Into the Abyss Read online

  INTO THE ABYSS

  Brenda K. Davies

  Copyright © 2018 Brenda K. Davies

  All rights reserved.

  Distributed by Smashwords

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this ebook with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

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  BOOKS BY THE AUTHOR

  Books written under the penname Brenda K. Davies

  The Alliance Series

  Eternally Bound (Book 1)

  Bound By Vengeance (Book 2)

  Bound by Darkness (Book 3) Coming summer 2018

  Hell on Earth Series

  Hell on Earth (Book 1)

  Into The Abyss (Book 2)

  Kiss of Death (Book 3) Coming late 2018/2019

  The Road to Hell Series

  Good Intentions (Book 1)

  Carved (Book 2)

  The Road (Book 3)

  Into Hell (Book 4)

  The Vampire Awakenings Series

  Awakened (Book 1)

  Destined (Book 2)

  Untamed (Book 3)

  Enraptured (Book 4)

  Undone (Book 5)

  Fractured (Book 6)

  Ravaged (Book 7)

  Consumed (Book 8) Coming summer 2018

  Historical Romance

  A Stolen Heart

  Books written under the penname Erica Stevens

  The Captive Series

  Captured (Book 1)

  Renegade (Book 2)

  Refugee (Book 3)

  Salvation (Book 4)

  Redemption (Book 5)

  Broken (The Captive Series Prequel)

  Vengeance (Book 6)

  Unbound (Book 7)

  The Fire & Ice Series

  Frost Burn (Book 1)

  Arctic Fire (Book 2)

  Scorched Ice (Book 3)

  The Kindred Series

  Kindred (Book 1)

  Ashes (Book 2)

  Kindled (Book 3)

  Inferno (Book 4)

  Phoenix Rising (Book 5)

  The Ravening Series

  Ravenous (Book 1)

  Taken Over (Book 2)

  Reclamation (Book 3)

  The Survivor Chronicles

  Book 1: The Upheaval

  Book 2: The Divide

  Book 3: The Forsaken

  Book 4: The Risen

  DEDICATION

  This book is dedicated to all the butterfly chasers in the world.

  GLOSSARY OF TERMS

  Adhene demon - Mischievous elf-like demon. Corson and Wren are the last adhenes.

  Absenthees - Center of the Abyss and its main focus of power.

  The Abyss - The Abyss is another plane. The jinn can open a doorway into the Abyss and enter it. Absenthees is at the center of the Abyss and main focus of power in the Abyss.

  Akalia Vine - Purple black flowers, orange berries. Draws in victims & drains their blood slowly. Red leaves. Sharp, needle-like suckers under leaves. Behind the 6th seal.

  Barta demons - They were locked behind the 55th seal. Animal of Hell. Now part of Lucifer’s guard.

  Calamut Trees - Live in the Forest of Prurience.

  Canagh demon - Male Incubus, Female Succubus. Power thrives on sex but feed on souls on a less regular basis than the other demons. Their kiss enslaves another.

  Ciguapa (see-GWAH-pah) - Female demon with backward feet.

  Craetons - Lucifer’s followers.

  Crantick demon - Crazy. Often run head first into walls and throw themselves off ledges for fun. Howl in a pack. Like to fight but mostly innocuous.

  Drakón - 101st seal. Skeletal, fire breathing dragons. They now protect the varcolac’s Chosen.

  Erinyes (furies) - demons of vengeance and justice. 78th Seal.

  Faerie/Fae - Empath demons who were slight in build, fast, and kinder than the other demons. The fae bloodline still exists in mixed demons but the purebred fae died out thousands of years ago.

  Fires of Creation - Where the varcolac is born.

  Forest of Prurience - Where the tree nymphs reside. Was also the original home of the canaghs and wood nymphs.

  The Gates - Varcolac demon has always been the ruler of the guardians of the gates that were used to travel to earth before Lucifer entered Hell.

  Ghosts - Souls can balk against entering Heaven, they have no choice when it comes to Hell.

  Gobalinus (goblins) - Lower level demons, feed on flesh as well as souls. 79th seal.

  Hellhounds - The first pair of Hellhounds also born of the Fires of Creation, with the first varcolac who rose. They share a kindred spirit and are controlled by the varcolac.

  Jinn (Singular form is jinni) - 90th seal. Beautiful creatures. They’ll grant a wish, make it more of a nightmare, and tear out their victim’s heart as payment. Feed on the life force of others as well as on wraiths.

  Lanavour demon -The 3rd seal. Can speak telepathically and know people’s inner most secrets and fears.

  Leporcháin - Leprechaun looking creatures. Half on Kobal’s side, the other half are on Lucifer’s. Only ten in existence.

  Macharah - 103rd seal. Creature with 30 plus tentacles at the bottom.

  Manticore - 46th seal. Body of a red lion, human/demon head.

  The Oracle - The oracle is a lake of fire, deep in the bowels of Hell, where earth could be looked on. Few made the journey as the lake was also the central focus of all the heat in Hell.

  Ouroboros - 82nd seal. Massive, green serpent.

  Palitons - Kobal’s followers.

  Púca - 80th seal. Shape changers which can take on animal or human form. Could also be the source of vampires as they drain their victim’s blood.

  Skelleins - Guardians of the Gates.

  Spiny Clackos - demon who is known to have spikes in every part of their anatomy.

  Tree Nymphs - Live in the Forest of Prurience. Men and women. Striking and very free sexually. Smaller than wood nymphs and live in the trees.

  The Wall - Blocks off all of Washington, Oregon, California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine. Blocks parts of Nevada, New York, Pennsylvania, and Arkansas. Similar wall blocks off parts of Europe.

  Wraith - A twisted and malevolent spirit that the demons feed from. On earth they only come out at night.

  Varcolac demon - Born from the fires of Hell. Only one can exist at a time. When that one dies another rises from the Fires of Creation. Fastest and most brutal of all the demons. They are the only kind that can create and open natural gateways within Hell as well as close them. They control the hellhounds.

  DEMON WORDS

  Mah lahala ˈMɑ: - My Love.

  Mohara - Mother

  Paupi - Father.

  Unshi - Uncle

  CONTENTS

  Books by the author

  Dedication

  Glossary of terms

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

&n
bsp; Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Where to find the author

  About the author

  PROLOGUE

  “Sometimes….”

  “Sometimes?” the woman prompted when the man’s voice trailed off.

  The paliton camp was only half a mile away, but they were alone out here in the woods, which was just the way she liked it. The woods were a place of peace, and she didn’t want anyone to interrupt them.

  The rays of the sun filtering through the trees danced across the ground around them. When the barren branches swayed and clacked together overhead, they made a sound like dancing skelleins. Not that she’d ever seen the skeletal demons dance, but she’d heard them charge into battle, and their teeth clacked when they got excited, and their bony feet clicked on hard surfaces.

  The man’s fingers dug into the rotting log they sat on as he stared at the forest. When bits of wood broke away beneath his hands, the scent of rotting wood, moss, and earth rose around them. He seemed not to notice any of it though.

  She batted her lashes at him in the hopes he would look at her, but it seemed as if he were caught in another world when all she wanted was to catch him up in her.

  “Sometimes?” she prompted again.

  He shook his head as if he were clearing it. “Sometimes I wonder if things could have been different in this world.”

  “Oh, me too,” she replied with a sigh. “Every day I daydream about how this world should have been, how it once was. It’s all so… so terrible now.”

  “Yes,” he agreed.

  A bird fluttered between some of the branches above them. It chirruped before taking flight. Beneath her ass, the damp log leeched the heat from her, but she didn’t move. “What would you change?” she inquired.

  “What wouldn’t I change?”

  She chuckled. “True.”

  “What would you change?”

  “All of it.”

  “Hmm,” he murmured, and his pinky finger brushed her hand.

  She glanced down as he continued to rub the outer edge of her hand. He may have been lost in his thoughts earlier, but she had him now. She gave him a sultry smile from under her half-lowered eyelashes.

  “I think,” he said. “I would change it so demons never came to Earth.”

  “Oh, what a difference that would have made.” She leaned closer until she smelled the mint on his breath. “I think about it often.”

  “Think about what often?” he asked.

  They were so close now she could feel his breath on her lips. His hand stilled against hers.

  “What it would have been like if the demons never came to Earth,” she said.

  “I often wish….”

  “For?” Her tongue flicked out to wet her lips, and his gaze fell to her mouth as she’d hoped it would. Sliding her tongue over her mouth again, she teasingly licked the edge of her full bottom lip to entice him further.

  “I don’t know. There are so many things I’d change that I don’t know where I’d start or what I’d wish for.”

  Disappointment filled her when he leaned back a little and bowed his head. So close! She’d been so close!

  Then he leaned closer again, his hand sliding over hers once more. Gotcha. Excitement hummed through her when his fingers dipped between hers.

  “I know what I’d wish for,” she said.

  “And what is that?” he asked as his lips brushed her forehead before moving lower to her temple and down her cheek.

  “Every day, I daydream about what it would have been like if the gateway never opened and we were all anywhere but here. Every day, I wish we could all experience the lives we want most, the lives we were supposed to lead before Hell came to Earth.”

  “Who is all?” he inquired.

  “All the people in the camp and the demons too, I suppose. I bet some of them would like their old lives back too.”

  “Oh, how perfect.” Placing his finger under her chin, he lifted her head until she gazed into his striking, electric blue eyes.

  “And you? What would you wish for?” she asked.

  “I know better than to make wishes, but your wish is my command.”

  She giggled, but when she leaned closer, he abruptly rose and wiped the bits of bark from his mouthwatering ass. Confusion swirled through her as she watched him step over the log and stroll further away from her. She’d been so certain she was about to get laid by this delicious man.

  They’d just met, but she’d had sex with plenty of men she barely knew or hadn’t known at all since that demon murdered her Ricky. No man would ever matter after Ricky; they were merely a way to forget, if only for a few minutes.

  “Where are you going?” she asked.

  “I have what I came for,” he replied with a backward wave of his hand.

  She tried to rise, but a wave of darkness slid over her, and she collapsed onto the ground.

  • • •

  “Your wish is my command, isn’t that a little cliché?” Eron asked.

  Olgon smiled as he clapped his younger brother on the shoulder. “It is, but as we’ve learned during our time on Earth, it is what these ridiculous humans expect from the jinn, and who am I to disappoint?”

  “At least it finally got us the wish we required.”

  “It did. Come now, we have a wish to fulfill for so many others.”

  They grinned at each other before separating to sow their misery.

  CHAPTER 1

  Magnus

  “What happened? What the fuck happened?” Corson hissed.

  The woman’s dead weight on my shoulder shifted when I grabbed Corson’s arm to hold him back before he could plunge heedlessly into the clearing. I dodged the talons he swung at me when he lashed out. I didn’t blame him for trying to attack me; we’d left his Chosen, Wren, at the camp when we went out to hunt for the day.

  We’d found plenty of game, and stashed it in a cave nearby, but it seemed as if everyone who stayed behind at the camp was….

  Well, I wasn’t sure what they were, but they definitely weren’t with us right now.

  “Easy,” I cautioned, my hand constricting on Corson’s arm as I gazed at the bodies sprawled around the small clearing. Judging by the number of bodies, not everyone in the camp was here, but I suspected we’d find them somewhere nearby and just as unmoving as those here. “Losing it isn’t going to save anyone or help anything.”

  Whatever happened to those at the camp while we were gone occurred quickly as none of the affected tried to break their fall before hitting the ground. There were no outspread hands, no one was braced against anything, and just as many lay on their backs as on their faces.

  Most of their chests still rose and fell with their breaths, but one man didn’t move at all and his head lulled at an unnatural angle. When he fell, he’d slammed his head on a rock and broken his neck before collapsing across the boulder that killed him.

  Usually, there was chatter in the camp, the clink of
plates being washed after a meal, or the shuffle of cards as the players looked to kill some time. Silence hung like a thick fog over everything now, not even the song of a bird pierced the air as they seemed to have taken flight or hidden somewhere.

  Typically, there would have been guards to greet us or lookouts spread through the woods. We’d encountered one of the lookouts on our way into camp after storing the game we’d hunted. Sitting in a tree, she was slumped over its branch. I’d removed her from the tree and, uncertain about what happened to her, carried her back to the camp. She remained draped over my shoulder.

  What happened here?

  My mind spun at the possibilities. Demons and humans alike had fallen where they stood or sat. I didn’t think this phenomenon was spread throughout the Wilds. Otherwise me, Corson, Caim, and Raphael would be napping too.

  So it’s something that only took out our camp.

  A sinking sensation filled my gut when I realized this was a personalized attack against the palitons who followed and were closest to my king, Kobal. However, if the craetons who followed the fallen angel Astaroth did this, then why was anyone here still alive?

  What better time to slaughter them all than when they were so defenseless?

  That question brought me back to what happened here and why?

  Carefully examining those who slumbered to see if anyone else was dead, my gaze fell on Bale. Her red hair was splayed around her as she lay on her side. To say we grated on each other’s nerves was an understatement, but as much as the two of us would gladly chop off each other’s body parts, seeing her vulnerable like this made my blood boil.

  I didn’t know who’d done this, but I’d make them pay for attacking us in such a cowardly way.

  Corson jerked his arm away from me, and stalking forward, he made his way through the group of Wilders and demons. I didn’t try to draw him back. He had to know what happened to Wren, and trying to keep him restrained would only result in an unnecessary fight between us.

  Bending, I lowered the woman’s body carefully to the ground. I lightly slapped her pale cheeks and shook her, all things I’d already tried, but they had the same effect they as before, nothing. If it weren’t for the rise and fall of her chest, I’d believe her dead. I checked her pulse and found her heartbeat slow but steady.