Lucifer shakes his head. “No, the less attention we draw to ourselves, the more likely we are to get through to the mansion unnoticed. Having a battalion of Hell’s elite surrounding us won’t achieve that.”
“It’s not like you’re short of manpower,” Goliath states, giving our group the once over. “Horses, at least? It’s a ten-mile trip on the main route, and I’m assuming you’ll be ducking down the side streets?”
“That would be good.”
Goliath eyes us over. “I’m three short, the ladies will have to ride with a man of their choice, and one of the guys too.”
“Hell wants to keep forcing your bits to rub against mine,” I mutter, throwing up my hands. “It’s a conspiracy.”
Jed snorts. “Not it,” he says.
“Me either,” Nathan chimes in.
“No way,” Zee and Zac say with wide eyes.
I hide a grin as we follow Goliath to a giant shed. We enter the earthy smelling building, finding horses of various colors pottering around, chewing on hay and eyeballing us warily.
Archan strides over to a magnificent midnight black stallion and strokes his nose. “Hello, boy, miss me?”
I blink in confusion as everyone else gets paired up with a horse. “What?” Archan says, leading him over to me.
“He’s yours?” I ask as the black-eyed beast sniffs my hair. He puffs, sending my hair flying.
“Yes. Victory likes you,” he says, reaching to grab my waist. He deposits me in the saddle, then swings himself up behind me.
Lucifer pulls his almost identical horse next to ours. “Ready?” he asks the gang. I glance over my shoulder as we move. Zee is in the same position as me, in front of Zac, on a chestnut mare. I smirk at him. He glares back at me as Goliath pats the mare’s ass to get her moving.
“Come on, Betsy, you have two fine young men in your care today. Don’t let me down.” She gives an indignant neigh in response.
Jed chuckles as he rides next to them on a dappled mare of his own. “Not funny, dude,” Zee mutters. “Having someone’s dick rubbing against your ass is not funny.”
The comment has awareness seeping through my clothing. My leather pants are back on, but I may as well be naked as Archan wraps an arm around my waist and presses me back to him. Yep, this ride is going to suck big hairy balls.
“Good luck, Lucifer. I will see you on the battlefield. Holler when you are ready for us,” Goliath says as we pick up the pace down the dirt track and enter a residential area. Houses with grey doors stacked next to each other line the streets. We take a left and then a right, creating a zigzag of a trail as we delve deeper into Violence. Shadows move in the windows, tracking our progress towards the next circle.
We settle into a steady pace throughout the area of Murder. Distant screams pierce the otherwise silent night.
“Where is everybody?” I wonder.
Lucifer glances at me. “Each one of these houses contains a demon and a damned soul. Their job is to torture the soul in a manner consistent with their crimes. Most of the houses contain a basement for such activities, leaving the rest of the building to be treated like a home.”
“Gives new meaning to the phrase ‘you don’t know what goes on behind closed doors.’ Is it the same in Sexual Violence?”
Lucifer shakes his head. “No, there are numerous and many versions of punishments in there. Some lose their genitals as punishment, others are subjected to their crimes. It depends on what their bigger fear is.”
“This is where Jack came to?” I ask, thinking back on the man that drugged and assaulted me.
“For a brief time, but Lawrence picked him out to torment you. Then he experienced a true death by my hands.”
I grimace, thinking of the time spent in Lawrence’s dungeon. My eyes widen. “Please tell me we aren’t heading for the same place he held me.”
“Sorry, Natia, it’s the area we need to be in to get into Fraud.”
A shiver of unease skitters down my spine. Archan draws me closer and leans down to whisper in my ear. “You are stronger than the memories of your past. Use them to fuel your determination, to stoke the fire in your soul that promises defeat to your enemies.”
I wrap my arm over his and twist my head to look at him. His lips skim over mine, causing a different type of shiver to run through me. “The next section is less than a mile away,” Lucifer says. “We will pause for a break at the club. Let the horses refuel and rest for a few hours.”
I scan our surroundings, finding a long single-story building squashed between the houses. Lucifer leads us down a narrow gap and around the back of the buildings.
