Malevolent

Chapter 43

"Amra!" Lily knelt beside Dante the minute their eyes had landed on Amra.

Tears spilt faster than she could comprehend what had occurred. Her older sister, her protector, who she had only just gotten back was dead. 

No, she sobbed deeply, broken, feeling as though her heart had been carved out and replaced by a vast hole of pain. Why, her tears touched the ground, her hands trying to rub warmth back into those cold fingers.

But Lily's hand was grasped, and her body tugged back. She was forcibly tied down beside her brother and an unconscious Arlo. Yet, she could register nothing. Only the heart-squeezing loss. It was unbearable.

"Dante," she choked out. There had to be something he could do, but when her eyes met his, her heart shattered into tiny pieces, because she knew it was truly over and done.

Inky black tears ran down the demon's face like watercolor.

He let Amra slip from his grasp, as he began to stand. It grew so cold she began to tremble as the room shook.  

Darkness began to seep all around Dante. 

He straightened out, and what appeared before Lily was complete demon.

This being was horrendously massive. Dark blue skin turned obsidian. Onyx colored shoulder plates, like melanite, protruded down his arms in different lengths. Ribbed sable horns curled up and way out his midnight hair and right between his horns, a sort of fire brewed. 

Each of his fingers elongated into razor-sharp talons. Knife-edged canines protruded from his dark lips. The edges of his fiery wings turned sharp and skeletal, holding together the only semblance of the Dante she remembered; those fiery wings.

The air surged around him like an invisible electric storm, expanding throughout the room.

Lily was sure no one was safe any longer. Everyone in this room would perish, just as Amra had.

She clutched her knees to her chest and found Alexie's hand. The room was growing so dark, she could barely see, but suddenly another hand grasped her arm.

𓄋

"You should have stayed in hell Dante and none of this would have happened." Camiel seethed.

The demon did not answer, he stalked forward like a massive gargoyle and flashed towards Camiel. The shadows, like spirits, screamed all around, covering every light in darkness. 

He appeared right in front of the angel, delivering such a massive strike the angel blew through the concrete of the room.

"Adhuc!" A voice shouted behind Dante in the ancient tongue.

Dante's body cemented to the ground the second Alia had uttered the words. The demon looked above to see a demon trap. He only smirked wickedly. Not anymore.

The spirits screamed around again, pummeling the magic of the weak sigil, breaking it apart as he stalked forward.

Camiel was in front of him the next instant. Lips bloody, covered in dust.

The demon growled satisfied, eager to drive its talons deep into the angel's chest and pull out its beating heart. A heart for a heart.

"You should have let her be! You are incapable of love, Dante. You would have broken her eventually."

Massive talons swooped for the angel's face at the same time fiery feathers shot into his direction. Camiel just barely rolled out the way.

"Return to hell!"

"Not before I take you with me." Dante spoke with cruel blood thirst. Thrilled by the idea of eternal torment for the angel that had taken the glimmer of hope in his dark, hollow life. 

"And what would Amra think of that?"

"Do NOT speak her name!"

Even in the dark, Camiel anticipated the move. He knew what he had done had been beyond cruel. The truth, he felt, was that Amra did not deserve death, but he had no option but to obey. It had to be done. It had been requested. And to deny a request, no matter how against it he was, would mean to damn his soul and Camiel refused to become what he hunted. 

He refused to become as Dante had.

In fact, the Dante before him was far from their days in the Promised Land. There was no Dante. Not in those dark soulless eyes. There was only his demon, and that was exactly what Camiel had both dreaded and hoped for, because now he could end this.

The night at the warehouse, when he had struck Dante with the Aegis, he'd realized his mistake, why Dante had gotten away with solely an injury. 

There would be no room for error here. Camiel only had one chance, or the demon that consumed Dante would be free to prowl the earth, causing untold pain and death.

"Return to hell, Dante!" Camiel rolled away from the feathers that had once been pure white, but Dante only roared. Too far gone to return. 

"Then I have no choice." Camiel felt the power of the instrument within him. His veins turned into light until he could only see brightness. The wicked shadows cowered away as light illuminated the room. His hands thrummed with energy, ready to deliver the blow.

"Goodbye, Dante." Camiel flung out of the demon's grasp, kicked up its ribs, knocking him to the ground. Dark eyes met his in anger... and to Camiel's surprise, relief.

Would he rather die than be without her?

Demons do not love. Demons do not care. Demons do not cry...and yet the dark streaks beneath Dante's lash nagged at the angel.

He was aware Dante could have easily left without Amra. Found another victim, yet here he was. Unable to be without her. Devoid of any humanity to not feel the loss. And perhaps, to give Camiel no choice but to act. A demon like that, with no ounce of humanity, or the angel that had once been, would devour until there was no more. There could be no other choice.

Then the least I can do is bring you peace, Camiel thought.

The holy power rushed out his hands, colliding with Dante, just as a small shadow jumped onto the massive demon and Camiel realized with shameful sorrow what had just occurred.