Page 3 of The Angel's Kiss
“A ‘Divine Weapon’?” Empress Regan asked.
I nodded. “I know not what it all means, Empress, only that this Guardian was more powerful than any other.”
“Go on,” Empress Astaroth bade.
“But after my victory, I was attacked by the Heavens,” I said, which was the best way I could explain the event.
“You reek of whatever it is inside of you... so revolting,” said Empress Astaroth with a sneer and her words cut me to my core. For millennia, I had worshipped her and obeyed her every command. I was her favorite, how could she speak to me this way?
“His very presence offends this entire Tribunal,” said Empress Regan.
“It offends this entire Empire,” added Lilith.
Their words were as cruel as their souls. I didn’t know why I felt pain at this rejection... why did my throat feel tight? I swallowed to try to relieve the burn that irked me. My heartached, which was very unfamiliar, what was this... this thing I felt?
“Please, Empresses, allow me a chance to fix this,” I begged.
“He is your Knight, Astaroth, do with him whatever you will,” Lilith said with a wave of her hand.
“Get him out of my sight,” said Regan, and she turned from me.
Astaroth looked down at me and it wasn’t just because of the distance between us, or the fact that she sat up on the Royal Dias. It was because she saw me as lower than the worst human soul to be expelled into our domain. I swallowed again and blinked back the wetness that threatened to seep from my eyes. Tears... never had I cried until that day. I knew that for sure now, and here at this moment, the turmoil I felt made me want to be so weak.
“Though it pains me to do this, I simply must sever our link, Azazel. Your corruption seeps from you into me and it is beyond foul,” Astaroth said.
I raised my head, my eyes on her. “No!” I gasped.
“Lower your eyes, demon!” Astaroth yelled and I quickly bowed again. Hearing that she was about to sever my link to her left me in a state of shock. My connection to Hell would be gone. I wouldn’t be able to return just by my will. The doors would be locked to me forever unless she reinstated our link. On top of that, the power she shared would be gone, like the clipping of an umbilical cord from mother to child. That was what Astaroth was to me. She created me to serve her and I did so loyally, faithfully, for over ten thousand years.
This couldn’t be happening!
“Please, Empress, do not do this. I have been your humble and dedicated servant since my creation,” I pleaded. I’d never begged for anything in my life. Never needed to, but I found myself groveling, and hearing the words tumble from my mouthsickened me. My body shook with the rage, pain, and frustration I felt that I barely kept contained.
Empress Astaroth rose and walked over to me and stood a few inches away. “Reveal,” she said and a sigil appeared before my eyes and I’d been kneeling in the middle of it.
“No, NO!” I yelled as I looked up at her, my eyes wide in my desperation to get her to give me another chance. I tried to move from the sigil, but couldn’t. All I could do was look on in horror.
“You failed me,” she said, then sliced her palm with her nail. The thick, red blood dripped onto the sigil and a bright flame shot up from the sigil, surrounding me, and I felt a rush of energy flow through me, then an emptiness followed by blackness.
***
When I came to, I was in my bed where I’d been before I had been transported. I lay there feeling emotions I didn’t have an understanding of. My eyes were wet as tears flowed from them. My chest ached and it felt like my ribs were tightening around my heart. What was this? I curled into a fetal position and held myself and cried because I couldn’t stop the myriad of feelings that held me captive.
I’d been abandoned by my own kind, made an outcast. I was still a demon, but not completely. I no longer had a home. No longer had a place where I belonged. I wasn’t human, wasn’t a demon, wasn’t an angel.
What was I going to do now?
***
It’d been a week since I’d been cursed by the heavens and abandoned by my Empress right before I was cast out of Hades. A demon without access to Hades might as well be nothing at all. The barmaid came to my table and refilled my brandy. I couldn’tget drunk, no matter how much I imbibed, but I did fancy the taste of alcohol. It used to bring me some level of pleasure, but now, I felt nothing. For thousands of years, I walked the Earth, a master of it and every being living on it. I could look into the hearts of men and know exactly how to bring them to their knees.
I roamed the lands from the moment Cain killed his brother Abel. It was me who whispered into his ear that a rock would make a great weapon. It wasn’t hard to manipulate humans, they were so susceptible. They needed leaders and beings to believe in whether it was religion or money, one would be their god. I found them entertaining, like fish in a bowl. I was the one who taught them how to make weapons. I never told them what to do with them, never needed to. I knew they’d use those tools to kill each other.
And the blood they shed in my honor empowered me, making me the strongest demon Knight in the Empire. And yet, there I was, sitting in a dank bar on the riverbed mourning my lost glory. I had no idea how to get it back, either. Did I need to kill someone innocent to rid myself of this corruption? Should I seek out another Guardian and kill them? Would that undo what had been done? I had to try something.
I downed the brandy and walked out of the bar in search of someone to kill. It didn’t take me long to come upon a church. So many neighborhoods were littered with them. Institutions of indoctrination. I laughed at the steepled roof with the cross at the tip. Contrary to what propaganda existed, demons could enter churches and all hallowed ground. And humans were to blame. I ran my fingers over one of the polished pews, smirking at the fine craftsmanship. I let my eyes roam over the stained-glass windows to the decorative alter, then walked up to it.
“Can I help you?”
