Unfortunately, the end wasn’t near. I’d passed out before the twins had finished working me over, and now I sat curled up in the corner wondering if I would survive this. Every part of my body throbbed. From the hair on my head to the nails on my toes, I ached. It felt like days had passed since they’d tortured me nearly to death, yet I still wasn’t healing like I should. I needed nourishment and the strength of Mammon and the others to make me better. Being around others of my kind helped. Even the snake twins might make my healing speed up, but they hadn’t been back since they’d sliced the side of my face.
Gently, I laid down on my side. Shivering in the dampness, I closed my eyes and tried to think of things that would help me get through this. Leviathan couldn’t keep me here forever, right? Surely Mammon would tell him to stop torturing me even if she couldn’t set me free. In my hazy mind, the thought of being one of his mistresses started to appeal to me. I enjoyed sex and seduction much more than pain and torture.
But then I thought about Jericho.
I shouldn’t have let his image seep into my head, because now I wanted to see him so bad it hurt. Despite our limited time together, he’d stolen my heart. It was wrong for me to love an angel, I knew that. But it wasn’t right for Ashby to marry a human. Or a shifter to be with a witch. Or for a snake to transform in my sister. The world was full of wrongs. Jericho and I were just one small part of it.
I suddenly had a thought. What if Leviathan had hurt Jericho when he stripped me away? Or Jericho’s brothers? There was certainly no loved lost between the four of them. What if they’d sided with Leviathan and did something awful to my angel. I could survive my own pain and torment, but I could not survive Jericho’s. Especially since it was caused by me and me alone.
Those feelings made me laugh. Was it not just a few days ago when I fought with him in the antique store? I’d been so pissed, so angry with the way he’d interfered, that if someone would have told me I’d sacrifice everything for that same angel…I would have ripped their soul from their body over and over again. No, I had no plans of falling in love with my enemy. But the heart wants what the heart wants. That was the saying, right?
Smiling hurt my face, but I did it anyway. I tried to remember the way Jericho looked at me after his brothers almost killed me. And the way his lips felt against mine when we realized just how alone we were. The warmth of his skin and the dominating way he took control of me and my pleasure. The pancakes. The sight of him cooking for me. That smile.
I let the tears fall while I remembered the short, but wonderful time we had together.
The air popped in my cell, momentarily sucking the breath out of me. I slowly lifted my head to see what had just appeared. And when I saw who it was, a rush of pain radiated from my chest.
“You’re not real,” I whispered.
“Arabella!” Jericho, wearing only a pair of dark blue jeans and letting his wings free, rushed to my side. “What did they do to you?”
“You’re not real.” It was a trick. A sick, twisted trick by Leviathan or his snake girls.
Jericho’s hands settled on my ribs and I winced as he tried to lift my shirt. He sucked in a breath and swore several times as he examined me. “Can you sit?” His voice was edged with a vicious growl I hadn’t heard from him before.
“How did you find me?” I still didn’t believe this was real, but something about his presence, even if it was false, gave me strength.
“Mammon tracked you down,” he said, still studying my body.
“How?”
He hesitated and a piece of that hope inside me disappeared. But then he smiled, that one where a tiny corner of his mouth turns up and a small dimple appears. “Her hounds.”
“Ivan and Tore?”
“Can you sit?”
Slowly pushing to my elbows I grimaced when the stab wound in my stomach twisted on the inside. As though my muscles were ripping apart all over again, the sharp, stinging pain stopped me cold. “I don’t know if I should move.”
Jericho lifted my shirt and looked down at the bloodied mess. “I will kill him,” he growled. “Here, let me try to heal you.”
“No, you can’t. He’ll know you’re here.”
“Arabella, if I don’t help, you might not heal at all.” His voice hitched and his eyes glistened. “Please, let me try to help you.”
Placing his hands underneath my shoulders and knees, Jericho gently picked me up and stood. “Where are we going?”
“I need more light.” He set me down in the middle of my cell and I did my best not to show just how bad I hurt. On my back, Jericho brushed his fingers down the side of my face and smiled down at me. “You are so beautiful,” he whispered.
“I’m damaged.”
He chuckled and bent forward to kiss me. His soft, sweet lips covered my mouth and even though I couldn’t move much, I did my best to kiss him back. Slipping his tongue inside, the heat inside of me grew despite the pain marring the surface. No other had this kind of power over me. Jericho melted my heart with each touch and when he pulled away, I felt the agony of his loss crush me from the inside out.
I tried to reach out to him but had to stop when the slice on my arm ripped open again. “Don’t move, Arabella. Just hold still.”
A bright light glowed around the edges of his wings. With eyes closed and mouth moving in a silent incantation, Jericho focused on the stab wound first. I still wondered if this was really him, but when I started to feel the muscles and skin pull back together inside my abdomen, I cried. It was really him. Jericho was really here.
And he was going to save me.
Tears fell down my cheeks while I lay on my back and let him do his work. I knew it wouldn’t be long before he was discovered by Leviathan or his snakes. He had to work fast and I had to hold still so he could. Despite wanting to grab him by the arms and pull him down on top of me, I needed to relax. But the way his biceps flexed and his chiseled jaw moved when he spoke, I had a hard time complying.
Jericho was here and I wanted him so bad.
He let out a small laugh. “I know what you’re thinking.”
“How?”
“Your nipples are hard,” he teased.
I lifted the shirt up high enough to expose my breasts. “Are they?”
He made a growling sound and turned to face me. “You’re making this very difficult.”
Running my fingers over my chest, I grinned. “Am I?”
Quickly dropping his head, Jericho sucked on my swollen nub and gently bit down. An instant wave of pleasure shot through my legs, curling my toes. The pain I’d felt disappeared as I enjoyed the feel of his lips on my skin.
He continued to suck, sliding his hand down my now-healed stomach and onto the top of my thigh. I ran my fingers through his hair and pushed my hips up into his hand. Smiling against my breast, he nipped it again. And then he slid his fingers underneath my lace thongs and against my warm folds.
“So wet for me,” he whispered, coming closer to my face so he could look down at me. “How easily I turn you on.”
He slipped a finger inside and let his thumb caress my clit. “You do,” I breathed. It was strange to me that I could hurt so bad a few moments ago and now all I felt was the pain of needing a release.
“We’re so opposite yet so compatible.” Continuing to bring me closer to orgasm, he pushed another finger inside and picked up speed. The heel of his hand ground into my sex and I pressed closer to him.
“Come here,” I whispered, pulling his head down. “Kiss me.”
With a deep laugh, he complied. Our tongues danced together while he stroked between my legs. I didn’t miss the light radiating from his white wings while he touched me. Perhaps his healing was continuing because I was starting to feel better and better the more he touched me.
“I love the way you squeeze me,” he growled into my lips.
I tightened my muscles around his fingers. “Don’t stop.”
He brushed his nose against mine and headed back toward my breasts. His hand rubbed back and forth between my legs and the heat quickly built. It felt so good to have him touch me, especially when I thought it would never happen again. I ground my hips against his hand, panting at the way it made me feel.
“That’s right, Arabella. Let me make you better.” Jericho sucked on my nipple and squeezed my flesh. “Let me erase the pain. Forget about what the snakes did to you and succumb to me.”
I froze. On the verge of orgasm, and not wanting that excitement to go away, I didn’t like what my mind had just recognized. Licking my lips and trying to find the words, I finally pushed them out. “How did you know about the snakes?”
Jericho smiled and kissed me gently on the lips. “You told me.”
“I didn’t.” Panic seized my heart. Clamping my legs together, I started to drag myself away from him. “I didn’t tell you.”
With a sigh, my angel sat back on his knees and watched me keenly as I scampered further away. “But I healed you.”
Looking down at my stomach, I saw that the wound was gone. Then I examine my arms and my legs, only to find the same thing. They were still covered in dried blood, but none of the cuts and scrapes were there. I touched my face. “It’s gone,” I whispered when I didn’t feel that last slice the snake twins had given me.
“Because I healed you.”
The angel in front of me sounded like Jericho. He looked like Jericho. His wings were—all white. “Where are the gray feathers?”
“The what?” He turned his head from side to side trying to see his wings.
My stomach plummeted. “You missed the gray feathers,” I whispered. Just like Ashby’s scar, the demon had forgot to mimic one important detail. “Who are you?”
“I am your angel.”
I shook my head. “No, you’re not. Who are you?” I shouted that last question because I was so angry at myself for falling for this trick. Right now, I was pissed, but soon I had a feeling that I would slip into a dark hole of sadness when I realized Jericho was never here. Mammon hadn’t found me. Her hounds hadn’t tracked me down. I was here trapped forever.
The angel laughed—cackled actually. He stood slowly, stretching his arms above his head and allowing the sharp angles of his abs to triangle down underneath the pants. Reaching over his left shoulder, he plucked a feather from his wing. “You see, Arabella. There are worse ways to be tortured.”
In an instant, Jericho disappeared and Leviathan stood in his place. A fog of red smoke snaked around his form, wearing pants and nothing else. He stepped forward, forcing me to crawl back against the wall. “How did you heal me?”
His lips curled up into a sneer. “I’m an archdemon, Arabella. I have the power to prolong your life as long as I want.”
“You healed me just so you could torture me again?” With quivering lips and trembling hands, I tried to sound strong. “I don’t understand why you hate me so much.”
“Hate you?” he laughed. “Oh no, I don’t hate you.” He rushed to my side and knelt in front of me. Using the white feather to trace the lines of my jaw, he pressed his lips together. “I admire how strong you are, spawn of Mammon. But I need to break you.”
“Break me?” I whispered.
“Break. You.” His words echoed in the cell and I heard the hissing sounds within the walls. Leviathan stood, his head almost reaching the ceiling. “You will be a nice treat when you are finished.” Turning on his heal, he stalked toward the iron bars—and he walked right through them.
I scrambled to my feet and ran toward them. With fingers wrapped tightly around the iron, I screamed through the openings. “You will never break me,” I growled. “I will never belong to you.”
He turned and looked at me with his dragon eyes and glare that shook me to the core. “Oh, you will. You’re almost there.”
A tingling feeling rushed through my sex, making my knees buckle. I hung on the bars as I tried to will the intense wave of pleasure away.
Leviathan laughed. “Almost there,” he cooed.
“I won’t break,” I said. When he turned, waving the feather behind him, the warmth between my legs disappeared. He lifted his hand and a door off to my left opened with a groan. I hadn’t seen it there before and wondered if this was another illusion. But when a black shadow rushed out of it and circled the archdemon, I knew what he had planned.
“No,” I breathed.
Another wraith. Or maybe the same one from the bridge. The shadow circled a few more times and then hovered over Leviathan’s head. When the demon nodded, the dark force darted straight for me.
I barely had time to duck as it pushed right through the bars and entered the tiny space. Spreading out like a fog, the darkness covered the wall in front of me. I trembled with the knowledge of what would happen next. Leviathan had healed me only to be damaged again. That sonofabitch messed with my mind and my body. And now he was out for more blood.
As the wraith spanned the entire room, I tried to convince myself that I could survive this. I would not break. I would not belong to Leviathan. I would not fear the pain.
And just as the wraith rushed toward me, I covered my head and thought about Jericho.