Authors: Heaven Liegh Eldeen
I had spent months consulting with my generals, my top spies
,
and my special group of mathematicians to calculate the outcome of my next venture to obtain Abihail. With only a two percent chance of failure, I had been excited to know all the hard work, wheeling and dealing, and
strategizing
would finally pay off in my favor.
Putting on
the
illusion of an average white
male
,
as to not frighten Abihail
with my natural form, I t
ook
off in the direction of Quantico.
Though the flight takes a fraction of a second to a human, the anticipation
boiling inside
of
me at the thought of
finally having
her made
the
trip fee
l
particularly long.
So, you can imagine my shock when I materialize
d
in the Divad’s
hovel
to find
Abihail’s
soul
i
n Etta’s body
holding Vetis hostage.
Splintered wood scattered across the flooded floor as water poured from a hole in the ceiling.
A mutilated Rahovart lay writhing, surrounded by the Arch Gabriel, High Knight John
,
and a
blonde,
curly
haired female
I didn’t recognize. Encircling the angelic motley crew were my men, my tired soldiers, glancing at me for their orders.
They
had fumbled their mission
, and my only solace
had been seeing my dear
servant
,
Pyro,
clutching
one of Rahovart’s wings.
I wanted Rahovart to pay for meddling with my fate. Yes, I
had the power to order
his death
,
but that would have been too easy. I wanted him to suffer as I
had
over the past millenniums. Having previously given up his wings and serving under me, I knew it’d
only
be a matter of time before he’d be grounded, unable to flash, which meant unable to ‘protect’ my sister from our destiny. At least
that
had seemed to go according to plan.
With the situ
ation as it were, I knew Etta
had Vetis call to me. The furrow of her brow, the clenching of her jaw, and the tense grip of the poisonous blade she pressed into Vetis’s chest were solid clues she had no intention of surrendering to me.
H
owever, she had no alternative but to try and make a deal with me.
Calculating the scene, everyone’s position, numbers, and
a
few other
details, the only logical deal
to be made would be to spare Rahovart’s
soul
and her friends’ soul
s
for hers
,
or to spare them all for Vetis.
Either way, with her indebted to me and bound by contract, I w
ould win
.
I
f
anyone
had the capability to
make a deal that had only one benefactor, it
had been
I, Lucifer
.
“What can I do for you?” I
blithely asked
.
“I want to make a deal,”
Etta
snarled.
A soaking wet clump of hair fell into her large, almond
shaped
eyes. Memories of days out in the grassy knolls and getting caught in a rain storm fluttered in my mind. A moment of euphoria swept over me as I imagined
the way Abi
hail’s drenched yellow stola clu
ng
to
her thin waist and round hips, revealing the transparency of the fabric and everything it
tried so desperately to
hide as she
ran
for shelter.
Though her
h
uman form as Etta barely resembled the sister I knew, she had still be
en
quite appealing and left me wanting.
As much as I enjoy
ed
sexual fantasies, I had to keep my head clear of any distractions.
“Etta, don’t!” Rahovart cried out
.
A bubble of
anger
burst inside of me as Rahovart once again tried to meddle with my sister and
me
. As I prepared to reprimand h
im for his interference, Etta
had called to him to shut up. A flicker of hope that maybe she had finally realized wha
t an idiot she had married flickered
in
my
mind. For so long she let
him speak for her
,
and now she
ripped
the reins of her voice back
under
her control
.
“And what deal is it you wish to make, Sister?”
I asked, unable to hide my pride.
“Okay. First off, don’t call me your sister. You gave up that right when you betrayed me and left.”
Etta
sneered.
My pride swiftly gave way t
o pure rage. How Etta
dare
d to
think I betrayed and abandoned her? Everything I had done
had
been in the name of love for her. I had destroyed and created worlds beyond imagining with the intention of saving her from a discriminatory existence being the so-called wife
of
a habitual failure and the bottomless rut he would drive her into.
But losing my temper would accomplish little. I had to focus
on
the task at hand and put Etta
back on the defensive.
“I asked you to come with me, dear
S
ister.”
I smirked.
“That’s neither here nor there. Here’s the deal. You leave us alone. Go back to Hell where you belong, and take your rabid cattle with you.”
Etta
replied with disgust.
Of all the souls in existence, she
s
hould
have known better
.
I would
never
accept such a one sided deal unless it were in my favor.
“I see nothing in that for me.” I retorted as I cleared a piece of filth in the air
with
my hand.
“Let me finish. You go back to Hell with these guys, and for as long as I am human, you leave me and my family alone. That includes John,
René
, Amy, Ra, and Gabriel. None of that ‘oh
,
she’s your friend not your family’ crap.”
Etta
snipped back.
It
had become evident that Etta
had spent too much time in the company of simpletons. Negotiations with her were going nowhere constructive and were becoming quite annoying. I saw no other
option
than to remind her who she
was
dealing with.
“Ah, for as long as you are human? That still doesn’t work for me. You see, the veil has been opened. You will obviously choose the righteous path and hide behind Heaven’s gates.”
I rebutted
.
“Well, that’s the deal. Whether or not it works for you isn’t my problem.”
Etta
cocked
an
eyebrow.
For a brief moment I wondered if the damage Rahovart had done to her
brain
ha
d
been too severe to repair. Had the incredibly witty, brilliant and calculating Abihail
given
way to the handicapped ditz who believed their false love would conquer all? Not one
to
give up on the one I loved, I knew I had to permanently
sever
the parasite
,
Rahovart
,
from her heart.
“I’ll accept your deal if you sweeten the pot a bit,” I countered
with a wily grin
,
knowing Etta
had been so blinded she would take the bait.
“What do you want?”
Etta
asked suspiciously
.
“His wings.”
I growled, pointing downward to Rahovart.
“Yeah.
That won’t happen. How about this instead? You keep the wing Pyro already ripped out, and I let your little boy toy here live.”
The same as
her celestial husband
,
Rahovart
, Etta
snatched at the allurement with the erroneous confidence of a victory.
I
might
have simply left well enough alone at that point, but curiosity had gotten the better of me.
“What makes you think I value his life over yours?”
I asked, baffled by her last statement.
“Think about it. You can go another fifty years or more without an heir. But without Vetis, all the lies, illusions, and the world he built for you on Earth would come crashing down, setting you back hundreds of years. How many of your followers would remain loyal once your empire
began
to crumble? How long would it be
until
you stood before the Tribunal alone and unprotected?”
It took all of my self-restraint to keep from laughing hysterically at her ignorance of the inner workings of my operations. If any fool believed for a second that I would place so much of my worth
on
one soul, they deserved to be slowly tortured and left to rot in my lower dungeons. But not wanting to show my hand, I put up the ruse of defeat.
“I don’t have all night.”
Etta
demanded
.
“Deal,” I whispered, winking at Pyro as
I
took Rahovart’s wing from his grasp.
“What? I can’t hear you,”
Etta
mocked.
“Deal!”
I roared
.
The foundation of the
dilapidated
brick house undulated, shaking the walls
and cracking what windows
had
survived the
earlier
battle
;
more than I intended but proved
a more convincing show of my pseudo-rage.
“See you in sixty years, Brother.” Etta jumped off Vetis’s back, leaving the feather in his chest.
The
moron
followed in her husband’s
footsteps
of ignorance.
“If not sooner, Sister.”
I sneered.
Returning to my office, I took a seat in my gold inlayed and jewel
encrusted
throne.
The time had come
to pull out all stops
, take off the kid gloves
,
and
cease
abiding
by the rules. I would have to pull out an ace no one on either side wanted to be played. An embarrassment to Father and his ‘good book’,
a threat to every power hungry
D
emon,
and a menacing plague to man-kind,
and
Lilith
, Guardian of Purgatory
.
Lilith had been the Arch Angel Michael’s first wife. Once loyal to Father
and to her husband
to a fault, she had questioned nothing. Shortly after being sent to Earth to be the mother of the human race, Lilith fell to my ranks when she opted for the true free-will I offered instead of bowing to Michael’s dominance and Father’s plans. When she fell from the garden, her love for Michael morphed into pure, unadulterated
hate
for the male species. Her unwavering faith in the Almighty transformed
into
a masochistic mania for making him pay for her undeserved dismissal as the first ‘Eve’ and Michael’s forever wife
, resulting in the loss of her children
.
A rogue with
an
agenda to take down any male dominated society, Lilith and her band of male-hating Demons
had blazed broad trails for wome
n’s ri
ghts on Earth
.
Starting
with
a woman’s
right
to vote all the way to ensuring females outnumbered males by doing away with any male
offspring
. Though
,
due to my gender
,
I am a natural enemy to Lilith, she filled my hall
s with more useful souls than I
had
ever asked for. In return, I ga
ve her
opportunities to exact her revenge that she may not
have
been
able to achieve running outside the borders of Heaven and Hell.