by Jill Cooper
She didn’t have a weapon. There was nothing…She gazed at Papa’s fireplace and reached for the poker stick. “Don’t make me fight you, Duncan. What’s gotten into you?”
The flesh of Duncan’s face began to burn away, like paper lit on fire. It revealed another man’s twisted face with strong features and yellow inhuman eyes.
“Sorry,” he said in Duncan’s familiar drawl that now made Jessica’s skin crawl, “the devil made me do it.”
****
The façade of Duncan faded and in its place was the most royal of demons, wearing a human face. Thick black hair fell to his shoulders; he was dressed in a long red robe and was taller than any man had a right to be. A human face, but by all accounts, not a human body.
Jessica didn’t understand. If he was here, where was Duncan? Had he even made it out of the car accident? Was he dead? Her mouth was sour and a glance at Amanda revealed nothing. “I can’t…read him. Whatever he is. I just can’t.”
That terrified her.
“Easy to fool. Like they say, the devil is in the details. I just love a good devil pun, don’t you?” He held his sword out, the tip pointed at Amanda’s throat.
The devil…Lucifer. He was here to stop Amanda; there was no other reason for what he was doing. None.
And it had come to this. A choice.
A final decision.
Jessica had a split second to choose. Earth or hell. Freedom or slavery. Sister or everyone else on the planet. There really was no choice, was there? They both couldn’t get out of there. Someone had to buy the other time.
For the first time in her rotten, stinking life, Jessica had to choose someone else over her sister. She allowed herself one longing look at Amanda before she charged for Lucifer. She grabbed his wrists and pushed against him with all her might in a losing game of tug of war.
“Go!” Jessica screamed. “Get out of here!”
Lucifer hollered a battle call and pushed back against her. Behind him, great black wings spread wide, filling the room with darkness. Jessica had stared into the eyes of Satan himself and not only that, had fallen for him. Kissed him.
Jessica kept her head buried down deep, but Lucifer grabbed her by the throat.
“Jessica!” Amanda ran from the room, but stopped just outside. Her tone was one of fear.
“I’ve got this. You go!” It was most likely a lie. Jessica bared her teeth and gagged as Lucifer pushed her up against the wall beside the fireplace, but Jessica smashed her hands down onto his shoulders and brought her legs up for a powerful kick. If she lost, Jessica hoped Amanda didn’t stay around to watch.
Otherwise her sacrifice would be for nothing.
“Goodbye, Jessica!” Amanda ran for the dark portal Miriam had opened into the underworld.
Good-bye my sister. Goodbye.
Her kick barely threw Lucifer back, his grip on Jessica never lessened. They tumbled onto the floor together and he pushed her off of him. “So strong, for a human girl. You’re lucky I’m not at my full strength yet, or you’d be dead. Or worse. You’d be my bride.”
Bride? “I'd rather be dead than…” Jessica tried to pull away from his eyes, but they lit up red. There were little gears inside his pupils and they spun…causing Jessica to lose herself. Her mind tumbled and she saw dresses.
Regal gowns, ballrooms of gold where lava flowed and demons of such s danced. Delicate pastries and sweet flowing wines lined the tables and amidst it all, there she was. Jessica Blood dressed all in black. except for a red veil that covered her face.
Hand in hand she strolled with Lucifer—the Devil’s bride.
No, just no.
Jessica’s mind snapped back into place. Lucifer was escaping, using his lure to keep her docile—Make his exit.
Drawing on a reserve of energy she never knew she had, Jessica leaped to her feet, took hold of the poker lying by the fireplace with both hands and ran it through his back, pinning him to the floor.
Lucifer hollered and his wings gave a fruitless flap.
“You think this alone will stop me?” He laughed and turned his head to look at her. His eyes turned from red to blue and Jessica resisted the brown specks floating in them. She backed up and shook her head.
Images were in her head that hadn’t been there before. She wanted to be with him. Give herself over to him. Just let him go…Just…
Jessica covered her eyes and refused to look. She wouldn’t become a slave to another evil. She let that happen once. Jessica would die a horrible death before she let that happen again.
A strong hand grabbed her by the throat and lifted her into the air. Jessica kicked her legs frantically as Lucifer squeezed. The poker was still through his torso, but didn’t seem to cause him any discomfort. Blood trickled from around the edges of the wound and out of his mouth, but all Lucifer did was smile at her.
“Damn you,” Jessica gagged and tried to loosen his grip on her neck.
“That is kind of the idea.” He brought Jessica down close to him and gave her a tender kiss.
Her mind swirled and went hazy as he put her down. “She’ll stop you,” Jessica’s vision spun. Grabbing her head, she fell to her knees. “You’re going back to hell where you belong.”
“If she was going to, she would have done so already. And if she hasn’t,” Lucifer pointed his sword at her. “She must be dead and that means I can take you as my queen….”
Like hell he would, but Jessica’s mind filled with images of black wedding dresses. Tender kisses, while the Earth burned. His eyes and his spell were working their magic on her. Part of her wanted it and that was the part of herself she had to resist and deny.
It would never happen.
Never give up. Never stop fighting.
Jessica rose up to her feet, bellowed a scream, and grabbed Lucifer’s wrist—forced him back against the wall. His face was marred by surprise as he screamed. “What is this power you have? No creature can stand up to me!”
She wasn’t just a creature. She was a Blood.
The holy trinity of the sister’s blood, their aunt. Maybe there was some truth in it, after all.
She balled her hand into a fist, and felt a surge of energy travel through it she hadn’t experienced before. Her hair blew and her mind spun. Jessica swung her fist into Lucifer’s face so hard his head snapped against the wall and the force cracked it.
Lucifer grabbed her shoulders and with a scream, spun her around and into the fireplace. Jessica grabbed him with a well-placed hand on the back of his robe, sent him flying.
Game was on. Jessica wasn’t even tired anymore. For better or worse, they were locked in this battle.
Possibly forever.
Chapter Twenty-Eight: Gwen
The old Blood home was in view and Gwen’s heart was constricted with pain. Jacob left it to her in his will to raise the girls in, but she couldn’t. Never could set foot in it again. Didn’t want to raise his girls so she resisted it for six long years. The abuse Jessica went through in foster care system and in mental hospitals, all of it was Gwen’s fault.
Now she had to do something. She had to find a way to stop what was happening to them. She had the tools, but somehow Gwen had to find a way to put them together. The Ruby Heart and blood. Somehow Gwen had to get it all to work.
Quickly. The place looked like a battlefield.
War waged between the golden shadows, like eagles, swooped down from the clouds, and the demons, who were unlike any Gwen had ever seen. They were in regal robes with black wings. These were no lowly beasts.
They were straight from the high court. The doors to hell were open and the demons were flooding the Earth.
Mike parked the Chrysler on the grass. They’d have to make a run for it. There was nothing they could say, but as their eyes locked, their gaze spoke volumes. For a brief moment, Gwen saw him as the strapping, youthful man that she fell in love with. His passion and resolve had made that easy, but his service to the church, well, it had made it downrigh
t impossible.
“We have to help the angels.” Gwen exited the car and marched across the field. “Crazy as that sounds. Maybe a wind storm.”
“Won’t that hurt the angels as much as the demons?” Mike asked. He struggled to keep up. Instead he made the sign of the cross in the air and Gwen tried not to notice.
How could he not have lost his faith after everything they had been through? Gwen wished to know, wanted to ask, but as they came to an open crater in the ground, she stopped. There was a staircase running straight to the middle of the Earth.
“Here I always thought it was a Stairway to Heaven,” Mike muttered.
Gwen raised her eyebrows and saw Amanda running toward them. Or someone who used to be Amanda. Gwen unwrapped the cloth around the shard of the Ruby Heart. She held it tight in one hand and in the other, the sword tainted with demon blood. In it, the last of Lourdes’s magic surged up the hilt of the sword into her hand.
Gwen wanted to drop it, but couldn’t. She let the magic fester in her hand, waiting for the Ruby Heart to activate.
It didn’t.
What would it take! What!
Sacrifice. Was that what Lanon had said?
It started to make sense as Gwen sidestepped to block Amanda. “Now wait a second,” Mike grabbed her arm. “Gwen!”
But she shrugged him off. Gwen had an idea and it was one he’d never go along with. “Stay back, Mike.”
Amanda trotted over to them in a full on run. Her cheeks were flushed. “I have to go!”
“No!” Gwen screamed, eyes wide. “We can’t lose you!”
“Lucifer is in there! He’s here, Aunt Gwen. If I don’t sacrifice myself we’re all dead. Jessica is dead. Everyone! Someone has to do this and that’s me, all right? It’s my duty as a Blood!”
Blood. The Ruby Heart needed a blood sacrifice, but maybe what Lanon had meant was…it needed a Blood sacrifice.
Somehow it was perfect. Like a symphonic harmony. How could Gwen never have seen before that she was the answer? Her son had started this and now it was up to her to finish it. The race was over. It would be a gamble, but one Gwen had to take.
Amanda scowled. “What are you thinking? You can’t save me, Aunt Gwen!”
Gwen glanced back at Mike, at the handsome lines of his face. The way he looked at her like she was the only woman in the room. Oh, the bittersweet of what might have been. She turned and stroked his cheek.
Mike licked his lips. “Whatever it is you’re about to do, don’t do it, Gwenivere.”
She smiled at him and leaned in to give him a kiss. Not hello, not a promise, but a painful good-bye. The one she could never truly give him, no matter how much time transpired, or the distance between them. He was always in her heart. No matter where life took her.
What would have been, if things were different? A different time, a different place. Maybe, in another universe things would’ve worked out. Happily ever after.
Maybe her nieces could have that happily ever after for her.
“So much I want to tell him. You tell him for me,” Gwen said with a nod. “All right?”
Amanda shook her head. “This isn’t the way.”
Gwen didn’t know about that. She thought it just might be and if it wasn’t the answer, at least Gwen would be able to say she had tried. For once, she had tried to put someone other than herself first.
“I might never have said it, but I love you. You and your sister.” Gwen turned the sword around and impaled herself.
****
Mike
Wasn’t fair.
Wasn’t right.
He knew Gwen was up to something, but this? “Gwen!” Mike lunged for Gwen, but was an arm’s breadth away as the sword plunged through Gwen’s abdomen. She leaned forward, falling on the hilt to drive the sword through her body farther.
He was too late…again. Mike couldn’t save her. Couldn’t think of what to say, what to do. Instead he shrieked. “Genevieve!”
She collapsed into a heap beside the crater. Her weak and trembling fingers painted in blood grasped the Ruby Heart.
Mike thought his heart might have seized up, to witness such a thing. He had always been weak. Never able to give of himself what he should, to save the world, save his son. Not if it meant losing Gwen.
He’d lost her anyway, didn’t he? Nothing he could have done.
Instead he’d lost her anyway, Mike wanted to pull her away from the crater, but the shard of the Ruby Heart glowed and it kept him back like an electrical prison. Gwen’s body lit up, the halo of white surrounded Amanda too.
The power of that cocoon threw Mike back. Amanda was lifted into the air and her body arched. The black ink of Lourdes was being drawn from her like, spider venom through a bite. Her hair, once black through and through, grew red at the tips. The color traveled through her body until she was restored.
Her dress. Her toes. Even her radiant skin.
That black corruption and power flowed straight through the shard of the Ruby Heart, up Gwen’s hands and straight into her heart.
No, no. Mike struggled back to his feet. Not Gwen, Not her. He had to get to her. Had to save her. Gwen couldn’t be the one they lost in all this. He’d go. Him! What good was he anyway? Poor excuse for a warrior and an even poorer excuse for a priest.
As a man, he was worthless.
Mike ran toward the crater. Amanda’s body hit the ground with a thud and she barely missed the hole. Gwen glanced at Mike, but her green eyes were gone. They shone white as pearls and her short red hair was now a mass of thorns.
“I’m going to set things right.” Her voice was a booming echo.
“Gwen!” Mike screamed and extended his arm to reach her as she leaped into the crater, missing all the stairs and dropping straight into the abyss.
No! Mike would follow after her. He would, but the crater had started to seal up. The ground shook and Amanda, barely conscious, couldn’t pull herself away from the hole.
She was going to fall right in.
Damn Gwen and what she did. Damn her for making him choose.
Mike scurried over to Amanda and pulled her away from the maw. as it finished closing up. She took a deep breath. “What happened?”
He couldn’t answer. Didn’t have the heart to as the sky lit up in a brilliant flame. Golden streaks of heaven lighting up the night sky. The black forms streaking to the Earth, hit like bombs meeting their target, their bodies passing through the ground, straight into Hell.
The door was latched. The key had been returned.
Gwen had taken the throne of the underworld. Eternity might have been saved, but for eternity Mike would grieve for what was lost. What might have been. And all of that in between.
Chapter Twenty-Nine: Jessica
Amanda was gone. Jessica hadn’t gotten to hug her. Embrace her. There was nothing except another fight, and this one, Jessica might very well loose. She had never waltzed with a devil up close before, but this one she had kissed. This one had fooled her.
He was strong, pushing her back against Dad’s old bookcase. Jessica gasped for breath as Lucifer swung at her head. Barely in time, Jessica ducked. His fist missed and shattered the wooden shelves that once she had climbed on. Once, they had been a toy. Playing in Dad’s den while he worked. Let’s pretend it’s a playhouse.
Jessica scurried under Lucifer’s legs, but he grabbed her by the hair and yanked her back, the force cracking her body like a whip… She shrieked in pain as her body slammed into the wall.
Lucifer snarled at her as he let her go and she fell to her ass. “Pretty as you are, you’re in my way. I need your sister, not you, but I’ll be back for another taste.” Lucifer smiled and it chilled Jessica to the bone. In the presence of such evil, Jessica’s skin raised goose bumps.
His wings unfurled and he picked up his blade. He was nearly at the door when someone jumped on his back.
“I’ve got him!”
It was Duncan.
Jessica’s heart
lit up to see him on top of Lucifer. Duncan’s arms tightened against the King of Hell’s broad shoulders and his legs kicked wildly as Lucifer spun around. Duncan was thrown clear, crashing into Jessica.
“Duncan!” Jessica screamed and tightened her arm through his as Lucifer’s broadsword came swiftly toward them.
They barely got out of the way in time. Duncan and Jessica rolled, their bodies entangled. Lucifer whipped around with a snarled lip. His eyes gleamed red, and he was upon them again.
Something in his face changed and those red eyes widened in alarm. He gave a single scream, and it was as though he exploded into the ground. Gone. The only thing remaining was his sword, which fell to the hardwood with a clang and its tip glowed red.
Jessica stared at the red circle left in his wake. It meant only one thing, but she couldn’t bring herself to say, or even think it. Instead she closed her eyes as Duncan’s hands came against her face. He kissed her so deeply and fully it pushed every bad thought, every bad feeling from her mind.
But the image of a smiling, carefree Amanda wouldn’t leave her and Jessica’s heart was shattered. She’d never see that girl again. Never….The world was saved, Jessica’s body was whole, but she’d never be the same. She lost a piece of herself that she’d never get back.
If Duncan needed it explained to him, he didn’t say. His face was crestfallen and his eyes were dark. “I’m sorry, Jess. Sorry I wasn’t here. Sorry he took you. I’m sorry…Amanda….” His chest heaved with a deep sob as tears streamed from his eyes.
Jessica shook her head, but couldn’t breathe. She buried her head against Duncan’s chest and thought she might never be whole again. She would lie in his arms and never move. Never do anything again.
His tight arms around her should’ve been comforting, but weren’t.
And suddenly that voice…that familiar voice rang out.
“Jess?”
Jessica’s head whipped around. She couldn’t believe it.
As though in a dream, Jessica rose to her feet. In the doorway were Mike and…Amanda? But not a dark queen. Instead it was the real her. Pale skin, perfect complexion and a tiny pixie nose that on anyone else would appear diminutive.
