Abaddon (Demonology III)

I

LILITH

Happiness. It was what my father, Lucifer, had promised me in exchange for my loyalty. But I knew then deep down that I didn't deserve happiness. So I turned on him and waged war with him. But after that battle - the beginning of the Great Cataclysm, as it would be called - Finn took me with him to go into hiding forever. We constantly moved around, sometimes even going into Heaven when things got too heated on Earth. And with him, I truly felt happy, because he accepted me for who I was. But I knew that what we were doing wasn't right, and time and time again I brought it up to him.

  "Finn, we can't hide forever." I said to him. "We both don't age, but that doesn't mean this - " I gestured around us, to the small house in Blacktown, Australia that we were currently hiding in " - will last too. My father - " I was careful not to say his name, for all demons knew when their names were being spoken, and they could be summoned to whoever uttered their name " - will destroy this world once he gets bored with it. Maybe it will be in ten years, maybe a hundred, maybe even tomorrow. But we have to act fast and strike hard. And I can't do it without you."

  "Lilith." He said a little harshly. I gazed into his brilliant orange eyes, the stigma that he carried with him wherever he went. It signified that he was a Demi-God. In fact, he was the only Demi-God in existence. Whenever humans saw him, they looked to him expectantly, but he refused to do anything. "My power is nothing compared to what they have," he continued. "Being a Demi-God means nothing when there is no God." Almost a full year ago, at the beginning of the Great Cataclysm, my father had killed God. That was because God had given Finn the abilities of a Demi-God, and in turn had temporarily taken on Finn's mortality. That was when Lucifer struck, swallowing God whole. That left Finn as an immortal. He could be killed in battle, but he could not age.

  "But Finn," I pleaded with him. "That only means that you're the closest thing that we have to God. These people idolize you, and they pray - to you - for the day that you come back and fight for them. You can't just give up on this world." It was true. News footage was released of Finn battling Abaddon. A few people - Finn's old friends from high school - identified him. His name and pictures spread like wildfire. Everywhere, people praised Finn the Crusader, in hopes that he would save them all from the Hell that they had been subjected to.

  "Lilith, I've lost almost everything." He sounded on the verge of tears. "I've spoken with Ivy several times, and she's said that my mother and Wynne were doing just fine. And she's doing fine too. Unless they - or you - are in trouble, I have no reason to cause any trouble." Finn had changed a lot after the Great Cataclysm. He began to value things in life more, even his mother and aunt - despite the fact that they had conspired against them in the past.

  But there was something else he seemed to be keeping from me. I had an idea of what it was, but I wasn't too sure. I was hoping that it wasn't what I expected. If he was really after what I thought he was, we would really have no chance at overthrowing my father and Abaddon.

  "Finn, I can't stand living like this. I want to fight, but I can't fight alone. You can't honestly tell me that you're fine with living like this." I pressed him. He didn't answer me, he just stared off and titled his head, as if he was hearing something that I wasn't.

  "I'm tired." He said dismissively. "I'm going to sleep. You're welcome to join me, if you want to." I watched him go up the stairs. Looking at him now, it was hard to believe that he was the same person that I had met nearly two years prior. He had just been a kid then, but now, he was a man. More than a man, I had said it myself. He was practically God.

WYNNE

Working as a maid in Abaddon's palace was more humiliating than painful. Raven and I rarely got hurt, but the demons in the palace made sure that we almost never had time to rest.

  The only demons living in the palace were Lucifer, Abaddon, Ivy - who had been forced into marriage with Abaddon, and the human incarnations of multiple demons, including Leviathan. They rarely left the palace, so Raven and I - among other angels - had to pick up after them as if they were children.

  Leviathan was probably the most dangerous of them all. Its human form was a rather beautiful looking woman. She seemed harmless. She was short and always smiled. Her raven hair hung past her shoulders, and she spoke with a Welsh accent.

  What made Leviathan dangerous was the fact that she wasn't exactly a demon, as she was created on Earth and not in Hell. That meant that she could revert between her human and true form at will, and she did not need to draw power from any outside sources. We had to be careful not to anger her, because she could snap at any moment.

  She was also very lascivious. No one - man or woman - was safe from her taunting. The only reason she had agreed to join Lucifer and Abaddon was because they had promised her "a brothel fit for a king." The brothel was in the basement of the palace. If she wasn't in her quarters, she was more than likely in the basement.

  Raven and I were lucky. We were older, so she only teased us when she was bored.

  I looked over to my younger sister as we scrubbed Leviathan's floors. She had become terribly depressed after the Great Cataclysm. Finn and Ivy were the only family that she had left. Ivy was here in the palace with us, but Finn was gone. And even worse - he had taken Lilith with him. He had managed to defeat Azazel, but it seemed that he had made no attempt to kill Abaddon or Lucifer. It was terribly unlike him. Something had to be wrong with him. Maybe becoming a Demi-God had taken a toll on his mind.

  "He's not coming back." Raven said as if she had read my mind. "Why would he? He knows when to quit. He knows that there's no hope. He's not going to kill himself "

  "He's smart." I said. I didn't even try to comfort her. There was no point in lying to her. I knew that he wasn't coming back. He and I didn't have a good history. I had tricked him into believing that I was his mother in order to recruit him for Heaven's army, and I had killed his father in the process. And after he had escaped from me, I had chased him all over the States. Many of his friends and allies had died because of me. And to make it even worse, I had turned his real mother against him. I didn't blame him for not coming back. Not while I was around.

  The door suddenly opened. Leviathan walked in, and sat down on the edge of her bed.

  "You two are free to return to your quarters." She said. "I need to rest. We have a great conquest tomorrow."

  "What do you mean?" I asked. "You've already conquered everything that there is to conquer."

  She smiled wickedly. "Well, I think the two of you would be thrilled to hear - we have a lead on where the Crusader might be hiding. We've found him."