“Petty? You have the nerve to say something like that to me?”
The anger raging inside her makes it impossible for Lilith to maintain the human eyes she’s been flashing since she arrived on the scene. Like her underlings, her eyes flash black, filled with the evil of the pit she represents. I love it. The angrier she gets, the easier she is to manipulate. It’s her one fatal flaw.
“You heard what I said. Your war, this battle between good and evil, is petty. Both of you act as if you want to rip the Earth apart like it’s nothing. You seem to forget people live here. You know, the souls you need to survive? When you idiots destroy these people, this place, you’ll have nothing left.”
“Wrong you are, daughter of mine. Once we have control of the earth, Each of these vile humans God has created will become cannon fodder. We’ll consume our fill, then take them to the pit to feast off their misery for an eternity.”
“To the pit? What happened to this whole Hell on Earth thing all of you want? I’ve heard about it my entire existence.”
“Lucifer and the Prince’s will dwell on Earth. Hell, my home, will become mine. Your father has some strange vendetta against these humans. The idea of his father caring so deeply for them infuriates him. He wants to see them all suffer and burn. I’ll gladly do it for him while he makes a mockery of the home they’ve borrowed all these eons.”
As I expected, she’s showing her hand. She could care less about earth and the souls of the humans. Her end game is taking control of the pit. Which, if I’m being honest with myself, makes perfect sense. She is the queen of pain and torture. The idea of doing any and everything she wants without my father stepping in to stop her will be like Heaven to her fucked up mind.
“Oh mother, I’m so sorry, but that isn’t going to happen. Not in this lifetime.”
“You dare to deny us?” Belial asks as he moves toward me.
I cock my head to the left, then to the right. I feel the fire begin to burn deep within my soul. If he thinks I’m afraid of him, he has another thing coming. “You heard my answer, demon. If you have a problem with it, do something about it.”
Chapter Eight
Sebastian
Appearing in front of the house, still inwardly kicking myself for leaving the Phoenix alone, my senses instantly pick up on a darkness far worse than anything either of the twins could produce. Something is here. Something is in the house. It’s just like Anala suspected.
Wasting no time, I burst through the door, my eyes peering over the living room. The couch is overturned, the bookshelf knocked to the floor, the books littering the path through the room. “Arwen? Darwen?” I call out hoping to hear an answer. Yes, they are demons, the enemy, but over the past week, they have grown on me quite a bit.
“Ah, an angel. What fun this will be.”
I turn to see six demons gathered by the dining room door. I smell the blood on their hands and know instantly, it’s the blood of their own. The twins have become victims to the Hell dwellers Lilith and her henchman have brought with them.
“Where are they?” I ask, hoping my fears have not come true.
“Dying a slow, painful death for betraying the mother of all demons. Just as you will, angel scum.”
I shake my head and laugh softly. “If you feel a trip back to the pits of Hell is in order, please, start something with me. I’ll see your journey is a quick one.”
Their movements are not calculated like one would expect in a fight. Instead, they rush toward me clumsily, each one attempting to get the upper hand. I grab the first to reach me, a female, new to the world of fighting by her reaction to my hand wrapping around her throat. My eyes glow golden, a trait most angels share unless they are of the higher class of Arch angels. In an instant, the demon spawn inside the body is gone, returning to Hell. The human vessel drops to the ground easily, the body ravished and literally drained of all substance due to the demon’s abuse.
I take note of the other’s reaction to the first of their kind falling. The dark eyes show their lust for pain and destruction. Unlike my kin, the demons do not care whether their brethren fall. We angels mourn our lost brothers and sisters. The demons? They seem to dwell on the pain their own kind suffers. It’s disgusting.
Tired of the games, and still concerned with what has become of the twins, I pull out my sword, a weapon forged in the heavens and always part of my being. The blade glistens as the light being produced by my own glowing eyes tickles off it and makes the room come alive with the power of God. “Who shall fall next?”
They answer my question with haste. Two demons launch themselves at me no longer attempting to hide their true forms from the world. The human façade is being torn apart as claws, teeth, and a hunger for death emanates from them as they sprint my way. Relieving the first of it’s head makes me ache for the human vessel I have destroyed, but deep down, I know the soul that once dwelled inside is already in the pit being tortured until their time comes to rise and scour the Earth as the others do. It is an endless cycle. One I wish will end one day.
The room turns slightly colder. My attention being on the advancing demons has allowed the last remaining female in the back of the room an opportunity to access the powers demons truly possess. Yes, they are all claws and teeth for the most part, but some, those who have spent ages in the pit, have learned the tricks of the trade. With one burst of the darkness inside them, they can easily obliterate humans or bring an angel to their knees in agony. I don’t plan on suffering at her hands today or any other day. Instead of giving her the chance to attack, I level my blade, ready to launch it across the room when her mouth flies open and the black ooze omitted by a demon when it bleeds begins to pour to the ground. Confused, my eyes glance downward to see a demon claw burst through the chest cavity of the vessel, clutching the still beating hard in its grasp.
The lack of caring exhibited by the other demons isn’t strange. The fear that settles in their eyes, however, is. The demon falls to the ground, obviously finished in the vessel and on their way back to Hell for punishment. It is obvious this one was their leader. She was the one they expected to cause the most damage to me or Anala. Her defeat, although a joy for me to witness, has shown the remaining spawns we aren’t playing with them.
“You come in my home. You attack me and my sister. Now you will pay with your life, you bastards of Satan.”
The anger and power radiating from Arwen is quite impressive. Unfortunately, I can also feel an immense pain. I block it out, knowing now is not the time for it, and focus on those still perched between us. Either they will attack or tuck tail and run. I’m up for whatever choice they make.
“You will pay for this, Arwen. Moni was one of Lilith’s chosen. She will torture you for eternity for her death.”
“Bitch has to kill me first,” Arwen growls in response as she slumps against the wall. It’s clear the demon’s original attack has left her injured and unable to defend herself further.
I move across the room quickly, placing myself between her and the onslaught that may come. “To touch her, you will have to come through me, which you cannot do.” I wait as the demons look at one another, debating their next move. “I’m waiting.” I offer with a smirk. The words are barely out of my mouth before the three of them vanish from the room leaving the stench of their appearance behind them.