Wild stilled: fury and distress flickered across his face. His eyes shone.
Wild was under Lucifer’s spark. The Feathered were caught in his fervor.
The original and most loyal were also the most enthralled.
“Wrong again.” Wild stalked closer. Sweat dripped from his muscled arms. “And he’s mad about being betrayed. You’ll be begging me to save you, bab. He won’t just take your head, he’ll burn you.”
I shuddered: screams, blinding light, and charred flesh…
Yet I knew that it wouldn’t be that easy. When Ash had been disloyal, Lucifer had taken his weapons, rank, and identity, and then had hurt or killed everybody that he loved in front of him.
Lucifer had burned Ash inside and out.
I was the leader, however, and that meant no more running away. If there were consequences, I was the one who’d face them.
“Yours, use, fight,” Devil wheedled, shifting in excited anticipation.
My hands lifted puppet-like towards my bodice…and the trident. I stilled them, however, because I couldn’t risk another monster in the yard. I’d let one out to take down Lucifer; I couldn’t let it out again.
I trembled; fire flicked on and off my fingertips.
“Enough of the Moriarty,” Ash snarled, “more of the bang, bang.”
Wild growled, before the Feathered swarmed into the Bones, surrounding us with flames.
I hollered, shooting a fireball. It sputtered out, weakened by my confused righteousness, or after my taste of Devil, lack of it. I hissed, backing up.
Bang, bang.
Wild clutched at his crimson guts: Direct shot.
At last, the Feathered howled as they attacked.
27
Once, I’d stood up to the top boy in my class. In the teen equivalent of pulling my pigtails to get into my pants, he’d tormented me for weeks, until I’d snapped, holding a shank to his face behind the science lab, whilst he’d pissed himself.
Only, the next time that he’d cornered me, he’d had a gang at his back, whilst they’d pinned me to the floor, and he’d shown me just why blokes were bastards.
Me? I’d been alone.
“Are you going to tell your mummy? Daddy?” He’d taunted.
Because everyone had known that I was the orphan from the children’s home. What they hadn’t known…? I’d stopped calling for my parents a long time ago.
There’d been nobody to save me but myself.
I’d spent the next school year taking apart those bastards stealthily one at a time, without them even knowing that I’d become the devil haunting them.
There was danger in a gang. But power in shadowed tricks.
My nose crunched, and I whined. Blood flooded the back of my throat, until I choked.
Clank — my face cracked against the metal floor of the Bones again.
Wild wound his hand more tightly in my hair, pressing his foot onto my back. He licked a hot stripe down my neck, and I jerked, struggling.
“So much for never striking me,” I snarled.
“You hadn’t tried to commit regicide then,” Wild shrugged.
He had a point.
I peered into the gloom, which was lighted in feathered sweeps by the ranks of FF. Key had been dragged to his knees amongst them. His thin arms clutched over his chest, as he panted for breath; his eyes were bleak with fear. I tried to smile comfortingly, but through the blood dripping from my nose and staining my teeth like I’d savaged someone’s throat, I don’t think that I pulled it off.
I blinked against the pain.
Trick had slung his arm around Ash’s shoulders, as if he wasn’t holding Ash up because Ash’s knee had been shattered. Trick’s hold was tight enough to force Ash’s mouth into a grim line and possessive enough to make me crave to burn off his hands.
Ash’s gun was now tucked into Trick’s waistband.
Wild shifted, laying his weight against me to show me how much this was turning him on. “You thought to run our world? You’ll be tamed, and we’ll be Bonded. Then you’ll learn your place.”
“Not happening in a world of freaky misogynists. And my place? My boot, your balls.”
Clank — my face, meet floor again.
I swallowed coppery blood.
“Violet, this would be a Plan B situation,” Ash warned, “not a piss off the enemy one.”
“New bargain. Your pet Seducer will be kept by General Trick who knows how to keep him in line.” Wild nibbled my ear. I glanced up at Trick, who’d cupped his hand over Ash’s prick through his jeans: message received. Ash refused to meet my eye. “You Blood Bond and obey, or your punishment will be taken out by Trick on the Seducer. Maybe Trick will give him to the Feathered ranks. They deserve a reward for their loyalty.”
“Don’t…” I bucked, threaded with violet and black despair.
Wild groaned, clutching his guts that bled from the gunshot wound.
What had happened to Rebel? Mischief? Misrule and Harehel? Had they been defeated?
Killed…?
I choked, as my muscles cramped on the panic.
Screw on your queenly head and bring the Bitch of Utopia to the party.
I tried, but what if—
What if the universe is balanced on your peachy ass? What if the sky rains gods? What if you die and live and die and…?
What ifs are for pussies. You have the power: choice, decision, and control.
But how do I know…?
You want to stop the carnival and take down Lucifer? Then remember how to trust. You’re not just a vampire queen, but an angel princess as well.
Have you already forgotten how you chose the loyal Irish punk?
Rebel: in the vampire Under World, it wasn’t always easy to remember my connection with an angel.
I reached out through my bond with Rebel, desperate to feel that he was alive and flooded with a relieved warmth at the union. An exhilarated righteousness buzzed through me in a rush: I’d tasted that before in the thrill of my own kills. If Rebel was still battling, then I called bollocks on Wild’s riot crushed speech.
Had Wild also lied about my dad?
I had to escape, find Lucifer, and if he was alive…destroy him for real this time. Because there was one truth amidst Wild’s lies: Lucifer would burn me and my family if I didn’t.
First, I had a gang of FF to take down, however, and weakened as I was, I still had shadowed tricks. The angels would call it dishonorable. But when had there ever been an honorable monster?
“Bet,” I hissed at Ash.
Ash finally met my gaze. “Now…?”
“You. Make a bet. Now.”
Ash’s expression cleared, and he grinned, even though Trick was still palming him through his jeans. “General Wild,” he barked out, one solider to another — perfect, “bet that when we fight, right now, I won’t kill you.”
Wild stilled his grinding against my arse, only to rumble with laughter. “You? Kill me?”
“If I lose…then Violet accepts your bargain and…I’m given as a pet to your FF army.” I blanched: Ash was playing for high stakes. This was his world, however, and for once, I had to trust a bloke. “But if you lose.” He held up his hand, listing each consequence with a smirk. “You’re dead. Trick and the Feathered let us go. We free the Bones and whoever else we like. And no one tries to recapture the Bones, Bloods, or Shadows.” The cocky bastard waggled his thumb, “I can’t think of a fifth demand, so I’ll let that go.”
Wild hurled me down, prowling towards Ash like he hadn’t even been shot.
Ash tried to straighten, tilting his chin, but Trick suddenly let go of him, and he yelped: warrior reduced to captive on his knees.
Wild toed him. “You can’t even stand.”
“Scared to take a bet?” Ash gasped.
Titters.
The FF gawked at their leader.
Turning down a bet from another vampire in the Under World: big fat no no.
Yet why had Ash chosen a
bet that he couldn’t win? He had to crawl with his shattered leg dragging behind him, just to haul himself closer to me. My skin crawled with what I’d done. I opened my mouth to say…something…but Ash hurriedly shook his head at me, instead slipping his hand down my bodice.
What the actual hell…?
Then Ash’s fingers clasped around Devil, and I understood. His expression transformed from something broken to something terrible. Shaking from the power fizzing through him, he still managed to stare at me imploringly.
To ask my permission for the return of his own weapon.
I nodded.
“It’s rude of you to imply that I’d turn down a bet.” Wild scooped up the barbwire muzzle, wrapping it around his knuckles. “I just want to up the stakes. The kid that you rescued…” Key shrank back, whilst his eyes gleamed with tears. “He could share your Seducer workload once he’s trained up.”
Key whimpered, “Please…”
Ash stiffened; his breathing was harsh.
“Don’t start bawling, after all, the Seducer could win this bet,” Wild mocked. “Here, I’ll even help him stand.”
Wild snatched Ash by the collar, hauling him onto his bad leg. Ash’s wail was cut off by Wild’s clout to his mouth. Warm crimson rained down on my cheek from Ash’s lips, which were as split open now as Key’s from the barbed wire around Wild’s knuckles.
“You’d better hope that Ash kills you,” I growled. “Or I’ll dedicate my life to making yours hell.”
Wild laughed as he pulled back his arm again; my stomach lurched at the scarlet glistening on the metal. “No time limit on the fight?”
“I won’t need one.” Ash spat blood into Wild’s eyes.
When Wild reached up to smear away the scarlet, Ash swung the Devil’s Trident, which he’d hidden in the palm of his hand. His eyes sparked with silver, and his face suddenly shuttered to a blankness like he was nothing but a vessel for Devil’s darkness. He thrust the trident in a flaring white arc, more beautiful than any move I’d seen, as if Devil was part of him. He howled to the music of Wild’s scream, as he skewered Wild through the throat.
Wild hung, staring at the tamed Seducer turned dark solider, with his eyes still widened with shock, before slumping.
Silence.
My pulse raced, as I howled too, buzzing with the kill that stung like Devil was inside me, even though I hadn’t been the one to deliver the blow.
We were free.
Ash retracted the trident, stumbling even though his eyes still sparked, as he turned to the stunned ranks of the FF.
Then I realized: once these men would’ve respected the Brigadier and taken orders from him in battle. Ash might not have been an FF, but he’d been Lucifer’s righthand man. Lucifer had humiliated Ash in front of those who knew him.
Let the bastards call him traitor, they’d never call him pet again. Or whore.
I glowed, leaping up; the ancient powers rode the glinting waves of joy.
Triumph.
This was Ash’s chance to reclaim what had been stolen, and I quivered with pride that he chose to be mine.
Trick recoiled, fanning his hands along the wall, as if he could disappear through it, as Ash stalked towards him, plucking his shooter from Trick’s waistband.
“You remember who I am now?” Ash’s smile was deadly. “Before you unmade me? Built me again with your games?”
Trick nodded.
Ash leaned closer. “I’m the Brigadier, and there was a bet. You’ll honor it, or you’ll also get close and personal with Devil.”
Trick swallowed. “By the blood and bones, you always were insufferable. You have my word. But nothing changes what you are, nor you, Bone Princess. I said that you’d devour the world in dark anarchy, did I not?”
Oomph — Ash kneed Trick in the balls.
Trick doubled over with a groan.
Ash grinned. “And it was just as satisfying as in all my daydreams.” He stared longingly at Devil, before closing his eyes and holding him out to me on his palm. “I don’t want this to be Lord of the Rings dramatic but take the fiend before he tempts me to run off and hide in a cave.”
I closed Ash’s fingers around the trident. “He’s yours. Rebel once told me that every angel has an ancient weapon. Devil’s a bratty psycho, but you fight like a god together. I shouldn’t become…what he makes me. I’m monster enough already.”
Ash fidgeted, slipping Devil into his holster along with his gun, but the elation in his gaze as he smiled, tingled such relief through me that my wings ached to soar.
And I would, once Rebel was safe by my side.
Yet now, once Ash and I had freed the Bones, this monster had a king to kill, even if it was my own dad. It didn’t matter that I’d injured him, he was the most powerful vampire in the Under World, and I’d betrayed him.
If I didn’t kill him first, I’d burn.
Pulsing light seeped from the wounds at Lucifer’s neck: a sun slowly dying.
And I was the star-slaughterer.
I shuffled my feet, trying not to notice how small my dad looked shrunk back to nothing but his leather shorts and shirt. He panted, slumped across his bed; his spiky hair stuck out in sweaty points.
Ash limped around one side of the bed, Rebel prowled around the other in a pincer movement.
Lucifer raised his chin, but the hand that lifted to the gashes at his neck trembled.
I clenched my hands. Why did this have to be somewhere so intimate?
Ash, Rebel and I had stormed the Crypt, whilst Mischief had his own mission to protect and collect the Blood Familiars, expecting to find Lucifer in his Bone Palace, psyched for a slamdown.
Instead, a weak light had glimmered from his bedroom because like a wounded animal, Lucifer had crept into his nest to die.
When Ash drew his pistol, pressing it to Lucifer’s forehead, and Rebel held Lucifer down by the shoulder, I flinched.
Wasn’t this what I’d plotted? To be the savior of the humans and Under World?
To kill my own dad…?
I froze. Why wasn’t Lucifer fighting back? Why was he forcing me to execute him?
Ash glanced at me, even now asking for permission to shoot the bloke who’d murdered his sisters.
When I hesitated, Lucifer smiled. “My, so many Judases for little old me.” He cocked his head; his breathing was ragged. “And how many worshipers crawl at the feet of the Queen of Chaos, even sacrificing family…?”
Ash growled, pistol whipping Lucifer. I jumped, and Lucifer gasped, blinking rapidly. His fractured cheek swelled, hot and tender.
Shut up…just bastard shut up…
Words were weapons, however, and Lucifer was battling even now.
“Boo-hoo, did I make the whore sad?” Lucifer pouted. “Wow, when you think about it, champ, it only took you a couple of months to incite rebellion.” He grinned, even though it must’ve been agonizing through the pain of his cheek. “Hooray to the power of my sperm, I couldn’t have hoped for a better display of your inherited spark.”
Rebel shoved Lucifer lower on the bed, and he coughed, gagging on his own light. “Just shoot the git.”
“Wait…” I dived to the bed, hovering over Lucifer and smarting with desperate hope. “You’re proud of me for…?”
“What daughter of mine wouldn’t rebel?” Lucifer smirked. “I warned you that I had to wear my official face for the sake of my people. Yet you held them under your sway, until sensing the angels…” He cut off, catching my hunted expression. “Huh, you didn’t sense the angels…?” Doubt and grief shone in his tear brightened eyes. “You truly wished…to kill me?”
I’d burned Lucifer, just as he’d burned Ash. And if I’d ever expected it to be a moment of purifying vengeance, then I’d been wrong because I was caught in the flames as well.
If my dad hadn’t loved me, I wouldn’t have been able to hurt him. He’d transformed me into an assassin, after all.
I forced myself to remember everything that my
family and I had suffered, lost, the Apocalypse…
Nope, it still wasn’t any easier. But then, that’s why it was called a sacrifice.
I trembled violet onto my fingertips. Passing Devil back to Ash, who he truly belonged to, had reignited my fire. “I’m the Protector.” I gazed at Lucifer, pleading and desperate. I needed him to understand. “Love’s not enough. Not for a leader.”
Lucifer’s expression crumpled, as finally a tear slipped down his purpled cheek. He turned his head away on the pillow, closing his eyes.
I shook my head at Ash, and he lifted the shooter, backing away. I gently held my hand to Lucifer’s pulsing throat. My violet wove with his white light, and he hissed at the burn.
I shook, tightening my hand around Lucifer’s neck. Then his eyes snapped open: blazing infinite stars.
I gasped, shuddering with the spellbinding depths of his power.
Lucifer had been allowing us to threaten and hurt him. He’d been deceiving us to work out how far our disloyalty lay…whether I’d truly do…that…to him.
And now he bastard knew.
Lucifer roared, and light exploded.
28
For the first time since I’d been abandoned…or snatched by my mum…as a baby, I was at last truly held by my dad. Yet it wasn’t in his arms, rather in his cold white light: it bound me, helpless, in the air.
Connected.
The light shone from Lucifer on the bed, linking Rebel, Ash, and me to him in fairyland tentacles. The femurs and ribs sticking out of the walls glowed in throbbing sympathy between the graffiti.
I closed my eyes, whilst the light explored me: prickles like frost. Lost to the closeness — a glimpse inside my dad, as if his hand was curled in mine — I almost missed his anguished howl.
Lucifer curled over on the bed, pressing his face to the silk and trying to muffle his despair and grief at my rejection.
His light wept with it.
The prickles turned into nips; my fingers and nose became numb with the cold. Rebel gasped, and Ash writhed. I twisted, but the undulating tentacle arm simply smashed me against the floor.
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