Road to Hell (11 page)

₪₪₪

Leo helped me to my feet when I regained control of myself. He prodded the invisible wall with his sword, but couldn’t break through it. “I’d hoped that dispatching the demons would break their spell,” he said. “But that does not seem to be the case.”

“Does that mean we’re stuck in this alley?” I said uneasily.

“I fear so.”

“What are we going to do?” I didn’t have a cell phone to call for help and Leo couldn’t use his power to free us.

“You must break the runes,” a voice said in a thin whisper.

Leo spun towards the voice with his sword raised. It cast enough light to show a figure crouched only a few feet away. His skin was inky black and he blended in with the shadows so well that he was almost invisible. Shying away from the light, he held up a thin arm to shield his face. Incredibly ugly, he didn’t have the sharp, jagged teeth, forked tongue or glowing eyes of a demon. He seemed to be something else.

“Wait,” I said and grabbed Leo’s arm before he could stab the creature. I’d forgotten the hand that had tripped the demon before she could chop my hand off in retaliation for wounding her. “Who are you?” I said to the crouched form. He was so thin that I could see his ribs and spine. He wore a black loincloth and his feet were bare.

“I am nobody,” he said miserably. “I am not worthy of a name.”

I felt a stab of pity for him even though Leo was staring at him like he was a cockroach. “He is just an imp,” my companion said. “I will run him through. I doubt that it will kill him, but it will prevent him from following us until he heals.”

The imp whimpered at the threat and covered his head with his arms.

“You can’t run him through,” I said. “He saved my life. Or at least my hand.”

Lowering his sword, Leo frowned at me. “What do you mean?”

“He tripped the demon when she was about to attack me.” He looked unconvinced by my explanation. “I saw him grab her ankle,” I insisted.

He looked down at the sniveling imp. “Is this true?” Nodding pitiably, the creature watched us cautiously, but he didn’t lower his arms. “Why would you do such a thing? She would surely have punished you for your impertinence.”

“She would have punished me anyway,” he said miserably. “Such is the fate of my kind.”

“You said we should break the runes,” I said. “Will that stop the spell?”

He nodded and pointed a long thin finger at the glowing red mark on the wall behind me. “You can use your dagger to disable it.” Leo lifted his sword and the imp shook his head. “Your holy weapon will have no effect on the rune. Only a demon blade will work.”

Rolling his eyes in a very human gesture, Leo stepped aside and waved me forward. Red light washed over my face as I lifted my dagger. I gingerly scraped it across the symbol and was relieved when the glow flickered then died.

I took a step forward to check that the barrier was gone. A hand immediately clamped around my ankle. The grip was firm, but not so tight that it was painful. “Do not go any further into the darkness,” the imp warned me. He cringed when Leo levelled his sword at him threateningly and he released me. “Not unless you wish to visit the shadowlands.”

“We need to leave before more demons arrive,” Leo urged me. Whatever was wrong with him was getting worse. He was almost reeling on his feet now.

My curiosity had well and truly been satisfied, so I nodded. I took a few steps then looked back to see the imp staring after us forlornly. “What’s going to happen to you?”

“Once my master learns that I aided your escape, I will be tortured in a most hideous fashion,” he said morosely. “I imagine the pain will last for several centuries.”

Leo saw my pity and shook his head. “I know what you are thinking and I urge you to think again.”

“We can’t leave him here. Not after he helped us twice,” I implored him.

“Look at him,” he said almost harshly and swept a hand at the cowering creature. “Imps are not like demons. He is not made of pure spirit and he cannot possess a vessel. Do you think he will be able to blend in with the human populace if we allow him to follow us?”

“Stand up and let me see your face,” I said to the imp. He hesitantly dropped his hands and pushed himself to his feet. When he straightened up, he was a couple of inches taller than me. He wrapped his thin arms around himself and shivered as if he was cold. His brow was too prominent and too low, which made his eyes look like they were deep-set caverns. His nose was squished and his lips were far too full for his sunken cheeks. His skin was far darker than was natural. He was as ugly as sin, but he didn’t look like a monster. His face hadn’t shimmered once since he’d come to my notice.

Apparently, I saw supernatural creatures in terms of beauty for good and ugly for bad. His ugliness meant that his soul was badly stained. Only the fact that he’d helped me was keeping me from just walking away. “He’s not that bad,” I said. “With proper clothes and a hat or hoodie, he could probably pass for human.”

Wild hope filled the imp’s face and he clutched his hands together. “You would truly take me with you?”

“Only if you promise not to do anything evil, or betray us to the demons.”

Putting a hand on his sunken chest over his heart, he nodded solemnly. “I promise that I will be good and that I will never betray you.”

Leo snorted incredulously, but he didn’t bother to argue. He started towards the entrance and I hurried after him. I glanced back and thought the imp had disappeared. Then I saw faint movement and realized he’d blended in with the bricks. “How are you doing that?” I asked. He was like a chameleon, apparently able to make himself appear like his surroundings.

“It is a skill that I learned after a century or so of torment,” he explained. “Becoming invisible is the only way I can hope to escape the notice of my master.”

Scooping up my bags on the way to the entrance, I scraped the rune with my dagger and the light faded. Leo stuck his hand through the illusion of the wall and breathed a sigh of relief when he didn’t meet any resistance. He drew me out onto the sidewalk then hesitated and offered his hand to the imp. The moment their hands touched, he teleported us back to the store.

Blinded by the flash of light, I dropped my bags and stumbled into a rock hard body. Nathan caught me by the shoulders as a pained screech started.

“What is that thing doing here?” Brie asked. My eyes cleared in time to see her sword appear. Nathan pushed me behind him and called on his sword as well.

“No!” I shouted and darted around him to shield our guest. The imp was on his knees with his hands covering his ears. Tears dripped from his eyes that were squeezed tightly shut. “He’s a friend,” I said, to their combined astonishment.

They looked at Leo, who nodded wearily. He was looking better now that we were away from the strange alley. The color was already returning to his face. “The imp assisted us,” he confirmed.

Sophia hurried into the room, took in the wailing imp and me standing in front of him protectively. “Cease the spell,” she said to Brie.

“Are you certain that is wise?” the teen asked.

“No, but the noise will draw unwanted notice if it continues.”

Trusting her friend, Brie did as she’d been asked. She chanted a few words and the imp slumped face down on the carpet in relief.

“Why was he screaming like that?” I asked, shaken by the noise.

“I have warded the building against demonkind and their minions,” Brie replied. Her sword was still in her hand, but Nathan had made his disappear. His arms were crossed and he was watching me in silence. “It is impossible for them to enter, but they can apparently be teleported inside,” she continued. “I imagine it must have been quite painful for him.” Her tone was imminently satisfied.

“You poor thing,” I said and knelt beside the imp. “Are you okay?”

“It is nothing, mistress,” he said hoarsely. “I have suffered far worse beneath the unkind rule of my master.”

“My name is Violet,” I told him and helped him to sit up. He stared at the gathering of angels and one clairvoyant warily. Their expressions were far from welcoming. “What can we call you?” I asked.

“I can think of a few choice names,” Brie muttered then subsided at a frown from Sophia.

“My name was Samuel when I was still human,” he said humbly.

“Wait a minute, you were a
human
?” I asked. He nodded, but it was hard to wrap my brain around his transformation. “Are you still human or are you a demon now?”

“He is neither,” Nathan said in something close to distaste. “He is an abomination and should therefore be destroyed.”

Tears welled in the imp’s eyes. Now that we were in the brightly lit store, I saw that they were brown. He looked like a puppy that had been abused and starved and my heart went out to him. I rounded on Nathan in Samuel’s defense. “He helped us even though it meant his master would torture him. He is not an abomination and no one is going to destroy him.”

“He is right,” Samuel said in a low, miserable tone. “I deserve to die.”

“Why?”

“Tell her how you became what you are so that she might understand why you should be despised,” Nathan commanded.

I wasn’t sure that I wanted to hear this tale, but I didn’t have a choice. I was going to hear it whether I liked it or not.

₪₪₪

Sniffing back tears, Samuel looked up at me with a vulnerable, yet resigned expression. “I was taken from my family during a pirate raid when I was small,” he explained. He held his hand out to indicate he’d probably been about four or five at the time. “Instead of killing me, they took me on board their ship. I was used for the pleasure of the Captain, but I was lucky that he kept me for himself rather than passing me around to the entire crew.”

My stomach twisted at the abuse he’d suffered, but I nodded for him to go on. “It was a cruel, harsh life, but he lost interest in me when I reached my teens. I became a member of the crew and had no choice but to join in on the horrors that they inflicted on the inhabitants of the towns and ships that we plundered. If I showed weakness even once, my throat would have been slit and my corpse would have been cast into the ocean.”

“It is a pity that did not happen,” Brie said not quite beneath her breath.

I glowered at her for interrupting and motioned for Samuel to continue. “I was seventeen when we came across the ship that would mean my doom.”

He went silent then took a watery breath. “The ship belonged to a wealthy man who was transporting his family from England to America. His wife and eldest daughter were very beautiful. His youngest daughter was only eleven, but she was also quite lovely. As the youngest sailor, I had never known a woman. The crew always taunted me and made me watch then denied me the pleasure that they all received.” He couldn’t bring himself to look at me and laced his hands tightly together to stop them from shaking.

I had a feeling I knew where this was heading and felt ill. He’d performed deeds that had turned his skin as black as his soul. “You don’t have to explain any further,” I said.

He glanced up at me and then away. “You need to hear it so that you can pass judgment on me.” Leo nodded silently in agreement and his expression was bleak. Swallowing down my sick feeling, I let him continue. “After watching the crew have their fun with the mother and eldest daughter, I was sickened, but perversely excited. The Captain was an evil, twisted man who delighted in the pain and torment of others. He had the young girl stripped of her clothing and brought before me. I was also stripped naked. When the poor child saw my arousal, she went mad with terror. Her screams still haunt me to this day.”

“I don’t want to hear any more,” I said, unable to hide my distress. My imagination was vivid enough that he didn’t need to describe what he’d done to the little girl.

He went on as if he hadn’t heard me. “At first, I was so driven by lust and need that I thought I could go through with it, that I could actually violate someone so innocent and pure.” His face was filled with self-loathing, but hope leaped into my heart. “Then I came to my senses and realized what I was about to do. Even though it would mean my death, I did not assault her young body. Instead, I wrapped my hands around her fragile throat and throttled her to death.” He looked up and met my eyes, silently pleading with me to understand. “Surely it was a better fate for her to suffer than what they had planned for her?”

“I guess,” I said uneasily. I knew I’d rather die by strangulation than to be raped to death.

His shoulders slumped in relief that I’d agreed with him. “The Captain was furious that I had defied him. He was so enraged that he laid waste to the entire crew until there was just him and me left. He took me by the arm and told me that he was going to make sure that I suffered for my impertinence for eternity. Then the world that I knew disappeared and we were standing before a portal to the shadowlands.

“Once we were halfway along the narrow pathway, black fog was expelled from the Captain. When it solidified, he was in his demon form. Murdering the man that he had possessed with a sword that he conjured from nowhere, he took me through a gate into hell. When the gate closed behind us, he told me that I would be his servant until the end of time.”

He took a shuddering breath before he continued his tale. “He tortured my body until it was broken and my voice was gone from screaming, yet I did not die. Taking me to hell while I was still alive changed me forever. Over time, my body withered and became entwined with my soul until the two were tightly bound rather than separate. I cannot age, eat or sleep. We imps are few, but we are the lowest of the low. Each of us are evil and deserve our fate. I do not know if bringing me back to Earth will make me mortal again. But it would be a blessing if I could die.”

For a moment, I was speechless. I was so overwhelmed with sorrow for him that I couldn’t articulate my thoughts.

“You see?” Brie said. “He is not worthy of your pity. If he truly cannot be killed, then we should return him to where you found him and allow his master to drag him back to where he belongs.”

“I thought angels were supposed to be compassionate,” I said, shocked by her callousness.

Her expression was incredulous. “Surely you do not feel for this creature?”

“Did you actually listen to him or are you so full of self-righteousness that you’re incapable of hearing his words?”

Taken aback, she stared down her nose at me. “Of course I listened to him.”

“None of what happened to Samuel was his fault.”

She made a sound of disagreement. “He admitted that he performed atrocities on many people.”

“He was stolen from his family when he was just a little boy,” I reminded her. “He was abused by the Captain for years. You don’t have human emotions, so maybe you’re not capable of understanding what that could do to a person.” My voice dripped with scorn and she looked away. “He had no choice but to go along with them when he was old enough to join their crew or he’d have suffered even more torment before they killed him. I don’t care how long he was trapped in hell. At heart, he’s just a seventeen year old kid, the same age as me.”

“I thought you were only sixteen,” Leo said.

“It was my birthday yesterday.” As I’d expected, what should have been a reason for rejoicing went straight over their heads. “Even after going through horrible torment, he was still willing to help me. That tells me he’s capable of redemption.”

Samuel looked at me as if I was his savior. “You truly believe that I can make amends for all the wrong that I have done?”

“Do you want to make amends?” I asked.

He nodded vigorously. “I will do anything that you ask of me. You simply need to command me and it shall be done.”

I wasn’t comfortable with the idea of having an imp for a servant, but at least I had another ally now. “Good. By the way, I hope you don’t mind if I call you Sam. Samuel is kind of old fashioned these days.”

He nodded eagerly and stared at me worshipfully while the others exchanged silent looks. Clearly, the thought of bringing an imp into our inner circle didn’t sit well with them. I just hoped I wasn’t making a terrible mistake by taking pity on him.