She didn’t feel sympathy for anything that came out of this realm, not anymore. Just as her father had wished for her, she had become hardened to everything and everyone except those she held within her inner circle. It took a lot for her to allow people inside now. He had made sure of that.
“Pay attention, Little Lambs, and I will tell you the story of Astaroth, Leviathan, Samael and Ramiel, the original four angels of the apocalypse.” The Devil stood and cast one hand out behind him and a flickering image appeared, a rectangle of light that spanned the width of the courtyard and rose high into the sky.
Upon the light rectangle, images began to morph into focus. The four angels she had met on the island, but they were different. They had no ink and their hair was different styles, and these ones smiled.
The movie of them flickered and leaped at times, jolting forwards to illustrate her father’s words, a replay of everything he told them had happened.
“In a time of darkness, when mankind seemed bent on violence and destruction, Heaven created these four to rule the apocalypse and carry out the end of days and cast judgement upon the mortal realm should it ever lose its way. That pathetic realm refused to listen to my advice—that angels were driven to fulfil their purpose, even to the point of making it happen.”
The scene shifted, revealing the four angels raining hell down on the mortal realm. It lay in ruins, an ancient city levelled and burning because of their might.
“Not long after their creation, these four angels grew restless. They stirred trouble in the mortal realm, driving men to war, unleashing divine judgement upon them, and spreading famine and plagues that ravaged the land.” The Devil smirked as the image behind him zoomed out to show the vast devastation caused by the angels in question. “Or, as they put it when Heaven finally reined them in and subdued them, they had done what they had been created to do.”
Erin could easily believe that. The four had been given the task of bringing about the apocalypse and they had.
“What happened to them?” she said.
“They were returned to Heaven, but were the source of so much discord in the mortal realm that they proved a constant pain to that realm. When they again created a war that destroyed many lives, both beast and man, they were judged for their sins and cast out of Heaven and into Hell.” The Devil grinned and the scene that flickered across the screen was so grotesque and horrific that she had to look away. “I stripped them of much of their powers, but it was not enough. They couldn’t have their true divine power and purpose taken from them. Heaven counteracted it by creating the angels you met on the island—Mihail, Gabriel, Rafael and Aryel.”
“Doppelgangers,” Asmodeus growled.
The Devil nodded. “I helped create them.”
Asmodeus’s face darkened and his power rose, growing stronger and pressing against hers. She could see in his sharp red gaze that her father’s words had hit a sore spot and she could understand why. The Devil and Heaven had scrapped the first angels because they hadn’t come out as planned. As a doppelganger of Apollyon, a creation of the Devil, Asmodeus no doubt feared such a thing happening to him.
“The new four angels serving Heaven had a slightly amended purpose though. The power of the original four was funnelled through a conduit to the new four, transformed along the way into a new divine purpose. They were built to save, not destroy.”
“So, Lysander hadn’t lied and these angels of the apocalypse are there to stop it?” Erin hadn’t quite believed him but her father nodded, confirming that Lysander had told the truth about the angels.
“The original four were unaware of this turn of events and settled far from this fortress. I let them be and they behaved themselves until you,” the Devil pointed at Apollyon, “rained divine fury down on Sodom and Gomorrah with the assistance of a young angel you probably don’t even remember, an angel who is now Gabriel.”
Apollyon’s blue eyes swirled brighter and he frowned, his gaze distant. “I remember him, but he did not appear as he does now.”
“No. The tattoos are new. A slight rebellious flair that Heaven evidently didn’t quite iron out in the new versions. It does somewhat irritate the originals, since I may have linked them via the conduit and now all that ink is appearing on their bodies too.” Her father’s golden eyes gained a satisfied glimmer. She couldn’t quite see how it was a good idea to irritate already irate angels who held immense power. He sighed. “I am digressing… where was I?”
“Apollyon blew the shit out of Sodom and Gomorrah,” she offered and he tsked.
“Should you be swearing in front of your infant son?”
Erin shrugged. “His daddy is Veiron. The kid will grow up swearing whether he learns it from us or not. It’s in his blood. Now, if you don’t mind, time is precious… tick tock… tick tock.”
He shook his head, a flicker of something like despair in his eyes, and sighed. As if he could do a better job raising a kid? He hadn’t even known she had existed until she was thirty, and then he had killed the man she loved in order to awaken her powers. He was hardly Father of the Year material.
“Astaroth grew restless and the others with him. They realised their divine purpose had been taken from them and they sought to set themselves up in positions of power within Hell, declaring themselves princes.” The scene behind the Devil changed to show a replay of a battle in Hell. “They tried and failed to seize power in an area of my realm. I personally defeated them, showing them just how powerless they were now.”
Erin called that rubbing salt in their wounds.
He sneered, as if he had heard her thoughts. He might have. Sometimes the telepathic link sort of popped open at the worst times, and it went both ways. She shuddered, still scarred by finding herself suddenly linked to her father at extremely disturbing moments. The glee he took from torturing demons and mortals she could handle. The times she got a headful of dirty thoughts while he was making out with a woman, that she could not handle.
“I sealed them in another crystal chamber far beneath my fortress. I discovered they were gone shortly after the Great Destroyer had awoken.” The Devil preened his black hair back and pinned Lysia with red-edged golden eyes.
Asmodeus shifted in front of her again. “They took Nevar. What do they want with him?”
The Devil smiled. “The same thing I want. To get out of Hell. Only, their methods may be a touch more destructive than mine.”
Lysia snarled and moved around Asmodeus. The dark angel caught her wrist and held her back.
“Say it straight and stop dancing around the subject,” Erin snapped, losing patience fast. “None of your cryptic shit today. Tell me what these four bastards are planning.”
“Very well.” The screen behind him disappeared and he adopted a dull flat tone, as if he was reciting something inconsequential. “They will seek to awaken her in order to set her on a rampage that will cause the apocalypse, at which point the gates of Hell will be destroyed as she attempts to escape this place and the princes of Hell will be set free.”
“How?” Erin didn’t like the sound of that.
He sighed and waved his hands around. “There are many gates in Hell. Each gate is part of the seal between this realm and the mortal one. They are each a barrier that allows passage of certain species only, fallen angels not included.”
Meaning, he couldn’t use the gates and neither could the four angels who had taken Nevar.
“Only creatures sanctioned by Heaven, who controls the seals if the original angel’s blood was last spilled in that realm, which it was, can pass through. The seals stop me from leaving, and therefore stop every other fallen angel too.”
Erin had passed through a gate herself when escaping Hell and it had been a strange experience, like passing through a wall of burning liquid that hadn’t quite wanted her to escape from it. Maybe it had been her father’s blood in her veins that had made the barrier cling to her, briefly mistaking her for him.
“How will destroying
the gates help these fallen angels leave Hell?” she said and looked at the others to see if they were following. Her sister and Marcus had moved closer to Veiron, coming to flank him and Dante, leaving Asmodeus and Apollyon to protect Lysia.
“Each gate is part of the seal between this realm and the mortal one. You were following that part, were you not?” the Devil snapped and she huffed and folded her arms across her chest.
“Don’t make me want to slap you. You make me want to slap you and I won’t let you meet Dante properly.”
His expression soured and he glanced at Dante. “Fine. The gates form a circle around Hell that stops all fallen angels from leaving. With them all intact, the princes cannot leave Hell. Whenever I defeat Apollyon or I spill the original angel’s blood in my realm, the gates are altered and I am granted passage. The princes can also pass through too. Why else would I have lost so many battles against Apollyon… a whole string of them over the last few millennia leading up to this point?”
Apollyon stood a little taller and pinned the Devil with blue swirling eyes filled with a burning desire to attack him. Erin hoped he managed to hold that urge in check. If her father was telling the truth, and for once he appeared to be, then they couldn’t risk her father accidentally defeating Apollyon and releasing the four princes.
“You lost because you can’t risk these princes going free,” Erin offered when her father looked as if he required an answer to his question and wouldn’t continue without one.
He clapped. She gave him the finger.
“We really must improve your manners, Daughter.”
Erin shrugged that one off. “I get them from you.”
He looked as if he wanted to bite her for that one, but settled for smoothing his black jacket down instead and sighing. “I had a duty to contain them, and they were contained until Nevar awakened the destroyer.”
His golden gaze slowly edged back to Lysia. “They will use you to destroy the gates. You are the only thing powerful enough to do such a thing. Once four gates fall, they will be able to use a fifth to leave this place and head out into the mortal realm. I would suggest you all do something about them before that happens.”
Erin mulled over everything he had said, frowning at him the whole time. He was powerful enough to fight the princes, but he couldn’t leave the bottomless pit, which was a reasonable excuse for him kicking back and letting her and her friends handle the situation that he could easily deal with.
What set her on edge and had alarm bells ringing in her head was his tone and how he sounded a little too much like he actually believed they could save Nevar, stop Lysia from awakening, and keep the princes trapped in Hell.
“What gives? You want us to fail so the gates will be opened and you can go free?” she said and couldn’t help adding, “Why haven’t you destroyed the gates before now and left? You disobeyed and left the pit to see me in the prison, so you can wander away from it now that you’re drawing close to fighting Apollyon again. You could just go around destroying the gates and set yourself free.”
The Devil shook his head. “It is not so easy. I would not be freed by the fall of only four gates. I would need to destroy all six hundred and sixty-six seals in order to free myself. Not just the gates, but the smaller seals buried in the ceiling and the ground and the walls. In doing so, I would destroy the world, so it seemed rather pointless to me, as my intention is not to end my existence and the existence of everything else with me.”
“Heaven would stop you before you could break them all anyway,” Apollyon said.
Her father nodded this time. “True. Hell is my prison, but I have made it my home, and I have no intention of allowing four self-proclaimed princes destroy it. I will tell you where they are hiding and you will put a stop to their plans.”
Erin smiled at that and the bite in his tone. “You’re getting soft in your old age.”
He returned her smile with a warm one of his own and approached her, taking the steps down to the paved area of the courtyard where she stood. “I think you have infected me with your sentimentalism. Now, I believe I am owed a moment with my grandson?”
She nodded, took Dante from Veiron, who reluctantly gave him up to her, and brought the boy to his grandfather.
The look on his face had her going against her better judgement, and he hadn’t been an almighty pain in her arse for once and had actually helped them.
She ignored Veiron’s warning scowl and held Dante out to the Devil.
Her father’s golden eyes widened and leaped up to meet hers, a touch of uncertainty in them.
“Try anything funny and I’ll kill you,” she said sweetly.
He nodded and carefully took Dante from her, cradling him gently in his arms and canting his head so they were face to face.
Dante opened his eyes and smiled up at the Devil.
Erin swore her father melted a little.
He tickled Dante’s nose and the boy wriggled and laughed, drawing a wide smile from her father.
“They mean to use Nevar to awaken the Great Destroyer,” he cooed down at her son in a singsong voice. “They can kill him but it won’t give them what they desire.”
What did he mean by it wouldn’t give them what they wanted? They wanted to leave Hell and if Lysia destroyed the gates, they would achieve that desire. Or wasn’t that what they truly desired?
It was on the tip of her tongue to ask when the Devil slid his golden gaze her way and the coldness in it stopped her dead.
“Go home, Daughter, and take Dante with you. Do not set foot in this realm again until I allow it. Remain with your family. Only Asmodeus and the Great Destroyer will face the princes.”
A chill went through her and her heart raced as her vision swirled in gory Technicolor through her mind.
Her father hadn’t only sensed her pain and heard her thoughts after she had awoken from that terrible vision. He had seen it too. Her power to dream the future came from him.
It dawned on her that it hadn’t been the angels she had met on the island in that vision. It had been the four fallen angels. They were the ones who would kill her and Dante.
“Sweet dreams, little Prince of Darkness. Until we meet again. I will not allow anything to happen to you or your mother. You have my word on that.” He closed his eyes, pressed a soft kiss to Dante’s forehead, and his power rose swiftly, driving everyone else to their knees.
Shadow wings tore through the Devil’s suit jacket and streamed from his back as his obsidian horns curled from above his ears, parting his black hair, and his ears grew pointed. His black nails transformed into long claws, but he held them away from her son, cradling him gently in his demonic hands. His skin paled and lips darkened, and fangs flashed between them as he spoke, each word shaking the ground and hurting even her ears.
“I will personally kill them for their insolence this time.”
CHAPTER 24
Nevar knelt on the sharp pebbly black ground on the small flat strip of plateau high above a valley. Black charred tree trunks spotted the landscape far below him and a bright golden streak snaked across the bottom of the slope that plunged down into the basin.
He breathed hard, fighting to shut down the agony tearing through him, burning in the lacerations on his arms and thighs, and across his stomach. The three angels who had transported him to this bleaker-than-usual patch of Hell had ensured he was too weak to be a bother to them, taking to the task with glee.
Correction. Not angels. Whatever these fiends were, they weren’t angels.
They only wore the mask of an angel.
Their leader, the one with long white hair who had remained with Lysia when the others had taken him, stood at the edge of the plateau with his back to Nevar, his crisp white wings furled against his back.
The black-haired one sat on a boulder off to Nevar’s left, holding the end of the length of silver chain that wrapped around Nevar’s arms, pinning them behind him. Nevar hated him most out of the four. He reminded Nev
ar of Asmodeus and what that angel had done to him, trussing him up like a piece of meat with a similar chain and rendering him immobile and vulnerable. This chain drained his power and the cuts littering his body added to its effect. Combined with the fact he hadn’t fed properly in over a month, it left him useless and weak, unable to fight them.
Something about this land negated his ability to cast a portal too. He had tried several times to call one the moment he had realised that the angels had taken him to another part of Hell, not to Heaven, and had concluded they were not the same angels he had met on the island. The vortex had refused to appear, much to the amusement of his foes. It hadn’t taken them long to beat him into submission and get the chains on him. These angels were as powerful as the ones he had met on the island, if not more so.
He slid his gaze to the other two angels. They loitered together a short distance off to the right of him, discussing something in low whispered words.
In the demon tongue.
The scarlet-haired one seemed upset about something. Nevar had caught the pale-haired one, the largest of the group, calling him Leviathan. He wasn’t familiar with the name.
He had heard of one of them though. When the white-haired one had arrived in a bright pale burst of light, the sort that Heaven used to transport angels, the black-haired angel had called him Lord Astaroth.
Nevar had thought that name had been little more than mortal folklore, but then he had thought the same thing about other angelic names too. If the Astaroth standing before him, his head held high and an air of arrogance seeping from his every pore, was the same Astaroth from legend, then he was an extremely powerful foe.
And by the looks of him and his band of men, and the things Nevar had managed to catch when they had been deep in discussion after Astaroth had returned, he had a bone to pick with Heaven, and possibly Hell too.
“Samael.” Astaroth’s deep voice swept across the land like darkness and he turned on the black-haired angel, his pale blue eyes cold but simmering with fire in their depths. “I asked you to keep our guest in check.”
Her Angel: Eternal Warriors Romance Series Complete Series Box Set (Books 1-5) Page 136
