Dark Angel

by Amanda Jones

  Chapter Thirty One

  Satan

  It was all coming together just as planned. Satan smiled to himself as he sat at his desk, fingers steepled as he watched Katia creeping through the castle. The massive enchanted rose-quartz stone had been his way of keeping track of his minions for centuries, reflecting the image of anyone he wished to spy upon within the walls of his fortress. It was almost time. Now if only Lucifer would hurry up and get here. It was only a matter of time before he arrived to try and be the conquering hero sweeping in to rescue his ladylove from the clutches of evil. Satan snorted. Love, what a foolish emotion. It was unbelievable how quickly Lucifer had gone from a competent servant to a selfless moron all for the love of a woman. It was going to be fun putting him down. Reaching for the small remote on his desk, Satan turned up the volume on the music. “Backstreet’s Back” blasted through his office; he bobbed his head to the catchy beat. Pop music was so much better than the crap from the old days. There were only so many Gregorian chants you could handle before wanting to drive a sharp object into your ear canal. Death metal may have been more fitting for the source of all-evil, but he’d become a sucker for the cheesy stuff. In a way, the music was his anyhow. Someone had to sell their soul for this shit to make money.

  Satan passed his hand in front of the stone and the image shifted showing one hallway after another like a security camera. Excitement bubbled up and he bounced his leg in anticipation. One empty hallway after another flipped by when suddenly there he was. Reversing the motion of his hand, Satan skipped back to the image he’d been waiting for —Lucifer. He was walking slowly down a hallway hugging closely to one of the stone walls, a pistol in his hand as he looked furtively around himself. Satan leaned forward, peering more closely at the image. Something about his errant servant was off. It wasn’t like one of the fallen to appear so fearful. They could be harmed easily enough, but they were immortal, healed quickly, and nothing short of decapitation would truly scare them. So, why did Lucifer look so afraid? Satan reached out and touched the stone with his thumb and index finger. Slowly he spread his fingers apart and the image magnified, bringing Lucifer’s face into sharper focus. Satan’s smile grew larger. He was human. The stupid angel had given up his powers and rendered himself human. This was going to be so much fun. It was one thing to torture Katia’s fallen angel lover in front of her. It would have so much more impact to torture him as a human…no healing, more bleeding, more pain. Imminent death was such a great motivator.

  Satan ran a finger over the surface of the stone and the image of Lucifer wavered and disappeared, the stone returning to its natural state. Whistling to himself happily and bobbing to the music, he rose and sauntered over to a large cabinet set against the opposing wall. Throwing open the doors he revealed a wide array of knives, swords, and other blades he’d collected from the human and demonic realms throughout history. Reaching out he ran his hand lovingly over the serrated blade of one of his knives. Seeing as there was no need to bring any charmed weapons to this party he was free to use whatever tickled his fancy. As Satan perused his weapons collection, images of what he’d do to Lucifer flickered through his mind like torture porn.

  Suddenly, a strange feeling came over him that he couldn’t identify. Satan stopped his examination of the weapons and stepped back in confusion. Someone was here that shouldn’t be here. His soul was inextricably tied to the castle as per the boundaries of the fucking balance. He could feel a presence that he never had in all of his millennia. What in Sheol’s rings was it?

  A sudden shift in the air beside him had Satan turning to face the intruders that had materialized into his inner sanctum. The two demons that had dared to intrude upon him in his solitude stared at Satan with wide, terrified eyes. He was momentarily taken aback. He had never seen fear in the eyes of his Tiyank minions. They were predators, childlike in appearance, and always got the drop on their victims with their easily feigned innocence and presumed youth. What could possibly have made them this frightened?

  “Explain yourselves,” Satan demanded, inserting an edge of steel into his voice.

  The Tiyank shuddered in fear of their master and spoke in unison, “Forgive us, master, but something is amiss.”

  Raising a questioning eyebrow, Satan motioned for them to continue. “Angels, master. Angels have been appearing all over the castle. They’re with the woman you told us to capture. She killed our brother, master.” The demons shivered yet again and grasped each other’s hands.

  Satan brushed aside the death of the third Tiyank. What was one dead minion when he had so many under his power? But angels…had the rest of the fallen arrived to fight on Katia’s side? Satan felt his anger rise. How dare the fallen under his power work against him! They would pay for their defection in blood and pain.

  “Round up the rest of the minions. Capture the fallen who have come to aid the woman. Bring the human male in the corridor near the dungeons to me,” Satan bit out angrily.

  The childlike demons answered the command together. “They are not the fallen you command, master. They are the Deity’s angels.”

  A darkness and malevolence like he’d never felt rushed through Satan as he stood rooted to the spot. Blackness began to ooze out of his pores misting into the air around him as the room began to electrify with his anger. The Tiyank demons cowered in fear at the sight. Satan felt the burn behind his eyes as they turned red, his vision swam as the room around him took on a pinkish hue. Electric sparks danced along his skin flashing brightly as his anger was radiated outwards from his body. The furniture in the room began to vibrate with the force of the energy he gave off. Priceless antique figurines began to explode, shards of porcelain flying through the air in all directions.

  “What the fuck are the Deity’s angels doing in my domain?” Satan shouted as spittle sprayed out of his mouth onto the two small demons cowering in front of him. As his anger continued to mount, Satan felt his fingernails elongate into claws and he tasted blood as his fangs punched into his lower lip. He paced back and forth across the length of his office sanctuary, the pressure in the atmosphere continuing to mount as his inner storm brewed and spill out into the air around him. How could this possibly have happened? The balance precluded angels from entering Sheol. There was no way.

  Suddenly, Satan stopped his pacing. “FUCK!” he shouted. This was an eventuality he hadn’t accounted for. Catching up to his own reality, his mind began reeling with the implications. The balance no longer applied. He had negated the rules as soon as he’d lured Katia into Halja for the purpose of the binding. That strange feeling he hadn’t been able to place was the presence of the angelic goodness that had begun to permeate the very fabric of the air in his castle. This would require some quick thinking on his part. The question now was how to turn this new development to his own advantage. Flipping through his options, Satan decided for a direct approach. Battle with the angels was inevitable. Time to call in reinforcements. Turning back to the terrified demons, Satan laid out his requirements.

  “You will have the human male captured and brought to me. The angels are to be neutralized. Make no distinction between the Deity’s angels and the fallen — kill them all. Every minion in this castle is to be called upon immediately. And locate my sisters. I have a special mission for them.”

  Nodding quickly, the demonic pair disappeared leaving Satan alone in his office. His blood continued to boil as he waited for his quarry to be delivered. With the balance disrupted he would send his sisters into the human realm to begin preparations for his war on the Heavens. In the meantime he had Lucifer to torture and Katia to bend to his will. If they thought they could outwit him in his own house, they were sorely mistaken. Game on.

  Chapter Thirty Two

  Katia

  Katia’s heart sank to her feet as she and Bellerophon stood in front of the impressively solid door that glittered in the shifting light in the hallway of the deepest dungeon level of Halja. Her hope withered as she examined
what looked like the impenetrable doorway that was the only thing standing between her and her brother’s freedom. There was no lock, no key, only a handle that refused to turn and no other visible way of breaching his cell. Katia sighed in frustration and threw her hands up in the air.

  “How are we supposed to get this open?” she asked, turning to her father. Katia was taken aback by the amused look on her father’s face. She had only just met him but, in the time she’d spent with him, amusement wasn’t something she’d ever seen reflected back at her. Katia couldn’t help smiling back at him; the crooked smile that lifted up his lips made him look so much younger and more carefree. The constant sadness that darkened his eyes and showed his age had vanished and was replaced by a devilish sparkle that made him look like a mischievous twenty-five year old about to make trouble. That this young, handsome man was her father astounded her yet again, as anyone looking at the pair of them would take him for her brother in a heartbeat. To complete the roguish image, Bellerophon gave Katia a sly wink.

  “You don’t give angels enough credit, my daughter. There are some benefits to my state of being, starting with the ability to call upon the power of the Deity in order to counter dark magic. As fate would have it, this door has been sealed through the use of said dark magic.” Lifting his hand palm up, Bellerophon showed Katia the angelic sigil glowing upon it. Pure and golden, it stung her eyes with its brightness as she stared directly into the light.

  “Wow,” Katia breathed. “It’s beautiful.”

  “The gift of power given to each angel by the Deity upon our creation” Bellerophon said with a wide smile. “And incredibly useful for opening doors.”

  Katia laughed as her father placed his palm against the charmed door and called upon the power of his creator to allow them entry. “In nomine deus,” Bellerophon whispered. Seconds later the sound of gears and tumblers rolling into an unlocked position could be heard and they were music to Katia’s ears.

  “That is the most fantastic sound I’ve heard today,” she said turning to her father with a smile.

  Bellerophon grabbed Katia’s hand and gave it an affectionate squeeze as he pushed the door lightly, swinging it open to reveal the second door. “One more to go and we’ll be there,” he said. Katia moved to her father’s side feeling a sense of kinship and purpose that had evaded her for her entire life. As Bellerophon worked his magic on the inner door Katia felt warmth and excitement sliding through her body. Here she was, standing at her father’s side as they worked together to free her twin from captivity. Her family would soon be as complete as it could be under the circumstances. The only person missing was her birth mother. At that thought, Katia felt a twinge of regret that she would never know the amazing woman that had inspired this magnificent angel to defy what was expected of him in order to love her. Pushing those thoughts aside, Katia turned her mind to her brother, her breath coming more quickly as her blood began to pound through her veins in anticipation. As the inner door began to swing open, Katia once again grasped her father’s hand and looked over at him nervously. As their eyes met, Katia saw the anticipation and trepidation warring within him. Blowing out a shaky breath she nodded to him and they stepped over the threshold together into the darkened cell. They entered quietly as the grave. Katia clearly heard the rapid intake of breath that came from across the room. Beside her she heard Bellerophon mutter under his breath, the words weren’t English, but somehow Katia knew the meaning instinctively. “Lux es tenebris.”

  “Light from darkness,” she whispered beside him. As the words left her lips, the wicks from the candles in the candelabra on a small table caught, the flames licking upwards. The soft light bathed the stone cell in a soft, warm light, illuminating the young man crouched in the far corner of the room. As her eyes lit upon him Katia’s breath caught in her throat. She devoured the young man’s face. Caught up in the surreal moment, Katia almost didn’t hear his low, raspy whisper as he spoke.

  “It’s you. You’re really here,” he whispered incredulously.

  Releasing her father’s hand, Katia stepped tentatively in her brother’s direction. Tears stung her eyes as they threatened to spill. Rising slowly from his crouch, the young man took a halting step towards her. As though the floodgates had opened, Katia sobbed. As the sound escaped her, it was as though an invisible wall between them had been breached and she rushed towards her brother as he threw himself at her. Katia flung her arms around him with so much force she almost knocked him off his feet. Making a strangled noise, her brother returned her embrace, hugging her tight to his chest and burying his hand in the hair gathered at the nape of her neck.

  “Keir,” Katia sobbed.

  Her brother pressed his face to the skin on her neck as though he were trying to breathe in her essence. “What?” he rasped quietly. “What is Keir?” he asked.

  “You, your name,” Katia said as she squeezed him tighter to herself. A feeling of completion washed over her as she connected with the missing part of herself that her brother represented. She felt him shiver in her arms.

  “Keir,” he said in a shaky voice. “I have a name.” At that pronouncement, Keir began to sob quietly, not letting her go.

  Unable to hold them back any longer, the tears streamed down Katia’s face as she spoke. “Yes, and you have a sister and a father.”

  Bellerophon stepped forward at Katia’s pronouncement. “My son,” he said, his voice thick with emotion.

  Releasing her hold on her brother, Katia stepped to his side allowing him to face their father. The two men stood staring at each other for a moment before moving forward and embracing. They held each other until Keir began to laugh. Confusion washed over Bellerophon’s features as he released his son and stepped away. Keir continued laughing and swiping at tears with the back of his hand as they leaked out of his eyes. Katia and Bellerophon shared a dumbfounded look as they watched Keir. Straightening he gave a radiant smile to both of them.

  “I’m sorry,” he said. “It’s just that I’ve dreamed of this moment my entire life. Now that it’s arrived, I’m not quite sure what to say or do. This is everything I’ve ever wanted. A family, people to whom I belong, to know who I am. There has always been this…hole in my heart that I didn’t know how to fill. Suddenly, I feel whole.”

  Katia reached out her left hand and grasped Keir’s right hand. As their palms connected a flash of light filled the room and the air around them became electrified. Katia sucked in a sharp breath as she felt a strange power tingle up her arm and move through her body, it felt as though her every cell had become energized. Snapping her head to the left as her brother’s snapped to the right, they locked eyes in unison.

  “What was that?” They said in unison, their combined voices creating a perfect harmony that was musical.

  The siblings turned towards their father, their movements a mirror image of each other.

  “Amazing,” Bellerophon breathed. “Seeing the two of you together is truly a miracle. Keir and Elaina, two halves of the same soul, the dark and the light. Each a mirror image of the other. Your mother would be so happy that you have finally come together.”

  “We share a soul?” Keir said breathlessly.

  “That’s why you both feel complete in each other’s presence. The missing piece you have both felt is found in the other,” Bellerophon said as he brushed an errant tear out of the corner of his eye.

  “We’re part of each other.” The twins said together, turning to face each other as they spoke.

  “Yes,” Bellerophon replied. “Keir, I’m so sorry I was unable to come for you before now, and your sister has only just learned of your existence. I wish we had time to have a proper reunion at this point, but we really need to leave before we’re discovered.”

  “Discovered?” Keir asked.

  Katia squeezed her brother’s hand as she answered his query. “You were being held here by Satan, essentially the root of all evil. Our father couldn’t come for you until today because he wa
s unable to enter this realm. There’s a balance that needs to be maintained between the light and the dark. He’s an angel.”

  “The Master is Satan?” Keir asked incredulously.

  “Yes,” Katia replied. “And he wants to use us in order to leave Sheol and take over the heavens and the earth. We’re…special. He wants to bind us to himself in order to free his soul from this place.”

  Keir nodded to his sister as Bellerophon spoke again. “There is much more to tell you, but for now we need to leave. It is likely that he is now cognizant of the angelic presence in his territory. As soon as we can, we must return to the earthly realm.”

  Nodding in synch, Katia and Keir followed Bellerophon out of the cell, their hands still joined. Now that they had found each other they were never going to let go.

  Chapter Thirty Three

  Lucifer

  Luc cried out in pain as the fist connected once again with his jaw, snapping his head sharply to the side. He tasted copper as his mouth filled with blood. Tipping his head to the right, Luc spat the blood out onto the stone flags. Every nerve ending in his body was on fire with pain; stars were blinking on the insides of his eyelids. This human body wasn’t meant to take this kind of abuse. For the first time in his very long existence, Luc understood the plight of the souls he brought regularly to Halja for torture. The only thing keeping him going was the image of Katia he held in his mind. Without it, he would have begged for death long ago. Luc cracked open his eyes to regard his tormentor.

  Satan stood before him with a self-satisfied smile playing over his youthful face, splatters of Luc’s blood decorated his clothing. Luc had no idea how long he’d been tied to this chair, razor wire tearing his skin to ribbons as he was tortured. Once he had arrived at Halja with the aid of Metatron, he had set off in a bid to locate Katia before she could be captured. However, he had overestimated his capabilities in his newly weakened state. He had been able to successfully dispatch a couple of Satan’s minions, but had ultimately been cornered in a narrow hallway that led to the dungeon level. The Devourers that found him had easily penetrated his mind, rendering him unable to move, locked in a psychically-delivered nightmare of their making that had left him wishing he could retreat into the farthest corners of his mind. The Devourers had fed him image after image of the angels that had perished in the Great War in Heaven, the war of his making. The crushing guilt and self-hatred had left him paralyzed and rooted to the spot, making him easy prey. They had bound him and delivered him to their Master in relatively short order. Now he sat here, unable to defend himself, unable to help the woman he loved more than his own existence. Luc felt humiliated and impotent. He had no idea what Satan’s ultimate plan was, he knew only one thing to be true — he would be dead soon.