Lucifer

Chapter 25

I woke to find myself laying on some type of cold stone altar. I wasnt bound by anything, to my surprise. My head pounded like a drumbeat.

I looked up in just enough time to see Trozzer slapping Abraxis clear across the face.

"How dare you behave that way. I left very specific and detailed instructions. Do you have such little control over yourself that you are even willing to go against my orders?" he growled, power rolling off of him in waves.

Abraxis kept his head down. Here was the most ruthless, cunning, and evil demon I knew. And he was bowing to another.

"I'm sorry, father," he responded, his voice low in submission

Father?! What the hell was going on?

"One more mistake, Abraxis, and I will kill you myself," Trozzer threatened, and I believed him.

I had been so stupid to believe this man, that all he wanted was peace. Everything that had happened was because of him. I had been taken from my home and thrust into this nightmare because of him.

Was it all for some crown?

Trozzer turned around, then gave me the same pleasant smiles I had been getting from him. Clearly, Abraxis had learned his manipulative tendencies from Trozzer.

"I apologize for waking you up, darling. Punishment must be given swiftly, though, and this was the earliest opportunity I've had in light of everything you shared with me," he purred.

"Punishment? What do you mean?"

"He was meant to protect you, to teach you. He didn't do a very good job of that. Defiance is met with strict punishment, otherwise there will be no order."

I didn't know what to say to him. What kind of delusion he was living in? He came over to me as I struggled to sit up. He put his hands on either side of me face. I would have recoiled, only he held me in such a tight grip I couldn't get away.

"My darling I know that you're very confused. All will be explained, but first we have to do something about that mark," he told me, his eyes going to the black ink on my shoulder.

He released me, letting me fall back onto the stone stab.

"What did you do to me?" I asked, desperate to distract him.

"I had to drug you. It was the only way. You've gotten very involved with the brothers. I feared the longer I left you there the more entangled in them you would become. Then there's the issue of Lucifer," he shook his head.

Fear gripped at me as Trozzer clapped his hands together and several black witches emerged from the woods lining us. We were only in a small clearing, somewhere I didn't know.

They circled the altar and held hands as they began to chant. Pain began throbbing in my arm to the same beat as the pounding in my head.

My arm caught fire like it had the day Lucifer claimed me, only this time it was a blood red color that roared to life instead of the faint blue. I tried to put it out, smacking my arm furiously. It didn't work.

The chanting began to reach it's apex as the mark began to burn away, the red flames flickering black with the dissipating ink. I screamed in pain.

Trozzer held his arms up to the sky, smiling. He thought he was getting everything he wanted, whatever that entailed.

The chanting slowed just as the mark faded from existence. I grabbed onto my shoulder in an effort to slow the pain. Tears streamed down my face.

Last time Lucifer had found me because of that mark. Without it now I didn't know what would happen. Surely they would know my dissipearence had something to do with Trozzer, but they wouldn't know where to look. This would be the last place Lucifer would know I was at.