Hell's Belle - Eve Newton Page 0,55
to learn, but I don’t know how.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“It’s all I have to give you, for now.”
“You are learning with the man in your bed? Or the therapist?” He gives me a questioning look, needing to know that there is hope for him.
“I’m trying,” I say.
In the next second, I’m pulled away from him by a force so strong, I nearly throw up. It shoves me back into the blackness, the dark pressing in on me, making it hard to breathe. I see flashes of fire and destruction.
I smell brimstone and ash,
A monstrous beast with horns the size of my arms and skin as red as the flames that surround him.
His eyes are black pits of nothing as he looms over me, at least twice my size in height. His tail swipes at me, catching my arm and making me bleed.
“Lucifer!” I scream, feeling fear for the very first time.
I gasp, sitting up in bed, clutching my arm. It doesn’t hurt now; it was all a nightmare. “Dammit, Sid,” I mutter, putting my head on my drawn-up knees.
“Anna?” Drescal asks, coming out of the bathroom with a glass of water. “Is everything okay?”
“Mm-hm. Just thirsty.” I look up at him and force a smile on my face.
“It wasn’t me!” Sid shouts in my head. “Please, Annabelle, you have to believe me. I didn’t do it!”
His panic slices through me. He is so scared that I’m going to blame him for the horror that I just experienced.
“Who then?”
“Another! She is here!”
“Another?” I say out loud. “I thought there was only you?”
“Anna? Who are you talking to?” Drescal asks, sitting on the bed.
I shake my head.
“Old, the first, an overlord of Lucifer!”
“What?” I bark out. “Sid? What are you talking about?”
Silence.
I blink and look at Drescal.
“Anna. What is going on?”
“Family shit,” I say, knowing it is a wholly inadequate answer. “Give me a few minutes to clear my head.”
I stand up and pull on my royal purple robe, tying it tight.
“Let me come with you,” he says.
I give him a tight smile. “No, I’ll be fine. Just a few minutes, okay.”
He nods because what other choice does he have. “I’ll be here when you get back.”
I squeeze his hand. “Thanks.”
I leave my room and pause outside Shax’s. The sounds of Death Metal and intense fucking come through the door. I roll my eyes. Must be the Bacchus Demon whose blood he drank. I’m completely shocked by his behavior lately. First his comments about wanting to leave this world, which are not uncommon, but hurt me to the point where I have to ignore him and pretend he’s joking. Now this. Shax is a complete control freak. He doesn’t ever lose control. This is the first time I have ever seen him drunk.
I need to have words, serious words with him and soon.
I walk away as now definitely isn’t the time for that. I slip into an empty room down the hall and sit in the plush black armchair, my head in my hands.
“Sid?”
“Yes, Annabelle.”
“Are you okay?”
“Do you believe me?
“Yes, of course. I know you wouldn’t hurt me. But who is ‘she’? You know her?”
“Leviathan.”
“Do you know what she wants?”
“She is the one who burned me, scarred me with the fires of Hell.”
“Oh, Sid.”
“I don’t know what she wants from you, but whatever it is will be about Lucifer. She was fiercely protective.”
“Thanks for the warning.” I grit my teeth. No Demonic bitch, no matter who she thinks she is, is going to make me cower. “I’m going to get Razor now. Will you still help me?”
“Yes, of course. Are you okay, Annabelle? I felt your fear.”
“I’m fine. It was surprise, not fear.”
Silence.
Okay, so trying to con the fear Demon with “surprise” is a foolish move, but no way am I ever admitting that it was fear I felt in that nightmare. Fuck. That.
“Wait here.”
“I’m in your head, I’m not going anywhere,” he says.
I growl and stand up. I loosen the belt on my robe slightly and pull it open a bit wider at my tits.
I flame down into the sin bin and land next to Razor, slumped in a chair in a dark corner.
“What do you want?” he snaps at me.
“Is that any way to talk to your Queen?” I ask, sitting down next to him and crossing my legs. The satin robe falls away, exposing my leg to him. I lean forward. His eyes swivel to take in all that I am exposing to him.
“You got that Hellhound asshole to