The Darkest Joy (11 page)

“You will leave here in pieces!” he snarled before rushing at
Caim
.

Bliss.
With that one thought,
Caim
was on his feet in an instant and met the demon head on. He had been given a chance to be free, and he would fight to the death for it. The two met like two tanks hitting each other.
Caim
felt his ribs crack under the crushing blows of
Samael
. When the demon swung again, he dodged the fist and rolled away. He looked around quickly to the fallen implements of torture that once lined
Qemuel’s
wall of pain. He moved lithely away from another attack from
Samael
, and his hands rested on a scythe.
Caim
knew to keep moving. Agility was the key against the bulky demon frame of his attacker and former boss. With each move,
Samael’s
anger increased. His roar echoed along the still-crumbling walls.
Caim
saw his chance to strike as the demon charged forward. He rolled between the massive legs of
Samael
and came up behind him. With one swipe of the scythe, he took the demon’s head completely off.
Samael’s
heavy body dropped like granite to the floor, and his head rolled into the lava pits.

Caim
didn’t wait to see who else was coming. He phased out of the underworld that was now in complete chaos. He went topside to find his Bliss and to leave immortality behind.

Chapter Eight

Bliss stared at the monolith that rose up to the sky. It was the only thing that showed ornate craftsmanship in the middle of small-town Merry, North Carolina. The clock tower. It had been designed to look like Big Ben in London, except on a smaller scale. Now it stood white against the darkness of the sky, with its lighted clock and Roman numerals peering across the town square. And right now, it scared the hell out of Bliss because she knew it would be here either she would find her love and her forever with
Caim
, or she would be left alone and filled with grief at losing him. After Belial’s impromptu visit, Bliss did not come unprepared. A golden cross now hung around her neck, and she held a plastic drinking bottle held water blessed by the chaplain of the church chapel. His eyes had held questions when she asked him to bless her drinking water, but she firmly kept her mouth shut. If she had opened up, she would have told him everything, and even though priests are supposed to keep confidence, she had no doubt he would have called someone to take her up to the psychiatric ward.

“No use putting this off any longer,” she muttered as she crossed the street. A drizzle had begun while she pushed against the wooden door that led to the stairs of the tower. She had no doubt that she would not be caught going into the building. In Merry, by nine at night, the shop owners pulled in their sidewalk wares and went home for the night.

The door creaked eerily as she slipped inside. It was warm inside the lower part of the tower. The smell of wood and furniture polish was a familiar comfort, yet it did nothing to abate the nervousness in the stomach. She had no doubt that
Caim
was what she wanted. The fear was that he would not be there and that she would be left with the knowledge that he was in hell being hurt and in pain forever. Her footsteps echoed hollowly on the varnished wooden staircase as she climbed to the top of the tower. When Bliss looked out to the horizon, she could see the boundary of where Merry ended and the lights of every home and business in the town. The rain was coming down now in a steady stream, and the clouds looked ominous and angry when a flash of lightning crossed the sky. Bliss stared out into the darkness and wrapped her hands around her body, hoping to keep some of the warmth inside her. She missed
Caim
so much. She wished she were wrapped in his arms in bed as they had been only a few hours ago. A crashing noise behind her caused her to whirl around with frightened eyes. On the far side of the room,
Caim
lay on the floor. He had hit one of the low beams when he appeared, and Bliss could see instantly he was hurt.

“
Caim
!” She rushed toward his unmoving body. She placed her hand on his back, and he flinched and groaned. When she moved her hand away, it was covered in blood. “Oh my God!
Caim
, what happened? Are you human already? Is that why you’re bleeding?”

“Bliss?” The one word was groaned, even though his face was buried in his hands.

“Yes, darling, it’s me!” Bliss could feel the tears falling down her face. “Please tell me the blood is because you are human.” He rolled over and reached up to caress her face. She could see the bloody, torn flesh at his wrists and knuckles. He was not human, just beaten, beaten badly. “Oh, baby, what did they do to you?”

He tried to smile, but it came across as a grimace. “I told you nothing would keep me away, not even shackles made in hellfire.” He brushed the tears away from her cheeks.

“Don’t cry, my love. Everything will be fine from here on out. What time is it?”

“Five minutes until midnight.” Bliss moaned softly as she looked at his wounds. “Oh
Caim
, oh honey.”

“It will be better, Bliss. These wounds mean nothing as long as I have you. My pain was the thought of never seeing you again.”

Bliss bent down and kissed his swollen lips over and over. “Mine, too. I couldn’t stand the waiting.”

“Well, isn’t this sweet, a reunion between the lovers.”

The snide remark and the hollow laugh that followed made Bliss’s blood run cold.

“Well, I couldn’t let you go,
Caim
, without a proper farewell. You left hell in such an uproar that I just had to come find you.” Belial’s sweet smile did nothing to mask the evil intent in his eyes.

Bliss stood suddenly with her legs bent and ready to defend
Caim
if she had to. “Belial, leave him alone, you bastard. He is not yours anymore. I will kill you if I have to. You will not touch him!”

“Bliss, no!”
Caim
pulled himself up to his knees. “Get out of the way. This is my fight!”

Belial looked at Bliss with mild interest and put a finger to his lips. “
Shh
, patience, dear Bliss. I will deal with you later in very interesting ways. Right now I have to tell a friend good-bye.”

As Belial, his deadly intent clear, walked toward her, Bliss felt the terror in her heart escalate. Only a few minutes left before midnight.
Caim’s
chances seemed slimmer with every tick of the clock.

* * * *

Will it ever end!
Caim
thought tiredly. He didn’t want to fight anymore. He just wanted to live and love and be happy. He tried to move Bliss behind him so Belial could not soil her by touching her with his foul hands. She fumbled with the top of her water bottle before she threw it in Belial’s face. His scream of pain was horrendous, and
Caim
could tell why when some of the water splattered on him. It was holy water, and while the droplets burned a small patch of skin on his arm, it was nothing compared to what it did to Belial’s face. The skin melted off to show the true monster beneath. His once-handsome features were being eaten away by the blessed water. The lips that could have kissed any woman and make her sign away her soul hung loose and limp to one side. The water continued to melt the demon’s flesh, down to the bone, amid his screeching. He looked at Bliss and
Caim
with one eye hanging from the socket and the other red, rimmed with anger. With an angry howl, he grabbed Bliss before
Caim
could stop him and sent her sliding across the floor with inhuman strength. The force of it sent her crashing into the wall, and she lay there, moaning softly.

Seeing her lying on the ground like a rag doll sent rage unlike anything he had ever experienced flowing through
Caim
. With a renewed force, he went after Belial while the seconds that would seal his fate ticked down. He caught Belial around the waist and propelled him into the far wall. Belial turned to complete demon in his arms, and the point of his tail had a sharp barb that was like a spear. He whipped it around to swipe at
Caim
, who barely dodged it coming at his head. No longer was the sweet talker who wore a business suit in front of him. Belial had turned into a savage beast whose jaws were filled with canines trying to bite out
Caim’s
jugular.
Caim
grabbed him in the throat before he could bite at his shoulder and slammed his head against the wall, and the plaster cracked with the force before Belial’s tail took him off his feet. He hit the floor on his back, and the pain from his wounds shot through his body. He had to move quickly because Belial’s tail was coming at him with the intent of going through his heart.

“
Caim
, there is only one minute left!” Bliss screamed.

She diverted his attention from the fight, and for that, the barbed tail of his demon nemesis cut a swath out of his shoulder. Bliss cried out when she saw the gush of blood from his wound.

“Enough is enough!”
Caim
shouted. He caught Belial’s tail in his hand and sent him crashing to the ground. “I am done with this. Go back to hell. No, better yet, how about you cease to exist!”

He took the tail that he held on to and, turning it into his own weapon, sent it straight through the torso of Belial. That wouldn’t kill him.
Caim
knew that as he looked around to find something to finish the job. The clock struck the first chime of midnight as Bliss called out to him.

“
Caim
, use this!”

Chime number two
.

Bliss ripped something from around her neck and threw it in his direction.
Caim
reached up and snatched it out of the sky. The instant it hit his palm, it burned his skin. He looked into his hand, and there sat a thick golden cross.

Chime number three
.

Caim
grabbed Belial’s mouth and shoved the cross down his throat. He let out a gurgling squeal as the religious ornament burned its way down his esophagus. Bliss scrambled over to his side, and together they watched as Belial’s head sank in on itself and his body shuddered in the throes of death.

Chime number four.

The sickening smell of sulfur and rotted flesh filled the air while Belial’s body decomposed in front of them.

Bliss shook
Caim
urgently as the clock chimed for the fifth time. “You got to do it now, baby. There is no more time!”

Caim
stood on shaky legs and caressed her face. “Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me. Just love me for the rest of my life. Now go, my love. I will be there when you fall.”

The clocked chimed the sixth and seventh time while he bent to kiss her. If it didn’t work, he wanted the last thing he ever remembered to be the taste of her lips. Her fingers were still twined with his when he pulled away and began to run for the edge of the clock tower. The chimes were at eight and nine when his wings broke free of his back and he looked over to see her standing with her hands over her mouth and tears streaming down her eyes. His feet hit the rail at the tenth chime, and he was soaring outward into the dark sky at the eleventh chime. The clock struck twelve when he was airborne. He closed his eyes and stretched his arms out at the rain beating down on his wings.

The final chime seemed to echo through his soul before he felt the intense pain of a first heartbeat in his chest. A searing heat cut its way across his back as his wings were burned away by an invisible force. The fire seared through feathers to cartilage then to bone, and then he fell from the sky like a rock. He could no longer soar like the birds, and now, each heartbeat that beat in his chest brought the human fear of what was about to happen. His body hit the asphalt, and he, for the first time in his existence, he heard the sound of bones breaking and realized that they were his. The ground was wet under his cheek, and the pain in his body was excruciating.

“
Caim
!” Bliss’s voice reached him, and he felt her hands touch his back. He felt her move and heard her speaking. “I need an ambulance in Merry Square. A man fell from the clock tower! I think he has multiple fractures, and he is still breathing. Hurry!”

“Bliss, my love,”
Caim
murmured. He wanted to reach up to touch her, but the pain was too great.