Fallen Angel 4: Cold-Blooded Fate
Page 21
And now it was Lucifer’s turn to act.
Striking out with the glowing dagger, Lucifer buried the blue length into one heart, then another, and another. In all but a few heartbeats, twenty hellions were lifeless around him as the vampires and his offspring fought the others back. In another few sawing breaths, more than forty clogged up the ground. Then fifty. Sixty. Lucifer went to stab the remaining cluster when shouts of warning rang out. Hybrids appeared at the mouths of the stairwells. Some were Earth dwellers, but others were dead, having already fallen to Hell before being released.
“Get them!” Lucifer ordered. For the moment, his side outnumbered theirs. “Take them out now!”
Thanatos thrust his sword into the air. “Charge!” He rushed with his brothers and sisters after the hybrids that quickly turned to retreat.
The hybrids on the other stairwell took off, and Bathory took chase with his vampires. Zachias hesitated, but a nod from Lucifer had him racing after their enemies.
Lucifer acted quickly now that he was alone, slashing out with his whip as the remaining hellions roiled and writhed, climbing over the bodies of their fallen to lash out at him. Warm wetness streaked across Lucifer’s arms and down his legs with each connecting claw. A dark trail forged a path down his forehead, muddying his sight before he realized it was blood. For every hellion Lucifer sliced into with the curling whip, another lashed out at him. His blood ran freely while theirs sprayed out with his attacks.
A stab to the heart was the only thing that quieted one after the other, but as Lucifer reached the last five, he felt that horrid sensation strike. The need to breathe in the vile souls he was unleashing surged with force.
Staggering forward, Lucifer locked the sensation down and fell to his knees, crawling over the lumpy, wet bodies with their mash-up of wiry hair, scales, and slick leather skin. He stabbed one, roaring as a slash of pain struck him from inside. Then another, and another.
The last two clawed at Lucifer as he reared up to his feet, bird-like talons biting into his arm then leg and throwing him down atop a pile of dead flesh. A roar tore from Lucifer’s throat, rebounding off the curved ceilings and structural columns. Every kill was another soul to reabsorb, and with so many in limbo, the time to wait was gone.
Restrained as one of the two hellions licked the arm it strung out to the side, teeth gnashed into his shin, hitting bone. Lucifer wrenched the hellion down from above his head, landing its spindly body atop of his—and meeting the hellion’s heart as he thrust the dagger up.
Lucifer shoved the suddenly limp body off him, fighting to hold back the total paralyzation that wanted to devour his strength. Then he ratcheted his torso up, driving the dagger down through the wide ribcage of the hellion as it chomped into his thigh again.
Lucifer collapsed backward as the hellion went limp, the words from his mouth barely a whisper. “From Heaven’s light to Hell’s fire, deliver back unto darkness.” The hellions—every single one of them—combusted around him, bursting into live coals that singed his back, arms, and legs for a few blistering beats before popping out into suffocating puffs of black smoke.
Lucifer dropped to the stone ground beneath him, no longer held elevated above it by the dead. Air belted from his lungs and he opened his mouth up wide. Even as his gag reflex kicked in he sucked in an endless breath, the black all around siphoning from the air and into his lungs to darken his heart and soul. Utter revulsion filled Lucifer from the inside out, twisting his insides and making him want to roll over and heave. Black veins brewed like a darkening plague over his skin, forking and bulging as they tracked over his bloody arms, legs, and chest.
Then all went quiet and still.
Lucifer’s heart stopped. His lungs hitched.
He was all but dead, a lifeless body like the ones he’d left in the streets of Babylon. Like the woman he’d shown mercy to in ending her suffering.
A chuckle broke the deathly quiet, followed by footsteps. One set.
The last of Lucifer’s mobility reacted, his hand twitching to tighten around the double-tipped dagger that lay across his loose palm.
“Uh-uh-uh.” The blade was kicked from Lucifer’s hand, skittering across the ashy stone with a tink-clink before hitting a wall. Darius’s face came into view. The son of a traitor smiled gleefully, his red eyes glowing and his mouth too wide to hide his fangs. He stood over Lucifer, swinging the angel sword in a circle from his right hand. “You’ve had your fun. Now it is my turn.”
Lucifer croaked, his whole body tensed—on the inside. He could not move or fight back as Darius lined up the angel sword over his heart. The tip blazed to life with blinding blue light and bit right through his chest plate.
“Your time has come, Lucifer. I will see you in Hell.”
This was the end. His end.
Lucifer’s eyes slid shut and what he saw behind his lids lit like fire in his belly. Gabriel. Naked. Black and blue and covered in welts and cuts. He couldn’t give up. He couldn’t fail her.
Eyes turning black with the summoning of all the darkness inside of him, Lucifer felt his strength growing. He had only one shot at this, one attempt to change his fate and hers. “Kill me and you will never unlock the gate. The only way back to Hell is through me. There is no other way.”
Darius chuckled. “The path is set. My plans cemented—” He retracted the blade and drove it straight down. “As is your death.”
Lucifer rolled sideways, the sword tip burning a black channel through his chest plate. Then he was up, running for his dagger when a stab of agony penetrated his back. Looking down in shock, blue light glowed up at Lucifer’s face. Silver-black blood dripped from his gaping mouth—down onto the angel sword that speared out through his chest.
. . ☆¸.•°*。☆。*。☆。*°•.¸☆. .
Falling Stars will be released in May 2019, but if you are after another epic tale to read before its release, please come check out my other stories about strong kickass heroines and sexy bad-boy heroes. https://www.amazon.com/J.L.-Myers/e/B00DK4P0EO/
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About the Author
As a child, Jessica’s vivid imagination and quiet demeanor led her to the imaginary worlds of books. Even at a young age, her love for the supernatural was strong, with her first loved books being R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps series. Following that she took an interest in other non-fantasy fiction, including Virginia C. Andrews series Flowers in the Attic.
In her teen years, Jessica spent many school hours writing poetry and dark short stories. She also took up sketching some of the terrifying things that came from the graphic nightmares she’d grown up with.
As an adult and after meeting the love of her life, Jessica moved to Brisbane, Australia, got married and started a small construction business with her husband. With the birth of her son, Jessica suffered PPD and found escape in her books and their imaginary (real!) characters and landscapes. It was at this time that her need to write flourished. In 2009 the d
ecision was made and the first words to her Coming of Age Paranormal Romance novel What Lies Inside were written.
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