Death's Widow

by Lori Aisling

  Jeremiel began to weep, unashamed as his eyes filled and spilled down his cheeks, “May The Lord bless you, for I have never witnessed such selfless devotion. This day will not be forgotten and I swear to you, we will atone for our lack of commitment to our roles. I knew the bond was powerful, and I envied you and Cal, but I honestly don’t know if I will ever deserve it.”

  Before anyone could speak further, I squared my shoulders and looked back at Lucifer, “Give your terms, Satan. Now, in front of these witnesses.”

  “You will maintain your realm and your role as Death. I will never impede your responsibilities to the souls, but you will spend one week a month with me, here in Hell. You will give your body to me to do with as I please and you’ll accompany me on my duties, like you did during your last visit- I rather enjoyed our time together. You will not be a slave, but you will comply with our agreements with no hesitation. The term will be 200 years.”

  “One hundred,” I countered.

  “One hundred fifty, and I will not be swayed for less. We are Timeless, after all. One hundred and fifty years is but the blink of an eye. Admit it, darling, we get along quite well. In time, you might actually like this arrangement,” he cooed, a wicked smirk pulling at his lips.

  “I have one condition: Should Callon be returned to his rightful position as Death, my agreement with you will be immediately nullified, regardless of whether he would still desire me or not,” I choked, “I will no longer be beholden to you.”

  “So if we find Callon alive, I get nothing, even though it was I who saved the factions? How do I know you aren’t trying to trick me? After all, you have been steadfast in your belief that he lives.”

  Tears continued to burn my eyes and race down my face, but I was becoming numb as the truth of my loss and the ramifications of what I was about to do set in. Turning around, I pulled up my shirt to expose my back.

  Whistling through his teeth, I felt Lucifer’s finger lightly trace my spine and I fought the urge to recoil from his touch. “Ok, Death, you have a deal. I’ll sign, but I admit, a part of me wishes this would have turned out in his favor.”

  When I turned around, a parchment floated in the air between us. Calligraphy branded itself into the page and I carefully read every word. Luc didn’t used any tricky lingo, or try to grant himself any kind of ‘loophole’ in the contract; it was exactly as we discussed.

  Bile rose in my throat with the thought of giving my body to any man other than my mate, but saving the factions was indeed saving humanity and Callon’s words in the last letter he penned to me flashed in my mind: Regardless of what occurs, always remember the souls are innocent; they have no one except you to fight for them. This would be my testament to my mate, proof of my devotion. It was all I had left to give.

  Luc pulled a slender dagger and ran it down his palm. Blood pooled and he snagged the quill from the air where it floated next to the deal he just stuck with Death. He signed with a flourish before presenting the quill to me. I held my hand out and felt nothing as the knife parted my flesh. Dipping the quill, I looked once more at Jer and Metatron. They stood in utter disbelief, staring in horror at what I was about to do. “You will both bear witness and sign this, correct?” I asked.

  “I...I don’t want-”

  “I didn’t ask you what you wanted, Jeremiel. This contract requires two witnesses. If I can give myself to Satan for one hundred fifty years to save the afterlife and all the innocent souls who would be left in limbo should you fall, you can damn well sign the fucking thing! Do I make myself clear?”

  The two men nodded, shame soaking the air around them. Lucifer tossed them the knife and Metatron caught it, holding my eyes as he drew it across his hand. I looked at Lucifer and he smiled, nodding at the document. “Let it be known this was your idea, Death. You asked, you accepted. You are not a martyr in this deal.”

  Trying hard to control the panic threatening to overwhelm me, I signed my name to the page, and I couldn’t deny the feeling I just betrayed my deceased mate. Lucifer hissed through his teeth, his eyes consumed with flames. “You are mine, Amara Rush. By your own free will.” Leaning close, he whispered, “completely off the record, I would have settled for one hundred years.”

  Sobs erupted from my chest as Luc motioned to the two other men. “Sign it and let’s get on with it. I need to release the hounds. Let Lue run with them, Death. After all, this will again be her home- at least part time,” he chuckled.

  With Hell’s legalities out of the way, the Devil became all business. “Once the dogs are loosed, it should not take them long to find such a large concentration of angelic grace, they are trained to sniff it out. They will be brought here for the hounds to withdraw the toxin, I will not allow you to remove them from my watch. The other matter we must address before dispatching our pesky little sister is this mysterious spell which allowed her to siphon away Callon’s strength. It shall be destroyed to avoid this issue from rearing its head again in the future. Can we all agree on that?”

  The three of us nodded, still mute from the stress of the entire situation. We silently followed Lucifer to his kennels where we were met by two dozen hellhounds. Lucinda reacted to their presence, she was happy to reunite with her littermates and her extended family once again. Luc wandered throughout the pack, whispering commands and words of encouragement.

  A huge, solid black hound with three heads approached him and the Devil dropped to one knee before the massive beast. Looking into the creature’s eyes, I watched the communication running between the two males. The dog seemed to understand everything, even nodding his heads before Lucifer rose to his feet.

  “Let them work. I will know when they have found what they seek and we will respond. While we wait, I would like you to tell me what transpired after you left my prison. I gather you fought Ariel, and from the sheer number of souls you sent to me, plus the condemned who were eradicated, I assume it was quite the onslaught. How was she not strong enough to overwhelm you with sheer numbers combined with Callon’s strength?”

  “She made the mistake of sending her legion into my realm. I’m sure she thought she would be stronger there as well, since she held Callon’s power. However, his strength did not combine with hers. It isn’t at all like the bond- it was as if she were only injected with his essence. Once I was able to grasp onto it, with Lucinda’s help, I was able to pull it from her body and she fled.”

  “And that is when you realized this ‘essence’ was more than just power. It was him?”

  “Yes. I could feel him, Luc. I could sense him around me, touching me, whispering to me. I know what it was- it was my mate telling me goodbye before he became one with his realm. He’s gone.” I choked on the last two words and clenched my fists to help hold myself together.

  “You will have your revenge, Death. Today will be the day you remove her from existence and erase her permanently. I know it feels like a hollow victory now, but in time, you will be able to appreciate your selfless offering to humanity. We all have our roles to play in the great design, and whether others like it or not, we are all necessary. Ariel has stepped outside the definitions of her duties and in doing so, forfeited her own life. This is not all on you.”

  “I don’t care if it is, history can remember this however it deems relevant, but I will never regret pulling her apart, piece by piece.”

  “Hmm. When you say things like that, Amara, it reminds me exactly why I signed a blood contract with you. You are vicious in your justice, as we all should be. Moving for- wait.” He paused, a vacant look on his face. “The hounds have found the angels. It’s time to go.”

  Wasteland

  The four of us stepped onto the barren, heat soaked dirt of a destructed realm I had never seen. It was immediately obvious it had, at one point, been a mighty metropolis. Crumbling skyscrapers obstructed the view as far as the eye could see. It was unlike anything I ever envisioned. “This is what an abandoned world looks like? This housed hundreds of millions of souls
at one point, it had to,” I gasped, in awe of the great city.

  “Yes, it was once a mighty civilization, greater even than the one you hail from now. It reached a saturation point and the residents began to turn on each other. Wars, disease, and pollution began to slowly decimate the population. When the water became too foul to drink, and the soil too depleted to grow food, the citizens died off quite rapidly. It was a tragic time for the souls, to be sure,” Jeremiel explained.

  “I remember this one,” Metatron mused. “This is the same place the diseased rats came from, remember that? Ariel was so furious The Lord would not allow her to relocate millions of plague-ridden rats which removed a large percentage of the populace. He told her they needed to perish with the realm. She didn’t take ‘no’ for an answer and brought all those filthy vermin to the halls of Heaven.”

  Lucifer laughed as he began to walk towards a towering building to our right. “I remember that as well. I got a great laugh over it, but then again, I didn’t have to live with millions of diseased rodents shitting all over my countertops, either.”

  “It was disgusting,” Jer said. “Thinking back on it now, we totally should have known Ariel was going to finally lose what was left of her sanity; she has been against the Timeless and mortals for longer than I care to remember.”

  “Oh, without a doubt! She wasn’t even dragging a full chain before I ever fell to Hell; the only thing saving her all these millenia was her role: her insanity was dismissed as true dedication to her duties. Tell me, Death. Did you realize it was her only after she appeared in your realm?”

  “I actually never saw her when she sent her army to my door, she was too far away. I knew it was her based on the facts we gleaned and one statement you and I overlooked in your prison.”

  Lucifer stopped and spun around to look at me. “Explain further, what did we miss?”

  “I was trying to figure out who would want the souls if there was no afterlife to care for them and assist them to their next cycle since it was obvious whoever it was figured out a pretty good way of destroying the factions, and was succeeding. I realized it must be someone with no care or dedication to humanity: Ariel. The next clue was pulling in assistance from both The Light and The Dark. Knowing the lower ranking Timeless in Heaven were disgruntled about their lack of ability to progress in rank meant they must have been offered an opportunity to rule outside of The Lord’s current system, meaning no loyalty to the Timeless of The Light: Ariel. When I viewed your memories of your interrogation of Belial, the lieutenant and keeper of the prison, his final words should have given it all away, but we misunderstood him.”

  Lucifer’s brows drew together as he recalled the scenario. “I told him he would see how weak the Widow was. That you would kill him and I would watch. Then he said you would redeem him.”

  “No. That was the error of our misinterpretation. He said ‘she will redeem me’. He meant-”

  “Ariel.” All three members of our party responded in unison.

  We trudged through the wasteland, climbing over twisted metal and broken glass and soon the haunting sound of the hounds could be heard. Judging from the vicious tone of their bays, they were fighting something. We increased our pace, following the cries of animals meeting their death.

  Rounding a corner, Lucifer stopped suddenly and I ran squarely into his back, falling onto my rear. Metatron reached down and grabbed my arm, yarding me to my feet while staring in amazement at the scene before us.

  The hounds were in a circle, their tails together, and were fighting off a mass of creatures. Some of the animals I recognized: panthers, tigers, even a huge grizzly bear, but others were unknown to me. Many were quite large and reptilian in nature. Hundreds of them surrounded the hounds and were doing their best to find an opening to pick off the massive dogs.

  Lucifer pulled two long daggers and flipped them in the air, catching them by their handles as he raced into the fray to protect his beloved hounds. The two archangels at my side were quick to follow, instantly manifesting their golden swords. I pulled my scythe, wondering if The Beginning ever thought it would be used to fight the living animals of the realms.

  We waded into the fight and it was clear the mortal animals were no match for the hounds of hell and four Timeless. They began to fall quickly, some choosing to flee back into the wreckage of the ruined city. Blood and fur soaked the littered ground, and our clothing, as we fought. Jeremiel began to stomp his feet and I saw the rats he was aiming for as they tried to jump onto him and climb his legs.

  Lucinda broke free of the pack, on her way to my side when she saw me, and she finished off the rodents so determined to torment The Angel of Hope. I felt her buzz of excitement and love when she flanked me and I returned the feelings of acceptance and loyalty. I loved her, and even if I was going to have a rough go for the next one hundred and fifty years, at least I would have her with me.

  Hearing a high-pitched scream, I looked up to see my archrival, the destroyer of my happiness, taker of my life. Ariel. The tiny angel flew toward me, her golden sword aimed at my face, a blood-curdling battle cry ringing my ears. Her face was twisted into a mask of hate and rage, her eyes focused solely on me. I braced myself, I would destroy this bitch, but I couldn’t kill her yet, we needed answers.

  Metatron took the shot when it was presented. The furious angel was so focused on me, she never saw her brother’s sword reach through the air piercing her shoulder, sliding all the way through. He held her at arm's length, her cries of pain and rage never ending.

  Lucifer grimaced as he walked up to the petite blonde who caused so much malcontent. “Shut the fuck up, you crazy bitch!” he yelled as he backhanded her. She spit blood at him and screamed again, thrashing around on the end of the sword.

  “Allow me,” I said stepping into a punch that threw Ariel’s head to the side, her teeth splitting her lip wide.

  “Very nice,” Lucifer praised as he ripped the arm off of his shirt. “I can’t handle that piercing scream along longer. Christ, it fucks with my equilibrium,” he said as he gagged the angel. “Let’s find the others, and The Lord, and get this over with. I can feel they are close. All this grace is making me queasy.”

  Satan whistled and the large, black hound raised his three heads and took off at a quick trot into a nearby building. Metatron tossed Ariel over his shoulder and we followed the dog through a maze of twisting hallways designed to bypass the collapsed ceilings and unstable walls. Ending in a large conference room, I heard Jeremiel suck in a breath. In front of us were thirteen stainless steel tables, the missing archangels and The King of Heaven laid out and tied securely on each platform.

  “Someone could seriously knock me over with a puff of breath right now, I swear,” Lucifer chuckled. “That tiny, insane imp was able to best not only Heaven’s leader, but the lion’s share of its most powerful warriors. I strongly suggest you rewrite the story books concerning this chapter in history, boys, because frankly- this is embarrassing.”

  “Hey, you don’t have room to talk,” Jer piped up. “Have you seen Hell lately? I mean, yeah, it's a shithole, but the entire place is demolished and on fire, Luc.”

  “Touché, brother. You have a point. So we are in agreement: this will never be logged in our archives. Good.” Lucifer walked to the first table and began to cut the binds holding The Lord. Calling his hound over, The Devil communicated his wishes to the beast and after a short pause, the dog’s viper sank his fangs into God’s neck. “I would rather get started on this now; with my entire kennel in attendance, we can double up on some and maybe get them milked of the poison before we are done with Ariel. No offense, but I really don’t want to babysit a bunch of archangels in Hell.”

  Metatron, Jer and I started on the other end of the room, ripping the restraints holding the other angels. Lucifer’s hounds began to arrive, and one by one their vipers began pulling the toxin from the victims. As happy as I was to see none of them appeared fatally harmed, I couldn’t help but not
ice my mate was not in this room. I knew he was dead, but I wanted to see him, his vessel. No, I needed to see him. I needed to hold him one last time and tell him goodbye.

  I walked across the room to where Metatron wedged Ariel between two collapsed beams, using the sword as a brace to keep her from escaping. She looked at me, her eyes filled with intense loathing. “Where’s my mate?” I snarled. She sniffed and looked away, as if I were of no importance. Reaching down, I jerked the gag out of her mouth and repeated my question. When she chose to continue ignoring me, I kicked her hard in the side, feeling the toe of my boot snap several ribs in the dainty angel. When she began to scream, I squatted down in front of her and grabbed her face with one hand and a handful of hair in the other. “You’ll stop fucking screaming, or I swear to God I will beat every fucking tooth out of your head, and then I will proceed to break every bone in your body. When that’s done, I will begin to pick at your essence just like you did with Callon. I will pluck your fibers apart until there is nothing left of you. I will never tire of your suffering, and only God will know how long it will be before I’ll release you from my torture. Do you understand me?”

  “Do what you will, Widow. Your mate is dead, and I killed him. Nothing you do to me will bring him back.”

  “I didn’t ask you if he was dead, I asked you where he was. Answer me.” When she failed to respond quickly enough for my liking, I grabbed her hand, twisting it back, breaking two of her fingers. I shoved my palm over her mouth muffling her screams and leaning into her face, I smiled as I felt the familiar tingle of vengeance crawling under my skin. “Where. Is. My. Mate?”

  She threw her head back, her long dreadlocks falling to the side and seeing a mark on her neck, I paused, staring in disbelief. “Luc. Get over here,” I demanded.

  “Yes, dear?”