by SJ West
He doesn’t say anything for a long time. He simply gazes into her eyes as if he’s looking for the answer to an unasked question. Jess seems to know what that question is and says, “Stand me back up, Lucifer.”
He doesn’t comply.
“Are you sure that’s what you want, Jessica?” he asks in an intimate whisper.
Jess swallows hard before replying, “Yes. I want to go back home now.”
Lucifer hesitates but finally stands them both upright again.
“Don’t you want a piece of your birthday cake before you leave?”
“No. Mason and the kids made me one today. I don’t need any more cake. I just need to go home. Please don’t make me tell you a third time.”
“Very well,” Lucifer says, looking slightly perturbed. “I suppose our hour together is over.”
“Yes. It is.”
Lucifer turns to retrieve his jacket and tie, and Helena stops the scene as he’s in mid-stride.
“Well … well … well …” Helena says, sounding impressed by what we all just witnessed. “That was quite a heated moment between you and my father, Jess. Who knew the devil could tempt you into betraying your vows with just a dance?”
“I didn’t betray Mason,” Jess informs her.
“Maybe not with your lips,” Helena concedes, “but a small part of your heart wanted that kiss. What is it that people say? Oh yes, that men and women can’t be friends without sex coming into play at some point during the relationship. I know for a fact Lucifer would have satisfied any carnal desires you had for him on that night. Though, he did feel a little torn about the whole situation. He wanted you to give in, yet he also wanted you to deny him. Secretly, he hoped you would stand firm in your love and commitment to Mason. Otherwise, you would have just been another little monkey who couldn’t decide what she wanted out of life. He was proud of you here, because not many women could have resisted him in full-out seduction mode, but you did. I guess I should congratulate you for passing his test. Now, why don’t we look at this from another perspective?”
The scene reverses to the point where Lucifer is taking off his jacket in front of the quartet.
“I think it’s time you saw it the way Mason did,” Helena tells Jess as the room zooms out and we’re suddenly standing outside in the middle of the Eiffel Tower on the section directly across from the restaurant. The Mason from that time is standing by the railing in a dark wool coat, looking through the window and watching Jess and Lucifer’s date. We’re standing just behind him as the scene begins to play again.
“Poor Mason,” Helena says with false sympathy. “What did it feel like to watch Lucifer try to seduce your wife? Did you doubt her loyalty to you?”
“I never doubted her,” Mason replies tersely. “But I certainly didn’t trust him.” He turns to look at Jess while the scene replays in the background. “I couldn’t stand these little dates you had with him, Jess. I’m not perfect, and I should have told you that I followed you every time he took you somewhere.”
“Every time?” Jess asks, looking stunned by this new piece of information. “I never saw you.”
“Oh, but Lucifer did!” Helena is quick to add in. “And Mason knew Lucifer caught him spying on the two of you.”
“Is that the real reason he tried to seduce me here?” Jess asks Helena. “Did he want to hurt Mason by tempting me to be unfaithful to him?”
“I guess that’s something you should probably ask my father the next time you see him.”
The joy on Helena’s face falters. She closes her eyes as if she’s experiencing pain. She begins to repeat the word “no” to herself over and over again. It’s as if she believes saying the word enough times will make something untrue.
Finally, she opens her eyes and stares at Jess with even more hatred than before.
“It figures,” she says, snapping her fingers and making Jess disappear in a puff of smoke.
Mason turns on Helena with murderous intent.
“What did you do to Jess?” he demands.
“Stop being so overdramatic. She’s fine,” Helena tells him with a roll of her eyes. “It’s not like I can kill the two of you anyway. Believe me, if I could, I would, just for the sake of my own amusement, but seeing as how you’re already dead, what’s the point? I simply put her in a different section of Hell. I think it might be time to split up this happy little group of adventurers for a while anyway.”
Helena snaps her fingers again and the War Angels disappear, leaving only me, Jered, Slade, and Mason.
“How are we all supposed to reach the castle if we’re not together?” I ask her, remembering that it was one of her rules in this sadistic game of hers.
“Well, that’s the beauty of this game of ours, Malcolm,” Helena says. “All of you will need to survive the next tests on your own, and I never said you all had to reach the castle at the same exact moment. If I were you, I would just worry about reaching your family before time runs out.”
“But why are you making Jess face things alone?” Masons asks angrily.
“She isn’t alone,” Helena replies with a sadistic smile as the fog begins to roll back in, obscuring our view of things once again. “But you’ll have to find her to discover who she’s with. Now, if you gentlemen will excuse me, I have a group of War Angels to go play with, and I believe the children you all helped curse want their own playtime with the lot of you. Far be it from me to hinder the revenge they seek.”
Helena vanishes, leaving us worse off now than we were before she came.
The howls of the Watcher children linger in the fog and sound even louder now, indicating that they’ve moved closer to where we are.
“I can’t do this, Malcolm,” Jered says, shaking his head vehemently. “I refuse to fight my own son.”
“I don’t think they’re going to give us much of a choice,” I tell him as the fog begins to swirl around us like a living creature. I can hear the rhythmic clatter of claws striking the ground like a war drum. “Get ready,” I tell the others as I hold my sword in front of me and assume a fighting stance. “They’re coming.”
Just as the last word leaves my mouth, the black-clawed paw of one of the werewolves penetrates the fog right in front of my eyes. As it makes a vicious downward slash that would have torn half my face off, I twist my body to the right and strike with my sword before it has a chance to retract its arm. My blade slices straight through its elbow, causing it to howl out in pain as it disappears back into the fog with a pitiful whine.
The four of us quickly gather in a circle with our backs to each other. It’s impossible to tell from which direction the Watcher children will attack next. The fog is definitely giving them an advantage over us.
“Silas!” Jered calls out. “Stop this! I will not fight you.”
We hear a deep, throaty sound that falls somewhere between a chuckle and a growl in response to his words.
“What’s happened to you, Father?” Silas mocks. His words sound as if they’re coming from everywhere at once, and I instantly know he’s part of the pack that’s running around us. “You used to be so savage and cunning. It appears your time on Earth has made you soft and slow-witted.”
“I’m stronger now than I ever was before,” Jered replies. “It took your death to show me how wrong I was about everything. I only wish I had realized it earlier. I could have saved you if I had.”
“You should worry about saving yourself,” Silas replies spitefully.
One of the wolves launches himself at Mason, but my friend is able to hold his ground and pierce the Watcher child through the gut with his sword. I see a flash of gold surround Mason, but it vanishes as quickly as it appeared, making me wonder if I saw it at all. Mason lifts a foot and kicks the wounded werewolf off his blade, propelling him back into the fog.
“Why don’t they attack us all at once?” Slade asks. “That would be a more effective tactic than trying to take us out one by one.”
“I think this i
s meant to slow us down more than anything else,” I reply. “It’s not like they can kill us.”
“But we can tear your heads off,” Silas taunts from his well-hidden spot in the fog. “Even you can’t regenerate from something like that quickly enough to save your wife and children.”
“Silas,” Jered begs his son, “can’t you see that Helena is just using you?”
“Like you used me while I was still alive?” Silas questions scathingly. “At least I know where I stand with her. She’s never lied to me, and she appreciates what I have to offer.”
“What are you offering her?” Jered asks. “Your allegiance? To what end?”
“I will not be baited by your questions, Father, so stop trying. I will not betray Helena!”
Jered’s words seem to make Silas lose his patience. The sound of the werewolves circling us comes to an abrupt stop, and the fog ceases to spin anymore. The air around us grows quiet with anticipation, and all I can hear is the breathing of my fellow Watchers. I grip the hilt of my sword with both hands and hold it out in front of me as we wait for their attack.
I don’t have to wait long.
Five Watcher children appear out of the fog in front of me at a full-out run. I’m able to stab one of them in the chest, but the other four do exactly what they were sent in to do: split up our defensive circle.
As I’m about to pull my sword from the wounded werewolf lying on the ground in front of me, I feel another wolf leap onto my back, clutching my shoulders with its sharp claws. With a roar that is a mixture of both frustration and pain, I reach behind me, grab the wolf’s head, and yank as hard as I can, detaching the creature’s head from its shoulders. A warm blanket of blood covers my back as it slumps forward, almost knocking me off my feet. I quickly throw the wolf head into the fog and step forward to remove the dead weight of its body from my back.
Just as I free my sword from the Watcher child still on the ground, another one comes at me with its head bowed and rams me hard in the stomach. The momentum of the strike easily tosses me into the air a few feet. I end up landing flat on my back and losing the grip on my sword from the force of the impact. Another Watcher child immediately pounces, hovering over me on all fours. I barely have time to grab the sides of its head before it tries to bite my face. With its teeth bared, it snaps its jaws at me, drooling like a rabid dog. Suddenly, the wolf yelps in pain as it’s propelled off me by a swift kick to its side from Jered.
I grab my sword and quickly get back onto my feet. When I look around, I notice a couple of the werewolves running back into the safety of the fog, dragging their fallen comrades behind them. Both Jered and Slade have random scratch marks all over their torsos. Only Mason appears to be unscathed from the fight.
The howling resumes, letting us know that the wolves may have retreated, but they haven’t gone very far. More than likely, they’re taking a moment to heal from their wounds before attacking us again.
“I don’t think they’re going to leave us alone,” Slade says, mirroring my own thoughts. He hefts the shaft of his mining pick over his right shoulder as he peers into the fog, listening to the howls of the damned children of the Watchers.
“Helena is probably using them to keep us here or, at the very least, to lead us in the wrong direction,” Jered replies.
“I think we should try to push forward while Helena is preoccupied with the War Angels,” Mason advises me, since I’m the one who will ultimately have to make the decision about our next move. “It’s possible we could end up going in the wrong direction, but we won’t know unless we try.”
“I agree,” I say. “I can’t stand here and do nothing. Thankfully, whatever Helena tried to do to Anna didn’t work. I didn’t feel her pain, so I can’t use that as a way to find her, at least not yet.”
There is always a chance that Helena will attempt to cause my wife pain in another way. A part of me wants that to happen just so I can find my family. The guilt of that admission weighs heavily on my soul, making me wonder if Hell is influencing my thoughts in ways even I can’t understand. Right now, all I can do is pray that we choose the right direction to travel in and find Anna and Lucas before it’s too late.
“Which way do you want to go?” Jered asks me.
It doesn’t really matter which direction we take, since none of us can see through the fog, but everyone is looking to me to make the decision.
“This way,” I tell them as I turn around and start walking.
It’s as good a direction as any other. I just hope I’m walking closer to my family instead of farther away.
Chapter 10
(Jess’ Point of View)
I find myself standing on a replica of my front porch in Cypress Hollow, looking out toward the quaint neighborhood I used to live in. Of all the homes Mason and I owned around the world, I have always loved this one the most. The familiar sound of a creaking rocking chair makes me spin around to seek out the source of the noise.
“Why did you come here without me?” Lucifer asks, looking disappointed in my exclusion of him in this mission. As he brings his chair to a standstill, I notice Anna’s hellhound, Luna, sitting beside him. She’s so different from the hounds I’ve fought in the past. Her clear blue eyes remind me so much of Anna’s new eye color.
“Are you real, or something Helena has conjured up to torture me with?” I ask, not trusting anything I might see or hear while I’m in Hell.
Lucifer absently begins to stroke the fur of Luna’s back. “If you want to prove to yourself that I’m the real deal, ask me a question that she wouldn’t know the answer to.”
“Okay,” I say, quickly thinking of something that only my Lucifer would know. “What were the first two words I said to you when you returned to Heaven?”
Lucifer grins.
“Welcome home,” he answers.
I breathe out a sigh of relief.
“You shouldn’t have come back here, Lucifer. Even you aren’t boneheaded enough to think returning to Hell is a good move for you. I have things handled, so just go back home,” I tell my friend as I sit in the matching white rocking chair next to his.
“Considering the look on your face, I would say that statement is far from the truth. My daughter and my grandchildren are in danger, Jessica. You should have told me what was going on so I could come here with you to help.”
“Honestly, I wasn’t sure if you would be a help or a hindrance. It’s too soon for you to be back here. This used to be your realm, remember? You’re still trying to come to terms with the things you did when you were acting out against your Father. Helena will just play with your newfound guilt and use it to her advantage.”
“It wasn’t your decision to make,” he says, growing angry. “No matter how noble your intentions, you should have told me what was happening to my own child!”
“Lucifer, don’t lose your temper,” I plead. “Helena will use it to manipulate your actions here. This is her domain now, not yours.”
“It was always her domain,” he tells me. “She just didn’t realize that until after I lost Amalie and began to wallow in my own self-pity. Once I stopped ordering her around, she understood who the real master of this place was.”
“Helena is a real piece of work. You outdid yourself making her.”
“She served my purposes well for a long time, and even if she hasn’t accepted it, she’s still providing mankind with what it needs. There will continually be those in the world who deserve an eternity of torment, and that has always been and will always remain Helena’s whole reason for existing. I foolishly thought punishing human souls was solely for my own enjoyment, but it turns out I was doing what my Father always wanted me to do: serve mankind.”
“You served humanity by torturing their souls?” I begin to wonder if being back in Hell has twisted Lucifer’s sense of logic.
“Yes. Unless they’re insane, everyone in the world thinks about me at least once before they commit a sin depraved enough to bring them he
re after death. The thought of Hell and what happens here has prevented more crimes against humanity than I fostered in my time. No one in their right mind would want to come here and endure what this place was made for.”
“I still think you should go back to Amalie,” I beg him. “She’s practically done nothing but mourn your separation since her death. Don’t make her suffer anymore.”
“She’s the one who told me to come,” Lucifer says, striking down my one good argument to make him leave. “I’m not about to go back to my wife without being able to tell her our baby and grandchildren are safely back home.”
“Do you know everything that’s happened while we’ve been here?”
“I know what my Father told me before I left, but what just happened, Jessica? I get the distinct impression Helena made you experience something that upset you a great deal.”
“I’d really rather not talk about it,” I grumble, sitting back and slouching in my chair with my arms crossed in front of me.
“I need to know,” Lucifer prods gently. “I can’t help you unless I have all the information at my disposal. What did she show you?”
I think about his request for a moment and decide I need to understand the motive behind what he did on my forty-fifth birthday. He’s been working through his guilt lately. I would like to know if he feels any guilt for what he tried to do that night.
“Do you remember when I turned forty-five?” I ask him, sitting up straighter in my chair as I watch his expression closely.
“Ahh,” Lucifer says as his face flushes with understanding. “I suppose she told you about Mason following us around all those years. I have to admit, I’m surprised he didn’t tell you about that himself before now.”
“I guess, even dead, he felt guilty or embarrassed about it. Probably a little bit of both if I know my husband, which I do,” I say. “I don’t blame him for doing what he did. I do wish he had been the one to tell me, but all of that is in the past. There’s nothing to be done about it now, and it doesn’t make me love him any less.”