Lucifer quickly regained his composure and glared at Gabriel. “Mind telling how you got into my Hell, again? Oh, and you owe me a new servant,” he remarked casually, refusing to let Gabriel see his fear.
“I swore to you that you wouldn’t like the repercussions if you failed to honor the contract. Summon the guards and Creeper won’t be the only causality. I am merely returning your wretched servant to you. I know he was the one who followed me. You don’t have any spies in the Mortal Realm that have the skills to find me. Using the Council’s servant against me was low for even you, but he’s the only one who could have tracked me. The traitor deserved death,” Gabriel sneered.
“It’s true that he deserved death, but he was a good spy for me. Tempting Heavenly servants is so easy, given the right motivation. I will miss the information he gave me so that he could see his former lover again,” Lucifer smirked.
“You truly know no bounds. I should have known better than to trust you. First, you tortured Mark, then my daughter. You have no idea how close I came to hunting you down the second I saw her in that dress. She was supposed to be royalty and you made her your own personal servant. I would say that you should be ashamed of yourself, but you know nothing of the concept,” Gabriel growled at Lucifer, holding his Celestial Sword tightly.
“Yes, you should have known better. You were so desperate to keep the world safe that you made a deal with the last person in the entire universe you should’ve bargained with,” Lucifer knew he would one day face Gabriel but he’d hoped it would be a long time from now, and when he’d caught Gabriel off guard and asleep.
“I will kill you,” Gabriel’s expression was fierce and deadly as he approached Lucifer.
“Before you try to kill me, know this, she came to me of her own free will and, therefore, I had no reason to honor the agreement. You made no provision for her if she were to come to me before the agreed upon time, so I was under no obligation to honor the original contract,” Lucifer shrugged. He knew he wouldn’t be able to escape Gabriel’s wrath by talking his way out of it, but he needed to buy some time to figure out how best to handle his brother.
“How dare you stand there and lie to me! You and I both know she didn’t come to you willingly. You tempted her using deception and fear. What did you say to her? Did you threaten to kill her? Did you tell her that you would bathe her in agony? She would have never come to you if you hadn’t cheated, you miserable wretch,” Gabriel spat on the ground in front of Lucifer’s feet.
Lucifer knew he had to work quickly if he wanted to save his ass. “I may have made a suggestion or two, but you of all people should know that she has a will of her own. No one can make her do something she doesn’t want to do. She came to me; let’s get that part straight,” Lucifer’s bravado was holding strong, even if he didn’t like the cold look in Gabriel’s eyes.
“I will never accept that. She knew nothing of you. She told me about the nightmares she was having. You were only a voice to her. She didn’t even know that the devil existed. Why would she go with you willingly?” Gabriel stepped forward, testing Lucifer.
“Maybe I made an impression the first time I saw her. Did you ever think of that? Lord knows how she has influenced me. Maybe I left a mark on her too. As to why she didn’t see me in her visions, I don’t know. Perhaps you had more control over her than you think. You made her forget about me the first time, maybe she forgot about me completely. Either way, it doesn’t matter. She is mine now,” Lucifer knew he had the ruling of the Council on his side; otherwise, Gabriel would have dragged the Council along with him and ripped Anjali away. No, Gabriel was acting on his own and was in a precarious position. He was acting against the ruling of the Council and could be punished for his actions. Of course, Lucifer wasn’t stupid enough to volunteer to dole out the punishment. He had some common sense, even if it was minuscule.
“You stole her and abused her. You swore to me that you would never do that,” Gabriel’s voice shook as he stepped closer.
Lucifer saw the pain that flashed across Gabriel’s face. This was the root of the problem. It wasn’t that he’d stolen her; she was destined to be his. As a father and a protector, Gabriel was in turmoil knowing that his daughter had suffered greatly. He was here for vengeance and blood, not to take the girl.
Lucifer put his hands up, grateful to be innocent on this count. “There was a miscommunication. Hades was behind her punishment in the realms. I had no knowledge. I was indisposed of at the time. For that, I am truly sorry. Hades has been punished for his deception. Now he has to look her in the face every day and I assure you, she’s less than thrilled with him. Suffice it to say your little girl can handle herself. You should be proud of her. Hades and the others will think twice about harming her again.”
Gabriel noted the pride in Lucifer’s voice when he spoke. He was taken aback for a moment.
As skilled a liar as Lucifer was, he could detect no false statement. It was possible that Hades had acted alone. It was clear that a fight had taken place in the Throne Room. He recognized the level of destruction needed to cause this amount of damage to Lucifer’s panic room. His daughter had certainly kicked the shit out of someone. Since Lucifer was still breathing and Hades was nowhere in sight, he took Lucifer at his word, for once.
“I’m glad for that, but you and I aren’t finished. You’re forgetting about my provision of the contract,” Gabriel’s eye tightened as he clenched his sword.
“Provision? I’m sorry I don’t remember that,” Lucifer feigned innocence and braced himself for the worst.
“The clause that said if you took her against her will, you would have to deal with me,” Gabriel growled.
Lucifer watched Gabriel size him up. Gabriel was the Messenger of God who, more often than not, used his words to do Father’s will, but he was not a scrawny helpless angel who ran to his big brothers, begging them to fight his battles. He was every bit the warrior that Michael and Raphael were. Being the Messenger of God sometimes meant delivering the message via the tip of a sword. He was strong, fierce in battle, and rarely lost. Lucifer could certainly fight, especially when mired in complete darkness, but Gabriel was legendary on the battlefield. Lucifer was only given a Celestial Sword when the Council deemed it prudent or when they needed help defending against enemies or traitors. They were afraid that he would become judge, jury, and executioner, which was true enough.
“I do not wish to fight you, brother. I have no quarrel with you. You should leave before you do something you will regret,” Lucifer could see that they were at an impasse and he was at a disadvantage without a weapon and his anger. He suddenly understood Hades’ warning about becoming ineffective if he were to become kind and compassionate. It might very well get him killed.
“I regret ever making that deal with you, you underhanded, rotten, festering blight on the world. I will make you regret ever laying eyes upon her,” Gabriel lifted the sword to strike Lucifer down.
Lucifer backed away. Nothing could withstand a blow from the sword. It was not meant to deflect other swords or to fight battles. It was simply meant to kill.
“Think about what you are doing, brother. You have no recourse here. You have not been ordered to end my existence. The Council will make you pay for this. You will be the one locked away in the Hall of Shadows till the end of days,” Lucifer quickly took inventory of the room, looking for something useful.
He wanted to avoid using his Hell Fire, lest he be found guilty of burning yet another Heavenly Angel with a torture device. Michael wouldn’t care that the fight was started by Gabriel. Lucifer would never be able to get the explanation off his tongue before he lost his head. That meant he was left with defensive strategies only.
“At least I will be with my daughter,” Gabriel finally snapped. He lunged at Lucifer, who dove and rolled to the side.
Lucifer was grateful that he had avoided the blue blade, but nervous that he had been close enough to feel the heat from it. He threw out his han
d and used his power to hurl debris from the construction site at Gabriel to distract him.
Gabriel used his own power to deflect the smaller pieces of stones and sliced through the chunks of marble. A piece a Hades’ throne was obliterated by the glowing sword.
Lucifer tried to put the length of the room between them. “You’re not acting rationally, Gabriel. This is not you. You’re not an assassin. I would expect this from Michael, but not you. You are the righteous one, the peaceful one. You have let my betrayal corrupt you. You are the one who is on the verge of becoming a Rogue. If you kill me, your life as you know it will be over,” Lucifer was surprised to feel compassion for his brother for the first time since leaving Heaven. He was amazed that he wasn’t concerned about himself. If he died, Hades and Anjali would rule in his stead, Hell would be well cared for, but he didn’t want to be responsible for the downfall of his beloved brother. Anjali’s influence made him remember his love for Gabriel.
“You are just trying to save your own neck,” Gabriel swung at Lucifer, who dodged to the left and sidestepped out of Gabriel’s path.
“For once I’m not worried about me. I truly am worried for you, Gabriel. It was wrong to go against you. I was selfish for wanting to keep her for myself. I didn’t understand all that you went through to keep her safe and to raise her properly. I get it now. I understand the sacrifices that you had to make to protect her. You had to allow her to make mistakes and fail, while watching someone else comfort her and praise her. I respect you for all that you have done and I understand your love for her. I have wronged you both terribly,” Lucifer blocked Gabriel’s arm on the downswing and kicked him away. Gabriel staggered backward but regained his fighting stance.
“You know nothing of love and sacrifice,” Gabriel was enraged.
He circled Lucifer, who had picked up a piece of the marble dais and was using it as a shield. It would do little more than buy him time.
“You’re wrong, brother. I do understand sacrifice, more than you do. I volunteered to leave Heaven and I have suffered ever since. She is my only salvation. She has cleared my heart and my mind. I love her, Gabriel. I love her as I have only ever loved Father,” the rock in his hands smashed apart and Lucifer fell back into the stone walls.
“I don’t believe you!” Gabriel held his sword over his head, poised to strike Lucifer and end his miserable life.
“Look into my eyes, brother! You will see that I have been saved! I offered her freedom and she chose to stay. She admitted that she came to me because I was lonely. She swore to me that she would not leave me. She cares about me, she has told me as much. I love her!” Lucifer dropped his hands and shakily came to his feet. He looked into Gabriel’s eyes and prayed he would see the change in him.
Gabriel held his position. He had been fooled by Lucifer before and was not in a giving mood. He did not want to lose his advantage. For his brother’s sake, he did look into his eyes. He looked into the black soulless eyes of the devil himself and was shocked. His eyes weren’t black. They weren’t the shimmering blue of the most immaculate seas, but they were lighter than he had seen them since his brother had taken up his post in Hell. They were no longer empty, but filled with emotion. The only emotions Lucifer ever felt were bitterness, anger, and the occasional spark of joy from inflicting pain upon the weak, yet now there was compassion and fear. His brother feared nothing. He would sooner take a sword to his own throat than lose to an enemy and be taken prisoner. Perhaps there was some truth to his words.
“How?” Gabriel spared Lucifer a moment to convince him.
Lucifer lowered his arms and took a breath. “I didn’t know the impact she would have on me, but I swear to you, I swear on my life, and Father’s life that I have been saved. The light inside of her has redeemed me. I’m not perfect and I never will be while I reign in Hell, but she helps to ease my burdens. I do not suffer the effects of humanity’s evil as greatly when I am around her. You must have felt the light inside of her, even though you are around Father every day. I can feel her darkness too, it calls to me, but it’s her light that helps me remember who I really am. I admit that I have to remove myself from her to be able to carry out my duties, but when I feel that I have strayed too far, I only have to find comfort in her arms and I am whole again,” Lucifer was sincere as he spoke. He hoped to ease his brother’s mind and give him some measure of comfort. Gabriel needed to know that he had made the right choice in entrusting Anjali to him.
Gabriel was skeptical. The devil wore two faces and you never knew which one you were speaking to, until it was too late. “You will use her to destroy the world as you have tried before. I should have never entrusted her to you,” Gabriel might believe him for the moment, but Lucifer’s mood changed like the wind. He was unpredictable.
“I don’t want to destroy the world, Gabriel. I tricked her because I was close to doing so…too close. I was planning to destroy Hell. I sought her out to stop me. I knew the light inside of her would prevent me from carrying out my plans, just as it did the last time. You know that I tried to unleash her power all those millennia ago, but you don’t know why I stopped and refused to continue in my quest. Her power crashed through me like a tidal wave that day. The evil was swept away and I saw what I had done. Everything around us was burning and I was afraid. Gabriel, for the first time, I was afraid. I was afraid of what Father would do to me if I destroyed the world that He had created. You have to believe me, Gabriel. My greatest fear is that Father won’t forgive me for my wrong-doings. I’m the only one in the world who would never use her power to create an Apocalypse. Father would never forgive me,” Lucifer pleaded with Gabriel to understand.
Gabriel thought about how Lucifer and the Fallen regained their angelic state in Father’s presence. He knew that Anjali held Father’s light inside of her, but he didn’t know the kind of effect it could have on angels. Did she really have the ability to strip away some of the darkness that stained the souls of his fallen brothers? The proof, it would seem, was standing in front of him. Lucifer had made no move against him. He could have knocked the sword from his hands, but he didn’t. He merely stood in front of him, waiting for him to process everything that he was hearing and seeing.
He thought about his beautiful daughter. He’d always been happy and carefree around her. She made him smile as no other could and he took pride in her. He didn’t want to believe it was the light inside of her that made him happy, but rather his joy of being a father, yet he realized that he’d been the one rampaging since she’d left him. He was out of his mind with anger. He never once carried the burden of darkness, until he lost her, yet here he was with a sword poised over his brother’s throat. He was the one who had slaughtered a servant. Dear Lord above, he was slowly turning into Lucifer.
Gabriel gradually lowered his sword, waiting for Lucifer to make his move, but he didn’t. He still didn’t trust Lucifer, but he mentally conceded it was possible that Anjali had a positive effect on the devil.
“What happened here?” Gabriel motioned to the destroyed room. He holstered his sword and extinguished the flame. He was becoming more convinced by the second that something was different about Lucifer.
Lucifer sighed and slid down the wall and propped his knees up. He was relieved that Gabriel believed him. “Hades tried to take her head. I fought Hades and tried to prevent him from killing her, but she won the battle all by herself. She took off her ring and unleashed her power. She blew the tower apart, and she healed herself in the process. Hades barely survived it, but she didn’t kill anyone. She had a hard time reigning in her power back, but I helped her.”
“He did what? Where is she?” Gabriel shouted, grabbing for his sword again.
“Relax. She is safe. She’s strong, Gabriel. You would have been proud. She’s punching Hades in the Hall of Torment as we speak,” Lucifer was grateful that his woman could take care of herself.
“How did you allow this to happen? I can’t believe you let Hades attack her. Why
would he do such a thing? Why was the Council not informed? Why was I not informed? I want Hades’ head for this!” Gabriel snarled.
Lucifer stood up and put his hand on Gabriel’s shoulder. “Calm down, the situation was handled. Hades has been punished accordingly. That is one of the benefits of ruling this domain; I don’t have to wait for the Council to discuss what punishment to dole out. Hades was chiseled out of the Realm of Frost and dragged by his throat to the Hall of Torment. Trust me; he won’t try to kill her again. If I had to inform the Council every time Hades and I tried to kill each other, the Council would have to establish a secondary Council just to deal with us. I understand that she is your daughter, but she is under my care, and we handle our own problems here,” Lucifer replied matter-of-factly.
“Why did he do it?” Gabriel pulled away from Lucifer’s hold, still angry that someone had tried to assassinate his daughter.
“Because I was selfish. Instead of accepting her as a powerful being, I made the mistake of allowing everyone to believe that she was my servant. Servants are disposable, as you are well aware,” he motioned to Creeper’s body. “If I had done what I had agreed to in that damned contract, then Hades would have never lashed out at her. You will be happy to know that I have rectified the problem. I fulfilled the contract, partially. She doesn’t have her memories and has not transcended, but she has taken her place at my left side. I have opened up the Hall of Mirrors, just as you requested. She is third in line, as promised, though I still need her to be loyal to me. She needs to act the same as Hades. Hades practically runs the place himself; I’m more of a figurehead, the final word during disputes, but publicly he serves me, and so must she. We must have a unified front and must appear strong against our enemies. This has worked to our advantage many times over, you have to admit that,” Lucifer looked at his brother, hoping that he would be forgiven for his mistakes.
The Third Throne: Angel of Darkness Page 35
