Page 54 of Wicked Savior
Fuck.
Cormal scrutinizes the demon. “Calamitas Demons are high in the food chain and tough to kill. Plus, Hadeon was well liked. He took care of his little girl and kept to himself. For a demon, he had few enemies.”
“Whoever did this was clearly pissed off.” I point to the wounds in his chest. “They stabbed him repeatedly.” None of the wounds came close to piercing his heart. Frowning, I roll him over, and look for the kill shot, but find nothing. “He’s not beheaded. He’s not burned. I didn’t kill him. So, how did he die? A spell?”
Cormal gets on his knees and sniffs. “Smell him. What does he smell like to you?”
Giving him an incredulous look, I bend down and sniff. An acrid smell burns my nose. “What is that?”
“Holy water. He was either drowned or injected with holy water. It burned all of his internal organs and killed him,” he explains matter-of-factly. “I’ve only seen it once, but based on the screaming, it was an excruciating way to die.”
The fact that he knows the method isn’t surprising, but I can’t help but wonder if it’s firsthand knowledge. “At least there’s a body for his little girl to burn. I’ll have one of the staff prepare the funeral pyre and bring her here. If he has enemies, she’ll be safe until I can find some relatives to take her in.”
I pull the pouch off the demon’s body and turn it over. A gold sapphire necklace slides out. I pick it up and hold it up to the light. “Perfect stone.” An odd choice for a demon, though. Maybe it was a present for his daughter? I flip it around in the palm of my hand. A spell written in Viridian is on the back. “It’s a protection spell. Evren might have given him this piece as payment. She’s one of the few who actively uses the language.”
The words stop me in my tracks. She knows the language because it is her language. If the ancients spoke it, that means the Viridians were here long before humans were created. I wonder how old she is.
Cormal pries open the demon’s clenched fist and shows me the scrap of ripped paper left in his palm. He was definitely carrying another message, and whoever killed him received it instead of me.
“My message had her location on it,” Cormal murmurs. “Do you think…?”
I’m gone before he can finish the words.
* * *
When I arriveat the cave, the surrounding mountain is caving in on one side, and as a result, the cave’s opening is partially collapsed. Not wanting to alert anyone to my presence, I quietly slip through the opening and hit a wall. Not a literal wall, but one made of magic. The cave’s protected.
A deafening sound fills the air, and the mountain shifts a fraction of an inch. Rocks and debris rain down on top of me. I stride out to see what’s happening and find Gabriel using his borrowed powers to throw massive boulders at the mountain.
He stops when he sees me, and his brow lowers. “Get the fuck out of my way, Lucifer. She’s a goddess, and that gives me all the permission I need to use force to remove her from this Earth.” With his palm down, he pulls up another giant rock from the ground, hauls his arm back, and throws it like a baseball toward the mountain. Another boom rocks the air, and a piece of the mountain caves inward.
“You’re pathetic. Let you borrow a little power, and you think you have the right to do whatever the fuck you want without consequences. Do you think this promotes the greater good? What about forgiveness and love for your neighbor? Maybe you should reflect on these things while you visit some of Underworld’s worst,” I snarl at him, trying to get him to shift his attention from the mountain to me.
“That’s rich coming from you. You couldn’t care less about forgiveness,” he snorts.
“Did you kill Hadeon? The Calamitas demon?” I ask softly. “He had a little girl, you know. Apparently, he loved her very much, and you took him from her.”
“What’s one demon in the thousands that still exist?” he muses, crossing his arms. “Besides, it only makes us even. You killed one of my angels in a cave similar to this one not too long ago. Remember?”
Having recently attended the funerals for all the demons lost in the last battle with the beasts, rage encompasses me. “We’ll never be even. Not until you fall from grace.”
He laughs and reaches his palm out for another rock, then tosses it forward. This one barely hits the side of the mountain. Enraged, he stares at the offending rock until it explodes into tiny pieces.
With him distracted, I subtly weave my fingers, bringing a special set of chains up behind his back. Created by Hades himself, their purpose is to pull monsters down into the Underworld and trap them there. I usually keep them in my dungeon, as I’ve found them useful for a variety of reasons. Maybe Gabriel should see a little of my world. While I can’t hold him indefinitely, two or three weeks is nothing. A blip so short few will notice he’s gone.
When his palm moves to hover over another rock, I quickly swirl my fingers and hands around and around, guiding the chains over his wings and down his body.
He lifts a link and laughs. “These wouldn’t hold a cherub. You’re getting soft in your old age.” His hand grabs the chain to swing it over his shoulder and it becomes increasingly heavy until he can barely lift it an inch. Panting, he lets it drop. The moment it falls into place, it becomes light again.
“Hades’ chains,” I inform him cheerfully. “Only I have the power to remove them.” I laugh when I see his fury. “I’m going to send you on a little trip to the Underworld. You need to realize how this world really works. You think Evren and Hadeon are evil? I’ll show you what real monsters look like. When you’re in the deep, staring into their eyes, you’ll feel them devour your soul, piece by piece. It won’t be real, but you’ll swear it is. Your body will be in agony while your spirit cowers in the corner of your mind. Maybe the next time you feel the urge to kill one of my demons, you’ll remember we’re the only things standing between you and those monsters.”
My hand circles the ground, and a long dark passageway opens underneath him. He immediately starts shouting obscenities and trying to lift the chains from his body. Bringing my fist up into the sky, I yank with all might and hurl him into the passageway. Down, down he goes. Past the fluffier levels of hell and into the belly of the beast. Hellfire is the only light in that place, and there’s not a lot of it. He lands and the shadows close tightly around his body. This is the place where nightmares come to breed. My hand circles again, and the ground closes.
I stride toward the cave and find Evren standing there with a solemn look on her face. It punches me in the gut. Seeing her. Wanting more. Not knowing what she’s thinking or feeling.
“Did you kill him?”
My lip curls. “Much to my disgust, no. Gabriel will only wish he was dead. The Devil bred the worst of the worst, and those monsters are the result. He quickly realized he wouldn’t be able to control them, so he trapped them in the deepest part of the Underworld. If they were to ever escape, the world would end.” I stand at the very edge of the entrance drinking her in.
