Scorn of Angels (12 page)

In Nyx’s palace, Lucifer fought the urge to fall to his knees and worship.

It was nothing that Tribunal did. He looked as he had on Earth—a thin man with a dark beard and long, tangled hair, whose body had the whipcord strong muscles of a carpenter. There was nothing of the divine in his appearance, and he had not yet spoken.

His presence, though, was another thing entirely.

Tribunal was God, as near as Lucifer could tell. God’s Son and God’s Self, born of a woman, but divinity in mortal form. And that was before he died. Now, he was pure energy, clothed in divine flesh, at a level of perfection and power Lucifer had not faced since the day God himself came down from his mountain to confront Nyx and the other rebel Angels. Tribunal was the divine spirit embodied; he cast all Angels in the shade.

He was also not happy, and Lucifer was feeling the pressure of his wrath.

“Explain,” said Tribunal.

Lucifer’s very bones shrieked with the humiliation. He hated feeling weak. He hated feeling like a failure, and he hated more than anything the near-overwhelming desire to kneel before this little man who had no sensual glory, but whose radiance made him ache. Lucifer bared his teeth and spoke slowly, as if trying to explain a complex concept to the demon Gore. “Nyx has escaped the Lake of Fire. She helped Persephone escape as well. She has found a way to make herself invisible to the minds of every Angel in Hell, and to make it so neither Angel nor demon notices her when she is near.”

Tribunal glanced at the doors of the room, where lines of Angels stood shoulder to shoulder to prevent anyone from coming in. He waved a hand in their direction. “And this is the reason for your blockade?”

“If we don’t see her coming, we cannot defeat her,” said Lucifer. “We are scouring Hell for any sign of her.”

“And are you sure she’s still here?”

“Yes,” said Lucifer. “She’s here. All the exits are blocked.”

“All the exits you know,” said Tribunal.

“I know all the exits from Hell.”

Tribunal smiled slightly, then pulled open Lucifer’s mind and looked inside. For Lucifer, it felt as if the top of his head had been ripped off and his skull and brain were being forced to open up like a rose made to move from bud to bloom in an instant. It was far worse than any physical violation. Lucifer gritted his teeth together, refusing to allow himself to make a sound.

The pain vanished. Tribunal said, “No, you don’t.”

The relief from pain nearly took Lucifer to his knees. He wavered but kept his feet
. I will not kneel to this snotty little… popinjay.
Instead, Lucifer growled, “Then where are the other exits?”

“Wrong question,” said Tribunal, his voice so condescending that Lucifer was torn between embarrassment and the need to rip the fucker’s head off his shoulders and shove it up his ass. The result of which would probably be very bad. And not for Tribunal. But it was so tempting…

“The right question,” continued Tribunal, “is which exits does Nyx know?”

“And which ones does she know?” asked Lucifer, grinding his taloned fingers into his knees.
One hour with this fucker, just
one…

“I don’t know,” said Tribunal. “Shall I waste time exploring her head and telling you? Or shall I just make it so you and all of your dimwit Angels can see her?”

Lucifer closed his eyes and imagined Tribunal screaming in Hellfire. “The second, please.”

“Of course.”

Nyx trebled her speed, dragging Ishtar and Persephone through the air, though the other two were flying as fast as they could. All thought of subtlety or of taking down Lucifer was gone. All that was left was the sure knowledge that, if she were to face Tribunal, she could not resist him.

“Where are we going?” demanded Ishtar.

“The Pit,” said Nyx. “We dive in, we fight through, and we get to Earth before Tribunal comes looking for me.”

“What makes you think he’s not going to look for you on Earth?”

“Because he hates the Earth,” said Nyx. “Because if the Gates are open to Heaven, God or the Angels might notice. Because I don’t know how to beat him, but on Earth we stand a chance and here there’s no chance at all.”

Tribunal’s attack hit like a tsunami.

Nyx had the shortest of warnings—a prickling in her flesh that said that something different was coming—before the wave of Tribunal’s power rolled over her like a hurricane over a wet leaf. It was warning enough.

Nyx dove inside her own head, even as her body flew faster toward the pit. She surrounded herself in Epiphenia, cloaked herself in the power of her Earth Angel so that all that was Nyx was hidden. There she was protected. There was something very peaceful about this, she noticed, something that blunted her rage and terror. Then the wave of power rolled over all three of them, buffeting them, threatening to drive them from the sky.

“Well,” said Tribunal, a frown coming across his face. “That is odd.”

“What is odd?” asked Lucifer, warily. When the Son of God looked concerned, it was more than enough to make Lucifer very worried indeed.

“I can’t find Nyx,” said Tribunal.

“She’s not here?” The idea that Nyx had managed to escape was appalling. Lucifer felt fury consuming him.
I’ll make every Angel who failed to get her spend a month in the Lake of
Fire.

“Oh, she’s here, all right,” said Tribunal with that maddening arrogance. “She’s just managed to hide from me. It’s a bit of a surprise that she can, but it won’t make a difference.”

The next wave of power clove through Nyx’s defenses and into her brain.

I SEE YOU!
Tribunal’s voice ripped into her head like a jagged-edged saw blade. Silver blood spouted from Nyx’s nose, ears, eyes and mouth at once. She tumbled through the air, all control ripped from her.
AND NOW EVERYONE ELSE CAN, TOO!

Persephone and Ishtar dove down after Nyx, catching and supporting her twitching body until she regained herself. When Nyx did, she drew both her sword and whip, still gasping with agony. “Right,” she muttered. “Same plan, only now we fly faster, and we kill anything in the way.”

“What if Tribunal comes after us?” demanded Ishtar. “Then what do we do?”

“Then we die,” said Nyx. “Until then, we go. Now fly for the pit!”

Like three winged arrows, Nyx, Persephone, and Ishtar flew. The Angels around them were startled by their sudden appearance but only for a moment. Then they gave chase.

Good thing Tribunal’s still here
, thought Nyx.
Otherwise everyone would see
us.

“I can’t sense them,” said Lucifer.

“Of course not,” said Tribunal. “I’m here.”

“So why don’t you crush them?” demanded Lucifer. “Smite the bitches and be done with it.”

Without warning, the full force of Tribunal’s presence came crashing down onto Lucifer, driving him to his knees, and thrusting his face into the floor. “YOU INSECT! DO YOU HAVE THE FAINTEST IDEA WHAT I AM DOING HERE? DO YOU?”

Lucifer could not rise. The weight of Tribunal’s will was like a boulder—or a mountain—on his back. He could not even put his thoughts together enough to form a word.

“I AM HIDING THE EARTH FROM GOD! I HAVE HIDDEN THE DOORS TO HEAVEN FROM HIS ANGELS, AND I HAVE TURNED THEIR MINDS FROM EARTH! DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH POWER THAT TAKES?”

If Lucifer had been able to weep from the force of Tribunal’s anger, he would have. Instead, he could only keep grinding his face against the jagged stone of the floor. He strained with all his might to make himself rise, but he could not.

“I AM GOING TO REMAKE THE WORLD INTO A PARADISE AND TAKE EARTH FROM GOD! DO YOU THINK I HAVE TIME TO DEAL WITH YOUR PETTY, LITTLE QUESTIONS?”

Lucifer tried to protest, tried to argue, but neither his tongue nor his throat was working. He couldn’t even babble out the most abject apology.

“ALL YOU HAD TO DO WAS HOLD THOSE THREE TRAITORS, AND YOU FAILED!”

The force of Tribunal’s presence abruptly vanished. Lucifer’s body, suddenly able to respond to his commands, practically leapt upright, making him stumble backward. He spread his wings wide to keep his balance, his cloven-foot boots digging into the ground. His face was slack from shock, and he felt the shame of his weakness like a hand squeezing his balls
. I hate this nasty little shit!
Lucifer raged inside his head.
I would give up every soul in Hell to be able to torture
him!

Tribunal, appearing once more as a thin man with a dark beard, olive-dark eyes and long, tangled hair, looked disdainfully at Lucifer. “Soon I will have finished hiding the Earth from God. Have your troops assembled and ready. When the Earth is truly hidden, your Angels must rain destruction upon the Earth and spare no man. All must die, from the youngest to the eldest. Do you understand?”

Lucifer swallowed his hatred and his fury, and forced calmness into his voice. “I understand.”

“Now go clean up your house. I want no interference when the time comes.”

And with that, Tribunal vanished.

“Asshole,” said Lucifer to the space where he had been. “Thinks he’s so special. Complete fucking asshole.” He walked to the door of the throne room and threw it open. The line of souls waiting there quailed when they saw his face. The nearest one was a fat old man who had been sent there for his love of young boys. Lucifer grabbed him, bent him over and punched so hard that Lucifer’s fist disappeared into the man up to the elbow. The man screamed and howled. Lucifer stood up and raised the man on his arm like a bloody puppet, drinking in his terror as he shook him. He glared at the rest of the souls before him, imagining new and dreadful ways to make them suffer.