A Gluttony Of Faith Read online

  A Gluttony of Faith

  The Fallen Angels

  Book 3

  Steven Lindsay

  Cover Illustration Copyright © 2015 Riana Sellek

  Copyright © 2015 Steven Lindsay

  All rights reserved.

  ISBN: 1494709392

  ISBN-13: 978-1494709396

  For Marina

  Whose belief made this all possible

  Part 1

  The Dawn of War

  Chapter 1

  Lucifer’s eyes flew open as he violently burst into consciousness. He had no idea where he was, but he knew for certain that it was not Hell.

  Was it true, was he really free after all this time?

  He couldn’t believe it, but he had seen it over and over in his dreams; that beautiful violet-eyed girl who had whispered his name. Sariel, her name had been Sariel. It meant nothing to him, but she was the one who had saved him, the girl from his dreams. He had heard her whisper his name for months, it was a gentle caress, a comfort in the relentless nightmares of Hell that were replayed over and over in his mind. Even after all this time his unconscious mind was not stable, not yet strong. Gabriel’s division of his mind had worked with incredible efficiency, but then that had always been her way.

  A strange blending of noises drew his mind back to the present. He glanced around the strange white room awash in his magic, only now it was black. When had his magic turned black? It stained the white room and all its equipment in a most unnerving way. Contained within magical prisons were two Atlanteans and a third unknown species. Atlanteans? As if he didn’t have enough to worry about.

  Where in the name of Gaia was he if there were Atlanteans?

  Where were those noises coming from? A constant beeping was sounding through the room. He couldn’t locate it, his senses were not as they should be, he couldn’t see or hear right.

  Water. He was in water. Why was he in water? That would explain why things were not quite right. He looked about himself, his anger rising as he saw the cables attached to himself. He was still imprisoned, his dreams had lied!

  He lashed out with his powers, blasting his containment tank to smithereens. Black water erupted from the tank in every direction. The calm medical staff jumped in fright. Climbing out of the broken tank was a furious Fallen Arch Angel. The Fallen Angel, the Prince of Darkness, the High Lord of Hell, and he did not look pleased at all. Black magic washed across the white walls, holographic projectors fizzled as they were overloaded with magic, flames burst along wires, and the whole room shook. These did not scare them the way the completely inhuman scream did. Why was a tormented Dragon shriek coming from an Angel?

  They were going to die.

  They knew it to be true. No one was going to be able to save them. They were trapped within the High Lord’s power, cut off from help. Even if help arrived, what could they do? Was the Queen powerful enough to take on the Prince of Darkness, would she? Would the Goddess? Could she? They had no idea and no hope. They merely watched him with as much impassivity as they could muster. For the Atlanteans, it was not too difficult but for the Pixie, it was taking all her nerve not to keel over in terror. She had never seen a God or Angel in all the terror of their wrath.

  “Lucifer”

  He turned at the sound of that familiar male voice, could it be? Was it really him? He couldn’t tell.

  The violet eyes were the same, but the rest of him looked different and yet so familiar. Samael, his Mentor, his friend. But could he believe it to be true? He knew how Gabriel worked, and something about Samael didn’t feel the same. He looked as he remembered but there was something about his powers and a different bearing to his stance. Nor was he alone.

  Samael always worked alone.

  There was a sultry Angel standing behind him with red and black hair and wings, he had never seen an Angel with such colourings before. Could she be one of Gabriel’s creations? He didn’t think so, she did not fit Gabriel’s category of creations, but she did have the feel of her. She had been touched by Hell. Her red eyes watched him warily but lacked any other emotion.

  On his other side was another strangely coloured Angel. She had brown wings and hair with empathic emerald eyes that showed more emotion than was proper for a Divine. He couldn’t tell if the tenderness was feigned or real, but there was steel in those eyes. No not steel, that was not strong enough, her will was made of adamantine.

  She was no Angel, no matter what she looked like. While the other two had the distinctive feel of changed Angels she was a Goddess through and through. A Mother Earth Goddess if he was correct, but she didn’t look familiar.

  “He is not listening to us,” Samael said to the others.

  “He doesn’t know me, and Lilith doesn’t look anything like he would remember. He has woken up in a strange place with no one around. He is bound to have thought the worst.”

  “Oh, so someone should have always sat by his side on the off chance that he would wake up.”

  “He did wake up, alone and scared.”

  “I would hardly call that look scared. He is furious.” Lilith lightly touched the shield, but it repelled her violently. “Then again perhaps there is fear beneath the anger.”

  “Lucifer it is I, Samael. Let down your shields, you are safe now.” He waited, but nothing happened. Lucifer continued to look at them with almost blank eyes, except for the rage. Black magic flowed all over his body, shifting his appearance. White and gold feathers turned to black and then back again. Golden hair shifted slowly to charcoal then back to gold. All the while shadows danced over his olive skin which was flushing pale in parts. Through it all his eyes blazed, red and black danced around the edges of his violet irises, but they would not submit to the new magic.

  “Perhaps he is crazy?”

  “I am surprised the rest of us aren’t after Hell.”

  “He is not mad” Sariel had appeared in the hall behind them, pushing her way through the foolish crowd of Fae and Atlanteans. Perhaps with so many Angels around they figured they were safe from the High Lord.

  She walked up to the shield and stopped. “Lucifer you are safe now.”

  It was the voice from his dreams, he knew it instantly but was it really her? He couldn’t see anymore, his vision kept blurring, all he could see were the shifting black walls of his shields and the shadowed faces behind it.

  She raised her hand, it flared brown as she lightly touched the shield. Her parents had jumped forward to warn her, but she was not flung back, her hand passed through the shield with no resistance. Before they could stop her, she had walked through the shield effortlessly, the sparks of brown the only hint of her passing.

  Lucifer stared in anger at the person who had so easily walked through his shield, it had to be Gabriel back to throw him into Hell. Yet the colouring was all wrong. Her hair and wings were black as night, her skin too pale for an Angel, except for Samael and his ilk. But then she looked up with those beautiful violet eyes and the whole world disappeared. There was nothing but concern and kindness in those eyes as they approached.

  She watched him with concern, he was dazed and confused, his power flaring wildly beyond his control. She knew just how overwhelming that could be, and his powers had grown considerably since the Fall. She reached out with her hand to cup his cheek, he turned into it and closed his eyes.

  “You are the girl from my dreams,”

  “Not a girl anymore but yes Lucifer.”

  The way she said his name was a gentle caress, it set his spine tingling.

  “Sariel”

  She saw instantly just how much he needed her. There was so much longing and pain in her name, she was his lodestone, his one touch on reality.

  “Yes, Sariel, do yo
u remember?”

  “Yes, you are in my dreams. I see you over and over, you fight me, you are so scared. Then you are above me, you are so kind. You say my name, Hell is caving in and then it all goes dark. But I still hear your voice sometimes, you say strange things. ‘Come back to me. Wake up Lucifer. You are safe.’ You also say other things.”

  Oh crap, he had heard the things she had said when he was unconscious. If Divine could blush, she would be bright red. She had said a lot more than just wake up. In Jerusalem she had sometimes cuddled up to him and whispered ‘please come back, I need you’ and ‘you make me feel safe’ to name a few. She had spoken to him often, for even unconscious he had been her only companion.

  “You cried a lot. You were so lonely.” He opened his eyes to look at her. She looked at him with wide, apprehensive eyes, but she wasn’t lonely anymore.

  “I was. I was scared. I thought Michael and Gabriel would find us at any moment. I didn’t know how to protect you.”

  “But you freed me from Hell.”

  “Luck and chance more than skill. Chaos has a mind of its own.”

  “So that was how you did it.”

  “I couldn’t leave you as you were. You were in such pain, what they had done to you was despicable. But then you were caught in the backlash, and I had no idea what to do. I was scared and so alone, but I’m not anymore. I know how to protect you now.” She said it with a smile, and he actually managed a chuckle.”

  “What happens now?” he asked wearily.

  She seemed confused, “whatever you want. You are a free man now Lucifer, though Gabriel and Michael will try to hunt you down. You also have a connection to Hell, you are its master.”

  “What?” he sounded outraged.

  “You are the High Lord of Hell, the Prince of Darkness, Satan.” He shuddered when she said the last name.

  “Don’t say that.”

  “All that power you feel is really yours, it is the faith of billions empowering you well beyond the other Angels. You are now one of the most powerful Angels, well I suppose you will have Ascended now.”

  It was too much to take in. His mind was reeling and spinning, everything she said was overloading it.

  “Can we rest for a minute?” he asked her.

  “Of course, Lucifer” once again that caress of the spirit. He leaned his forehead against hers and wrapped his arms around her. She hesitated for a minute then leaned into the embrace, pulling her wings in tight. He spread his wide around them both, a protective Angel behaviour.

  She closed her eyes and let time disappear while he held her. She had dreamed of this but never believed that it would happen.

  She smiled and felt something shift within him. He was more stable.

  His face changed from wary concern to tortured outrage, but it was too late. The Curse had started, and there was nothing he could do now. Lucifer staggered backwards, struggling with rippling flesh. His legs were already shifting visibly, waves heaving along his flesh, there was far too much flesh for his arms and legs. He was yelling, but his angelic voice was breaking, horrible screeches and roars rent the air with their harshness.

  Gabriel marched forward, her spear held in front of her, pushing him backwards. All around her, his Angels were doing the same. They staggered about as the Curse started ripping through them. White feathers littered the Citadel, they were falling so fast and thick that it was becoming as white as a blizzard. Tortured screams filled the air as they were painfully driven over the edge.

  She used magic to push Lucifer’s writhing form, a long tail had sprouted from his spine, flailing around madly as he lost control of his limbs. His face was unrecognisable as folds of skin and scale puckered his onetime beauty. She laughed at his pain, he would undermine her no more.

  She had won. She had finally won, and he would never interfere ever again.

  She drove the spear into her brother, drawing gold blood mixed with burning black acid. He instinctively rolled and scuttled backwards, even as his form continued to twist and deform. She kept driving him backwards until he was crouched, panting and snarling at the very edge of the Citadel’s island. If he fell off the edge, he had a very long fall to the Surface. The plummet wouldn’t kill him, he was Divine, after all, so she stabbed him one last time.

  He fell backwards yelling but this time, words came out, as one violet eye fixed on her “You will pay for this Gabriel!”

  Then he was lost over the edge, plummeting down to the Surface as his form twisted and grew larger. She saw his head split in two. She laughed as the Betrayers were all driven off the edge. They all fell in Lucifer’s wake. Many of them would die, for they were not the immortals that the Elder were, but what did she care for the Lesser or Ascended, especially if they had turned their backs on her. They were getting what they deserved.

  “You will pay Gabriel!”

  Lucifer shot up over the edge, only it wasn’t him anymore. A seven-headed Dragon launched itself at her, moving darkness which knew where she was going. It pinned her to the ground with its massive paw. She struggled and squirmed to no avail. She stabbed up with her spear, drawing black, acidic blood but it did not respond.

  Seven pairs of eyes watched her in a circle. They were all red or black, except one pair was violet. The heads roared as one “You will pay for this Gabriel!” then it was ripping and tearing into her, eating her flesh, consuming her Divinity, drawing away her very Lifeforce. He was killing her.

  Gabriel burst into consciousness screaming down the Palace. It took her a minute to realise that it had been nothing more than a dream, a horrible nightmare. She was safe in the Governing Palace of Heaven shielded from the world below. While those shields were up nothing and no one could enter the Citadel until she lowered them. She certainly wouldn’t be doing that any time soon.

  She pushed herself up into a sitting position and leaned against the statue of herself. She didn’t care that her wings hurt, caught between her weight and the stone. There was a reason why Angels preferred open spaces and slept face down, but right now she needed something else to hold her up. The pain was good for clearing her mind. Besides it was more of a discomfort than real pain, but it helped to distract her from her nightmare.

  So Lucifer was free, her worst nightmare had come true because of that stupid, little, insipid bitch. Sariel would live to regret this decision for the rest of her miserable life. Her first instinct was to curl up and hope it was just a dream, but she was too sensible for that course of action. Nothing went away simply by pretending otherwise. The Curse had been broken, Lucifer and all of Hell were free. What made it worse was that they had been unconscious for an unknown amount of time, it could be minutes or years. She hoped it wasn’t years.

  Anything could have happened in that time. America could have fallen to Hera, Great Britain could have conquered half the world, Hell could have consumed half the world. The Greater Demons could be pretending to be Angels while they seized power. She had no idea, and that was the problem.

  “Gabriel”

  She glanced up at her husband, he looked how she felt. His naturally pale skin had a most unhealthy tinge to it, so unseemly for an Angel. His feathers were devoid of shine, his cheeks looked slightly sunken. He was run down, completely exhausted. Exactly how she felt. If she looked in the mirror, she knew she would look just as bad.

  She took the offered hand, and he pulled her upright. She rested against him for a moment, to regain her balance. A weakness she abhorred. He would never tell, but she hoped no one else had seen. She looked into his weary violet eyes, but there was conviction there too. She was so fortunate to have him.

  She squared her shoulders and together they walked back into the Council Chambers. It wasn’t her usual march, which annoyed her but she knew that she couldn’t push herself until she recovered. If she over exerted herself she might force Desiccation upon herself, and that would not do.

  They sank gratefully into their thrones, Azrael was already in his. He didn’t lo
ok as weary, his face was fixed in a frown of concentration. Ariel was dusting herself off the bottom of the dais while Raphael and Uriel were pushing themselves up off the floor. All around the chamber the Elder were pushing themselves up off the floor and making their way back to their seats. Pain was still etched into many of their faces.

  She could see the anger and resentment on many of their faces, yet none of them had pointed a finger at her, none of them had said what they were thinking. They wouldn’t dare.

  “The Curse has been broken, and Hell has been unleashed. It is time to face the facts, Sariel is a traitor to Heaven, she is a Fallen Angel. We also have to face the reality that many of Hell’s strongest prisoners are now free. We do not know how much time has passed, nor what has happened in that time. Currently, Heaven’s defences are up, and we are protected. Before I lower them, we must ascertain what has happened in the world. Samael, Lilith, Lucifer and their followers are no longer trapped in Hell. Neither is Abaddon. Gods have been released from the Underworld, as have all the other Demons of Hell. We need to know what is waiting for us.

  Every Angel is on scrying duties until further notice. We shall reconvene tomorrow. By then we should know what has happened in our absence.”

  Would it be a new world or one still very much in their thrall? Just how much damage had been done in their absence?

  Lucifer was sat at a table staring with confusion at the massive spread of food before him. His eyes still lacked focus, lucidity was still not strong in him. On either side of him sat Samael and Sariel, both of them encouraging him to eat. Lilith and Brigid had temporarily disappeared, while they sought to keep Lucifer calm and controlled. His magic was flaring all over the place, his once rigid control lost. They could hardly blame him, he had spent nearly two millennia trapped as the Beast, his mind shattered between seven separate heads.