Hard to Kill (Hell Hounds Harem Book 6) Page 30

  It wasn’t easy. Took her six motherfucking tries. But she managed to rip that bitch’s head clean off her shoulders. Next, Tilly tried to spit blood into her hand to work a spell. Her injuries healed too fast though. Biting down on her tongue, Tilly made a fresh wound and spit out enough blood to work with.

  Come out, come out, whoever you are. Tilly made the symbol Zaza taught her when she was trying to learn spirit bindings.

  A malanum tore out of the chest cavity of the corpse and screeched. “Don’t hurt me! Don’t hurt me! He made us do this!”

  Tilly didn’t want to hear excuses. She opened a Hell hole, snatched the bitch by her arm, and slung her into the pits of Hell so fast, Tilly didn’t have time to enjoy the feeling of victory.

  Quickly closing the hole, Tilly searched for the stick she’d used to stab them with earlier. She also grabbed a broken piece of the chair. It wasn’t as good as a knife or a wooden stake, but it would have to do.

  Slinking towards the door, she opened it, and turned into ghost form again. Running down the corridor, she saw a tattooed arm shoot out a second before she was clotheslined. Oomph! She landed hard on her ass.

  Then… she felt her pack.

  Tremors wracked her while she crab-crawled backwards to get away from the man coming at her with the knife. “Help! Vivian, help!”

  As one unit, the Hell Hounds froze and Valor pivoted with his gun out and ready. Tilly was here. The minute they landed in whatever place this was, they could all feel Tilly through their bond. They smelled her too. It was faint, but her scent was here.

  “Help! Vivian, help!” Tilly’s terrified voice echoed down the hall.

  Her words were a code. Vivian was dead and they all knew it. And Tilly also had to know her pack had arrived by feeling them through the bond too. If she was asking Vivian for help, it meant she was in immediate distress and she was warning them to look out for the dead. She’d also just given away her location with her call-out.

  So the dead had truly risen. This wasn’t going to be easy to get out of. Not with how tight these dark tunnels were.

  “Mark our way,” Valor growled in low tones. Drake sliced his palm and slammed his hand against the wall every few paces as they ran down the corridor.

  Tilly’s next shout was cut off by a choking noise.

  “Fuck!” Drake and Sebastian said at the same time.

  Valor rounded the corner first, and stopped just short of having a motherfucking heart attack.

  Tilly dangled in the air, fighting for all she was worth, while being choked by a huge warrior. Valor was stunned stupid for a heartbeat. At first, all he saw were the arms and hands wrapped around Tilly’s neck. Valor knew those marks. He remembered those tattoos. He had a set just like them once. And then he caught the crest with seven swords impaling it.

  A strange numbness engulfed Valor after that. As the world stopped spinning, Valor exhaled slowly as he looked past the arm, up to the shoulder, to the neck, and finally the face. Their gazes met and the man smiled and slammed Tilly against the wall without even looking at her while he did it.

  “You always were a glutton for punishment, Valor,” the bastard said.

  Valor’s pack stood at his back, barking and snarling but Valor wouldn’t let them pass. The corridor darkened. Valor got tunnel vision.

  “Mackenzie,” Valor’s voice was warped. “Let her go.”

  “Think I should do to her what my men did to your little wife Sara?” Mackenzie grabbed between Tilly’s legs and she screamed and kicked and thrashed against the wall.

  The world moved in slow motion. Valor pointed his gun and fired. He charged forward, each step feeling like he was trudging through mud with weights tied to his boots. Pop! Pop! Pop! He emptied his chamber into his brother, Mackenzie.

  And the bastard never dropped.

  Malanum crawled out of every direction of the tunnel, surrounding them, dropping down and fighting the pack.

  Mackenzie laughed uproariously, “Welcome to Hell, Valor.”

  The corridor grew so dark, what little light the sconces offered winked out and they plunged into darkness. Barks, shouts, screams and hisses ricocheted in the tunnels. Something wet splattered in Valor’s face.

  That was the last thing he remembered before wrath consumed him.

  Chapter 38

  The world was chaos and death and Tilly was smack dab in the middle of the shit storm. While being choked half-to-death, she stuck her thumbs into the eyes of the fucker holding her by the throat. Pressing in as hard as she could, she crushed his eyeballs like grapes. His grip loosened but it wasn’t from what she’d done, it was because someone was hauling him backwards. She dropped to the floor and scrambled away.

  “Tilly!” Bishop roared.

  She reached out to find her Hounds and snatched someone by their leg. It felt like leather. Stiff leather. Stiff, sticky, smelly leather. Not leather! Not leather! Too late, something bit her hand and she let go with a yelp and swung out with her left hook, hitting a malanum. It hissed and backed off.

  “Here!” Drake’s voice boomed in her ears. She felt something sharp against her arm and grabbed it. A knife! Thank god! “Remember your training!” he yelled.

  In the center of the storm with malanum, Hell Hounds, and death clashing together, Tilly tried to find her calmness. She could do this. She had everything she needed to get out of this: Her mind, her strength, her pack. She could abso-motherfucking-lutely do this.

  As chaos swirled around her, Tilly focused on the layout of the hallway. There was a sconce about three feet away from her on the right. She whispered a spell, praying to every deity under the sun that it would work, and she blew out a long puff of air, aiming towards the wick. Didn’t work so, she tried again.

  It lit.

  Someone shoved into her from behind and sent her sprawling forward. From the ground, Tilly reached up and lit the next wick. Then a third. The corridor illuminated just enough for her to see everything. Her night vision was pretty damned good, but having more light made this much more doable, especially considering they were outnumbered three-to-one.

  Tilly stabbed a malanum in the back of the head and ripped it away from the ever-growing pile attacking Bishop. He roared and snapped his teeth, striking out with a blade in each hand. The twins were on the ceiling, shredding their enemies, limb from limb.

  Valor, however, was a fucking monster. His eyes blazed red as he swung, non-stop, at anything that came too close to him.

  “Valor!” Tilly screamed.

  He didn’t hear her. Or at least he didn’t acknowledge her. She crawled forward and took out another malanum creeping closer to her Alpha. Meanwhile, the fucker named Mackenzie charged at Valor, full-throttle. The two of them crashed into each other, their bodies slamming into the walls and part of the ceiling cracked and crumbed.

  “Get her out of here!” Bishop roared.

  Sebastian dropped down from the ceiling, grabbed Tilly, and started hauling her away. “Come on! Go! Go! Go!”

  “I’m not leaving my fucking pack!” She twisted out of his hold and ran back.

  “Damnit, Tills!” Sebastian grabbed her again and tossed her over his shoulder. She was so pissed, she stabbed him in the ass with her blade.

  Sebastian yelped and held her tighter. “You’ll pay for that later.”

  Tilly screamed and fought the whole way out of there. Watching the fight get further and further away, she wailed and sobbed, desperate to go back and fight. She couldn’t leave them. She couldn’t! They didn’t know what they were up against down there. “Baz! Please!”

  He jolted her so much, bile rose in her throat.

  “Trust us, Tills.”

  “But we can’t leave them!”

  Sebastian ran down another hall and stopped. Then he growled. Tilly turned to look at what Sebastian was snarling at and saw a girl standing in his way. “Baz, let me down.” His grip tightened on her, possessively. “Let me down, Hound. Now.”

  If he wasn�
��t going to kill a kid, Tilly would. She didn’t trust a single thing down here. Her mother was just a dead body that had been fixed and possessed. Chances were, this girl was in the same category.

  “She’s not living, Baz. Kill her!”

  He hesitated.

  “I saved you,” the child said. “Remember that, dog.”

  Sebastian put Tilly down slowly. When he limped to the side, she felt bad for stabbing him in the ass. It was going to slow him down until it healed. Did he heal as fast as she did? Shit. She didn’t know. Now she felt double guilty.

  “Who are you?” Baz asked. He pulled his gun but didn’t point it at the girl. Yet.

  “Someone you don’t want to fuck with,” the child’s voice wasn’t kid-like anymore. It was deep like a woman’s. “Be grateful it was me. The others aren’t so merciful.”

  Nothing made any fucking sense down this rabbit hole.

  “I saved you too,” the child jabbed a finger in Tilly’s direction. “Pascale was supposed to bring you back to Master one way or another. I’m the one who made sure you went to the right Angel. I’m the one who possessed Pascale and killed you. She’d have never had the guts to do it herself. And Master killed Pascale when he found out you were dead and she hadn’t brought you back to him. She was dead, either way, she just didn’t know it yet when she made a deal with him. Then her soul slipped into the light before he could catch it. But you better remember who put you in your fucking place. It was me. I’m the one who saved you.”

  Tilly struggled to process the bullshit coming out of the girl’s mouth.

  “Remember that,” the girl hissed, “because we’re going to see more of each other.”

  There was a booming roar somewhere behind them. Tilly’s heart slammed in her chest. “Valor!” Now that Sebastian had let go of her, she could race back to help. Baz grabbed her before she got too far.

  “Get her gone before we’re caught!” The child ran off, leaving the two Hounds to figure out which way to go.

  Tilly saw red splotches on the wall. She inhaled and caught a faint whiff of Drake’s scent. Drake’s blood. Oh God, she needed to turn around! Again, she fought Baz, “Put me down! We have to go back!” He growled and bit the side of her thigh. It shocked her enough to make her freeze for a moment. He carried her into a room and yelled, “Take Tilly!”

  The world flipped and swirled as Tilly was hoisted up towards a—

  The fuck? Someone’s arm was protruding from a hole in the ceiling.

  “GRAB IT!” Sebastian roared at her.

  The sense of urgency came back, full-steam. It was like time spun differently and everything happened too fast. Tilly reached for the hand, Baz boosted her, and whoever was on the other side of the hole yanked her up and out.

  She landed on top of Tanner. Breathing fast, Tilly scrambled forward and shoved her arm into the hole she’d just come out of. “Baz, take my hand!” No answer. “BAZ!”

  Tanner grabbed her waist, “Move!” he slung her to the side like she was a bag of laundry. Then he clasped his hands with Jack again. The two men chanted at an alarming pace. Jack was turning grey, sweat poured off him in rivulets. Tanner’s bright blue eyes were peeled wide, the tendons in his neck protruding.

  “Oh God, Oh God, Oh God.” Tilly didn’t know what to do. She needed to help her pack! How the fuck could she get back down there. And if she did, was she going to do more harm than good? Her Hounds wanted her out of there. She wanted out of there. But Tilly also needed to do something besides sit and wait. She needed to help her pack.

  “Let me in,” Tilly broke apart Jack and Tanner’s connection and gripped their hands with hers. She knew the spell Jack was spinning. It was in a book she stole from a Voodoo Priest once. Closing her eyes, Tilly found her center, opened her mind, and started chanting right along with them.

  Chapter 39

  Bishop and Drake took out most of the malanum while Sebastian ran off to get Tilly to safety. Valor was at the other end of the tunnel, going ballistic with a man who just wouldn’t fucking die.

  Bishop rolled over and tried to catch his breath. The walls were closing in on him. The roars in his head were as loud as the ones ripping out of Valor’s throat right now. Drake opened a Hell hole and they started tossing the malanum in.

  Another terrible sound came from Valor’s direction and Bishop struggled to hang onto his sanity. He booked it towards the big man fighting Valor and realized that he wasn’t going to be any use here. Valor had finished what that other guy had started. The fucker dropped like a sack of bricks while Valor continued to pummel him with his fists. His knife was discarded. His gun had no more bullets. Valor’s fists and fury were all he needed to slay his enemy.

  Valor roared and kept attacking the body on the ground. He tore at it. Ripped and bit it. He screamed and spat and snarled. The man under attack laid there, laughing. It was terrifying. So much so, Bishop crept around Valor and dropped to the other side of them. He grabbed the guy’s head and ripped it off with one hard jerk.

  At least the fucker had stopped laughing.

  Or so he thought.

  A malanum crawled out of the dead guy’s neck, laughing and wheezing, and he spat in Valor’s face. Bishop pulled out his gun and shot it in the back of the head, dropping it immediately.

  Valor didn’t even notice. He just kept tearing that body apart. He was soaked in blood and filth. Everything stunk.

  “Alpha!” Bishop roared. Fuck he couldn’t breathe. Everything started getting wobbly. He needed air. He needed to escape. “Valor! He’s gone!”

  Drake opened another Hell hole and kicked the malanum into it. “He’s too far gone, man. It’s like what happened at Tilly’s apartment.”

  Valor’s face had malanum spit all over it. His eyes blazed red. He shook with rage. And once Drake tossed the last body part into the Hell hole, there was nothing left for Valor to fight.

  Nothing but them.

  “Run! He’s going to chase us!” Bishop scrambled to his feet and headed down the hall at a dead run. Drake was two steps ahead of him. They tore off at full speed and Valor howled once then was hot on their heels. They rounded the corner and Drake slammed into Sebastian who was on his way back to help them.

  “Go! Go! Go!”

  They made it all the way back to the room. The hole was bigger now and wide fucking open.

  Bishop looked back again, “Shit! Go! GO! He’s right on top of us!”

  Valor slammed into the wall and more of it collapsed down in his wake. The fear of getting buried alive again was real. Bishop’s eyes peeled wide as panic started to choke him. Drake and Baz split off in the room, one going left, the other right, and they ran to the portal hole at the same time. Bishop was too paralyzed by his own weaknesses to do the same. Valor crashed into him. More stone crumbled.

  “Valor!” Bishop roared.

  The Hell Hound either didn’t hear him or didn’t recognize his own name. Valor’s only response was smashing Bishop in the face with his big fist.

  Bishop barked, a low throaty sound that the animal in Valor would pay better attention to. Valor’s red gaze locked on Bishop’s. He bared his teeth. Another growl ripped from the alpha’s throat.

  Bishop exposed his neck. It worked for Tilly when she did this with Valor, hopefully it would work now too. Whatever they’d infected Valor with could be counteracted if he fought hard enough. He needed to trust that Valor would not bite down and rip his throat out.

  Valor slammed Bishop into the wall again. Then he did it a third time. Bishop kept his neck exposed and ignored the screams all around him. They were coming from up above and in his head. Holding his breath, he stiffened and accepted whatever the fuck was about to happen.

  There was a very real possibility he wouldn’t make it out of here alive. His life was truly in Valor’s grip right now. Bishop stretched his neck as far as he could and looked away from Valor. Standing in the doorway behind his out of control alpha was a little girl.

  Kat
ie. Bishop’s eyes filled with tears. A sorrowful sigh escaped his lips as he watched the child stare at him. He blinked, letting a tear go free and kept his eyes on her, not his Alpha.

  It’s not Katie. Yes it is. Not it’s not. Yes it is.

  It wasn’t. His baby girl had eyes like the summer sky and a nose that was shaped like his. Her hair was dark, but not as dark as this child’s. Her mouth was like a cupid’s bow, all pouty and full. This child only had a full bottom lip. It wasn’t her. It wasn’t Katie.

  Valor trembled and continued holding Bishop in place. With a snarl, Valor lunged forward and bit Bishop’s throat so hard they both heard the crunch of skin breaking. Bishop yelped but didn’t dare fight back. When he looked for the girl again, she was gone.

  Above him, a howl tore through the air. Bishop’s instinct was to respond with a howl back, but he couldn’t with his alpha chewing on the flesh above his goddamn jugular. Two more howls joined in. Valor froze. Bishop whimpered.

  Valor released his hold and stepped back. Blood covered his mouth. He swayed on his feet and Bishop caught him just before he dropped to the ground. “I got you,” Bishop’s voice was barely a whisper.

  “Forgive me,” Valor croaked.

  Howls erupted again.

  Instincts dictated a response, so they both howled back to their pack – Valor’s was weak, Bishop’s was broken. A hand pierced through the hole in the middle of the room and Bishop shoved Valor forward. He needed to get them out of there. The walls were too close. The air was all gone. The ground was rising. The ceiling was sinking.

  “Bishop!” Valor yelled in his face, “Up! Now!”

  Of course Valor would fight to make sure he was the last man standing in this shit show. The alpha always made sure his entire pack was safe and put himself last. Bishop didn’t even try to argue with him, he wanted out too badly right now.

  Bishop grabbed the hand reaching for him and was lifted up and out. Next thing he knew, he was lying flat on his back, staring at Tilly.