Chapter 96
“Love never dies.”
—DRACULA, brAM STOKER'S DRACULA (1992)
“ T hat was hot as fuck,” Gabriel commented as I pulled out of my wife and helped her to her feet. I spun up a shroud of shadows for her, replacing her torn Samhain dress and marveling at how much she looked like her old self.
My memories of existing outside my body were already fading, but I remember fighting with everything I had to keep my soul from disintegrating. I had ruthlessly clung to Lilith, refusing to allow whatever external force had been calling me to the void to take me away from her. How they had managed to get me back into my body, I had no idea, but I had a feeling the screaming God of Creation that was strung up to a cross in the distance had something to do with it. I looked at Lilith, unable to tear my eyes away from her. She had ascended and seemed to be glowing with a new sort of vibrance.
Despite her now inky hands and the undeniably potent cloud of power that rolled off of her, when she smiled, there was still the hint of the human Lilith peering back at me through those moss-green eyes. The adorable innocence that I had fallen in love with during our time together on Earth had not been erased with her ascension, and I found myself even more addicted to her than I had been before .
When I awoke in the kiln, I was overcome with an insatiable thirst for her, and I immediately knew that I, too, had been changed forever.
Whatever metamorphosis my body had gone through when I drank her blood from the Fountain of Death seemed to have been permanent.
I kissed the puncture wounds I had left on her neck softly, licking them clean with my tongue. The thirst had been quelled for now, but I knew it would return. I was no longer sure I would be able to survive without regular access to Lilith’s blood. This was something she and I would need to discuss. I had never been dependent on something for survival before, and the concept should have frightened me. However, as unnerving as that fact was, I didn’t regret it. The sheer power and energy that coursed through me when I was fully sated with her life force was unparalleled.
I felt invincible and nearly high on her power, and I found myself looking forward to my next opportunity to sink my teeth into her gorgeous white flesh.
Looking around Heaven, I smirked to myself at the devastation. The clouds were no longer white but an angry, stormy gray. Yahweh’s hidden hallways and rooms had been flattened in my rage. I had destroyed his armies, and Shemhazai and Gabe had the asshole crucified to his own cross.
Whoever said violence wasn’t the answer had been wrong as fuck. Vengeance was sweet, and the sight of Yahweh strung up like a gutted pig made me so happy I could barely form words.
Wrapping my arms around the hips of my wife, I smirked at Shemhazai.
“Thank you, Hazai.” I grinned at him, knowing he had been the one to figure out that I had found a way to linger long enough for them to save me. He just chuckled.
“Don’t thank me. I can’t fuck Lilith without you, I had to bring you back.” He winked, and I rolled my eyes.
“Please. We both know you would pass away from boredom if I ever truly died.”
He clapped me on the back, squeezing my shoulder gently as the four of us slowly made our way to the bloody bridge back to Hell.
“Don’t fucking die on me again, asshole,” he muttered, quietly enough that only I could hear.
“Not planning on it,” I affirmed with a nod as we crossed the bridge back to Hell. Shem snorted.
“I’m sure you weren’t planning on it this time either, yet here we are. I can’t believe you let fucking Art get the drop on you.”
I scowled and flipped him the bird. “I was a little preoccupied. I had just murdered an entire army of fucking angels, and then this little Hell Queen told me she loved me for the first time in four thousand years.” I smiled down at my tiny bride and kissed her temple as I guided her toward the gates. “You wouldn’t have made it past the fucking bridge.”
Shemhazai looked critically at the bridge in question as we stepped onto it. It was still smeared with angel guts.
Lilith’s magic was true death magic. Even immortals were vulnerable if she turned the full force of her power against them. When I had drank her blood from the Fountain of Death, I turned myself into a conduit for that power, and I had left no fucking survivors.
“I would have made it past the bridge,” he argued, though his tone was pensive. “I don’t know if I would have been able to take on the rest of them though. How the fuck did you manage that?”
I shot him a sly smile and shrugged. “Have you ever known me to allow someone to touch Lilith and live?”
Lilith gave me an annoyed look over her shoulder, the implication of my words were not lost on her.
“They should have known they were all dead the moment they laid a finger on her.” I couldn’t keep the shit-eating grin off my face. “She’s my little deathtrap, after all.”