by P. K. Tyler
The flesh of his arms showed through the stony armor, his suit of gravel disappearing as it occurred to him that, if they couldn’t hurt it in its ethereal form, perhaps the demon couldn't hurt them either. They were at a stalemate, but it wouldn't last.
Elemiah spoke and her voice, in this place, sounded more like Ma's, to Nik's surprise. "Keep your defense up, Nikolai. Every time you face a demon, keep that shield up. Even when you're battling outside this realm. It helps you more than you know."
Nik wanted to ask what she meant, what purpose his ability to close himself off from the people around him could serve, but his attention was pulled to the darkness of the room thickening toward the center, shrinking down and quickly into a mass of solidified night. It jerked hard and far to the right. It was like a ping pong ball as it solidified and Anahita chased it mercilessly.
But no sooner than she seemed to have it cornered, a tendril snaked out beneath her and touched on a dark corner, joining with it, growing larger. The darkness shifted faster than Nik could track it and the corner's darkness grew.
From the inky void of a corner across the room, a boiling rumble began like molten lava gaining momentum, preparing for an attack.
"What the ever-loving fuck is that?" Nik asked.
One thick-scaled, claw-tipped arm slammed the ground in front of the shadows. Visible waves of heat and darkness billowed out from that stomp and flung the angels back.
Anahita and Elemiah solidified as they hit the wall, then landed on their feet. Seeing them in their true forms, both younger versions of the women who sacrificed their lives for them, was like a sucker punch to Nik’s gut. He could only imagine how Vai felt.
Anahita's eyes glowed a fierce yellow. She crouched slightly, the muscles in her arms tensed as she balled her hands into fists.
Elemiah stood to her left.
Both women focused their gazes on the coalescing shadows. More importantly, on the spiny snout that protruded from the shadows. Scaly lips pulled back to reveal elongated teeth, each easily as big as a human arm.
The liquid rumbling intensified and the dragon opened its mouth and turned toward Nik and Vai, embers glowing in its throat and tumbling up and out of its mouth.
CHAPTER SIX
Zeph pulled the car onto the gypsy land and Asmodeus immediately knew he shouldn't be there. The camp practically glowed with ethereal energy. He hadn't seen that level of angelic activity since the crusades, when he'd inhabited the body of a blood-thirsty Moor and skewered so many of God's warriors that Lucifer himself had congratulated him.
"Mama, what's wrong?" Belial asked beside him.
"Shh now, little one, we have to be strong," he whispered with Adel's voice.
"Why do you keep talking to that thing?" Father Zelophehad, Adel's brother, asked from the front seat. "I don't understand you Adel, one minute you're hard as rocks and the next you're cooing at whatever that thing is."
Asmodeus felt Adel's indignation, her rage, her swallowed pride. Her soul had seduced him as effectively as he had seduced hers and he longed to care for her, to protect her. He tightened his hands into fists and clenched his teeth, reminding himself that he couldn't reach forward and rip the Priest’s spine out through the back of his neck. Not yet.
The whole point of this trip was to find out what he was up against and keep Belial safe until he could take his rightful place on the throne next to his father. Belial would rule over Earth as Lucifer did over Hell and together they would pull down the pearly gates and rule Heaven as well.
"It's just a baby," Asmodeus spoke as sweetly as he could manage. "He's scared. I don't see any sense in making him more frightened.”
"We're almost there."
They drove further into the woods and Belial whimpered and clutched Adel's clothing.
"I don't like it," Belial squeaked out in his tiny child's voice.
"I'll keep you safe." Asmodeus tried to reassure him with an arm around his small shoulders.
The boy began to shake and, as they pulled into a clearing, Asmodeus was overcome with the bright angelic presence surrounding the space.
Fuck.
With Angels on site, there was no way he would be able to keep the possession of Adel a secret or keep Belial safe. He'd counted on the Sin Eater not registering his presence, focusing instead on Belial, which would give him the time to kill the bastard Nikolai. The Sin Eater would be out of the way and Belial would be able to feed on his corpse, making him powerful.
The angelic aura over the camp increased. No human would be able to see it so he grited his teeth and tried to remain neutral, but Belial's whimpering turned into cries and black tears ran down his cheeks.
"What's wrong with it?" the priest demanded from the front seat.
"He's just a baby, he's scared."
"I'm scared."
For a moment, Asmodeus was impressed by the priest's honesty. Most humans hid their true emotions and that small lie alone was enough of an opening for demons to slip in and possess. Zeph, although rough around the edges, had an honest, open soul.
Inside him, Adel's heart warmed to thoughts of her brother. She did truly care for him and Asmodeus knew that it would be hard to kill him with her feelings affecting him so strongly. Perhaps there was another way. Perhaps the brother could be brought into the fold. He just had to find the man's weakness.
Nik...
"Hey, Zeph?"
"Mmmhmmm?"
"You still haven't told me what happened with Nik the other night."
"Really? You want to talk about this now?" Zeph's voice was strained and Asmodeus knew he was on the right track.
"I'm just trying to be a good sister." He shrugged Adel's shoulders and met Zeph's eyes in the mirror for a moment.
Zeph sighed and relaxed his hold on the wheel. "There's nothing to tell, Adel. I'm a priest."
"You still have feelings."
"Feelings that have no place in my life. I serve the mercy of God, not my own heart."
"That's kind of sad." Asmodeus pushed, hoping to see how deep the crack in Zeph's resolve went.
"Nik would say the same thing."
"But he'd use the word 'fuck' at least seven times while doing so."
Zeph laughed and his shoulders relaxed. The priest was no doubt imagining the other man and how true those words were. "There's a lot of history there," he finally admitted.
"I know." Asmodeus used Adel's softest voice and reached out to place a hand on Zeph's shoulder. A sign of solidarity, permission to confess his sin.
"It's not that I don't care about him. I do. But this world he fights in, it's terrifying, and I have to stay strong for him and all the people he fights for. God needs me to be his pillar, so I am."
"You really love him."
Zeph made a sound that sounded more like a snort than a response and Asmodeus knew he'd found the chink in the priest’s armor.
"If you feel so strongly about him, why are you a priest?"
"Adel, I don't really want to have this conversation right now. We're driving through the middle of nowhere with what could well be the Anti-Christ snuggled up to your side."
"When else should we talk about it?"
"Never?" Zeph's sarcasm dripped over the seats and Asmodeus smiled.
"Never? That kind of denial isn't healthy."
"Will you drop it?" Zeph pulled the car into a clearing and the ethereal light blinded Asmodeus. Belial began to wail.
"What's wrong with it?" Zeph stopped the car next to a red Challenger parked in front of a house.
"I don't know," Asmodeus pulled the child up onto his lap.
Belial wailed in pain and burrowed his face against Adel's breasts. The angelic light must be torture for him. Asmodeus could feel its effect himself, but he was older and stronger, he knew how to guard himself against trickery and witchcraft. That's all this was, another Sin Eater ploy. Angels wouldn't leave their heavenly lock house to come to Earth, and even if they would, where would they find a vessel who
remembered the old ways?
"Maybe he's hungry." Zeph opened his car door and the scent of feathers assaulted Asmodeus' nose.
The angels were here.
This changed everything. The chances that he'd be able to kill the Sin Eater just plummeted. If there were angels here, even just one, he wasn't certain he could take them on alone. Asmodeus didn't lack for confidence, but he hadn't been in a real battle in hundreds of years. And Belial hadn't grown into his strength yet. He needed to buy them some time.
"Maybe," Asmodeus agreed, looking up at Adel's brother. "I'm worried about how Nik is going to react to the baby. Do you think it would be better if I stayed here while you filled them in?"
"Why?"
"Nik strikes me as a kill first, ask questions later kind of guy and we don't know these people."
"Are you worried about that thing?" Zeph slammed his door closed and opened the door to the back seat. He bent down and stared into his sister's eyes. "Look at it! It's huge!"
Belial whimpered against Adel. His arms wrapped around her neck and his face tucked against her neck. Even sitting down he was almost as tall as her.
"He's scared." She smoothed a hand down Belial's back. "Let me just sit out here with him for a minute so he calms down."
"Shit," Zeph said before standing up and running a hand through his hair. "Shit!" He yelled, kicking the back wheel of the car.
Belial whimpered again and tightened his hold around Adel's neck.
"You aren't making things better," Asmodeus hissed through his teeth.
"What's wrong with you? Why are you in there holding it like some puppy we found on the side of the road? Give him to me." Zeph reached a hand in to grab the boy.
Belial flung himself back against the other car door and bared his teeth. His pupils flashed red and black replaced the whites of his eyes.
"Fucking Hell!" the priest swore, snatching his hand back. "Fine. You stay here. With that thing. Whatever. Just try not to let it eat you." He slammed the door closed and walked up to the house.
Asmodeus watched as Zeph knocked on the front door. While they waited, Belial calmed some but didn't return to Adel's embrace. Instead he sat on the seat, looking more and more like a sullen preteen by the moment, with his legs against his chest and his arms wrapped around them.
"I don't like him," the boy said, black intent dripping from his voice.
"We are conflicted about that one." Asmodeus confessed, feeling a softness for the priest which he knew stemmed from Adel's love of him.
"He isn't very nice."
"He's afraid, he may yet be convinced of our greater purpose."
"Perhaps. The others inside will not be so easily swayed." Belial’s voice cracked as he spoke and the boy scowled. "And I am not fond of this size."
"You will be grown soon. Patience."
Zeph turned back to Adel with a shrug and a hand held out with a single finger up asking her to wait.
Asmodeus smiled and nodded.
As soon as the priest disappeared inside the shabby house, Asmodeus pushed open the door.
"Where are you going?" Belial asked, releasing his legs. His eyes widened and the black drained away, leaving behind only a scared young boy with big, ice-blue eyes.
"I'm taking you away from here. That light you see, the one that hurts your eyes but which fades away when you try to look at it? That's the aura of an angel. We aren't strong enough to fight them yet. You need to grow into your power and we need the support of my legions." He held the door open and reached in toward the boy with Adel's manicured hand. "Come."
Belial took the offered hand and crawled out of the car. "Where will we go?"
"Far enough away that we will be safe while we regroup, but close enough we can return and kill them all."
Belial smiled, "I look forward to meeting the Sin Eater. And eating his heart."
CHAPTER SEVEN
Elemiah and Anahita advanced on the demon, but it turned on Nik and Vai first, the easier targets.
The shadows surrounding the dragon seeped into its hide and the beast roared as a shudder passed through it. The glowing embers in its throat burst into gouts of flame, spraying toward Nik and Vai.
Nik hoped his rock solid armor could hold up under the heat. He spun and wrapped his arms around Vai, dropping the armor just on his arms so he wouldn’t hurt her. He shielded her as much as he could.
She screamed as the flames hit Nik. Time paused. The skin on the back of his arms felt flayed, hot and cold at once. Blisters bubbled up only to pop and char as the fire chased a path along his flesh. It seemed alive, burning his body even as it crawled along his flesh to get to Vai.
The flames reached around Nik to lick at her face and shoulders.
On instinct, Nik spread his arms wide and stepped back. He prayed, truly prayed, for the first time in his life, for enough strength to keep the fire from consuming Vai. He had no hope left to save himself.
The flames died out almost immediately and a cool wave enveloped Nik. The strength left his body and he collapsed in a heap on the floor, screaming when his burned arms made contact with the ground. He struggled to get them out from under himself, and laid flat on the ground, turning his head to check the position of the angels and the demon dragon.
Vai crouched between him and the fight.
Anahita stared down the beast and shrieked a battle cry. She held her arms out to each side, parallel to her body. As she spread her arms wide, a white-hot ball developed in the air before her. It radiated the same blue-white heat Dika had used to heal Ma, but this time Nik could feel its deadly intent.
Anahita turned her wrists and opened her hands so that her palms faced the demon, then pushed.
The ball of flames hurtled toward the demon and struck it in the side.
The dragon roared in pain and indignation, scales crisping and falling off only to crumble to ashes the second they hit the ground.
Elemiah raised her hand and summoned her own light. A jagged shaft of ice appeared, hovering over her head until she reached up and grasped it. A line of energy, blue and crackling, twisted up through her hand, and up her arm. The line continued through her body.
Elemiah called out, "Hellbeast!"
The dragon turned its giant head, opening its maw to gather another fireball.
Elemiah threw the shard of ice into its mouth with enough force to lodge into the back of its throat, the tip shooting out of the back of the dragon's neck.
The demon reared up on all fours and crashed back down, thrashing and whipping its spiked tail around.
Vai dove out of the way, coming to lay next to Nik on the ground.
"Vai, move!"
His cry was weak, adding to his fear, and too late.
She hadn’t escaped the demon’s reach. The tail hit her in the side and wrapped around the front of her.
She stiffened and grunted, eyes squeezed in pain, but didn't cry out. Behind her, the demon regained its feet, only to drop onto its side again, flinging Vai against the wall behind Nik.
She landed with a sickening splat.
He was too weak to do anything more than pick up his head and turn it. She lay inches away from him, within reach were he able to move, but his own beaten body screamed in agony when he tried.
Vai lay still. He couldn't even see her chest moving with breath.
"Vai." His voice came out in a whisper he barely heard himself. He tried again, murky darkness seeping in around the edges of his vision. "Vai," he thought he managed to say, but wasn’t quite sure if the echoing in his mind had been said out loud.
Anahita lunged at the dragon, vaulting onto its back.
Elemiah brought her hand around and made a fist, forming a shard of ice with the motion, shaping it into a sickle.
The younger angel’s hands glowed with her white-hot light as she pressed them against the back of the demon’s neck.
It cocked its head back and bellowed in pain.
Elemiah raced forward and sliced in
to the demon’s throat with her curved, icy blade.
Molten lava poured forth from the wound and she leaped away, Anahita following her to stand between the demon dragon and Nik.
Darkness blotted out the world around him and he thought of that summer day with Zeph long ago. It was selfish, he knew, but he would spend his final moments in a world where he and Zeph could just be.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Hand in hand, Asmodeus and Belial made their way through the woods. The moon shone down on them, illuminating the way forward through the bush. They passed through another clearing filled with mobile homes and small trailers. Children's toys littered the yard as did cars in various states of disrepair.
They snuck around the edge of the clearing, avoiding the windows of the sleeping gypsies within. A few lights remained on and Asmodeus could hear people shifting in their sleep.
"I'm hungry," Belial said as they walked past a trailer which smelled like youth and virginity.
"Not yet, my love. We can't let them know where we are."
The boy pouted but continued on.
In the darkness, a dog began to bark and the rattle of a chain filled the air.
Belial looked up at Asmodeus and pleaded with his eyes.
"Go ahead," the demon said, unable to deny the boy such a simple pleasure.
Belial stalked forward, his young body stealthy. He crossed the yard without making a sound. In the darkness, his red eyes glowed and, in his hunger, blackness reached out to cover the whites of his eyes.
Step by step, the boy approached his target with intensity.
Asmodeus followed, keeping a safe distance away to allow him to work without interference. How would the boy fare? Would he live up to his potential already?
A growl began deep in the dog's belly, low and feral. The beast knew what came toward him even if he didn't understand it. Its approach was the precursor to his death.
Belial slunk to the ground, his body growing even as Asmodeus looked on. His arms lengthened and his legs shifted, allowing him to approach the dog on all fours. His movements were smooth and sensuous and Asmodeus felt a tingle of desire.
