by Diem, J. C.
“Is that what happened to your mother?” I asked. “Was she just used and discarded as well?” He’d told me she was living overseas and had recently remarried.
“Who cares?” he shrugged. “She’s just another harvested angel. They’re always thrown away after they’ve been used up.”
That was the fate my mother would have faced if she hadn’t escaped from the Collectors. I now knew at least one of the princes had been performing his own experiments at creating Nephilim. Shutting down my emotions, I willed myself not to cry. Both of the men I’d loved had broken my heart. I felt empty now and lacked the ability to care what happened to me. “Are you going to kill me?” I asked dully.
“Not yet,” Valac replied. “I will keep you until I have forged a bargain with the Hellmaster. He has underestimated me and now he will learn that I am far more intelligent than he gave me credit for.”
Arrogance flowed off him and his true nature was revealed again as the prince’s body overshadowed his minion. He was so large I could only see him from the chest down. His legs disappeared through the seat I was lying on.
The image disappeared when the limo braked suddenly. Without a seatbelt to stop me, I rolled off onto the floor. My hands encountered two objects and I quickly stuffed them into a back pocket of my jeans. Zach put his foot on my side and rolled me onto my back. He grinned down at me and used my stomach as a footrest. “I think I like you in this position,” he mused then flicked a look at his father.
“No,” Valac said before his son could speak. “I am not going to waste any more time allowing you to play with her. You had plenty of opportunity to bed her and you failed each time.” Zach sat back and crossed his arms in a pout. His heels dug into the scar on my abdomen and my Wraith Warrior shifted inside me restlessly. “You can do whatever you want to her when she is safely ensconced in the dungeon,” Valac added.
Zach’s face brightened at that prospect. He looked down in time to see my grim smile. “What are you smirking about?” he asked and nudged me with his feet.
“Nothing,” I lied. He wasn’t going to find me particularly attractive by the time we reached the palace in the ninth realm. My smile died when I wondered what would happen to Zach when we were in the underworld. If he was a Nephilim like me, would his appearance change as well? A memory of a dream I’d had about him months ago floated to the surface of my mind. He’d been a demon in that nightmare. Maybe I’d subconsciously known what he was all along and that was why I’d felt a kinship with him. The only difference between us was that my soul was missing. Plus, I wasn’t a psycho like he’d turned out to be.
Pinned to the floor of the limo, I lay on the items that had been stripped from me. One of the rune stones was directly beneath my left hand. I palmed it and added it to the other two items that I’d stashed in my pocket.
As an added insult, Zach hadn’t removed the ruby ring and the cheap leather bracelet that he’d given me. I wanted to tear them off, but I also didn’t want to antagonize him further. I’d leave them on for now and get rid of them as soon as I had the chance.
We glided through the streets that still weren’t empty even though it was the wee hours of the morning. There was no point screaming for help. Valac would just kill anyone who made the mistake of trying to come to my rescue. Half of the cops in the city were most likely his underlings. The human cops would want to arrest me for the crimes I’d committed, or had been framed for.
When we finally pulled over, Zach hauled me to my knees by the front of my jacket. He waited for his father to climb out then dragged me out next. Giles hurried to close the door. He sent me a cold look as he moved to stand guard over the limo. Clearly, he knew who and what his employer really was.
Looking around, I instantly recognized where we were. Sophia’s store was just a couple of blocks away, but it might as well have been on the moon. The portal where I’d found Sam lay behind a tattered poster on what looked like a plain brick wall. I’d never imagined I’d return here as the captive of a Demon Prince.
“There is someone here who I believe will be delighted to see you again,” Valac said as a pack of demons stepped forward. One of them moved in a slow shamble that made the hairs on the back of my neck rise. The others moved aside to let him through. My breath caught when I saw it was Bob. He’d managed to reattach his head, but the wound hadn’t healed. A scar even thicker and blacker than the one on my stomach ringed his neck. The smell of rot emanated from him and it was almost enough to make me gag. His eyes were filled with rage and torment when they met mine.
Bob lifted his hands like a mummy from an old black and white movie and lurched towards me. I stumbled back into Zach and he laughed. “He really wants revenge on you for what you did to him,” he said as his hands closed over my shoulders. Instead of feeling comforted by his nearness, I wanted to turn around and knee him where it hurt.
“The captain is unfortunately in no shape to tell us exactly what occurred between you two,” Valac said as the other lesser demons subdued Bob. “You will tell me how he became infected with the essence of a Prince. I left him in that state as a form of punishment for failing to bring you to me.”
“Were you the one who sent a Wraith Warrior after me?” I asked.
He hesitated for a split second then nodded. “I was most surprised when I learned that you survived your encounter with my minion. That is another puzzle that I am certain will be solved once I put you to the question.”
Bob gurgled a laugh when I blanched. He’d put me through some fairly horrendous torture already. I had a feeling it was nothing compared to what the Demon Prince had planned for me.
₪₪₪
Chapter Fifteen
Bob couldn’t coordinate his limbs while he was in his current condition. Two of the lesser demons had to help him through the portal. Zach shoved me through after them and I had to take a few quick steps so I didn’t trip and sprawl to the ground. My hands were numb from having the blood supply cut off. My legs were having almost as much trouble as Bob’s. I was still in shock from everything that had happened to me during the past couple of hours.
Once I was inside the narrow, damp portal, I barely glanced at the yellow lichen that covered the walls. The mist swirled around my ankles as I trudged after the demon pack. A slight whiff of sulfur drifted to me. I was going to hell once more and this time it wasn’t by my choice.
When we were roughly halfway along the portal, we stopped so the demons could shed their vessels. Black essence boiled out from their every pore and orifice. Coalescing, they formed solid bodies and assumed their true forms.
Back in his form of a demonic captain, Bob turned to his useless vessel and called on his sword. There was no point in keeping the shambling zombie alive, so he stabbed his ex-host through the heart. The human fell to the ground, lifeless and staring at me with blank brown eyes. The other vessels joined the same fate.
Unlike Valac, the lesser demons would seek new hosts when they returned to Earth. Fresh victims would be brought to the portals where they would be possessed. This was the only place where the demons could enter and leave bodies without being automatically drawn to my soulless vessel. Bob had been using the same body ever since we’d first met nearly a year ago. This meant he hadn’t been back to his homeland in quite some time.
Turning to me, Bob grinned nastily. Making his sword disappear, he strode towards me, hell bent on getting revenge. His fist crashed into my face and I staggered back. My head bounced off the cold stone wall and agony shot through me when my skull fractured. My legs wobbled and I slid to the ground.
“That is enough,” Valac ordered before his minion could deliver more damage to me. “Save your ire for when we are back in my palace.” Striding past us, he ejected himself from his host. Twelve feet tall, he wore the same ornate black armor that all the princes wore. Just like the illusion Dom had conjured up, the center of his chest was revealed to show off the strange markings that covered his skin. “I will not be retu
rning to New York until it is time for us to invade Earth,” he said to Brett Orion. “I will send word when it is about to happen so that you can prepare.”
“I will be ready and waiting, master,” Zach’s biological father said with a subservient nod. He spared a glance at his son then turned and walked briskly back down the portal where Giles would be waiting to take him home.
Zach bent down and hauled me to my feet. Woozy, I had to lean against him for a few seconds. “I can’t wait until we’re alone again,” he said in a low voice. “You’ll finally know what it feels like to become a woman.”
I looked at him scornfully and jerked away. “It’s a pity you’ll never know what it feels like to be a man. You’re just Valac’s whipping boy.”
Fury filled the face that I’d once loved. The prince glowered at Zach before he could unleash his anger on me. Shoving me, he sent me staggering after his demonic father as we continued along the portal.
As always, I couldn’t pinpoint the exact moment we stepped out of the passageway. The walls were suddenly gone and the mist had grown to be knee high. Six pairs of scarlet eyes surrounded us as my hellhounds materialized.
“I did not call on you. Be gone,” Valac ordered them. “Go back to the nowhere lands where you belong.”
They were tied to me rather than to him and he had no power over them. It wasn’t safe for them, so I willed them away. They might be able to take down a prince when he was alone, but he had six lackeys with him, seven if I included Zach. My alpha let out a whine of protest, but he obediently faded along with the rest of the pack.
Valac had no intention of walking to the hellgate. A carriage appeared with two nightmares in the traces. I knew it wouldn’t be large enough to contain us all once I grew to my new size. It would be interesting to see their reactions once that happened.
Turning to his son, Valac issued an order. “Activate the cage.”
I looked at Zach in confusion when he pulled his dagger from the small of his back. He cut his palm open then moved to stand behind me. The dagger sawed through my bindings and my hands became free. Before I could rub the feeling back into my fingers, he stepped in front of me and grasped hold of my left hand. He smirked as he rubbed his blood on the ruby and then on the leather bracelet. “I don’t know how much you know about our kind, but Nephilim have our own kind of magic,” he told me then gave me a conspiratorial wink.
He stepped back and the ring began to glow so brightly that I had to squint against the glare. The platinum band expanded and the ring began to grow. It wasn’t the only thing that was changing. Unravelling from my wrist, the leather bracelet turned into a long rope. It wrapped around me tightly, binding my arms to my sides. A cage with platinum bars and a crimson roof formed around me. The crimson color flowed down the sides until I was enclosed in a small space with just enough room to shift my feet.
Claustrophobia closed in on me and I began to hyperventilate. The gifts that I’d believed had come from Zach’s heart had instead been intended as a trap all along. Remembering that a demon had sold him the ring, I realized this had all been staged from the beginning. I’d been drawn to the ring because another Nephilim had cast a spell over it. It was the only explanation I could think of for why I’d chosen it.
I almost screamed when the cage suddenly tilted onto its side. It was hauled into the air and placed on a hard surface. Sound was muffled inside the cage, but I heard the rumble of wheels and realized I’d been placed on top of the carriage.
We only travelled for a few minutes before we reached the hellgate. The journey was a lot faster when travelling by coach. The gate said something, but his voice was muffled as he exchanged a conversation with Valac. We began moving again a short while later. As a captain, Bob should have been able to call on his own carriage. Instead, Valac was transporting us all to the palace with his own coach. It was faster to use nightmares rather than nags.
The ninth realm wasn’t quite as gloomy as the shadowlands, yet it was far darker than the inner realms. Not that I could see past the crimson case of my prison. I stared unseeingly at the wall of the cage then flinched when something landed right in front of my face. The image was murky and tainted red, but I saw it was the Hellmaster’s pet spy. The raven cocked its head to the side and stared at me. It pecked the casing directly above my left eye. It gave up after a few more pecks. The magical substance was too strong for it to break through.
Creeped out by the bird’s relentless stare, I turned my head to the side and saw dim images beyond the crimson case. A tall, thin black object had to be a petrified tree. Either my eyes had adjusted to the gloom, or my eyesight was improving. Surely I would soon assume the size of a Demon Lord again. A couple of hours passed. I waited for the ropes to cut off my ability to breathe and for the cage to become even smaller as I grew, but it didn’t happen. It seemed that Zach’s magic had put me into a stasis where my transformation was being drastically slowed down.
After another hour, we reached a town. I could hear the muffled sound of voices even above the rumbling wheels of the carriage. Turning my head from side to side, I could make out tens of thousands of demons that had amassed here. They would be the first hell spawn to invade Earth, but they wouldn’t be the last. Once the gates broke open, a horde of demons would spew out to overrun the planet.
Valac exited from the carriage long enough to make a speech. A roar went out from the crowd to hear that I’d been captured. Despite my constant state of claustrophobic panic, I was glad they couldn’t see me clearly. It was already humiliating enough being in this position. Seeing their jeers and sneers of derision would have made it so much worse.
When we continued our journey, we passed through the settlements rather than stopping. Word would spread about my captivity. Demons loved nothing better than to gossip, after all.
It took a couple of days before we reached the palace. The raven would never know it, but it helped keep me sane during the trip. Every time my claustrophobia was about to overwhelm me, it would make another attempt to peck my eyes out. The sound drew me back from the brink of insanity and gave me something to focus on.
From time to time, I felt someone trying to break through the barrier that I’d put between myself and the souls that resided inside me. Even though I felt alone and desperate, I didn’t lower the mental wall. There was nothing any of them could do to help me. I didn’t have my weapon and I was trussed up like an animal being led to the slaughter. Not even Morax would be able to free me from this predicament. Hearing how foolish I’d been to allow myself to be caught wouldn’t help me. It would just make me feel worse.
My fractured skull throbbed sickeningly during the journey. It made the scratches on my hands fade in comparison. I assumed Raziel had allowed the two new angels to take refuge with him. If he hadn’t, they would have been burned to a crisp by now. Angels couldn’t step foot in hell and demons couldn’t survive in heaven. Thanks to their angelic presence inside me, things had changed. They tended to weaken me when I was in the underworld. They’d upset the balance of evil and I’d lost my rapid healing ability.
I spent my time in the cage trying to keep my panic under control. Demons didn’t allow themselves to have any weaknesses. Once I was freed from this prison, I knew I would eventually assume the size of a Demon Princess, yet I still felt human on the inside. The only thing stopping me from sobbing out my heartache was the fear that my captors might be able to hear me. I had too much pride to embarrass myself like that.
When we finally began to slow down, dread momentarily overwhelmed my claustrophobia. We’d arrived at the palace and now my life was about to become a nightmare. Please help me, I prayed to God, but I knew it was futile. He’d abandoned me and he’d left me to suffer this destiny alone. Fate had chosen me to be a savior, but to God, I was an abomination. It was a contradiction that I still couldn’t wrap my brain around.
₪₪₪
Chapter Sixteen
With a last frustrated peck at the bar
rier that separated us, the raven flew off. It was hard to tell, but it seemed to be moving awkwardly. Maybe it’s wing still hadn’t healed after I’d hit it with the branch. The thought gave me a short moment of grim pleasure that faded almost instantly. With the predicament that I was in, happiness wasn’t going to be in my foreseeable future.
Multiple pairs of hands grasped the magical cage and I was hauled down from the top of the carriage. They turned me so I lay face down and began to march. I turned my face so my right cheek rested against the crimson case.
After a while, the cobbled black stones changed to dark gray soil as we left the pathway. We stopped and I could just make out a door opening in a black stone wall. It was one of the hidden doors that existed in the palaces. We stepped inside and the ground angled downward and darkness closed around us.
They walked through the tunnel for some distance. Every now and then, I saw flashes of the passage ahead. It was enough to tell me we were in the dungeon. Cells with thick iron bars lined both sides of the passageway. Most of them were empty. When we were about halfway along the hallway, I saw multiple thin legs clumped together. We moved on before I could verify what I’d just seen. If the creature was what I thought it was, then Valac had been a very bad boy. I wondered if the Hellmaster was aware of what his prince was holding captive down here. Somehow, I doubted it.
Reaching another door, the cloven feet of Valac appeared in my view as he opened it. He stepped through the opening and his minions followed. Crossing a floor with black flagstones, my cage was carried into a cell before being set upright.
