To Hell and Back Read Online Free Page B

was now heavier, and the only thing her eyes could pick out were the two sets of burning red eyes—hellhound eyes. They terrified her more than the hulking beasts who accompanied them.
    Images—smells and emotions—assaulted her. She’d been dragged down to the underworld so many years ago and yet it felt like yesterday.. Kira was ashamed when she squeezed her eyes shut and whimpered at the heaviness of it all.
    Would they ever truly go away?
    Her heart was beating so hard it was painful and she gasped, clutching at the door handle as Priest spun out of the driveway and turned right, heading away from the danger.
    They drove in silence, the old car giving all it had to keep up with the relentless pressure Priest applied to the gas pedal. The only sounds in Kira’s ears were the tires humming along asphalt, the splat of rain against the windshield, and the roar of the wind as it buffeted them mercilessly.
    Her chest constricted tightly and she had a death grip on the dagger in her hands as they blew through a stop sign and continued forward. She kept glancing in the sideview mirror but for the moment couldn’t see any sign of their pursuers.
    They were on a rural road and when they came to the next intersection, they were forced to stop as a large blue tractor pulled a load of pumpkins along the road in front of them. The rain had stopped and warmth seeped through the glass windows, though it did nothing to penetrate the cold inside her bones. A long, slow breath fell from between her lips as she gazed ahead at the wagon full of pumpkins.
    “That’s the slowest tractor on the planet,” she muttered.
    Priest remained silent, his jaw clenched, his eyes on the rearview mirror.
    Her fingers gripped the dagger and her foot tapped the floor nervously as the wagon finally cleared enough room for Priest to gun the engine. They zipped across the road and barreled ahead, the silver car’s engine making a grinding noise, no doubt in protest to the relentless pressure to move. Minutes later she relaxed slightly and turned to Priest.
    “I think we lost them.”
    Kira didn’t see the black SUV come from out of nowhere but she sure as hell felt the hit when it crashed into the back of the Accord. The car swerved crazily and slammed into a ditch, where it bounced on impact and went airborne.
    Kira was tossed around like a puppet and for a moment everything went hazy. She felt pain. Smelled blood. She heard cursing—words she didn’t understand. They came from behind her, or maybe ahead of her.
    She struggled to open her eyes but everything was heavy. Chaotic.
    Kira didn’t give in and as the moments ticked past, eventually her eyes slowly opened. She shivered at the sight of three dark forms solidifying in the mist. They moved toward her, and even though Kira wasn’t sure if she believed in a higher power anymore, she said a soft prayer hoping someone would hear her…
    But as the demons moved closer, darkness bled into the hazy red in her mind and a painful groan escaped her lips. And she slipped into oblivion.

 
    Chapter Four
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    “L OGAN, YOU KNOW I don’t like it when you ignore me.”
    Pain filled every single pore in his body. It seeped into muscle. Leeched into bone. It penetrated the calluses on the bottom of his feet. Even his fucking hair ached.
    “Look at me when I address you.” The petulant tone in Lilith’s voice was gone; it was now steel that propped up her words. Carefully, Logan glanced toward her, hiding the agony he felt as he gazed into the bluest eyes in existence. Her face was exquisite, the poison it hid legendary.
    Logan studied her in silence. It was a cosmic joke, really, that such beauty hid a voracious and sick kind of darkness. Unlike most of the bottom-feeders and midrange demons who populated the underworld, there was no need to glamor her appearance. This visage was the original. The real deal. The woman had two eyes, a nose, and a mouth, same as any other woman, yet she was in a class