All Chapters of Match Made in Hell: Chapter 1 - Chapter 6

On the last day of her life, Kat woke up with hundred dollar bills clenched hard in her fist and two handsome, muscular men comfortably curled up on both of her sides.Am I in heaven? asked Kat's barely functioning brain. Since money and hot men were two main components of her ideal nirvana, she considered giving an affirmative answer to her own question. However, a quick, more thorough sweep of her surroundings proved her wrong.Well, first off, the men snoring on either side of her were too provocatively dressed to pass off as angels. Unless of course the new heavenly fashion trend was black latex briefs and studded leather harnesses, which she was sure they were not. Also, there were no clouds, just pink and blue neon lights dancing on the textured ceiling, burning her crusty eyes starting from the retinas. Instead of harps being played, a hip-hop song was being blasted on a loop, its cranked-up bass making the floor and the walls hum. The vibrations reached the cir

To say that Kat was surprised would be an understatement. In fact, she gasped and staggered back, her heart doing cartwheels inside her chest.The man had the face of a model: high cheekbones, a straight nose, well-shaped lips, and the most flawless pale skin. His swept-up hair was platinum blond, but his thick eyebrows and lashes were a few shades darker. His jaw was so chiseled it could cut a bitch. His irises were pale gray, the color of storm clouds, and the intrigued look in them was just as stormy.Kat had never seen a guy of such caliber before, and she'd lived in LA right after college. The city was crawling with attractive people, yet this man was on a different league of his own. He wasn't just hot or handsome—he was beautiful.However, he was also not quite human.The more Kat stared at him, the more she got this feeling. Fear started ripping through her guts. Images of her life started assaulting her head, and for some reason she knew th

"Your death is overdue," Mr. Michaels recited as he reached for her. "Hell is waiting for you, Katalina Donovan."Kat couldn't be more perplexed, but she also couldn't be more pressured. Because of this, sharp instincts she didn't know she possessed had taken over her body. Instead of screaming (which was her go-to response to dangerous situations), she grabbed her rock-hard pillow, slapped Mr. Michaels across the face with it, and lobbed it at his crotch as an extra measure.For such simple actions, the effects were quite complex. And instantaneous.Mr. Michaels, upon contact with the stiff-ass pillow, snapped back to his senses. He froze once more in a robotic manner, but emotions started to come back to his face. From bewildered to suspicious to stunned. He stared at his outstretched hands, then at Kat. "Why am I standing? Why are you moving away from me?"A wince suddenly crumpled his features. Perhaps he finally felt the crotch shot.Kat didn'

"I am Calix." The man rose from the couch. "There is no use for stealth and subtlety now, so I will not bother with it anymore. Today is the last day of your life, and I have come to take you to the Underworld. To Hell, to be precise."Kat gaped at him, but she studiously avoided looking directly in his eyes. The light slanting through the curtains graced his outline and bounced off the black metal mask in his hand. Every plane and contour of his perfect face was emphasized, making him appear more lifelike than ever. Seeing him like that stirred something inside her. For the first time today, she felt like she was finally arriving at something.Meanwhile, the man—Calix, apparently—was regarding her with narrowed eyes. "Let me tell you in advance that negotiation is not an option. You will, however, stand trial before having your punishment decided." He paused, holding out his hand. "Now come with me. Your death is a couple of hours late, and it would be bes

Kat's go-to principle in life is to keep fighting. Keep struggling. She always told herself that if she'd go down, she'd go down swinging.She tried to stay true to that now, with the blade of Calix's spear pointed dangerously at her throat. Her eyes were flitting around the room in a frantic search for something to save herself with, but there was nothing. Calix felt her need, her fear, but forced himself to hold his position. He didn't want to care. He shouldn't. He was bound by duty, not compassion and kindness. Sure, the thought of taking a life this way went against all his morals, but he couldn't really back out now, could he? The mortal woman in front of him was dangerous. She was unstable. That would be what he'd hold onto and console himself with. It was his existence on the line here too. If he couldn't finish the job, he would be ridiculed for millennia, punished like a mere mortal.I have been entrusted with this, he told himself again as he st

Kat never thought she'd consider the scrape of the gritty carpet a welcome sensation, but here she was now, thanking all the deities she could name.The carpet meant home. It meant she succeeded.With a thud, she and Calix landed right into apartment B3, crumpling down on the hallway like a pair of marionettes whose strings were snipped off. She fell on her knees, him right on his face. The door didn't close by itself, but one wary look from her confirmed that the weird room was well away now. Staring back at her was her parents' bedroom, dark and unbelievably dusty but otherwise normal. No gold, no candles, no antique tables, no non-red schnitzel Demons.Right now she couldn't decide what surprised her more: the revelation about the existence of Hell and its creatures, or the fact that she just saved herself from both.Either way, she felt numb all over. She stayed on the same spot where she landed, still on all fours, her slack face bathed with the dim