Angel (Cody Daniels Book 1)

Chapter 22

I felt something heavy, tugging on my neck. I knew what it was, but I didn't make any move to even grab it. Lucifer, somehow, knew it was there too.

"See, that wasn't so hard now, was it?"

He came over to me, and I felt the cold of his knife press against my neck, as he cut a piece of thin string. I felt the weight leave, and I turned, watching helplessly as Lucifer took the golden key over to the black gate.

I tried to get up; I had to stop him.

But Satan kicked me hard. I fell back to the ground and tried to get up again. This time, Satan pinned me, and no matter how much I struggled, I couldn't break free. He had a size advantage.

"Move out the way, son," Lucifer said brightly. "I want him to see what his hard work has accomplished."

Lucifer put the key slowly in the lock. The whole gate began to glow with a golden light, and I could've sworn it was humming.

"Oh, I suppose you're wondering about the clamps." Lucifer turned back to me with a smile. "You see, the gate is always moving, always changing, in hell and on the surface. It took me many years to clamp it down, but the best part is that it's not clamped on the surface. Instant distribution of all of my troops."

"Please don't do this," I said. "I know you were treated unfairly. The other Angels were wrong to do that to you. But destroying Earth will not stop that. You've built yourself a home here, and you have a family even if you wouldn't admit it. If you unleash your forces on the Earth, the chances are high that the other Angels will return to destroy you."

Even I didn't know where the speech had come from. Maybe I'd become intelligent.

Unlikely.

Lucifer looked like he was actually considering it for a moment. Then, a creepy smile crept across his messed-up face. "Let them try!" he yelled, and turned the key.

The whole cavern was immediately engulfed in golden light, blinding me so that I couldn't see. While Satan was caught off-guard, I wrapped my golden chains around my knuckles and punched him hard as much as I could, eventually knocking him off me and unconscious.

I heard movement to my left and lunged quickly out of the way as Lucifer shot at me.

Then, loads of black mist swept through the room, like shadows, racing towards the gate. The souls of demons.

I backed up. I needed to close the gate, before more demons got out.

Then, Lucifer's face loomed through the gold light and the shadows. He was grinning widely, which tore his face up even more.

"You cannot stop it, Cody!" he shouted over the ruckus of thousands of demons. "The gate is unfixable!"

Even as I watched, the black gate grumbled before my eyes, chunks flying off into a big, golden portal that had appeared behind it.

"Now, just to deal with a small pest!" Lucifer yelled, tilting his head to the side.

I reached into my pocket, my hand closing around the dart. I had one shot to end this, right here, right now. Once and for all.

Lucifer lifted his shotgun and fired, at the exact same moment that I took out the dart and threw it with a deadly accuracy. I felt the shotgun pellets explode into my side, just above my hip, but I didn't care.

The dart was buried deeply in Lucifer's head.

He staggered backwards, roaring in outrage and pain. Then, suddenly, he stopped and began laughing. Hysterically. Manically.