Lord of Hell (Alex Holden) (17 page)

“It’s more than that.”

“Then what is it? Why does the idea bother you so much?”

I had to think about it because I wasn’t quite sure. The idea of Hayley going to the Eternal Gardens when she died, hopefully a long,
long
time from now, didn’t bother me. Then I put my finger on the problem. “I don’t want to
own
you, Hayley.”

“Well, I guess you would on paper, but I know you wouldn’t treat me like property. You’re a god. You can stop a tornado and fly and summon fire, but you’ve never made me do anything.”

“But I still don’t want to have a contract that says I own your soul.” It majorly creeped me out, and not just because it was what my father used to do.

“And that’s exactly why I don’t have a problem doing it. I trust you.”

I shook my head and turned away. “It’s just the first thing he came up with. There’s got to be another way.”

“And how long will it take to find something else? The more time you waste looking, the less time I have to train.”

It turned to face her again. “Train?”

“Yeah, duh. You’re training, all your demons are training. I don’t want to go into battle without any training. That’s stupid.”

“I don’t want you to go into battle at all.”

“I know.” She took my hand and squeezed it. “But I am, and the sooner I start training, the better. So I need that power.” And there was that look again. No way was she backing down.

A weak little laugh escaped me. “I didn’t even get to the part where we can amend the contract after the war so you get your soul back if you return your power.”

“So what are you so worried about?”

“What if you die in battle? Before we can change the contract?”

Hayley shrugged. “Then I go to the Eternal Gardens. But I’m not going to die. You’re going to train me so I’m as badass as you are, and we’re going to win. You’ll get Heaven anyway, so it doesn’t matter if you own my soul.” I saw the shadow of doubt in her eyes, the same doubt I had. This whole idea was insane, but I knew I had to try. That was what she was thinking, too.

“I still don’t like the idea of owning your soul.”

She perked up, like she’d just gotten an idea. “Well, what if I own yours, too?”

“What?”

“What if we put in the contract that I own your soul, just like you own mine. Then we own each other.” Her cheeks flushed.

“I… I don’t know if it works that way.” My stomach fluttered and I felt warm. “But I can ask.”

“That would make you feel better, wouldn’t it?” She stepped closer, one hand going up to cup my cheek.

“Yeah.” It also felt really… serious. Then again, serious was relative when I was planning a war against Heaven.

***

The contract expert stared at me in shock. She had on a suit and everything. When she recovered, she said, “Well, yes. You can give the mortal nearly anything she wishes in the contract. Traditionally it’s money, power, youth, and the like.”

“What do you mean
nearly
anything?”

“I mean you are restricted in what you are able to give. You cannot give a mortal control of the world, for example. But your soul is yours to give.” She pressed her lips together, like she was trying not to frown. “Why would you do that, master?”

“Because I don’t like the idea of owning her soul, and this makes things equal.”

“It is not equal. You are giving her the power of a demon
and
your soul. Why isn’t the power enough? Satan never would—”

I held up a hand and glared so she wouldn’t finish the sentence. “I’m not him, and you’d better get used to that. I give her power and my soul, and she gives me her soul. The contract can say that, right?”

The contract demon nodded.

“Then do it. Write it up. And no tricks. No fine print or anything. I want it as simple as possible. Got it?”

She bowed. “As you wish, master.”

In half an hour, she had it ready. I brought in Semiazas to confirm that there were no tricks or loopholes. The contract was just as straightforward as I’d asked for.

“Good,” I said. “I want both of you to come with me now so we can sign it.” I wasn’t going to bring Hayley down to the castle because I didn’t know what would happen to a living human in Hell. After she had the power of a demon, she’d finally be able to visit my castle and see the Eternal Gardens. As much as I still didn’t like this idea, I was looking forward to that.

Hayley was waiting in my living room with Mew-Mew to keep her company. She looked a little nervous at the appearance of the two demons. Not that either of them was too horrible. Semiazas looked almost entirely human, and the contract demon had green skin and yellow eyes, but no extra limbs or anything. I think it was just that she wasn’t expecting strange people to show up.

“Oh. That was pretty fast,” she said. “It’s ready?”

“Yeah. I brought them along as witnesses. Not sure if I need that, but it seemed like a good idea.” I asked the contract demon, “So how do we do this? Sign it in blood?”

“Blood is customary for these types of contracts, yes. But only for the human.”

“If she signs in blood, so do I.”

The contract demon’s jaw twitched. “As you wish.”

“Shit, we need a pen.” A ballpoint wasn’t going to do. We needed one of those old-fashioned quill pens so we could dip it in our blood. Ugh, of course it had to be in blood.

“You should be able to summon one with a thought,” Semiazas said.

“Oh. Right.” I held out my hand and thought about a pen, and just like that, it was there. A black feather quill pen. Just the thing for signing a deal with the devil.

Before I could ask, Semiazas said, “You can use your sword to cut across her palm to draw the blood. She should sign first.”

Hayley looked at me, biting her lip.

“Are you sure about this?” I asked her.

“Yeah. Let’s do it.”

The green-skinned demon put the contract on my living room table. I drew Animus, who sent a gentle pulse of reassurance. Hayley held out her right hand.

“The other one,” I said. “You need your right to sign with.”

“Oh, right.” She held out her other hand.

I carefully drew the tip of Animus across her palm. Hayley hissed as the blood welled up, and she cupped her palm to keep it from dripping. I helped her dip the quill in it, trying not to think about how bizarre this was. At the bottom of the short contract, she carefully signed her name: Hayley Lambert.

I touched a finger to her palm, healing the cut. Mew-Mew brought her paper towels to wipe up the blood.

Then it was my turn. Animus’s blade cut across my palm, the sting much less painful than I expected. I dipped the quill in, waiting a few seconds for it to fill. Then I bent and signed my name in the spot across from Hayley’s: Alexander Holden.

“Now what?” I asked, holding a paper towel to my hand to soak up blood from the already-healed cut.

“Now you give her the power,” Semiazas said.

“Just… do it?”

“Yes.”

We faced each other. Hayley smiled uncertainly. “Here we go.”

I took both her hands in mine and felt power shift inside me. It was ready to go. At the last second, I pulled her into a kiss. Power ignited, flowing from me into her, and she gasped against my mouth. I kept pouring it into her, wanting her to be as strong as possible. It wasn’t just my power, it was deeper. The power of Hell, which was now mine to give. I made her as strong as the most powerful demon in Hell, almost as powerful as me. If I could have, I would have made her my equal, but there was a limit to what I could give. I couldn’t make her a goddess.

After an endless moment, I pulled back.

Hayley stepped away, wide-eyed and shaking. “Holy shit.” She lifted a hand and power moved to answer her.

“Wait!” I grabbed her hand. “I like my furniture and my apartment. I don’t want you to accidentally burn it down.”

She blinked a few times before bursting out laughing. “It really worked? I have superpowers?”

“We’ll test them in a minute.” I wanted to get her somewhere where she could let loose. My powers had come a little at a time, and I had still destroyed things (well, sometimes deliberately). She had at least as much power as I had before I’d killed Satan, and I didn’t know what might happen the first time she tried it out.

I looked over at Semiazas and the contract demon. Semiazas had a little smile on his face, and the contract demon had her lips pressed together again. “Is that it?”

“Yes,” Semiazas said.

“I will file this for you in the archives,” the contract demon said, picking up the contract. I glanced at Semiazas and he nodded without me having to say anything. He’d watch to make sure she filed the contract. They both disappeared.

I turned back to Hayley. “Let’s go try out your new power.”

We grinned at each other.

***

“Damn,” I said as she let out another stream of fire. I was glad I was next to her and not in front of her.

“I can’t believe I’m doing this.” She laughed and threw a fireball. “This is even more fun than I thought it would be.”

We’d been at this for maybe half an hour, and she was way better than I’d thought she’d be. I was actually a little jealous because she’d gotten all this power at once while mine had come a little at a time. “Try lifting that rock.” I pointed out the biggest one close to us. “I’m pretty sure I gave you all the powers I have, but I want to make sure.” Telekinesis was the first power I’d developed and I’d had it as far back as I could remember. That and talking to animals.

She looked where I was pointing. “So just think about lifting it? Can I pick up something that big?”

I resisted the urge to quote Yoda. “Yeah. If you have all my powers, that should be easy.”

It didn’t come as easily to her as fire had. Just as I started to worry that she didn’t have that power, the large rock shuddered and lifted an inch off the ground. Hayley gasped in surprise and the rock dropped.

“I did it!”

I pulled her close for a quick kiss. “Now do it again, and lift it higher.”

We swung between being serious and having fun. On the serious side, I wanted to know if she’d gotten all my powers like I’d intended. It’s not like I knew what I was doing. That was the first time I’d tried to give someone the powers of a demon. I also knew she was way behind in experience and training. The sooner she got a handle on as many of her powers as possible, the better. So I ran through as many things as I could: fire, telekinesis, ice, faster reflexes. I even had her summon wings, though I didn’t want her to try flying for the first time out here in the flat desert. It had taken me hours just to glide, and I’d been jumping from a tree. We’d try that later, and I was going to be there to catch her so she didn’t run into the ground a dozen times like I had.

“We need to get you a weapon, too.” I’d love to get her something like Animus, but I didn’t think that was possible. Animus was unique, built from bits of power from ghosts and animals. There were blacksmiths in Hell, already working hard on supplying the army with weapons. They had to be strong enough to take on angels, so they had to be infused with magic. I’d put in a special request as soon as I could.

The having-fun part kept happening because Hayley was having such a damn good time with her new powers. She almost set me on fire. Twice.

“
How
are you so fucking good at this?” I asked as she sat cross-legged, forming an icicle on the hot sand.

“I don’t know. Maybe I’m just talented.” She grinned.

I shot a tiny ball of flame at the icicle, melting it.

“Hey!” She threw a stream of fire at me and I had to dodge out of the way. That was the third time she’d almost set me on fire.

I spread my fingers and surrounded her with huge icicles, like a cage.

“What’s the matter? Jealous?” She stood and clenched her fists, fire spreading around her and turning the ice to steam.

“Maybe a little,” I admitted. “It took me
years
to get this good. But it makes me glad more than anything. It means you won’t be so far behind the other demons.” If she went on learning at this rate, she’d be ahead of most of them within days. I really had given her a ton of power.

“So how soon can I start training with them? Tomorrow?”

“You have school tomorrow.”

Hayley laughed. “The world is ending, I have superpowers, and we’re going to fight God. Screw school.”

“No. We can train after school. I want you to keep going.”

She frowned. “Why? You’re not going.”

“I have to run Hell and train an army. I
want
to go to school, but I can’t. After this is over and we win, I’ll go back to school, make up all the classes I missed. I want to graduate.” The nasty voice of doubt whispered in the back of my mind that I wasn’t going to win, that I would fail and die. Or worse.

“Why can’t I do the same? I’ll go back when you go back.”

I was about to go into some lame argument about how it was important to go on with her normal life as much as possible when two ideas hit me almost at the same time. “One, your parents will wonder why you’re not in school, and I really don’t want them to find out about all this. I hardly think they’d take it well. And two, you can protect the school since I can’t be there. If Jehovah attacks again, you can keep everyone safe until I can get there with reinforcements.”

She looked at me with narrowed eyes. Not quite a glare, but a searching look. “Are you sure you’re not just sidelining me because I’m your girlfriend and you want me out of danger?”

“I
do
want you out of danger, but why would I go through all this just to sideline you?” I sighed. “I want you to have as normal a life as possible, even with the world falling down around us. Even though we’re going to war with Heaven.”

“Even though you can’t have it?”

“Yeah.” I’d fought so hard to have a human life, and all I was doing lately was moving farther and farther away from it.

Hayley took my hand. “I’ll go to school so I can look out for Casey and the others. But you’re going to train me after school. Every day. And weekends, too.”

“Yeah.” I lifted her hand and kissed it. “I’ll give you as much training as I can, and you can train with the gods, too. I want you to be as ready as possible when this starts.”