Chapter 37
Chapter Thirty-Seven
W rath and Ramiel were lounging outside as Lucifer strode out of the theatre. Lucifer didn’t need his brother’s bullshit after his argument with Bianca. “What do you want?”
“Thought you could use the extra fire power.” Straightening, Wrath folded his arms.
“I need nothing from you.” Wrath showing up was centuries too late. Lucifer had survived without his brother’s help or approval for this long, and he would continue to do so.
“Don’t be a dick,” Wrath snapped.
Lucifer lunged for him. It wasn’t the outlet for his temper Lucifer would have chosen, but as Bianca had kicked him out, it would do.
Ramiel leapt in front of Wrath. “Stop.” He held out both hands. “You two need to put a pin in this bullshit. Let’s get that witch back and do it right.”
“Lucifer.” Raphael grabbed his shoulder. “A quick, decisive strike, and Leona is safe. Think!”
Wrath scoffed.
Lucifer didn’t want to think; he wanted to rage and destroy.
“Haziel is helping get the children and Bianca to Sophia’s realm, so I’ve got time,” Wrath said. “We can’t afford any more fuck ups.”
“Use us.” Ramiel spread his arms. “Use us to get this done.” He glanced at Wrath, and Wrath nodded. “We follow your lead.”
“All of us.” Vexia sauntered over wearing her battle gear and looking deadly.
Ramiel glared at her then sighed and shrugged. “All of us.”
“Let’s go.” Raphael drew his sword and looked at Lucifer with hard eyes. “Let’s get Leona back for those children and her coven.”
Once Lucifer had Leona back with her children, he could deal with his infuriating haglette.
The location they had pulled from Ashe’s mind was as clear as if they’d been there before. It was another underground bunker. Lucifer transformed his clothes to fighting leathers, and they compressed.
Wrath, Ramiel, Raphael, and Velia materialized beside him in a massive horde of demons.
Ashe was there. Lucifer could sense him.
He swung, his onyx blade taking the heads off two demons as he strode through the horde.
Another four demons surged into the gap.
To the right and behind the horde, Ashe’s power signature worked on him like a magnet.
Pandemonium ensued all around him.
Wrath created clouds of vaporized demon dust with every swing of his battle axes.
Raphael’s sword flashed like lightning.
These demons had been waiting for them, and they’d found them. More demon heads rolled to Lucifer’s blade. He and Raphael fought like a honed team, carving through demon after demon.
More kept coming.
And Lucifer kept hacking.
Wrath sent a power blast that created a temporary gap in the horde. Demons scrabbled to fill the hole.
Demon dust clogged Lucifer’s nose and coated his mouth.
More power blasted from Ramiel, and a thick cloud of dust obscured their vision.
“Left,” Raphael yelled.
Lucifer pivoted and drove his blade into a barrel-chested gluttony demon.
“So fucking many.” Raphael panted as he blasted another gap through the horde.
Lucifer moved closer to Ashe’s power signature. The fucker wasn’t moving, just waiting there for him.
A power blast from Ramiel decimated the frontline.
Wrath’s roar followed as he carved through the demons behind.
It was wholesale slaughter, and still the demons kept coming.
Lucifer’s blade sliced through a demon neck. He twisted his wrist and caught a second demon on the back swing.
A blade pierced his side.
Raphael was behind him. A puff, and the pain disappeared.
Lucifer blasted power. A wave of demons disintegrated. Another wave took its place.
Raphael drove his sword into chest after chest. “Where are they all coming from?”
Fury gave Lucifer even greater strength. Ashe was within his grasp. His vengeance lay behind waves of attacking demons.
Lucifer shot power through the horde to his right.
They vaporized, and he got his first glimpse of Ashe. Standing with his arms folded, head cocked, Ashe watched him with a smirk.
Lucifer sent a wave of power through the attacking horde.
Three short horn blasts sounded, and a few seconds later, the sky was filled with angels. Ramiel had called his host.
Lucifer relished the unmitigated savagery as each stroke of his sword bit into flesh.
The host arrowed into the horde. Grunts, screams, and bellows filled the air.
And then Lucifer was almost at Ashe. Eight feet in front of him, Ashe now had an onyx blade, and it was pressed to Leona’s throat.
Three demons lurched for Lucifer.
Ashe snarled at them, and they backed away.
“Go,” Raphael yelled. “Get Leona.”
“You came,” Ashe drawled as Lucifer got closer to him. His silver eyes flashed at Lucifer. “I wasn’t entirely certain you received my invitation.”
“You knew I was coming.” Lucifer had been hunting his former second for months. Victory surged through him. Ashe would pay for his betrayal, and Lucifer would savor every second.
“Yes.” Ashe grinned. “You’re very predictable, Lucifer.”
But first, Lucifer needed to get Leona. “Give me the witch. Or we’ll wipe out every one of you, and then come for you and your master.”
Ashe laughed. “This is nothing.” He gestured the battling horde. “For every one lost here, a thousand will replace them.”
Leona whimpered, her brown eyes—eyes so like Emma’s—implored Lucifer to act.
“You do a lot of hiding behind women.” Lucifer sneered.
Ashe shrugged. “I do what I must to survive.”
“You think I will let you leave here alive?” Through his fury, instinct whispered to him to pay attention. All was not as it seemed.
“I think you have no say in that.” Ashe pressed the knife to Leona’s jugular. “You aren’t making the rules anymore.”
The fight raged around them, but Lucifer kept his attention locked on Leona and Ashe. The sense of wrongness cooled his rage and got his mind working.
Five demons charged from the left.
Coolly, Ashe sent a blast of power that incinerated them.
No demon should have that power.
Ashe chuckled. “See, master.” He slurred the title. “I’ve learned a thing or two.”
“Give me the woman.” He didn’t have time for a Q&A.
“Wouldn’t you like to hear the message from my master first?” Ashe tilted his head.
If it got him Leona, he’d listen. “Tell me.”
“Indolex arranged this little demonstration for you.” Ashe gestured to the battle happening around them. “As a sort of show of power. He wants you to understand that while you have been hiding in your palaces, making your facile wars on each other, he has been building power. What you see here now is only a fraction of the forces he commands.”
“And I’m supposed to take your word for that?” Lucifer scoffed. “The word of an oath breaker and a liar.”
“You wound me, master.” Ashe grinned. “After all those whispered confidences between us?”
Lucifer couldn’t afford to lose his temper. Leona was relying on him. “What’s the message?”
“I’m glad you asked.” Ashe made a motion with the hand not holding the knife.
Air crackled and an ear-splitting boom almost drove Lucifer to his knees.
“Fuck,” Raphael said.
There were demons everywhere. Thousands upon thousands of them, filling every part of the underground bunker. Their power signatures a tangible force in the air.
The fighting demons disengaged, leaving the remainder of Ramiel’s host to circle Wrath, Raphael, Vexia, and Ramiel.
“We fight,” Wrath bellowed.
“Stop,” Lucifer shouted. Even with their power, this was not a fight they would win, not without heavy losses.
“Now you see,” Ashe drawled. “This is what you’re up against. All this and more.”
Raphael pressed his back to Lucifer’s. “I can summon my host.”
Lucifer shook his head. This was exactly what Ashe had said it was, a message. Losing more angels was pointless, and it appeared they were going to need every one they had. “Ashe has a message for us.”
“Indolex wants you to see his power,” Ashe said. “He is tired of waiting in the shadows and will make his move. He gives you this one chance to lay down your weapons and let what must happen take place.”
“Not a fucking chance.” Wrath growled. “What you plan will end all of us.”
Ashe studied Wrath and pursed his lips. “Will it? Do you think Indolex went to all this trouble merely for everything to end?”
The power signatures from the massive horde pressed down on Lucifer.
“He wants us to join him?” Ramiel sneered.
Ashe laughed. “No, Lord Ramiel. You have become obsolete.”
“Then why bother with a message?” Lucifer kept his gaze trained on Leona.
“It is not for me to question Indolex,” Ashe said. “He wants you to know your enemy before it destroys you.” He smiled. “This next part is an indulgence he has granted me.”
Lucifer’s hackles rose. “What next part?”
“We’re with you, brother,” Wrath murmured. “We will fight.”
“Indolex has no further use for this witch.” Ashe pressed his blade against Leona’s jugular. “I could kill her like the rest, but I thought it would be more interesting to give you a choice.”
“What choice?” Lucifer had an inkling of where Ashe was going.
“You choose the woman, and we all disappear, until next time.” Ashe clicked his fingers. “Just like that.” He stroked the blade up Leona’s neck. “Or I slit her throat, and you and I fight. One on one and to the death.” He studied Lucifer’s face. “You can have your revenge on me, or you can have the witch.”
“You know what to do,” Raphael whispered.
And Lucifer didn’t hesitate. “The woman,” he said. “I will take Leona.”