26. Levi
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
LEVI
The chains bit into my wrists, Zeus’s punishment crushing down on me. I hung limply in the darkness, my brothers’ ragged breathing the only sound I’d heard for days.
Then his presence filled the cavern, terrifying and magnetic. Lucifer stood before us, his wings of fire spreading across the void.
“I can break your chains,” he said. “But freedom comes with a cost. You will be mine, my deputies in Hell. Swear fealty, and your torment will end.”
I glanced at Menoetes, seeing the rage and desperation on his face. Cronos’s bitter laughter echoed off the stone walls.
“What choice do we have?” I asked hollowly.
“None,” Lucifer said with a cold smile. He snapped his fingers and our chains disappeared.
We stumbled to our knees, trembling with fatigue and fear. Before us stood the all-powerful ruler, his eyes blazing with authority as we prostrated ourselves. Our gazes never wavered from his imposing figure as we pledged our allegiance, his presence permeating through our very beings.
A red-hot iron appeared in Lucifer’s hands. The acrid stench of burning flesh seared my nostrils as a hot iron branded us with his sigil, a symbol of our eternal allegiance to him. The pain was excruciating, but we endured it willingly, knowing that we were now bound to him for eternity.
As we rose to our feet, a mixture of liberation and submission filled us, for we were now devoted servants to the one who had branded us with his symbol of power and dominance.
I jolted awake, the scent of sulfur in my nose. Menoetes’s… no that was Ian, astral form shimmered at the foot of my bed, his demon ridges and golden eyes gleaming in the dark. “Levi, I need you to deal with something.”
“What now?” I sat up and rubbed sleep from my face.
“Evelyn’s uncle. Neff. He molested her when she was a child, and she deserves revenge and closure. You and Aziz are going to handle it.”
Rage filled me as I raised a brow. “You’re delegating now?”
Ian’s spread his hands. “Isn’t it something you want to do?”
Fucker. He was right though.
I found Aziz sprawled on the lounge couch, drink in hand, a picture of debauchery and indolence. “Ian wants us to handle something,” I said, dropping into the seat across from him.
He sipped his drink, eyeing me skeptically over the glass. “What kind of ‘something’?”
“Evelyn’s uncle. He abused her as a kid. Ian wants us to...take care of him.” Oh what pleasure that would give me.
Aziz sat up, his playful demeanor evaporating. “That’s heavy, man. Are we sure about this? Killing her uncle, it could turn her against us.”
I rubbed my jaw, considering. It was a risk. “Possible. But Ian thinks she needs this to move on.”
A bitter chuckle escaped Aziz’s lips. “And what if Ian’s leading us off course? Shouldn’t we talk to her first?” He drained his glass and set it aside. “I don’t like going in blind.”
“Fair point.” I leaned back. The plush cushions did little to ease the tension in my shoulders. “Let’s go talk to her. Now. Get her take before we make a move.”
Aziz gritted his teeth. “Let’s hope she’s ready for this conversation.”
Aziz and I materialized in Evelyn’s room. She was at her desk, lost in thought, a small frown creasing her brow. She jumped when she noticed us, her hand flying to her chest. “What are you doing here?”
I stepped forward. “We know about your uncle. Ian told us.”
Her face hardened, those gorgeous eyes blazing with rage. “He had no right to tell you that!”
“Do you have any idea how humiliating this is? How wrong it is for you to know?” She waved her clenched fists at us.
Aziz raised his hands, placating. “We’re not here to make it worse. We’re here to help you.”
She laughed, the sound harsh and broken. “Help me? How? By dredging up the worst parts of my life? By making me relive his filthy hands on me?”
Tears streamed down her face now, but she made no move to wipe them away.
My heart ached for her. I wanted to reach out, to comfort her, but I didn’t dare. “Evelyn, listen to me. What he did to you, it wasn’t your fault. And he deserves to pay for it.”
She shook her head, golden hair falling forward to hide her face, wrapping her arms around herself. “I can’t. I can’t face him. I’m not strong enough.”
Aziz moved closer, his voice uncharacteristically soft. “You’re stronger than you know. And you won’t be facing him alone. We’ll be with you, every step of the way.”
Evelyn looked between us, her expression torn. There was so much pain in her eyes, so much fear. But there was something else too: a burning ember of rage and righteousness, trapped behind years of guilt and self-loathing.
Finally, she curled her lip and then clenched her jaw. “Fine. Let’s do it.”
Thanks to information services on the world wide web, we tracked her uncle down to a dingy apartment. The stench of rot and filth hit us before we even knocked on the door. He answered it himself, bleary-eyed and hungover, wearing nothing but a stained bathrobe. The look of arrogance on his face vanished the moment he saw us.
Neff tried to slam the door in our faces, but it was too late. We were already inside, our demonic strength easily overpowering his feeble attempts at escape. Aziz gripped him by the back of his neck while I bound him with chains imbued with our hellfire. He screamed as the magical restraints seared into his skin, his cries music to my ears.
A chill ran through me as Aziz and I materialized Neff into my apartment near the convent. The bastard struggled against his chains, eyes wide with fear. Part of me wanted to rip him apart right then. But this was for Evelyn. She needed to face him.
We returned to Evelyn, and I held out my hand. “It’s time.”
She took my hand. I pulled her through space into my apartment. She froze when she saw her uncle, chained and helpless before her. Tears streamed down her face as painful memories surfaced.
“You hurt me,” Evelyn said, her whole body trembling. “You destroyed so much of who I was.”
“Evelyn, I—I didn’t mean to—” Neff stammered pathetically. “Forgive me, please. I have problems. I need help. You can’t hold this against someone who’s sick inside.”
“Don’t you dare ask me to forgive you!” Evelyn yelled, years of anguish pouring out. She leaned forward, slamming her palms into his chest, viciously, the chains held him in place, but his head still rocked back from the impact of her strike. “You ruined my life, and they let you get away with it!”
She sobbed, but it definitely had rage behind it, which made me incredibly happy to see. Let it all out, little nun. “You made me feel worthless. Like I didn’t matter.”
Neff just whimpered, fueling her rage. I exchanged a glance with Aziz. We were both growing impatient with this spineless worm. His eyes darted around to all of us like some terrified rat in a cage.
I stepped forward, my tone icy. “Enough of this. Let’s make him pay.” I looked at Neff, and lifted an eyebrow. “Do you have any idea how much practice we’ve had in making sinners pay?”
An acrid smell assaulted my nose, and looked down to see that the piece of shit had pissed himself. A dark stain spreading across his pants and dripping down the legs to the floor.
“Disgusting,” I muttered.
Aziz and I let our demon forms take over, human disguises falling away, vanishing in a flash. Neff’s eyes widened, taking in the bulging muscles, colored skin, the horns, bone ridges, and the thick monstrous cocks that hung between our legs. Lifting our hands the wicked sharp claws extended, showing him razor-like talons.
“ No,” he shrieked, trying to yank his hands from the chains. He thrashed his head back and forth. “This isn’t happening. This is a dream.” He clamped his eyes shut, squeezing tears down his cheeks as he did.
Stepping forward, I extended a sharp claw toward his eye. “Oh, I assure you, dear James. It most definitely is happening.”
I grasped his face with my other hand, holding it steady as I used my talon to slice at the eyelid of his right eye, peeling it away in a rush of blood and screams. His cries went from terrified to agonized in a split second.
“I don’t want you to miss a moment of this,” I whispered, and finished slicing off both his eyelids.
Manic uncontrollable bellows of pain erupted from his mouth, blood poured down turning his eyeballs into crimson orbs that rolled wildly in their sockets.
“Pleasepleasepleaseplease…” he went on yelping that same work over and over as if it would do anything.
“Do you like what you see so far?” I asked, glancing at Evelyn.
She stared at the other man, a mixture of horror, terror, and…what? Excitement? Satisfaction? She hesitated for a moment before giving me a shaky nod, tears still tracing rivers down her cheeks.
“Make him hurt. Make him hurt like he hurt me,” she hissed through gritted teeth.
“It will be our pleasure,” Aziz growled.
I moved the magically summoned chains to his wrists and ankles, the hell chains pulling him taut, spread eagle in the air. He was openly sobbing now, eyes still coated in blood. I could imagine him seeing us in a red haze.
With a swipe of my hand, I clawed down his front shredding his clothes, and leaving shallow cuts on his chest and belly. He made a strangled yipping sound of surprise and pain as I did it two more times, leaving his shirt in tatters, his pale fish white belly and man tits showing through.
Aziz knelt and did the same to his pants, working feverishly and with less grace than I’d shown, blood spattered the floor and in less than five minutes the child molester lay basically naked, his shriveled cock and balls nothing but a small knot of flesh between his legs. Dozens of thin red lines painted his body from us cutting away his clothes.
“Evelyn? Would you like to start things off?” I said.
Her eyes were wide, manic and verging on psychotic as she stepped forward, nodding. With a single swift, vicious, and well placed kick she slammed her foot into his balls.
Neff’s face went as red as the blood oozing from his eyes, almost purple, as he tried to collapse, but the chains held him aloft. A string of spit hung from his lips.
“Does that hurt?” I asked, lowering my voice so that it rumbled deep in my chest. “Let me take care of that for you.”
Reaching forward, I cupped his scrotum, digging my claws in, barely breaking the skin behind his shriveled sack. If he’d still had lids on them, his eyes would have bulged out in horror, instead, he swung them to meet my gaze, peering into the depths of the universe that sat in my own eyes. Galaxies and stars swirling away in the black.
Staring into his eyes, I slowly closed my fist, digging my talons deeper into the skin; blood pooled in my palm as they sank deeper. Neff’s mouth fell open, a silent scream, he wasn’t even able to suck in a breath to actually cry out as I cut away his manhood.
Digging deeper even more, my claws grated against tendons, ligaments, and sliced through muscle. Aziz stood watching, chuckling faintly as I worked. When my nails finally touched, I winked at Neff, then twisted and yanked. A spray of blood fanned out from his ruined crotch as I lifted the torn away cock and balls to his eyes.
The man looked like he’d gone mad with pain and agony, hiccupping gagging cries poured from his mouth until he leaned his head forward and vomited, a stream of bile and half-digested food poured from his mouth, I managed to dodge it, and then tossed his genitals away, licking his blood from my fingers after.
“Tastes like shit,” I said. “Should have known.
“He’s gonna bleed out,” Aziz said, nodding to the blood flooding from the gaping wound in the man’s crotch.
“Not so fast,” I said, and touched a finger to the wound.
A flash of fire burst from my fingers, the smell of sulfur and burnt coal flooded the room, and a wave of flames cascaded across the wound, burning the flesh, and cauterizing the arteries and veins within. As he was scorched by hellfire, Neff finally found his voice again, letting out a gut-wrenching scream.
“Let me die!” he cried out, then broke into sobs. “Just let me die.”
“Begging for death already?” Aziz said. “We haven’t even given you some of your own medicine yet.”
The other demon walked a small circle until he was behind the man. He had a soft spot for children. He was probably more disgusted by what this man had done to Evelyn than any of us.
“I won’t sully my own cocks with your flesh,” Aziz said, his dual phalluses swinging back and forth, hard and rigid with excitement. “I have something better.”
Lifting his hand and snapping his fingers, a heavy black steel rod appeared in his hands, conjured from the bowels of hell. Two feet long the top half was shaped like some monster dick from a nightmare, thick and bulbous head with tiny spikes ringing it, the shaft ribbed with what looked like the jagged and serrated teeth of a shark. The bottom half was a formed handle that he grasped tightly in his fist.
“I’m sure some of our brethren in Hell will give you the real deal, but here? You’ll have to accept a facsimile.”
Looking at him, I grinned and nodded to the rod. “That looks familiar. Is it Abaddon’s cock? From the Pits of Misery?”
Aziz waggled the steel dildo at me, and grinned, his sharp teeth glinting. “Didn’t think he’d mind me using a model.”
“Do it,” Evelyn muttered from the corner, staring at her uncle as he sobbed in pain. “Fuck him with it. Hurt him like he did me.”
“As you wish, my lady,” Aziz growled.
Without preamble, he placed a taloned hand on Neff’s shoulder, and used the other hand to place the steel rod against the man’s asshole. Neff’s head jerked up in surprise and pain as the needles encircling the head of the cock sliced at his opening, sending fresh rivulets of blood oozing down the steel dick, coating Aziz’s hand.
Stepping forward, I looked into the man’s ruined eyes as the wicked metal rod slid into him.
“Let’s make sure you experience all of this,” I whispered. “Don’t want you going into shock and passing out.”
I touched my index finger to his head, and used my influence to bypass the safeguards of his mind. With a wink, I shut off the mechanism that would have allowed him to vanish into darkness as we worked our will in him. As soon as I was done, his screams took on a more panicked resonance, as though his very soul knew there would be no escaping the pain now.
Aziz thrust the steel phallus into the man, fucking him with all his worth. Blood, shit, and small slivers of meat sprayed out over his arm each time he yanked it out.
A crimson puddle formed at Neff’s feet as his lifeblood oozed out of him. His cries had devolved into high pitched keening, punctuated by grunts of pain each time Aziz jammed the cock into him.
“He won’t last much longer,” I said to my companion. “We should let her finish this.”
Aziz, with a grunt of effort, yanked the dildo from Neff again. The entire steel shaft coated in gore, and strings of flesh.
“Fair point,” he said, and raised his arm, sending the tool back to Hell in a flash of light.
“But first,” I said, and then stepped forward, bringing my hand down on Neff’s arm.
Stretched tight by the chains, it snapped neatly, a sliver of white bone jutting through the skin. Neff cried out in agony, while Aziz grinned, and did the same to the opposite arm.
Neff’s shrieks of agony echoed off the walls as we unleashed his well-deserved torment. Bones snapped. Blood splattered. Chains constricted.
Evelyn watched, horror and grim satisfaction warring in her eyes. She deserved this closure, to see her abuser suffer for his sins. We would make sure he paid for every scar he left on her soul.
Witha flourish, an ornate dagger appeared in my hand in the blazing light of fire. Stepping toward her, I held it out to her, its blade pulsing with hellish energy. “Finish it.”
Her hand shook as she gripped the hilt. Taking a deep breath, she stepped forward to face her uncle’s terrified gaze.
“This is for everything you stole from me.” Evelyn plunged the blade into Neff’s chest with a cry of anguish and release.
His scream cut off abruptly as his life force drained away, the light fading from his eyes. Evelyn staggered back, the dagger clattering to the floor.
As Neff’s body slumped lifeless in the chair, Evelyn crumpled to her knees, overwhelming sobs wracking her frame. What she had done came crashing down.
Aziz knelt beside her, enfolding her in his strong arms. “It’s over,” he whispered. “He can’t hurt you anymore.”
I began efficiently cleaning up, willing away the blood and banishing Neff’s corpse to the void. No evidence could remain of this act of vengeance.
Part of me wondered if this would truly heal Evelyn’s wounds or only open new ones. She clung to Aziz, pouring out her pain, as I ensured all traces of the night disappeared.
Evelyn had taken a step into the shadows with us. Now we would see if it led her to liberation or damnation. Either way, there was no turning back.