Devil's Conflict

by Percival Constantine

  But this time, Cain grabbed hold of the hellfire. I tried to pull back on it. It wasn’t any use. Cain wrapped more of the whip around his arm, pulling himself closer to me. And then he yanked hard on it.

  I flew forward, falling face-first, my face striking a puddle of muddy water. I looked up as Cain came up to me. He picked me up by the collar of my jacket and held me up to his face.

  “How tough am I?” he asked. “Pretty goddamn tough.”

  He threw me against the wall and then started battering me with his fists. I didn’t know how many blows it took, but after a few of them, consciousness slipped away from me.

  26

  I woke up with sunlight on my face and no idea of how I got there. I sat up and rubbed my eyes, then realized I was sitting on my own couch in my living room. I blinked a few times, not believing the situation. And then I heard sounds coming from the kitchen.

  I instantly got to my feet. I was fully dressed, even slept in my leather jacket. On the coffee table in front of the couch was my revolver. I picked it up and moved from the living room into the dining area, getting closer to the kitchen.

  Someone was in there. I could see a person’s shadow moving around on the linoleum floor. I checked the chamber and saw the gun was fully loaded. I sprung into the kitchen and aimed at my target.

  It was a woman. She gasped when she saw me and a plate fell from her hands, shattering on the ground. There were two fried eggs and three strips of bacon with sliced toast on the plate—now scattered on the kitchen floor.

  “What the hell were you thinking, Luther? Clean that up right now.”

  She had a commanding tone. Long, black hair was tied behind her head and she stared at me with deep brown eyes. Her finger pointed at the food on the floor. But I was lost staring into her face. The face of Grace Cross, the woman who died giving birth to me. She looked exactly the same as in the photographs Alistair had shown me. My arm dropped, the gun slipping from my grip and clattering on the floor.

  “Mom…?” I asked.

  “Who else would be making you breakfast?” she asked. “Certainly not that bitch you’re shacking up with.”

  I went to the closet and took out a dustpan and broom, then started sweeping up the food and broken glass.

  “Celeste probably would’ve done it for you,” Grace continued, “but you made sure to burn that bridge, didn’t you?”

  I emptied the dustpan into the garbage bin and then picked up the gun. But I didn’t holster it. No, I kept it right by my side. Just in case I would need it.

  “This isn’t real, is it?” I asked. “This is a dream.”

  “Of course it is,” she said. “But it’s also so much more than that. I’m here to help you.”

  “You did that once before. In Purgatory.”

  “No, that was someone else. You knew it then as well, or did you forget?”

  I sighed and lowered my head. “So what are you saying? That I can never trust when I see you in my head?”

  Grace smiled and walked over to me. She placed her hands on my cheeks. “Baby, of course you can’t. You live in a world of magic. Everything around you is an illusion. This is something you of all people should know by now.” She pulled my head down to kiss my forehead and then she walked to the counter across from me and started to pour herself a cup of coffee. “Everyone has an agenda. Everyone has secrets. For all you know, right now I could be Asmodeus in disguise. Trying to trick you into telling me what you know about Dakota.”

  “Asmodeus…”

  It was starting to come back to me now. Meeting Cassie and then being attacked by Cain. I looked down at my side and pulled back my jacket. There was a red stain on my white shirt, the spot where Cain stabbed me. I looked up at Grace as she sipped her coffee.

  “What’s going on?” I asked. “Last thing I remember was Cain knocking me out.”

  Grace shrugged. “I know what you know, baby. Since you’re in here with me, I’m guessing you’re still unconscious. Probably tied up somewhere as Asmodeus tries to decide how he’s gonna torture you.”

  “And you could be part of that torture? Asmodeus in disguise?” I asked.

  She nodded.

  “Then why would you tell me that? Why put that idea in my head at all?”

  “Maybe because it’s really me—the spirit of Grace Cross. Or maybe I’d tell you because it would mess with your mind. Now you don’t know whether or not to believe if I’m telling the truth or if I’m lying.”

  I narrowed my eyes. Tried to focus my senses, see if I could suss out what she really was. But I was in a dream state. My powers didn’t work as well in this kind of situation. I had no way of knowing who she really was.

  “So if this is a dream, I have to get myself out of here. Figure out a way to get away from Asmodeus and Cain, before they can find out what they want to know.”

  I left the kitchen and went through the dining and living room, down the corridor to the front door. I opened the door, but didn’t see the hallway in front of my condo. Instead, what I saw was a wall of fire. And within those flames, I could see figures writhing in pain and agony.

  “Some doors just shouldn’t be opened, Luther.”

  I turned around. Grace stood at the end of the corridor, leaning against the wall, coffee mug in one hand, the other draped across her stomach. I closed the door and stepped closer to her.

  “You’re talking about the deal I made with Lilith,” I said.

  She looked away from me. I could see the hurt in her eyes. Like I’d betrayed her somehow. “You didn’t know your father.”

  “Didn’t know you, either.”

  “No, but you knew enough to paint a picture of me. Alistair knew me, he tried to help me. He told you everything he’d learned about me. So you’ve got a pretty good idea of the person I was.” She sighed. “But Abraxas—your father—he was a monster. So seeing you embrace that side of your heritage so fully—sacrificing your humanity, using the very stone he created, and becoming a Hell Lord? Baby, that was wrong on so many levels.”

  “I did what I had to do,” I said. “I’d just escaped from Purgatory, I wanted to be free of all this. Needed to make alliances to see to it I was protected.”

  “And how’d those alliances work out for you?”

  I scoffed and turned back to the front door.

  “Sorry, I didn’t catch that,” she said. “How’d they work out?”

  “I did what I had to do.”

  “Yeah, and because of that, now you’ve got nothing,” said Grace. “Celeste wants you dead. Tessa and Wayne only helped you because of their own code of ethics. Lilith is pissed at you for shirking your responsibilities. And now you’ve got both Asmodeus and Cain teaming up to torture and kill you. Oh, and in the process, the first nephilim born in centuries is going to fall into the hands of Thanatos. And the girl you were committed to protecting? The one you helped because she reminded you of me? She’ll be killed. Just like I was. And that child will grow up to bring terror on this world. Just like you’re doing.”

  I braced my hands on the wall and lowered my head. Closed my eyes and just tried to tune everything out. Escape the dream. I’d much rather have Asmodeus and Cain torturing me with red-hot pokers and rusty knifes than be made to stand here and get talked down to by a ghost.

  “I’m doing whatever I have to,” I said.

  “No, you’re not,” she said. “You know what you have to do. You have to stop with this bullshit, Luther. You keep thinking in binary terms. Heaven or Hell. Angel or demon. Human or monster. Good or evil.

  “These words are meaningless. You’re the product of two worlds. Yes, you’ve got a dark side. But that doesn’t have to control you. Abraxas may have given you a power that comes from darkness, but you also have a soul—a human soul. That’s what I gave you.”

  “And what exactly are you trying to say?” I asked. “That letting the darkness take me over, that’s something that can be reversed?”

  “There’s good in y
ou, Luther. Purgatory corrupted you, brought out the worst side of you, allowed your darkness to come to the fore. The good’s still there, though. You can be brought back from the edge. You need to be willing to take these steps, to accept that you’re going to have to make some unorthodox alliances. You can’t face this alone, not anymore. You need people in your corner who can open doors closed to you. But to do that, you have to first become whole.”

  I suddenly felt there was something in the front pocket of my jeans. I reached down and pulled out a card. The last of the tarot cards Cassandra showed me—DEATH. I had to change, that’s what I was being shown here. Changing meant I had to undo what happened in Purgatory.

  I reached for the door handle again. This time, when I opened the door, I didn’t see flames. I walked through the door and into a darkened room. So dark that I couldn’t see anything around me. No walls, no ceiling, I had no concept of up or down.

  I walked in darkness for what felt like an eternity. I could hear voices echoing all around me, begging me to turn back. There was something inside me, trying to keep me from continuing forward. I actually stopped a few times on the walk and had to push myself to press on.

  When I let the demon out, I locked away another part of myself. I embraced the darkness, allowed myself to be consumed by it. And now, as I kept walking, I finally saw a sliver of light in the distance.

  I ran towards it. I pumped my legs as hard and as furiously as I could. And when I finally reached the end, I saw what I was looking for. What I had tried to lock away.

  I finally arrived at the sliver of light. It was a door, and the light was coming from the other side. I felt along the surface for the handle, and once I grasped it, I opened the door and stepped inside.

  I was in a room with mirrors for walls. As I walked past the mirrors, each one showed a distorted reflection. Most were like what you’d expect in a fun house. But then I saw other reflections—reflections of my soul. I saw myself as a demon with horns protruding from my head, my teeth sharpened into fangs, my eyes burning with more intensity than ever before, my goatee forked, and my ears pointed. It was like a caricature.

  But then I came to another mirror. This one showed a completely different reflection. It was me—more like who I was before. The reflection wore a black, custom-tailored suit with a bright, white shirt and silk, red tie. He adjusted his cuffs as he came closer to me and then removed his sunglasses to reveal brown eyes. I’d expected them to be red, except I supposed this made more sense. This was the dichotomy—the demon and the human.

  “So,” he said, clearing his throat. “Looks like you really fucked up, Luther.”

  “No need to be so blunt, Luther,” I said. “I was trying to look out for myself.”

  “At the expense of others. And now I have to clean up your mess?”

  “No.” I shook my head. “Now we have to clean up our mess. We can’t keep being at war with each other, man. We’re a cambion, we’re always going to be part-monster and part-human. Long past time we stopped fighting it and started using it to our advantage.”

  He sighed. “I don’t know if I can do that. After the things you’ve done, the mistakes you’ve made, how can we go back to being one?”

  “We can’t, but it’s not gonna be like it was before,” I said. “From now on, we have to start working together. I’m willing to try, if you are.”

  I placed my hand on the mirror. He stared at it from the other side. His face tightened and he drew in a breath, holding it for a moment before exhaling.

  “I can’t do this without you,” I said.

  He lowered his head with a sigh and gave an apprehensive nod. His hand slowly rose and he placed it on mine from the other side of the glass.

  One by one, the mirrors all around us shattered. I felt an odd sensation go through me. I didn’t know how to describe it, other than to say it was a warmth. And for the first time in months, I felt like I was whole once again.

  There was one mirror left. I was still dressed in the leather jacket and street clothes, but the demonic features were gone. All save for one—the glowing, red eyes.

  And then, that mirror shattered, too.

  27

  Consciousness came back to me via a slap so strong, I thought it might knock my head off. I tasted copper in my mouth and spat blood on the concrete floor. I turned my head and saw Cain standing over me. I tried to move my hands, but they were bound.

  I was suspended upright, chains wrapped around my body, tied to something behind my back. My senses were dulled and I knew why—the chains were iron. Capable of inhibiting magic. I looked around the room. Up above was a skylight, and I saw the blue sky and clouds above. Judging by the position of the sun, I’d say it was around nine in the morning.

  I realized what it was I was in—an empty swimming pool. I was chained to one of the ladders. Almost the entire room had floor-to-ceiling windows. I recognized the skyline just past the windows as well as this room.

  “Edgewater Medical Center,” I said.

  “Good eye, Luther.”

  Cain and I both looked to the third voice. I saw Asmodeus walking up to the edge of the pool, dressed in a dark, crimson suit and with Iblis standing by his side. Asmodeus hopped into the pool and walked up to me.

  “In the late eighties, a businessman bought this property, forcing the center to pay ludicrous rent,” said Asmodeus. “Doctors and staff were encouraged through cash kickbacks to commit fraud against insurance companies. Recruiters would go out into the city, finding people to fake symptoms. Drug addicts, people who couldn’t speak English, the poor—they ‘hired’ them, paying them in food, money, and cigarettes to fake symptoms. Several patients even died from unnecessary heart surgeries performed for the sole purpose of billing insurance companies.”

  “I can see why you’d like it,” I said. “Thought it was supposed to be demolished.”

  “Oh, it’s scheduled to be. But you know, these things take time. Legal red tape and all that. Until then, it does serve my purposes quite well.”

  “See you’ve been making new friends,” I said, looking at Cain.

  Asmodeus smiled and patted Cain on the shoulder. “Yes, he’s been quite helpful, hasn’t he? Amazing how a mutual hatred of you can bring two people together.”

  “If you think I’m telling you anything—”

  Asmodeus chuckled. “Luther, you don’t understand how this works. Yes, I could have Cain here torture you with the most inhumane treatment imaginable. He knows how to do it while still keeping you alive for days. And with my powers, we could keep you alive even longer to keep it going for weeks, months, even years. But I’m not going to do that.”

  “So what are you going to do?”

  “It’s a trick you’re very familiar with.”

  Asmodeus stepped up to me so our faces were inches apart. He placed his hands on the sides of my head. His fingers gripped tightly, like they were about to start burrowing into my skull. He stared at me, his yellow eyes burning bright.

  “Show me your dreams, Luther. Show me what’s inside your head.”

  I tried to lock him out. Keep him from entering. Bastard was so powerful, he didn’t even need to perform a ritual to get inside. The world started to spin, my vision going in and out of focus. I tried to remember everything Alistair had taught me, tried to keep Asmodeus from stepping into my mind.

  I screamed. The world popped back into focus, except now I was lying on my back, looking up at the skylight. The sun was gone and it was night again. No chains, either. And I was alone.

  Once I stood, I climbed the ladder and exited the pool. I could see the skyline and stepped up to the windows. The sky was blood-red and the city was being consumed by flames. I put my hand up against the glass and felt it was cold to the touch, like ice.

  I’d seen this once before, when Alistair tried to enter my dreams. The image kept haunting me. A reminder of what would happen if I didn’t play my part in the game.

  I heard laughter ec
hoing from all around. I turned, trying to follow the bouncing sound, but saw no one. Asmodeus was taunting me. I had to find a way to get out of here. Way to do that was to try and find doors. Problem was, each door I went through had a fifty-fifty chance of either being a path to escape, or a path deeper inside my thoughts. And with Asmodeus in control here, there remained the possibility that I’d inadvertently lead him right to the secrets he wanted.

  There wasn’t any other way out of this, though. Like it or not, I’d have to take that chance. Otherwise, I’d be trapped in here forever. What I had to do was force Asmodeus into a confrontation. That was the only way I could get him out of my mind and then wake myself up.

  I’d still have to deal with not only him, but also Cain and Iblis in the physical world. But I’d cross that bridge when I came to it. One step at a time.

  I went to the door, but when I gripped the handle, another thought came to me. Doors led to other areas, but they weren’t the only way to do it. I looked over my shoulder at the large windows. It’s sometimes said that you’ll wake up if you die in a dream. But it’s also said if you die in a dream, you die in the real world.

  The Death card kept flashing in my head. Maybe that was the way out of here. I ran towards the window and jumped, crossing my arms in front of my head. The glass shattered and I was suspended in the air for a few moments over the city.

  Gravity took hold and I dropped. The pavement rushed towards me. Nothing had changed yet. I fell faster. The street had come closer. And then I started to think that this was probably not the best idea I’d ever had.

  I gasped. Opened my eyes, but saw nothing except darkness. This wasn’t like before, though. I felt like I was inclosed in something. I tried to move around and found it was difficult. I held up my finger and concentrated.

  “Lux.”

  A small orb of light appeared on my fingertip. Just enough light so I could see where exactly I was. I saw white lining all around the enclosed area and I realized now where I was.