More power blasted from Ramiel, and a thick cloud of dust obscured their vision.
“Left,” Raphael yelled.
Lucifer pivoted and drove his blade into a barrel-chested gluttony demon.
“So fucking many.” Raphael panted as he blasted another gap through the horde.
Lucifer moved closer to Ashe’s power signature. The fucker wasn’t moving, just waiting there for him.
A power blast from Ramiel decimated the frontline.
Wrath’s roar followed as he carved through the demons behind.
It was wholesale slaughter, and still the demons kept coming.
Lucifer’s blade sliced through a demon neck. He twisted his wrist and caught a second demon on the back swing.
A blade pierced his side.
Raphael was behind him. A puff, and the pain disappeared.
Lucifer blasted power. A wave of demons disintegrated. Another wave took its place.
Raphael drove his sword into chest after chest. “Where are they all coming from?”
Fury gave Lucifer even greater strength. Ashe was within his grasp. His vengeance lay behind waves of attacking demons.
Lucifer shot power through the horde to his right.
They vaporized, and he got his first glimpse of Ashe. Standing with his arms folded, head cocked, Ashe watched him with a smirk.
Lucifer sent a wave of power through the attacking horde.
Three short horn blasts sounded, and a few seconds later, the sky was filled with angels. Ramiel had called his host.
Lucifer relished the unmitigated savagery as each stroke of his sword bit into flesh.
The host arrowed into the horde. Grunts, screams, and bellows filled the air.
And then Lucifer was almost at Ashe. Eight feet in front of him, Ashe now had an onyx blade, and it was pressed to Leona’s throat.
Three demons lurched for Lucifer.
Ashe snarled at them, and they backed away.
“Go,” Raphael yelled. “Get Leona.”
“You came,” Ashe drawled as Lucifer got closer to him. His silver eyes flashed at Lucifer. “I wasn’t entirely certain you received my invitation.”
“You knew I was coming.” Lucifer had been hunting his former second for months. Victory surged through him. Ashe would pay for his betrayal, and Lucifer would savor every second.
“Yes.” Ashe grinned. “You’re very predictable, Lucifer.”
But first, Lucifer needed to get Leona. “Give me the witch. Or we’ll wipe out every one of you, and then come for you and your master.”
Ashe laughed. “This is nothing.” He gestured the battling horde. “For every one lost here, a thousand will replace them.”
Leona whimpered, her brown eyes—eyes so like Emma’s—implored Lucifer to act.
“You do a lot of hiding behind women.” Lucifer sneered.
Ashe shrugged. “I do what I must to survive.”
“You think I will let you leave here alive?” Through his fury, instinct whispered to him to pay attention. All was not as it seemed.
“I think you have no say in that.” Ashe pressed the knife to Leona’s jugular. “You aren’t making the rules anymore.”
The fight raged around them, but Lucifer kept his attention locked on Leona and Ashe. The sense of wrongness cooled his rage and got his mind working.
Five demons charged from the left.
Coolly, Ashe sent a blast of power that incinerated them.
No demon should have that power.
Ashe chuckled. “See, master.” He slurred the title. “I’ve learned a thing or two.”
“Give me the woman.” He didn’t have time for a Q&A.
“Wouldn’t you like to hear the message from my master first?” Ashe tilted his head.
If it got him Leona, he’d listen. “Tell me.”
“Indolex arranged this little demonstration for you.” Ashe gestured to the battle happening around them. “As a sort of show of power. He wants you to understand that while you have been hiding in your palaces, making your facile wars on each other, he has been building power. What you see here now is only a fraction of the forces he commands.”
“And I’m supposed to take your word for that?” Lucifer scoffed. “The word of an oath breaker and a liar.”
“You wound me, master.” Ashe grinned. “After all those whispered confidences between us?”
Lucifer couldn’t afford to lose his temper. Leona was relying on him. “What’s the message?”
“I’m glad you asked.” Ashe made a motion with the hand not holding the knife.
Air crackled and an ear-splitting boom almost drove Lucifer to his knees.
“Fuck,” Raphael said.
There were demons everywhere. Thousands upon thousands of them, filling every part of the underground bunker. Their power signatures a tangible force in the air.
