Melkor & Purity: Book One Page 2

  We’d suffered an attack on our armory, which the Demons had been in charge of. Now we only had limited supplies…and now that breeding season was over for the next one hundred years, we were without warriors to man the gates and the portals.

  They were at home, being fathers.

  I kept my gaze low and stayed in the shadows, making my way toward the bar. “A glass of your finest whiskey, please.”

  I dipped my fingers into the inside pocket of my jacket and felt a cold pressure on the back of my neck once more.

  Someone was watching me.

  Someone knew me for what I am.

  I eased my fingers out, and slid a gold coin across the counter. The bartender just looked at the thing, then reached for the coin. “Um, normally it’s paper.”

  “And today it’s gold. Choose wisely, shifter,” I gave a soft growl.

  The rowdy conversations never missed a beat.

  But the bartender’s eyes flared silver for a heartbeat. His nostrils flared, drawing in the sickening seedy scent of cheap perfume and sex. “I know you?” he murmured and looked me in the eyes.

  This was the beauty of being the Lord of Hell. I could hide myself from any mind, immortal or otherwise. “I don’t think so.”

  I tilted the corner of my mouth into a smirk, and he pocketed the coin before moving to pour the drink.

  I crossed my legs and tilted my body, trying my best to seem uninterested. But the truth was, I was very interested, and as the hum along my spine deepened, I wanted to know who in Harbor’s crowded city streets could be following me.

  The glass slid across the counter, and the shifter leaned closer. “I meant no disrespect.”

  I looked into the shifter’s eyes and saw a shadow of fear. Even blind to my features and my power, he could somehow sense someone more powerful than he could ever be.

  I nodded, and lifted the glass until the perfect heat hit my lips, and then the icy feeling on the back of my neck faded. Whoever was here was now gone, but I had a feeling we’d meet again. Only next time, they might be bolder, instead of hiding in the shadows.

  I drained the glass, and placed it back on the counter. The shifter watched me with a careful gaze as he dried the same glass with a dishtowel for the fourth time.

  But I was done here, done with the stench. Done with the night.

  I crossed the bar and headed for the doorway. I’d return in the daylight. I had unfinished business here…with a certain young woman.

  The noise of the city street slammed into me as I shoved through the door and stepped outside.

  “Did you enjoy your drink, my Lord?” Helkor growled from the entrance to the alley.

  He pushed off from the corner of the building and unfolded his arms.

  “I thought I’d gotten away with leaving you behind.”

  Helkor just smiled and shook his head. “You should know better than that. I’m aware of both your presence in Hell and your damn absence. Anyway, Helene came home early, seems she missed the heathens, and I was more than happy for an excuse to leave.”

  I remembered the blood-curdling howls coming from his den and shuddered. “How about we stay up here a little longer?”

  “I thought you’d never ask,” Helkor growled with a battle-weary sigh and we turned to the door of Midnight’s bar once more.

  I glanced once more at the towering male as he gave a nod, urging me along the steps to the two-story brick house with its perfect peony gardens and its mat exclaiming, God bless all who enter here…

  I doubted that.

  I doubted that very fucking much.

  Maybe I could just leave the envelope…stuff it into the mail slot with a message? Yeah, might be a good idea.

  Helkor cleared his throat, knowing I’d wince at the sound. He may as well have voiced the word…pussy…

  Goddamnit. I inhaled hard, tugged on my suit jacket, covered the last three steps to the door, and stabbed the doorbell .

  My finger came away slimy and wet. I swiped my finger across my trousers. Helkor let out a muffled bark of laughter, and I fought the urge to turn and glare.

  Piercing, blood-curdling wails came from inside the house. A screaming mortal baby, along with the thunderous steps of a frantic human.

  “I’m coming!” A woman screamed from inside. “Almost there…”

  “Wonderful,” I murmured, “Just wonderful.”

  The door was yanked open by a frazzled looking woman carrying a baby with the biggest bald head I’d ever seen in my life perched on her hip.

  “Yes?” She smiled…so damn welcoming. “Are you selling or buying?”

  I flinched, panicked thoughts raced through my head. Selling or buying? “I’m afraid I’m not sure what you mean.”

  She lifted a hand, her nails coated with something yellow. “The garage sale…the sign,” she snapped. “Are you interested in the car parts?”

  Car parts? I turned, not to the array of gleaming metal devices scattered across the driveway, but to the one person I depended on. And with all the power I controlled, I screamed the words inside my head. Get me the Hell out of here!

  Helkor just shoved his muscled frame off the rear door of the gleaming black Chrysler and strode toward us. The smirk on his face said it all.

  This was payback. I leave Hell behind while he’s tasked with my safety, and this is what I get.

  I straightened my spine and turned toward her. “No, I’m sorry. We’re not buying. But I was hoping to take a moment of your time. Do you happen to have a daughter called Purity?”

  She stopped bouncing the baby on her hip and the smile on her face died. “What’s she done now?”

  I lifted the envelope. “Nothing.”

  “If she stole something of yours, we’re not responsible. I’ve tried…goddamnit, I’ve tried,” she wrenched her head left and bellowed at the top of her lungs, “Purity, get your behind here right this very instant!”

  “No,” I stuttered. “I think you have this all wrong.”

  I shoved the envelope forward, with the scrawled names on the front, one written in a child’s hand, and the other in mine. “You see, I received this letter by mistake.”

  The woman turned her head, and stared at the envelope in my hand. She took a step, eyes searching, before a tiny bulb inside her head went click. She jerked her head high, skin turning a shade of gray I’d never seen before, and I’d thought I’d seen them all. “It’s says Satan,” she mumbled.

  “Yes, it does. At first, I assumed it was meant for Santa…as you can imagine, the two names are so closely related and, every year I get an influx of letters by mistake. But on this occasion, I don’t think it was a mistake.”

  She wasn’t listening to a word I said. Her eyes had a faraway stare, shining bright with lunacy. I thought, for a second, her knees would buckle and she’d crumple to the floor.

  She let out a little, “humpf,” and then, with one massive draw of a breath…she screamed.

  I flinched from the terrifying sound and stumbled backwards. Helkor’s panicked expression told me he had no idea how to handle the situation…which made two of us.

  I lifted my hand. “Please…please, don’t do that.”

  My protest only made her scream louder. She turned, almost dropped the baby, and took off running up the stairs. I had no idea where she was going.

  And out of the corner slunk a blonde-haired, blue-eyed child…she twirled in her pale blue dress, as innocent as could be.

  I leaned down, placing my hands on my knees, and looked her in the eyes. She was the one…she had Hellraiser written all over her. “I take it you’re Purity?”

  “Yes, Sir,” she answered sweetly.

  She turned those blue eyes to Helkor behind me, before glancing at the mat in the doorway. I followed her gaze, looked a little closer, and found cloves of garlic squashed between the letters.

  I smiled and shook my head. But I couldn’t be anything but impressed. “You know, this is twice now you’ve mistaken me for
a Vampire.”

  Her eyes widened ever so slightly as she twirled back and forth in her pretty blue dress. Imagine her as an adult? The thought flickered through my mind.

  And an ache of purpose flared a little brighter.

  “Do I look like a Vampire to you?” I held out my hands. “For instance, do I have fangs?” I lifted my hand, captured my top lip, and lifted, revealing my eyeteeth.

  She shook her head.

  “And don’t you think it’s unusual for a Vampire to stand in the sun?” I lifted my hand to the warm morning rays behind me.

  The shake turned to a nod.

  “So now we’ve established I’m not a Vampire, do you now know who I am?”

  She shook her head again, so I handed her the envelope. “You wrote to me and asked for a puppy, I believe.”

  Her eyes widened, her tiny fists clenched around her dress. I was consumed by the child…utterly and completely…consumed. She dropped the hemline of her dress and, instead of turning and running like her mother, she did something which floored me.

  She stepped closer.

  And in an instant, I saw her life flicker before my eyes…a warrior…just like Helkor’s son. But not a Hellhound, nor even a Demon. She’d be a warrior of human flesh—one forged with purpose.

  One created not for this time.

  But for the future where men and monsters walked this earth together. Where they fought and they survived. She would be important.

  “Did you bring my puppy?” she murmured.

  I couldn’t answer…couldn’t catch my breath. Those blue eyes gripped me. This was the start of her journey. This was the spark which would change the course of her life. If I said no, I’d deny this child the chance to grow to be what she should be.

  And if I said yes…what then?

  “No,” I answered. “I didn’t bring your puppy.”

  “That’s disappointing,” she said, and her words held a trace of anger.

  “But what if I said I knew of one, a special Hellhound who comes from the finest warrior I know?” I turned my head and glanced over my shoulder at Helkor, who just stood at the end of the walkway with his arms crossed over his chest, and then turned to her once more. “What if we could come to some kind of arrangement…Helkor will bring him to visit you, see if you two can be friends…”

  Her tiny breath caught. She tore her gaze from the warrior to me. “Y-you’d do that? You’d let me have a friend?”

  “Yes, yes, I would.”

  “The boys and girls at my school don’t like me, they call me names, say I’m weird.”

  And a knowing raged within me once more. “You’re better than them…you’re better than all of them. Otherwise, why would I be here?”

  The painful tremor in her eyes stilled, and what replaced it was breathtaking. Purpose roared through her tiny body. Purpose in all its terrifying glory. “What’s his name?”

  Rykor filled my head, but he was older, harder, not fit for a child. I glanced back to Helkor once more, remembering his youngest, even that he was five, which would make him close to her age. “His name is Melkor.”

  “Melkor,” the child murmured as her mother’s frantic scream tore through the air.

  “I’ve called 911. The police are on the way!”

  I smiled. Humans. “So, just our secret, okay?”

  She took one more step, closing the distance, and held out her hand. “Shake, or it’s not real.”

  My belly trembled, and laughter spilled from my lips as I reached out, and her tiny hand clasped mine. One small pump and the deal was set in stone. I had this strange feeling, I’d just been outplayed by a human child named Purity.

  What the Hell was I in for next?

  Chapter One

  Purity

  Six years later.

  “Purity Jane Andersen!” Mom screamed. “Tell me where you are right now!”

  It was a new tone, one I hadn’t heard before…like she was on her way to having one of those ‘moments’.

  She’d been having lots of those lately.

  Especially where I was concerned.

  “Purity.”

  Hot breath against my ear, my name a whisper.

  I turned in the cramped space and slammed my hand against his mouth. Or at least I thought it was his mouth. My fingers probed against soft flesh, finding the ridges of fangs…yep, definitely his mouth.

  “I’m going to! I’m going to!” Mom howled.

  “She sounds ready to blow,” muffled words against my hand.

  I turned then, pushing aside Dad’s golf shoes he never wore, Jude’s sneakers wedged under my butt, and Mom’s umbrella. The damn thing had fallen three times now. Each time was a frantic fight of poking bits and Melkor laughing.

  Just like he was about to laugh now.

  “Did you see…” he whimpered, and reached up, smashing my hand hard against his mouth as he moaned and jiggled. It took him a second to regain control. The pressure eased as he finished. “Did you see her face?”

  I whipped my gaze toward him, catching the faint flicker of fire in his eyes.

  There hadn’t been a hint of fire in all the years we’d been friends.

  But it was there now. Hellhound. The word took flight…

  No, he was just Melkor. My Melkor.

  “You won’t see thirteen, young lady, if you don’t come out here right now!” Mom’s shrill voice slipped under the door.

  “Her face…her face was red, Purity,” Melkor’s voice was strained, bordering on a full blowout complete with tears and snot as he laughed.

  But there was nothing funny. Not yet, at least.

  “It was supposed to be for her damn head. How was I to know it wouldn’t stay there?”

  There was a sound again… hmmmfff…hmmfff…followed by a whimper and a snort. He slapped one hand against the wall and toppled onto me.

  Shudders rode his body as I took his entire weight. “Why?” he cried. “Why did you do it?”

  The torn scrap of the magazine was still in my hand. The end crumpled, but the meaning was the same.

  A shadow stopped outside the door and stilled.

  “I’m not mad. Not really,” Mom lied from the other side of the door. “I just want to know why, and what is it?”

  “Purity…” Melkor cried.

  I unfurled my fingers, smoothed the edge of the scrap, and pressed it against the floor of the closet, fighting Mom’s heels and my old flats I never wore.

  I slid the torn page from the magazine under the gap of the door until it was gone.

  The shadow outside moved. The paper was snatched away.

  “Redheads have more fun?”

  I winced at the sound of the words. “I just wanted you to smile and be happy. Thought it’d make you laugh,” I muttered and Melkor shook with strained glee once more.

  The handle squealed before the door was yanked open and we were exposed. I didn’t want to look…didn’t want to see the red streaks down her face…

  “What was it?” she growled.

  I lifted my gaze then, squashed in the back of the closet with my best friend. I smashed my lips flat, and clenched my jaw as Melkor wiped tears off his cheeks. “Food chkerlheoh.”

  “What? What did you say, young lady? Look at me when you speak to me.”

  I glanced at the black marks on the wall and the peeling paint in the door frame…

  “Look. At. Me.”

  I lifted my gaze. The redness wasn’t as bad now, the streaks were almost orange, but still, they ran in rivulets down her chest and clothes…but it wasn’t in her hair, though, was it?

  “What is it?” she repeated, staring down at me.

  “Food coloring.”

  “You put food coloring in my shampoo because…because redheads have more fun?”

  I winced at the way she said it. “Just wanted youtobehappy.”

  “What?” she growled.

  “She said,” Melkor started, earning a glare from Mom. “She said she want
ed you to be happy.”

  Mom stilled, and then slowly straightened. “And you had nothing to do with this?”

  Melkor shook his head. “No, ma’am.”

  Traitor.

  I could hear the punishment coming. No phone, no internet…no TV for a damn week!

  “Out,” she snapped. “Out of the closet and up to your room…. both of you. You’re starting to smell like your father’s trainers.”

  I tried to move, but my knees were locked, body frozen. I’d stay here, hiding from Mom, for the rest of my damn life.

  Melkor was the first to move, ducking his head in case Mom whipped her hand out and smacked him upside the head.

  “You are gonna be the death of me, young lady…the absolute death!”

  Melkor shoved his hand out, and I reached up, letting him pull me from the floor. We walked upstairs like that, holding hands. Two hellraisers against the world.

  “No TV!” Mom called as we started up the stairs. I mouthed the words as Mom followed. “And no internet for a week!”

  Melkor turned his head as we tramped up the stairs and amidst the laughter, the flames of Hell burned brighter.

  And for the first time since the Lord of Hell gave me my best friend, I saw what he was…what he truly was—and I loved him even more.

  Chapter Two

  Purity

  Three years later.

  “If we get caught, I’m blaming all this on you. I hope you know that.” I lifted the can and stared at the wall.

  “I’d expect nothing less,” Melkor murmured and glanced over his shoulder, then turned to me once more. “Now hurry up. I’m freezing.”

  “Thought Hellhounds don’t feel the cold? Thought they don’t feel much of anything, actually. Must be the tough Hellhounds, not softcocks like you.”

  Red flames blazed in midnight eyes, but there was laugher behind the flames. “Softcocks, huh?”

  I bit the insides of my cheeks and pressed the nozzle, letting the black paint arc and then fall. Fifteen years. Fifteen years of missing Christmas dinner because he was always on call, and someone who didn’t have a fucking life decided to go into work and busted his damn printer.