Sweet Temptation

Her voice is clear. “I pray forgiveness, for the souls who once betrayed you and have reconciled. Return them to their rightful home, and let those spirits who still harbor hatred be returned to hell. . . .”

The dark room begins to glow, as if night-lights have been switched on. Whisperers circle and spin above us. Belial grins at me.

“It’s working!” I say to Anna. “Keep going!”

Her eyes are closed and her face is luminescent. She stands with her feet apart, the sword still blazing in her hands, and says the magic words: “Banish all the demons from earth!”

I’m racked with a sudden bout of dizzying vertigo, but when I look around I see I’m not alone. Everyone’s eyes have gone round as they’re staring at the floor. Blake’s eyes lock with mine across the room. I skate my gaze to the twins, Kope, and Z.

What is happening? It feels like a bloody earthquake. Are we all going to be killed? Will we all be taken tonight?

The fear that threatens to rise up is suddenly snuffed out by a glorious warmth that envelops me and sends an absolute hush over the room.

Anna belts out the last of her prayer. “I ask with all my heart that the demon stains be washed from the souls of all Nephilim, both here on earth and those who came before us. Please allow us a chance at redemption!”

The ground cracks open with a shattering boom, throwing the room off balance. Anna stumbles and drops the sword. It rolls straight into the depths of the crack. I grab her and pull her aside as tables slide past and chairs fall over. I look toward the side door, not twenty feet away. We have to make it there.

The room stills again.

One by one, the souls of the Dukes are sucked from their bodies. One by one the dark souls are siphoned into the crack, returning to hell for good. I watch with more sadness than I want to admit as Father’s soul lifts and his hand reaches for me before it goes lifeless. And then his soul is spiraling away. Down, down, down.

Gone.

Now angels appear from above, a whole slew of them lighting up the room, and I want to say, Bit late, aren’t you? But then I have to smile, because we handled it without them—with Anna leading the way.

With the angels comes that warm feeling again. Belial closes his eyes and lifts his face. Something alive is in the room. Something I can’t see, but I can feel. It’s like the warm joy I get when I’m with Anna, and when I saw her mother, but even purer. Even stronger. It’s all-encompassing.

It’s a feeling of love.

“It is well,” says a soothing whisper in my ear like the wind. My heart is beating too fast. I remember what I’d said that day at the Grand Canyon. We can talk peace when You get rid of the demons. Well, I’ll be damned. I think I’ve just been humbled.

“Thank you,” I whisper.

I look over at Anna, who’s watching in awe as the few redeemed demons’ stains are lifted from their badges, and their souls rise.

Belial and Anna look at each other.

“You did good, baby girl,” he says. He grasps Anna tightly, and she all but disappears inside his large embrace. And then, like the others, his soul rises, leaving Big Rotty’s body lying there. He smiles down on us, shining in the newness of his cleansed soul, white wings flapping. With a final grin, he shoots up and away.

The angels ascend, leaving us, and I stare at Anna. Her eyes are aglow with joy. She’s alive. She made it. We both did. I pull her to me and hold her tight. She laughs in my arms.

And then something feels . . . strange. My entire torso is heavy and overly hot, then there’s a pull, like a vacuum is on my sternum. I watch in shock as dark red smoke leaves my body where my badge is, and wafts away.

What the . . . ?

I look at Anna as a fizzle of putrid yellow seeps from her badge, leaving it white as snow. She puts a hand over her chest, then looks at my badge and grins. I lift my eyes to the other Neph in the room, who are all staring around at each other’s white badges. What does it mean?

There are roughly fifty Neph left alive in the room. All of our allies are miraculously accounted for, though some are worse for wear, with bloodied limbs and torn clothing. The room is strewn with bodies and debris. It’s quiet, as if we’re all too afraid to ask . . . is it over, then? Truly?

The floor abruptly shudders and tilts, knocking Anna into me, and a creak of metal cries out. This building is about to come down.

“We have to get out of here!” I yell.

Everyone in the room struggles to stand and run at once. Ginger falls, pulling at Marna, who twists her leg. I grab them both under the arms and pull them to their feet. Then Kope and I grab Zania, who falls next. I grasp Anna’s hand and keep her by my side as we hurdle toppled chairs and clumsily wade over rubble. I press Anna through the door before me, exhaling a huge breath when we make it up those basement stairs and away from the building, into the dark night. We’re all out, staring back at the shaking building as we run, helping to hold one another up.

We made it. I can’t believe it bloody happened, but the demons are gone and we made it. I squeeze Anna’s hand and a laugh escapes me. Ginger flashes me an astonished smile and pulls Marna closer. Her other hand reaches for Blake’s arm and he kisses her shoulder. I marvel at the firm warmth of Anna’s hand in mine, and I keep staring down at her, black leather covered in dust. Her face is streaked with dried tears and dirt.

We don’t stop moving until we get to our hotel, which feels solid and sound. Together, we stand staring out the glass window at Las Vegas, linked hand in hand. All around us people are running, terrified, and though we are dazed and overwhelmed and mourning those we’ve lost, we are no longer afraid.