Hellhound: Prince of Fire (10 page)

Chapter Twelve

Blood Moon

Dreams.
I had not had them this vivid since I was young. I remember waking up in a sweat as monsters had chased me in the night. If I had only known then, as I do now, I would have prepared for everything. Perhaps I would not have allowed myself to be beaten down in life. Maybe my bad choices would have been smaller ones than all the things I had allowed. The truth is this; we all have shit in our lives. We all have to endure it. It is what we do with the lessons we learn that matter, not that we said the right words. It is all in actions that show others the good in our selves. My Father had shown he did not truly love my Mom when he beat her and she had shown me that she would rather just leave than fight the disease that may or may not have killed her, abandoning me to his abuse. But to fucking TRY, at least try to make it work, is what being human is all about. It is not being a cunt to each other and trying to tear each other down, it is protecting, even when you don’t really know someone, believing that life is still important and if you find that in yourself, then salvation is truly yours.

I sat up on the black shoreline and let my breath out as white smoke poured upward. The lightning cracked across the sky and I knew exactly where I was. I was in purgatory and the dread it filled me with was almost unbearable. Had I been disposed of? Had Gunner done the one thing he felt might save all of humanity
?  Setting me aside and placing me here where I perhaps belonged all along? I started to walk and heard the moaning. I remembered the souls trapped here, the ones who had no choice but to be blind with no voice, as black thread robbed them of it. I walked along with my arms crossed on my chest, rain started to come down and my red hair stuck to my face like traces of blood. If I took a moment to think about it, I would be so angry as to how I ended up here, tossed aside like a nuisance.

I then heard
more moaning and started to walk faster as the lighting continued to roll across the sky above me. I could see shadows off in the distance, but they seemed to not even care that I was here. Maybe it was my vampire soul that made me invisible to them now, I could not be certain. The lighting lit everything up around me and I saw a large tree. At the base of it was a woman, leaning against it and a man knelt down next to her. He was touching her cheek and I could see a golden color coming from her skin and towards his hand as he held it steady only a few inches from her face. I walked towards them as rain rolled down my face and dripped from my chin. Then I stopped as he turned his face towards me and lightening showed me who he was. It was God.

He stood up and rubbed his hands together as the woman slumped by the tree, sliding down it like her life had been drained from her and he took a few steps towards me as I narrowed my eyes and wiped the rain from them. He stopped and looked upward and the rain slowed and then stopped all together
, but the lightening remained and low thunder rolled off in the distance. I stared at him and then glanced past him at the woman now lying at the base of the tree.

“Halo Bay. I did
not expect to you see you here,” he said as he approached me. And before I could move he had touched my cheek and quickly took his hand away. His expression telling me he was not happy to see me changed as I was.

“That is unfortunate.”

I looked him over and then pointed to the woman.

“What did you do to her?”

He looked back at her and then turned back to me, looking me over.

“I simply gave her release.”

“You killed her?”

“I would not call it killed, more like mercy.”

I laughed, but he did not.

“I am not concerned with what you think of this, I am more concerned with how you became the undead.”

I sighed and looked up towards the sky, the lightening lit up my face and he could see my red eyes and elongated teeth in my mouth.

“So what? You feed on people in purgatory?” I asked him and he sighed.

“I see you are going to test me, so be it.” He started to walk and I followed his as he waved his hand out to one side and then to the other. The darkness rolled away from us like fog as did the scenery and we ended up in a field, bright blue sky over head and lush vegetation all around us. In fact, it looked like the rain forest and as I turned and studied it I knew that was exactly what it was.

“
You can change anything then, just as tricky as your brother,” I muttered behind him.

He shook his head. “No, I can simply show what I have seen and this is what it looked like when I first came here with my brother and all of our people.”

I stared at him and he turned with an apple in his hand and I grinned.

“I am not hungry.”

“Oh but humanity was. It was hungry for something to believe in and I gave that to them in exchange for everlasting life.”

“What they have in purgatory and hell is not life, it is torture.”

He looked down at the apple as it started to wither with age and rot. He tossed it aside and his soft eyes met mine. It was strange how much he reminded me of Lucifer, just the opposite version of him.

“Free will,” h
e said to me as he tilted his head and I sighed.

“People need guidance, I agree, but…”

“But what? They have their freedom, Halo. They do as they wish. They could  be good and help humanity along, or they can be very bad and harm each other. I did not do that. It is also not the fault of my brother. It is human nature and how am I to be blamed for it? When we came here there was chaos and they needed something to believe in to calm them and give them hope. Hope is a very powerful thing, it is a motivator. But just we have hope, we have temptation and I, nor my brother, built this, it is man-made, as are we.”

I shook my head and looked him over.

“Humanity did not make you, I am not even sure of where you came from, but it was not here.”

“How can you be so sure? I mean I lo
ok like you, so does my brother. Who is to say that we are simply not an advanced version of what humans can be?”

I turned and started to walk away from him
, but had to stop as the ground crumbled before me and a large hole in the ground blocked me from going any further. I turned and relaxed my arms.

“I think that yo
u are just as bad as he is. You feed on people, just like he does and you play with us like toys.”

He stepped towards me and waved his hands in the air as a millio
n butterflies started to appear. They fluttered all around me and I could not help but watch them as they were so beautiful. I reached up and one landed on my finger. Its wings large and deep blue in color.  He watched me, as I could not take my eyes from it.

“This c
reature changed just as you did,” he said to me.

“This is natural, I am not,
” I said. He tilted his head and continued to talk to me.

“I will not lie and say that I am not intrigued with humans. I mean each of you are unique in your own way and you are independent. I think what I love the most is the will
you have to protect and fight for what you believe in.”

The butterfly flew from my finger as the rest fluttered upward and out of sight. I let my eyes settle onto his.

“You need us. You have to feed on us to survive,” I said to him as he grinned, his lip curling up in the corner as if I had solved a puzzle. He turned and started to walk away from me as I followed him. I could not help but continue to speak to him as my mind tried to wrap itself around the truth.

“The truth is that you are just as demonic as Lucifer is, you just prefer to be more civilized about it
. But in the end, you are as disgusting as him.”

He stopped and the sky started to darken over us as the rolling thunder returned and the lighting traced the large clouds overhead. He turned as his wings extended and they were as black as Lucifer
’s and just as majestic. He grew taller, but he did not morph into a demon, he looked the same… just towered over me. I know if I was still human in any way, I would be fearful. But now, with vampire blood mixed inside of me, the courage almost seemed natural. He watched me as I stood my ground and did not look away.

“This is
why I do not favor the vampire. Your lack of reasoning is tedious.”

“Am I right? I mean I have to say that I am.”

He leaned down and his smell was sweet and almost intoxicating.

“You are clever
, but why do I have to tell you anything?”

“Because Lucifer is about to win this game you have going on with him
and he will threaten your very existence.”

He tilted his head and then laughed, his laugh
ter making him smaller as his wings retracted and disappeared behind him.

“Come now. I know my brother and this game, as you call it, has been one we have played for centuries. He has nothing on his side to make it tilt into his favor.”

He turned to walk away from me and I spoke, saying the only words that would stop him dead in his tracks.

“I had his son.”

He hesitated and then turned back to me. He was in my face before I could react to it and had his hand to my cheek as he drew the memories from me. I saw it all, from Travis stabbing me, to making love to Gunner, the kiss Lucifer gave to me and then my eyes settling onto Jet’s as he looked up at me. I almost fell as the timeline flashed behind my eyes and made me feel weak at the knees. He took his hand from my skin and his eyes shifted from soft to hard in a matter of seconds.

“Lucifer,” h
e said as he gritted his teeth. “What have you done?”

Chapter Thirteen

The Son R
ises

Jet stood alongside Lucifer as they watched the fire bellow and roll before them. Lucifer turned to him as he stared at his black armor he had made for Jet to wear. Jet touched his chest and looked down at the dragon etched into it.

“Yo
u look like a conqueror, a King,” he said to him as Jet watched the fire rolling.

“Will we spar
e any?” Jet asked and Lucifer raised his hands and the demons started to rise from the flames. One by one they grew from withered bodies to that of black skinned demons, then morphed into dragons. Their wings tethered and torn sprouting from their backs as they cried out in agonizing pleasure. They both watched as they started to fly upward and the earth above them cracked and fell downward, landing in the molten flame and becoming one with it. Lucifer ran forward and landed onto the back of one of the dragons and Jet watched as it flapped its wings and he waved to his son to join him. Another black dragon rose and Jet ran and jumped onto its back as they all began to rise upward towards the ever growing hole above them.

Gunner stood his ground as Finna and Ari flanked his side. Jack stepped up as all
of the wolves of the world collected behind him. One by one vampires appeared, slowly at first, but as Hunter and Vanessa flashed into view Gunner nodded to them. They took their place next to him and Jack as they set aside their differences and knew that they had to be as one, if not only for this night. Jack looked up as the red continued to creep across the moon and ate up her glowing pale beauty like an eclipsing sun. They all shifted as the ground beneath them started to vibrate and they knew the Prince of Fire was rising with his legions not far behind. They could not worry so much about him as they did for what he brought with him, the son who could easily bring on the destruction of the world as they knew it.

Hunter leaned over to Gunner and spoke to him. “It is not too late to just bow to them when they get here.”

Jack laughed and leaned forward so he could see him. “Spoken like a true soulless beast.”

“
Look who is talking, dog.”

Gunner held his hand up as they watched the road start to splinter and crack before them.  They all moved back as a large hole started to form. The pack had a few howls rise up behind them as Vanessa sighed.

“Can you control your fucking animals?”

Jack smiled and shifted his weight to his other foot. “Yo
u should be grateful to have us. If I remember correctly, it is vampires who sit at Lucifer’s feet and not any of my kind.”

Vanessa hissed and Hunter held her back just as the first of the asphalt flew upward and away from the hole that was still growing larger and larger in the road. It ate up the sidewalks to each side and then the buildings fell into it as they all moved back even further.

“They seem to need a ton of room,” Ari said and Gunner gripped his blade tightly as the first of the fire blew out of the gaping hole in the road, quickly followed by a large black winged beast. It swooped over all of them and a bellowing cry rang out as fire rolled from its mouth and ate a line of wolves in its wake.

“NO!” Moxy screamed as she ran towards the fallen and Jack had no choice but to follow.

“He hass freed the dragons of Hell!” Gunner cried out as Finna grinned and so did Ari. They had fought many a dragon in their day and it did not matter to them that these were the ones who had fallen to the fires of hell. Two more dragons rose from the hole and they both looked at each other.

“I will see you in the Halls of
Valhalla,” Ari said as Finna ran to him and kissed him. The wind blew her blonde hair up and two black dragons rose behind each of them. She let her lips leave his and he touched her face. They both turned and pressed their backs to each other and let their voices rise as they cried out like any true Viking warrior would.  Ari swung his axe as the Dragon screeched at him and flapped his large wings.

“Come demon. T
ake your chances with me.”

“Ari
, do not be an ass. Just kill it!”

“Oh I plan to my love, I plan to.”

Both Ari and Finna ran towards their dragons, swinging their battle axes and void of any fear. Ari Jumped into the air and caught the edge of its right wing and it swung around and hit him, knocking him across the road and almost the  far building. Finna glanced behind her and screamed to him as the Dragon landed in front of her and screamed, blowing her hair back and making her cough.

“You foul fucking beast!” she screamed at it as she rushed it as Ari had his own.

Gunner stood his ground as demon after demon rose and the battle became a chaotic mess around him. He was not interested in anything but one man…that of Lucifer and as a large black dragon rose and landed on the edge of the hole in the street it turned, belching fire high into the air and he saw him in his red armor on the back of it. Lucifer grinned and slid off of it, swinging his sword slowly at his side as he walked towards Gunner. Gunner gritted his teeth and gripped the hilt of blade as he had never done before. The hatred rising in him made him even stronger than he thought he could be. Lucifer stopped and snapped his fingers as everything came to a stop around them and Gunner’s chest rose and fell as he turned to see Ari on his back, screaming as a demon descended upon him, Finna was in the air, sword drawn and heading straight towards a demon with claws drawn and mouth gaping wide. He looked behind him and saw vampires and wolves alike, fighting side by side as they battled for their own lives. He turned back to Lucifer and Lucifer removed his helmet, which was red just like his armor and had two large wings that spread out on each side and went behind his head. He tossed it aside and held his blade up as he looked at it.

“So here we are.”

Gunner shifted his weight to his other foot and kept his eyes trained on him.

“You will fall.”

Lucifer grinned and gripped the hilt of his blade.

“I fucked your woman.”

Gunner took a slow breath and could not allow it to force his temper.

“It must be disappointing that you had to shift your appearance to get into her bed.”

“Oh she knew. It is true, I looked like you. But she knew, as did I, that as she came, it was me who gave her more pleasure than you could ever hope to. I gave her a night she would never forget.”

“Fuck you,
” Gunner said as he started to bring his sword up higher.

“Marcus. A
lways so full of pride. If you had only stayed by my side as I offered you, you would be a general of my army and my friend, but here we are and you will die tonight, as will everyone you care about.”

He looked around and did not see Halo.

“Where is she? Did your anger kill her? Did you destroy her as you did your own sister?” he said as Tercia crawled from the hole behind him, black eyed and blood stained lips. Gunner stepped back as she stepped up to Lucifer’s side. Gunner cried out as Lucifer jumped into the air and landed on the back of his black demon. It rose into the air as Tercia stood there and stared him down.

“Marcus. F
ulfill your destiny and you may survive this night!” Lucifer called out to him as he waved his hand and the battle resumed all around them.

****

I stood on black water. It had all changed in a blink of an eye. I tilted my head down and the water looked as if I would fall right through it and yet my feet felt perfectly secure as I stepped forward. I looked behind me and a long red train drug behind me, also remaining on the top of the water. I touched my stomach and felt the soft satin fabric beneath my fingertips and realized I was now in a beautiful red dress. It clung to my body as if it had always belonged to me and perhaps it had. I looked up as a ring of fire started to rise from the black water and I lifted the front of my dress and took one cautious step and then another. I had no idea where the portal in the center of the fire ring led to, but I did know that the water was starting to become choppier and I had to walk or perhaps get swallowed by it all.

I started to run and ended up right in front of it. I
saw my reflection; I looked beautiful, human, no vampire left in me or Hellhound. I had been stripped of all of it and I had to assume it was the work of God and his inability to accept that I now knew his secret, I knew Lucifer’s secret too. I was not sure of exactly what they were, but I knew that they needed us, the human race, to survive and this game they were playing with each other was probably one out of boredom or perhaps sibling rivalry. I also knew that vampire and werewolf alike were perhaps humanities way of fighting back in the evolutionary chain. Humans could not possibly fight God or Lucifer off of this planet, but the immortal beasts could. I also knew that the Hellhound was part of that equation and maybe Lucifer made them thinking it would help him, but it backfired as the Hellhounds rose to battle back the darkness rising. I guess in the end, life will always find a way. Be it the smallest creature or the human who crawled from the sea.

I placed my fingers to the rolling water in the center of the ring and felt it was cold to the touch. I took a breath, a true one and held it in my lungs as I stepped through shedding all of my fear, every bit of it. Because that is what truly being human is all about.
It is being fearless when you least expect to be.

I stepped into the road as I saw fighting all around me. I looked up and saw the blood red moon, black creatures raced back and forth across its surface and then I turned as I saw him, Gunner, fighting Tercia as she fell on her back before him.
I saw Jet jump down from a large black dragon and pull his sword as he ran towards Gunner. My heart beat sped up as Gunner did not see him, but Jack did. He picked up hiss sword and started to run towards Jet. I ran towards them, holding the front of my dress up, my feet being cut my small shards of road and not caring, not one bit. That pain was so minimal compared to my love for Gunner, for Jet, and for all things. I had my humanity restored and it brought with it my compassion, true compassion and that is a gift that neither God nor Lucifer would ever be able to duplicate or steal from us. They could not understand it, how could they? They came to merely survive and they remain because without us they will die. I knew everything now, everything I needed to know.

I ran up in between Jack and Jet just as he was about to reach Gunner and I turned. Jack continued to rush forward and in a blink of an eye his blade sliced through my stomach and severed
my spinal cord. The gift was that it immediately killed the pain and I stood, my hands trembling as I grabbed the blade and I could hear Gunner scream as Jack pulled it out of me. I stood for a moment as another black dragon rose before us and Lucifer sat upon its back, his expression one of anguish as he saw me standing there in the red dress. I held my stomach as the blood started to roll over my fingers. I started to fall only to feel Gunner catch me before I hit the ground. He looked down on me as Jack backed away and Finna stopped fighting as did Ari. The battle slowed all around as did the time. My eyes felt heavy but remained on Gunners as the tears rolled down his cheeks and he touched my face.

“Halo, please…please stay with me.”

I smiled and reached up to touch his face as my body started to get colder and colder and then a black dragon landed behind us as Lucifer jumped down and ran towards us. He stopped as he saw me laying there, his chest feeling heavy and strange for the first time in his existence. He looked at Jet and then back to me.

“Was this your intention? To kill the only thing I have ever truly loved, to strip me bare?” Gunner said as h
e slowly looked up to Lucifer.

“Mother?” Jet said as I looked at him and my vision blurred.

“Jet?” I said as he stepped towards us and Ari and Finna both put their axes to his throat from each side.

Gunner looked up at him as Jets eyes became as glossy as his own and tears ran down his cheeks. Gunner waved them off and Jet lowered to one knee and looked at me and then to the wound on my stomach.

“I forgive you for leaving me,” he said to me and I smiled as his words settled my soul.

“I did not lea
ve you, I would never leave you,” I said to him as he narrowed his eyes and looked past us to Lucifer. He stood up and started to walk towards him with his blade drawn.

“You said she left us.”

“She…she did.”

“You took her from me, didn’t you?”

Lucifer looked up at him as his eyes looked as if they were filled with sorrow.

Jet stared at him and then screamed.

“Draw your sword and fight me!”

Lucifer looked upward and a black dragon swooped down, he caught its wing and jumped onto its back rising into the air and looking down on me as I lay there, my red dress spread out like a river of blood around me. He then looked upward as he saw his brother descending from the sky and cried out as the angels descended and started to fight every demon back to the hole that had formed in the earth. Lucifer was last to retreat into the hole as God rose above it, his black wings spread wide and
he held his hands out in front of him. He closed his eyes and a bright flash of light started to come from his hands as he sealed the hole up and prevented the demons from rising again. He then started to descend to the earth and landed one foot after the other. His wings started to grow smaller and they were gone before he reached us. He stopped and then knelt down to one knee as he looked at me.