Hell To Pay (Chasing Demons Book 2) by J.R. Rain & H.P. Mallory

Author:J.R. Rain & H.P. Mallory [Rain, J.R. & Mallory, H.P.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Publisher: Rain Press
Published: 2022-01-28T00:00:00+00:00

Lelia…

The constant of my dreams. If this was a dream. It seemed so real. It always did.

I knew this was a dream.

I always knew in some way, but that unquestionable lucidity refuted it. So while I knew none of this was real, my body and my emotions didn’t know.

I smiled at Lelia as we sat back in the horse-drawn carriage, trotting through the park on a starry night.

“Are you cold?” I started to take off my jacket, but she laid a hand on my arm to stop me and my whole body lit up with her touch.

“I’m fine. Just sit back and enjoy the ride. It’s so short.”

I knew this was good advice. And for a moment it was just her and me, and the stars. The driver and the other couples in the Park faded. I listened to the horses’ hooves clip-clopping on the pavement, and all was right with the world. I was happy.

“Something’s wrong.”

Lelia heard the approaching hooves before I did, faster and harder than the pair pulling the carriage. Of course, I knew who this was and knew it was going to happen—yet at the same time it was a complete surprise, catching me off guard and intruding on a beautiful moment.

Dreams are odd like that.

“What the hell?” The driver looked back over his shoulder—not at us, but at something coming up behind us.

I turned as well, following his gaze to see Khan galloping towards us.

But Khan wasn’t there.

The creature in his place was pasty and practically naked, prominent bones showing through its white skin. Its limbs were long and thin, the flesh hanging raggedly from the bones. Its face was sunken and hollow, the cheeks fallen in, the nose barely there, the eyes like torn holes in its head, windows to a dark emptiness within.

As I watched, it opened its mouth to reveal yellowed rows of jagged teeth in front of a similar darkness. Its mouth opened wider and wider, unhinging its jaw as if it would swallow Lelia and me, horse, carriage and all. An obscene noise—a roaring and a rushing, rattling with old death—rasped from its open maw, getting louder and louder as it strained to consume the scene. The trees, the grass, the passers-by; all were sucked into that gaping mouth, disappearing into the Oneiro-phage.

“Graham…”

Horror clutched at my stomach as I watched Lelia drawn toward the Phage’s sucking mouth, her skin seeming to stretch, those perfect features distorting.

Though I knew this was a dream and Lelia wasn’t the real Lelia, not even in a dream was I willing to let her go and certainly not willing to abandon her to such a horrendous fate. Grabbing her hand, I tugged her back, hugging her towards me.

The driver was gone—perhaps consumed, perhaps simply vanished because this was a dream. I grabbed the reins and urged the horses into a gallop. Lelia looked at me with a blank expression that was so unlike her. She looked resigned.

I looked back. The Phage rode towards us, swallowing the world as it came closer.

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