Descent (Kissed by Death) - Tara Fuller Page 0,22
middle and watched Easton walk right through a man curled into a ball on the floor. When I stepped over him, my stomach heaved. The thick cloud of sadness coming from him overwhelmed me.
I stopped and reached down to lay a gentle touch to his shoulder, lending him comfort. He barely twitched under my touch, and I jerked my fingers back as a foul sensation traveled up my wrist.
“You’re wasting your time,” Easton said over his shoulder. “You can’t help them. They’re too far gone. Too numb to anything that might interfere with their need to self-destruct. Save it for someone who will actually remember it.”
“What are we doing here?” I asked. “Can’t we just flash to Hell?”
Easton stopped and turned around to face me, gaze suspicious. “What’s the hurry?”
“Nothing.” The lie tasted awful in my mouth, and my throat burned with the force of it. I had to get him to agree to help find Tyler. There wasn’t another alternative. If I couldn’t get him to understand, then this was hopeless.
Easton looked me over in that way that made me feel warm and shivery all at once. “Don’t lie to me, Red. You’re not very good at it.”
I swallowed and twisted my robe between my fingers. “I…I…it’s just that Tyler is down—”
He groaned and punched the wall beside him. Plaster crumbled under his fist, and I winced. “Damn it! I should have known!”
He pointed a finger at me. I retreated a few steps as he stormed forward.
“You…” He stopped and curled his hand into a fist, dropping it to his side. “You played me, Angel. You didn’t just play me. You played Daddy Dearest, too. He’s not going to be happy about that.”
Panic gripped me, and I found myself tripping forward and grabbing on to his duster. “No! Don’t tell him. You have to help me. Please!”
Easton looked down at me, brows pulled together as if he didn’t know what to think of me. “Why?”
“I promised him,” I whispered. “You promised him, too. I heard you.”
A muscle in his jaw ticked, and he looked away from me. “You realize that even if we found him, he won’t be the same.”
“I don’t care,” I said. “We owe it to him. And you need my help.”
He laughed and raised a brow. “Oh really? How do you figure that?”
“I have a bond with him,” I said, thinking about the intense wave of pain I’d felt. Pain that had been a world away and reached me all the same. “A connection. I could help you find him.”
Easton pulled away from my grip. “No.”
“If you don’t take me…I’ll go down myself,” I said.
He tapped the blade at his side, watching me. “You’re bluffing.”
“I’m going, with or without you.” I lifted my chin. “But we both know how Father will react if he finds out you let me go on my own.”
“You have no idea what you’re asking me to do, Gwen. You’re too innocent. Too pure. I won’t be able to keep them away from you. You think the shadow demons that linger around reaps are scary, wait until you have a legion of the most twisted demons in Hell intent on stealing your pain.”
“I know what I’m asking.”
He laughed and scrubbed his fingers through his messy black hair. “No. I don’t think you do.”
He headed to the back of the house. I stumbled after him.
“So, this connection…” he asked, hesitant. “How does it work? How close do you have to get? Miles? Inches?”
I bit my lip. “Umm…I don’t know. Pretty close, I think. I could narrow it down to a building if you got me there.”
“So, inches. Perfect,” he muttered sarcastically, as he weaved his way through the house.
“Wait…so are you going to help me or not?”
“You want into Hell, don’t you?” He looked over his shoulder and raised a brow. “You’re the one blackmailing me, remember?”
“Yes. Of course I do,” I lied. It wasn’t as if I wanted to traipse through the gates of Hell and expose myself to horrors that would haunt me for eternity. But that’s where Tyler was. And I’d made a promise. I wasn’t going to allow something as useless as fear get in my way now.
He pushed through a half-open door and stopped to scan the room. “Well, we need a soul to get in. You said you wanted to know more about death. Here’s your first lesson.”
There was nothing that could have prepared me for death. I forced myself to step forward and looked to Easton.