Chapter Eighteen Lucifer
Chapter Eighteen
Lucifer
Few horrors in Hell could hold a candle to my Father’s divine fury.
It’s something I’ve been trying to remedy for the last several millennia, actually.
Though I am once again the snake in the Garden, bending my siblings’ ears, tempting them, and make no mistake, not even my Father can keep them from me.
I grip hold of Jegudiel from behind, pressing one of my celestial blades into his throat as I hiss into his ear.
“You remember what it’s like, don’t you?
To march at my side? To feel Heaven tremble beneath our feet?
You miss it. He abandoned you, left you all to rot in your own obedience, but I offer you freedom. ”
Like it or not, he and the former leaders of my angelic army will soon be mine again.
As will she.
No matter how hard they may fight to resist me.
The city dissolves into chaos around us, the rapidly receding waters a mere distraction as my demons and I battle it out against my siblings.
They hop from building to building as they mount their pathetic attempt to evade me, no longer interested in hearing my hellish sermon on how thoroughly they’ve betrayed our Father, on how similar they are to me.
But I’m right on their tail at every turn.
Whispering into their ears. Tempting them to our side.
Twisting their darkest desires until they’re mine for the taking.
Though portaling to Hell and back to keep up with them is growing tiresome quickly.
Lucifer!
I hear my future wife loud and clear inside my head as Jegudiel thrashes in my arms. A desperate plea.
Though I’m not certain she’s conscious of it.
I pause, clutching one of my hands tight to his throat as my brother struggles from where I’ve just struck him in the jugular with my blade. It won’t exactly kill him, but it’ll smart all right.
He wasn’t interested in what I was offering anyway.
A true leader.
In lieu of our Father’s divine approval.
They’re no better than the sheep He made them, the whole lot of them.
And I’m not the only one among us with daddy issues, apparently.
Lucifer!
I hear Charlotte’s voice again, this time more desperate, as Jegudiel’s blood coats me.
Like a prayer.
Or when she begs for mercy whenever she’s reached her limit inside the playroom.
But I cannot locate her, nor Azrael, on any of the surrounding rooftops, and Mimi has already buggered off to who knows where, which means—
Jegudiel seizes in my arms as my gaze falls toward the rushing waters.
Charlotte holds a human child as a car carried by the current is about to—
My heart plunges into my feet.
But I’d never allow a pesky thing like my own mortality to stop me.
Not when it comes to her.
I shove Jegudiel aside, snatching the three-pronged whip he’s known for from his belt before he can stop me.
Dreadfully insignificant legacy, that.
The commotion draws the attention of my other siblings, who attempt to grab me before I can abscond with their celestial weaponry. I dart around them swiftly, far faster on my feet than any of those winged cretins could ever be, as Abaddon and the others among my demonic army come to my aid.
I sprint toward the edge of the building.
My strategy forms as I use Jegudiel’s whip to my advantage, roping it up and over a hanging cable before I test its leverage.
I’ve more than a bit of practice with whips, obviously.
I plunge from the side of the rooftop the moment my angelic siblings reach me, swinging out and above the waters until I land on top of the taxi’s moving roof.
My weight has the exact effect I intended it to, knocking the floating vehicle onto another trajectory, so it’s no longer aimed at Charlotte. I manage to pocket the whip I nicked from Jegudiel before he has a chance to reclaim it.
“Lucifer!” Charlotte screams.
I follow her gaze in the direction I’m heading, realizing that the shape of the skyscrapers has funneled the receding water into a pouring basin, so I’m about to cascade down into—
“Fuck!”
I lunge, launching myself from the car’s hood and over the flood’s ledge toward Charlotte, managing to snag hold of one of the tree’s limbs.
The branch cracks, my added weight enough to sever the limb completely.
I throw out my arms, catching both Charlotte and the child she’s holding as we all go under.
I grit my teeth, a muffled snarl tearing from my throat as an explosion of bubbles bursts forth in my fury.
Like the true devil I am, I fight against the current, against the tide—like hell is this going to be what ends me—swimming for dear life, just as I manage to wedge the three of us between an adjacent branch and the remains of some broken scaffolding.
We resurface, my now mortal lungs screaming.
Maybe my future wife is right.
Maybe I should quit smoking.
I use my body to shield Charlotte and the child from the brunt of the current’s force as I hold on to Charlotte with one arm and shove the child up and onto a sturdier limb with the other.
The little girl coughs as Charlotte grabs hold of the limb and an incoming bodega awning crashes into me.
“Lucifer!” Charlotte shouts, grabbing for me as I go under.
She may no longer be able to die from being washed out to sea, but the child certainly would have.
And now I might, quite frankly.
I suppose this is what I get for attempting to play the hero, even for my bride’s benefit.
It doesn’t suit me. It never has.
Redemption is for those worth saving to begin with, and I’d much rather be the villain like I’ve always been.
But my Mother and fate had different ideas, apparently.