The Paradise Prophecy

But she didn’t stop. She took off like a startled kitten, tore down the hall and skidded around the corner, disappearing from view. Batty called out again, was about to go after her, when he heard her yelp in terror.

Then a guy with long hair and sunglasses came back around the corner, one hand over the girl’s mouth, a dagger in the other. Batty didn’t need an illustrated guide book to know who he was.

Beelzebub.

The girl was squirming, trying to get away, her screams muffled against his palm, but his grip was strong. He smiled at Batty and said, “Quod apertum est, id aperiri non potest.”

What is opened, cannot be closed.

The sacred incantation.

Batty felt something thud in his stomach as Beelzebub sliced the dagger through the air, opening a hole in the atmosphere.

Then they were gone.

50

Batty turned to Michael. “Tell me you know where he’s taking her.”

“I have a guess. I only hope I’m right.”

“What’s your guess?”

“To Eden.”

“Eden? ” Callahan said as she came up the stairs behind them. “As in the Garden of?”

“Yes. Or at least what used to be Eden, before the corruption began. He’s taking her to the spot where the tree of knowledge once stood. It’s his way of thumbing his nose at the father. It doesn’t hurt that they’ll have a perfect view of the fourth blood moon.”

“Can you get us there?” Batty asked.

“Are you ready to do what needs to be done?”

Batty looked at the sword in his hand, then glanced at Callahan. She was covered with dust, looking as if she’d rolled around inside a vacuum cleaner bag.

Then he said to Michael, “Just get me there and you’ll find out.”

“I can’t get us to the exact spot, but I can get close. But be warned, a lot has changed since we left. The unrest will have escalated and the eclipse is about to begin. We need to work fast to make this happen.”

“Then maybe we should stop talking and get moving,” Batty said.

Michael nodded and sliced open a hole.

Michael wasn’t kidding when he said things had changed.

Callahan could barely believe her eyes. When they squeezed through the hole he’d made, what she saw was a city under siege, a battleground that lay beneath a turbulent night sky, the thunder of guns pounding her eardrums.

“Moloch and Mammon have done their work well,” Michael said. “It won’t take much to tip the scale.”

Callahan was stunned. “This isn’t tipped?”

The city was in chaos, a riot gone viral, men and women with weapons darting through burning rubble, pausing to fire on one another, some in police uniforms, others in street clothes. But Callahan got the feeling it was every man for himself-although she couldn’t be sure who was human here and who wasn’t.

What surprised her most of all, however, was that they stood in a city she knew. A city she had just visited.

They were in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

“What the hell are we doing here?” LaLaurie said to Michael. “I thought we were going to Eden.”

Machine-gun chatter forced them to duck. They all dropped down, taking cover behind a row of parked cars. This was insanity.

“We are,” Michael said. Then he jumped up and darted to an abandoned Chevy in the middle of the street, its engine still running. He climbed in, spun the wheel and hit the accelerator, backing toward them.

“Get in.”

Callahan glanced at LaLaurie and he looked just as confused as she was. Then she ran to the passenger side and jumped in, LaLaurie following close behind. When they were both inside, Michael punched the accelerator and they took off down the street.

Callahan checked the sky and saw a huge moon, a centimeter of shadow washing across it.

“It’s starting,” she said. “The eclipse is starting.”

They brought the girl up the stairs to the rooftop.

Belial couldn’t quite believe how beautiful she looked, all dressed up in that ceremonial robe. She had been drugged, but still she resisted, showing a lot of spirit.

Belial wished she’d could have taken some time alone with the girl. It would have been her last chance to understand what it meant to be a woman.

The two drudges had her by the arms. They stopped in the doorway, Jenna struggling between them, and waited for Belial to give her approval.

Moving in close, she smiled and ran a finger under Jenna’s chin.

“So beautiful,” she said.

The girl jerked her head away, tears filling her eyes, her speech slurred by the drugs. “Why are you doing this? What you want from me?”

“Michael didn’t tell you?”

“Leave me alone,” she cried. “I wanna go home. I want my mother.”

“Your mother?” Belial said. “Now why would you want to go home to that vile creature? Isn’t she the one who betrayed you, brought that man into your happy home? Or is that story all a lie?”

“Please… ,” she begged. “Please, let me go . . .”

“That’s exactly what we’re about to do, my darling. By freeing you, we free the world.”

Stepping back, she nodded to the two drudges and they carried Jenna past her toward the center of the rooftop, which was crowded with otherworld dignitaries.

Before they got her there, however, the earth rumbled, shaking the building, and everyone cheered as they looked up at the moon.

It hung low in the night sky like a giant blind eye, a shadow slowly creeping across it.

The new beginning was near.

Did you feel that?” Batty asked.

They were blasting down an eerily vacant highway, and this was the first time he’d ever felt an earthquake while riding in a car.

“It’s starting,” Michael said. “The opening of the Abaddon. And unless we get to that girl soon, all seven levels of hell will be released on earth and Lucifer will be free.”

They looked at one another, the thought of this a lingering foul odor.

Then Batty glanced at the shadow on the moon. “It seems to be moving faster than usual.”

“You can’t think of this as a natural event anymore. The speed of the eclipse will accelerate with each new soul corrupted.”

“How long before we’re in full eclipse?” Callahan asked.

“Minutes, rather than hours.”

The earth rumbled again and the rooftop swayed.

More cheers went up as lights blew out in the distance, then buildings started to topple, a spray of yellow-