“Well, a few days ago,” he said, “I was napping in the sunlight when aportalopened up nearby, behind the building.And wouldn’t you know it, but a bloody hellspawn just strolled right out.”
My heart slammed to a complete and utter stop, and my hand froze mid-pour.I lifted my head and stared at him, goosebumps rolling down my arms.“What?”
“A hellspawn,” he repeated.“Saw it with my very own eyes.”
Had this announcement come from anyone else, I would have questioned them.The Alberta Legislature Building was by no means small, and the grounds spanned quite the distance.But gargoyles had the sharpest vision of all paranormals—they could see for miles, even in their stone form.More than that, gargoyles were “watchers,” renowned for passing down ancient knowledge from one generation to the next, so they were privy to information most others had forgotten.So, if Mason said he’d seen a hellspawn, I was inclined to believe him, much to my dismay.
Hellspawn were my father’s creation—terrifying creatures born from the darkest depths of Hell.He forged them using the souls of the damned, fusing them with the dark essence of his fallen angels.Each one was a walking embodiment of pure malice and destruction, crafted to serve Lucifer’s every whim.The process consumed the soul entirely, leaving behind nothing but a body warped by evil.
My father’s designs varied.Some, like vampires, still resembled their former human selves, but were “improved” with fangs and claws.Others were far more grotesque, with horns, bulbous poisonous skin, jagged horns, and bisected tongues.But one trait remained constant—their insatiable hunger to kill anything that moved.
Growing up in Hell, I knew these creatures well.I’d both trained alongside and killed them.I’d watched as my father grew their numbers with one goal in mind: dominating Earth.
According to Calyx—my father’s scribe—Lucifer had almost succeeded once, long before my birth.He’d unleashed the hellspawn on Earth and set them free to wreak havoc and chaos.But Heaven had other plans.They intervened and slammed the portal gates shut between Earth and Hell, thereby cutting off Lucifer’s plans to invade.But such a move had come with one downside: it’d trapped many of the hellspawn on Earth.
Over the past decade, I’d done my own research and pieced together what happened after Heaven sealed the gates to the portals.The hellspawn trapped on Earth were freed from my father’s control and left to fend for themselves.Some remained loyal to their dark master and continued to destroy everything in his name, while others chose to adapt by blending into the human world.Those who were successful interbred with humans, and from those unions, the paranormals were born—earthbound vampires, werewolves, witches, and the like.Those who refused to adapt, who wanted nothing more than to murder and feed, were hunted to extinction.To this day, people still told stories about the monsters and demons that once infested Earth.They just didn’t remember that those monsters—hellspawn—had been real.
But despite their common ancestry, there was one critical difference between the two.
Souls.
Paranormals had them.Hellspawn did not.And that lack of a soul made hellspawn truly monstrous creatures.If one had crossed over onto Earth, it meanteveryonewas in danger.
Maybe I’d misheard Mason.Or maybe my brain was playing tricks on me after all these years.Hellspawn weren’t supposed to be able to cross over.I mean,Iwas here, but I wasn’t a hellspawn.Still, Heaven had supposedly sealed the gates millennia ago.So how was one here now?
Of course, I didn’t expect any answers to suddenly come to me.For ten years, this very question had plagued me—how did I get here?Why could I cross over when no one else could?And now, Mason was telling me that a hellspawn had walked right through—and in the same spot where I’d arrived no less.
That was too coincidental for my liking.What the hell was going on here?
“Are you sure?”I asked, trying to keep my voice steady.“There are other realms.Maybe the portal was to one of them?”
“Oh, I’m sure,” Mason commented, his gaze scanning our patrons.“My great-grammy used to tell stories about hellspawn—tales she’d heard from her great-grammy.She was always very clear about one thing: blood-red eyes are a dead giveaway.As is their pitch-black aura.No doubt about it—it was a hellspawn.”
A shiver crept down my spine.Blood red-eyes were confirmation enough—while not all hellspawn had them, enough did to ease any doubt.But their aura?That was news to me.I hadn’t realized gargoyles could see energies like that.
I made a mental note to visit the Alberta Legislature Grounds in the next few days, just to ensure everything was copacetic.Not that I coulddoanything about the portal, but a quick look couldn’t hurt.
“You okay, Lily?”Mason asked.
I blinked away the stupor and forced a smile.“Yeah, sorry.I’m just worried about there being a hellspawn here.That’s not good news by any means.”
Mason’s head bobbed up and down.“I’ve been spreading the word and know some people who are on the lookout.A few mercs are even excited to track it down.A new challenge they’re itching to take on.”
While Mason had meant that as a joke, his words sparked fear in me.After eons of interbreeding with humans, the paranormals had lost much of their power.Few, if any, could take on a hellspawn and live to tell the tale.Icould, but I was a celestial.My abilities far surpassed paranormals.Hellspawn, on the other hand, were darker—pure, undiluted evil, crafted in my father’s name.Neither humans nor paranormal stood a chance against them.
Which meant this was very,verybad news.
In all my time on Earth, I’d never encountered a hellspawn.Nor had I heard any talk of anyone crossing paths with one.
If Mason had truly seen a portal from Hell, then someone—or something—had to have opened it.But who?How?And from what side?Could it have been Lucifer?
Oh, hell.I didnotlove that scenario.Not one bit.
“You haven’t seen any other portals?”I asked.
“Nah.Just the one.It closed a few minutes later, and only the one hellspawn came through.”
I released a shaky breath.That was something at least.
