Bittersweet Seraphim

  “Emma!” he hollered. “That the best you got?”

  Emma’s voice floated down to Hell, loud and strong. “Nope. Just getting started, you pansy-assed girl.”

  Everett’s wings lit up again, and he flew back up through the hole.

  Jason looked at Jack’s bewildered face. “Looks like she’s kicking his ass. You still want to martyr yourself? Or are you ready to nut up, cowboy?”

  Jack shook his head in apparent disbelief. “If she wins, she’s the Devil. Then we can be together. Shit!”

  The minions had now abandoned everything and focused singularly on getting out of Hell. Jack pushed out of the dragon’s grasp and grabbed Jason’s shoulders.

  “Listen, ride this dragon up there and help Emma if you can. Avoid the minions—they’ll be crazed because Everett’s freed them from their compulsions. He wants them to fight for him. It won’t last forever. I’m going to find Dean, Seriana, and Violent. Does that sound right?” Jack seemed energized but a bit disorganized as well.

  “I want to help you get to Seriana,” Jason countered. “Kate, will you be okay?” Jason wasn’t ready to rely on Jack.

  The poodle came to stand by Jack, obviously not able to get out through the hole or ride the dragon.

  Nero put his arm around his daughter. “Kate goes to the surface now.”

  With that, the dragon, who appeared to understand more English than it let on, lowered itself for the riders. Kate ran to Jason and kissed his lips.

  “I feel like we were blessed or something. Please find me when this is over.”

  Jason didn’t tell her it was crazy to even hope there’d be an after, but if there was one, he was certain he wanted to spend it with her. He held his faintly glowing palm to hers. “She did bless us. I’ll see you on the other side.” He kissed Kate’s lips gently, aware of Nero’s intense scrutiny.

  Jason helped her up and the dragon took off, knocking minions out of its way, then made Emma’s tunnel bigger with its head and wiggled through. All of Hell shook, as if it were trying to get into its own hand basket. Jack looked him up and down.

  “Well, you’re lucky I like your sister. Let’s go back to the opening by Kate’s house and try to get out of here before this place caves in.”

  Jason used his palms like a flashlight, but Jack was still faster, easily navigating the caves. So he followed Jack’s cigarette and tried to let the sounds of the epic battle going on above his head give him purpose instead of panic.

  Everett had wrapped her in darkness. Emma cursed herself for not seeing this one coming. He’d had used the same trick on Jack in Hell. He flew closer to her, bruised and bloody.

  “Well, this has been…arousing.”

  Emma narrowed her eyes at him.

  “I thought I needed you under me. But I get it now. Your fighting makes your fear much sweeter.” His hand passed through the darkness and skimmed her arm.

  Emma shivered. She didn’t have Jack’s smoke to release her, but maybe she could call to the light. She focused on a spot in the distance where a gorgeous star did its best to decorate the sky. Emma meditated, and Everett passed both hands over her wings. Each sensitive feather protested his evil. It was just a bit of starlight, but it was coming fast. What looked white in the distance was really every color, she realized. Emma braced herself as it headed toward her heart.

  Everett whispered his degrading plans as the starlight slowed. She’d expected it to hit with the force of the millions of years it had just flown through. Instead, it gently touched the edge of the dark shroud and traveled like a fire line. Rainbow sparks sizzled. Everett had slipped his hands under her wings to hold her ass, and he screamed as the starlight traveled from the dark to his skin.

  Emma was free, released. She flew forward and watched as Everett writhed. The light attacked him like a parasite. She took a moment to look below her. Minions poured through the holes she and Everett had created to reach the surface. When she looked back at her greatest enemy, he’d shaken off the starlight, but it had attacked his flame wings. Gravity finished the job, and Everett began the plummet back to Earth. She took off after him before thinking. Smoosh the dragon shook the ground as he worked his way out of the underworld, and in her peripheral vision she saw Kate, Nero, and another minion on his back. She didn’t stop Everett from hitting the ground.

  Nero pulled his daughter from the dragon’s back before they could miss their chance to be on the land. As Smoosh flew high above Emma, Ransom jumped free as well. Everett’s body had made a huge crater. Emma waited on the lip, and Nero jogged over.

  “You must battle him to the death,” he advised. “These minions will only listen to the real Devil. They’ll flow free on this unprepared world and change what humans experience.”

  He’d obviously taken her waiting as indecision.

  “Where are Jack and Jason?” she asked, keeping her eyes on Everett’s prone form.

  “They were going through to help the others escape. I do not know their names.”

  Kate came close to her father, eyes wide. “Seriana, Dean, and Violent were waiting in my shed’s entrance. The grandfather and his army were waiting on the other side.”

  The minions around them were losing their minds. Freedom caused some to run, some to shake, and many to fight with each other.

  Emma had challenged Everett for the position to buy Jack time, but now she understood what she’d really done. She’d decided to become a murderer.

  “Can you go to your house and try to help?” Emma watched as Everett began to pull himself out of the crater.

  Nero shook his head. “No. My daughter stays safe.”

  Kate nodded at the same time and said, “Headed there now.”

  It was the best Emma could do. She nodded and stepped backward to prepare. She needed a second to assimilate to the changes she was asking of herself. Killing was wrong. It was a commandment. Thou shall not kill. And yet she was ashamed to find she wanted his blood. This man, this thing—he’d never stop unless he was dead. She might never spend another night in the arms of her love, Jack, and her escape from Hell had released a mass tragedy in the form of roving minions on the world she was supposed to protect.

  Everett pulled himself out, flexing his muscles. His wings flamed up again. “And that’s when you should have tried to finish me off. You just stood there? Shit, were you praying again?” Shaking his head, he walked toward her like they were friends.

  Emma took off quickly. Everett had given her a good idea.

  She prayed again: Lord, this feels like the only choice. It also feels like I’m turning my back on You. I’m so sorry.

  With that Emma stilled and hovered. She cataloged all her seraph powers and imagined working evil with them. Everett caught up and situated himself for their brawl, once again running his mouth.

  “Do you know how easy this is? You have no follow-through. You expect to be able to fight? All you’ve ever done is be a cock tease. In Heaven you were God’s bitch. You don’t have the balls to be the Devil.” He cracked his knuckles and smiled.

  Emma closed her eyes and dipped herself in black leather, placing swords in her hands and a black mask around her eyes. She smiled back. “You don’t know me.” She threw the first sword at his chest and immediately followed the strike with a numbing force, paralyzing him for a split second.

  She raised the second blade above her head, ready to end him, when she finally had the pleasure of seeing fear in his eyes.

  Jack and Jason could not resist fight breaks from time to time, despite their cooperative mission to get back to the portal at Kate’s. One would trip the other or jab with an elbow, and they’d fall into fisticuffs, working out their dislike. Then one or the other would remember the goal and holler that they needed to keep moving.

  Jason dusted himself off and gestured with two annoyed hands for Jack to continue leading the way to the entrance where his siblings were waiting. “We need to just walk, or run, or something other than you trying to dry
hump me every other minute.”

  Jack growled and proceeded down through the cave. “Even though I’m sure you have a couple of pretty, pink vaginas hidden on your body, I still wouldn’t screw you.”

  “Let’s just get this over with so I can get to Kate.” He turned and slugged Jack in the face.

  Jack held up a hand to stop him from landing another blow. “The whole damn world is going to die because you can’t stop touching me. Can we please just get on with it?” He stomped forward, and Jason followed.

  He knew they should be out there fighting everything else but each other. “Do you think she’ll become the Devil?” Jason had to ask again.

  Jack shook his head. “No. Although I want to because that means she’ll live. I’m stuck here, so I can’t get out to protect her. She needs to fly back in here so I can fight this fucking battle with her.”

  The dirty pond where Lucifer lived came into view, and both men stopped, their mouths hanging open. A crowd stood around the pond, which now glowed red.

  “What the fu…” Jason breathed.

  “Our guys lost. The old fart vampire must have opened the stone in the shed. That’s the only way these half-breeds would be in here. Shit.” Jack put his hands on his knees and breathed deeply, with focus.

  “Seri, Dean, and Violent? They lost?” Jason put it together. Chances are they were dead. His heart crumbled. It had been the three of them for so long.

  Jack glanced at him. “Listen, asshole. It doesn’t mean they’re dead. I’ve learned you got to…believe.” He stood and seemed to get purpose back into his step.

  Before Jason could stop him, Jack walked right up to the pond and cleared his throat. The half-breeds turned in a daze. They seemed high from the force of the power coming from the muck.

  “What happened to the half-breeds that were running from you sludge buckets?” Jack looked from one to the other.

  A small girl spoke up. “We left them at the mating.” She turned her head back to the pond, mesmerized as the water started to swirl. “To come here. It called.” She pointed a shaking finger at the pond, which now seemed to be forming a hurricane.

  Jack backed up and slapped Jason’s arm to get him to come with. Jason ignored him. The relief that his siblings were alive was suppressed by the fact that they were taken to a “mating.” His grandfather’s deepest wish was coming true.

  Jack pulled his hair and slapped his face. “You know who lives in there. Do you want to watch as he rises after sticking his head in the sand for thousands of years? You’ve got discipline enough to resist his call, don’t you?”

  Jason backed up as Jack yanked on him again. “Now what?” he asked irritably.

  “Too late to leave,” Jack muttered. He and Jason managed to move a distance away while Lucifer emerged from the pond as the scariest thing in the universe. His black wings were slick, and his hot, red body was more horse-like than human. The half-breeds collapsed, prostrate. Lucifer’s beautiful evil coerced them instantly.

  One after another began to burn as Lucifer stomped through their gathering. Everything he touched burst into the deepest red flames, punctuated by horrible screams.

  “What a horrible way to die,” Jason whispered.

  Jack’s eyes were hard when he told Jason the worst part. “They’ll never die. Only burn.”

  Lucifer’s eyes were swirls of flame, and he set them on Jack and Jason. Jason felt his knees bend of their own volition, and he shook his head in grudging respect as he watched Jack casually approach the thing that had come up out of the pond.

  “Lucy, you’re looking chipper.” Jack held out a cigarette, and Lucifer’s sheer nearness lit the end.

  “Hell collapses because you fail. You’re weak. Now an angel will run my home? How will that work?” Lucifer’s voice sounded like a hundred men yelling in synchronicity.

  Lucifer was so close now. Jason was positive his ears were bleeding from the volume. He thought about sneaking away, but Lucifer seemed able to look at one person while focusing on another—he also wasn’t exactly certain he could move.

  “You can’t hide from this, Lucy. Now’s the time to find out exactly what you want—besides someone else doing your fucking job. You think she’s winning?” Jack’s hands were steady as the beast growled.

  “I know she can win. I feel it. She’s contaminating everything.” Lucifer turned his massive head and breathed on a new crowd of half-breeds. They joined the others as flaming, living torches.

  “So now what?” Jack stepped forward like an idiot, ready to brawl.

  Jason grabbed his leather jacket and dragged him back a step.

  Lucifer flared his nostrils. “I’m going out there to decide who wins the battle.”

  The evil thing flew, its giant wingspan displacing enough air to knock Jack on top of Jason. Lucifer disappeared right out the exit by Kate’s house. Jason looked at Jack for an answer, but he was busy recovering the cigarette that had been flung by the wind. He took a long inhale and stared into the distance.

  Jason prepared to yell at him for angering Lucifer when he saw a single tear slip down Jack’s cheek. He turned his head and pretended not to see. Because seeing Jack cry could only mean Emma was in worse danger than before: a hopeless kind.

  Chapter 31

  Jack knew what he couldn’t do. He couldn’t leave Hell. He’d given his soul to hold God in place. Then Emma’s wings had held his soul in his body, allowing him to be human, but the second she put them back on, it was over. He was bound to this place. A being needed at least a soul. Hell was like his artificial heart now, its energy keeping him animated. If he stepped out of one of the exits, it’d be over.

  He wished he didn’t know. Otherwise he would’ve followed Lucifer right out of Hell to help Emma. Instead, he walked to the exit by Kate’s house. He crouched as he smoked the last of his cigarette, his old motorcycle boots at the ragged edge of Hell’s boundary.

  Emma swooped up. Damn it, she looked amazing: covered in black, wearing a black mask. Like she’d changed. Like wearing a new outfit would make her ready to be the Devil. He knew better. Everett hit his angel, and Jack stood. Everything in him boiled. Suddenly Jason ran past him too fast to comment. Jack felt it then and almost cut the bastard some slack. Lucy was calling his beasts home—the battle must be brewing for real now—and there was nothing Jason could do to stop himself. All the minions and half-breeds on Earth and from Hell were returning to Lucifer’s feet.

  Returning his eyes to the sky, Jack stumbled a bit when he saw Emma take a paralyzing blow. She shook it off and came at Everett again. “That’s my girl.” He glanced down and realized one boot was out of Hell.

  It shouldn’t have happened. It couldn’t happen. But he edged his other boot out of Hell and closed his eyes. He was alive. He ran before he could comprehend the miracle of his ability to exit. He needed to get to Emma. He had to challenge Everett again. He had to get Lucifer to leave her be.

  Jack skidded to a stop underneath the battle. Angel versus Devil. What a change of events. Now he would be solidly rooting for the Heavenly other side.

  Everett deflected her sword, so Emma whipped around to kick him in the side. She wasn’t a pretty fighter, but she channeled everything she had toward him. She began splitting his soul from his body, tearing it away with her mind while she hacked at him with her sword. Then he pulled her other sword from his chest and used it against her, engulfed in flames. On a too-close pass he chopped off half of her right wing. Mercury-colored love poured from the feathers, bleeding down onto Earth. She sliced away at his left leg in retaliation. It was harder to fly now that she was off balance, and his leg regenerated immediately. His flaming wings hissed as she threw a handful of snow tainted with prayers at him.

  She watched as the love leaving her mesmerized the minions below. They stilled just to watch it splash down around them. As she turned back to her battle, she realized it had probably been ages, eons, even longer, since some of those minions had known anythin
g resembling love. The sounds and scenes of an angel fighting to be the Devil must be a spectacular show, but the simple presence of love was what they longed for. How could she not fight for them? Renewing her focus, she pulled starlight and bits of Heaven’s clouds from the sky. Everett called on darkness and fear. Above and below them, their colliding elements threw off light that put the aurora borealis to shame.

  Yet when she glanced down again, many of the minions remained totally transfixed by the drops of love they’d located—and completely distracted from their fighting, which meant they weren’t faring too well. And that would surely piss Everett off. If she lost this war—oh please, God, I need to win—who knew what horrific punishment he might exact on them. Unsure whether she acted as angel or Devil, but suddenly sure of what she needed to do, Emma pulled the dreams floating around the atmosphere into a tight bubble around her and Everett. This gave them a sealed area to fight in and shielded those below from any additional drops of love.

  Everett bared his teeth at the enclosure. Emma stopped her awkward flying and landed on the bubble. She pulled out handfuls of her black feathers and was about to name them into a weapon when the whole bubble rocked. She froze as she found a huge, red horse-like monster rising before her. His eyes were horrible. Everett used her distraction to his advantage. She lost her footing when he landed behind her and swiveled her into a restraint. She waited for her eyes to adjust to the beast, or to hear more taunts from Everett, but nether happened.

  Everett spoke to the thing. “Lucifer, I’m guessing. I love this promotion. Do you like what I’ve done with the place?”

  Emma looked around and found her dragon silhouetted against the moon. At least Smoosh looked happy. She watched as it flamed up and lit the sky like a firework.