Page 32 of Anarchy
“I had every intention to, but I saw how happy he was. Samael had something they had denied us. He was in love. We’d only ever been allowed to love our creator, but loving Lilith just lit him up. So I didn’t bring him back. I defected too.
“They considered my betrayal greater than Samael’s because of my rank. Samael would have been punished for making a mistake if I had brought him back. They thought I knew better and did it anyway. Hence me being responsible for the fall of man.
“I fell in love with one of Lilith’s original witches. We had a beautiful family. But, by then, Lilith had created Hell and moved her other creations there with Samael. Iwantedto stay with my family, but I had the angels and a petty god after me. In addition, they spread the story among humans that all the evils in the world were because of me.
“I wanted to bring my family here with me. Believe me, I did. I begged my wife, but she was a stubborn witch. Lilith had left, and so had the rest of her creations. Staying with my children was her way of sticking it to the angels and my creator. She kept her given name and moved away with her coven, but she passed information down so that the Morningstar name was brought back, which it did, or you wouldn’t be so angry with me.”
Gabriel just grunted. That whole situation had me angry, but for different reasons than Gabriel. I never felt the need to put my mark on the world with my own creation, but I knew most of the gods that did. None of them wanted total obedience. They didn’t want to babysit their creations or micromanage them.
We were a bit lazy in that regard.
We also didn’t police who they fell in love with. It took a special kind of ego to forbid your creations to have sex, so they didn’t love anyone or anything above you. Whywouldn’tanyone want their creations to multiply? Fuck, I think many of my siblings created who they did hoping for world domination.
“Dorian must have taken her phone and turned it off,” Balthazar announced. “I won’t be able to get a location until it’s back on. She said everything will be text messages from now on, so it’ll probably be Dorian we’re messaging with.”
“You underestimate Ripley,” Felix said. “She’ll be playing every angle. She’s gathering intel. Dorian might intend to keep her phone and send all the messages himself, but she’s going to get her phone back and call us. I don’t need to be able to see the future to say that for certain.”
I didn’t want to rely on electronic devices and wait for Dorian to turn it on. Not when I was well,me.
“This realm keeps gods out unless you’ve invited them. Are there any other surprises here? I’m not sure it’s possible to neutralize a god’s power, but I’m also not sure how you created an entire realm to keep us out.”
Lilith just gave me a cheeky wink.
“A girl has to keep some of her secrets, big guy. I wouldn’t create an entire realm without a little insurance policy. Yes, I made sure no one who intended to harm my creations could get in, but I wouldn’t create a realm that took awaymymagic in case my creations decided to hurtme.Your magic works just fine here.”
I didn’t know what Lilith’s gifts were, but I knew she was perfectly capable of locating one of her creations without Dorian Gray turning a cellphone on so Balthazar could find her. I also knew if her magic was strong enough to create Hell and keep me out, she didn’t really need any of us to deal with this problem.
“You’re up to something,” I said. “You aren’t a trickster either, so it’s probably not hijinks that all work out in the end.”
“No, I’m certainly not a trickster, but you’re in love with one of my creations, and I just watched you kiss another. Yes, I could find your witch and apprehend this traitor without you, but I’m playing the long game here. I have goals in mind for Hell, and I need your help with those. Now, can you get over your ego so we can proceed?”
“I’ll show you mine if you’ll show me yours. I can astral project. I can find my witch now that I’m here.”
“And if you hold my hand and pool your magic with mine while you do that, you can actually speak with her while you’re there. Why do you think it’s always my witches they call when the spirits aren’t cooperating?”
“That’s a neat trick,” I admitted.
“I get you two need to flex your big god dicks and wave them around in a show of dominance, but Ripley’s phone is back on, and I have a message that is clearly from Dorian.”
“Ido notwave my dick around,” Lilith snapped.
“Dude, you were totally waving it around in Reyson’s face. I got pre-cum in my eye. I’m just an innocent victim in all the dick waving,” Balthazar said.
I adored that vampire. He just said whatever he was thinking and didn’t care who he was saying it to. Not even I knew exactly what Lilith was capable of or how she would react to it.
“What does the message say?” Lilith demanded.
“It’s a photo of a bunch of symbols and what Reyson needs to say to summon Talvath and kill him. It says to stay tuned because he has some hit list of demons he wants Reyson to kill.”
“That’s the traitor’s doing,” Talvath said. “Someone has a problem with me and several other demons, and they want their hands clean of the murders. They want Dorian and Reyson to take the blame for it.”
“Did you find her?” Felix demanded.
Balthazar held up his phone. There was a map with a flashing dot on it. Talvath perched his glasses on the end of his nose and squinted.
“That’s an exclusive area of Hell. It’s a gated community that the worst demons tend to congregate in. People tend to live there because no one gets past security unless they want them to, and they don’t have to deal with things they don’t like. The houses are pretty far apart. Is there a way to zoom in?”
“This is as close as I can get in two minutes. I need a bit more time. You might want to do that astral projection thing while I work and find out what you can. We work better as a team.”
