Plague of Angels (11 page)

Persephone had been a much gentler goddess than Ishtar, seen as a symbol of innocence lost and of the coming of spring. Persephone enjoyed the worship and was revered throughout the Roman Empire. She loved the sexual aspects of the changing season and made it a core part of her temple’s secret rituals. She’d also made the legend of her return to Underworld, not because she enjoyed torture for its own sake as Ishtar did, but to because her other great love was battle, and there was no better place to train for that than among the 666
th
.

She was the better fighter of the two, and more important, she was more observant. “Something is wrong,” hissed Persephone. “Look.”

Ishtar looked, and saw that the Angels on the ground, the ones who had not flown, were tensed and ready to take off, their weapons gripped tightly and their faces tight with anticipation.

“What the fuck is going on?” whispered Persephone.

She got her answer when Lucifer cracked his whip again. The remaining three thousand Angels leapt into the air and attacked the ones fighting for the gate. They made no attempt to fly up to the gate, only smashed at full force into the others, bringing them down in the dozens.

“Lucifer’s betrayed Nyx!” shouted Ishtar over the screams of battle. “That bastard!”

“You think?” was Persephone’s acid reply. “He’s going to kill any Angels loyal to Nyx and send his own people out!”

“We have to get there first!” said Ishtar. We have to get out!”

“I know,” said Persephone. “And so does he!”

Above, the first Angel broke free of the mob and soared toward the hole. Lucifer lashed out with his whip, tearing one of the Angel’s wings apart and sending him spinning into the Lake of Fire below.

“Stay together,” said Persephone. “We fight as one, we just might make it.”

“Yeah, might,” agreed Ishtar. “Ready?”

“Ready.”

Swords out and blazing with Hellfire, whips in hand and ready, the two launched themselves into the air. In the distance, they could see the gaping hole in the sky, a small pocket of magical space shimmering in the endless blackness that surrounded it, like a cut on the skin of a God. Between them and it, five thousand Angels were locked in a desperate battle for dominance and survival. The sky was black save for the lights of the Angel’s Hellfire weapons. Blades and whips cut, stabbed, cracked, and slashed through the sky. The light of Hellfire flashed again and again through the darkness, becoming an entity unto itself. Shrieks of pain and defeat and curses filled the air as dark Angels collided. Falling limbs, bodies, and buckets of silver blood drenched the stones of Hell below.

From below them all, weaving through the battling figures in a rain of blood and feathers, Ishtar and Persephone drove themselves upward. Their two blades carved a path through the flesh of any Angels that got in their way.

They were half the way up when Ishtar screamed in pain. Zaros, a wiry, black-haired Angel had grabbed her and bitten her calf, his razor sharp teeth penetrating her armor, and blood spurted from his mouth as he ripped a chunk of muscle and skin from her leg. Ishtar twisted over in mid-flight and drove the heel of her free leg into his eye socket, exploding his eyeball. The flesh fell from his mouth as he spiraled down into darkness.

Persephone was ahead now, and Ishtar beat her wings frantically to catch up, leaving a shower of blood behind her. She had to spin to dodge two falling Angels locked together, hands on each other’s throats, swords in each other’s guts. From above, Hecate dove at Persephone, whip lashing out. Persephone dodged and struck with her blade as she went past, opening a gash in Hecate from throat to belly. Hecate roared and snapped her whip again, this time at Ishtar.

Ishtar dodged, but the whip connected, biting into her leg and lasering through the Achilles tendon with Hellfire. Ishtar snarled and cursed her luck. She flexed her mighty wings and flew faster, the primal urge to survive overcoming every other.

Around them, Lucifer’s Angels taunted Nyx’s Angels as they fought. Above them, Lucifer cleaved a pair of Angels in half with one stroke, sending bloody flesh raining on those below. Swords and whips lashed out all around, ripping open flesh to the bone, sending silver blood spurting through the air, tearing feathers and sinew from wings. Angels screamed and hacked at one another. None could die, not even the two headless corpses that fell past like rocks into the ring of fire below. All would be reborn in pain and suffering as their bodies knit themselves together or missing limbs re-grew.

Persephone didn’t slow her pace and Ishtar knew she would not—not with Nyx’s rule and life at stake. Ishtar beat her wings harder. Then five Angels, tangled together in battle, crashed into the pair of them. Their world was reduced to a whir of battering wings, darting blades, sharp teeth and claws, the sound of whips snapping through the air and ripping open flesh. Ishtar gutted the Angel in front of her, not caring if it was friend or foe, then felt a whip snake around her throat and pull tight. She spun her blade and rammed it backwards, feeling it slice into flesh. She ripped down and enjoyed the howl as the whip on her throat slid away.

Persephone, entangled with two Angels and too close to use her sword, bit one’s face off with a mouthful of razor-sharp teeth. The Angel screamed and jerked away, giving Persephone room to pierce the Angel’s throat with her talons, and rip it open. The other Angel also used its teeth, biting down on into Persephone’s side. She drove an elbow down onto the Angel’s face, dislocating its jaw with a single strike. The Angel growled and tried to grapple. Persephone brought up her heel and drove it into the Angel’s groin. The Angel let go and fell.

The fifth Angel attacked both Ishtar and Persephone, using both sword and whip. Two swords flashed, and both the Angel’s hands fell, leaving it staring at bloody stumps. The friends were side by side again, flying towards Lucifer above.

“How the fuck do we get past him?” Ishtar yelled.

“Carefully,” Persephone shouted back.

Ishtar grimaced but kept on flying.

A half-dozen more times their flight was interrupted. Persephone lost half a breast, and Ishtar took a whiplash that tore most of the feathers from one wing. Both endured a dozen other, minor cuts, and both of them fought Angel after Angel, sending their gutted, limbless bodies into the pit below.

Above, Lucifer engaged four Angels at once, cutting one’s wings off with his sword, tearing another open with his whip, and driving his cloven boot into the face of the third. The fourth nearly squirmed past him, but Lucifer spun his whip and yanked the Angel backwards, impaling it with his sword through its backside so hard that the tip of his blade came out its mouth.

He reversed the blade and the screaming Angel fell.

“We’re fucked,” screamed Ishtar, even as she prepared to lash her whip at Lucifer’s foot.

“Not yet, we’re not,” Persephone screamed back. She linked with Ishtar then, mind to mind. It was a gift all Angels had, but the Dark Angels rarely used it. To let one into your mind was to give him or her all your secrets, and the Dark Angels were so often plotting against one another that they didn’t dare open their minds. Persephone and Ishtar knew each other’s secrets already, and when Persephone shared her plan in Ishtar’s mind, it made Ishtar bare her teeth in a sudden, savage grin.

Both slowed their flight just enough to let the two Angels beneath them catch up. The Angels, two of Nyx’s loyal soldiers, charged upward and tried to pass them, eyes on the prize of the rift open above them.

Ishtar and Persephone lashed out with their whips at the same time, wrapping them around the two Angels’ necks. With simultaneous hard pulls of arms, backs and wings, they threw the Angels forward and into Lucifer.

Lucifer, caught off guard, found himself tangled in the embrace of the two, and for a moment there was nothing but kicking, biting, and slashing of talons as all three struggled to get free. It was a short moment, but it was enough. Ishtar and Persephone went wide around Lucifer and dashed upward for the rift.

“Nearly there!” screamed Persephone. She could see the rift clearly, and Earth, the world beyond it. It would be a minute’s flight, no more, to reach it. Beside her, Ishtar grinned and flexed her wings harder, trying to get as much speed as she could.

Two whips lashed out from behind, wrapping each Angel’s ankle and yanking them backwards.

Even as they fell, both had their blades out, hacking away the whips and clashing with the blades of their opponents. Facing Persephone was Morrigan, a thin, steel-strong Angel with a scarred face and a hideous war-cry. Mantus attacked Ishtar, his red armor scored in a dozen places and his silver blood flowing as he hacked at her. Ishtar and Persephone forced themselves to fly higher even as they fought.

Morrigan ripped into Persephone’s guard, knocking her sword out of the way and scoring her across her belly. Persephone jabbed her blade at Morrigan’s eyes and then hacked down, trying to take off her opponent’s hands.

Mantus was huge and relied on his size and strength to overpower his opponents. His sword smashed against Ishtar again and again, sending her off course and nearly breaking her own blade as she parried. She stopped him a dozen times, her wrists aching from the power of his strikes, but was unable to mount a defense. When the next strike came, she yielded instead, allowing his force to flow through hers, redirecting his attack and ending up behind him. She hacked hard, cutting off one wing on the upstroke and another as the blade came back down. Silver ichor sprayed everywhere and she spread her wings to fly away.

Mantus grabbed her ankle, and dug his clawed fingers into her leg. Faster than she had expected, he spun his body and climbed up behind her. Ishtar flipped and struggled and spun to get him off, but it was no use. The wingless Angel climbed her body with hooked talons like steel.

Persephone was locked blade to blade with Morrigan, each struggling for the upper hand. They clashed together and came apart once, then twice, then a third time, with a dozen cuts to each one’s flesh but no devastating blow on either side.

Mantus clawed his way to the top of Ishtar’s back and wrapped his arm around her throat. It took all of Ishtar’s strength to continue beating her wings as she clawed at his arm. His other hand was down below, and she felt his talons rip open the armor covering her ass, as his legs wrapped around her thighs. Mantus’s face pressed against the nape of her neck. He drove his pelvis against her backside. Ishtar realized he had willed away the armor around his groin. He was erect and thrusting hard against her, seeking penetration. Ishtar pushed every ounce of her remaining strength into her wings, knowing that falling would end it all for her. From above, she saw Morrigan’s body and head fall separately down toward the pit far below.

“You took my wings, bitch,” Mantus said. Mantus sucked Ishtar’s earlobe into his mouth and bit it off.. “I’m going to ride you to the Lake, and I will fuck you all the way down.”

Ishtar rammed her head backwards. He was so close it did little damage. She did it again and again, keeping him distracted as she reached behind her. He realized what she was doing too late. Her hand closed on his cock. With a rip of her claws and a hard pull she tore it from his body.

Mantus screamed and reared back, and this time, when Ishtar rammed her head backwards, she heard a solid crunch – Mantus’s nose exploded. His grip around her waist loosened, and Ishtar twisted, ripping her sword across Mantus’s belly.

“You fucking hag!” he howled as he dropped away.

Ishtar’s head was clearing, and she struggled upward after Persephone. Beneath them she heard the “boom” of Lucifer’s wings and knew he was coming after them himself. Persephone looked down and shouted, “Hang on to me!” as she gestured at her own leg, just in Ishtar’s reach.

Ishtar, too prideful, flapped harder and forced herself toward the rift. Persephone looked down again, then suddenly pulled out her whip and snapped it directly at Ishtar.

Ishtar threw her head to the side, feeling betrayal as she had not experienced since their Descent. The three whip heads sizzled as they went by her head and face, along the length of her legs and past her to snap in the face of Derkos, an Angel of Lucifer, whose blade was about to impale Ishtar.

Derkos roared and flapped wildly at the three whip heads cutting thick lines into his face. His whip slashed out wildly, blasting Ishtar in the eye even as he went tumbling back towards Lucifer, who was just below them. Ishtar wailed as her eye left its socket. Lucifer, unable to dodge the falling Derkos, screamed in rage and hacked Derkos in half, sending silver ichor in all directions

With just one eye, Ishtar felt weaker than ever before. Her wings fluttered as best they could. She stuttered awkwardly upward, flying half blind. Lucifer was bound to catch her soon, and there was no way she could keep up. Ishtar screamed out in frustration. Above her, barely visible through the curtain of blood that engulfed her face, she could see Persephone almost at the entrance to the rift. Persephone was looking towards her goal, and flexing her wings with savage strength.

Ishtar looked down and saw Lucifer’s skin grow dark, and the light around him fade. His skin even smoked like the wick of a dying candle as he twisted, bloated, and transformed.

In an instant, he was no longer a beautiful Angel wearing a crown, but a dragon three times the size. The only evidence of his godly stature was the crown of jewels on his massive reptilian head, perched just above the pointed, golden horn that jutted from his forehead. The dragon had the yellow hair of Lucifer, but it ran in a mane down its curved, black-scaled back. It grinned, showing teeth more wicked than that of any Angel, and deep in its mouth Ishtar could see Hellfire being readied for a blast.

There’s no way I’ll make it,
Ishtar thought.
But I can make sure Persephone does.

She grimaced – the burn of her sorrow exceeding her physical anguish. She did not cry out for help. Better to let her comrade revel in victory than to risk them both failing. She twisted in the air and saw Lucifer so close below them, and eight hundred more Angels, hungry for blood and victory, racing up behind him. She pointed her sword at him and stopped flexing her wings. For a moment she hung, motionless in the air. Then she drew in her wings to fall on him like a falcon attacking an eagle.