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The creature on the ground was crying, saying something she couldn’t hear, kissing the back of her hand. Suddenly his eyes widened, showing their whites all around. He opened his mouth to say something else, and his head split open, exploding with blood. She screamed as his whole body split down the middle like a chrysalis, falling away from something else, something horrible. It emerged from the ruined belly, sleek and wet and dark, much bigger than its host. The horned head looked up, and Kelsey’s scream rose another notch. She tried to run, but the thing still held her wrist, the thick fingers splitting through the dead soul’s skin like an ill-fitting glove. The face was like Asher’s, but twisted and animal, the sensual curve of the mouth stretched wide over long, curving fangs, exposing the red, lolling tongue of a wolf.
“Thanks, Kelsey,” he said, the voice thick and deep and horribly familiar. His skin was dark and scaly, a pearly bluish silver on his face and down his chest and stomach, thickening to black across his shoulders and down his arms and legs. The fingers wrapped around her wrist were tipped with glistening black talons. “Now give me the sword.” As he straightened up, he towered over her, and huge, black, leathery wings unfolded from his back. His breath fell on her face like the draft from a furnace, and with every breath he took, his black scales seemed to burn like embers, edged with blue-hot light.
She tried to say no, but she couldn’t find her voice. Instead, she raised the sword and brought the blade down as hard as she could on the arm that held her fast.
Asher surged forward. Lucifer’s concentration that had held him back had been broken by Kelsey’s stroke. He caught the sword in one hand just as the impact of her blow knocked it from her grip, catching her in his other arm as she fell. She screamed as the demon’s black blood spattered across her face, but he couldn’t stop to see if she was hurt. “Get back!” he shouted, shoving her away from him. She stumbled, stepping on the hem of her nightgown, but she managed to scramble clear, the demon’s talons swiping the air just over her head as he turned. “Run!” Asher ordered, his palms burning, seared to the holy sword’s hilt as he grasped it. He wasn’t worthy anymore; it wasn’t his. “Run for the gate!”
He couldn’t look back to see if she obeyed. Lucifer’s sword of iron was swinging toward his head. He parried clumsily; the holy sword that had always been like an extension of his arm and will was now fighting against him. Dropping into a roll, he struck at his opponent’s legs, slashing at his hamstrings, but it was like swinging a club. “Not quite how you pictured it, is it, brother?” Lucifer said, his voice a rasping hiss. “Fighting me at last?”
“You’re right,” Asher said, leaping back to his feet, his eyes locked to his opponent’s sword. “I’m very disappointed.” The iron blade went up, and he thrust his own blade forward, stabbing it deep into the demon’s hide at the crease at the top of his thigh, the most painful blow he could manage. Lucifer’s sword caught him squarely in the chest, slashing through his armor to open the flesh underneath.
“Oo, that’s got to sting,” the demon said, barely limping as Asher staggered to his knees, heart’s blood pouring from his breast. “What are you doing, brother? Distracting me while she escapes?” He laughed as Asher struggled back to his feet, still clutching the holy sword. “Where do you think she can go?”
Kelsey stopped halfway across the field and looked back. The gate hadn’t moved again; she knew she could reach it at a sprint if she kept going. The dog was running at her heels; when she stopped, it yipped and whined, urging her forward. But when she looked back, Asher had fallen to his knees. The demon was looming over him, raising a heavy, jagged, black sword that burned with unholy fire. How could she just run away?
“Kelsey!” She heard her name and turned back toward the gate, her heart skipping a beat. “Honey, come on!” Jake was standing on the other side.
“Jake!” She ran as hard and as fast as she could, flying over the broken ground, oblivious to the jagged stones that cut her feet. She slammed headlong into the iron bars, mindless of the pain, reaching for her husband, hugging him through the gate. “Baby, I missed you so much.”
He was kissing her, reaching through the gate to clutch at her the same way she was clinging to him. The dog was panting, trying to jump up in spite of his pitiful state. “Kelsey, honey, you’ve got to come through,” Jake said. “You don’t have much time.”
She pushed at the gate, but it wouldn’t budge. The chain barely rattled. The heavy lock looked rusted shut. “I can’t.”
“You can,” he promised. He took a step back, out of her reach. “Come on, honey, try.” Behind him was a hillside with a narrow, winding road, and halfway up she saw her mother standing with another man she didn’t recognize. She ran her hands over the lock, looking for some kind of trigger or latch.
“I can’t,” she said, starting to cry. “There’s no way to open it.” She didn’t deserve to pass through. She deserved to be in Hell.
“Baby girl, listen to me.” Jake reached through the bars to frame her face in his hands. “Nothing is over.” He looked just the same as he always had, shaggy-haired and bearded, his clothes splattered with paint. “Nothing has been decided.”
She looked into his eyes. So many times he had asked her to trust him, had promised her everything would be all right, and she had always believed him. And almost every time, he had been right. Every time but one. “I made you go to Hell,” she said.
“Bullshit.” He smiled, shaking his head. “You couldn’t have even if you’d wanted to. I’m the only one who could send me to Hell.” He stepped back again. Her mother was hiding her face in the stranger’s shoulder. He was holding her tight in his arms. “And you’re the only one who can open that gate.”
She took hold of the bars. The stranger smiled at her and nodded. Looking back into her husband’s eyes, she pushed…
The chain broke apart, falling with a rattle to the ground. The gate swung open.
The dog ran through, barking his painful bark. He rubbed once against Jake’s legs before shambling up the hillside. The stranger let go of her mother to meet him halfway, falling to his knees to catch the dog up in his arms.
“Come on,” Jake said, reaching for her, but she took a step back. “Kelsey, honey, come on, quick.”
“Wait.” She looked back at Asher who was still fighting the demon. He was staggering, bleeding, obviously hurt. But he was still fighting back. “Do something for me, baby,” she said, turning back to her husband. “Hold this open for me one more minute.”
His sweet, crooked smile broke her heart. “One more minute.” He grabbed the gate, and she heard a hiss, like touching a hot iron. “Don’t make me come in there after you,” he said, barely wincing.
“Don’t you dare!”
“Then hurry up.”
Asher felt the change as soon as the gate swung open. A rush of sweeter air filled his lungs. He had been wrong. Kelsey was safe. Without looking back, he sheathed the holy sword that no longer obeyed him and grabbed hold of Lucifer’s sword arm with his bare hands. With nothing left to lose, he snarled the words of pain and destruction he had been taught but forbidden to utter, soft but lethal enough to freeze the demon’s arm in holy fire. Lucifer roared with pain and fury as Asher wrenched the iron sword from his grip.
“Yes!” the demon crowed. He gnashed his teeth like a maddened beast, lunging for Asher’s throat. Asher fell back, the two of them rolling end over end, Asher slashing at the creature’s hide with the sword, the demon tearing him apart with fangs and claws. The sword of Hell felt natural in his hands; it wanted him to wield it.
“She’s free,” Asher said, driving the jagged blade deep into the demon’s belly. “You’ve lost her.”
“Who wants her?” the demon said, gasping and laughing at once. “Oh, that’s right. You do.” He swiped at Asher’s shoulder with his talons, opening the flesh to the bone. “Take heart,” he said, his tongue lapping at the jet of angel’s blood before he shoved Asher face first to the ground. “She hasn’t left you yet.”
Asher climbed back to his knees, still clutching the sword. He risked a look back and saw Kelsey running toward him. “Kelsey, no!” Her nightgown had shrunk to her own size, and the haunted look was gone from her eyes. But her feet were still bare and bleeding; her face was still splattered with blood.
