Chapter 19
Abe’s smile melted and his face crumpled; his teeth gritted as if he was fighting an internal battle.
“There’s someone inside of my mind.” He said with a clenched jaw.
The tendril of fear that had captured my heart in a vicelike grip uncurled. Abe stepped forward but then halted at the edge of the cavernous hole. His crimson eyes widened as he stared down into the watery abyss until he saw the same thing that I had seen. The Leviathan’s serpentine body was encased in a cage of dark magic and frozen in time.
“How long do you think he has been down there?” Abaddon ground out as if speaking was difficult. He clutched his head as a wave of pain overtook him.
An unexpected voice answered his question. “Since Dahlia left Hell the first time, although I do take him out of his box from time to time. He’s a fun one to play with.” The stranger had glowing red eyes. His lip curled in disgust as he stared down at the caged beast. “I’ve waited a long time for this day.”
Abe’s fists clenched as he struggled against the glue-like magic.
“Ba’el.” Abaddon snarled, his grip tightened on the sceptre in front of him, and his bones cracked under the strain. Abe’s body moved like a struggling marionette as he tried to fight off the Demon’s influence.
I Laced from the invisible floor until my back was pressed against the wall and my feet hovered over the edge of the hole on the other end of the room. I had no idea if Ba’el had control over the floor, but I wasn’t going to take the chance. I had been in the Jade Lake once before, and that had been enough for me.
“It can’t be.” I hissed, my eyes flew from Abaddon’s armoured body to the broad warrior that matched him in size. Ba’el’s face was wider, and his smirk was crooked whereas Abe’s features were perfectly symmetrical. Ba’el’s were not. “You have been gone for two hundred years.”
“Lucifer’s Pet,” Ba’el rolled up the sleeves of his shirt methodically, as he paid more attention to his cufflinks than to my existence. “I will take pleasure in ripping your body apart. Perhaps if you beg, I’ll even fuck you before I push you to eternal death.”
My palms were spread on the wall, but I felt the rough edges of the peeling paint as my hands began to heat beyond my control. My magic ached to protect me as my mind begged for answers.
“Give me back my daughter.” I tried to keep the bite out of my voice and wore my best diplomatic expression. Ba’el snapped his fingers, and the lip of the hole began to crumble into the water. The granite tile faded into black dust under his command. I had to assume that the finger snapping was purely theatrical because no Hell magic that I knew needed a physical gesture.
Ba’el sauntered forwards; his swagger was a paltry comparison to Lucifer’s. Ba'el had confidence, the kind that came from a man that liked having blood on his hands.
He held out his palm for the sceptre as Abaddon fought and gripped his elbow to prevent himself from handing it over.
“I wouldn’t have needed this if your pathetic excuse for a daughter had even an ounce of power.” Ba’el said without malice. He grabbed the sceptre with greedy fingers. He held it up to the light to appraise it like a precious gemstone.
“Where’s my daughter?” I said through gritted teeth.
“Lucifer’s bastard is safe.” He replied absentmindedly.
Sick of being squashed against a small square footage in the corner of a crumbling room, I focused on pulling the threads of Hell into a floor until I was confident that I could walk on it. Once I stepped forward and felt the bounce against the balls of my feet, I approached Ba’el carefully but schooled my expression to show no fear of him.
“Why take Envy?” Abe asked, as he saw my steps, hoping to distract the Fallen angel from my approach. It was fruitless, but still, the most powerful of Demons often fell for the stupidest of tricks.
“Envy has the most treasures.” Ba’el winked, and it made my skin crawl. “Mammon takes anything he can get his greedy hands on, but the Leviathan hoards only that with value. I was searching for the Sceptre. The slimy lizard hid it from me.”
I licked my bottom lip. “It was in the Human Realities.”
“Yes. I expected that.” Ba’el replied cockily. “Alas I cannot sense objects that have been touched with Lucifer’s magic.”
I could, but I hadn’t realised that it was a special ability of sorts. I stored the information away for later.
Ba’el rested the artefact on his shoulder. “Is Lucifer not joining us?”
“I’m sure he would if he knew it was you, Wrath.” Abaddon replied snidely.
“Lucifer’s second, through and through.” Ba’el laughed cruelly.
“Why go to all of this effort for a Sceptre?” I asked lightly.
His casually amused mask melted in an instant and I saw the man worthy of the title of King of Wrath. The veins in his neck pulled taut, blue and pulsating. His red eyes bulged and his teeth snapped. As quickly as his glamour had cracked, Ba’el brushed down the front of his jeans and straightened his shoulders to face me.
“I’m sure you have heard the story of how poor Lucifer was kicked from Nova’s bed, accused of something he didn’t do?” His voice dripped with venom.
I crossed my arms over my chest and rolled my eyes.
“Why do you think that the Sceptre is covered in Lucifer’s magic, hm?” Ba’el stroked the metal as if it was a pet. “I’ll tell you. He was the one that stole it. He burrowed into my mind and forced my hand. I was tricked!”
I could not argue with him. Even as he said it, it sounded like something The Devil would do.
“If I can watch his lover and his child burn into non-existence, why wouldn’t I take that chance?” He smiled sweetly but the muscle in his jaw ticked. “And after you’re gone, the Summerland will feel my wrath.”
“So you’ll involve innocent people in this?” I said lightly.
“You’re innocent, are you, Devil’s bride?”
“My daughter is.” I snarled.
A flash of black inched into the edge of my vision as Abaddon darted forward and the metal of his dagger cut the air on its way to Ba’el throat. The two warriors were a blur as Ba’el swung the sceptre onto Abaddon’s knuckles. A wicked smile took over Wrath’s face as the crunch of bone made me wince.
I stepped away, knowing that any interference on my part would have hindered Abaddon’s ability to do damage to the King of Wrath, but Ba’el had other ideas. His neck snapped to attention as my foot hit the ground and he gripped Abaddon’s arms and swung him into the wall on the opposite side of the room. Wrath began to walk towards me, his magic leaked into the air like dissolving smoke. Abe picked himself from the floor I had created, but Ba’el did not spare him a glance as he advanced towards me.
I was trained in combat, courtesy of the warrior that had been flung to the floor like a sack of flour not seconds before. I flattened my palms, and placed them in front of me — one higher than the other. I hardened my skin with calluses, to prevent a blade from an easy cut, and squared my stance as I prepared myself to fight.
Ba’el fought dirty. He jumped and gripped onto a pipe above us and swung his feet until they planted against my sternum and knocked me back a few steps. I had barely a second to turn before his arms had wrapped around me and thwarted any movement I could have made. I was fast, but he was faster. I was strong, but he was older.
It was rare that I encountered a being more powerful than I. Lucifer was included in that list. Ba’el’s mighty arms constricted my chest until I felt a rib snap under the strain; it was woefully clear that I was outmatched.
Changing tactics, I relaxed into his embrace and turned my body towards Wrath, even though it hurt like Hell to do so. I laboured my breathing to mirror arousal, using a technique that I had seen Amore pull to get out of a hold. My eyes hooded and I placed a delicate kiss on the seam of his jaw. Ba’el tensed and disgust rolled off him in waves but he did not loosen his hold.
I guessed that his need for revenge outweighed any possible attraction he might have had for me. I went slack in his arms, trying another trick. But he was strong. The dead weight of my body was nothing as he held me to his broad chest, his arms tightened like a boa constrictor. My wings were tucked in tight against my body, from shoulder blade to waist and although they were hardier than my ribs, the golden plumage ached like elastic about to ping back.
I eyed the sceptre in Ba’el’s holster and if I could have removed his hands and reached for it, I would have done. Its presence mocked me and I found myself unable to escape. Ba’el had stripped my ability to Lace and I felt powerless.
I snapped my teeth like a feral dog, but nothing seemed to move him.
“Meesha was a nice touch.” I snarled.
“I asked the Hound to cut your child from your womb, but she was never good at following instructions.” Ba’el spoke directly into my ear.
“Give me my daughter and I’ll leave here without retribution.” My voice was breathy due to weight in my lungs.
“Lucifer will march on Envy regardless. I don’t plan to be here when he does.”
My eyes flicked to Abaddon on the other end of the room. The red-eyed warrior flung himself forward only to encounter a shield of air, not unlike the one that had plugged the hole in the centre of the room. Abe opened his mouth to roar, but I could not hear him. Ba’el had wrapped us both in a shield.
“Once you and Abaddon have been disposed of, Lucifer won’t know that I was even here.” Ba’el laughed without humour. “I might have to take the Leviathan out of his box long enough to be ripped into tiny pieces by your master but it will all come out in the wash.”
“If you touch my daughter—” I warned, my heart had grown tight enough that I swore I could feel it against my ribs. I reached out and gripped Ba’el’s wrist. His hold was iron, but when I touched him I felt the boiling presence of Wrath under his skin.
That was new.
As a rule, Demons felt the Sin to which they were attached, and even though they could feed on any Sin in a pinch, it wasn’t the same. It was the equivalent of vaping, instead of smoking a cigarette. I could sense his rage, but it tasted differently to any sensation that I had felt before. Something awakened inside of me, as I actively found myself pulling his anger to me like a piece of yarn. My body churned the string and twisted it into something else, against my will.
Angelic magic.
Ba’el broke the hold as if I had burned him. His crimson eyes blazed but a shimmer of fear coated them. Breaking the connection of our skin had not stopped the sucking pull that I felt inside of my chest. I leeched his Wrath, his power, into my own body. I felt the Sin warp into something bright and shiny and would have made me flinch in distaste if it was not saving my life.
Ba’el swung the sceptre towards me; the silver burnt red hot, and I felt the floor disappear from under me.
The crunch of metal punctuated my fall. A car alarm sounded and the screech of wheels burning on the tarmac. My wings had spread and cushioned my fall.
I was no longer in Hell when I looked up, but rather sprawled out on the roof of a taxi in the middle of Oxford Street, London.