Another snippet....

“RUN!” I called after them as the earth shook under their feet, dislodging ice stalactites from the patio roof. They scrambled out into the open and lurched over the snow covered landscaping, seismic tremors chasing them.

“Go with them!” Elethiel ordered, his face set in martyrdom. “I’ll release our hedge guards. We’ll hold the barrier up as long as we can.”

“We don’t have that option.” I denied, suicidal thoughts running through my frantic mind as well. There was no way to save everything and everyone. Someone had to be sacrificed.

“You’re the best chance we have to get your Fallen brothers to the Garden, Elethiel. God Himself gave the order for Max to do it, but it’s too late for that now. Someone else has to carry the computer to Him in the Garden. I can’t fly. You can.”

“You can’t hold the barrier up.” He argued, caught between devotion and duty.

“I don’t have time to argue with you.” I begged him as the sound of a sonic boom rent the air. “Take the Fallen to Him.” I tore off Rahma’s pendant and thrust it at him as well. “And take this to my father. GO!”

A dozen conflicting expressions raced across Elethiel’s face. “I’ll send the Host back for you.” He vowed aloud and in my head as he ran. “I’ll come back for you. I swear it. Tell the Demon Lord.”

If I saw the Demon Lord, I would. I didn’t think that was likely though. I was pretty sure I was never going to see Maxiel again. I was going to die when the barrier fell, and the demons poured through. Even if the Host came out to do battle with the forces of Darkness, I would be caught in the middle. I only had to do three things before then; hold the demons at bay long enough for my family to reach the Garden, hold them until Elethiel brought his smuggled brothers to God, and take as many of Lucifer’s army with me as I could when I triggered Max’s lethal failsafe.

I smiled as I exited the house, calmer than I’d been in months. I looked up at the sky, Hell’s red sun breaking through the jagged tear Lucifer’s Fallen had made in my reality. I could feel my hedge guards watching me, vibrating with the need to manifest. I thought grateful thoughts at them, but forbid them to leave the safety of their icy containment dimension, glad for once Slate and my dragon were gone too. If I was going to nuke the punchbowl, I didn’t want them in it with me.

The line of Fallen angels on the far side of the fragile barrier moved apart, leaving room for the Prince of Darkness to manifest directly in front of me. He was entirely nude, and palpably evil, Dark intent radiating from him like a toxic energy field. His mottled red and black body looked skinless, the visible muscles rippling with savage power. He turned molten red, goat-slit eyes on me, his face filled with ravenous resolve. Seeing me alone and defenseless, he tossed his enormous horned head back in maniacal laughter, black spittle flying from his lips as he licked sharp, pointed teeth with a forked tongue. Holding one clawed hand up, he spoke a phrase in the Dark demonic dialect, and the warded barrier fell with a crash.

“Do you remember all the things you said you’d do when Hell froze over, my duplicitous demoness?” He took a step forward and extended his black wings in malignant promise. “It’s time to pay up.”

Or turn the heat up. I hoped my family had made it to the Garden. I hoped the Gardener had let them in, even if He hadn’t come out to rescue me. I hoped His Host would kick some demonic ass after I was dead. I hoped Elethiel had managed to get our smuggled Fallen to safety. But those were things I would have to trust to someone else. It was time for my last task. I waited until Lucifer’s front line guards crossed the line between their world and mine before I spoke the failsafe word.

“BALEFIRE!”

Snippets from Demon Fire

The Demon Lord looked like he’d spent way too much time in Hell. His wings were almost entirely leather now, with only a few charcoal feathers left. The ebony black horns on his head would rival Lucifer’s, and his glowing red eyes, when he turned them on me, were not happy.

He cursed in a demon language I didn’t understand and sent a stream of his molecules through the computer monitor, out into the real world. By force of will, he pulled the three escaped Fallen back, along with Mr. Ferraro, who’d been caught up in the energy stream. The insurance agent, still in his underwear, quivered in terror as Max sent his Fallen brethren back into their computer prison, and then turned his attention to the only semi-threat left in the room.

“I’m sorry.” The half-naked man threw himself at me. “I really didn’t think you were married.” His gaze flew in panic from me to Maxiel and back again. “But it’s okay. I don’t care. I’ll give you the money. Here; take it.” He pressed the check into my hands.

Hell and damnation. I was back to looking like a succubus. “This isn’t what it looks like.” I said in my own defense, scrambling for lies the Demon Lord might believe. What did it say about my life when a plausible lie would be better than the truth?

Maxiel sketched an evil looking glyph in the air, burned a hole in the ether and pulled three half-furled scrolls out of the darkness. Smoke rose from the edges and the ink on them still glowed with blood-red heat. Uttering a word in demon speak, he transformed the scrolls into official looking documents, complete with what appeared to be the state seal of Texas.

“I believe this completes your missing paperwork, including marriage and death certificates.” He held the documents, one at a time, in front of the insurance investigator’s face. “They merely need to be filed, and I believe you can do that. In order, if you will.”

“I…I…I don’t…” Ferraro stuttered in alarm as he inspected the documents, nearly jumping out of his skin as Slate slid in closer. The little gargoyle scrabbly clicked his six inch teeth together at the scent of fear and the anticipation of a meal.

“Please tell me you’re not having further problems with the documents, Mr. Ferraro.” The Demon Lord breathed, his voice layered in brimstone. “Because I would very much like Mrs. Malcolm’s problems to go away. But if you’re still having doubts as to the legitimacy of her documentation, I can put time, you, and the demons back exactly as I found you, and all your problems will be over in a matter of seconds. Let me be clear. I don’t need you to file the forms. I’m merely giving you one last opportunity to redeem yourself in my eyes.”

Ferraro’s face paled at the lack of emotion in the Demon Lord’s. “I can file them, and attest to her, uh, marital status, and whatever else you want me to. Send me back, alone, and I’ll do it right now.”

“Work fast, Ferraro. My patience for obstructionism is thin.” Sending him back to his office, Max watched in satisfaction as the half-dressed man scanned all three documents, entered his digital stamp of approval and hit send in record time.

The Demon Lord closed his eyes, following the electronic paper trail until it had reached its destination. When he opened them again, he closed the Zoom link and refocused his attention back on me.

“I am not Lucifer to assume the worst, and the insurance investigator holds no appeal to you, nor likely to anyone but a desperately hungry succubus.” A flash of humor flared in his once-again-sapphire eyes as he skimmed through my earlier thoughts. "But you are hiding something from me, and you will tell me what it is."

Defender

Look at what the Demon Spawn dropped off at my place? He says his name is Defender.