Tirade (Heven and Hell #3)(28)
Author: Cambria Hebert

I shut my eyes momentarily and whispered, “I didn’t want this,” again.

I wondered if it was me or Colin I was trying to convince.

He made a slight sound and I focused back on him. “I’m going to pull out the dagger and the demon will leave your body. You’ll be okay then.” At least that’s what happened with Logan.

I gripped the dagger and pulled it out swiftly. Blood gushed out of the open wound, saturating his white shirt. I waited for the demon to rise out of him.

It never happened.

Then Colin’s eyes rolled back in his head and he died.

I fell beside him on my knees. “No!” I put my fingers to his throat, feeling for a pulse. I couldn’t find it, so I lay my head against his chest to listen. There was nothing to hear. Colin was dead.

I killed him.

Dark, evil laughter echoed through my head.

I looked up, thinking I would finally see the demon. No one was there. I pushed down the sob that threatened to escape and stood. The laughter was getting louder and there was a squeezing pain in the back of my skull.

“Well, this is a mess,” came a voice from behind.

I twirled, raising the bloodied dagger and glimpsed Gran’s car in the grass a short distance away. “Riley?”

“I leave you alone for an hour and this is what you do?”

I began to laugh hysterically, deep laughs that hurt my stomach. Riley just stood there staring at me, his face blank. But my laughs turned to sobs and Riley stepped forward. I threw up a hand to hold him off and it was completely red. Red with Colin’s blood.

“I killed him.”

“Yeah.”

I looked up, waiting to see the disgust and horror on Riley’s face. Except he wasn’t disgusted. Sharp pain tore through the back of my skull and I cried out, dropping the dagger and gripping my head. Riley rushed forward, his arms shooting out to steady me. More laughter filled my head and the pain subsided. I wasn’t sure which was worse: the laughing or the pain.

I looked up at Riley once more. “I killed him. I’m a killer.”

“Welcome to the club,” Riley answered.

Then I passed out.

Chapter Eight

Sam

“Do you remember that time we went and saw that really bad horror movie?” A voice spoke to me from across the dungeon.

I got up from where I was sitting and went to the door of my cell. “Kimber?”

“Why is it that all the girls with big boobs run up the stairs instead of out the door?”

I couldn’t see her. She was in the shadows of her cell, but I knew it was her. It was the first thing she’d said since Heven appeared down here. I had begun to think she was dead. It was good to know she wasn’t.

“Everyone knows the minute you run up the stairs, you’re as good as dead,” I said, going along with the question. Maybe it would relieve the anxiety I was feeling. Being caged was hell on a guy’s emotions.

“I lied. I knew she liked you.” Her voice was raspy and low, but I still heard her words and I knew exactly what she was talking about. “She pretended not to notice you but she did. When you were around, you were all she saw. I would’ve had to be blind not to see it.”

“Then why did you go out with me?” I asked. I always knew when Kimber and I “dated” she was only doing it to hurt Cole. I’d considered that a bonus because I couldn’t stand him and the way he made Heven smile. I wanted to be the one to make her smile. But she was too shy and insecure to let me close, so I had to be creative, and what better way to get closer to her than through her best friend? I never let on that I knew about Kimber’s game, but I hadn’t known that our “dating” had hurt Heven. I wouldn’t have done it if I had. But clearly, Kimber knew and Heven’s feelings hadn’t mattered to her.

She made a sound, kind of like a laugh, then said, “I liked having something she wanted for a change. I always had the better clothes, the car, the boyfriend, but she never cared. Nothing I had ever seemed to measure up to her. Then, finally, there was something she wanted that I had. It was the perfect punishment for years of forcing me into her shadow.”

I digested that for a moment, sickened by the role I played in her scheme.

“This must be my punishment for that,” Kimber said quietly.

The regret in her voice was something I recognized. “We all do things we regret, Kimber.”

“I never said I regretted it.”

“If you didn’t, you wouldn’t assume you needed punished.”

“Maybe.”

I saw a movement in the shadow of her cell as she moved closer.

“Or maybe I’m just saying that to get you to take me with you when you get out.”

“You know I won’t leave you here.” Hadn’t I proved that when I turned back to try and free her? If I had run, I might have gotten away before Beelzebub could throw me back in here. “What happened to you? How did you get here?”

“It doesn’t really matter how I got here because here I am.”

“What did Hecate promise you to betray us?”

She made a sound. “Power, control, the ability to be noticed.”

“You’ve never been unnoticed.”

“You don’t know what my life is like.”

“Maybe not. But I know what it’s like to be ignored by your parents. To be tossed out. To not feel like what you are is good enough. To think that no one would love you for who you are.”

“We are nothing alike.” Her voice had gone hoarse.

“Well, I really don’t care about my hair and shoes, so you might be right,” I joked.

She snorted and I smiled. “So how much magic do you have? How powerful are you?” I figured I would take advantage of the fact she was actually talking to me.

She gave a laugh. “Look at me. Do I look very strong to you?”

“I think if anyone else was in that cell, they’d be dead. So you look better than most.”

She cackled. “Grunge is in this season. A trend I never understood.”

Ahh, so Kimber was in there somewhere. “Can you break down this force field?”

“No.”

“Will you try?”

“No.”

“Kimber.” My words were cut off by a mind-numbing break. It was kind of like something inside me was turned off… Heven. I leapt back from the doorway of the cell and dropped to my knees.

Something was wrong. Something terrible.

Heven!

No answer.