Cipher (Demonica Underworld #8) - Larissa Ione Page 0,42
her fate, she squeezed his hand. “For what it’s worth, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about the baby. But,” she added, “I don’t regret leaving. I needed to go. And you needed it too.”
A low growl rattled his chest. “I fucking hate that you’re right.”
She laughed as she brought his hand to her lips. This had gone better than she could have even hoped for. “Why don’t you take the rest of the day off? I can fire up the chronoglass and take us someplace warm and sunny and private.”
“Maybe later,” he said, shooting her a playful wink that spoke volumes about his mood. Usually his brand of playful was the cat-toying-with-a-mouse variety. “I have some VIP souls coming in.”
“VIP souls?”
A shadow flickered in his eyes and he smiled, a morbid, malicious smile that sent a chill down her spine. “Sons of Moloc and Bael. Princes of their territories.”
She gasped in disbelief. “What? How? Did you send griminions for them?”
“Griminions only reap souls. They don’t kill.” His smile grew even darker. “I sent souls from the Inner Sanctum.”
This time her breath clogged in her throat, trapped there momentarily by the intensity of her shock. “Isn’t it forbidden to release souls if they aren’t reincarnated?”
“It’s not forbidden if Heaven doesn’t find out.” She could argue that it was still forbidden, but his phone beeped, and he dug it from his pocket. “You disapprove?”
“No, of course not,” she said fiercely. “Moloc and Bael are monsters who had your children murdered. Their sons are fair game.” She paused. “They are evil, right?”
“What is it Journey says? Mucho evil? They’re that.” He grinned at the phone. “They’re here.”
“What are you going to do with them?” As if she couldn’t guess. He was going to play cat and mouse.
“Do you really want to know?”
Not really, but Azagoth’s secretive nature was one of the reasons she’d left, and during the months when they’d spoken via Skype, she’d made clear that while she didn’t need to know gory details, she didn’t want to be “protected” from what he truly was.
“I assume you’re going to torture them into telling you why their fathers are killing your children.” At his nod, she asked, “Do you have any theories?”
“I suspect they’re plotting a coup and want me to play a role in freeing Satan and destroying Revenant.”
Well, that wasn’t cool. “What are you going to do if you’re right?”
“The same thing I’ll do if I’m wrong.” He shoved to his feet and pulled her with him. “No matter what, Bael and Moloc are going to die.”
* * * *
It sucked that destroying souls came with a cost, but fortifying Satan with a drop of strength was a price Azagoth was more than willing to pay today. Bael and Moloc’s sons had been monsters, but more than that, their darkness would return to Satan, and that bastard would know Azagoth was responsible. It was a message of sorts, a fuck you that could only be better if Azagoth had destroyed Satan’s offspring instead.
An hour later, Azagoth was still burning a serious soul-destroyer high as he entered his library, where Hawkyn was pacing a hole in the floor while waiting for him.
“I heard from Cipher,” Hawk said before Azagoth had even shut the door.
“Heard from him? You were supposed to kill him.” Hawkyn was lucky Azagoth was in a good mood, because he really, really wanted Cipher dead.
Hawkyn held out his phone. “He sent this. I think he was in a hurry, but I got the gist.”
The list is out. Save the kids. Bael is after Memitim.
Azagoth rolled his eyes. “He’s evil, son. You can’t trust him.”
“You’re evil too,” Hawkyn pointed out.
“Exactly. I will fuck over anyone who gets in my way or who tries to harm what’s mine. I will lie, cheat, and kill. There is no line I will not cross. Do you not think Cipher would do the same?”
“He hasn’t been a True Fallen for long. He’s not lost to us.” He took his phone back and scrolled. “He also says he thinks he can bring down the wards that prevent griminions from entering when he takes out the security system with the bug Journey planted.”
He hadn’t known about a security system bug, but it didn’t really matter. The wards thing was curious, though. Bael and Moloc’s ability to keep the griminions at bay had meant that no souls had been reaped from their territories in decades. Not even the souls Azagoth had released from Sheoul-gra to grab