Good Intentions (The Road to Hell Series, Book 1) (18 page)

Kobal

She shot me a look, her mouth pursing at my words. “If you’re right, there are six thousand years in between me and his actual child that disagree with you,” she retorted.

“He is the creator of your line; he is your father.”

“A line that never should have existed,” she murmured.

There had been many times over my life I had cursed the existence of Lucifer, of the chaos and death he’d wrought upon our world, a world that was supposed to be
mine
to lead. He’d twisted what was supposed to have been a thing of function and necessity and turned it into a perversion of what it was meant to be. He’d slaughtered countless demons over his lengthy time there, and he sought to disrupt the balance between Hell and Earth. If he could figure out a way to get back into Heaven, I knew he would seek to destroy it too.

He’d tried for many millennia to get free of Hell in order to bring death and destruction to the mortal realm, but through bloodshed and sacrifice, the Palitons had fought and succeeded in keeping him suppressed. I’d often cursed the day Lucifer had been tossed through those pearly gates. However, looking at River now, I would have thrown him through those gates myself to have her here.

The realization rattled me so much I nearly crushed the goblet within my hand. My breath rattled out between my teeth.

Mine.

Fuck. I took another drink of wine as I grappled to keep demonic instincts, which I’d never experienced before, buried. She simply couldn’t be what I was beginning to suspect she might be.

“What is it you want from me exactly? Why were you looking for me?” she asked.

I was grateful for the distraction her question gave me from my musings. “Lucifer somehow figured out how to get into our world; he didn’t shut the gates behind him, my ancestor did, but there is hope an heir of Lucifer’s would be able to close the gate as he once opened it. And according to Bale’s vision you, River, are his only living relative.”

“Oh, you believe my actual father is dead,” she breathed as realization settled over her.

“I do. When Mac said you had siblings I’d thought there was a chance, no matter how small, Bale’s vision could have been wrong about you being the last of Lucifer’s line, or that you were not who we sought, but I don’t believe so now.”

“You will leave my brothers out of this!” she spat at me. “They have never shown any differences.”

I lifted a hand to calm her as her fury beat against me. “They will remain safely where they are. This has come from your father’s line if they show no differences.”

She gazed at me for a minute, her expression unreadable as she tried to process this information. “I never knew my father, but I always believed he was out there, somewhere.” She dropped her head into her hand. Finally, she shook her head and focused on me once more. “If you can open and close gateways to Hell why can’t you close this gate?”

“The gateway the humans tore into our world is unnatural. The gateway Lucifer opened into our world wasn’t natural either, but it was much smaller and my ancestor was able to control it. I have managed to close the gateway the humans created more than it was originally, but I cannot shut it completely.”

“But Lucifer only opened the gate before; maybe he can’t close it, which means I couldn’t either.”

“Maybe not,” I replied. “But you may be one of the most powerful beings on this planet. Our main focus is for you to develop your powers before we take you to the gate and see if it can be closed.”

“And if it can’t?”

My teeth ground together so forcefully my jaw ached from the pressure. Part of the plan had always been to take on Lucifer, if it became necessary, but I would find a way to keep her protected. “Then you may be capable of destroying Lucifer.”

She looked as if I’d slapped her. The color drained from her face so fast I thought she might pass out. She inhaled sharply and her hands flattened on the table. Wordlessly, she slid into the chair. Her gaze focused on the tent wall behind me, before shifting to me. “How is that possible?”

“It’s the combination. You
do
possess the abilities of all three species.”

“I seem to be leaning more toward the demon side,” she murmured. “Nothing I can do is truly angelic.”

“As far as we know, but we could discover more, and you
will
become more powerful and better able to handle those powers. It is possible you could walk in all three worlds, but we won’t know until we are at the gateway. If you are capable of entering and withstanding Hell, then you could take Lucifer on, if you become proficient enough with your abilities. The main focus, after we develop your powers further, will be trying to close the unnatural gateway.”

Her fingers drummed on the table. “What abilities does a human have?”

“They have the ability to one day enter the other realms as a soul. The ability to let love and hate fuel their actions and drive them to feats they never believed possible. There is more power in a human than they realize. You do not possess all the abilities of angels or demons, but your combination is rare, and it may be what we need to defeat Lucifer.”

Her fingers slid to her neck and she fiddled with her necklace. “What more can
you
do?”

“You haven’t scratched the surface of the things demons are capable of, or yourself, I’m guessing. With time, you will learn more.”

“How do you
know
I’m the only offspring left? There could be dozens, maybe even a hundred or so, fallen angel kids running around out there.”

“Humans are known for many things, including being afraid of things they don’t understand, especially people who are different from them. Not all of the offspring would have had your eye color, but all of them would have been different in some way, even if it was only in a small way. Think of the witches who were slaughtered, the people who were burned at the stake over the centuries for being different. Some of them actually
were
. Most of the angel lines were lost in this way over the years.”

She rubbed at her temples as she bowed her head. When she looked at me again, shadows marred underneath her eyes. “What do you expect me to do to close the gate?”

“I do not know. Perhaps your instinct will take over and you will
know
what must be done when we get there.”

I didn’t know what kind of reaction I’d expected out of her, but her eyes remained unwavering on mine. She didn’t say a word, yet I could almost see the thoughts tumbling through her mind. I listened as the seconds ticked into minutes on the clock in the corner.

“And what if it doesn’t?” she finally inquired.

“We will figure that out when we get there, but this is the closest we’ve ever come to having a possible way to shut the gate down and saving the human species.”

“But if the gate is shut down, and you haven’t been able to defeat Lucifer before, how will you do so now? I’m thinking he’s not going to give up even if the gate is closed.”

“If we can draw him out beforehand, then with you, the weapons the humans possess, and the demons who will join us at the gateway, we have a chance of being able to defeat him. We’ve never had the human weapons on our side before; they won’t kill him, but they will slow him down, and we’ve never had your abilities before. This battle will be different. If he doesn’t come out, and you can enter Hell, we can go after him.”

She looked as if I’d just dropped a bomb on
her
as she blinked at me, opened her mouth to say something, but then closed it again. More minutes ticked by before she said, “So, you plan to fight Lucifer on Earth?”

“Yes, if we can.”

“Nothing could possibly go wrong with that,” she muttered.

“We’ve never had this kind of opportunity before. Out of it all, even if we cannot defeat him, the gateway
must
be closed.”

“What if it’s not me?”

One could hope, but I knew that most likely wasn’t true. We’d never encountered another human like her; she could do too much for her not to be the one we sought. “I’m almost certain it
is
you, and we will work together until you are ready for the journey.”

“The journey?”

“It will be a long road to get us to the gateway, and it will not be an easy one. However, we will worry about that when the time comes.”

Much like her father, her stare was unrelenting and unfathomable. I had no idea what was going on in that head of hers. “I know you said I’d be staying here, but I think I should go back to town.”

“You’ll be staying with us from now on. I don’t trust humans around things they don’t understand and fear.”

She winced at my words. “I can guarantee they don’t understand you and they fear
you
, but you’re doing fine,” she retorted.

I folded my hands on the table before me as I leaned toward her. “They know what
we
are; they have an idea of what to make of us even if they fear us. You look completely human, you came from one of their towns, and you just became a flamethrower in front of them. They have
no
idea what to make of you, and that makes them volatile where you’re concerned. I’m not going to have our greatest asset injured or possibly even killed by a bunch of idiots.”

A muscle in the corner of her right eye twitched when I said the word asset. “
Possible
asset,” she replied.

I couldn’t deny she was fiery. I wondered what it would be like to have that fire beneath me as I took possession of her body. My eyes slid to her breasts again under the thin brown shirt she wore. I’d told her she couldn’t go back to town because of the humans, but her biggest danger may be staying in this tent with me.

“Possible asset,” I replied. “Something we will begin to dig deeper into tomorrow.”

“Where will I stay?” she asked.

“You can have my room.”

Her hand clamped on the base of the goblet. “Your room?”

“Yes. I will stay in here.”

Rising, I walked to the back of the tent, undid some buttons, and pulled up another flap to reveal the room beyond. I heard her rise and pad over to stand behind me. Her warm breath heated my skin when it blew against my arm.

Stepping aside, I gestured for her to go into the tent beyond. It was as large as the main meeting area, but it was more elaborately appointed with a king-sized bed and an armoire holding my human clothes.

“Make yourself comfortable,” I told her. “I’ll have Mac arrange for someone to bring your things here.”

Her hand fell on my arm before I could leave her. I gazed down at her tanned, calloused hand resting against me. Beneath her touch, my skin rippled and I felt a stirring within the markings covering my arms. What would happen if she were to run her fingers over them, to trace every intricate design? Would she be able to feel the power within them?

And what would it do to
me
?

“What about a bathroom?” she inquired. “I don’t know what you demons have to do, but we humans do have some other needs.”

I grit my teeth against the scorching passion her touch provoked in me. “I’d forgotten about that. Our bodies may be the same as a human’s in most ways, but feasting on souls makes us different in other ways.”

Her eyes ran over me. I could see the questions running through her mind as her gaze briefly rested on my waist before darting upward. The shirt hanging over my waist was the only thing covering the evidence of my erection; otherwise, she would have had a clear view of exactly what I wanted from her.

“So, bathroom?” she prompted.

“I know of one you can use.”

“Not outside would be preferable.”

I walked through the room to the back of the tent. I undid the buttons holding the flap closed and pushed it upward before gesturing for her to exit. Holding the flap back for her, I inhaled her enticing scent as she slipped by me to go outside. I emerged beside her into the large, grassy clearing with at least forty tents encircling it.

The tents were all smaller in size than mine as they didn’t have the main meeting room attached, but they all looked similar with their heavy, green canvas siding. The breeze blew against them, causing the canvas to flutter in the currents of air. Most demons were still on the training fields with the volunteers and soldiers, but some milled around the clearing and by the tents playing games.

I pointed to the small house at the bottom of the hill where we stored food for the livestock in camp. “Because the house is on the outskirts of the other homes, no one has moved into it. It’s too far away from the others for the humans to feel secure staying inside it at night. You can use the bathroom in there,” I told her.

She stared at it for a minute before responding. “Okay.”

“There is a shower over there.” I turned and pointed to the shower at the edge of our camp. A simple hose hung over a wood wall that did little to shield the demon within from view. On the wall was a bar of soap and a bottle of shampoo, two things I actually preferred about this world to our own. As a whole, demons were exceptionally clean, but in Hell we used rocks to scrub our flesh clean in the warm, red waters; the soap and shampoo was a nice bonus.