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"No Not in the mortal sense Abaddon isn&039;t what you know of as hell - it&039;swell, it&039;s Abaddon Mortals based their concept of hell on it, just as they based their concept of heaven on the Court of pine Blood, but they are not the sa Abaddon is ruled by seven princes, seven deuy, the lish voice, heads the whole place up?" I tried to stoparound at the fact that the devil had looked at ht past me, and had evidently been so pissed at thein his wrath, but I just couldn&039;t resolve the idea of Satan and the man in the blue suit

"Yes"

I breathed deeply for about two uy nas fros from the man who rules hell?"

"My et My heart went out to him despite the fact that I was now in serious trouble because of hiives me a command, I follow it I a if I wanted to knohat a lich was I decided that so long as I had"And a lich is what?"

"I was a spirit An Ilargi stole my soul, and had me resurrected When soulless spirits are resurrected, they becos you learn when you least expect the away the lich info "So this boss of yours told you to steal so mucky-muck of hell? Is he insane, too, or just sadistic?"

"Both I just don&039;t understand why the Tools were destroyed It doesn&039;twide, but before he could say anything more, he just blinked out of existence

I stared in disbelief at the rock where a second before Ulfur sat, finally gathering h the air, but he didn&039;t just go out of iving up at that point andup into a fetal ball and whi softly to itself

"Not hell, Akasha," a woman&039;s voice corrected , one of whonized

"Dia her cheerful little blond self was al Until, that is, I realized that if I was seeing her there, it must mean she had been banished with Ulfur and aretta told me that she&039;d find you, and here we are Isn&039;t this exciting, Cora? We&039;re in the Akasha!"

I looked from Diamond to the little woman who stood next to her She was under four feet tall, had a bright, slightly brittle save to , and welcoaretta I&039;reeter here If you consult the pamphlet, you&039;ll find in it many useful details about the Akasha, such as what you can expect during your banishions, as well as a biography of our Hashmallim of theHashmallim"

I looked at the pah, there was a section titled "Get to Know Your Gaolers," followed by a subtitle of "Hashmallim of the Month: Hashe black blob "Uhwhat&039;s a Hashmallim ?"

"The Hashmallim are the Court of pine Blood&039;s police force, and they rule over the Akasha"

"You have a policeman of theIt all just seemed too bizarre for words

"Hashave a particularly interesting interview regarding the subject of perpetual torue After a few le, I decided I couldn&039;t hold it back any longer "Just out of idle curiosity, as the previous Hashmalliaretta thought for a few seconds "That would be Hashmallim"

I nodded It hat I had expected "They&039;re all named Hashmallim, aren&039;t they?"

"Oh, yes That is what they are," the little woman told me earnestly

"I&039;ve alanted to see one up close, butthoughtful for a few seconds before takinga &039;Meet Your Fellow Dao You never knoe could reets are always very popular, so we&039;ll want to get in right away to get a nice table That e can eyeball who&039;s there Wouldn&039;t it be romantic if you had to be banished to the Akasha in order to find your one true love?"

"You can&039;t be serious," I asked her, squeezing the last morsel of disbelief fro and yelling about being here? Why aren&039;t you freaking out? Why aren&039;t you asking what&039;s going on?"

She tipped her head to the side "Why should I freak out? This is a chance in a lifetiet to actually visit the Akasha"

I glanced at the little wo about the only way you can get out of this place is if soht Although I should note that unless you have some sort of a bond with the Summoner, it&039;s not easy to remove a member of the Otherworld from the Akasha It&039;s policy, you see Now, you mortals, you&039;re different"

"We are?" My hopes leaped up with a happy little song on their lips "Youher head and glancing at her watch "It would hardly be a place of perpetual punishment if you could just walk out, would it? I&039; to have to cut this short if I want to see the lich you ive the welcoreet breakfast It&039;ll be held to the south, by the way, in the fifth quadrant, at the lodge level in the Hall of Burning Flesh"

"Fifth quadrant?" I asked, watching as Margaretta made a tickFlesh?"

"Sounds like such fun! Are you coaretta

"Erno, I think I&039;ll pass on the flesh-burning breakfast"

"Pfft," Dia me a cheery wave "This isn&039;t Abaddon, after all I&039;m sure they won&039;t burn anyone&039;s flesh at the breakfast That would be totally unhygienic See you later!"

I looked upward, at the sky, as if an answer to allbut brownish gray sky that led down to the stark, inhospitable landscape "Could this day get any weirder?"

No one answered ely relieved I decided that if I had a better chance than odforsaken spot, then I&039;d best be looking around to find that way out

I wandered around for what could well have been days I knoas at least a few hours, becauseto shoear froe, however, and I didn&039;t seearetta wasn&039;t full of bull about there being welcome breakfasts in what sounded like the civilized part of the Akasha

"I swear I&039;lared suspiciously at a car-sized boulder vaguely in the shape of a hand flipping the bird "You look fao that way this time" Ion the ground snuggled up next to the base of the boulder was a ht it was a et close, but at the sa "Mister? Dammit"

I crept closer,out that it was just last week that I&039;d watched a horror movie where a body that looked dead actually wasn&039;t, and had leaped up in a uaranteed to cause incontinence in viewers, subsequently ripping the unwary couple who stu, razorlike claws

I checked the guy&039;s hands, but there didn&039;t seens of claws As I neared hiht need help, to souy" I squatted down next to his head, taking in his gray skin, and cheeks so sunken, the cheekbones stood out in painful relief His ray the same color as his flesh He as probably a very expensive weathered black suit coat and pants, but was now covered in the sa in the Akasha His hands bore long, sensitive-looking fingers, the sinews that stood out on the backs of his hands lending credence to the fact that he was dead "Did you die out here all by yourself? I wonder"

There were no obvious signs of injury, no blood, no led limbsIt was as if he&039;d sie sense of sorrow filled ht of the man He looked almost familiar, but as I studied his face, I realized that it must have been a trick of the shadows Still, I felt an inexplicable, frustrated need to help him Perhaps there was someone I could call to take care of his reive him a decent burial I brushed back a lock of hair that lay across his forehead His hair was dark brown, alth "When you were alive, I bet you were quite the hunk," I said, gently co I could wash the dirt froers trailed down the length of his jaw, his slight stubble rasping softly

"Very hunky," I said, unable to keep froently blunted chin, and barest hint of a chin dimple that had he been alive, would have drivenand narrow, but with a couple of little bumps in it that most likely owed their existence to acts of violence "Were you a fighter rather than a lover, then?"

A brown beetle e out across his collarbone I picked it off, lifting up his shirt a little to peer underneath and ers traced the curve of a thick pectoral ed ly gorgeous What did you do to end up here? And why did you die?" I sighed, and tidied up his shirt, standing up to look around "Let me see if I can&039;t find someone - hey! You! Yes, you! How many yous do you think there are around here?"

About a hundred feet away, a slight wo around the rocks in a serpentine lanced towardto bolt any second "Run!" she said, waving a hand vaguely "There&039;s a wrath deuy here who needs our help"

"No one can die in the Akasha," the woain

"Well, someone has, and he needs a proper burial Are there some sort of funeral-home people here?"

"No one dies in the Akasha," she repeated, stepping toward e of the boulder "Oh, him He&039;s not dead He&039;s a Dark One He simply has no blood left"

"He&039;s a vahast "What&039;s he doing here?"

"Nothing, unless soh to do that Dark Ones are not to be ain, suddenly jetting off, throwing back at ood for you, you&039;ll get out of here!"

I looked in the direction she had pointed, but didn&039;t see a sign of any , it would be best to

"I&039; personal, but ood experiences with you guys"

I hurried off in the direction that the woht back about the brush of the va and silky, despite being coated with dirt And the stubble on that sexy chin had felt soft, yet abrasive enough to le Likewise the soft brown hairs of his chest when I had picked off the beetle It struck me then that his flesh hadn&039;t been deathly cold It was cool, below roouy," I said again, turning back to look at the obscene rock I couldn&039;t believe I was feeling any sort of eray-skinned man who lay back there didn&039;t seem at all to be the fiendish short He wasneedy

"No one will feed you," I said, gnawing on my lower lip The savvy part of my mind told me to run far, far away from the vahtly reminders of that But the idiot part of my brain, the part that fell for con artists, and lost puppies, and kids who cried in stores because they couldn&039;t have a toy, that part commanded my feet to take me back the way I&039;d just coot back to hi but trouble I&039;o kill so how one went about feeding a co that came up much at the office I pried open his lips and s him on the shoulder as I said, "Mister? Soup&039;s on So to speak Oh, god, what a to save you Onlyif you&039;re as powerful as I think you are, then you can get Diaive you blood and you get us out of the Akasha? One bite for yes, two for no, all right?"

The va to be stroked How on earth did one resuscitate a vampire? Mouth-to- his lips with concern He wasn&039;t dead, but it seemed somewhat creepy to just slap my mouth on his and breathe for hih," I said, shivering "Too icky I&039;d better look before I try that"

If anyone toldopen the mouth of an almost-dead vahed myself silly It didn&039;t strike led the et enough light to see into his er as best I could, and swept it around his s

His ly warhtly huer in hisot worse when he started sucking onin amazement as his neck muscles worked "Mercy I thinkoh, man Mister? You there?"

I pried up one eyelid, but his eyes were rolled back Still, he must have soered

"What could work on a finger can work for a wrist," I told hi his parched lower lip I was going to edge e deep insideled e awareness prickled along my skin as his dry, cool lips touched h, I scooted down until I was partially draped over his body, my hair spread over him like a screen as I shifted in tiny little movements until my nose was buried in the dusty silken coolness of his hair I slid a hand under his neck, pressing his ht and tense, as if I aiting for a blow

A soft exhalation of his breath warue "Go ahead," I told hi the musty smell of the dirt to revel in the woodsy, earthy scent that seeh my pores

Pain suddenly flared in my neck, pain that quickly turned to heat that rippled outward, flowing down throughhis head tothan anything I&039;d ever felt in my life No wonder Jacintha didn&039;t mind when Avery needed to feed from her - this was the most erotic sensation I&039;d ever felt, and that ith a comatose vampire What would it be like when he ake?

The impaired side of mythe vaain, but at that n away all common sense in order to stay just as I was

Two hands suddenly gripped ainst hi row hot and heavy, and much more secret parts sit up and take notice

Suddenly, I was onpainfully into my back, the vampire&039;s body heavy on mine, but none of that mattered It was his mouth that my entire awareness was focused on, his wonderfully hot mouth still onthat I could actually sense the blood flowing through his body, replenishing him, like water poured over parched earth It soaked into every ato h, a blissful awareness that I was fulfilling a need that had, until that moment, lain doraveaway on a fluffy cloud of euphoria, content with life at long last