part0016

“Wherever they are, the demon, witches, and soul eaters are alone in the building. There are humans close to them, but not with them.”

The area looked run down, and they were in an industrial park. She supposed that was one good thing, there was very little traffic, and any collateral damage the enemy caused would be small. She was sure that wasn’t why the demon had picked their location, but she wasn’t worried about that either. She felt them on the right, as they passed a short dead-end side street.

Grant stopped and looked back at her.

She could sense his curiosity, and even attraction as he and his partner Jessica slowly lost their fear and uncertainty of them. She was hardly offended by the attraction, he didn’t leer, nor was it inappropriate, just a normal kind of thing. She knew she was attractive, and it just was. It didn’t so much matter to her all, only Jacob had her attention that way, but it was something she had to acknowledge and accept.

She pointed down the side street, there was a three-story office building that looked to have seen better days. It was probably fifty years old, and there was a sign in front that said for sale or rent, with a phone number. The parking lot was completely empty.

“They’re in there. I don’t sense a warlock, but there are lesser demons in there. Extremely tough and dangerous in a fight, but easily put down by a bullet to the head.”

Jessica asked, “Can they feel you?”

She replied, “The lesser demons no, and we’re too far for the soul eaters to catch our emotional presence. The witches are a no as well. Asmodai, I’m not sure. If he’s paying attention, he probably knew where we were all day long. Fallen angels are arrogant, and don’t usually directly attack in fear they’ll catch god’s notice and he’ll release angels to counter him. He’ll lead like a general. I suspect the teams yesterday took out the other targets first, and Asmodai only killed them all in an explosion of hellfire when they attacked him directly. Self-defense is the right of all.”

Grant noted the address, and then hit the gas. They went maybe a quarter mile, before he pulled the van over.

“Right, and we’re going to attack him?”

“That’s the plan. I’d rather go on vacation, but it’s our calling and what we have to do. His presence on the world is the true danger. They’re all dangerous of course, but soul eaters are serial killers and mass murderers, they don’t go in for the wholesale destruction as a rule. I know I’ve said it before, but warlocks and demons are the only danger that way.”

She jumped and turned to look, and the blood drained from her face as she looked into the smiling face of Asmodai. The angel actually backed up to give them room, as they piled out of the van. Both Grant and Jessica had their side arms out and pointed at the Asmodai, the rest of them had drawn blades, but no one attacked yet.

Asmodai said in a light conversational tone, “Lilith, what a pleasure to meet you. Father told me all about you, and what a talented little slut you are. He yearns for your company, he’s going to be disappointed to hear you escaped his trap. He’s got a corner of hell put aside for you. I have to say, I’m looking forward to getting a shot at you myself, now that I’ve met you. I can see what father saw in you, it’s not just that delicious body, you have presence. Makes me want to put you in your proper place.”

She frowned, “So, why not kill me and send me there?”

Asmodai smirked, “All in good time, dear. It’s a good plan, really, a missile and collapsing building might even hurt me, but you probably should’ve left the humans behind. Their minds are so… open and malleable, all without them even feeling me rummaging around in there.”

She’d always wondered, even believed she’d go to hell when she died. After what she’d unwittingly released on humanity, didn’t she deserve it? Yet… Samael hadn’t killed her, and now Asmodai was chatting with her instead of killing her, which implied if they did kill her she wouldn’t go to hell at all. Samael wanted her down there badly, it was why he had tried to get her to commit the mortal sin of suicide, why she’d been stuck under the earth to rot.

Still, how would heaven ever accept her?

She pushed that down, now was hardly the time to go through her personal issues. She also noticed Grant looking at her in shock, maybe she should have told them who she really was, it was… inconvenient for them to find out this way.

“Where’s your leash holder.”

Asmodai laughed, “Really? Thought it would be that easy? Actually, why not. I’m not a pathetic and weak being of the demonic host, I am Asmodai. In retaliation for daring to give me an order, I drained his life, and bound his immortal soul to me at the moment of his death. Do you understand? With his soul in my grasp, inside my being, I will never be banished in so simple a way, and I have unfettered access to this mortal plane.”

She gaped at him, was that even possible?

Jessica asked, “Why are you even talking to us?”

Asmodai touched his chest, and put on an offended look, “You wrong me. These animals haven’t told you the whole truth, and…”

She interrupted him with a snort, “Because he’ll only fight in self-defense, as I said earlier, in fear of gaining the hosts attention. No doubt his thirty soul eaters and six witches are preparing to attack. His father attacked and killed my last team, and he was forever bound in hell because of it. The last thing he’ll do is risk that result.”

Asmodai’s mouth twisted in annoyance.

“What makes you so…”

She interrupted him again. This time with an attack. She sent a harpoon of compulsion, a death spell, and shifted her strength and speed as she lunged at him with a knife.

The emotion had no effect, and her spell was swallowed by his power. Her lunge was met with a dodge so fast she didn’t see him move, and a viciously powerful backhand that sent her flying back fifteen feet to slam into the van.

Everyone froze, as she stood back up and limped back to Jacob, shifting the damage away with a thought.

Jacob said angrily, “What the hell was that?”

She wasn’t sure, a test? She didn’t believe Asmodai would kill her, under any circumstances. Not as long as her soul was destined for heaven, he was under orders to not allow her to escape Samael’s wrath in that way. At least, not by his own hand. She suspected he’d be glad to see her dead, if one of his followers could take care of it.

But it was just a guess that fit the facts as she saw them in the moment, in her heart she was almost sure she was already hell bound despite what just happened. It was why she fought so hard against the evil her and Samael had loosed on the world. She’d long ago accepted the guilt she felt for it, but that didn’t mean not taking responsibility.

The others were looking at her like she was nuts, and Asmodai looked murderous. Maybe she was, nuts that is.

She smirked, “Sorry, I tripped.”

The obvious lie and joke fell flat, not even Meri laughed.

They all stared at each other a few more seconds, as Asmodai visibly fought to calm himself down. She could even feel his emotions, and the presence of his evil and insane rage was palpably thick in the air.

It’d been a gamble, and she was grateful her team hadn’t moved to attack after he’d backhanded her, that could have been a major disaster. Still, if Asmodai truly had killed the warlock and somehow bound his soul so he wouldn’t be banished, they’d have to face him at some point. The only way to banish him would be to destroy his body. It was even consistent with what she knew, Asmodai should have the powers of a necromancer as she remembered them, and also a soul eater and warlock, plus who knows what else. Although, it was moving faster than her eyes and brain could even conceive that worried her most.

Asmodai sounded enraged, “How dare you, arrogant slut, I’ll…”

She never did find out what he was going to do about it, as he was interrupted for the third time, but not by her.

The cracking boom of a sniper rifle reached their ears, and blood flew as Asmodai dodged, but didn’t quite make it out of the way of the bullet. She suspected the sniper round would have hit his heart, if he hadn’t dodged a projectile that exceeded the speed of sound.

That wasn’t scary or anything.

As it was, he tripped and let out a scream of shocked rage mixed with pain. It was actually what she’d been hoping for, she knew there was a tactical team trailing them, and the other two shifter teams were nearby as well, just in case their recon drew attention they weren’t ready for.

Grant and Jessica must’ve been emboldened by his wound and stumble, because they both opened up with their Glocks. As far as she could tell, Grant was aiming at the left side of him, and Jessica the right, so if he dodged at least one of them would hit him.

She launched an aural whip at him, as did Allison.

Several throwing daggers were launched as well, from her, Meri, Jace, Carl, and Jacob. A number of daggers and bullets found flesh, including the follow up shot by the sniper, but Asmodai managed to block or dodge most of them.

Asmodai glared at her hatefully as hellfire rose up and encased him in a flash. When the bright blood red fire disappeared, he was gone.

Damnit. They’d wounded him, but the bastard got away.

Jacob turned to her fuming, and demanded for the second time, “What the hell was that?”

She blew out a breath, “I’ll explain later, right now we’ve got thirty soul eaters, six witches, and seven lesser demons to put down.”

Grant looked her up and down, “Are you really Lilith, I mean the Lilith, the devil’s concubine, the first…” he trailed off with an actual blush, making it clear his mind had gone to succubus and sex.

She sighed, “Yes, and no. The person you’re talking about doesn’t exist, but I am the one the legends are based on. I also wasn’t his concubine, I was his wife, in a sham of a marriage I didn’t know was a sham. I’ve never been to hell, I’m not a demoness, and I most definitely do not seduce men and take their souls during sex.”

Meri snickered, “I don’t know, I’m pretty sure you own Jacob’s.”

She snorted, “Focus on the plan. We can talk about my moment of crazy and who I am later. Asmodai has left the city again, I’m starting to think he could never shield his presence from me, his aura is just too big and powerful. He probably felt the attack yesterday, and he teleported in to meet it. Even for him, finding and recruiting over a hundred soul eaters would take more than a night’s effort, he was probably already out doing it.”

She gave Jacob an apologetic look, that promised answers later.

He didn’t look happy at all.

Jessica said, “Two minutes for your other two teams and our teams. We already have snipers on three different buildings if any try to run.”

Jacob said coldly, “That’s two minutes for you to explain.”

Shit, she was going to be paying for that lapse of judgment for a while, what if she’d been wrong? On the good side, he was mostly angry about her risking herself and he was overprotective, and he cared about her very much. She wasn’t sure if he loved her yet, but his emotions were leaning that way.

Which was why he was so pissed off about her stupidly risking death like that.

She sighed, “It was a test, we had to fight him anyway, and I wanted to test a theory. Samael really hates me for turning on him when I found out the truth, he wants me in hell to torture and play with for eternity. I don’t believe Asmodai is allowed to kill me, it’s why he swallowed his rage earlier, and it’s also why he didn’t end all of you with a blast of hellfire before he ran, because it would have killed me too. There’s got to be a way to use that, tactically I mean. That said, I wouldn’t count on his minions having similar orders.”

Grant frowned, “What does one have to do with the other?”

She shrugged, “I always assumed I was hell bound, but maybe not. If I die and go to heaven, I’ll be forever out of Samael’s reach to punish. Samael entombed me just to try and make me commit suicide, so I’d go to hell. That’s a rather convoluted way to do it, if he could have just killed me. I guessed that he gave similar orders to Asmodai, he really wants me back under his thumb.”

She shivered at the thought.

Jacob growled, and pulled her into a hug, “Don’t ever do anything that stupid again.”

His kiss took her breath away, as he showed her how much she meant to him, but he was still obviously upset about it all when the kiss broke.

She still wasn’t sure she believed it, mentally it seemed obvious, but in her gut the guilt churned. How did setting loose races of monsters on Earth entitle her to paradise, no matter what she’s done since then to ameliorate the issue.

As for Jacob, she was sure they’d be talking more about it later, in private. After that kiss, she was already looking forward to the rough make up sex.

Four more vans pulled up, two teams of agents in tactical gear poured out of two of them, while the other two disgorged hunter teams.