advice.”
I glanced down at McConnell and mouthed an apology, pulling my arms away from the tank with exaggerated caution. Baalth might not be telling me the truth, but I damn well didn’t want to test him on it. I stayed quiet until I was down the stairs, leaving The Gray behind.
“What the hell are you doing to him?”
“What must be done,” Baalth answered, coming over to me. His eyes narrowed. “How did you find your way down here?”
Not wanting to get Poe in trouble, I lied. “I was searching for more information about my mother and Lucifer and stumbled across your little hidey-hole.”
He didn’t look like he believed me, but he also didn’t bother to argue. For once, he didn’t look like he had it in him. “I think you should leave, Frank.” The room trembled slightly. It was a reminder of just how fragile Baalth’s control of his newfound power was.
“Why? What are you doing here?”
Baalth glared at me. “You’ve never wanted anything to do with the politics of Hell before, so why are you so interested now?”
He was right. I’d only cared when it affected me. Despite all that was going on, I wasn’t sure this particular problem had anything to do with my life, but that felt like a cop out. I couldn’t be quiet and let him torture McConnell after what the old bastard had done for the world.
“I’ve spent my whole life trying to avoid shit like this, but it’s never done me the same courtesy. It’s damn clear I’m never gonna be free of the Demonarch and its bullshit politics because I’m related to fucking Lucifer!” I could feel my cheeks starting to heat up. “With everything going on from aliens to weres to vamps to the damn government, I think it’s time I paid a little more attention to Hell’s politics, especially, since I’m always in the middle of them.”
Unexpectedly, Baalth smiled. “Lucifer would be proud.”
“Fuck him,” I answered. “He’s the reason I’m in the middle of all this.”
Baalth’s smile widened. “Lucifer would pat you on the back for your rebellious stand, Frank, right before he knocked you through the wall for daring to blaspheme him.” He chuckled, holding his side.
I grinned in response, thinking he was right on the money. There’d been more than a few lessons I had to learn the hard way.
“So, Frank, do you truly want to know what I’m doing?” He waved his arms to the room.
The old Frank yelled at me to scream and run away. Nothing good could come from digging into Baalth’s business. “Yes. Tell me.” Apparently the new Frank liked taking it up the ass, which is all that ever happened when I got involved in Demonarch politics.
Baalth nodded and pointed up at the orb. “Like you, I have also spoken to Lucifer since his departure.”
That caught me off guard, but it made a twisted sense. Baalth had disappeared during the Heaven fiasco. Just like Hasstor had used the storms to cover his arrival near Earth, it was reasonable to assume Baalth could have done the same to leave the dimension and seek out Lucifer. Not only did that mean he knew what was going on in Heaven and didn’t care, but it also meant he’d probably always known where my uncle was. It was just another kick in the ass to my presumed importance. Lovely.
Baalth waited a moment, as if letting me work it all out, before he continued. “Hasstor told you about the war?”
I nodded, but kept the part about the tome to myself. If Baalth didn’t know about it, it wouldn’t matter. If he did, he would understand why I kept it from him. If it was important to his plans, he’d bring it up.
“It would seem God’s other creations have been busy in His absence. They have grown and evolved far beyond what He believed they would. Worse still, they have become defiant, believing themselves masters rather than servants.”
A theme that is apparently rampant in every world. I bit my tongue to keep from illuminating the hypocrisy he’d so poetically stated.
“A number of universes have banded together and set out to conquer the rest, and ultimately, God himself.” He grinned at their audacity. “The most frightening aspect is that they may well succeed in their quest.”
“Is it possible?” Hearing it put so plainly scared me.
He nodded. “For all that He is capable of, God has spread his energy over His immeasurable lifespan, crafting universes again and again and again, expending the effort to maintain them. It’s quite an impressive feat. However, while still a power far beyond anything you or I could imagine, He has perhaps spread Himself too thin. Not content to create beings as simple as humans, God has crafted beings far closer to His image than any of us could hope to be. Given free will and the ability to evolve as a species, these creations have come unto their own as deities. This is what your uncle fights against.”
And here I was thinking I had it bad.
Baalth pointed to McConnell. “Though I am loath to torment such a faithful servant as Henry, the price of his resurrection was to sacrifice himself to the cause of defeating the enemies of God before they fall upon us and lay waste to our universe.”
That’s one hell of a trade. I felt sorry for McConnell, but maybe it was fate’s way of paying him back for all the wrong he’d done in his life; and then some. He was probably building up some serious supernatural karma, not that he’d ever get to spend it. “So, what does all this stuff do?” I gestured to the room and McConnell’s tank.
“It’s a portal to the universe where Lucifer now resides.”
I heard the words but they didn’t make sense. “It’s a what?”
“A dimensional rift, which leads directly to your uncle.” He ran his hand along the side of the tank. “It is kept available and shielded from detection by The Gray’s reserve energy. He is, in essence, the key to the portal. Henry holds it in stasis so its energy remains constant and off the radar of those who might be searching for such things, like your companions in DRAC.”
I didn’t bother to tell him I was on indefinite vacation and I didn’t know shit about what they were tracking. “So, it can’t be detected?”
“Only from within this room. I’m sure you felt its power when you walked inside.”
I nodded, but I still didn’t understand the purpose of a portal going to Lucifer when the bad guys were there waiting to come to Earth. “What’s the point of keeping it open? Aren’t you worried the aliens will use it to come here?”
“Not at all, as it isn’t actually open, just available should it be needed. The portal is connected to Lucifer and is carried on him at all times. It’s attenuated to allow no one else to use it. Were he to die, the portal link would shut down.”
I still didn’t understand. “Then why have it at all?”
“Because Asmoday had no idea what he was unleashing when he empowered Glorius.” Baalth clenched his fist and his power welled up. He stretched his arm toward the tank and let loose a burst of power that damn near singed the hair on my balls. The power swirled into the tank and disappeared. McConnell thrashed and I was glad I couldn’t see more than just his shadow reflected against the sides. After a moment, Baalth willed his power to settle and turned back to me. The Gray slowly settled. While Baalth didn’t look fresh, he looked like he’d taken a load off. “The soul transfer with Glorius not only gave me his powers, magnified beyond imagining, but it also passed along the mutated piece of his angelic existence, which absorbed all the power Asmoday fed him.”
Baalth strode slowly down the line of bodies set into the walls. I followed alongside, staring up at the people. I suddenly felt ill again.
Baalth turned his head to look at me, as though he could tell what I was feeling. “Do not worry your human sensibilities about them, Frank. They were dead before I brought them here. It is only the surge of magical energy through their bodies that gives them the semblance of life.”
That was something, at least. I nodded and asked him to continue telling me about Glorius.
He did. “Thanks to God’s plan that his Angelic Choir forever be empowered to defeat those who challenged him-little did we know why we would need such abilities-angels evolve as they absorb power through a soul transfer. The new energy level becomes the base level, their bodies adapting to maintain the balance. We demons had such useful talents removed from us at the Fall.” He chuckled to himself. “When I inherited Glorius’ power, increased beyond even what he could naturally handle, I also inherited the strange adaptation, but not in the way I would have preferred. Quite the opposite, in fact. Asmoday’s meddling had broken Glorius, forcing an even greater
