Devoted (Book Two, Caylin's Story)

by S. J. West

  “Once it starts,” Aiden tells Aunt Tara, “Will will phase you to Jess and Mason’s villa where you can wait out the fight with everyone else.”

  “Baby,” Aunt Tara says to me, “is there no other way?”

  “No.” I tell her. “This has to end, Aunt Tara, or none of us will be safe. This is the best way to finish it once and for all.”

  Aunt Tara sighs and nods. She’s been in our world long enough to know that sometimes you have to fight to ensure the safety of the ones you love.

  My dad and Mae have already gone to the villa. Everyone else is set into place except for the four of us. We’re the trigger for the fight and the last to the party, as it were.

  I look at Aiden and can’t help but admire the outfit he’s wearing. It’s quickly become my favorite of his wardrobe.

  “Remind me to thank JoJo later for making you that outfit,” I whisper to him as I pick up the white cake box.

  “I’ll be sure to do that,” Aiden whispers back just before turning invisible.

  I’m not completely sure he turns invisible because he needs to be that way before he phases with us or if my constant leering of his person has made him shy. Either way, I sigh in disappointment.

  “Ok,” I tell Will and Aunt Tara, “let’s go.”

  Will phases Aunt Tara and I phase myself.

  When we get there, I make sure to open up the curtains in the living room so that anyone who is outside can look in and see that we’re there.

  “So what do we do?” Aunt Tara asks me.

  “We do what we would normally do,” I tell her. “Let’s decorate.”

  We go through the motions of decorating the living room with balloons and streamers like we intend to have my mother’s birthday party.

  Almost thirty minutes later, I finally hear and feel what we’ve been waiting for.

  It’s the sound of a strange weight shifting the wood on the front porch and making it creak. Jess’ bracelet grows almost red hot around my wrist indicating someone definitely means to harm me.

  “They’re here,” I whisper, knowing Aiden is nearby.

  I turn to Aunt Tara and Will.

  “Time for us to get the cake out,” I say, using the code phrase we picked earlier to signal their departure.

  Aunt Tara makes to come hug me, but I discretely shake my head stopping her. If they see her doing it, they might try to attack before she has a chance to leave. She stops in mid-stride and winks at me instead.

  “It’s in the kitchen,” Will says. “Can you help me get it Aunt Tara?”

  “Sure thing, hon,” Aunt Tara says.

  I watch them walk towards the kitchen together. Will lightly touches Aunt Tara’s arm and they phase.

  I take a deep breath.

  This is it.

  I’m nervous and excited all at the same time.

  “Are you ready?” Aiden asks, caressing my cheek gently with the tips of his fingers.

  I close my eyes and let his invisible touch calm my nerves.

  “Yes,” I whisper.

  “Then open the door.”

  I walk over to the front door and rest my hand on the knob.

  As soon as I open it, I know all hell is going to break loose.

  “We will win this fight,” Aiden whispers in my ear.

  I nod letting him know I heard him.

  I take in a deep breath and open the door.

  To be honest, I expected to be attacked immediately. But, there’s no one at the door, not even a soul in the front yard. I step out onto the porch and look around.

  Nothing.

  Maybe we over-estimated the princes want to see me dead.

  I turn to go back inside the house when I feel them come.

  Phasing causing a disturbance in the air around the one phasing. Most of the time you don’t notice it. The only time you do is when a large group phases in together.

  I find myself surrounded by three cloaked Watchers.

  Jess materializes and slices one Watcher’s head clean off in one swing of her sword. Aiden grabs another by the neck and tears it off. The third makes to phase away, but I grab one of his arms and negate his phasing by phasing him back, giving Aiden just enough time to phase behind him and rip his head from his shoulders too.

  “First wave?” Jess asks Aiden, twirling her sword in front of her preparing for another attack.

  “Yes,” he answers. “They’re testing to see what we have. It’s what I would do.”

  Before I know it, I feel someone grab me from behind by the throat. Just as he phases me, I see two cloaked Watchers grab Jess and Aiden and phase them away. The person holding me phases us to the living room inside the house.

  I reach both my hands back and grab his head as I bend forward to throw him down on the floor in front of me. It’s only then that I see it’s Asmodeus.

  He quickly phases upright again.

  “Shouldn’t you be dead already?” He asks me, looking disgusted that I’m still alive. “Though, I guess I should thank you for giving me the pleasure of killing you twice.”

  “I can’t be killed,” I tell him, feeling somewhat smug in that fact.

  “Everyone can be killed,” Asmodeus says like I must be the most stupid person in the world.

  “True,” I concede, “but very few have their own personal angel to bring them back to life.”

  “Well, let’s put this angel of yours to the test and see if he can reattach limbs and a head,” Asmodeus says.

  He phases over to me and grabs me by the throat with both of his hands.

  I pull the dagger I had hidden in the back of my jeans out and thrust it up towards his stomach, but he sees me do it and grabs the hand with the dagger in it before I can stab him with it, twisting my wrist until it breaks. I drop the dagger to the floor with a clatter. I grasp the hand he has at my throat with my good hand and squeeze with all the strength I have.

  The earth trembles beneath my feet, like we’re in the middle of an earthquake.

  I see Asmodeus’ eyes widen in fear as he releases his hold around my throat and looks at the hand I crushed.

  “What have you done?” He screams at me.

  I look at his hand and read what the brand there says. It's similar in appearance to the ones I saw on Belphagor and Mammon. But this brand is cracked now and glowing red like it's burning.

  Asmodeus drops to his knees and grabs the silver dagger that I dropped. He rears his hand back and stabs his other hand smack dab in the middle of the brand.

  The earthquake subsides as Asmodeus falls to the floor. I phase Asmodeus’ body to the small cove on the mountain for safekeeping.

  I phase back to the front yard to find the others. I’m not completely ready for what I see.

  Jess and Mason are in the middle of a fight with Lucifer. Instead of looking worried that he’s fighting two people at one time, Lucifer looks exhilarated by it as he taunts them both.

  “Is this the best the two of you can do?” Lucifer scoffs as he fights them both off with his glowing black sword, a fitting contrast to the righteousness of Jess’ flaming orange one.

  I look to the right and see Aiden in a fight with Baal. I see the flash of the dagger in Aiden’s hand and pray that he finds a way to bury into the prince's body at some point. I don’t know how to help him because of the way he fights by phasing. I'm having a hard enough time just recognizing that it's him.

  It’s to the left that I see my only opportunity to be of help.

  The large group of our Watchers that we brought with us, being led by Uncle Malcolm, are fighting a mixture of changelings, hellhounds, cloaked Watchers and their werewolf children. I see one of our Watchers about to attack a werewolf with a head that looks like it’s been battered almost to a pulp already. There's only one wolf I know who would have been beaten up before the fight.

  I phase over to it.

  “Stop,” I tell the Watcher about to attack it, “this one is mine.”

  “Whatever you say, C
aylin,” the Watcher says, turning his attention to another target.

  “Tristan?” I ask the wolf.

  It turns to look at me and gives a small whine in answer.

  I place my hand on its shoulder and phase it to the little cove on the side of the mountain across the lake from my house.

  “Stay here,” I tell him, “and keep hidden.”

  He whines again, and I take that as him understanding my orders.

  I phase back to the fight and know one faction of it I can control.

  I phase on top of the picnic table and yell, “Kneel!”

  The wolves in the mayhem all look at me like they’re of one mind. They walk through the fighting Watchers and hellhounds to kneel on the ground by the picnic table, bowing their heads in my direction. Unfortunately, no one else pays as much attention to me.

  Except for one person standing off to the side of the fight like a spectator.

  Slade.

  I phase behind Slade and push him to the ground. Slowly, he rolls over and looks up at me. I expect to see anger or even hatred on his face for me. But, instead I see emotions I wasn’t prepared to see, sadness and shame.

  “Why did you betray us?” I demand. “We trusted you. I brought you into my family. How can you live with yourself after what you’ve done?”

  “I can’t,” Slade says. “I’d rather be dead.”

  He rises up and kneels before me.

  “Please, Caylin, end my life. I can’t go on living like this.”

  My hands burst into blue flames, and I wrap the fingers of my good hand around the front of Slade’s neck.

  “Tell me why you betrayed us!” I demand.

  “I’ve been Lucifer’s spy for years,” Slade confesses. “I was bit by one of his hellhounds here,” he says, grasping his left arm where the tattoo is, “and ended up trading in my soul to him for an end to the pain. I was weak. I hoped that by helping you, I could reclaim at least a little bit of my soul and be free of him, but it didn't work out that way. He owns me body and soul. Kill me, Caylin. Put an end to my torment.”

  I loosen my hold on Slade’s neck realizing he is living out a life Uncle Malcolm might choose one day. Would I be able to kill Uncle Malcolm so easily?

  Slade grabs my loosened hand and presses it hard against his neck.

  “Please, Caylin,” he begs, “end me! End this nightmare I'm living in once and for all!”

  I yank my hand out of his grasp.

  “No,” I tell him. “You made your choice and now you have to live with it.”

  “Then I’ll make you do it,” Slade says, filled with a new determination.

  He stands and barrels into my midsection with his shoulder, pinning me up against a large oak in the yard. I feel my breath being knocked out as more than a couple of my ribs are broken by the impact.

  I bring my right leg up swiftly and knee Slade in the chest as hard as I can. I hear bone break and feel him completely relinquish his hold on me as he staggers back.

  I try to take in a deep breath, but the pain from just trying to breathe normally is torturous enough.

  With a growl, Slade comes at me again, but is stopped before he can even take a step forward.

  The pack of werewolves I left kneeling by the picnic table descend on Slade like rabid dogs. I hear Slade scream out in pain and wonder why he doesn’t just phase away.

  “Stop!” I yell to the wolves, paying the price for my command with lancing pain from my broken ribs.

  The wolves immediately stop attacking Slade but continue to surround him, snapping their jaws at his prone body lying helplessly on the ground.

  I walk over and the wolves in my path part to allow me entry into their circle.

  I see what’s left of Slade’s body on the ground. His limbs have been pulled from his torso and half the flesh from his face is gone. His bare chest and abdomen are covered with deep lacerations.

  “Caylin,” he begs, “end me…”

  I kneel down beside him.

  “You can heal from this,” I tell him.

  “It doesn’t matter,” he tells me, his breath wheezing. “My soul is lost. Destroy me before I take more innocent lives. Stop me before I kill someone you love. Lucifer will have me do it just to torture me even more than I already am. Put an end to me now, Caylin. I’m begging you…”

  Slade’s last words come out as a desperate plea from a desperate man. He wants to die. But was death truly the answer?

  “But if I kill you,” I say to him, “your soul will be lost forever.”

  “It’s already lost,” he says. “Send me to Hell with fewer deaths on my conscience. Give me at least that much peace. Please…end my pain…”

  I place my good hand on Slade’s chest. It burst into blue flames.

  “Thank you…” Slade says to me and closes his eyes, welcoming the end of his life.

  With one thought, I kill Slade, reducing him to a pile of black ash.

  I weep over his loss, and I cry over the possibility that his fate will be Uncle Malcolm’s one day.

  I quickly pull myself together because I know this fight is far from over.

  I phase back onto the picnic table to see what else I can do to help.

  I arrive just in time to see Aiden finally gain an advantage over Baal and stab the prince in the gut with one of the silver daggers. Baal falls to the ground and Aiden phases him away to a safe place before phasing back to the same spot.

  I see Aiden scan the yard and find me. The triumph of his defeat of Baal fades when he catches his first glimpse of my condition. He phases to me.

  “Caylin,” he says, anguish over my injuries clear in his voice, “we need to get you to Rafe.”

  “No,” I tell him, watching the fight that’s still raging between Lucifer, Jess, and Mason.

  As Aiden tears his eyes away from me to look at the fight, Mason phases to the back of Lucifer seeming to hope to surprise the last prince standing from behind. Lucifer raises one leg and kicks Mason in the stomach with so much force it propels Mason completely across the lake to somewhere on the other side.

  Jess uses an ability granted to her from my grandfather and flies above Lucifer, spinning in the air until she lands on the other side of him. As Lucifer turns to face her, someone I knew was waiting in the wings, watching for an opening phases into the fight.

  My mother stands behind Lucifer with one of the silver daggers in her hand and stabs him in the back of his shoulder.

  Lucifer drops his sword to the ground and falls to his knees.

  But, he doesn’t go into stasis.

  He reaches back for the dagger in his shoulder and pulls it out. He sits down on the ground and stares at it for a second before he begins to laugh.

  “After all your efforts to get me here,” Lucifer says to Jess, “it’s now we learn this thing is useless against me.”

  Lucifer continues to laugh like it’s the funniest thing he’s ever encountered in his whole life.

  Before any of us can react, Lucifer throws the dagger straight at Jess’ chest, presumably aiming for her heart.

  But the dagger never reaches her.

  God phases in front of Jess and the dagger disintegrates into sand at His feet.

  “Enough, Lucifer.”

  Lucifer stands to face his father.

  “Why are you interfering?” Lucifer questions harshly.

  “Jess’ life isn’t meant to end here and certainly not by your hand,” God tells him.

  “You’ve always cared about these monkeys more than us,” Lucifer accuses. “I don’t know why I should be surprised that you would choose her over me.”

  “Why must you see things so black and white?” God asks. “I have never chosen one over the other. That has always been your assumption, not fact. I love you, Lucifer. I still have hope for you.”

  “Hope that I’ll come groveling at your feet and beg for your forgiveness?” Lucifer says as if the mere idea of such a thing happening is ludicrous. “As the monk
eys say, it’ll be a cold day in Hell before that happens, father. So I would advise you not to hold your breath for that day to come.”

  “I will remain hopeful,” God says.

  “Then it’s a fool’s hope,” Lucifer replies. “You’re wasting your time.”

  “I suppose it’s a good thing I have plenty of it to spare. Now,” God says surveying the carnage in the front yard, “it’s time for you and your men to leave. Enough blood has been shed over this.”

  Lucifer stands and picks up his sword from the ground.

  “Too bad your little dagger trick didn’t work on me,” Lucifer taunts.

  “It was never meant to work on you,” God informs him. “Only your brothers.”

  “I still have Levi,” Lucifer points out.

  “I’m fully aware of that fact,” God replies. “And if I were you, I would keep him in Hell for a long time to come. Otherwise, you will lose him too.”

  “I don’t see what the point of all this is,” Lucifer says in disgust.

  “No,” God replies, a resigned sigh in His voice, “I don’t suppose you would.”

  “This isn’t over,” Lucifer says to God.

  “No,” God replies, “it isn’t.”

  Lucifer phases and I finally allow myself to collapse into unconsciousness.

  “Is she awake?” I hear Rafe say nearby.

  “She’s coming around, I think,” Aiden replies, even closer to me.

  When I open my eyes, I see Aiden lying beside me in my bed holding me.

  “Am I dreaming?” I ask him.

  “No,” he replies, kissing me on the forehead, “you’re finally awake.”

  “Finally?” I ask. “How long have I been out?”

  “A few hours.”

  I sit up straight and look around my room. Only Rafe and Aiden are present.

  “Glad to see you awake,” Rafe says to me. “How are you feeling?”

  I take a mental inventory of my body and can’t seem to find anything wrong.

  “I feel fine,” I tell him. “Nothing hurts.”

  “Good. I’ll go down and let the others know you’re up.”

  I look at Aiden. “Did we all make it?”

  “Yes, we didn't lose anyone,” Aiden tells me. “Everyone is downstairs waiting for you to wake up.”