Carved (The Road to Hell Series, Book 2) Page 19

  “Where is everyone else?” I demanded, my voice shriller than I’d expected.

  “They’ll be here soon,” Kobal assured me. “We were simply able to move faster by foot.”

  “Because you destroyed our ride,” Bale muttered.

  I glanced at Kobal questioningly.

  “Bit of an accident,” he said with a negligent shrug.

  My gaze ran over his body. Bruises marred his smooth jaw and blood streaked the corner of his right eye. He wore no shirt, but his pants had holes in them with blood crusting around them. On his chest were the faded, puckered marks of what looked like… “Are those bullet holes?” I demanded.

  “We had a run-in with some humans who have survived in this area for a long time. I left them alive.”

  “They shot you?”

  “They did.”

  My teeth grated together. The idea of anyone hurting him drowned out any happiness I experienced over learning there were more survivors out there. “I’d have killed them.”

  His mouth quirked into a heart-melting smile that had the tension in my shoulders easing a little. His fingers slipped over my cheek, brushing aside loose tendrils of hair as he stepped closer to me. “I promised you I’d be more tolerant of the humans.”

  “Not ones who try to kill you!”

  His smile only widened. I glared back at him. “I believe I said the same to you at one point.”

  Crap. I’d walked right into that one, which was something he well knew as his eyes sparkled with amusement.

  “The way Eileen was killed was wrong and, well, shocking,” I murmured. “But…”

  “But?” he prodded when my voice trailed off.

  I lifted my eyes to search his much-loved gaze. My heart swelled as my fingers curled around his thick wrists and my body instinctively swayed closer to his. The flow of his life force flooded me, easing some of my exhaustion and pain from battling Azote. “But I better understand why you did it, now. I’m glad you kept the humans who attacked you alive.”

  He chuckled as I released his wrists. “Are you now?”

  “Yes,” I said reluctantly. “But if they try something like that again—”

  “I already promised them death if I ever saw them again.”

  “Good.”

  Bending his head, his lips brushed against my ear as he turned us away from the others. “I do so enjoy when you are fierce, Mah Kush-la.”

  “I reacted too harshly with Eileen,” I whispered. “I was… afraid. Afraid of everything Lucifer had said to me in my dream, afraid of the violence I witnessed from Eileen and then you.”

  His hand grasped my neck loosely. “I know, but I will protect you with everything I am from Lucifer.”

  “Can you protect me from myself, or protect yourself from me, if it becomes necessary?”

  His muscles rippled against me and he inhaled a shuddering breath. “I will always do whatever is necessary for the world to be put to rights again and to keep you safe.”

  I rested my forehead on his chest, my eyes closing as his warmth enveloped me. My fingers traced over the chiseled muscles of his abs as I sought to touch more and more of him. The contradiction of his silky skin over the hardness of his muscles was one that always made my mouth water and my pulse quicken as I couldn’t get enough of touching him.

  “I hurt you when I pushed you away.” I shuddered at the words as anger at myself slithered through me. It was the first time I’d ever truly acknowledged that. I may have been trying to protect him in some ways, but I’d also wounded and confused him. “I’m sorry for that.”

  Kobal stiffened against me, and his hand tightened on my neck. “I understand why you believed what you were doing was right. I also understand that I reacted badly with Eileen. I regret that and apologize her death happened in front of you. We were both neither right nor wrong when it came to her,” he said in my ear. “It was a situation that will not be repeated. Nor will the events following it ever be allowed again.”

  “No, they will not,” I vowed. His muscles loosened against me. I couldn’t help but smile at him when he kissed my forehead and stepped away. My head tilted back to take him in. “Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine, now. I’m not letting you out of my sight again.”

  I chuckled as he turned to face the others, but I didn’t want to let him out of my sight again either. Corson and Bale studied me intently while the others kept glancing between Azote, Kobal, and me. I noticed they all kept their distance from the hounds prowling in a protective circle around us.

  Vargas, Erin, and Hawk looked about as confused as they would if someone handed them a ten-thousand-piece puzzle and told them they had an hour to solve it. Bale and Corson actually smiled at me.

  “She can draw on and wield life better than I thought,” Bale said.

  “I’ve been practicing with it,” I admitted.

  “Sly, like a demon,” Corson said with a wink, and I suddenly understood the admiration in his and Bale’s eyes.

  “Is that what the golden-white thing you hit him with was, life?” Hawk asked.

  CHAPTER 27

  River

  “Yes,” I replied, earning a censuring look from Kobal.

  “How did you do that?” Vargas inquired.

  “That’s not for you to know,” Kobal answered before I could.

  I frowned at him, but his chin was set and his eyes were stone-cold as he gave a subtle shake of his head. I understood his reasons for keeping my ancestry a secret, but they also deserved some answers. I realized they wouldn’t be getting them when Kobal moved me so I couldn’t see their gawking, curious expressions.

  One of the hounds sat at my feet and released a yawn as it rubbed its head against my arm. Its thick coat was unexpectedly soft given it was a Hell beast who had recently eaten the head of a fallen angel.

  I couldn’t stop myself from running my fingers over its thick coat, which was something it approved of as its head butted against me. It had been trying to be tender, but it still knocked me back a step.

  “Easy, Phenex,” Kobal said.

  Its tongue was rough when it licked over my flesh, but not unpleasant. “Phenex?” I asked.

  “Yes, she is the female, and Crux”—he gestured to the slightly larger one who trotted over to rub at my other arm—“is the male and her mate.”

  I couldn’t help but smile as the beasts prowled around the two of us. “They’re beautiful.”

  “I have to put them back,” Kobal said.

  I was extremely curious to see how that worked as he walked a few feet away from me. The hounds trotted after him and obediently sat one on each side of him. He rested a palm on each of the hounds’ heads. The muscles in his back bulged and flexed; the veins in his arms stood out as the hounds blurred.

  Kobal inhaled deeply and threw back his head. He’d never looked more stark or beautiful to me as power emanated from him in waves. A sucking sensation filled the air around us when the beasts began to absorb back into his body.

  The marks on his arms and chest rippled as the hounds began to disappear into him as seamlessly as a wave rolling away from the beach. Watching him, I understood better why he stimulated the sparks of life from me more than anything else. I had never before encountered anything that could match his level of power. The flow of life within the earth was immense, but it was also dispersed throughout the world. All of Kobal’s power was harnessed solely within him. This was why Lucifer hadn’t been able to destroy him like he had many of his ancestors.

  There was nothing like him in this world, nothing that could handle this the way he did as he caged the hounds within him once more. My fingers longed to run over his back, to feel the sculpted ridges of his muscles flexing beneath my grasp, to feel his power jumping and flowing beneath me, within me.

  My breasts ached for him to touch them, to cup them before he bent his head over them…

  I shook my head to clear it of those thoughts, but when he turned toward me, I couldn�
�t stop myself from moving closer to him. Taking hold of his outstretched hand, I nestled against him when he pulled me to him. The tremor in his body had nothing to do with the power he’d drawn back into himself and everything to do with his hunger for me.

  I assumed he’d pick me up and carry me away to find somewhere private. I wouldn’t have fought him on it, but he remained where he was. He turned his face into my neck, his fangs scraping over my flesh. I held my breath while I waited for him to bite down. His body shuddered with restraint as he pulled his mouth away from my neck and rested his lips against my temple.

  “Soon,” he whispered.

  My heart pounded as I turned my cheek to his. “I missed you.”

  “More than you will ever know.”

  Headlights cutting through the night at the top of the hill drew my attention to the line of vehicles weaving their way toward us. “They’re here,” I breathed.

  “We have to go,” Kobal said.

  He didn’t release me, but instead lifted me and carried me toward our pickup. “Wait!” I cried before we reached the truck. I squirmed in his arms until he set me down.

  “What is it?” he asked.

  “I have to thank them.”

  “Who?”

  “The ghosts.”

  Kobal’s eyes slid to the building, and his upper lip curved into a sneer when he spotted the transparent figures at the window. “One of them turned you in.”

  “One of them did. The rest of them helped us.” I pulled from his arms, but he grabbed my wrist before I could walk away from him.

  “As much as I hate to admit it, they did what they could,” Corson said as he walked over to stand beside me.

  He tugged the earrings from his ears and tossed them onto the ground when Kobal slid a threatening look toward him.

  “I have to talk to them,” I insisted.

  Kobal squeezed my wrist. “I will come with you.”

  I strode across the parking lot toward the building with Kobal at my side and the others following close behind. The ghosts flew away from the windows as we neared.

  I went to push the door open, but Kobal’s arm shot out around me and he shoved the door inward. The ringing of the bell dimmed as Kobal held the door for me to step inside before following me in. A chaotic frenzy of ghosts greeted us. Some of them made for the kitchen, while others flitted around the ceiling of the dining room or huddled in the booths.

  Ethel, our not-so-friendly greeter from earlier, didn’t yell at us to get out again. She hovered near the kitchen doors with Pompadour beside her. Many of the ghosts’ already translucent bodies looked a little paler, if that was possible, than they had the last time I’d seen them.

  “They’re going to burn us down.”

  “No outside.”

  “No dark.”

  “Ronald did this. He caused it. He brought the demons here for her. We didn’t do it.” The panicked voices of the ghosts became a noisy buzz as they all spoke over each other.

  “I came to say thank you,” I yelled, loudly enough for them to hear me over their frantic chatter. “For helping us.”

  The ghosts overhead slowed, their bodies and features becoming more distinct as they separated out of their group. At the back, a couple dozen heads poked through the wall from the kitchen.

  “Fucking ghosts,” Kobal muttered from beside me. He stepped closer, his chest brushing protectively against my arm as he surveyed the room with a look that said he would set it on fire if they made one wrong move toward any of our party.

  “That’s what I’ve been saying,” Corson said from behind me.

  Erin, Vargas, and Hawk looked on as the ghosts started to float down from above us. “What did she say?” one of the heads from the kitchen asked.

  Daisy floated into the room to hover before me. “She said thank you.”

  I smiled at the young woman. “Especially you.”

  Daisy grinned at me before turning her attention to Kobal. Some of the others moved closer to float before him. Their heads twisted and turned as they studied him before looking at me.

  “The rightful king of Hell and a World Walker, no one would have ever believed it possible,” Ethel said as she floated closer.

  I went to ask what a World Walker was again, but the ghost in the poodle skirt distracted me when she glided closer to Kobal. I recognized the lascivious look in her eyes as she surveyed him. If she’d had a body, I would have knocked her on her ass. “He is rather… dangerous,” she murmured.

  “You mean yummy,” another woman said to her; both ghosts exchanged a giggle.

  Some of the male ghosts floated closer to Erin and me. I took a step back when one of them started to rise above me, his head craning from side to side as he tried to see down my shirt.

  “Back off!” Kobal snarled at him when he realized what the ghost was trying to do.

  The ghost pouted as he turned toward him, but his pout vanished and his gray color lightened when he took in Kobal. None of the other males came toward me, and Corson stepped in front of Erin to glare at any who dared approach her.

  “They’re all pervs,” Hawk muttered in disgust.

  “Will you talk to the angels for us now that we helped you?” Pompadour asked.

  “I already told you I can’t. I don’t know how,” I said, beginning to regret my decision to come back here in order to thank them.

  “You can figure it out,” he insisted.

  “No, I can’t.”

  “Suck it up, non-corporeals, you’re gonna be here for a while,” Corson sneered at them.

  “Stop provoking them!” Erin hissed at him before smiling and waving to the ghosts. “Thanks all!”

  Daisy floated closer to me. “Good luck,” she said. “You’ll be able to do this.”

  “I hope so.” I stopped myself from telling her I would see if there was something I could do to help her leave here. If I made her that promise, we’d have a horde of ghosts following us for the rest of our trip. I couldn’t make the promise out loud, but I would do everything I could to help her move on from here.

  “Let’s go,” Kobal said and nudged me toward the door. “Thank you for helping her,” he said to the ghosts before closing the door.

  Corson’s eyes widened and Bale’s head shot up at Kobal’s expression of gratitude to the ghosts. Admittedly, I was a little amazed too. I wasn’t sure I’d ever heard him thank another. He didn’t look at his stunned friends as he bent to swing me into his arms. I smiled at him before draping my arms around his neck and resting my head on his shoulder.

  When I glanced behind me, the ghosts were back at the windows watching us. Some of the women actually fanned themselves. I turned my attention away from them as Kobal strode across the parking lot toward the truck. He kissed my forehead and opened the passenger side door of the pickup to slide me onto the seat.

  “You drive,” he said to Bale before climbing inside, lifting me, and settling me onto his lap.

  He cradled me against his chest while the others climbed into the back of the truck. Hawk and Corson started going through some of the bags before pulling out bandages and first-aid supplies. They handed them over to Erin as she knelt next to Vargas.

  “There will be more room for you in some of the other vehicles,” Kobal told them through the open window in the middle of the truck.

  Erin lifted her head from where she was working on cleaning Vargas’s arm. A bullet had torn away a chunk of skin on his bicep. She gazed at me before focusing on Kobal. “We’re staying together,” she said.

  CHAPTER 28

  River

  The cool stream of water washing over me felt like heaven after hours of being covered in layers of grime, blood, and black goo. I scrubbed vigorously at my skin with a bar of lemon-scented soap before turning my attention to my hair.

  I lathered it with shampoo, digging into my scalp to try to get it clean before ducking beneath the water. I did a second layer of shampoo and then took the straight razor to my l
egs. Bruises already ran over my side and down my thighs from Azote tossing me around, but I’d become accustomed to bruises since arriving at the training facility. They would eventually fade.

  As I cleaned myself, I told Kobal everything Azote had said to me during our fight. He remained on the shore, unmoving as he watched me. His only reaction to my words was the deepening molten-gold color of his eyes.

  “He was the gift Lucifer had promised me in my dream. He truly believed himself to be my uncle.”

  A muscle jumped in Kobal’s jaw. “Forged from the same being, angels think of themselves as brothers and sisters, so that makes sense.”

  “So I inherited a whole cadre of insane, demonic angels who will believe themselves my aunts and uncles, or my sisters and brothers, good to know,” I muttered and scrubbed at my arms again with the soap.

  “You were not created like they were. They probably won’t think of you as a sibling, but they obviously consider you a relative.”

  “Delightful. Are all angels telepathic like Azote?”

  “Not all of them, but some do wield that power. Azote was one of the more powerful angels. Killing him will hurt Lucifer.”

  “Good. He also said I was definitely my father’s daughter, going after the strongest one of the demons, binding you to me. He said Lucifer couldn’t crush you, so I screwed you.”

  Kobal’s lips skimmed back to reveal his fangs. “And you believe him?”

  I didn’t believe him. The only thing that had ever pulled me to Kobal was my uncontrollable craving for him. I knew some of my draw to him was the demon part of me having recognized him as my Chosen and needing to claim him, but most of it was the man himself and the tenderness in him for me alone. However, it frightened me that the fallen angels seemed to believe I would be the key to his downfall.

  “When I welcomed you back into my arms, I made my choice. I put my faith in you, and us, and I will happily do so every day for the rest of my life, but you have to understand my fear,” I told him.

  His fangs retracted when some of the strain eased from his body. “I do, but you know that’s not why we are together.”