Hell's Revelation (Book 3)

Chapter 23

"Did he just say no execution?" Lucas muttered from surprisingly close behind me making me jump.

"They're not going to kill him? They're not going to kill my dad?"

"Certainly seems that way," I replied, unable to jump onto Jesse's enthusiasm. Sure it was great news that his father wasn't about to be executed, so why did I feel so much more uneasy than I had moments ago?

I was gradually letting the flow of power ebb away, loosening my grip on the memories and slowing the push through our collective minds until it came to a complete stop. There was a throbbing pressure building up behind my eyes and in my ears so that their voices sounded somewhat muffled. I was pretty sure I'd stretched my reach as far as I could, touched enough demonic minds for the effort to have been worth it, but I knew I needed to let go before the pressure built so much I passed out. If that happened I'd be no help to anyone.

"Then what exactly is his plan with the human?" Frank piped in with what could only be described as eager curiosity in his voice – and even I had to admit it was something worth wondering.

The only way Lucifer could collect human souls was through death, Lucifer was after all the face of Death in Hell, how could he possibly reform the entire process of soul collection in Hell if he didn't plan on actually killing anyone?

Then it occurred to me, all that we'd discovered about Lucifer and his plans. The Prophecy that had surrounded my birth. We'd stitched it all together like patchwork in our minds, rough around the edges and spotted with holes, but one little detail stuck out. I don't know why it took me so long to grasp hold of it.

"The perfect Hybrid," I muttered to myself.

"What's that, Love?"

"His plan to create the perfect Hybrid, maybe he's cracked it. He'd been drawing blanks with the breeding programme, creating nothing more powerful than those like Lucas and I, even fathering one himself didn't work. He must have started looking into other solutions."

"Actually turning a human, an already living, breathing human, into a Hybrid?" Lucas asked dubiously.

I shrugged, looking most specifically at Jesse. "It's not like it can't be done, it just...isn't done."

"But how does that create a creature with more power than those like us he was already making? Surely it just creates more obstacles." Lucas voiced the very questions I'd been asking myself, though I could think of no better explanation for what he was doing.

Lucifer had stepped away from the front of the platform and was back in discussion with Malick, preparing I assumed for the big show he'd gathered everyone there for – whatever that might turn out to be now we knew no one was going to die.

I pondered over Lucas' questions, not hoping to find much in the way of answers, only assumptions.

"Maybe it has nothing to do with power, maybe it's about something else."

"What could he want more than power?" Jesse asked.

"He wants power, though power just for him. I get the feeling he'd rather not have to share with anybody else. I mean that's what his whole mission is about isn't it, he's sick of sharing dominion over Hell with the other three Faces he wants it all for himself. Why would he suddenly start sharing more power with the faceless masses? Power can be useful sure, but if he's found a work around that means he doesn't have to share, of course he's going to take it. And Lucifer gets his power through..."

"Souls! That son of a bitch. Human souls, he's found some way to infect these people, turn them into his demonic minions so they'll work for him, and they still get to keep their souls. How's that for a pay day, Love?"

"They do his dirty work, probably infecting more people, and then when they die he gets their souls." I jumped onto Frank's train of thought as we tried to reason out what Lucifer might be planning.

"Wait, you're saying that he's going to infect my Dad, with what? Demonism? Is that really going to be a thing now?"

"Well, it worked with you!" Lucas said, stating the very obvious to Jesse.

"Yes, and it doing so we probably gave Lucifer exactly the solution he was searching for," I said with a sigh, realising how all of our best laid plans might very well have been exactly what had landed us in this situation. We really were living the embodiment of the saying damned if you do, damned if you don't.

"Wait, you think he knows?" Lucas asked, though I was certain he'd already assumed about as much as I had.

"Of course he knows, he knows everything, and we were stupid to believe that we'd something this big past him."

"And Malick is still as much in his pocket as ever, the slimy little bastard."

I had to smile at Frank's choice words, but it definitely seemed to be true. "All the better to keep his own plan to double-cross his master in action, remain as close as he possible can until right at the last moment. And just look at how perfect the set up is for the both of them. Turn a living human, then they can turn others and before you know it he's got an army at his disposal, and when they die he collects the paydirt. More minions and as many souls as he could ever wish for."

"You know we're still just speculating all of this right, Love?"

"I know, but it's a pretty good speculation don't you think. And it's not like he's ever going to come right out and say any of this to the unwashed masses now, is he?"

"So why don't we amp up that power again, get them all on the same wavelength as us? I mean true or not they probably won't be happy about it, right?"Jesse made a good suggestion and I had to admit it was an option that had crossed my mind. I just wasn't so sure it would work again.

"Trouble is we don't know anything for certain. Brainwashing them with the truth, with real memories was one thing. I'm not sure how well this would stick, there's nothing solid for me to grasp hold of."

"So what do we do then?" asked Lucas, his tone of voice frustrated and about ready to give up, so I shot him a grin.

"We rile up the crowd. They already don't trust him, thanks to our power, let them make up their own wild theories about what he's planning to do. Whatever they believe he's really planning with this stunt, we just need them to make some noise about it."

"Time to go start our riot." Frank clapped his clawed hands together in eagerness, a sinister grin twisting his face. "Finally the moment I've been waiting for." And with those words he took off into the crowd without any further instruction or indication of exactly what he planned to do.

"Well, he's gone, so what exactly do we do now?" Lucas asked skeptically as if our whole operation was beginning to fall apart around us.

I smiled back again. Oh we weren't falling apart, our fun was only just beginning.

"We do what he's doing."

"And what exactly is he doing, might I ask?"

"Exactly what I told him to. Firing up the crowd. They're already seething and mistrustful of Lucifer. We planted the seeds of discord and now all we need to do is encourage them to grow."

He was still throwing me a blank look, like he had no idea what I was talking about. I rolled my eyes and groaned slightly. Why couldn't Lucas latch onto my wavelength as easily as Frank did, sometimes I wasn't so certain we were as alike as I'd once believed.

"They're all pissed off, all thinking the same thoughts. We know that, but they don't. They're not stupid, as much as some of them might look it, they might all be thinking mutinous thoughts but they're not going to speak out against Lucifer unless they've got some backup."

"So we get them talking, figure out they're not alone in their thoughts,"

I nodded to Jesse, glad that one of those two were quicker to jump."Exactly, start a rumbling, then we can stand back and watch it all explode."