most human looking of the demons with his blond hair and yellow eyes, but he kept his true self hidden from the humans.
Many of the human men watched Verin’s every move. She was beautiful with her yellow hair and eyes to match. Even now, the men watched her as she stood beside her Chosen, Morax.
The humans may lust for her, but none of them would dare to approach her because of Morax.
Morax frightened the humans the most. His green skin appeared to have scales on it, but it was actually different hues of green making it look like scales. He had orange snake eyes, a tail as long as he was tall, and black horns that curved out from the center of his bald head and nearly touched at the top. The sight of him made most humans go in the other direction long before he ever revealed all his razor-sharp teeth.
The rest of the nearly two hundred demons gathered before me kept their gazes focused on me. I could have gathered more here, but large numbers against Lucifer had never worked before. We also had to leave the wall well-guarded, or it would be vulnerable to attack, and the wall had to remain intact if there was any hope of saving the human race.
Clearing my throat, I stepped forward to tell the demons about our intentions to enter Hell tomorrow.