Chapter Thirty-Four

Switch lanes on a one-way route

Switchblade make your blood pour out

Make it rain in a drought, hop in, hop out

Motherfucker, get down when I say "down"

Brown duffle bag, I fill it up with 30 clip rounds

Drop shit, pop wheelies, fuck a break down

I don't give a

Bitch, I'ma slide either way

Please do not try me today

Chapter 34 - A Blade to a Throat

Nephele's POV

The bedroom was silent. A golden hue of light filtered through the airy curtains, which swayed in the light breeze. The bedroom was peaceful. Brilliant birds fluttered outside the curtains, on the balcony. They looked to be dancing with each other, playing a game where one would chase and chase and the other would run and run. The bedroom was warm. That was particularly true, and not just a metaphor for the heat between us, but also the heat of The Devil's body.

He was hot, but in a good comforting way, and not a boiling-to-death way.

His arm was around my ribs, avoiding my belly button. I smiled, knowing that he had understood my insecurity. I was and have been insecure about my stomach for years. It may not even be considered 'fat' but I wasn't the 'skinniest' of people. I had a small stomach and some thighs as well. And I did love my body most of the time, but sometimes I got worried.

His other arm had come under my neck, bending and holding along my left shoulder – preventing me from leaving his embrace.

Of course, I was the one up first.

I didn't mind laying here. It did allow me to collect my thoughts and settle my thoughts.

Especially the impending war, and my father. I felt bad for him – he was trapped down in an empty castle surrounded by stone walls. As for my brother, well he seemed happy in Los Angeles. I don't know what state he was left in after the house invasion there, but he should be fine. I will send him a card or SMS whenever this was over – if it were to ever be over.

"What are you daydreaming about?" A hot breath whispers from my ear, sending shivers along my spine as my body instantly cools. I pull my lips together and move around in his arms so that I'm facing him.

His hand rests against the band of smooth silk of my laced panties, threatening to pull it away as he had done with the matching bra last night.

He smiles down at me with closed eyes but lets me turn nonetheless.

The smile on his face held so many things, revealing things which he should be thinking about considered that hadn't happened yet.

"We need to talk." I can hear his groan mentally – it doesn't even need to be aloud for me to know what he wants to think. I almost snort at his behaviour but press on. "About War. We need to be ready." His black hair wafts in the breeze as it pushes past the curtains.

Although his facial features are much the same, I still found that black hair suited him fair more. I think he should dye it more often – if that's what he did here although I doubt it was dye and instead thought it was some godly makeover magic.

"You don't think that being the God of the Underworld I wouldn't have prepared for this War a little already?" This time I snort and roll my eyes, dragging my fingers up to his chest so I can poke him once.

"Don't be mean." I smile.

"That was a mere question Amare. Besides, I have already begun planning." I wanted him to tell me about it, and I guess he read my mind because he continued considering. "Borders to my realms are closed. No one can enter or leave without my permission, and no one can contact me."

"So, no one can leave. That's dictator-ish." He laughs at my statement.

"It is necessary, besides they respect my decisions." I furrow my brow but don't question their loyalty to Lucifer. "I have begun planning for this specific War, but I have plenty of experience doing such. I have been planning this specific war for millennia, I have my spies and I know their weaknesses."

"If you have spies within their forces, they have spies within yours." He smiles down at me, eyes winking open and burning into my own.

"Aren't you a smart one?" He pauses as if thinking, but I pinch his side because him not answering annoys me. "I know who their spies are, and they are being fed information that solely benefits us, my love. There is no need to fret."

"But then they could be doing the same to you." I point out blatantly.

"I doubt it. Especially with the number of people I have on the inside. The people inside have spent years building trust, their forces aren't dumb, but they trust too easily. Besides, I have planned out things to avoid trusting inside word too much."

I nod in understanding, still knowing that trust doesn't equal security in these types of situations.

"You need to stop thinking about this ordeal, Nephele." I look at him deeply, giving a pointed look like an expression.

"It is inevitable, we cannot avoid it at this rate, so we must face it."

"And we will. In some time. We have a while before it'll become a full-fledged battle, there is no need to fret, my love. I have been planning this for years."

"And we need to plan some more, you need to plan down to the specific details Lucifer. We can't go in blind. I know what my mother will do once she gets close enough – and you do too." Heat blazes around us and I realise that Lucifer was mad at the suggestion of my death, even though it wasn't explicit.

"Don't say that." It was an order. His words were laced with compulsion and I rolled my eyes, knowing that it wasn't intentionally done to me.

"We both know how this might end Lucifer, we can't prolong it and we can't just avoid it. If she gets to me, she will kill me, and she will make sure I am reborn somewhere where only she can find me."

"I will find you if that happens." He sounded so sure of himself. It was almost pitiful because I knew it hurt him when I died, and when I was reborn somewhere in the universe away from him. It hurt him a lot.

The only reason I didn't die every time by her hand was that she needed me to live on for her plan to work.

The only way for a God to die was by the hands of another Deity.

The only reason I didn't die for the past millennia by her hands, was because when she killed me, she ensured my soul was rebirthed again and again and again. She made sure I didn't succumb to death, and instead just made sure I was born somewhere that suited her best. I was an innate object for her use.

I didn't die because she wanted to use me.

"I will find you no matter how far away you travel, no matter how long it takes,' His hand cups my cheek, ' I will find you amare. I promise you." I close my eyes and nudge my cheek into his hand, sliding my arms around his waist at the same time.

Sometimes, finding me will be impossible Luci,

Sometimes I will be like a Ghost.

I travel through the halls with a long silk gown on my body, the silk falling to my ankles and wafting in my airstream as I move at quite a pace. The slit in the dress reveals a knife strapped to my thigh, the white long sleeves of the shirt I have underneath the silk strapped gown is just a regular tee shirt, put on to keep me warm through this game of cat and mouse.

This was Thanatos' idea.

Not mine.

He wanted to see how well I could defend myself from attackers in a dress, simulating a ballroom battlefield. Although I did opt for the easiest dress to wear, making this not a 'ballroom battlefield', more like a 'casualwear' one.

The halls were dimly lit, the candles on the walls doing nothing to aid my vision in these trying times. I had no one on my team, and knew that anyone I encountered in these parts of the castle at this time of day was trying to 'attack me' with the merge promise of 'limited harm'. Thanatos and Lilith did tell them not to hurt me too bad, although I doubt, they know when to stop for someone who has grown up limited to human abilities.

Lilith and Thanatos were also out to attack me, which was fun. I was told that I was able to kill the men after me, as they were ghostly creatures of some sort and volunteered to die before being reborn into their ranks or something along those lines. I didn't listen when it was explained to me at the beginning of the training session as I was still caught up in the fact I was about to be hunted.

Of course, Lucifer had no idea this was happening.

He was on a 'business trip' as all the housewives of any rich man would say. He was essentially out visiting a city to the west, gathering intel on my mothers' attacks to their borders. He was also doing a count of weaponry up there. I was told that the city in the west was the one responsible for the dealership of weaponry and Armor.

He would probably be mad if he found out I was doing this behind his back because – I could hear his voice already – 'What if you got injured and hurt yourself!'

They wouldn't hurt me purposely. Besides, I knew how to kill ghost-men. I think he forgot that I have survived fairly well by myself and this was a training exercise to help me improve on not hurting myself whilst hurting others.

Lilith – like the lovely person she was – taught me how to block out Lucifers connection to me, which was the bond that would be solidified when we had 'sexual intimacy' as Lilith put it. She had a wicked smile on her face as if knowing that the deed wasn't complete. I hated her for that smile.

So, with Lucifer unconsciously blocked, I continued on my way down the dimly lit halls, preparing myself for any possibility.

I sharpened my senses, understanding how to do so due to Lilith's persistence in me understanding my abilities. She was helpful in helping me understand a few things, especially regarding the dark ice that I could form with certain willpower.

She was not helpful with the ice specifically, but she said that the ice would be similar to that of the darkness that I was able to wield. She explained that I was the Goddess of the Night and Darkness – explained that I was born of Chaos and Control – and that being what I am enabled me to be fairly well regarded with power.

Apparently, the Gods were afraid of me.

That was something strange to consider.

I stop in my tracks when the floorboards ahead of me creak, the shadows glimmering in the darkness ahead. I smile to myself, pushing myself into the wall and placing my foot against the plaster. I was in a position where I could push myself off and avoid danger for a period – allowing me to gain the upper hand.

The candlelight was ahead of me and blew out with the breeze as another creak resounded from behind me.

The skin on my neck tingled bravely, my hair sticking up as my thought-to-be sixth sense kicked into motion.

The air from my back swished violently as a blade swung to my left ear. I ducked, avoiding the blade as the long-bladed axe lodged itself into the wall. I used my right foot that was planted against the wall to jump into the air, spiralling around in a circular motion to gain the scope of the attackers around me.

Floating through the air for those brief seconds – as I was told – could gain me some valuable time in understanding the assailants, and gain the upper hand of knowledge in the fight.

I calmed my breathing, noting three individuals surrounding me.

There was one against in the direction I initially thought, or ahead of me as I had been walking. He stood in the certain of the hallway with a sharp-looking blade in his hand, and two daggers strapped to his chest on a belt-looking strap. Turning my head as I come to land, I noted two individuals wearing completely black attire from head to toe, one wielding the axe who had nearly decapitated my head and another wielding two small knives.

I watched as the one who nearly decapitated me struggled to unhinge the battle axe from the wall. I smiled, realising that I could use the axe as a springboard if necessary. That was based on physics, where something called torque allowed me to use the end of the battle-axe as a spring essentially, propelling me into the air.

I didn't want to learn physics either, but Thanatos thought it was necessary for battle. Something about 'If I had to learn it, you did to'.

The two masked men look at me as I land on the ground, one knee bent as I scrap against the ground roughly. I look up, noticing that the one that appeared behind me is already making his approach with two knives in his hand.

I push myself forward as he enters leaping distance, swiping his legs out from under him making him land face-first on the part of the floor which wasn't covered by the red carpet. I hear a crunch as his face makes contact with the hardwood floor, smiling knowing that he's broken his nose.

I spin around in time to find the separate ghost man approaching with the long sword in his hand. I reach for the dagger from my strap and stand in time for his arm to come swinging down upon me. I sidestep his attack, the tip of the blade cutting through one silk strap of the dress. The blade briefly cut my skin, but it doesn't hurt at the moment and is a mere annoyance as the dress falls to one side slightly.

I screw up my nose and use my own momentum against him as he swings too hard on one side. I push him from the shoulder which carries the weight of the sword, pinching his nerve resulting in a clatter of metal to the floor.

I rise my slitted leg, kicking him with precision on the back of his knee, making him buckle to the floor as his legs give out. I step over him, wrapping my forearm around the front of his neck and pull hard, letting him choke for oxygen as I deprive him of the right to breath.

A small piece of blonde hair falls from my face as I bring the dagger to the front of his jugular, smiling to myself as I show little remorse in slicing the blade across his neck. I know I went deep enough when I hear him choke on his blood, fighting for the air to survive.

"Sorry Ghost-Man 1," I whisper to myself as I discard his body, letting it fall to the floor. I look around quickly, noticing that the attacker one is still against the floor groaning and aiming to get up.

I make a start to the ghost-man on the floor but am cut down by the roar of a man who barrels into my side at some speed. I forgot about the third attacker, and it did cost me.

I groan as I land with the force of both of us, the attacker being a rather heavy man who sits on my waist as I struggle to get out from him.

His hand comes around my neck and tightens. I take the second to calm myself because becoming panicked deprives precious seconds of oxygen. I also take this second to look at who he is. His face is covered by a black mask, much like the previous two, but his eyes are empty. As in his skull is devoid of eyes. Instead of where you would expect two eye sockets are just skin, which at the moment creeps me out but ignore as I need to get away from him.

I use the blocked heel of my boot to hit his ankle bone, making him double over in pain as the boot probably dislocates the bone from its socket with the exertion of extra force in the kick. I throw him off me, gasping in the air as I roll away from the screaming man. I push myself onto all fours, telling myself to move on as quick as I can so I don't get surprised by an attack again.

I take a deep breath as I stand, heightening my senses once more and leaving Ghost-Man 3 on the floor where he is, knowing he won't be able to walk for a while in this form without appropriate treatment.

Of course, after my clinical placements in an emergency, I could probably treat him. Except I haven't been a 'doctor' for long, and I was only in my 4th year of medical school, nearly a first-year resident.

Whoever thought that within a few months a doctor – the one designated to save lives – would go against their oath and now take them?

It sounded so immoral, but I thought it was justifiable.

I placed the bloody dagger back in the leather strap on my thigh and picked up the red and black daggers laying on the floor next to the body of Ghost Man 2. I walk away from his body with the two daggers, his groans as he tries to stand up indicating that he was probably still strong enough to attack me if he was given the chance.

Discarding one dagger of his, I turn to his slanted body and throw it with as much force as I can, aiming for the middle of his back which was facing me. I turn back to the hallway, looking down the way I was going and noticing that my vision had improved since the candle had blown out.

So when I look down the hallway this time, I see five figures standing in an arrowhead formation, with one in the middle behind four others. I knew from the build of them that three were the Ghost-men and the other two were Lilith and Thanatos. Thanatos stood in the middle of the four, Lilith to his right and the other three figures hunched over and walking towards me.

I smile, knowing that there was some distance between us giving me some time to figure out a plan. Or some sort of idea as to what I was going to do.

I knew that I couldn't beat Thanatos and Lilith together, but it would help if I could get the three ghost men down before I did face Thanatos and Lilith.

I smile as the three figures charge ahead whilst Lilith and Thanatos stand straight where they are. They were going easy on me, which was good, but also somewhat annoying because it didn't test my strength in battle.

Although we had to start somewhere.

I walk forward, closing my eyes and raising my head as I feel the cool spiral from my chest and into my hands. I noticed that the air around my body cooled significantly as ice spikes touched my delicate cheeks as I moved forwards, not hurting me in any way as they moved around me.

The ice formed at my hands, my imagination my only limit when I thought about what I could do with the ice.

Relaxing my mind was my first point of call when crafting something with magic. That's what Lilith taught me.

The second point of call was imaging what I was crafting. How big was it? How powerful? Could it be broken?

The third was channelling energy into crafting it. The longer I had, the more powerful of item.

So, I imagined two swords made from black ice, darkness wisping their edges as they wove themselves into existence. The swords were pure black in colour, but ice in nature. I didn't create them to kill the people in cold blood, I crafted them with the intent to peacefully destroy. No one would be hurt that way; it would just harmlessly kill them.

The execution didn't matter, the thought, in this case, did though.

Brownie points for me when this was over, possibly some real brownies included.

I open my eyes, shadows glowering in the distance as ice formed at the will of my mind. The blades were extensions of my hands.

As hard as steel and as agile as an assassin, I was going to win this test.

The first Ghost-Man approached, a slick steel blade in his hand. I whipped my right arm in front of me, blocking his blatantly obvious attack as he swayed on his feet. I cut him down in the next moment, the blade capturing his spine in a sway of my hand. The second Ghost-Man came from my left, wielding the same weapon and being cut down in the same way in mere seconds.

I face my third opponent. He, as the other four men I had looked in the eyes, had no eyes. What covered their eye socket was a thick layer of skin that seemed to have stitch scars down the middle of where the eye would normally be – as if they were cut out.

It didn't matter anyway, because they could see perfectly fine without their eyes apparently.

The third man was different. He seemed smarter than the other two and wielded different weapons. This man wielded a bow and had fired two arrows simultaneously at me within seconds of me finishing the other two men.

The arrows came quickly, but I raised my swords in a crossed arms pattern, blocking the arrows from hitting my face as the darkness extended around my front to protect me. That account was subconscious, which made me think I was not in control of this ability once more, but the thought quickly vanished when the darkness disappeared and two more arrows parted air before me.

I gasped and ducted quickly, telling myself not to get too caught up in my head. I just need to get some blood drawn from Lilith and Thanatos and then I had won.

I kept moving, eyeing the man as he sent shot after shot my way, the arrows forming from thin air.

Quickly thinking, I manifested darkness within my hands and threw my right hand out, sending the ball of black rotating towards the man. He dodged the first ball but didn't pay attention to my left hand as I sent another ball barreling into the direction he moved to escape the first ball.

Upon hit, the man disintegrated into a dark ash that wafted to the ground solemnly.

I looked up at Lilith and Thanatos, to see her smiling at me with something hidden behind those foul eyes. She seemed to want to actually kill me, but that was probably just her 'battle resting bitch face as she called it earlier.

Thanatos looked at her, before striding forwards to me.

I watched as she stood still, eyeing the God of the Dead marching towards me as his cape swayed behind me. His face was devoid of emotions, his hands forming a deathly looking sword from the shadows around him.

I took a breath and within a second I met his dark blade with my own two. I crossed them over, fighting him off with a push of the two of my blades together, where he was thrown backwards from the force of my interjection.

I swirled to the side, sidestepping his harsh downthrow of the blade at the position where I was previously. I drop a blade from my left hand, freeing it up for the possibility of a projectile attack.

He looks down at my hand, and for the split second he does, I take the opportunity and leap at him from my new position. I push forwards, barrelling into his side with force he loses his balance, whilst I keep mine. I wrap my leg around his knee, making him buckle to the ground while I roll over him and to the side, landing a foot away from where he lay on his back. I extend my left arm, having swapped the blade from right to the left, and lay the blade across his neck, indicating that I had the opportunity to kill him if I really wanted to.

That was rather easy for a God, but I did realise that he was probably going easy.

Except, I didn't anticipate Lilith rushing into my crouched form from her position. With her force, I sliced open Thanatos neck, just enough to bleed but not cause any damage; which is what I didn't intend to do as I didn't actually want to harm him.

I was surprised by her action but quickly recovered as she rolled over me and grasped my neck between her bent knee, choking me. I gasped for breath as my oxygen became limited, and opened my right hand by my side, forming a large ice spike from the palm of my hand, where the sharp point was facing behind me. As the ice spike formed in my hand, her hold on my neck tightened.

I think she expected to either kill me or for me to tap out.

"Lilith, that's enough." Thanatos' voice was strong as I began to become oxygen deprived, but she didn't waver in her hold over my neck.

I couldn't breathe.

The amount of pressure on my neck made it feel as though my throat had been stuffed with wool, and I couldn't breathe through it. The feeling of my voice box scrapping the back of my neck was not pleasurable – unlike what it could have been with Lucifer – and the feeling of suffocation was a gagging pain throughout my entire head. I could feel my eyes swell as my blood circulation was cut off, causing strains within my head and neck.

With some effort I had managed to obtain, I threw my closed hand back into her thigh which was wrapped around my neck, the ice ripping through her muscle and tissue, straight past her femur bone. The ice was lodged deep into her flesh, and with a cry of pain,considering she loosened her hold, enough for me to kick myself away from her and pant on the floor.

I kept rolling out of the way and gathered myself on all fours once more, panting for breath as blankets of oxygen reached my brain once more.

I knew I was far enough away that she couldn't attack me again but I doubt she would be able to with the nine inches of cold steel in her leg. She looks at me with a pained look, a smile on her face as she nods her head at me.

"Lilith! What the fuck." Thanatos looks at her as he comes towards me with a grimace on his face. He places his hand on my shoulder blade, the wound on his neck already disappearing as he healed himself.

"She could take it." Was her response. Cold heartedly, she looked at me with something different than what I had seen before.

She was not the usual Lilith I had met when I first arrived. Something had changed.

And it was at that moment, that I recalled Lucifer's and I's conversation a few days prior.

He was so unconcerned with their being spies within our forces, and he had been so trusting of his closest friends, that he may have completely missed the one person who he thought he could've trusted with his life.

He missed the one person who would stab him in the back given the chance.

"Nephele."

Word Count: 4900

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