by Holly Hunt
"Without her."
Beelzebub swallowed and looked at me for a second. Lucifer twitched his finger and Beelzebub ran off, sprouting his wings and heading out onto the Frozen Lake.
"Come with me, Jayce," Lucifer said, his voice less
thunderous than it had been before, as he led me off over the hill, towards his throne. "I will show you to your room. But—" He stopped, turning to look at me. I stepped back a step, and he made an obvious effort to calm down.
"I am sorry, Jayce," he said with a sigh. He snapped his fingers, and I felt my shirt vanishing, replaced by a bikini top. Something itched between my shoulder blades and I lifted a hand to scratch my back.
"Don't touch it."
I stilled my hands as something seemed to land on my back, the weight of my high school backpack, pulling me backwards a bit. I looked over my shoulder to see two large, leathery red wings sprouting out of my back.
I freaked.
"What have you done?" I shrieked. "You've turned me into a Demon!" I almost fell backwards when the wings flapped, and Lucifer shook his head.
"Jayce, relax. They're only temporary—they'll vanish when you're ready to leave Hell." He smiled at me, his black mood seemingly forgotten in the wake of my panic. "You'll need them to really get anywhere here, Jayce. Especially with Beelzebub on his mission for me."
I frowned at him. "What are you going to do with the Hellraisers?"
Lucifer's dark mood returned. "You and Clarissa will decide what to do with them. Come on."
He pushed up into the air, and his wings snapped open, sending him flying into the air with a few flaps. I hesitantly tried to throw myself into the air, and the wings reacted as though Lucifer was controlling them, helping me. I fluttered up after him, following him to the edge of Hell.
~ * ~
While Lucifer and Clarissa slept, I headed out into the world of Lucifer's cavern, not really aiming for anything. There was nothing for me to do, so I just headed out to nowhere, thinking of getting a drink.
By the time I landed in the bar on the southern edge of the cavern, I was starting to feel more than a little thirsty. I ordered a drink from the bartender—a Demon introduced to me as Belial–-and took it out to the dance floor, looking to see if I could find anyone to dance with. They all felt solid while they were jostling me, so it was hard to imagine that any of them were dead.
Someone slammed into my side, knocking my tequila out of my hand. The glass shattered on the ground and I glared up at the man who hit me, feeling my wings twitch irritably behind me.
"Dude, you're so lucky that drink was free or I'd demand you buy me another one." My glare broke as I realized I knew the man.
"Well, well. Jaselyn Haraford. I haven't seen you since high school. How have you been?"
I frowned slightly. "Billy Dune? Man, what happened to you?"
"Got rolled by a gang called the Hellraisers a few years ago. Shot me in the head." He looked around and grabbed my hand. "Follow me. I'll find us a place we can actually hear ourselves think."
I allowed him to lead me away from the people and toward the cavern wall, where a bright light seemed to radiate from the small canyon between wall and floor. There was only one place in view where the light was broken up, and that was a small, thin-looking bridge made of rock, heading towards the Rift. It was a black precipice with the darkness seeming to begin in a solid wall at the edge of the cavern.
"So you got hit by the Hellraisers?" I asked Billy, sitting down on the edge of the canyon and swinging my legs out. If I looked down, I could see the molten core of the Earth's center rolling away below me.
"Yeah, down an alley on the way home from work. This red-skinned, winged guy showed up and brought me down here. Called himself Baraquiel or something." He shrugged and looked at me. "How come you have wings? I didn't peg you as the Demon type. Though the way you and that Clarissa Avario used to behave, I'm not as surprised as I think I should be. Were you two still friends?" he asked when he saw me twitch at the mention of her name.
"Yeah. Yeah, she saved my ass from the Hellraisers. In the end."
"What do you mean?" he asked, sitting beside me and dangling his feet over the edge. The warm breeze coming from the Earth's centre was comforting in the smoky cavern.
"I started dating this guy who turned out to be the leader of the Hellraisers. He'd beat me, I'd run to Clarissa's, she'd beat him, be taken to jail, and I'd be dragged back to him. In the end I stopped running. Then it got really bad and I went to Clarissa, hoping for help. Lucifer was there, and he took the leader of the Hellraisers to the roof and pushed him off."
"Wow. So, it was a deal with the Devil that got you these?" he tugged gently on the wings, rocking me lightly towards him.
"Don't call him that."
"The Devil?"
"Yeah. The last person who called him that ended up drowning in his own blood before being thrown to Leviathan." I yawned lightly; the constant twilight was messing with me. "Besides, Lucifer's a good guy. Ask any of the Demons—he's saved most of them from certain death. But if you really want proof, ask to talk to Aspen. He really hated Lucifer for getting his entire family killed, but I think he's worked out that it wasn't Luce's fault."
Billy was watching me with an odd look on his face. "Are we talking about the same Lucifer here?" he asked, watching me. "I'm talking about the Devil, Satan, the Antichrist."
I opened my mouth to protest and suddenly Lucifer was there, sitting beside Billy.
"Hey, Luce."
Lucifer smiled at me, then rested his hand on Billy's shoulder. "The stories about me you learned on Earth are not real, Billy," he said, watching the twenty-year-old. "History is written by the winners, the ones in power."
"I was never good at school and politics," Billy said, blushing a little.
"Then allow me to enlighten you with the real story of the Fall," Lucifer said, then looked at me. "You can stay if you want, Jayce, but I'm sure you've heard it before. And you look a little tired."
I nodded, yawning a little. "Thanks, Lucifer."
"Not a worry. Would you mind spending time with Clarissa, in case she wakes up? She'll need someone there—"
"It's all right, Luce," I said, smiling. "It's not my first experience with kidnapping and rape."
He lifted an eyebrow.
"Well, okay, I have experience with the rape, not the kidnapping." I stood up and flapped my wings a little. Lucifer pointed me in the right direction and I took off.
From below I heard Lucifer tell Billy, "The first thing you should know is that I had a wife in Heaven, killed by God..."
~ * ~
I woke up a while later to find myself alone in Clarissa's bed. I rubbed at my eyes, looking around in confusion. I was sure Clarissa had been there when I crept in with her.
"Morning, Jayce."
I rolled over, looking at the source of the voice. Clarissa was in the corner of the room, frying something. It smelled like bacon. "What're you doing up?"
She smiled at me. "Well, I needed something to do, to keep myself from screaming." Clarissa spooned out eggs and bacon onto two plates. She came over as I sat up, getting comfortable against the headboard as she sat beside me.
"Has Luce been back?"
"Yeah. He's doing a tour of the cavern, looking for three Hellraisers that somehow escaped Leviathan."
I took the plate and a fork from her and started eating. "Ah."
We ate in silence. Clarissa broke the quiet first.
"Luce thinks that you and I should work out the punishment for the men who kidnapped us. He told me that we can do whatever we want to them, and no one would ever know it was us. There would be no punishment for us." She looked thoughtful for a second, frowning slightly. "I think he's hoping we'll settle for grievous bodily harm and send them back to Earth."
I was starting to think of things to do to the men that would make even the darkest Demon throw up in disgust and slink off in fear. Things that the Hellraisers had don
e to me, countless times.
"What about removing their arms?"
Clarissa laughed, though I could tell it was a dark
laugh, full of murderous, damaging potential. The last time Clarissa beat Jason, she'd laughed like this and three hours later, she was arrested for torturing the prick. She'd tied him up and was in the process of removing the skin from his right arm with a pair of hairdressing scissors when the police crashed through the door, called by one of the Hellraisers who paid them.
She'd removed his skin to the elbow when the door opened. They'd found slices in Jason's wrists that would have killed him, had they been even a millimeter deeper. Countless burns littered his skin, bones were broken in vital places, and she'd been subjecting him to every indignity he'd given me, including stuffing things into bodily orifices.
She pulled me back from that memory—I'd been hiding in the corner, screaming with my hands over my ears—with a question and a smile.
"They wouldn't be able to hurt anyone then, would they? And it's not like we could ever be implicated in it."
"Who would believe them if they told anyone that they'd kidnapped the Devil's girlfriend and he turned up to take them down to Hell? And that while they were down here, they lost their arms?"
Clarissa laughed, snapping her fingers. "I like it!"
A pair of pants, a shirt and some underwear appeared, folded, next to me. I gaped at her in shock.
"How did you do that?" I demanded, staring at her.
"Lucifer did it," she said with a grin. "He said that as I am his Queen of Hell, I should, at the very least, be able to control the Kingdom."
"Wow."
I picked up the underwear and started to dress. Clarissa turned her back on me so I could have some semblance of privacy, and I slipped out from underneath the sheet to do up my bra and pull on the jeans.
"Come on," Clarissa said as I pulled the shirt on over my head, "Bee and Levi are back. And they have our prisoners."
~ * ~
Clarissa had her own wings now—temporary, like mine—so we flew out to Lucifer's Throne. We landed either side of the stone chair as Lucifer appeared from the crowd, leaving Aspen circling above us. He was trying to get used to flying again, spending as much time in the air as he could. Lucifer pulled Clarissa into a kiss while I watched the people of Hell. I could see Billy in the middle of the mass of people, along with a few other familiar faces.
"Gather."
Lucifer was standing with his arms around Clarissa's waist, both of them facing the Demons and the humans below us.
"Four days ago, my Queen's sister was taken off the street by the Hellraisers, a gang of sadists run by her onceboyfriend and backed whole-heartedly by God."
Lucifer gestured out at the crowd, and I was amazed to see that Jason and the other Hellraisers were standing there in one big group. Those that had been at the bottom of the Frozen Lake were apathetic, staring at Lucifer with broken eyes. I shivered. I didn't want to know what Levi had done to them to make them like that. Jason was standing a meter or so from the others, watching them as warily as the Demons were him.
"While my Queen and I were out searching for Jayce, these Hellraisers stole my Clarissa and Aspen away."
The humans and the Demons stepped away from the Hellraisers, watching Lucifer. I think they knew what was coming. Aspen landed, crouched, on the thick back of Lucifer's throne, and sat on the very top of it, watching what was going on below with pale, furious eyes.
"They killed him. They raped and tortured my Queen and her sister."
The Demons were shock-silent now. The human faces blanched.
"For their punishment..." he lingered on the word.
There was utter silence from the Hellraisers, except for one. He was sobbing, his hands to the sides of his head as he shook it furiously, trying to block out Lucifer's words.
"...I am leaving the decision to Jayce and Clarissa." He looked at me, then at Clarissa. "What do you decree to happen to the Hellraisers, ladies?"
Clarissa and I looked at each other. In that second of sight, we agreed on who would be the speaker.
"Remove their arms and send them back to Earth," I
ordered, glaring at the Burner and his crew. "And, while you're at it, remove their dicks as well."
The men in the crowd below—human and Demon alike—winced and grabbed at their crotches. The women looked empathetically uncomfortable, while a few—ones I presumed were victims of rapes themselves—were grinning maniacally.
The Demons that were standing around Lucifer, Clarissa and me closed in on the Hellraisers, separating them and grabbing hold of their shoulders.
"So you have chosen," Lucifer said, a malicious glint in his eyes. "Take them to the Pit of Terror, and tell Baraquiel my orders."
The Demons nodded and dragged the humans along. Even the broken-eyed men fought them, instinctively trying to escape what they knew was coming. Jason tried to break away from the Demons, trying to run to Lucifer. The humans eyed him and, as one, decided that it would be a better idea to leave than to watch the scene.
"You bastard! You swore I would be freed for helping you!"
"Bring Jason to me," Lucifer amended, and the Demons holding him brought Jason to where Clarissa and Lucifer stood.
"I told you I would release you if you helped me in finding Clarissa and Jayce," Lucifer said to Jason.
He was forced to kneel by the Demons, the pair pressing down on his shoulders until he was on his knees before Clarissa and Lucifer. Lucifer's former outrage was smothered now, covered up. I had no doubt he would be visiting the Pit of Terror in the near future to remove a few limbs himself.
"I lied. You're a sick prick," Lucifer said, watching Jason. "You relentlessly tortured Jayce, you refused to face your responsibilities, and you think only one act of good will redeem you?"
"I was following God's orders!" Jason screamed, trying to stand. "I was doing His fucking work! Let me go!"
The Demons slammed him to the ground and I heard at least one knee break. Clarissa and I winced, but no one else seemed to notice.
"God does not rule here, de Bowver." Lucifer grabbed his jaw, forcing him to shut up. "I do."
"You're nothing!" Jason screamed through his teeth, his voice cracking with pain. "God is going to pay you back for all the shame you've brought Him!"
"Is that why you took my Clarissa and tried to break her?"
Jason tried to twist out of the Demons' grips, attempting to bite Lucifer. He looked like a desperate animal caught in a trap. "You'll pay, Lucifer! God will free me like you won't! He'll destroy you, break you into pieces and scatter everything you hold dear across the universe!"
Lucifer drew his fist back and slammed it into Jason's jaw. The man went flying back a few feet, and didn't stand up. I couldn't even see where Lucifer had hit him. For all I knew, Lucifer had broken his nose and forced the pieces into his skull—enough to kill a living person, but what about the people of Hell?
"Take him to the Pit," Lucifer said through clenched teeth, and I noticed he was only loosely balling the fist he hit Jason with. "Tell Baraqiel that I, and only I, am to touch him."
"Yes, sir," the Demons said, dragging Jason's unconscious body to its feet. I could see the shadow of a bruise along Jason's shattered jaw.
When the Demons had gone, Clarissa rushed forward and grabbed Lucifer's arm, lifting it so that she could examine it.
"You broke three knuckles, Luce," she said, running her fingers lightly over his hand. I could see his hand twitch, his mind obviously fighting the urge to pull his hand away.
With a couple of snaps that made me wince and Lucifer curse, she pushed the bones in his hands back into place and he bit his lip.
"Thanks, Clarissa," he said hugging her.
"No worries. I didn't know you could hit someone like that."
"In all truth, neither did I." He looked at me, and I realized my eyes were still wide and my mouth was halfopen. "Jayce?"
"Yes, L
ucifer?" I asked, my voice a little higher than
normal.
"Your parents are down in Belial's bar, if you want to go and talk to them."
I grinned and took off, heading as fast as I could to the bar. Bugger Clarissa—I was going to see my Mummy again!
Twenty Three
Lucifer Morningstar
"Luce, come on," Clarissa giggled, pressing a hand to her stomach as she climbed over a fallen log. "Where are we going? Why couldn't we fly?"
I ignored her question, stopping in front of a tree and placing my hand on it. "This is why you're here, Clarissa. I want you to know the story of the Fall, but from the perspective of the only woman who Fell. Issa, meet Sera."
