Page 59 of An Unexpected Ascension
Her brows dip fiercely as her hand rips my own from her flesh.
“You don’t know the meaning of gentleman or niceties! You’re a demon rotten to the core, seducing Angels into Hell to destroy indestructible Gods with a war you cannot win.”
This woman, provoking me like it’s her life’s duty. It’s maddening how she wriggles under my skin, like an itch that just can’t be sated, vibrating with a hate that throttles her. It awakens a monster deep within me.
Perhaps that monster sits already in wait... between my legs.
With a lethal calm, I back her into the wall of the canyon, shackling her to the rock behind her. Skeletal hands from the irredeemably damned enclose around her wrists. Her silent screams caught in bouts of breathlessness stir a wicked smile on my face.
She thrashes, yanking her arms, but those bones just grip tighter. Fleshy jaws snap near her face, clanking their decaying teeth together, taunting her.
With one dismissive wave, the skulls stop, leaving her restrainedin silence. Tears fall from those green eyes of hers, like watching dew form on a blade of grass in the early morning.
“It’s been a while since I’ve come across a woman with a beauty as exquisite as yours or a soul as manic?—”
“Gives you no right to touch me!”
“Ah, Angel, see that’s where you’re wrong. Here I have every right – to touch, to torture, to demand, and order. The Devil’s minion, a bastard demon, a lowly messenger. Those are all things you may know me as, but you’ve been sorely fooled. Here, I’m the second to the God of Hell – commanding armies and doling punishments. Here, you are mine in every sense of the word and let me tell you—” my tongue succumbs to the desire to taste her tears as my hand clenches her jaw, keeping her immobile, “my touch is much more desirable than my torture.”
“Fuck you.” She spits on a terrified whisper.
A chuckle rumbles up from my chest. “Oh, I’ll have you begging for it.”
With my bruising grip still on her jaw, I smash my mouth against hers, my teeth driving straight into the flesh of her bottom lip. The shock of pain sounds in the form of a groan. She fights, the bones holding her wrists hostage rattle against the stone, but I’ve been lost to this insanity.
How this dreadful Fentonelli descendent can shake me to my very core is beside me. I’ve damned her, but she’s damned the very promise I made myself centuries ago to have her entire bloodline eradicated. Yet, here she is, tugging on those heartstrings of mine. Yanking and pulling until our souls are damn near sewn together.
And to think that it’sthiswoman that causes such chaos within me. I’d blame the Gods for dealing me such shit, but perhaps she’s the snake slithering into my bones and tickling my guts.
But I will not allow such a thing, I will sever that tether that holds me to her despite that aching in my groin, pushing me to relieve it.
“Wicked woman,” I curse into her mouth, swiping my tonguealong hers. “I’ll defile you in ways you’ve never even dreamed of. Rip every ounce of innocence from your soul until you’re nothing but a needy little whore. Then, you’ll thank me for it.”
The lust wafts off her like a pungent perfume, a begging in its own way, but she doesn’t deserve my mercy. Doesn’t deserve the relief.
My mouth rips from hers, her chest heaving, and I order her to be released. Her arms drop to her sides, and she staggers away from the wall, confused and nearly tripping.
“I will never beg you for a thing, and I will not be your whore! I’d rather turn into one of them!” She gestures to the grotesque halflings.
“That’s not what your mouth was telling me as you sucked my tongue down your throat, but suit yourself, Angel.”
Chapter 19
The Angel
As I watch the demon walk away, my bones hum inside my body, throbbing with such intensity I just might throw up again. This demon is deranged! Driving me to the brink of insanity, threatening me one minute and kissing me the next. Perhaps it is the kissing that’s part of the threat. With each unwanted touch comes his entitlement to own everything that’s down here just because he works for the Devil.
I’m so consumed with these flustering emotions, not one lesser than the next, I pick up a skull lingering near my feet and whip it with as much strength as I can muster. To my surprise, it lands near the demon’s shoes. He stops, those cold, brittle eyes snapping to the bones shattered like a porcelain vase, then back at me with a small little chuckle.
And still, he leaves.
There’s a scream building in my chest, building so uncomfortably, scraping away at my insides that I have no choice but to release it. Like finally coming up for air after suffocating, teetering on the brink of death. I’ve never experienced anything so confusing and chaotic.
Heaving, I stand there and watch him disappear into the distance, leaving me behind in Hell to fend for myself.
Everything is happening all at once: my acceptance of an eternity in Heaven and being dragged to Hell. I’ve finally come to terms with the fact that I am dead, paid off my penance, made eternal friends, found a purpose, and now... all of that’s gone.
It takes a great deal of effort to calm my raging heart and the disarray within my mind before following in the demon’s footsteps.
