“What if she used the secondary trigger on Jahl?” Gage asks as all the hands leave my body at once.

The bed rustles as though they’re getting up, when Kai says, “That could work. So long as we were able to weaken it first.”

“What’s happening?” I ask as their voices start moving away.

“So long as we make ourselves strong enough, it could be the best strategy—”

The sound of a door shutting seals off the voices, and I wiggle my head between my arms, working the blindfold down enough to open my eyes and blink away the blurriness.

My head swivels from side to side, taking in the empty room.

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” I whimper, feeling that strong ache intensifying into a miserable pulse.

I jerk at the ropes, but they’re clearly not your average ropes. Flames burst from my hands, and they stay firmly tied to some black hook thingies in the walls.

Glancing down at my feet, I take note that they’re tied off to some other black hook thingies in the walls as well. I’m not tied to the bed, or I could just blast the hell out of it, masturbate away my pain, and then scheme up some insufferable retribution.

“There will be hell to pay for this!” I shout as loud as I can. “I’m the embodiment of Wrath! Remember?! I’m The Apocalypse! You’re supposed to be under my command! You’re my harem! Come give me pleasure and shower me with gifts of apology!” I call out even louder.

Silence is my answer.

My head thumps back down on the bed, and I glare at the ropes. Their blood, eh? Yeah, I can see how this could be used against me.

Something tells me the old, paranoid me wouldn’t run that risk. Surely it’s a temporary weakness.

Chapter 12

KAI

Scrubbing a hand over my face, I groan. I can still taste her, and it’s killing me.

“I really don’t understand why I can’t go back in there and at least get mine. I’ll deprive her of hers,” I promise them, still arguing my own case.

“You’re weak. She’ll break you and turn you into her toy, have you worshiping her body, and then occupy you the rest of the night,” Jude says in a slurred tone as he stumbles into the wall.

He grunts as his head hits, and he slides down until his ass hits the floor.

“I’m gonna need a break,” he tells us, tossing aside the empty jar.

This is possibly the drunkest I’ve ever seen him. Earlier was the most pissed I’d ever seen him.

“She’s going to be furious,” Gage says as Jude summons a fresh bottle of liquor that materializes from thin air.

“She’s going to be furious?” Jude asks incredulously, pointing a finger at his chest as his glassy eyes barely stay open. “I’m furious. That damn woman thinks we’re supposed to fit this puppy-dog sweet romantic fantasy she has of us, even as she reads about what twisted fucks we used to be—”

“We’re still twisted fucks,” Gage inserts dryly, glancing back down the hallway with a confused brow.

“The point is, she’s maddening. Why does she have to be so maddening?” Jude rants on, sighing as he slumps and starts downing the new batch of liquor.

I follow Gage’s line of view, as Ezekiel tries to wrestle away the liquor from Jude.

“What’s wrong?” I ask him, not seeing anything in particular to draw so much suspicion.

“This hallway…it feels different than it did a few minutes ago,” he murmurs almost absently, his gaze distant and his attention distracted.

I glance around again for anything I might have missed.

“I don’t feel anything.”

“Because you’re not as keen as I am,” the arrogant son of a bitch says as he moves away from me. He pauses, and I watch as he stiffens. “Ready yourselves. Someone’s watching.”

His sword appears in his hand, and that stupid fucking gladiator uniform takes over as though he’s summoned it.

How the hell did he do that?

Why did he do that?

My weapon appears, though I still don’t know what has his hackles—

“It’s an illusion!” Ezekiel shouts from behind us, just as Gage spins and stabs the wall beside him.

The wall starts bleeding, and the walls begin to waver until the illusion shatters. I suck in a sharp breath when I notice we’re completely surrounded. We’re not in the hallways of the Heart, either. We’re inside a large, cavernous area full of soldiers in onyx, knight’s armor.

Jude flops down, the faux wall no longer propping him up, and his head slams into the scorched stone ground beneath us.

He grunts and groans, as we all look around at the hundreds and hundreds of soldiers packed into this place. Our circle is damn small, because there’s not much space between us and them.

“I picked the wrong night to get drunk,” Jude grumbles as he struggles to his feet, swaying as his scythe appears. “But I’m still good to kill a bunch of fools. So long as they’ll stop spinning.”

A man falls from the end of Gage’s sword, and writhes as he turns to ash.

“You picked the wrong guys to fuck with. Especially tonight,” Gage says as he smirks.

I twirl my triton, my own excitement growing. I have some frustration to work out, since we voted we couldn’t fuck Paca tonight.

Jude swings out his scythe, and the front row bend backwards in an unnatural, quick way dodging the blow.

Jude staggers as they just lift back up like one of those creepy demonic possession movies. Red and black smoke plumes around them with their movements, ceasing once they’re still again.

“The fuck?” Ezekiel asks as we back into each other.

“I don’t know what just happened, but that whole row should be a shriveled pile of ashes right now. Why isn’t my power working?” Jude gripes as he backs into us as well.

Gage swings out his sword, and the same thing happens. They dodge effortlessly, even as he strikes again, careful not to put too much distance between us.

He quickly backs into us as the red and black smoke reappear with their unnatural movements, the metal of their armor the only sound in the cavern.

“My power didn’t work either,” Gage says quietly. “Something’s not right,” he adds.

“Okay…so we physically fight our way through this. Should be simple enough. After all, it’s still Hell. Even I can feel that,” Jude says as he tosses the bottle down and twirls his scythe.

“No, don’t—”

Gage swallows his words as Jude launches a reckless strike, swinging the scythe over and over, until he’s sucked into the masses that close up on him.

I watch in horror as they run a spear through him before we can slice our way in his direction. We’re forced to leap over them when they duck and dodge our attacks.

I manage to slice through two, who turn to ash immediately, and land at Jude’s side as he chokes on his own blood, the spear sticking through him as he drops to his knees, gasping for air.

“The fucking hell is that thing?!” I snap, noticing they’re all armed with those spears that light up with that same red and black smoke that is now swirling through his middle.

“S-s-someone’s t-t-trying to break into my mind,” Jude gargles.

One of the soldiers steps forward, and they all militantly clear a path for him as he marches his way toward us.

Gage rips the spear out of Jude, who muffles a sound of pain, as the lone soldier comes to stand at attention in front of us.

“Surrender yourselves,” it says.

The voice sounds like it’s comprised of a thousand voices of varying pitches and tones that all echo around the massive cavern. The hair on my body all tries to rise at the same time, because this can’t be good.

“Surrender yourselves,” it says again when we stare ahead.

“Think this is Lucifer or hell-spawn?” Ezekiel asks quietly.

“Our powers have been stifled, so I’d say there’s a good chance,” I point out as I try and fail to use my own power.

Jude chokes up more blood, bleeding heavily.

“We need to get him the fuck out of here and to see a healer. Now,” Gage grinds out.

“Get drunk one time, and this shit happens,” Jude groans, even as he visibly fights through pain. “Something wants in my fucking head,” he goes on, while the nefarious smoke continues to plume from his wound.

“You can’t defeat me,” the chilling medley of voices continues. “I will rule. Surrender yourselves. Take my mark. Free me.”

That chill slithers all the way up my spine this time, and I swallow thickly.

“Is that what I think it is?” I ask in a hushed tone full of dread.

“Apocalypse will destroy the world. I will take their souls,” it goes on, only making that sick knot grow tighter. “Surrender yourselves.”

“I’m getting a little tired of hearing that. I’ll be damned if you get in my head,” Jude says through clenched teeth as he manages to stand, clutching his hand over the wound as he holds his scythe. “Even wounded and drunk, I’ll still hack them all to ash.”

As one, the entire set of soldiers lift their spears.

“I wish you’d shut up for a minute,” I state dryly, taking a steadying breath as I prepare to face a lot of those fucking spears.