Evenstar (38 page)

“They were asking about the City, but they’ve stopped.
 
I have no compulsion to act, but I am not free.”

Berith rubbed his chin.
 
“They have invoked it, but are not using it.”

Belial managed a slight smile.
 
“They think it’s
his
.”

Lucifer took both of her hands.
 
“Be ready.”

***

Brian held out the lamin, recited words in an ancient language, and made elaborate hand gestures.
 
The air in the room shimmered above a new circle in the floor.
 

Andy stayed where he was.
 
Brian scowled and looked around.
 

Belial appeared in the circle, frozen and unable to move.
 
Brian grinned and opened his mouth to order her.
 
His smile was replaced with a frown.
 
He backed away in horror.
 

Lucifer let go of Belial’s wrists and faced the room.
 
Dahlia was in the hands of other men, bleeding and unconscious.
 
Her blood dripped to the floor to join the pool already there.
 
His eyes lingered on Brian’s hands and the blade he held, both covered in her blood.
 
He raised his hand.

Brian grabbed Dahlia from the others and held her in front of him.
 
He put his blade to her neck.
 
“I have her.
 
You cannot attack me.”

Blue fire roasted every man in the room besides Brian.
   

“Demon!”
 
Brian held up Belial’s lamin.
 
“Attack this newcomer.”

“I’m going to go for your head, so dodge.”
 
Belial threw herself at Lucifer.
 

Lucifer knocked her down.
 
He sat on her.
 
Belial smiled.
 
Lucifer looked at Brian and struggled to speak coherently, “Give me what is mine
now
.”

Brian pulled Dahlia towards the fire grate.
 
Her feet trailed on the ground leaving bloody streaks through the ash of dead men.
 
She did not move or protest.
 
Brian sneered.
 
“We are all willing to die, but this one is important, yes?”

Lucifer said nothing.
 
Belial rocked underneath him.
 
“Take me out already, and kill him!”

Lucifer broke Belial’s neck and her bones in a rolling motion.
 
She went unconscious.
 
He stood and stepped out of the summoning circle, eyes on Dahlia.
 
“Give her to me.”

Brian put her near the edge of Andy’s circle.
 
He hit the controls and fire shot up through the grate.
 
“Step closer and she goes in.”

Lucifer stopped.
 

Dahlia twitched and opened her functioning eye.
 
She opened her mouth to speak.
 
Blood poured out past her lips.
 
Her blue eye focused and met Lucifer’s.
 
She reached for him.
 

Brian sliced downwards taking off her fingertips.
 

Fire ignited across Lucifer’s skin.
 
He bared his fangs; his fingernails sharpened into points.
 
His irises turned black, and veins showed on his skin as his muscles knotted.

Brian shuddered.
 
“This is the girl the angels are looking for, isn’t that right,
Satan
.”
 
He pressed the blade up against her neck.
 
“They didn’t mention that she had to be alive.”

Lucifer stomped on the floor.
 
Cracks opened along the concrete.
 
Brian frowned.
 
Lucifer stomped harder.
 
The iron circle around Andy snapped in two.
 

Brian shifted his gaze.
 
“I—”

A flaming, handless Andy roped his arms around Brian’s neck and pulled him onto the fire grate.
 
Brian screamed as his hair and clothes caught fire.
 
He beat at Andy’s face.
 
“Let me go!”

Released, Dahlia fell sideways.
 
Lucifer caught her and pulled her away from the flames.
 
He grabbed Belial’s lamin from Brian’s still twitching fingers.
 
He set Dahlia down on the floor gently.
 
He threw Belial’s lamin to her.
 
“Belial, you are released!”
 

Belial caught and swallowed her lamin.
 
She pulled Andy out of the fire grate and carried him to the floor, leaving Brian to burn to death.
 
She wrapped her body around Andy’s to put out the flames.
 
She pushed herself off him.
 
His skin flaked off at her touch.
 
She saw that his hands were missing.
 
“Andy, your hands!”

Andy’s eyes were burnt out, but he recognized her voice.
 
“I don’t think you’re trash.
 
Not trash.”

Belial burst into tears.
 
“Stop trying to talk, you need your energy to heal!”

Lucifer examined Dahlia.
 
His hands fluttered over her broken and bruised body.
 
“Dahlia?”

Dahlia looked up into his eyes.
 
“Lucifer?”

Lucifer kissed her forehead.
 
“
Shh
.”
 
Men burst into the room with weapons drawn.
 
He threw out his hand and blasted them with flame.
 
The concentrated heat vaporized the men and melted the metal door shut.
 

He examined Dahlia’s wounds.
 
The hair thin blade had made many.
 
He touched her stomach and the skin separated in numerous locations, but no blood came out.
 
Lucifer took in the paleness of her skin, the lack of continuous bleeding.
 
He looked at the blood on the floor and the realization sank in; she had lost too much blood to be alive.
 
The only thing keeping her animate was the link she had with Furcas.
 

Lucifer closed his eyes.
 
“Belial, get them both back to the City
now
.”

Belial sent a pulse through a new pendant she wore at her throat.
 

Thanatos appeared.
 
He took in Dahlia’s condition and looked between her and Lucifer.
 
“She is de—”

“I know.”
 
Lucifer handed him Dahlia.
 
“Take her now.”

Thanatos opened a portal and gestured to him.
 
“We should go together.”

Lucifer stood up.
 
Blue fire danced across his skin.
 
“No.”

Thanatos cradled Dahlia gently.
 
Belial stepped up beside him with Andy in her arms.
 
Thanatos opened his mouth to speak.
 
Belial pushed him back through the portal.
 
She looked at Lucifer, nodded, and stepped into the portal.
 
It closed.

Lucifer stood alone in the room, Dahlia’s blood all around him.
 
He let fire, anger, and madness take over.
 
He gave himself to it.
 
The room burst into flame.
 
He attacked the metal door, tearing through it like paper.  He stormed out of the room and came face to face with scores of armed men.
 
He let loose a torrent of heat, killing them where they stood.

He roared and threw himself at the building.
 
He punched through walls and raced through rooms, setting fire to everything.
 
The building shook and collapsed.
 
He climbed out of the rubble and stood under the open sky.
 
He surveyed the land.
 
He was on a fort.
 
Soldiers looked up from drills and training.
 
Rows of barracks were in sight; beyond those were houses for the families of the soldiers.

Lucifer threw out his arms.
 
Fire and heat engulfed the base and everything for two miles around and above it.
 
He became inferno.

In the sky, the Morningstar rose over the horizon, heralding dawn, a new day.

***

Darkness enveloped Dahlia.
 
Her pain, a constant presence.
 
The air warmed; her senses dulled.
 
She grew conscious of her surroundings.
 
She smelled flowers.
 
She whirled around, alone, floating, bodiless.

LADRIAM.

Fear ripped through her.
 
She shrank into herself, trying to be invisible to the voice.

I CAN FEEL YOU.
 
YOU ARE NEAR.
 
YOU ARE CLOSE TO DEATH, LOST, AFRAID.
 
GIVE UP AND COME BACK TO ME, LADRIAM.
 
I WILL TAKE AWAY YOUR PAIN.

Dahlia sought for a way out.
 
Cracks of light marred the darkness.

YOU CAN RUN, BUT I WILL FIND YOU.
 
NO MATTER WHAT HE DOES, YOU WILL BE MINE AGAIN.

Feathers encircled her, cutting off her escape.
 
Her scream died on her lips.  The feeling was friendly.
 
A blurry figure pulled her from the place of warmth into cold, electric air.
 
A familiar girl’s voice emanated from behind her, “He’s pretty hard up about you.”

Dahlia spun to see Faith at her shoulder.
 
Faith shifted to Furcas.
 
“Hello, Dahl-face.”

Dahlia hugged him.
 
“Furcas!
 
Thank you!”
 
She pulled back and looked into his eyes.
 
“You have wings!”

Furcas shrugged, four red wings flapped at his back, his irises matched crimson red.
 
Electricity flowed across his skin.
 
“This is a place of dreams.
 
I also have my eye and arm.
 
I’m quite dashing in red I think.”
 
He smiled roguishly.
 
He sobered up as the pain came back to hit them both.
 
They shuddered together.
 
Furcas wrapped his arms around her.
 
“Time to go back.”

“It will hurt more.”

“Yes, for us both, but it’s that or God talk.
 
What’s your preference?”

Dahlia interlaced her fingers with his.
 
“Pain it is.”

***

Michael let Uriel slide off his shoulder.
 
The beaten Archangel was unconscious.
 
Raphael leapt over him and examined his wounds, his face a mask of concentration.
 
Michael watched with distaste.
 
He gave Raphael room to work and sent out a summons to the others.

Gabriel, Jegudiel, and Selaphiel arrived together.
 
Barachiel showed up last.
 
The dark circles under his eyes were worse.
 
He glared at Gabriel.
 
“Next time
you
go bother your brother.”

Gabriel ignored him.
 
He looked at Uriel.
 
“He has lost a wing.”

“Yes, Belial’s doing.”
 
Raphael held on to the broken appendage.
 
He rolled Uriel over onto his stomach.
 
He plucked two long silvery feathers out of the base of the torn-off wing.
 
The lost wing dulled.
 
Raphael jabbed the feathers into Uriel’s bloody wing-stump.
 
They stuck into the flesh.
 
They glowed and formed a new wing.
 

The others watched fascinated.
 
Michael examined Raphael’s work.
 
“How did you know to do that?”

Raphael shrugged.
 
“They are the seed feathers.
 
We all have them.
 
They are all you need to recreate the whole.”

Uriel’s wing unfurled, healed and whole.
 
His body finished healing itself.
 
He coughed up blood and sat up slowly.
 
“I will kill that bitch I swear it.”

Michael laughed.
 
“I think she got you closer to death than you ever brought her.”

Uriel glowered.
 
“That will not happen again.”
 
He shrugged off Raphael’s ministrations.
 
“I am fine!”

Barachiel sighed.
 
“Things went better for me, but Paimon is not a fighter.”
 
He rubbed his neck.
 
“Furcas still lives.
 
He knows where Ladriam is.
 
She is in danger, but he is split off from the others and cannot tell them.
 
Though now those two are missing, escaped.”