The Guest House Hauntings Boxset by Hazel Holmes (novel books to read txt) 📕

the same inquisitive stare that could cut you down with one look. It undressed you until there was nothing left but your soul. And Iris had never handled vulnerability well. So she lashed back at him. And while he had grown strong, he had also grown weak.

Kegan was strong because he was afraid of the alternative. And that kind of strength always grew brittle over time. Now he was nearly gone, his mind and soul controlled by that devil woman, and soon to be consumed by the fires of hell, as would she.

Iris understood the consequences should Sarah fail, but what she couldn’t comprehend was the level of pain and torture that was just around the corner. She had done that to him. She had done this to her family.

“I’m so sorry,” Iris said, blurting out the words between sobs. She inhaled quick, sharp breaths, trying to regain her composure, but unable to find the grit that made it necessary. “Forgive me. Please.” She lifted her arm, her hand shaking as it stretched toward Kegan, who stared at it with no connection. “Please, Kegan.”

Another guttural cry left his throat, and then he turned away and walked toward the door, leaving Iris to sob alone in the dark.

Despite the pain and the heat, a rush of adrenaline still surged through Dell’s veins on the sprint toward the demons. Wild screams erupted from the over six hundred souls at his back, and Dell was sure that this was the most alive the dead had been in years.

And while Dell’s small band of rebels charged toward the demons with a focused intensity, their cries of war were quickly muted by the thunderous sounds of brass horns and drums that vibrated rocks that splintered beneath their feet.

Armed with sharp rocks that they scavenged from the hell that surrounded them, Dell leading the charge, the two forces clashed together in a symphonic climax that ended the haughty bellows of war on both sides.

The force that hammered against Dell felt the equivalent of a freight train, and while the first blast of contact stole his breath and thunder, the heat of battle forced him to swallow the pain.

Up close, the demons were even uglier than Dell could have imagined. Their features were carved out of stone with molten rock. Their only weapons were the sharp, jagged features of their limbs, which they swung in savage, quick motions on their attack.

Heat radiated off the demons and scorched Dell’s flesh, which only amplified his anger. He dodged the vicious swings and countered with his own, smashing the rock in his hand against the demon’s skull, knocking it to the ground, and then moved on to the next.

A never-ending wave of molten rock swept over Dell and the other souls as they penetrated demon after demon. Dell worked himself into a rhythm but after the eighth demon that he attacked, his hand suddenly ached.

He examined it and discovered the rock that he’d been using had been destroyed.

While his attention was only diverted for a moment, it was enough to lower his guard and leave him vulnerable to attack. Dell managed to turn his eyes away from his hand just in time to see the heavy piece of granite slam into his face.

The contact flattened Dell to the ground, which delivered just a powerful a blow as the punch, and greeted him with another blast of scorching heat. His back took another vicious pounding, the crunch so hard that he could have sworn his spine had busted in two. But then the feeling was repeated, over and over like a broken record player that skipped the same beat.

And what was more, the intensity of the pain never wavered. It was fresh and new with every blow.

Finally, after a lull in the bashing, Dell stood, forced to dodge another blow before he even had his footing ready. He swung at the demon and cracked it across the side of its misshapen, geo-formed skull. And when he felt no pain from the contact, he smiled.

But then as his vision adjusted to the sight of his hand, the smile faded. The scales had spread, reaching up to his chest and already spreading down both arms. The scales shimmered against the orange and reds that shone off the demon’s skulls, reflecting the same color. It gave the impression that Dell himself was on fire, smoldering into oblivion.

Dell double-timed his assault, his savagery reaching a crescendo as he plowed his way through the army of the damned. His scaled fists did more damage than any rock could do. It split open the sides of the demons, spilling molten lava and fire.

Their screams of pain were unearthly and even more horrendous than the physical pain that they inflicted with their heavy blows. And while he plowed through the endless sea of demons, his rage growing wilder with every spilled ounce of demon blood, he realized that he was one of them. This shell that was covering his soul was nothing more than the granite and rock and caliphates that stumbled around him, and… yes, they were running from him now.

Empty space had filled the area around Dell’s body, rather than the waves of rock that had pummeled him earlier. He stopped and turned around, expecting to see Allister and the army of souls that had marched into battle with him there and accounted for.

But they weren’t.

Instead, there was nothing but the endless horizon of demons, running away, running toward what remained of those that were still fighting back.

There were no triumphant shouts. No fists thrust to the skies in defiance of the hell they’d been imprisoned. Dell was alone, surrounded by a sea of fire and rock and pain. It was endless, and it was then that he realized that this was their eternity.

Dell could lead a rebellion until the end of time, and it still wouldn’t be enough. They were just keeping themselves busy. Busy until the forces on the other side of