From Hell with Love (24 page)

“
You bastard
!” three voices shouted while three screamed in pain.  Niccolo watched as the Hellborn reared back on its hind legs and blood sprayed from its wounded tongue.

“You use that trick again and you’re dead,” Niccolo said, violence flooding his voice.  The demon landed on the far side of the arena and paced around, blood pouring out of its wound, but soon it turned to face the Horseman.

“
I’ll do
,” it said before another version of Lucifer’s head sprouted from the open neck, stopping the blood flow, “
whatever I want
!”  Mammon then turned and ran forward, swiping at Niccolo’s position with his right paw, but Niccolo just buried the entirety of his blade into the length of Mammon’s monstrous arm.  He almost smiled, but the arm continued on its path and slammed against Niccolo’s chest plate, causing him to fly into the side of the pit.

“
Goddamnit
!” two of Mammon’s heads cursed, inspecting his hand.  “
That
really hurt
!” 

Although Niccolo would have liked to shrug off Mammon’s blow with a childish remark, he felt bruised and beaten already.  He picked himself up and staggered against the wall, feeling his ribs creaking, but realized he could not just stay there; Mammon would come for him soon.  Green liquid oozed out of his palm before forming a handle, which he used to create another blade.  Creating the weapon took a lot out of Niccolo every time, but he had no desire to be unarmed in this fight.

“
Oh, you bastard
!” Mammon screamed as the sword in his arm dissolved into acid, which caused Niccolo to smile.  “
That…alright, I gotta
hand
that one to you,
” Mammon said with a smile on his faces, but when he looked at the demons above them, his brows furrowed.  “
You people…no sense of humor
,” he said before looking back down at Niccolo.

“You ever… think you might not be funny?” Niccolo asked, swallowing the blood that was leaking from his broken nose.  In preparation for his next attack, the Horseman put his sword into his right hand and steeled his nerves.

“
No one likes a fibber, Nico
,” Mammon said before growling and pouncing at him.  Niccolo took the opportunity to dive under the beast, turning in midair incredibly fast and grabbing his bow with his demonic arm.  Before either of them could land, Niccolo set the handle of his blade against the string of his bow and pulled, feeling his shoulder complaining in the effort.  He did not have time to grin as he released the string, sending his sword into Mammon's armored chest at a high velocity.

The effect was instantaneous.  Mammon was still in the air as the green blade burst through his back, a trail of dark blood and organs following in his wake.  Niccolo warded off the blood with his demonic arm and landed on his back, hoping the fight was finished, but the strike had been enough to redirect the Hellborn’s momentum, causing him to hover in the air for half a second.  Suddenly, Mammon’s great weight slammed on him and drove him to darkness.

When he woke up, both of his arms were pinned together in Mammon’s left hand and seven sets of eyes were staring at him with glee and malice.

“
That was clever, I gotta say.  But now
,” Mammon said as he raised his arm above his mouth, “
now I get to eat you whole
!” he said before his main head grew and its jaw unhinged, creating just enough space for his tasty morsel.

“THAT’S ENOUGH, MAMMON!” Eligos yelled from his throne, which caused Mammon’s heads to look at him in surprise.

“
Oh, c’mon!
” he protested, but when Niccolo looked at the ruler of the War Quarter, he saw the fallen angel had a stern expression on his face, the silver of his eyes gleaming as he scolded the Hellborn.

“I said no eating!  You won the tournament, kid, be content with that!”

“
But-
” he tried to interrupt, but Eligos stamped his foot, causing the entire pavilion to shake.

“I do NOT want to tell your father that you ate Niccolo!  Let him down!” he commanded, which caused six of Mammon’s heads to shrink away in shame.  The main head turned back to stare at Niccolo, hatred seeming to ebb off of him in waves.

“
You’re lucky, you know that?  Lucky.  Not powerful.  Not worthy
,” it said before coming within inches of Niccolo’s still-terrified face, “
Lucky
.”  After making his point, Mammon dropped Niccolo to the sand, forcing the air out of his lungs.  When he was finally able to pick himself up to his elbows, Niccolo saw that Mammon had almost finished his transformation back.  It was only a few more moments of shoving his bones back to their normal positions before the potbellied demon looked back at him.

“Lucky.  Now don’t you ever try to fight me again, or I’m gonna eat you just like your lizard,” Mammon said before turning and jumping up to the side of the pit.  As Mammon walked away, Niccolo let his head fall back to the sand, wondering how such a creature could have come from such a great angel like Lucifer.  He was only left to wonder for a few moments before Cadmus stood over him and offered his hand.

“You’re lucky Eligos stopped him,” the reaper said as Niccolo grabbed his hand and let Cadmus raise him up to his feet.  His chest ached, but he was still grateful that he had not been devoured whole.

“People keep saying I’m lucky.  I’m not exactly sure about that,” Niccolo said as he cradled his broken ribs with his right arm.  “And why didn’t
you
stop him?”

“And fight the
Hellborn
?” Cadmus asked with a raised eyebrow before shaking his head.  “Unlike you, I’ve seen him change before.  The only person here who could stop him is the one who did,” he said before looking up to the edge of the pit.  Eligos was standing there watching, but soon turned and walked away.

“You are quite lucky, Horsemen!” Andras shouted as he landed beside them, the sand at their feet flowing outwards at his impact.

“Will people
stop
saying that?” Niccolo asked as he leaned against the reaper, who patted his back with his free hand.

“He’s had a rough day.  And besides, we didn’t win,” he said before turning to the owl.  “We can’t pay you.”  At that, the demonic bird just hooted and hopped in his place.

“You already have!” he exclaimed, which brought a look of skepticism from the Horsemen.

“What are you talking about?” Niccolo asked with a grimace, standing up to his full height.  He could already feel his ribs healing in place.  If nothing else, Hell was a good place to have an injury.  Andras just cocked his head to the side before sighing.

“You foolish, little humans.  I didn’t need you to
win
!  I just needed to find the right bet,” he said, his dark eyes gleaming with pride.  Cadmus looked at the owl for a moment, but eventually he turned to Niccolo and disgust filtered through his expression.  He turned back to Andras in annoyance.

“You bet
against
him?” Cadmus shouted, which brought fury to Niccolo’s mind.  The owl just looked at them with an innocent face.

“Well, of course.  Who bets against the Hellborn?” he asked.  Cadmus was only just able to stop Niccolo from rushing forward and grabbing the owl by the throat.

“You bastard, I could have died!”

“But you didn’t!” Andras exclaimed, hopping away from them.  “I didn’t think you would!  You’re a Horseman, and a powerful one at that!  Now, if it had been Diogenes…”

“I can’t believe you, Andras,” Cadmus said, shaking his head, but the owl just hopped back toward them.

“Oh, stop it.  What’s done is done!  Now, do you want to hear the information you fought so gallantly for?” he asked, his voice rising at the end of the question, hoping to tease the Horsemen.  They looked at each other for a moment before looking at the scheming demon.

“Fine,” Niccolo said before shifting his weight to his right foot.  “What do you have?”

“Well, tomorrow, when the kings start to arrive, you will be under the guidance of Sitri.  I’ll send a message along to her and you’ll be able to have your fill of conspiracy theories and hints as to who might want to kill our dear fallen angel,” Andras explained, but that resulted in Niccolo rolling his eyes at the owl.

“We could have done that ourselves.  We’ve known Sitri for years,” he said, but Andras put out his wing and waved it back and forth in dismissal.

“Ah, but she wouldn’t have given you the right information, or any information at all!  Even though she’ll flirt with other humans, she doesn’t view them as equals.  My approval will go a long way and help your education,” he said before hopping and looking pleased with himself.

“That’s not really enough,” Cadmus said before bringing his hand up to his forehead, but Andras ruffled his feathers at the reaper’s reaction.

“I know, my dear boy, I know!  That’s why I’m going to give you Astaroth today!” he exclaimed, but this time Cadmus yelled back.

“You’re giving us what we can get ourselves!”

“Again, you are dismissing the
quality
of my introduction!” the owl shouted, looking offended at their remarks.  “Plus, he has gone into hiding, so you’d have to find him, which wastes what precious little time you
do
have.”

“Astaroth-” Niccolo started, but Andras walked over to him, the air around him becoming heavier.  When he spoke, his voice was darker and more serious than they had ever heard from him.

“Will take what you have to say seriously.  I’m one of the very,
very
few individuals who know his current whereabouts.  He’s not hiding on a lark, Horsemen,” he said before looking at each man in turn.  “The Cult is real and Astaroth was always one of its most vocal opponents.  He will help you, if not in preventing its ascension, perhaps in mitigating whatever it is able to do,” he said before backing away from them and folding his wings over his body.

“What happened here today was not just some mindless pursuit of coin, although that certainly happened,” he said, his neck rotating so that he could observe if anybody was watching.  When he was satisfied that nobody was present, he turned back to them.  “This was a trial of will and intent, and the two of you have certainly passed.”  The owl walked over to Cadmus and produced a piece of paper from a fold of his robe before placing it into the reaper’s hand.

“Go to the place written on this.  Be there three hours from now.  Someone will come to bring you to Astaroth.”

“How can we trust you?” Niccolo whispered, considering the devious owl in an entirely new light.  The demon turned to him and looked at him with his dark, huge eyes, his usual levity completely absent.

“I sincerely hope that you
don’t
.”

***

“I don’t like this.”

“Neither do I, but here we are,” Cadmus said as they stood in the shadows of a building on the outskirts of the War Quarter.  The four-story shanty, which towered over its neighbors, was on the border between the War and Death Quarters, so it was sufficiently dark and dismal.  The buildings, as decrepit as they were, rose above them and seemed to block out all the light coming from the hellfire surrounding Dis, which had died down at the start of the night cycle.

“Why would Astaroth be in hiding, anyway?  He’s one of the most powerful demons in the city,” Niccolo asked as he shifted from one foot to the other.  The leper had never been fond of staying in one place for any amount of time and this was starting to seem like a set-up.  Cadmus was sitting with his back to a rotting, wooden support beam, but was careful not to put any weight onto the thing in case the shanty wanted to fall over.  He did not bother to look at Niccolo but instead ran his finger along the blade of his weapon.

“He was one of the more vocal fallen during the Cult’s first appearance.  Half of the citizens in Dis didn’t bother to listen, but if the Shroud is real, he would likely go after Astaroth just so he wouldn’t start talking again,” the reaper said as he leaned back his head and scratched it against the wooden beam, which seemed to be stronger than he had previously thought.

“It’s
Astaroth
, Cadmus.  He’s almost as powerful as Scratch,” Niccolo said as he stood above his friend, who did not bother to stop rubbing his scalp against the support beam.

“Which should give you a clue as to how powerful he thinks the Shroud can be.  You heard what Crocell and Ronové were saying.  You felt how powerful Valefor was.  This isn’t just some errand we’re on, Nico,” Cadmus said as he lowered his head so that he could look Niccolo in the eye.  “We have to consider that we’re not strong enough to stop this.”

“We need to stop it.  We don’t have a choice,” the leper said as he crossed his arms.  Cadmus sighed before scratching his forehead with his right hand.

“I agree, which is why we’re here.  Even for us, hanging around this area at night is not a good idea,” the reaper said before grunting and using his scythe to push himself to his feet.

“Speaking of which, can we really trust Andras with this type of thing?  I don’t trust demons as a rule and Andras is known for being shifty.”

“True enough.  He even warned us not to trust him.  But…something about how he told us to be here, something about his tone…  I believe him, Nico,” Cadmus said before walking forward a few steps, his friend staring at him from the side.

“That might get us killed,” Niccolo added, but the reaper just laughed at that.

“Oh, Nico,” he said before turning and shaking his head slightly, “
we’re
probably going to be the people that get us killed.  This is possibly the dumbest thing we’ve ever…”  Cadmus had been speaking with some levity, but he trailed off when he saw the two yellow dots hovering in the darkness across the street.  His eyes narrowed as he brought his scythe across his body, but when Niccolo slapped his shoulder and broke his concentration, he blinked.  When Cadmus opened his eyes, the two yellow dots were gone.

“Hey, what’s up?” Niccolo asked, but Cadmus did not look at him and instead tried to focus on their surroundings.