I shuddered. By now, the Duke had either found Rashid, or been confounded. He very well could be waiting for us to leave the church. He had let us go last time, though, so maybe he would leave us alone again. Why would he ignore us, though? We were witnesses to his massacre. Tink had suggested that he had better things to do than hunt us down. I hoped that was true, but I also dreaded finding out what was more important.
I turned to Caleb. "Do you have any idea why a Duke would slaughter a room full of mages?" He opened his mouth. "An idea other than 'That's what demons do'. I've heard enough of that today."
His mouth snapped shut and he frowned, thinking before speaking. "Not many, I'm afraid. What concern is it of yours if he did so, though?"
"Not my concern," I said. "Her concern."
"That was my conclave. He killed people, many of my friends, maybe all of them. The only survivor I know of is Rashid. He might be able to find out who else lived. I won't be able to get in touch with him for days. Assuming he's still alive." Her hands clenched into fists. "I've got to stop that Duke," she said after a moment.
"You and I aren't going to be able to stop him," I said.
"I've got to stop him!"
"Revenge won't bring them back," Jase's voice was quiet.
She pounded her fists on the table, suddenly tiny and fragile. I stared at her. Her eyes were wet. I had never seen her cry before. "I'm not trying to bring them back," she said. "I want this to stop. I don't want anyone else to die. I don't want anyone else to go through this. I've had enough."
Jase jumped to his feet and walked around the table, touching her shoulder. She sniffed once, got to her feet, and walked out of the kitchen with the pastor. That left Caleb and I sitting across from each other. His silver eyes bored into me, then glanced away. "Apparently, she has her own demons."
"She doesn't tell me anything," I said. "All I know is that when she found me, she was looking for a demon named Azriphel. That's still her goal as far as I know. I think all of what's going on here is just a tangent."
"Why is she looking for him, specifically?"
"He's got a reputation for killing humans on a whim. My best guess is that she was involved in the last incident, a bit over a decade ago."
His gaze met mine. For once, it wasn't harsh. "Does she know of the War?"
I shook my head. "I haven't told her. She doesn't need to know."
"If she was involved with Azriphel, as you said, she may need to know."
I slapped my hand down on the table. "I'm not telling her!"
Caleb leaned away from me. "Don't get angry at me over your own weakness, demon. I'm only suggesting something for her sake. If she understands why things are the way they are, it may dissuade her from such a dangerous quest."
"You don't know her," I said. "She's stubborn. Too stubborn. Why don't you give her a hand with Azriphel? You'd do a better job of it than I would."
"I have no desire to advertise my presence here."
I raised an eyebrow. Was he trying to stay hidden? If so, why? "Well, if you can't help, you can't help. Not to put too fine a point on it, but I'm sure you'd get fed up with me and skewer me long before we tracked Azriphel down."
Caleb chuckled. "Jase tells me I need to control my temper. But you're right. I'd rather not work with you. No offense."
"None taken. I feel much the same."
We fell into an awkward silence. I sipped my soda. Caleb looked toward the kitchen door. I coughed. He tapped his fingers. We looked at each other, then both away.
The door opened and Tink led Jase into the room. "So, Jase said you'll give me a hand, Caleb. I need someone more reliable than this cowardly demon."
I put my head down on the table again and groaned. Caleb spluttered for a moment. "Jase, are you serious? You expect me to work with this demon? Ridiculous!"
"This is all just a bad dream," I muttered. "Pinch me, Tink."
"I'll stab you again, if you like."
"Please don't," Jase said. "Caleb, it will do you good to get out and do some good. Bringing down a demon who has murdered dozens is something you should be glad to do."
"Also, think about the opportunity to redeem a demon," Tink said. I lifted my head. She was looking at me. Caleb and Jase were staring at her. She sensed the looks being given to her and made a face. "What? Isn't redemption something you're concerned about? Why wouldn't an angel jump at the chance to redeem one of the fallen?"
I sighed and put my head back down. "I'll let you handle that one, Caleb."
Caleb spoke slowly, as if he was carefully picking his words. "He doesn't-no, he can't choose redemption."
"What do you mean?"
"It's not possible."
"Everyone's capable of being redeemed. That's what I was taught in Sunday school when I was a kid. Are you telling me that's not true?"
Tink was sounding a little on the annoyed side. I cut in to prevent bloodshed. "What he's trying to say, Tink, is that it's physically impossible for me to be redeemed. I'm half demon. If you took that away, I wouldn't magically become fully human. I'd be half human, and half nothing. In other words, dead. While I'm sure that wouldn't bother you too much, I'm not interested, thanks all the same."
"But you'd end up in Heaven," she countered. "Besides, God could make you fully human, I'm sure. That's sort of the point, isn't it?"
"He wouldn't end up in Heaven," Caleb said flatly. "Nor would he become human. Won't happen. Can't happen."
"Why not?"
The fateful question I hoped she wouldn't ask. I turned my head to look at Caleb. "I can't tell you, Tink. Sorry."
She looked to Caleb. He shook his head. "Don't look at me. Same deal."
"Demon, don't make me invoke the contract. We share information," she snapped.
"Feel free." Kibs wouldn't show up here, nor would he ding the contract for this. The Pact superseded all contracts.
She lifted a hand in the air. "Witness," she snarled in the demonic tongue. Caleb and Jase both flinched. As I expected, nothing happened. "What the hell?"
"Language," Jase said quietly.
"Sorry. What the heck, demon?"
"We're in a sanctuary," I said. "No imps will come here. They can't even hear you."
She pulled out her knife. I flinched away as she walked closer. "Looks like I'll have to do this the hard way." Instead of stabbing me, she slashed at her left palm. Blood welled up and she ran her right finger through the red stain.
"What is she-"
"Stop her!" I shouted, tried to struggle to my feet. My head swam. It was too late, of course. She knelt down and traced a circle of blood around her. Magical energy crackled as the circuit completed. When that finished, she started to draw runes around the inner rim of the circle. The hair on the back of my neck stood on end and I felt a sudden burning sensation. It wasn't anywhere that I felt comfortable mentioning aloud. "Jase, Caleb, stop her!"
Caleb didn't move. He just smirked. Jase stepped forward, hand outstretched. When his hand touched her circle, sparks snapped. He stepped back with a gasp. That got Caleb's attention. "This magic-"
"Shut up, Caleb." Tink drew another symbol, then drew a smaller circle within the larger one, leaving a series of runes between two circles. "This is between me and the demon. He's mine, I told you. My demon. My contract. If he's failing to live up to it, I'll enforce it myself."
She touched one of the runes. The burning sensation shifted to my left leg. I gritted my teeth. She could do whatever she wanted to me here, and I couldn't do a thing about it. Sanctuary only applied to angels and demons, not humans. "You don't get it, Tink. I can't tell you. It's beyond the scope of the contract."
"I decide what the scope of the contract is." Her scowl transformed into a thin smile. "And since there's no way for Kibs to come here and tell me otherwise, I guess you don't have any way to argue. So, you can give in, or else."
"Or else what?"
"Or else I turn various parts of your body to charcoal."
Th
e burning sensation was growing more painful the longer she left her finger on the rune. No empty threat, no way that I could call Kibs in, unless I rejected sanctuary. That would leave me at Caleb's mercy, as well as possibly calling the Duke's attention back here. I took a deep breath. "Sorry, Tink. This is something I can't tell you, even on pain of death."
She didn't reply, simply touched another rune with her other hand. The burning spread to my right leg. I glared at Caleb. His wings spread, translucent, threatening. He didn't mind letting me die here. Jase was rubbing his hand, seemingly ignorant of the situation.
The burn grew sharper. "Demon, you need to tell me what I want to know," Tink said.
"Ask Caleb."
"I'm not asking Caleb. I'm asking you."
"Ask him to leave!"
Caleb laughed. "Not a chance."
The Pact stipulated that any demon or angel who mentioned the War to a human without good reason could be summarily executed. I had already told Caleb that I didn't feel that she had good enough reason to know. The son of a bitch was going to use that in order to let me die.
"Stop, Anna." Jase reached out to her again, stopping short of the circle this time.
"Sorry, Jase, but he needs some discipline. I'll clean up the mess."
"I'll tell you what you want to know."
She looked over her shoulder at him. Caleb took a step toward him, wings solidifying and spreading wide. "Jase, no!"
"I will not have Isaiah's death or injuries on my conscience! You should be ashamed of yourself for allowing it to go this far, Caleb!" The angel's wings fluttered and folded. Jase returned his attention to Tink. "Anna, there is no redemption for demons, or for humans, or for anyone."
He knew.
"Why not?" she asked. She lifted her fingers from the runes and the burning began to fade. "Isn't God capable of anything? He's omnipotent, right?"
Jase's expression turned sad.
He knew. I looked at Caleb. The angel's face was expressionless, but he refused to meet my gaze. He had told the pastor. He had broken the Pact himself, and he was holding it over my head? Hypocritical son of a bitch.
Jase held a hand out to Tink. "Anna, I'm sorry. God is dead. He's been dead for five hundred years, since the end of the Celestial War."
Chapter Six
Tink's lips moved soundlessly, and then she glared at me. I held my hands up. "Don't look at me like that. I'm twenty-seven. It happened long before the age of Isaiah."
"I'm not blaming you for that, demon. I'm blaming you for not telling me. This is important information. I needed to know this, and I'm going to punish you for not telling me before now." She reached for the runes in her circle.
"He'd have killed me if I told you, idiot."
Her fingers stopped, barely above two of the runes. "Who?"
"Caleb."
She looked over her shoulder at the angel. He met her gaze and nodded. "Why?"
"The Pact," he said.
"Do I have to drag everything out?" she demanded. She pointed her knife in Caleb's direction. "What pact? What war? How did all this happen? I want some details and I want them now, before I start cutting pieces of your wings off. Don't think I won't."
I wanted to laugh, but if I attracted her attention, she'd lay into me again. I just put my head down on the table once again and closed my eyes. If she thought I had passed out, maybe it would get me off the hook, and the more she questioned Caleb, the better. I heard him clear his throat. "It isn't something I enjoy talking about," he said at last.
Someone sat down next to me while Tink verbally abused Caleb for his reticence. I cracked an eye open. Jase. "Sorry," he said.
I shrugged. "You saved my life. I'd prefer people not be sorry for that."
"Would she have killed you over something like that?"
"She's a ruthless little girl."
"The Pact," Caleb said, raising his voice to be heard over Tink's ranting, "is an agreement between the Angelic Choir and the Infernal Host. Humans, in general, are not to know of the War. If there's no reason for a human to know, both the human and the one who told them can be summarily killed."
"And you're not about to kill Jase," I said. I felt the older man flinch. "Not since you're the one who told him in the first place."
"Don't push it, demon," Caleb said.
"Hypocrite."
"I said-"
"Shut up, Caleb." Caleb shut up. Tink stepped out of the circle, breaking the magical effect and I sighed in relief as the burning sensation completely vanished. "You were threatening to kill my demon for something you did yourself? That's pathetic. Hypocrite's better than you deserve. What sort of angel are you?"
I watched the angel swell up, as if he was about to shout at her, but he turned his back on her. "I'm going to order some pizza," he said, and walked out of the kitchen.
"Hold on-"
"Let him go," Jase said. He stood up and walked over to the fridge. "And please, clean up after yourself, Anna. Having a circle of blood on the kitchen floor will undoubtedly shock our volunteers come Sunday."
She grumbled, but picked up a cloth and walked over to the sink to wet it. "So, what's the story, demon?" she asked.
"Which one?"
"The war Jase was talking about. How does an omnipotent being die?" Her tone was less waspish than usual. I was surprised she was taking it this well. Having the foundation of her beliefs destroyed didn't seem to be bothering her too much.
I collected my thoughts while she started to scrub. Jase put another cup of soda on the table in front of me and took a seat. "Well, the Celestial War started with the Schism."
"What's that? The fall of man?" she asked.
"No, the fall of Lucifer," I said. "Let me start a little further back. The beings you call angels and demons, we've existed since life began on Earth. Not existing strictly on this planet, of course, but inhabiting a parallel reality. You've seen how Kibs phases. Imps and their counterparts, archons, are some of the few beings that can still shift between the different layers."
"You're losing me."
"Basically, both Heaven and Hell exist as different layers of reality. Think of it like a sandwich. Earth is the meat. Heaven and Hell are the bread."
"I'll buy that. So, the fall of Lucifer?"
"That happened right around the time man gained sentience. All of the beings on the original parallel, call it Heaven, were all aflutter about the rise of an intelligent race on this layer. The leader, God, held the opinion that we should guide and lead them to grow in our image. The opposition leader, Lucifer, thought that we should observe them and let them grow on their own, as they will, without our influence. The schism grew until God grew tired of it and exiled Lucifer and all of his faction.
"I heard differently," Jase said. "That Lucifer and his faction attempted to overthrow God, believing that they could guide humankind to greatness, and after their coup attempt failed, they were cast out from Heaven."
"I'm not surprised that the angels have a different take on the story," I said.
"So one way or the other, the demons left Heaven and formed Hell on a different layer? Is that the gist of it?" Tink asked.
I nodded. "The faction that created Hell was less uptight, less set in their ways. Angelic society is strictly regimented, not very mobile. Take Caleb. He's at least a Power, the sixth of nine ranks. Even if he's absurdly powerful, he can't rise above his rank without a lot of support from above. Whereas in the demonic realm, he would hold authority equal to what his power could support. What happened was that over the next few hundred years, Hell grew rapidly in numbers as the demons reproduced. Heaven was slow to respond. The balance of power started tipping."
"So you demons started the War at that point?" Tink asked.
I looked at Jase. "I bet we did, according to the angel, right?" He nodded. I shook my head. "They attacked us first. It was a pre-emptive strike, an attempt to put the balance back on their side. They slaughtered the demons. The First Circle burned, the
very land scorched and salted. Their forces penetrated all the way to the Fourth Circle before we fought them off. That was the beginning of the Celestial War."
"The attack may have been provoked," Jase said.
"Maybe," I said. "It's history at this point, and there's no one left alive who remembers the beginning of the War."
"I'd believe an angel's word over a demon's," Tink said.
"Of course you would. After a couple hundred years of conflict, both Heaven and Hell were starting to feel the losses, losing more of their population than the birth rate could replenish. Some brilliant son of a bitch decided that humans would make a good stopgap, and so they began Project Purgatory." I took a long gulp from my soda. "The goal of the project was the use of human souls to replenish losses."
Both of them looked at me. "Caleb never told me about that," Jase said.
"Of course not. Both sides blame the other for the project. No one knows how the system started or how it works, but it changed the course of the War forever."
"How?" Tink asked.
I pointed at her and Jase. "What happens when you die?"
They looked at each other. Jase fielded the question. "Before this, I believed our souls were judged, and sent to Heaven or Hell accordingly. I take it that's wrong?"
I drained my soda. "Your souls would transcend the layer that separates this world from Purgatory. At that point, your beliefs come into play. You believe that you are a good man, right, Jase? That Heaven is your soul's destination?" He nodded. "Your soul would be infused into an injured or dying angel, restoring them, giving them strength and power to continue fighting. And the same goes for Hell."
"What would happen to the soul?"
"The souls were consumed in the process. I don't know whether you'd retain your sense of self, assuming a soul keeps that in the first place."
"Who would believe in Hell as their destination?" Tink asked. "More so, who would want to go there?"
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