Lucifer snapped tree branches off as he stalked through thick forestry. Every step over rough terrain peppered with fallen leaves, twigs, and bulging tree roots raised his pulse and quickened his breath. New scratches and cuts marked his bare arms over older scrapes that left smudges of silvery black. A sudden strike of pain pummeled his bare foot and had him grappling to remain upright.

He roared in barely contained agitation. Regaining his footing, an intense throbbing danced across his toes. He snarled and glanced back, making out the jagged rock that had tripped him up. From the continued stabs of pain, at least a few bones had broken. And he still was not there.

When he began his trek, the morning sun had been waking, heating the sky and making him sweat. Now all the light was gone, warmth and visibility giving way to cold darkness.

Without wings, he was as good as mortal. Almost human. Except for the fact that he did not age. Without wings—his ability to control mortal minds was useless and his last attempt to sway the King of Babylon had failed miserably. “Damn this!”

Pushing on harder, the aches that had taken control of his legs before the sun fled the starry sky intensified. Every muscle popped and bunched with each forced step, threatening to tear something internal, threatening to quit operating at any moment. But he would not stop. He could not. This was it, his last attempt to reach God. And if he failed?

Lucifer didn’t fight the smile that curved his lips at the thought. He had waited long enough. Tried hard enough. And been ignored for too long. This was either the end…or the start of something new and unstoppable.

A rustle heightened Lucifer’s senses. The forest was teeming with sounds: fluttering leaves, skittering creatures, humming insects, and the nearing babble of the river that was his destination. But this sound was distinctly different, coming from all around as if it were closing in on him.

Lucifer pushed on harder, fighting exhaustion as the hairs along his nape prickled. And then he finally made it, hands brushing back through the last barrier of trees to find that same small clearing bordered by a soothing river.

Lucifer stalled two steps beyond the tree line, coming to a complete stop as shivers feathered over his perspiring arms. The last time he’d been here, he had seen her. He had seen Gabriel. Except that had not been real. She had never actually been here. God had tricked him, dangled the one thing he had never stopped wanting in front of him as a test, as a way to refute all the honorable things he had done and refuse his desperate need for re-entry above. It had all been a lie, a ruse, yet the memories washed over him like a dream. Rushing to her, falling to his knees before her, and pressing his face to her belly to inhale her scent, it had all been so real. Despite being fake, it would always be a memory he would hold dear to his heart. His first touch of her in almost two millennia.

Sniffing and blinking hard, Lucifer shook away the false memories. The past could not help him, and he would no longer let it steer his mind and heart. He was alone, an outcast, and…it was God’s turn to make a choice.

Anger renewed, Lucifer strode to the river’s edge and fell to his knees. Bringing his palms together, he held them to his lips and lifted his eyes to the twinkling sky. “Do you see what has become of me? Do you see the changes that grow inside of me with each passing day? Human in want and need, in drive and the desire for power. You took away my true desire. You ruined my wings. You took everything from me.” He dropped his hands and sighed, letting his gaze fall down to the tumbling stream that reflected the night sky. “This is the last time I will come to you. The last time I will seek you out of my own volition. Undo your mistakes and show me the forgiveness you bestow onto all others. Admit you were wrong, that the way you made me is not your true mistake but that the will you afford humans is. Confess that you too are fallible.”

There was no flare of light like last time, no hint of pain to suggest that God was even listening.

Lucifer’s hands lifted off the grassy banks, curling into tight fists over the dirty robe he wore. The material sat over his knees and was riddled with small slices and stains of blood from his long walk here. His bent legs begged to be stretched out, now turning numb from his subservient position. Clenching his molars, only his lips moved as he grated out words. “If you cannot find any error in your judgment, then keep my angelic wings of ash. I need not your station nor your acceptance when I can rule Below.”

As Lucifer stood tall, face raised in defiance, he expected that blast of pain to come down over him. He had challenged God, demanded he admit fault in his actions and beliefs. He’d said more than he had above—when Michael had arrived to end his tirade. But God was no more here than he had been there.

“So be it—”

Lucifer’s words and intent to flee fled his mind as the back of his neck prickled. That same sensation of being closed in on probed his senses, and his nostrils flared, testing his surroundings. The normal earthy smells of forestry foliage, fresh water, and life and decomposition in all its natural stages were there. But there was something else.

Whirling around, Lucifer panned over the tree line, his vision enhancing enough to make out the rough bark that cocooned the trees and the individual leaves that quivered as if chilled from the breeze. Something dashed between the tree trunks to his left. Another slide of movement shifted ahead of him, and another darted to the right. He heard the gaping of jaws a moment before he saw their golden eyes that glowed through the darkness. Snouts came into view, then their furred heads and bodies appeared as padded paws broke through the forest barrier.

Wolves. Three of them.

Surrounded on all three sides, the wide river at his back blocked Lucifer in. They padded closer, heads dipping low and tongues lashing their teeth as their muzzles bunched.

Lucifer’s eyes narrowed, his fists reforming. He knew what had come to greet him, it was evident in their unusually luminous eyes. The will of God. Again his maker was taking action, passing on the dirty tasks he refused to commit himself. One of the wolves barked out, and Lucifer snarled. “I see you have made your choice.” God wanted these creatures to take him down and tear him to unhealable pieces, but Lucifer had other plans. Hands unfurling he held his palms skyward…and waved the wolves on. “Then come at me!”

All three of the wolves ran at once, leaping through the air. Jaws wide and sharp teeth gleaming, one clamped onto Lucifer’s arm. He threw it off sideways with a twist. At the same instant, he drove his elbow up to smack another one back. Blood sprayed from the chunk of his arm it ripped free as both sped through the air, colliding with trees. The third one knocked him down, canines sinking into his collarbone and shoulder. Rocks stabbed into his back, cutting skin and knocking him senseless as his skull hit. The beast shook its head, tearing skin away, but Lucifer recovered fast. His fists drove up, shattering ribs with one punch, two…

The third punch concaved the beast’s entire chest, and its grip on Lucifer released. Grasping its neck, Lucifer saw a flare of dying red in its eyes as he threw the dead weight off.

Fresh snarls had his back vaulting off the rough ground as he sprang to his feet. One of the two he’d thrown was lifeless on the ground. A test of sounds revealed only two beating hearts still dominated the clearing. His and the wolf’s. Snapping its jaws, silver-black blood dripped from its mouth, and its eyes—blazed red.

The wolf leaped before Lucifer could analyze the sudden change or the cause for it. His wounded arm came up as a shield. His other remained low, prepared with his hand stretched wide in a ready claw. Teeth claimed flesh and Lucifer’s free arm drove up, catching the beast by the throat. His fingers tunneled in, breaking through skin and clamping around bone. The wolf bit down harder on his arm with only his back legs hoisting him up. Blood poured free around its mouth, but even the wolf knew what was coming, its red eyes wide as it tried and failed to tug Lucifer down to the ground.

Lucifer’s fist clenched around the internal bones of the wolf’s neck and he pulled—as his mauled arm tugged in the opposite direction.

The fragment of spine ripped free with a wet crack. Blood sprayed across Lucifer’s face as the animal’s red eyes turned blank. Its jaws released at once and the furred beast fell in a heap, fading pulses of blood pooling out from its neck.

Breathing hard, Lucifer turned back to the river and fell to his knees. Still holding the wolf’s neck in his fist, he frowned at the damage to his arm. The serrated punctures stung there as well as across his shoulder, but the wound that would heal faster than a mortal’s was not what held his gaze. His marbled blood did. Still the same as the night he had fallen from grace, it was a mixture of black and silver. Tainted by darkness. The wolves’ red eyes flared behind his blinking lids like a brand across his mind. Had that been his doing…or God’s?

Knowing he would get no answer, he raised his face to the heavens. His quicker breaths leveled out as the need to fight and survive returned to normal. “You cannot rid the Earth of me that easily. Though I must give thanks. Your need to destroy me proves I am alone. That I am no longer answerable to your machinations. And now…you have made me what I am.” He threw the gore from his hand into the crystalline river, causing water to spray up over his heated face. “A killer with a plan.”