“No…!” said Mammon. At least that’s what he tried to say. He was gurgling and choking on his own blood.
Lucifer gripped me by the left wrist and pushed the objects in my hands together. The Dagger sliced into Mammon’s heart. That was its last beat. The living organ instantly hardened and crumbled ash in my grasp.
The Witch King gave one last dying gasp. He crumbled as well. Because he was already on the floor, there was no falling impact to shatter his ashy corpse. Only the gust of Hell-wind scattered the loose ashes.
The witches gasped. Their coven leader was dead. That kinda changed things.
With my hand cemented around the Dagger, the blue energy shot directly across the fiery chasm from Mammon’s remains and into the weapon. From there, it traveled through the handle and into my hand, consequently coursing through my entire body. A flood of irrational feelings and emotions overwhelmed me. Somehow, I found myself able to push them aside. The usual wave of unconsciousness did not come. Whatever Zoey did to me, it seemed to be having a lasting effect.
At that moment, I came to a pivotal realization. There was only one Demon left. The Demon Dagger was in my hand. Lucifer probably expected me to be at my weakest, which suddenly gave me the advantage.
Apparently, Dante had the same realization. He launched himself at Lucifer.
Even though her hands were tied holding me, she now had two new appendages, both much larger. She retracted her wing. It connected hard with Dante’s face. He glided across the cavern floor like a skipping stone on water. He finally toppled to a sprawled heap.
I didn’t waste a moment. My right hand with the Dagger stabbed in at Lucifer’s right hand grasping my left wrist. Though Lucifer was clearly stronger than me, she did not expect this. The blade sliced all the way through her wrist. She screamed with a dozen magnified voices.
“Now you match your twin, bitch!” I said. I kicked her in the leg as a brace to pull my right hand with the Demon Dagger free.
My surprise attack was not the diversion I hoped for. Even with all my strength, her grip was concrete.
“A hand for a hand, bitch,” said Lucifer.
She squeezed. My hand might as well have been run over by a truck. Fire exploded through my fingers. Several bones cracked simultaneously. It hurt so much, I didn’t realize I was screaming until I wondered where the hell that ungodly noise was coming from.
Lucifer jerked me close by my broken hand. I didn’t think I could possibly be in any more pain, but damn, that did the trick.
Dante was already on his feet, fist pulled back for a fierce retaliation. Then he froze. The pain had hardly subsided in my crushed fingers, but I had regained my bearings enough to realize the predicament I was in. My back was held close to Lucifer’s body. She had her dismembered stump of an arm around my neck in a chokehold. She then held my broken hand with the Demon Dagger pointing directly at my heart.
“Not so fast, Dante,” said Lucifer. “Do you know how easy it would be to bleed out your girlfriend? All it would take is one good poke.”
“If you even scratch her, I’ll tear you to pieces,” said Dante. His fists trembled at his side. “I’ll fucking drag you down to Hell myself.”
“What a bold threat,” said Lucifer. “But here’s the thing. I’d much rather take my chances with you than her.”
The blade pressed harder against my chest, breaking the skin. A small circle of blood seeped through Lillith’s old cheerleading top.
“I’m afraid there’s been a change of plans, Pride,” said a new female voice. An impossible voice. “One way or another, you are going to die tonight.”
I was imaging it. I had to be! The shock was enough to briefly take my attention off my hand and the dagger at my heart.
“Who said that?” said Lucifer. Even though she seemed to already know. Her authority crumbled to fear. Being stabbed my Mammon was nothing compared to this voice.
From distant shadows, I noticed men in black suits and sunglasses. Illusory phantoms in the darkness. They were encompassing us in a perfect circle, doubling the number of Mammon’s coven. Most of the witches had already removed their veils at this point, wearing holy shit all over their faces.
Things were about to get holy shittier.
Half of the suited men disintegrated to smoke. They shot forward in shadowy streams. Each smoky blast hit a witch head-on, funneling forcefully into their mouths. Each witch staggered back on impact but quickly regained her balance. Each one opened her eyes.
They were solid black.
Each of the newly possessed witches turned to face Lucifer, emotionless. The remaining suited men encroached on the circle.
“Did you really think that you could evade us?” the female voice asked. “We’ve been watching you for ages.”
There was no doubt about it in my mind now. It was her. I didn’t know how or why or what the hell. But somehow it was her!
“You…” said Lucifer.
“Being your Princess, you will address me properly,” said the voice.
A wisp of black mist took female shape. With each step, she grew more substantial. Her athletic form, her long black hair, her naturally exotic features…exactly how I remembered her two months ago.
It was Cate Mallory. Casey’s dead girlfriend.
She turned to Dante with a venomous smile. “Hello, brother.”
35
The Sacrifice
Cate was alive? Of all the pants-shitting revelations in the universe, nothing could have blown my mind like this.
Except maybe her comment to Dante.
Brother?
Dante cocked his head slightly and squinted. “Hecate?”
Cate’s smile grew wider as she gestured to herself. “Do you like the meat suit, brother? It’s almost as beautiful as the real me, don’t you think?”
“Hey, sis,” sad Dante. He wasn’t smiling. “What are you doing here? Actually, you know what? I don’t care. Go to hell. Figuratively and literally.”
“I’m sorry it’s been so long,” said Cate. She gave a fake pout. “It’s been what? Sixteen years?”
“Stop acting like you care. We all know you’re just following the old man’s orders.”
“Father gives his regards, by the way. He looks forward to seeing you. Well…once we put Humpty Dumpty back together again, of course.”
“Tell him to go fuck himself with a pitchfork. That’s not going to happen.”
“Oh, Dante, always the funny one,” said Cate. She pretended to laugh. “But just for the record, I’m not asking your permission to do anything. I’m following a much higher line of command.”
Her suddenly intimidating gaze refocused to me, forcing another fake smile. “Monica, it’s been a while. Joined the cheerleading squad, have you?”
“Cate…” I said. “What are you…? How are you…?”
“I’m sorry. This all must be very confusing to you. Let me explain. I’m a Demon—the daughter of the Devil and the sister to this pathetic excuse of an heir to the throne. And yes, I’ve been possessing this body for quite some time now.”
“But…you dated Casey! For a whole year!”
“Yes, because for the longest time I thought he was you. I thought he was the child Martha Binsfeld caused to be possessed by my unfortunate brother. The rumors in Hell were a bit fuzzy as to what exactly had happened that fateful night. And honestly? Casey just seemed like the much more likely candidate. I spent all that time waiting for signs to show, but they never did. Eventually, I realized it wasn’t him. That it was actually you. But I quickly made use of my relationship with Casey. We accidentally stumbled into one of your mother’s witchcraft books. I pretended to learn with him how to summon a Dealmaking Demon…specifically Dante. And then, when your brother was so absolutely in love with me that I knew he’d do anything for my sake…I faked my own death
.”
“You…!” I said. It came out more like an accusing breath of air. “My brother wanted to kill himself because of you!”
“Yes, that was sort of the idea. Spiral into depression, make a Deal with Dante, and inevitably turn you into the weapon that we knew my brother was planning all along. For the wrong reasons, of course, but effective to our cause nonetheless. My power was strong enough to hide my true identity from Dante as well as Wrath. I purposely crossed paths with that stupid wolf and let him rip my vessel to pieces. Not the most pleasant sensation in the world, mind you.”
Cate gave a casual sigh as if recalling a bad date.
“Have you ever tried to dig your way out of a coffin buried six feet under ground?” she asked. “Not as easy as it sounds. But it would take more than an abomination like Wrath to kill me. But I digress. It wasn’t until very recently that Dante has suddenly become much more powerful. Always when he’s close to you, Monica. Makes it all the more evident that you truly are the vessel to restore my brother to the throne.”
“That’s not happening!” said Lucifer. I almost forgot her stub of an arm was around my throat until it began trembling. “When I kill Monica, you’ll have nothing! I’ll be of no use to you!”
“Don’t be silly,” said Cate. “You have no choice in the matter, Pride.”
“My name’s not Pride! It’s Lucifer!”
Cate laughed out loud. “You’re not even a real Demon. You’re just a fragment of my brother. A Remnant. How dare you consider yourself worthy of my father’s name.”
Slowly, Cate approached Lucifer and me. All humor vanished from her expression.
“Here’s what’s going to happen,” said Cate. “You are going to release Monica. She is going to stab you with that Dagger so she can absorb your lifeforce. And then, having contained all seven Remnants inside her vessel, Dante will possess her and his soul will be made complete. Then the real Metamorphosis will begin. Together, they are a hand in a glove. Dante will once again be restored to the glory of his inheritance. All of you pathetic lesser beings can consider yourselves lucky to be a part of the legacy.”
“That is not happening!” Dante snapped. “Nobody is touching Monica!”
“You, Brother, do not have a choice. You forget that I’m stronger than you. If you refuse to possess Monica, then I’ll just have to make you. Until you receive the Remnants, you’re just a fly without wings.”
“I’m killing Monica!” said Lucifer. She was wild-eyed, her once-composed beauty now a maniacal frenzy.
Cate inhaled and exhaled deeply. “Let me spell this out for you, pathetic Remnant. If Monica stabs you with that Dagger, you will not die but continue to live through Dante. Sloth and Envy willingly submitted themselves to this honorable destiny. But so help me… If you kill Monica, you are directly violating the will of the Dark Lord. You will suffer eternal torment of the most excruciating degree. Every passing second will become the new worst second of your life. The real Lucifer will see to this personally.”
Lucifer went rigid. I could already feel her grip loosen ever-so-slightly. Just enough for me to breathe comfortably. She was going to do it. She was going to release me.
But only so Cate could force Dante to kill me instead.
“Nobody is going to touch Monica,” said Dante.
Cate gritted her teeth. “I swear, Dante if you—”
Her threat fell in midair. Nobody had noticed until now. Dante was standing on the very edge of the Gateway to Hell. His dress shoes jutted unstably over the pit’s ledge.
My heart stopped—dangling precariously on the edge of endless oblivion.
“Dante…” said Cate. She raised her hands cautiously. “What are you doing?”
“You’re going to let Monica go with me, Hecate. Or I’m going to jump.”
“Don’t be stupid, Brother. You’re not nearly Demon enough to survive Hell anymore. You’d be just like all the other human filth that gets sucked into the abyss. Even Father might not be able to rescue you from that. It would destroy you.”
“That’s the idea,” said Dante. He inched even closer over the edge, his dark hair flying in the blaze. “So what’ll it be?”
Dante’s plan was desperate. Where would we run? Was it even possible to hide from full-fledged Demons like Cate and the armies of Hell?
As much as I wanted to hope, deep down, I already knew the answer. There was no running or hiding from these monsters. They would catch up to us eventually. I would die for the sake of turning Dante back into a monster.
But what other options did we have?
If only Lucifer could loosen her grip on me. Just enough for me to break free and stab her while the others were distracted. Of course, I would have to kill myself immediately after… But Dante and I already acknowledged that this was the only true solution to the problem. As much as he refused to admit it, I knew, deep down, he knew it.
But if I killed Lucifer, would I still be able to kill myself? Dante had pointed out that once I had absorbed the energies of all seven Remnants, they would awaken and I would be beyond saving. If that was the case, then I might not even be in control enough to kill myself.
My heart sank into its own abysmal hell—a cold, dark, meaningless void in my chest. It was beyond hopeless. I couldn’t even die on my own terms.
My head fell.
That’s when my eyes connected with the tip of the Demon Dagger. It wasn’t just pressed to my chest. It was directly lined up with hole I had stabbed in Asmodeus’s cheerleading uniform.
The hole I made when I impaled Asmodeus and Beelzebub together like a Demon shish kebab.
Realization dawned.
This was it. This was my one and only chance to make things right. I wasn’t any bigger than Asmodeus. And even though I couldn’t use my werewolf strength to drive it through, Lucifer’s heart would be a much easier target than Beelzebub’s.
The pain had subsided in my forcefully clasped fist. The bones in my hand had already healed. Beelzebub’s healing power…
“Dante,” I said. I realized this would be the last time I would say his name. “Don’t jump.”
Dante glanced up. Judging from the sudden concern in his arctic gaze, he seemed to sense something catastrophic in my tone.
“I need you…I need you to save my family,” I said. My voice faltered under the gravity of what I was about to do.
“Monica…?” The fear was late reaching his voice, but I saw it in his widened, horrified eyes.
A single, hellish tear burned as it trickled down my cheek. “I love you.”
I plunged the Demon Dagger straight through me. Into Lucifer.
It was so easy. Like the blade knew what it needed to do.
36
Dante Versus Hell
My world disintegrated.
This was worse than Hell. This was worse than being the embodiment of evil.
This.
It was pain beyond fathomability. And endless sea crashing down on me with no hope of ever breathing again.
I watched the life drain from Monica’s eyes. Lucifer became a hollow, charred corpse behind her. The blade connecting them illuminated blue; it transferred Lucifer’s Demonic energy. The Fallen Angel crumbled to ash.
Monica collapsed in her remains.
The encompassing Demons watched with empty, black eyes. Speechless. Utter dismay. But they could never comprehend the measure of my catastrophe. Not the least of which, Cate. Even with her eyes were so wide, they could have rolled out of their sockets.
Reality stabbed me in the heart and twisted its cruel blade.
“No!” I screamed.
I bolted from the ledge. To Monica’s lifeless form. Her body was draped in an awkward position, arms and legs flailed out like a ragdoll. A pool of blood expanded around her. It darkened as it seeped through her bed of ashe
s. Her vibrant red fanned around her head in a halo. Her pure, beautiful eyes… They were still open. Staring lifelessly through me.
“No…” I said. I couldn’t fight it. The sea crashing down on me, suffocating me, was now spilling out of my eyes. “Please, god, no. Don’t die. Please don’t die.”
I delicately lifted her limp body in my arms. As if I could cause any more damage. And then I lost it. My head feel in the emptiness that was her body. I sobbed miserably into her lifeless form.
She was dead. The one and only good thing in my pitiful fucking existence. Gone.
A deafening screech resonated from the depths of the Gateway. I blinked away my tears. I recognized that sound. All too clearly. It screeched again but this time closer and with the resounding volume of a volcano.
Hell Hawks.
Fire erupted from the Gateway. A monstrous winged creature swooped up into the wide open cavern. Flaming barbed wings reached a nearly thirty-foot span. Its haunches were tucked close to a smoldering emaciated body. Curled talons were ready to rip and tear. A long forked tail looped and dangled beneath. Most intimidating of all, however, was its face: a long wormy neck leading to a thick rounded beak of a mouth with crooked razor teeth splintering out in all directions. Nearly a dozen unsymmetrical eyes stared hungrily down on Monica.
“You stay the fuck away from her!” I said.
The Hell Hawk screeched again—to nearly deafening proportions. There was no skin to restrain its gargantuan mouth from opening nearly 180 degrees, hissing with two forked tongues.
I was so preoccupied with its mouth, I didn’t see its tail coming.
The flaming appendage hit me like a scalding pan in the face. The blinding impact sent me sprawling backwards.
I groaned, struggling to regain my bearings.
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