CHAPTER 1
River
Waking from a night of restless sleep, myhand instinctively stretched out in search of Kobal. The sleepingbag beside me was still warm to the touch, but empty. Boltingupright, I let the blanket fall away from me to reveal the clothingI wore beneath. Kobal had kept me up late into the night, but itwasn’t exactly the best idea to sleep nude when demons and allsorts of other not-so-delightful creatures from Hell were stalkingus.
With my ears attuned to the early morningsounds, I searched the trees for Kobal. I didn’t see him throughthe saplings and some taller oaks surrounding our sleeping area.Only the occasional chirrup of a bird could be heard, and even thatwas few and far between. It seemed even the animals knew it wasbest to remain hidden in this place. Reaching over, I grabbed myboots and tugged them on.
Things had been relatively peaceful sincewe’d established a growing camp of demons and humans outside of TheLast Stop bar a couple of weeks ago, too quiet. This lack of actionmade me more than a little nervous.
I was becoming better adapted to theunnatural gateway into Hell the humans tore open thirteen yearsago. Not even Kobal, the one demon who could open and closegateways at will, could close it. I could now stand near it forhours at a time without being drained.
However, being able to close the gateway wasanother matter. There was no way to know how much time it may takeme to figure that out, or if I even had the ability to shut it.Just because my ancestor, Lucifer, had once opened a gateway intoHell, when he never should have been able to do so, didn’t mean Iwould possess the ability to open or close one too.
Lucifer had been scarce ever since I’d hadmy dream about him last month, but he’d sent one of his followersafter me, and I knew it was only a matter of time before he let hispresence be known again. Most likely it would be in abigway. That we knew of, no other seals had fallen since we’d arrivedhere, but Lucifer was plotting something, I knew it. I couldn’t ridmyself of the insidious feeling he intended to drive me into thepits of Hell, somehow.
Finishing tying my boots, I began to risebut sat back down when I spotted Kobal kneeling fifteen feet awayfrom me in front of a thicket of wild roses. The brambles were sothick they’d blocked him from my view. He’d been focused on theclearing in front of him, but when I moved to rise, his head turnedtoward me.
The chiseled muscles of his broad back andshoulders flexed with his movements. The early morning lightfiltering through the leaves of the trees surrounding us washedover his body. My breath caught as I drank in the sight of him; myheart fluttered and my mouth watered.
His hair, so rich and deep a brown itsometimes appeared black, was straight and had recently been cut.The shorter length emphasized the intriguing angles of his face.Right now his full lips were pressed into a firm line, but I knewwell how sensual and yielding they could be when they ran over myflesh. His square, completely smooth jaw tapered into a pointedchin. Fine lines etched the corners of his eyes, making him appearto be in his late twenties or early thirties instead of the fifteenhundred sixty-two years he really was.
The black of his eyes encompassed his entireeyeball. When I’d first met him, those unusual eyes had unnervedme; now I loved them almost as much as the man himself. Many wouldconsider him intriguing or dangerous looking, but I thought himgorgeous, and he wasmine. No matter how many times I sawhim, no matter how many times he took me and possessed my body, Icraved more of him.
The markings on his upper back flexed whenhe rose to walk toward me. The black pattern on his right arm ranfrom the tips of his fingers on the back of his hand, around hisarm, and up around his bicep and shoulder. The flames licked thebase of his neck before moving down over his back and chest,encircling his upper right pec. He’d once explained to me that theintricate symbols were a part of his ancient, demonic language andwere woven throughout his markings.
Etched onto him by the Hell fire that hadgiven birth to him, the symbols were both a blessing and a curse.They had enabled him to survive longer than any of his varcolacancestors since Lucifer had entered Hell. They had given him powersnone of the varcolac demons before him had possessed. The singlevarcolac who rose from the fires to replace the one who perishedbefore them had always been able to control the hellhounds, butKobal was the first to actually have two hellhounds residing withinhim. The symbols had strengthened him, but they had also marked himas more savage, volatile, and powerful than any of the othervarcolac demons.
On his left arm, more flames wound their wayin the same pattern over his body as his right arm, but twohellhounds were set amongst those flames. The hounds looked readyto leap from his body at any second. They were as real and ruthlessas the man himself when he released them and allowed them to roam.They were a lethal extension of his power.
Kneeling before me, his hand enveloped theback of my head, and he dragged me in for a drugging kiss. He brokethe kiss with a ragged breath only to place a tender kiss on thebridge of my nose.
“Good morning, Mah Kush-la.” The endearment,meaningmyheartin his demonic language, gave me athrill.
“Good morning.”
“Are you hungry?” My stomach rumbled inresponse to his question. His thumb caressed my cheek before hepulled his hand away. “I’ll get you something to eat.”
I watched as he rose to his toweringsix-foot-nine height. He was so massive, he blocked out the rays ofthe sun and the trees behind him. Turning away, he lifted a shirtfrom where it hung over a branch and tugged it over his head.
Disappointment filled me when he coveredhimself. However, there was no way I wanted anyone else to see somuch of him. He was captivating enough without adding thetemptation of all his deeply bronzed, well-honed flesh.
I watched him as he walked out of thefoliage and toward the main camp, which was close to the bar theskelleins had established around the gateway leading into Hellitself.
Gathering my clothes, I tugged my rumpledshirt off and pulled on a scraggly brown uniform shirt that I’d hadsince my days in training when I’d first been brought to the wall.I hadn’t exactly been thrilled about being ripped away from mybrothers and forced to go to the wall, but I’d accepted my fate.Though I was far from a good soldier, I’d learned how to defendmyself during my training.
I’d especially learned a lot about myheritage and abilities. I hated that the reason I possessed theabilities that had always made me different from other humans wasbecause Lucifer was my ancestor. However, I wouldn’t deny what Iwas, or walk away from the possibility I could help fix the messthe angels had started when they’d thrown Lucifer out of Heaven sixthousand years ago, and that the humans had escalated thirteenyears ago.
I untied my boots, tugged them off, andremoved my pants. I pulled on a pair of loose-fitting pants with ahole in the upper thigh. The pants had fit better before ourjourney, but lack of food, a lot of walking and running, and beingthis close to Hell had caused me to lose weight. I’d never beenheavy, always more athletic in build, but now I was leaning towardthin, and I wasn’t sure how to feel about it.
I felt as if every day I was falling furtherand further away from the woman who had fished for her brothers andbecoming more of the woman who could now kill things with her barehands. At one time not too long ago, I’d hated that the fish I’dcaught had to die. Now, I’d shoot a ball of life through the chestof anyone who tried to hurt me or threatened someone I loved.
My intricate bond with Earth and the lifearound me had always been a part of me, and I’d cherished allliving things. Now I’d killed more than fish, like Lilitu, apowerful canagh demon who had attacked us. I felt no guilt overwhat I’d done, but I’d be lying to myself if I didn’t acknowledgethat my growing powers frightened me.
And they were growing; I felt it every day.I was able to draw on the energy of life more readily and with farmore strength than I ever had before. Every injury I sustainedhealed faster than the one before it, as bruises faded from myflesh within hours and cuts were healed by the next day.
Every day that passed, I felt less human andmore something else. What that something else was, I wasn’t sureyet, but I knew I would discover the answer to it one day.
I was Lucifer’s last remaining descendant.He’d once been an angel; he was now a monster determined to enslavethe human race and rule over the demons. Something had made himthat way. I believed the loss of his connection to all thingsliving had turned him into the twisted creature he’d become, but Ididn’t know what had caused it. I didn’t know if that severing hadcome when he was tossed from Heaven, or if it had been when hesheared off his wings, or maybe when he’d entered Hell and the gatehad closed behind him. Then again, I could be completely wrong. Itcould have been none of those things that had warped him intosomething entirely different than the angel he’d once been.
