Chapter 39
Lola
My eyes widened as I turned abruptly, standing up and nearly falling back again.
Dimitri stared at me with an unreadable expression, his swirling eyes looking…strange. More settled than they usually were, but angrier.
“What are you doing here?” I asked, leaning discreetly on the broken table in the middle of the room, my back to Arc. “What’s going on?”
The muscle in his jaw twitched and he sighed through his nose.
“I warned you about coming here.” His steps were slow and lazy, circling one side of the table, one of his hands grazing the surface distractedly while the other was a closed fist at his side. “Why don’t you ever listen to me?”
“Because you’re my mate, not my keeper,” I answered, confused. Dimitri never forced or forbade me to do anything, respecting my free will despite the poor choices I tended to make. “Now tell me what’s going on, because you’re acting real shady now…”
He averted his gaze, casting one quick look at Arc who started moving and grunting behind me, fighting against his chains.
“Want to know what’s going on, huh?” He paused, looking back at me. When he finally answered, his voice turned cold. “You sold your soul and got duped in the fucking process.”
I frowned. “First, fuck you. Are you still stuck on that? And second, what does it have to do with what’s happening here?”
“It has everything to do with it!” he snapped.
“I promised to protect your soul, Ania. And you went around and sold it?” I opened my mouth to speak but he lifted a finger, silencing me.
“Did you know Archdemons and lower Hellrisers can’t create new species?
Do you have any idea who you sold your soul to? ”
His name was on the tip of my tongue, but it kept dying in my mouth. I remembered him. Tall, blond, wearing some weird clothing that shouldn’t have been around at that time, blue eyes—wait. Blue eyes? Why didn’t I remember that detail until now? Demons couldn’t—their eyes were always dark.
“Asmodeus tricked you,” he continued. “Turned you into a creature of sex when you barely knew anything about pleasure. Ripped the soul from your body right as our link started to form, taking my sanity with it.”
Asmodeus…It had been him, not any random demon…
My instinct made me retreat, the red swirling dangerously in his eyes.
“Dimitri—”
“I’ve spent fifteen hundred years trying to fix what you broke. Trying to fulfil my binding promise and get your soul back.”
I fought against the new wave of dizziness and closed my hands into fists, nails digging into my palms.
“Nothing you’re saying answers my question,” I pointed out through gritted teeth.
“Oh, it does. Everything I do and have ever done is connected to you and how I’ve always felt about you. To your missing soul. To the promise I made.”
“Then tell me why the fuck my mate is locked in a cell? Are you the one using him to control the demons? Are you—”
I stopped talking, interrupted by his deep laugh as he looked away in disbelief.
“You think he is the one controlling the demons? Zhizn moya…He’s far from being powerful enough to do such a thing.”
I took another step back, trying to maintain a safe distance between us. “It was you? All this time?” He tilted his head to the side as I paused, taking it all in. “Your guards are shit, if you ask me. Can’t even hit an unmoving target at short range.”
“They’re a part of me, zhizn moya. Of course they wouldn’t risk hitting you. Had your friends come on their own, it would have been a different story…”
My hip bumped the corner of the broken table and I winced, turning my face only to find Arc’s exhausted eyes finally open. He pulled at the chain restraining him, his face contorting in pain at the burn on his wrists.
“What does Arc have to do with it? Let him go.”
“No can’t do, chérie. Arc has a lot more to do in this matter than you and him even knew,” he said, casting a dark look his way. “Did you know his kind shouldn't exist? There’s a reason he’s the only one.”
Arc kept fighting. I needed to buy time. Needed to get him out and reason with Dimitri. But could he truly be reasoned with right now?
“Stop building up the damn suspense and give me a straight answer for once!” I yelled, my own voice surprising me.
“Asmodeus didn’t need your soul for himself,” he explained, tilting his head to the side, his red eyes glinting from the faint flickering neon light above.
“No, he just needed an Astral. The soul was for someone else. My father. Arc’s father.
” My heart stopped in my chest. Brothers?
How—“You’ve met Lucifer, right? A few times, I believe.
But what do you know about the other Princes of Hell?
Asmodeus is the one who turned you, obviously… ”
The seven Princes of Hell. The seven deadly sins. Each demon served under one, and balanced tie groups usually had one from each house. Dimitri stopped and crossed his arms while leaning his hip on the side of the table. My vision blurred but I blinked through it.
“Wrath, or Satan for others—my dear father—has been busy plotting while I was left behind and fell in love with you. See, I’m his first born.
But he had many other Nephilims over the years.
He’s been obsessed with siring a…perfect being.
One of both Hell and Heaven. But all his attempts, whether he bred a human or Divine, turned unsuccessful.
“The children were either simple Nephilims—not even powerful ones—or in the worst case scenario, deformed stillborns. Which made sense; Princes of Hell might have been Archangels once, but they fell. And not the cute way simple angels do now; the whole ‘you’ll be rulers and prisoners of Hell’ deal.
“So Wrath had an idea. Why not use the soul of an Astral? And even better, the one of a Phoenix…Because everyone knew back then that Phoenixes were the only of the three who were actually Immortal. After all, they could even come back from their ashes if they wished to when they died of old age, and they were known to increase humans health and longevity.”
My breath hitched as his eyes landed on me.
“I’m sure you know where I’m going with this…
” I did. “It was not a coincidence my father disappeared when we came close to your village, leaving me alone to fend the Hellhounds sent to bring him back to Hell—he had overstayed his welcome on earth, and Lucifer wasn’t happy with him.
I had no idea what was going on, so I stayed put, like the good son that I was, waiting for him to come back. And then I met you.”
He closed his eyes as he struggled to swallow, letting out a long sigh.
“Oh, how happy he must have been when you and I met. When he realized that you, a Phoenix with Heir blood, was my mate. All he had to do was to dupe your brother. Create chaos and confusion within his heart. It took decades for me to understand why your brother so eagerly pushed that damn Soul Shard in your chest and fled after you killed your father. Until I ran into him and he folded like the coward he’s always been.
“Turns out he was so desperate to be free that Asmodeus didn’t even have to convince him.
Just a little push, saying that he saw a future where you were the Shard Carrier, and he gobbled it all up.
Talked you into revealing everything to your parents, and when it didn’t work out and shit hit the fan, took it upon himself to ensure the Prince of Hell’s so-called vision became true.
Shoved the damn soul into your chest and ran off like a scared kitten.
“When Asmodeus got what he wanted, he gave your soul to my father. It took Satan a few tries, but there it is,” he said, waving dismissively toward a struggling Arc. “The son he always wanted to have. An unnatural mistake.”
“I thought—” I shook my head. “I thought your father was a Divine. You told me he was a Divine. Your teeth and—”
“Because he technically is,” Dimitri answered. “Princes of Hell were born Divine. The Nephilims they sire have both Heaven and Hell coursing through their veins. I do. All my late siblings did.”
Dimitri noticed the confusion on my face before he groaned, looking at Arc once more.
“Do you think I found out about Arc’s existence as soon as he was born?
No. It took a Hell of a long time as the damn Warlock who raised him made it almost impossible for me and others to know he was even created.
I had to track down each and every one of Satan’s children—my brothers and sisters—in hope to find your soul, starting with the ones in Hell. ”
“What happened to all of them?”
The red swirled in his eyes and the corner of his lips creased in a lazy smile.
“Most are dead.” My heart sank and his face took a somber expression.
“What was I supposed to do? I had to get their soul out to check for yours.” He turned to Arc and let out an annoyed breath.
“He’s been on my trail for a while, without knowing much about the whole thing.
So when I came back to the house, I went through his room.
Found all the articles he kept about the Nephilims found dead over the centuries and the mystery around it. It made sense why he didn’t trust me.”
I stumbled back until I hit the concrete wall and stared at him, eyes wide. “How—How many did you kill? Why not give them their soul back instead of killing them?” I asked, my voice shaking.
“Do not compare Nephilims to Astrals,” he said, pushing himself off the table to strode toward me. “They can’t live once it’s been ripped out and they were already dead the second I absorbed their souls.”
Absorbed? I gasped, as the realization settled in. He consumed them? How did he even take their soul out in the first place?
“Good side was I grew stronger with each of them…Bad one was that the madness progressed faster, like in order to steal their strength, I also had to take their weaknesses…”
And I remembered now. The first time we saw each other a couple of decades after we parted ways for the first time, the single silver strand in his raven hair had taken over his entire head and the barely visible fleck of red colored both of his eyes.
At that time, I had thought it was because we’ve been apart…
“How many, Dimitri?” I asked again.
He reached me, placing both of his hands next to my head, caging me between his strong body and the rough wall. “You shouldn’t have come here,” he whispered darkly.
“Tell me!” I half sobbed, half yelled, my voice broken.
He searched my eyes for a few seconds before saying, “Three hundred and seventy-two.”
My knees gave out and I fell on the floor with a cry. He had done this to himself. I might have started it, but he was responsible for the madness taking over as fast as it did. All this for—an impossible quest.
Amyntas words made so much sense now…
Dimitri crouched in front of me, catching my chin between his fingers to lift my face to his.
“Amyntas,” I whispered, feeling the hidden wound on my shoulder throb. “How long—how long have you held him prisoner?”
His expression was unreadable as he answered. “How long have you lived in peace?” he asked back. “He never would have stopped hunting you, and you know it.”
No…No, he couldn’t—“Two years…He searched for two years before—”
“I did what needed to be done,” he snapped. “What I had to do to protect you.”
I looked back to Arc, frantically fighting against the chains holding him. Burning him.
“Set him free,” I said before he could explain anything.
The slight concern pulling at his features turned bitter. “I can’t. I won’t.”
“He’s my mate, Dimitri!”
“Would he even be if my father didn’t use a piece of your soul to create him?”
“It doesn’t matter!” I screamed, trying to push him away. “You can’t—hurt him! Mates of the same bind group aren’t supposed to hurt each other!”
“I can’t let him go, zhizn moya. Not until I get that piece of your soul back. Not until I can give you that piece for you to be able to track the rest of it in Hell.”
My hand closed on the hilt of a dagger at my waist. “You were going to kill him?”
Dimitri’s eyes turned to the side as the muscle of his jaw twitched. “What I wanted to do doesn’t matter. I can’t get it, and I need more time to figure out a way to rip it free.”
“Set him free, we’ll find another way,” I ordered.
His hand came to softly circle my throat, before he repeated, “I can’t. I told you, I’ll always put you and my binding promise first. I don’t care what I have to do to protect you and reunite you with your soul. To finally—”
“You’re insane,” I said in disbelief.
A sad smile tugged at his lips. “And I learned to live with it. You shouldn’t have come here.
” I gasped, feeling a tear roll down my cheek.
He wiped it with his thumb. “I thought I made you resent him enough. Making him act all controlling and possessive of you…He fought me when he noticed someone had invaded his mind. Making him do things he didn’t want to.
Making you doubt him. I guess it wasn’t enough. ”
“What are you saying?” I asked, not wanting to believe the words I was hearing.
“That you’re not supposed to be choosing.
That you lied when you said you’d always be on my side.
That even though you barely know who he really is, you’re choosing him.
That I made him act like an absolute jerk and made you think he couldn’t be trusted, yet you still came here to rescue him.
Still had faith in him. Do you realize that he hasn’t been himself since I showed up? That you have no idea who he truly is?”
“Well, now I know he’s not the manipulative bastard that you turned out to be!”
He flinched at my words, visibly backing up. “You don’t mean that.”
“Let. Him. Go.”
“No.”
My hand tightened around my dagger as the door burst open, revealing Carter, covered in dark blood and panting, eyes wide as they landed on us.
“Carter, go—” I started.
But before he could even assess the situation, Dimitri lifted his hand, sending Carter flying against the wall and keeping him up there.
The angel fought against the invisible restraints, muscles straining, wings twitching as his hands went to his throat, trying to ease the pressure of something that couldn’t be grasped.
“Why can’t anyone follow orders?” Dimitri gritted out.
I raised my dagger and hit him in the face with the hilt. If I was going to die, I wouldn’t go without setting my mate free.