Scorn of Angels (5 page)

Nyx started babbling her thanks, and Andromalius smiled. “I said whole, not free of pain.”

He kicked her facedown and held her there with one nail-shod boot. He took the barbed spear and rammed it into her backside. He lifted her with it and shoved the end into the stony ground to hold her upright until her feet could once more touch. Demons laughed and danced and cut and bit at her flesh. One sat on her shoulders and shoved its clawed fingers repeatedly into her eyes, laughing every time they burst.

When Nyx/Aleyd’s feet finally regrew, she pushed hard against the razor-sharp stones of the ground, trying to free herself of the barbed spear that ripped open her guts. She bent over and tried pulling at it, but the barbs ripped at her flesh from the inside.

Two demons jumped on her and shoved her facedown on the earth. They grabbed the shaft of the spear and began ramming it in and out of her.

All the way to the palace the tortures continued. Demons tortured and violated her, and visited a hundred other evils upon her flesh. And when Nyx reached the door of Lucifer’s palace, Andromalius ripped the spear from her body, leaving a gaping hole.

I am nearly
there.

Nyx’s whip and sword were both ready to hand, though invisible. They were as much a part of her body as her wings.
And all I have to do is get close enough to that bastard Lucifer and I can end
this.

She kept playing her part, kept screaming and trying to run away from her attackers, who overwhelmed her easily. She walked on bloody feet into her own palace. Around her, other souls did the same. Some were intact; others were broken. One male soul had been bent into a circle and had its own head shoved into its ass, then had its arms and legs cut off so it could be kicked around like a ball.

Slowly, slowly, the line moved forward. And when she reached the end of it, when she stepped into the throne room, she saw Lucifer sitting on a new throne, a naked Angel on her knees before him giving him pleasure as he judged the souls one by one.

Lucifer was as beautiful as ever. His massive chest and legs were perfectly proportioned to match his even more massive wings. His cock was outsized to the point where the Angel in front of him was hurting herself every time she took it in her mouth. He wore his horned crown upon his head, and he shone from within with a dim light like a slow-burning fire of coals.

Nyx remembered when he had lit up the sky, but that had been before the rebellion, before all their dreams had been crushed and their lights darkened to what they were now.

Lucifer shoved the Angel in front of him aside, changed his form into a dragon and blew a breath of fire that turned the soul before him into a crisped mass of burning flesh.

“Throw him into the Lake again,” said the Lucifer-dragon. “That will cool him.”

The Angels and demons in the room laughed and hauled the soul away. Lucifer looked at the male soul before him. “And here we have a rapist. Lovely.”

He breathed fire, burning away the man’s genitals and most of his flesh. Lucifer transformed back to himself. “There’s a pole that burns with eternal Hellfire. We impale your kind there. Take him.”

What was left of the soul screamed as it was dragged away.

And so it went. Eight other souls were judged and tortured and thrown or dragged or mopped up and taken from the palace. Two left in the belly of demons.

Then it was Nyx’s turn.

All I have to do is make this work a little
longer…

Something vivid green in the corner caught her attention.

Impossible.
There were no colors in Hell, save that which spilled from the souls’ guts. Everything else was black, made from Hellstone.
So what the fuck is
it?

It was small and delicate and the brilliant green of the plants that floated on the surface of a pond.

It was the color of Epiphenia’s blood.

But she’s dead
, Nyx thought
. She’s dead. They ripped her heart out and killed her, and she is
dead.

But nothing dies in Hell, does
it?

Andromalius kicked her spine, sending Nyx smashing on the floor before Lucifer. Nyx raised every mental defense she had, hid her true self behind a wall of mirrors that only showed reflections of Aleyd. Lucifer peered deep inside, frowning. Then he spun and backhanded Andromalius across the face hard enough to send him flying to smash against the wall. “Idiot! This one has already been here!”

Nyx breathed a sigh of relief.

“She was in the lake,” protested Andromalius. “I fished her out!”

“Get over here and get on your hands and knees,” said Lucifer, stroking his outsized erection. “I need to finish.”

Andromalius, anger and resentment burning in his expression, did as he was told.

Nyx crawled away from them, muttering, “My children? Where are my children?”

Demons laughed and bounced off of her, knocking her onto her face as they once more attacked her flesh. Nyx kept crawling, kept moving ever so slowly forward, crying out the names of the three lost children. The demons found it all hideously amusing and attacked her again.

Nyx reached the flash of green.

It was a small, delicate plant, a single thin stem and a tiny round leaf, straining upward for life where no plant had ever—could ever—grow. Nyx stared at it
. It’s not possible. Not here, not
ever.

There’s no
way…

One of the demons kicked her forward and she landed face-first on the plant. Touching it sent a burst of power into her body. In a flash the plant ripped itself from the ground and embedded into Nyx’s skin. She screamed from the pain of it (a pain like the light of a thousands suns) and went unconscious—which was not possible in Hell either.

When Nyx awoke, the demons were capering about her, screaming and laughing and hacking at her flesh. Behind her, Andromalius was doing his own screaming.

The wounds in Nyx’s body were healing almost instantly, far faster than even her Angel flesh did. She ruthlessly suppressed the healing to keep her outer body bloody and damaged and began crawling once more, going out the back door of the throne room and into the corridors of the palace.

She could feel the power moving inside her, unconscious, unthinking, but still living, bearing the signature Nyx would recognize anywhere.

It was Epiphenia. Her daughter. She was alive. Somehow, something of Epiphenia had survived. And when it had found its creator, it had rejoined her, giving Nyx all the power that had been poured into her Angel of the Earth. Tribunal’s power.

And with it, the certain knowledge that, if Nyx could not break free of Hell, the entirety of Creation was doomed.

I have to get out of here,
Nyx realized.
I have to get out of
Hell.

And I’m going to need
help.

Nyx rose to her feet and, still crying the names of the dead children, went in search of Persephone and Ishtar.

Chapter 3

W
andering the palace
where she once ruled was a study in pain. Nyx mostly crawled, though sometimes she managed to stumble to her feet. The demons followed after her, making themselves invisible to mortal eyes so they could strike her unexpectedly. Nyx could see them perfectly, of course, but had to pretend she didn’t. She cowered and cried out as they leapt at her, slicing or biting into her flesh or grabbing her and slamming her against walls, floor, or ceiling to make her bones break.

Nyx screamed with each attack, just as the soul would have. Bodies did not go into shock in Hell. There was no relief from pain, no oblivion one could sink into. Even when the physical forms had been tortured so brutally that nothing remained but black, burnt Hellstone, the soul’s agony would continue. And so Nyx had to scream and wail in pain, and struggle to get away every time one of the demons grabbed her.

She kept moving forward, kept crying out the names of Aleyd’s children as she crawled from room to room. She made her body heal more slowly than it should.

Suddenly, the demons were knocked away by Angelic feet wearing black Hellstone boots that kicked them against the walls, stomped them on the floor, and broke their bodies open. The demons squealed and fled. The Angel knelt down beside Aleyd/Nyx and took her chin in her hand. She was tall, blond, beautiful, with olive skin and brown eyes, wide black wings, and a ripe body that sparked lust in all who saw it.

“Poor dear,” the Angel cooed. Her name was Astarte, and she had neither sympathy nor empathy in her soul. “You’ve been so ill-used, haven’t you? And all because you lost your children.” She held out her hand and lifted Nyx to her feet.
Did souls really buy this shit?
“But don’t worry, my dear. I spoke to Lucifer. He promised me your suffering could end, if you could find them. And I found them!” Her voice went high, like that of an overexcited 10-year-old bully introducing a new kid to the rules of the game.

She led Nyx down the hallway to a door that she opened wide. “There they are, the poor darlings.”

Nyx recognized the room at once. She’d built it herself, and had made a hundred Angels crawl through it for penance. It was a hundred yards long, and the floors, wall, and ceiling were lined with jagged-bladed wheels that spun continuously. Every inch that wasn’t moving was covered in razor-sharp, pointed stone that would pierce anything. And on the far side of the room were three demons wearing the shapes of Aleyd’s dead children. Nyx snarled, though no one saw. The soul inside her shrieked with longing.
Be quiet,
she muttered. She knew what she had to do, and began crawling across the room, trying to avoid the blades.

Astarte kicked her hard and impaled her on the nearest spinning wheel, ripping her guts out and spraying them across the room. Nyx screamed and thrashed her way off the wheel. Then, knowing what was expected, she kept crawling toward the demons. The only exit was on the other side of the room anyway. Astarte laughed and closed the door.

About damn
time.

It was the first time since she’d been pulled out of the lake that there were no Angels around. Which meant it was the first time she could really search for Persephone and Ishtar without anyone noticing. She ripped her body off the wheels of blades and let it heal itself. The demons on the other side of the room called to her in piteous children’s voices, letting their bodies be cut on the spiked floor and begging their mother for help. Inside her body, Nyx felt Aleyd thrashing, trying to get free and call back.

Shut up, stupid woman!
Nyx screamed at her inside her mind.
They’re fakes! They’re not your children. What the fuck would children be doing here? If I hear from you again, I’ll put you back into the
lake.

Aleyd broke down in sobs, but quickly silenced herself and said no more. Nyx was startled to realize that the woman believed her.

Nyx cast her mind outward in slow spirals, searching for Persephone and Ishtar. She did not call for them because another Angel might hear. Instead, her consciousness slipped subtly across the surface of Hell, skimming over Angel after Angel. It dipped into the Lake of Fire to touch the Angels chained there. Those who noticed it felt a light brush against their flesh like the briefest of touches from a hesitant finger. Most didn’t feel anything.

Ishtar was the closest. She was no more than two miles away, but she might as well have been on another world.

She was in Lucifer’s palace, which was guarded by Descended from the 666th legion.

Nyx had never posted guards when she had been Queen of Hell. She had gained complete control over the Descended and had little need of guards. It wasn’t until she left that Lucifer was able to raise the Angels against her. Apparently, Lucifer had not managed to equal her.

No souls ever entered Lucifer’s palace that he did not order there himself. The ones inside were chained to walls when Lucifer wasn’t giving them his attention or tortured into Hellstone shapes for his use. There was no way that Nyx could get inside as she was, and if she changed form there was no way Lucifer and his guards would not know it was her.

She was the strongest of the Descended, and could destroy dozens if they came after her.

Too bad they’ll come after me in
thousands.

Nyx reluctantly let her mind circle outward once again, covering every inch of the plains of Hell, brushing over the millions of sinners tortured there, and the Angels and demons who stood over them, forcing new and brutal agonies onto each.

She spiraled farther outward, through the black rock valleys and the spiked, razor-sided mountains. Her mind went to the black pit of a prison where Lucifer had put the Angels who still fought against him, each broken and stuffed into a Hellstone chest as Nyx had been, then buried beneath tons of rock. Farther she went, circling ever outward, until she came to the Palace of Pleasure. And found Persephone.

What the fuck is she doing
there?

Nyx looked closer and felt a surge of rage. Persephone was definitely in the Palace of Pleasure, and there was no way that Persephone should be there, unless…

She betrayed me. That bitch betrayed me. I’ll cut her to fucking ribbons! I’ll pull her guts out and make her eat them! I’ll…

What will I
do?

Nyx pulled herself back to herself. There was no way to do anything as she was, and she still needed allies.

I will go to the Palace of Pleasure, and I will coax her back to my side,
Nyx decided.
Or I will cut her in two right there and toss her in the Lake of Fire
myself.

Nyx began crawling forward, heedless of the pain of the spiked floors and whirling blades that hacked at her body. Blood flew as her flesh was torn open. The child-shaped demons capered and cavorted, begging for her help. Ahead of her was the one clear piece of floor in the entire room. Nyx had put it there deliberately, and now, just as deliberately, pulled her body onto it.

The floor, delicately counter-weighted, spun once her full weight was on it, and Nyx fell deep into a whirlpool of Hellfire.

She knew it was coming, of course, just as she knew what was going to happen to her once she fell in. She steeled her mind as all her sins came to revisit her, and the pain she’d inflicted on others roared through her mind.
Babies torn from their mothers, orphans left to starve.
She hadn’t done any of that on purpose, exactly—it had just been part of war. But that knowledge didn’t make the pain easier to bear. The Hellfire burned her flesh and threatened to rip Aleyd’s soul from her body. Nyx had a moment to wonder what the soul was learning of Nyx’s crimes before she clamped down on it and forced her body to heal as fast as it could to counter the pain of the whirling Hellfire. It responded faster than she could ever recall it doing, save when she had possessed Tribunal’s power.

Epiphenia,
Nyx remembered.
She is in me now. Her power is making me
stronger.

The whirlpool spun Nyx faster and faster until it pulled her under and into the tunnel below.

She had spent a century carving the tunnel, making sure there was no way that any being—Angel, demon or soul—could get through it unscathed. Now, as the Hellfire rushed her down the pipe, she was lacerated half a hundred times in the first seconds. Her skull split open. Her guts ripped out, only to be tangled in the rocks and to hold her, briefly, against the rushing Hellfire before they tore in two and sent her spinning down the tunnel once more.

The pain was immeasurable, and her body was nearly destroyed a thousand times before the tunnel grew narrower and narrower and the Hellfire faster and faster. Nyx closed her eyes, knowing what was to come next.

The pain of the Hellfire abruptly vanished as she was spewed out the end of the tunnel and into darkness. Nyx had the briefest of moments to brace herself for what was to come next.

I really am an asshole
sometimes…

She slammed into the spiked wall and hung, impaled for a fraction of a second before the spikes tilted at their hinges as they were meant to do, and Nyx slid down the razor-sharp rock that made up the side of the mountain. She managed not to scream as every single inch of flesh on her body was ripped to shreds. She left a trail of blood and guts and bits of bone and Hellstone from Aleyd’s broken remains as she skidded down the mile-long slope into the final indignity—a pit of waiting mini-demons that swarmed over her flesh, gleefully ripping away the torn pieces as she struggled her way out of the pit. She managed to pull herself free and stumble away.

She was less than five miles from the Pleasure Palace. She could walk it in an hour or less, if they left her alone.

They didn’t, of course.

The demons came first, chasing after her like a pack of hounds. Because she could not betray her true nature, Nyx had to let them overtake her, had to fight them ineffectually as they ripped into her body with their teeth and claws. They let her get away and heal for the pleasure of chasing her again and again. On the fifth time they drove her to a precipice and were preparing to jump her when an Angel came down from above, picked her up, and raised her another five thousand feet in the air. Then he shoved his sword into her body, cut it in half from the neck down, and let her drop, screaming, to pulp herself against the earth.

And so it went.

It was days, as mortals reckoned, by the time she made it to the Pleasure Palace. Her body had been beaten, bitten, cut, gutted, violated, and once devoured whole by a giant demon who shit her out again hours later. She had been dunked in Hellfire a half-dozen times and had never, ever been allowed to stop moving.

She could hear the demons howling again as she slumped against the wall of the palace.

It was a huge building, as black as any other in Hell, but made solely for the Descended to indulge in the pleasures of Angelic flesh. Persephone had stayed in it for months at a time. It was her favorite place in Hell. You could always find her by looking for the most inventive configuration of bodies.

Nyx crawled around the back of it, hoping the demons would give her enough respite to pinpoint Persephone’s location. She closed her eyes and found Persephone. The betraying bitch was in the central orgy room. Nyx growled underneath her breath.
I will gut her and take her up to Earth, where I will kill her
permanently.

Now how do I get to
her?

Souls were not allowed inside the Pleasure Palace. Demons were not allowed inside the palace either, save the succubae and incubi who provided pleasure on demand. Only Angels could pass freely through the doors, and if she let her true nature show, there would be no hope of escape.

A succubus it is, then. But how to keep the other Angels from knowing what I
am?

Nearby, she could hear the howling of the demon pack closing in on her.

Nyx closed her eyes and looked inside herself for the connection to Epiphenia’s power. It was tenuous, barely reachable through the soul that Nyx had stretched through her body. Even so, it had already helped her, healed her, and kept her alive. But there was more power there, much more, if Nyx could reach it.

Maybe even enough to make me invisible to
Lucifer.

It was worth a try.

Nyx changed her hand so her nails were razor sharp and plunged them into her body. Using the force of her mind she pulled together the black stone that was Aleyd. The soul screamed in protest, as she was wrenched away from Nyx’s flesh.

“Please!”
Nyx heard in her mind.
“Please. I must find my children. I must protect
them.”

Nyx pulled Aleyd free, tearing her out of Nyx’s brain case and body, and wrapping her back up into a Hellstone ball.

“Please?”