by Holly Hunt
Twenty Five
Lucifer Morningstar
I swore as Clarissa collapsed, catching her before she hit the ground. A second later, Sera faded from existence, and I was left alone in the clearing with Clarissa's prone body.
"Clarissa? C'mon, honey, wake up for me," I crooned to her, gently slapping her cheeks. "Please don't be dead! Please, Issa, please. Please!"
Her eyes were open, but she wasn't responding to me, her eyes unmoving and her chest barely rising with her breathing. Her skin was metallic and cold, as though she was shrouded in a thin sheet of metal. Sitting on the border of life and death, where I couldn't speak to her, nor reach her.
"Issa, honey, I'm sorry," I murmured, lifting her up. She seemed to weigh three times what she normally did. "I thought she would do us good, but she didn't. I'm so sorry, honey, for everything. She's trapped you between life and death. God's power, God did it. She might not have had a direct hand, but Jehovah ordered this. She killed Clarissa."
I glanced around the clearing, but there was no one here. All the magic I had stored to bring Sera back for one more visit was spent, and there was no one else around.
Stupid, foolish moron! I cursed myself, wiping a tear from my cheek on her hair.
With a grunt of effort, I threw us into the air. I had to get back to Hell.
~ * ~
I winced as Jayce screamed. I landed on the ground,
my knees buckling under Clarissa's additional weight, and I heard footsteps. Jayce exploded out of the crowd in front of me, and I kneeled, trying to focus my magic here. I would reverse whatever had been done to my Clarissa and Hell help the stupid bastard who had done this to my Queen... Him and His entire Company.
"What happened?" Jayce demanded as she kneeled in front of me.
She was a few feet from me, her hands twitching. She looked like she couldn't tell if she should take Clarissa from me, or leave her in my arms.
"What did you do, Lucifer?" Jayce demanded, balling her fists up. I resented the accusatory tone in her voice, and I snapped my teeth at her, my gorilla-like growl echoing out of my throat.
Beelzebub appeared behind her and pulled her to her feet, rubbing at her shoulders. She tried to shrug off his restraining hands, but he wouldn't let her go. If she attacked me, I would protect Clarissa first, myself second, and woe betide her, she would get hurt.
Belial and Leviathan landed to either side of me, and Levi tried to take Clarissa from me. I reacted instinctively, growling and pulling her heavy body closer to me. I buffeted him away with a wing, throwing him almost twenty feet from me.
"What happened to her, Lucifer?" Beelzebub asked, flexing his wings as he gingerly put a hand on my shoulder. My wing twitched, and he backed off again.
"Who do you want us to capture this time? You know I'll gladly do it for her," Aspen snarled, landing beside Beelzebub. "For Clarissa."
The humans and the Demons around us muttered among themselves. None of them were stupid enough—or knew of anyone stupid enough—to attack my Issa without knowing that there was someone to protect them.
That asshole!
I searched the magic holding Clarissa. It was a familiar one, familiar because I was surrounded by it. Clarissa was still alive under the metal-like shield holding her on the border of life and death, but only because the magic I had given her before was fighting off God's magic.
But there were no cracks in the armor, no way for me to pull her out.
I roared in anger, sending the Demons and the humans scrambling from me. Beelzebub and Jayce moved the least, only taking ten steps back while the others scrambled away from Throne Hill, where I crouched.
"Boss?" Beelzebub asked shakily. "What happened?"
I ignored Jayce's whimpering. "Clarissa's being held on the border of life and death by God."
"I have the feeling that you're going to start something over this, Luce," Beelzebub said to me. "Something big."
"Of course I am, Bee. God has cheated in His ineffable fucking game for the last time. It is time that He was brought back to playing inside His own rules." I hefted Clarissa up into my arms again. "And I am going to be the one to punish the fucker. This is the last time He kills someone I care about."
I leaped into the air, getting away from the humans and the Demons. I heard a few sets of wings flap, and I left them behind, carrying Clarissa to our room.
~ * ~
I sat on the bed next to Clarissa, my wings, tail and claws gone. I gently stroked the side of her face as she lay there. I'd closed her eyes, so now, with her barely-moving chest, she looked like she was dead.
Dead was easier to deal with than living dead. I could mourn dead. I didn't know what to do about living dead.
"Luce?" a quiet voice called. It was Levi, his normal, upper-class tone gone, replaced by fear. "What are you going to do?"
"I am going to kill God, Leviathan," I growled, not looking at him. "He has done this to me for the last time."
"Are you sure you want to do this, Luce?" Beelzebub asked quietly. "He is God, after all. He could destroy you."
"Then He should try," I growled, my hand stilling on the side of Clarissa's face. Instead, I laid it on her stomach, leaning down to kiss her forehead. "Hell knows I will return the favor."
"Luce, was she—?"
"Yes." I pulled back, holding her hand in mine. I didn't
want to leave her, but I had to do something, to avenge her somehow. "Four months."
The Demons were quiet, and I could feel their eyes on me.
"Your orders, General Morningstar?" Aspen asked, kneeling down beside the bed. My instinct was to scare him off, but he might as well have been her brother, with the care he put into keeping her safe.
"Don't call me that," I growled, looking at him. "Call me how she knew me. Call me Lucifer. I refuse to answer to the military name God gave me. He has no control over me anymore."
I heard the Demons shuffle their feet, and I heard their wings twitch, the leather making soft fwapping echoes in the cave.
"Gather the Demons and the humans together. We're going to take on Heaven," I ordered the Demons.
My remaining family nodded, Bee, Levi and Aspen turning to leave.
"Aspen, Baraqiel, Ramon."
The three Demons I'd named looked at each other. There was no reason for me to have singled them out unless they were in trouble.
I looked at them, especially Ramon. "You three were responsible for hiding the girls when we were in Heaven."
The three of them looked at each other, as though unsure whether they should answer me.
"Together the three of you can map out the entire floor plan of Heaven's offices."
They looked at each other again, then back to me.
"Do it, and work out a way to get us in there and straight to Seventh Heaven."
"Do you intend to face God on your own?" Ramon asked carefully.
"Yes."
"So, really, you want to get your forces into Heaven, then get you to the Seventh Floor?"
"Yes."
The Demons looked at each other again.
"As you wish. We'll get started on it straight away."
The Demons left, and I turned back to my Clarissa. I
took my shoes off and lay down on the bed beside her, positioning her as though she was sleeping. I could feel the difference in her weight, and I had nothing but hatred for God and frustration at Clarissa's comatose state. She should be awake, and laughing, and having fun. She should not be half-dead on our bed, missing the world.
I growled, lacing my fingers with hers. She used to love it when I growled while she was asleep. She'd cuddle into me, trying to get to the vibrations. Her complete lack of movement just pushed her situation further into my mind.
I had never felt so hopeless before. Even when she was taken by the Hellraisers, there was always a feeling that I could win, that I could save her, simply because I had my magic. But now my magic didn't work. I had no idea what I could do t
o save her from her new fate.
Her pregnancy made it even worse, a re-enactment, of sorts, of Sera's death.
The thought of Sera brought my ire on two-fold. There was no way that she was the same woman I'd fallen in love with six thousand years ago. The Sera that fell from Heaven five thousand years ago would not have worked willingly with God after what God did to her. The only possible answer I had to that was that she was forced.
Unless it wasn't Sera I called from Limbo. I've never used that amount of magic before—I could have called up a minor Angel instead. They hate me as much as God does.
Then how could she have known about the Fall? I asked myself. A Level One Angel would be under God's orders to make me look the bad guy in this, or at least clean up God's role a little.
I frowned. I guess I wouldn't know these answers. I would just have to hope that I could convince God to set my Clarissa free.
Either that, or I would kill Her in retribution for this entire universe.
Twenty Six
Michael Grigori
I sighed as I landed in front of Heaven's Hamburgers, a restaurant-slash-bar on the main street of Limbo. I rolled my eyes at the music flooding the air around the restaurant—Kiss's God Gave Rock and Roll to You II—and pushed open the door.
The interior was so bright that I squinted. Leave it up to the humans to take stereotypes to a ridiculous level, I thought, nodding to the maître d'. She nodded and gestured to the bar area, handing me a note.
"His tab's becoming unmanageable again," she said, her accent a deep French one. "I suggest you get him out of here before he starts another fight."
I nodded to her and headed over to the bar. The man I was here to meet was already sloshed, staring into the bottom of a half-empty flagon.
"All right, Azazel," I said with a sigh, sitting at the bar and staring at my son. "Why did you call me down here? You could get me killed!"
"Relax, you old fool," Azazel growled at me, turning to glare at me. He wasn't as drunk as I thought he was. "Lucifer's going to destroy existence anyway. We'll only be slightly ahead of the rush."
"What do you mean, 'Lucifer's going to destroy existence'?" I asked as the waiter set down a plate of devilled sausages in front of me and a platter of Angel cake in front of Azazel.
"He's pissed with God for basically killing Clarissa on him." Azazel stuffed a small Angel cake in his mouth and swallowed. "So he's going to destroy God in revenge."
"Is he insane?" I demanded, jumping up from the stool. It clattered to the ground, and the other patrons turned to stare at me, going quiet.
"Be quiet, you fool!" Azazel snapped, dragging me down onto a stool on his other side. "If Lucifer finds out I'm tipping you off, he'll kill me, brother or no, and feed my lifeless corpse to Leviathan."
I growled to myself, stealing one of his cakes. "So what are we going to do about it?"
"If Lucifer kills God, he'll destroy the universe. We can't let him do that, Father."
I glared at him. I knew this. "And what do you want me to do? Tell God that he's planning to march into Heaven and make a compulsory acquisition of the company?"
"No. Tell Him that Lucifer's on his way up to kick the Angel army's asses and destroy God for killing his second wife."
"So I'm supposed to believe that Samyaza thinks he can take on God? Doesn't he remember what happened last time?"
Azazel put some money down on the bar and looked at me. "This isn't a game, Michael. Lucifer knows exactly what he is doing. When God killed Sera, Lucifer had known her for a hundred and six years. He mourned her for five thousand, simply because he didn't know what else to do."
"I don't understand what—"
"Lucifer is pissed, Michael." Azazel slammed his hand on the bar and glared at me, ignoring the whispering of the other patrons. "He loves Clarissa more than he did Sera. Maybe it is something to do with living with the humans for thousands of years, but their ideals have rubbed off on him— on all of us. He was merely upset by Sera's death compared to Clarissa's. He is beyond upset now, beyond devastated."
I gulped. Never before had I seen Azazel so sober. It wasn't a lack of alcohol in his system—there was plenty of that, I could smell it on his breath—but something else. An authoritative stance my son hadn't even used when he was the third in charge of Heaven.
"What's happened to you?" I asked him.
"I will not let my existence be finished just because Lucifer lost Clarissa," Azazel growled, still authoritative. "I still entertain the hope that I will see Lora again. If the universe is gone, so is she and I refuse to accept that."
Azazel tried to end the conversation there, and I let him. He walked from the restaurant and out into the crowds swarming over the main street of Limbo. After a few steps, his red leather wings erupted from his back, and he fluttered up above the buildings. Within a few seconds, he'd vanished into the roof of Limbo.
I sighed, rubbing at my temples.
"Throw me a bottle of your best Everclear," I instructed the bartender.
The man behind the counter looked at me, then shrugged. "It's your afterlife, mate," he said, handing me the bottle of 190 proof alcohol.
~ * ~
By the time Uriel and Gabriel came to find me, I'd finished the Everclear and was lying on the ground in a state of near-unconsciousness. The bottle had been small, but it was powerful stuff. Powerful enough that it would have had a human dead on the floor from alcohol poisoning at half a bottle.
"Vy dit 'ou do eet, Michael?" Gabriel asked, his accent very, very thick. "'Ou no zat 'ou 'av no tolarince for al-coyhole."
"The universe is going to end anyway!" I laughed maniacally as they pulled me into my room. "Lucifer's coming to get us all for his new wife's death!"
Uriel rolled his eyes at me, tucking me into bed. "Michael, you're drunk—"
"No!" I cried, falling out of bed. "Azazel told me!"
"You haven't seen your son in years, Michael," Uriel tried to assure me. "He couldn't have told you anything."
I stumbled my way toward the door, tripping twice.
"Michael, vait!" Gabriel called, grabbing my arm. "No vun veel lis-ten to 'ou eef 'ou go oot zere now. 'Ou 'av ben drankink, rember?"
I stared blankly at him. It was hard to understand Gabriel at the best of times. Now was not the best of times.
Gabriel groaned in frustration. "'Ou telk to 'em," he
said to Uriel. "I'm goink to git 'em sumsink to sibre 'em up."
I grabbed my great-uncle as Gabriel left the room. "Lucifer is pissed, Uriel! He's assembling an army to bring against God and Heaven! We have to tell Him!" I shook Uriel, and he tried to pull away from me.
"Michael, even if that were true, you've got to see that you'd be putting yourself in the line of fire! I've kept your secret, that you've been talking to your sons while they're in exile, that the three of you have been trading knowledge of the other side's activities since the Grigori men were cast down and the women were slaughtered. But you have to understand how this will look if you go to God and tell Him that you've got information that Lucifer is on the warpath!"
I ignored him, throwing him from me. I managed to walk straight to the door, but I couldn't work the handle. With a huff, I decided that I'd had enough. With a single thought, I was sober, and I had smashed in half of the door before Uriel grabbed me.
I shook him off, ignoring the stares of my managing peers, and headed for the elevator.
I had to warn God, regardless of the consequences.
Twenty Seven
Lucifer Morningstar
I stood at the head of my army, watching with dispassion as the Demons finished shuffling into line. They weren't exactly the most distinguished Demons, and there was no way that I was going to be able to train them into instant obedience in just a few weeks. I wanted revenge now. Besides, most of the humans among the Demons were once part of wars or border scuffles, so they knew how to fight, and their bodies should still have the same reactions as yesteryear
.
I was leaving Clarissa here, protected by everything I could give her. Jayce and Azazel were in charge of keeping her safe. I had bound her up under millions of protective spells, each building on the last.
"God has locked us here in punishment for being different," I called out among the army, who were watching me as one creature. "He has thrown us here because He refuses to believe that life does not entail working for every second you are alive. For refusing to work in the first place. For having fun, enjoying life, being ourselves and refusing to follow bureaucratic rules."