Scorn of Angels (25 page)

Verrine stepped through the opening.

“Please…” the girl begged. “Please. Help me find my way out. Please!”

A scream of Angelic pain ripped through the catacombs as another of the Descended was gutted and turned to dust. The girl shrieked in fright and scrabbled backward, trying to find a place to hide where there were no hiding places.

“Oh God, oh God…” The girl moaned. “Please. I know you’re there. Please get me out. I’ll… I’ll let you do whatever you want to me. Now and when we get out. Please…” She stared desperately into the darkness. Her body trembled as she slowly parted her legs. “Please.”

“Nice performance, Persephone,” said Verrine.

Persephone pouted, and the innocent little girl act vanished entirely. “You had to go and ruin it, didn’t you?”

Another scream as another Descended was turned to dust.

“Sixteen left,” said Persephone. She flowed up to her feet, not bothering to change her form. Her sword and whip appeared in her hands. “I was really hoping I could get laid before I killed you.”

Verrine blinked in surprise. “What?”

“Do you know how long it’s been since I’ve had an Angel—a male Angel?” she clarified. “It’s been a long, long time. I could have really used that.”

Verrine grinned. “Sorry to disappoint.”

“No, you’re not,” said Persephone, pouting again. “If you were really sorry, you’d prove it by killing your brethren and joining me and Nyx. We’re going to destroy Lucifer.”

“Not from where I’m standing.”

“Where you’re standing,” purred Persephone, “is in your grave, unless you join us.”

Verrine’s grin widened. “Try me.”

In a place outside of God’s universe, Arcana hung, naked, suspended by invisible bonds that secured her to the void as tightly as any chains would secure a mortal to a wall. Her wings had been pulled off as easily as the wings of a fly, leaving bloody, gaping wounds in her back. As a loyal Angel, fighting on the side of God, she had never known such pain.

Tribunal ran an appreciative hand over Arcana’s body, lingering on her breasts before slipping down and around to cup the curve of her ass. She was taller than he, especially suspended off the ground. He smiled up at her expressionless face. “It must be difficult for you,” he said, “knowing that you will be turned into nothingness.”

Arcana didn’t answer. Nothingness didn’t bother her as much as knowing this insect might win. Tribunal smiled at her. “You will have to tell me about what happened on Earth,” he said. “Eventually. There is no hurry anymore. I have just about hidden the last of Earth from God’s sight, and when that happens I will unleash the armies of Hell upon the planet, and watch as they kill all those disgusting humans that God so loves.”

He sat down and waved a hand. A model of Creation floated in the air before him: Heaven, Hell and the mortal universe in the middle. It was so full of detail they could have almost been staring into Creation itself.

“You see it?” Tribunal asked. “This is all of God’s Creation. And right now, he isn’t aware of most of it.” He waved his hand again and a thin mesh of darkness coated Creation. There were a few small patches in it where the light of Creation still shone through, but for the most part it was covered. “See?” said Tribunal. “These patches are all that God is actually seeing of Heaven, Earth and Hell. And when they are covered, God will be blind to the workings of the universe.” His smile grew wide and maniacal. “And when that happens, I will make all of Creation go away, and God with it.” He laughed; there was such power in it, it made her shiver. How could a God of goodness have sired this abomination? Tribunal looked away from his model. “And now, my dear, I must attend to this for a time. But don’t worry. I’ll be sure to keep you amused. I can do that, now. Because all the power that is in God is in me.”

Arcana began screaming a moment later. Tribunal smiled and turned his attention back to finishing the black mesh covering Hell and Earth. Once that was done, it would be time. And meanwhile, the sounds of agony and despair from Arcana made a delightful accompaniment to the work.

Deep in the catacombs below Rome, the nine remaining Descended crouched together in a large, low-ceilinged cavern. There was no way out save for the door they had been driven through when they were herded into the room. Their swords and whips were at the ready, and their eyes were on the entrance.

On the other side, just out of sight of the tunnel, Persephone and Nyx leaned against the wall. Persephone was grinning. “And you said this wasn’t going to be any fun.”

“No,” corrected Nyx. “I said this was going to be a waste of time.”

Persephone looked down the hallway. “Straight in at them?”

“Unless you have a better idea.”

There was a sudden rumble and the grating of stone on stone, and the room before them vanished under the weight of the stone above it. A puff of displaced air and dust flew down the hallway at the two of them. The Descended inside didn’t even have time to scream or call out for help before they were flattened into paste by the weight that landed on them.

“Well,” said Persephone, “we could always do that.”

Mother,
sent Epiphenia,
Arcana has been taken by
Tribunal.

Nyx stood, stunned at the news. She stared at the rock wall before her where the room full of Angels had once been.

“Fuck,” said Persephone. “Now what?”

Nyx kept staring.

“Nyx? What do we do now?”

Mother?

“What we do now,” said Nyx, “is get the fuck out of here. And then we make a plan because there is no way I am letting that bastard Tribunal win this.”

The pain that had wracked Arcana’s body and mind suddenly vanished. Her eyes slowly cleared until she saw that she was still hanging in the void, still unable to move. She was still in pain. Every inch of skin, every muscle, every bone and every orifice felt as though it had been violated and abused beyond belief. She looked down, certain she would find skin missing from her body, and broken bones protruding from torn muscles.

Her skin was whole, save that her wings were still gone.

“Back, are you?” asked Tribunal. “Good.” He rose from where he had been sitting and with a gesture, released her bonds. Arcana fell into a heap on the ground. Her limbs had no strength in them. “The coverage of Earth is complete. God sees nothing. Come here.”

Arcana started crawling forward. She tried to fight it, tried to will herself to stay still, but she could not. Tribunal’s power was too great. She crawled until she was sitting at his feet.

“I’m going to journey to Hell now,” said Tribunal, “to tell Lucifer to unleash his armies on the Earth. And if God does not react to that, then I shall know the Earth is truly hidden. And then, my dear, I will go to Earth myself, and I will bring an end to all Creation.” The hunger in his voice made Arcana nauseous. His smile was half-crazed, and his eyes flashed with a deep insanity that frightened Arcana to her core. He smiled at her. “Have you ever been to Hell?”

“No, Tribunal.” The words slipped out of Arcana’s mouth before she could stop them. He had made her speak, she was sure.

“Then you should visit with me,” said Tribunal.

“God does not allow the Heavenly Host to visit Hell,” said Arcana, and once more she felt as if her thoughts were being forced into words and torn from her. “He will know.”

“He will know nothing,” said Tribunal. “Because he cannot see what is happening. He can only see the illusions I have spun for him.” He frowned. “That said, bringing all of you along would be cumbersome.”

Tribunal reached out with one hand and tore Arcana’s head from her shoulders. She didn’t have time to make a sound. Tribunal held her head up and looked into her still-comprehending eyes. “Much better.”

With a smile on his face, he opened a hole in the base of his world between worlds and let himself fall the long drop to Hell.

Chapter 12

N
yx took them
to her place deep in the Earth. She had built it centuries before as a place to go for solitude, and as a way to contact Tribunal. It had been here that she had cast the spell that took her to Tribunal in Sheol. And the sight of it again, even after all the years of suffering and misery in between, brought back the wild feelings of pas- sion and joy that she had experienced in his presence back then. It also brought back the memory of power—his power, poured into her in an exchange of spiritual energy more intimate than any sex could ever be.

Nyx clamped down hard on the feelings. Tribunal had programmed her to have them, and there was no way she would give in to them again.

I wish I had a tenth of that power now,
thought Nyx as she brought the other two into the magic circle she had created—
was it a hundred years ago? Two hundred? I can’t remember
now.

Persephone looked down at symbols carved between the lines of white marble that Nyx had inlaid in the floor and named the languages. “Elamite, Hurrian, Akkadian. Impressive. When did you do this?”

“I don’t remember anymore,” said Nyx. She stepped into the circle and sat down. For all three of them to sit inside the circle, their legs had to be interlinked, their feet wrapped around each other’s backs, their arms around each other. Nyx found herself taking comfort from the intimacy. Persephone, her friend and lover throughout the eons, and Epiphenia, her daughter, were the only two on this world who cared the slightest if she lived or died.

Pity we don’t have Arcana with us,
she thought.
Or
Ishtar.

Her heart sank a bit at the thought of Ishtar, but the grief was quickly replaced with rage. For Ishtar to betray them like that…

Is completely like Ishtar,
Nyx thought.
Stupid
bitch.

“Well, we’re here,” said Persephone. “Now what?”

“Now,” said Nyx, pulling out of her reverie. “We make sure no one can hear us.”

She reached down to either side and poured her power into the circle. The symbols lit up and glowed red. Slowly a dome of power covered the three of them, blocking their presence from all things, even God. Persephone watched a moment and then added her power to the circle. Epiphenia did the same a moment later. The dome of power completed itself, and the three Angels were hidden from all beings in the Universe, including God and Tribunal.

“It’s done,” said Nyx.

“Good,” said Persephone. “Now what?”

“Now we need to stop Tribunal.” Nyx paused, hoping an idea would come to mind. God’s Son and God’s Self. How does he hide so well? But then, she had always suspected God had stretched himself a bit thin with the creation of the universe. He had worked to the very edge of divine power, and wasn’t that dangerous? But even asking such questions—as God’s creation—felt foolish. How could she know his limits? But Tribunal did. Or thought he did. Possibly, he was wrong. “I’m open to suggestions.”

“I felt Tribunal’s power when I was waiting for Arcana to reach Heaven,” said Epiphenia. “None of us can match it. All of us together can’t match it.”

“Can he die?” asked Persephone. “Like from a sneak attack from behind maybe?”

“I don’t know,” said Epiphenia. “You might destroy his physical form, but he’s an incarnation of God, so I imagine it would be very hard to actually kill him.”

“Plus, he’s not here,” said Nyx. “We’d have to get close to him to kill him and as long as he’s in Heaven we can’t do that.”

The three sat, despondent. At last Epiphenia said, “There is no way to stop him, is there?”

“There has to be,” said Nyx. “We can’t let him destroy the Earth.” She realized at that moment that even if she had a paradise of her own—safe and beautiful, full of sexy angels— she would not want to lose Earth. She held her friend and daughter close. “So what will his next steps be?”

In the orgy chamber in Nyx’s throne room, Ishtar sighed and lay back as the last ripples of pleasure passed through her. The three Angels who had been servicing her—all lieutenants in the 666th Legion—rose from the bed and stood at attention, awaiting new orders. She smiled at them. “You all get to keep your jobs for the time being,” she said. An aftershock ran through her body, sending delicious waves of pleasure through her. “And we will definitely have to do that again.”

Ishtar looked over to Lucifer. He had five male souls—rapists, murderers and thieves when they were alive—bent over a rail, their hands tied to their feet, their genitals immersed in bowls of Hellfire. Lucifer alternated randomly between whipping them and violating them while demons danced around them, pinching and biting. The souls screamed in agony.

Ishtar shook her head; Lucifer was still all about the sex. There were far worse things he could do to them, but his pleasure was always his first concern.

It was also a domination tactic, of course, like one dog humping another.

Ishtar had asked around and discovered that there was no officer in the 666th who hadn’t been in the exact same position since Lucifer’s rise to power. Humiliation was part of being in Lucifer’s service. He demanded total subservience and knew that the more brutal he was to his commanders, the more brutally they would drive their soldiers. And so he brutalized them all every chance he had.

It’s still really boring,
thought Ishtar. She looked over her lieutenants. One of the males was especially outsized for his shape, and Ishtar appreciated such things. She was about to call him over again when a blinding light filled the room. The power and the majesty of it drove all the Angels in the room to their knees and made the souls cry out in pain as it burned through them.

When it faded, Tribunal was standing in the throne room. Ishtar blinked to clear the last of the spots from her eyes and saw Arcana’s head, still alive, hanging on Tribunal’s belt. The sight of it made Ishtar smile. Arcana’s eyes moved as she took in the room. A look of distaste came over her face at the sight of the burning, abused souls bent over the rail.

“Lucifer,” said Tribunal. “I thought I put you in the Lake.”

“You did,” said Lucifer. “I got out.”

Lucifer started to rise and felt the incredible weight of Tribunal’s will push him back down. Lucifer gritted his teeth and strained against it. Inch by inch, he rose taller and taller. Tribunal’s power was still bearing down on him, but it seemed less than it had been before.

Of course, he’s not focusing all his power on me this time,
thought Lucifer.

It took a long time for Lucifer to rise all the way to his feet, and it hurt. He did it anyway. Lucifer had no intention of facing Tribunal on his knees. Tribunal was more powerful, but Lucifer was still a partner in this deal and was determined to be treated like one.

When he reached his full height and was staring at the smiling, contempt-filled face of Tribunal, he said, “What do you want here?”

Tribunal smiled. “Have I interrupted your amusements, Lucifer?”

“Yes,” said Lucifer, still straining under the weight of Tribunal’s power. “What do you want?”

“It is time,” said Tribunal. “Time for you to unleash the armies of Hell onto Earth.”

Lucifer smiled. “Good. I’ll send up the 666th at once.”

Tribunal’s eyebrow went up a fraction of an inch. “You’ll send them all up at once.”

“No,” said Lucifer. “I won’t.”

“You’ll do what I tell you,” said Tribunal, stepping closer. “Or I’ll blast you out of existence.”

“No, you won’t,” said Lucifer. “You can’t, now.” He gestured at the other Angels in the room. “They’ve already seen Nyx destroyed. And they all know the deal we have cut. If they see that you are betraying that deal, how much cooperation do you think you’ll get? How many Angels will you have rising to the surface instead of running off to the edges of Hell?”

Tribunal stepped closer to Lucifer. Despite Lucifer’s massive size, it was Tribunal who looked the most threatening. He didn’t raise his voice when he said, “I can compel them.”

“All of them?” countered Lucifer. “Can you control them all and still maintain the net you spun around God, Heaven, Earth, and Hell? Because I doubt it.”

Tribunal glared at Lucifer. Ishtar could see the sweat breaking out on the big Angel’s forehead. At last, Tribunal said, “Then what do you propose?”

“I send the 666th,” said Lucifer. “They establish a beachhead and start the killing. If they go unchallenged, then we send up the rest and lay waste to the entire world.”

“Not lay waste to it,” said Tribunal. “Kill the humans, scatter their animals, destroy their cities. Leave the rest of the world alone.”

“In case God sees through your illusion?”

“Yes,” said Tribunal. “And make sure your legion is more successful at killing humans than your squads were at killing Nyx.”

“They will kill her,” said Lucifer with confidence he didn’t feel.

“They are dead,” said Tribunal. “The last of them died under Rome when Nyx dropped half the city on their heads.”

That’s Nyx, all right,
thought Ishtar.
Pity she chose the wrong side. Stupid
bitch.

“Unfortunate,” said Lucifer. His expression didn’t change at all, but Ishtar could feel the anger radiating from him. “They must have overestimated their abilities.”

“You overestimated their abilities,” said Tribunal.

“You’re the one who said I could only send fifty after them.”

“Because I thought it would be enough,” snapped Tribunal. “I
thought
that you Descended would be competent enough to dispatch one of your own without sending an entire legion. But apparently, I was wrong!”

“Well, this time, I’m dispatching a legion,” said Lucifer. “And this time the bitch will not be escaping at all.”

“This time,” said Tribunal, his voice cool and calm and very dangerous, “I will go to Earth and I will dispatch the bitch. You will prepare your legion. I want it on the surface by the time I return to Heaven.”

The light flared bright again, and Tribunal was gone. Lucifer stared at the spot where Tribunal had stood a moment longer. Then he turned and methodically smashed the bodies of each of the souls on the bar, ripping them in two with his hands, dashing their heads against the floor, and stomping on their flesh until there was nothing left but piles of blood and meat. When he was done, he grabbed Ishtar and fucked her on top of the remains.

Ishtar waited until he was finished, then said, “Shall I call out the legion?”

“Yes,” said Lucifer. “And anyone who is slow can spend the next thousand years in the Lake.”

Ishtar straightened up and walked out of the room, wincing with each step. “As you wish, my Dread Lord.” She snapped her fingers, and her lieutenants followed in her footsteps.
And when I am done with Nyx and the humans, I will be coming after
you.

“If we aren’t powerful enough to stop Tribunal,” said Nyx, “who is?”

“God,” said Persephone.

“Maybe,” said Epiphenia. “But from what I’ve seen, God doesn’t know what’s going on. Tribunal has hidden Creation from him.”