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I tamped down the inferno blazing inside of me. Alessio was nowhere to be seen, but the plea in Pru’s eyes told me he was close.
“This has gone too far, Alessio,” I called out while I panned the pews for movement.
Several rows up, a dark shadow emerged. His short dark hair was dashed with early grey. Chasing the damned had aged him. Though he was of average height, his thin body made him look taller. His scarred hands passed over the tops of the pews as he walked, and the etchings on his skin were fiery red from the hellfire he’d used to make them.
“Who tells your kind when you’ve gone too far? When you’ve corrupted entire generations of human hearts and triggered the end of days?” He spoke softly as he reached the middle aisle.
There was no urgency in his tone while he lingered in the path between Pru and me. He was too confidently reserved. Not at all like I had thought he would be after the mortal crimes he'd committed to get me in his clutches.
“Are we in the end of days again?” I joked. “It’s been a while since the last time the world was said to be ending. I don’t suppose you have an ancient calendar or tablet from a long-dead prophet hidden in your robes?”
He turned his back to me and strode to the dias then took the three steps up the platform to stand by Pru’s side.
“I don’t need false prophecies to tell me what I can see all around us. The Leviathan posing as a holy leader is proof enough that the wicked have become too powerful.”
It was a common sophism among men of the cloth. One that Alessio’s mentor had spread like wildfire while he’d conducted hundreds of exorcisms in his time. Before him, there’d been dogma that spoke of the end of days for humankind at the hands of Lucifer and his followers. But those days had all come and gone. The same as Alessio’s would. The same as whoever came after. Human minds could not fathom the infinity of forever, so they took their grain of history as the way things always had been and always would be.
“Fighting all the big, bad evil on your own?” I looked around him mockingly but noted where he would likely try to escape when it was time for me to strike. “No angel willing to assist you on your crusade? My brother Auriel must be too busy to send a lesser angel to your side in your darkest hour.”
This battle Alessio’s brotherhood had fought for centuries had never been endorsed by our Father or the archangels. A greener soldier may have aided here and there through the ages, but never without a long timeout in Heaven. Mikael was the most recent to be reprimanded, as the rumors were told. He’d stuck his nose where it didn’t belong and had gotten one of Father’s golden children killed.
“I have dedicated my life to hunting your kind,” Alessio said. “To fight a war that was laid at my feet by those who could never and would never defeat evil. I fight for the Father on a mortal mission.”
“A fool’s errand,” I corrected him. “The separation between the Fallen and our holy brothers was done by His hand. What makes us evil for wanting what He so freely gave to you?”
“That’s poetic coming from the prince of Hell whose purpose is to deter man from righteousness and lead them down the path of ruin.”
I couldn’t hide the snide smile his words brought to my lips. “Laze does not make an apostate.”
He huffed with a mixture of disdain and sardonic humor then circled behind the bait he’d intended to use to lure me inside. Pride sparked in his eyes at his own vain cleverness.
Pru wriggled against her restraints, and her muffled whimper through the tape sent fire through my blood. She was mine. If anyone was going to tie her to a chair and cause tears to stream down her perfectly flushed cheeks, it would be me.
“You’d argue it was free will though, wouldn’t you. Free will for humans to make their own mistakes. Commit their own sins and submit their souls to you.” He leaned down closer to my Pru. “Like this one has. She’s very committed to you, demon prince. Screamed your false name for hours until her voice was hoarse. I tried to tell her that you’d never be able to hear her. The wards I marked on her skin silenced the bond you forced upon her. That seemed to be news to your plaything. Didn’t you mention that her soul bore your tainted mark?”
He cocked his head at Pru, but her eyes were fixed on me. Her face was full of regret and pleas for salvation. His thumb wiped a tear roughly from her chin and brought it to his lips, then he darted his tongue out and hissed as if it were acid.
“Putrid harlot,” he spat over her. “Gave over her soul to you in a fit of lust. Damnation eternal is all that awaits her now. That’s all her prince can provide.”
Each of his determined breaths became an agitation and insult as anger pounded in my ears. The false cool shell I’d been holding on to was cracking with every pump of blood through his veins. He was testing the wrong demon. I had my freedom to live on Earth to lose, but if he touched Pru once more, I was going to take him with me into fiery oblivion.
“Pru, look at me.” I was internally reeling from my explosive rage but spoke softly to her. “I’m going to get you out of here. What did I promise you?”
Her glassy eyes bulged and spilled a renewed stream of hot tears. She shook her head, and the desperation on her face sent a piercing pain through my chest.
I’ll take care of you.
“Neither one of you will be leaving this church intact, Gaap.” Alessio scoffed. “You may have abdicated your throne, but you wouldn’t bring war down on your brothers. Running from me for so long has proved that pacts among devils are stronger than my predecessors had recorded.”
I glowered. “Starting a war over a woman isn’t unheard of.”
“How have those wars ended? Killing me would bring more than just war. It would give rise to the slaughter of all demons on Earth. You’d be breaking the agreement Lucifer made with the Order, which would call every angel on high down on your heads. And I’ve heard through the grapevine that they have been itching for a fight since one of their own was murdered in the name of love all too recently.”
His upper lip curled into a disgusted grimace. He was enjoying taunting me and was underestimating the Fallen. Clearly, my brothers doing anything pure by human definition was unheard of in his circles.
I returned his cruel smile. “What would a priest know of love? You pine for a connection to a Father you have never met and are instructed to worship without question.”
Alessio De Santis was far from the holy man he made himself out to be. No man could commit his life to hunting down my kind and not get his hands covered in the blood of the innocent. His treatment of Pru was enough of a reason to send his soul to Hell to burn for all eternity at the hands of my legions.
