Cast In Blood: Revelations Series Book 1: (3 page)

A
pollyon had been surprised
to see the shifter. Watching the girl shimmer between human and other in a blatantly visceral response to the removal of Demas' leftovers made the demon certain the girl had absolutely no clue what she was looking at. Shifters only shimmered like that out of fear or surprise. Apollyon was intrigued; this case was taking all kinds of odd turns. First, there was the fact that for a demon—the First Knight of Hell, no less—to be tracking down a lowly djinn seemed a task far below her station.

It wasn't until Lucifer explained what Demas had escaped Hell
with
that Polly's interest in the creature was piqued. Demas had once been a member of Lucifer's cabinet, and as such he'd been allowed to sit in on meetings. Information from which was now being sold to the highest bidder.

Polly could always count on a djinn to trade information. The entire world knew to beware of skeevy little bastards. Delivered properly, the virus he stole from Hell could wipe out more than half the world. Polly wondered what the fuck he was doing with it at a hippy-style commune. Demas wasn't the religious or cultish type. The whole ordeal was beginning to stink, and Polly was hopeful that the shifter would have some shred of information that could help.

She just hoped she was right and the girl knew enough about the djinn to actually be of help. It was more likely, however, that the girl had no clue what Demas was up to, or even what his true nature was, but it didn't matter. Finding a shifter was the best news Polly had discovered all week. Demas could now be tracked without his knowing. Tracking a djinn was difficult business. They're so tricky and paranoid it's hard as hell for anyone to get a bead on them.

Once Polly knew where they were, then her focus could shift from finding them to actually taking them down and, because djinn never went quietly, doing it without getting a city block blown to smithereens.

As she once again wondered about Lucifer's true intentions in giving her this task, she centered herself and prepared to meet the shifter. Once she made an ally of the girl, she would have all over access to the cult so she could figure out why Demas was there.

Something about the way the shifter responded to Demas' kill made Polly curious.

What's he doing there, and why was the shifter so startled to see him? Doesn't she know what he is?

Shifters were usually pretty good at avoiding a mess, and it was rare to see one right in the thick of a plot involving a djinn. Even though she didn't think the shifter knew what Demas was, Polly had to be careful. One wrong move could blow all the hard work she'd put into tracking down Demas over the past week.

She decided to watch the compound and see what else could be gleaned from the comings and goings there. In the meantime, she was going to have to approach the girl and find out exactly what she knew. If it was nothing, then perhaps Polly could use her as bait for the djinn. If she knew a little, then perhaps her life was useful enough to be spared. Either way, she had to find, and talk to, the shifter.

Polly took a deep breath, inhaling through her nose to track the shifter's scent. She found the girl in a room down a long hallway toward the back of the church. However, the initial encounter hadn't gone the way Polly had expected and, before she knew what was happening, she'd had to pop out and get away from the damn djinn that found her inside the girl's room.

Stupid fucking djinn always screwing everything up
.

The woman could see her as a demon, that was clue one that something was up. Clue two was the horrid smell of djinn; it was a spicy burnt motor oil scent with a note of singed flesh for fanciness' sake. The scent was unmistakable, and though her sources told her that Demas was the only djinn in the joint, they were obviously wrong.

She teleported back to Hell. Once she was sure she was home, safe and unwatched, she put her fist through a thick rock wall while screaming her rage at the situation. She screamed louder as her hand broke through the rocks and two of her knuckles shattered. Nobody came running to her aid. She hadn't expected anyone to, since the spell that acted as a security camera would show those monitoring the room that her screams were of rage and not fear. They would ignore her and move on.

She called upon the hellfire in her veins and healed the knuckles while ranting viciously about the djinn. Nothing like a lesser demon to piss off a Knight of Hell. Demas had been damned stupid to backbite Lucifer, and he was looking at some serious pain when she got him back to Hell.

Polly grinned as she thought of the torments she would visit on the little weasel. Her boiling anger slowly merged with her desire to really bring down the pain, and her grin broadened as her imagination swept her up in the idea.

She'd get him to talk, no doubt about that. Polly knew there was more to his stealing the virus than just a simple way to make cash. Djinn were lousy in that they'd sell anything—not to mention they were sneaky little bastards who would steal from their own grandmothers if given the chance—but they never did anything without finding the highest payout first. Selling a virus on the black market might pay, but not as much as selling the same virus on the legit market.

The plagues concocted in Hell were done so to cause as much suffering to the victims as possible. Their being was strictly to cause misery and despair upon those evil enough to end up in Hades. Hell wasn't just full of bad guys though; there were some heroes in the mix. Apollyon was proud to be a demon.

She stood as a guardian between the worst souls that ever existed and mortal realms like earth; at least that was how
she
saw her job. Far too often, others believed the bullshit the heavenly side spewed about demons and figured she was just pure evil.

Not that she didn't have a dark side. Torture had been the name of Polly's game for centuries, until she grew bored of it. She had applied every evil possible to the worst offenders Hell had available. They mostly straightened up and became better souls after one session with her. Sometimes there were two sessions, and one time, she even had to do a third. That djinn didn't actually make it.

Polly had no clue why their kind was always stirring up so much trouble. They were earth magic users and, as such, were inferior to celestial beings like angels and demons. They held no real power and weren't much further above humans on the food chain. They were little more than magical insects, really.

Torturing Demas would be fun. She'd never liked the little beastie, anyway. His betrayal of Lucy, as Lucifer preferred to be called, along with threatening mankind by stealing a virus from Hell's own stock, was very bad manners. Polly had no mercy on anyone whose manners were that atrocious.

Pulling her aching hand back through the hole she'd made in the wall, Polly continued using the hellfire to heal the knuckles and the torn skin around them. She felt a tad disappointed in herself. Lucy always scolded her about being too ready to fight first, and she had pretty much showed her friend to be right. She knew it had a lot to do with the burning anger growing steadily inside of her and the fact that she was forced to live with that rage daily.

Her hatred of humans, coupled with an underlying need to protect and help the hairless little monkeys, caused her to go to war with herself every stinking morning. As part of the gods' "plan," Apollyon, along with all angels and demons, had been borne unto the world with a desire to assist the other creatures that had been created.

When God took over from those He'd dethroned, He made humans a priority. This had really angered many of the angels, and several stood up and said something. For that, they were cast into their own little realm and made it so they would never be able to set foot in Heaven again.

Polly still agreed with Lucy that mankind was more deadly to itself—and other creatures—than anything and should be removed from the equation. Humans, like djinn, were accidental and should have been scrapped. The demons felt that souls from the other creatures the gods had created could feed Heaven and Hell just as easily and without all the trouble brought about by mankind. In time, the demons became used to dealing with this rift between an innate sense to help the humans and a burning hatred and desire for their demise. It wasn't so much that humans were evil, just that they were so fucking vain they didn't even notice other species existed.

A
s she walked
toward Lucy’s office, she half expected a major bitch of a fight. Polly was supposed to have Demas in her hands right this very second. The little rat had escaped and stymied her plans, and it was annoying the hell out of her. She was sure Lucy would rage at her about this latest debacle for the simple reason that, if the humans came into contact with that virus, it would look bad for everyone in Hell. She didn't think Lucifer could take another black mark on her record.

Since she took over Hell from her predecessor, Hades, Lucy had made a real difference in the earthly realm. Evil souls were caught earlier, which fed Hell (and, in turn, Lucifer) with power. The less time they spent in the mortal world, the better it was for the humans. The good souls went to Heaven and would be surprised to find Heaven was really nothing that great. Just a bunch of feathered dunces sitting around talking about how wonderful God was.

Sycophants. That's all those goody-two-shoed, white-hat-wearing, Kool-Aid drinking, insufferable bastards are
.

Lucifer had suffered her first real black mark as Queen of Hell when the djinn originally broke free from the cage that the stupid bloody angels were supposed to be guarding. That was an example of just one tiny thing the angels had screwed up and blamed on demons. Sure, it had been a gremlin's fault, but they'd made it sound like a jailbreak, and not the accident it was.

It isn't fair that the angels are treated properly and worshipped as God's creatures while the world thinks of us as scum,
Polly raged internally.

She was getting tired of the world seeing the angels as the good guys.

She hissed and thought,
Since the fall, not one angel has ever put their chubby pampered ass on the line when it counted. Nope, that was what we demons are for. We take care of all the evil and bear the brunt of all the fallout from shit that goes wrong upstairs, yet
we
are the supposed evil ones.

Before she could finish arguing with herself, she reached Lucifer's chambers. Polly took a deep, centering breath and counted to three before knocking on the door and unveiling one helluva bad surprise to her boss and dear friend.

She had been on Lucy's side from the beginning. Polly had been the one to help her take over Hell from Hades. The old man had been easy to subdue. Polly had never been one who wanted to lead the whole shebang, but she found the role of second to her liking.

It gave her the freedom to do whatever she needed to, and yet it still allowed her a taste of the power she occasionally enjoyed. Her favorite thing to do with that power was to hunt down escapees. She preferred the nasty ones; they were usually the type she got her best workouts from.

Lucy hollered her customary, "It's open, for Christ's sake."

Polly took one more deep breath before entering the office to get her ass handed to her.

"Hi. Look, before you get too angry—"

"Where the fuck is Demas, Polly?"

"He's taking refuge in a human church."

"Church? Demas? What the fuck is he up to?" Lucy's eyes narrowed, and she looked ready to kill. Demas was damn lucky Polly hadn't brought him home tonight. Lucy would have had him tortured for hours before she even asked him a single question. She hated it when Lucifer fell into these moods. She felt that torturing before questioning only ever resulted in the torturee admitting to all sorts of things they hadn't done just to make the pain end.

"I don't know. I didn't see the virus, but he has something going with this cult ... er, church."

"Bring him to me, and soon, Polly. I need him back here to answer some questions. That matter we spoke about earlier?"

"The souls?"

"Yes. There are thousands missing." Lucy was pacing, her stride nervous and twitchy. It didn't happen often, but when Lucy was twitchy that meant someone was in for a hurting.

"Thousands? Holy shit." It was worse than Polly feared.

"It surprised me as well. I'd really like to know who would dare to be stupid enough to steal souls from me. I have a feeling our escaped djinn can enlighten us. So, go and bring me Demas. I'd bet his life that he has the answers I need." Lucy completely dismissed Polly and turned her back on her second in command. She sat in front of an equation that would have made a college math major weep in frustration.

In seconds, Lucy had the answer and it wasn't one she liked as she muttered "Fuck" under her breath, conjured a fireball, and threw it at the whiteboard. The hellfire crawled up and down the board before dying out, leaving scorch marks on the edges. Polly decided to leave her to it; once Lucy started going over the numbers on something, there was no getting her back. She would lose herself in the figures until a firm answer could be gained.

Polly said a quick, "Yes, Mistress," and walked out of Lucy's chambers. She decided that getting in touch with the shifter for more than just a few words here and there in a damn dorm room would have to be arranged sooner than she'd thought. After what happened this afternoon, she was absolutely sure the cult would be on the lookout for demons.

It seemed going there in person was currently off the table, but there was one thing she could do that would allow her and the shifter to talk. It wasn't an easy task, and she'd have to make sure the shifter was fast asleep for it to work. Polly would have to move quite quickly on her end because the possibility of being trapped in a dream world was no laughing matter.

Creating one of those worlds in order to speak to other souls was child's play, at least it was for Knights of Hell and the archangels. She had been created as an archangel with the ability to move and fold time and space in whatever direction she wished while in the earthly realm. That didn't just go away when she stopped being an angel and fell.

The punishment God imposed on those who rebelled did not faze Polly in the least, mainly because she never wanted to set foot in Heaven again, anyway. Once she claimed Hell, Lucy stripped the power from all but those she trusted. To ensure that none would rise up against her, it became a power afforded only to Hell's Knights. That power had its limits, of course, but Polly would never complain about them.

Everyone believed that angels fell the moment they doubted God. The truth was He'd forced them out. He didn't like anyone to question Him and those who did were sent a one way ticket to the pit. Polly didn't mind Hell because she felt freer and more useful there than she ever had in Heaven. Luckily, the power and wisdom she enjoyed as an angel were still hers to use in the mortal realm, but she had to be careful and follow the natural rules or she'd be in deep shit.

Lucy and/or God would take her powers for disobeying them.

Celestial magic had never been meant for use in the earthly realm. Earth magic, like the kind the djinn used, was considered low magic and was barely usable to an angel. It was akin to throwing small pebbles when faced down with a tank. Very few creatures used earth magic and fewer still were to use celestial magic and survive.