by Rae Foxx
Soon, the ruby buzzed with life, floating over my hand and spinning of its own accord. I let my power lace in and out, through and around, dancing with the magic of the stone.
It worked. The gem was so eager to interact with my power that it clung to me. I whispered to it. How powerful you are. So impressive.
The magic loved to be complimented. It danced all the more merrily.
Can you tell me what all you can do? I imagine it's quite remarkable.
Whispers filled my mind, snatches of sentences and explanations. I listened, piecing together everything the magic tried to tell me. It took a few minutes because I had to sort out all the half ideas and barely heard whispers.
Oh, my. I was right, you are formidable. Would you allow me to use your considerable talents once in a while?
The magic stopped whispering, but after a few moments, a feeling of acceptance came through my magic. The stone had chosen me to use it. More than likely, it would never work for anyone else after this. I'd heard of this happening but never experienced it myself.
Thank you. I will use you with good intentions and won't waste your talents. You will be very important.
That soothed it, and it settled back into its stone, calm again. The ruby lowered and rested on my palm.
"Well, there's more magic in this thing than I've seen in a long time, for starters." I spoke freely, knowing the eager magic in the stone had us warded tight. "It's protection magic. Someone made this to protect someone else. It will work in my defense. It has bonded to me."
Michael whistled. "Nice. That doesn't happen very often." He held out his hand, and I placed the stone in it. "Yep. It's masking itself from me now. I can't even tell there's power in it."
Lucifer and Gabe both felt it and agreed. The stone belonged to me.
"Well, now what?"
Lucifer had all he could take. "Now, we get our answers."
He opened the barn door and walked in to face the treacherous angels. "This is simple. We want to know why Raphael wants the gates open. What his plans are to make it happen, and what our daughter has to do with it."
Uriel sneered. "You have no powers, Fallen."
I masked it as best I could then flooded Lucifer with as much power as I could. As my power filled him, I realized Michael and Gabriel had done the same. It would leave us temporarily weaker, but it was necessary.
He hummed with energy and walked toward Uriel, who was being held captive by my powers. Only my death or choice to release him would do it now. It would take an angel more powerful than all of them to break my magical chains. Lucifer at his highest power might have been able to, but I didn't think anyone else could have.
Lucifer let the power filling him flow outward so that Uriel could feel it. He might have been able to tell where it came from, or figured it out, but he hadn't expected us to share. Lucifer was known for his lack of compassion when torturing the evil souls that needed to understand the meaning of pain.
They didn't expect me, however. Lucifer used our combined power to make them all hot. Not much at first. Just a barely perceptible shift of the air in their immediate vicinity. I stepped forward. "Have you heard the story about how to get a frog to be boiled willingly?" I asked.
They looked at me like I was nuts. "It's a good one." I chuckled. "Something about an old man who was too slow to chase frogs anymore but loved the taste of frog legs. So, he set up a nice pond for them. Unbeknownst to the frogs, underneath the pond was a fire. Now, at first, he had that fire burning real low," I lowered my voice and put a soothing quality to it. "But as time went on and the frogs hopped around, playing and enjoying the pond the old man had made for them, the water got warmer. But the frogs' body temperatures compensated for the gradual increase in temperature." I knew Lucifer was gradually upping the temperature. Enough now that they noticed. "And by the time the frogs figured out the temperature had gone up, the water was damn near boiling."
Sweat popped out on all of their foreheads. "It's not fun to be boiling frogs, is it?" I laughed and grabbed the magic I hadn't sent to Lucifer.
Torture didn't require much, after all. Now that they were sweating, I used my power to stab them with a thousand needles. Not enough to bring blood. Just enough to bring pain.
They cried out in unison, matching looks of panic on their faces.
I let the needles of power go and let Lucifer speak. "I always get the information I want, in the end." They didn't respond.
"Why are you all being so loyal to Raphael?" Michael asked. "Is he worth your lives? Your souls?"
Gabe nodded. "If they kill you, they'll own your souls, you understand that don't you?"
"Okay," I said. "Let's try something else." I pointed at Genevra. She floated toward me, separating from the crowd. I moved her into one of the horse stalls and walked in behind her. Throwing up a ward through the stone, I masked any sound from the rest of the barn. Then, I grabbed Genevra's head and hammered at her psyche with my magic. She had pretty good defenses to keep me out of her head. I couldn't get in everyone's. It wasn't my strong suit. It was Lucifer's, but he wouldn't be able to do this with any magic but his own. Michael and Gabe didn't have the stomach for stuff like this.
It took a minute, but I got in there. Splitting my focus, I sent the sensation of pain directly into her mind without any touching her body. I still didn't want to hurt the baby. With another tendril of magic, I opened the ward and let her screams reach the ears of the other two prisoners.
Slamming the ward down, I cut off her screams then let go of her mind, so she'd calm. With a close eye on her heart rate and the physical reaction of her body to the torture, I gave her the false sensation of pain again and opened the ward.
Her heart rate remained normal, at rest. She wasn't showing physical manifestations of the total mindfuck I was giving her.
Good. I amped it up and her screams grew in pain and terror.
I cut it off abruptly, so the barn was silent again as I pushed her against the wall and asked my magic to keep her there. Then, I used my power to cut my finger and let it bleed. Wiping that blood all over my hands, I walked out of the stall.
Uriel's face paled as he looked at my hands. Ezekiel began to shout. "Genevra! No!"
Interesting reaction, that. "What? Were you fond of her?" I asked. Affecting a false attitude of sympathy, I tutted at him. "Sorry for your loss."
She wasn't dead. She was safe and sound in the stall.
"She was my sister," Ezekiel sobbed. Real tears flowed down his cheeks.
Uriel looked at him, moving his eyes since I had the rest of him bound too tight. "Shut up your sobbing," he snarled. "That's what they want."
Lucifer chuckled. "Don't worry, Ezekiel. I'm sure she'll eventually be able to redeem herself and be reborn. Maybe you'll see her again."
"She was pregnant," Ezekiel yelled. "You are demons at heart, aren't you?"
Lucifer smiled and leaned forward. "Are you just now realizing that?"
"You know, Ezekiel. I can help her," I said. "I can make her time in Abaddon comfortable."
I leaned forward beside Lucifer. "Or we can make it pure Hell."
As I spoke, I lowered my voice and put just enough power to give it weight but not enough that he'd know I was influencing him. "Tell me what I want to know, and Genevra will get through this."
He couldn't nod his head, but he looked up and his eyes darted from me to Lucifer repeatedly. "Do you promise?"
"I promise, if you tell the truth, I will do everything I can for Genevra." I spoke the truth. I'd make sure she had her baby, then she'd be given every chance to redeem herself in Abaddon. That was the best thing anyone could do for her, give her the chance to avoid being a demon. A rebirth would be far preferable.
"Fine." He closed his eyes and a few more tears leaked out.
"Keep your mouth shut," Uriel snarled. "You'll ruin everything."
Straightening up, I waved my hand at Uriel and transported him into the stall with Genevra. Behind t
he ward where Ezekiel couldn't hear him.
"How do I know you won't kill me when I'm done?" he asked.
"I haven't read your aura," I said. "Did you know I can do that? Didn’t you know that I can see right through you?”
I released the hold on his head. He wiggled around when he realized he could. "No," Ezekiel said. "I didn't."
"Come on. Let's go somewhere more comfortable to talk." I said.
"I'll stay with Uriel," Gabe said.
14
I moved me, Lucifer, Michael, and Ezekiel to my living room. Then, I unbound Ezekiel, all but his hands. As long as my magic was around his hands, he couldn't disappear from the living room. He was tied to me for the time being. He sat on the couch and looked at us in wide-eyed fear.
"Would you like something to drink?" I asked. "This doesn't have to be an unpleasant experience. But I'll know if you lie. I haven't read your aura, because if I do, and I find you've done horrible things, I can't let you go. But at the moment, I don't know what sort of angel you are. How pure or corrupted."
He nodded. "Yes, I understand. If I give you what you want, you'll let me go?"
I nodded. "And Uriel. I'll wipe your memories of ever having told us anything. Of ever being trapped. Then, I'll let you go."
He hadn't asked for a glass of water, but Michael brought him one anyway. Ezekiel took it in both hands, still bound together with an invisible tether. He gulped down half the glass, then handed it back. "Okay," he said. "Genevra recruited me to help. Not many people know she's my sister. Different moms," he explained. I didn't care about that, but I'd let him tell the story at his own pace. I hoped to get more details that way.
I knew Lucifer agreed because he was the one that taught me to interrogate that way. Let them speak freely until they run out of steam, then ask questions after.
"Raphael contacted Genevra through some guy that knew them both."
Probably that asshole I'd killed. The pedophile. Ugh.
"Raphael has said over the years that Heaven would have better recruitment if the people knew the truth about Abaddon. He thinks they need to know the evils of demons so that they will be led to be on the side of heaven." We knew he wanted the gates of Abaddon opened, but not why. This was some of the info we needed. "He wants Hell on earth and for demons to be hunted and killed by angels and humans, and then no more demons would be created. He cast the spell on Lucifer so that he couldn’t die. He doesn’t want Lucifer back in Abaddon. He wants the walls and wards weakened so demons can escape until he can bust the gates of hell wide open."
"And create Hell on Earth," I whispered. "To turn every living soul against Lucifer, Abaddon, the Fallen, and demons. And me."
Ezekiel nodded. "Exactly. He wants there to be only Heaven and Earth."
I rocked back and sat on the coffee table. "I knew he wanted to open the gates. That much has been obvious. But to eradicate Abaddon?"
"What about our daughter?" Lucifer asked. "What could she have to do with this?"
"Raphael never told me specifically. But he did say that the spell for opening the gates required your blood. He managed to get some from you, but apparently, it needs your angelic blood, but if you're killed, you could stop him. So, he thought he was screwed until he found out Constance or Lilith. She was pregnant. So, he wanted to see if the baby's blood would do the trick."
I gasped, horrified at the thought. "Is he going to kill her?"
"I doubt it. It shouldn't take much blood. He's an angel, still. I've never known him to hurt a child." Fresh sobs burst out of his mouth. He covered his face and sucked in deep breaths until he calmed. "Not like you hurt Genevra and her poor baby."
Rolling my eyes, I sighed, exasperated. "I did her no lasting damage. That was my blood. She's bound up in the corner of the stall where you couldn't see her."
As Lucifer and Michael chuckled at my creativity, Ezekiel's jaw dropped. "They're going to kill me."
"Nah," I said. "I meant what I said. "I'll send you back. We're keeping Uriel. If Raphael thinks anyone blabbed, it'll be him."
Ezekiel laughed, but the sound was choked and more like panic than humor. "He's in another realm," he said. "I don't know how to get to it, or if you even could. But he's been planning this for hundreds of years. He recruited me and Genevra nearly two hundred years ago."
I had to let my mind wrap around that one. He'd been planning and waiting for our next Earth cycle. That was the only explanation. He'd thought having Luc as a human would've given him the perfect scenario to complete his plans.
"Why does he need Ariel?" Lucifer whispered. He had his gaze honed in on Ezekiel. "If he just needs a bit of her blood, why not take it and be done?"
Ezekiel shrugged. "I don't know. I'm sorry. I wish I had a better answer for you."
I studied the young angel as he spoke. "He means that."
Luc looked at me and nodded. He was well aware of my ability to get the truth. "Opening realms without a key or doorway takes years. We'd need to find a Relic or someone that knows where the realm is to force them to help us get in."
"We don't have that kind of time," Michael whispered. "We've got to get you to Abaddon within days. Possibly within hours."
My heart sank. I knew what was coming. They were going to pressure me to abandon the search for Ariel and focus on trying to get us back to Abaddon. On the one hand, it could be helpful to be in our true forms. Lucifer having his power back couldn't hurt, for sure, and even though I was almost at my normal level of ability, the human body fettered it because I had to keep a layer of protection running throughout it so that my magic didn't burn the body to a crisp.
Leaning close to Ezekiel, I flooded his mind with power. He had no mental blocks up like his sister had. I couldn't read his thoughts, but I was able to manipulate his emotions the way I had Genevra to make her scream. "Ezekiel." He snapped his gaze to me. "Is there any more knowledge that would benefit us to know?" I layered the desire to tell the truth and an urge to please me into his brain.
He shook his head. "Nothing I know of. Uriel might know more."
Uriel's mind wasn't so easily broken. We didn't have the time it would take to wear him down. He was an Archangel of the first order, making his betrayal all the more devastating.
I wasn't good with memories, but Michael was. "Can you wipe his memory?" I asked. "Leave him blank for a good three days, then we'll drop him back where we found him."
"Raphael will know we had him." Lucifer shrugged. "Just kill him and put his soul with the others."
"The others?" Ezekiel squeaked.
"I won't go back on my word. I don't care if Raphael knows. This child has time to turn his life around and make things right. So does his sister."
Before I left to get Genevra and bring her in for her memory to be wiped, I focused on Ezekiel one more time. "Boy, we will be watching to make sure you do just that."
He nodded vigorously, then his face went blank as Michael began his work. "Be right back," I said.
Appearing in the barn, I put my hand on Gabriel's shoulder. He stood in the stall door and glared at Uriel.
"We got a little more information," I said. "It will help."
Uriel had his gaze fixed over our heads. He could see us but not hear, thanks to the handy wards from the ruby. "I don't see any point in questioning him," Gabriel said. "He won't budge."
"I know." I sighed and removed the ward. "Uriel. Any chance you want to be a pal and give us the information you have?"
He didn't move a muscle.
"I thought not. Okay, then." Genevra watched me with wide, terrified eyes. She remembered the pain and probably had no idea it had all been in her head. After pressing a kiss to Gabe's cheek, I grabbed Genevra and took her to the living room.
"Just finished him," Michael said. Ezekiel's head was flopped back on the couch and his mouth wide open. A soft snore drifted from the back of his throat. "He's sound asleep."
"What did you do to him?" Genevra cried. "He's just a kid."
"Yeah, but you're not." I sat her beside him and loosened her upper body so she could touch him and see for herself he was fine. "How could you lead him into this?"
She didn't answer.
"He told us everything he knew," I said. "Listen to my voice, you'll know I speak the truth."
"You got into my head." She snarled at me like a feral cat. I nearly rolled my eyes. "You could be lying, and I'd never know it."
"Suit yourself," I said. "If you know anything more, now's the time to tell us."
Lucifer, who had been pacing the room, stopped in front of Genevra. "You're lucky I don't have my full powers," he growled. "Lilith isn't willing to harm your babe, but I would."
A bluff. I knew damn well he wouldn't. But of course, I didn't tell her that.
Michael put a hand on Luc's arm. "She's not going to talk. Let's just finish this."
Her eyes widened, and I realized she didn't know we were going to wipe their minds. She saw Ezekiel asleep, but not why or how. "Fine. Hand me the knife and we'll be done."
Michael stared at me but had sense enough not to look surprised at my words. Lucifer, catching on, let a purely evil smile spread across his face. "Let me do it." He didn't remove his gaze from Genevra's throat. "I enjoy it so much."
"Fine!" Genevra yelled. "Fine. I'll tell you, but Raphael will kill me if you don't help me hide afterward."
I cocked my head at her and pretended to consider. "All right. We can hide you. He's not the only one with other realms. Then, when he's captured or killed, you'll be free to make a new, pure life for yourselves and your babe."
