Page 15 of Hell Raising and Other Pastimes (Grave Concerns 2)

Chapter Four

The small town looked normal in an odd way, and that made it all the more unsettling. Hell should be kind enough to make sure their towns look like shitty haunted houses from Halloween.

Hunter had given me a rundown of basic etiquette, which had amounted to “don’t tell anyone what you are, don’t act weak, don’t go anywhere alone, and don’t look anyone in the eye.”

In addition, he’d brought a damp and sticky cloak with a hood and wrapped it around me.

I tried to ignore the scent of it—which I could only describe as rot—but it overpowered everything else.

According to him, it should hide some of the smell of my mortality, which, after hearing about how tasty creatures in hell found me, sounded like a good idea.

Hunter had taken off an hour before to scout the town ahead of us and run some errands. I hadn’t asked what errands meant in hell, but I figured it wasn’t grabbing a cup of overpriced coffee and hitting up the post office.

Kase walked behind me, Troy to my left and Grant to my right.

I pulled at my cloak. “Why don’t you all have to wear these?”

Grant had a casual tone but a sharp gaze as he checked our surroundings. “Because we don’t smell like humans.”

“You’re basically human,” I pointed out. “I saw you trip and fall when we had to climb that fence. I bet youstillhave a bloodied knee.”

He let out a soft, low laugh. “I may be more fragile, but I’m still not human. What they’re attracted to is mortality. It’s that humans age and die. None of us do that, so we’re useless to them.”

“It seems unfair that I both have to age and dieandcreatures from hell are after me. I feel like that is the short end of the stick.”

“If it makes you feel any better, they’d probably tear apart Troy too if they could. He doesn’t smell as good as you do, but his blood is closer to human than the rest of us. It’d be best if he didn’t bleed.”

Troy snorted, something that said he hadn’t found the comment funny. “I’ll do my best.”

“So werewolves have human blood?”

“Close enough to,” Grant said when Troy didn’t seem to want to discuss it. “When they’re in human form, they’re almost impossible to tell apart. It’s why they can live in the human world so easily. Even blood tests won’t show a difference. It won’t give the things here any power, but they’d probably enjoy the taste.”

Troy answered that with a low growl, telling me he was as testy as he’d been since we’d arrived.

And, yes, I realized that being annoyed after being dragged to hell was probably a fair reaction, but I knew damn well it hadnothingto do with the location and everything to do with me.

Well, with his own self-hatred, at least.

“That’s where Hunter told us to meet him,” Kase said from behind us.

Up aheadwas a large building. four stories tall, built of stone and crumbling at the corners. Everything in the town was an odd mixture of medieval and modern. Lights lines the streets, but instead of electricity they glowed with either flames or a sickly green tint that reminded me of that spider’s blood.

The people that milled around—it was hard to call them people—took little notice of us and I did my best not to stare.

Some looked normal enough, though those walked with a fearful gait, quick and unsure. Others were twisted, only looking vaguely human. Some had lips that curled up and rows of fangs, eyes that were all sorts of colors but rarely ones I’d ever seen before. Yellows, orange, green, red, and all glowing. Their limbs were mishappen, often different lengths and with masses on them, and most were far taller than any human. Some had wings, hooves or claws that tipped their fingers, all things that said I needed to keep in mind what Hunter had said.

A man sat on a low fence that lined a shop, wearing nothing but a pair of ragged shorts, boils over his head that pulsed as if they might break open at any moment. His left arm was longer than it should have been, and burns covered his right side.

I tried not to stare, but we met gazes for a moment, and something sinister crept through that connection, as if whatever was inside him was powerful enough to cross the distance and threaten me.

Kase put a hand on the nape of my neck and shoved me forward, breaking the connection.

A dark laugh came from behind us, as if the man had enjoyed the little interaction.

“Don’t you remember Hunter’s warning? Avoid eye contact, Ava,” Kase scolded.

“What was that?” I asked.

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