The Arbiter: Divinely Damned Book One Read online

  With a heavy sigh, I let go of him and kiss his cheek. “Thank you. I needed that so badly. I’ve missed you.”

  He smiles and uses his sleeve to wipe the blood from his mouth, before kissing me soft and sweet. “I’ve missed you as well.” His face goes serious. “I’m not thrilled you allowed yourself to be taken, but I would’ve done the same thing had it been you in my place.”

  “How’d you know I allowed myself to get captured?” I ask him, eyeing him suspiciously.

  He scoffs. “Like you’d let anyone take you. I know you better than that. Now, how about we go get the rest of our people out of here?”

  I nod and start leading the way towards the stairs. “From what I’ve gathered, the Damned should be in cells on the bottom two floors. They have some sort of business going on here where humans pay to torture and kill us.” As I go to step through the door into the stairwell, I feel myself grow dizzy, and I trip on the hem of my gown. I’d been running on fumes since coming here, having not fed from anyone in days. It’s no wonder I’m finally feeling the effects.

  Monroe’s hands shoot out and grasp my waist to steady me. “Alright, that’s enough of that.” He kneels at my feet, then elongates one of his nails and starts cutting through the bottom of the skirt from right above my knees.

  When all the fabric is gone. He stands and runs his hand slowly and sensually up my now bare leg. It feels so good, I don’t even mind that blood is smearing along my skin. I just close my eyes and take in the sensation. A shiver flows across my body, and my eyes open when he pulls his hand away.

  He leans in close and whispers, “When this is over, you’re mine, Cher.”

  All I can do is nod my head, but once again I feel faint and begin to sway. He captures my waist and looks me over. His brows pinch in worry. “You need to feed. We can’t rescue anyone if you aren’t at full strength. Take some from me.”

  I shake off the dizziness and grunt. “No. We have to keep moving.” I try to shove past him, but he won’t let me.

  “I think not, Mon Cher. You’re dead on your feet right now from the use of all that power. Don’t think I didn’t feel what was happening upstairs. That was a lot of power. The sooner you feed from me, the sooner we can get the damnation out of here with our people.”

  I sigh. I know he’s right. I just hate feeling so weak after feeling so powerful. I had no idea I was using up so much energy. Guess I was just too pissed off to notice.

  He steps in closer to me and lowers his mouth to mine. Thinking about finally feeding immediately has my mouth watering with hunger. I hadn’t realized just how depleted I was. I seal my mouth to his and kiss him deep, tasting his tongue for only a moment before pulling at his energy.

  I quickly take my fill before releasing him. I already feel a million times better. Monroe lets out a heavy breath as he shakes off the energy drain. “Alright. We ready now?” He asks, slightly winded.

  “You going to be okay?” I ask him, worried.

  He smiles. “I’ll be fine. Your feeds are a lot more draining now. I’d say its probably from the increase of your power. I’ll gain it back in a bit.”

  I raise a brow in disbelief but nod anyways. As we continue our way down towards the Damned, I continue explaining to him everything I learned.

  Just like before, the screams of agony fill my ears when we reach the landing of the second floor.

  Surprisingly, guards still stand on the other side of the door. They have no idea that everything went to shit for all their friends upstairs, so at least we have an advantage. We watch as other guards pace up and down the corridor of cells.

  Monroe’s face contorts with rage as we peek through the window of the door. He inhales deeply and hisses. “There’s so much blood being spilled here. I can smell layer upon layer of blood from all species. Some has been here for quite some time, and some is as fresh as only minutes. What kind of monsters do this?”

  “Humans,” I growl out. “I may not have held them high on my list of interesting creatures over the course of my life, but now, I care very little for them.”

  “I want to agree with you on that. But not all humans are like this. I’ve seen exceptional good come from them. These humans, however, deserve far worse than the deepest depths of Damnation for this atrocity. I’d say they rival Cain as far as torture goes.”

  I don’t disagree with that at all. Though, I doubt I’ll want to be around humans for a bit after this is all over. I think I’ve had my fill.

  “Have you been able to get word to Larkan or Enoch?” Monroe asks me.

  I had withheld Enoch’s betrayal in my flow of information. I doubt he’d take it better than I had. “Enoch is a part of all of this. He bid on me in the auction.”

  Monroe’s head snaps to me, “I’ll fucking kill him,” he replies without hesitation.

  “He’s not worth it, Monroe. I had the chance to, but I couldn’t do it. I’d rather he lived with his deception eternally than give him the satisfaction of escaping into Damnation. You know very well Cain would open his arms wide to him for the monster he is.”

  Monroe bobs his head in agreement. “Yes, I suppose you’re right.”

  “But I found Jamie. She was auctioned right after me. Hopefully, she escaped without a problem and should be on her way to get him and the other Rites. I’m sure she’ll be recruiting other Damned as well. Not too sure if the Infernal will want to get their hands dirty, though. Especially if Saul is involved.”

  “Fair point. Alright, then. How should we go about rescuing our people in there? I’m thinking we just go in guns blazing. What do you think?” He sends me a confident smirk.

  I smile back. “I’m good with that.” I take a step back, lift my foot, and with all my strength I kick in the door. It buckles smoothly beneath my heel and crashes to the floor.

  Immediately, guards are on us. We both split apart as we jump into the hallway. Silver bullets fly as the two guards that were walking start shooting.

  I ash one who’d been by the door while Monroe uses his teeth to tear through the neck of the other, all while simultaneously using the man’s body to cover him from bullets.

  I make a run for the guard to the right, dodging his bullets as I go. I jump and kick off one of the walls. My knees hit his chest, and he goes down. I quickly place my hand to his chest and ash him. I grab the blessed blade that’s left in the pile and toss it at the back of the other guard who’s running at Monroe. It hit him in the center of his spine, and he goes down.

  Monroe lifts a foot and stomps the man’s face, crushing his skull.

  Several humans open their doors and peek out curiously at the noise. As soon as they see us though, they quickly shut themselves back inside.

  “Oh no you don’t!” Monroe shouts as one closes his too slow. He kicks it hard, causing it to hit the man on the other side.

  I hear a scream as Monroe takes care of the human. I look to the other doors and smirk. If these doors are anything like the ones upstairs, they can’t be locked from the inside.

  Sure enough, I start opening doors. Unfortunately, some are only filled with death. Mangled bodies of my people. Empty rooms that wreak of decay and blood. I am happy when I do find a few that are still alive and alone. Some are too weak to move, some not even touched yet.

  The ones not touched are some that were in the auction with me. Sadly, one of the bodies I found was the Incubus that had tried to speak to me in the back-stage area; his head decapitated from his body.

  Each room only makes me far more furious. The unlucky humans torturing and killing on this floor all meet a painful end from both Monroe and myself. I take my time turning one to ash when I see he had shot a small Imp with silver nails over a hundred times. She was barely breathing when I entered, and it looked like he’d taken his time with her. So, it was only natural I did the same for him. Who knew I could slow down the ashing of someone by only focusing on doing it to one body part at a time?

  Just as I finish killing that
guy and walk out of the cell with the girl over my shoulder, an alarm sounds above us. Red lights begin to flash in the corners of the hallway. I see those we could save all huddled together against one of the walls. They shake with fear and look around in terror as the alarm continues.

  I hand the girl I’m carrying off to one of the more able bodied Damned and turn to Monroe.

  “This just put a wrench in the plan!” I shout to him over the alarm. “No more guns blazing! Any ideas on what to do next?”

  He leans in close. “You said there were more on the first floor?”

  I nod. “Yeah. Though that floor is more heavily guarded! We’re gonna be outnumbered!”

  He frowns, clearly as worried about how the hell we plan to make it through more. It was easy to dust a bunch of humans and a few guards. But a bunch of guards that far outnumber us? I’m not too sure we could handle that on our own.

  Monroe walks over to the largest male of the group who seems to be the only one that could possibly fight. The guy nods his head and starts herding the Damned back towards the stairwell.

  I’m about to ask him what he told them, when a familiar sensation climbs up my spine.

  Larkan. He’s close. I silently thank the Creator. Jamie must have escaped and alerted them to where we were.

  Monroe must see the relief on my face. “Larkan?” He asks, already knowing the cause.

  I smile and nod. “Why don’t we get this party started until they get here?”

  He responds by shifting to his second form and flashing some fang at me. I concentrate on my third form as I hear shouts and thunderous footsteps coming up from the bottom floor. Unfortunately, I can’t seem to get there. Now I’m starting to think that whole third form I managed was a gigantic fluke. I settle for my Damned form instead. I could still kick some major ass like this. I just wish I had my hooked swords. It’d be so much more fun. I guess this puny blessed blade will have to do.

  I shift just as doors crash open on either side of the hallway we’re in. A mix of shifted Lupin and human guards come piling into the room with weapons drawn and teeth salivating. A few snap their teeth at us and growl viciously. I am suddenly thankful that none of the men I’m sleeping with are Lupin. They may be hot as hell in their human forms most of the time, but I’m not a huge fan of their mangy second forms. Why couldn’t they look like regular large wolves like the humans think they do?

  The alarms and lights go off and a guard steps forward from the mass. “Give up! You aren’t getting out of here alive!” The guard shouts, the red laser of his gun aimed right at my forehead, unlike the rest aimed at my chest.

  “You’d think that, but we’re not as easy to kill as you think we are,” I snarl in a demonic voice. I didn’t need to use that, but it makes it more fun. Monroe, who’s back is against mine facing off the guards behind us, shakes with laughter. He apparently thinks my voice is funny.

  “I think if we load you up with enough blessed, silver bullets you’ll die just fine,” he retaliates with a sneer.

  I know I probably shouldn’t taunt the crowd but buying some time for Larkan and anyone else he brought is our only hope in getting out of this. So, I keep him talking.

  “If you’re so confident in your guns, why not just kill us right now then?” I retort.

  “Our boss wants to kill you himself. We have orders to take you in.”

  Himself? So, it is a man running this show. Maybe I was right about it being Saul from the get go. Unless it’s Enoch. Damnation! It better not be him! It’s bad enough he’s involved in this mess. But if he’s actually running it, I’m not sure I could stop myself from killing him the next time I face him.

  “He got a name?” I ask, hoping the guy is as dumb as he looks and gives up Saul and not Enoch.

  “That’s not for you to know, bitch!” A Lupin snarls through the drool pooling from his mouth.

  Well, it was worth a try. I’m about to start asking something else, when a tug in my chest alerts me that Larkan has arrived. Which means, it’s go time. This little bond thing we have between us really did come in handy. I still haven’t figured out how it happened though. Either way, I’m thankful.

  I give Monroe a quick and subtle elbow to his back, letting him know it’s go time. Simultaneously, he drops to his knees, and I throw my palms out to either side of me. I send off the largest pulse of power I can muster and knock both groups backwards.

  With the small window I’ve given us, we race in opposite directions towards the guards. I let out a war cry and feel my wings form on my back just as I reach the men.

  I twist, slice, kick, and blast my way through them, touching as many as I possibly can between cutting and stabbing. I have no idea where humans go when they die, but I sure as hell know where these Lupin are going. I only hope they burn for eternity when they arrive.

  I hear a screech come from Monroe and snap my head in his direction.

  “Monroe!” I scream in horror when he gets shot in the chest and falls to his knees.

  I go to run to him, but a guard shouts, “Drop the cage!”

  I stop just before a wall of silver bars slides down from the ceiling, cutting off my attempt to reach Monroe. I turn to see a guard’s hand on a lever, and I dart for him. Unfortunately, a second wall falls. I’m caught in a trap with Monroe completely unreachable for me.

  I let out a vicious snarl and run towards the other side again, slamming into it full force. It doesn’t budge. I grab the bars and let out a scream both of agony and anger, watching as the guards converge on Monroe.

  If they kill him, neither these bars or Divinity itself will save them from my wrath.

  I don’t know what to do as I watch the men begin to wrap silver chains around Monroe’s motionless body that has blood pooling beneath it. It’s as if time is slowing down with each passing breath I take, and each breath is harder to breathe.

  I hear my heartbeat pounding in my ears and the muffled shouts of the guards to surrender. I feel the blisters upon my hands from holding onto the silver, blessed bars with all my might, and a stabbing cold slither across my bones. I smell Monroe’s blood as if it’s right beneath my nose. And the putrid taste of satisfied emotions filtering from the humans dances across my tongue.

  However, I see nothing but red.

  I thought I knew what true hate felt like. I was wrong. It had been nothing compared to what I’m feeling now.

  Something inside me seems to be tugging, telling me to calm down. I ignore it. I know what it is. It’s Larkan. I always know when he’s near and can tell he’s sending out those vibes to stop me. I won’t though. Not until everyone has paid and this building is but rubble on the ground.

  The bars begin to heat and vibrate violently against my now bleeding palms. The building itself seems to be shaking. The human guards all gaze around them in confusion while still holding their weapons in my direction, but the Lupin keep their gazes fastened to me. They know what they’re witnessing. They know that they have just crossed the wrong fucking Damned.

  I feel my power pulsing steadily around me. Slower at first, then faster and faster. The Lupin begin to slowly back away. The humans watch them, then start backing up as well.

  “Get the Strige out of here! Now!” A Lupin guard yells at the ones surrounding his body.

  I bellow out a vicious snarl as black fire erupts around me, then with all my strength, I pry the bars open enough to step through. At the same moment, the door leading from the stairwell burst open in an explosion.

  I don’t have to turn around to see it’s Larkan, other Rites following close behind.

  “Stop! Nocturna, you have to stop! This isn’t the way to go!” He shouts.

  I ignore him and step through the bars; my eyes only see the men standing over Monroe.

  “Nocturna!” Larkan shouts. “Harvey! Open this fucking cage!”

  I stalk towards the men as they draw back. Just as I’m about to reach them, I feel Larkan’s arms encircle me.

  �
��Stop, Nocturna! You can’t do this!”

  I growl; my breath heaving with anger. “Yes, I can! None of them deserve absolution! They deserve Damnation!” I try to shrug his arms from me, but he holds tighter.

  “No. They have done something unforgiveable, but they are still human!” He puts his lips to my ear and whispers, “We don’t punish humans no matter how much they have sinned, love. You don’t decide their fate. Only the Creator does. Monroe needs you right now, so you have to get under control.”

  Too late. I think to myself. I’ve already killed more than I can count.

  I look down at my motionless Strige lover, then at the cowering humans who are surrendering their weapons to the Rites that pass by us, and finally the Lupin who are shifting back to their human forms. I still only see malice for them, but Larkan’s words also make me see reason. He’s right. As badly as I want them all to burn, I am only made to punish or absolve the Divine and the Damned. I can’t change what I’ve done to all the ones I’ve killed, but I can stop myself from killing more. The Lupin I’m within my right to handle, but the humans are for the Creator to punish. Monroe should come first; though, I don’t know what I can do for him.

  I take deep breaths in and out, trying to calm the waging war inside of me. Larkan’s hold on me grows more tender. My breathing finally starts to slow, and my rage levels out to a simmer. I’m not ready to let go of all of it yet, but I need to be rational if I’m to help Monroe.

  Larkan kisses my temple then releases me. We both walk over and kneel beside Monroe. I place my hands on his chest and can feel it very slowly rising and falling.

  “He’s still alive! How do I help him?” I ask Larkan.

  He looks at me like he’s confused. “What do you mean? You’re half Rite remember? You can heal him.”

  I stare at him with disbelief, completely blown away that he thinks this is an ability I have. “What? How? I’ve never done that before. You do it like you healed me!”

  He grabs my hands and places them over the wounds in his chest. “You have to will it to happen. Use your love for him to guide the power. Every Rite can heal humans and other Divine. Since you are half Divine, I was able to heal you. I can’t heal the Damned. You’re both, so you have to heal him.”