Devil's Pathway

by Vicki V Lucas

  He roars and launches himself at me. I step back, terrified at the speed and strength he now has. I grip the sword with both my hands, moving to block the sword, but I have no hope to stop it.

  Our blades crash. My arms don’t give way. Instead, they stay strong against the force Blaise is putting on. Hope springs in my heart.

  “God, please help me. I can’t do this without You,” I cry out. “We believe You will save us! Send Your angels, and give me strength!”

  * * *

  Eli huddled behind a large rock, staring in the cavern. “There’s hundreds down there.”

  “Most of them are behind that gate with limited access to the boy and girl,” Mal whispered. “Perhaps that will be enough.”

  “Perhaps,” Chasdiel almost growled. “If that boy will ever make up his mind.”

  Without warning, a ripple flowed through Eli like a cool fresh breeze on a summer’s day. On the breeze was a song of joy and love driven with purpose.

  Eli took a deep breath. A giant smile filled his whole face.

  Redemption!

  Eli wanted to shout praises to the Creator as he realized that Nic finally had made his choice. But he forced himself to remain silent. He turned to the others, delight overwhelming him.

  “He’s chosen,” Mal said, joy sweeping over his face.

  “He has chosen wisely.” Chas grinned. “Eli, I was wrong about the boy.”

  “I know,” Eli grinned. Pure delight filled every fiber of his being, and then he noticed Chasdiel dropped the formal part of his name. He couldn’t help himself for the next words. “I told you so.”

  Chas thumped Eli on the shoulder with a grin. “You’re not supposed to say that, my friend, but I think you earned it after what I put you through.”

  “You put me through nothing, my brother,” Eli said. The gift of friendship of this angel brought another wave of happiness.

  Mal turned his attention back to Nic, who barely managed to stay on his feet while fighting Blaise.

  “It is my pleasure to fight alongside both of you,” he said. “Now get ready. It is almost time.”

  * * *

  A small, white spark ignites on my blade. I nearly drop the sword in fear. The pure-white dot starts to jump down the blade. I watch, mesmerized by it.

  The first spark travels the length of the sword to the tip. It creates more flashes until the whole blade is dancing with white light.

  Blaise stares at it in horror. “It’s the sword. But that’s not what it’s supposed to do.” He stumbles back. “Get it away.”

  I don’t have a clue what is going on, but I push my advantage and follow him. I hold the sword in front of me, afraid that my clothes will catch on fire.

  But then I realize the sparks aren’t meant for me. They bounce around the blade until a great whooshing sound like fire fills the air. The sparks unite to create a blazing white flame. After the flash of brilliant light, the white fire snaps and pops down the blade, making it dance with fire.

  Blaise falls to the cavern floor. “What have you done?”

  * * *

  Eli pulls his sword from his belt with a yell. “It is time!”

  He leaps out from behind the rock and glides as fast as a hawk to the cavern floor, his sword a beacon of white light.

  Behind him, Mal and Chas echo his cry.

  “It is time!”

  Chapter Seventy-Two

  Flame and Sulfur

  I yell with victory, even though I don’t know fully what is going on. This is my chance! I rush at Blaise. He jumps to his feet. His wings flutter, and he backs up. He stumbles again on the cavern floor. He manages to block my blade, and our swords beat a rhythm that matches the words circling in my head.

  I can do this! I can beat you!

  My flaming white blade cuts through his shirt. Blaise leaps back several feet with a cry of alarm. I follow quickly and press the attack harder. Blaise blocks, but I think he’s getting slower in response. Although my whole body aches with pain and it’s getting harder to catch my breath, somehow I strike harder and faster.

  I can do this! I can beat you!

  I see an opening and respond by slicing through the air and twisting at the last minute. My sword cuts a strip on his sleeve and slashes his arm. Sulfur fills my nostrils, and Blaise screams with anger.

  “You’re just a boy!” He backs up a step. “You were defeated, at my feet, about to beg for mercy! There wasn’t any way you would choose God down here.”

  “Too bad for you,” I snarl. “You were wrong.” I step forward, blocking his lunges easily and attacking. This time I aim for his stomach.

  Blaise manages to stop me this time and retaliates with a blow that hits my side. I wince from the pain. He sees my reaction and presses forward.

  “It doesn’t matter that your sword is the light of Heaven. You’re too weak to fight me. Me–a demon, a creature freed from the tyranny of God. I have fought far more skilled and stronger warriors than you, and I’ve ground them into the dust. Who do you think you are? A mere human to defeat me?”

  His black wings spread, and he rises into the air. The wind from his wings fills my nose. Sulfur chokes me, reminding me of Mom’s death.

  The grief returns unexpectedly. I swallow, hard. I step back but keep the sword up. Blaise closes the distance. I’m pushed back toward the iron bars of the castle gate.

  “You’re a boy. You managed to find a sword of Heaven, and now you think you can fight me and win. You don’t know half of what I can do.” Blaise drops to the ground. “You have fire on your sword, but can you block this?”

  Blaise roars, louder and deeper. It ricochets throughout the cavern. It grows thunderous until the air around me begins popping. Red lines of fire jump into view before disappearing between him and me.

  With a rush, the red lines snap together, creating a wall of flame streaming from his mouth to me. The wave of fire leaps at me. I dodge, but it follows me. It’s just a few feet from me, and I can feel its heat on my skin.

  It slips past the sword and licks my face. I bat at it in desperation, but it burns my face and suffocates me with the smell of sulfur.

  “Get it away,” I cry. “Fight me with swords.”

  Blaise laughs. “Why should I?”

  The heat from the flames increases. I scream and flay with my blade, trying to get some relief. Megan runs at Blaise and kicks him. He grunts and smacks her with the flat of his sword. She flies through the air and lands in a heap. I don’t see her move again.

  “Megan!” I yell. I run to her.

  The flame follows me. I stumble and fall to the ground. I can barely see Megan, but she hasn’t moved yet. I push up to my feet and start for her again.

  My foot slams into a large rock, shooting a sudden pain through it, and I tumble to the ground. My sword flies through the air and lands several feet away.

  I twist around on the floor, trying to ease the agony. The sulfur is choking me. Mom lies dead in front of me. I blink, and I’m back in the cavern.

  “NO!” I yell. “I won’t let the darkness take me!”

  The flames ease off my face a few inches. I open my eyes to see Blaise standing over me with his sword an inch from my throat.

  “But the darkness is going to take you right now.” Death is in the demon’s eyes. “Only your promise to serve me will save you now.”

  I growl in response, but his sword tip pushes closer to my throat.

  “Do you want to die, boy?” he sneers.

  “IN THE NAME OF JESUS, I REBUKE YOU!” I yell. “Go to Hell!”

  Lightning bolts shoot out of the tunnel and head straight for us. They fly toward us quicker than I can take a breath. One diverts to Megan and lands beside her. He crouches down by her and cradles her head in his hands.

  There’s a clash of swords above me, and the fire disappears as quickly as it appeared.

  “YOU!” Blaise bellows, his attention now on the light standing in front of me. “Malkiel.” Blaise draws
out the name.

  Malkiel stands between Blaise and me. His dark eyes radiate peace even while his face is fierce. His blazing, white sword is ready for battle.

  Blaise continues. “For fifteen hundred years, I’ve searched for you. You were too cowardly to show your yellow face. Now I’ll make you beg to be killed.”

  “I’ve often wondered why you, a demon born of selfishness, would stop a killing blow aimed at someone else,” Malkiel says. “Why did you jump in between my blade and your Master?”

  “I needed Goddard. No overlord would accept me. I had no soldiers, no power.” Blaise glowers. “And because of you, no overlord will accept me now because of this wretched scar on my face. I shall pay you back twentyfold.”

  Their swords clash in the air above me as they leap into the air. It chases the sulfur away. I shake my head and take a deep breath of clean air. Rolling to my sword, I grab it before getting to my feet.

  I push myself up and then a hand stretches down to help me. Eli stands over me with a grin. I take his hand, expecting to feel a rush of heavenly sparks through it. All I feel is the firm grip of a calloused hand that has done hard work. He pulls me to my feet, and I brush away the remnants of the last attack.

  “Thank you, Eli,” I manage to say.

  “About time.” He grins. “I was thinking it was almost too late.”

  “Me, too,” I say, finding his smile contagious. “Guess I have to do things the hard way.”

  “Well, you don’t have to, but you choose to,” Eli replies dryly.

  I work up the smallest of grins and survey the scene around me. Blaise and the other angel are still locked in battle. Megan is getting up slowly with the help of an angel who has Asian features. It looks like she’s in great pain.

  But it’s the action behind the bars that alarms me. The demons have noticed the angels. They are forgetting their reasons for battling each other as they realize that their enemy is standing at their gates.

  The evil creatures cry out in hate and fly at the gates. Some are cut down by others. Sulfur with flashes of red fire fills the air again.

  At the gate, the demons land on each other, clawing to tear the others away in their haste to clear the narrow opening and attack their eternal enemies.

  Can we survive with so few angels?

  Megan and the angel with her join us without a word.

  “Chas, can you create a diversion so I can get the humans out?” Eli asks, his face grim.

  “Can’t you think of something hard for me to do?” Chas grins, eager for battle.

  “Be careful, my friend,” Eli warns. “And get Mal out of here, too. Remember that the enemy is many.”

  “Oh, there’s not that many to fight,” Chas grins. “I’ll try to leave a few for you.”

  With one last look, they clasp each other’s arms in a farewell.

  “For the King,” Eli says.

  Chas glances at me and Megan. He then nods to Eli with a huge smile. “And for the Forgiven.”

  Then he shoots through the air with a trail of white light to make his stand at the gate.

  The demons snarl as he approaches. He doesn’t respond but quickly cuts down two that squeeze through the hole. But before long, there are too many making it through the gap and streaming toward us. A black cloud of wings surrounds Chas.

  Eli moves in front of us to defend us. I bite my lip, tighten my grip on my sword, and step forward. Eli nods in approval, and I stand next to him, ready to fight.

  Chapter Seventy-Three

  The Darkness

  I face two demons with short, tattered wings. They sneer as they fly a few feet above me. When I lunge at one, the other attacks. The strategy is to wear me down, keeping me from being effective, and it’s working.

  I slash at one, miss, and twist to attack the other. The first one cackles and strikes, its blade nearly hitting my shoulder. Growling, I back up a few feet and glance at Eli.

  He’s busy fighting five at once. He spins through the air, light following him wherever he goes. The demons screech when the brilliance touches them. It cuts through them, and then the sulfur and red flames appear.

  “Eli!” I call. “Where do they go?” I wave to the fires around us.

  “Hell.” He takes out a demon and kicks one back into the others. “Never to return to Earth again.”

  “What about you?” I ask. “Can you be killed?”

  “We don’t call it that, but yes, we can be destroyed to the point where we don’t return to Earth.” He launches into battle again.

  A demon pounces at me, jerking my attention back to my fight. I swipe at it by sheer instinct and knock its sword out of its hand. It shrieks in rage and flies away before I can send it to Hell.

  Megan stands behind me, watching with fright in her blue eyes. She’s covered with dirt and blood, but I’m glad to see her up standing again.

  “We’ll get out,” I shout to her over the noise of the battle.

  “Not if you have anything to do with it,” she snaps.

  She scoops up the demon’s sword that fell at her feet, waves it through the air a couple of times, and stands next to me.

  “No, Megan,” I say. “You get out of here while you can. This is not your fight.”

  “Not my fight?” She spins to me, anger filling her bright blue eyes. “A vampire smashes my door, pulls me out of my home, drags me up here, and ties me to a beam over a bottomless pit. I have to drop thousands and thousands of feet just to keep you from doing something stupid. Then a demon bullies me and beats me up, and I’m certain I’m going to die, and you think it’s not my fight?”

  “Well, it’s not a bottomless pit,” I say the only thing I can think of.

  “If I have to go through all that,” Megan yells, “at least I’m taking a few of these beasts out with me. And if you think you or these angels can stop me, think again!”

  I step back, surprised at her rage. She doesn’t notice my shock because she spins and faces a demon flying at her. She twirls the sword through the air. As it gets closer, she lunges forward and brings the sword down on its neck.

  It screams, and a puff of sulfur fills the air. She flinches as the fires of Hell become visible and then disappear.

  She turns back to me and yells, “It’s not like you have to be a genius to operate a sword!”

  I can’t stop the chuckle that rises. She misses the humor of the moment.

  “Don’t laugh at me!” she orders, pointing her sword at me. “You haven’t killed one yet!”

  She’s right. My smile disappears. Some demons fly past the two angels and head straight for us. Is there an unspoken understanding among the demons to leave Mal and Blaise alone?

  They have taken their battle high into the air. There is no mocking or talking as they fight fiercely, trading blows faster than I can keep count. Neither looks hurt yet, but it can’t be long until one makes a mistake. I pray Blaise messes up first. There couldn’t be anything as awful as seeing these amazing warriors in agony as they pass from this world to Heaven.

  The horde of demons is pushing Chas back from the gates toward us. Megan and I have no more time to talk. We end up back to back, circling while we swipe and strike at the winged creatures.

  They jab at us with beaten-up swords that look chipped and bent. Some don’t have a sword, so they try to grab us with long talons. They’re covered with multiple scars. Their faces and bodies are mutilated from battles in the past.

  The angels draw the demons like a moth to the light. They swarm around Chas and Eli, swiping at each other for a chance to bring the angels down. Chas is darting back and forth, using his feet and hands as much as his sword. It’s hard to tell where he is exactly because the light trails behind him, creating an illusion that he’s everywhere.

  Eli doesn’t move as much. His movements are smooth and conservative. He stands his ground and doesn’t let the winged creatures past him. His blows are strong. When he punches a demon instead of using his sword, there’s t
he same cloud of sulfur and flash of Hell.

  I swing at the demons that are close, trying to hold my ground. One surges out of the group and blocks my sword with his decrepit blade. I press back, hoping to overcome him with my strength. It doesn’t work.

  He bends my arm down, pressing me closer to the ground. It’s not going to be too long until my blade is pinned to the rock. I glance into his red eyes filled with hate. I wish I hadn’t looked.

  Freeing my blade, I step back and bump into Megan. She jumps out of the way. Dodging the blade of the winged creature, I jab at his middle. He bats my sword away like it is an annoying fly. I swing again, roaring in frustration.

  This time I manage to slip past his guard. The white light cuts across his stomach. He screeches in pain. The smell of sulfur surrounds me, and the darkness threatens to rise in me again. The demon screams as the red fire of Hell flashes and disappears.

  The continuous struggles with my own darkness wear me out more than the battle. Memories threaten to pull me under again, dragging me to where I will lose all control. I fight back, focusing on the present, on the swords and demons in front of me. I am terrified that if I give in again, the creatures will tear both Megan and me apart.

  But flashes of the past spring before my eyes. I swipe at Brandon instead of kissing his shoes before I jerk back to the present and see that I’m swinging the blade at nothing.

  Growling in frustration, I attack the closest winged creature by slicing it across the stomach. This time the demon moves so slowly that I can almost see what he’s going to do by the way he positions the rusty blade in his hands. I knock the sword from his hand. It clatters to the ground as I take off his head.

  The sulfur returns. Mr. Peterson is handing me a sword instead of a gun. I put down the weapon in my hand, only to wrench back to the present battle of demons and angels in front of me and realize that my sword is on the ground.