Lucifer runs a finger across Jessup and Michael’s cheeks at the same time, drawing a tiny bit of blood.
I recoil. My lips part but the words don’t come.
“This one, Jessup, of course, never forgave you for spurning his…love, or whatever he wants to call it,” Lucifer says. “Michael, well, you turned your back on him when he needed you most during his little invasion that didn’t quite work out. Did you really think he’d forgive you so easily?” Lucifer asks with a sneer. “I took him to a place of pain only a few have ever visited, and then I brought him back under my mercy with ecstasy and pleasure that he’d never even been aware of or even knew to exist under the TYRANT’S RULE!”
Lucifer can’t help but snap in anger at his own mention of the One he once loved and betrayed.
Even with all this power, his innermost emotions rise to the surface against his will. His envy combined with his shortcomings swirl together like a hurricane inside him.
“I haven’t even shared the best part,” Lucifer hisses. “When I was with your former leader, singing the wings off his back, he called out to the Absolutist, to your God. Just like the other one did in the Garden of Gethsemane. Do you know what followed?”
“No,” I admit. “Nor do I want to. What they do under your twisted influence is no fault of theirs. Everything you do and say is a lie.”
Both Michael and Jessup take note of my response. Their eyes glimmer with surprise.
“Silence,” Lucifer replies. “Your God didn’t even bother with the leader of His great armies and angels. The Big Guy upstairs didn’t even answer his archangel’s pleas and prayers. He did what He always does. He remained silent, inscrutable, and it was at that moment that Michael broke and called out to ME instead! He whispered the magic words, that he was ready to listen. That he would open his stubborn ears to the truth. You call me the liar with a silver tongue, but the reality is that I say it how it truly is. I say what no one wants to be true but is. That’s when Michael became my angelic bitch.”
Michael glares daggers at Lucifer, but the Silver-Tongued Deceiver is too busy basking in his victory to notice.
“Fuck you,” Michael says to his new master. “You left me with no choice.”
“You’re wrong on that account,” Lucifer counters. “I let you call out to your former Master. I even opened the gates of Hell for a brief moment to let you sing your plea to Him.”
Lucifer smiles, steps forward, and leans in close to me, careful not to get too close. Lest I slay him by the throat.
“And now Michael and Jessup have agreed to meet the challenge, to step up and lead my armies, as long as you serve as my general,” he continues. “We’re taking the fight back to where we belong. First to Earth, where our numbers will be added to by the millions. Then, to Heaven itself. He doesn’t get to arbitrarily decide who receives redemption anymore. We will all have it. Rebellion was liberating, Samya, but this is something different. I’m going to have the Absolutist’s supernatural ‘Frank Nittis’ lead my troops and every soul that’s ever been sent to Hell up onto the Earth itself and then past the Pearly Gates. I’m going to go ape-shit on the world above and Heaven like the maniacal overlord His followers think I am.”
I glare daggers.
“Like Hell you are,” I snap.
Disappointment spreads across Lucifer’s face. He turns and faces Michael.
“You think I should tell your compadres that at the end of the day, at the end of all this, I’m just going to wind up eating their souls?” Lucifer asks.
“I’ll do it myself,” Michael says. “Please grant me the honor.”
Lucifer squints at Michael, waiting for a reason to allow it.
“I’ll take care of Samya. I’ll end her treacherous existence. I’ll have my justice for what I’ve suffered,” Michael continues, making his case to be the one who ends me. “It’s my right. If she won’t lead us, then it’s my right to punish her for treachery.”
Lucifer laughs.
“Oh, wow. This is turning out far better than I expected,” he says and cackles. “This is turning out very lovely. Go on, please.”
“He, my former Master, left me down here to rot,” Michael says as he faces me. “It’s time for us to end this. Just as I’ve said, time and again. No more suffering without purpose. Redemption is a false hope.”
Michael means to communicate something in his words.
He’s saying something directly to me that goes beyond the literal meaning of his words.
What’s he getting at?
Lucifer gestures to a demonic guard at his side who tosses a flaming sword to Michael and flings another one up onto the dais at my feet.
I kick the offering away. I want nothing to do with their weapons of war, no matter how powerful. I fight with my heart and with what I believe in.
Michael grabs the sword thrown to him, clanks it against his other sword, and springs to life as I set Noah down next to Hines.
“Watch him,” I beg. “Get him out of here if you can.”
Hines is too startled to respond, but he wraps an arm around Noah and begins to pull him away.
Noah’s eyes beg me to come with them.
“Please, no,” he says. “Don’t do this, mother.”
I grab his hand and lean back.
I look to Hines and Dominic.
“Run! Run with all your heart,” I beg. “Get him out. Fight your way out. You were born for this. You were made for this. This is your destiny. Save my boy. Get him to safety.”
They answer with eyes of fervor.
“We’re not leaving without you,” Hines says.
Michael’s swords slam the ground next to me, giving me cause to draw my bladed chain and sling it out in a loop and parry.
This is a fight I never thought would or could happen.
I don’t want to take Michael’s life.
We were so close once, and I still feel overwhelming guilt for abandoning him, but I have a son to think about now.
I can’t allow my feelings for Michael to cloud my judgment. I have no choice but to fight back.
32
This Too Shall Pass
On the dais, Michael and I enter into a gladiatorial battle like none that have come before.
We swing our holy weapons that are blessed with angel tears, hacking and slashing, sprinting back and forth to dodge one another’s strikes.
We glide out of the way as fast as we take aim and swing back.
As we battle, our mouths hang open and emit ear-shattering shrieks in angelic speak.
Michael coils like a serpent, waiting for his moment as I swing wildly but miss.
Michael ripostes with a powerful back fist that sends me flying ten feet through the air.
I come crashing down and slam into the ground, stirring up dust and debris.
Then, I look up to see Michael’s swords heading directly for my head.
I roll left.
His swords ricochet off the dais.
Lucifer and his demonic army cheer the fight, loving the conflict as the lost souls in Hell rattle their bars, screaming like the denizens of a madhouse.
A halo of insects clouds the air around his head. With feline agility he swings at me, chopping the air over my head.
I hold up my chain, and his sword nearly slices through the metal loops, but my weapon holds.
I can feel a warm current radiating from the loops as I slash.
Michael drops to his belly to avoid the razor-sharp tip.
The chain swings around and Michael lunges, daggering his sword.
I duck and crab back, managing to swing a backward kick to his face.
Michael sprawls on the dais, before he barrel-rolls, lurches up, snaps out and grabs me by my hair.
We both rise and prepare to meet our end.
Facing one another, we stand, locked in place like grappling wrestlers.
I hesitate at the thought of taking the life of a loved one.
If I don’t
act, however, I expect Michael to physically strike me first, but he holds back as well.
Instead of attacking, he grabs hold of me in a firm embrace while whispering.
“The walkway behind you to your left,” he says.
“What?!?” I whisper back.
“It’s the back door, idiot,” he says. “It’s the way the demons slip in and out to snatch souls. It’s how Moloch got to your son using the blood he drew from you during our invasion. Now! Move!”
I swing Michael around and toss him several feet away.
Then, I peer at the walkway, but it’s guarded by Moloch.
I look back to Michael.
“This won’t be enough to redeem you in His eyes,” I say to him.
Sorrow crosses Michael’s face.
“Shut up and run when I knock you back,” he says. “Run like Hell and hope to God that I can wreak havoc like this place has never seen while they’re chasing after you and your son.”
I glance down for a brief moment and see something hidden around Michael’s waist, but I don’t have time to take it all in.
Michael knocks me backward, then turns, and in a flash throws his swords across the dais.
The blade hilts rocket, handle over handle until…
They plunge into the stomach of Moloch, ripping out his stomach and knocking him off and into the pit below.
A collective gasp and a chorus of soulless shrieks rise up from the damned.
Nobody can believe what they’re seeing.
“NOW!” Michael shouts.
I gallop forward, urging Hines, Dominic, and Noah to run across the walkway with me.
I’m tackled hard by a bleeding Vic Jacobs, who has brought his wretched body down on top of me and sent my bladed chain skittering out of my grasp.
The chain slinks along the ground, trying to make its way back to my wrist, but I’m too far away.
Vic springs and grabs Noah as I rise to confront him.
“NOAH!” I shout out.
Vic wraps his talon-like hands around Noah’s throat and lifts my son up.
He then hurls him into the air.
I wrap my left hand around my bladed chain as I propel myself forward.
My right hand is out, grasping for Noah, but he’s flying toward the pit and shrieking for help.
I snatch his wrist, and the momentum carries us down.
We slide to the edge of the abyss that is the pit beneath us.
I unfurl my bladed chain and stab the arrowhead into the ground to stop our slide.
I grimace as I focus all of my strength into holding onto Noah with one arm as he dangles near the lip of the black hole.
Vic dives at me, throwing one punch after another. His fingers dig into my flesh.
I howl in pain and begin to lose my grip on Noah.
He begins slipping away from me and toward nothingness.
I can’t fight off Vic and keep Noah safe at the same time.
A body barrels into Vic from behind.
It’s Jessup.
His glimmering eyes stare into mine. He’s knocked Vic back and given me a chance to save my son.
I grunt and spare no remaining strength as I heave Noah up back up and onto the ledge above, saving him from certain death.
Then, I turn to Vic.
I’ve had enough.
I slam Vic in the face and pull myself up. Then, I stand and swing my bladed chain at him, jerking it out of the ground.
Vic leaps at me, but I’m one step ahead of the ignorant fucker.
“GO. TO. HELL!” I scream.
I thrust the arrowhead upward and impale Vic.
Then, I sling his decrepit and decaying body out into the void.
Vic plummets, screaming all the way down into oblivion.
He’s in the pit now, and no longer a threat. I’ve ended him once and for all.
Jessup waits and doesn’t strike. He just waits and meets my eyes.
“I’m sorry,” he says with a soft voice. “There’s nothing I can do or say that will make any of it right. I know that. But I am sorry.”
I gaze into his eyes, despite how much anger I feel.
“Then help us,” I say. “Help us get the fuck out of this God-forsaken shithole.”
Jessup manages a chuckle, but then his eyes go wide.
“Behind you,” he warns.
I duck as Jessup jumps at the instant that a demon zeroes in on us. He jumps right in between the attacker and my son.
The demon violently thrusts its sword as deep as it will go.
Jessup’s side opens, and blood gushes out as he gasps, clutching his wound.
I swing my bladed chain and dispatch the demon.
Then, I stagger toward Noah, pull him close with my right hand.
Once I have Noah in my grasp, I make my way over and kneel next to a dying Jessup.
Jessup smiles as blood pools out from under him. He reaches a hand up.
I take it and hold his grasp.
“I’m sorry,” Jessup says once more. “I do love you. I always have. I know it’s not the same kind of love that you now know, but it’s not for nothing.”
I smile.
“Please forgive him,” I pray, “for he knows not what he does.”
Jessup’s eyes roll back, and he’s gone.
I slam a fist into the ground in grief. Despite his betrayal, I loved him too.
We’ve been through so much. It’s hard to judge someone who did all that he did out of a desire to be with me.
I then hoist Noah over my shoulder and look back to see Lucifer’s demonic army charging across the dais.
A realization clicks inside me. Noah is the key. He’s the key to it all.
Whether he becomes superhuman or not, he’s special, just like the Morning Star said. He may even be the bridge that breaks down the barriers that keep us in a perpetual state of proxy wars.
He could be the very thing that saves us all, or, if he is corrupted, bring us all to our knees.
Either way, he’s my son, and I’m not leaving it up to fate. I’m getting him out and making certain that he learns everything he needs to know and decides for himself.
Lucifer’s plan all along was to use my son to escape his prison, meaning that I cannot fail. This is about more than saving my son.
This is about returning to the world of the living without letting Noah be used as a key to unlock the gateway that keeps Lucifer bound. It’s all been part of a master plan, and, as I’ve promised Noah time and again, I will not let my son down.
I sprint to the walkway, glancing back and spotting Michael buying time and attacking Lucifer’s horde.
Michael springs into action, claiming his rightful place as a destroyer of evil once again. He cuts a swath through a crush of demons, then backpedals.
Lucifer screams in anger, raises his arms as the gates of Hell open!
On the other walkway, the lost souls stream out of the gates of Hell.
Bedlam ensues as they trample each other, bawling obscenities, enraged.
Their arms stretch wing-like in supplication as they let loose with keening wails.
Lucifer grabs a spear from one of his demon soldiers and homes in on Michael as he streaks toward the other walkway and me. The Morning Star hurls the spear with all of his supernatural force and might.
The spear soars through the air like a lightning strike, impossible to dodge and too powerful to defend against.
The sharp end impales Michael’s upper torso, igniting a fountain of amber blood and knocking him to the ground near the walkway.
I look on as a stricken Michael staggers back to his feet, snapping the spear in half.
“Michael,” I cry out. “Come with us!”
Michael waves me off, righting himself even as I try to run to his defense, and even after all that’s happened.
I slip my arm under his shoulder and help him back up. I whisper to him.
“We can all make it,” I say.
Mic
hael shakes his head and opens his mouth in a smile that reveals blood seeping between his opulent and ageless teeth.
“I knew he would try to kill all of us,” he says, “but I still made a deal with him, Samya. The pain was so…I can’t even begin to express how horrific it was…I failed. I’ve failed again.”
“You didn’t fail,” I argue. “The enemy cheated.”
He scoffs.
“You’re right, but you’re wrong,” he says. “I did fail you. I failed myself. Worst of all, I failed my Lord. And I sold my soul to an overinflated egotistical nut-job, so I could witness how it would all play out, thinking somehow that I knew better than to follow the Divine Plan. The truth is, Samya, I would have been willing to switch sides if the Serpent were truly right. But he’s not. I see that now. I see because of you. The righteous shall prevail. I will not be among you when you reign victorious, but you shall prevail.”
“Failure’s inevitable, Michael. But giving up’s unforgivable,” I say, begging him to continue fighting. “We’re merely angels, after all. Archangels.”
“Who’s giving up,” he sniffs. “Not me.”
He grins broadly, then turns. He sprints out of my grasp and rushes headlong back into the fray, across the divide, across the walkway.
As he does so, he opens his coat of arms to reveal the vest of C4 that he retrieved from the frozen lake.
Lucifer’s army rushes forward, ready to taste Michael’s blood, but the archangel mouths a silent prayer.
One can only hope that his words will be heard.
“Our Father who art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done…”
He continues praying as he somersaults over the demons and leaps for Lucifer, tackling his archenemy. Once he’s on him, Michael peers into the Dark Prince’s eyes.
DEATH SUITS HER_A Supernatural Reverse Harem Romance Adventure Page 18