Even Hell Has Knights (Hellsong) (50 page)

Carlisle lay dying on the cold stones of Hell. He watched his black blood as it crept across the floor, a muddy river fed by the wellspring in his side. The half-congealed liquid was marked with his own footprints, his lifeblood depressed in the pattern of his treaded boots. He felt a malevolence closing in on him—black wings on the edge of his vision. He half sat up from the blood he was lying in and looked all about himself. He couldn’t see very far, but he knew it was out there. A devil, a sentience, a thing that hated him even more than he hated himself. A thing that was coming to kill him.

“Infidel!” Carlisle called.

The evil seemed to recede as if forced away by the word.

How many times has this happened?

“You found me, Carlisle,” Lilith said.

God let his only begotten son be tortured and crucified.

“Save me,” He begged.

“Oh, it’s far too late for that.”

“The Infidel, he’s coming for me.”

The black wings pulled back again, even farther.

“Who?” her voice sounded playful.

“The Infidel.”

She bent down beside him. He remembered her from before, except last time she’d been little more than a shadow. Now she seemed real. “Oh,” her low voice crooned, “say that name again. I love it when you say it.”

“Infidel.”

“Yes, do you see him, standing there? He keeps the devils at bay, my sweet.”

The devils at bay? A blessing.

It hadn’t always been like this.

He crawled up to his hands and knees. He saw the Infidel, silent, only a shade, but oh so very real. While he was near, the black wings could close no farther.

“Save me!” The pain blurred Carlisle’s vision, and he had to fight to breathe.

“The best I can do is give y
ou ways to fight the Devil,” Lilith said.

“I don’t want the Devil, I want the boy.”

“Tsk, tsk. You want the angel’s get, I know. But you’re not headed that way. You have to take a look at the big picture. Do you remember why you were looking for him?”

Because Maab said so. Becaus
e
. .
.
I hate Maab. She took my cock. I hate her. I hate her. Why did I want to do anything for her?

“I’ve forgotten,” he admitted.

“Redemption, wasn’t it, my sweet?”

Yes. Redemption. I failed God. I was sent to Hell for my sins. I wanted to help God. So I had to serve Maab. I had to save the one thing that was pure in this entire place. The child of the angel.

“I remember. I needed to do good.”

“That’s very noble of you, my sweet. You’re making
the devil who calls himself Mephistopheles angry, though. Can you feel him, the blackness clawing to get in?”

“I feel him.”

“Roll on your back.”

C
arlisle did as he was told. Lilith descended upon him, straddling him. Her shoulders and arms were strong. Too strong to look feminine. Her face had a sharp angle to it. A girl’s face, certainly, but her jaw was very muscular.

“So we need to fight the D
evil, don’t we?” Lilith asked.

“Yes! I hate Him.”

He felt his own sick blood soaking through his clothes. He felt almost like he was drowning in it. “Tell me how to fight Him!” He shouted the words too strongly, and the pain became more than he could bear.

The dark circle was
closing quickly around him. Lilith seemed to lose some of her substance. He could almost see through her.

“Who killed you?” she asked.

She’s trying to make me say his name. I won’t do it. Benson warned me. He told me not to say his name.

“No, witch! I’ll not fall for your tricks.” He sat up suddenly and reached out, taking hold of her neck. “Tell me! How do I fight the Devil?”

He was grabbing her throat as hard as he could. Her eyes looked sad. She leaned forward and held him as if he were her very own son. His grip about her throat slackened, and she lowered him into the blood. She kissed him gently on the lips.

Tears welled up in his eyes.

“Faith, child,” she said. “You must give up your Faith.”

She’s trying to trick me!

“Never. That’s what keeps me close to God. If I’d had enough Faith I wouldn’t even be here.”

She seemed even less solid. He
could
see through her. Beyond her was a tide, a flood, a maelstrom of black water—or black blood.

She kissed him again, so softly he could barely feel it. “I’ll explain why, will you listen?”

“Yes.”

She hummed for a few moments, the song of angels, and then she kissed him again—this time a bit more forcefully. “The Devil needs you to have Faith, because with Faith you can forgive anyone anything. You gave your Faith to God, once, remember? The Devil knows that if you’ve given it once, you’ll give it again. He’s going to come asking for it.”

“You’re wrong, woman, I’d never trust the Devil.”

“You say that, my love,” she whispered into his ear, “but you know that hasn’t always been true. You’ve made mistakes before. I mean, how else were you sent to Hell?”

He nodded.

“Let’s say you were reading the Bible,” she continued, “and God ordered that genocide be committed. What would you think?”

“God would do no such thing!”

“Of course He wouldn’t, but what if He did order it? Let’s say He told Moses to kill some tribe to the last man. Imagine He ordered only their virgins be spared so that His men could have them. Imagine you had read it on Earth, what would you think?”

She’s bedeviling me.

But a part of his mind wanted to know. A part of him that had grown to fruition during his schooling. The part of him that had scribbled blasphemy into his senior year English textbook. He imagined reading what she had described in the Bible.

“God would only order such a thing if it were just, so the people He ordered killed must all be evil.”

Her kiss was so faint, like a butterfly landing on his lips. He could see the tide of black water rising beyond her.

“You see, you gave your Faith to God, once, when He came asking for it, and now you’ll forgive Him anything.” She was whispering so softly that he had to fight to hear her. “You’ll give your Faith to the Devil, soon, and He’ll take it, and you’ll forever be His.”

Maab. This woman is worse than Maab. Maab at least wanted to save the angel’s child.

Carlisle gathered his will to resist her. “Never, I’d never give my Faith to the Devil. I will always give it to God. No matter how many times he asks me.”

“Fool! He’ll take your mem
ories. You’ll know nothing,” Lilith said as the black tide swept over them.

“It won’t matter.”

“You’ll know as little as a babe. You’ll know nothing of God or Satan. You’ll know nothing of the universe, or of good and evil. And Carlisle, do you know what will happen this time? Do you know the one difference between your future life and your past one?”

“No.”

“This time the Devil will ask you first.”

The black wave
swept his blood away, swept Lilith away. He felt a resonance building in her absence, powered by a low masculine voice that slowly overtook his soul.

“Now,” said Mephistopheles, “you need to get your dirty hands on that child, don’t you?”

Carlisle breathed in the dark ocean water. It felt cool against his lungs, as if it was extinguishing some fire that had been burning there. “I do.”

“Good, then let’s see if we can work something out. If I were to tell you how to get back to the boy, what would that be worth to you?”

H
ellsong Series continues with Book II:
Knight of Gehenna

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Shaun McCoy lives in South Carolina. He is an accomplished Pianist, Cage Fighter, Chess Player and Writer. You can check out his fan page at www.facebook.com/shaunomccoy