18 Truths (37 page)

opened my eyes and looked directly into a bright light above my head. Groans escaped me as an explosion of pain erupted in the side of my neck. I tried to raise my hands, but they were clamped down at my sides. From the cold penetrating my clothing, I guessed I’d been strapped to some kind of metal slab. Squeezing my eyes shut, I waited for the pain and the stars to subside and opened them again and looked down, much more carefully. Turning my head from side to side, I discovered my instincts were correct.

I was strapped to a table in what looked like a medical laboratory. Worse, Grace lay unconscious, strapped to the table next to me. For what, I didn’t know. Maybe they wanted to make sure we were okay after the tranquilizer gun had rendered us unconscious, but that was the least likely of the scenarios running through my mind.

I surveyed my surroundings a little better. A computer was set up on a cart about three feet away from me, the Alpha File 120 flashing on the screen. I swallowed hard and thought back to copying the files at the storage facility yesterday. Instinct now told me that my capture had been their plan all along. Pulling at my leg and arm restraints, I tried at least to make them looser, but struggling proved useless. I was bolted to the table, and the table was likely bolted to the floor.

The moments ticked by in silence, nothing but dead air. I felt dizzy, not just from the drug injected into my system with the tranquilizer, but with betrayal. As I digested the situation I’d put Grace and Conner and myself in, I felt like the ultimate failure.

My heart skipped a beat when the door at my feet opened and Nate walked in. He wore a different outfit than this morning, a casual pair of khaki shorts and a Super Mario Donkey Kong shirt that said ‘Going Bananas.’ I felt another surge of pure hatred for him flow through me, and I wished more than anything I could go ape on him. How could he turn on me like this just for an innocent kiss I had with someone I’d been in love with for most of my life?

“You’re awake,” he said.

“No dip, Observer of the Obvious.”

“There’s no need for name calling.” Sam’s face, nostrils flaring, appeared behind Nate’s shoulder.

“Nate…”

I turned toward the sound of Grace’s groggy voice, wishing she would stay asleep. The less she knew, the better.

Grace glanced down at her hands for a moment before looking at me as if I could give her answers, brows drawing together quizzically. “Olga?” She turned her gaze toward Sam, her eyes half-closing.

“Oh, don’t go back to sleep now, sweetheart. You’ll miss all the fun,” Sam told her before studying me through his dark lashes. “My associate paid Juvie a visit not long after you left and questioned Julia. She told us you were trying to scramble the file. That’s when we decided to grab Conner for insurance. I must say, I’m very disappointed in you.”

“What do you want from me?” My words were barely a whisper, all I could muster, and even that caused black spots to cloud my vision.

“We were just going to throw you to Hell for your betrayal. No doubt, we could approach the Throne and build a solid case for your sentence. But Nate intervened on your behalf. He told us you have a perfect photographic memory and could recall what you saw on the original file. Now we can do this the easy way or the hard way. You can simply tell us what you saw. Of course, I understand any reluctance on your behalf, which is why we’ve concocted a truth serum. Sometimes, those serums don’t work on a strong-willed subject, though. That’s what Conner’s here for. We can torture him, focusing on one body part at a time until you cave.”

“And if I still don’t tell you?”

I thought of Conner’s words earlier, telling me not to give in to their demands. Before today, I would’ve never entertained the thought of sacrificing Conner. But I’d finally learned something in the past twenty-four hours. This wasn’t about me, Nate, and Conner. In my journey to save us all, I’d sacrificed the greater good. I’d sacrificed Grace. God loves His children so much, and I just threw that love back in His face. My pride deceived me into thinking I knew what was best. I didn’t listen to Riel or Dr. Judy or Nate, before he turned all evil. And now Conner and I would be damned right along with him. I guess I’d get my eternity with the two guys I loved beside me after all. But the Conner I knew would rather be beaten and thrown into Hell before betraying his honor anyway.

“What will happen if you don’t tell us? Well, that’s why you’re in this laboratory.” He craned his head back, nodding to the medical equipment. “We have scientists here ready to perform a lobotomy. The procedure is tricky, so we’d rather not, but if you don’t cooperate—”

“We won’t hesitate to hijack your brain,” a man said in a deep voice, moving forward and standing beside Nate. A woman trailed behind him, but I couldn’t get a good look at her. I could, however, get a good look at the guy. He was well dressed in a black suit, a buttoned down red shirt under his jacket. “Allow me to introduce myself. I’m Samuel’s father.” He clasped his hands at waist level and flashed me a welcoming smile.

I’d never seen him before, but he looked dashing, his face all shadowy angles and his dark hair slicked back into a ponytail. But I wouldn’t let my eyes deceive me. I knew under all his good looks lay the coldest of hearts.

“Although you probably know me by another name,” he said. “Perhaps Lucifer, Angel of Death, the Grim Reaper, the Devil—”

“You’re Satan?” I spat.

He reached out and gently ran his fingers through my tangled red curls. “The one and only. And this is my bride, Lilith, Demon of Storms. This whole time, your friend Conner, and sometimes even you, blamed God for that lightning strike. But you really should’ve been bowing down to Lilith. God doesn’t send storms like that, my Lilith does.”

“You wanted us dead?”

“Well, at first you were nothing special. Just another pure spirit I sought to destroy. But now I can use you for my revenge.”

“What revenge? You’ve already taken over the planet. The whole world is madness.”

“This is an ancient war spanning the beginning of time, child. The world hasn’t yet seen what I am capable of. Most of the world doesn’t even believe I exist, the greatest trick I’ve ever played. But now they will know just how grave the consequences are when a man doesn’t follow me.”

What the heck is he talking about?
“What does any of this have to do with me?”

Lucifer chuckled. “It’s your reward for retrieving The Alpha File 120 for me earlier. You see, for years I’ve sent in my demons, disguised as the best looking men of this world, to impregnate the women and bare my spawn to raise up an army. But the women and demon children always died before completion of the first trimester, unable to take the more powerful physical changes.

“I realized I was going about my plans all wrong. I looked at the other realms. I knew I couldn’t get access to Heaven, and Hell was already bound. So I studied Purgatory, Limbo, and Juvie. Perfect subjects for my experiment. But first, I needed the chemical makeup of the people residing there. God’s angels had obviously changed the DNA of the deceased to become immortal, even though they retained most of their human characteristics in those realms. They’re half breeds, just like Grace, and she holds the key to unlocking the genetic code.”

I looked at Grace, and her gaze was on me, too, wide and dark with horror. Here the devil was, confirming the suspicions Nate announced earlier to me about why the demons wanted the file.
Was he a double agent the whole time?
I fixed my gaze on God’s Public Enemy Number One. He smirked down at me like a television evangelist who had just swindled me out of all my money in exchange for false hope.

“Now I have Grace’s genetic code and the Alpha File 120. I will be able to see what God sees in Dr. Judy’s mutant spawn, and I will replicate it. Then my greater demons can begin impregnating the women of the Underworld, creating an army more powerful than the angels, uprising from within.”

I expected him to end his little speech with an evil laugh, but he didn’t. A fit of rage took over, my body thrashing against the restraints. “You sick bastard! You’re going to order your demons to force themselves onto the vulnerable souls of the Underworld?”

He laughed, throwing his head back. “Relax. We’re living in the modern age now. We’ll accomplish the whole thing through an in vitro fertilization process to control the super powers we want to impart to each subject. I assume you’re familiar with IVF?”

I snorted through my nose. “Even with God’s genetic codes, there’s no way anybody remotely human would accept your demonic fertility treatment plan.” I tried to sound bold, but my voice cracked on the last few words.

“We’ll see soon enough, my dear, for you will be our little guinea pig today to get this whole ball rolling. First, we’ll feed you the truth serum. Then, you’ll get dibs on carrying
my
first half-breed spawn. Aren’t you glad you stopped by?” His tone served to patronize me. “And no worries, if at first we don’t succeed, we can try again with this second little piggy you’ve brought us.” He nodded toward Grace.

“You’re psychotic. You know that, don’t you?”

He leaned closer to me, looking me in the eye. “That may very well be true. I’ve certainly been called worse. But ask yourself, which one of us stands here a free man, holding all the cards, and which one of us is strapped to a metal table? Look where all your good deeds have landed you. Where is your all-powerful God now?”

His words caused my stomach to turn violently, but I wouldn’t look away. “Don’t worry. I’m sure He’ll be here soon.”
God, you won’t let this happen, right?

Lucifer looked at his watch, then turned toward the door. “Oh, I do hope you’re right. I’ve been waiting to see him for a long time now. But in any case, I doubt you’re correct in your assumption. He cares about free will far too much to intervene in most circumstances. Now, I must go meet our other prisoner. I do hope this Conner was worth all the fuss.”

As he walked out, the others followed. Nate turned and gave me a long hard stare before flipping the light switch, and once again, Grace and I were left in complete darkness.

“Grace, listen. No matter what happens, if you get the chance to run, take it. Don’t worry about me dying or anything else. I’m already dead. You’re dead, too, in case you hadn’t figured that out yet. And I’m really sorry about deceiving you, but I was under your mother’s orders.” I waited a moment for her to ask questions, but she didn’t. “Are you okay, Grace?” I wished I could see her.

“What are you going to do?”

“Right now there’s nothing to do but pray. Pray hard, Grace. Pray very, very hard.”

t could’ve been minutes or hours later that the door burst open, blinding me with brightness when the light switch flipped on. The same demon from earlier came in, still wearing his bloody apron and carrying a glass of water in one hand and some sort of kit in the other. I struggled in vain to sit up.