Page 17 of An Unexpected Ascension (A War Between Worlds #1)

The Demon

“Fuck.”

There’s a searing fire in my chest stronger than any other calling I’ve felt before.

It burns me, between each breast right in the center setting my sternum ablaze. My hand clutches at my shirt as the sensation sharpens.

“Lynx?”

Lucifer calls out from his throne.

I shove at my chair beneath me, stumbling from the war room. As I fall to my knees at his feet, the God of Hell meets me.

“Lynx? What’s the matter?”

“I-I don’t...”

I release a roar of pain before it dulls again, tugging at me from the inside of my body.

“I need to go.”

He brings me to my feet, and I shut my eyes, listening to the call. In a blink, I’m surrounded by vibrant greens and lush flowers. In the distance, I see the Fentonelli girl.

“Fuck.”

I groan again, the pain lessening the closer I get to her.

There’s a cyclone of wrath above us, the clouds clashing together, creating a horrific noise. I fight through the wind, coming up behind her, her hand glued to the fruit hanging from the Tree of Knowledge.

Acting quickly before the Gods can find her, I close my hand over her mouth and yank her from her trance. A bout of hot breath tickles my fingers as she lets loose a muffled scream.

“You sent off alarm bells, Angel.”

In her right hand, I see the little plum nestled inside and rip it from her palm, slipping it into my pocket.

“Let’s not get greedy here.”

Descending in a flare of flames, the fluids in my stomach whirl, but I’ve made this journey countless number of times. Briar has not. By the time her feet find the rocky terrain of the canyon, she convulses, vomiting a thick, clear substance.

“Looks like someone hasn’t eaten in a while,”

I murmur, stepping over her slumped body.

“What the fuck!”

she growls, wiping the putrid residue off her mouth.

Her eyes widen in shock but slowly narrow in realization. The decaying corpses littering the canyon walls like hung paintings in a manor, the heat – boiling and humid, the smell just past rotten, and the skies – a deep crimson stain, a mirrored reflection of the blood spilt along these vast lands. She’s in Hell. As if every single emotion that was suppressed back in Heaven came forth this very moment, she gasps.

That gasp turns into a barrage of gulps as she swallows down heaps of panic.

I look down at the girl, her dark hair in a tangle, stray strands stuck to the sweat starting to leak from the flesh on her face. Her jade eyes glow in the darkness, a stark reminder of the sweltering abhorrence festering inside my soul. So why is it that short wick of patience that’s never grown an inch, suddenly... does.

Yanking her to her feet, I cradle her face. Those piercing eyes of hers spear me with a brittle hatred, one she now feels tenfold, but it’s her swollen lips that capture my attention. My chest aches, a lingering pain from the call I answered just in time.

“Have you found the truth?”

“A truth, but not the one I’m looking for thanks to you.”

“And what truth do you seek that you did not find?”

“Where is my mother?”

“Ah, yes. Your mother.”

I grin.

“She wasn’t of the Fentonelli line, so I left her alone all these years, but I can’t say the same for your Gods.”

“I don’t believe you,”

she growls.

“After everything you saw, you don’t believe the truth?”

There’s a heavy silence as she stands there, hands folded across her chest, trying her best to tear my soul from my body with her eyes.

“I don’t know what to believe. What I do know is that my penance was nearly paid off. Still, here I am in Hell.”

“You’d rather stay in that stifling prison answering to those frauds?”

Her reddened lips pinch together, unsure what to make of the discovery.

“So, the Gods aren’t as holy as they seem, and Lucifer was dealt a bad hand. What does that have to do with me? Why is this happening?”

The toe of my shoe taps against the floor of the canyon, a dwelling soon to be riddled with Hell Hounds if we linger a minute too long. My mind wars with what to divulge to an untrusting brat, but the truth nearly always wins.

“We’re preparing for a war between worlds, and you’ve found yourself caught by the right set of hands. Despite our history, I’ve been undeservingly gracious by allowing you to spend eternity here. Heaven may very well fall to the devastations of what’s to come. And I can assure you, you don’t want to suffer the aftermath of angry Gods should it go sideways.”

“Isn’t Lucifer just another angry God?”

“Maybe so, but with good reason?—”

“And what history do we have? You keep acting like you know who I am, but I’ve never met you. What vendetta do you have against me that you felt the need to ruin my afterlife?”

I drop my hands from her face, once again reminding myself that an evil stain mars her soul, passed down from generations. It blisters inside of her, angry and demanding to be punished, but somehow, I find it within myself to walk away.

“We really need to get moving, the journey is long and tiresome.”

“Hey!”

The grip on my shoulder is surprisingly strong as she yanks me back to face her.

“Don't walk away from me! I deserve the truth!”

“You deserve nothing. Even less actually.”

“Bastard!”

She seethes.

Those lips call to me again, my fingers pinching her lower one and pulling her to me. I breathe her in, that angel residue still lingering on her skin.

“Call me what you want, but I’ve been an absolute gentleman where you’re concerned. I promise, when the day comes that I find you might deserve the truth, you will regret brushing aside my niceties.”

Her brows dip fiercely as her hand rips my own from her flesh.

“You don’t know the meaning of gentleman or niceties! You’re a demon rotten to the core, seducing Angels into Hell to destroy indestructible Gods with a war you cannot win.”

This woman, provoking me like it’s her life’s duty. It’s maddening how she wriggles under my skin, like an itch that just can’t be sated, vibrating with a hate that throttles her. It awakens a monster deep within me.

Perhaps that monster sits already in wait... between my legs.

With a lethal calm, I back her into the wall of the canyon, shackling her to the rock behind her. Skeletal hands from the irredeemably damned enclose around her wrists. Her silent screams caught in bouts of breathlessness stir a wicked smile on my face.

She thrashes, yanking her arms, but those bones just grip tighter. Fleshy jaws snap near her face, clanking their decaying teeth together, taunting her.

With one dismissive wave, the skulls stop, leaving her restrained in silence. Tears fall from those green eyes of hers, like watching dew form on a blade of grass in the early morning.

“It’s been a while since I’ve come across a woman with a beauty as exquisite as yours or a soul as manic?—”

“Gives you no right to touch me!”

“Ah, Angel, see that’s where you’re wrong. Here I have every right – to touch, to torture, to demand, and order. The Devil’s minion, a bastard demon, a lowly messenger. Those are all things you may know me as, but you’ve been sorely fooled. Here, I’m the second to the God of Hell – commanding armies and doling punishments. Here, you are mine in every sense of the word and let me tell you—”

my tongue succumbs to the desire to taste her tears as my hand clenches her jaw, keeping her immobile.

“my touch is much more desirable than my torture.”

“Fuck you.”

She spits on a terrified whisper.

A chuckle rumbles up from my chest.

“Oh, I’ll have you begging for it.”

With my bruising grip still on her jaw, I smash my mouth against hers, my teeth driving straight into the flesh of her bottom lip.

The shock of pain sounds in the form of a groan.

She fights, the bones holding her wrists hostage rattle against the stone, but I’ve been lost to this insanity.

How this dreadful Fentonelli descendent can shake me to my very core is beside me.

I’ve damned her, but she’s damned the very promise I made myself centuries ago to have her entire bloodline eradicated.

Yet, here she is, tugging on those heartstrings of mine. Yanking and pulling until our souls are damn near sewn together.

And to think that it’s this woman that causes such chaos within me.

I’d blame the Gods for dealing me such shit, but perhaps she’s the snake slithering into my bones and tickling my guts.

But I will not allow such a thing, I will sever that tether that holds me to her despite that aching in my groin, pushing me to relieve it.

“Wicked woman,”

I curse into her mouth, swiping my tongue along hers.

“I’ll defile you in ways you’ve never even dreamed of. Rip every ounce of innocence from your soul until you’re nothing but a needy little whore. Then, you’ll thank me for it.”

The lust wafts off her like a pungent perfume, a begging in its own way, but she doesn’t deserve my mercy. Doesn’t deserve the relief.

My mouth rips from hers, her chest heaving, and I order her to be released. Her arms drop to her sides, and she staggers away from the wall, confused and nearly tripping.

“I will never beg you for a thing, and I will not be your whore! I’d rather turn into one of them!”

She gestures to the grotesque halflings.

“That’s not what your mouth was telling me as you sucked my tongue down your throat, but suit yourself, Angel.”