Descent (Kissed by Death) - Tara Fuller Page 0,25

and raised a brow. “My chest…it’s tight and fluttery. What’s happening?”

“It’s called a heart, Red.” I scanned the area looking for the backpack I kept down here for trips like this. “Get used to it. They cause all kinds of trouble.”

As if the little bastard wanted to remind me he was still in there, my own heart hammered a little harder just then. She rubbed her chest absently and I fought the urge to do the same. To reach out and feel the rhythm of hers, to see if it matched.

“Does yours feel like this?” she asked, staring at my chest with curiosity and awe.

“I doubt it.” I released her and grabbed the ash-coated black backpack from behind a big rock. I brushed it off and frowned at the blood spatters that stained the sturdy fabric. Damn blooderflies. I unzipped it and found two metal canteens, a spare knife, and a spare pair of clothes. I picked up a deck of playing cards and smirked.

“Sorry, Cyril. No game this trip,” I muttered.

I shook the canteens and found them full. Gwen was watching me, brows pulled together. “What’s that for?”

I darted a glance in her direction and decided it was safer to keep my eyes on the soul I’d carried down here. “Like it or not, we’re flesh and blood down here,” I said, slinging it onto my back and securing it into place. “To get where we need to go, we’re going to need provisions. It’s not much, but it should at least get us there.”

“Will it get us back?” she asked, sounding slightly alarmed.

“I’ll get us back,” I said. “You’re traveling with the best, sweetheart. This is going to be a piece of cake.”

Gwen eyed me skeptically. “Why do I get the feeling that you’re lying?”

I winked. “Because I am.”

In the distance, a horde of shadow demons grew, pulsing and moving like a single entity. As much as I dreaded the idea of Gwen setting foot in Hell, we were both in danger out here exposed like this in the shadow land. This close to Umbria they’d be able to smell the purity on her a mile away. And if that happened, they wouldn’t stop until they had it. I grabbed the soul I’d carried over and motioned to the monstrous mound of rock and ash ahead.

“That’s where we need to be,” I said. “Can you walk on your own?”

“That’s where Tyler is?” Gwen whispered.

“Yes.” I studied the soft quiver of her bottom lip, the fear making her eyes look glassy and faraway. “Still feeling brave?”

She shouldn’t have been. If she weren’t so damn naive she’d be screaming and running in the other direction, begging me to take her back. Instead she foolishly stared ahead as if bracing herself for the worst.

Her new body shuddered, but she nodded. “Yes.”

I walked forward, not allowing myself time to reconsider. If I thought about it too much, I’d just end up dragging her kicking and screaming back to the heavens where she belonged. Gwen kept a steady pace beside me, quickly learning how to navigate her new legs where she wanted them to go. Beside me, the soul in tow groaned and stumbled.

“He’s in pain,” Gwen said. “I could help him.”

“Nothing you could do will help him now.”

He seemed to perk up at the sound of Gwen’s voice, finally coming out of his stupor. “Help…” he croaked. “You said you could help me.”

“It wouldn’t be a big deal,” she said. “I do it every day.”

I looked over my shoulder at Gwen and shook my head. I seriously doubted Daddy Dearest let her anywhere near scumbags like this. No. Gwen’s kind of purity? That was the stuff of dreams, reserved for premature babies and nuns.

“Don’t even think about it,” I said. “You don’t want what’s in him. Trust me on that.”

The fact that she’d gotten a taste of what was in me made me sick. Someone like her should never have to touch my kind of darkness. It could ruin her. It would ruin her. And she was hell-bent on taking it. Determined to fix me. I could still see it in her eyes, feel it in the way she watched me like she was holding back something begging to be set free. She wouldn’t be able to keep it hidden forever. Saving souls was who she was. Telling Gwen not to cure another of his sadness was like telling me to ignore the demanding screams of the dead in my head. All