Lucifer's Pride

by G. P. Ching

  The Soulkeepers were about to learn what life was like without Finn Wager.

  5

  The Visit

  Back on Veil Island, Hope Laudner waited to leave for the earthly realm. The sounds of Ms. D, Amuke, and Orelon doing a final check filtered through the window above the booth where she sat on the bus, and she could hear Fuse humming to herself in the driver’s seat. People surrounded her. So why did she feel completely and utterly alone?

  As disappointed as she was in Mike, she was equally disappointed in herself. She’d been the Healer for long enough to understand what he was going through. Why couldn’t she find the words to help him? And if she couldn’t help him, she had to convince him. They couldn’t wait for another Healer, not when Lucifer had gained more power than they’d ever imagined and now had access to the portal Finn had opened.

  “Hope, we have a problem.” Jenny Pendleton appeared in the aisle and sat down across from her.

  “What kind of problem?”

  Jenny slid her tablet toward her, tapping on the database that held all the information on the demons they were targeting. HORU had scanned all the scrolls on the island to find students who were killed at Revelations. The team was now aware that students who Applegate and Ravenguard killed were cloned and possessed by demons, who reentered the students’ lives seamlessly using the students’ identities. Finn’s AI unit had cross-referenced the students’ previous addresses with public records and found where all 185 known demons now lived and what they did for a living. That list was imperative. Not only did it help the Soulkeepers prioritize their missions, it contained vital information on the enemy, especially now that they didn’t have a Healer to offer guidance and direction.

  “Where is the list?” Hope asked. The database was empty. No names appeared in the indexed catalog.

  “They’re gone. And before you ask, the backup is gone too. HORU is also gone. Finn’s earpiece was left behind when he, uh…”

  “Right. It didn’t go with him when he was, er, removed from the bus. Same thing happened to Wendy when she was using HORU and was ejected.”

  “Well, I have the earpiece, but there is no one in it.”

  “Are you saying all the copies are gone?” Hope frowned. How was that even possible? They’d stored copies on several different devices.

  “That’s exactly what I’m saying.” Jenny fiddled with the ends of her hair.

  “You don’t think that Finn…”

  Jenny shrugged.

  “He wouldn’t do that to us.”

  “Have you talked to him since the, uh, incident?”

  “No. There hasn’t been time. I was training Mike and meeting with Ms. D and the council about what happened.”

  “Crap.”

  “What?”

  “Well, Jayden and Paul didn’t either. They said at breakfast that they felt awkward about it. They didn’t want to embarrass him by calling attention to it.”

  Hope’s eyes widened. “Calling attention to it? It’s not a pimple. Finn was sucked out of the bus!”

  Jenny shrugged. “I doubt Mike had time to text him either.”

  “So, basically Finn, wherever he is, thinks none of us care about him and has wiped HORU out of anger and resentment.”

  With a heavy sigh, Jenny said, “It’s a theory.”

  The front door opened and Ms. D jogged on board. “Bus is ready. We’ll drop Michael off in Beaverton, so he can do what he needs to do.”

  “That bastard,” Jenny said under her breath.

  Hope shook her head. “I tried my best. He honestly does not want to do this.” She squirmed in her seat, more annoyed than ever that Mike planned to turn down his role as Healer as soon as he could meet with Gabriel. It left them all vulnerable.

  “And after we drop off Mike?” Jenny asked.

  “Then, we’ll go on to New Orleans.” Ms. D adjusted her glasses.

  “Back there again?” Hope asked. They’d just left there and it was the last known whereabouts of Lucifer.

  “Yes. Technothrob’s website says Lucifer will be in Atlanta for a concert tonight. I want to retrieve the obsidian dagger from the place where I hid it while he’s onstage. When it comes to Lucifer, it’s always best to act when we know exactly where he will be. No surprises.”

  “Why move it?” Jenny asked. “I thought it was safe on hallowed ground.”

  “Yes, it is. Only, someone other than myself knows where it is, and I’m not sure I can trust that person.”

  Finn, Hope thought. Now that he’s not a Soulkeeper.

  “There’s something you should know,” Jenny said. Hope wanted to stop her. This looked bad, like Finn was sabotaging their success. She didn’t want Ms. D or the others to think of Finn as the enemy. But before she could stop her, Jenny had handed the tablet to Ms. D.

  The older woman shook her head. “Unbelievable. From friend to enemy in less than twenty-four hours. We need to get that blade.”

  “Let me talk to him,” Hope said. “There must be some mistake.” She met Ms. D’s gaze and held it. The older woman’s tough-as-nails exterior softened slightly. She wanted to believe in Finn as much as Hope did.

  “Okay. But be careful.” Knocking on the wall, she gave Fuse the go-ahead, then found a seat in the back near Orelon and Amuke, leaving Hope and Jenny to themselves.

  “I hope you know what you’re doing,” Jenny said.

  “Me too.”

  The moment the bus transitioned into the earthly realm, Hope texted Finn.

  You okay? Where are you?

  Several long minutes passed before her phone buzzed to indicate a return message: an address in New Orleans.

  6

  Connections

  Hope tipped her Uber driver and let herself out of the car in front of the address Finn had sent her. She’d come alone. Ms. D planned to retrieve the dagger, and everyone else was in waiting mode while Mike declined the Healer role and God called a replacement. They’d dropped him off at his aunt’s house before coming to New Orleans. They were giving him space to do what he needed to do. Hope snorted bitterly. She’d never had space. She’d never had a choice. Secretly, she prayed Gabriel would refuse his resignation and knock some sense into him.

  Still, the delay gave her time to meet up with Finn. She prayed she could find the words to earn his forgiveness and hopefully convince him to let them use HORU again.

  The door opened of its own accord. “Would you like to come in, young lady?” a deep voice said. “I believe your friend is waiting for you upstairs.”

  “Uh, yes, I’m looking for Finn Wager?” She entered the dark foyer, tripping over the leg of a coatrack protruding into the narrow passageway. Lanky fingers caught her upper arm and sent a shock through her torso. She looked up into the cloudy eyes of a blind man. The door slammed shut, making her jump. Behind him was an open door with a sign for “Beauvoir’s Voodoo Emporium.” The room within brimmed with books and bones, wooden statues, herbs, stones, and other magical artifacts.

  “Careful,” he said, helping her to her feet. “This place is full of hazards if you don’t watch your step.” The smile he gave her was crooked and yellow and made her spine tingle. “Your friend is upstairs.” He pointed toward stairs at the back of the hall.

  “Thank you,” she said, rubbing her nose against the scent of mold and old books. She hurried to the staircase and jogged to the second floor, knocking three times on a metal-plated door. It opened almost immediately.

  “Well, well, well, if it isn’t the girl I used to sleep next to every night,” Finn said. He winked at her over a tight smile that didn’t go all the way to his eyes.

  She gave a light laugh and raised her eyebrows. “In a separate bed.”

  “Still worth a mention.”

  She decided there was only one way to start this conversation. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I should have texted you sooner. There’s been so much. I’m not the Healer anymore and we lost you.” She shook her head. “I was overwhelmed.�
�

  He considered her, his gaze seeming to weigh the sincerity of her words. She must have passed inspection because his expression softened and he pulled her into a hug. “Come on in. It’s just us. Wendy and Theodor went out to get provisions.”

  “Wendy?”

  “After you put her back in her body, she came here. She’s decided to stay. Theodor and I are teaching her magic.”

  “Magic? I don’t understand…”

  “Anyone can learn magic, Hope. You don’t have to be a Soulkeeper to tap into the power all around us.”

  Dangerous, she thought but held her tongue. This conversation was not about chastising Finn. He ushered her into the apartment and closed the door behind her.

  It was a charming flat with an open floor plan awash with natural light. To her right was a galley kitchen and to her left two beds and a set of stairs leading to a loft. “This is so different from downstairs. The voodoo shop is creepy. I think I saw a shrunken head in the window.”

  Finn laughed. “That’s Walter. At least, Dr. Beauvoir calls it Walter. I’ve never asked if it’s real. I don’t want to know.”

  Hope raised an eyebrow. “So…” Where did she start? “I’m sorry about what happened to you. I wish I could have stopped it.”

  He shrugged. “What would you have done? I did what was necessary to rescue Theodor, Wendy, and Mike. If I could go back and do it all over again, I wouldn’t change a thing.”

  That was surprising. She was expecting him to regret what he’d done considering the consequences.

  “Did Mike make it home okay?” he asked.

  Hope considered telling him what Mike was but thought better of it. What was the point if he planned to turn down the role of Healer anyway? Why muddy the waters with something that wouldn’t matter? “Yes. He’s fine. Home with his aunt.”

  “That’s a relief.”

  Hope rubbed her palms together. “I came here for a reason, Finn. Ms. D said you could join the troupe again now that we’re off the island. We need your skills, and she’s committed to helping you undo the damage.” She gestured at the skin of his arm where she knew some of his spells resided. In fact, Ms. D had been hard-pressed to make such an offer, but Hope convinced her before she left the bus that it would be in the best interest of the Soulkeepers to keep Finn close. “Theodor is welcome as well. She’d never admit it, but I think she misses him.”

  Off balance, Finn staggered backward a step and took a seat in a lustrous brown leather chair. “Of all the things I thought you were coming here to say to me, this was not what I expected.”

  “No? Why not? You didn’t think we’d kick you out of the show simply because you’re not a Soulkeeper anymore. Everyone understands why you did what you did.” She removed her purse from her shoulder and sat down in a wooden chair across from him. Oddly, there were only three chairs in the place, positioned in a circle at the center of the room. There was no coffee table, so she placed her bag on the floor near her feet.

  “I can’t. We can’t.” Finn’s gaze darted around the empty apartment as if Wendy and Theodor were there in spirit.

  “Why not?”

  “I don’t know how to tell you this, Hope, but Theodor and I failed to close the portal we opened.”

  “Huh?” Hope tried to wrap her mind around what he was saying. She knew that Finn had opened a portal to bring their friends back from Nod, but he’d also said Theodor made sure that it closed. What type of portal didn’t close? The one he’d opened at the school had run its course in a matter of minutes.

  “When I performed the ritual to bring Theodor back, we used a tree. An ancient tree. Very powerful. Theodor was using magic as well. Together we built a bridge between here and another realm.”

  “Nod.” Hope remembered her mother and father telling her about the ugliness of the world between this one and Hell.

  “Yes. I didn’t know it at the time, but apparently it’s a bad place.”

  Hope nodded. “It’s close to Hell. I’m sure Lucifer was licking his lips when he heard about it at the warehouse.”

  “Well, Theodor couldn’t close it, even with my help. And then Damien came.”

  “You’ve seen Damien?”

  “Yeah. He showed up and tried to bless the tree. Said it was the only way to close it. But he never had a chance because Lucifer showed up.”

  All the air rushed from Hope’s lungs. “But you all got away, right?”

  “Yeah. Obviously.” Finn shifted in his seat and took an interest in a loose thread at the hem of his T-shirt.

  Slowly the feeling returned to Hope’s extremities. Why had she reacted like that? Damien had lied to her. Angel or not, there was a lot that was still unsaid between them. She looked down at her fingers and tried to push all thoughts of the angel from her mind, especially the memories of being alone with him, the ones that made her feel like someone she loved had died.

  “So, you guys couldn’t close the portal. And Lucifer was there?” Her skin prickled. This was bad, but she wasn’t sure how bad. It felt like she was missing something, like she hadn’t quite put two and two together.

  “Yes. So, you see, I can’t go back to being part of Revelations’ troupe until we figure out how to destroy the bridge. The three of us have formed a coven. We’re going to fix this.”

  Hope allowed that to sink in for a moment. “Lucifer has control of the tree, doesn’t he?”

  “Yes. He’s sent Kirsa through, obviously to test it, but I don’t think he can go himself for some reason. I don’t fully understand why.”

  “He can’t leave Earth.” Hope tipped her head back to stare at the ceiling. “If he leaves Earth before his curse is broken, the ancient magic may lock him out so that he can’t return.” She groaned and slapped her thighs. Her head pounded with the implications. “Why didn’t you guys use more caution? You must have known what you were doing was dangerous.” Despite her best efforts, her voice was rising. Not the best way to garner Finn’s cooperation. She reined herself in.

  “We were careful. I opened the portal on hallowed ground. I didn’t realize what we were doing would desecrate it.”

  A dark, creeping thought came to her. “Hallowed ground? Where is this tree?”

  “Saint Louis Cemetery.”

  All the blood rushed from Hope’s face, and she had to grip the armrest of her chair to keep from falling out of it. “No.”

  “What’s wrong?”

  “That’s where Ms. D hid the dagger.”

  Now it was Finn’s turn to go white. Hope actually felt sorry for him. He looked like he might be sick. “She hid it where I told her to hide it.” He cursed.

  “Hallowed ground.”

  Finn swallowed hard enough for Hope to hear it. “I don’t know how to tell you this, but Lucifer, Ravenguard, and Kirsa have taken over that cemetery.”

  “No.”

  “When we opened the portal, it desecrated the grounds. He has full access to it and has been guarding it since our first failed attempt to destroy the portal.”

  Hope stood and paced to the window, feeling sick to her stomach. “Do you think he’s found the dagger?”

  “I don’t know. The three of us haven’t had time to plan another attempt on the portal.”

  Pressing her forehead against the window, she tried to absorb the coolness from the glass, pulling long deep breaths into her lungs.

  “What happens if Lucifer finds the dagger?” Finn asked.

  “From what we know, if Lucifer sacrifices the Healer with the obsidian dagger, it will create a blast of metaphysical energy possibly strong enough to break his curse. That in and of itself would allow him to move between Hell and Earth unencumbered. But with the power of the tree in the mix, it’s quite possible he could bring Hell here.”

  “What—what does that mean—bring Hell here?”

  “It means a world flooded with hellhounds and demons. The veil between life and death will thin to the point of making them indistinguishable from one anothe
r. Every living person would instantly become a citizen of Hell.”

  Finn rubbed his head with both hands. “Not good.”

  “No. Not good.”

  “Wait. You said he needs the Healer. You’re not the Healer anymore. That means, he doesn’t have the ingredients for this spell, right?”

  “I may not be the Healer anymore, but there is a Healer. There is always a Healer.”

  “And the Healer is…?”

  Hope shook her head. There was no reason to tell Finn about Mike. No good could come of it. Mike wasn’t going to accept the role and the more people who knew he was a potential, the greater the chance his life would be at risk. “No one knows. A Soulkeeper will have to be called and then accept the call. They’ll need to pass an initiation. No one has done that yet.”

  “Damn. Whoever it turns out to be, we need to protect them. They may be all that stands between us and Hell on Earth.”

  “Oh, we will. Finding the new Healer is our top priority.” It wasn’t a lie. Hope removed her phone from her pocket, intending to text Ms. D but paused when Finn spoke up again.

  “We need to get the dagger back.” His jaw twitched.

  “That’s why we’re here in New Orleans. Ms. D was going to move the dagger. She was afraid—” Hope stopped short.

  “She was afraid because I knew where it was.”

  “It was a risk,” she said quietly. “She wasn’t sure about your intentions after the incident with you running away from us.”

  “I had to—”

  “I know.”

  They stared at each other for a moment, and Hope saw her old friend Finn behind those strange silver eyes and that newly bald head. He was a good guy. Caring. Kind. There was no way he would do anything to hurt them.

  “I don’t know what to do, Finn. If, as you say, Lucifer is there, retrieving the dagger might be risky. Maybe it would be safer to leave it where it is.”

  “With Ravenguard on his side? He’ll find it eventually. The man’s a hunter. He can probably smell it.”