River

I didn’t run next door, didn’t fly up the stairs with the same reckless abandon I had everywhere else. I couldn’t. I may not be the same person who had left here, I’d literally been through Hell and back, yet my feet felt weighted down by cement blocks as I trudged up the steps to a house that had never been a home for me.

The faded gray front door sagged on its rusting hinges. The doorknob had busted off since I’d been here, leaving only the broken mechanical bits inside the door behind. Kobal slid his arm around my waist to pull me closer. My body tensed against his when he pushed in the mechanical bits and something clicked.

Resting his hand on the door, Kobal swung it inward. I couldn’t stop myself from wincing at the creaking hinges. I’d faced Lucifer, but this small noise still made me shudder at the thought of waking my Mother. I would pay for it if I did.

I shook my head to clear it of the haunting image of my mother coming at me as a clammy sweat coated my skin.

Shadows played over the hallway from the sunlight filtering in behind us. It illuminated the peeling paint and patches of exposed and, in some places, broken plaster. The stale scent of mildew permeated the air. Cobwebs dangled from the ceiling, and a thick layer of dust coated the walls and hall table. The dirt caking the floor made it impossible to tell if it was hardwood or a rug there.

A few leaves skittered down the hall when a breeze blew through the doorway. The other homes had appeared recently abandoned; this one looked as if no one had lived here in months. My mother had never been one for housekeeping; that had fallen to me and Gage. Then, she’d sold me to the government, Gage had gone to live with Lisa, and no one had helped her anymore.

For many years, the drone of the TV greeted me whenever I opened this door. Now there was only more silence. Swallowing heavily, I set the duffel bag on the ground outside the door and stepped inside.

I walked into the doorway of the living room where my mother had spent most of her life. Standing in the threshold, I gazed at the tufts of yellow stuffing poking through the worn brown fabric of my mother’s favorite armchair. Because the springs had busted through the seat years ago, she’d sat on two pillows while she endlessly watched the news reports on TV.

I froze when I spotted the blonde head sitting in the chair where I’d often seen it. I couldn’t move as my knees locked and my feet planted into the ground. Blinking, I tried to figure out if I was hallucinating or if my mother actually sat there. The more I blinked, the more I realized she wasn’t fading away, or moving.

My dead mother sat in that chair! She’d died and there had been no one to notice or care. Had her decomposing corpse been there for months?

Kobal stepped forward. My hand shot out and I gripped his forearm, holding him back. If she’d died months ago, the place would smell worse than mildew, wouldn’t it? Maybe the stench of decay would have faded by now, but I believed there would at least be a hint of it on the air. All I smelled beneath the mildew was the faint hint of ocean air, body odor, and rotten food.

If she’d died more recently, she wouldn’t stink yet.

No movement came from the chair. If she’d been alive, she would have heard us open the door, or the creak of the floorboards as Caim, Raphael, Hawk, and Corson entered the house. She didn’t so much as flinch.

***

Kobal

I glanced between River and the chair as her fingers bit so deep into my flesh that her nails pierced my skin. Yet, she showed no sign of realizing she clung to me like a lifeline. She’d stared down all the creatures and angels of Hell with less terror than what shimmered in her eyes now.

I’d long ago realized the only thing that made River vulnerable, the only thing she’d ever feared, was her mother—the woman who I believed to be sitting in the chair before us.

I went to draw River closer, but her feet remained planted on the ground. Then, she lifted her chin, took a deep breath, and stepped further into the room. My upper lip curled as I took in the room. Unlike the other human homes I’d entered, with their pictures and small signs of family and love within them, this place was bleak.

How anyone like River had managed to come from this place, I didn’t know, but I would ensure she was cherished for the rest of her days.

The blank screen across from the woman reflected her pale face and unblinking eyes as River edged closer. Following River around the recliner, I spotted the plates of food on the floor. Most of the moldy food was unrecognizable, though an apple sat on the floor near the woman’s right foot.

“Mother?” River whispered.

There was no response, no sign of a reaction. My other hand fell on River’s waist as her nails dug deeper into my arm. Blood welled forth, but I didn’t try to ease her hold on me. “We should go,” I said gruffly, intending to carry her out of this place and away from that woman forever.

“No. I have to… I have to know.”

***

River

Stepping next to the chair, I gazed down at the woman staring at the TV. Her fingers gripped the threadbare arms of the chair. The stringy blonde hair waving around her face emphasized the shadows lining her eyes. Her face was gaunter than I recalled and far paler, but she was otherwise unchanged.

I still couldn’t tell if she was dead or alive as I tried to detect the smallest rise and fall of her chest. When I stretched trembling fingers out to touch her unlined cheek, her watery blue eyes darted to me. Unable to suppress a squeak, I jumped as I snatched my hand back. I would have stumbled away if Kobal hadn’t been there to prevent me from doing so.

He rested his hand in the small of my back, his body turning protectively sideways. My heart hammered in my chest as my mother’s eyes burned into me. If hatred could take form and kill someone, she would have sliced me open from head to toe with that look.

“The devil’s progeny has returned,” she grated in a voice that sounded as if it hadn’t been used in months.

“Mother,” I whispered, unsure of what else to say or what to do. I couldn’t deny her words. Lucifer’s blood ran through me, and somehow she’d known this, or suspected it all along. Maybe her rotten mind had accidentally stumbled onto the belief she’d born the devil’s spawn and never let go of it.

“I’d hoped you’d die when they took you to the wall,” she said.

I rubbed my hand over my heart before I comprehended what I was doing and dropped it. I’d come to realize that no matter how much I armored myself against this woman, she always found a way past my defenses. I had no weapons against her, but as soon as I found Gage and Bailey, I would leave her here to rot in this place.

Beside me, Kobal growled and stepped toward her. “No.” I placed my hand on his chest to hold him back.

My mother’s eyes flicked to Kobal and enlarged when she took him in. “Demon! You brought a demon into my home!” Her voice took on a hysterical note that I’d never heard before. “Be gone, demon! Get out!”

“Go,” I said to Kobal and nudged him toward the doorway.

“I’m not leaving you with her,” he stated as she continued to shriek at him to get out.

“I’ll be fine.” I pushed harder against his chest. “I have to learn if she knows anything about my brothers, and she won’t tell me with you here. Go.”

He relented, walked into the hall, and out of sight. The front door opened and clicked shut again, but I knew he hadn’t left. That had been for her benefit. My mother continued to shriek like a bird for a full minute before abruptly stopping and turning her head to gaze at the blank TV.

“Mother, where is everyone from town?” I asked.

She didn’t respond. I almost shook her, but stopped myself before I could. Touching her would only set her off more, and that would do nothing for me.

“Where are Ga-age and Bailey?” I was unable to keep the hitch from my voice as I asked this question.

“You had them taken from me!” she spat. “But then, you took them from me years ago. Because of your evil, manipulative ways, they always liked you more than me.”

“Yes, I manipulated them by loving them when you couldn’t, or wouldn’t.”

“If you hadn’t been born…”

“What?” I asked when she stopped speaking. “What if I hadn’t been born?”

“I could have had a life.” She lifted a hand to run it over her soiled hair and studied her reflection in the TV. “I was pretty and popular. I could have been loved. But no man would stay with me after you. Once they realized they were with the woman who had given birth to the devil’s offspring, they left me.”

More like they left when they realized she had bats in the belfry, but I kept that to myself.

“No man would listen when I told them you were the spawn of Satan himself,” she said.

I knew the others listened in the hallway, but I didn’t hear the ruffle of a feather or an inhalation. I felt no embarrassment over what they’d heard. They knew the truth of my lineage and my mother had never tried to hide her intense dislike of me from anyone.

“Gage and Bailey aren’t the spawn of Satan, and you never loved them either,” I said, unable to bite back the words. I’d never stoop so low as to hit her as she had me numerous times over the years, but I wouldn’t be her verbal punching bag anymore either.

When her eyes slid back to me, they burned with hatred once more. “You ruined me! It was only supposed to be a fling, yet I paid for it by having to bear you! The entire time you grew within me, I knew you were evil.”

“I’m not evil. I’m…” I stopped speaking to take a calming breath.

It was pointless to argue with her. She would never see me as anything other than what she believed me to be. Ever since I’d learned of my heritage, I’d feared she’d always been right and that I was evil, but in that moment, I knew she was wrong; I would never be what she’d always believed me to be.

For me to lose my bond with life, I would have to take a series of steps that I never planned to take. Even if something drastic happened to push me into taking those steps, I could never be like Lucifer. I had my love of Kobal, my friends, and my brothers to keep me tied to who I was now.

“Where are Gage and Bailey?” I asked.

“I should have aborted you like I planned!”

I did a double-take as those words plunged a knife through my chest. Never, over all my years with her, had she ever said anything like that to me. From the hallway, Kobal stepped into view. My mother was so focused on me, she didn’t notice him stalking across the room with his eyes burning molten gold.

He’d kill her if he got his hands on her, I had no doubt about it.