Netherworld, Soul Guardians Book 4 (22 page)

Lilith adjusted her hat and
raised her chin in the air. “
I
was my father’s favorite, you know. He told me
all the time. He worshiped me.” She turned and pointed a red
manicured finger in Kara’s direction. “You were just a bad
experiment gone wrong. He never cared for you as he cared for me.
You meant nothing to him. Nothing. He hardly ever talked about you.
And when he did, it was because you annoyed him. You see, he was
never truly your father. He was
my
father, not yours. He wanted you
dead.”

Kara shook her head and smiled. She
tapped her blade against her thigh. “Wow. You’ve got some serious
daddy issues.”

Kara wasn’t sure where this was going.
She saw the hatred flare up in Lilith’s face. It was an ugly
sight.

Lilith glared at Kara. “I’m going to
enjoy watching you die, sister.” Her lips trembled with white-hot
rage.

Kara met her glare. “We’ll
just have to see about that, won’t we…
sister
?”

Lilith raised her arms in the air.
“Let’s see if the rumors are true. Let’s see just how powerful you
really are, sister dear. Let the games begin!” She snapped her
fingers.

A tornado of dust appeared at the
center of the platform. Kara’s hair and clothes rippled in a sudden
gust of wind. Green electricity snaked around the funnel. There was
a sudden crack. The dust disappeared. A great box with intricate
designs stood before Kara. It was red, with green question marks
painted on all four sides. It looked like a giant toy box. A crank
turned slowly on one of the sides.

Kara wasn’t fooled by the colorful
box. She took a step back. With a flash, the top of the box
exploded. An enormous jester sprang out. Clad in a decaying red and
green outfit, the demon grinned. It opened its mouth and wailed.
Its forked tongue licked its rotten teeth. It studied Kara with
bulging yellow eyes. She gripped her soul blade and watched the
giant jack-in-the-box.

The demon laughed so loudly that Kara
cried out with the pain in her ears.

The jester lunged at Kara.

Its massive maw missed Kara’s feet by
an inch as she jumped out of the way. Its head crashed onto the
platform and shattered the wooden planks. The leering demon
recoiled back into its box. It laughed again from inside. Kara
tried to block the sound with her hands.

The crank spun—at first slowly, then
faster. The jester sprang out of the box again. His snake like
tongue wrapped around Kara’s right leg. He lifted her into the air.
She was upside down, and she watched in horror as its enormous maw
opened beneath her. Hot pungent breath sprayed her face. The smell
alone was enough to render anyone unconscious. Kara struggled in
the demon’s grip. She refused to be eaten by a giant clown. It
lowered her to its mouth—

With a quick slash of her blade, Kara
sliced the creature’s tongue. Black liquid sprayed her hand. It
released her, and she fell onto the ground. The jester recoiled.
The creature howled. It watched her angrily with yellow
eyes.

In a flash, the jester’s head came
crashing into Kara again. She flew into the air. Pain exploded in
her arm, as its giant teeth enclosed her arm all the way to her
armpit. Her blade slipped from her hand. She was tossed savagely to
the ground.

The jester snaked in front of her and
hurled her blade into the shadows. She heard a faint cling and knew
her weapon was gone. She looked up into its grinning face. She
could hear Lilith crying out in delight, applauding feverishly
somewhere behind the creature.

She jumped to her feet and tried to
outrun the creature. The jester blocked her way. She could never
outrun this thing.

Kara looked at Jenny’s face. Her guilt
immobilized her for a moment. The jester laughed in victory—it
sensed Kara was giving up. The sound tore at her like a thousand
lashes. A crack sounded, in a blur its black tongue lashed out and
wrapped itself around Kara. Her arms were pinned to her sides, and
black liquid from the demon’s hot breath seeped into her skin like
poison. A wave of dizziness came over her. She tried to focus, but
her mind wavered. The jester was draining her.

Lilith’s sinister laugher echoed
around Kara. She was enjoying herself.

She could see David and Peter’s broken
faces in her mind’s eye. Then the world around her
disappeared.

Lilith laughed harder, but Kara only
just heard her.

A hot ripple deep inside her started
to emerge. Kara called for it. Her elemental energy came slowly
alive. It poured through her freely, renewing her strength. She let
herself drown in it, until it consumed her in a haze of
gold.

Lilith laughed and
applauded.

The jester opened its rotten
maw—

Kara’s body exploded in a golden
blast. It lifted and hovered in the air. Warmth spread through her
from her head to her toes. When her boots hit the floor again, the
jester was consumed in gold. Golden current snaked around his giant
body. The creature wailed as it struck its head repeatedly against
the ground. With a final wail, the jester exploded in a shower of
golden dust and disappeared into a gust of wind.

Lilith’s face was contorted with rage.
“Kill her! Kill her you pathetic clowns!” she ordered.

The platform shook. The demon clowns
launched themselves at Kara. She raised her hands, and rays of
golden light blasted from her palms. The wall of clowns rose in a
cloud of golden radiance. Their bodies sizzled and cracked. And
then they dissolved into nothing.

The platform was silent. Zadkiel
scowled. His fists looked like mallets at his sides. His knees
shook.

Kara saw hatred flash across Lilith’s
face, and a trace of something else—jealousy. She clearly envied
Kara’s power.

Lilith licked her lips. She
watched Kara’s every move. “Well. I must say I’m impressed, dearest
sister.” Her voice trembled. She strolled around the platform and
back. After a time, she regained a bit of her bounce. “That golden
thing you just did…was a neat trick. But it
was
just a trick. And your trick
won’t save you here. Your pathetic little angel soul won’t last for
very much longer. Sooner or later, that power of yours will
diminish, and your soul will rot.”

Kara’s anger returned. “Give me Jenny,
and I’ll leave here quietly, with no harm done. I just want my
friend.”

Lilith burst out laughing.
It took a moment for her to compose herself. “Oh dear. But you
can’t have your iddy biddy friend. Her pathetic soul belongs to me.
Forget it. You’ll never have her. But, oh, did she
scream
and cry out to
you for help when I burned her—the lungs on that girl—you’d think
she’d be an opera singer.” Lilith laughed and was pleased by the
anger in Kara’s eyes.

Kara gave Lilith a withering glare.
“You are your father’s daughter—through and through—a psychopath in
every way.”

Lilith’s face brightened. “I take that
as a compliment.” She picked at her nails. “I’m getting bored with
all this talking. Aren’t you bored, Zadkiel?”

She turned to the archangel
for an answer, but he ignored her. He watched Kara. Lilith
shrugged. “Well,
I’m
bored. Let’s have more fun, shall we? Let’s see how well
she’ll do with my next game.”

“
I have one more surprise
for you, little sister.” Lilith glanced behind her.
“Come!”

A higher demon emerged from the
shadows and walked onto the platform. Unlike his brethren, he wore
a brown leather jacket and scruffy blue jeans. His pallid face
broke into a smile as he fixed his black eyes on Kara. He sauntered
towards her casually. The tread of his boots cut through the eerie
silence.

Kara tensed as she watched him
approach.

What is this? Why is he
wearing David’s clothes?
“What have you
done to David!” Kara raised her arms menacingly towards Lilith and
the archangel. She watched the higher demon carefully.

Lilith giggled. She twirled a long
lock of hair between her fingers. “Don’t you recognize him? I
thought the two of you were in love.”

Kara teetered in a cold sweat. Her
knees buckled. She lowered her hands.

“
David?” she asked
incredulously.

She heard Lilith’s next words as
though she were in a dream. “The netherworld has claimed him.
David’s one of us now. He’s lost to you…forever.”

Chapter 18

David the Demon

“
N
o!” Kara staggered back. “No! You’re lying! This…this
thing
isn’t
David!”

But Kara knew it was true—she could
still recognize pieces of David. She cringed at the horror of what
she had done. She thought she had had more time before the
transformation completed itself. It was too late now.

The demon David smiled mockingly. Kara
noticed a greenish tint to his former pearly whites. “I’m afraid
the David you knew is gone. His spirit is dead.”

Kara winced. It was David’s voice that
came out of the demon’s mouth, but with a strange harmonica echo
now. Her skin crawled, and she suppressed a shiver.

A cry escaped from Kara’s lips.
“David…I’m so sorry,” she whispered, and she backed away. “I never
meant for this to happen.”

Her legs gave way, and she fell. She
felt repulsion at herself and at him—what had she done to him? The
creature David advanced slowly. Kara trembled. She felt nauseated.
She had created a monster. She could never forgive
herself.

With a hungry grin the demon sauntered
towards her. He walked just like David.

“
But I must say, I do
prefer this body.” He lowered his head and inspected himself. He
stretched his arms and made fists with his hands. “I feel…more
powerful. I feel a connection to a power I’ve never felt before. I
feel stronger. I feel I can do anything I want—and kill whoever I
want.”

Kara struggled to her feet. Her arms
fell loosely at her sides. The soul blade shook in her hand. Her
fingers trembled. “David…how—? Where’s Peter?”

The demon ignored her. “I have to
thank you, Kara, for allowing this to happen.” David’s black eyes
gleamed as his wicked smile returned. “If it weren’t for your
essence, I could never have crossed into the netherworld and
experienced this kind of ultimate power. You made it all possible.
I thank you for this. And that’s why I’m going to take my time
killing you.”

Kara’s lips trembled, and it took all
her strength to keep from falling over again. She could feel her
elemental power tingling inside her, and she strained to control
it.

“
David…I—I’m so sorry.
Please…let’s get out of here.” She lifted her hand. “Come with me.
I’ll make it better. I promise. Raphael can help you get back to
your old self. Let’s get Jenny and get out—”

David laughed. “Get out? And why would
I want to leave? I was meant to be here. I always knew I was meant
for greatness. And now I’ve found it—my true purpose. Angels are
powerless lonely subservient creatures—never allowed to do
anything—it’s pitiable.”

His black eyes locked on Kara. He
arched an eyebrow. “I have no idea what David saw in you. You’re
not even that good looking. You’re a frail little angel who’s going
to die. I’m going to kill you now.”

Kara was paralyzed. She watched in
horror as the demon David drew a death blade from his jacket,
brought it to his mouth, and licked the blade with a black tongue.
He twisted the blade in his hand and sliced the side of his cheek.
Black liquid rolled down the side of his face. He laughed wickedly
and tossed the blade back and forth in his hands, taunting her. His
impenetrable black eyes never left her.

Kara staggered back. She
felt herself spiraling deeper than before. She heard Lilith cry out
in glee and watched her clap excitedly. A hint of a self-satisfied
smile appeared on Zadkiel’s lips, and he lounged back in his chair.
He was enjoying watching Kara suffer. He was waiting for her to
crumble.
Why did Zadkiel hate her so
much?
She had never done anything to
deserve his hatred. She heard David’s sinister laugh and wished she
could be sick.

She spoke to him again, “I never
wanted this to happen. I would never have let you come with me if
I’d known what would happen to you. After everything we’ve been
through…you don’t deserve this. David, I’m so sorry.”

The demon David snickered. “Don’t be.
David’s dead. He can’t hear you anymore. You’re wasting your time
apologizing to a dead guy. Besides, you won’t feel so sorry after I
kill you. Consider this our breakup—”

David suddenly hurled his blade at
her. Kara heard a faint swish, and pain exploded in her chest.
Stunned, she looked down. The handle of his death blade stood out
from her abdomen. She stumbled back, wrapped her fingers around it,
and yanked the blade out. David laughed a cacophony of guttural
chortles and wails. She heard a whipping sound and screamed as the
poison of another death blade burned into her chest like
acid.