Hell's Revenge (10 page)

As often happened in a time of need, the ability to use my power came naturally. I drew my magic around me and used it like a battering ram to charge through the force field she’d erected to stop me.

Her eyes opened wide in alarm as I stalked towards her with a nasty grin. “Hey mommy, guess what, I grew up while you were gone.” She lifted her hands in surrender. “Would you stop it with the violence? I brought you here to talk.”

“Great, ‘cause my fist wants really wants to say hello.” With more strength than I would have credited her, she caught my clenched hand before it could connect with her visage. She gritted her teeth as she prevented it from landing and I noticed a pearl of sweat roll down the side of her face. “You’re in danger,” she gasped.

“Gee, I hadn’t noticed. News flash. I’ve been in danger my entire life. Oh, that’s right, you wouldn’t know since you ditched me like yesterday’s news.” Bitterness colored my tone and it annoyed me that I could still feel hurt over something that happened so long ago. I pushed harder to free my fist.

“I had to abandon you so you could fulfill your destiny.”

“My destiny to what? Become a bartender?” I guess I’d failed in whatever destiny my mother had planned for me.

“No, to create the child who will save us all.”

Her words froze me. Everything from my mother’s abandonment to her sudden return all seemed to revolve around one thing. “Why all this interest in my baby?”

“Stop trying to hurt me and I’ll tell you.”

A part of me actually didn’t want to know. Childish, but true. However, it wasn’t just about me anymore. I had a responsibility to my unborn child and lovers. “Before I let you go, answer one question. Did you ever regret having and ditching me?” For the first time since I’d met her, my mother’s face softened into a look that could almost be termed maternal. “I always wanted you, Muriel.”

“Then why did you abandon me?” I heard the little girl plea, the weakness in my voice and it disgusted me. Surely, I didn’t care what she had to say.

“I had no choice. In order for you to fulfill your destiny, you needed to be strong.

Know how to fight. And ultimately meet the men who would give you the treasure needed to stop the darkness from killing us all.”

I let go of my mother and whirled to move away. I needed space. “You sent me to Hell.”

“To a father who loved you.”

“To fight for my right to live.” My whole life, I’d battled to stay in the land of the living. Being a princess of Hell wasn’t all about cool clothes and breaking laws—

although, those were definite perks. It also meant everyone wanted to use me and if they couldn’t use me, kill me for the glory.

“Your upbringing gave you the strength you needed and the ability to defend yourself.”

“And how did growing up without a mother help me?” I threw at her and waited for her pitiful reasoning.

“It was a sacrifice that had to be made and one of my biggest regrets.” I stumbled, the shock of her admission jolting. I would have fallen, but a cushion of air caught me. I ended up sinking to the ground anyway, not trusting my legs as all the emotional bombardments made me weak.

I drew my knees up and rested my face against them. I wished in that moment that I had Auric by my side. He would not only hold me, safe and secure in his arms, he’d know if she spoke true because surely I read her wrong. She sounded sincere, regretful, which went against everything I’d ever thought.

A hesitant touch stroked my hair. The only caress I’d ever received from my mother that I remembered. Tears pricked my eyes as my pregnancy hormones kicked in again when I least wanted them. “I don’t understand anything anymore,” I whispered.

“You’ve had a tough life, but I knew you could handle it. Those five years we spent together, marvelous years, I taught you as much as I could in order to prepare you for the day I foresaw coming.”

“I don’t remember anything before I came to live with dad.”

“In order to protect you, I locked your memories away. Had that wicked angel Gabriel not messed with your mind, they would have been released at our first meeting. I know you can’t remember, but you were happy with me.” I didn’t reply, not trusting my voice not to break. However, time passed as I struggled to remember something lost in the labyrinth of my mind, enough time that Auric was probably freaking and David was hacking up hairballs at my disappearance. I needed to wrap things up so I could go home and mull over what I’d learned—a.k.a. have wild monkey sex to forget the emotional turmoil of the last few minutes.

I changed subjects. “Let’s skip me for a minute and talk about the baby. I went to see Nefertiti. She says I should abort. That the child I carry is a threat.” My mother moved back from me and I tilted my head to look at her. “She’s correct in a sense. But then again, she said the same about you once upon a time. A person of power is only dangerous in the wrong hands. It’s why you need to give your daughter to me.”

I shook my head violently. “No!” I set my chin to its most obstinate angle and glared at her. “Why should I give her to you? You couldn’t handle me, so what makes you think you could deal with her? Besides, you said it yourself. I’m strong. Her fathers are strong.

And she’s got a grandpa who’s someone to be reckoned with. Together, we can not only protect her, we can guide her along the right paths.” I expected her to freak out and start yelling, but instead, she inclined her head. “I’ll grant you there’s a possibility you would succeed. However, keep in mind, I’ve seen one of the futures and in it, everything’s gone. Heaven, Hell, Earth, wiped clean and all that is left is a gray nothingness.”

“One future.” I scoffed. “And how do you know that wasn’t the one where you got your hands on the baby?”

“Because in one of the futures where I get my granddaughter, we prevail against the apocalypse and your child takes my place.”

“And where are you?”

“Dead.”

Yeah, that declaration kind of sucked the wind from sails. “Seen any other possible futures you’d care to share?”

“Many, but most end in calamity.”

Her words resonated inside me, like someone striking a gong right beside my eardrum and the vibrations were so strong I could almost feel my teeth vibrate. I placed my hands over my rounded abdomen in a protective gesture. What she asked of me … it was too much. Good intentions or not on her part, selfishness ran in my genes.

“I can’t,” I whispered. “I’m sorry, but unlike you, I don’t have the strength to give away my child. Blame my father for that character trait if you will, but I won’t sacrifice my child for the world.”

“I hope you don’t regret that choice.”

I looked her straight in the face, our gazes locked in a silent struggle for power. “No.

I’ll never regret choosing my child. Unlike you, I believe things can turn out all right.”

“So be it.” My mother turned and walked away.

My jaw dropped. “Wait. Is that it? You’re just going to leave?” She paused and peered back over her shoulder. “You’re not the woman I thought you were.”

And with that verbal slap in the face, my mother left me—again. She took quick steps to the dense forest which engulfed her, leaving me alone in a garden that no longer appeared so pretty to me. I suddenly regretted not killing her when I had the chance because I somehow knew this would come back to bite me. Not to mention her rejection of me for a second time in my life stung.

Tears blurred my vision as I sketched a portal to Hell, figuring that’s where I’d find my dad and the boys who’d probably freaked when I didn’t come back from the bathroom in the restaurant.

I stepped into the familiar heat and smell of Hell, but in an area I’d never visited before.

“What the fuck?” I exclaimed.

Figuring my pregnancy hormones had thrown my initial destination off, I attempted to draw another portal, but I never finished it. A sharp blow to the back of my head made me sink into darkness. And my last thought?
Ha, Auric was wrong. My head’s not that
hard after all.

Auric couldn’t stop himself from watching the bathroom door. He knew firsthand there was no other way into the washroom short of a portal, which Lucifer would sense in a second. He also well knew Muriel could take care of herself, but that didn’t stop him from worrying.

A lot of people thought him overprotective of Muri, and he was, but with good reason, at least to him. He loved her. Truly loved her with every part of his being. David loved her, too, but unlike Auric, if Muriel were to exit his life, David would mourn then go on. If Muriel ever died on him, Auric would kill himself avenging her.

Before he’d met her, his life had consisted of one unending quest after another, meaningless events that ran together in his unwavering attempt to return to Heaven’s graces. Then he met Muriel—and found something better. He discovered a different kind of sunshine and perfection that made his previous life seem bleak.

His Muri could be crass at times, outspoken and stubborn as a mule but she also had a generous, loving heart and a courage that awed him. That fearless nature of hers, the confidence she could handle anyone and anything, while awesome, scared the hell out of him. Muriel didn’t know when to back down from a challenge, that and she tended toward impulsive action rather than carefully considered plans.

She kept putting herself in danger and it terrified him. Not that he voiced that aloud.

Auric was raised in a time when males dominated women and, as an angel, with God’s word as his guide, he’d chauvinistically used that to his advantage, believing in the doctrine that women belonged at home birthing and rearing the young. A thousand years of sexist ideology was a hard habit to break. Almost as hard as reminding himself that the older looking gentleman sitting in front of him was supposed to be the scourge of mankind. The destroyer of souls. The lord of lies. His consort’s father.

“Stop staring at the door. She isn’t going to run away if you stop looking for a second.”

“I’m not afraid of her running, Lucifer.” Auric flicked his gaze over to his father-in-law and almost groaned as he saw the mischief lighting his expression. Much as he grumbled, Auric had, in the time since he’d gotten to know Lucifer, discovered a grudging fondness for the old devil, not that he’d ever admit that aloud.

“Haven’t we gotten past first names yet? When are you gonna call me Dad? I mean you and Muri are living in sin, after all, and you’ve impregnated her out of wedlock. That makes you family, son.”

Auric fought the urge to gnash his teeth at the deliberate baiting. While he’d begun to acquaint himself with Lucifer’s odd quirks, his heavenly upbringing, so long entrenched, loved to rear its head. David saved him with his laughter.

“Oh man, the look on your face right now, Auric, is fucking priceless.” David hooted as Auric glared at him, not amused in the least.

Rescue came from an unlikely source. “Hey, furball, just because you’re sleeping with my daughter doesn’t mean you’ve passed in my books.” Lucifer’s toothy grin made David clamp his lips shut and gulp.

Auric chuckled.

Lucifer sipped at his coffee, completely at ease now that he’d caused mischief. “So what’s this I hear about you and the furball here attacking the hunter I sent to protect Muri?”

“What hunter?” Auric asked with a furrowed brow. “Wait a second, are you talking about that vampire? The one who kissed Muriel?”

Lucifer’s brows shot up and his lips stretched into a thin line. “I believe I shall have to chat with my old friend and make sure he understands that my daughter is no one’s dinner.”

“Glad we agree on something.”

Unease settled on Auric as the minutes ticked by and Muriel didn’t reappear. He left David to dodge Lucifer’s verbal bombs and returned to watching the door to the woman’s washroom.

Auric sensed it the moment Muriel disappeared, as if someone had wrenched away a living, breathing part of himself and left a gaping, painful wound.

He stumbled from his chair, his usual grace lost in his fear. David and Lucifer both spoke to him, but he couldn’t decipher their words through the white noise roaring in his head.

He didn’t hesitate at the door to the women’s washroom, he pushed it open causing the females inside to squeal and berate him.

“Muriel!” he shouted, ignoring them. When she didn’t reply, he did a quick search of the stalls, they all gaped at him emptily, only in the last did he catch a whiff of her perfume, and there on the floor, her purse. But no Muriel, even worse, the part of his soul she’d claimed was gone.

Auric fell to his knees under the weight of his grief. He opened his arms wide and screamed in primal rage. His beautiful Muri, gone. Never to smile at him again. Never to tease him, or stand up to him again. Auric wondered at the fact Lucifer hadn’t turned the world dark with his anguish, for much as the Lord of Hell would deny it if asked, he loved his daughter deeply.

And that simple thought pulled Auric from his self-inflicted misery.
Why am I
assuming she’s dead? Just because I can’t feel my bond to her doesn’t mean someone
hasn’t hidden her.
After all, if anyone would know if she’d died, wouldn’t her father?

“Lucifer,” Auric bellowed aloud knowing the nosy devil would hear him.

He needn’t have bothered because David and Lucifer had entered the bathroom behind him.

“Son, the next time you’re going to invade the woman’s washroom, give me some warning. Do you know how hard it is to spell freaking humans when they’re scurrying about like mice?”

“This isn’t the time for jokes. Muriel’s gone.”

“What? She left you.” Lucifer’s face echoed his surprise.

“Gone as in someone’s taken her and hidden her. I can’t feel her at all anymore.” David’s face reflected the same shock as Auric felt. “My cat is freaking and telling me the same thing.”

“Maybe she’s busy doing girly things. You know, baby stuff or something.” Auric resisted an urge to throttle the devil. “Bah, talking to you is like talking to a bloody child. Use your satany power or something and see if you can find her.”

“Fine, but when I find her shopping, I reserve the right to say I told you so.” With a smirk Lucifer concentrated. Auric could feel the lord of the pit pulling at the esoteric waves that floated around. And then he didn’t just pull, he yanked, harder and harder as his face turned red and his brows beetled together.