Amelia twirled her silver sword in her hand as if it weighed nothing. “One distraction, guaranteed.”
Marcus gave her a look that relayed how little he liked the mission she had just volunteered them for and then nodded in agreement.
“Give us a head start and you will have the distraction you need, although I will not guarantee how long it will last.” Marcus rested his hand on the hilt of the blade sheathed at the waist of his blue-edged silver armour.
“No. It’s too big a risk. We can’t let you fight him.” Erin shook her head and reached for her sister.
“I know you. If I don’t do this… well, the alternative is you facing him, and I’m not about to let that happen. Don’t worry.” Amelia took her hand and squeezed it, her silvery eyes glittering with affection. “I won’t let him take me from you. We’ll make sure we keep our eyes on him and our backs together. You know Marcus will protect me.”
Erin sighed, glanced at Marcus and met his determined pale ice-blue eyes, and then nodded.
“Be careful.” She clutched Amelia’s hand. “I know you’re all super kick arse now and everything but you’re playing with the Devil, and he won’t play fair. Remember how we trained.”
Erin had trained Amelia? She had fought the Devil in the past and knew his methods and some of his moves. It had been a sensible course of action to use her powers, the same as the Devil’s, to teach her sibling and Marcus how to defend against him. Asmodeus admired her for it.
Veiron held his hand out and a flaming white portal appeared a short distance away from them. “It will take you to the plateau. Create havoc for as long as you can and then haul arse to the nearest gate. Marcus knows where it is.”
Marcus nodded. “But it won’t open without you.”
“I’ll be there.” Veiron jerked his chin towards the portal he was holding open for them. “Now, go.”
Amelia didn’t hesitate. She tightened her grip on her silver blade and ran for the portal, the short white-to-blue dress beneath her chrome armour flowing around her thighs and her silver ponytail bouncing with each stride. She leaped through the portal and Marcus charged in behind her.
It shrank and disappeared.
Erin stared at the place where it had been, her fists clenched and black smoke fluttering around them. Veiron gently tugged her into his arms and pressed a kiss to her hair.
“She’ll be alright. She’s tough. Marcus will take care of her.” He rubbed her back and she nodded.
Asmodeus felt another pang in his chest, an ache to leave now and find Liora. He had to wait. As much as he hated it, he was depending on the angelic female and her male to cause a big enough distraction that it would call the Devil out of his fortress. He wanted to fight the bastard for taking Liora and keeping her from him, but saving her was top priority. Once she was safe, he would come back and slay his master.
An enormous blue blast lit the sky in the distance and shook the ground beneath his feet. The tail end of a shockwave swept over him, powerful enough to knock everyone in the direction of it, and make his hellhounds whine.
“Amelia,” Erin whispered, her eyes on the distance as the light flickered and faded and a noise like thunder rumbled over them.
Amelia was more powerful than he had expected and she had just got the Devil’s attention. Asmodeus could feel the call go out, commanding all of his Hell’s angels in the vicinity to attack the source of the explosion.
Only time would tell if the Devil would join them, leaving them able to sneak into his fortress.
Minutes ticked by and blue light lit the sky at intervals, the blasts weaker than the first but still incredibly powerful.
A black blast devoured a section of one of the huge blue orbs, clashing with it.
“Erin?” Veiron whispered and Asmodeus answered his silent question.
“My master has come out to play.” He cast his hand before him and opened a black vortex there, large enough for all of them to travel through, including his hellhounds.
He would do as Liora had taught him and would leave no one behind.
Romulus and Remus leaped through first, leading the way. Apollyon followed with Serenity tucked close beside him, his large black wings partially curled around her. Veiron tried to do the same with Erin but she stormed forwards, her pretty face locked in lines of grim determination. Veiron followed close on her heels and Asmodeus brought up the rear, wishing once again that he had complete armour like the other angels in the group with him. Marcus had worn his blue and silver armour, Apollyon wore his gold-edged black armour, and Veiron had his crimson and black.
Asmodeus looked down at the gold-edged obsidian strips around his hips and his greaves. He had managed to fix the one that the dragon had damaged. It wouldn’t offer him much protection though. He needed a chest and back plate, and vambraces. He needed complete armour.
And he had a feeling he needed it now more than ever.
He stepped into the portal and then out onto the courtyard of the Devil’s fortress, close to the doors.
Someone gasped. It might have been Serenity, judging by how Apollyon held her closer to him. All of them were facing away from the fortress. Watching the battle raging on the plateau? Or did they already have company?
Asmodeus looked over his shoulder, following their gazes.
They were staring at the charred dragon carcass in the middle of the broken courtyard.
Apollyon raised a single black eyebrow at him.
“I was angry,” Asmodeus said and stepped forwards, approaching the tall twin doors. “You would not like me when I am angry.”
“Did he just make a funny?” Erin whispered to Veiron.
“I believe so.” Veiron shielded her with his crimson wings and walked her towards the doors where Asmodeus waited, studying them.
He hoped this worked.
Erin reached him and the doors creaked and then eased open, parting to reveal the grand entrance hall.
She smiled. “Hey, presto! I’m so awesome doors open for me.”
“That would be your father in you,” Asmodeus reminded her and her look soured. He smiled at her reaction, amused by it. The more time he spent around the feisty female, the more he liked her.
She waltzed into the large room with Veiron hot on her heels and tipped her head back, her amber eyes growing enormous as they took in the height of the room. It reached up to over one hundred feet above them, with black stone staircases that joined the first five floors of the Devil’s fortress. Hanging from the underside of the twisting staircases were elaborate chandeliers made of gilded demon bones, each holding over fifty candles that cast golden light over the room.
“We don’t have to go up there, right, because the whole floating staircase without bannisters thing really creeps me out.” She rubbed her stomach and he knew she was thinking about plummeting off the edge of one by mistake.
He was sure that Veiron would be close enough to her to catch her should that happen. The male seemed to grow anxious if he was more than two feet from her.
“We go down,” Asmodeus said and stepped aside to allow Serenity to enter with Apollyon.
Apollyon slipped his fingers between hers and clutched her hand. “Can you locate her?”
She nodded. Asmodeus’s heart beat a little faster and he drew his blades, keeping them at the ready. The castle was quiet except for the occasional quake caused by Amelia and Marcus’s fight outside that shook the bone chandeliers.
Asmodeus felt certain that they wouldn’t be alone for long. The Devil would grow suspicious and send his men to check the fortress, if he didn’t come to check it himself.
He closed his eyes and focused, trying to sense whether his master had left anyone guarding the building and Liora. An unmistakable sensation spread through him, warning him that they weren’t as alone as it appeared. There were Hell’s angels in the fortress, lurking in the darkness, waiting for them. His heart told him to warn the others but his head supplied that if he did, there was a
chance Veiron would insist on taking Erin away from the fortress, and he couldn’t allow that. She was the Devil’s daughter. His only way of opening the doors that stood between him and his love.
Romulus and Remus whined behind him and he looked back at them and spoke to them in the demon tongue. “Remain near the entrance and ensure nothing gets close to us. If my master returns, warn us. When you feel me call you, come as quickly as you can. Understand?”
They panted, their long tongues hanging out over their sharp black teeth.
Erin quietly whispered, “I am so tracking down a lady hellhound for you boys because I want me some puppies.”
Romulus and Remus snapped their mouths shut and pinned her with sharp red eyes. Asmodeus raised an eyebrow at his hellhounds, impressed by how quickly they were coming to understand English. He was glad. He wanted Liora to be able to talk with them too.
Veiron shook his head and sighed. “You have a baby coming and that kid is going to be a handful. You don’t need puppies on top of it.”
She scowled at him. “We have a baby coming… and just for denying me puppies, you’re getting all the late night wake up calls.”
Serenity led them forwards, under the staircases, to a black door on the left of the room. Erin twisted the clawed hand that formed the knob and it swung open. It was dark beyond the door. Serenity held her hands out before her with her palms facing upwards and a red orb appeared. It twisted and turned, and began to glow more fiercely, turning golden as it grew in size. She walked forwards and it hovered ahead of her, lighting their way.
Asmodeus closed ranks with Veiron, keeping Erin between them, his senses on high alert as they reached the end of the corridor and began down twisting steps. The air was cooler and damp, cleaner than outside. Serenity bravely kept leading the way, Apollyon at her back, one hand on her shoulder to let her know that he was there with her.
Asmodeus’s nerves threatened to rise and overwhelm him as they descended, winding ever deeper into the bowels of the castle. They came out on levels at intervals and Serenity always paused, closed her eyes, and then led them onwards, taking them to the next door, which Erin would open.
Each time, Asmodeus would hone his senses, searching for the Hell’s angels he had felt.
Each time, he had the feeling that they were drawing closer to them.
He started counting the stairs to keep his nerves in check and give himself something to focus part of his mind on while the rest of him focused on sensing whether any dangers lurked in the darkness around them.
The battle above grew distant and then slipped beyond his senses.
Erin muttered something to Veiron, who stroked her hair.
“Your sister is still fighting and still safe. The Devil won’t hurt her… he would break the pact if he did,” Veiron whispered and she paused and looked up at him, her eyes bright gold in the low light.
“He wouldn’t care… as far as we know, he’s already broken the pact. He took Liora.” Erin closed her eyes and hung her head. Her voice hitched. “If he resets the game, I’ll be too weak to fight him and make him pay for everything he’s done to me… for what he would have done to you… and to Amelia… and Marcus.”
Veiron wrapped his arms around her and pressed his lips to the top of her head, closing his eyes at the same time.
“It’ll be okay, Sweetheart. I swear it. No bad shit is going down on my watch. You’ll see. We’ll get Liora back and get the fuck out of this place, and I’ll pick up Amelia and Marcus, and it’ll all be good.” Veiron sighed when her shoulders shook and a sob broke past her lips, and Asmodeus felt he was intruding on something very private.
He would give them a moment alone, but they were blocking the corridor.
Veiron rubbed her bare arms. “How about when we’re all back together, we come back down and give your old man hell?”
Erin sniffed, lifted her head and brushed the backs of her hands across her cheeks. She gave Veiron a wobbly smile and nodded.
“You missed a tear.” Veiron swept it away with his thumb. “Cry baby.”
Erin shoved him in the chest. “It’s these stupid hormones. I’m pissed as hell one minute and want to collapse in a puddle of tears the next. It’s not easy being pregnant, you know? Especially with your kid. He’s as temperamental as his father.”
She rubbed her belly and Veiron placed his hand over hers, smiling down at the bump beneath her black dress.
“Hell boy junior likes it when you do that,” she whispered and Veiron placed his arm around her shoulders, tucking her against his side, and began walking again.
“I’ll just keep this hand here then,” he said and she leaned her head on his chest as they walked. Veiron squeezed her shoulders and his voice dropped to an earnest whisper. “I swear, Erin, your sister and Marcus will be fine.”
Asmodeus could understand her fear. While on the island, he had come to discover that Amelia was the original angel and the subject of a game between Heaven and Hell that Asmodeus had watched with curiosity since his creation.
Angels were eternal, and upon their death, they were reborn into their original forms but without their memories. In Amelia’s case, she re-entered the world as a mortal baby and grew up hidden among the massive human population and the hunt for her began. One of Apollyon’s duties was to kill her mortal form when the time was right and awaken her as an angel. Then, it was a race between Heaven, represented by Marcus, and Hell, represented by Veiron, to get their hands on her first and spill her blood on a sacred altar. Whoever spilled her blood sealed the other realm for centuries.
Amelia would then die.
So would Veiron and Marcus.
Erin had good reason to be concerned. If Amelia faltered, the Devil’s men could kill her. The game would be reset. Even with the contract between Veiron and Erin, there was a chance she would lose her husband and he would be reborn as an angel of Heaven, unable to remember her and destined to fall and pledge himself to the Devil.
She would definitely lose her sister and Marcus.
Asmodeus found it hard to believe the lengths these people were going to in order to help Liora, risking their lives for her. Not just Liora though.
As much as he wanted to pretend they were doing it just for her, because she had gained their friendship and their trust, he knew deep inside that wasn’t the whole truth.
They were doing this for him too.
Serenity wanted to reunite him with Liora as much as she wanted to save her cousin. He had caught the looks that Erin and Amelia had given him too, sympathetic glances that spoke of their desire to help him. Marcus seemed reluctant to get close to him, but was helping anyway. Veiron had clearly wanted to help him save Liora.
Apollyon.
The man who had sworn to kill him a thousand times over, who had battled him and come close to doing just that almost as many times, and who had always looked upon him with scorn and disgust, had looked upon him with concern and had chosen to assist him in his mission to save Liora.
Asmodeus still found that hard to digest.
They reached a level where there were no more steps or doors. Just endless maze-like corridors of black. The sensation of danger grew stronger. The Devil’s men were waiting in the maze.
Asmodeus went against his better judgement. “We are not alone.”
“You’re telling me,” Veiron whispered and stroked Erin’s arm.
“How long have you known?” Asmodeus frowned and Erin looked over her shoulder at him.
“Since opening the main door of the fortress.” She shrugged when his frown hardened, a ripple of shock racing through his blood, and then smiled. “You didn’t expect me to run away from a couple of Hell’s angels, did you?”
“No, I did not.”
Her smile broadened, reaching her amber eyes. “Ah, you expected Hell boy to whisk me away. I know my husband. He’s itching for a fight as much as I am. A few demonic angels? He won’t even break a sweat.”
“If he gets to fig
ht one at all,” Apollyon growled from ahead of them, his rich blue eyes burning in the darkness.
Veiron wasn’t the only one itching for a fight.
Asmodeus called his curved golden blades to him. The weight of them in his palms felt good, reassuring. Whatever waited for them at the end of the maze, or even in the maze, was going to discover that he would allow nothing to stand between him and Liora.
Serenity took several wrong turns in the narrow alleyways, causing them to have to back up and try a different route. Each wrong turn and dead end worsened Asmodeus’s temper and he was close to snapping by the time they finally reached a tall black room lit by torches cradled in the gilded bones of dragons’ feet. The warm amber glow barely reached halfway up the towering height of the vaulted ceiling.
Asmodeus had the feeling they had found Liora.
Five Hell’s angels in their demonic forms blocked the way to a single black stone door, their thickly muscled arms folded over their red-edged black breastplates and their crimson eyes glowing like hellfire against their black skin.
The one in the middle of the loose semicircle was far larger than the others, but all of them were bigger than normal Hell’s angels, each standing over ten feet tall.
Veiron growled and shifted, rolling his shoulders. Black flowed over his skin and his muscles expanded, his limbs growing as he changed into his own demonic form. He pushed Erin behind him and Asmodeus did the same, forcing her behind him as he stepped forwards to form an offensive line with Veiron and Apollyon.
Erin huffed and Serenity muttered something about men.
His twin furled his large black-feathered wings against his back and tipped his chin up, his swirling blue gaze locked on the Hell’s angel at the front of the group.
Asmodeus wouldn’t grant him his wish. The biggest male was his.
He tightened his grip on his curved golden blades and launched himself with a roar at the male.
The large male sprang forwards and met him halfway, his red blade clashing with Asmodeus’s golden one. Asmodeus surged onwards, driving the demonic angel backwards. Veiron and Apollyon joined the fight, tackling two of the angels each. Veiron’s double-ended short spear was a blur as he dealt with his two foes, blocking and countering every attack they made. The vaulted room echoed with each clash of weapons, the strikes ringing out until it was a cacophony.
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