Kings of Hell

Alyssa’s POV

I jump down the stairs and run right out onto the street, straight to the car and totally naked. The front passenger window is down, to show Dale driving and the back full.

I open the door and take my offered seat, putting a leg onto the glovebox as I sprawl out and Dale puts the window back up for me.

I expect a cheer for my nakedness or some kind of expressive yeepee.

But… nothing.

When I glance back at my beasts, Serge, Ace and Jose – they sit without expression, backs straight, while Dale keeps a hand on the unmoving wheel and stares out the windshield and not at me.

In the dead silence of my entry, Dale eventually breaks the ice.

“Where’s the gun?” Dale asks the street.

My heart stops for a second.

Well, shit.

He glances toward me slowly and his leopard eyes could cut with how serious he is right now. Dale is the Lord of the Underworld, and nothing else in this moment. My eyes glance form him to the back… and I get an idea.

Cheeky, I lift up my hand and show two fingers, making a fake gun – I put it in my mouth over my tongue and bend my thumb, pretending to shoot it while closing my lips around the ‘barrel’ and taking them out to rub down between my legs.

“You want to hate fuck me, Dale, go ahead,” I’m husky as I say it, and I mean it, smirking at Dale’s now hard expression. The beasts in the back are confused and intrigued – Serge can’t take his eyes off my tits, while Ace is grabbing his dick a bit too impulsively, and Jose is invested in this escalating.

“But what happened to vilifying me… out-casting me… caging me in my own stronghold,” Dale’s voice tapers off, he is still in a very bad mood.

I sigh, as I think of something, “I’ll fuck you tonight, and I’ll hunt you tomorrow,” I suggest, raising a sassy brow. Dale looks at me in clear astonishment. He’s never expected these kind of responses from me before. Usually I’m not so dynamic, more just a little tease and then I’m jumping on their dicks, “…so, make a decision, to fuck or not to fuck…” I decide to push it, “…I can easily find another man in this city – ”

Dale slams his hand on the wheel and snatches out his gun from his belt, pointing it over at me and waving it up and down.

“This is my creation – my design, my whore,” Dale’s lip curls as he snarls, “I did not give you permission to get…”

“Fixed?” I say the word lightly, “If I’m so useless now, go ahead and shoot me in the head – and take the only mother from our daughters,” I challenge him. He had to stop this.

Dale breaths in a slow long breath, and his hand clenches on that gun.

“You fucked me. Your boss. The trust is burned,” Dale goes cold, I see his eyes lose the light, “It’s over. Alyssa.”

He turns toward me with the gun, ready to shoot.

The only thing that saves me is my reflexes.

My hand rises as Dale positions for a shot – then I push off the car door behind me, lunging into his side of the car and onto him.

I’m holding his shooting hand up only from the twist I’ve added on to control him momentarily.

I’ve managed to press the barrel to Dale’s own temple for a moment, while positioning my second hand over his cheek bone – nail at the corner of his eye.

I could do either to kill him.

The beasts are yelling protests in the back from our fight, but the blood rushing in my head is drowning it out.

Dale is holding my throat and my head back, while Serge is leaning forward from the back to open the door, while Jose moves forward and practically punches me out of the car – to get me off Dale and away from Dale simultaneously.

I fall and hit the road hard on my side. When I swivel, and look back in, I see the corner of Dale’s eye is bleeding down his cheek and Jose is reaching over to grab the door, pulling it back shut and snarling at the boss to drive.

STRIKE turns out aggressively and pulls off from the curb, the back tires almost running over my legs, and only managing to crush my toes.

As if things couldn’t get much worse, I hear a rumble of thunder above in the green and purple clouds, as acid rain pours from the sky.

I suck in a breath and stand up, running and limping back inside, only getting a few drops scarring and bubbling on my skin, before my genes heal that.

I pull myself back up to the lift through the lobby, and I collapse inside it when the doors slam shut.

In the metallic reflection, I see my neck bruised and toes bent – elbows scraped from hitting the road so hard, and the bruise on my cheek from where Jose practically smacked me out of the car.

You use your voice, and you get beat up, Alyssa.

That’s all I can think.

I can’t think past it.

As the adrenaline wears off, I start to shake and I almost forget to get out of the lift before the doors shut back again once I’ve arrived up top. I stand and hit the button to get the doors to open again, and I stumble into Strawberry’s apartment.

The girls are on the couches about to watch a movie with fresh popcorn, when they turn to see me standing there against the kitchen counter.

For a second they’re all gaping, and then – a small smile from Blue.

“Did you get fucked already, boss?” Blue asks, while Abbey curls up into her side, giving me a small smile too. Strawberry and Raven are trying to smile, but they know something is up.

I shake my head.

What words could I use.

Dale tried to kill me?

The girls stand to come closer to me, the smiles simmering away.

“What happened –” Raven asks now, concerned, but my head starts to rush with blood again.

I turn away from them and walk into the bathroom, shutting the door.

They all bicker and ask questions. The usual. Just trying to be helpful.

I just walk into the shower and turn it on scalding hot.

I step into it, trying to work out the answers to it all now.

To Frankincense City and the gang running it through violence.

I don’t cry as I sit under the stream and think with my knees clasped in my hands.

I think instead.

They… were my enemies? Mmm.. no. I was their enemy.

But… I wiggle my toes, and I watch the bones click back together. Ouch.

I had to keep my cool. Intimidation was Dale’s favourite tactic. I had to keep calm. I had to act normal. Freaking out was going to make it worse.

Eventually I clean up properly and step out of the bathroom, dressed in a robe.

When I exit, they all wait expecting an answer. But my answer was strange… and I kind of understood it in my subconscious more than I could reason it into words.

“Let’s watch the movie,” I suggest, “I’m alright – I… I’m okay. Let’s just enjoy the rest of the night. I’ve got this sorted.”

The girls on the couches don’t believe me, not wanting to follow orders when –

KNOCK. Then a BANG. Bang.

“Open the door,” Jose yells, of all my beasts.

The girls jump to action.

Bang. Bang. Bang.

“Open the fucking door!” Jose snarls again.

Something isn’t right. This isn’t an attack. I hold up a hand to everyone and take over. With some more sane insanity, I read the situation right and I open the door.

Wow.

Um.

Fuck?

I step right back as Serge, Ace and Jose drag in Dale.

Drag.

He’s beat.

Ace spins and tosses Dale onto the glass table, which shatters as his weight of a beast made of pure muscle goes through it.

Lying in shards of glass, Dale bleeds and groans with his hands over his eyes. He is so bruised he can’t bend any limb without excruciating pain. At least now he has some glass acupuncture to help.

Serge comes forward and shakes his head at me, picking up a champagne bottle and launching it across the room so it smashes with his fruition and rage.

“NO,” Strawberry screams, but Lightning raises his hand.

“Shut up,” Serge collapses on a stool, looking light headed, while Jose walks over to Dale and grabs his ankle, pulling him over the glass and tossing him onto the stool next to Serge.

Dale’s head hits the counter, and he barely sits up right, while Ace sits next to him and holds him up by the scruff of his collar.

They beat him up.

For me?

I stand back with no idea what to say.

The fuck –

“I’m in charge since he’s incompetent,” Serge snarls at me, explaining to everyone awaiting the explanation, “And one of my rules is you need common sense knocked into you – we’ll do it. Together,” Serge slaps Dale on the back while yelling at him, “You fucking idiot. Drink,” Serge points to the girls to find more alcohol and bring it over, “Whiskey – ? Do you have some? Sorry about the table, we’ll get you a new one. And a new wall.”

“Every time,” Raven hisses, while stomping over and getting a thick ass whiskey bottle and thwacking Dale over the head with it, before giving it to Serge.

The smack of that glass makes Dale pass out and slump over from Ace into Serge.

Serge cradles him, like a fallen soldier.

“Explain yourselves, about what happened before,” Strawberry demands an answer to this, while Jose takes the last stool by the counter and they all share the whiskey.

“Alyssa – we fucking love you, so please, you fucking cute stupid dumb sweet bitch,” Serge answers, with a happy angry scowl, “Please. Stop provoking the leopard in him. Be smart. Use your head. Dale doesn’t have a head with you,” I open my mouth to counter that, but Serge already knows what I’m going to say, “…and we’re sorry…” Serge speaks rough, “I’m never going to let that happen again.”

“No, no…” I answer simply, “Dale’s just my whore. Always was, a bad whore,” yeah, I humiliate him, why not, I know he can hear – he’s probably pretending to be passed out at this point. I look around the room. Fuck, it’s a mess, with champagne all over the walls, glass all over the floor, “Let’s take him to the Black Lair, and I’ll talk with you all there. I’m so sorry Strawberry, Raven…”

“Alyssa, doll…” Serge murmurs, lovingly but quietly, “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“It’s a great idea,” I walk forward and ask for the keys, with my hand open, “I’ll drive us. You nurse him.”

“When we’re back?” Serge asks, raising a brow.

“I’ll look after him, alone,” I already have a plan.

I needed to teach him something. I needed to show Dale. That from this point on, everything was going to change.

I was never his enemy. For us to survive as a family, we would have to move past this bullshit.

But I think I knew now, what was really happening.

I had this itch in my neck, a nerve that wouldn’t stop firing.

Danger.

Dale being caught up in a personal quarrel was the perfect distraction for something bigger to be happening underground and behind the scenes.

There was something wrong here – Sammy, Louis, Kane… even fixing me.

All rivals. All with something against Dale.

Even trying to make me a weapon, in my own family.

So I had a sub-clear answer.

Dale was the target.

Why?

Because.

Frankincense City.

He controlled it. He loved it. And someone wanted it.

The person behind it, however… I wasn’t sure I knew them personally yet.