Hell's Revelation (Book 3)

Chapter 22

"Dad!" Jesse cried again, louder this time and drawing an awful lot of unwanted attention in our direction.

He was about to bolt,the crowd around us began to part as every demon in earshot turned and searched for the one who seemed to know this particular sacrifice oh so well. I grabbed at his shoulder and held him back, squeezing and letting him feel a small taste of my new strength.

"Don't, Jesse, please don't."

"Don't? You expect me to do nothing? That's my..."

His voice was a few decibels too loud for comfort, so it came as a relief when Frank clamped one of his huge clawed hands around Jesse's mouth.

"All right there cowboy, just relax for a moment. Right there is exactly the trap we've been waiting for and you're going to go running straight into it."

He struggled against both of our grips, his brown eyes wide and frantic as he starred intently at the small party on the platform.

"Look, I know this is awful, and that is your Dad of course you want to save him. But think about it for just a second. Why do you think Malick chose him specifically? Out of all the people in the world, he chose your Dad."Somehow my words managed to break through the rage and panic that was fueling Jesse and his struggling steadied so that I was able to let go of my grip on his shoulder and move to look his directly in the eye.

"You go rushing over there now and you'll only serve to get all of us killed that little bit more quickly. Your Dad included."

"We have to save him." Jesse wrenched Frank's hand away from his mouth in a surprising display of strength and hissed the words quietly in my face.

I nodded. "I know,and we'll do what we can. We don't want Lucifer to make any more headway in his plan, and that includes stopping him from executing your father. But to stop anything we need to stick with our plan, and quickly before we're too late."

"Then get on with it." Jesse glared daggers at me for a moment then turned his back and fixed eyes upon the figure of his father still flanked by demons on the platform.

"You heard the man,Love. If we're doing this, now is the time, before Malick gets to really play his bargaining chip."

"They're watching the platform again," Lucas said, his eyes had been carefully monitoring the crowd during our hushed exchange, keeping a eye on our safety for which I was grateful, "Now's our time."

With a nod, I planted myself in the centre of the three men, my triangle of power flanking me and all within arms reach. I closed my eyes and drew on the power to touch the minds of those around me. I knew I could do it without needing to touch skin, I hadn't tried and tested the technique, but the potential was clear, I just needed the confidence to believe in my own cause.

The memory, the knowledge that the demon population needed to know formed in my head,bundled into a tight sphere that I could take hold of. Psychic fingers clenched inside my own head, gripping tight to my thoughts and pulled.

The sensation was not a pleasant one. A throbbing began at my temples and swelled until my whole head felt as if it might explode, but I kept my focus on building the power and dragging it protesting from my mind, inch by agonising inch. With a scream I felt the memory break free and I sent it outwards, feeling for Jesse, Lucas and Frank. I forced the power through their heads, bolstering the power of my own thoughts with their collected knowledge and then kept pushing.

As I'd instructed them they didn't fight me, they embraced the power as it hit them and let it flow through their bodies spreading outwards like a wave to wash over the crowd. It was a slow build to begin with, and through our connection I could feel Jesse's impatience and his will to make things move faster so that we could get on and save his Dad.