Execution (The Divine Book 6) (8 page)

"It's depressing, but not much of a departure from what I'm used to," I said.

"Hell isn't for the free souls," Damien said. "Do you see those mortals at the front?"

I followed the dancers down to the front of the stage. Four men in ratty old suits were positioned there, heads drenched in the dancer's blood, eyes frozen on the display.

"What about them?"

"They're always there. In that spot. They can't leave." He laughed. "An eternity of being forced to watch, and covered in a reminder of their weakness. Those devils back there can come and go as they please. They like the show because they choose when to see it."

"You're saying the main torture of Hell is a lack of choice?"

"Bingo. Sure, you have some of the worse offenders who are also subjected to pain day in and day out, but they don't have a choice either. The lesser damned get stuck with their vice, be it lust, sloth, greed, whatever. They get the version of it that the Big Guy chooses, and they live it until they either become numb and lost or until they man up and break free."

"Break free? I thought Hell was eternal?"

"Where do you think the devils and all of the other free souls of Hell come from? Where do you think Lucifer gets his stock to send back to Earth? Some souls manage to break loose of their bonds and go on the run. When they do, if they can survive for a day without being captured or killed, then they get bumped up to a minor demon and can start earning more and more freedom."

"You did that?"

"Yup."

"How long were you down here?"

"Fifteen years." He shuddered visibly as he said it. "Then another ten working up to fiend and getting sent back to the mortal world. Most people think of Hell, and they think of chaos. There is a level of it, especially out here, but don't forget that Lucifer used to be an angel. He still keeps the underlying systems running like clockwork."

I was surprised by the information. I had always known that many of the demons on Earth originated in Hell and were sent back to sow chaos and destruction there. I had never learned how that process occurred.

"So how does a damned soul break loose of their bonds?"

"Usually it's because the torture doesn't work on them. Instead of growing weary and hopeless at the endlessness of it, they come to enjoy it instead. Even then, many will choose to remain for that reason, and Hell almost becomes Heaven to them. If Lucifer senses that and the soul doesn't try to claim free will, their punishment will be altered."

"Use it or lose it?"

"Pretty much."

Damien guided us to the exit. We were at the door out into the wilds of Hell when the two devils decided they had done enough watching. They took up a position in front of the doors, crossing their arms and trying to look more frightening. Each was over twelve feet in height and solidly built, their red, leathery skin bulging with strength.

"I don't recognize these two. Do you, Skalax?" one asked the other.

"Who are your new friends, Damien?" Skalax replied.

"Careful, Dilix," Damien said. "These two have business in the Pit. Let them pass or you may find yourselves starting over."

"Two creatures from the mortal realm are supposed to frighten us?" Dilix said.

Apparently, these two had never come across a Great Were before. Being born on the Earth plane, Alyx's kind probably didn't travel to Hell very often.

"Just let us go," I said. "I don't have time for your bullshit."

Dilix and Skalax glanced at each other. A moment later, massive swords appeared in both of their hands.

Damien backed away at once. I gathered my power while summoning the spatha to hand. It was a toothpick compared to their huge blades, but it was equally powerful, if not more so. The angelic scripture would lessen the brutality of any parry.

Alyx remained in human form, her eyes glued to the demons' every motion. She was keeping her demon form a secret. If they didn't know what she was, she wasn't going to tell them unless she had to.

"You're sure I'll be fine?" I asked.

She smiled and nodded at me, just before she slipped away from a falling blade.
 

 
I threw my power out at Skalax, hitting him hard enough to send him crashing into the wall and make a massive dent in it. At the same time, I scampered in toward Dilix, getting close before he could bring his blade around. It was a terrible weapon for this range. I pushed off, leaping up high and bringing the spatha around. His neck felt like soft butter as the sword eased through it.

I landed, spinning toward Skalax, who had regained his feet. He saw what had happened to Dilix, and his sword vanished.

"What manner of demon are you?" he asked.

"He's not a demon," Alyx said. "He is the diuscrucis."

"Diuscrucis?" Skalax didn't know the word or its meaning.

"It doesn't matter," I said. "Get out of the way or I'll take your head, too."

Skalax stepped aside. "Of course, Master," he said, bending into a subservient pose. "As you command."

We stepped through the pile of ash that had been Dilix only seconds before. Damien pushed open the door and held it for us.

Demons who were killed on Earth were sent back to Hell. What about demons killed in Hell? "What will happen to Dilix?"

"His soul will return to its original state as one of the damned. His torture will be greater for his failure. He may or may not ever become free again."

"It seems risky to start fights with consequences like that."

"We're the damned, diuscrucis. It's in our nature to cause conflict. You would have more luck teaching a pig to sing."

We moved from the club out onto the streets. There was a lot more to take in outside, from the constant, faint smell of sulfur to the red and black sky, where heavy clouds of smoke sent a constant dusting of ash falling across everything. It was already two inches deep in the streets.

The city was similar to New York, but it clearly wasn't the Big Apple. Everything was damaged to some extent. Broken windows, dented light poles, and cracked facades were everywhere, along with downtrodden pedestrians making endless loops barefoot through the streets, the glass from the windows slicing them up and leaving trails of blood in their wake. There were other damned souls here as well. Women that Damien said were adulterers were being chased through the streets by devils with massive, erect penises while their male counterparts were running from harpies carrying any one of an assortment of sharp instruments. Murderers were paraded on the back of slow-moving trucks as if part of a twisted Thanksgiving Day Parade, some in nooses, some in guillotines, some in the electric chair. They were killed, reformed, and killed again, over and over while we waited for them to meander past.

There were others, of course. So many others. This was Hell. It was also a city. A hundred different tortures prepared for all kinds of sinners and assholes.
 

I couldn't imagine how any of them could come to enjoy their fate and earn their freedom.
 

I also knew it had happened.
 

It only proved how twisted the person was to begin with, and it showed how deep Lucifer's hatred of his Father ran that these were the creatures he wanted to on Earth disrupting the balance.

Dante had warned me about the carnage. I was surprised to find that it was easy to become numb to, and even easier for me to recognize that these souls deserved it. Every one of them had done more harm than good in their lifetime, or they wouldn't have been there in the first place.

"How come the city doesn't get buried in the ash?" I asked, wiping some of it from my shoulders and hair.

"It all resets every day. We follow mortal time here though no-one in Hell sleeps. It makes it easier to synchronize with the efforts of the demons back home."

The demons who wanted to destroy humankind. It was easy to forget that, being here instead of there. I needed to get a move on, get the FOG and get back. Which reminded me...

"Abaddon," I said internally, seeking the demon.
 

I could still feel the link, but it had weakened considerably. He didn't answer.

"Where are you headed, anyways diuscrucis?" Damien asked. "You showed Cabal that sword of yours, and he didn't even remember to ask."

"Cain has something I need," I said.

A pedestrian with bare feet tried to walk between us. Damien grabbed him and threw him to the side, causing him to cry out in anguish. He didn't stop until he made it back to the broken glass on the sidewalk.

"Did you just say, Cain?"

"Yeah."

"As in, the son of Lucifer?"

"Yeah."

"Damn you, Cabal." Damien spat on the ground at my feet. It sizzled and burst into flame. "I never would have guessed you wanted to end down here."

"What would happen to my soul if I did?" I asked, regretting it as soon as the words had escaped me.

"That would be up to the Big Guy to decide."

Which is what I was afraid of. I doubted he was too happy with me stopping all of his evil plots to this point. Still, maybe he figured he would owe me one for getting rid of the Beast. It wasn't just humankind I had saved with that one. It was everything.

"Is Cain that dangerous?" Alyx said.

"He's the son of Satan. What do you think?"

"I don't want to confront him," I said. "I just want to take something of his."

"You want to steal from him."

"Technically."

"You do understand the definition of 'steal,' right?"

"Yes. He took this thing from the mortal realm. Since I'm the presiding Divine there, that means he stole it from me first. I'm just trying to get it back."

"Technically," Damien said.

"Yes."

He laughed. "Here's the deal, diuscrucis. I'm not going within a hundred miles of Cain without an invitation. No demon who wants to stay free does. I'll give you directions, and then I'm going to make my pickup. I'll wait for you back here. You have three days before I abandon you. Got it?"

"The deal I made with Cabal was for you to guide us," I said.

"I told you I'll give you directions."

"I can kill you myself."

"You could, but then I wouldn't be able to help you at all because I'd be back to walking the streets like these pathetic souls."

"What did they do, anyway?"

"Nothing. They did nothing. They squandered their lives without trying to live them."

"That's why you were down here?"

"Yeah. I was a sad sack of shit, wasn't I? I lived with my mom right up until the day I overdosed on crack. Never had a job, never had a girlfriend, never left home. Drug Addiction may be a disease. Lifelong ennui is the work of the Devil." He laughed at that. "So, take it or leave it."

I wasn't happy about losing my guide. I also didn't have much of a choice. I was happy to have Alyx with me, so I would at least still have a demonic companion. I glanced over at her. It was the first time I had ever had a thought like that.

"Fine. Tell me how to get there."

"Maybe we should have brought Damien along at swordpoint," I said.

Alyx laughed, an odd mix between a growl and a giggle that came across as disgustingly cute. "The directions he gave us are fine. See, there's the station up ahead."

We were still in the city part of Hell. I didn't know if it had a name, but I had taken to calling it 'The Kitchen,' in honor of the area in New York. We had been wandering through it for the last two hours or so, following the directions Damien had recited three times. There was nothing fun about it. I walked the streets, evading the sloths, turning my eyes away from the lustful and the adulterers, and trying to figure out the crimes of some of the even more twisted punishments we discovered along the way. Alyx kept her eyes forward, barking out every change in direction and leading me to our destination. I already knew she had keen senses. Her keen intellect was a pleasant surprise.

Damien's directions led us to the Terminal, a massive train station near the edge of the Kitchen. It was the main form of transportation from one area of Hell to another for any free soul who wasn't able to fly or wasn't big enough to walk quickly. That meant no fallen angels, devils, or harpies, to name a few. It did include fiends, succubi, incubi, and other assorted wingless nasties.