Damnation's Door: A Cursed Book (30 page)

The tears evaporated on my cheeks. In that split second, I knew I couldn’t save my sister.

Lucifer had won.

I blinked, the dreaded realization creeping into my stomach.

This was what Lucifer
wanted
. He knew that if Dro killed me, she would be his absolutely. The fragment was meant to skew her perception of me. That was why he’d caused it to flare in her when she hesitated at his first command.

My sister was still in there. I knew she was. Her demon half was trying to strangle and burn me, but it wasn’t
Dro.
It wasn’t my sister, the girl that I knew was screaming inside, begging me to save her one last time.

At any cost.

My hand tightened around the hatchet, and I looked at the mockery Lucifer had made of my sister. Imaging him behind her eyes made it easier to lift the hatchet, and slash the side of Dro’s stomach.

She yelped in surprise and jerked her hands free of my face and throat. I twisted my hips and bucked her onto the scorched ground. I straddled her body, jabbing her once in the face to disorient her and control my weight. I glanced at the cut. It was shallow, far from any major organs.

But I had to make it worse.

Dro thrashed and squirmed beneath me. “Con, you hurt me! How could you cut me?!”

Gritting my teeth, I ignored her betrayed cry and cut a deeper slice into her stomach. Deep enough that I would be able to reach inside and pluck out the fragment, as she had done for me.

Dro twitched from the pain and started begging.

“No, Connie! This is what Lucifer did to me! Please don’t hurt me like he did! Don’t,
please
!”

It nearly broke my resolve, seeing the horrible connection to the pain I was putting her through, and the torture Dro had endured when Lucifer tore out her rib to open the Gates.

But I couldn’t stop now. As long as the fragment was still in her stomach, she would remain corrupted. She would try to kill me, and there would be no hesitation the second time. I pushed her down again, and reached inside the wound for the fragment. Dro trembled and screamed again, but I felt the small, burning stone between my fingers like a metal splinter. It was whole. Thank God.

I yanked it out of my sister’s stomach and hurled it onto the ground. I stared at it as it dissolved in the grass, leaving nothing but a pile of black and red ash. Now that it was dissolved, it wouldn’t be able to corrupt me, or anyone else.

Satisfied that the fragment was destroyed, I scrambled back to Dro. She was lying on her back, staring at the black, smoking sky. She looked stunned, catatonic even. I grabbed her wrist and slapped her hand on the cut on her stomach. Dro’s hand remained free of healing light. I looked at her face, hoping I hadn’t made a soul-crushing mistake.

“Come on, Dro,” I pleaded. “I can’t heal you by myself!”

There was a sharp, painful scream that caught my attention. I whipped my head around, watching the battle raging. The smell of sulfur and demon blood was thick, but it looked like most of Lucifer’s monsters were still alive. The angels fought back with determination, but I could see the exertion in their motions and the blood on their faces.

Sephiel was moving faster than I’d ever seen him move before, swinging at three Reds that were trying to surround me. The one in front of him swiped its claws at his head, but Sephiel ducked. The demon behind him pounced, but he was already stabbing back with his short swords. The Red shrieked as Sephiel pulled his swords free, and kicked the decaying demon back until it exploded into a cloud of ash. He twirled his swords in his hands, stabbing one into the chest of another Red while swinging and slicing open the throat of the third one.

Max stood at the edge of the battle, silver knives in his hands. Some ghouls ran at him, but he fought back. He kicked one away and stabbed the second one repeatedly until it collapsed. The second ghoul tackled him, but he stabbed at the grey demon’s throat until it dissolved.

Warrick stood with the angels, helping them take down a Shredder. The enormous demon batted its hand backward, knocking down two angels. Warrick appeared on its other side, then stabbed his knife into its neck and pulled it across. The demon roared and whirled, stabbing its bone-claws toward him. Warrick slid underneath them, ducking the Shredder’s arms until he appeared in front of its chest. His free hand dropped to the ground, and picked up a fallen sword. In the same flowing motion, he drew the sword up and shoved it under the Shredder’s chin.

Drake was edging close to Warrick, cutting down every angel he saw as he approached. There was an excited smile on his face that made me sick.

The only creatures I couldn’t see were Lucifer and Michael. Before I could look harder for them, a clammy hand snared my wrist. I jumped and whirled around, my eyes finding Dro’s. There was no shining madness, no contempt or malice. Her eyes were wide and scared, and behind them I swore I could see a hint of peace.

“You saved me,” she whispered.

I squeezed her hand, fighting back tears. “Of course.”

“Why?” Her eyes glistened. “I was trying to kill you.”

I squeezed her hand. “You could have done it right when Lucifer told you to, but you didn’t. Deep down, you were still the honest, good sister I know.”

Dro closed her eyes and rested her head back on the grass. A tear slipped from the corner of her eye.

“You saved me because you saw the good in me,” she whispered. “I understand it now,” she breathed.

I was about to ask what she was talking about, tell her that we needed to get up and fight, but invisible arms looped around my stomach and pulled me through the air. I screamed involuntarily and the sudden reaction, flying away from my sister until I landed in the middle of the clearing. My side hit the ground and caused me to roll onto my stomach. The same invisible hands clutched my shoulders and yanked me onto my back. I tried to fight against the magic, but the binds were strong, and soon I was lying frozen on the ground, looking up at Lucifer.

His wings were blacker than the sky behind him, as black as the hatred in his eyes. The claymore he held was smeared with blood. Wind and motion moved the edges of his shock-white hair.

“How did you do it?” he asked in an angry whisper.

The binds turned into hooks, and dug into my skin. I squeezed my eyes shut and screamed, unable to block the sudden piercing pain that sank into me.

“I constructed this strategy for centuries, planning what I would do once I produced a child.” The hooks plunged deeper and coiled over me, tightening my skin like a constricting wire. “I perfected everything. Creating the fragments and embedding them into humans, making them believe they held enough power to stand beside me, though giving them nothing.”

I slowly opened my eyes, heart pounding as Lucifer revealed the details of his plot, too angry to stop himself. He bowed lower, blocking out the world around me until it was just his darkness and me.

“My daughter was to be the Key, the wickedness that would hold the Gates of Hell open. But you stole her from me. You turned her soul from the darkness to the light. You corrupted her.”

I would have grinned, but the hooks and coils clenched so tightly I started to see dots in my vision.

“So I chose another. A soul so devious there could be no redeeming it. An image of consummate sin. He did not need prompting as my daughter did.”

Drake’s laugh seemed louder now. Lucifer knelt down, looking at me as I trembled from pain and fear.

“How did it feel to have a fragment inside of you?” he asked. “Did you feel my influence burning through your veins, or did you feel me when I saved your life?”

Just like that, Lucifer’s face shivered. In one smooth transition, it was Maria staring down at me. My heart stuttered.

“All I needed to do was have her touch the fragment,” Lucifer said with Maria’s voice. “A simple touch to bring her back to me.”

I went cold all over. When Dro had taken the fragment out of me, she’d touched it. She’d been mesmerized. Lucifer’s magic had invaded her mind, and she didn’t know it. That was why she left, why she turned on me, why he was able to put a fragment inside of her and let him control her.

Lucifer’s face changed again, back to its awful beauty.

He slowly stood up, standing tall and strong as he towered over me.

“Now you have taken her from me once more. As you have taken something I cherished from me, I shall take the same from you.”

An unseen, clawed hand clamped on my head and twisted it sharply to the side. I spotted Michael and Gabriel. The archangels were bloodied and burned, with Gabriel trying to lift Michael to his feet. The Commander’s eyes were closed, blood oozing from his gaping wounds. One of his snowy white wings was broken, and his skin was deathly pale.

But Lucifer didn’t want me to see them suffer.

Instead, my eyes fixed on Sephiel, leading the angels and fighting for his life. Drake was across the clearing from him, trying intently to murder every angel he could before he got to Warrick.

Then Drake stiffened, like a robot receiving a new command. He shoved aside the angel in front of him and turned on his heel, stalking toward Sephiel with his Bowie knife in hand. I opened my mouth to scream a warning, but an invisible hand covered my mouth. My brain kept screaming, desperately wishing that Sephiel would hear my thoughts. But he couldn’t. He was human now.

On the edge of my vision, I saw Max pull himself away from the last ghoul he killed. He winced and suddenly whirled around, eyes going wide when he saw Drake, now just feet away from Sephiel’s back.

“
Seph!
” Max shouted.

The auburn-haired angel turned his head at the sound of Max’s alarmed voice, seeing the direction of his eyes. Drake raised the knife. I heard Warrick shout in the background just as Sephiel turned.

He swung his swords up to defend himself, but it was too late.

Drake’s knife plunged down into the bottom of Sephiel’s neck, just above his collarbone. Drake twisted the knife, then tore it free. Sephiel’s blood shot out with it. Sephiel dropped one of his swords, planting another hand on the mortal wound. He shook, desperately trying to raise his other sword to fight back and heal himself. But he had no powers. Blood was spilling over his hand.

The hand over my mouth was freed, and I screamed for real.

Drake stared at Sephiel with a cold, evil smile on his face. He let the dying angel swing his sword weakly, laughing as he easily stepping back from the strike. Then he lunged forward again, and stabbed Sephiel in the heart.

My scream turned into a loud aching sob. My eyes blurred and I felt my heart shatter. Drake kicked Sephiel off his knife as though he was nothing. Sephiel landed on the ground, the sword tumbling from his hand. He didn’t get back up.

I heard other voices crying– Max, Warrick, Dro– but I was numb from heartache. Sephiel had given up so much for us, never falling apart or betraying us. He deserved a fresh start. He shouldn’t have fallen. I turned my head away, crying in earnest now.

There was a furious war cry and intense heat, both of which came from my sister. I was about to open my eyes to see what she was doing, when the hooks in my body pulled.

I arched my back as much as I could, screaming in agony as Lucifer’s magic yanked on my insides. Everything in me– organs, bones, and muscles– were stretched against my skin. I felt as though someone had stuck meat hooks into me, and was ready to suspend me from the ceiling. I screamed until my throat was hoarse, but the pain didn’t stop.

“You have a choice, daughter,” Lucifer shouted over my cries. “You can remain at my side and save her, or you can defy me and watch her soul be ripped from her body.”