Into Hell (The Road to Hell Series, Book 4)

by Brenda K. Davies

  “Yes, but he had his reasons,” Raphael replied.

  “Ooooh, I’m sure he did,” Caim snarled. “And just what were those reasons?”

  “Yes, do tell,” I said.

  Raphael folded his hands before him as he spoke. “Unlike the demons, who need a Chosen to propagate and therefore have a form of immortal birth control, the angels experience no desire in Heaven which keeps them from having an overabundance of immortal offspring. However, the mortal realm is different. Those desires come to life in angels and, like the humans that the being formed angels in the image of, we can propagate with anyone. Michael, the most steadfast and loyal amongst us faltered while on Earth. When he did, the being realized that it could happen to any of the angels and ordered Michael and Ariel back to Heaven. The being then commanded Michael to never speak about what happened.

  “Concerned the angels would start to prefer life on Earth and not return to Heaven as often as they should, the being set forth the law that angels could never again walk the Earth. Since life cannot evolve in Heaven, the being created more of the lesser angels to ensure there would be enough angels to keep Heaven, and all life, running smoothly.”

  “I remember the increase in the making of the lesser angels,” Caim said through his teeth. “But I don’t remember anyone slapping Michael on the back and telling him congrats on becoming the proud papa of a mortal. I must have missed that memo.”

  Raphael blinked at him. I didn’t know if he didn’t get Caim’s sarcasm or if he had no idea how to deal with it.

  “Before he was born, the being cloaked what Adam was to keep him hidden from all angels and placed him in the garden with Eve and some other humans. The being had granted certain humans entrance into paradise before, so none of us suspected anything unusual about Adam, and only Michael knew the truth of it for all these years.”

  “Lucifer started questioning things shortly after Adam’s birth,” Caim murmured.

  “Yes, the war started soon after,” Raphael replied.

  “Were Adam and Eve really thrown out of the garden?” Vargas asked.

  “No,” Raphael said. “They left.”

  “Why?”

  “No one had ever left paradise before, so the being didn’t expect Adam to do so when he placed him there, but humans never do what is expected of them. They left around the same time that Lucifer and the angels were removed from Heaven. Adam’s true nature remained cloaked from everyone, but his lineage spread.”

  “Holy shit,” I breathed, unable to do much more than that. Kobal clasped my neck and kissed my temple as his fingers rubbed my tensed muscles.

  “If the line was cloaked, then how did the angels know they could communicate with her?” Corson asked with a wave of his hand at my mother.

  “Michael knew. At the time, he did not reveal how or why he knew she could speak with us. We didn’t question it either. We all assumed she was part of a fallen angel line and Michael somehow sensed this. We did lose track of some of their children over the years.”

  “I see,” I murmured.

  “That’s why Adam lived so long,” Caim said. “Not because he was favored, but because he was also descended from an angel. He was drawing power from the Earth and we didn’t realize it, not in Heaven or Hell, and certainly not while we were dying on this plane.”

  “Yes,” Raphael confirmed. “And I did not question it either.”

  “And the Lord said, let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth. Genesis 1:26,” Vargas murmured, and his gaze came to me. “Adam was believed to have a special affinity for the earth, to be connected to it, and they were right.”

  I had zero response for that. “Michael never said a word. He just let the war go on when he could have stopped it, or at least revealed the reason why the angels couldn’t return to Earth,” I whispered. Somehow, out of all the angels, I’d ended up with the two biggest assholes as ancestors.

  “Michael disobeyed the being once, he would not do so again by revealing that which he had been forbidden to reveal,” Raphael replied.

  “Until now,” Caim said.

  “Michael knows that when the being returns he will be punished, that he will most likely be destroyed, but he realized the rest of the archangels had to know what she truly is.”

  “Because you would not have come to Earth for just Lucifer’s offspring,” I murmured.

  Raphael gazed at me, torment evident in his eyes. “Yes, I would have,” he finally admitted. “It was unfair to expect you to pay with your life for the numerous mistakes we’ve all made over the years. However, knowing what I did about you made my decision easier.”

  “You really are the first true World Walker,” Magnus murmured. “It all makes so much more sense now.”

  “You would think the angels would still want me dead,” I said. “My children will carry on Lucifer’s line.”

  Kobal released a sound that set my hair on end and caused most within the room to step back. My mother slapped her hands over her ears and started shaking. He cast her a loathing glance before focusing on Raphael again.

  “We do not want you dead. You would be the end of Lucifer’s line, but Michael’s line continues, and so do the lines of some of the other fallen angels,” Raphael said. “The children of the angels have become entangled with the fabric of this world. I will not take out a woman who is stronger than all the other angel lines and who is willing to sacrifice herself to stop Lucifer. I am here to help save humanity, not kill anyone. Without humans, we all perish.”

  “I…” Words failed me. I had no idea what to say. Lucifer and Michael. Adam and his children. I didn’t ask about Cain and Abel; I preferred not knowing. It was all too much. Turning back to my mother, I blinked at her as I tried to comprehend everything put into motion millennia before I was born.

  “Michael is the one who threw Lucifer out of Heaven,” Caim said.

  “I know,” Raphael replied.

  “Do you not understand what it meant to those of us who were driven out of Heaven?” Caim demanded, drawing my attention to him. “How hypocritical it is for Saint Michael to be the one to do such a thing?”

  “I do, but he was determined to obey the laws set down after his transgression.”

  “And when Lucifer started questioning things, Michael saw his opportunity to become the favored son by evicting Lucifer.”

  “No,” Raphael said. “Michael knows he can never be the favored one. He will forever be a constant reminder of the first failure of the being. The being always had a soft spot for Lucifer, and no matter what he has become, he will probably remain the Morning Star to the being. When Lucifer started questioning things, Michael had no good intentions or bad ones; he only saw what needed to be done and did it.”

  “How do you know that?” Caim demanded.

  “Because I have discussed this with him. He is not proud of what was done with the fallen angels, and he is not ashamed. He carried out his duty.”

  “Wonderful,” I said, cutting into their discussion. “They all did their duties, but Lucifer is still on Earth.” I focused on Raphael. “You said Michael’s line continues without me, you meant my brothers?”

  “Yes.”

  “Does this mean my brothers will one day become immortal too?”

  “It does,” Raphael confirmed.

  “Oh.” I had a feeling I would be Kobal’s age and still not have absorbed all the things heaped onto me these past five months. “My brothers have no abilities,” I stated before glancing at my mother. “But then I never knew she did either.”

  “You have not seen any manifested abilities from them,” Raphael replied. “Perhaps they are drawing from the Earth too. Not as strongly as you, but enough that they would have stayed alive until a hundred and something before the gateway opened. Perhaps, they can do something else, or perhaps their abilities are latent. Because Michael’s line was cloaked, many of his descendants haven’t shown
their abilities.”

  “We have to find them and the rest of this town,” I stated.

  “Dead,” my mother said, and my blood ran cold.

  “Who’s dead?” I managed to choke out.

  “The town.” Her fingers digging into the ends of the chair caused bits of stuffing to fall around the filthy ground. “The town is dead. Killed.”

  CHAPTER 51

  River

  “What?” I gasped. “Why?”

  Before I could think, I grabbed her arm. She yanked it away from me and slapped me so fast and hard that I never saw it coming before it staggered me back. “Devil spawn!” she spat.

  My hand flew to my stinging cheek, but for the first time, instead of feeling anger and humiliation over her actions, all I felt was an odd detachment. Before, I’d always questioned why she hated me, why she couldn’t love me, and now I had the answers. Maybe she still should have loved me. No matter what, I was her child, but the voices had broken her to the point that she was incapable of caring for me.

  Kobal closed in on her with his fangs and claws extended. “No!” I cried. I regained my balance and stumbled forward to stop him from killing her. “No!”

  “She will not be allowed to get away with hitting you!” he snarled.

  “It’s fine.” I wedged my body between his and hers. “She can’t hurt me anymore.”

  Kobal’s muscles tensed to spring as he stared at her with a hatred that vibrated through the air around us. My mother drew her knees up against her chest and hugged them as she made a pitiful mewling sound.

  “Demon,” she moaned.

  I tried to nudge Kobal away, but he wouldn’t budge.

  “I won’t allow her to touch you in such a way,” he stated.

  “She won’t hurt me again, physically or emotionally.” I was surprised to realize, I believed this. She’d cut me open with her words more times than I could count, hit me more times than I cared to recall, but she couldn’t hurt me anymore. I’d believed this so many times over the years, believed myself armored against her time and time again, yet she’d still slipped through to pierce me in one way or another. There would be no more slipping through for her.

  “She will never hurt me again,” I said. He didn’t go after her, but he didn’t back away either. Turning back to her, I kept myself between them as I spoke. “What happened to the people in town?”

  “Taken. Dead. Your father came to claim them,” she said in the singsong voice of children skipping rope on a playground.

  “Lucifer was here?”

  “He came for you.” She giggled as she glanced at the TV again. Whatever few screws she’d still had in place in her mind were working their way free right before my eyes. “He found only the people and the children.”

  “Why did he leave you here?” Corson asked her.

  “Left a message for his daughter.”

  “What is it?” She stared at the TV instead of responding to me. I stepped in front of the TV, forcing her attention to me. “What is the message?”

  “That he knows the truth and so should you,” she said and pointed a finger at me before wrapping her arms around her legs again. “If I go to town today, can I get some rabbits?”

  In my head, I heard the clatter of the last screw coming free from her brain and hitting the ground. What had Lucifer done to her? What had all the angels done to her?

  “What truth?” I asked.

  “I think I would like some flowers instead,” she murmured.

  “Mother, what truth?”

  “Not your mother, just the vessel.”

  “She’s broken,” Hawk muttered.

  “She’s been broken for a long time,” I said as I knelt in front of her. “Where are Gage and Bailey?”

  “Well, they’re with him,” she replied and clapped her hands. “We’re all kin after all, and they are his kin too.”

  My eyes flew to Caim as terror curdled like rotten milk in my belly. “Does Lucifer know I am a mix of two angels?” I demanded.

  “No, or at least he didn’t,” Caim answered. “I would have known if he did. We all would have known if Lucifer learned Michael propagated while on Earth. The fit he would have thrown would have been heard throughout all of Hell. However, if she”—he waved a hand at my mother—“spoke to him about voices, and after seeing what you did with the seals, he may have figured it out.”

  “He couldn’t suspect it’s Michael’s line,” Raphael insisted. “You knew nothing of it.”

  “Lucifer is not stupid, nor does he have any faith in you assholes!” Caim snapped. “Michael and Ariel were the only two angels who walked the Earth before the fallen. If Lucifer thinks on it, he’ll figure it out. And since Ariel never waddled around with a full belly, he’ll figure out who real quick.”

  “Oh,” I breathed. “Mother, did Lucifer tell you where he was taking Gage and Bailey?”

  Her eyes cleared and she bared her teeth at me. “Spawn of Satan.”

  “Yes, that’s already been established,” I replied with an impatient wave of my hand. “You were right, but where did Satan go with Gage and Bailey?”

  “When we go to town, I’d like to ride the pony,” she said and turned away from me. “Play some games as we do, eat the food, all the food. Hungry. When the trucks come, will they take me too?”

  “Mother, please, where are they?” I implored.

  She stared at the screen over my shoulder. “I’d like to go to town to play the games and hear the music before going with the trucks.”

  “Mother—”

  “Devil’s eyes! Rotten seed.”

  She lifted her hand to slap me again, but I caught her wrist before she could. I held on when she tried to jerk it away from me. “No!” I hissed. “I no longer fear you, and I won’t allow Kobal to kill you, but you will never hit me again.” I wanted to tell her she could never speak to me like that again, but I didn’t think she knew half the things she spewed from her mouth anymore.

  When she jerked at her hand again and sulked like a petulant child, I released her and rose. Kobal’s eyes remained fixed on her before sliding to me. “I will find your brothers,” he vowed.

  “But what will Lucifer do to them before then?” I asked. “Because of me, because of them”—I thrust a finger at Raphael—“Gage and Bailey might be suffering right now!”

  Kobal took my hand and rested it against his chest. “I will find them.”

  I closed my eyes and took a deep breath to steady the riotous sway of my emotions. If anyone could find them, it was Kobal, and I knew he wouldn’t rest until he succeeded in freeing my brothers from Lucifer. My mother said the rest of the town was dead, but I held out hope we would be able to find and free them too. I couldn’t think about everything that could happen to them before then; I’d go insane if I did. I had to stay focused on what I could do now. It was the only way to get through this.

  “We’ll find them,” I whispered.

  “Yes. Now it’s time to leave here.”

  “The voices told me to find the soldiers and give you to them,” my mother whispered as we walked toward the doorway. “I went to town and played the games!” She clapped her hands again, and when I glanced back, she was wiggling back and forth in her seat. “Can I play them again when you go to town now?”

  I froze when her words sank in. My abrupt stop halted Kobal. “I know where they are,” I said.

  “Then we will go there,” he promised.

  I tried not to shove him out of my way in my rush to get to my brothers as I followed him out the door. Running headlong at Lucifer was a surefire way to have everything implode on us though. Lucifer wouldn’t kill my brothers, but he would use them against me, and he would be willing to maim them.

  When we exited onto the porch, I turned to two of the men standing guard with Bale, Lix, and Verin. Calah and Lopan stood at the foot of the stairs.

  “My mother is inside. Take her back to the vehicles and keep her safe until we return,” I instructed
the men.

  Kobal stiffened beside me, but before he could protest, I turned to face him.

  “She was unable to handle what the angels did to her and she broke. She will sit in there until the house falls around her, but she will not die, not anymore. It’s no existence for anyone to live, and no matter how horrible she was to me, she doesn’t deserve that fate. We will find somewhere at the wall, away from us, where she can reside. I don’t ever have to see her again, but I won’t leave her to this. I would never forgive myself if I did.”

  “She wouldn’t do the same for you,” Kobal said.

  “I know, but I’m nothing like her.”

  He bent to kiss my forehead. For a second, I allowed my eyes to close as I savored the warmth of him. “No, you’re not,” he murmured.

  “Lucifer must be ended,” Raphael said when the guards slipped inside.

  “He will be,” Kobal replied.

  “Oh, of course he must be,” Caim retorted sarcastically. “Do me a favor, Raphael. The next time you talk to Saint Michael, or I mean Sinner Michael, tell him he can go fuck himself from me.”

  Caim spun away from us and went down the steps so fast, his feet didn’t touch them. Tilting his head back, he pointed a middle finger to the sky. “Fuck you, Michael!” he bellowed before pointing both his middle fingers at the sky. “Fuuuuuuuck yooooooou!”

  The humans and demons closest to him exchanged confused looks before edging away from the irate angel who stormed toward Lisa’s house before spinning back toward us. I was so focused on Caim that I didn’t notice the shadows circling across the ground, until Kobal stepped protectively in front of me. The hounds in the clearing all crouched low, their hackles rising as they stared at the sky.

  My stomach sank when Onoskelis landed a few feet beyond Caim. Caim spun toward her and planted his legs in a defensive position. Folding her wings behind her, a savage smile curved Onoskelis’s lips as she grinned at him.

  “You chose wrong, brother,” she purred when more angels touched down around us.

  The humans and demons fell back, grouping closer to my house. Shadows crept through the trees before higher and lower-level demons emerged from the woods.