14. Chapter Fourteen

Islammed the empty shot glass on the bar top with such force that it shattered beneath my fingers.

“Hey, come on, man,” Mal chided. He’d been the barkeeper down here for the last two centuries. He’d earned a lesser punishment for good behaviour, although, I wasn’t sure what he did to get it. How do you have good behaviour in Hell? Say ‘thank you’ after every beating or ‘please can I have another one, but a bit harder next time’?

“Sorry.” I tapped my finger on the bar top asking for another drink. I shouldn’t, I was barrelling towards completely drunk, but I was too miserable to care. Ever since I’d snapped Lori’s neck, I’d been in this state of misery and quite content to wallow in my own self-pity. I wreaked of it. It oozed out my pores which was why I found myself surrounded by empty seats. Nobody wanted the brand of misery I was dishing out today. Even Mal was staying away unless he was topping up my drink, but I could tell from the way he was eyeballing me that he would be cutting me off soon. I wouldn’t blame him. I was a mess.

“You wanna talk about it?”

A short demon hopped up into the chair next to me. Fuck my life. A misery demon. There was a gleeful little smile playing about his craggy face and his beady little eyes were watching me intently. These guys loved misery and didn’t often come to the more populated areas because they hated joy.

“No. Fuck off.”

The demon licked his lips. “I could taste your misery from the Depths. Let me help you get it off your chest.”

“Go away.”

“But I can help.”

“Are you listening to me?”

The demon leant closer and sniffed. “I’m listening to the sweet sound of your misery and it’s calling me—”

I grabbed the front of the guy’s shirt and pulled his face towards mine. “I told you to fuck off.” My shadows erupted and encircled us in a dark cage. Glasses smashed, tables overturned and Mal started throwing a hissyfit. I could hear him screaming on the other side of my swirling wisps of shadows but my entire focus was on the shitty little demon squirming in my grip.

“Let go of me.”

“You had your chance to walk away, and now—”

A tug behind my solar plexus had me freezing. Could it be? Lori?

“I knew you’d see reason,” the misery demon cooed.

I launched him away from me and he slammed into the wall, before landing in a heap on the floor. He spluttered and cursed but I didn’t care. I needed to know if it was her. Was she back? Was she free?

“You’d better be paying for this mess,” Mal snapped. He looked pissed but I didn’t have time to soothe his temper.

“Put it on my tab,” I growled before disappearing into my shadows and travelling topside.

I burst into the base, landing in the common room where they tended to gather. Saskia and the dragon were there but she wasn’t. I needed her now. “Where is she?”

My shadows reached into every corner of the room as I struggled to keep a handle on my control. I was seconds away from breaking and slicing flesh from bones if someone didn’t tell me—

“Torsten?”

I froze. It was her voice, but something stopped me from turning around. What if she didn’t want me now? There was no bond of servitude binding us, so what reason would she have to need me? I didn’t have a purpose anymore. I wasn’t any use to anyone, least of all Lori.

What was the point of me anymore?

I flinched when something touched my hand. I looked down and saw her fingers wrapped around mine. I closed my eyes. The last time I’d seen her, I’d had my hands around her neck, right before I—

Her hand cupped my jaw, her skin cool against mine. “Look at me.”

I opened my eyes and there she was. Beautiful and wonderful and mine.

I pulled my shadows back towards me, only to wrap them around her limbs and secure her too me.

“Wait!” someone in the room shouted but I couldn’t wait a second longer. I dragged her into the shadows and transported her to her bedroom.

She gasped as I pushed her against the wall, pinning her there with my hips and forcing her to look deep into my eyes.

She’d changed. A red glow hung about her eyes, and I could see the tell-tale points of her fangs lurking behind her full lips. There was a new darkness in her that I could feel pushing against my shadows. It felt manic and wild. Unstable.

Worry curled in my gut as I stared into her ruby eyes. Mordecai had a plan and I feared that Lori wasn’t going to survive it, no matter how powerful she was now.

Lori ran her thumb between my brows. “Stop worrying so much. You’ll get frown lines.”

I captured her wrist and pulled her hand down over my heart. “I can’t lose you again, Lori. Being without you… seeing you die…” I swallowed, my words sticking in my throat.

She wrapped her free hand around the back of my neck and pulled my forehead down to hers. “I don’t plan on going anywhere ever again. I won’t lie and say I’m not scared about Mordecai because I am. But I know that with you, and the rest of the guys, we have a good chance of coming up with a way to defeat him. Right now, I want you to kiss me because it’s been too long since I’ve felt—”

I didn’t wait for her to finish her sentence. I slammed my mouth to hers and revelled in her gasp that caressed my lips. I forced her mouth open and ran my tongue along the length of hers. She kissed me as eagerly as I kissed her, and my heart soared at the thought of how much she wanted me.

I called my shadows and slid them in between the layers of clothes before slicing through them and ripping them to shreds.

“Torsten! You can’t keep doing that,” she squealed, the smile on her face showing me she wasn’t really mad.

“I will get you more. There were too many buttons, and I couldn’t be bothered to try to remove those trousers. They looked tight.”

She laughed as I slid my palms down to her ass before lifting her into my arms. I turned and fell with her onto the bed, using my shadows to shed my own clothes as well.

“Make love to me, Torsten. Make me feel alive,” Lori said, her hands clutching at my back with desperation.

I sealed my lips against hers and did just that.