Total pages in book: 75
Estimated words: 70779 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 354(@200wpm)___ 283(@250wpm)___ 236(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70779 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 354(@200wpm)___ 283(@250wpm)___ 236(@300wpm)
With a sigh, I let myself relax fully. I knew I was with someone who wouldn’t be randomly cruel in the middle of the night. Kael wouldn’t wake me with a pinch or a slap the way Carlo used to do. He would hold me and keep me warm and cherish me as I slept curled against him. For the first time in my life, I could drift off to sleep with a man without fearing that I might be woken by pain.
I never wanted it to end.
But it did, two hours later when I woke up to a horrible nightmare.
27
WILLOW
It wasn’t really a nightmare, but it certainly seemed like one. It started with a deep grinding noise that penetrated my dreams. Then a dull orange glow pressed against my eyelids and I began to get uncomfortably hot.
I woke confused, my eyelids fluttering open. I was alone in the bed and the room was bathed with a reddish-orange light. I was terribly hot—something at the end of the bed was emitting heat like a furnace.
At first, I thought the cottage was on fire—there was a scent like rotten eggs and burning in the air. But then I saw the source of the heat—there was a huge iron door, right at the foot of the bed. It was open and I could see a hellish landscape beyond.
Barren, hard-packed earth crisscrossed with cracks and fissures was lit by burning red light. In the background, a jagged mountain range rose. There was a river running sluggishly through the landscape and at first, I thought the water in it was being turned red by the strange light. Then I realized the truth—the river was filled with bubbling lava!
“Oh my Goddess,” I whispered shakily. “What in the world…?”
And then I saw something moving towards me—some kind of animal. It was coming up fast, approaching the open doorway at a kind of gallop. But despite the reddish-orange light, the land I was seeing was full of shadows. So I didn’t recognize it until it was nearly at the door.
As it got closer, three sets of burning eyes and three slavering mouths came into view. A volley of hoarse, growling barks filled the room as the Hell Hound that had chased me earlier suddenly loomed in the doorway.
I felt helpless and trapped. I scrambled to the back of the bed, my shoulders pressed against the carved wooden headboard, so hard I was sure I would have marks later. I wanted to get off the bed and run but I was frozen to the spot and besides, I wasn’t sure I could get around the door. I needed a weapon!
“Cottage—give me a gun!” I begged. “A loaded one!”
A heavy revolver suddenly appeared in my hand. Luckily, Carlo had taught me how to shoot—mainly because he wanted someone at the shooting range with him that he could show off for.
I aimed the gun at the approaching Hell Hound and shot through the open doorway.
But though I saw the bullet fly, I must have missed. Or else maybe Earth weapons couldn’t hurt Hell Hounds. Whatever the reason, it only snarled at me with all three heads and kept coming.
I shot again… and again and again and again with the same results.
Then I heard a voice calling from the hallway.
“Willow? What’s wrong? What was that noise?”
Kael ran into the bedroom and saw my predicament at once. The Hell Hound was nearly in the doorway by now and I was shivering against the headboard with the gun held out in front of me with a stiff arm.
“Get out of the way—I’m going to try to shoot it again!” I yelled at him when ran to the door.
“No—you can’t hurt it like that. We must close the door!”
He was already changing, his eyes burning red and his feathers melting into leathery wings. His face grew twisted and ugly and he seemed to get even bigger.
“How can you shut it?” I demanded, putting down the gun. The iron door wasn’t open from my side—it was open in the Hellscape. I could see it outlined against the red glow—it was standing ajar. We would have to reach into that horrible scene to grab the knob and drag it closed. I didn’t see how I could do that—not with the Hell Hound coming.
Kael didn’t answer. He stepped forward, coming right up to the burning doorway. Then he leaned in to grab for the knob.
But he couldn’t reach it and then the Hell Hound was there—trying to get through.
Kael grabbed one of its heads by the throat and punched it, knocking it unconscious. It was the middle head and it sagged in his grip, but there were still two more on either side, slavering and baying for blood.
My guardian gargoyle was holding it back by sheer strength but the thing was huge—as big as a horse! I knew he couldn’t hold it for long.