Tirade (Heven and Hell #3)(37)
Author: Cambria Hebert

He laughed.

I winced, thinking that those words didn’t come out very nice. I rolled over to face him and he turned his head to look at me. “I didn’t mean it like that. I…”

He smirked. “Go to sleep, Heven.”

I closed my eyes but an image of Colin and then my mother flashed in my mind. I opened my eyes again. Riley was staring at me. There was knowledge in his eyes, and I felt again how much he understood. Without a word, he reached his hand over and placed it over mine. He didn’t lace our fingers and I didn’t try to hold his hand. He was simply offering some sort of comfort.

“I didn’t say thank you for earlier,” I whispered.

“You don’t need to.”

I was about to argue, but he sighed and rolled away, putting his back to me. “Go to sleep.”

I rolled, putting my back to his as well and closed my eyes. Sam…

Hey, beautiful. His velvet voice filled the hollow spaces inside me.

I decided to listen to you this one time. I’m not coming until tomorrow.

When in doubt, listen to Sam.

I smiled. I wish you were here.

Can you feel me? he asked.

The force of his love reached out to me and I grabbed onto it and pushed myself closer. I imagined that we were together and he was holding me. I’ve been waiting for this all day.

Me too, sweetheart.

Can we stay like this?

All night.

Unfortunately, the night was too short.

Chapter Eleven

Sam

One minute, I was sitting in the cell, relaxed, keeping tight hold of the link I shared with Heven, and the next, he was walking right through the force field, once again acting as if it wasn’t even there.

I eased away from my link with Heven as quickly as I could (so I didn’t scare her) and watched with open violence as he paraded around. I wanted to kill the bastard for everything he had done but mostly for his most recent activities. The death of Heven’s mother and the loss of the scroll.

I got slowly to my feet, acting as if I wasn’t alarmed by his sudden appearance, as my fingernails curled into my palms.

Beelzebub smiled. “Well, well. What do we have here? Tell me how weak living with that amulet has made you?” He held his hands behind his back as he spoke.

I barely glanced at the amulet that I tossed into a shadowed corner and hadn’t looked at since. Still, I knew it was there. My weakening limbs were proof. I was more tired than I wanted but brushed it off, determined not to look affected.

“I can’t get into her head, you know,” Beelzebub said, shaking out his arms, uncoiling a whip from around his wrist. “Do you know what that means?”

I didn’t bother to answer. If Heven was somehow keeping Beelzebub out of her head, then more power to her.

“Word is you managed to get the scroll,” I said, wanting to turn the topic away from Heven. And hey, maybe I’d find something out.

Rage flared in his eyes. “Don’t play with me!” With a flick of his wrist he sent the whip smacking into the wall mere inches from my face.

Was that a yes or a no?

“You know full well I have that Map!”

Okay, a yes. “Good luck getting it open.”

He threw back his head and laughed. “Is that why you pretend? Why you try to deceive me? I don’t need luck, considering it was already open when it was delivered.”

My breath caught. How in the hell had he managed to get it open? His face turned mean again. “Now tell me where the rest of it is!”

Ahhh, that’s right. The bottom part of it was torn right before I was imprisoned here and right after Beelzebub took his fiery plunge. He had no idea he was getting an incomplete Map. What a shock that must have been… My lips curled with pleasure. “What do you mean?”

“Don’t play stupid with me!” He roared and the lit torches out in the hall actually waivered.

“You’ve had me trapped down here all this time and you think I’ll know the answers to your questions?”

“I know you talk to her! I know you know!” he screamed, spittle spraying from his mouth. “How am I supposed to torture you if she isn’t around to see? I want answers!”

He lashed out with the whip, but I was faster and I caught it, leaving the long end to curl around my arm. Still, it stung. Beelzebub roared and yanked, causing me to lose my footing, but I managed to keep upright. The whip returned to him, curling around his feet like a venomous snake.

My body tried to shift but couldn’t, and my insides screamed in frustration.

“Not so tough now, are we?” Beelzebub taunted. “Don’t you wonder how she’s managing to keep me away?”

Once again, I didn’t answer, just watched his movements carefully.

“Maybe she found someone else to occupy her bed,” Beelzebub mused. “I wonder what they’re doing right now?” He lashed out once more with the whip; this time it curled around my waist and he pulled, towing me closer, then it was gone. “I bet he’s touching her. Doing things to her body that you could only imagine.”

I snapped, my patience and restraint only lasting so long, and I launched myself at him, but the whip shot out and slapped me, curling over my shoulder and striking down my back. The pain was sharp and stinging. I felt my flesh split and warm blood ooze out.

I didn’t give him the satisfaction of screaming. And to his surprise, I kept coming. I knocked him off his feet and nailed him in the jaw before he recovered and got to his feet.

“But no matter! You have a link to her mind,” he yelled. “I’ve felt it. She might not be able to see what’s happening, but she’s going to feel it. I hope she feels your pain for all eternity!”

And then he whipped me. Savagely, insistently and with fire in his eyes.

When my body would have sunk to the floor, he used his power to suspend me in the air. The pain was so intense I could barely breathe. The whip would lash against my skin and then draw away, leaving a searing pain stronger than I’d ever known, only to come back and do it again. The blood that poured down my back was warm and it felt like water to an open cut.

Throughout my beating, he tried to get the location of the remaining half of the scroll out of me, and every time I said nothing, he lashed me again. Still, I refused to give him the pleasure of sound. I bit my tongue until it bled. I might have to take this beating, but he wasn’t going to get my pride or my pleading.

Beelzebub gave a frustrated cry and I was released, dropping to the floor, half unconscious. I prayed I would soon pass out. Kimber’s screams filled my ears and I prayed she would shut up so she didn’t draw attention to herself and have to endure his wrath too. Then I closed my eyes and had only one thought: Heven.