Satanic Fortitude Read online

  When his hand landed on my crotch the realisation of this fucked up situation hit me like a speeding car on the motorway. He locked my hands under my head, and some invisible chains went around my wrists.

  My demonic abilities stirred deep in my core, and I roared at the top of my lungs when he ripped my tank top. Sudden panic burned my lungs and I wanted to dig my nails into his eyes, but his grip was unbelievably strong. Hades was getting aroused, I felt his length between my legs, and nausea rolled over my stomach.

  “I was the greatest, the strongest, and now I have to answer to Satan. Everything has its consequences. I’m taking his daughter, because I can. No one will stop me here on my land,” he said, tossing away his leather jacket, revealing his tanned, muscular chest.

  I jerked, roaring again, but he only laughed. Then I could have sworn I saw a shadow circling underneath me. Hades’s eyes gleamed with raw lust as he pushed himself between my legs. For a split second I thought that my father would protect me, that he could get to me at any time, but it looked like that was just wishful thinking.

  “Get your hands off her, you scum,” shouted a voice from above, a voice that I recognised. Then, before I could take another breath, Hades was beheaded. This happened in a split second and I shut my eyes. Blood poured down over me and his head went flying over the carriage. His horses let go of a loud neigh, and the ground underneath shook slightly.

  His body slammed on the carriage, and in that moment fresh magic rolled over my system. When I looked up I nearly passed out with shock, because I saw Paul flying above me, holding a beautiful but bloodied gold sword in his hand. The wings—he had his snowy angel wings attached to his back.

  I opened my mouth but failed to make any kind of sound.

  “Hey, Max, I’m sorry that I didn’t get here sooner. The other messenger didn’t get to me on time,” Paul explained, landing by the carriage. My T-shirt was ripped, but it still covered the most private parts of my body. A bead of sweat rolled down my cheek. Okay, maybe it was too soon to make sense of all this, but I knew one thing— Paul was still a fucking angel.

  “Thank you…but I think I’m still in shock. What are you doing in here?” I managed to ask, getting back to my feet and trying to look decent. The aftershock made me want to throw up. I kept taking long pulls of air. I didn’t want to break right now.

  Paul was stunning. White light radiated from him. The wings looked incredible in the darkness.

  “Following through with the original plan, although it’s twenty-six years too late,” Paul said, smiling at me. “I was sent from upstairs to protect your mother.”

  He was having a laugh at my expense, right? He wasn’t being serious.

  “But how did you get in here and what on earth are you talking about?” I asked. All of a sudden I needed to lie down.

  “Rescuing you, of course. I knew that the old bastard wouldn’t keep an eye on you. That is just so typical of him, sending you away with that scum. All these years ago I was asked to go down to earth. Your mother was innocent and she had a pure soul. God wanted to protect her, but I failed.”

  “What? Lucifer, I mean my father just told me that someone poisoned my mother,” I said, telling myself that I wasn’t supposed to be surprised anymore, still thinking about that bath or a cold drink. It was time, I needed a break from all this supernatural shit.

  “I was sent down to warn her about a demon that was just about to visit her, but I got distracted,” Paul explained, looking embarrassed while my jaw was still on the ashy ground.

  “Oh my lord, you knew? All this time you knew that fucking Lucifer was my father and you haven’t said a word?” I said, moving over the dead body of Hades and stepping out of that damn carriage. There was nothing around us, but my head was fried, and my thoughts were racing. I still managed to remember that night at the pub. Even then Paul had recognised Lucifer and he’d talked about some warning, but I failed to connect all the threads.

  “I knew, but I couldn’t say anything. I screwed up and I had to make a deal. Trust me, Maxine, I’ve been thinking about this all my life,” he said. “Your visit in hell—I thought he was taking you down to finally recognise you as his.”

  “That was the plan. We talked about a lot of things,” I explained, not being able to think about being furious with him. That was already done and I just wanted to get the fuck out of this place and forget about what happened.

  “We have been talking about getting to you for weeks. Zach was going crazy and when I started getting mixed messages from hell I thought that it was time to get down here.”

  “Weeks? How much time has gone by? I thought that it was only a few days.”

  “It’s been four weeks, love, and during that time we’ve been planning to get you out. Time works differently in hell. It’s hard to keep up with what’s going on when you can’t figure out when the day ends or starts,” Paul muttered. “Lucifer trusted Hades, but it’s hell and everyone wants to use each other. Obviously the God of Limbo saw the opportunity with you and took it.”

  I dragged my hand through my hair, telling myself that I had enough surprises for one evening. I had lost nearly a month on earth. I still wanted to believe that everything my arse of a father had discussed with me was for real. My deal with him still stood. Nothing had changed.

  “He was testing me going through different circles of hell to see if I was ready to call myself his daughter,” I explained. “And it turned out that I am apparently ready. He wants me to take care of Alexis.”

  “Okay, you can fill me in on everything later on. We need to go. It’s dangerous to be here. Limbo can be unpredictable, much more than hell.”

  I couldn’t have agreed more with what he said. The last thing we needed now was to be caught out by another creature or a demon that was ready to use me in order to get back at Lucifer.

  I suddenly remembered that old demon in the forest near Langston that was following me and Zach. He’d asked me to talk to my father about his family. He knew, but how?

  No one apart from Paul was meant to know about this. And Alexis didn’t even realise that she had Lucifer’s daughter under her nose all this time. I really had to take care of her.

  “All right, so how are we going to do this? Hades was supposed to take me back to the gate that led to earth,” I explained, scratching my head. I had seen enough weird crap in my lifetime. It was time to disappear and end this silly journey. I needed to see Ricky, Emma, and of course Zachary, although a world without Arthur was going to be very different.

  “You need to climb on me, dear. We are going back in style,” Paul said and I looked at him like he was crazy. There was no way that I was going to fly back to London. After Greyon, my stomach wouldn’t take it.

  “No, I’m too heavy and you only just got those wings back,” I told him, feeling sick again.

  “I’m sorry, Max, but I have to carry you. There isn’t any other way out of here. Limbo is filled with your worst nightmares. If you thought that hell was bad, then you have to think twice.”

  I looked at the beheaded body of Hades. Yeah, maybe what he was saying made sense. I just had to do this, one last time.

  Several moments later I was embraced by Paul flying above in the navy sky, finally coming home.

  Chapter 13

  “For this man here who comes along with me, burdened in being clothed with Adam’s flesh, is loath to climb, despite the will to do.” ― Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy

  We landed by another cave in the pitch-black darkness. I slid off Paul’s back and looked around, waiting for some other entrance to appear, but nothing happened.

  “This way,” Paul told me and led me inside the cave. Instantly we found ourselves in a narrow corridor with stairs that were leading up. It seemed pretty random, but I wasn’t going to complain. I just couldn’t wait to cross over to the human world again.

  Deep down I was disappointed that Paul had known this entire time that Lucifer was my father. He let me be
lieve that I showed up in his pub accidentally, and he fed my addiction because he felt guilty that he failed to protect my mother in the past. I knew that this wasn’t the time or a place to discuss all these issues, but we had to talk about it at some point in the future.

  My head hurt from all the things I’d learnt lately, and I had to admit, it was one hell of an experience traveling through the underworld. I was lucky that I wasn’t dragged through every single circle of hell.

  Now it was my job to change the fate of all the mongrels. Lucifer was powerful and most likely immortal, but he wasn’t fully controlling his demons on earth, and that’s where the heads of the factions came in. They were his eyes and ears, but after what happened with Rodriguez, I wasn’t surprised that he was looking to shake things up.

  I smelled the earthy air when we reached the end of the stairs. There was a small metal trapdoor. Paul pushed it through and we squeezed through the space, ending up at the back of a dark alley, probably somewhere near Hackney. Goose pimples broke over my arms as the excitement rushed down my body. I was finally back to the world that I knew and understood. It was freezing cold and I only wore my ripped tank top. It was the middle of winter in London. That was one thing that I didn’t miss—the weather, although it was still better than in hell.

  “Here, put this on,” Paul said and handed me his jacket. My teeth were chattering, I felt a little guilty, but he still wore a thick wool jumper underneath.

  “Thank you for rescuing me from the dirty hands of Hades. Being in hell … well, it was a hell of an experience.” I chuckled, still trying to find a funny side in what happened.

  When we started walking, Paul started looking more like himself again. Scruffy, a bit overweight, and he lost that incredible radiant energy. Being in the human world changed demons and I presumed this happened with ex-Watchers too. I figured that if he had gone ahead with delivering that warning to my mother, then possibly I would have never been born.

  Or maybe I would have been just a normal human girl without any special abilities. I didn’t think I could enjoy being ordinary. My life was tough in general, but I wanted to remain who I was.

  When we reached the traffic light, he said, “It was my duty, and I screwed up all those years ago. I’m going to leave you now, so make sure you take care of yourself, Maxine. Remember you can always count on me.”

  “I’ll hold you to that. Lucifer has given me that one last task. Alexis needs to be eliminated.”

  “You don’t have to worry about her right now. Just rest up. I’ll be in touch soon.” He bowed his head and started walking away in the opposite direction. He most likely knew that I was heading over to see Ricky. I liked that he didn’t push me to talk. He understood that I needed some time out.

  The truth was that I didn’t have any place to stay. I bet Mrs. Patel had managed to evict me. By now she probably threw all my stuff away too. I had trashed the place and hadn’t paid the rent in around two months. This was going to be interesting, returning to London after a full month spent in hell that felt like it’d only been a few days.

  I started walking through the gloomy streets, trying to connect with Matilda. I knew that she was keeping Summer somewhere safe, far away from anyone that could harm her. My magic was silent, and it was going to take me a few days to get used to being my old self on earth.

  I had nothing on me, no money, so I was forced to walk all the way to the Doomed Cases office. It was before five and I really hoped that Ricky hadn’t gone home yet. On the way I passed a newspaper stand and saw that the whole of London was still mourning over the death of the young prince. Apparently the investigation into the cause of his death was still pending. I managed to grab an old paper and read that the human police were planning to arrest someone soon.

  I didn’t know what to think. Surely they couldn’t have been after Alexis. That bitch must have disappeared after she was healed.

  A few hours later I entered my building, feeling slightly nervous about seeing my friends. I sensed them upstairs. Everything looked just the way it was and I truly hoped that we hadn’t managed to go bankrupt in a month, and our clients remained loyal to the agency.

  I walked inside as if I hadn’t been missing at all.

  “Hey, Emma,” I said, trying to be cheerful. Emma gasped and stood up so abruptly, staring at me. She managed to knock most of her stationary on the floor and then she went slightly pale. I should have given them a warning, or maybe called, but that felt unnatural.

  “Maxine. Oh my God, is that really you?” she started screaming. Seconds later I was nearly knocked off my feet when she started hugging me, sobbing at the same time.

  “Max, for Lucifer, say something,” Ricky said, appearing in the room.

  I smiled as other emotions overwhelmed me when he joined in and hugged me too. Normally I wasn’t a big fan of any kind of affection, but after my trip to hell a few tears of joy managed to slip through.

  “Paul showed up with his angel wings and literally saved my butt when Hades tried to rape me,” I said.

  “Hades, one of the mythological gods of the underworld? I thought he wasn’t real?” Emma asked, wiping her tears away and smiling widely.

  I needed to sit down and go through everything that happened in the past.

  “There is a lot that I have to explain and you two better sit down. I have some pretty sensational news.”

  “That doesn’t sound too good,” Ricky muttered, but managed to pull a chair up for himself. Emma blew her nose and flopped back on her seat. Ricky was using his energy to check if I was real and that this wasn’t any kind of trick. He looked well, and I was glad that his demonic energy wasn’t affected by the fact that he spent a few weeks in intensive care.

  “Lucifer is my real father.”

  I had to start somewhere and I needed them to get over the main shock to explain the rest.

  As I was expecting, Ricky laughed, using his abilities to tell me that I nearly got him. Emma brought her hands to her mouth, staring at me with her eyes wide open. She must have believed me straight away.

  I told Ricky that I wasn’t joking and then continued from the beginning of this crazy story. It was late evening in London when I started going through everything that happened to me from the moment that Alexis had murdered Arthur.

  Ricky nearly smashed the wall with his fist when he heard about his ex-wife. He was still pretty much in shock, hearing that Lucifer was my real father. The fact that Catherine was still a bitch didn’t really surprise him. Nothing changed in that respect, but at least she was back in hell.

  “Paul used to be God’s messenger?” Ricky asked, for the fourth time. “And he knew that Lucifer was your father and he kept this hidden for years?”

  “Oh, Max, I can’t believe this. Satan … wow. I mean I can’t even understand how is this possible,” Emma said, shaking her head. It surprised me that she was taking it so calmly.

  “And he made you go through the circles of hell just so he could bloody see if he could acknowledge you as his daughter?” Ricky repeated, pacing around the office. He was breathing hard, walking, and I could literally see anger radiating from his pores. He had been in hell, so he knew exactly what I had to go through.

  “Yeah, that’s pretty much what happened,” I said. “Trust me, it took a while for this to sink in. I didn’t really believe him when he told me who he was.”

  “This is unbelievable, I always thought that your father was an upper level demon, but I never would have thought that it was Lucifer,” Ricky admitted, trying to take all that in, but he was having a little trouble with processing the news.

  In many ways I was doing all right, getting back to the agency still feeling pretty sane.

  I suddenly felt Matilda’s magic inside me. It was a relief. Summer was safe and still with her. I didn’t want to worry about Rodriguez. He had no idea where to look for her and Lucifer had promised that he would take care of him.

  “I managed to convince your landlord
to give you another chance,” Ricky said, unexpectedly. “And I paid your rent.”

  “Really? I can’t believe that she went for it. I mean—thank you, that means a lot,” I said, and my voice trembled. Then I went to him, hugging him again.

  “Wow, things in hell must have been really hard out there if you’re willing to touch me,” Ricky said, laughing. I snorted and hit him playfully.

  Then his expression turned serious. “I still can’t believe what happened in Purgatory. What Arthur did was noble and great. I was wrong about him. He was a decent man.”

  It was sad to think that I was never going to see him again.

  “Matilda will look after Summer while I deal with Alexis. I really want to see my little girl, but London isn’t safe for her, especially not while Rodriguez is still the head of Lucifer’s faction.”

  Both Ricky and Emma agreed with me and then we talked about everything that I missed while I was gone. Ricky quickly gave me some updates about the agency. Apparently we were working as normal. He decided to outsource the most complicated cases and hired a few demons to help him with fieldwork. After everything that happened he was still a businessman.

  He must have read my mind because a moment later he offered to call Zach. I was glad that I didn’t have to tell him that I wanted to see my beloved detective. I had missed him, although my emotions were still unsettled.

  “We were planning to get you out of hell. Zachary was adamant. He didn’t give up. Even when everyone kept telling him that there was no chance for you to survive,” Emma explained. “In the evenings he went chasing demons around London with Nameless, trying to find the way in to hell.”

  The man had truly loved me and I was lucky to have him. Ricky told me to get home, that I needed some time out. I needed to wash the scent of Hades off my skin. It was around ten p.m. when I left the office of Doomed Cases and headed to my flat.

  Zachary was waiting for me outside my door and I stopped abruptly when I saw him. My heart made a flip in my chest. He sat with his hand over his head by my door. The image of Arthur rolled in front of my eyes, but I told myself to get it together. The father of my child was dead and even Lucifer wasn’t ready to bring him back. It was time to accept it and keep on living.