“I have to see what I can do to fix this. I’ll remain here with you until she arrives. Just hold on.”
She fell silent. What else could she do? She was completely at their mercy.
He wanted to tell her that, whatever happened, it would be all right in the end. Even if she couldn’t go back to her former life, she was headed for much greater things. He doubted she would want to hear that right now. At the forefront of all her anguish was Ash. She wanted to know where he was, if he was all right.
Riam didn’t address those concerns because he had absolutely no idea.
A few moments later, the glare of headlights swept briefly over the fence beside them and he glanced up to see a black SUV pull to the curb. The passenger side door popped open and Celeste jumped out, casting a quick glance around before approaching them at a brisk pace.
She was looking well, dressed all in black and with her usually wild auburn hair tamed into a sleek, practical ponytail. Her gaze narrowed on Madeleine and her brow furrowed as she reached Riam’s side. “Oh no.”
He nodded, knowing she saw the same thing he did: Maddie’s ghostly spirit clinging to her flesh. “Thanks for getting here so fast.”
“How did this happen?”
“Can’t you guess?” “She’s had her soul all but torn out by one of those fiends,” he finished, pushing the thought over to Celeste. “She’s almost completely detached.”
“Riam…I don’t mean to sound insensitive, but you should have let him finish the job. At least she wouldn’t be suffering like this,” she replied.
“I know,” he muttered. It was nothing he hadn’t already thought about himself. Still, it wouldn’t have been the best solution to the problem, at least not in his mind. Madeleine wanted to live. She’d just been given her life back. She deserved the chance to enjoy it. He wanted her to have it.
It wasn’t in an angel’s power to kill a human, so freeing her himself was not an option. He didn’t know what to do.
“Which one did it?” Celeste asked.
“Saklon,” another voice said, almost spitting the word out. “I can still smell the bastard.” Riam turned to see Damael, Celeste’s lover, stride up behind them. He went directly to Madeleine, bent and lifted her in his arms, cradling her against his chest like a sleeping child. “We can talk later. Now we have to get her out of here before someone sees.”
Riam stood rooted in surprise. Damael was a former demon himself, turned mortal by the angels in exchange for saving Celeste’s life after almost killing her by accident. It wasn’t that Riam was uncomfortable with him here, exactly, but…it was still jarring. He didn’t think Damael had exactly joined their side, or was sympathetic to their cause at all. “I wasn’t expecting you,” he said as they quickly made their way back to the waiting vehicle.
Damael climbed into the back of the SUV with Madeleine as Celeste held the door for him. Once he was settled, he turned a smirk on Riam. “Anything for a little excitement on this big ball of mud.”
“Oh, please,” Celeste said, amusement tingeing her voice even as she ran around to get behind the wheel. “As if you don’t get plenty of excitement.”
“Only from you, my lovely one.”
“Take care of her,” Riam said, and Damael turned his unsettling black gaze back on him. Sympathetic to their cause or no, Celeste trusted him. So Riam had to trust him too.
“I will,” he said, serious for one rare moment. He looked down into Madeleine’s face. “I know who she is.”
“Of course you do,” Riam said, unable to keep the bitter derision out of his voice. “She’s been a target for your kind for ages, hasn’t she?”
“Not my kind anymore,” Damael shot back. His eyes reminded Riam of a viper about to strike. “Let’s not forget that. I’m not planning to serve her up to Saklon on a platter. I have as much reason to hate him as any one of you, and he has just as much reason to kill me. But it happens Ashemnon was a friend of mine, and any fool could see he loved her.”
“What do you suggest we do?” Riam asked.
“Well, you can’t help her. And Celeste and I can’t, obviously. But a demon can.”
“What?”
“Ironic, isn’t it? You probably don’t know this because use of the power is virtually unheard of. But it happens they can return what’s been taken—well, within a reasonable amount of time. But she hasn’t been taken at all—her soul is still here, if what you say is true. It can be reattached…if a demon is so inclined to reattach it.”
Riam only stared, his mind firing. Damael narrowed his eyes on him. “So if you want to help her without killing her, your mission is to find the only demon in Hell who is.”
Chapter Fourteen
He didn’t know how long he’d been here. Apparently, they thought the blissful black oblivion of nonexistence was too good for him, so he was here, trapped, chained. Knowing exactly what they’d tried to do to Madeleine the moment he’d returned, but not knowing what had become of her.
“How are we doing today, Ashemnon?” The voice he hated beyond all reason hissed near his ear. He didn’t know who this sadistic bastard was who doled out his torture—the metal mask on his face was solid, robbing him of sight—but he wished he could get his hands on him just once. Blinding agony seared his side, something sharp and burning, and all his limbs wrenched against their restraints. But he refused to utter a sound, gritting his teeth until they nearly broke.
“So stoic, aren’t we? I wonder how your whore is doing? If I went to the surface, do you think she’d treat me as sweetly as she did you? I’m sure she would. After all, she can’t move, she can’t fight. She can’t even scream. We could all take turns—”
The words robbed him of all reason, enraged him more than physical pain ever could. “Motherfucker, you’d better hope I never get out of here.”
A cruel laugh. More pain. Caught off guard in the anguish of the imagery his tormenter’s words had incited, he roared, fighting the chains that bound him. They only bit deeper. “Get out of here? Laughable. As for her—can you imagine how frightened she is right now? She’ll slowly waste away, you know, waiting for you to come save her…it would bring a tear to the eye of a true romantic. That’s what you are now, isn’t it? Are there tears in your eyes right now, Ash? Maybe I should gouge them out for you.”
Riam, Ash thought. Riam wouldn’t let her suffer. He wouldn’t abandon her—he would figure something out. As much as Ash had hated him, insulted him, the angel was shrewd. Even if Madeleine had to…had to die, she would be all right, because she would go with him. But he could hardly bear to think about the possibility. She didn’t deserve that—she deserved the life she’d never been allowed to have because of him.
Knowing she was up there, hurt and afraid, was all that was keeping him sane right now. That was good, even the pain was good. It kept him sharp. He had to keep his wits about him if he was going to find a way to help her.
“Enough,” a voice stated, and the agony stopped. If Ash hadn’t been half hanging from the ceiling, he would have collapsed to the floor. The chains nearly crushed his wrists as they took the brunt of his weight. The voice he’d heard belonged to Metos.
“Where the f**k have you been? Can’t bring yourself to come down here and see what you’ve done?” Dammit, it was frustrating not being able to see who he was talking to. He’d never felt so f**king powerless. Never.
“Ash, I have orders to follow, same as you. I don’t follow them, I end up right here beside you.”
“What a shame that would be.”
“I didn’t do this to you. You brought this all on yourself.”
“Fuck you. You don’t know what I’ve been through.”
Metos gave a short bark of laughter. “What you’ve been through? By my watch, all you’ve been through for the past two weeks is that woman’s bed. I realize the angel’s stay was granted, but had you moved earlier, that wouldn’t have been an issue. Oh no, you had your head in the clouds, you let her get to you. I worried about you, but I thought surely you would come through in the end. You didn’t. You let that winged rat make a fool of you, of us, and we cannot abide that.”
“I don’t give a shit how big a fool you look. Nor myself any longer.”
“It truly saddens me that it’s come to this. That you’ve come to this. You were once great.”
Great? He’d never been great. He’d been terrible, feared, even worshipped. But he’d never been great until he’d been in Madeleine’s arms. The only true greatness he’d ever achieved was ripping that contract in two—now if only he could figure out a way to undo the consequences of that action for her.
“Metos, please. I once considered you friend. If ever you felt the same for me, you have to let me go. Let me help her. She’s not ours any longer, so what does it matter to you if she lives?”
His superior’s voice had never been warm during this exchange, but now it turned so cold and brittle it could’ve cracked and melted on the scorched fumes. “It matters to me because you’ll be far more tormented by knowing she suffered, died and is beyond your reach forever. Once she’s gone, I might even recommend releasing you. See if you can’t try to rebuild what she tore away from you.”
Yeah, release me. You do that. He kept his mouth firmly closed on that thought. Unfortunately, Metos couldn’t seem to do the same. “Your punishment here isn’t only for releasing a contracted soul. Your punishment is for being so f**king stupid as to fall in love with one of them. We’ve been through this once. We aren’t going through it again.”
“All right.” Now that there was a glimmer of hope, he would switch strategies. He would keep his mouth shut, he would hold the threats in. They would finally let him go and he would rampage his way to Heaven to find Madeleine, if he had to. Even if it killed him. “All right, I hear you. I was stupid. Do you think I don’t see that now? I knew all along I should’ve acted sooner. I’ll take my punishment quietly if you’ll just let me go when…when the time comes.”
Metos grunted, not sounding convinced. “We’ll see about that. It’s an idea, not a certainty.” There was the sound of footsteps heading away from him. “I take my leave now. Continue.”
Continue— Oh, that bastard. Ash heard the sadistic chuckle of his tormentor as the slimy piece of shit stepped up to him again. “Miss me?”
“Like I miss your mother.” It made no sense, but Ash made a point of laughing uproariously. F**kers weren’t going to break him as easily as they thought.
“I’m going to carve my name across your chest.”
“Make sure you spell it right. If you can.” He set his teeth against the anguish he knew was soon to follow.