King of Hell (retail) by Christopher Golden

Author:Christopher Golden [Golden, Christopher]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Daring Greatly Corporation
Published: 2014-01-12T23:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TEN

Hell

Octavian and Squire took turns carving away at Alexandra's glass prison. It had taken Meaghan and Lazarus weeks to chip through the crystal spire in order to release him, but they hadn't had weapons forged by a hobgoblin weaponsmith. Both edges of the sword Squire had given Octavian were sharp enough to shear off whole sections of the spire, but the black edge did it smoothly, with only the lightest resistance.

As they worked — Octavian with his sword and Squire with the axe that seemed to have become his preferred weapon — Octavian kept stealing glances at Alex's frozen features. He had not seen her in the flesh since before his own time in Hell, and yet he had recognized her immediately. When Karl von Reinman had made new vampires to bring into his coven he had required them to abandon their human names and had rechristened them with names that included numbers, thus Nicephorus Dragases had become Peter Octavian. Whatever Alexandra Nueva's birth name had been, Octavian had never learned it. They had been allies and sometimes even friends, but often they had feuded the way siblings so frequently did. Her rich, deep brown skin might be the furthest thing from his own complexion, but they were family in a way that went far beyond such simplistic definitions, siblings not from birth but rebirth. An entirely different sort of blood relation.

"She's a beauty," Squire said as they carved away. A huge chunk of crystal calved off and crashed into the thick blanket of ashes to the hobgoblin's right. "I'm gonna go out on a limb and assume she's single."

Octavian took his turn, brought the sword down and whittled off a six inch section near her abdomen.

"Not funny," he said.

"It's a little funny."

"You keep saying that, which suggests to me that you actually believe it. You're like the girl with the horrible voice who sings the loudest at parties because her mommy always told her she sang like an angel."

"Now who thinks he's funny?"

Squire hacked off another chunk of glass. They had come within a foot of Alex's chest. Her arms hung at her sides as if she were unconscious when she had been pushed into the malleable, still-cooling crystal spire. Octavian studied her perfect features, her chocolate skin, and the serenity of her expression and he faltered.

"No, no," he said, and he brought the sword down hard, cleaving another shard away, this time close to her face. "Don't fucking do this."

"Who are you —" Squire began.

"Look at her," Octavian said. He let the sword rest at his side, point against the ground, and gestured at Alex. "She burns inside, you understand? Alexandra Nueva's one of the most intense creatures I've ever met. She can be a cruel bitch or a savage ally, but she's fierce. She'd have fought this, but look at her face. Even demons could not imprison her here without her fighting back, but she looks so damn peaceful."

"Last I checked, vampires from your world were molecular shapeshifters," Squire said.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.