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

  Fuck!

  I jerked the wheel into a clearing at the top of a hill and put the truck into park. I’d planned to stop here for the night anyway, but now I needed out of this vehicle. River lifted her head from Sue’s shoulder. She blinked at him before jerking away. Her face flushed as she wiped at her mouth.

  “Sorry,” she muttered.

  Sue gave a brisk nod as his gaze went longingly toward the door. I thrust my door open and climbed out of the cramped vehicle. I’d rather lift it up and heave it onto its side than get into it again, but unfortunately we needed it.

  “What are we doing here?” River asked when she climbed out the other side of the truck.

  As her eyes searched the horizon, a tremor ran through her and she circled her arms around her waist. I glanced over the burned out city below us. It was a half a mile down the hill, but close enough to see that it sat in ruins. From our vantage point, we’d be able to see anything that might come at us.

  I’d seen the city before, but seeing it through her eyes, I realized it would be frightening and sad. The nukes may not have been dropped in this area, but there had still been bombs, fires, and battles waged throughout it. The few buildings still standing were crumpling beneath the years of neglect and weather they’d endured.

  What remained of the buildings was gray or black with soot and fire damage, but in and around the roadways and debris, grass had bloomed, trees had taken root again, and life was returning. Deer moved amid the rubble, munching on the grass as they went. I knew other, more treacherous animals lurked amongst the buildings too, but for now, the deer were safe to venture out.

  “Time to call it a day,” I told her.

  “Will the revenirs be in that city?” she inquired.

  I pulled my attention away from the fading sunlight glinting off some of the smoke-stained windows to look at her. “They could be, but I doubt it.”

  “Why is that?” Sue inquired.

  “The animals are still alive. The revenirs would have fed from them without humans present. Without a life force to feed from, even revenirs die.”

  “So does that mean there could be a bunch of rotting, mummified animals out there looking for a life force too if the revenirs fed on them?” River asked in a choked voice.

  “No, only demons reanimated before and now humans. The animals of Hell, such as the madagans, simply died after the revenirs fed on them. They were not strong enough to reanimate.”

  “Good news,” Sue muttered.

  “Are we going through there tomorrow?” River asked and waved a hand at the city.

  “We are,” I confirmed. I’d traveled this way the last time I’d returned to the unnatural gateway years ago. This trip wouldn’t be easy, and I knew there would be more than a few detours, but this was the most direct route to the gateway right now.

  Walking to the back of the truck, I pulled out a sleeping bag for River. “Follow me,” I said to her.

  I could see her stubborn streak rising with her chin. She didn’t argue, but instead turned toward her new friend. “I’ll see you later, Sue.”

  “Call me Hawk, please, everyone else does.”

  My teeth ground together when she smiled at him, but I remained unmoving as she walked toward me. “I can find my own place to sleep for the night,” she told me.

  “I prefer you away from the humans.”

  Hurt flickered through her eyes, but she walked beside me toward the trees. “I’m human.”

  “You know that’s not completely true.” I didn’t know how I managed to keep making her madder, but the look she shot me said she would have gladly driven my nuts into my throat.

  Good thing she hasn’t completely mastered wielding the flow of life yet.

  “I know I’m more human than not. I care, I have compassion, and I love,” she replied.

  “Demons love too.”

  “I don’t think it’s in the same way.”

  “No,” I growled, “it’s deeper, more intense, and a bond created for eternity. Is that how humans love?”

  “I’d like to think so, if they didn’t die or…”

  I stopped walking to face her when her words trailed off. “Or what?”

  “Some leave or are forced to leave. Some… change and become something completely different.”

  There it was, what I believed to be the root of this rift between us. Lucifer had gotten into her head when she’d dreamed of him and turned her fears against her. I could not wait to kill that prick.

  “I can assure you, I’m never going to leave you,” I told her. “Or change.”

  Her brow furrowed. “I didn’t say you were.”

  “But you will leave or change?”

  “Time will tell,” she murmured. She tore her eyes away from me and looked around the place where we stood. “Is this where I’m supposed to sleep tonight?”

  Frustration warred within me. I wanted to shake her, to demand she talk to me. At the same time, I wanted to draw her close and hold her. However, she’d purposely changed the conversation, and pushing it would only cause her to withdraw from me further. I ran a hand through my hair as I turned away from her, deciding to let it go, for now.

  “No.” I started walking again, leading her toward a copse of trees that would keep her more sheltered than the humans settling into the clearing.

  “Being segregated from them isn’t going to help them trust me,” she said.

  “But it will keep you safe.”

  “They’re not a threat to me. Eileen was a fluke. She was obsessed with you and saw me as an obstacle to being with you.”

  The reminder caused my fangs to lengthen. It had been my past with the human that had nearly gotten River killed, but I’d never promised the woman anything, or ever offered to further our relationship to anything beyond our one sexual encounter.

  “Her sense of reasoning was flawed,” I told her.

  “Maybe your sense of reasoning is flawed,” she retorted.

  “Sex was the only thing between us.” I hated her involuntary wince from my words, but there was no denying what had happened between Eileen and me.

  “She disagreed.”

  “She was an idiot, and if she hadn’t tried to kill you, she would still be alive.”

  “We’re so different,” she murmured.

  “We are,” I confirmed. “Your compassion for a woman who would have gladly seen you dead confounds me. I will never understand it, but I accept it.” Her head tilted to the side as she studied me. “You have to accept that anyone who is a threat to you will meet a violent death by my hand, no matter if you welcome me into your bed again or not.”

  Her eyes darkened at the reminder of what we had once shared. She instinctively swayed toward me. When I pressed closer to her, her breath caught and she bit on her bottom lip as her head tilted back to watch me. The scent of her arousal caused my cock to swell.

  “He’ll use me against you,” she whispered.

  “No one will get the chance to do that.”

  “I could become like him.”

  “That’s a lie. Don’t you ever believe it.”

  Her hands lifted toward me before falling back to her sides. She shook her head and took a step back.

  “River—”

  “Kobal!” The shout drew her attention away from me and toward Bale as she strode across the grass toward us. I opened my mouth to tell Bale to leave us, but her next words stopped me. “Something has been spotted on the horizon!”

  I gripped River’s arm, pulling her protectively against my side as I walked with her out of the trees and back toward the hill where the demons and some humans had gathered. I stepped in between Bale and Corson as I searched where Bale pointed into the city. An icy chill ran down my back when I recognized the creatures on the horizon.

  “What are those?” River breathed.

  “Lanavours,” I grated from between my teeth. “The third seal has fallen.”

  “Nightmares now walk the earth,” Verin said
. “Which means the second seal has also been set free.”

  “Shit,” Corson muttered. “Not good, this is not good.”

  No, it most certainly was not good, considering what had been locked behind the second seal. I glanced at the hellhounds on my arm. I still felt no severing in the connection between myself and any of the hounds, but I had to get to them soon and find out what was going on. Find out how something was getting by them to break the seals I’d left the hounds behind to protect. If River could close the gateway, I’d return to Hell after to seek out the answers eluding me now.

  “Are we in danger here?” River asked.

  “No, not if we stay out of sight,” I replied. “Go join the humans and get some food. I must establish a guard. Shax, go with her.”

  “You know,” she said quietly, “ordering me about is not sexy and it’s certainly not endearing. I also don’t need a bodyguard.”

  With that, she turned on her heel and walked away. I bit back a groan. Every step I took forward with her seemed to result in two steps back. Shax hesitated as he looked between the two of us.

  “Go,” I commanded, knowing she would resent it but unwilling to leave her unprotected.

  He nodded before following after her. River strode over to where the humans had gathered to watch the lanavours moving through the fading light illuminating the city. Shax shadowed her.

  Turning away, I scowled at Bale and Corson when I found them snickering as they tried to hide their laughter.

  “Tact,” Corson said to me.

  “Fuck tact.”

  “Yes, but tact would probably get you laid again.”

  Corson backed up, his grin vanishing when I stepped closer to him. I was more infuriated that he’d talked about River in such a way than his flippant attitude.

  “Easy,” Morax counseled as he stepped in between us and rested his hand on my chest. “He doesn’t understand the bond, Kobal. With luck, he will one day.”

  Corson glared at him before his eyes darted toward me. Morax nudged Corson back with his shoulder. “This isn’t something you screw with, Corson,” I heard Morax whisper to him. “I don’t know how he’s keeping it together now.”

  I had no other choice but to keep it together.

  I focused on the city again and the creatures moving along the far edge of it. We’d have to do everything we could to keep the humans far from them. I’d seen what these things could do to a demon. What they would do to a human was something I couldn’t think about, not with River so near.

  “Should we go another way?” Corson inquired.

  “They’ll probably move on before morning,” Bale said.

  “I think they’re moving on now,” Verin replied. “There are less of them already.”

  “There are,” I agreed.

  I’d kill them all if they came this way, but the lanavours could inflict a lot of damage before I was able to destroy them.

  CHAPTER 7

  River

  My eyes fluttered open. I lay completely still as I stared at the night, trying to recall where I was and what had woken me. The trees swaying in the slight July breeze, the sleeping bag around me, and the fresh scent of the summer air reminded me that we’d left the wall behind and I was camped out in the woods.

  Then, I heard a noise. My eyes shot to the woods. Heat burned across my cheeks when I recognized the muffled moans of sex coming from the trees to my right. I couldn’t see beyond the foliage blocking my view to who was out there. It sounded as if they were fifty feet or so away, but the forest distorted and reflected sounds so I couldn’t be sure.

  Please don’t be Kobal. I didn’t think I could take it if I had to listen to him having sex with another woman.

  The idea of it made my stomach turn as I was bombarded with the urge to scream or cry. Together or not, I may kill him if he were out there right now with someone else. I didn’t think he would be so cruel as to have sex with someone else so close to me, but when it came to our relationship, I barely knew up from down anymore.

  A man grunted and a woman emitted a muffled cry. It didn’t sound like Kobal, but perhaps his idea of being kind was to try to cover his voice. Flopping onto my back, I went to tug the pillow against my ears to block the sounds when I found a pair of entirely black eyes staring at me from where he lay on a sleeping bag a few feet away.

  The moon’s rays caressed his bare chest, illuminating the flames on him and the chiseled ridges of his abs. The term washboard didn’t begin to describe those abs. Every powerful muscle of his body was carved perfection. My hands clenched against the compulsion to run my fingers over his jaw and feel the smoothness of his hairless skin beneath my touch. My heartbeat picked up as the impulse left me breathless.

  “They woke you,” he said, his voice gruffer than normal.

  “I thought it might be you.” I realized my brain was still sleep addled when those words blurted out of me.

  His gaze ran over my face as he propped his head on his hand. “Not unless I was with you in those woods. If you’d let me, I’d be inside of you again tonight.”

  My mouth went dry at his words and the memories they evoked. I could clearly recall the sensation of his body moving over and within me. The taste and smell of him beneath my mouth and fingers. The rigid length of his erection as he pumped his hips in rhythm with mine. I felt half drugged by those memories and he was simply staring at me in that unwavering way of his.

  “You returned to the fire,” I managed to get out.

  It was the biggest defense I had against him right now as I completely forgot every other reason I’d been using to keep myself from him. He’d told me I was his Chosen, that he’d claimed me, but when I’d turned him away from my bed, he’d happily returned to the orgy-like sex taking place nightly at the large bonfire the demons held at the wall.

  He frowned at me. “No, I didn’t.”

  “Then where were you?” My voice came out more accusing than I’d intended, but the sharp knife of jealousy twisted in my heart. “You left Bale watching over me and didn’t come back to the tent.”

  His teeth grated together so forcefully I could hear them. “You believed I was having sex with another?”

  Obviously. “Weren’t you?”

  “No. I realize you are part human, you were raised as one of them, have their emotions, and you don’t fully comprehend demons or the way we are, but you are my Chosen. You may not understand what that means to a demon, to me, but understand this, there is no one else for me. I have no desire for another woman and no one else will ever satisfy me again. I had to get out of the tent to keep from crawling into bed with you. I slept on the ground outside where I couldn’t hear you at night, but I could still keep you safe.”

  Words failed me as what he’d said made my entire body tremble and my heart soar. However, there were still so many reasons why being with him was a bad idea. I merely had to remember them all, and right now, my body didn’t care what my brain stuttered out.

  “I’m mortal,” I whispered.

  I didn’t know why I’d said it other than it was the one thing neither of us had ever acknowledged about our relationship. I would age and die and he would still be here, looking the same and living for another millennia or hundreds of millennia more.

  His nostrils flared, and his nails lengthened into claws briefly before retracting again. “I know.”

  “You’ll be left alone when I die.”

  “I’ll never be alone while I have your memory.”

  “Corson told me about his parents. He told me his mother couldn’t handle the loss of his father and threw herself into the fires after.”

  A muscle in his jaw twitched. “And you fear the same for me?”

  “More than you know.”

  “Do not.”

  “That’s easier said than done. In my dream, Lucifer—”

  “He lied, River,” he bit out from between his teeth. “Demons are stronger when they find their Chosen, he knows that. Your powers are g
rowing and will continue to do so, he knows that too. He will do or say anything to stop you, to stop me. You could never become like him, ever.”

  The crickets chirruped around us as clouds rolled in to block some of the moonlight spilling over us. “You believe him to be my father, and he believes I will become evil. My mother always told me I was the spawn of Satan, tainted and corrupted. What if they’re all right and you’re not willing to see it because I am your Chosen?”

  His lips skimmed back to reveal his lengthening fangs. “The woman lying before me, the one who held her brothers so close and with such love could never become those things. You are far from corrupt or evil. Your mother and Lucifer sought to break you, but they didn’t. You are everything you humans would consider good, River.”

  “What if he uses me against you?” I whispered around the lump in my throat his words had created. I didn’t stop him when he reached out to brush his thumb across my cheek. “I’m the only weapon he has against you that he never had before.”

  “He doesn’t have you, and he never will. You’re also a strength I never had before, and he knows that.”

  His fingers slid over my face and he stared at me with a reverence that robbed me of my breath. He made me feel like the most beautiful woman in the world when he looked at me like that.

  “I can’t condone what you did to Eileen,” I said.

  The faint, fiery scent of his skin drifted to me as he moved closer to me. He smelled better than the ocean, I decided, and he was such an opposite force from the sea that had been such an integral part of my life before him. Fire and water had become everything to me.

  “I know I handle things with you badly sometimes, but it’s only because I have to keep you with me for as long as I’m allowed to have you. When I saw that woman trying to kill you and I couldn’t get to you…”

  He broke off, and for the first time ever, I saw a vulnerability in him I’d never imagined could exist. The molten-gold color his eyes became robbed me of my breath. I loved those obsidian pools, but these amber eyes, so much more human with their whites around his cornea, were more feral and wolf-like. They were more him.