The Devil's Daughter Read online

  Like I said, demons didn’t have the inherent familial bonds that humans did. Mothers didn’t even look at their children and think “that’s my daughter”, they just saw another demon however small and helpless they were. Uncles were no different in that aspect, but... maybe Uncle Newt was a little bit different from the norm. It seemed, though, that I knew a lot of demons that weren’t like the norm.

  “Still, thank you,” I said.

  Uncle Newt shrugged, “I still don’t know what you’re thanking me for. You’re my niece, Athie, I love you and you’re more important to me than anything else in this world. There was no way that I was about to hand you off to someone else.”

  I smiled and rested my head on his shoulder, trying to relax myself. I could still feel a little bit of adrenaline running through my body after waking up from my nightmares and I wanted to try to get rid of it. Apparently, the universe had other plans.

  I looked up as Nine, Koa, and Finn ran into the warehouse. They were all breathing heavily, sweating, and - to be frank - looked terrible. I also noticed that Nine seemed to be carrying himself differently from usual, but I chose to ignore it as Uncle Newt and I got to our feet.

  “What hap-” Uncle Newt began, not able to get his question out when we looked up and saw what was happening for ourselves. At the door stood Gabriel and that other angel from earlier that I thought looked like Eddie.

  Immediately, the five of us went to start trying to fight them off. We thought, since we had five people and they were just two, that we had the upper hand, but Gabriel promptly let us know that we were wrong.

  “We have the whole building surrounded,” he warned, “Come with us peacefully and we might go easy on you.”

  I looked at them and immediately allowed a fireball to appear in my palm before approaching. There was no way I was going to be going with them peacefully - at the very least, not that easily.

  Thirty-One

  Elton Palmer

  Prince of Envy

  Las Vegas Demon Hospital

  IT WAS JUST ABOUT LUNCHTIME when Lucifer came up to my room, asking if I wanted to go with him to pick up Griffin from the hospital. Of course, I said yes. I wasn’t particularly fond of the idea of being alone today, but that was mostly because of everything that had happened over the course of the past few days.

  The nightmares that I had the night before - even after Lucifer woke up to check on me - were messing me up more than I cared to admit. It was a lot of memories... mostly memories from Heaven.

  I guess I was even more worried about the potential of having to go to Heaven than I consciously knew.

  After agreeing to go with Lucifer to the hospital, we both teleported up to the surface and now we were just waiting on the doctor to finally discharge Griffin. I sat on the chair next to Lucifer, humming softly as we waited. Griffin looked over at me, a warm grin on his face. I was glad to see him smile - that meant he was starting to feel a little better.

  “That’s a new song you’re humming, isn’t it?” He asked.

  I smiled and nodded. It was, indeed, a new song that I was writing.

  Well, technically I had been writing it for over a month now, but it was finally starting to get somewhere. It was nowhere close to shareable yet, so I didn’t offer and Griffin and Lucifer didn’t bother to ask. I was sure that they knew the answer was going to be no - if I didn’t offer to share something, it was always a no.

  “What are we doing after this?” Griffin asked, this time directing his question to Lucifer.

  Lucifer shrugged, “You two are going home and I’m going to the Palace of Darkness to find that tracking map that Victor has.”

  “The one that he uses to track the Hunters?” I questioned.

  Lucifer nodded slightly, shifting in his chair.

  “Doesn’t he keep that in the office?”

  Lucifer sighed, “See, that’s what I thought, too - I remember being in his office to look over the map with him several times before - but it’s not in there anymore. I don’t know if he moved it or what.”

  I leaned back against the back of my chair in thought as Griffin spoke up.

  “Why don’t you take us with you? We can help you look,” he offered.

  Lucifer shook his head, “No, Griffin. You still have an injury that you need to be nursing.”

  “There’s still Elton,” Griffin huffed, looking up as a nurse walked in to take his IV out.

  He didn’t seem thrilled about the whole thing, but he definitely tolerated it better than Sylas would have. Honestly, I think all of us would have been glad to take the hit from that Lux if it meant keeping Sylas out of the hospital. Sylas would not have tolerated any of this as well as Griffin did or the rest of us would have. Lucifer never would have gotten to leave the hospital and Pierce probably wouldn’t have either considering Pierce and Gus were the ones that Sylas was closest to. Of course, that also meant that Sylas avoided the hospital at all costs and only went when Lucifer and Pierce forced him to.

  “No,” Lucifer insisted, “I already decided you’re both going home after this - that’s the end of that discussion.”

  Griffin and I looked at each other, but dropped the conversation for fear of agitating Lucifer more than he already was.

  ❀

  Palace of Sins

  AFTER BEING DISCHARGED, Griffin and I went back to the Palace of Sins and we waited with our other brothers, hoping that Lucifer would be back with news (preferably, good news) about the Hunters soon enough.

  When he finally walked through the door and into the living room and we saw the look on his face, we all knew that what we were most afraid of had come true. Lucifer did not have good news for us and he probably wouldn’t for a very, very long time.

  Thirty-Two

  Phoenix Bauer

  Head Council Member

  Palace of Sins

  TODAY WAS ONE OF THOSE RARE days where my brothers and I didn’t have anything to do, so today was also one of those rare days where I was able to do whatever I wanted without worrying about being back home at any specific time.

  Usually, on days like this, I spent my days in the few forests that Hell had (not too much unlike the Middleworld forests, just much less flammable and not nearly as pretty) or on the surface where I roamed around Las Vegas all day, but I decided I wasn’t going to do any of that today.

  Instead, I went by the Palace of Sins where I sat with Eddie in the room that the princes had given her, trying to give her a little bit of company for a few hours. I knew that she wanted to go to see King Victor today, but he was apparently busy (though I wasn’t sure what exactly he could have been busy with other than maybe the war, but that was essentially the only reason that Casimir existed for, so he should’ve had it all handled), so I knew she was also probably beginning to get a little bit homesick.

  I never understood the “homesick” feeling.

  I found that I never really longed to be “home” in the minion village more than I simply longed to be by my brothers’ sides. Even then, though, I was rarely away from Cal, Zavian, or Dante long enough for me to long for them. Part of me wondered if I was just incapable of feeling homesick and part of me wished I could. Then, I would be able to know what Eddie was feeling as I sat next to her on the bed, waiting for her to start a conversation with me.

  “Something’s wrong,” Eddie said softly, “I don’t know what, but I know it’s something and I have a feeling that - for whatever reason - the boys are trying to keep it hidden from me.”

  I looked over at her, “Why do you say that?”

  “Isn’t it obvious? They’ve been avoiding me all day and now Roscoe’s avoiding me, too. Either they’re not telling me something or now they hate me for some reason.”

  I quickly put my arm around her and shook my head.

  “They don’t hate you,” I insisted, “I’m sure the princes are just busy and Roscoe’s probably just trying to give you space. You know he does that sometimes.”

 
“Yeah, but I still feel like something is going horribly wrong,” Eddie lamented, “Or at least, something is about to go horribly wrong.”

  I thought for a moment, not responding to Eddie right away because I wasn’t sure how to respond. I’d noticed that something felt off, too, but something always felt off to me. I was never quite able to figure out why that was. I almost resolved to go and ask Lucifer about it later on, but I knew he would never talk to me about it.

  “I’m sure it’s going to be fine,” I replied, “Like I said, Lucifer’s probably busy and the others are probably just worried about Griffin and Lucifer. That wouldn’t be too off-trend for them.”

  I started to change the subject when I heard something in the distance. From the way that Eddie was looking at me, she didn’t hear anything, but I didn’t expect her to. I looked back at Eddie as I stood up.

  “Stay here,” I told her, “I promise I’ll be back in a second.”

  Eddie started to protest, but I didn’t stay to listen to her. I walked out of the room, closing the door behind me to see Roscoe walking up the stairs. He looked worried, but that was the least of my problems.

  “Miss Phoenix-” Roscoe began.

  I shook my head, “Sorry, Roscoe, no time to talk,” I interrupted as I hurried down the hall and down the stairs.

  I walked to the living room, figuring that that was where I heard the commotion coming from to see all eight of the princes there (Griffin was apparently home now, though I didn’t think I was aware of him coming home).

  Lucifer was kneeling by the coffee table, studying something as horror marred his expression. The other seven Palmers were standing around him. They all looked like they were either about to start crying or start spewing expletives at everyone and everything - I couldn’t decide which one for most of them... except for maybe Wyatt.

  “What happened?” I asked them.

  It took a long time for any of them to look my way, let alone answer me. It was Elton that spoke, looking at me with wide, desperate eyes.

  “The Angel Hunters - something happened. We can’t figure out where they are and no one can reach them any other way.”

  Thirty-Three

  Gabriel King

  Lucifer’s Replacement (Archangel)

  Los Angeles CWN Headquarters

  AS BRAYDEN AND I CARRIED THE unconscious Angel Hunters down the stairs, I couldn’t help but wonder about something. It was something that I’d been thinking about for a long, long time, but now that we had King Victor and the Angel Hunters in our grasps, the question was at the front of my mind more than usual. When were the demons and all of King Victor’s little followers going to realize that they were no match for any of us?

  Perhaps, that would end up being when they were all dead, but with the way the Empyrean War was going, that wasn’t going to take too long either.

  Regardless, they would never be strong enough to beat us - after all, good always triumphed over evil and my brothers (meaning, Lucifer and his younger brothers) were just about as evil as anyone could ever hope to be.

  “Put them in separate cells as far apart as you can,” Brayden told me, “We’ll need to keep them separate until Gavin can come and figure out what he wants to do with them.”

  I nodded curtly and took the red-headed female for myself while Brayden set to work dragging one of the men. We’d already made sure to destroy their tracking devices - that was what we went after before anything else - but I knew that Brayden wouldn’t hesitate to destroy them, too, if he had to.

  Once we were done, I met Brayden back in the middle and started to leave to go to Heaven with him. “You know, the girl looks like she could be a good child-bearer for you,” I commented.

  She seemed strong, though maybe a little too strong for it to be worth the trouble, but I knew she was a warrior regardless of the fact that she was no match for us. She would be able to contribute to the production of a wonderful young warrior herself.

  Brayden shook his head, though.

  “She’s that Defect’s friend,” he replied.

  I looked at him, “You mean your daughter?” I questioned.

  Brayden looked at me tiredly, “Is that what she is? Last time I checked, she was pathetic and worthless - nothing more.”

  “I’m not disagreeing, but-”

  Brayden promptly interrupted me.

  “Regardless, that Hunter is just as useless and wrong as the Defect,” he mused, “Their entire ‘home’ needs to be destroyed, but I’m not offended by the idea of them being where we start.”

  Thirty-Four

  Lucifer Palmer

  Prince of Death

  Palace of Sins

  I NEVER FELT CONFIDENT ABOUT telling the boys that everything was going to be fine, but now - more than ever before - I knew that saying something like that was out of the question. I wasn’t sure that we would never be fine again, but it was starting to look like it was at least going to be a long while before that was the case.

  I walked upstairs, pushing past Phoenix, without another word to anyone and made my way up to my office. Technically, it was our office since we each had our own desk and chair in there, but I used it the most often.

  None of the others had much of a need for it since they never had that much on their plate, but I always wanted it to be that way. That is, until now.

  Now, I would’ve killed for the ability to share the burden with someone else. Maybe I didn’t really want to share it with my brothers in particular because they didn’t deserve to suffer like I was, but I wanted to share it with someone. At least that way I would have someone by my side to let me know that I wasn’t alone. I didn’t have that option now, though, since King Victor was - as far too many people now knew - gone and Princess Edelweiss still couldn’t know what was happening.

  Honestly, I was getting to the point where I was about to tell her just so she would go to Heaven and maybe then the angels would back off since they had their little toy back, but I couldn’t do that. As close as I was to my tipping point, that was too far.

  Not to mention, King Victor would’ve had my head if I allowed something to happen to his daughter, let alone if I was the reason something happened to his daughter.

  I sat down at my desk and hit my head on the wood a few times before burying my face into my hands and allowing myself to let out a scream now that it was muffled by my palms. I rubbed my eyes until I saw red before finally looking up at the ceiling.

  I wanted so, so badly to start yelling expletives so loudly that they could hear them in Heaven, but then I realized it wouldn’t work. They were too busy listening to their gospel music and the lies that they told themselves to hear something coming from anyone in Hell, let alone me.

  “What else are you planning, Gavin? Huh? What else do you intend to force us to go through before you’re finally done convincing your ‘people’ that you’re the almighty one?” I called, unable to stop myself from asking that.

  I didn’t get it. I. Didn’t. Get. It.

  Gavin had everything at His fingertips. He could create anything and anyone he wanted - even a woman to fit His idea of a perfect lover, if He so desired - and He had hundreds of thousands of people that adored Him and hung off of His every word like flies attracted to honey. Why - why did He need all of this, too?

  If He was mad at me and my brothers, then He, His father (I refused to call God my father - I didn’t enjoy doing so back then and now I despised it), and the rest of our brothers had already done plenty to make sure that we knew our relationship with them was irredeemable. If He was trying to prove something to us, He’d already proved plenty of times that we were no match for him. We all knew we would never be a match for Him, God, and the rest of the angels made sure that our reputation could never be mended even before He went dormant.

  Why did Gavin still feel the need to make our lives miserable?

  Why couldn’t He leave us alone and let us move on with our lives?

  Granted, I also kne
w that just leaving us alone wasn’t going to be good enough for King Victor. He was going to keep fighting until we were seen as equals... somehow, I had a feeling the whole world would end before that ever happened.

  Before the war, I tried to support King Victor in his ventures to reveal the truth and repair our relationships with the angels, though I never agreed with it, but I didn’t know what to do now. I couldn’t bring myself to turn against King Victor’s desires, but I also couldn’t bring myself to keep supporting them when I could see plain as day the kind of trouble it was causing.

  To be fair, I didn’t know what I was doing about anything at this rate. I felt equally as lost as I did when I first fell before I met King Victor’s father - the “original” Satan.

  Sometimes, I wondered if it would’ve been better if Satan was still here. At least then we wouldn’t be making as many waves as the king tried to fight for something that could never exist.

  No, our only problem would’ve been that we didn’t have harmony down here. We never would’ve been allowed to see each other as family, the Angel Hunters would still be expected to slaughter angels for no good reason, and the minions would never exist because Satan never would’ve taken those kids in like King Victor did. Who knew where the Bauers, Finn, or Eddie would have ended up if Satan wasn’t below the lowest circle of Hell, never to awaken again.

  Then again, I wasn’t so sure that I preferred that over this. I had grown attached to the little family that we had - especially now that Eddie was in the picture.

  I groaned as I found myself lost in my thoughts and tried to shake myself free from them. I could feel my emotions running a thousand miles a minute and I never enjoyed that feeling. I much preferred having my feelings turned off if it meant that I didn’t have to feel like this.