Corson

“I wouldn’t have wanted to return,” I admitted. “During my time here, I came to enjoy Earth, but if my king had chosen to go back to Hell, I would have followed him.”

“Will you follow Kobal anywhere?” she asked.

“Yes. I have been on Kobal’s side since I was born. My parents fought for him before me, and once I was old enough to fight too, I did. I will continue to do so without fail. As the varcolac, Kobal is the rightful king of Hell, but Lucifer stripped the throne from the ruling varcolac when he entered Hell six thousand years ago. Lucifer tried to rule there, but he was never meant to be the king, and there were many in Hell that denied Lucifer, including myself and numerous other demons.”

“What is so special about the varcolac?” she inquired.

“The varcolac is the only demon born from the fires of Hell themselves. Only one of them can exist at a time, and when the varcolac dies, a new one rises. The rest of us upper-level demons are all born as humans are, from a mother and a father. Our abilities develop with us as we mature from babies to adults, but the varcolac rises in adult form and with their powers fully developed. The fires that forged Kobal did so with the intent of making him strong enough to rule all of us and to defeat Lucifer.”

“Yet some demons chose to fight on Lucifer’s side,” she murmured and stifled a yawn.

“Some demons still fight with the fallen angels,” I replied. “There will always be those who seek only to destroy. That’s one of the reasons why the varcolacs before Kobal locked so many creatures behind the seals. They needed to be contained before they destroyed Hell. Now the seals are gone, and those trying to destroy Earth will be hunted down and killed.”

“What if some of the things from the seals decide not to work with the angels or against Kobal?”

“We’re all starting over again in this world—demons, Hell-creatures, and humans alike. Those who don’t seek only to destroy will be allowed to live, even if they once resided behind the seals. There are some things, like the ouro, that have no purpose other than to kill and must be put down.”

“What of the jinn and what they were doing with those people?” Renewed energy filled her voice, and she sat up against me.

“What little I know of the jinn, they’re manipulative and cruel, but those people made a choice to partake in what the jinn offered. No one gets something for nothing.”

“Some people have no idea what they’re getting into or what some demons are capable of doing.”

“No, but some people have no idea what humans themselves are capable of doing. I’ve seen some awful things from your species over my many years too.”

“So have I,” she whispered.

I drew her closer when I heard the sorrow in her voice. “Has anyone hurt you?” The question came out amazingly calm considering the fury slithering through me at the possibility of some human having done something to her.

“I can handle myself,” she replied.

“Wren—”

“I took care of anyone who tried anything with me.”

The steel in her voice cautioned me away from pursuing this questioning. This was the most she’d ever opened up to me; I wouldn’t be surprised to learn it was the most she’d ever opened up to anyone. Why she’d chosen me and this place, I didn’t know. I wouldn’t ask her either; she would only shut me out again if I did.

She remained silent for long enough that I believed she would stop speaking, but then she continued. “You said you were born, that all demons are. How?”

“Well, when two demons love each other, they get together to create a child. I’ve heard you humans refer to it as the birds and the bees. I have no idea why, since I don’t think either of those things penetrates their mates, but what do I know? However, I can assure you there are no storks involved,” I couldn’t help but tease and smiled when I sensed her scowling at me.

“That’s not what I meant.”

“I know.” I brushed my hand over her hair to soothe her as I inhaled her pine scent. “Do you know how the different realms of Hell, Earth, and Heaven were formed?”

Her chin lifted against my chest in her stubborn way. “No,” she finally admitted, her curiosity winning out over her obstinacy.

“The planet was created by a colossal force of energy; I guess you could call it the Big Bang. That colossal force was also powerful enough to create what many call God, but over the years it’s been named many things, including numerous gods and goddesses. Demons and angels simply call it the Being because as far as we know, it has no true name.

“At first, Hell, Heaven, and Earth were all one thing, but they separated millions of years ago when humans and demons were the tiniest of evolving specks. When they were still together, the three realms battled one another to thrive. However, as time moved on and the massive energy that created the planet expanded, the dimensions of each realm became more clearly divided.

“Hell was the first to break away. The loss of Hell’s severe heat made Earth more inhabitable for the life starting to grow within its waters. The newfound life that had thrived on heat broke away with the waters of Hell. The life in those waters managed to evolve until it became demons and other Hell creatures.”

“Hell has water?” she inquired.

“Yes. Its red currents are different than the waters on Earth and, from what Caim has said, the water in Heaven, but the red waters sustain life.”

“Interesting,” she murmured. “So what happened after that?”

“Heaven broke off after to leave the air on Earth more breathable for the burgeoning life there. Humans and demons evolved in a nearly parallel manner, as did the other beasts on Earth and in Hell. When Hell first broke away, the Being, or God, or whatever you prefer to call it—”

“God,” she stated. “I gave up having faith in a higher power while I huddled under a sink fourteen years ago, but I was once a believer.”

My teeth ground together at the reminder of what she’d endured. If not for her mother, Wren would be dead. Those demons would have torn into her with little consideration for the fact she was only a child.

“We were all confused and disoriented when Hell was suddenly opened by humans who had never been able to open a gateway into it before,” I said. “The initial blast of the gateway opening threw me and Kobal into the lower levels of Hell. The demons who immediately fled onto Earth struck out at anything they deemed a threat to them.”

“Are you trying to defend what they did to my mom and countless others?” she grated.

“No. I am telling you what happened. From the way you described them, lower-level demons are the ones who killed your mother, but there were also upper-level demons, ones who fight on our side, that burst out of Hell and slaughtered anything in their way. The humans releasing their bombs only escalated the situation. It was a while before everything settled down enough for us to learn what had happened and that it had all been a giant fuck up.”

“I know,” she murmured.

Yes, she would know. She’d been in the thick of it, and it would have taken the Wilders some time to grasp the situation too.

“I didn’t race out to kill everything in sight like others. However, I’ve done my fair share of killing to those who deserve it, and I’ll continue to do so,” I told her.

“So will I,” she murmured and eased against me once more. “It seems I should have been praying all this time. There really is a greater power.”

“That greater power isn’t on this planet anymore,” I said.

“Where did it go?”

“No one knows, but Raphael is convinced it will return.”

“If anyone should be convinced of that it’s an angel,” she said. “Raphael told me he chose to leave Heaven, unlike Caim.”

“He did,” I confirmed, “but like Caim, he can’t return.”

“So he said,” she murmured. “So what happened when Hell broke away?”

It took me a few seconds to recall what we’d been talking about. “When Hell first broke away, the power—”

“God,” she corrected.

“God resided in Hell until Heaven broke away. When that happened, God left Hell and went to Heaven. With its inhospitable air, life doesn’t evolve in Heaven, so to sustain the cycle of life beginning to flow between the dimensions, God forged the angels in the image of man. Over time, the three planes became a symbiotic network of different species. Humans are the only ones with a soul and the only ones who can create a new soul. When a person perishes, their soul goes to Heaven or Hell, though some remain on Earth and serve their time in Purgatory as ghosts. Where they end up in death all depends on a human’s deeds while they’re alive.”

“I’ve met some of the ghosts at the wall. Some of them are assholes, but a few are nice.”

“Most are selfish, one-way pricks, but at least many of them are trying to help us now.”

“I guess you don’t like ghosts.”

“No, but they also serve their purpose. They do nothing for us though as both angels and demons feed on the souls who travel to our realms until they are ready to be reincarnated. Demons create pain for the souls as punishment until they become twisted wraiths. Angels give them pleasure as a reward for their deeds. When a soul’s time is up in either dimension, it is reborn on Earth. Just because a soul makes it to Heaven once doesn’t mean they won’t make it to Hell a time or two also. Without this life cycle, no one knows what would happen, but we do know all our species rely on each other to survive.”

“What about demons and angels when they die? Do they reincarnate too?”

“No,” I said. “That is where our death and rebirth cycle differs from humans. When an immortal dies, that is the end for them. We experience no afterlife, but that is the price we pay for immortality.”

“Oh.” Wren remained still against me as she tried to process everything I’d revealed. “Where do Lucifer and the fallen angels come into all this?”

“There was a time when angels and demons walked the Earth. They didn’t do so freely, but they did move amongst people. The varcolac can open a gateway between Hell and Earth. The demons who passed back and forth were carefully monitored and had to pass tests to travel to the mortal plane.

“Then, six thousand years ago, the asshole angels above had a fight, and they solved it by tossing their trash onto Earth.”

“And that trash was Lucifer and the other fallen.”

“Yes. All angels can leave Heaven, but only the archangel Michael is capable of opening a gateway from Earth and into Heaven. When they threw Lucifer and his followers out, they did so with the belief they would die on Earth.”

“Why did they think they would die if the angels are immortal too?” she asked.

“All immortal creatures used to become mortal while on Earth. The only way an angel or demon on Earth could retain their immortality was to return to Heaven or Hell. When humans opened the unnatural gateway into Hell, it changed everything. Our worlds became so intricately entwined that immortals are now capable of remaining undying while on Earth.”

“Oh,” she breathed, “and Michael never planned to let the fallen angels return to Heaven.”

“Exactly. The fallen should have perished on Earth, but once here, they sheared off their wings in the hopes of becoming more human. It didn’t work, and it only caused most of their wings to grow back twisted and black. The fallen angels started to become more demonic while on Earth, and during that time, Lucifer figured out how to open a gateway into Hell. Once the angels entered Hell, they retained their immortality, became far more demonic, and wreaked havoc. They were able to do all this because the golden angels couldn’t take care of their fucking mess.”

“I take it you don’t like the angels much,” she said.

“Those self-righteous pricks started this whole thing, and only Raphael has done anything to try to help fix it. I don’t trust him or Caim, but out of the two of them, I trust Caim more. I never believed I’d say that about one of the fallen, but Caim is more open, whereas I think Raphael may still be hiding things from us. They’ve both sacrificed to help us though, so I’ll work with them unless they give me a reason to kill them. Then, I won’t hesitate.”

She shifted against me as if to pull out of my arms, but then her head fell onto my chest. I froze, uncertain of what to do. With any other woman, I would have known what to do, but dealing with Wren was like walking on thin ice. I never knew when she might crack and try to kill me.

“Your feelings for the angels are much like my feelings toward demons,” she said.

“Yes.”

“Where are your mother and father?”

I held her closer before realizing what I was doing and easing my grip on her. After all these years, I still hated recalling the end of my parents’ lives. “Dead. I watched them both die.”