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

  “I make you lose all control.”

  I nestled against his side. “Yes.”

  He rested his fingers against my face and brushed back strands of my hair. “Why do you think that is?”

  “I’m not sure. I’m comfortable around you, I know that no matter what I do…” My voice trailed off, I sat up as I tried to puzzle the rest out. “You get angry with me, you try to order me around, but you’d never purposely hurt me. No matter what I say or do, you won’t turn from me; you won’t try to punish and inflict pain on me. I pushed you away and you still gave me my brothers.”

  “I’d give you the world, Mah Kush-la, if I could. And if I ever meet your mother, she’ll know pain.”

  My breath hitched in at his words. “Kobal—”

  “There is nothing you could do to stop me from loving you, that is why you fight me and disobey me.”

  “Or maybe I disobey because I’m not meant to obey,” I replied.

  A small smile curved his mouth. “No, you most certainly aren’t.”

  I settled against him again, taking comfort in the warmth of his body. “No matter how much you infuriate me, there’s nothing you could do to stop me from loving you either,” I whispered.

  He rested his hand on my shoulder and drew me closer against him. I glanced at the closed window separating us from those sitting in the bed of the truck. “Do you think it would be better if we told all the humans what I am?” I asked. “It may help to calm them if they had an idea of what and who they are fighting for.”

  His smile faded away. “No. There is no way to know how they would react to the knowledge and we can’t take the risk they’d do something foolish. If it was only the ones with us now, perhaps it would be best, but there will be other humans joining us at the gateway and rumors will spread.”

  “Being kept in the dark is often more frightening than being informed.”

  “And sometimes ignorance is bliss. Many might not like that they are fighting with and for Lucifer’s daughter—”

  “Descendent.”

  “You don’t even like it. Are you willing to take the chance at least one of them won’t try something reckless with the knowledge?”

  “I don’t know, maybe,” I murmured.

  “It won’t be today, so let’s discuss this at another time.”

  There were some battles I was more than willing to let go, for now. I tried not to drift off but the sound of the tires on the road and the warmth of him enfolded me in a warm cocoon. Eventually, exhaustion drug me into its unrelenting depths.

  The sun was in the middle of the sky when the truck pulled to the side of the road. I stirred, pressing closer to Kobal when his arm slid around my waist and he kissed my temple. “It’s time for a food break,” he murmured.

  I reluctantly pulled away from him, but the pressure in my bladder and the rumble in my stomach had me sliding out the missing door. I made my way to the woods before returning to wash my hands with water and accepting my ration of beef jerky and a can of beans.

  “How much further is it?” I asked Kobal when we walked over to sit by the truck.

  “A day at the most, maybe less,” he replied.

  I gulped down my cold spoonful of beans. “Almost there,” I muttered.

  His hand rested against my arm. It seemed he simply needed to touch me as his fingers caressed my skin before he stepped away. I climbed into the back of the truck to join the others and sat on the metal siding.

  Across the way from me, Hawk was propped up against the side. His skin was still ashen, and the white bandage covering his chest had a maroon stain on it, but at least he was awake again. Thankfully, he hadn’t required a blood transfusion. Erin handed him a can of beans and a package of jerky.

  “How are you feeling?” I asked him.

  “Like claws raked my ribcage and half a pint low, but I’m alive, thanks to all of you.”

  “Don’t thank me,” Kobal replied. “I’d planned to leave you.”

  Erin lifted an eyebrow at his statement but didn’t comment. Hawk gave a brief nod. “I would have done the same.”

  Kobal shot me a pointed look I chose to ignore. “That wasn’t an option,” I replied.

  Hawk surveyed me as he ate his beans. Erin gave me a grateful smile and a small thumb’s up Kobal didn’t see.

  “I don’t like that you went with her,” Kobal growled at Vargas.

  “Leave him be,” I said, lowering my can of beans in case I had to leap forward to defend Vargas.

  Vargas blanched under Kobal’s unrelenting stare, but he stood his ground. “You told us she was the mission. I stayed with her.”

  Kobal scowled at him, but he didn’t say anything more. I scraped the bottom of my can with my spoon, savoring every last bit of it before shoving it into the trash bag.

  “It’s time to move on,” Kobal said and stepped away from the truck.

  My shoulders slumped. I would have given anything to have one day to sit beneath the sun and soak up its rays. To savor the simple joys of life before possibly having it taken away from me.

  That wasn’t to be though. I took hold of Kobal’s hand and allowed him to help me from the truck.

  ***

  River

  It was night when we stopped again. The stars were beginning to brighten the endless sky as the red moon hung on the horizon. “Blood moon,” I murmured.

  Kobal remained mute beside me, sitting rigidly in his seat. The tension in him had been growing steadily throughout the day as we drove closer and closer to our destination. When he turned to me, his hand snaked out to wrap around my neck. His thumb brushing over his marks caused me to shiver.

  His head bent as his lips slanted over mine in a kiss that made my muscles go weak and my pulse quicken. Opening my mouth to his, I melted against him when his tongue swept in to taste the recesses of my mouth. He thrust deeply within me, demanding and voracious as my tongue eagerly entwined with his.

  Pulling away, he broke the kiss and rested his forehead against mine. “I’d give anything to take you from here,” he rasped.

  “I know.”

  He didn’t release me but pulled me with him when he climbed out of the truck. He placed me down once we were free and gathered our supplies from the back of the truck. I waited nearby, my body desperately seeking to connect with his.

  I had no idea what tomorrow held for us, but I suspected we would be arriving at the gate.

  CHAPTER 41

  River

  Waking the next morning, I stretched leisurely and reached for Kobal. I rolled over when my hand fell upon the empty spot where he’d been lying only hours before. Lifting my eyes, I spotted him standing at the front of the tree line. I stared at his broad back, admiring the curve of the carved muscle lining it and the intricate markings on his skin.

  Gorgeous wasn’t enough of a word for him, I decided as I propped my head on my palm and drank in the sight of him. Sensing my attention, his head turned. The early morning sun brought out the deep brown strands in his nearly black hair as it filtered over him. I could see the clear bite mark I’d left upon his bronzed skin last night.

  Something visceral inside of me reacted to that mark as my fingers twisted into the blanket beneath me. Sitting up, I brushed the hair back from my shoulder, my nipples hardening and my heart beating faster when his eyes settled upon the fresh bite mark my shirt sleeve had fallen from my shoulder to reveal.

  “You think we’ll make it today?” I inquired.

  “I do.”

  I tried to look past the trees, but from where I sat, I couldn’t see the others. “Will I be able to go into Hell if I have to?”

  “We’re going to find out, but if there is a way for you to close the gateway from the outside, you won’t have to go in.”

  I had no idea how I was going to be able to pull that off. I drew on the life from the earth, and I could throw fire, but closing the unnatural gate to Hell, something not even Kobal had been able to do, well, that sounded c
ompletely insane.

  “And Lucifer? What about him?” I inquired.

  “If you succeed in closing the gate, we will worry about him after.”

  “And if I fail?”

  Walking over, he knelt before me and took hold of my chin. His thumb rubbed over my lips as he studied me. “It will not be failing.”

  “Since Bale had her vision, and before we ever met, everyone has expected me to be the one to stop this. The last hope. If I can’t close the gate, then maybe I could take on Lucifer himself. But if I can’t do those things, it is failing. It’s failing everyone I love and care for. It’s failing all of humanity.”

  He leaned forward to kiss me. “Yet you didn’t run from this,” he murmured against my lips.

  “I was never given the chance.”

  “You were. You just didn’t take it. After the gargoyle attack you could have fled. When you slipped free of the truck yesterday, you could have fled and never looked back, but you didn’t.”

  “You would have found me.”

  “I would track you to the ends of the earth and back, but I would not force you into this, River. Not anymore. I would find another way to fight him, and if you told me to turn back now, I would, for you. You’ve made this choice. No matter what happens, you will never be a failure, not in this.”

  Leaning forward, I let myself drift into the comfort of the arms he slid around me as I tried to convince myself his words were true. “What will you do if this doesn’t work?” I asked.

  “I will continue to fight.”

  What a brutal life, but it would also be mine. “Fight no matter what,” I whispered. My fingers slid through his thick, silken hair. “My Chosen.”

  His arms constricted to the point of bruising, but I didn’t complain. I needed him more than I needed air right now.

  “If we defeat Lucifer, you will become the leader of Hell. You’ll have to go back,” I said.

  “No, I won’t. I can allow demons to come and go between Hell and Earth in order to maintain their immortality, and I could return myself when it became necessary for me to do so. However, I will always come back for you, River. Nothing will keep me from you.”

  Except death, but I didn’t say the words. My mortality was already a fact we were both aware of. He may be one of the most powerful creatures on Earth and in Hell, but he could also die. It was only tougher for him to do so than me. My hands ran over his back, feeling the flex and bunch of his muscles beneath my palm.

  “You’d be willing to do that for me?” I asked.

  “I would do anything for you, and we have become accustomed to this world. We enjoy many things about being here instead of Hell. We may not care so much for humans, but we would be willing to share Earth with them.”

  I laughed at the teasing gleam in his eyes when he pulled back to look at me. “And what if the humans don’t want to share it?”

  He shrugged and ran his finger down the bridge of my nose. “They will have about as much say in it as we had about their tearing our world apart.”

  I couldn’t argue with that. Humans had created this mess; if Kobal’s followers decided they were going to stick around after all of this was settled, they should have the right to do so. They were the only reason the human race was still here right now.

  “We should go.” His voice was hoarse with desire when he pulled away. “If we continue to stay, I won’t leave.” I gave him a flirtatious smile as I ran my fingers over his arm. “Temptress.”

  “You love it,” I teased.

  “I do.”

  He kissed my forehead and reluctantly pulled away from me. Rising to his feet, he walked back over to the tree line. I studied his back for a minute more before tossing aside the blankets and getting up. I’d pulled my pants and shirt back on before falling asleep last night, but I had left my weapons lying nearby. I strapped my guns to my side before sliding my katana over my back again.

  I brushed my hair and teeth, using my water bottle to rinse and spit before joining him. The others were already moving about, preparing to leave when we emerged from the woods and walked out to join them. Resting my hands on the side of the pickup, I pulled myself over it to join Hawk, Erin, and Vargas in the bed while Kobal went to speak with Tresden and some of the other humans.

  Erin was pulling away the bandages around Hawk’s chest as he munched on a piece of stale bread. “Does it hurt?” I inquired.

  “Surprisingly, no,” Hawk replied and picked up a crumb from his shirt to eat.

  “Good pain meds,” Vargas said.

  “Haven’t taken any in a while.”

  Erin pulled the last of the bandages away. I understood the saying jaw hitting the floor, and I was pretty sure mine did when his torso was revealed. The jagged slices of Lilitu’s talons raked across his tanned, muscular torso were puckered as they stood a good inch off of his chest. The gashes were pink against his skin with black stitches crisscrossing his flesh.

  No blood swelled up from the slices anymore, but that wasn’t what had me gawking like an idiot.

  I wasn’t any kind of medical expert, but I was fairly certain those wounds looked at least two weeks old, not barely a day. Either Hawk was some kind of miracle healer or—

  A piece of jerky and some trail mix being thrust under my nose distracted me from Hawk’s chest when Kobal held them out. As my mouth watered, I snatched the food away from him and bit into the jerky. It tasted better than steak to me, and I barely suppressed a groan.

  “Well, I’ll be,” Hawk said, drawing my attention away from my rabid eating as he gazed down at his chest.

  “Amazing,” Erin murmured and fingered the edge of one stitch.

  Beside me, Kobal stiffened and his eyes narrowed on Hawk’s bared torso. Corson had been walking toward us, but he froze in midstride when he saw Hawk’s chest. His gaze flew to Kobal, whose jaw clenched.

  “Wrap him back up,” Kobal commanded.

  My appetite abated at the gruffness of his tone and the disbelieving, almost resigned look on Corson’s face. “Is everything okay?” I asked

  “Fine, that should remain covered to prevent infection though,” Kobal briskly replied.

  He turned away from me before I could read his expression. Erin gathered some fresh gauze, tape, and bandages. Ever so carefully, she recovered the wound. Hawk didn’t even flinch as she worked.

  I finished off my meal, but I couldn’t take the same enjoyment in it as I had in the beginning. An unsettling sensation churned through my belly while I watched her. I tried to keep it from happening, but there was a tremor in my hands when I slid the elastic band from my wrist and pulled my hair into a knot at my nape.

  Climbing from the truck, I walked over to where Kobal stood by the driver’s door, and rested my hand on his arm. “Is Hawk going to be okay?” I asked in a low murmur.

  He barely glanced at me when he responded, “He’ll be fine.”

  “You’re not telling me something.”

  “You saw him. He’s healing well.”

  “He is, almost too well.”

  “Kobal!” Bale called, drawing his attention to her as she jogged over. “Morax spotted lanavours not a mile away from here. We have to go.”

  Kobal pulled open the driver’s side door. “Get in,” he commanded brusquely.

  My hackles rose at the command, but the look on his face silenced any protest over his high-handed manner. Every time someone spotted the lanavours, the demons sought to get away from them. I didn’t ever want to encounter one of them. Bale jogged around and slid into the passenger seat next to me.

  Kobal started the truck and pulled out of the clearing with a squeal of tires. I didn’t look back as the other vehicles followed behind us. The truck fishtailed on the road before gaining traction on the broken asphalt. Bale’s hand shot up, bracing herself against the roof to keep from spilling onto the roadway.

  I gripped the dashboard to keep from getting a concussion as we raced over the broken roads. Before me, the angel
figurine rattled on the dash as she stared toward Heaven.

  CHAPTER 42

  Kobal

  “Why is Hawk healing so quickly?”

  I nearly groan aloud, but I had known River wouldn’t let it go so easily.

  “People heal differently,” Bale said.

  River’s lips pursed at Bale’s words. She didn’t look at all appeased by Bale’s innocent countenance. I glanced in the rearview at the closed window behind us and the group sprawled out in the back of the truck.

  “Not that differently,” River replied. “He was half dead yesterday.”

  “He’s fine,” I assured her.

  I refused to tell her what I suspected was going on within his body and that he may have to be destroyed, not after what she’d gone through to get him back. Hawk had been dying when Lilitu had fallen on top of him. When her blood had mixed with his… Shit!

  I should have suspected it when Corson said it was his blood and hers, but Hawk hadn’t appeared to be dying when Corson said it. Lilitu’s blood must have already worked its way into him while he’d been lying in the building.

  Only time would tell if he would complete this change without dying or having to be destroyed. If he did survive it, it would become impossible to keep what had happened to him from River, and she would learn immortality could be possible for her, which was something I did not want.

  I craved an eternity with her, but I couldn’t be the one who destroyed her if she didn’t survive the change, or if it broke her bond with the life around her and destroyed her. It was a choice I didn’t want her to have to make, not with everything else she had to deal with.

  River turned to focus on me. “You keep saying he’s fine, but don’t you think he’s a little too fine already for having been sliced to the bone just yesterday?”