Fallen Into Hell: Fallen: Book 2, Layna Snow [the mitten read aloud .TXT] 📗

The only noise was their footsteps on the stone floor and their breathing, which sounded a little fast to her ears. Or was that just hers? Everything else seemed to stop as soon as they stepped through the arch. The teddy-bugs didn’t even follow them.

On and on this tunnel went, in a completely straight line. It was almost worse than the serpentine path through the woods. At least then there was something to see, and she felt like she was moving forward. Now, she could have been walking the same yard over and over. Light, dark, light dark, light, dark. It seemed like it went on forever and with the Demon remaining silent, her mind just went over the past few hours.

The hallucination, that maybe wasn’t. Obviously, she wasn’t abducted by aliens, but she was taken by beings that looked like aliens. They did carry her, whether the light was real or not. They had placed her on a hard surface. Had her mind just made up those facts because of how the beings looked? Did this happen often to folks all around the world. Is this how alien mythology came around? Because of those greyish Demons?

And then her talk with the Devil. It was as horrifying as it was enlightening. He gave out more information than he got. Why would he bother to do that? Why would he trust her to find and look out for his daughter?

When the Demon stopped she almost ran into him, but managed to avoid touching him again. She really had no idea what his powers were.

“Thisss isss where we wait.” He said, and moved forward in order to show her a small cave. It was circular, and had four different tunnels branching off from it. Some were more shadowed than others, but overall she couldn’t really tell where they went. There were no signs, or anything to identify them.

In the middle of the room was a statue. It was of a female Demon of some kind, its arms stretched up holding what resembled a candle. Fire in oranges and yellows draped over her body like fine cloth, covering up most of her nakedness and concealing her whole lower body. The only thing showing was one large breast. Horns rose up from her head, curving into sharp points. Her whole body was white, shiny, and sculpted beautifully. It reminded her of an ancient Greek statue.

And it seemed sort of real. Was the statue breathing? She could almost see the chest move.

Soph shook her head, sure that it was just the extra drugs in her system that made her see things.

“Malesss will be here sssoon. Not many malesss in my ssspeciessss. We fight for them.” The Demon said, jerking her attention back to…it. She had no idea what to identify it as. She thought it was male, but maybe not.

“You are female?”

Okay, so not the most tasteful way to ask, but she couldn’t think of anything that would sound better.

“Of coursssse. You thought otherwissse?”

Sophie shook her head. She’d hate to insult this thing.

“Good. Othersss are looking for you. Othersss want you. Othersss pay for your delivery.”

The warning seemed ominous.

No one care about her before. No one wanted her around, meddling in their business.

Now she had men who were searching for her, and the Devil needed something from her.

Who else would care? Who else would bother?

“Who?”

But the Demon just shook her head. “You’ll ssssee. Your men come. I leave.”

Sophie wanted to call her back, wanted her to stay there until Thane and Adrian got there. She didn’t want to be alone in the tunnels.

But the Demon was already gone, and Sophie couldn’t yell.

She couldn’t call out. She just had to wait there until someone came for her. And she hoped it was someone friendly, not the ‘others’ that the Demon warned about.

18

Sasha hated the sterile environment of the hospital wing of the mansion. She hated how it smelled and how chilled it was. She hated the uncomfortable beds and how people had to wear those ugly hospital gowns.

And she hated that Connor had to stay there.

Sure, he had been hurt but he was fixed now. She made sure of that.

There weren’t any complications in the turning, though she was sure that he had been in a ton of pain, if his screaming was any indication.

Marco had belatedly told her that if the person was injured, the change hurt more. Had to fix the damage.

And Connor needed a blood transfer because he wasn’t up to eating. He wasn’t up to anything, actually. He was still unconscious.

Which was normal according to Marco.

But now it was just her in the room with Connor, sitting in the uncomfortable chair beside him and studying his impressive face.

Now, he’d always look this young, or this old as she always teased him. He was no spring chicken, in his late 30’s.

He wasn’t even classically handsome. His face was too long, his nose a little too big, and his skin not as tanned as was culturally appropriate. He certainly didn’t measure up physically to that guy that she’d done in that alley. But he was nice, smart, and a good man.

She knew that he had worked for some special branch of military. He had gone on secret missions, one of which had brought him to Axel’s attention. They worked together to break up a freak show that used supernatural creatures in it, and turned Humans into things when their ‘animals’ died.

It was then that he decided to join them. He couldn’t do any good working for a government that didn’t acknowledge a danger to their country. He brought a part of his team with him and became an important part of the Hunters.

They’d be lost without him and so she felt that her decision was right, even