Hell's Belle - Eve Newton Page 0,27

I don’t care, Anna!” he practically yells at me. “I just want you. I don’t care if you need to find satisfaction elsewhere.” He grabs my hands, squeezing them tightly. “I expect it. You are a complicated female. One male will simply never be enough to fulfill your every need, your every whim, your every desire.” He brushes my hair out of my face. “You are my Queen and I will be one of however many you choose to please you.” He kisses my hands. I’ve gone cold inside and hot on the outside. He is saying pretty much everything I want him to. There has to be a catch.

“I don’t know if I can trust you to keep your word,” I mutter.

“I haven’t lured a female down to Hell with sex for over a month. Ask Roberta. She is about to fire my ass anyway. That’s because I just can’t.”

“A-a month is nothing. What happens in a year? Two? A decade?”

“If you still want me in a years’ time, my love, I will be the happiest Demon in Hell. I will continue to do everything that I can to make you happy. I love you, Anna.”

I stare back at him completely and utterly dumbstruck.

13

Shax

I stare at the ceiling. I’ve been this way since Annabelle left. I’m concerned with why she wanted to know about Night Mares. Does she want to release him to cause anarchy? Doesn’t sound like something she would do. She likes order. She knows where she stands with that.

I sit up and reach over to turn the music up. The rip of the guitar through the room causes the female on the floor on the other side of the bed to come out of her drugged-up state. She insisted on drinking my blood last night. I was reluctant, but she whined about it, so I gave it to her to shut her up. I’ve done this once before and nearly killed the bitch. This time, I smeared some on my thumb and let her suck it off. She went as high as a kite for the length of an okay fuck and then she crashed. Hard.

“Get out,” I say to her.

She blinks at me and knows that it’s not worth fighting me over. She gets unsteadily to her feet and gathers up her dress. She slinks out of the room quietly and I breathe a sigh of relief. I really hate this, but I can’t seem to stop. The war that rages inside me over my two sides drains me. I try to forget, but it doesn’t work. Only being with Shadow brings me some peace, but she is hardly ever around.

I make a snap decision.

I shower, change and then head out to the gates of Hell. I look up at the huge iron structures and step through. I walk forward into the mist of the Wastelands. All eradicated Demons go here. But there are also creatures here that will eat your face off if you cross paths with them. I keep going for a little while and then I think about Earth and I’m there, looking down from the top of Mount Cook in New Zealand. The blue sky above me and the snow under my feet makes me smile. A real genuine smile that almost never passes over my face. It’s as close to Heaven as I think I can get. I can’t actually get to the real deal, in spite of being an Angel. I don’t think it has anything to do with being Dark. I just don’t think that I can. I don’t know how, and I’ve tried.

“Shax,” a soft male voice says my name from behind me, startling me. I’ve never encountered another being up here before.

I turn to look up at a large male with bright blue eyes and dark hair. I feel myself gawp as he steps forward, and I see his wings. White feathered wings spread out around him.

“How do you know my name?” I ask cautiously, but the admiration is hard to hide. I know he can see it. It is in his smile.

“My name is Vazna,” he says. “I’m Heaven’s Guardian. I have been waiting for you to return to Earth so that we may speak.”

“Heaven’s Guardian?” I ask very warily. My father used to be Heaven’s Guardian before he met my mother and fell from grace to be with her.

Vazna nods. “Yes, I know who your father is. Dashel was once a great Guardian over