“For fuck’s sake, it’s like having a four-year-old along for the ride,” Jerif grumbles.
“I’ve never been down here before, you ass,” I defend.
“Security is one part of it,” Echo quickly interrupts, answering the question. “And there’s also the issue that if Hell’s army needs to get out in a hurry, you have to have room to do it.”
I swallow down a gulp of oh shit and stare transfixed at the massive doors in front of us. “So is this the actual Hellgate then?” I ask, glaring at Jerif and just daring him to give me shit for asking questions.
He rolls his eyes. I do my best to ignore him and tip my head back as I take in the massive doors. They’re a good fifty feet high, and end in spikes at the top, but the size isn’t what’s so daunting—it’s that it’s made entirely of blood-red flames.
“This looks a lot more Hellgatey and ominous than the Gate in the graveyard, just sayin’,” I observe.
“Technically, this is the official Hellgate, and what we guard are Hell Portals that lead to this Hellgate. But that was a mouthful of a job description, so we shortened it to just Hellgate Guardian,” Crux explains with a cheeky smile on his face.
The corners of my lips tip up involuntarily at the playful twinkle in his green eyes. “So are we actually in Hell now, or do we have to pass through the doors before I can tick Hell off my places I’ve been poster?”
“We stepped foot on Hell soil the minute we left the big mausoleum. But we’re more on Hell’s property and walking up to the front door right now,” Iceman tells me.
“Oh, okay. That makes sense.”
I suddenly find myself wondering if there will be a gift shop anywhere where I can buy some sweats that say Hell’s Property on the ass, because I could get down with that kind of uniform.
“The Vestibule is a small hike just on the other side of the doors. We should hurry though,” Iceman announces, his blue eyes looking around us attentively.
I study the looming Gate as we walk closer to it. The nearer we get, the hotter it becomes, and the more the red hue makes it look like something out of a vampire’s wet dream. I have to swipe at a dribble of sweat that threatens to trickle down my brow as we approach it. The guys don’t slow down, they just continue to head right for the Hellgate, even though it doesn’t appear to be opening.
“Umm...guys?”
None of them say anything, and Crux continues to pull me with him.
“Guys?” I repeat, trying to wrench my hand away, but Crux isn’t having it. He just clamps down harder.
“Wait, wait, wait,” I say, just as Echo comes up on the other side of me and grabs my wrist, helping Crux to tug me forward. “Is the freaky fire Gate gonna open?” I ask.
“Nope,” Jerif says simply.
I dig in my heels until Crux and Echo are just pulling me along, like I’m learning how to ice skate and they’re just gonna drag me along whether I want to do it or not.
“Wait!” I say again, but do these fucking demons wait? Nope. They just walk straight into the bloody hellish fire and pull me right along with them.
With a whoosh of intense heat, I open my mouth to scream, but then I’m pulled another step and I’m instantaneously out of the blistering inferno. I pant as I look over my shoulder to find the crimson flames are now at my back. “Fuck, I thought I was about to burn alive.”
“You would’ve,” Iceman tells me. “That’s why Crux and Echo made sure to hold onto you. Since we’re Gate Guardians, we can pass through.”
A noise gets clogged in my throat. “What if I had gotten out of your grasps?” I demand.
“Give us a little credit, Jeter,” Crux says, rolling his green eyes.
I yank out of his and Echo’s holds, only because they let me this time. “What the fuck? All you had to say was, oh, by the way, Delta, hold our hands while we walk through the Hellgate so you don’t burn alive. See? Simple.”
“Apologies,” Echo says, his mouth turning up into a smirk. “But the fear you were putting off was just too delicious.”
I stare into Echo’s bottomless black eyes, shocked. “That’s...not fucking cool.”
“Come on now, Swamp Thing, embrace your demon. You know you got off on that fear just as much as I just did,” he counters.
I start to object, but the light floaty feeling currently coursing through my veins betrays my outrage. I feel tingly, like I just had an epic orgasm, and it unsettles the fuck out of me.
Embrace my demon?
Fucking Hell. Please don’t tell me I’m going to go full Daenerys Targaryen and laugh while everything around me burns. Or worse, be that bitch at the grocery store who pulls out a fuck ton of coupons when there’s a line of people waiting to check out behind me, then proceed to argue that the manager needs to accept all the expired ones, which just so happens to make up eighty percent of her penny saving pile. I’m not ready for that level of evil.
Echo’s shadows start rubbing against each other like they’re acting out their favorite porn, and it distracts me from my concerns as I get sucked into the naughty shadow puppet show. Maybe that gong that went off when we first stepped into Hell somehow released the kraken of kinky that I now apparently seem to be okay with?
I flick that thought away and turn from Echo and his scandalous shadows. I look around and for the first time, realize that it actually looks like we’re in Hell now.
“Well, shit.”
We’re in some kind of massive underground cave that looks to be several thousand feet deep.
