“Sandy, you need to—” Ben began.
She covered his mouth with her hand. “Are you going to say you want to save my soul like you wanted to do for Eden? Are you going to tell me everything I’ve done will get me hurt and that I’m headed down a very dark path without your help and guidance? That you’ll forgive me if only I let you and the others go?”
He wrenched his face away from her. “No, I think it’s too late for any of that. Actually, I was going to tell you that there’s an angel standing right behind you and he’s going to kick your ass, but I guess you’ll figure that out when you wake up in Hell.”
Sandy grinned, which wasn’t the reaction he’d expected. She slithered off his lap and went to stand next to Daniel. The angel had seemed frail when imprisoned in that locked cell, but now Ben could see he was tall and broad and looked like he could do serious damage if he wanted to.
“Who,
Ben’s gaze darted between them. It didn’t make any damn sense to him. He wanted to follow the clues, piece them together. He’d been a good cop — if a bit of a hothead, according to his superiors — so he should be able to understand what was going on here.
“I know you’re Eden’s father,” he said, his throat feeling sore. “That you came here to help. I’m sorry you were locked up and that I didn’t act before this. I came back tonight to break you out, but you were already gone. Sandy — she killed the man responsible for your imprisonment. Oliver Gale was consuming your feathers… your celestial energy.”
“Yes,” the angel said. “That’s exactly what happened. Well done, Ben.”
“Then why are you standing by? Why aren’t you doing something to stop this? Sandy killed a man tonight with black magic. She’s evil.”
“That’s not Daniel,” Caroline spoke up, her voice creaky as if she’d just woken.
Ben craned his neck. “What?”
“It looks exactly like him. It looks… like he did thirty years ago, not a single day older.”
“But he’s an angel. They don’t age, do they?”
She shook her head. “It’s still not him. Not really.”
A bark of a laugh from Leena. “I think I get it. Is that why you locked me up in your dungeon? Well, I guess you found your answers without torturing me for the truth, huh? I wouldn’t have been able to help you, anyway, now that I know what you wanted, you sick bastard.”
Ben didn’t understand what she meant for a moment, but then the truth finally hit him.
His widening gaze moved to Daniel again and swept the length of the redheaded angel. So tall, so powerful. His wings were tucked behind him, but they were unmistakably real wings that glowed a little in the half light of the room, as full and beautiful as if they’d never been plucked of a solitary feather.
Oliver had been consuming those feathers because he needed to fill himself with celestial energy. He’d been investigating what the affects of possessing a nephilim would do to a demon like Darrak.
It had all been one big experiment with a single purpose.
“Oliver,” Ben said in no more than a whisper. “It’s you, isn’t it? You’re inside of Daniel. You’re using his form and you had to destroy your own body in order to do that. That’s why you had Sandy kill you — a black magic ritual, right? All so you could possess the body of an angel.”
The angel drew closer and cocked his head. “You could have been such an asset to me, Ben. To us all. I’m truly sorry it had to turn out this way.”
“This is why you had power over me since I became a member of the Malleus, isn’t it? I thought you had some ability to tap into witchcraft, but it was the celestial energy you’ve been consuming that was giving you special abilities.” It all began to click into a horrific jigsaw puzzle. “But I don’t understand. Why are you doing this?”
“Why?” Oliver’s new smile grew to show off straight, perfect teeth in his handsome stolen face. “Because I’ve recently made a very important deal with a very important being.”
“With who?”
“Lucifer.” Oliver said it reverently.
An icy chill rushed through Ben’s body at the familiar name — one that represented true evil like nothing else in the universe. “Lucifer… but — but why? What for?”
Oliver stood up very straight and that cold self-satisfied smile of his grew larger still. “I’m about to become the new Prince of Hell.”
TWENTY-FOUR
Maksim waited for them by the front door. None of his maids or butlers seemed to be around this time of the morning. He escorted Eden and Darrak into his parlor immediately.
Darrak hurriedly explained the situation, while leaving some of the more incriminating details out. Bottom line, they needed a strong cloaking spell put on Eden to hide her here in the human world from a very powerful supernatural being.
Simple.
Okay, not simple at all considering who that powerful supernatural being was, but it had to work anyway.
Eden shook her head. “This is Lucifer we’re talking about, not just some guy on the street.”
“He’s not omnipotent,” Darrak explained. “He doesn’t see all, know all. He can’t read minds. Thankfully. He is a very powerful fallen angel who has a lousy day job, that’s all. If it could work on that Brenda chick it will work on you. It isn’t perfect. I figure it’ll buy me a day, maybe two at the most before he figures out something’s wrong. And you can’t go back to the apartment since that’ll be the first place he’ll check. You’ll have to stay at a hotel. Preferably on the other side of the world. What is that, Australia? Perfect. You’ll love Australia. Forget chocolate donuts. I have two words that will make this all better: Tim Tams.”
The auctioneer-like speed of his speech didn’t seem to help her relax in the slightest. “You really think this can work?”
He glanced at Maksim. “It will, right? You’re powerful enough to do this.”
“Of course I am,” Maksim replied confidently. “I just need a moment to prepare.”
“Right. You do that.” Darrak was just glad he wasn’t arguing. Not everyone would work magic against Lucifer. It was a job that could come back to bite the wizard on his magical butt, even if it was for all the right reasons.
Maksim moved toward the floor-to-ceiling bookshelves that he scanned. He didn’t seem the least stressed about the prospect of doing this spell.
No emotion, this guy. It was a bit creepy, considering he was about to help them screw Lucifer out of a tasty piece of angel food cake.
Eden had her arms crossed tightly over her chest. “I’m not saying I’m sorry for what I did. I’d do it again if I had to.”
“You shouldn’t trust Lucifer so much.”
“I just — I don’t know. I feel like I’ve gotten to know him a little and he’s… he’s in pain. He hates his existence. I guess I can’t help but feel sorry for him.”
His jaw clenched. “You go ahead and believe in his good side. I’ll stay focused on the side that’s ruled Hell for the last few millennia.”
She grimaced. “That long, huh?”
“Don’t worry about Lucifer, Eden. It’s not all sour lemons for him. He’s had his fun, too. I have to say, though, I’m glad you let Brenda go. One less victory for that guy.” He pulled the card from his pocket to glance down at Brenda’s name and blinked hard at what he saw.
Nothing.
