Page 31 of Vampire Sins
“We’re in hell,” Xavier reminded me. “Not everything here works as it should. The realm you’re in is dictated by the sin or spell that created it.” He flashed me a smile and ran his tongue up one of his fangs. “I’ve had a lot of blood in my life, darling. You’ll have to take that blood from me if you want to get us out of here.” He pointed. “Start drinking and don’t stop until it’s gone.” When I glowered at him, he sighed. “Just, try it. I promise it’ll work and it won’t hurt you.”
Grumbling that I thought this was a ridiculous idea, I gathered the blood with my cupped hands and gulped it down.
The waterfall continued to fill the pool with blood and no matter how much of the liquid I splashed into my mouth, I couldn’t get the levels any lower than my ankles. I looked up at him again as panic filled me.
“Keep going!” Xavier encouraged.
I held my stomach which was starting to roll with nausea.
“This is ridiculous!” Luke roared and surprised me by getting out of the river. He wrapped his fingers around one of the larger rocks that he could barely wrap his arms around. His knuckles turned white and his muscles bulged until he growled and ripped the stone out. With a grunt he tossed it in front of the river, stemming the flow of fire. He narrowed his eyes at Xavier until the vampire sighed and helped him.
Soon the waterfall was dammed and the steady stream of blood eased off. I started again, drinking my fill. This time I wasn’t getting sick. It was as if I could drink all of the blood in the world and it’d only make me stronger. Even if we were in hell and the laws of physics—or stomachs—didn’t apply, it seemed that a little help from members in my bond could get me out of sticky situations.
Once the levels had lowered far enough for me to see my feet, the bottom opened up and swallowed me whole. Luke and Xavier jumped in and came tumbling after me and then we were in the second circle of hell—Luke’s domain.
We landed on more sand. I tried dragging my foot through the grains, but it was all just dry, caked dirt. A cheer roared and lights flared, and I snapped my gaze up to see that we were in an arena—and we were the sport.
The cheers that came from the stands shrieked at us with demonic cries and hoots. Claws and glistening daggers waved in the air, which I guessed was a demon’s mimicry of those silly inflatable tubes people liked to bring to crowded events.
“Xavier?” I asked, my lilt going up with panic.
Xavier struggled to his feet, his ruby eyes blazing in the dim light as he took in our surroundings. He scooped Luke up, but that’s when I realized they weren’t naked, and neither was I.
I ran my fingers over a sleek, but revealing, getup of silver and velvety red armor that covered my vital organs. My fingers caught at the abdomen which was notched out to allow my runes to be displayed. Only Luke and Xavier’s runes on my skin gleamed with life, leaving the rest of my runes fluttering with dull hunger after I’d been separated from the others for so long.
Both the vampire and the angel boasted gleaming armor with translucent red hues, as if they were covered in a sleek layer of gemstones. Luke’s taut muscles moved underneath the armor, vaguely visible through the translucent layer. “What bullshit is this?” he growled at the vampire. “You want to battle us to the death?”
Xavier huffed a laugh. “I don’t think we’re supposed to battle one another.” He pointed at a gate that cracked open and a row of men stepped out into the dim light. “We have to defeat them.”
One by one, each man took off his helmet, making me throw my hand in front of my face to stifle a gasp.
Luke’s face.
All of them had Luke’s face.
My Luke staggered as a sword appeared in his hand in a flash of supernatural light. He gave me a wild glance which dipped down to my runes. “Sonya, I’m so sorry.”
I followed his gaze and touched the rune on the left of my stomach. It burned red. I knew what Luke’s symbol meant now. It was the demonic symbol for anger.
This was Luke’s hell, and we were living in it. The row of armed men roared and unsheathed their weapons, then came running straight at us.
My eyes went wide. I didn’t know how to fight a bunch of Luke-lookalikes. I didn’t know how to fight at all. There was only one thing I was good at and without thinking I stretched my fingers out and released my power. The red fog of seduction rolled over the sands, lazy and languid compared to the men who stormed towards us, but the moment they barreled into the fog, their cries died in their throats and they choked, falling to their knees.
“Good work,” Xavier whispered. “You can save Luke from his worst sin, Sonya. Keep it up.”
My stomach burned with all the blood I’d devoured to save Xavier from his sin. Hell wasn’t the same as the natural world. Here, it was about parody and rules. In order to save him from gluttony, I had to be a glutton myself.
Now, in the circle of hell where the sin of anger burned hot, the crowds wanted bloodshed and violence. There was only one thing that I knew worked better than violence at releasing anger…
Sex.
I gasped when the lust hit me. All of the men who resembled Luke snapped their gazes onto me and began peeling away their armor. It was working.
Luke—my Luke—gave me a nervous glance. “Sonya? Are you sure you know what you’re doing?”
Did I know what I was doing? I wanted to let out the hysterical laugh I was holding in. I was about to have a mad orgy with a bunch of Lukes. I couldn’t imagine anything I’d want more.
With a grin I offered him my hand. “This is how we’ll solve your anger, angel. This is what angelstone and your kind need most of all.”
