Chapter Eighteen
Alec had heard the
phrase about senses “swimming” in the past, but he never truly
understood just what it meant until he woke from insensibility to
find not just the room spinning around him but apparently the
entire world.
He knew he was
gravely wounded by the fact that he didn’t have the strength to
reach out mentally to make sure Cora was not harmed in any way. The
fact that he felt as drained of life as when he had given up in the
Akasha told him the rest of what he needed to know—that damned
Eleanor had killed him.
Well, almost killed him. The bitch. And to think he’d
spent centuries mourning her death.
After a few minutes
of thinking indignantly about that fact, and dwelling, with much
pleasure, on the thought of how Cora would fuss over him once he
was recovered enough to tell her that he had almost died, the
distant nagging of a familiar heat warned him that his body was
making a tremendous effort to repair itself.
He stopped struggling
to reach Cora, and relaxed, letting what remained of his energy
focus on healing the damage. It wasn’t until a sense of her despair
reached him that he tried again to reach her mind, reassured by the
joy evident in her thoughts that she really did love him as she
claimed.
He smiled to himself
as Cora ranted to him about Eleanor, aware now of the faint sounds
of Pia and Kristoff speaking over him as they bound his wounds.
With that awareness came pain, intense pain, an agony that seared
through his body and left him breathless with the need to scream,
but he knew that would be a wasted effort.
Instead, he pushed
the pain down, fighting to keep his mind clear of the agony that
threatened to consume him. Only when he was in control of it did he
open his eyes and look up at Kristoff as his arm was bound to his
chest.
“Thanks,” he said,
his voice coming out cracked and rough with pain.
Kristoff gave him a
smile, but was immediately pushed out of the way by Pia, who bent
over him, her face wet with tears, as she said, “Alec! Don’t
speak!”
“Hello, Pia,” he
said, summoning up a little smile for her.
“Hush! And stop
trying to move. Kristoff has bound up your neck and shoulder, but
you shouldn’t try to move anything until after the healer comes to
take care of you.”
He was touched by the
evidence of Pia’s tears, but his thoughts, inevitably, turned to
Cora. What had she thought when she first believed he was dead? Was
she angry? Sad? Relieved?
Try devastated beyond human belief, and if you don’t do
what Pia says and relax so you can heal, you’ll find out just how
cranky feelings of devastation make me.
Alec relaxed, smiling
once again to himself at the gentle caress of her mind, ignoring
both the hunger that gnawed deep inside him and the pain that
lingered even as his body struggled to make whole once again that
which had been destroyed.
He drifted for a bit,
jerking back to awareness only when some vague sense of danger
finally permeated his dulled senses.
With tremendous
strength, he shoved himself away from where he was slumped against
the wall, staring with growing fury at the scene before him. “You
would do this now? ” he snarled in a rough, almost unrecognizable
voice as he struggled to his feet, one arm still bound to his
chest. “Kris, you should have stopped Sally.”
“Oh, for the love of
god,” Pia muttered, hurrying over to him. “Don’t distract Cora!
Sally said it’s very important that no one disrupt the process, or
she’ll lose control of Bael.”
Beloved, what the hell do you think you’re
doing?
Cora shot him a
startled glance before facing the monstrosity that snarled and
screamed in front of her. I’m helping get rid
of Bael. You’re the one who said that’s what needs to be done. Why
are you up? How do you feel? Are you in pain? You are, aren’t you?
I can feel you hiding something from me. Lay back down, you silly
man, and I’ll feed you as soon as I’m done
here.
“I am not a child
that you must order me around,” he answered, trying to wrap his
dignity around him, but it was difficult to do so while listing
heavily to one side.
Cora must have
noticed the list. “Sit down before you hurt your
owies.”
“I am a Dark One!” he
said, managing to stand upright at last, ignoring the pain and
tearing feeling on his left side. “We do not have owies! We have
grievous, nearly fatal injuries!”
The entity that was
Bael in his true form writhed and twisted upon itself as it cursed
in Latin.
“Seriously?” Sally
said, tsking and shaking her head at
the horrible sight. “I don’t think you’re in any position to make
threats like that.”
“Pia,” Cora said, not
taking her eyes from the nowconstantly morphing figure of Bael, his
form changing from human to demonic and all variations in between.
“Would you please get Alec a chair before he does more damage to,
or topples over from, his grievous, nearly fatal
injuries?”
Bael shifted his form
from that of a horned, pustulated, slimy demonlike being to the
form he wore previously. “You will suffer as no one has ever
suffered,” he told Sally, his eyes literally glowing red. “Do not
think that my generosity with you in the past will affect my
punishment of this insurrection.”
“It’s mutiny, I
think. Isn’t it?” Sally asked Diamond.
Alec lurched over to
Cora’s side, wrapping one arm around her protectively. Do not fear, Beloved. I am here to protect
you.
My fear is for you, not me, silly, she answered,
but with her words came a warm rush of love so great it almost
brought him to his knees in profound gratitude. You idiot man, you.
“Death will seem like
heaven by the time I’m done with you,” Bael snarled at Sally,
impotent to act, clearly bound by his own power that Sally was
using against him. The three Tools stood in a semicircle before
her, their hands touching, providing an arc through which the power
was focused directly at Bael, bathing the demon lord in a
blue-black light.
“Here, Alec, sit in
this.” Pia dragged the mangled remains of a chair over toward him.
He didn’t spare it so much as a glance.
“Your death, when it
pleases me to end your torment, will be my most exquisite act yet,”
Bael promised her, his voice stretched thin as he fought the bonds
of his own power. “I will make you wish that no woman had ever
pushed you from her body!”
Diamond
giggled.
“Oh, Bael, and I
hoped we could do this without threats and name-calling,” Sally
said, sadly shaking her head.
“Hope has deserted
you,” Bael growled in a voice that made Alec want to push Cora
behind him.
“You think?” Sally
tipped her head to the side, and smiled. “You know, for one of the
most powerful beings on the planet, you’re awfully careless about
what goes on in Abaddon, specifically . . . but no, you probably
aren’t interested.”
“Careless? I am never
careless. Every action, every detail, has been part of my master
plan.” Bael looked almost insulted at such an accusation. “Do not
allow your ignorance to confuse lack of attention with indepth
schemes the like of which you will never understand.”
“Really? ” Sally gave
a one-shouldered shrug. “So then you knew all along who I
am?”
Alec heard something
in her voice that had him (painfully and with much stiffness)
turning to look at her. Kristoff’s eyebrows were raised, indicating
that he, too, had picked up on it. He glanced at Cora. She seemed
perfectly in control, her expression serene.
Bael’s eyes narrowed
until they were little black slits. “Your role in my plan has
always been minor, and thus, your origins concern me
not.”
“Oh, you say things
like that and I just can’t resist showing you,” she responded with
a light, tinkling laugh, and for an infinitesimally small fraction
of a second, a golden flash of light blinded Alec. It was gone
before he could even blink, but he knew by the expression of
profound disbelief on Bael’s face that he hadn’t imagined
it.
“You . . . that can’t
. . . how . . .” Bael got a grip on himself and took a deep breath,
obviously in preparation for what was likely to be a group-wide
curse. Alec couldn’t risk Cora being injured, and lurched toward
the demon lord to stop him.
“Silence!” Sally
commanded, her voice a whipcrack that was almost painful to hear.
Alec hesitated, glancing at her. “As delightful as it would be to
chitchat more, Diamond has things to do, and Cora’s Dark One
appears to be under the misimpression that he is well enough to
stand, so I’ll cut this short and simply say that Bael, known also
as Beelzebub, premiere prince of Abaddon, ruler of seven hundred
legions, by this light, by my virtue, by my being, I do banish
thee.”
Bael’s scream of pure
hate was a horrible thing to behold, the rage in it so great, it
slammed through the room with the impact of a small bomb. Alec
staggered backward, doing his best to protect Cora from it despite
the pain that seared through his still damaged body. He gritted his
teeth, fighting to keep from losing consciousness, determined with
every atom of his being to protect her or die trying.
So melodramatic. Are you going to be like this when you
get a cold? Because my ex-husband used to be the biggest baby in
the world whenever he got sick or hurt, but he has nothing on the
sort of thing you’re thinking right now. As if I’d let you
die.
You seem to be confused about our roles, he
answered, slowly straightening up as the last echo of Bael’s scream
faded. He helped Cora over a small table that had been sent flying
toward them. I am the Dark One; you are the
Beloved. I protect you. That is my role in
life.
And here I was hoping it was to provide me with
never-ending highly erotic nights, she said with a faux
sigh, her arm sliding around his waist as she leaned into him, the
scent of her making his head spin with need and happiness and
hunger.
“That’s . . . that’s
it?” Pia asked as she and Kristoff slowly picked their way across
the furniture that had been toppled in Bael’s wake. “You just say a
few things and he’s gone?”
“Well . . . I could
have made it a big production if it would have been more
satisfying,” Sally said, getting down from the piece of rock that
had thrust itself up through the floor. “I just assumed everyone
had better things to do.”
“But . . .” Pia
looked around the room as if seeking an answer. “But that was so
easy. Why didn’t you do that before?”
“Easy? Oh, lawks
a-mercy, no, it wasn’t easy.” Sally shook her head. “Bael was the
premier prince, sugar. You don’t get to be the premier prince
unless you’re packing a whole lot of wallop, if you know what I
mean. And Bael had more wallop than anyone I’d ever met, which is
curious, really, when you think about it. . . .” Sally looked
thoughtful as her voice trailed off.
“I’m still confused,”
Pia complained.
“I think it was us,
Pia,” Ulfur told her, relief evident in every line in his body. “I
think we made the difference. Being Tools, that is.”
“If Bael’s gone, does
that mean no one can call me a Tool again?” Cora asked Alec, her
hands gently caressing his arm and chest as she checked his
injuries. Do you still
hurt?
Not when you are near. “Yes, that is exactly what
it means. Thank you, Sally,” he said, giving the petite woman a
formal bow.
Sally, who had just
resummoned Sable and was giving orders in a low tone, waved her
hand in acknowledgment.
“But . . . they’re
just three people. I mean, I understand they’re conduits and all. .
. .” Pia shook her head. “I guess I’m missing
something.”
Kristoff bent his
head to whisper in her ear.
“I think it’s just
that we’re awesome when joined together,” Cora said with a little
laugh, licking the tip of Alec’s nose. His heart warmed at the
silly gesture. He wanted to sing and dance, to shout from the
highest peak that Cora loved him.
“Say it again,” he
demanded of her.
She smiled a secret
smile that delighted him to the tips of his toes, her dark eyes
glowing with love. “Te
amo.”
“Speaking of that,
Cora, sugar, if you’re going to molest your Dark One, why don’t you
do it somewhere private rather than jumping his bones right here
where any of the demon lords coming to pay me homage can see? If
you’re worried about Alec’s injuries, you can use one of the rooms
on the human side of the house if you like.” Sally, having
dismissed Sable once again, brushed past them, straightening the
little red wool jacket and patting her hair. “Now, should my first
act as premier prince be to restructure the hierarchy, or to
install high-speed wireless Internet in Abaddon? I’m thinking the
latter. I’m just a grouchy ole thing if I have to go a day without
my LOLcats.”
“LOLcats? Right,
that’s it!” Cora said, turning in his arms to frown at Sally. “One
minute you’re being all nice, and apparently perfectly normal, if
slightly obsessed about hair and makeup, and the next you’re the
evil demon lord who wants to conduct the most horrible tortures
upon us, and hand us over to Bael so he can destroy
us.”
“Are you destroyed? ”
Sally asked her sweetly, and Alec could feel the frustration and
genuine confusion that gripped his Beloved.
“No, of course not,”
Cora said with a glance over her shoulder to him.
“Then I didn’t want
to hand you over to Bael.”
You’re not in the least bit concerned about Sally despite
the fact that she is the source of all our troubles, are
you? Cora asked.
She isn’t, you know. For some reason, she just likes to
make it look that way.
Cora sighed into his
mind. I’m missing something, aren’t
I?
You didn’t happen to see a flash of light a few minutes
ago, did you?
Huh?
I’ll explain it later, if Sally doesn’t do the job
herself.
Cora rubbed her
temple as if she had a headache forming. “You didn’t want to hand
us over to Bael, and yet you told him you were doing just that. How
is bringing us to Abaddon not handing us over to him?”
“Cora, Cora, Cora. I
don’t know where you get your ideas about dear Sally, but I can
assure you that you really are not being quite fair to her. Oh
dear, is that the time? Dee will be absolutely furious with me. I
must go reassure him that all is well.” Diamond bustled over to
them, patting Cora’s hand and kissing her cheek before turning her
eyes to Alec. “You take care of her, now.”
“I intend to,” he
said gravely, amused that anyone could imagine he would do anything
but worship the woman who made him whole again.
Diamond took her
leave, greeting a man as he strolled into the twisted remains of a
ballroom.
“Somehow, I knew
you’d be here,” Cora said to Terrin as he made a bow in their
direction.
“Indeed? I take it
all is well?” He looked around the room with curious eyes before
turning back to Sally. “I thought you said the room was full of
liches and Dark Ones? ”
“It was, darling, it
was positively teeming with them! You couldn’t put so much as an
iron maiden down without hitting one or the other of
them.”
“Iron maiden!” Cora
said, straightening from where she had been leaning against him.
“You’re back to that, are you?”
Sally giggled. “I
just put that in to see if you were listening, sugar. I would never
use an iron maiden.”
Cora glared at her
with suspicion.
“Now, a Catherine
wheel is a whole other matter. One of the demon lords—you wouldn’t
know him; Bael had him expulsed because of his dragon consort, and
oh, there’s ever such an interesting story to be told about them,
but far too long to go into here since I am a busy person now that
I’m the premier prince . . . where was I?”
“One of the demon
lords?” Terrin prompted, propping one hip on an edge of the
table.
“Oh, yes, one of the
demon lords had such interesting ideas about ways to use a
Catherine wheel, given to him, he says, by a Spanish wyvern’s mate
who was very inventive when it came to matters of bondage and such.
But I digress. How are things at home?”
The last question was
directed to Terrin.
“Fine, although the
mares are a bit distressed that—”
“What is this?” A
man’s roar interrupted him, ripping through the room with the force
of a bulldozer. Instantly, Alec moved to guard Cora, aware of her
mingled annoyance and appreciation over that fact, amused when she
grumbled to herself about men who had to learn a thing or two about
women.
Terrin turned in
surprise to look at the slight, small dark-haired man who strode
into the room, a piece of paper clasped in his hands.
“Who are you? ” Alec
demanded, Kristoff moving Pia to stand next to Cora, the two men
presenting a solid, protective front. Alec knew full well the
newcomer was a demon lord, and thus not likely to bother them, but
Cora had been through a lot, and he wanted nothing more than to get
her away from all this business so he could seduce her as she
deserved to be seduced.
She pinched his back
and ignored his demand to stay behind him, her arm around his waist
as she stood next to him.
“I am Asmodeus,” the
man answered, dismissing them with a curl of his lip as he shoved
the paper at Sally. “What does this mean?”
“You got the e-mail
already?” Sally gave a little shake of her head. “I told Sable to
wait until the others were gone. Oh, well, I suppose you’re here to
make a scene about the fact that I’ve banished Bael to the
Akasha.”
“No,” Asmodeus said,
his expression closed. “That act can only gain my approval. I am
here to claim the position of premier prince.”
Are you sure I can’t be used as a Tool anymore? That guy
looks mean enough to use me against Sally. Or, heaven forbid, you,
if you keep thinking those things about what you’ll do to him if he
so much as looks my way. Really, Alec, I’m a big
girl.
Unbidden, his hand
slid up to cup her ass, just the thought of it and her hips and
breasts, and all the rest of her, making him hard. A fact for which I’m prepared to get down on my knees and
thank whatever fates, gods, or circumstances sent you into my life,
but that is really not the important point at this moment, Beloved,
so you can cease trying to seduce me with your hips and long, long
legs that wrap so nicely around me when I thrust into your
heat.
“Of course you are,”
Sally said in a soothing voice. “But you see, I’ve taken that
position. I believe that traditionally the position of a banished
demon lord goes to the banishee, and that would be
me.”
Cora moaned into his
head, giving herself a little shake. You are
so going to get pounced on when you’re healed up. Can I still be
used, or not?
No. Bael’s power is no more.
Then why are you so concerned about protecting me from
this guy?
“You cannot be
premier prince,” Asmodeus said in a flat, emotionless
voice.
It is my nature. I explained that
earlier.
Yeah, yeah, all that macho stuff that doesn’t cut squat
with me. Is he a danger to us?
“Um . . . I think I
am the premier prince. Aren’t I?” Sally
looked down at herself. “Yes, yes I am. Asmo, dumplin’, we’ve never
really seen eye to eye ever since that holiday party that I threw
last year, when you insisted that Bael remove me from Abaddon
because I may have spiked the eggnog, and subsequently your wrath
demons got a bit tipsy and thought it would be a hoot and a half to
drug you and put you in a vat of Jell-O so all of your legions
could have their pictures taken indulging in nude Jell-O wrestling
with you—which, I have to admit, was a
hoot and a half—but I can see you’re still holding that bit of
festive frolicking against me. My advice is just to get over it,
and move on. I’m boss now.”
I don’t see how he could be a threat. That is the reason
Kristoff and I have allowed him to continue.
Cora smothered a
laugh at Sally’s conversation. He looks like
he’s going to explode. Maybe we should move back? I wouldn’t want
your owies to hurt again.
They have healed, and I have to admit to wanting to stay a
few more minutes, despite the temptation you
pose.
“You are not,”
Asmodeus insisted.
Why?
Because I think Sally is about to explain something
important.
“Look, this is how it
works—I banish Bael, and that makes me the boss,” Sally started to
say, but Asmodeus cut her explanation short.
“You cannot be the
premier prince of Abaddon because it is not allowed.” Asmodeus
gestured toward Terrin. “I had my suspicions before, but this
proves it.”
“Oh, dear,” Terrin
said, getting to his feet and moving over to stand next to Sally,
who didn’t look in the least bit concerned by what Asmodeus was
saying. “Sally, my sweet, perhaps now would be a good time to
dismiss the others.”
She glanced toward
them, a twinkle visible in her eye. “Oh, I think they’ve earned the
right to see this to the end, don’t you? Cora and Ulfur certainly
have, and since the Dark Ones helped, they deserve to stay, as
well.”
“Thank you,” Alec
said politely as Kristoff bowed, and said, “We are all
gratitude.”
“It doesn’t matter
who is here—the news will be made public throughout the Otherworld
so that everyone will know of your perfidy,” Asmodeus said, looking
almost bored now.
“I’m still confused,”
Pia murmured. “Why can’t Sally be the head boss if she took down
Bael? Doesn’t that make her the strongest?”
“That’s a very good
question,” Cora said, then addressed Asmodeus. “What perfidy? Other
than, you know, kidnapping us and all that jazz, which Alec swears
wasn’t bad, but I still have my doubts.”
Sally blew her a
little kiss. Cora grimaced.
“She can’t be the
premier prince for the reason that the Sovereign is not allowed to
rule Abaddon as well as the Court of Divine Blood.”
Alec smiled, glad his
suspicion was confirmed, aware at the same time of Cora’s gasp of
surprise and jerk to the side.
“The . . . the . . .
you mean . . . no!” she stammered, taking a step toward Sally. “You
can’t be God! You’re all wrong for God! Not the fact that you’re a
woman, although all of those plagues and wiping out of innocents
sounds like the act of a man rather than a woman, but no, I just
refuse to accept that you’re God.”
“I’m not,” Sally
said, giving her a sympathetic pat on the arm. “For one, the
Sovereign isn’t the same as the mortal concept of a Christian God.
For another . . .” She slid a glance toward Terrin.
“Jesus wept!” Cora
exclaimed, clearly missing the irony of her words, running her
hands through her hair. “God is married?”
Sally’s eyebrows
rose. “You mean Terrin? Oh, we’re not married.”
Alec thought Cora was
going to explode with frustration. Her hair stuck out at odd angles
as she all but screamed, “God is living in sin? What the
hell?”
“Abaddon—” Terrin
started to correct, but stopped at a look from Alec.
“Terrin isn’t my
lover,” Sally said with an irrepressible giggle. “He’s my . . .
well . . . my other half.”
Enlightenment flooded
Alec at that moment, the explanation of Terrin’s role sliding
together like the last piece of a jigsaw puzzle.
“But—you said you
were together. Earlier today you said that,” Pia said, looking
almost as confused as Cora.
“We are. He’s my
other half.”
“We couldn’t exist
without each other,” Terrin explained, obviously taking pity on
them. “Think of it as a symbiotic relationship. A platonic one—I’m
dating a power, as a matter of fact, and I believe before Sally
took over the demon lord Magoth’s position, she was seeing one of
the cherubs who was responsible for the Internet.”
“LOLcats,” Sally
said, nodding her head. “He’s awesome about things like
that.”
“I’m so lost,” Cora
said, spinning around to look at him. “Alec? Is she God or
not?”
“Not,” he said,
taking her in his arms and giving her a little kiss just to stop
her from pulling out all her hair. “Together, Terrin and Sally are
the Sovereign. They aren’t a god, but they are good, so you can
stop worrying that she’s going to harm us.”
“But she talked about
torturing Ulfur and me,” she protested. “Surely go—er . . . the
Sovereign wouldn’t do that? Surely he or she—”
“We’re commonly
referred to as it,” Sally said with a little smile at
Terrin.
“—surely it couldn’t be a demon lord, could
it?”
“Evidently she can.”
Alec wrapped both arms around her, providing her with the comfort
he knew she needed.
“But wouldn’t someone
have recognized her? ” Pia asked.
“I was wondering the
same thing,” Kristoff said, nodding as he glanced at Asmodeus. “Why
would you not tell the other demon lords who she was?”
“I didn’t know. It
wasn’t until I saw the two of them together that I could see her
for what she is.”
“Separate, we’re
nothing, just . . . well, just people,” Sally explained. “I made
sure that Terrin never came for a visit while I was in my palace
here, just in case someone saw us together.”
“Until now,” Cora
pointed out.
“Yes, well.” Sally
made a vague gesture. “It was inevitable that sooner or later
someone would figure it out and take the premier princedom from me.
I’m just sorry it was sooner; I was really looking forward to being
the head demon lord. I don’t suppose—”
“No,” Asmodeus
snapped. “Make me the premier prince now, and I will allow the
others to go unscathed.”
Sally sighed. “You
just have no idea what you’re missing not having me as a boss.
Fine, you can have the job. I’ll just spend all the energy I would
have had to reorganizing Abaddon into thwarting your every move.
Happy now?”
Asmodeus just looked
at her with an expressionless mask, before turning to face toward
Alec and the others. “You have three minutes to leave Abaddon. If
you are here beyond that time, I will take you
prisoner.”
“The agreement
between Abaddon and the Moravian Council—” Kristoff started to say,
but was interrupted.
“The agreement is
null and void as of this moment. You have two minutes and forty
seconds remaining.”
Before Alec could do
so much as protest the cavalier overturning of an agreement that
had stood between Abaddon and the Dark Ones for centuries, Asmodeus
disappeared in a cloud of oily black smoke.