I despaired. What fucking use are these powers if I can’t save my friends?
I dipped my head close to Tanya’s ear. All this time I was fending off demons, keeping them at bay, but I only had eyes and ears for our wonderful, perfect warrior.
“Be at peace, my favorite Hawaiian girl,” I whispered. “We will save our planet. We will save it for you and for everyone that died today.”
I heard the last of her breath exhale and then turned my weeping eyes to Lysette.
It was a heartrending vision. The attack had been devastating. She’d been stabbed through the stomach, the thigh, and her left eye had been taken out. Although the demon had been killed, the damage it wrought still remained. Leah had been standing right next to Lysette and had even been instrumental in saving her from the demon.
Then she tried to save our leader’s life.
I saw the latter part of it. Lysette’s wounds closed and Leah stemmed the flow of blood. She took the pain away for Lysette and healed her wounds. She flooded her veins and body with strength and life, but she couldn’t save her eye.
There was nothing left to save. It had been destroyed in the attack. Lysette climbed to her feet and wrapped a black scarf around the missing eye. Then, she jumped back onto the bed of the truck and once more manned the gun.
Bravery upon bravery. This was what humanity was all about. Perseverance, an unyielding spirit. That will to say: We will not give in today. You face a defeat, or a loss and you keep going. You fight. You survive. You come back kicking.
Belinda was at my side. She pulled me up, away from Tanya and pointed out the burning fires around Caesar’s. “We’ll fight for her right there.”
But as I looked around, as I took in the surrounding scene, I saw that the end was upon us. The attacking horde had divided us into groups within our own ranks and were picking us off. We were in our final stand, our last hour. There was no more forward movement from our floundering army.
Above, came a momentary hope. An F22 swerved around the flight of one of the dragons and came in underneath, banking around the turrets of the Excalibur, dangerously close to the ground. It tilted its nose up and unleased every missile it had left into Beelzebub’s belly.
The demon screamed, in feral pain, and then split apart in the air. I saw the head go down into the New York-New York rollercoaster and the tail whip off across the street into a row of shops and restaurants. Baal reacted badly on seeing his cohort killed. He smashed face-first into the F22, sending it spiraling out of control, then whipped around to face the onslaught of our two remaining F16s. It was then I saw even more incredible heroics. One of the pilots flew straight at the approaching dragon, waited for its mouth to open, and ejected. The plane flew on, straight down the demon’s fiery maw and into its belly where it exploded. Baal fell apart and splattered from the skies just as the pilot’s ejector seat drifted over the interstate.
The aerial battle was won. We had one F16 left. We had three helicopters left.
The ground battle was lost. I saw men and women on their knees, corralled into groups, killed and set alight. I saw demons capering and dancing on their dead bodies. I saw another battalion of horned demons marching into the fray, spears held high, banners flying. The Dino Hunters and their colleagues had been immobilized and were fighting for their lives.
No future for you.
No future for us.
Where were the new Chosen? Perhaps they were all dead too. The Devil still held sway in Vegas. We hadn’t even touched his inner sanctum, his pit. And the hellgates were still operating, still belching out foul fiends by the dozen. I guessed that I was within a five-minute walk of Caesar’s, but that only made our loss worse.
But I was beside Belinda, and Lucy now made her way back to us. We wouldn’t go down without risking it all.
Lysette drove up beside me. Ceriden hung onto the side of the truck, almost depleted. Tanya lay on the floor to our left. Natalie lay just behind me. Leah, so drawn and exhausted she could barely walk, headed over to Ceriden. We were here at the end of everything.
“Never let it be said that humanity didn’t try its very best,” I said.
The fiends of hell swarmed at us.
CHAPTER FORTY THREE
We reeled under their onslaught. We were swept away, separated, kicked to the ground and then kicked again. It felt like hundreds of bodies swept over me, ignoring me at first and then stamping or stabbing down at me. I rolled, I kicked out, I shielded myself with my power. I hit a raised curb with my forehead and felt blood flow.
Somehow, I managed to rise amid the black tide.
All around me it flowed, made up of dozens of different demons. There was the sound of rushing feet, of grunting, of bloodlust, of death. I stood in a cocoon of power, fending off strike after strike. Ahead, the way to Caesar’s was now clear, confirming that this was Satan’s last horde. To the sides, black demonic shapes filled my vision until I saw nothing else. Behind, several thousand men and women prepared to die well.
Lucy and I blasted the demons apart, but always there were more. Lysette entered our heads, whispering that this was our very last chance. Combining our powers might sweep this army away, but it would almost certainly kill us.
I looked over at my daughter. Above all, above the blame she adopted for her mother’s disappearance, above her willingness to court danger, above the fact that she was now a vampire, she remained my daughter. I caught her eyes then and we really looked at each other for the first time in a while. She was Lucy again, my baby, my world. She was the sum total of my life. I felt the tears mist my eyes and then I nodded.
Lucy smiled back at me and there was a brightness to that smile that swelled my heart. I was whole once more. My daughter loved me. She nodded and I sent my love to her and I felt a power gathering in my chest the like of which I’d never felt before. It was the greatest and most powerful act my daughter and I could ever do together. I now realized we were chosen to act as guardians, and then to die as heroes. All of us.
We built our power. We molded it. The forces of hell sliced, snapped and snarled all around us. The remaining F16 and the helicopters depleted every bullet and missile they had left into the demonic mass.
The last moment was upon us.
I breathed out, ready to die with my daughter, ready to give everything so that earth and humanity would have a last chance. But then, right then, something changed.
A sound rang out, the silvery peal of a horn. It was one single blast, but I and every other person on the battlefield heard it too. The demons heard it and hesitated, lifting their snouts to the sky. Such a strident, clear toll could only belong to something good and true. Something incredible.
I looked around, seeing nothing. I scoured the street with my eyes but saw only demons clutching their weapons, looking unsure. Trees crackled with flame, and restaurants and bridges burned.
A second high-pitched chime rang out. It was beautiful to my ears, but it made the demons clutch their heads and snarl in pain. Then I saw something approaching, something wonderful.
They came in droves, in streams, in a sparkling mass, and both Amber and Jade were at their head, riding huge magnificent horses, alongside a fine-boned, strong-looking, blond-haired woman. They carried swords, shields, spears and maces, they were clad in shining chainmail, and they numbered in their millions.
Millions.
The blond leader sounded the horn again and again as the army attacked. She rode her horse, swung her golden sword, and her blaze of glory was a trail of death for our enemies.
My eyes could barely keep up as they swept toward us, a swift, immaculate tide of the Old Ones, united to save their planet. They surged through demonic hordes, striking and slaying and, as they came closer, I saw they possessed a corporeal quality, like ghosts. They struck and could not be struck. They killed and could not be killed. They were no longer of this world, but they could strike out in it. A swelling, glowing army ran and rode up Las Vegas Boulevard, fil
ling it from side to side, pouring up the sides of buildings and the Stratosphere itself, wiping out every evil being in its way. It was an unstoppable tide, a never-ending force for good. Horns pealed and trumpets rang, and cheers sounded as this voiceless, nameless army of heroes cut our enemies apart.
I fell to my knees, letting my gathered power flow out of me, surrounded by glory and shining warriors. Amber and Jade cantered up on pure white thoroughbreds, swords in hand, gold and green eyes flashing, their faces bearing the smiles of victors.
“Well met,” I said.
“We came as fast as we could,” Amber said, stroking the neck of her horse. “The Old Ones took some convincing, but it was Eva that changed their minds.”
I looked up, holding my breath. I was suddenly pretty sure I knew who this was.
“I am Eva,” she said. “The Mother of All Living Things. I could not let humankind die and see us enslaved in the end.”
I nodded, not trusting myself to speak. The Old Ones were cleansing the streets, sweeping them clear so that our army was all that remained. Amber looked down at me expectantly. I smiled and nodded.
And then she and Jade, on their horses, led the Chosen and the army of humanity en masse toward hell’s last bastion. We were going for the Devil.
CHAPTER FORTY FOUR
The Devil reclined upon his throne, staring expectantly at Lilith. He’d waited to corrupt her for seventeen years. He’d just told her it would have to happen now so that she could prove herself, and then they would end humanity’s last hope of ever killing him – which meant they would destroy the Lionheart blade and kill its wielder together. Lilith switched her gaze from her father’s evaluating stare to Emily Crowe’s harsh sneer and then to Ken’s open face.
“Isn’t corruption a lengthy process?” she asked.
The Devil grinned. “It has to start somewhere and when it does there’s no going back. You can’t unsee. You can’t undo. If you truly want to join my rule, Daughter, step up now.”
The only way they could enact their plan was to get the Devil down to their level, where Cleaver still waited unseen. Lilith shielded her feelings as she’d taught herself. The Devil’s throne, black and lofty, formed of twisted humans, didn’t help. Emily Crowe, standing dressed only in black ichor, her face clean and pale, didn’t help. The various debaucheries unfolding all around her didn’t help. But outside these walls, hundreds of thousands of men and women were laying down their lives for their future and their children’s future. Humanity had already been decimated, but it hadn’t been eliminated.
She looked her father in the eyes. “Would you have me kiss your feet? Climb that throne? Would you have me grovel?”
“Actually, yes I would. But first, my fresh, corruptible sample of humankind, I would have you kiss her.”
Emily Crowe stepped forward, a slight smile on her face. Lilith saw her nakedness covered in what she thought of as sticky venom and ground her teeth together. Ken moved at her side, clinking his chains. Cleaver was somewhere, in his wraithlike state, waiting for the Devil to climb down. Everything depended on her.
She approached Crowe slowly but without any hesitation. The Devil leaned over the front of his throne, gazing down. Hundreds of poor, living souls groaned as their limbs were stretched and strained. Ken was on his knees, the sword within easy reach. She sensed rather than saw much of the depravity around the pit slow or cease entirely.
Faces turned to her.
Within touching distance of Crowe, she stopped and waited. The Black Chapter monarch reached out, grabbed her waist and pulled her in. Lilith closed her eyes and kissed with an open mouth, their lips pressed firmly together. Crowe pressed her body in. Lilith was aware that the ichor would be transferring to her but thankfully it didn’t sting. Lilith brought a hand up to Crowe’s face, framing it gently and then pulled away.
The two women stayed still, eyes locked.
The Devil applauded. “Now,” he said. “Again, and I will join you. We will make a fine threesome, coupling on the floor of this old palace, this new pit, before the sword-wielder, among my followers and thousands of the damned whilst my hordes reap havoc on this pathetic world.”
Lilith’s heart leapt. Ken heard those words and so did Cleaver. She heard the throne rattle as the Devil shifted – or rather she heard the nightmare screams of the damned – and grabbed Emily Crowe by the scruff of the neck. Crowe herself was shocked as Lilith mashed her lips down on top of hers with gusto and passion. She wanted the Devil to see. She wanted the Devil to hurry on down. And she knew the Devil was sheer lust personified. She grabbed Crowe by the buttocks and ground their hips together.
The Devil landed at her side, cloven hoofs breaking the tiles that made up the floor. He made a noise of perverted passion, of pure twisted desire. He pulled at the black robes that covered his body, peeling them away.
Lilith was thinking about anything except the acts she was perpetrating. She was thinking of Ken. Of her mother. Of Cleaver.
Where the fuck was Cleaver?
She heard Ken moving behind her. She knew he was spitting out the key to his manacles and removing them. Everyone would be focused on her, but to make even more of a distraction she started to push at the waistband of her jeans.
They wouldn’t turn away now. Even the Devil was riveted at her side.
Lilith heard the faint grating of a sword leaving its scabbard and then turned to stare point-blank into the eyes of the Devil, drinking in those furnace-red eyes, studying that leering mouth.
“Can I kiss you too?” she asked.
“I will allow that,” the Devil said, and then Ken struck hard and fast. Rising from his knees, he lifted the Lionheart blade above his head and then brought it down in a double-handed blow, aiming for the nape of the Devil’s neck. The blade struck hard. Sparks flew. But it only cut the skin, glancing off hard underlying bone.
The Devil turned. “Ah,” he said. “I thought this might happen.”
Ken didn’t hesitate but brought the sword back up and struck again. The Devil dodged one blow and then caught the next, again seeing his flesh sliced open but penetrating no further than the bone. The Devil yanked at the steel blade, causing Ken to stumble forward, then punched him in the face, making him stagger. But Ken held on to the sword, stumbling away.
Lilith pushed Crowe backward and scooped up a sharp stone from the floor. She swung it at her father’s head but, with psychic swiftness and without turning, he raised a hand to block it.
Lilith saw skin flayed off, but there was no blood. No bones broke.
“You disappoint me,” the Devil said.
Then Crowe was leaping onto her back, screaming, grabbing her around the shoulders and the throat. Lilith heard the Devil laughing as Ken rose again.
“That sword cannot help you,” he said, “unless you know where to strike.”
Ken’s face slackened with shock. Lilith felt shock. Ken wasn’t deterred and came in swinging, first left and then right. The Devil took the blows, then reached out with one hand and grabbed Ken by the throat, lifting him off the ground. With the other hand he broke Ken’s wrist. The Lionheart blade clattered away.
Ken tried to scream, but his restricted airway wouldn’t allow it. His feet kicked as his face turned red. Lilith threw herself onto her back with Crowe underneath. The blow loosened her grip and Lilith was free. She ran at her father, smashing the rock against his head time and time again.
“Why won’t you fucking die!” she screamed.
He backhanded her across the face, sending her sprawling. Ken’s feet stopped kicking and his eyes closed. The Devil reached down to pick up the Lionheart blade and then held its point to Ken’s ribcage.
“Let’s see how you like it, shall we?”
“No!” Lilith screamed.
A cry went up. It spread from the heights of the pit, from the bowels and from every walkway around. “The battle is lost! Lost! The Old Ones are here!”
The Devil gawped, dumbstruck. Lilith
was rising, wiping blood from her mouth. She’d never been more pleased to see that expression. She raised her arms in triumph.
“Crawl away, you old Devil,” she cried. “Crawl back to hell like the twisted, stinking rat you are.”
Satan’s eyes were wide, his mouth moving soundlessly. He’d never been more vulnerable.
Cleaver hit; an invisible unstoppable force. The Wraith hit the Devil with a knuckle-duster-covered hand and followed that up with two shotgun blasts to the face. He then let go of the weapon – it appeared when he dropped it – and picked up the Lionheart blade, which instantly vanished. The Devil staggered back, crisscrossed with new wounds as Cleaver sought out any vulnerability.
Lilith watched until Crowe tried to help the Devil. She ran at the witch, striking her around the face and the stomach, driving her back. Ken was coughing and rolling away to the right.
Cleaver pressed the Devil hard. He didn’t just strike from the front but took time to sidestep and move around his adversary. A sword strike to the chest made the Devil grunt and fall to one knee.
Lilith wanted to point it out, but Cleaver was already on it. The Devil was forced to defend his chest across the bottom of the pit, all the way to the pool of ichor that lapped at the back of his heels. Cries were still going up around the area and demons were wailing in defeat, but then the Devil bellowed at them.
“Help me, idiots! I can summon infinite terrors through the hellgates, but if I die here all the hellgates close. And then you lose!”
Demons rose up from underneath the ichor, dripping and snarling, their pointed teeth the only thing visible. They steadied the Devil from behind and then climbed out; thin, scaled and spiny beasts that appeared to be covered in thick oil, and moved all around him, blocking Cleaver’s access. The Devil walked forward.
Lilith punched at Crowe’s exposed flesh, making her fold over. She elbowed the woman and then kicked her ribs. The pale face looked up as she collapsed onto her knees. Still, she licked her lips and grinned. She was an abomination. Pure evil. Hell would be weaker without her.
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