Carved (The Road to Hell Series, Book 2) Read online

  They were a darker color than normal, but they still danced across my fingers like little bolts of lightning. I couldn’t help but smile as the sparks twined around my wrist and traveled toward my elbow.

  “Form the ball,” he commanded.

  Turning my other hand over, I let the sparks grow and coalesce together there. The pull of the earth started to flow more easily through me as I became better accustomed to it, and the energy fed into the ball. Grinning, I flipped the ball within my fingers, turning it over and making it spin so fast that sparks shot out the sides of it. Like the sparks on my fingers, the energy forming the ball was darker in color, but I could feel the power thrumming through it.

  “Now throw it at me,” he said.

  My head jerked up at his words. Before I could respond, he came at me. Knowing what he planned, I turned my hand over and smashed the ball back into the ground. Smoke drifted upward from the charred mark I left upon the earth.

  “No, that is not going to happen again,” I grated through my teeth.

  He ran a hand through his disordered hair. “You have to test your powers, River.”

  “I just did. It scorched the earth the same as it always has. There is no difference, except that it’s a little more difficult for me to dip into at first, but it’s already becoming easier as I adjust to it. However, hurting you is the equivalent to how you would feel if you hurt me.”

  “I’d never harm you.”

  “I know that! But if you did, how would you feel about it?”

  “It would destroy me.”

  “That’s how I felt the other night when you used my power against you, and I’m not doing it again!” I couldn’t stop my foot from stomping on the ground, but I didn’t care if the act was childish. He had to understand.

  Closing his eyes, he gave a brisk nod before turning to gather our things again.

  “Kobal.” He glanced at me over the set of his rigid shoulder. “I can do this.”

  “I know you can.”

  “Then relax a little.”

  I walked over to stand before him. My fingers trailed across his taut skin and across the markings and flames on his arms. Those marks undulated beneath my touch when sparks flickered from the tips of my fingers. His skin warmed and his breath froze when I caressed the fresh bite mark I’d left on his shoulder. I rose on my toes to kiss his lips when motion to my right caught my attention. Frowning, I dropped down to stare at the spectral vision in the tree line.

  “Angela,” I whispered.

  Kobal spun away from me, throwing his arm out to push me back from the nonexistent threat. I grasped his forearm, pushing it down as I stared at the girl. Through her body, I could see the young saplings of the forest and the underbrush lining the floor. She remained unmoving, her blonde hair falling about her shoulders and her green eyes somberly watching us. Kobal’s head moved as he searched the forest for her.

  “You don’t see her either,” I murmured.

  “Who?” he demanded, his fangs extended and his eyes a molten gold.

  “The little girl. She’s standing right in front of us, watching us. At first, I’d assumed she was a figment of my imagination when I saw her from the house. Then, I assumed she was maybe some kind of ghost, but she’s also more colorful than any ghost, and if you can’t see her…” My voice trailed off as I tried to puzzle that part out.

  “Why didn’t you tell me about her?”

  “She’s not a bad thing.”

  “You can’t know that.”

  My fingers dug into his arm until he turned to look at me. “I can.”

  His muscles relaxed a little, but I could still feel the hostility thrumming through his body when he turned to look at where I’d indicated. “Do you still see her?” he inquired.

  “Yes.”

  As I watched, Angela lifted her arm and pointed toward where we had left the others. My heart plummeted into my shoes. “We have to get back to the others!” I blurted. He bent to retrieve our bags, but I snatched hold of his hand. “Now, we have to get back now.”

  Releasing his hand, I spun away and ran toward the camp. I ignored the underbrush and trees tearing at my pants and shirt as I leapt over fallen debris and dodged obstacles in my way. Kobal stayed beside me, but he was far faster and could get to them before me.

  “Leave me!” I cried as his hand shot out to stop a tree branch from slapping me in the face.

  “Never.”

  “Kobal, you must. Something’s wrong.”

  “Did you have a vision?”

  Maybe that was what little Angela was. Maybe my visions had chosen a new way to manifest themselves in her. “I just know!”

  The second the words left my mouth, gunfire tore through the air and screams shattered the still night. My lungs burned and my legs felt like rubber, but I kept pushing myself forward. “Go!” I shouted at him.

  Instead of leaving me, he spun around, seized my waist, and lifted me. My legs instinctively locked around his waist, and my chest molded against his as his long legs ate away at the ground between us and the camp. I kept my head buried in his shoulder to avoid the branches slapping and tearing at me.

  Despite the extra burden of carrying me, he’d barely broken a sweat by the time we burst free of the trees, and his breath was no faster than normal. I lifted my head to take in the unfamiliar figures darting in and out of the trees as the humans fired at them and the demons clashed against the ones they could catch. The features and figures of the attackers were obscured by the blood-red cloaks covering them from head to toe.

  Kobal pounded across the earth as more gunfire erupted. I spotted Hawk lunging at one of the figures who had their arms around someone else. He bared his teeth as he leapt again, but the figure swung out an arm, knocking him aside.

  Vargas jumped into the fight to try to help, but before he could get more than two feet, he was slammed into the ground by another figure. A spate of gunfire filled the air. The creature on Vargas howled and jumped away before fleeing into the trees.

  “Hold on!” Kobal grated in my ear before throwing out his arm.

  Fire shot from his fingertips, blazing across the earth and blasting into one of the hooded creatures. It howled in agony, its body going up like tinder. I gawked at where it had been standing less than a second before, but didn’t get much time to stare as Kobal came to an abrupt halt and released another wall of flame at the fleeing creatures.

  I didn’t know what drove me, but I unwrapped one arm from his neck and gripped his forearm. Fire erupted from my palm, swelling his flames to higher levels and causing them to illuminate the clearing around us as if it were the fourth of July.

  So much power in him. It licked over my skin, burning through my body and making me shiver. His other arm tightened on my waist as he held me to him and the fire continued to flow around the clearing.

  The Chosen bond makes demons stronger. Kobal had told me this, had told me it was part of the reason Lucifer was looking to separate us, but for the first time, I truly understood it as the flames danced over our hands and around our wrists. Working together, the power grew and coalesced around us in a bond that electrified my skin.

  The cloaked figures screamed as they fled into the woods, moving with the easy grace of ghosts or wraiths, but our fire wouldn’t have destroyed either of those things in the way it had destroyed these things.

  Like a bucket of water had been thrown on him, the flames stopped flowing from Kobal as they drew back into him. With his flames harnessed once more, mine sputtered out.

  I could barely think as my mind spun over what had happened. “The Chosen bond makes us stronger,” I managed to choke out.

  “Yes.”

  “Is that why your flames don’t burn me?”

  “Part of it. The other is I can control my power more than you can. If I don’t want to burn something, I don’t.”

  “Amazing.”

  I slid my legs from around his waist and stepped back as I surveyed the damage
to the clearing. Grass that had been green was now black, and fresh saplings were burnt toothpicks. There were scorched marks on the earth from the creatures Kobal had set on fire. Some people huddled near the vehicles, some were crying, others tended to the injured, and more looked about ready to start shooting at the first thing that moved.

  “What were those things?” I asked.

  “I have an idea, but without seeing the face of one, I’m not positive.”

  I shuddered at the sounds of sobbing and whimpers of pain filling the air. I took a step toward where Vargas lay on the ground with Bale at his side, but Kobal pulled me back against him.

  “She’s taking care of him,” Kobal said.

  I searched for Hawk and Erin, but I couldn’t see where Hawk had fallen through all the smoke drifting around us. Kobal kept me close to his side as he approached Corson. The demon was wearing two red earrings that hadn’t been there the last time I’d seen him.

  “Canagh demons,” he said before Kobal could ask.

  “What are those?” I asked.

  “You would know them better as incubi and succubae,” Kobal replied.

  “Are you serious?” I blurted before I realized it was a stupid question. With everything we’d seen, it shouldn’t surprise me they were real too.

  I didn’t get a stupid response from them at least. They both simply stared at me before turning away.

  “We need to assess the damage. Gather the others as you go,” Kobal said to Corson.

  Kobal kept me near his side as Corson split off to patrol the camp and we moved in the other direction. I continued to search for Hawk and Erin but didn’t see them anywhere. An uneasy feeling was growing in the pit of my stomach when we stopped at the truck we’d arrived here in.

  Vargas stood by the truck, leaning against it with his hand on his head and a disposable ice pack against his temple. His right eye was swollen nearly shut, and blood trickled from the corner of his lips.

  “Three vehicles have been destroyed from bullets in the engine or gas tank,” Morax said, his tail thumping against the ground as he walked over to join us.

  “Did they kill anyone?” Kobal inquired.

  “No, but they did take five of the humans,” Bale said.

  “We have to find them!” I blurted.

  “We cannot delay the mission for five humans,” Kobal replied. “There is far too much at stake. Every second that passes could mean another seal is being opened.”

  “Two of them were Hawk and Erin,” Bale said.

  “No,” I whispered as my heart twisted in my chest.

  A muscle in Kobal’s jaw jumped. His hands clenched before he shook his head. “We cannot stop to look for them.”

  My teeth scraped back and forth as I glowered at him. He was right, I knew it. The lives of five people were nothing compared to millions, but I wouldn’t leave here without trying to find them first.

  “They are two of our best fighters,” I pointed out, knowing reason instead of emotion was the best way to go with this. “They always keep their head in a bad situation, and they are leaders. Many here aren’t.”

  I bit back the words that they were also my friends, the only friends I’d made since coming here. That point wouldn’t sway him. He understood loyalty and friendship. He would die for Corson and Bale, but I knew he would also leave them behind if one of them had been taken. They would expect him to in order to complete what had to be done. Maybe Erin and Hawk would expect the same thing, but I couldn’t do it.

  Vargas moved closer to us. I could sense his disapproval of the decision by the set of his shoulders and the lines around his mouth and eyes, but his lips remained clamped shut. He would do whatever was deemed best. He was a solider; I wasn’t.

  “Vargas is still here. He is a leader,” Kobal said. “And we have others. Corson—”

  “Humans,” I inserted. “We need more humans who can lead. Captain Tresden is as petrified as the rest of them.”

  “Vargas,” he replied.

  Thrusting back my shoulders, I stared relentlessly at him. “I’m not leaving without at least trying to find them. We’ll be here until the morning anyway. We have to try.”

  “It is too dangerous to be out there at night. Every soldier knew this possibility could happen to them. They were prepared for the fact they would be left behind if it was best for the mission.”

  “You’re forgetting that I never signed up to be a soldier. Fate brought me here, and maybe the lives of five humans means little compared to the bigger picture, but I’m not giving up on them. They wouldn’t give up on me.”

  “You are the mission. Of course they wouldn’t give up on you.”

  I gawked at him, feeling as if he’d slapped me in the face.

  “Fuck you!” the words burst from my mouth before I’d realized I intended to say them.

  Apparently, Kobal’s tactful diplomacy had rubbed off on me somewhere along the way as I forgot all about trying to keep emotion out of this in favor of reason. Reason wasn’t working and that statement had pissed me off. The demons and Vargas all took a step back from us. The humans who had been seeking protection by gathering closer, moved further away.

  Kobal’s nostrils flared, and his eyes narrowed on me. “Fuck me?”

  “Yes, fuck you!” Shut up you idiot. This will get you nowhere with him. “And fuck the mission too!” So much for shutting up.

  The cool, collected way he maintained himself unnerved me more than if he’d been shouting swears at me too. “And fuck your brothers too, I suppose?”

  My breath rushed out of me like someone punched me in the stomach. I would do anything for Gage and Bailey, but as much as I loved them, I would forever hate myself for walking away from my friends right now.

  “That’s low,” I told him.

  “That’s the truth,” he replied. “I am not risking you by going after them.”

  He rocked back on his heels as he surveyed me almost casually, but I knew he was coiled tighter than a rattlesnake ready to strike. He’d throw me over his shoulder and forcefully carry me from here, I was certain of it. And I may just blast him with a ball of life if he tried.

  “No, the truth is, we are not turning our back on those in need. We can’t. I won’t leave them to whatever fate lies in store for them, and given what little I know about incubi and succubae, it will be horrible.”

  The heads of those around us bounced between us so rapidly it may have almost been comical, if I didn’t feel as if I’d already lost this battle. I was unraveling and only a thin thread was keeping me tethered to control.

  “You’re getting in that truck,” he said.

  “No, I’m not.”

  He came at me, swooping down to lift me against his side.

  “Stop it!” I cried, unwilling to kick and scream at him like I wanted to. I was going to try to retain what little dignity I still had and go about this in an entirely different way. “Kobal, put me down.”

  Ignoring me, he pulled the truck door open. Without a word, he thrust me inside. I went to leap back out, but he lowered his face so it was mere inches in front of mine. His eyes became molten gold; the ruthless expression on his face robbed me of my breath.

  “I will tie you into this vehicle if I have to!” he snapped.

  “If you do this, I will never forgive you. This isn’t tearing someone’s head off who tried to kill me. This isn’t defending me—”

  “Yes, it is!” he barked.

  “No, it’s not.” I took a deep breath to calm myself before continuing on. “This is completely ignoring my feelings, completely going against what I feel must be done. You’re saying you don’t care about how I feel if you do this.”

  “I care too much for you, that’s the problem. Get out of this truck and it will be the last time you move about freely.” With those last words, he slammed the door shut.

  Resentment and misery warred within me as I watched him walk toward the others in the side mirror. I knew why he was doing this
, knew how much the possibility of my death troubled him and how much he loved me, but it was taking everything I had not to blast the door from the truck before zapping him so hard in the ass he wouldn’t be able to sit for a week.

  Though it was an extremely tempting proposition, I couldn’t do it. There was a better way; there had to be. I faced forward, my teeth grinding together as I studied the night still alight from the dying flames. Trying to talk to him would do nothing. He wouldn’t budge and he would tie me to the truck. If I pushed him and he tied me up like livestock, our relationship would be irrevocably changed, and not for the better.

  I hated what he’d just done. He would never live this moment down for the rest of my life, but I could understand and forgive this if I was still able to find a way get to Hawk and Erin.

  CHAPTER 36

  Kobal

  I kept watch of River’s rigid back as she remained sitting in the truck, seething. It didn’t matter that she was mad or that I disliked making her mad. All that mattered was keeping her alive. Going after those five humans was a risk I refused to let her take, even if I had come to respect Hawk and Erin.

  The canagh demons were not a species she should mess with, not if this group of them were kidnapping humans. The canaghs fed on sexual energy, but it was rare they took those who were unwilling to their bed, and humans wouldn’t survive them long enough to be satisfying. I had a feeling I knew whose group had taken her friends, and if I was right, I especially didn’t want River around that hideous bitch.

  There was only so much I could take when it came to the dangers to her life.

  River would forgive me one day; she would have to. Turning away, I helped to gather some more of the scattered supplies and right the overturned trucks. Corson shot me a disgruntled look as he tossed a case of water into the back of a truck.