Pride, page 27
Lucifer moved closer to Ashe’s power signature. The fucker wasn’t moving, just waiting there for him.
A power blast from Ramiel decimated the frontline.
Wrath’s roar followed as he carved through the demons behind.
It was wholesale slaughter, and still the demons kept coming.
Lucifer’s blade sliced through a demon neck. He twisted his wrist and caught a second demon on the back swing.
A blade pierced his side.
Raphael was behind him. A puff, and the pain disappeared.
Lucifer blasted power. A wave of demons disintegrated. Another wave took its place.
Raphael drove his sword into chest after chest. “Where are they all coming from?”
Fury gave Lucifer even greater strength. Ashe was within his grasp. His vengeance lay behind waves of attacking demons.
Lucifer shot power through the horde to his right.
They vaporized, and he got his first glimpse of Ashe. Standing with his arms folded, head cocked, Ashe watched him with a smirk.
Lucifer sent a wave of power through the attacking horde.
Three short horn blasts sounded, and a few seconds later, the sky was filled with angels. Ramiel had called his host.
Lucifer relished the unmitigated savagery as each stroke of his sword bit into flesh.
The host arrowed into the horde. Grunts, screams, and bellows filled the air.
And then Lucifer was almost at Ashe. Eight feet in front of him, Ashe now had an onyx blade, and it was pressed to Leona’s throat.
Three demons lurched for Lucifer.
Ashe snarled at them, and they backed away.
“Go,” Raphael yelled. “Get Leona.”
“You came,” Ashe drawled as Lucifer got closer to him. His silver eyes flashed at Lucifer. “I wasn’t entirely certain you received my invitation.”
“You knew I was coming.” Lucifer had been hunting his former second for months. Victory surged through him. Ashe would pay for his betrayal, and Lucifer would savor every second.
“Yes.” Ashe grinned. “You’re very predictable, Lucifer.”
But first, Lucifer needed to get Leona. “Give me the witch. Or we’ll wipe out every one of you, and then come for you and your master.”
Ashe laughed. “This is nothing.” He gestured the battling horde. “For every one lost here, a thousand will replace them.”
Leona whimpered, her brown eyes—eyes so like Emma’s—implored Lucifer to act.
“You do a lot of hiding behind women.” Lucifer sneered.
Ashe shrugged. “I do what I must to survive.”
“You think I will let you leave here alive?” Through his fury, instinct whispered to him to pay attention. All was not as it seemed.
“I think you have no say in that.” Ashe pressed the knife to Leona’s jugular. “You aren’t making the rules anymore.”
The fight raged around them, but Lucifer kept his attention locked on Leona and Ashe. The sense of wrongness cooled his rage and got his mind working.
Five demons charged from the left.
Coolly, Ashe sent a blast of power that incinerated them.
No demon should have that power.
Ashe chuckled. “See, master.” He slurred the title. “I’ve learned a thing or two.”
“Give me the woman.” He didn’t have time for a Q&A.
“Wouldn’t you like to hear the message from my master first?” Ashe tilted his head.
If it got him Leona, he’d listen. “Tell me.”
“Indolex arranged this little demonstration for you.” Ashe gestured to the battle happening around them. “As a sort of show of power. He wants you to understand that while you have been hiding in your palaces, making your facile wars on each other, he has been building power. What you see here now is only a fraction of the forces he commands.”
“And I’m supposed to take your word for that?” Lucifer scoffed. “The word of an oath breaker and a liar.”
“You wound me, master.” Ashe grinned. “After all those whispered confidences between us?”
Lucifer couldn’t afford to lose his temper. Leona was relying on him. “What’s the message?”
“I’m glad you asked.” Ashe made a motion with the hand not holding the knife.
Air crackled and an ear-splitting boom almost drove Lucifer to his knees.
“Fuck,” Raphael said.
There were demons everywhere. Thousands upon thousands of them, filling every part of the underground bunker. Their power signatures a tangible force in the air.
The fighting demons disengaged, leaving the remainder of Ramiel’s host to circle Wrath, Raphael, Vexia, and Ramiel.
“We fight,” Wrath bellowed.
“Stop,” Lucifer shouted. Even with their power, this was not a fight they would win, not without heavy losses.
“Now you see,” Ashe drawled. “This is what you’re up against. All this and more.”
Raphael pressed his back to Lucifer’s. “I can summon my host.”
Lucifer shook his head. This was exactly what Ashe had said it was, a message. Losing more angels was pointless, and it appeared they were going to need every one they had. “Ashe has a message for us.”
“Indolex wants you to see his power,” Ashe said. “He is tired of waiting in the shadows and will make his move. He gives you this one chance to lay down your weapons and let what must happen take place.”
“Not a fucking chance.” Wrath growled. “What you plan will end all of us.”
Ashe studied Wrath and pursed his lips. “Will it? Do you think Indolex went to all this trouble merely for everything to end?”
The power signatures from the massive horde pressed down on Lucifer.
“He wants us to join him?” Ramiel sneered.
Ashe laughed. “No, Lord Ramiel. You have become obsolete.”
“Then why bother with a message?” Lucifer kept his gaze trained on Leona.
“It is not for me to question Indolex,” Ashe said. “He wants you to know your enemy before it destroys you.” He smiled. “This next part is an indulgence he has granted me.”
Lucifer’s hackles rose. “What next part?”
“We’re with you, brother,” Wrath murmured. “We will fight.”
“Indolex has no further use for this witch.” Ashe pressed his blade against Leona’s jugular. “I could kill her like the rest, but I thought it would be more interesting to give you a choice.”
“What choice?” Lucifer had an inkling of where Ashe was going.
“You choose the woman, and we all disappear, until next time.” Ashe clicked his fingers. “Just like that.” He stroked the blade up Leona’s neck. “Or I slit her throat, and you and I fight. One on one and to the death.” He studied Lucifer’s face. “You can have your revenge on me, or you can have the witch.”
“You know what to do,” Raphael whispered.
And Lucifer didn’t hesitate. “The woman,” he said. “I will take Leona.”
Chapter
Thirty-Eight
They compressed into Sophia’s audience chamber. Sophia was waiting for them and immediately gave Leona over to healing members of her host.
Rage still coursed through Lucifer. “The other witches?”
“Here and safe.” Sophia looked from him to Wrath and then Ramiel and Raphael. “What happened?”
Lucifer had no faith his haglette had come with the other witches. There was no telling what his human would do when she got a bug up her arse. “Bianca is here?”
“She’s here.” Sophia looked amused. “I’ve sent someone to let her know you have Leona, and she’s safe.”
“They were waiting for us.” Ramiel eyed his gore-splattered leathers with distaste.
Lucifer grimaced. Not only waiting for them, but according to Ashe, waiting for them to respond to their invitation. Hells, how had this gotten so bad so fast?
“Of course they were.” Raphael grimaced. “They’re always two steps ahead of us.”
Sophia looked concerned. “How bad?”
“Really fucked bad.” Wrath examined the edge of his battle axe. “The faster we carved them down, the faster more appeared. It could be this Indolex fucker has found a way not only to recruit existing demons but may be creating them as well.”
“No.” Sophia gaped at Wrath. “But only hell princes can do that.”
“Well, this fucker can do a lot of shit that only hell princes are supposed to be able to do.” Wrath scowled. “While we’ve been farting around, patting ourselves on the back for being the most unassailable and powerful beings in the universe, he’s been learning how to take us on.”
Sophia absorbed this in silence, and then nodded to a waiting seraph. “Double the guards, and increase patrols.”
“You think they’ll attack heaven?” Ramiel frowned.
“I think we’ve been complacent too long,” Sophia said. “We’ve sat back secure that whatever was going on, we could handle it. That’s not working out so well for us, now, is it?”
All the signs had been there. Lucifer shook his head at himself. The seals cracking, the horsemen rising, the fucking demon rebellion. The others could catch Sophia up on the disaster they’d witnessed. He needed to see Bianca and assure himself she was okay. They didn’t have time to fuck around with unresolved issues. He needed to sort out the situation with her and get back to the job of stopping Indolex. “Where is Bianca?”
Sophia stared at him. “She’s here, and she’s safe.” She turned back to Wrath. “Indolex? Would that make him a sloth demon?”
“Likely.” Wrath thought it over. “I’ll see what I can dig up about him.”
“I want to see her.” Lucifer persisted. Bianca was his, and she must understand that and come back with him to his demesne where he could make it his imperative to look after her.
“Lucifer.” Sophia sighed. “She doesn’t want to see you.”
Wrath whistled. “That’s gotta smart.”
“Of course she wants to see me.” He resented having to explain himself, but he didn’t fancy fighting his way past Sophia and her host. Sophia might look like the Sugar Plum Fairy, but she could hold her own. They also didn’t need to be fighting amongst themselves with everything else that was going on. “Bianca is merely angry with me. Her point is made. Take me to her.”
Sophia raised her brows, and her cerulean eyes went hard as sapphires. “That sounded an awful lot like you giving me an order.”
He’d moments ago come from a massive battle, at which he’d had to let Ashe go. For Leona, which ultimately meant for Bianca. Lucifer reached for his morsel of remaining patience. “You don’t understand how matters lie between Bianca and me. Whilst I appreciate the whole feminine power, girl squad thing you have going, I’m not leaving until I see her.”
“Fuck me,” Wrath muttered. “Just when I think you can’t get any stupider, you prove me wrong.”
“You need to leave.” Sophia’s wings sprang free. Seraphim appeared around her, armed and pissed off.
Lucifer had done it all for Bianca, brought Leona, lost Ashe. “I’m not leaving without seeing her.”
“She doesn’t want to see you.” Sophia snarled.
“I will see her,” he bellowed, his wings ripping out of his back.
Raphael leapt between them, one arm at his chest, the other at Sophia’s. “Let’s all calm down. We have much bigger things to concern us.”
“She is keeping my woman from me.” Lucifer shoved Raphael.
Raphael shoved back. “You need to get yourself under control.”
Wrath snorted. “Nah! Let the stupid shit lose it. He’s on a losing roll. He lost Ashe, and now he’s lost Bianca.”
Lucifer saw red. On this day, his brother ended.
The clamor of giant things breaking reached Bianca as she was on her way to see Sophia. Leona was exhausted and in shock, her magic drained to a dangerous low, but the angelic healers had assured her Leona was going to be fine. All she wanted was to see her children, and Bianca had left Leona with Ethan and Emma cuddled beside her.
Something huge crashed, and the entire palace shook. Bianca turned to her angelic guide. “What is that? Are we being attacked?”
“No.” The gorgeous dark angel shook her head. “That is two hell princes fighting.”
A boom sent a plume of dust into the hallway. Afraid she already knew the identity of one of the combatants, she asked, “Which two hell princes?”
The angel stopped, cocked her head, and then rolled her eyes. “Wrath and Lucifer.”
“Shit.” She hadn’t wanted to be right. The ground shuddered, and she had to grab the angel for balance. “They’ll bring the palace down around us.”
“Maybe.” The angel shrugged.
“But…but…” Bianca motioned the beautiful hallways they were traversing. Light from floor-to-ceiling windows brought out the patina of the dark wood floors. Sophia’s palace was airy and spacious, and from what Bianca had seen, exquisitely tasteful. It would be a crying shame for it to be destroyed. And she refused to be worried about Lucifer. That prick could take care of himself. Even against Wrath.
The angel grinned and tugged her forward. “Raphael and Ramiel will step in before it comes to that.” She walked them in the direction of the commotion. “Besides, it’s hardly the first time two warring beings of power have razed a building.”
Beautiful rugs covered the floors. Priceless antique artifacts nestled in alcoves positioned along the creamy walls. It was no comfort at all that a lovely place like this had been destroyed before.
They rounded a corner, and the hallway opened into a large atrium.
Haziel was lounging on one of the cream and buff upholstered sofas. She waved to them. “Hi, how’s your friend?”
“She’ll be okay.” Something crashed behind the large closed wooden doors at the far end of the atrium. Trying to adopt Haziel’s insouciance, she said, “The healers tell me she’ll be fine. She’s with her children now.”
Haziel’s lovely face softened. “That’s good.”
Glass shattered behind the doors.
From the couch opposite Haziel, Sophia glared at the doors. “That better not be my Venetian glass.”
“Yeah.” Haziel winced. “I think you can safely kiss that goodbye.”
“It’s fourteenth century,” Sophia snapped.
Haziel winced. “Not anymore.” She pointed to a crystal carafe filled with pale gold liquid. “Have a glass of wine. We’re all going to need it.”
A thud and more dust followed.
One of the combatants bellowed and then there was a rhythmic thudding.
Bianca took the glass of wine from Sophia. “Umm…” The glass clattered against her teeth as her hand shook. “Shouldn’t we do something about that?”
Snorting, Sophia poured and handed a glass to Haziel. “They’re both so wound up, it’s best to let them get it out of their systems. They’ll be no good to any of us until they do.”
“Okay.” Feeling like the last sane person in Bedlam, Bianca perched beside Haziel. “You’re not worried about Wrath?”
“Wrath can look after himself.” Haziel waved an airy hand. “And Lucifer’s had it coming.”
Bianca ruthlessly suppressed the desire to come to Lucifer’s defense. Lucifer was a dick. Not so dickish that she wanted him to be seriously hurt, but still a dick.
A hard thump rattled the doors, and she jumped.
“He’ll be fine.” Sophia patted her knee and refilled her glass. “He’s pissed that Ashe got away, and then I told him you didn’t want to see him.” She held up a white porcelain platter. “Cake? Sandwich?”
Dainty pastel cakes decorated with spun sugar flowers were tenderly nestled between delicate finger sandwiches.
Bianca took a pale lavender cake sprinkled with perfect, tiny violets. “Thank you.”
That platter would tempt even the most jaded appetite.
“So.” Haziel helped herself to several sandwiches. “When did the whole you-are-Lucifer’s thing begin? It seems we missed quite a lot while we were rallying the armies in hell.”
Bianca almost choked on her cake. “He said that to you?”
“He pretty much bellowed that to the universe.” Sophia popped a buttercup cake in her mouth and licked frosting off her fingers.
Insufferable and arrogant asshole clearly had a hearing problem. “I’m not. His, I mean.”
“Hmm.” Haziel wrinkled her nose. “I heard the sex was terrible.”
Apparently gathering the armies of hell hadn’t stopped Haziel from catching that tidbit. “No.” Heat burned Bianca’s cheeks and she guzzled wine. “The sex was great. It’s the other parts that weren’t good.”
“Phew!” Sophia fanned herself. “It seems wrong for Lucifer to be a bad lover.”
“Right.” Haziel widened her eyes and nodded. “He seems like he would know his way around a female’s body.”
Wishing the conversation over, Bianca shoved a sandwich into her mouth.
Sophia and Haziel stared at her, eyes alight with anticipation.
“I’m not giving the details,” she said.
They deflated.
“Fair enough.” Haziel sighed, and then giggled. “But if you ever change your mind, let us know.”
Another crash followed, then an ominous creak and a shuddering smash.
Sophia glowered at the door. “Although it won’t hurt Lucifer if we don’t correct the rumor about him being a shit lover just yet.”
Bianca had to laugh. Lucifer’s ego could definitely take some deflating. “You’re both going to wait out here until they’re done?”
“I’m not going in there.” Haziel shuddered. “The last time I got between two pissed off hell princes, I ended up with a shattered wing.”
“We need to talk when they’re done,” Sophia said. “I still haven’t heard the full debrief on what happened when they rescued Leona.”
Haziel made a sound of agreement. “And how they lost Ashe.”
“Ramiel said Lucifer let Ashe go.” Sophia frowned. “That was before he and Raphael had to go and play referee.”
“Why would Lucifer do that?” Haziel chewed her bottom lip.
