Hell's Bells: Lucifer's Tale (Welcome to Hell Book 6) (4 page)

T
he dank air
in the mountain brushed her exposed skin as the metal carts clacked along the rail. The beauty of Dante’s Inferno was no two rides were ever the same, as mechanisms at the rail forks constantly flipped and switched, jerking them left, right, and sometimes straight up or down in defiance of the laws of gravity.

Add to that the various deadly chambers they passed through and there was a reason why no one ever survived the ride to the end.

As a bit of a thrill seeker, Gaia quite enjoyed all the action, but her pleasure in the wild ride didn’t stop her from clinging to Luc, squealing and laughing as they traveled the whirls and twirls. He, on the other hand, remained stoic and stiff. And not the kind of stiff she could wrap a hand around.

The new version of Lucifer didn’t enjoy the exhilarating rush of the roller coaster. Nor did he take advantage of the darkness to cop a feel.

So she did. She squeezed his junk and was rewarded with a yelp.

“What are you doing?”

“Making out with you,” she whispered against his ear before nipping it.

“We need to pay attention. This ride is dangerous.”

“I know. It’s such a turn-on.” She rubbed his crotch, feeling a triumph spurt of warmth when his cock began to show signs of life.

Their rattling train went soaring over a break in the track, but she paid no mind to the abyss glowing orange with molten lava.

Squeeze of his bulge. A lick of his lobe.

A tremble went through him. “You shouldn’t be doing this.” He said it, and yet a heavy hand flattened itself atop hers, holding it in place.

They hit the other side of the chasm with a jostle and a scream of excitement from one of the cars behind them.

It took some maneuvering to get the cars all linked together. Usually, only one cart at a time shot into the labyrinth, with only a single occupant or cuddling couple. But this was an emergency, hence the daisy chaining of the carts.

So far, they’d managed to keep everyone on board. But the voyage was still young, and they now entered the Valley of Death. Ghosts, spectral spirits with eerie moans, and ectoplasmic glowing green blobs swooped and dove at their party.

A headless horseman on a charging steed of mist came toward them.

Lucifer yelled, “Duck!”

Her Lord ordered so she obeyed, managing to shove against the bar enough that her face ended up in his lap. A perfect spot and not an opportunity she’d waste.

She opened her mouth wide on the fabric of his pants and blew hotly. He might protest, “No. Stop that,” but his shaft certainly didn’t want her to. It expanded.

She might have taken things further, but Valaska yodeled from the head of the train, “We’re coming to the Cavern of Webs.”

In other words, the lair of the eight-legged freaks. Spiders, and yet spiders taken to a new, horrendous level.

Raising her head, Gaia had a moment to muster an energy shield before they were tearing through the silken veils. The sticky webs disintegrated at the touch of her power shield, but other occupants in their group weren’t so lucky. She heard more than a few gags and sputters.

“Heads up!” Remy warned.

A fireball, trailing streamers of red and yellow, flew overhead and ignited a cluster of hanging threads. The fiery display came courtesy of Ysabel, the witch, who drew the flames from her fire demon mate.

The path ahead cleared as she lobbed ball after ball of flame, leaving only ash to sift down. The lack of webs revealed the true danger. Arachnids with multi-faceted, jewel-like eyes, clacking mandibles, and hairy purple legs. The creatures dropped from the ceiling on threads as thick and strong as steel cable.

With yells of excitement, the warriors in their group shoved free of their lap bars and stood in the carts, slashing and swinging at the jabbing legs. Nothing like a bit of danger to get them excited.

Usually, Lucifer would have joined in the revelry, his mighty sword in hand—a sword forged of the darkest sins, not the one in his pants. The true Lucifer would have joined in and mocked his minions with his greatness.

This shadowy version of the Dark Lord sat huddled on the bench clutching the bar.

It sparked her annoyance. “Aren’t you going to help?”

“I can’t, the cart is still moving. I could fall out.”

With a growl of annoyance, she smacked him in the back of the head. “Man up! Kill something.”

“But they’re icky,” he said with repugnance, trying to wipe a sticky remnant of web from his pants.

“Then blast them with your mighty ire.”

Big eyes regarded her with a woebegone expression she’d never expected to see on his face. “How can you ask me to destroy them when they are living creatures who are just doing what nature intended?”

He had not just said that. Lucifer, advocating a non-violent solution?

No. Just no.

Most people spoke of the fire that shone in Luc’s eyes when his emotions ran high, but most failed to mention the green turbulence in hers when her temper got riled. “Since you like the spiders so much, how about one as a pet?” Twirling her finger in the air, she created a mini vortex, one that caught a dangling strand with a cat-sized arachnid on the end. Just a baby really, but perfect for her purpose.

With a scissoring motion, she snipped the silken cable and dropped the eight-legged freak into her fiancé’s lap.

The scream he uttered trebled off the charts—and proved very unmanly. Yet, it did have an effect. So shrill did he shriek that the attacking spiders paused in their attack, and then, one by one, they burst.

It wasn’t pretty. Or gentle. Or dry…for everyone else. She managed to pop a shield around herself.

Purple ichor covered the group, and for a moment, stunned silence froze their voices.

Then, as one, his minions shouted, “All hail the mighty spider slayer, Lucifer.”

And while Luc blushed and ducked his head at the praise, she couldn’t help but note his bearing seemed a little straighter.

A
s they passed
from the now empty spider lair into another section of dark tunnel, Lucifer slumped in the seat.

Chin up, bucko. You were the star back there.

More like murderer.

Exactly. You showed those bugs who is boss. And you liked it.

Lucifer wanted to deny it, but then he would be lying. A part of him had enjoyed the rush of power as it blew out of him. Basked in the adulation of his friends, and the glowing thanks in Gaia’s eyes.

It’s called pride. Nothing wrong with that.

Except for the fact that pride led to other sins.

“Blowjob for your thoughts,” Gaia murmured against his ear.

Accept the offer!

“No need for bribery. I was just mulling over the fact I lost control back there.”

“Or finally regained some,” she countered. “When are you going to admit the real you is the guy we saw back there?”

He shook his head. “No. That man is a killer. A demon without conscience.”

“Exactly, and that guy is the Lord of Hell we all know.”

“But he’s bad.” Wasn’t he?

As if reading his doubts, she replied, “Would a bad guy have so many people want to come on this quest?”

“Quest? What quest?”

Gaia bit her lip. “I meant join on us on this marvelous Jack and Jill adventure.” She uttered a high-pitched laugh that he recognized as false. “Just a bunch of friends showing us a good time before our wedding.”

Since when was it a good time to try and kill the bride and groom?

Kill? Bah. As if a mere amusement park ride could manage that.

The train rocketed from a tunnel into a new room, brightly lit with overhead lights and wooden cut-outs made to resemble an Old West town.

For some reason, he felt his senses dull. The constant tickling on his skin and the static pull on his hair vanished. It was only when Ysabel moaned, “We’re in a magic-free zone,” that he grasped why.

“Incoming,” Adexios announced.

Arrows whistled at them from rooftops, and slingshots fired rocks at their party too.

Gaia squeaked and hid behind him. How wrong was it that he wanted to squeal and hide behind her too?

I might just die of shame.
The horned duckie mind sank in despair.

Most of the missiles clattered harmlessly against the metal boxcars, but a hail of rocks managed to pepper Xaphan and Katie.

“You did not just do that.” With a bellow of rage, Hell’s psycho leapt from her car and charged at the wooden façades. With a shrug and an, “I better stick close,” Xaphan followed, unleashing his mighty sword.

Between the pair of them, they managed to deflect most missiles while making their way closer to those firing. Meanwhile, the track looped on itself, a switch having set them in a closed circuit. Around and around they went, every pass keeping them in the target zone.

“Shouldn’t someone aid them?” he ventured.

“Don’t insult them like that,” Gaia snapped. “Katie could handle these idiots by herself. Xaphan is just going along to make sure she doesn’t get carried away and decide to clear the whole mountainside of traps. After all, Dante wouldn’t be too happy if we broke his roller coaster. It took him centuries to perfect it.”

Indeed, Katie could clear the area by herself. With her blonde pigtails bobbing, she weaved in and out of the wooden façades, popping up briefly to send a cloaked imp falling to his screaming death.

As for Xaphan, he twirled his broadsword, protecting the train whipping in its roundabout from missiles.

When the last arrow fell to the ground, a loud click sounded, and the track switched lanes, sending the train hurtling onward…leaving two of their number behind.

“Shouldn’t we go back for them?” Lucifer yelled as the wind tried to rip the words from his mouth.

“They’ll be fine. Besides, we’ve been gone long enough they’re probably in full-on celebration mode.”

“And?”

“And, given you’re such a prude these days, you might not want to see it.”

“Oh.”
Oh.

We should totally go back. Nothing like being a demon on the wall and watching to get a little something-something happening.

Again, he wanted to deny the implication he enjoyed a bit of voyeurism, but he couldn’t help recalling the times—the many, many times—when he’d floated a few stories high and peeked in some windows. Although, of late, he preferred to spy on his lovely fiancée as she pleasured herself—then, with a wink, invited him into her boudoir and pleasured him.

“You’re blushing again,” Gaia noted.

“No, I’m not.” The lie came too quickly to his lips. He clamped them tightly, lest his tongue betray him again.

Wind whistled past his ears, cooling the tips as they whipped onward. Faster and faster. The train barreled into the unknown, and yet he would have said that wasn’t why trepidation filled him. The end of the journey neared. A part of him knew this, and for some reason, it nagged at Lucifer.

I know why. But I’m not telling.

Which worried him most of all.