Page 82 of Hell Kissed

I’m sick and tired of people tormenting me, hating me, hurting me, and I won’t stand for a single second to see it happen to the people I care about. They have to learn that you can’t kick someone down without karma rising up with a vengeance.

And I’m going to make sure this fucker learns.

Sharp nails sink into my throat. The grip tightens, and then I’m hauled backward. A woman with long, inky black hair appears, and her hand tenses hard around my throat as she studies me with a tilt of her head. Big sapphire blue eyes shine into mine as a ghost of a smile kisses her black painted lips.

“You’re smaller than I thought you’d be.” She lifts my feet off the ground as if she’s weighing me as she strangles me. My boots kick and scrape over the rocks, but I can’t quite reach.

I can’t breathe.

My fingers hold onto hers as if I can stop the pressure she’s pressing into my windpipe. My wolf growls and then whines a low, tragic sound.

She still can’t get out. She can’t help me.

My nails sink into the flesh of her wrists even harder at that thought, and I claw at her.

“Strong though,” she adds with curiosity gleaming in her eyes.

Her attention flits to the right and she seems to remember something then. “Serpan, take Latham to his cage. And escort our favorite flesh-eating dragon to his isolation.”

My kicking turns violent then. More for vengeance than survival. My boot meets her shin, but she doesn’t even flinch. She doesn’t notice me at all until she drifts her gaze back to mine.

“Yes, you’ll do just fine here,” she says sweetly as black spots consume my vision. “You’re so very much like your mother.” She shakes her head slowly, my lungs burning with a striking pain. “I hate your mother, but she’s learned her place.” She beams at me as my hands lower before falling limply to my sides. A low growl emits from behind me, so low I question if I truly heard it as my eyes close little by little. “Soon, you will too.”

The darkness in the room creeps in like a heavy blanket ready to suffocate me in my sleep.

She releases me, and a slick cracking sound rattles my skull. Her faint words circle in my mind over and over as the world slips away entirely.

“What a pathetic Hell goddess you turned out to be.”

Goddess. Goddess. Goddess.

The End