Eighth Grave After Dark (33 page)

A third beast surrounded her, and I could tell she expected Lucifer to help her. How foolish to expect quarter from a man who would create his own son just so he could inhabit his body. Ethics were not his strong suit.

She hissed at the beasts, swiped as Eric got a little too close with the poker, and fell when the hounds converged, each ripping a piece of her apart.

I turned away. Even knowing the real Denise had probably been dead for days now, it wasn't easy to watch.

Once the beasts were finished with her, they slowly circled Lucifer. Only, that happened to be my husband's body they were about to rip apart.

I summoned Artemis back to me before glancing at Mr. Wong, now able to see the incredible power that encased him, and silently pleaded with him not to let the Twelve kill my husband.

“You sent me to protect you at all costs,” Mr. Wong whispered to me, though I could hear him clearly. “He is a threat. There is no help for it.”

Fine. I was back to fighting hellhounds.

“Hey!” I yelled at them, crouching down as though I would attack them.

“You would give up your life for his?” Lucifer asked.

“Of course, you idiot.”

He smiled. “Rey'aziel is very, very unhappy about that.”

“Yeah, well, he would be.”

A hound snapped at him, and in that instant when his focus swept to the hound, Osh was at my side. He no longer had a choice. Reyes was about to die, and I was the only one who could send Satan back to hell and save my husband in the process. He wrapped his arms around me, leaned in, put his mouth at my ear, and whispered my celestial name.

What hit me next was like an epiphany times infinity. It all made sense.

In an instant, a power like I'd never felt before flowed through me like lightning in my veins. Just like Reyes told me, with the knowledge of my name came billions of memories. I remembered my realm, my people, the gods that came before me. The memories were like flashes of camera light, only a million at a time. Then another million. Then the next. I remembered the creation of my universe and every universe thereafter. I remembered the wars. So many wars. So many lives lost, both celestial and mortal, each species of intelligence a little different from the others, yet each capable of a love greater than life.

And I remembered my decision to shift onto this plane. Though Reyes had seen me centuries ago, I saw him first. Knew he was capable of greatness. Called dibs.

God promised to leave earth to humans, to leave them to their own devices. He could only intervene if asked, if prayed to. In His infinite wisdom, however, He found a loophole. Another god could keep Satan at bay. And that god's human child could destroy him.

I understood. I knew why my daughter—our daughter—was such a threat to Lucifer. She truly was born a human. She was conceived from both of our human sides. There was nothing supernatural about her conception. About her birth. She was human through and through. True, she would be a human with extraordinary gifts, but she was human nonetheless, and she would be his downfall. This was why I'd agreed to come. I knew my purpose, and I knew hers. I knew what she would be capable of.

But for now …

I smiled at Lucifer, at the monster inside my husband, and while he looked like the man I'd fallen in love with centuries ago, the man who would do anything for our daughter, for me, he was not. He didn't have a key to the void like Reyes did. Locking him back in the basement would give our daughter time to grow, to become stronger, to learn how to defeat her grandfather and destroy him forever.

Lucifer had raised his hand, blocking the light flowing out of me. Then he realized what had happened. He panicked.

“You have no jurisdiction over me!” he yelled, backing away. “Your ordination precludes authority over anything other than mortals. Only one born of humans can command me, can embrace or deny what I offer. Put simply, that was the deal.”

“I
am
human.”

“You are a god hiding behind the rotting layers of human flesh. You are no more human than I.”

He had a point.

I walked over to him, grazed my fingertips along the hides of the hounds as I wound through them, and stood nose to nose with my husband's father. I placed a hand on his chest, moved it seductively to his heart. Interest leapt within him. Then I reached inside him, searching for the immortal being cowering there.

He grinned and wrapped one hand around the back of my neck and one on my jaw, preparing to snap my neck.

His voice grew hoarse. “Honey, in this universe, I'm the big, bad wolf,” he said, enjoying the thought of my death. “That shit doesn't work on me.”

I grinned back and every muscle in his body flexed as he twisted my head around. Or tried to. Even with all his strength, with all his incredible power, he was no match for the seven original gods residing within me.

I reached in farther and he grabbed my arm, fighting the agony I was putting him through, stunned.

He was even more stunned when I ripped him out of my husband's body. Reyes crumpled to the floor, unconscious as I held his father. Lucifer was massive, his body taking up half the room, part demon, part grotesque, but a part of him was still an angel, too. The beautiful being he once was had become a shell filled to the brim with hatred, judgment, and indifference. Evil.

He was struggling to breathe under the pressure of my hold. “How?” he asked, his voice straining.

“Honey,” I said, mocking him, “I'm a god. That shit works on everyone.”

I looked to the side. The hounds had moved back, given me room to work. I leaned over Reyes, placed one hand on him, used his power, his key, to open the gates of hell.

Lucifer fought me, but it was like a gnat fighting an eighteen-wheeler. The gate opened, and with one last gesture—my sauciest wink—I tossed his ass off our plane.

The gate closed and I collapsed across Reyes, petting his hair, begging him to be okay. Just then, Beep started crying, and I rushed to her, relief flooding every nook and cranny of my body because she was okay. I took her to Reyes as he stirred. Osh had knelt beside him, too. Then Garrett and Artemis joined us.

Reyes opened his eyes and turned onto his back. I touched his face. Smiled. Told him we were okay. But the turbulence in my husband's eyes left little doubt that I was wrong.

 

16

EARTH: THE INSANE ASYLUM OF THE UNIVERSE.

—T-SHIRT

“But I don't understand,” I said as Osh and Garrett helped Reyes to his feet. He swayed a little, then repeated the words he'd ripped straight from my worst nightmare.

“We have to send her away. Now.”

“You mean, we're going away with her like we'd planned. We're taking a helicopter to that island.”

“The island doesn't matter anymore.” He strode to the kitchen as we followed.

“I saw his plans,” he said. “My father's. We— We have no choice.”

He started throwing things in a bag, Beep's things, her bottles and formula.

“I saw his plans. He will not give up until she is dead.”

“But I'm a god,” I said, arguing with him. “I know my celestial name. Surely between the two of us, we can protect her.”

“You don't understand. You
are
his plan. You are the beacon of light that is going to lead his soldiers right to her.”

“Yes, demons. We've handled them before. We can do it again.”

He stopped just long enough to tell me, “Not his demons. Not this time. Demons from other dimensions. Stronger. More powerful.”

He made a call while ordering everyone around us to do this or that. They helped him pack Beep up. But I just wanted answers. I seemed to know everything I'd ever wanted to know, but suddenly it all meant nothing.

“So we fight them. Like always,” I said when he got off the phone.

“He sent a group to lead them.”

“Okay,” I said, needing more.

“Gods from another dimension, three of them, and their dimension makes hell look like a water park. They are ruthless and powerful beyond belief, and they are more potent than even you.”

“There is no such thing,” I said, my temper flaring. The earth quaked beneath our feet.

He took hold of my arm to calm me. “More potent. Not more powerful. Not even close, but you have distinct disadvantages. You care about those around you. They care only about the destruction of anything and everything standing in their way.”

“The gods of Uzan?” Osh asked, paling before my eyes.

Reyes offered a curt nod.

“Here? In this dimension? They'll destroy it.”

“Exactly. They'll destroy everything on earth to get to her. My father is not going to give up until our daughter is dead. And your light, the same light that is a beacon of hope for the departed, is now a death sentence for our daughter. That is how they will find her.” He forced another blanket into an already bulging backpack. “He planned for this, Dutch. All of it. He set this in motion centuries ago, from the time the prophecies were first written.”

“If he wanted her dead so bad, why didn't Denise kill her when she had the chance? She could have done it at any time.”

His mouth thinned. “He wanted to do it himself. At first. Now he doesn't care.”

“This is insane,” I said, scrubbing my face with my fingertips, unable to believe what was happening, but he kept working, ignoring my ideas, promising me we'd come up with our own plan once Beep was safely away. “Is this because you can't trust me? Because of my impulsive nature?”

“No, though it would serve you right.”

I couldn't argue that, and I knew he wouldn't even consider such a move if there were any other option. “Surely, we don't have to send her away this minute.”

“What do you think he was waiting for?” Reyes asked, facing me head on. “Lucifer, as he spoke to you, drawing out your conversation, stalling.”

“The gods? They're already here?”

“They've been here, waiting for word from my father.”

“But how? How can Lucifer command such beings?”

He went back to work. I wasn't even paying attention to what he was packing. “He doesn't command them, but you don't get to be the king of hell and not make a few nasty friends. We fought alongside them more than once.”

“You fought with them?”

“Dutch, you saw what I am. That surprises you?”

“Everything about this surprises me.”

A knock on the front door caught my attention. Uncle Bob answered it, his expression grave. The Loehrs walked in with Mr. Alaniz, the PI, trailing them. I sank into the nearest chair. Not this. Not now. Why were they here? What would this do to our already splintering relationship?

“Anything you want to tell me?” Reyes asked, his movements sharp and quick. “I asked you not to contact them.”

“I know,” I said, shame engulfing me.

“So I did it instead.”

I blinked up at him. “What?”

“After a while, after the thought of Beep and having a family, I understood what you meant. They deserved to know what happened to me. So I contacted them months ago.”

“But, how did you know I contacted them as well?”

He indicated Mr. Alaniz with a gesture.

I gaped at him. “You were in on it the whole time? From the beginning?”

Mr. Alaniz nodded, shame lining his face.

“Even the letter and the ultimatum that I tell Reyes the truth?” I said to the man I thought was
my
PI.

“I was trying to force your hand,” Reyes answered for him. “You'd contacted them against my wishes. I wanted you to tell me. To be honest with me.”

I wanted to apologize, but all I could think about was my daughter being sent away from me because I was the one thing in the universe that would lead to her death.

“I saw something else,” he said, his voice thick with sorrow. “It was my father who had me kidnapped in the first place, taken from the Loehrs.”

“Reyes,” I said, aghast. “I'm so sorry.”

“Don't be. They were my only contingency plan.”

“What do you mean?” When he didn't answer, I put two and two together. “They're going to take Beep?”

“For now, until we can figure out our next step.”

“But that would mean you knew this was going to happen. You prepared for us having to give up our child.”

“I suspected. It was always a possibility.”

“I didn't!”

He bowed his head. His sorrow was just as great as mine, his pain just as agonizing. “They're good people, Dutch. They'll take good care of her until all this is over.”

“But they're going into this blind. They don't know who she is. What she's up against. They'll be taking her under false pretenses, and they'll be in danger.”

“You're wrong,” Mrs. Loehr said. I turned to her, studied her kind face, her olive skin, her hair, just as thick and black as it had been when she'd first lost Reyes. “We knew Reyes was a gift from God. We knew he was special. He told me his name the moment he was born. Rey'aziel.”

“‘The beautiful one,'” I said, translating his name.

“Yes. That is one interpretation,” Mr. Loehr said. “But it actually means ‘God's secret.'”

I blinked in surprise. They were right. In the ancient angelic language, it meant “God's secret.”

Reyes scoffed gently. “I appreciate the euphemism, but God did not send me.”

“Actually, he did,” Mrs. Loehr said. “And nothing you say will ever convince me otherwise.” When her voice cracked, Mr. Loehr placed a gentle arm on her shoulder.

“You were an answer to our prayers.” She focused on me then. “We will keep her safe until you come back for her. And then we pray we can be a part of her life.”

My throat tightened at the thought. My heart ached, struggling to beat under the weight of my sorrow.