Demon Angel

street by street; they couldn't attack the nest anyway.
    Lilith tried another thread. "Does Lucifer plan to use Hugh's affection for me to convince him to submit to the ritual?"
    "Yes."
    Hugh nodded. She looked at him thoughtfully, then asked, "Does Lucifer plan to let the nosferatu kill me?"
    "Yes," he hissed. "And I will enjoy watching it."
    Hugh gave a slight nod, and she said, "Am I to be subjected to the same ritual?"
    "Yes."
    "Lie." A mocking smile curved Hugh's mouth. "Are you humiliated, knowing that two humans have gotten the best of you?" This was taking too much time, but much more humiliation, and he did not think Beelzebub would bother with one-word replies. The demon was enraged; Hugh doubted he could keep his control much longer.
    "No."
    Lilith laughed aloud. "I don't need his truth-telling to know that for a lie." She shifted her weight, her heels digging into his stomach. "I'm a gesture of Lucifer's trustworthiness, aren't I? Because I killed the nosferatu, and knew too much about Moloch, the nosferatu demanded he prove himself by delivering his 'daughter' to them."
    "You are an abomination, a corruption of our kind," Beelzebub said. "You are no loss to us."
    Truth, but Hugh did not confirm it. "Then why have they not come for you? If you are not to be subjected to the ritual, an attack on you does not break the terms of the wager," Hugh said instead, looking at Lilith.
    She bit her lip, then asked, "But they are waiting because of the wager, aren't they? If there is a chance I can open Caelum, and Lucifer will triumph over Michael, he would take it. Is that correct?"
    "Yes."
    When Hugh nodded, she grinned. "I guess the golden boy isn't such an asshole. He tried to give us a week." Her grin quickly faded as Beelzebub growled again. Her eyes were dark and haunted when she asked, "Do you know of anything that could persuade Lucifer to release me from my bargain?"
    Beelzebub's anger quickly changed to laughter. "Did I know anything that had that much sway over him, halfling, I would have used it to secure the throne. He has never released anyone from a bargain, and I know of nothing that could persuade him. It is simple: you kill your human, or you spend eternity frozen in the field—and I will spend eternity shattering your face to pieces and waiting for it to reform so that I may do it again."
    Hugh's breath stilled. Lilith's face was pale, but she lifted her gaze to his and waited. "He speaks true," he said, forcing it past the tightness in his throat.
    Her eyes closed in defeat.
    "Do you have anything more to ask him?"
    She shook her head. "You?"
    "No. Step away from him." Cold descended over him as she stood, backed away.
    "Don't let him up," she said. "The bargain doesn't require that we release him. Better to get away while he's still weak." Then she realized his intent, and she drew a sharp breath.
    Beelzebub's eyes went wide. "The bargain—"
    "Was that Lilith wouldn't kill you." Hugh stared down at the demon, his veins like ice. "You made the bargain too quickly and foolishly. The only choice you have is between the mercy of the axe or the hellhound."
    "Coward! You will slay me when I am defenseless!"
    "Not a slaying, but an execution. Lilith's Punishment. Ian. Javier. Sue. And countless other offenses which human law can never redress."
    "You dare!" he roared. "You are nothing, a worm, and you dare execute me? For the lives of equally worthless worms? Do you know that they cursed your name, human? That I took your form when Moloch cut into the first, and the worm begged for mercy as I laughed. That Moloch wore your face as he took the woman, and the second boy, and that they screamed when the nosferatu fed from them. And I laughed and enjoyed every moment of their pain. That they cursed you, and begged, and pleaded. But she never begged, though for a hundred years I tore pieces from her. Did you know that she dreamed of you, of Caelum? That she waited for you to save her and take her to that place but you never came—"
    Hugh's foot cut off the rest of the tirade. "Do you have any unfulfilled bargains?"
    "Yes." An angry hiss.
    Truth. "Then this will not be freedom." And he did not feel sorry for it, but he was cold… numb. He hardly felt the vibration as the axe dug into the floorboards.
    But her hands were warm on his shoulders, even through his clothes; his skin burned where she touched him when she pulled him to his feet. "Thank you. I would have done it were it not for the bargain," she