Jason Teufel

Prologue

“It has long been said that the fortress of Heaven shall forever stand as an eternal bastion against the merciless legions of Hell; but for the loss I have suffered I shall create a new vision in which the great, white halls run slick with the blood of a thousand angels.”

(Verina Fatale, demonic general of the 6th Legion)

Fear and adrenaline. It seemed to be all Verina could feel as she pressed herself tightly against the cold, snow-white marble wall behind her. The pounding of her heart beating against her chest grew ever louder as the heavy footsteps behind her signaled the approach of her angelic pursuer. The demon had only just barely escaped the forces hunting her, and her narrow eyes now darted from one end of the room to the other, searching for anything she might use to evade her enemies.

Standing nearly seven feet tall, from the bottom of her six-inch gloss heels to the tips of her jet black wings, Verina was rather short for a demon. She had a fit, slender body, a long snake-like tail, and sleek elegant tentacles for hair that hung down to her back. Her skin was a pale blood-red that perfectly complimented her pitch-black fiery eyes and vivacious full lips. She wore a dark skintight suit of gloss leather and metal that accentuated every one of her body’s numerous perfections, allowing her to radiate an insatiable sexual aura. Charming and beautiful, Verina was truly a sight to behold. But hidden beneath her sensual exterior was a deeply sociopathic mind and a fiendish hunger for vengeance.

Her eyes lingered briefly on a sliver of light that had momentarily illuminated the dark room, and just as her would-be hunter turned the corner, a shot of adrenaline ran up Verina’s spine. She sprinted as fast as she could toward the large plate glass window at the end of the hall.

Bracing herself with her arms stretched out before her, Verina crashed through the opening and plunged into the dark stormy sky below. The demon’s tentacle-hair was whipped across her face as she pinned her wings tight to her back to accelerate her speed. The storm around Verina howled with rage, sending wind and rain pounding against her like a thousand tiny needles, while thunder struck all around.

A bright bolt of lightning shot from behind and cut across her path as her faceless white-robed pursuer followed her decent and used a long silver staff to redirect the sizzling purple energy around them into a blistering weapon of death. The immense electrical discharge of the bolts, slashing over and under her, sent a fiery charge through the demon’s body that made her blood boil with rage.

In a vain attempt to dislodge the zealous angel from his pursuit, the demon hurled a scolding ball of liquid fire, blindly over her shoulder. She glanced back to see her assailant easily evade her wayward missile. She swore. It was too much to hope that the aimless shot would find its mark...

Another trio of bolts raced toward her. She accelerated, diving deeper into the endless nightmarish sky.

The demon felt a lance of white hot pain shoot up her leg when one of the bolts grazed the edge of her inner thigh. The wound cauterized itself due to the immense heat, but the pain was insatiable and Verina was filled with a seething hate as she gritted her teeth against the ensuing agony.

Spreading her dark bat-like wings wide, Verina rapidly slowed her descent so that her attacker overshot her and fell right into her crosshairs. Before her enemy had realized what she had done, Verina banked hard against the angry storm, extending her razor sharp talons. She flew into him like an angry hornet. Latching on to the angel’s back with her jagged claws, the enraged demon viciously tore into her stunned and helpless prey, cutting through the thin, light armor beneath his robe and shredding away massive chunks of flesh and tissue in seconds.