Chapter 71
“If you want to stop me, you’re going to have to fucking kill me.”
—RUTH LANGMORE, OZARK
I was anxious. My stomach roiled as I paced back and forth in our bedroom, waiting for Art to return with Ramel and Shem.
Wringing my hands before me, I found myself weighing our options with the other version of myself. We had a theory of how Yahweh had managed to manifest enough power to start picking off the other gods, and if we were right, we would be able to overthrow Him.
The only issue was it would put mankind at risk. Neither myself nor the ancient version of me was thrilled with the thought, but if it was our only chance, we couldn’t take it off the table.
Ramel and Shem blew into the room; both of them looked upset, and I frowned, stopping my pacing at the looks on their faces.
“What? What happened?” I asked, momentarily forgetting my internal debate. Shem’s face was white with worry, and Ramel’s jaw was so tight that it looked like he might crack a molar.
“Nothing,” Ramel replied. I narrowed my eyes on him, looking back and forth between him and Shem. Shem slipped into his usual mask of amusement, hiding away the worry I had seen. He slid his hands into his pockets and gave me a cavalier grin.
“Everything’s just peachy, sweetheart. No need to worry your pretty little head.”
“Something happened,” I argued, and Ramel pinched the bridge of his nose, sighing.
“It’s nothing you need to worry about, deathtrap. Art told us you made a discovery. Why don’t you tell us what it is?”
I knew he was trying to distract me from asking more questions about whatever had happened in their secret little meeting, but I also knew there was no use pushing him if he had decided he wasn’t going to tell me.
Besides, I needed them to help me prove my theory, and the faster I could confirm my suspicions, the sooner we could take action.
“I need you to take me back to the graveyard,” I said, and both of their eyes widened in surprise.
“I wasn’t expecting you to say that.” Ramel cocked his head to the side. “Why? What’s at the graveyard?”
I snorted. “Why should I tell you? You don’t seem to want to share your secrets with me.”
Shem raised an amused eyebrow and exchanged a look with Ramel. “Hmm. Give her an inch, and she wants to take a mile.”
Ramel gave him a sly smile before turning his wolfish grin on me. “Are you looking for me to force the information out of you, Lilith?” he asked, his tone dangerous. Suddenly, he was in front of me, his hand wrapped around my throat. My breath caught in my chest as his scent flooded my nose. I felt my thighs reflexively clench together at his proximity.
“I could fuck this tight little throat until you’re begging to spill your secrets all over my cock,” he purred into my ear, and my skin erupted into gooseflesh. I closed my eyes and licked my lips, the other Lilith turning to butter in my mind at the threat. I was beginning to learn that she loved to be punished even more than she loved to be rewarded. As our two consciousnesses grew closer and closer to melding into one, I found myself becoming more open to pain for the sake of pleasure, and no one knew how to turn the sharp sting of pain into the sweet pull of pleasure better than Ramel.
I looked up into his crystalline hazel eyes and considered pushing him until he followed through on his threat, but I forced myself to stay focused. We didn’t have time for this. Samhain was only a few days away, and if I was right, we would need all the time we could get to execute the plan.
“I’m looking for Hypnos, the God of Sleep,” I said, and the lust in Ramel’s eyes immediately gave way to surprised interest.
“Why?”
“Because if Hypnos is not there, I think I know how Yahweh rose to power, and I think I know how we can stop Him.”
The graveyard was as quiet and still as I remembered. This time, I was prepared for the powerful wave of energy that rolled through my body as I stepped over the threshold. The power called to something deep in my chest, as if the gods that slept beneath my feet were strumming some sort of chord that played the song of death deep within me.
“Let’s split up; it’ll be faster,” I suggested, already scanning the nearest tombstones and looking for Hypnos’ grave. Both Ramel and Shem laughed as if what I had suggested was hilarious.
“Absolutely not, deathtrap,” Ramel chuckled, threading his fingers through mine.
I scowled at him. “It will take way longer if we stick together, and we don’t have that much time,” I complained. Shem slid his hand over the small of my back, coming up to flank my other side.
“So be it. We’re not allowing you to wander a cemetery full of half-dead gods alone.”
“So overprotective,” I grumbled but powered forward, not wanting to waste any more time arguing about it.
It took several hours to check every grave and mausoleum, but once I was satisfied we had combed the entire cemetery to the best of our ability, I felt like I might explode with a potent mix of excitement and anxiety.
“He’s not here,” I breathed.
“Nope,” Shem agreed, sitting back against a tombstone and crossing his legs out in front of him. Ramel leaned against one of the mausoleums, arching an elegant brow at me.
“So, what does that mean?” he asked, pulling out a cigarette and putting it to his lips. I wrinkled my nose at him. I hadn’t seen him smoke since he was pretending to be Reaver.
“Why are you smoking again? Those things will kill you, you know.” The words rolled off my tongue before I could really think about them. Ramel choked on a laugh, and smoke spilled out of his nose.
“Helps with my nerves,” he explained wryly. He looked me up and down, his mouth curling into a grin. “As flattered as I am that you seem to be concerned for my health, maybe you should explain why we just spent the last three hours combing this cemetery for some sleeping asshole before I fuck the information out of you.”
I rolled my eyes but conceded. “Fine. I was digging into Yahweh’s past today, trying to figure out how exactly He was able to rise to power and put all these other gods to sleep like this.”
Shem frowned. “He was always more powerful than the other gods. He’s the creator.”
I shook my head, feeling myself getting excited about my discovery. “That’s not true. That’s a lie Yahweh would happily have you believe. The truth is, when time began, He was not any more powerful than any of the other gods trapped here in an eternal sleep.”
Ramel took a drag from his smoke and glanced at Shem, who gave him a ‘who knew?’ look.
“He started his campaign against the other gods before He flooded the planet. He claims to have created mankind, but the truth is that they evolved organically. He has the power of creation, yes, but He did not create mankind. He convinced them He created them so that they would entrust Him with their confessions.
“It wasn’t until He managed to capture the three of us in purgatory that He had free reign to really amp up His hold on mankind. After the fall of Rome, He was able to establish the chokehold necessary to essentially ‘kill off’ all the other gods with the rise of Christianity in the Middle Ages.”
“That makes sense,” Ramel mused, taking another drag of his smoke.
“Yeah, the dark ages were shit,” Shem agreed, looking pensive. It still felt odd to me that he would have been around to see everything I had just read about in old dusty textbooks. “The church had a fucking iron grip on mankind; it was nearly impossible to plant any seeds from the Infernal Woods. Nothing would hold. They were too afraid of not going to Heaven or whatever else bullshit reward Yahweh promised them after death,” Shem said, confirming my thoughts.
I nodded. “Exactly. Not only was there an influx of confessions during those times, but the world was strife with war, poverty, and disease. Death rates were through the roof.”
Shem nodded, a frown creasing his brow. “Yes, I remember that. It was brutal trying to keep up with the influx of souls without you and Ramel here to help.”
I gave him an apologetic look. “Sorry, Shem,” I whispered.
He shrugged and grinned. “I would say it’s not your fault, but it was.” He and Ramel exchanged an amused look. I rolled my eyes and cleared my throat.
“ Anyway. As we know, Yahweh uses the confessions from mankind to power the Sorter of Souls. The more confessions He has, the faster He can reincarnate souls. Have either of you ever wondered why it’s important to Yahweh to regenerate souls?”
They exchanged a look again and shrugged.
“I don’t know. He’s the creator. I just always assumed He wanted to keep His creations alive.”
I shook my head, smiling. “No. Think about it. He just doesn’t want them to thrive. He wants them to multiply and then die. His church preaches procreation to the point of obscenity despite the fact that Earth is overpopulated. He condemns contraception and safe abortion. We don’t want souls in limbo because they fester. Do you think Yahweh really gives a shit if the souls lose their residual knowledge or not?”
“No, He made that pretty clear when He flooded the entire fucking planet,” Ramel said, giving me a pained look as if he was remembering that time and it left a bad taste in his mouth.
“Exactly.” I held up a finger, beaming at them both. “The reason Yahweh wants more humans created is because every time He feeds a soul through his Soul Sorter, a small, temporary amount of celestial energy is generated. Energy that He has been collecting since the dawn of time to use against the other gods so He could secure His position as King Dickhead.”
Both Ramel and Shem snorted, and I grinned at them before continuing. “Once He was strong enough to take on another god, I think he targeted Hypnos first.”
Both Ramel and Shem’s eyes flashed, and I knew they were catching on to what I was starting to get at.
“You think He has Hypnos trapped somewhere and is using his magic to keep the other gods asleep,” Ramel breathed, looking amazed. I nodded.
“Yes. More than that, I think if we can slow down the Sorter of Souls, His stolen magic will dwindle, and He’ll fall back to His normal power levels. We may be able to overtake Him.”
“Lilith…” Shem said, standing up from where he had been lounging against the tombstone. “You’re fucking incredible.”
“I’m not even finished yet,” I beamed. “I think the old me was suspicious about all this. That’s why she created the Fountain of Death, in case Yahweh ever managed to put her to sleep. But I also think she created the catalog to harvest celestial energy in a similar way. That was why she was always an even match for Him and why she was the last god to fall. She had been beating Him at His own game for centuries before He finally caught on and trapped her in purgatory. It’s why He was so lenient and didn’t unmake the two of you when you first defied Him. He knew He couldn’t overpower her because she was playing Him at His own game.”
Ramel flicked his butt away and strode up to me, cupping my face in his hands. He was looking at me like he was really seeing me for the first time, his eyes shining in the starlight.
“Lilith,” he breathed, kissing my lips softly. I could taste the tobacco mixed with spearmint on his breath. “You’re fucking amazing.”
I grinned against his lips before pulling away. “See? It’s amazing the things I can do when you let me out of my cage.” I smirked, and I felt Shem press against me from behind, laying his own kisses up the side of my throat gently.
“We’re going to make you come so many fucking times tonight, sweetheart,” he murmured against the sensitive skin of my neck, making me shudder .
I spun in the arms of my demons and looked up at them, knowing I had just impressed the shit out of the two of them.
“We don’t have time for that. We still need to figure out what we’re going to do.”
Ramel frowned. “Destroy the Sorter of Souls, obviously.” He said it without hesitation, as if completely destroying the natural way of life and death was of no consequence to him.
I frowned. “We can’t destroy it. Mankind would perish. I was thinking we could slow it down or stop it from working long enough for us to get the upper hand. We can’t risk mankind being affected.”
Ramel snarled. “I don’t give a fuck about mankind. I would let them all rot if it meant keeping you safe, Lilith.” He touched my chin, and I could see the panic and desperation burning in his eyes.
I scowled at him. “Well, I wouldn’t. We will need to find a way to replace Yahweh once we’ve taken Him out and fix whatever it is we need to break to overthrow Him. I will not allow mankind to suffer for this. If we do that, we’re no better than He is.”
Both Shem and Ramel looked like they didn’t give two shits whether or not they stooped to Yahweh’s level, but I did, and if I was ever going to fight them on something, it was going to be this.
“Don’t worry. I have a plan for that too.” I smirked, casting my gaze to the Infernal Woodlands. The ominous tree line loomed in the mist-shrouded distance, and I could feel the magic of the woods pressing down around us like it was a physical thing.
“Do idea seeds work on angels the same way they work on humans?” I asked.
Shem raised an eyebrow. “They might. We would need to test it.”
I gave them a conspiratorial grin.
“I wonder… If all the angels that run the Voodoo stores suddenly had the idea to shut down for renovations at the same time, how much would that affect Yahweh’s power supply?”