Faith (Soul Savers Book 7) (5 page)

“There’s a
suite upstairs with your name on it, Alexis,” Satan said with
the eyes of a lover. “A soft bed with the highest quality silk
linens. A private bathroom with every essential you could need and
more, including a hot, scented bubble bath. When was the last time
you had a bath? Slept in a bed?”

He puffed on his cigar
again, as though waiting for my answer. I remained silent, not
wanting to reveal how enticing a bath and bed sounded. I didn’t
have to say anything, though. He already knew my selfish desires. A
smile danced in his eyes as he exhaled smoke rings.

“And I have so
much else to give you beyond a bed and a bath,” he promised. “A
castle, a claim on any part of that Earth that you want, or down here
if you prefer, servants to grant your every wish. All the food you
and twenty others could ever need. The freedom to do as you please,
with no rules, standards, or expectations tying you down and limiting
your potential.” He leaned forward, resting his arms on his
knee. “You see, I don’t demand sacrifices or require that
you deny yourself in any way. I want everyone to be happy, including
you, Alexis. Especially you. I offer everything you could possibly
want, as well as everything you don’t even
know
you
desire.”

“In exchange for
what?” I dared to ask, only out of curiosity. Because I knew
there had to be something. This was Satan, after all.

He gave a sweltering
grin that could easily seduce the panties off the most austere woman
… or man. “Your soul, of course.”

And there it was. At
least he didn’t beat around the bush. I rolled my eyes. I may
have accepted my fate to be here, but I wouldn’t simply hand my
soul over to him. “I’d rather rot here in Hell.”

The room disappeared,
my butt hit the black ice, and I was surrounded once again by
complete darkness. Utter nothingness. Except the screaming in my
head. The images of those I’d killed played on a loop, their
pain carving into my soul with the jagged edge of a dull blade. Then
other faces, some I knew and most I didn’t recognize. They were
lives I didn’t personally take, but my actions had led to their
deaths, such as the children in the train car we’d abandoned in
Moscow. Whether they actually died or not didn’t matter. I
still felt the guilt. I watched everyone suffer and fall, over and
over and over again. Their screams and wails filled my head, pushing
out everything else, and I clutched at my skull, screaming along with
them as an eternity passed.

“Are you sure
about that?” Satan asked, and the nightmarish images were gone,
my head silent, the beautiful sitting room returned. “Your soul
will become mine anyway, but in a way that is unnecessarily torturous
for you.”

“I deserve it,”
I muttered, lowering my hands into my lap, my heart still pounding
from the onslaught of horrific memories. “Into eternity.”

He studied me with a
peculiar look in his blue eyes. “I don’t think you
realize just how long an eternity can be, child. You thought an
eternity had just passed, but it had been mere minutes in your
terms.” He cocked his head to the side and steepled his long
fingers together, tapping the tips against each other. “You
have no idea the gift I am offering and how rarely it is given. You
said you don’t belong in Heaven, because deep down, you know
you belong here with me. You can be
my
daughter. Be
my
princess. We can rule Hell and Earth, which is ready and waiting
for me, together. You can be with your son.”

My ears pricked. I
narrowed my eyes.

He lifted his chin,
acknowledging my reaction as minute as it was. “You know deep
in your heart and soul that he belongs with me, too.”

“No, he doesn’t!”

“Of course he
does. Why fight it any longer? You can be together now. He can rule,
too. Your husband, as well, by your side as always.”

“Leave him out of
this,” I seethed. Tristan’s soul was not a bargaining
chip. Neither was my son’s, regardless of what he’d done.
I would
never
stop fighting for him. “Leave them both
out of this!”

“Well, maybe you
should tell them that. Dorian’s already made the first move, so
it’s only a matter of time before his soul becomes mine. Would
you like to see?” He waved his hand, and the heavy draperies on
the window parted, showing not a landscape outside, but the interior
of a dark and dirty apartment. “Oh, yes, I can see into the
Earthly realm, just like you can elsewhere in the Otherworld.”

Crouched over a
trashcan, feeding balls of newspaper into a fire that blazed in the
bin, was a man wearing black pants and a sweater. His long, brown
hair was pulled into a low ponytail, and his chiseled face reflected
the shadows and light of the flames. Thick, straight brows, one with
a scar through it, pulled low over his dark eyes. Noah—Mom’s
twin, my uncle, and a Summoned son who was part of the Daemoni. With
him, sitting on a stained, bare mattress on the floor with litter
scattered around his feet, was a younger looking man, a teenager,
with dark blond hair and hazel eyes full of determination. My son.

I gasped and sprang to
my feet. “Oh my God! He’s
alive
? On Earth?”

Satan hissed at my
choice of words.

“For now,”
he answered, sounding annoyed. But …
he
answered. When
Mom and Rina never would.

I ran to the window and
pressed my hands and forehead against it as I stared at my son, new
emotions welling within me. He still had on the same jeans and blue
sweater he’d worn the last time I saw him. They appeared to
have shrunk three sizes, though, showing how much he’d grown
since the day I’d said “see you later” at the gates
to the campus and he’d told me, “not if I see you first.”
I’d thought it a joke then. How had I not known?

“Dorian,” I
called out to him, but, being on the other side of the veil, he
couldn’t hear or see me.

When he spoke to Noah,
though, his words came clearly across the veil. “Kali said I
was the key to breaking the curse on you and the others.”

My jaw slackened, and
my fingers curled against the glass. “What?”

Satan snickered behind
me.

Noah looked up from the
fire that caused light and shadows to dance on his face. “I’ve
heard that, too, and she would know.”

“So she was
telling the truth that if I offer myself to the Daemoni, my parents
and baby sister will be okay?”

Those new feelings—a
flicker of hope—turned upside down, and my heart sank. Was this
the lie he’d been told? Was this why he’d left us? “No,
Dorian. Don’t you do it!”

“My understanding
is that you must be offering yourself as a sacrifice.” Noah
dropped down to sit on the floor. He crossed his long legs at the
ankles and rested his forearms on his bent knees. “The rest of
us went willingly to the Daemoni. They offered us power, wealth,
everything we could possibly want, everything the Amadis could not.
Any power went to our sisters. We were
wanted
by the Daemoni.
Not so much by the Amadis. The decision was simple. But that cannot
be the decision for you, if you want to break the curse.”

Dorian gnawed on his
bottom lip. “My mother and father love me. I love them. I don’t
want
to do this, but I think I have to.”

“No, you don’t,
Dorian!” I banged on the window, but in vain.

“A sacrifice
might break the curse, but there’s no guarantee it will save
your family or anyone else.”

“If I do break it
and you’re freed, though, you will go fight for them?”

Noah nodded. “I
will. But I might be the only one.”

Dorian’s eyes
darkened. “Even after what Kali and my grandfather did to the
others?”

Noah didn’t reply
at first, his own eyes storming, probably at the memory of what he’d
been through when Lucas and the sorcerers controlled him. “I do
not know. Some, such as Edmund, have already given their souls over,
so it is too late for them.”

“But the rest?”

“There’s a
possibility they will convert and fight for your mother.”

Dorian leaned his elbow
on his knee and dropped his chin into his hand as he gazed at the
fire. The reflection of the flames danced in his eyes, looking so
much like the eyes of his father at one time.

“Then I have to
at least try,” he said. “I don’t want my baby
sister to be a part of this war.”

“NO! Dorian, no!”
I screamed, banging harder on the window with both fists until the
glass broke and cut through my palms and wrists.

I prepared to dive
through, but the scene had disappeared, the window displaying a black
wall beyond it. The draperies closed on their own, and I spun around,
still shaking my fists. Blood droplets splattered on the thick
carpet. How could I even bleed, or hurt in this place, for that
matter?

“Oh, I ensure you
feel physical pain, just as if your body were here,” Satan
replied to my silent question. “What fun would it be if you
didn’t? Emotional and mental pain is the best, but the physical
just adds an extra dimension, so to speak.” He held his hand
out to the settee I’d been sitting on before he’d opened
the view to the Earthly realm. “Sit down, won’t you?”

I refused, standing
there with my fists on my hips, blood still dripping on his luxury
grade carpet. His finger jumped, and the bleeding stopped and the
stains disappeared. I didn’t acknowledge him.

“This is Dorian’s
purpose, don’t you know?” Satan asked, and I only
responded by glaring at him harder, my chest rising as I heaved for
breath. “They would never tell you that, of course, but his
purpose has always been to break the curse.”

The breath flew out of
me as though I’d been sucker-punched. Why had nobody ever told
me that? Mom, Rina, Cassandra … the blasted Angels? They’d
kept this critical piece of information to themselves! He was
my
son, and they couldn’t have told me this?

“Ah.” Satan
sighed. “I love the hatred and anger burning in you.
Delightful.”

I pulled back, quickly
reigning in my emotions before he whipped his ugly penis out again.

He frowned, and then
swished his wrist in the air. “Yes, that’s what they want
him to do. Something about helping you win the war and save your
daughter … blah blah blah. As if you could beat me.”

“I lost the baby,
though,” I said, ignoring the taunts. “There is no sister
to save. He’s doing it for nothing!”

“True. My girl
Jeana took care of that little nuisance.” Satan puffed on his
cigar, his blue eyes seemingly thoughtful. “Too bad, isn’t
it? No daughters left on Earth means no reason for the Amadis to
fight. Look how they’ve already given up.”

He flicked his hand in
the air again, and the draperies reopened, showing another scene.
This one outside with a snowy landscape—the entrance to Hades.
Lucas stood in front of a large crowd, all of them on one knee with
their heads bowed. I identified Chandra by her shiny black hair and
spotted the eccentric hat and clothing Minh always wore. They’d
sat on my council. On Rina’s, too! And she’d tried to
make me believe there was any hope left? I shook my head with
incredulity as I recognized other faces in the crowd. In fact, I
knew, all of them were Amadis.
Were
being the key word. They
bowed before Lucas now. My heart shrunk to the size of a pea.

The draperies closed.

Satan tapped his
fingers on the arm of his chair. “So, I wonder, if there’s
nobody left to fight for or with, and there’s no reason for
Dorian to sacrifice himself, is he actually breaking the curse? Or is
he simply coming to my side like every other brother—because
it’s the right side?”

I stared at the thick
and heavy blue curtains as I pondered this question that sounded too
much like a riddle. But the answer was not a joke or play on words. I
dropped onto the settee, emotions coiling and slithering in my
stomach like snakes. The draperies parted again, returning to the
apartment with Noah and Dorian. My son stood at the door, wearing
better fitting clothes now—how much time had passed?—and
looking over his shoulder at Noah.

“I’ll free
you, Uncle Noah, and whoever else wants it. Just please, be there
when my mom needs you.” Dorian walked out the door, shutting it
behind him, and a whimper sounded in my throat.

“Oh, look. I
win!” Satan clapped his hands together and gave me an evil
grin.

“No.” I
shook my head violently. “That hasn’t happened yet,
right?” The drapes closed again, and my gaze flew to the pretty
face. “
Right?
”

Satan pondered me,
taking his time, and I was about to lunge at him when he shrugged.
“Does it matter? Accept it for what it is, Alexis. The end.
Dorian hasn’t given his soul over yet, but he will. So will
you? Where are you going to put your faith? With the winners or the
losers? Them, who have done nothing but lie and keep secrets from
you, denying you your family? Or
me
, who offers you
everything
, including your son? And your husband, too.”

My mind had been
focused on the word
yet
—Dorian hadn’t given his
soul over
yet
—and wondering how I could stop him before
he did. But the mention of Tristan snapped me out of it.

“I said to keep
him out of this,” I growled.

“He apparently
doesn’t want to be left out.” Satan waved his cigar in my
direction, but his gaze focused on some point beyond me. “Look
who we have here. Welcome home, my son.”

I sensed the new
presence immediately, and when I looked over my shoulder, my heart
rocketed into my throat. The most stunning face I’d ever
known—far more attractive than Lucifer’s, who had
supposedly been the most beautiful Angel before he’d
fallen—strode across the room, his legs clad in fighting
leathers, but his shirt gone, leaving his muscular torso bare. His
stomach muscles rippled as he moved toward me with a spark in his
hazel eyes. Seated in the center of sin, I shouldn’t have been
so surprised at how quickly lust consumed me.