Black Lament
Page 35

I really hoped that wasn’t true. I was sure that if Azazel had been breeding nephilim, then the human women who birthed them were not willing participants. The thought made me feel sick.
“We’ve got to see what’s in there,” I said.
“If you open that door, then whatever horde is standing behind it will surely descend upon us,” Nathaniel pointed out.
“Then I’ll veil myself and go through the wall as the Hound of the Hunt,” I said.
“No,” Jude and Nathaniel said. Samiel shook his head.
“Look, I’m not going through there to pick a fight. I’ll be under a veil. I’ll do some surveillance, and then I’ll be right back.”
“I’m not surveilling anything,” Beezle said, climbing out of my coat and flying to Samiel’s shoulder. “If you want to go into the room with the hundreds of whatevers, be my guest.”
“Why must it always be you to take the risk?” Nathaniel said. “Why not one of us?”
“You can’t pass through walls,” I pointed out. “And we didn’t come all this way to stand and stare at a door. I’m going. I’ll be back soon.”
“Then let me veil you,” Nathaniel said. “Your own veil may not be enough.”
I stood still while Nathaniel muttered the spell. His magic draped over me, warm and comforting, and I felt a surprising burst of tenderness toward him.
“Can you see me?” I asked.
They all shook their heads.
“I won’t do anything stupid,” I promised.
“Then you wouldn’t be you,” Beezle said. “Just come back in one piece. And with no more pieces missing.”
I smiled at that, glancing down at my left hand. I’d once promised Beezle I’d come back in one piece, and returned with two fingers missing. Lucifer had sworn that the digits would return, but they never had. The skin there had grown smooth over the place where the sword had cauterized the wound.
I put my right palm against the door and spoke the invocation of the Hound of the Hunt. A moment later I was through the door.
And bumped into the charcarion demon that stood there.
I went still, holding my breath, as it turned around. Seeing no one behind him he smacked the head of the demon that stood next to him, saying something in a harsh, guttural language.
I could see why he thought that another demon had bumped into him. There were hundreds of them crammed into the cave of the nephilim. The cages that had imprisoned the Grigori’s monstrous children hung empty at the ceiling. Charcarion demons covered every inch of the floor, crawled up the walls, dangled from the top of the cavern.
It was like being inside a massive, seething hive of insects.
Very carefully, I spread my wings and took flight. I felt like I threaded a very fine needle, trying to pass over the heads of the demons on the floor and below the demons that were suspended above.
The nephilim’s cavern emptied into another, smaller chamber. This was the place where Ramuell and Ariell had lived, and where I had died. I lowered to the ground, pulling the veil tighter around me.
The charcarion demons confined themselves to the larger cavern. This one was empty. There were signs that someone had been living here—a mattress, some scraps of food on the floor.
And a large wooden cupboard. A cupboard a lot like the one that…
Antares entered from the opposite side of the cavern, a bow in one hand and a quiver of arrows slung across his shoulder. My half brother looks like a medieval priest’s idea of a demon—large, curving black horns, red skin, claws, cloven hoofs, the works. I noticed with some satisfaction that there were several scars on his chest, the result of his battle with Gabriel a couple of weeks before.
I felt so secure under the veil that it didn’t occur to me that Antares might be able to see me. So it took me by surprise when he shot an arrow straight for my heart.
I dodged out of the way at the last moment, and the tip of the arrow buried itself in my left shoulder instead.
“Hello, little sister,” Antares crooned. “Come for a family visit?”
I pushed Nathaniel’s veil off me and shot a bolt of nightfire at Antares. It bounced in the air about a foot away from him, and rebounded back at me. I dove out of the way again and the nightfire smashed into the cavern wall. The arrow dug painfully into my shoulder as I rolled on the floor. I reached up and broke off the shaft, but the tip was still buried inside. I’d have to remove it later. If I had a later.
Antares giggled. “No magic for you, sister. My mother’s spell protects me.”
“Too bad you didn’t think to have Mommy protect you when Gabriel was taking pieces of you,” I said, coming to my feet and drawing Lucifer’s sword.
“Yes, well, never let it be said that I don’t learn from my mistakes,” Antares said. “But the thrall is dead, and I still live.”
“I can take care of that problem,” I said, running toward him with the sword upraised.
He shot another arrow at me, and I knocked it away with the blade. Antares dropped the bow and pulled a charm from a small bag that hung around his neck.
I quickly muttered an incantation and tossed up a shield as Antares threw the charm at me. The spell smashed into the shield and melted it, but the magic didn’t hit me. Which was good. Because I had no desire to be melted.
I swung the sword at Antares and he danced away, the blade just skimming across his right arm. That meant that his shield blocked magic, but I could still hurt him with the sword.
Some of the charcarion demons in the other cavern had taken notice of the battle, and a cry went up inside the hive. Several of them poured out and surrounded us so that Antares and I were locked inside a ring. Their chitters and howls echoed loudly inside the cave and made it hard to think.
I needed to get rid of Antares’ advantage. I couldn’t use magic against him, but he could throw his mother’s spells at me all day. I ducked out of the way of another flying charm that hit the crowd of demons behind me. Three of the demons burst into flame. I stepped forward, jabbed upward with the sword, aiming for his jaw.
Antares jerked his head away, but I managed to slice through the cord that held the spells and pull it away with my sword.
“Now what, baby brother?” I said, smiling grimly.
Antares backed away as I stalked toward him. He shouted to the crowd, and one of the demons tossed him a sword. His blade clashed against mine as I swung forward for the kill.
I hacked and slashed and took chunks out of him, and he always managed to move at the last moment. His sword flashed, slicing my leg, my side, opening wounds that bled and weakened me, while the wound from the arrow festered. I was getting tired.
Even if I defeated Antares, I’d still have a room of charcarion demons to deal with, and I didn’t think they were going to just let me go.
“Jude,” I said, and hoped that he could hear me. “Jude.”
“Who are you calling for now, sister?” Antares taunted. “There is no one here to save you, and you are growing weak.”
He was so confident, so sure of his ability to defeat me. And why shouldn’t he be? He’d always managed to escape me before.
My vision blurred, and for a second it looked like there were two Antares standing there. He slashed with the sword, and I just barely managed to block him.
“You have always been weak,” he said. “Small, human, beneath me. My father knew this. That is why I have been chosen to rule.”
Small. Human. Weak. His words echoed in my ears as I desperately tried to fight him off. I wasn’t attacking anymore. I was fading fast. I just needed to keep him away from me. I needed to live.
The child inside me fluttered its wings frantically.
A wolf howled, and from inside the other cavern came the sound of charcarion demons screaming as they met their death.
Antares paused for a moment, turning toward the sound in surprise.
And I had him.
I stabbed upward, and the sword pierced his heart.
His eyes widened in shock, and when he opened his mouth to speak blood poured from his lips.
The sword pulled free as he fell to the ground.
“Impossible,” I heard him say.
He turned over, tried to crawl away from me, a pathetic and broken thing. Crimson liquid spread in a widening pool beneath his body. The charcarion demons that surrounded us had fallen silent in shock even as their brothers fought for their lives against Nathaniel, Samiel and Jude.
There was no mercy in my heart for Antares. He was my half brother, and he had tried to kill me countless times since I had first met him. I knew with a certainty that if I did not finish this now, he would rise up again like the cockroach that he was, always hunting me.
My blade flashed once more, and a moment later Antares’ head rolled away from his body.
“Who’s laughing now?” I said.
Then the charcarion demons descended upon me.
I didn’t have to worry about shields on demons, so I started blasting away with every spell that I had. If a demon came close enough, I hacked at it with the sword.
“Maddy!” Beezle cried, flying over the heads of the demons. “The others are coming!”
I nodded so that he would know that I heard and kept throwing every last bit of magic I had in me. But I was still bleeding, still weakened from my battle with Antares.
Lucifer’s tattoo still lay silent on my palm, and I knew that I would not be able to draw upon the power of the Morningstar to help me.
The cavern filled with the cry of a terrible voice, a voice filled with anguish. Everyone stopped, and the charcarion demons looked around, fear in their eyes, but I knew who it was.
“Missing something, Daddy?” I said.
I curse you, Madeline Black, least beloved of my line. You shall never know peace, for you have taken that which is most precious to me.
“Do you know how many times in the last couple of days someone has sworn that they will hound me until I’m dead? Get in line.”
You shall know pain like no other.
“How about you say that to my face?” I said. “Where are you hiding, coward?”