Page 5 of To Hell and Back
“Nope. You really are dead, but that’s only temporary.”
The deep voice made her freeze in fear.
Well, considering the fact she still couldn’t move, being frozen in place was sort of her default at the moment. Her mind was racing, though. That was to be expected considering she had just fucking died.
She gasped when an unseen force suddenly lifted her into the air, and she was spun so her back was to the large fireplace. She tried to let out a gasp, but the sound came out more like a screeching meow. Hearing that noise coming from herself was as much of a shock as seeing four terrifying supernaturals staring down at her.
The two stunning couplesin front of her were sitting on a pair of long, black leather couches that were placed in a V formation in front of the fireplace. Themale sitting closest to herhadto be one of the most menacing creatures she had ever seen. Not only was he freaking huge, his glowing eyes were a strange mix of black, silver, and gold.
He was dressed in a black shirt and matching pants, which was a stark contrast to his long silver hair. His bronzed skin shimmered with a soft glow that had nothing to do with the firelight, and his hands looked large enough to crush skulls. By his appearance, Seneca might have thought he was some sort of angel, but the dark, dangerous vibes radiating off him made him seem more like a demon.
The gorgeous female cuddled up against him was petite compared to his massivesize, but she was as intimidating as he was, just in a different way. Her long pink and silver hair fell in soft curls to her waist, and her glowing bronze eyes had tiny specks of silver and black in them that made them look like stars. She might have been pretty and polished, but her oversized purple sweatshirt with a unicorn shitting sparkles on the frontand pink leggings covered with tiny strawberries sort of skewed her powerful image.
On the other sofa, a handsome male with glowing silver eyes and black hair was holding the hand of a beautiful female with long shimmering bronze hair and glowing gold eyes. They were both wearing dark jeans and T-shirts under matching black leather jackets, making them look like typical humans when they were far from it.
Seneca thought the second couple looked slightly familiar but couldn’t recall where they would have met since she would have surely remembered someone as powerful as they were. She’d been around formidable supernaturals before, but the power radiating off them was nothing compared to the four beings sitting before her.
Just being in theirpresencemade her want to flee asfar away as possible.
She immediately realized how silly that was. Attempting to run would do no damn good against supernaturals who could teleport. Besides, she couldn’t do much but blink at the moment anyway. If they had wanted to hurt her, they could have done so before she even knew what hit her.
Realizing that allowed her to push her fear aside.
There was no point in worrying about something that she had no hope of stopping or controlling. That would just be wasted energy. Instead, she focused on her curiosity. The powerful beings had obviously brought her there for a reason, and she wanted to know what it was.
The male with silver hair cocked his head to the side and frowned. “You are taking all of this better than we expected.”
She wasn’t sure how accurate that was, considering she was still pretty freaked out and had no clue what was actually going on. The only thing she was sure of was that she was dead and had somehow turned into an animal. Perhaps practically growing up in a funhouse had prepared her to take just about everything in stride.
She was afraid, rightly so, but she didn’t react to scary situations like most people.
“That makes sense. Since you are technically just a soul now that you’re dead, I had to borrow a body to stick you in so you can communicate with us. So, you are temporarily a cat.”
He’d stuck her soul in a cat?
She wasn’t sure if she felt offended or fascinated by that, then decided it was a mixture of both. At least the paws made sense now.
“We tried to put you in our hellhound first, but Snix really didn’t like that. So, we tried again with our kitten, Oreo. We found her abandoned in the Human Realm not too long ago. She’s just a regular cat and this type of magic is pretty intense, so that seems to be leading to some mobility issues. That’s why you can’t move right now.”
That sounded completely insane, but it had obviously worked. Sort of. She wasn’t sure exactly how she was supposed to communicate with them since she was stuffed in an animal, though. She was still trying to accept that when the rest of what he’d said sank in. She hadn’t even known hellhounds were real, but she imagined being inside one—even for a few seconds—wouldn’t have been very pleasant.
“We can hear everything you are thinking, so communicating shouldn’t be a problem.”
Seneca mentally cringed. Well, fuck. Knowing these beings had access to every thought in her head was slightly terrifying, not to mention embarrassing as hell. She was concerned she was going to inadvertently offend someone since she tended to get snarky and curse a lot when she was scared or nervous.
“Don’t worry about that. Trust me, I was a human witch with very little connection to the supernatural community before I discovered I was mated to the big guy here, so I understand how overwhelming this shit can get. My name is Devon, and this is my mate, Braxton, the God of Souls.And that is Autumn, the Goddess of Revenge, and her mate, Kingston, a member of the Supernatural Council. Welcome to the Hell Realm.”
Hearing that made Seneca want to cry.
Not because she was upset she had ended up in Hell. If that was where the powers that be had determined she belonged, she couldn’t really do anything about it. What made her immensely sad was the thought of never seeing her mother and father again since she had no doubt both of them had ended up in a better place.
“It’s not like that,” Devon assured. “Actually, all souls end up in the Hell Realm after they die. It’s why this place used to be called the Realm of Souls. It just got renamed Hell by some power-hungry gods who...never mind. We can discuss all of that some other time. Right now, all you need to know is you are not in Hell because you did something wrong. I promise.”
Obviously, there was a lot she needed to learn about the supernatural community. So, Hell wasn’t the scary place it was rumored to be, and gods liked to hang out in casual wear instead of crowns and flowing robes. Good to know. She wondered if all souls got an audience with the God of Souls and his pals when they died, or if she was some sort of special case.
“Fuck, no,” Braxton responded with a snort of derision. “If that happened, I would never get any sleep. Then, I would just want to destroy everyone, and no one would ever get reincarnated.”
Since that was a terrifying thought, Seneca had no idea how to respond to that. Not wanting to think something that might offend her powerful hosts, she focused on trying to move one of her front paws. It was frustrating since she still couldn’t move at all. She was glad she wasn’t all the way dead, but she still wasn’t quite sure why they had stuffed her soul into a cat instead of letting her go about her afterlife.
