The first thing that hit me was the smell. It was damp, earthy, and smelled faintly of sulfur. My eyes adjusted to the darkness better than expected as I led us through the winding tunnels. There were distant sounds that bounced off the rock, echoing through the tunnels. A skittering of talons, the scrape of claws and gnashing of teeth, and the faint purring whine of a male calling to his mate.
My skin prickled as I felt Abaddon close on my heel, his eyes hot on my back. His heavy breathing in my ear made my heart beat hard.
What if I was wrong? This whole shotty plan was about as stable as a bowel movement after risking five-day-old fast food leftovers. I was banking on the fact that my nieces had never left their childhood home. Which wasn’t much of a plan. They’d last been here right before I died, but that had been a long time ago.
What were the chances they were still here?
And if they weren’t here, I’d basically rolled out the red carpet for Abaddon and his monster cock by leading him to a place where it would be hard for Lucifer to follow my mark with all the tunnels and caves winding tightly together. If he brought Nyx with him, she’d probably guess my plan and take him to our old home, but something told me he’d leave her behind. Lucifer wouldn’t want to take the chance of her getting hurt after the sacrifice I’d made to keep her safe and away from Abaddon.
My eyes fluttered shut for a second as I tried my best to get a grip on my crumbling nerves.
If this didn’t go according to plan, I’d never see my friends Melanie or Gabriel ever again.
I wouldn’t see my dad, wouldn’t be able to enjoy all that extra time Lucifer had given him.
My whole body went cold, my heart crystalizing in my chest as I thought about Lucifer and how my chances were pretty thick that I wouldn’t see him again.
I wouldn’t feel the addicting sear of his greedy hands on my body, and the surprisingly gentle nature thinly veiled behind his every gesture, or the heat of his eyes as they drank me in like ambrosia.
I wouldn’t be able to enjoy the delicious stretch of my body as he worked his way inside me while whispering devilish promises in my ear.
I wouldn’t be able to savor his soul-stealing kisses ever again.
My eyes flung open when I felt rough hands on me, Abaddon’s husky cackle touching me in places I gave him no license to touch.
“You’re needy for me, you depraved little bitch. I can scent your need in the air. Do you get hot knowing this is going to be your last time? Knowing I’m about to tear you open on my cock?”
I battled the urge to flinch at his crass words. He was mistaking my desire for Lucifer as some kind of fucked up lust aimed in his direction. The narcissistic idiot.
“Let’s keep moving.” I swallowed, tempering my anger, letting it turn my skin to steel.
His tongue flicked out, wetting his lips. But he didn’t move from my path. He pushed me against the tunnel wall, the damp rock painfully cutting into my back.
“Not here. We’re almost there!”
The demon’s dark laugh was his only answer. “I’m not a patient monster, My Queen. I’ve waited long enough. Besides…” He gripped my jaw, forcing my head up to look at him. “I know you’re plotting something. I don’t know what, but you’re up to something.”
Before I could open my mouth to deny it, a familiar voice spoke, slicing through the tension.
“M–my Lady?”
I jerked my attention to a gangly figure who’d appeared from a smaller tunnel that branched off from this one. He was wearing a back chef’s uniform, with a wicker basket full of mushrooms slung on his arm, his hardnosed physiognomy wearing a bewildered expression.
It might as well have been Jesus himself who rounded the corner for all the relief that coursed through me.
“Cerberus!”
8
Athousand emotions bum-rushed me the second I laid eyes on my old friend.
Cerberus.
It seemed like too great a coincidence for the hound to be here. But by the basket in his arms, it was easy to guess his purposes in the tunnels of Devil’s Head. He’d been collecting mushrooms for some meal or another. Whether it was just dumb luck or the will of The Fates, I was so damn glad to see the chef.
Once upon a time, the three-headed hound shifter had saved my life. Back then, he’d been the guard of the Third Circle. That was one of the most treacherous and, honestly, fucked-up places in all the nine layers. Who knows how long Lucifer and I had waded through the Mire of Gluttons where names for the floating corpses and souls of the gluttonous are forced to stew in their own filth for all eternity. When I’d twisted my ankle on a decaying body, Lucifer had carried me for days, maybe even weeks. He’d been ready to collapse when we came to Cerberus’s hut in the middle of the mire, where Cerberus helped nurse me to health.
Tears swam in my vision, taking in the man with a renewed sense of love. Without him, I’d probably still be in that mire, wrapped in Lucifer’s arms below the surface, forever encased in mud and decay.
