River

Behind Lucifer, angels walked through the wall of wraiths. Onoskelis moved to Lucifer’s right while Caim stepped to his left. Caim’s rainbow-kissed eyes held mine, but his face remained blank. Onoskelis rested her sword against her shoulder as she smirked at me.

“She reminds me of you, Satan,” Onoskelis said.

Visions of clawing her eyes out danced through my head.

“She does,” he agreed as he stepped back to look at me. “So young and naïve, so full of love.” He chuckled. “There comes a time when we all learn that love is a farce.”

“You might want to rethink this course, brother,” Caim said in a low voice. “This could do far more damage than you expect.”

Lucifer shrugged. “So be it.”

“This could kill her.”

“In all the thousands of years of our children walking Earth, none have been as strong as her. She will survive this.”

“You cannot be certain.”

Lucifer whirled and stalked toward him. Caim took a step back, his head bowing as Lucifer’s wings swung out. The silver-tipped points clicked against the ground on either side of Caim. Fury etched Lucifer’s features as he leaned toward Caim, who turned his head away.

“Why are you being so difficult about this?” Lucifer spat.

“I am not being difficult, brother.” Caim didn’t meet Lucifer’s eyes as he spoke. “I am simply pointing out the truth. We could take her to Earth now. She may be able to get you back into Heaven, but if you do this, you could destroy her and forever end your chances of such a thing.”

Did Caim say that because he had turned against Lucifer and was trying to save me from whatever Lucifer planned? Or did Caim want to return to Heaven too and believed I could help him? Maybe it was both.

“Perhaps, but she’s not getting me back into Heaven,” Lucifer said.

Caim chanced a glance at Lucifer before bowing his head again. His actions reminded me of a beaten animal, broken down by its master, but I knew this animal might still have some bite, or at least some nibbling left in him.

“I see,” Caim murmured.

“Do you?” Lucifer inquired as he leaned closer. Caim didn’t say another word. Lucifer pulled his wings back and tucked them away. “At least she’s not getting me into Heaven without an army behind me. There are troops on the surface now, waiting for me, but we all know the best ones remain locked away. The ones, I really want.”

My stomach sank and an awful suspicion grew in the back of my mind as I tried and failed to take in more of my surroundings. I didn’t have the strength to turn my head to look behind me, and the wraiths blocked my view of everything else. Lucifer clasped his hands behind his back as he strolled toward me once more with an odd little skip to his step.

“And if she can open a gateway into Heaven…” His head tilted back as his voice trailed off. He looked to me again. “I know how I opened the gateway into Hell; I might be able to use you to get me back into Heaven. Oh, the looks on those bastards’ faces when they see me again.” He laughed as he clapped his hands. “That is, of course, before my army and I destroy them all.”

“You’re insane!” I blurted before I could stop myself.

“Tsk, tsk, that’s not very nice. You should show more respect to those who are better than you. To those you should be bowing before, and believe me, when this is all over, child or not, I will have you begging for mercy. I will make you repent for everything you have said or done, or I will cut out your tongue and feed it to you.”

I pressed my lips together when he squeezed my cheeks. Two of him swam before my eyes as starbursts erupted across my brain. Lucifer’s power washed over me before a wraith brushed against my skin, cutting off the flow. It was then that I realized the malevolent spirits also churned in a thick wave behind me. They stopped me from drawing power from what I feared was a seal behind my back.

“Demons are lower than us, and humans are even lower. You may not be entirely either one of them, but you’re no better than refuse beneath my feet,” he said as his fingers bit into my skin.

“You would know… about refuse,” I panted out.

He had to kill me, he had to. I couldn’t let him use me to open more seals. I didn’t know if he could use me for such a thing, but I wasn’t willing to take the chance he could. I would not be what my father had been for him: a tool to destroy everything and everyone I loved.

“The angels threw you out of Heaven after all. The Morning Star tossed aside like garbage. The supposedly favored son sentenced to death amongst humans!”

Caim stared at me as if I’d lost my mind. Perhaps I had; my life hadn’t exactly been sanity inducing lately. Onoskelis stepped toward us, her sword lifting off her shoulder as murder burned within her eyes. Lucifer gazed at me like I was a specimen he was about to pick apart.

Get it over with and kill me!

“You turned out to be nothing to them, Lucifer, and you’re still nothing.” The wraiths crowded closer as my heart jackhammered with every word I spoke. “Kobal is superior to you in every way, and you know it!”

Instead of plucking me apart, Lucifer chuckled. He brushed the backs of his fingers across my cheek as he stepped closer to me. “You are so much like me. I see what you’re trying to do, but I’m not going to kill you. Despite Caim’s concerns, I will not allow you to die during this. You’re far too precious to me for that.”

He patted my cheek. “Do you know what makes you my most precious acquisition, daughter?”

I tried to keep my mouth shut, to not give in and ask him. As he continued to stroke my face, I found myself unable to resist questioning him, if it would just make him stop touching me. “What?”

He slid his hand behind my head. His fingers tangled in my hair and gave it a sharp tug. Pain exploded through my scalp, and a strangled cry escaped before I locked my teeth down on my tongue. Blood flooded my mouth, but I kept my tongue between my teeth so as not to give him the satisfaction of hearing me scream again.

“Because of you, I now have him,” he replied and pointed at the black mass encompassing us.

The ends of the wraiths flapped in the breeze they created as they parted to form a perfect ball around me and Lucifer. The break in them revealed Kobal standing at the entrance to the last broken seal. The amber of his eyes burned so brightly that I swore I felt the heat of them against my skin.

“No, no, no,” I moaned and Lucifer placed his palm on my forehead, pushing me back into the wraiths. I jerked against the icy sensation of them.

Kobal bared his lethal fangs. “Get your hands off her.”

“Kobal… please… go back,” I managed to stammer through my chattering teeth.

Instead of listening to me, Kobal stalked forward with Phenex and Crux flanking his sides. He paid no attention to the angels, Hell creatures, and lower-level demons gathered within the broken seal. He seemed not to care that he was vastly outnumbered and surrounded by his enemies. Every inch of him exuded murder, and I knew he would make the deaths of those present a gruesome experience. I gulped.

Finally tearing my gaze away from Kobal, I spotted the palitons gathered at the entrance of the broken seal, but they didn’t come any closer. Joy shot through me when I saw Corson and Hawk standing at the front of the group. Burn marks marred Hawk’s neck and blood seeped from a wound that I now realized had been cauterized.

My joy was short-lived as Lucifer yanked my hair back. Every muscle in Kobal’s body tensed to leap forward.

Lucifer lifted his index finger and waved it back and forth in the air. “Uh-ah,” he scolded as his other hand wrapped around my throat. “I’d stay where you are if I were you.”

“You’re not going to kill her,” Kobal growled.

“No, I’m not,” Lucifer replied. “But a demon cannot stand to see their Chosen tortured, can they, Kobal?”

I shrank back and bit my tongue again when half a dozen wraiths ran their bodies over my skin. Do not cry! I kept telling myself this, but when more of them moved over my frosted skin, a tear slid free.

Kobal froze.

“Good boy,” Lucifer said.

The sound Kobal released made the angels and demons closest to him step away. Only Lucifer remained unfazed by the power swelling out of Kobal and pulsating the air around him.

“She is more angel than anything,” Lucifer murmured. “It’s why the wraiths hurt her so badly, and it is so agonizing for the poor mortal. If she didn’t have my DNA in her, the pain of the wraiths would most likely kill her.”

Kobal’s gaze slid from Lucifer to me. Anguish twisted his features as he took another step forward.

“Don’t.” Lucifer clamped down on my throat. “Unless you want to hear her scream like the banshees, I’d stay where you are, Kobal.”

“This is between the two of us,” Kobal said. “Leave her out of it.”

“It stopped being between the two of us when you took my daughter as your Chosen,” Lucifer replied.

“I’ll die before I let you do this to her.”

Lucifer laughed and released my hair to slap his hand off his knee. “You’re making the mistake of thinking I’ll allow you to be killed, but I won’t. You see, if you’re dead, then a new varcolac will rise. One who may be stronger than you, and that varcolac won’t care if she lives or dies. Under normal circumstances, you would sacrifice yourself for her, but you won’t do that now, not if it means the one who rises from your ashes will kill her to stop me.”

My eyes slid to Lucifer as he turned back to me. “Do you see the gifts you have brought me, daughter? Not only are you going to give me an army, but you have also made it so the only creature capable of stopping that army obeys me. What lies behind these seals may despise Kobal for what he is, but they won’t destroy him if he fights on my side. He will be one of the strongest generals in my army, and you will be his motivation to be a good hound. And maybe one day, I’ll allow you two to be together again, if he’s a well-behaved general.”

“I’ll kill myself first,” I whispered.

Lucifer giggled, actually giggled as he leaned closer to me. “I would never allow that to happen either.”

“I’d rather we were both dead before allowing you to do this,” Kobal said.

“You say that, but…” Lucifer’s hand tightened on my neck, and he lifted me as far off the ground as my pinned hands allowed him to. I gasped for breath as my heels kicked against the seal. Kobal lunged forward, Phenex and Crux leaping into movement beside him. “I’ll tear her throat out if you don’t stop now!”

Kobal skidded to a halt when blood trickled down the sides of my neck and my wheezing increased. His chest rose and fell with his rapid inhalations. His eyes reflected the distress twisting within him as he tried to decide what to do. The best option was to kill me, but Kobal would never be able to do it, and he’d never stand by and watch it happen.

“You will do anything for your Chosen,” Lucifer said as he set me on the ground and eased his grasp.

I choked in heaping gulps of air as terror unlike anything I’d ever known spread throughout my belly. I wasn’t frightened for me, but for Kobal and everyone else here.

“Love bites you in the ass no matter who you are,” Lucifer sighed.

Lifting my head, I met Kobal’s eyes. “Kill me,” I rasped out.

“So brave, this one!” Lucifer clapped me on the chest with enough force to knock whatever air I’d managed to inhale back out of me. “She thinks you have a choice in this, but you’re not programmed that way, are you, Kobal? If she wasn’t involved in this, you would sacrifice yourself for all those creatures standing behind you now. The pathetic thing is that you don’t realize just how far beneath you those creatures are, but that’s a conversation for another day.”

Lucifer waved his hand in front of his face as if he were brushing his words aside before leaning so close to me that his lips rested against my ear. “Do you want to know a secret, daughter?”

I refused to acknowledge him as I kept my gaze on Kobal and tried to convey every ounce of love I had for him.

“Would you like to know why I never attempted to stop you from trying to close the gateway?” Despite my resolution not to look at Lucifer, my head turned toward him when he asked this and our eyes locked. “I’ll tell you, and only you, the secret.”