Page 39 of Legendary

“I’ve never seen a hellhound this size before,” Dani said, looking up at Axel. He loomed over her and made her small stature evenmoreapparent. She didn’t shy away from him though. She stood her ground and just inspected him with her arms crossed.

“There are hellhounds bigger than this?” I asked.

Dani shook her head. “No, actually. Smaller.”

“Then how in the hell did you end up with this monster?” Reese created a wide berth as he circled around Axel who had his now forked tongue hanging out the side of his mouth. Despite his size and scary exterior, he looked dopey.

Elise stepped up to her hellhound and tilted his head down, a puff of smoke hitting her face. “He was a gift like I already fucking said. Now, Axel down, let's go.”

Her pet immediately went to lay down on the floor, patiently waiting.

“We’re riding him?” I questioned.

“I mean if you would like to walk, pretty boy, that is fine by me. I’msure that face of yours will help you out if you get caught up,” Elise snarked, jumping up and sitting astride Axel’s back.

“Yeah, no thanks.” Reese said, sarcastically. “You are fucking crazy though, if you think I’m sitting behind you.”

Dani shoved past him and started to jump up to get on Axel’s back, but she stumbled a bit and started to fall back. I ran up behind her and caught her waist. My heart was thundering in my chest at the contact. My fingers squeezed as she fell back against me. Her hair tickled my cheek as she leaned into me, trying to regain her balance. I felt her tense up as she side-eyed me.

“You good?” I inquired, pushing her forward and up a bit.

“Mhmm,” she said quickly, grabbing onto the thick wrinkles of Axel’s skin and hooked her leg around to the other side.

I jumped on after and Reese followed, leaving Beetee leaning in front of Axel’s very large head, whispering something in his ear. She giggled a little and then I felt Axel start to rise underneath me. I felt so high up, to the point where I had to duck a little from varying tree branches. “He knows where to go, and he’ll bring you back so don’t worry.”

“Wait, you aren’t coming?” I raised one of my eyebrows down at her.

“I need to stay here, and you don’t need me there. Just knock on the door and tell them I sent you.” Beetee gave a solid nod and started to walk away, but quickly turned on her heels and looked directly at Elise. “Behave, Ellie.”

Ellie grunted up at the front, letting out a muffledwhateverbefore patting Axel on the side of his head. He huffed out more smoke from his nostrils and raised his paws to start walking into the woods. His tail slapped the ground as he took one long stride after another.

Axel had been trotting along for what felt like an hour, but I still didn’t understand how time worked here in Purgatory. The further we got into the woods, the less I saw the red-orange sky. The tops of the trees huddled together to create an overcast that made any chance of seeing what was ahead extremely difficult. There were small sounds around us that sounded like something other than normal woodsy sounds. And I could have sworn I saw shadows snaking around the trees, whispering to us. Smaller versions of Axel bounded around the surrounding area, but the big beast paid them no mind. Dani took the time to at least explain to us that those were what normal hellhounds looked like. Axel still had only two eyes, whereas some of these creatures had three or they had split tails.

I was starting to settle into this ride, but I was finding it hard to figure out what to do with my hands. I could hold onto Axel’s thick, coarse, back rolls or I could hold onto something that pleased me much, much more.

There had been numerous times in the past hour that I instinctively wanted to grab her waist and yank her closer to me. I did have to hold onto her a few times when Axel jumped over fallen tree trunks, but I wanted more. She would readjust herself each time, almost like she was conflicted having to decide whether to shift closer to Elise or move back towards me. She had her hair in a ponytail, and I had to force my eyes away from her neck. I wanted my mouth on her skin, on that tender part of her neck that made her shiver and claw at my back.

I felt the back of my neck starting to sweat, but I didn’t feel hot. It was weird. There was something about this place that made me a little unfocused. Dani was a tempting individual, but down here she had me wanting to focus solely on her, to be in pure tunnel vision. Something I was highly against when it came to training and fights but focusing on Lilith and the plan had me thinking about Dani at the same time, so nothing truly fucking helped. The other night I felt like something was clawing at my mind, yanking at my nightmares and thoughts, but I was strong, and I was able to handle it…for now. Natalia and the girls did say that Purgatory had a way of digging its teeth into you. I would have to continue to keep my wits about myself if I was going to make it out of here with at least half of my mental state intact.

“Are we almost fucking there?” Reese complained, letting out a loud sigh.

“I will have him buck you off, if you don’t shut up,” Elise threatened.

There was a rock formation coming up and it was massive, with moss growing on the rocks and mud splattered along the perimeter. We had stopped moving, I noticed, so I looked around wondering when we would start again. Elise slid off Axel, landing on the ground with easy agility. She scratched behind Axel’s ear as he eased himself down to the dirt. We all remained on top of him as we looked at her suspiciously.

“Well get the fuck off.” She rolled her eyes, the impatience heavy in her tone.

“It’s a fucking rock.” Reese pointed ahead of us as he swung his legs over and jumped off the large beast.

I jumped off after him and instinctively turned around, reaching up to help Dani. Surprisingly, she let me, but the contact didn’t last long before she was out of my hold and walking behind Elise towards the giant rocks.

I patted Axel on the head as I walked by and he huffed out more smoke from his snout. Fallen leaves danced around as his nostril smoke breezedpast them. Reese sidled up next to me. “I’m not crazy right, that’s a fucking rock.”

I reached over and ruffled his hair. “I’m pretty sure we should start thinking that everything is not as it seems.”

He looked over his shoulder at the hellhound. “Ain’t that the truth.”

Elise had walked around the rock formation, letting her fingers drag along the rock’s exterior. We were so far away from where we had started that if anything were to happen, I wouldn’t know which way was the right direction. I didn’t exactly feel nervous about wherever we were, but I was getting antsy. Dani broke the short silence.

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