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  She waved her hand, bending Allydia’s spine backward until it snapped. She screamed, falling on the floor in a heap.

  “Relax,” Lilith condescended. “You’ll heal in a few minutes. I just want you to really get how angry you’ve made me.”

  As she lay there, Allydia got a glimpse at her step mother’s abdomen. She had a wound that looked charred at the center with dark lines spreading out from it and blood still slowly trickling out.

  “What’s wrong with you?” she asked, hoping that distracting her with a new conversation would end the torture.

  Lilith looked down at herself and sighed.

  “This?” she asked, pointing to her stomach. “One of your new friends stuck me with Holy Fire.”

  She waved her hand again, bringing a bookcase crashing down onto the vampire.

  “I should be fully healed in a few hours.” Lilith said. “If any of them still live by that time, I’ll be able to handle them easily. But, I don’t expect to have to.”

  “I won’t kill them,” Allydia asserted from under the mess.

  “Of course not!” Lilith laughed. “You don’t have that kind of power!”

  Allydia crawled out from the rubble.

  “What did you do?” she demanded.

  “Well, they didn’t kill all of my warriors,” she explained. “I know you’ve been infatuated with one of the angels and I know where they are, thanks to your preoccupation with him.”

  “Lilith,” Allydia warned. “You can’t.”

  “I can’t? You are familiar with me, yes? I can do just about anything and I do not take orders from you. Besides, the demons should be there already, so learn to live with it.”

  Allydia tried to run for the door, but Lilith threw her to the ground and pulled her back into the living room, never getting up from her seat.

  “Can you explain this to me?” she asked. “How is this man your type? Assuming he’s roughly the same age as the human Uriel’s in, he can’t be more than what? Thirty-five? As I recall, older men suited you better. Or, is it that he’s really several millennia old? Is that what does it for you? That he’s ancient?”

  The vampire’s anger grew, the rage overpowering her common sense. She rushed toward Lilith who smacked her back with her mind like it was nothing.

  “An angel,” Lilith winced. “I thought you had better taste. No matter. He and the others will be gone soon enough and you’ll realize that working with me instead of against is the right thing to do. We’ll have these humans on their knees in a matter of weeks, especially now that you have an entire army of vampires at your command.”

  “I won’t help you,” Allydia declared, fighting to stand up again.

  “Of course you will,” Lilith scoffed. “What is the alternative?”

  “I would rather die than be your bitch.”

  “Don’t be ridiculous. We’ll be partners. Well, seventy/thirty.”

  “I may not be able to kill you,” Allydia said. “But, I will do my damnedest to fuck you up.”

  She lunged for Lilith again, who let out a loud sigh of derision.

  “Just take your punishment like an adult,” she said, flicking her wrist to send Allydia flying through the room and out the window, smashing the glass with her head. She fell, hitting the pavement twelve stories below.

  A woman screamed and Allydia could fuzzily see people around her as she struggled to get herself up. As she stood, she was met with a chorus of ‘What the hell?’s and ‘Holy shit!’s.

  “Are you okay?!” someone yelled.

  “I’m fine,” she told the stranger, her sight restored.

  She took her phone from her pocket, but it was crushed. She limped off, hobbling as quickly as she could, hoping she’d be able to warn Wyatt before it was too late.

  “We’re out of time. We need to get this bitch while she’s weak or she’ll take off to who knows where and we might never find her,” Gabriel told her siblings. The four of them were gathered around the kitchen island, looking over a map of the city. Nervous energy filled the room as everyone was sure this would be the night.

  “We know she was here,” Gabriel said, pointing to the spot on the map where the clinic was located. “We’ve searched all over Manhattan. She’s either left the island, or she’s hiding somewhere we wouldn’t think to look. At this point, thanks to someone’s little adventure,” she shot Lucifer an annoyed glance. He smirked. “She could be almost anywhere. I’m guessing she has about three hours before she’s one hundred percent, so we need to figure this out and move our asses or we might lose our chance.”

  “Perhaps, Barachiel could entice his girlfriend to be more helpful in aiding in our efforts,” Lucifer mused. “After all, she would most likely do anything he asked her to.”

  “Asshole,” Wyatt muttered.

  “That’s not a bad idea,” Gabriel said. “Dia was supposed to be our Trojan horse, but she’s been completely useless so far. Maybe you could give her a call? See if she’s been in contact?”

  “Or, you could call her,” Valerie chimed in. “You’re the one that brought her into this to begin with.”

  “Sure,” Gabriel said. “But she’s not in love with me.”

  “I don’t think ‘love’ is the right word,” Wyatt said.

  “Okay,” she clarified. “Psychotically obsessed with, then. Either way, you should call her. If she knows something, she’s more likely to tell you than anyone. Have you ever read a book or seen a movie where the monster kills everyone and thinks people are garbage, but it has like, a pet? You’re the pet.”

  Lucifer snickered.

  “That’s really condescending,” Wyatt told her.

  “I’m just being honest with you,” Gabriel said. “You’re like the bunny that got petted too much so now you have a bald spot. Or the cat that got hugged too hard and your ribs got broken.”

  Lucifer laughed harder, wiping a tear from his eye.

  “Basically,” Gabriel continued. “I’m saying the bitch be cray, but you can use that lunacy to maybe help us out.”

  “Fine,” Wyatt agreed. “You’ll have to give me her number.”

  “You don’t have her number?” Valerie judged. “Aren’t you fuckin’ her?”

  “Are you giving me shit, too?” he asked.

  She threw her hands up and looked away.

  He handed Gabriel his phone. She put the number in and handed it back. He put it to his ear, then ended the call and put it back in his pocket.

  “Straight to voicemail,” he told them.

  “She doesn’t recognize the number,” Valerie assumed.

  “That’s not the problem,” Gabriel said, her eyes darting to the door. “Get ready,” she warned.

  “Get ready for what?” Valerie asked.

  Lucifer felt them now, too.

  “Demons,” he answered, turning to face the door and bracing himself.

  Just then, the door flew open, having been kicked in by one of the twelve men that came rushing through, all of them looking pale and sickly.

  “Baneful scum,” Lucifer vexed. The four stood as the demons rapidly advanced.

  Valerie quickly grabbed a butcher’s knife from the block on the counter and it instantaneously burst into flame. She stepped back, hoping to avoid the majority of the fighting while Gabriel began tossing the hellions around the apartment like rag dolls. Wyatt threw lightning at them as they approached, knocking them back hard as Lucifer started to exorcise them one by one.

  “I just had this place redone!” Gabriel snapped, sending a demon flying into a wall.

  As the others fought, Valerie was surrounded by three lumbering demons. They cackled madly as they closed in, taking a twisted pleasure in the terror on her face. She made a futile attempt to stab one of them, but he knocked the blade from her hand, the fire extinguishing upon hitting the wood floor.

  “Lilith is most angry with you,” the demon hissed.

  “Why isn’t she here then?” Valerie lashed out. “Cuz she’s a
scared little bitch, that’s why.”

  The demon growled as he threw his first punch, hitting her in the jaw and knocking her to the floor. The three cheered and laughed as they beat her savagely, punching her face and kicking her in the ribs, back and head. Once she was motionless, the leader put his hand up for the others to stop and picked up the knife. He used it to brush the hair off her face so he could look into her now glazed over eyes.

  “You’re lucky my orders are only to kill you,” he wheezed, grasping her by the hair, pulling her head back, and slitting her throat. Blood poured and spurted from the gash as the life drained from Valerie’s face. She fell limp to the floor while the three demons howled.

  “Valerie!” Gabriel screamed, throwing demons out of her way as she raced to her sister’s side. She dropped to her knees, immediately covering the wound on Valerie’s neck with one hand and placing the other over her heart. Her hands glowed, white light seeping from the corners of the dead woman’s mouth. “Wake up!” Gabriel cried. “I mean it, get your ass up!”

  Gradually, the wound healed, and Valerie shot up, gasping for air. She tried to choke out a warning to Gabriel of the demon that was coming up behind her. Just as he raised the knife to stab Gabriel in the back, Wyatt launched a ball of lightning at him, striking him down and rendering him unconscious. Saving his sister, though, meant that Wyatt didn’t notice the demon behind him, and now, suddenly, there was a cord wrapped around his neck and he was choking.

  Before Gabriel could save her brother, another demon grabbed her by the hair and dragged her to the sofa where he began punching her in the face. Valerie hurried to her aid, picking up the knife as she went, leaving Wyatt to handle his attacker on his own. He grabbed the demons wrists and used all the energy he could to electrocute him, but the supernatural brute was relentless.

  Wyatt couldn’t breathe, his face turning from red to deep purple as he struggled. The room grew dim and his vision became blurry. As he felt himself beginning to lose consciousness, he saw the vague figure of a woman speeding toward him. Suddenly, he was released, falling on his hands and knees, panting, his chest heaving as he labored to draw breath. He raised up and looked behind him, his vision clearing. He saw Allydia on the back of the demon, viciously tearing his neck apart with her sharp teeth, spewing blood and flinging tissue everywhere.

  Lucifer came to the aid of his sisters, sending the demon they were fighting back to his cage.

  When Wyatt’s assailant was dead, and the last demon was exorcised, the room went quiet. The human hosts that remained alive were catatonic, having been occupied for so long that their brains were all but destroyed. Gabriel assessed the damage done to her apartment while Valerie sat on a stool at the island, trembling, in near disbelief that she was still alive.

  Lucifer paced angrily and Allydia threw up in the sink.

  “You all right?” Wyatt asked her.

  “Demon blood is highly acidic to things like me,” she explained, turning on the faucet and rinsing her mouth out. “I’ll be fine.”

  “You knew about this!” Lucifer accused, grasping Allydia’s throat and lifting her off the ground. “I should kill you right now for your treachery.”

  “Hey!” Wyatt yelled, pushing his brother so hard, he stumbled and dropped the vampire.

  “Are you seriously going to defend this creature after what she’s done?!” Lucifer barked.

  “She wasn’t in on it, calm down,” Gabriel told him.

  “Really?” he asked, not convinced. “How, then, do you explain her sudden appearance only after the object of her affection was put in harm’s way?”

  Gabriel sighed. “Lilith kicked her ass after figuring out she was helping us, her phone got broken, so she ran over here as fast as she could to warn us,” she made clear. “Well, warn him, but us by proximity.”

  “All right, fine,” Lucifer conceded, looking Allydia in the eyes. “But, let me be clear. I don’t trust you or your motives. Your kind are a plague on this world that, for the life of me, I can’t understand why my Father hasn’t yet wiped clean from it. If I discover that you assisted my sister in any way, I will rip your head from your body and put your heart in a jar like a trophy on my mantel.”

  Wyatt stepped between them, staring Lucifer down.

  “Settle the fuck down,” he warned.

  Allydia grinned slyly as she stepped away to speak directly to Gabriel.

  “It will interest you to know that Lilith is at my apartment recovering from whatever one of you did to her. She said it’d be a few hours before she’d be healed, so you can probably still catch her,” she said.

  “I know,” Gabriel told her, having gotten the information as soon as she came in. “I’m just giving these guys a second to get their shit together. Is everybody good?” she asked the others.

  “Definitely not good,” Valerie admitted.

  “Let’s go,” Gabriel commanded.

  As they stepped over bodies to leave, Allydia grabbed Wyatt’s arm and he stopped.

  “Be careful,” she warned him. “She’s unlike anything you’ve ever seen. I’m not convinced the four of you can take her.”

  “I’ll be all right,” he said, moving her hand gently from his arm. He walked away and when he got to the door, he turned back to look at her for, for all he knew, the last time. “Allydia,”

  “Yes,” she said, a twinge of excitement flowing through her at the sound of him saying her name.

  “Thanks for saving my ass.”

  “You’re more than welcome,” she said as he disappeared into the hall. “I’ll just clean this up, then!” she called to no one. She looked around the room at the bodies littering the floor, some dead, some barely alive. “What to do with you?”

  Chapter 24

  The four siblings reached Allydia’s apartment, Gabriel blowing the door open with her telekinesis. She and Lucifer began calmly searching through rooms, but Wyatt and Valerie stood motionless in the doorway, horrified by the carnage they saw. Valerie covered her mouth, swallowing a little bit of vomit that had come up in her throat. Wyatt recognized the corpse on the floor from the club and knew Allydia must be upset by the loss. He slowly stepped inside, avoiding slipping on recently removed organs. He made his way to the living room, joining the others. The signs of struggle were evident. The downed bookcase, broken window and puddles of blood. It was clear to everyone that, had she been human, Allydia would have been killed. It was also clear that she would have been dead, regardless of her species, had Lilith wished it.

  “I can feel her,” Lucifer said. “She’s not far.”

  “I hear her,” Gabriel said, pointing to her temple. “She’s on the roof.”

  They ran up the small flight of stairs that led to Allydia’s private rooftop deck and garden. There, they finally found Lilith, sitting on the edge, taking in the view of the city.

  “I was sure you’d all be dead by now,” she told them, spinning around to face them. “I’d be impressed if I wasn’t so irritated.” She noticed Valerie, the last to get to the roof, still holding the butcher knife. “Fool me once,” she said, shaking her head. She waved her hand in Valerie’s direction, throwing her up against the door and wrapping it around her, trapping her in a coffin of metal. She screamed, banging on the door in a desperate attempt to free herself, to no avail.

  “Brother,” Lilith acknowledged Lucifer, her voice contemptuous.

  “Pestiferous obstruction to my well being,” he greeted.

  “That’s not nice,” she replied, holding her hand out. Instantly and with no warning, Lucifer’s heart flew from his body and into her awaiting palm. He collapsed in a lifeless heap on the deck.

  “Holy shit,” Wyatt whispered.

  Gabriel was unfazed. “That’s a super cute body you’ve got there,” she taunted. “Be a shame if something happened to it.” She motioned toward her, engulfing her in flames. She screamed, using unnatural speed to quickly patted out the flames.

  “Well, this dress is official
ly ruined,” Lilith said, obviously annoyed. “And, you made me drop my new heart. Gabriel. You’ve been a pain in my ass since you were a kindle. Night night.” And with that, she flicked her wrist, spinning Gabriel’s head nearly all the way around, snapping her neck.

  “So,” she said, turning her attention to Wyatt. “You’re the one my daughter’s been so taken with.” She looked him over, trying to make sense of the vampire’s fascination. “I mean, you’re tall.” she conceded. “Are you interesting? Unusually smart or talented? I just don’t see it. Not to be insulting, but what is it?”

  “It’s his eyes,” Lucifer told her, springing up behind her, grabbing her by the hair and throwing her down onto a snowy patch of soil where, in warmer weather, gardenia’s bloomed. “So I’m told.” He kicked her hard in the stomach, directly in her mostly healed wound, reinjuring it enough to put her off her guard for a split second, which was all he needed. He knelt down, grabbed his twin’s throat with one hand and plunged the other into her chest. She screeched in agony as he ripped the amulet that kept her planted on the Earth from her body, crushing it to dust.

  “How?” Wyatt wondered.

  “I’m an archangel, brother,” Lucifer explained. “You remove my heart, I’ll just grow a new one.”

  “And I’m pretty quick to snap back myself,” Gabriel said, standing up, her spine healed and head back in proper position. She made a fist and stared intently at Lilith, who seemed all but defeated as she coughed up the blood caused by Gabriel crushing her lungs.

  Wyatt ran over to Valerie and tried to pry the door open to set her free. Just as he was making a little progress, Gabriel came flying into the wall next to them.

  “What the,” he started.

  “I can’t move,” she told him.

  He turned just as Lilith sent Lucifer flying over the side of the building. Above them, storm clouds gathered in the previously clear sky and the loud crash of thunder filled the air.

  “Yo, B!” Gabriel called to him. He met her gaze and she glanced up at the stormy sky and back at him. “You’re up.” He nodded as Lilith began walking toward him.