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It startles and jumps back, clutching its hands to its bulbous belly. “Feisty, aren’t you.”
The demon’s mouth widens. I settle on thinking it’s a male, considering the strange cluster of appendages whipping around just above the apex of his legs. Shivering, I swing the branch again, not giving him a chance to try to step closer.
“I said get away. I will bludgeon you until the ruler of Wrath’s Kingdom comes and tears you apart for even speaking to me.” I swing the branch again, clocking him in his swollen stomach.
It shudders and screams, suddenly exploding open. Joel tumbles onto the ground in front of me, and I jump back, shrieking uncontrollably. Roaring, the demon skulks toward me, gnashing his teeth. I do the only thing I can think of. I dodge around him and whack him with the branch in the back of the head. Then I do it again and again, my hellish strength giving the branch enough force to knock the demon’s head off.
“Raven, hurry! Run! I know where we can go!” Joel’s voice snatches ahold of my good senses.
Facing the now hollering, flailing demon or my ex? This really is fucking Hell. What kind of choices are those? Sucky ones. Impossible ones.
Screw this.
“Raven, seriously. We have to go. Now!” Joel shouts.
He extends his hand to me, and I automatically recoil and swing the branch, smacking him in the shoulder.
“The only place you’re going is back in that demon’s gut.” I shove my hands into Joel’s chest and knock him toward the demon.
His eyes widen, his arm pin-wheeling, but he manages to catch his damn self a foot away from the monstrous demon. Throwing himself forward, he charges toward me, using the side of a tree trunk to keep balanced. I don’t have a chance to react as he slings his arm around me and drags me with him.
“You’re fucking coming with me whether you want to or not. I’m not letting that demon get either of us. Now let me take care of you.” Joel’s voice digs under my skin, reminding me of our relationship, or our break up, of my desperation and return to him. It reminds me of the moment I realized he was drugging me to keep me with him. How he beat me so badly that I almost died alone in a dumpster.
“Joel, stop. I don’t need you to take care of me. Just put me down. You’ll only make things worse for you.” I ram my fist into his chest, trying to force him into dropping me.
Joel doesn’t relent, only adjusting me over his shoulder. “Please, Raven. I forgive you, you know. Those assholes pushed you into—”
I thrash and kick, doing everything in my power to break from his hold. Fury whips through me at his comment. He forgives me? Is he fucking serious? Of course he is. I’m more aware of his manipulative attitude and how he would gaslight me, making me feel crazy and unreasonable and like everything was my fault.
The world jerks, and I smack into the ground, landing on my ass. It barely fazes me. Dante’s spanked me far harder, and I want to kiss him so badly for desensitizing me toward a little ass-ault.
“You fucking bitch! You’ve always been so selfish. I gave you everything, and this is how you repay me? None of this would’ve happened if you had just been—”
Sweeping my leg out, I knock him off his feet. Joel doesn’t have a chance to get up. He doesn’t even have the chance to block my attack. Wrath ignites inside me, turning my vision red. It’s like I can feel the heat and power of Kase’s wrath exploding through me on a soul-deep level.
I punch him in the nose hard enough to feel the cartilage crack under the force of my hand. I don’t know exactly how this works, but he feels as real as I do. He obviously feels pain too. There is no resting in peace for the damned. They can’t even rest in pieces. And as for Joel? I want to ensure it more so than anything in the world.
“This is for ruining my life!” I throttle him in the face again. “For all the years of making me feel like I wasn’t worth better. For isolating me from my friends and family. For nearly killing me.” I punch him over and over again, the overwhelming desire to get vengeance for the bullshit he put me through consuming me.
I only feel the quiver of the ground shaking when it’s too late. A massive shadow swallows the red light around me as the hulking demon prepares to attack me.
Once again, Joel will be the reason life as I know it will end.
Fuck me.
Cracking his jaw, the demon widens his mouth like a damn snake. Wider than I’ve ever seen Dante do, and it freaks me the hell out. He stomps his feet and pounds his fists against his chest. Slamming my hands into Joel’s chest, I shove myself away and somersault. And damn it. I barely get a foot away. If I make it out of Hell, I need to work out. I need to train. That’s how I should spend the rest of my mortal life. Because this shit is hard, and I’m unprepared.
“My soul!” the demon shouts, his voice echoing like he calls through a megaphone.
Joel groans and raises his hands. “Not me! Take her! She’s who you want. The king of this kingdom thinks he has a claim on her. Prove him wrong.”
This fucking bastard.
“Several kings,” Joel adds. “With her, you can get power. I swear. You have to believe me.”
What the hell? How does he know this? He hasn’t been around to see that I’ve built a relationship with my devils.
“They’ve told me as much, thinking they could use it to torture me.” Joel digs his feet into the ground, trying to put space between him and the monstrous fucker, hell-bent on taking someone.
