Cipher: A Demonica Underworld Novella

by Larissa Ione

  “Well, you both look amazing,” she said. “I’m so glad you got a chance to call.”

  “I just wish you were here.” Cara sighed. “I miss having you around. Maleficent misses you too. She’s been searching the island for you, and she won’t stop whining.”

  Guilt and sorrow made Lilliana’s heart clench. Poor Mal must feel so abandoned. “Maybe you should send her here. I’m sure Azagoth will be okay with it. It’s not like hellhounds don’t haunt the Inner Sanctum anyway.”

  “You sure?” At Lilliana’s nod, Cara continued. “How are things going with Azagoth? I’ve been dying to know what he did when he saw you.”

  “I thought he’d be angry,” Lilliana said. “But he understood why I left and why I didn’t tell him I was pregnant.”

  That wasn’t entirely the truth, since they hadn’t talked about it yet. Azagoth hadn’t brought it up, but he’d also been really busy. The talk was coming, and she knew it.

  “So what was his reaction when he first saw you?”

  Lilliana’s cheeks burned. “He was, um, shocked...”

  “And then..?”

  “And then he flew me up to the balcony and tore my clothes off.”

  “He did not!” Cara laughed. “Wow. That sounds deliciously scandalous and totally like something Ares would do after not seeing me for nine months. How does he feel about the baby?”

  Lilliana heard the thud of footsteps behind her and knew it was Azagoth. Her bodyguard stationed outside the door would never have allowed anyone else inside. A heartbeat later, Azagoth’s deep voice echoed through the room.

  “I can’t wait for our son or daughter to arrive,” he said, as his hands came down on Lilliana’s shoulders.

  She reached up and laid her hand over his. He’d been so affectionate and attentive since she’d been back. Even better, he’d been open in a way he hadn’t been even before his emotions had gone out of control.

  “Well,” Cara said, “I’ll let you two spend some time together.” She wrinkled her nose. “I think someone needs a diaper change anyway.” She glanced at Azagoth and laughed. “I just pictured the big bad Grim Reaper changing a nappy. That’ll keep me in a good mood for the rest of the week.” She waved. “Talk to you later!”

  After the screen went dark, Lilliana spun in her chair to face Azagoth. He looked so handsome in casual clothes, his black jeans, charcoal Henley, and combat boots giving him a relaxed air that no one would mistake for anything less than lethal danger.

  “This was a nice surprise,” she said. “To what do I owe this visit?”

  “It was time for a break and I wanted to see you.” His deep emerald eyes grew serious. “I think it’s time to talk.”

  Oh. She hadn’t been looking forward to this. At all. “You want to know why I didn’t tell you I was pregnant.”

  He sank down on the chaise lounge she used for reading, his legs spread, his forearms resting on his knees. “I know why you left, but I don’t know why you kept this from me.”

  She fidgeted in her seat as she thought about what to say. It was weird; every day while she was in Greece she’d prepared for what she’d say to him. Went over and over it in her head. And now she was drawing a blank.

  “I guess...” She inhaled, bracing herself. “I guess at first it was just too soon. I wanted you to sort out your issues without having anything else to think about. So I decided to tell you when I started showing, but every time I talked to you, I just...couldn’t. You were so worried about all your children. So many were in danger, and then you said we were never going to have one together...I got nervous.”

  He sat in silence for a long moment. “I remember that,” he said quietly. “Maddox and Emerico were being assholes, and then Meera was killed.” His voice went low, taking on a smoky tone. “It was a bad day.” He reached over and took her hand. “But I was wrong. There is nothing I want more than you and our child in my life, and I swear to you, I will do everything within my power to make sure you’re both safe.”

  “I know,” she said. “And I know someone murdered one of your young sons inside Sheoul-gra, and you’re freaked out. But is the bodyguard really necessary? You said yourself that the murderer had to be a fallen angel, and you kicked all of them out.”

  The only fallen angels who remained were his trusted assistants and their mates. A handful of Unfallen remained as well, but again, they were the ones who had been with him for years as they tried to work their way back into Heaven, and that wouldn’t happen if they were killing his children.

  “I won’t take any chances with you.” His words were clipped, forceful, and she knew arguing was pointless. She wasn’t going to win this battle, and ultimately, having a shadow wasn’t too annoying.

  “Okay.” Resolved to her fate, she squeezed his hand. “For what it’s worth, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about the baby. But,” she added, “I don’t regret leaving. I needed to go. And you needed it too.”

  A low growl rattled his chest. “I fucking hate that you’re right.”

  She laughed as she brought his hand to her lips. This had gone better than she could have even hoped for. “Why don’t you take the rest of the day off? I can fire up the chronoglass and take us someplace warm and sunny and private.”

  “Maybe later,” he said, shooting her a playful wink that spoke volumes about his mood. Usually his brand of playful was the cat-toying-with-a-mouse variety. “I have some VIP souls coming in.”

  “VIP souls?”

  A shadow flickered in his eyes and he smiled, a morbid, malicious smile that sent a chill down her spine. “Sons of Moloc and Bael. Princes of their territories.”

  She gasped in disbelief. “What? How? Did you send griminions for them?”

  “Griminions only reap souls. They don’t kill.” His smile grew even darker. “I sent souls from the Inner Sanctum.”

  This time her breath clogged in her throat, trapped there momentarily by the intensity of her shock. “Isn’t it forbidden to release souls if they aren’t reincarnated?”

  “It’s not forbidden if Heaven doesn’t find out.” She could argue that it was still forbidden, but his phone beeped, and he dug it from his pocket. “You disapprove?”

  “No, of course not,” she said fiercely. “Moloc and Bael are monsters who had your children murdered. Their sons are fair game.” She paused. “They are evil, right?”

  “What is it Journey says? Mucho evil? They’re that.” He grinned at the phone. “They’re here.”

  “What are you going to do with them?” As if she couldn’t guess. He was going to play cat and mouse.

  “Do you really want to know?”

  Not really, but Azagoth’s secretive nature was one of the reasons she’d left, and during the months when they’d spoken via Skype, she’d made clear that while she didn’t need to know gory details, she didn’t want to be “protected” from what he truly was.

  “I assume you’re going to torture them into telling you why their fathers are killing your children.” At his nod, she asked, “Do you have any theories?”

  “I suspect they’re plotting a coup and want me to play a role in freeing Satan and destroying Revenant.”

  Well, that wasn’t cool. “What are you going to do if you’re right?”

  “The same thing I’ll do if I’m wrong.” He shoved to his feet and pulled her with him. “No matter what, Bael and Moloc are going to die.”

  * * * *

  It sucked that destroying souls came with a cost, but fortifying Satan with a drop of strength was a price Azagoth was more than willing to pay today. Bael and Moloc’s sons had been monsters, but more than that, their darkness would return to Satan, and that bastard would know Azagoth was responsible. It was a message of sorts, a fuck you that could only be better if Azagoth had destroyed Satan’s offspring instead.

  An hour later, Azagoth was still burning a serious soul-destroyer high as he entered his library, where Hawkyn was pacing a hole in the floor while waiting for him.
>
  “I heard from Cipher,” Hawk said before Azagoth had even shut the door.

  “Heard from him? You were supposed to kill him.” Hawkyn was lucky Azagoth was in a good mood, because he really, really wanted Cipher dead.

  Hawkyn held out his phone. “He sent this. I think he was in a hurry, but I got the gist.”

  The list is out. Save the kids. Bael is after Memitim.

  Azagoth rolled his eyes. “He’s evil, son. You can’t trust him.”

  “You’re evil too,” Hawkyn pointed out.

  “Exactly. I will fuck over anyone who gets in my way or who tries to harm what’s mine. I will lie, cheat, and kill. There is no line I will not cross. Do you not think Cipher would do the same?”

  “He hasn’t been a True Fallen for long. He’s not lost to us.” He took his phone back and scrolled. “He also says he thinks he can bring down the wards that prevent griminions from entering when he takes out the security system with the bug Journey planted.”

  He hadn’t known about a security system bug, but it didn’t really matter. The wards thing was curious, though. Bael and Moloc’s ability to keep the griminions at bay had meant that no souls had been reaped from their territories in decades. Not even the souls Azagoth had released from Sheoul-gra to grab the fallen angels’ sons had been able to enter. They’d had to take the males while they were fucking around in other regions of Sheoul.

  “When can Cipher do this?” Azagoth asked.

  “I don’t know. I’ve tried contacting him, but he’s not replying.”

  There was a tap at the door, and Z’s voice boomed from behind the thick wood. “I just got word that Reaver and Revenant are on their way.”

  Before Z even stopped talking, Azagoth’s bones vibrated like a tuning fork, and a blast of nuclear energy slammed into him. They were here. Fuck. He wasn’t in the mood. He was never in the mood when it came to dealing with those douchebags.

  “I’ll go.” Hawkyn beelined for the door, anxious to either miss Reaver and Revenant, or to get away from Azagoth before he told him to kill Cipher again. Maybe both. “I’ll let you know if I hear from Ciph.”

  He whipped open the door, and lo and behold, the Prince of Heaven and the King of Hell were standing right there in the doorway.

  They exchanged brief nods, and then Reaver and Revenant strode inside.

  “Well, well,” Azagoth said. “If it isn’t the Wonder Twins.”

  “The what?” Revenant asked.

  “A brother sister superhero team from Saturday morning cartoons,” Reaver explained. “Back when I was Unfallen, Wraith made me watch a lot of those things.”

  “That’s cool,” Revenant said. “We didn’t have fun shit like cartoons in the part of Hell where I grew up.”

  Reaver shot his brother a look of exasperation. “You just can’t let that go, can you?”

  Revenant shrugged in his black leather duster. “It’s still a sore spot.” He plopped down in the overstuffed chair by the fire.

  “That’s my seat,” Azagoth said. “Move.”

  “Whatever, Sheldon.” Holding up his hands, Revenant scooted to the couch. At Reaver’s quizzical expression, Rev shrugged again. “I like sitcoms. Sue me.”

  “Are you two done?” Azagoth asked. Talk about exasperation. “Maybe you could tell me why you’re here?”

  Reaver turned to him, his body taut, his expression serious. “I’m here to warn you not to push the boundaries of your limits, which were agreed upon in the Sheoul-gra Accord.”

  “What he said.” Revenant kicked his booted feet up on the coffee table, as relaxed as Reaver was strung tight.

  “This must be serious if Heaven is sending its most powerful angel and Sheoul’s overlord.”

  Revenant barked out a laugh. “Heaven doesn’t send me anywhere, Soul Man. I’m here because this concerns my realm too.”

  The fire in the hearth snapped and hissed as Reaver waved his palm over the flames. Did he notice that the fire burned hot? It had been cold for months, its flames pale blue, reflecting Azagoth’s heart while Lilliana had been gone.

  He hated that his environment was so connected to his moods, that he could be so easily read by those with an observant eye or half a brain.

  Reaver turned away from the fire. “You released souls into Sheoul,” he said, getting right to it. “The Angelic Council is apoplectic. So we’re here to tell you to knock it the hell off.”

  “Fuck the council,” Azagoth growled. “Bael has been killing my children. I have the right to defend my family.”

  “Only within the confines of Sheoul-gra.”

  Azagoth gave a bitter laugh. He’d been stupid to agree to such restrictive rules. “What would you do, Reaver? What would you do if Bael killed Limos? Or Logan? Or any of your children or grandchildren? Would you sit around in Heaven and do nothing, simply because you signed a piece of parchment? You, who haven’t followed a rule...ever?”

  “There’s not a rule I wouldn’t break for my family,” Reaver said.

  “But you can’t be all blatant about it,” Revenant broke in. “If you’re going to do the revenge thing, use your griminions. No one would know. But man, you release souls, and it sets off seismic alarms.”

  “I don’t really give a shit about the souls.” Reaver shoved Revenant’s feet aside and sat on the opposite end of the couch. “The Angelic Council needs to chill out. But Bael...he can’t die.”

  “Oh, he can die,” Azagoth promised. He would die. Soon.

  “I mean that he needs to stay alive.”

  As if that was going to happen. Still, he should probably know the reasoning behind Reaver’s ridiculous announcement. “I give. Why should Bael keep breathing?”

  Reaver looked troubled. “I don’t know.”

  “You don’t know?” Azagoth stared at the angel. “Then why the fuck—”

  “The Moirai summoned him,” Revenant announced in a bored tone, as if the Moirai, legendary angelic seers who weren’t allowed to speak to anyone except in the most dire of circumstances, had casually asked Reaver to tea.

  Hell, until now, Azagoth had actually suspected they were a myth. Sequestered angels who lived on another plane and in all timelines at the same time? Yeah, bullshit.

  Except, apparently, it wasn’t.

  “They see instability in the current timeline,” Reaver said. “They stressed that Bael’s demise would cause even more destabilization.”

  “And why do I give a shit about the destabilization of a timeline I know nothing about and that clearly favors Heaven in the Final Battle and beyond?”

  “I’m wondering the same thing, bro,” Rev said. “If something’s good for Heaven, that means it’s bad for me.”

  “Not when we have a common goal, and that’s to keep Satan from winning the Final Battle.”

  “Yeah, well, I don’t give a fuck what your Fates have to say.” When Reaver cursed, Azagoth held up his hand to stay the lecture. “Take it easy, Halo. Bael doesn’t have to die for me to get my revenge. I can keep him alive and in agony for all eternity.”

  Revenant stood, a big grin on his face. “I knew I liked you.”

  Azagoth looked between the two. “So are we cool?”

  “Yeah,” Reaver said. “But watch it. I don’t give a shit what you do, but I have to be the bad guy when the Angelic Council gets a bug up their collective asses.”

  “Come on, bro.” Revenant opened the door. “I’m jonesing for a burger.”

  Reaver was all about a fast food lunch, and they got out of there without so much as a goodbye.

  The moment they were gone, he called out, “Lilli? I know you’re there.”

  The hidden panel at the back of the library slid open, and a sheepish, gorgeous, pregnant angel stepped out. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to eavesdrop. I slipped away to see you and heard you guys talking.”

  “You just felt the sudden need to use the secret passage to come to the library?” He gave her a don’t bullshit me look. “You were ditc
hing your bodyguard, weren’t you?”

  She had the good grace to blush. “Maybe.”

  She walked over to him, her hands on her belly. Beneath her palm, the baby moved, and when he reached out to feel the movement, his heart stuttered at the instant connection that formed between him and the child.

  “Is Grim Junior talking to you again?”

  He cocked an eyebrow. “Grim Junior?”

  “Do you hate it?”

  “Yes.”

  Her laugh filled his office and his heart. It was so good to have her back. “Guess we should talk about names then, no?”

  “Soon,” he promised. “I’ve got a lot to do right now.”

  “Revenge does take up a lot of time, I suppose.” She glanced at the door Reaver and Revenant had just gone through. “They seemed to want to put a damper on your plans to get it. What are you going to do?”

  “What do you think, my darling?” He palmed her cheek and stroked her smooth skin with his thumb. He’d never take touching her for granted again. “I’m going to ignore everything they said and kill Bael, of course.”

  And he dared Heaven to try to stop him.

  Chapter Sixteen

  The antechamber outside Bael’s great hall was freezing. Not that Lyre experienced cold the way humans did, what with all the teeth-chattering, hypothermia, and death. But it was still pretty uncomfortable, and when combined with the terror of what might lie ahead, she couldn’t help but shiver.

  Bael had made her wait out here for almost twelve hours. Cipher’s fate was still unknown. The one bright spot in the day had come when one of his minions had brought news of his son’s death at Azagoth’s hands. Bael’s roars of fury and his murder of the messenger had given her the most pleasure she’d experienced in a long time.

  Finally, the great hall’s massive doors opened, and Bael’s Ramreel guard gestured for her to enter.

  She did her best to control her breathing, her pulse, and her sweat glands as she walked across the floor, her boots cracking down on the bones and teeth set into the umber tiles.