Hell at Her Hands Book Two

By Odette C. Bell

They say you shouldn’t trust demons – they’ll only drag you to Hell. If only Bella could be that lucky.
Soon, Heaven and Hell will be out of reach; Giuseppe will block the city from both. His fight for everything will heat up, leaving Bella where she belongs – in Zane’s arms.
For now, at least.
Even Zane can’t fight what’s just around the corner. It has teeth, horns, a scythe, and a score to settle.
Zane and Bella will have to hold onto one another for as long as they can. But in this sinful town, nothing lasts forever – even eternity.
...
A light-romance urban-fantasy, Hell at Her Hands follows a demon oracle and a new witch fighting fate. If you crave your fiction with action, humor, romance, and fun, grab Hell at Her Hands Book Two today and soar free with an Odette C. Bell series.

Hell at Her Hands is the 3rd My Better Devil series. A witty, action-packed, light romance world where Satan’s sons must find love, but only after it sticks a ring on their finger. If you like your urban fantasies packed full of charming smiles, arrogant demons, and sprinkles of romance, dive in today.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Odette C. Bell
• Release date: Jan 23, 2023
• ISBN: 9798215192894

Book preview

Chapter 1

Zane

Memory can be a strange thing. Especially when you’re a demon. Especially when someone is trying to kill you. And especially, oh, especially when you’re the Oracle like me.

Seconds after being knocked out by that disassembled demon on the road, I’d fallen headfirst into a vision. It hadn’t stopped until I’d woken up to find Brian trying to kill me with my own ex-slave.

The vision hadn’t been coherent, hadn’t been of a single narrative, and had instead taken me on a choppy journey like somebody frantically grabbing books from a library to read only one page at a time. But one thing had stuck. All these years, I’d been laboring under the impression that dear old dad had somehow lost the other Ring of Satan. He hadn’t, and a message he’d given me all those years ago had been a clue. All good connections come from within.

A very vague clue, to be fair, but my father wasn’t the kind to hammer you over the head with the truth. He had a flaming forked tail for that. But that was all in the past. And the future was here and now, wrapped up in a frozen touch that could no longer still me and large doe eyes that swiveled toward me, half in pleading, half in bloody anger. We can’t let him get away. Zane—

A few seconds ago, you were begging for me to run. You know we demons don’t run, don’t you, Bella? I pushed my face just that little bit closer so I could see her true reaction, so my flaring nostrils could smell her response. We fly.

I pressed in close, grabbed her hand, and pushed my arm around her side like we were about to spin into a waltz, then pulled her into the air.

I might’ve done this a few other times, but not as dramatically and not while touching her actual skin. My point was that Bella should have reacted. More than she really did. She glanced at me once. But her eyes didn’t widen, her pupils didn’t dilate, and she didn’t mutter something about me being the hottest demon in existence. She simply turned and pointed forward like I was her trusty steed. Get after him. My skin’s gone all itchy. I don’t know what it means, but it must be blood magic. He’s about to cast a powerful spell. Don’t let him go.

I grunted.

It wasn’t like I’d worked particularly long on my dramatic one-liner about flying. Still, it hurt for it to be ignored.

But Bella could not ignore what I did next, and nor could Brian.

I shot forward. Right at the closed door. And right through it.

She might be able to feel her uncle practicing blood magic – it made sense. He’d practiced on her, and they were family. But I could sense blood, full stop. And suddenly, my senses detected this gargantuan rush of it. Do you think a blood volcano had appeared in the middle of the mansion? Disgusting, but also impossible. Giuseppe would never waste something like that, anyway.

Giuseppe had reached his heady heights by never letting a single resource go. And you certainly didn’t waste blood. Not like the avaricious, foolish Brian did.

Perhaps he’d assumed the spell he’d cast on Bella had been efficient and had somehow proven that he was a strong wizard, after all.

He could have done the same thing with a single drop of blood if only he hadn’t been so eager to prove a point.

But therein was Brian Townsend’s problem.

It was not mine.

I acted swiftly and efficiently, shifting my molecules to the side – Bella’s too – and transported through the door.

Now this at least got Bella to react. She sucked in a tight breath, and though her lungs were not situated up by her throat, it felt like she’d suddenly catapulted them up there. What the— she began. But by the time she forced the words out, we’d already reappeared in the room beyond.

This mansion was a labyrinth. I was not using that word lightly. If you knew much about Greek history, you would appreciate that the labyrinth was a dangerous place where heroes went to test their mettle and prisoners went to die.

I was neither heroic nor a prisoner. So just concentrate on the die bit.

The old labyrinth in Crete, Greece, had contained a Minotaur.

I really doubted Giuseppe had managed to scrounge through the annals of history, found the recipe for such a creature, and created one – but who knew? I did, however, know from recent Hell reports he had numerous banned creatures protecting this place.

One such banned creature shrieked now. The hairs along the back of my neck stood on end so fast, they were like a sleeping platoon interrupted by a bomb blast in the middle of their compound.

What on earth was that? Bella trembled against me. Her words, however, were strong.

… That was Bella, wasn’t it? I might’ve only traveled with her for the past… four hours? It was hard to tell. I had spent a large amount of them unconscious. My point was this – she was a dichotomy. Weak yet strong, untrained yet instinctive, brave yet cowardly. But while most people tended to vacillate between those two states, Bella somehow managed to maintain them at the exact same moment.

She might look afraid, but her voice had the hardened quality of a general that said, regardless of whether they faced certain death, they’d attack anyway.

I didn’t expect her to try to fidget out of my arms so soon, but she pushed against me.

There is much you do not know about this mansion. It is a dangerous place for somebody who cannot transition through walls like I can.

I know you can deal with it. Uncle… her voice became faint. Her lips opened only to close. They wobbled slightly, and the tremble soon took to her jaw, reached her neck, and pushed into her chest. She flattened a hand on it.

I watched the entire interaction with itchy attention.

I hadn’t suddenly gotten the equivalent of demon lice. Though I imagined Brian didn’t understand the concept of cleanliness, and he certainly did not sanitize equipment between demon dissections, I hadn’t been in his clinic for long.

The itchiness came from the sense of Bella.

My stomach twitched, and I opened my mouth to hiss, Bella? My voice shot up at the end, for this was a question.

Was this really her?

It wasn’t one Bella could answer. The sense soon left, anyway. Brian is calling on something big to escape. We’re about to lose him, Zane. Come on.

I shot to the left, for that’s where I felt blood magic being practiced. If you’d been paying careful attention to the blueprint of this building, you would appreciate I was about to shoot through the western wall and out into the yard.

The problem was that did not happen. We shot through the western wall and appeared in another room.

Bella didn’t even gasp. It was like she’d been expecting it, like she no longer cared about all of the terrifying things magic could do, including screwing with space. She’d already taken it all in her stride. And now she would use every single stride to get to her uncle. He’s over there. There, Zane, she insisted as I tracked the blood magic to the left.

She didn’t just insist. She grabbed my cheek in a firm grip, her palm flat, her thumb against my throat as she twisted my head around and pointed.

… She was touching me.

Okay, okay, I wasn’t a kid. I didn’t react at the prospect that a woman was touching me. I was a full-blooded demon of Hell, and you should take that to mean the obvious. My experiences were significant indeed. My surprise, however, was that Bella’s touch was… it was hard to put into words. It couldn’t freeze me anymore, couldn’t grab hold of me, wrap some uncertain power around my heart, and yank.

But it could and did lead my mind.

I just couldn’t tell you where it was leading me to.

Her touch seemed to suggest something was waiting just beyond it. Not buried in the flesh of her fingers, but just beyond Bella, full stop.

Now, while trapped in Giuseppe’s mansion, was not a good time to follow it.

Not when there was another shriek. This one was worse than before. It was high-pitched to begin with, then lost all volume only to kick up again. It was like some sea monster popping its head out of the water, leaping high, jumping back underneath the waves, and disappearing for a few moments before reappearing right behind you. And speaking of right behind us. Something appeared through the wall.

I was not the only creature who could interact with matter, choosing what to keep solid and what to ignore.

A giant neck shoved through the wall. Just the throat bit – not the head or the rest of the body. Not for now, at least. It was like someone had taken a giraffe, bent the neck, and pushed only that toward you like looped-up string.

Pushed it with extreme force, that said.

It whipped toward Bella in my arms, and it was only my extreme demon senses that allowed me to move. With one flap of my powerful wings, I pushed us toward the ceiling.

Then, finally, the rest of the body appeared.

You wouldn’t be surprised to find out it wasn’t a giraffe. Giuseppe had a sense of humor – and certainly liked his Roman history – but even the Romans hadn’t used giraffes in warfare.

No. It was a Hydra. I hadn’t seen the other heads yet, but that was quite irrelevant. They were coming.

I’d confidently told you that it would be unlikely that Giuseppe would have a Minotaur. It should have been impossible for him to have a Hydra. But one appeared nonetheless just as I tried to dart through the ceiling. The Hydra was dappled gray-blue and massive, and it had so many heads, they could fill a stadium. Or, say, a historic labyrinthine mansion.

We shot into a well-appointed drawing room above.

It was large, about 10 meters by three meters, and had a beautiful white Persian rug with an alarming pattern in the middle. The picture woven into the wool was of a many-headed creature.

There were only two pieces of furniture – a leather button-backed chair and a small turned mahogany table. Atop the table was a little statue. The statue wasn’t made out of metal, though it appeared golden. It crackled over the edges, and even someone with the shortest eyesight would recognize that it was insubstantial. It was crafted instead from pure magic substrate.

It depicted a Hydra.

If you wanted to recreate some ancient terrible beastie, you’d need a lot of magic. You’d also need an anchor point. Somewhere where the creature would be able to regain a connection to its old self.

Think of it this way. If you lost all of your memories, only to come across a fabulously long photo book that detailed every single one of your most important life moments, it would be an anchor back to who you’d been.

This room was an anchor back to the Hydra. The carpet and statue were a reminder of what it should be.

It was a great room to come across by chance. Destroy the statue – and I’d destroyed the Hydra.

It was also the most protected room. And the Hydra wouldn’t let me get close.

This doesn’t feel right— Bella began. She never got a chance to finish the sentence, never got the opportunity to flesh out why exactly it felt so very wrong.

The Hydra root appeared. It shimmered into existence. It had been in the room from the beginning, but I hadn’t been able to see it.

Because it was now clear that not just Brian, but Giuseppe too, had access to powerful demon cloaks that could confuse even me.

It was a dangerous proposition indeed while I was trapped in Giuseppe’s mansion.

The Hydra was anchored into the center of the rug. It looked like the root of some large kelp. It had this thick bulbous chunk connected to the middle of the carpet, and silt covered it. It thinned out from there, and the Hydra’s arms appeared from that. Get to that thin part, cut it off with, say, a sharp demon sword, and you’d defeat the Hydra.

If you ever got close enough to try.

Zane— Bella began. Her voice was strident, likely about to tell me what to do next. But if she thought I could just click my demon claws and be done with this, good luck to her. And good luck to me. Things were about to get serious indeed.

The Hydra twisted around. Most of its long stalk-like heads were currently pushing through the walls and ceiling. Now over half of them descended down. Three whipped toward me. As lightning fast as I could, I tried to dodge.

But my wings were too far open. I wasn’t nimble enough. And to be fair to me, I was fresh from far too many fights. I needed a good rest. I also needed to sit down and assess the rest of the vision I’d received recently. That wasn’t gonna happen.

I was whipped across the back.

At the last moment, Bella tried to move in and touch the Hydra arm, but I wouldn’t let her.

Pain exploded through me, and I let out a long hissing wheeze.

Zane, you idiot. Just let me touch it. I will freeze it in place.

After you are whipped in half, I grunted.

I was still capable of speaking. If I was careful and quick, I might still be capable of flying, too. But the Hydra had no intention of letting us go. There was this squelching noise as the rest of its heads retracted and shot into the room. You wouldn’t be surprised to find out there wasn’t enough space in here for it.

This space might be 10 meters by 3 meters. The whole Hydra was about 100 meters by 50 meters. And that was likely an underestimate. One of the Hydra’s greatest abilities was that it could grow. And right in front of me, with this sound like a finger pushing fast through plastic wrap, three more long bending heads appeared.

I suddenly appreciated