I fell to the ground, my mind a battleground between good and evil, Ulnyx and Josette. I could feel them both vying for control of my soul, their memories conflicting and washing through me: death, destruction, love, charity, anger, selflessness, Heaven, Hell. Somewhere in the mix I rediscovered myself, regained my own identity, and stepped between them.

  “Enough,” I cried to nobody, looking up and seeing I was alone in Purgatory, in my Source. I could feel them in my soul, could hear their voices, see their memories, pull the smaller flow of their power and mix it with my own. The balance. Josette had sacrificed herself so that I could absorb the demon and not go mad. She had saved my life to stop Reyzl and protect her daughter. Sarah had thought her mother was dead. Now she was. She had done it for me.

  I pulled at the new sources of power, letting the feeling of it flow through me. I looked over at my still form, held by one of the fallen angels, about to be beheaded by the other. Josette had been training for hundreds of years. She knew how to escape from that hold. Now I did too.

  The sword was already whistling through the air when I retook my body. Faster than I could ever have moved before, I snapped my head back to where I knew the angel’s to be, feeling the crunch as the force shattered his face and loosened his grip. In the same motion, I dropped to a knee and threw my upper half forward, lifting my captor up and over, into the path of the blade. He cried out in pain as it dug into his back. His grip destroyed, I sent him into the air to slam hard into his counterpart.

  Neither angel stayed down long, rolling to their feet once their kinetic momentum had been broken. The one who had been holding me looked like he had already healed from the sword strike, and he pulled his own sword with a grin.

  “Thanks for the blood,” he said, flexing his back. “Delicious, and nutritious.”

  My blood. Whatever Reyzl had done, it had made them not only impervious to damage from blessed weapons, but had increased their healing rate beyond my own. I dropped into a defensive crouch, waiting for the attack that I knew would come.

  They struck together, their swords thin white lines of steel arcing toward me. I ducked and dodged, twisted and danced around the blades, somehow matching the impossible speed of their motion as I circled around the room. I could see that they were pushing me, herding me towards the wall. I couldn’t play defense forever.

  I reached in and found the Great Were’s power. I felt the strength surge through my limbs, felt myself growing and changing. My hands stretched out into gigantic claws, my clothes tearing as my mass increased. The angels’ swords whistled towards me.

  I caught the first with a massive paw, the edge of the blade sinking into my flesh but nowhere near deeply enough to harm me. I closed my grip around it and held it, then sidestepped the other attack and lashed out with my other claw. It caught the angel in the face, the razor sharp fingers ripping and tearing, removing most of the head in one swipe.

  No sooner had I brought my hand back when I could see the intense wound beginning to heal, the face rebuilding, the mouth opening to laugh. I wrenched the sword from the other angel’s hand, flipped it in the air to take the hilt, caught it with a smaller human hand, and delivered the killing blow, removing the mutilated head before it could regenerate.

  “No,” the other angel cried, seeing his partner’s headless corpse topple to the ground. I let the transformation reverse completely, shrinking back to my human form, reknitting my tattered clothes together, remaking myself as whole. Armed, I turned to face him.

  “My condolences,” I cursed, darting forward, slamming him in the face with the hilt to knock him back, then whipping the blade around and through his neck.

  I didn’t wait for him to fall, instead spinning around, looking for Reyzl. I found him near the Rift, speaking under his breath and scraping out another circle. He hadn’t noticed what had been going on behind him and probably believed I was already dead. This would be easier than I thought.

  My plan was to dash in and remove the archfiend’s head before he had any idea I was still alive. It might have worked too, if he hadn’t finished the circle at the same time I started towards him. The runes burst into flame, and the first of Reyzl’s army stepped through. A humanoid female with scaled red skin and bright yellow eyes. It saw me as soon as it entered, letting out a cry of alarm and shoving Reyzl away from my attack.

  The archfiend rolled to the side, somehow keeping his hold on the Chalice, and rose to his feet as I decapitated the demon with the cursed sword. If he was surprised to see me alive, he hid it well.

  “You continue to impress me with your persistence diuscrucis,” he said with a smile. “However, I’m afraid you’re in the way.”

  A second demon stepped through the Rift, then a third, a fourth. They hissed when they saw me, springing forward to attack. Reyzl bent over and placed the Chalice on the ground, then began to unbutton his suit jacket.

  I did the one thing that made sense. I couldn’t fight Reyzl and an army of demons on my own, so I ran. Not to get away, but to get help. Rebecca. I raced down the corridor, the demons chasing behind, still streaming in through the Hell Rift. I heard growling as hounds joined the devils.

  She was standing next to the ladder, pulling against the handcuffs that bound her, the demon Yuli perched above. He was cackling at her futile attempts to escape, hopping back and forth on the rung. They both turned to look at me as I rushed in, Yuli freezing in fear, Rebecca baring her fangs in a half-snarl, half-smile.

  “Hey,” I said to her, cracking the sword down on the chain of the cuffs. Freed, she grabbed the sword from my hand.

  “Hi handsome,” she said, her eyes fading to black. “Nice eyes.” She leapt forward and tore into the devils behind me.

  Nice eyes? I wasn’t sure what she meant, but I didn’t have time to think about it. I heard flapping wings, and saw Yuli flying away up the shaft. He wasn’t worth chasing. I started to turn back towards the fray when I saw Obi. He was lying on the ground behind the ladder, his eyes closed, a huge bloodstain on his stomach. He was still alive, but he was out of the fight.

  My anger flared and I hurried to catch up with Rebecca. I used Ulnyx’s strength to throw around the devils like rag dolls, leaving them broken for her to dispose of. I had already lost Josette, and I didn’t know how long Obi would last without help. It was time to end this.

  Reyzl was waiting for us when we reached the main room. He had removed all of his clothes except his underwear, having placed them in a neat pile next to the Chalice. His body was taut with lean muscle and covered in dark scars that formed more of the demonic runes. They burned on his skin, the flames bathing him in a red glow. His hands had morphed into talons, the ends dripping demon fire.

  “I’ve grown weary of you, Landon,” he said. I felt his power all around me, pressing on me in an effort to freeze me as he had done before. I pulled on my own flow and pushed myself free, feeling his efforts dissipate from the force of my will. He observed his failure without emotion, and then launched himself at me.

  I almost didn’t move in time, skipping to the side as a clawed hand raked across my abdomen. I felt the tips of his hands scrape against my skin, the demon fire burning worse than any real flame. I winced in pain as I dodged a second strike and blocked a third with my forearm. The wound wasn’t healing. In fact it was growing more painful as I moved.

  “Does it hurt?” Reyzl asked. “You aren’t as impervious as you believed.”

  I grunted in response, catching his arm when he threw it forward, twisting it and hearing a satisfying crack as it shattered. Reyzl moaned and backed away, his snarled lip defying his nonplussed expression.

  I pressed the attack, but the arm healed almost instantly, twisting back into the proper position and coming up in time to block my punches. Each time my hand hit one of the runes I felt the pain of the demon fire biting into me. Each time I felt the pain I grew angrier. The anger made me sloppy.

  An overthrown, off-balance punch later I found myself slammed up against the wall, four deep punctures in my chest and lungs, gasping for air and trying to get back up. Reyzl stood ten feet away, allowing himself just the slightest smirk while he watched me struggle.

  My whole body was burning up, my soul was crying out in despair. Josette had given herself up for me, given herself up for nothing. My anger fell way, replaced by acceptance and a sudden calm. I had done my best, hadn’t I? There had never been any guarantees.

  I looked around for Rebecca, finding a mass of demons near the opening to the corridor but not seeing her anywhere. I wanted to tell her I was sorry, that I wished we had more time together, that I thought she and I could have been something special. I swallowed with a dry throat and licked my lips. Reyzl was still standing there, just looking at me, watching me die.

  The demon fire. It was burning me up, preventing me from healing. I almost laughed when I thought of it, not that I could laugh with the holes in my lungs. I closed my eyes and relaxed, pulling on my Source and letting my focus fade. The air held moisture, moisture meant water, and water doused fire. Could it put out demon fire? There was one way it could. Josette hadn’t sacrificed herself so I would know how to fight like her. She had given herself to me for another reason, to provide me with something she knew I would need. After all, who knew the archfiend better than she did?

  I reached for her power, picturing her bedroom, her simple straw doll, her carefree and safe life before her brother had become evil, before her mischief had brought down her parent’s ire. I mixed it with my own, sent it out with my will, demanding the vapor in the air to condense, demanding that it rain.

  My eyes were closed, but I felt my body cool and heal as the air around me began to cry. This wasn’t just any rain, but holy rain, holy water, Josette’s tears. I finally took a deep breath, opening my eyes to glorious chaos. In front of me, Reyzl was hunched over, trying to escape the water, his skin sizzling wherever it touched him. Behind him, the demons were rushing back towards the Hell Rift, but the rain had extinguished it. With no escape, they shrieked and howled in pain as the flesh washed off of them like dirt. Where was Rebecca?

  “How?” Reyzl asked, trying to straighten up. The runes on his body had been extinguished, but he had drank my blood from the Chalice, and he was healing as fast as the water could wound him. I knew from experience how much it must hurt.

  I caught the motion out of the corner of my eye. With a thought, I stopped the rain. “Something you can’t begin to understand,” I said to him.

  “And what is that,” he growled. His strength was returning, and he started moving towards me, his fury obvious despite his blank black eyes.

  “Friends,” I said.

  He caught on too slowly, sensed her too late. An instant later Rebecca was on his back, a hand on each end of the cursed sword. She winked at me, and then pulled the blade towards herself, slicing through Reyzl’s neck.

  The black fog of his soul poured from the top of his headless corpse as it fell. Rebecca opened her mouth to accept it, her head tilting back in ecstasy as she absorbed the immense power of the archfiend. I sat against the wall and watched it happen, waiting for it to be done.

  Then it was. The last of the black fog vanished down Rebecca’s throat, and she fell to her hands and knees, her breathing heavy. I rushed over to her and put my arms around her waist, holding her steady.

  “Are you okay?” I asked. She didn’t respond right away. “Rebecca?”

  “Just give me a minute, worm,” she replied. “I think it was something I ate.”

  It was the perfect release. I closed my eyes and gave myself up to the joke, my laughter strong and loud. A moment later she joined me, laughing weakly, then coughing, then laughing again.

  “Help me up?” she asked.

  I let go of her waist and circled around in front of her. She reached up and took my hand, and I pulled her to her feet. She stumbled as she rose, so I wrapped her arm over my shoulder to support her.

  “Nice work,” I said.

  “You almost killed me with that rain,” she said. “I was lucky to duck under the sofa before I got too beat up.”

  “I’m sorry Becca,” I replied. “I couldn’t think of anything else.”

  She shifted her weight so she could drag my head down to hers. She kissed me hungrily. “Apology accepted,” she said. “It all worked out.”

  “Reyzl?” I asked.

  “I took his power,” she said. “Let’s grab the Chalice and get out of here.”

  We walked over to where the Chalice sat on the floor next to the Hell Rift, surrounded by the wet ash of the demons killed by the holy water, and filled with the water itself.

  “I’ve got it,” Rebecca said, bending over to pick it up. She couldn’t reach it with her arm around me, so she pulled away to bend down further.

  “I know this is going to sound corny,” I started saying as she grasped the Chalice by the stem and turned it over to dump out the holy water, “and the timing kind of stinks, but I was thinking maybe you and I could, you know, be together. See how it goes?”

  “I’m sorry, Landon,” she replied.

  Huh? I wasn’t expecting the rejection. “I don’t understand,” I said. No reply. “Rebecca?”

  That was when I noticed the flames of the runes around the Hell Rift had reignited. She turned to face me, her eyes as black as night, her expression sad but strong. She shifted forward and the pain in my stomach was renewed. Her claws made a sick sucking sound when she removed them from my gut. Blood ran down over my wet clothes, down into the Chalice.

  “What are you doing?” I asked her. I didn’t even see her other hand sweep up behind me, her claws digging into my neck. My spinal cord severed, I dropped to the ground like a sack of potatoes.

  “I’m sorry,” she repeated, lifting the Chalice to her mouth and pouring the contents down her throat. After she swallowed, she dropped the Chalice to the ground.

  “Why?” I asked.

  “Survival,” she said. Without another word she stepped into the Hell Rift and was gone.

  Physically, I couldn’t feel anything. Emotionally, I had just been ripped in half. She had saved my life more than once. She had been my friend, my companion, and I had hoped she would be something more. I had trusted her with my life, trusted her despite the fact that she was a vampire, a creature of evil. I had told Josette she was different. She was supposed to be different. I wanted to believe that absorbing Reyzl’s soul had done something to her, that there was no other explanation. As much as I hated it, I was having trouble with that. When she had said she was sorry, she had been lying.

  I lay there alone, waiting for my body to heal, not knowing if I would ever see her again. The tears ran unabated from my eyes, and I didn’t think they would ever stop.

  Book Two: Betrayal

  Chapter 1

  I couldn’t remember the last time I slept. I couldn’t remember what it felt like to have a mattress beneath me, to close my eyes and dream of something that had some kind of importance, or at the very least provided relief from the emptiness of being awake. I couldn’t fathom the idea of finding peace in the darkness, quiet for my always waking mind or comfort for my weary soul. Sleep was for people, not for me. Now it was just wishful thinking, a memory veiled in the darkness that never came.

  Memories. They dragged on me like a thousand-ton anvil. Except, I could move a thousand-ton anvil. I was stuck with the memories.

  I was crouched on the extended precipice of an office building, a neo-gothic behemoth of steel and glass and reflection. In front of me were mirrored windows that were meant to hide the inside world from the outside world. I suppose it was apropos that I could look right through them. I could see the angels gathered inside. I could feel the demons headed their way.

  They were coming from the basement, scaling the inside of the elevator shafts with ease. Three dozen at least, summoned from Hell by a fallen angel who had been tipped off to the meeting. I didn’t know how. Maybe if Obi and I were still speaking regularly, I could have asked him. I’m sure he had the answer. It didn’t matter. One thing at a time.

  In my mind, I always returned to the same place. I wondered how things might have been different if I had been as Aware as Dante had claimed I was. I never saw Rebecca’s betrayal coming. I was blinded by her beauty, taken by her artful deception. She hadn’t even needed to use her succubus wiles on me.

  Dante had warned me, and I had blown it, big time. He hadn’t saved any breath in reminding me that he told me to be careful trusting her. Yeah, I had gotten the Grail back and had hid it someplace that I hoped nobody would ever find it. What I had lost in payment for my efforts, that was a bigger bitch than she had turned out to be.

  The angels were gathered around a simple desk, staring at a computer monitor. There were four of them, three I recognized. They were wearing business suits, carrying briefcases, looking like a quartet of ordinary human MBAs gathered for a quick presentation. Their wings were little more than slight bulges under the clothes, their swords banished to their hiding place in Heaven. They were experienced, long-term seraphim. Like Josette had been.

  Sitting in a leather executive chair in front of them was a Touched woman, Rachel Taylor, a Bruce Wayne type philanthropist and businesswoman. She was showing them how her charities were performing, and they were grinning and nodding in their pleasure. I was sure they had to know the demons were coming, but maybe they didn’t. I had lost that perspective a couple of years ago.

  Five years. That’s how long it had been since the betrayal. I had to remind myself sometimes, because lately all of the days just seemed to coalesce into one another; into a single never ending mixture of color and grayscale. I liked to tell myself that it had been Rebecca’s double-cross that had brought me here, but I liked to lie to myself these days. That had been the icing, the cherry, and the straw. I had lost Josette, Obi had never been the same, and frankly, having the long term memories of an angel and a demon rattling around in my skull full-time still made it a challenge to keep my sense of self. In the quieter moments, I could hear their whispers in my mind, their conflicting alignments arguing like a bad cliche.