Devilish Mate: Claimed By Lucifer Book Two

by Briggs, Elizabeth;

  "Any sign of where they went?" Samael asked. "Was Adam with them?"

  "No," Bastien said. "To both your questions."

  I found a half-empty bottle of bourbon and picked it up, downing the last of it, then tossed it against the wall, hard. As it smashed, the sound of glass breaking echoed through the bar. Hellfire danced across my fingers as I gazed across the room. I wanted to burn this entire place down. To make Belial feel a hint of the betrayal I felt now.

  Samael rested a hand on my shoulder. "We'll find them. At least we can take comfort in the fact that Belial won't hurt Hannah."

  Not physically, no. But emotionally? Belial could hurt her worse than anyone had done before. I knew, because he'd done it to me. I'd do anything to spare Hannah that kind of pain, especially when she'd suffered so much already.

  From outside came the sound of a shout and a snarl, and then I caught sight of Callan's brawny frame throwing a large wolf through the already-broken window of the bar. The wolf hit the wall and crashed to the floor, and everyone around me drew weapons and charged out into the night.

  Shifters. I should have known they'd be involved in this too. How unfortunate for them that they'd chosen a really bad moment to pick a fight with me.

  I turned to darkness and flew through the open doors, then reformed outside in the midst of a battle. Giant bears and massive wolves fought in the dark street against my angelic allies, while Kassiel and Olivia took on a group of huge hawks in the sky above us. I unleashed the hellfire that had been simmering under my skin ever since learning of Belial's betrayal, and the air became filled with the smell of burnt fur and the guttural roars and whines of dying shifters.

  Then a black wolf the size of a bus barreled into me, knocking me to the ground. Eyes that glowed like magma stared at me as two massive paws held me down, their burning claws digging into me, ripping my suit. The wolf's black lips curled into a too-human sneer, as he growled, "Submit, Lucifer."

  "Fenrir," I said with a cold laugh. "I'm so honored you decided to leave your little hut in the middle of Montana to come visit me, though your manners could use some work. Then again, that's always been true."

  The Archdemon of the shifters snapped at me with his giant fangs in response, but I blasted him with hellfire and he had to leap off me to avoid it. He landed on top of Belial's bar, so large he took up nearly all of the roof, and as he roared he sent burning magma toward me. I used darkness to smother it, and he launched into the air again. He was so big and fast I barely managed to dodge his massive claws. I flew up high, my wings spreading behind me, and spun to face him. He swatted at me with a massive black paw, and I maneuvered around it, then threw more hellfire at him. He blasted it with magma, and we continued the fight on the roof of Belial's bar and other nearby buildings, seeing who would make a mistake first.

  Fenrir suddenly raised his head and let out a loud howl that rattled the windows of all the buildings on the street and set off a few car alarms. At his command, the shifters darted away on swift paws and wings, carrying their dead and injured with them.

  "Leaving so soon?" I called out.

  Fenrir leaped to the top of another building and snarled at me. "We'll meet again—once Pestilence walks the Earth."

  He launched himself away from me, and I considered flying after him, but I let him escape. We'd have a reckoning later, I was sure of it. Right now I needed to focus on finding Hannah.

  Even though it was the middle of the night, some humans must have seen the battle, because I heard screams and the sound of sirens. Fucking hell. The Archdemons clearly didn't give a shit about hiding our kind from humans anymore. No doubt they thought they would rule over humans like royalty once I was out of the picture. The fools. They ignored the fact that we were greatly outnumbered by humans, and if they banded together against us, it would not end well. For any of us.

  I landed in the street, where the others had gathered, and winced a little. Fenrir's claws had carved two long slashes down my chest, and now they burned like I'd been touched by magma. Some of the others had been injured too, but the attack hadn't been a serious one, or Fenrir wouldn't have abandoned it so quickly.

  At least he'd confirmed one thing—they were going after Pestilence.

  "What was the point of that?" Olivia asked, staring off in the direction the shifters had fled.

  "It was a distraction," Samael said, from where he emerged from the sidelines. "I just got a call from Einial. Shifters destroyed our private jet."

  "They want to slow us down," I said. Belial and the others had to be on their way to Pestilence's tomb by now. He must have kidnapped Hannah because he suspected I'd moved the tomb, and she was the key to finding it. Hannah and I were the only two people in the world still alive who knew where it was. I'd used only humans for the transport to be extra cautious. Not even Azazel or Samael knew the new location. Since Belial took after me far too much, he must have suspected as much. I'd trained him too well, back when he'd been heir to the throne of Hell.

  "I can find us other transportation, but it will take some time," Samael said. "Hotel Immortelle is nearby. We can get cleaned up there while I make the arrangements."

  I nodded as I tore off my ruined jacket, even more angry seeing how Fenrir had ruined my Armani suit. Hotel Immortelle was owned by my company, Abaddon Inc. I hated this new delay, but there was really no other choice but to go there and plan our next move.

  Marcus eyed the thick gashes across my chest. "You should let me heal that."

  "No time," Kassiel said, as the sirens grew louder. "We need to get out of here immediately."

  Everyone in the street looked to me for their next command. I had to make a decision—head to Palestine to the old location of the tomb and hope we could catch up to them—or head to England and try to stop them when they arrived at Stonehenge. If they went to Stonehenge.

  I wrapped darkness around us to better conceal our group. "Head to the hotel, and prepare for a long flight. We're going to London."

  24

  Hannah

  I awoke to a low hum and the feeling of being in motion without even moving, along with the smell of recycled air. I kept my eyes closed rather than alert anyone to the fact I’d woken up while I tried to gather some knowledge about my position. I was on a plane, and when I moved my arms, they chinked softly like they’d done overnight in the desert, so the small silver chains appeared to be back.

  I didn't hear anything else, so I slowly opened my eyes and looked around. I was in the cargo area of the plane, wedged between crates. I stretched out my neck, trying to remove a kink there from sleeping in such an awkward angle as I took in my surroundings. Two armed men stood by a nearby door that likely led to another part of the plane, but otherwise I was alone.

  Belial walked through that doorway with a tray of food in his hands. He set it on one of the crates beside me and then perched on the edge of another one. "Hello, Mother. I’m glad to see you’re up.”

  I stared at him as I tried to work out what to say. The pain of his betrayal was like nothing I'd felt before. Worse than when Jophiel had stolen my memories and my powers. Worse than when Lucifer had taken my life. At least they'd been acting with my best intentions at heart. I couldn't say the same for Belial.

  "Where is Azazel?" I managed to ask. "Is she all right?"

  "She's fine."

  I watched him closely while I spoke the question I was scared to ask. “Are you really working with the other Archdemons? To overthrow Lucifer?"

  "Working with them? No." A dark smile spread across his face, and for a second he looked far too much like his father. "They're working for me."

  Anger warred with disappointment and guilt, and those emotions clogged my throat so I couldn’t speak. How could my own son do this? Was it my fault?

  No. Belial had made his own choices, as he'd always done. I might have failed him as a mother, but I couldn’t take complete responsibility for my son having shed his conscience somewhere during his very long
life.

  He gestured to the food he’d set in front of me. “Eat.”

  “What, and let you poison me?” I pushed the tray away as if to underline my point, but fuck, it smelled good. I was absolutely starving. How long had I been out?

  He frowned down at me, as if our positions were reversed and he was the parent disappointed with a willful child. “Of course not. You’re not to be hurt in any of this.”

  I raised my eyebrows as I cast my mind back to when I’d believed I was human. I could still taste the fear from some of those moments, and it was worse now that I knew he was behind them all. “Oh? What about the imps throwing me off a roof?"

  His face darkened, his eyebrows pulling down into a fierce glower. “They were not supposed to do that, and the ones involved were punished for it.”

  His words confirmed that he really was behind it all from the beginning. "And the gargoyles trying to kill me in Lucifer's library? Or the dragons attacking me in the Grand Canyon?”

  He waved a dismissive hand. "They were merely trying to kidnap you, nothing more."

  “And Adam?” I narrowed my eyes. “You’re working with the man who has killed me over and over. How could you do that? Or is that a detail that you’ve conveniently forgotten?”

  "Sometimes we must make allies with our enemies to achieve our greater goal." He sighed as he leaned back on the crate. "Trust me, I have no love for Adam, but he came to me as Gadreel years ago with a proposal to take Lucifer down. I agreed on one condition—that you would not be harmed."

  I shook my head, still in disbelief, or maybe just not wanting to believe the horrible truth about my own son. I'd thought we were finally connecting. I'd believed our relationship could be salvaged. And it was all a setup.

  "You tricked me," I said, with a lump in my throat. I would not cry. Not in front of him. "You pretended to be kidnapped. You faked our escape attempt. You made them torture you. All to get me to trust you."

  "I'm sorry, Mother. It was the only way. I always suspected Lucifer had moved Pestilence's tomb to keep it safe from me."

  "For exactly this reason," I muttered.

  "Correct. He knows me well." Belial’s tone suggested that I didn’t, and I agreed with him on this one thing. I didn't know my son at all. “My sources told me that only you and Lucifer were involved in the transport, which meant I needed your help in finding it."

  I thought back on everything that had happened the last few days. "How did you know I'd come visit you?"

  “Oh, you’re very predictable. I knew once you were reborn and had regained your memories you would find me and try to make peace with me. You always do. All I had to do was wait for you to be reborn, and for Gadreel to find you. It took longer than I expected, but as soon as he located you, we were ready to act."

  “But why?” My voice cracked. “Why would you do all this?"

  "You mean, why am I trying to take down Father again?" Belial asked. "The same reason I tried before. It's time for someone else to rule Hell."

  I snorted. "And that person should be you."

  "Ideally, yes, but that isn't as important as you might think." He crossed his tattooed arms. "Look at all the democracies around the world. They get new leaders every few years to prevent any one person from becoming too powerful and ruling like a tyrant. Lucifer's held the throne for thousands of years, and the demons are ready for a change."

  "But Lucifer's been a good king all this time!"

  "Has he?" Belial arched an eyebrow. "There are many who would disagree with that. Haven't you noticed he favors the Fallen and has tasked them with keeping the other demons in line? As if demons need to be babysat and corralled like unruly toddlers. Or what of his decision to expel everyone from Hell and force them to live on Earth?"

  "He had to do it to save demons from extinction. The war had to be ended, and Hell had become unlivable."

  "Many of the Archdemons believe otherwise. They wish to return there and begin to rebuild. To create a new world for all demons."

  "And you think they'll let you rule it?" I asked, with a sharp laugh. "Have they failed to notice you're not a real demon either?"

  He scowled at that, as if I'd insulted him. "I have no interest in going to Hell. I plan to rule those who remain on Earth—the Nephilim like me, and those demons and Fallen who prefer to stay here. The Archdemons can fight amongst themselves over how to rule Hell once they get there."

  I could only stare at him in horror. "What happens to me in this grand plan of yours? And Lucifer?"

  "You'll be safe, of course. Safer than with Lucifer, because of the deal I made with Adam. As for Father..." He shrugged, but his eyes were hard. "That depends a lot on him. I don't want to hurt him. I don't want him dead. But sometimes casualties happen in a revolution. If he won't step aside peacefully, he will have to be removed."

  His callous words shook me to my core. Did he truly not care if his father lived or died? Or was this his pride speaking? Of course, he'd tried this once before. The only reason he wasn't on the throne of Hell now was because he'd failed. Back then, I'd thought Lucifer's punishment too harsh. Now I wasn't sure it had been strong enough.

  I straightened up, as much as I could in my chains, and adopted a commanding tone. "Lucifer is my mate, and I am his queen. If you think I'll sit back and let you overthrow him—and possibly kill him—you are sorely mistaken."

  "How can you stand beside him after everything he's done?" Belial slammed his fist on the crate beside him. "I've watched you die so many times. Over and over, for thousands of years. An endless cycle of finding you only to lose you all over again. And it's all his fault. You wouldn't be cursed if not for Lucifer."

  “Belial, no.” My heart ached for all he’d seen and all I'd been powerless to prevent. “You can't blame Lucifer for the curse, any more than you can blame me. It was all Adam’s fault. He's the one who killed me all those times. He put us through all of this. It was his hand, not your father’s. How could you possibly work with him?" I blew out a breath, feeling an urgent need to make Belial see the truth instead of this lie he'd concocted in his head. "You said the two of you made a deal, but just the other week he tried to kill me. Did he mention that to you?"

  Belial's mouth twitched down, but he didn't reply.

  "He also killed your sister." I hadn't planned on telling any of my sons about this loss, at least not yet, when it was still so fresh in my mind, but Belial had to know what type of man he was dealing with.

  "Sister?" Belial asked.

  I could barely get the words out, but I struggled to continue. "In my last life, when Adam killed me, I was pregnant. He took my unborn daughter from me. Your sister. I bet he left that fact out too when you made that deal."

  Belial's jaw clenched. "I had no idea. I'm sorry."

  "Besides, the curse is broken now anyway." I leaned back on the crate behind me, feeling hollow and exhausted after my last confession. "If I die, I die for good. If Adam kills me again, there’s no coming back this time. Do you still trust him, knowing that?"

  My son's eyes widened, just a touch, just enough to let me know this was a surprise to him. But then he recovered quickly and pushed the tray toward me again. "Eat your food. We're going to land in London in a few hours."

  I turned away, unable to deal with my traitorous son any longer. After Jophiel had given me back my memories and I'd learned about the death of my daughter, connecting with my sons had become vitally important to me. Family was everything, I'd realized, and it had become my mission to bring us all together again. Maybe I'd been too optimistic to hope that I could turn us all into one big happy family so quickly, but now I realized there had never been a chance of that. Belial had gone too far into the darkness, turning his back on his family and everyone who loved him.

  "Nobody is going to hurt you. You’re under my protection now." Belial rose to his feet and hovered over me, waiting for me to look at him, but I didn't budge. “And once Lucifer is gone, you’ll see it’s for the best. For
everyone.”

  25

  Lucifer

  The large, gray stones loomed around me, only illuminated by the thin sliver of the moon. I patted one of them with the flat of my palm. They were holding up well, considering the level of interest the humans seemed to have in Stonehenge. Timepiece? Alien stone circle? Who the hell knew what other conspiracy theories they’d cooked up between them. I didn’t care. The more, the better, as long as they didn’t realize I’d hidden one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse in the center of these stones. I was pretty sure that conspiracy theory hadn’t surfaced.

  Not that I'd created Stonehenge, of course. I'd simply needed another ancient place that was heavy with the magic of the Elder Gods, like the Tower of Jericho, to hide all traces of Pestilence's energy and power. When I'd chosen this as the new location for the tomb, hundreds of years ago, I'd had no idea it would turn into a bizarre tourist attraction. Humans really were odd little creatures.

  But perhaps they sensed the god's latent power, deep under the surface. Perhaps they were drawn to it, and that's why they flocked to this place in droves. Over one million visitors a year, or so I was told. I nearly laughed at the thought of how angry that would make Pestilence, if he knew what was going on above him.

  Focusing on my amusement was a good distraction from dwelling on my fear and anger. I'd received word that all my guards at the Tower of Jericho had been slaughtered, but that the attackers had vanished soon after that. The report had no word about Hannah, Belial, or Azazel—or much else for that matter. But Baal had come through and confirmed they were heading to England in search of the tomb, and that Hannah was still alive.

  So here we were, waiting to ambush them. I couldn't decide if I was more angry at the thought of seeing Adam or Belial. All I cared about at this point was rescuing Hannah and stopping Pestilence's resurrection. Damn everything else.