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“I’ll never leave you, Raven. I swore I’d always protect you,” he replies, offering me a sad smile.
My heart fissures and breaks. Fuck. Andre has abandoned grace.
He has fallen.
Chapter 24
Long May He Reign
DANTE
I SOAR OVER the warehouse the hunters call home, circling to get a better view. There is only one way for me to get in, and even then, I’m sure they’ve shielded the place. Fury turns my vision red, and I adjust my prisoner in my arms, bringing the man up from his dangling place clinging to my leg.
“Please, don’t drop me,” he cries, his tear-stains satisfying to study, glistening on his cheeks.
“You mean, like this?” I toss the man away from me and savor his high-pitched scream as I let him freefall a dozen feet. I dive and catch him by the wrist, dislocating his shoulder in the process.
He hollers and sobs, praying to the Higher Power he turned his back on. “Please, I’ll do anything,” he says, blubbering with snot dripping from his nose.
“Fuck yeah, you will. You’re taking me to Raven. You better pray to me that she’s unharmed because I will inflict on you all the injuries she sustained because of you fuckers.” I hiss and flash my fangs, startling the man.
The fucker pisses himself right in my arms, setting me off even more. Don’t these damn hunters know to go to the bathroom before they enter suicide missions against Hell? Flipping him around, I face him outward and flip him upside down, hoping his piss drips onto his face like it did my boots.
He screams again, waving his arms. “Please! God, please!”
I descend, swinging him by his ankles, testing how strong his heart and body are against the fear I ignite in his wretched being. Dropping him to the grass, I land a few feet away and unsheathe my blade, taking a moment to peer around the empty property.
“Where did the fucking ghost take her?” I ask, stomping forward, revealing my devil façade.
The hunter cringes and freezes as I tower over him. “He was being summoned here. Preston arranged a new vessel for him if he’d help kidnap her. He agreed to do this in exchange for Elias’s soul.”
I holler in anger and shoot venom over his head, watching as it smolders the dry grass. I don’t need to know anymore to know the reason. The demon wanted Raven’s body for something, and by the lingering presence of Hell buzzing through the ground around me, I know it involves Lucian. The fucking bastard devil.
“Now please, just let me go,” the man pleads.
I will not show mercy to the man who helped get my pretty soul taken from me. I can think of hundreds of ways the demon could hurt Raven without killing her, and I know he would try to do every single one of them.
“No. The only place you’ll be going is to my kingdom in Hell. I will finish this later. Your soul is mine.” I aim my blade at him, aligning it with his stomach. I want his death to hurt.
“No!” he shouts.
The bang of a door closing shut steals my attention, and I stop short of gutting the man. He squeezes his eyes shut, crying and snotting, praying to the Higher Power. It takes everything in me to leave him, but I can always come back and finish him. Right now, I need to get to Raven. It’s been long enough already. If I could murder time for keeping me from her, I would. I’d show it exactly what it’s like to mess with the devil of envy.
I jog around the massive building and to the back, catching sight of Vincent leaving out a door and heading in another direction. His human façade barely hangs on to his skeletal body, his skin smoking and smoldering with...grace. I can sense the lingering presence of Heaven—of Andre. He wasn’t with his brethren when I left the hunters, going after Raven.
Taking flight to stop Vincent from hearing me, I soar toward him, my need for justice and revenge controlling me. Right now, grabbing this bastard is all I can think about. He’s the reason we might lose Raven. He’s the reason Hell might not get the chance to rise because of his deal with Elias. I can’t let him get away. I will cut him up inch-by-inch until he gives me Elias’s soul.
I flap my wings, pushing me forward. Vincent turns his head, peering behind him. I’m too fast and slash my blade at his back, cutting his jacket open to see his baked skin. Crashing into him, I knock him off his feet and we skid together over the sidewalk. He growls and thrashes, but he’s no match for me.
“Where is she?” I ask, my gruff voice echoing through the air. “What have you done with Raven?”
A leering smile crosses his face. “I killed her and sent her soul to Hell to be ravaged by Lucian.”
My eyes widen at his words, and I slam my blade down on his arm, severing it from his body. He howls as black blood sizzles across the pavement. Spitting my venom at the appendage, I disintegrate it into a pile of black slime.
Vincent wails and tries to scratch me with his claws. I spit venom in his face, melting the rest of his human flesh until I see his demon façade and...fuck. He wears Lucian’s mark, the pentagram etched with his molten power on Vincent’s skull. Slamming my dagger on his neck, I sever the bastard’s head and kick it several dozen feet. Rage consumes me, gripping me to my core. Betrayal runs hotter than the pits of Hell. Lucian made a deal with Vincent. And a powerful one.
I stab the demon over and over again, my muscles flexing and craving to destroy this fucker. Flames lick over Vincent’s body, fissuring the ground beneath him. The concrete splits open and the flames of Hell snatch his body away from me. The ground shakes under my boots, the scent of Hell engulfing me.
