A sharp slap rocked the head on my shoulders and I blinked open my eyes. Automatically, my hands came up to defend my face.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” someone roared. “You don’t hit her. Ever!”
I opened my eyes, confused. I was back in the living room on the couch at home. I woke up.
“Someone had to do something to wake her up.” Riley spat. “Whispering sweet nothings in her ear wasn’t working.”
Sam threw a punch and hit Riley square in the mouth. His lip split and blood ran down his chin.
“Stop it!” I yelled.
Everyone turned to look at me.
“Heven.” Sam came back, leaning over me, looking in my eyes. His chest was heaving, but his face was pale.
“I fell asleep,” I stated.
“You started struggling and making these sounds…”
“This thing inside me pulled me into hell. It took me to its lair.” It sounded sinister, but that’s what it was. “There were others…”
“What did they look like?”
“Like a hellhound, only deformed and disgusting. Evil.” I shivered and my stomach lurched. I got up and ran into the bathroom and retched over the toilet. When I was done, I rinsed my mouth out and splashed cold water over my face.
Sam was standing in the door, watching me, and he looked ashamed and disgusted at the same time.
“Oh, Sam. I didn’t mean it like that. I think you’re beautiful as a hellhound.”
“I know that.” He pulled me close. “I hate that this is happening to you. I don’t know how to get it out.”
“We’ll figure it out.” I tried to sound optimistic as I pulled away and went back to the living room. I prayed he didn’t feel my worry. If we didn’t get this thing out of me, it would find a way to get out on its own, and judging by what just happened, it wouldn’t care whether I lived or died in the process.
“Where’s Gemma?” I asked.
Cole was standing by the window and he turned. “She’ll be right back.” His eyes drifted to the claw marks on my chest. I turned away, toward Riley. At least he didn’t look at me with pity or even concern. I wondered if he really cared at all what was happening.
“You look like hell,” he told me.
I actually smiled, glad for once someone wasn’t trying to sugarcoat things. “Close your eyes, then,” I shot back and went over to the couch to lie back down. I still felt beyond dizzy and I knew if I fell over, Sam would probably go crazy. There was a frosty, fresh water bottle on the table right next to the couch. I glanced over my shoulder at Riley and he shrugged.
“You’re probably dehydrated. That thing is probably stealing your water and food intake. If you pass out again and I have to hit you, then Sam will hit me, and I am done taking all the hits for free.” He looked over at Sam. “Next time I’ll hit back.”
Sam didn’t seem bothered by this and he turned his back on Riley to sit down next to me. I gave Riley a dirty look before focusing on the water, which I began drinking in small sips. It felt cool and really good going down.
Gemma appeared and in her hands were three big leather-bound books. Wordlessly, she sat them on the coffee table and began flipping through one. When she found what she wanted, she turned the book toward me. “Is this what you saw?”
I leaned forward to look down at the image. It was a drawing of the beasts in the caves and it was precisely accurate. “Yeah.”
Sam leaned forward to see and everything in his body tightened. “This thing is inside you? Is that what you’re saying?”
“I’m not sure.” I frowned. “I got that feeling. It led me to the caves and it recognized the others there. I assumed that’s where it lived.”
He swore low, a very creative and colorful slew of words. Riley laughed. Gemma tossed the book at him. He grunted when it hit him in the chest. He took it and looked at the image and grimaced. “It was nice knowing ya, Heven.” He tossed the book back onto the coffee table.
“What is it? How do we get it out?” Sam asked Gemma.
“In essence, it’s a hellhound,” Gemma said. “It’s just an unnatural one. They weren’t born like you and Riley. They were sired by evil. Because pure evil made them, they were tainted and ended up deformed and much less controllable than even the wildest hellhound.”
“Weren’t original hellhounds created?” I asked. Did they all look like this in the beginning?
“Yes, but not like these,” Gemma said, tapping the photo. “Two animals that already lived in hell were both given abilities and then they were mated. A hellhound was born from them, housing both parents’ abilities times two.”
“And the one inside of me?”
“It wasn’t born from two parents. It was created by the princes of hell—basically, they were an experiment gone bad.”
“How do we get it out?” Sam asked, grim.
“It doesn’t say anything about that here.” Gemma frowned. “My guess would be Hecate would have to remove it because she put it there.”
Sam stood, knocking into the table and sending the burning candle over on its side. Melted wax went everywhere. I hadn’t noticed the candle had been lit in the first place.
“Oh, no!” I said, jumping up.
“Leave it,” he said. “When it cools I’ll peel it up.”
I stared at him for a moment, wondering how to get him to calm down, but I knew it was useless. He felt helpless and I understood. I spent eight days like that. I grabbed his hand and pulled him down onto the couch with me and curled into his side. His body was rigid, but his arm was gentle when he wrapped it around me.
“Who wants pizza?” I said.
Everyone looked at me like I was crazy. Except for Riley, who said, “With beer?”
“You want to eat?” Cole asked, incredulous.
Well, no. I didn’t, but sitting around here while they all watched me struggle with this thing inside me—this rabid, deformed hellhound—was getting old and only making Sam miserable. I shrugged. “What else are we going to do? We have to eat the leftover funeral food too or Gran might get upset.”
No one had any better suggestions so Cole called and ordered the pizza.
“I’ll go get it because no one else here is old enough to get beer,” Riley said, standing.
“Are you old enough?” I asked dubiously. He grinned a very wide, toothy grin. I took that as a no.