'Tween Heaven and Hell (37 page)

Dialle didn’t wait to see if Abrine had survived, he raised
both hands toward Nille, palm outward and an opaque cylinder of power shot from
the outstretched palms and slammed into Nille.

Nille stumbled back slightly but quickly recovered and
lifted his arms to retaliate, shooting his own power in a pulsing, red blast
toward Dialle.

At first the two devils appeared calm. But as the moments
wore on I could see signs of their strength draining away from them. Sweat the
color of human blood began to bead upon their smooth, golden brows and run into
their identically glowing blue eyes. After another moment, Dialle’s body began
to tremble just slightly and then more desperately and I knew with a sudden,
horrible clarity that Dialle was going to lose the battle.

As I watched, Dialle’s power began to retreat under the
force of Nille’s pulsing, red energy and he seemed to almost shrink into
himself. It was like watching a holograph of Dialle’s life which had been
locked into hyper forward and then accelerated even more to the speed of light.
Before my eyes, his skin was began to grow thin and fold in upon itself, while
it gained a grayish tint that looked like death. Fear ate at me as I watched
his body bend forward until he had the stooped posture of a very elderly man. It
all happened in just seconds, much too quickly for me to react and way too fast
for me to even weigh my options.

Suddenly, the mark on my neck gave a single, painful throb
and I knew what I had to do. I ran to him and ducked under his arms so that my
back was pressed into his chest. I was immediately repulsed by the soft,
decayed feel of his body against mine but I forced myself to ignore it and I
placed my hands over his. The once beautiful hands were like bone-filled
parchment paper. I felt as if they would soon crumble under my touch.

Making myself ignore the terrible degeneration of Dialle’s
flesh, I grabbed at my power and focused it toward Nille, sending it piggyback
along with Dialle’s power. My added energy created a slight wave in the power
connection between them but didn’t do much more than cause Nille to jump a bit.

I could still feel Dialle drying up behind me. That was when
I started to panic in earnest. What was I doing wrong? Why wasn’t our power
merging? I wondered if, as I’d done in Nerul’s office against Rayanne, I had to
refocus the power to make it more effective. I figured it was worth a try. I
gathered it back and shot it into Dialle’s hands.

Almost immediately I felt him stiffen and straighten behind
me. I watched Nille’s face change from cool smug to “oh shit” and I almost
laughed in relief. Slowly at first and then more aggressively, the combined
power we shot at Nille started to drive him back.

Nille’s face grew pale and his tall, strong body hunched
with the effort of pushing our combined power back. I knew we had him on the
ropes. That was good, but I could already feel myself drooping and I wondered
if the power would hold.

A moment later my worst fears were realized as Nille began
to straighten and push back at us again. I couldn’t help wondering where the
power was coming from. I took my eyes off Nille just long enough to throw a
quick glance around the room. What I saw in that brief glimpse made my skin
bubble with a grave-like cold.

All of Abrine’s men were dead on the floor. Their bodies
looked like someone had put them into a drying machine and sucked all of the
moisture out of them. My mind flashed me a picture of the thousands of crumpled,
dried-up bodies I had waded through on the floor of Nerul’s cavern chamber and
I realized that, as he had done to Abrine’s men, Nille must have fed on their
power until he had drained and killed them. He had grown strong as they had
died.

Then it occurred to me that Gerch and his men hadn’t moved
to stand at our backs as they should have. I feared that we no longer had an
army at our backs and I was pretty sure I knew why. Nille had drained them all
dry.

But was it possible? And if so, wouldn’t he eventually run
out of power to drain? The answer was yes, but the real question was…would we
survive until he did?

My vision was starting to waver and fade and I could hear a
deafening roar in my ears. My knees felt like rubber and I was having trouble
holding my arms up, even with Dialle’s hands under them. I suddenly realized
that it was happening to me. Nille was draining me too.

I heard Dialle whisper my name and I knew he’d realized the
same thing. We sagged to the ground together, hitting the stone floor with our
knees, probably shattering our knee bones with the impact. We were too numb to
feel it.

Our power cylinder was beginning to sputter and weaken and I
knew we wouldn’t be able to hold Nille off much longer. For the second time in
just minutes, I faced my death and it really pissed me off. There had to be
something we could do to stop him from killing us. The angels wouldn’t have
sent us there just to die.

Then it hit me. I thought of Rayanne and our magical tug of
war in Nerul’s office. I fought through the weariness that was clogging my
brain and overruled the thunder in my ears. I had to get Dialle to understand. We
had maybe three seconds before we were toast.

Dialle, reverse the power. Draw him in. Remember what you
told me? The power of the shadows runs counter to mine. We mustn’t feed him our
power, we must use the power of the shadows against him.

For a very brief time I thought Dialle had not heard me. Or
hadn’t understood. But then I heard his faint, “Yes.”

Together we reversed our power and Nille, not expecting the
reversal, shot toward us. As his full, healthy body slammed into ours I thought
he would crush us, but almost instinctively we grabbed for him. Dialle grabbed
his left hand and I his right. The power of the shadows used the channel we’d
created and flowed through us, into us, around us.

Dialle and I flew off our knees and shot skyward, taking a
screaming Nille with us. The power preceded us and carved a hole into the top
of the stone room. We shot through the circle, out of the shadows and into a
bright, clear sky, where shadows had no chance of surviving.

Almost immediately the celestial army descended on us and
encircled us. Power like heat vibrated against our skin and Dialle and I threw
our heads back and laughed, absorbing it gratefully and feeling our bodies
regenerate and grow strong in the healing waves of power.

Nille’s screams pierced the air as the white power ran
through his black soul. He writhed in agony while the goodness burned and tore
at his flesh. He tried to pull away but the three of us were forged together by
the power. Locked into the channel between the shadows and Heaven, where the
very air burns the flesh of evil like acid. Even if we’d wanted to let him go
we couldn’t have. Nille’s screams ended abruptly. I watched him dissolve into
sparks and shoot away from us toward the heavens. Where I had no doubt he’d be
made most unwelcome.

With a joy I thought I’d never feel again I threw back my
head and screamed, “To Hades with you fool, for God hath tired of you!”

Then I suddenly found myself wrapped in the iron arms of the
long-awaited devil Prince, whose existence had been prophesied by both the dark
and the light worlds for two thousand years and more and whose blazing blue
eyes now consumed mine with greedy heat as he pulled my body hard against his
and pressed his delectable lips against mine. All thoughts of Nille vanished
just as he had vanished, into a meaningless puff of smoke, which was quickly
consumed and obliterated by the fire Dialle and I began to forge between us.

Chapter Thirty-
Two

To Live to Live

When all is said and all is done, our lady still doth
live,

And in her arms a fiery embrace, her newfound love
doth give.

All I wanted was to go home, turn on all of the lights and
take a three-hour shower before dropping into bed to sleep for at least a
decade. Alas, it was not to be. I needed to check on Emo before I could rest.
Something told me there wasn’t much time.

Leaving Dialle to do whatever long-awaited devil princes do,
I followed the faithful Gerch, who had somehow managed to escape Nille’s power
sucking act, to the room where I’d left my dying partner. At the door Gerch
threw me a glance filled with something that looked like pity and stepped to
the side, leaving me to face the horror of what lay beyond that door all by
myself.

As I entered the room my worst fears were realized. Knowing
that our kind, rapture-like, reverted to soul state and went immediately toward
those pearly gates when we died, my stomach landed in the soles of my feet when
I looked at the empty bed in that room. I moved quickly toward the bed and,
kneeling beside it, laid my cheek against the indentation Emo’s body had left
behind.

The fabric covering the bed was still warm. And smelled of
him. I thought I would die from the pain. My traitorous mind replayed our years
together in fast forward, showing me only the good times in that horrible way
the mind does when it suffers an enormous loss. I thought of my angel and the
loss of her friend, Prevara and allowed my soul to take on her burden as well.
Somehow it seemed all my fault that these wonderful beings had died. I knew
that somehow I should have been able to stop it. Somehow. But I hadn’t. Prevara
and Emo had both died trying to save me. It was an awful burden to lay on myself,
but I did it anyway. I couldn’t help myself anymore than I’d been able to help
them.

My self-pity and despair were all too soon interrupted.

I felt a heavy warmth on my shoulder and turned my bleary
gaze to find a strong, golden hand lying there. Swiping angrily at the wetness
on my face, I looked up, expecting to see Dialle standing over me. Instead, the
heavens opened up and a celestial light filled my soul. Emo stood there,
smiling down at me through his extremely handsome, royal face.

“Hey boss.”

Choking back a less than manly scream of joy, I surged to my
feet and launched myself at him. My smile and his met across a space of just a
few inches and, before I knew what had happened, Emo’s beautiful lips were on
mine, his arms were around me and my world was spinning on a golden web of
surprise, confusion, and terrified delight.

I pushed away quickly and covered my confusion with
questions. “What happened while I was gone? How did you heal so fast? I thought
you were dead, Dialle said…” My words trailed off as Emo’s smile faltered and
fell away.

As he twisted away from me I fought the urge to pull him
back. He turned toward the door and frowned. I was sure he was going to say
something that would rock my world, but then the door swung open, slamming—of
course—back against the rock wall and Dialle strode in, followed by Gerch.

Dialle stopped in front of Emo and their eyes met, tangled
and pushed brittle feelings toward one another like knives. Finally, after a
few too many beats, Emo’s gaze dropped and so did he, lowering himself to one
knee and bowing his head. “My Prince.”

Dialle glanced at me and grinned. I wanted to smack him. I
settled for a little mental whack.
Don’t be an asshole.

Why Astra. I’m a Devil Prince, asshole is one of my
kinder traits.
Out loud he said, “Stand, Emo. Welcome to the court of
Dialle the First.”

Emo’s face when he rose, unfamiliar as it still was to me,
was unreadable. Being very accustomed to being able to read my friend and
partner like a book, it made me distinctly uncomfortable now to look at his
blank expression and wonder at the thoughts that moved around behind it.

His black eyes stared flatly into Dialle’s and he stood
stiffly. These were the only signs I had that he was unhappy.

By contrast, Dialle’s expression was very jovial. He seemed
to be enjoying Emo’s discomfort.

I decided it was time to intervene. “Can either of you
explain to me why Emo is standing here, very much alive and looking…good—
really
good…great actually—when we left him looking like he already had two feet and
one knee in the grave?”

Dialle’s gaze finally tore itself away from Emo and he
grinned mischievously at me. “It appears that Nerul’s soul must no longer be
walking among us. Nille must have disposed of him.” He refastened his blue gaze
on my partner’s velvet black one. “And it also appears that he has decided he
has something to live for.”

Emo’s eyes hadn’t moved from Dialle’s face and they had
hardened perceptibly. I began to worry that my friend would get himself into
trouble. I decided that further distraction was needed.

Pushing a bright smile onto my face I took the couple of
steps between us and, standing up on my toes, gave his cheek a sisterly peck.
Emo’s gaze finally left Dialle. He smiled down at me and took one of my hands
in his own, raising it to his lips and kissing it very tenderly. His dark eyes
slid back to Dialle as his lips burned into the back of my hand and a spark
danced in each of the black centers.

Dialle’s smug smile slid away and the blue of his gaze
slipped behind midnight black. As I watched, an orange ring throbbed at the
edges of his pupils, showing his anger clearly.

“Oh shit.” I pulled my hand away from Emo’s firm but gentle
grasp and turned on my heel. “I’m not going to stand here and call out scores
for your pissing contest. I’m outta here.”

Dialle reached out and grabbed my arm. “Do not go, Astra. We
will behave ourselves. For now. Is that not correct, Emo?”

It was Emo’s turn to grin mischievously. “For now. Yes.”

I scowled at both of them and shook my head. I was trying
really hard to ignore the way my hand felt warm and tingly where Emo’s full,
sculpted lips had touched it. “Well…okay. Partner, I’m glad to see that you’re
alive and looking…well… Anyway…I’m glad.” I cleared my throat, so embarrassed
at the way it had cracked as my eyes had scoured his new, scrumptious self.
“I’m outta here though, it’s been a very long day and I want to go home, have a
shower and sleep for a decade.”