Hell's Belle - Eve Newton Page 0,20

turn to look where the voice had come from but see nothing.

“Anna-belle,” the voice singsongs in my other ear. “I know what you fear, little girl.”

“Ha,” I let out a loud laugh. “I don’t fear anything. Not even you, creep.”

He chuckles slowly. “No, you don’t fear me, girl. You don’t even really fear yourself. I know who you fear.”

“Who are you?” I bark. I still can’t see, and it is pissing me off.

“Your night mare,” he says, his oily voice making my skin prickly.

“I don’t have nightmares,” I inform him.

“Night. Mare,” he clips out.

“And the difference is?” I ask, with a raised eyebrow that he can’t even see.

“I feed on your fear,” he hisses.

“Too bad for you then. I don’t have any fear. You’ll starve.”

“Uh-uh-uh,” he tuts at me. “You fear Lucifer. I know you do.”

My mouth goes dry. “What?” I choke out as my palms start to sweat. I rub them on the slinky nightgown. How does he know about Lucifer? “You have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“You fear him coming back to take your power, his power, from you, don’t you, Annabelle.”

“You are delusional,” I snarl at him. “Fuck off out of my head, asshole.”

“Why so mean?” he asks, sounding hurt.

“Why so creepy?” I ask back.

“Humph,” he mutters, but he is further away from me now.

“What’s your name?” I ask suddenly.

“Why?” he asks suspiciously.

“So I know who to add to the docket for an ass kicking tomorrow.”

He laughs, making my skin crawl. “I’m above that, girlie.”

“Says who? I’m the Queen of the Demons. You’re a Demon, aren’t you?”

“Why, yes,” he says and then a soft glow appears in the darkness. I see the form of a hunched over male, changing shape to take the form of a wispy white horse. He rears up, kicking his front legs and then gallops towards me.

I put my arms up to stop him…

“Fuck!” I scream and wake up, sitting up with my arms in front of my face. I’m panting heavily and the stench of fear is all around me. “Fuck,” I whisper and drop my hands. “What the actual fuck?”

The horse is in the room with me and I climb out of bed, marching over to him. I don’t reach him though, as he whips up into a whirlwind and then slips across the floor and through the closed window that overlooks the sin bin.

I rush over and pressing myself against the glass, I see the Night Mare shimmer and change from a white mist back into a wispy human male form. He slopes off through the crowd, but I’m not letting him get away. I flame down into the middle of the milling Demons, creating a small circle around me as they step back.

I crane my neck to see if I can see the Night Mare, but he’s gone. Instead, all I can see are the creatures of the night. By day, everyone walks around, mostly, in their human disguises, but night is a whole different ball game. Especially in here. The cries of pain and pleasure tear through the air and the scent of blood is strong.

I shiver as the circle of Demons around me closes in a little bit, now that my flames have died down. I realize that I’m standing here in a sexy negligee with my assets on show.

“Sorry, boys,” I drawl. “Time to skedaddle.”

I try to flame out, but I can’t. I try again, but nothing happens.

“Shit,” I mutter as I try to dress myself in something more appropriate but that doesn’t work either. I can’t even bring my bat to my hand.

I’m powerless.

“Shit,” I mutter as a creature from the pits of Hell, slides over to me, his tentacles waving around and weaving around my wrists, holding me in place. I try to pull away, but I have no strength. I’m trapped, powerless and weak, surrounded by a bunch of horny looking Demons who don’t give a flying crap that I’m still their Queen, regardless of my power outage.

I stop pulling against the tentacles and take a deep breath. There is little I can do to prevent what is about to happen. It enrages me, but even that doesn’t bring out the She-Devil.

A Demon the size of a behemoth and ugly as fuck with his huge tusks and clawed hands, stalks me as the tentacle beast slithers around me, wrapping his appendages around my ankles tightly.

The press of several Demons against me makes me shudder, but I lift my chin higher. I feel