And no one could touch him, no one could stop him, as scourge followed scourge and mankind fell into wars and famine. Only the Fallen had any chance of halting his inexorable march toward human extermination, and time was growing shorter as Uriels power grew.
Raziel settled beside Azazel, folding his wings about him as he stared out at the sea. You have to go after her, you know.
No. One didnt refuse the Alpha when he made a request or issued an order, but Azazel didnt hesitate.
He and Raziel had been the next to fall after Lucifer, with Tamlel and twenty others, and had been damned for eternity for the crime of loving human women. Neither humans nor angels, they were simply the Fallen, cursed to live out eternity with an unstoppable need for blood. The wretched Nephilim were the flesh-eaters, the darker side, the creatures of filth and decay.
You were the one who found the link in the old texts, Raziel said in his calm, patient voice. You cant deny that she alone holds the key. Were just lucky you didnt let the Nephilim destroy her before you found the connection.
She remembers nothing, he said stubbornly. It would have made no difference.
Did you bestow the Grace ?
It would have failed. I could do very little with her. I could read her, just a bit, but it was all confusion. She didnt know who or what she was; she had no memory of her past life. If she cannot even recognize that shes the Lilith, how will she remember some minor bit of information that weve only just discovered could lead us to Lucifer?
We dont have any other choice. His voice is growing fainter, Uriel is growing stronger, and it wont be long before he finally abandons restraint and comes after us. We must find Lucifer, and I would consort with the foulest creatures in existence, even the remaining Nephilim, if it would help us.
He knew Raziel was right. Hed known the moment hed come across that obscure reference: The She-Demon who devours men and infants and lies with the Filth shall be entombed near the Bringer of Light, and bring forth the means of his deliverance. Of course, it was only one line in a relatively obscure text, and its provenance was questionable. And it didnt begin to say how she might help them find Lucifer, only that shed show them the way to do it. Which did them no good when she couldnt remember anything.
He thought back to the demon. The demon with the shape and smell and feel of a woman, who had only to look at him to stir feelings that should have been dead. Hed kissed her. That kiss had been burned into his body and his brain, tormenting him. What insanity had made him reach for her? No one else had managed to touch him in the nearly seven years since Sarah died, further proving just how dangerous the Lilith was. If she could arouse his dead soul, then she had strong powers indeed.
I havent kept track of her, he said, only half a lie. Hed stopped looking after her six months ago, once shed gotten in bed with the young doctor. But he had little doubt she was still in Brisbane, still in that strange apartment that looked out over the Brisbane River. It would take him very little time to collect her.
But he would have to touch her, hold her, carry her. Breathe in
the seductive scent of her skin. He would have to bring her into the safety and protection of Sheol. The very last place he wanted her.
For that one line from an obscure text that hinted she held the answer to Lucifer, there were dozens of other references to Lilith, queen of demons, and her marriage to the king of the Fallen. It didnt matter that Raziel now ruled the Fallen as the Alpha. Azazel had led them in their disastrous fall; Azazel was decreed to mate with the Lilith and reign over hell with her by his side.
Of course, those same sources equated the Fallen with a mythical Satan, a force of evil as powerful as God. In Azazels endless experience, the only creature who came close to that description was Uriel, the one remaining archangel.
You know where she is, Raziel said, unmoved.
She cannot belong in Sheol. She is a demon. Was there a tinge of desperation in his voice? No, he simply sounded pigheaded.
I know she doesnt. I know the prophecies. If you wont bring her here, you can take her to the Dark City and find the Truth Breakers. If there are answers to be found, they are the ones to do it.
He froze. Hed barely managed to survive his time with the brutal Truth Breakers long ago. And he was a lot stronger than the body the Lilith had taken. Why me? Michael could He stopped. Michael had brute strength, the ultimate warrior. He would destroy her, whether by accident or design.
Which would solve his problem, but bring them no closer to Lucifer. He racked his mind for anyone else among the Fallen who could take on the task, disposing of the demon once the information was garnered. There was no one. The strong ones would kill her; the gentle ones would be in danger once she regained her true self. He was the only one who knew enough to confine her without killing her. At least before her usefulness was past.