“You guys have already taken too damn long in holding up your side of the arrangement. Joel probably ran.” I place my hands on my hips, summoning my strongest nerve to keep me from looking away from Dante and Kase’s towering presence. “I want to make sure he’s gone and never coming back. I also want to grab my stuff. You can’t expect me to keep wearing this nasty robe and my dirty clothes.”
“We said you could be naked,” Dante responds, a smirk pulling his lips up in the corner.
I glower. “Fuck off. I’m not playing around anymore.”
I spin on my feet and stride away from them, picking up my pace into a full-blown sprint. I can hear their quick footsteps as they follow behind me, and I won’t put it past the lunatics to go through with their threat to punish me for breaking rules I had no idea were in place.
“Last chance, Raven,” Kase calls, his voice rumbling through the air. “If you go in there, you will have to stay to bear witness to the start of Joel’s eternal damnation.”
“Unless that’s something you want. I just didn’t think you had the stomach or nerve,” Dante adds.
Ignoring them, I rush to Joel’s apartment and grip the knob. Like he’s been waiting for my return, Joel yanks the door open. I’m caught off guard by him, and he locks his fingers through my hair and drags me inside. Kicking the door shut, he rushes to block it with the dresser he pulled out from the bedroom. He was waiting for me—for us. For something. I can’t believe I just walked right into a trap, and the bastard devils didn’t bother to tell me. This wasn’t in the damn fine print of their warnings.
“You brought them here, you fucking bitch,” Joel growls, slamming my back to the wall.
The putrid smell of rotting wafts through the air, and I cover my mouth and nose. The scent reminds me of what the gateway to Hell smelled like. The memory ignites a wave of fire inside me, burning away the fear Joel summons in me.
He grabs my throat. “You’re dead—”
The front door explodes open, and the lights pop and shatter as the floor quakes beneath my feet. Dante storms into the apartment, flashing his fangs. His skin ripples and moves and his bones crack as he grows taller, broader—and then the most shocking black wings unfurl from his back.
Joel hollers and releases me, scrambling to run away. A deep, guttural roar echoes through the room, reverberating through my very soul. Dante engulfs me in his arms and lifts me off my feet. His warm fingers graze my neck, but I don’t look at him. I can’t. My eyes refuse to abandon the majestic beast stalking into the living room from the hallway. Feline in stature, yet massive and with a crown of three jutting horns, the demon roars again as it rises on two legs. Red eyes glow from its massive head, matching the slick ruby color of its skin. A long black tail whips from its backend and wraps around Joel, dragging him forward.
I gasp and cover my mouth, though I can’t squeeze my eyes shut as much as I want to. Joel screams like a banshee, flailing his arms to fight against the beast. Widening its jaws, the demonic creature reveals a mouth full of sharp fangs.
“Close your eyes, Raven,” Dante whispers, pressing his big hand into my back, trying to force me to turn away. “You don’t have to watch justice being served.”
A blood-curdling scream pierces my ears, and I watch in shock as the demonic beast chomps its fangs into Joel’s arm and rips it right off. My stomach heaves, but I don’t throw up. There is nothing inside of me to expel.
“Oh, God,” I whisper, my vision crowding with shadows.
The beast jerks its head up and roars at me. Dante envelops me within the warmth of his devastatingly beautiful black wings, but I grip my fingers and pull one down, unable to take my eyes away from the horrors unfolding before me. Slamming its dagger nails into the floor, the beast causes the apartment to rumble and shake until the carpet splits and opens. Fire billows from the crack, and I tense, knowing exactly what’s happening.
“He will never hurt you or anyone ever again,” Dante whispers, stroking his fingers up and down the length of my back. He sounds so certain, almost relieved, and I finally manage to break my gaze away from Joel and the beast. “I promise.”
I stare at him in awe, his emerald eyes glowing with the fire behind us. The world shakes, and the intensity of the heat burns over me, but I feel no pain. All I feel is utter and complete relief.
Joel’s screams cut off, and Dante’s eyes dim, returning to normal. His wings unfurl, releasing us from their protective cave, but I don’t move. I don’t speak either.
A warm hand touches my back between my shoulder blades. “It’s done,” Kase says, leaning in close enough that I feel the heat of his body. “The bastard will finally get what he deserves.”
Chapter 6
Envy
RAVEN
“THREE DAYS IS long enough. It’s time to get cleaned up, change, and get to work.” Kase crosses his arms, towering over me. “I know you’re still reeling over the fucker and everything, but you need to suck it up, angel-girl. Lucian will disapprove of our coddling.”
Coddling? Neither Kase nor Dante has even said one word to me since the demonic beast devoured Joel and sent him to Hell. Sure, Dante carried me all the way back to the apartment, fed me, and handed me the TV remote and his phone to play with and Kase collected all my belongings and placed them in a pitiful pile in the corner of the room, but this is far from coddling.
“I filled the tub. If you don’t get up, I will carry you to it and drop you in. You’re starting to smell like Hell,” Kase adds, leaning down. The fucker has the nerve to sniff me. “You’ll feel better after.”
“Better? A fucking demonic beast tore off my ex’s arm and sent him to Hell on my behalf. I’m—it was—fuck. Where did that thing even go?” I turn away from his glowing red eyes and roll to my other side.
“That better not be sympathy I’m hearing in your voice. The fucker cemented his place in Hell before you two even met. Remember his last girlfriend? The one who died in a tragic accident?” Dante strolls from the hallway like he wants to always be included in the conversation and has decided to follow Kase’s initiative. I’m not exactly certain, but I think Kase might be the one in control of things here.
“How do you know about Davina?” A pit forms in my stomach as I recall what I know about the woman Joel dated before me in his early twenties. She had died in a swimming accident on a lake and it took two weeks to recover her body. I wouldn’t have known if Rob hadn’t brought it up when the two of them were drinking at a get-together.
“Kase told me. He’s the one who reaped that bastard’s soul. I’d be envious about it if I didn’t get the better end of the deal, getting to cuddle with you during the show.” Dante winks at me as if we went to a concert or something.
“You forgot about the chick from his high school.” Kase nudges me with his hand, getting me to make room for him to sit on the couch. If this turns into a common occurrence, I’m going to have to start planting my ass on the floor to sleep. “The prom queen.”
I frown, furrowing my brows. What the hell?