Pure Hell (Seventh Level Book 1) (14 page)

“Your life.”

Reaching up she clutched her cross out of habit. “My life?”

“Your mortality, to be more specific.”

“My mortality?” For some reason his presence turned her into an idiot who could do no more than repeat everything he said.

With his hands clasped behind his back, he rocked back on his heels. “Yes, Miss Trace. Your mortality poses an issue for everyone involved.” A big part of her wondered why she hadn’t seen this coming. She should have been more surprised when she walked away from having coffee with him. His hands came to rest on her shoulders and she flinched. His touch was hot.

For the first time, she met his gaze steadily and bile rose in her throat. She saw the emptiness of her life and felt the loss of everyone important to her playing out before her as if watching a movie. She didn’t want this life. Why had no one ever asked her opinion before? Kieran was now. She could see it. He knew the way out.

“Aren’t you tired, Kylie? No one understands you here. Don’t you long for someone to love you?”

In spite of her fear, she scoffed. “What do you know of love?”

Instead of lashing out, Kieran chuckled lightly. “You’re so young, Miss Trace. So naive. You tell me. What is love? Give me your definition.”

Suddenly, she found words failed her. She spread her hands wide indicating her loss. No one had ever asked her such a question before. When she didn’t answer right away, he saved her the trouble.

“Think about it, Miss Trace. Love is a craving. Think about the greed that you feel to have someone holding you. You hunger for it in such a way as to be almost unnatural. Lust gnaws at your gut endlessly. You feel as a glutton because you feed on your unquenched desire daily. You envy every couple you see for the moments they share behind closed doors. The friendship they share calls to you, yet your pride keeps you from showing your true nature to the world. Pride, greed, lust, gluttony and envy.” He closed his eyes for a moment and inhaled deeply, as if savoring those words. When they opened once more, they seemed to shine even brighter than before. “I would say I know a great deal about love.”

God help her, she did want all those things. She knew there was some argument she could make about how pure and good love truly was but at that moment, she couldn’t think of a single one. Perhaps she didn’t want to. A tear slipped down her cheek.

“Yes. That is the perfect description.”

His hands massaged her shoulders lightly as if he sought to comfort her physically. “I could give it to you. I can offer you the life reality has denied you.” His voice lured her in, tempting her to give up everything for the dream he painted. “Nothing holds you to this world, Kylie.”

She licked her lips and her throat went dry. She stared at his chin as she spoke. “Will it hurt?”

Kieran stroked his fingers along her collarbone almost as a lover would. “You won’t feel a thing,” he promised. “It will be just the same as if you’ve gone to sleep. When you wake up, your greatest desires will be waiting on you. I promise.”

It was odd. A part of Kylie’s brain recognized she was dreaming, but she was dreaming of real events. She remembered every thought along with every emotion she’d felt at the time of Kieran’s promise, yet she was looking at it all now from the view of an outsider, seeing things with the twenty-twenty vision only hindsight could bring. She found she could focus on certain details clearer than she did that night. Dropping her gaze to Kieran’s sternum, she slowly lifted her eyes and inspected every inch of his face while trying to ignore her natural inclination to run away. It took her a moment but then she saw it. She wondered how she’d not noticed it before. It was right there in the sharp angle of his jaw and the blue of his eyes. The straight line of his nose and the slight indention in his chin revealed what she should have known all along. It was all the same. The story of Delphine’s past combined with Kieran’s explanation of love all made sense to her in that moment. Liam was their son.

The world went blurry before coming back into sharp focus and she found herself standing inside her apartment. Liam stood a few feet from her staring hard at the etchings on her wall. He leaned closer and the chair beside the bed began to rock. This time, instead of leaping onto his back for protection, she circled his body and caught sight of his face. His eyes had changed color. They were red. A smirk played across his features and as he silently mouthed the words, they appeared on the wall. “Kylie is mine.” Kylie scrambled backward, unable to believe her own eyes, but as her feet moved away, the room spun and transformed yet again. The dark house she’d only been inside once before seemed even colder with the absence of Liam at her side this time. Mr. Rogers sat alone at his kitchen table with the dying sunlight streaming from the window at his back.

Sweat poured down his aged face and the smell of urine filled the air. His teeth chattered so loudly Kylie covered her ears in an attempt to drown out the sound. Her stomach churned with the knowledge of what would come next but she needed to know it all. The gun in the elderly man’s hand shook as he fought against an invisible hold. His eyes were filled with fear and panic. The sounds of his sobs mixed with Kylie’s until she no longer knew whose were louder.

The barrel pressed against his temple with enough force Kylie could see it digging into his skin from across the room. His eyes squeezed shut as it became apparent he could not win. A split second before Mr. Rogers’ head exploded, Kieran’s form appeared at his back as he revealed himself to Kylie.

Holding her gaze, Kieran seemed oblivious to the life he’d ended or the blood covering his clothes. A whimper escaped her lips. His mouth lifted in one corner at the sound.

“Welcome to the family, my beautiful daughter-in-law.”

On a gasp, Kylie’s eyes shot open. She was on the floor and once again inside Delphine’s tiny cabin. Liam hovered over her, smoothing her hair away from face and swiping at her tears. She scrambled onto her knees and away from his touch. “I let him do it. I just stood there and let him kill me.”

A line appeared between his brows. “I don’t understand. Why would you let Mr. Rogers kill you?”

“No. I let Kieran kill me. Oh my God. You’re his son. He killed me and now I’m here with you.”

He made a move as if to comfort her but she shot to her feet and held her hand out halting his progress. “I’m dead and I’m here with you.” She knew she wasn’t making any sense. She was repeating herself, but she couldn’t force her brain to stop buzzing. The room was closing in on her. “Your eyes, they were red and oh my God. I can’t breathe. I need some air. There’s no air.”

Stumbling, she rushed to the front door almost ripping out her nails in her attempt to open it. When the handle finally turned beneath her panicked motions, she ran into the dark. She could hear Liam closing in on her, calling her name, but anything else he said was lost in the haze of her shock. Months of torment packed her mind, mixing with the desperation she’d felt to escape it. Now she was here in the pit of evil with no escape. She didn’t know where she was going or how far she would’ve gone if the water hadn’t halted her footsteps. At the edge of the river, she stared sightless at the glassy water unable to process a single detail. She was dead. It seemed ridiculous, she knew, but for the first time she really understood that this was the end. She wasn’t moving on. There would be no trumpets and no bright light. It was almost funny the way a part of her had held onto the hope she was only dreaming.

“I just didn’t want to be alone anymore,” she whispered into the dark. She looked down at the water at her feet taking note of how there was no reflection.

“Kylie!” She could tell Liam was getting closer. There was nowhere left for her to run but neither was she ready to talk about it. She couldn’t deal.

Something moved beneath the surface of the water. She stared transfixed as it shot out and snagged her by the ankles. She went down hard landing on her back.

“Liam!” she cried, hoping he was close enough to hear her screams. In her panic, she knew, demon or not, he would save her.

She caught sight of him as the vices around her ankles dragged her into the water. A horrified look passed over his face as he ran toward her. He leapt the last few feet in attempt to grab her hand. He wasn’t quick enough. The cold water enveloped her and was over her head before she had time to blink. She fought the hold on her legs, as she scrambled to resurface, but the darkness swallowed her whole.

* * * * *

“I knew better than to let you go in there by yourself. What happened?” Mark rubbed Anne’s hands between his trying to warm them.

Even though it was dark, the heat still was radiating off the sidewalk. In spite of the temperature, Anne shivered and couldn’t stop her teeth from chattering long enough to answer. Mark pulled her into a tight hug. His fresh soapy scent finally stopped her trembling and got her to thinking about something besides Kieran Desdemona’s strange blue eyes. The whole scene from the beginning of entering the nightclub until Justice opened the door for her to go outside into the fresh night air had been similar to something out of movie. Nothing felt real any longer. She needed a sanitizing scrub from head to toe. It was as if a layer of malevolent dust had settled on her and she needed a shower.

As wonderful as it would have been to stay there all night wrapped in his arms, she finally pulled back. “I’m okay. I really am. I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”

He tucked a finger under her chin and lifted her face so she had no choice but to meet his eyes. “Over the last couple of days you have had to view your sister’s body and face some really freaky, scary shit. Through all of this, you have held up better than ninety-nine percent of the world’s population. For you to be this shook up over going into a nightclub, something worse than all those things has to have happened in order to unnerve you. Did you get to meet Mr. Desdemona?”

Mark’s expression clearly stated he would be more than willing to go storming inside and bang a few heads together if he needed to. She placed her hands flat against his chest and could feel his heart racing against her palms. “I can’t even find the words to describe my meeting with Mr. Desdemona. It all boiled down to Madame Curion. She lied to Kylie and had her believing Septem has been after her ever since she was seven to make her his seventh bride. Kylie spent the last part of her life under the assumption this demon wanted her for his wife, but he didn’t.”

“Why was he tormenting her if that wasn’t the reason?”

Anne shrugged. “It turns out Mr. Desdemona isn’t the type of guy who is very helpful. I suspect his answers come at a high price.”

“So you’re saying we’re no closer to learning what happened then we were before?”

She titled her head in a thoughtful manner before adding, “There was something oddly disturbing about him. I can’t put a finger on why he scares me even more than Septem does, besides the fact Septem was obviously very malicious while Mr. Desdemona seemed to radiate evil. It pulsated out at me in tendrils. It was obvious he was testing to see how far I would be willing to go to find Kylie’s killer. I got the impression he was going to offer me a deal.”

When she looked away and sighed, Mark wrapped his arms around her again. She stayed there for a moment before pulling back. “But I’m not trembling anymore.”

He grinned sheepishly. “I know.”

She reluctantly stepped away. No one had ever been so caring of her feelings before. While it would have been nice to stay in the protective circle of his arms the rest of the night, this trip to New Orleans was not about her finding love. She looked around at the shabby neighborhood and then back at Mark. “I don’t know what to do next. It all seemed so simple when I flew here. I would see my sister’s body and arrange to have it sent back to Tennessee to be buried next to Aunt Maria, but the only thing I have accomplished so far is attract the attention of an evil demon.” She crossed her arms and lifted her chin. “If you were me, what would you do next?”

He slipped his hands into his front pockets. “It’s simple. If I were you, I would let the most handsome detective in New Orleans take me out to dinner.”

She gave him all-encompassing head to toe body scan. “You wouldn’t happen to know this guy would you?”

He blushed and smiled shyly. “I admire you, Anne Trace. You have heart and gumption.” He offered his arm and waited for her to slip her hand through it before heading toward his car. “So, are you saying yes to my dinner invitation?”

She bumped her hip up against his. “Of course. I wouldn’t miss a night out with the best looking detective in New Orleans for anything.”

Too much food and too many nights without enough sleep had Anne falling asleep in the car on the way back to Mark’s house. When he finally pulled into his driveway he touched her shoulder to let her know it was time to get out of the car and go into the house.

“Wake up, sleepyhead.”

Anne opened her eyes slowly and sighed. “Can’t we stay out here tonight? I’m afraid to sleep by myself.”

Mark leaned toward her. “I’ll bite the bullet and sleep with you.” He nudged her. “Really. I don’t mind.”

Even in the dark, he had the sexiest smile she had ever seen before. “Just for protection.” She pretended not to notice the fleeting look of disappointment. “You know I’m leaving here soon right? It wouldn’t be fair for either one of us to get too involved.”

Mark kissed her cheek. “So who are you trying to convince? You or me?”

Anne turned and placed her hands on both sides of his face cradling it there for the longest time before she finally answered, “Me.”

He returned her intense stare with one of his own. “I promise to stay by your side until I see you board your plane to go home.” He gently touched her cheek. “I’ll stay with you and keep you safe. I won’t let anything bad happen to you and that’s all I have planned for tonight.”

A well of disappointment bubbled in the pit of her stomach even though she knew it was for the best. Things were far too complicated already. The smart thing to do was to not cross any lines that couldn’t be uncrossed, but for once she wished she could do what her heart desired instead of what her head reasoned. That had always been her problem. She let her head rule and heart be damned. She’d lost a sister that way.