by J. L. Myers
As darkness prevailed along with screams and cries of pain and death, Lucifer writhed on the inside, feeling his life and vitality draining right out of him. Glowing all over, he saw the change through squinted eyes as his skin thinned and his muscles deflated. He collapsed onto one knee, struggling to stay upright. His vision blurred, but with a grunt, he managed to hoist Evangeline up as he regained his footing. With those fading flashes of light above continuing as tremors rapt Evangeline’s small body and rattled her bones, Lucifer stabbed his legs at the slick ground. “God,” he grated as he staggered to the stairs. “Please let this be the right choice.”
“Lucifer…” Gabriel clawed at the ground, silver tears streaming. She gasped, not healing as sweat sprouted and her fear dissolved into an expression Lucifer knew well. Undeniable hope. “I trust you. I love you both.”
The sounds of battle grew louder with each slow climbing step. The clatter of metal and the grunts and gasps of being cut and diced pounded in Lucifer’s ears, cutting off Gabriel’s sobs.
Lucifer wasn’t fading away. He wasn’t dying. He would succeed, and it would work as Bathory promised. It had to.
Darkness ate its way in from the edges of Lucifer’s vision, stealing his sight. Staggering up the last few steps, he delivered his daughter to a fresh new Hell. Hands caught his arms as his legs gave out. All Lucifer’s remaining strength went into holding his daughter close and not letting her go.
But the hands weren’t ripping her from him.
Instead, they dragged Lucifer forward, leaving his trailing wings to brush over dead bodies and slide through wet puddles. Then he was lowered backward, his back meeting the feathery wetness of his wings before his weight crushed them.
Through cracked lids, Lucifer saw a patchy view of Michael holding up a plain silver sword rather than the angel dagger. The archangel’s head raised as he barked out a command, “Now. Do it now!”
Lucifer ordered his arms to move, to rise up and cling to his daughter that convulsed against his chest. But all the feeling in his body fled as his mind short-circuited. Suddenly arms and hands were above him, reaching and grabbing at Evangeline. Only able to process danger with his thoughts jumbled, Lucifer tried to scream. Unable to see who or what was attacking and unable to stop their assault, he feared his allies head turned on him.
Evangeline’s weight left Lucifer, and he gasped at the relief her removed touch delivered, curling sideways and struggling for breath, choking out words of bloody murder to whoever had taken his child. Then his faculties began to return. The threats. The danger. His daughter infused with God’s power. What had he done?
The darkness receded in a flash, electric blue replacing the murky depths.
There she was, Evangeline, on her knees, her hands out and streams of electric blue connecting her to every one of the nephilim that circled around her. On their knees too, they fell down around her like dominos, the siphoning tethers snapping as they became lifeless and still.
The cleared view around them revealed all the death and bloodshed. Lying side on-from Evangeline, Lucifer saw through the battle to the total devastation and grief that consumed her young features at the piled bodies slick with blood and gore. She saw Cyrus on God’s throne, whose vicious smile faltered the moment he beheld her body as it turned from glowing blue into brilliant white.
The old King screamed, and he moved with the speed of light. The angel sword blazed blue as Cyrus shot through the carnage, ready to take Evangeline’s heart.
Lucifer tried to get up, but his shout was lost—as Evangeline opened her mouth and screamed out her pain and sadness with the might of God.
The ear-shattering cry had Lucifer and every being covering their ears and falling down. And it didn’t stop. Evangeline’s scream went on mercilessly, vibrating the air until finally Evangeline’s mighty black-tipped white wings sprung from her back.
Power blasted out from her small body, obliterating her wings with glorious light that pulsed out in a perfect circle.
In an outward wave, every hellion, even Zachias, disintegrated as all the other fighters were thrown. The blast penetrated through the veil too, shooting the hellions’ burning remains out into oblivion and leaving only the soldiers behind.
Cyrus scrambled upright with a look of murder painted in his eyes. “You’re dead.”
Chapter Forty
Gabriel crawled up the stairway to Heaven, her bony hands and legs shaking at her refusal to stop. She had to get there in time. She had to help her daughter. She had to save her. She had to see—Gabriel made it as a pulse of power flooded outward from Evangeline. Her mouth fell open in awe as she pushed her torso up with her hands and shaking arms.
Her Daughter was a weapon of Heaven.
In her small frame and with her total selflessness, the torment Evangeline suffered at the sight of all the destruction and death, the slaughter of souls and light itself, awakened something in her. It evoked the power God had entrusted in her to come alive with irrevocable force.
Gabriel had seen it all—witnessed it all.
She had never been so proud and so terrified at the same time.
Evangeline swayed on her knees, violet eyes bouncing and lids closing. She was weak and vulnerable, surrounded by the unmoving bodies of nephilim children, but she had done it.
The scales had tipped, their inevitable defeat now turned on its head. Now that the vampires and Lucifer’s offspring had joined the cause, they had the numbers. Not by much, but enough to give them a fighting chance. Enough to rekindle the hope Gabriel had never let go of.
Yet, the war was not over. Not by a long shot.
Across the littered bodies lying in puddled blood, well before the veil where Heavenly souls retreated from the hellions that no longer had their claws in them, there was movement. Everyone that had been thrown began to stir—the good and the bad—but none more quickly than Cyrus.
Volts of panic struck through Gabriel like lightning.
A look of murder was painted in Cyrus’s red eyes. Eyes that were trained on her daughter as he leaped off the throne that had prevented him from being blasted back like the others.
Still weakened by Evangeline’s siphoning, Gabriel rose on thin, shaky legs that threatened to give out. She refused to let them, screaming out as her numb feet stabbed at the ground in an effort to run.
Lucifer heard Gabriel’s scream, and his deflated chest jacked up off the ground like a corpse brought to life. Fire burst from his hands with a roar as he propelled up to his feet, but the fireball from his palms never made it. The surviving angels staggered upright, reigniting their glowing swords, but most of the traitorous soldiers were already there. A V formation of them blocked Lucifer’s direct path to Cyrus and Evangeline until his fire blasted the soldiers back in a searing ball of flames. And then Lucifer was right there, muscles bulking up as he sailed through the gap. Fire shot up his arms and spread over his entire body.
But Cyrus was ready.
The angel dagger shone blue, the dangerous glow lost as it buried itself in Lucifer’s chest—right through his heart. Lucifer’s flames receded at once and he toppled, hitting gnarled corpses.
Gabriel screamed, moving faster as Michael shot up over the battlers. His mottled wings fanned wide as his eyes darted. He spotted Lucifer then Evangeline. Michael flapped his wings, struggling to remain steady with so many feathers missing. But he would never get to either of them in time.
Cyrus was already on the move.
A flash of light had Gabriel shifting from one moment of horror to another. The angel sword flared to life in Cyrus’s wielding hand, blue springing forth from the deadly blade with his murderous intent.
Lucifer was paralyzed with soldiers closing in. Michael was too far away. And the soldiers blocked all the vampires and Lucifer’s offspring out with their non-stop attacks.
Gabriel had to do something. Weaponless and weak, she had to, no matter what. But this time, it would not be to protect the love of her life.
It would be to save their flesh and blood. The culmination of what their love had graced the world with. The being of light and dark that held all of their futures and all Gabriel’s love and hope in her small hands.
Legs now moving as if half thawed from icicles, Gabriel ran like her life depended on it. She ran despite the stabbing pain that shot up through her bones as spearing aches punched her pounding heart. Her breath raked up and down her throat, louder than the resuming battle that kicked up as she jumped and bounded over the dead. Gabriel flung her wings out and tried to launch up. Cyrus was mere yards from Evangeline who remained slumped on her knees amidst a circle of quiet nephilim. Strikes of pain made Gabriel’s wings retract with cracks that almost brought her to the ground with the agony of it.
Gabriel refused to go down. She refused to fall.
Cyrus was all but there now, the angel sword driving forward as he planted his free hand on a pile of dead bodies to clear the carnage blocking him from Evangeline. Gabriel’s daughter, the life she had created from pure and undying love that was the life source for all that remained of Heaven was a breath away from death. From total annihilation.
“You can’t have her!” Gabriel screamed, clearing corpses now at speed. Her wings fanned out one last time, and even though it almost killed her, she beat them once, throwing herself forward over the last fence of bodies.
“Heaven is mine!” Cyrus declared, the malice in his voice raising Evangeline’s weary head and widening her youthful eyes. He thrust the blazing blue sword forward, aiming the tip right at Evangeline’s heart—
Gabriel shot into the line of fire, the sword spearing through her pounding heart and stopping the organ at once. There was a gasp from behind her and a bellowing scream of torture that was undeniably Lucifer’s. But the sounds faded all too fast, as did the ruckus of battle and the sight of movement from those still standing. The pain was excruciating for the second it lasted, swept away by a sudden rush of warmth as her entire body and soul obliterated into an explosion of sparks.
Gabriel’s final words as she ceased to exist were, “I love you both…with all my heart and soul.”
Chapter Forty-One
A bellowing scream cut through the sounds of battling and death. A split second later, Lucifer realized he had been the one to scream, reacting to the sight of Gabriel exploding in a rain of golden sparks—because Michael was right beside him, the angel dagger he’d ripped out of Lucifer’s heart in his clenched hand. The angel sword fell from Gabriel’s disintegrating body, clattering into a splash of blood. The sparks of Gabriel’s life rained down over Evangeline and her upturned hands, disappearing down through the bloody ground.
Wrath like Lucifer had never experience before rushed through his veins, exploding his body into a pillar of searing fire. The nearest soldiers caught alight with a flick of his wrists, going up in flames as he snatched the angel dagger from Michael and stabbed a retreating soldier through his back. “Why me?” He kicked the body off the blade and snarled at Michael. “Why didn’t you save her?”
“I would never have made it.” Michael glared at his lifeless nephilim. “Sometimes there are never good choices.”
Now over the surprise of killing Gabriel, Cyrus bared his fangs at Lucifer’s daughter. Evangeline’s small hands balled into fists, and she scooted back as he stalked forward. Bodies blocked her retreat as Cyrus swooped up the angel sword.
“Time to die, Hell’s spawn.”
But Lucifer was already airborne, devastation and fierce protection making his strengthening body hum with power.
The angel sword blazed blue, reflecting in Evangeline’s wide eyes. The bloody length stabbed forward—
Lucifer threw a colossal fireball across the field of dead.
The coiling flames hit Cyrus and knocked him back, swallowing him in a blaze of screams as he writhed. The sword hit the slick ground right in front of Evangeline. But she didn’t move. Her teary eyes widened at the sight of Cyrus’s body as flesh melted back from bones and he slowly lost the ability to move and scream. More pockets of fire sprung up all around, consuming a number of their remaining enemies.
Lucifer dove, landing by Evangeline’s side in an instant. The shock in him stole his ability to feel physical pain while the loss of Gabriel numbed him all over. He fell to his knees before the angel sword, warm blood welcoming him with a sizzle as it coated his folded legs. The flames all over him receded as his hands went to Evangeline’s face. His view of her was blurry through unshed tears as he moved to grip her small shoulders while trying to inspect her chest.
Did the sword cut you? Are you hurt?
Lucifer wanted to ask those things as the battle quieted, barely noticing how Michael cut down the largest remaining group of guards with the help of Remiel and Azrael as they swooped and soared. But those questions did not form the words that croaked from his lips. “She loved you…your mother.” Damn the tears that escaped and streamed down his face, forging silver paths through all the evidence of death as it washed tracks through the blood. Lucifer wanted to be strong. He wanted to comfort his innocent child. But the loss was so deep, so damning, he felt like he was drowning in it. “She…she chose your future, all of our futures over herself. Gabriel was strong. Blindly heroic. Self-sacrificing. Her hope…” Cupping Evangeline’s face again, he brushed his thumb over her cheek. Finally, Cyrus’s dying gargles faded to silence. The flames covering his charred corpse dimmed. “I see it alive in your eyes.”
“Father?”
Lucifer smiled at the way Evangeline said it, like she knew it was true and was happy that it was. Like she was not ashamed of him or all that she had learned about him. Like she accepted him—as Gabriel always had. The tears fell silently faster. “Yes, my daughter?”
The sounds quieted around them further, bringing a morbid hush all around. Light began to return, glowing down around them and breaking through the slick floor in brilliant beams. Angels ventured through the veil, perhaps checking on the damage and carnage that had been inflicted in that sacred place of peace and eternity. But Lucifer really didn’t care. All that mattered was right in front of him. The life that would forever remind him of what he had lost.
“Her hope, her light…” Evangeline lifted her clasped hands that had been pressed over her heart, elevating one hand off of the other. In her upturned palm that hovered, a small insignificant spark lay centered in her cupped hand. “It is not all gone.”
Feeling like his heart was about to explode with possibility, Lucifer stared in dumb shock. A single spark, a fragment of her obliterated soul. A sliver of her eternal life. It was alive, safe in their daughter’s hand and pulsing as it drew power from the light that haloed Evangeline in growing strength.
“Her gifted light lives on in me.” Evangeline grasped Lucifer’s hand, and the moment they touched, a mild hue rippled over him too. “Light lingers in you too, Father. It always has.”
“What does it all mean?” Lucifer wanted to hope for a miracle in the way Gabriel always had, believing in life and all of existence and the survival of all that was good. But how could he? This spark was part of Gabriel, but it was only a spark, it was not her.
“Your light can bring her back, but…” Evangeline’s violet eyes stared up at Lucifer with hope and sadness, fresh tears pooling before releasing like a dam. “…it will not sustain both of you. Gifting your light can save what you love, but there will be no light left for you. Only darkness.”
The joyful hope inside Lucifer battled with his daughter’s words, bringing the severity of what was on offer to the forefront of his mind. There were no easy outs in life, whether it was mortal or immortal. A balance needed to be kept. Life persevered through sacrifice, that was clear with all that had been lost this day. So much death—that had helped ensure the future of all who lived to fight another day. Lucifer knew this was not going to end with the life he had always dreamed of, the one where he lived side by side with the love of his life and the life they had created toget
her.
Lucifer sighed deeply. “I will fall once more, stripped of the ability to ever return above? I will be damned to darkness forever—but Gabriel will live and you will be together…forever?”
Evangeline nodded, her dark golden eyelashes fanning over her round cheeks as she looked down at the spark she cradled. “Yes.” She stopped nodding, sighing deeply. “Gabriel will live.”
Still cupping her wet face, Lucifer leaned in, pressing his lips to his daughter’s forehead. The lingering sounds of battle ceased, leaving only the loud thumping of Lucifer’s heart in his ears. “Then my choice is easy.” Retracting, he smiled down at her. “I wish I could have known you more. That I could have stayed to watch you grow and become the strong and remarkable woman I know you are already on your way to becoming. A being from both worlds that is pure to her very soul. No matter what happens to me…” Lucifer feared the loss of what remained of his light. He had come so close before, but to have it stripped from him, to be delivered to total darkness…what would he become? He wiped away Evangeline’s streaming tears. “Remember that I loved you both, more than Heaven, Hell, and all of life itself. Your mother gave me hope, and you gave my life meaning. I would not change a moment of it for anything. Not now, not ever. Even if I cannot remember, my heart could never forget how much I love you both.”
Evangeline smiled and reached up to touch his rough face. “I will always love you too, Father.”
The war had been won, but Lucifer was about to lose everything again.
Chapter Forty-Two
The sounds of movement drifted down the glowing stairway from Heaven to the Realm of Light. Cleanup had begun. The enormous task of removing the dead and cleansing the ground of all the blood and ash that coated it. Most of the surviving angels were up there, leading the cleansing and reestablishing order. Lucifer’s offspring had remained too, assisting to bring light and purity back to Heaven.
