Lord of Hell (Alex Holden), page 2
“Do you want me to talk to my dad?” Emily asked. She’s the daughter of Ra, the Egyptian sun god.
“Sure. We can ask him first, to be polite. Then I’ll talk to Anubis and Osiris about letting souls into their afterlife.”
Hopefully this didn’t count as interference between pantheons since I was asking and the souls were part of my realm. Jehovah had said he wasn’t going to let them into Heaven, but he didn’t say I couldn’t do something else with them.
“And I can talk to my family,” Colin said. His mother is Brigid, of the Celtic pantheon. “I know the Morrigan is a fan of yours.”
“Yeah, thanks.” She was the most likely to help me. She’d let me borrow Excalibur, after all, and that’s not the kind of thing you just let anybody do. “Text me when you get an answer.”
Elliot cleared his throat. “I…I want to help, too. I just don’t know what to do.”
I tapped my leg, thinking. I wouldn’t ask him to go to Hades. Even the gods are afraid of that place. I briefly considered asking him to go to New Orleans and talk to Baron Samedi, but the baron would probably make him cry. His idea of teasing isn’t gentle.
“Why don’t you come with me?” Stefan said. “I could use some company.”
Elliot sighed. “All right.” He must have known it was a pity offer.
“We should go now. Please,” I said. “I want those poor people out of Hell as soon as possible.”
They nodded.
“Can I come with you, Emily? We can ask Ra and then go straight to see Anubis and Osiris.” I frowned. “You can go to the afterlife, right?” I could visit all the various lands of the dead because of who my father was, and now I was in charge of an underworld myself.
“Um, I think so. I guess we’ll have to ask to make sure.”
“Well, no big deal if you can’t.” I turned to the rest of the group. “Check in when you know something, and we’ll meet here again tomorrow if we need to discuss anything.”
“So,” I asked Emily, “you want to practice your teleporting skills?”
Over the last couple of months, she’d started gaining that ability. She was a year younger than I’d been when I was first able to teleport. I’d been able to do it for a little over a year, and it would’ve been really fucking handy to have had it sooner. Well, at least I’d discovered the gates between cemeteries long before that. It had made running away from home a hell of a lot easier.
“Are you sure?” She rubbed her arm. “What if I can’t? Or what if we get lost?”
I shrugged. “Then I’ll get us there. Don’t worry. You can’t learn if you never practice.”
“Okay.” She reached out and I took her hand as she squeezed her eyes tight. A few seconds passed. A minute. “It’s not working.”
“Try again. Remember how hard it was for me? Now it’s easy, and I can go wherever I want.”
“But you’re… special.”
“So are you. You’re the daughter of Ra. You saved the world.”
She smiled. “You’re right. I’ll try again.” Emily closed her eyes again. A few seconds went by and then the world lurched. She squeezed my hand almost painfully and her eyes shot open.
We stood on a riverbank with a hot sun blazing down on us from a clear, blue sky. I blinked and shaded my eyes. “Looks like the right place.”
To our right was a huge temple. It looked like pictures I’d seen of temples in Egypt, except everything was bright and new. Colorful murals along the front of the temple showed Ra in his boat, making his daily trip across the sky. I looked up at the sun and wondered how literal they took things here. I’d only ever been to the Egyptian afterlife.
Emily jumped in celebration and clapped her hands. “I did it!”
“Is this place familiar?”
She nodded. “It’s my dad’s house. Come on.” She hurried toward the shadowed entryway.
A guard stepped out to question us, but after getting a good look at Emily, he moved out of the way. “You may pass, daughter of Ra.”
“Thank you.”
I followed her in, worried for a second that the guard would stop me, but he only gave me a mildly curious glance. Other guards were spaced along the wide hall of columns. It kind of reminded me of the throne room in Hell, except the paintings and hieroglyphics gave the place some life. Artwork, huh? I wondered if that would help liven up the throne room.
As we went deeper, there were more guards until finally we were stopped just outside a large pair of doors. “What is your business here?”
Emily made a surprisingly formal bow. “I seek an audience with Ra.”
“And what of him?” the guard asked, giving me a hard look.
“I’m with her.”
The guard’s eyes narrowed. “I will announce you.” He went in while a second guard kept an eye on us.
“If it’s a problem that I’m here, I’ll go,” I told Emily. I didn’t want to risk souls not being let into paradise because Ra didn’t like me coming to his house.
“It’ll be fine. The guards are just serious. They’re always like this.” She smiled. “My dad doesn’t hate you, I promise.”
The guard came out and held one of the doors open. “You may enter.”
Ra’s throne room was much nicer than mine. Even though it was serious, it was more luxurious than stark. And of course, the lack of demons helped.
Emily made it to the foot of the throne and broke out in a smile. “Daddy.” She went up the steps to the dais as Ra stood. He wrapped her in a hug, which gave me a pang of jealousy. I wished my parents would’ve shown me that kind of affection.
“Hello, daughter. What brings you here?”
“Alex and I have something to ask you.” She nodded for me to go ahead.
“I found some souls in Hell that don’t belong there. I want to ask Osiris and Anubis if they’ll take these souls to the Field of Reeds, but I wanted to ask your permission first.” Attempting to be polite, I threw in “sir.”
“Ah, yes. You now rule the Christian underworld.” He sat on his throne again and Emily came back down to join me. “This poses a bit of a problem. You no longer belong to the mortal world. You are now part of the Christian pantheon since you took your father’s place.”
“Shit. You mean I’m a god?” The thought had crossed my mind, but I’d tried not to think about it.
“Yes, and we cannot interfere with the affairs of another pantheon.”
That was no good, and I couldn’t leave it at that. “It’s not interfering if I ask you to help.”
“It is Jehovah’s affair.”
I took a step closer. “No, it’s not. I asked him to take the souls to Heaven and he refused. He didn’t say they had to stay in Hell. He didn’t say they had to be punished. He just said he wouldn’t let them in. They belong to me, they’re under my protection now, and I want them to go somewhere happy and beautiful.”
“He’s right,” Emily said. “Jehovah doesn’t want them. He doesn’t care if Alex sends them somewhere else.” Which might not be exactly true, but I wasn’t going to argue.
Ra was silent for a moment. “Very well, but you must convince Osiris yourself.”
“Yes. Thank you.” I managed a bow.
“I will send a messenger to inform him that you are coming.”
“Should we go now?” Emily asked me.
“I’ll go. You can stay here and visit with your dad. Tell him how you teleported here by yourself.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah. I know them. I can’t be sure they’ll say yes, but at least they’ll talk to me.” I’d only met Osiris once, but I’d talked to Anubis several times. He appreciated my kindness to the dead and how I’d helped some ghosts stuck on Earth cross over.
“Okay. See you tomorrow.”
“See you tomorrow.” I walked out of the throne room and through the huge house. I figured it was polite to wait until I was outside to teleport. While I walked, I thought about what Ra had said. A god. I was a god now. Did that mean I wasn’t human anymore?
It definitely meant the rules had changed. I was glad I’d decided to be polite and ask the king of the Egyptian pantheon first. He might’ve taken it badly if I’d gone straight to the afterlife gods.
As I stepped out into the bright sunlight, a much worse thought occurred to me. If any more events leading to Ragnarok started, I wouldn’t be able to stop them. Not without risking a war between the gods, and that could very well cause the end of the world.
I was stuck playing by the same rules as everyone else.
Fuck.
Chapter 3
I had no problem getting into Osiris’s palace. A guard stopped me at the audience chamber and went to announce me. Just like with Ra, although this guy didn’t give me any nasty looks. A moment later, Anubis came out and gave me his typical jackal grin. “Hi, Alex.”
“Hi.”
“Ra’s messenger let us know you were coming. Follow me.”
The audience chamber was lit with several torches, giving the room a warm glow. Looking around, I decided I was definitely going to change the throne room in Hell.
“How are you handling your new responsibilities?” Anubis asked. “I can’t imagine you were very happy to take over Hell.”
I sighed. “No. But since I am in charge, I’m going to run things the way I want to. Did the messenger tell you why I was coming?”
He led me to the empty throne, which was only slightly raised from the rest of the room. The other time I’d visited, I’d been to the chamber where they did the Weighing of the Heart, and that room was much more extravagant. “He said you wanted to ask us about taking some of the souls from Hell.”
“Is Osiris going to meet with us?”
“He should be here in a moment. We only just got the message. You must’ve come straight here.”
“Yeah. I want them to find their new homes as soon as possible.” Again it made me think of abandoned pets.
Another guard came in to announce Osiris had arrived. The Egyptian god of the dead made his way to the throne, all stiff and formal, like he was holding an audience for a bunch of subjects instead of just me. “Greetings, Alex, Lord of Hell. Welcome to my palace.”
“Thanks. And uh, thanks for taking the time to meet with me on such short notice.” I made a bow that was very Japanese since I was used to bowing to my sword-fighting teacher.
“I understand you have a matter you would like to discuss,” he said as Anubis took up a post beside the throne.
“Yeah. I’d like you to take some of the souls that were misplaced in Hell. They deserve to live in paradise. They’ve done no great wrongs, and they’ve been suffering for years. Centuries.” Some of their faces flashed in my mind, and I got angry again at the unfairness.
Osiris brought up the same argument Ra had, that this was interference since I was now a god. He didn’t accept my counter argument as easily, but Anubis leaned over and said, “This is a matter of justice for the dead. It’s our duty to ensure the blessed dead enter paradise.”
“We cannot take from the Christians. Whether or not you believe they were wrongly sent to Hell, those dead belong to your pantheon. We cannot interfere.”
“But they don’t deserve—”
Anubis held up a hand. “But we can accept gifts. If Alex were to give us some of the dead under his care, as a gift from one god of the dead to another, that would be allowed within the Law. They are his to give.”
Way to go, you crafty jackal.
“I will have to consider this carefully. You say they are wrongly condemned, but I do not think you would take it well if we accepted souls only to have some of them fail the Weighing of the Heart and be eaten by Ammit,” Osiris said.
“True.” I wouldn’t want them to go from one Hell to another. “But you can choose which souls to take. Only take those you deem worthy.”
“I can judge a heart nearly as well as the scales,” Anubis said. “I can find those who are worthy.”
“Let me consider this matter. I will send a message when I have decided.”
Pushing him further might make him say no, so I left it at that. Anubis walked me out of the audience chamber and down the hall.
“Thanks,” I told him.
“You’re welcome. You’re doing the right thing. I’ll keep talking to him, but even if I do convince him to take some of your dead, he won’t take all of them.”
“I know. I didn’t expect you guys to. I’m talking to all the other gods of the dead. If everyone can take some, then all of them will end up in some version of paradise.” There were millions, maybe billions of misplaced souls.
“You have always protected and respected the dead. I’m sorry you have to take on such responsibility, but I’m glad you’re their guardian. Lucifer hated humanity and treated the dead accordingly.” We kept walking through the torchlit halls. It was a darker version of Ra’s palace, with the stone left its natural color instead of painted white, but the artwork was just as bright and stunning. Some of the pictures showed souls enjoying the afterlife: hunting, boating, eating.
“I get the sense Jehovah hates large sections of humanity, too. I guess if I was human, I wouldn’t even want to end up in Heaven if he leaves so many good people out of it.”
Anubis looked at me, his eyes bright. “I think you’re talking blasphemy.”
“Damn right, I am.”
We shared a laugh.
***
When I got home, I had texts from Stefan and Colin. Odin and the Morrigan had agreed to accept souls if they could choose them. Just like Osiris. I was thinking I was going to throw a party in Hell with all the gods of the dead. We could have dinner and then everyone would pick out souls to take home. The idea was so bizarre it made me smile.
The Morrigan was going to talk to Donn, the Celtic god of the dead, to see if he would agree to accept some souls, too.
All I wanted to do was relax on the couch, curled up with Mew-Mew, but someone started pounding on the door. Thinking maybe it was Hayley or one of my friends, I opened it, only to find a demon.
He was a green so dark it was almost black, with a little pointed tail flicking behind him. “I’m sorry, my lord, but some magic prevents me from entering your home.”
I still had the spell scrolls up to keep demons out. “What are you doing here? I told you no one is allowed on Earth.”
He bowed low. “That’s why I’m here, my lord. Furfur has been on Earth since before…” He shifted his feet. “He hasn’t returned.”
“Uh, what? Furfur? What the hell is that?”
“That is his name, my lord.”
I couldn’t help laughing. “Furfur? Seriously?” I imagined a giant hairball rolling around like a tumbleweed.
The demon cocked his head. “I don’t understand why that is amusing, my lord. I thought you would be angry.”
I took a breath. No matter how stupid his name was, he was running around Earth and doing who knew what. “Where is he?” I also wondered why the demon was telling me this now. Maybe since killing Beelzebub, it had finally sunk in that I wasn’t as weak as they thought. Maybe this guy was thinking he could get on my good side by tattling. Ugh, demons were definitely not the kind of company I wanted to keep.
“A small town in some land called Pennsylvania. He’s possessing a boy there.”
“Demon possession? For real?” I was both pissed and oddly amused. “Can you take me to him?”
He bowed again. “Yes, my lord.”
I had him take me to the house. We showed up outside and I saw the evil hovering over it, purple-black like a mist or an aura. I felt Furfur, too, on the second floor. “Go back to Hell; I’ll take care of this.” I made sure he disappeared before I locked on to Furfur and teleported into the house.
I showed up in a scene straight out of The Exorcist. A boy was strapped down to the bed, face pale and eyes unnaturally black, howling and shouting insults at the two priests. The room smelled like a dirty bathroom.
I was behind them, so they didn’t notice me at first. One priest was up close, chanting Latin and throwing holy water on the boy. The other priest, the younger one, was near the foot of the bed, holding a huge crucifix toward the possessed boy. I could see the demon inside him, like a transparent double image. He was having a hell of a good time, sharp teeth spread in a wide grin.
I took all this in with a glance, saw it in maybe three seconds. Then Furfur looked at me and his grin faded. “Who are you?” he said, using the boy’s mouth.
I guess since he’d missed the big event, he hadn’t heard about me taking over. “I’m Alex, your new master.”
The priests spun around. The younger one almost fell on the bed. “What are you doing in here?”
“We need to focus. This is a dangerous ritual. Please wait outside,” the older one said.
“It’s okay. I’ll take care of this for you.” I went around to the far side of the bed.
The demon hissed. “I have no master. I am Satan.”
“No you’re not. Satan’s dead. I’m in charge of Hell now, and that means you answer to me.” I leaned closer. “Get out.”
The demon growled and shook the bed. “No! This boy is mine. Leave here before I teach you a lesson.”
“This child is deluded. Get him out of here,” the older priest said.
The younger priest reached for me and I shrugged out of his grip. “Give me a sec.”
The demon laughed. “Yes, let him try. I will show him my true power.”
“You wanna play rough, huh?” I reached toward the boy’s chest as both priests protested. Taking hold of the demon, I yanked him out of the human. He yowled as I lifted him and set him down next to me. He was purple-black like the stain of evil over the house, with black eyes and thick, curling horns. He was powerful enough to possess, but not nearly as strong as Beelzebub. If he wanted to keep challenging me, I’d be happy to kick his ass. I wrapped my other hand around his neck. “Humans are off-limits from now on.”
