I kept repeating the plan in my mind, ready to go at any second. As soon as Raphael appeared, I grabbed Lucifer and shifted us directly in front of him, outside the gates. By the time we appeared, I already had my power ready.
Lucifer had wanted to do this part, but we'd anticipated the possibility that he'd lose his borrowed power when we reset time. And he had, to his chagrin. He had to have been itching to get his power back. I would've been.
As we materialized in front of Raphael, Luc lunged forward and grabbed Ariel, then jumped back as I slammed a shield in front of him so Raphael couldn't lash out at him or Ariel in his frustration. At the same time, I wrapped Raphael in a web of magic so tight it would cause him immense pain to try to break out of it. I only had my power to work with, and Raphael had both his and Lucifer's energy and magic. We had to move fast.
Raphael snarled, his beautiful face distorted in his anger, and I knew that he'd realized we'd united against him. Finally. I felt the might of the Fallen and angels appear behind me as one force. They quickly connected again, the way they had done before to share the power to get the souls, and I felt the control of that power shoved into my aura. I used it to strengthen the web around Raphael.
Ariel began to scream. Her high-pitched, shrill voice was beyond terrified. "Don't hurt him!"
Lucifer tried to talk to her, but she was beyond reasoning.
"No!" Raphael shouted. "She's scared."
Lucifer put her down and held out his hands. "Nobody here will hurt you, sweet girl. We love you."
She stopped screaming and looked at Raphael. "What do I do?"
"Run!" Raphael shouted.
She looked at him again with wide eyes as Lucifer darted forward to try to grab her again, but she disappeared.
"Bring her back!" I yelled. "Now!" I had to hope she'd gone to Mia, or the rest of our plan wouldn't work. We had to get her back here. But, as long as she was with Mia, we'd planned for this contingency. We'd expected Ariel to run.
The last time I'd seen her, she'd been terrified of us.
He smiled, and this close to him, finally able to look him in the eyes, I knew.
Raphael had gone completely insane. His eyes had a crazed look in them, like someone whose mind had broken for good. "Why?" I whispered. "Why would you do this? You've united the might of Elysium and Abaddon against you. For what?" I wanted to understand how he'd gotten here.
"They had to know," he said. His voice was broken and guttural. He'd turned into a demon inside without any help from us. "Don't you see? They had to learn. The stupid, weak humans. They lived their lives, each of them going an entire existence without knowing there was something bigger, something more powerful. They're sheep, and they don't respect us." He bared his teeth like some sort of feral animal.
"Close off your realm." Lucifer stepped forward. He stood tall and proud. He might not have had his power back yet, but he was still the King of Abaddon. He was still the leader, the Fallen Pride of God.
Raphael laughed. "Lucifer Morningstar. My big brother. I showed you, didn't I?" His deranged laugh grated at my nerves. "I finally showed you. You've had it coming since the dawn of time."
"Raphael," I said in a sing-song voice. He snapped his gaze back to me. "Lucifer isn't running the show today. You don't seem to understand. We have all the power now. We have the demons. We have you. If you don't bring your girlfriend and the kids out, we're going to destroy the realm with all of them in it. And then we're going to destroy you." I leaned in closer. "And your soul will be mine."
I smiled as menacingly as I could manage and hoped that threat would get through to him.
Well, not so much a threat, not truly. If he didn't pull Mia and the kids out of his special domain, I would kill him. But of course, I wouldn't do a damn thing to endanger Ariel. They'd come out on their own eventually, but it would save a lot of time and heartache if he helped us out and called to them now.
But of course, it wasn't enough. He didn't care about my threats. He knew I'd never hurt Ariel. Raphael stared at me and smiled. "I don't believe you."
Time to reveal how much we knew. "Her name is Mia Schmidt. She was pregnant the last time I saw her," I said. "And I'm going to peel her skin from her body one layer at a time until it's gone."
That got his attention. He stared at me with wide, angry eyes. Some of the insanity seemed to recede as he focused on me. "You wouldn't. She's pregnant."
I smiled wider. "Even better. I'll keep her alive, then, and when she has the baby, I'll take it." I wrapped my arms around myself and closed my eyes. Rocking back and forth I smiled and looked down as if holding a baby in my arms. "I'll raise it since you deprived me of raising my own child. Then, I'll peel her skin off. Once she's nothing but exposed muscles and nerves, I'll begin to unravel them. Have you ever done that?" I chuckled and shook my head as if having a fun conversation with a friend. "Man, it takes forever, but the screams..." I sighed. "They're great."
Raphael looked more and more horrified as I spoke.
Putting my hands on my hips, I squinted at him. "Your plan was creative; I'll give you that. You fooled all of us and had some careful planning." I shook my head and
