Hell's Revelation (Book 3)

Chapter 13

"Isn't it. Unfortunately not all the changes around here have been for the good. Now what do you say, are you going to willingly leave this prison Malick had you locked in, or are we going to have to drag you out kicking and screaming?"

"He's not holding me prisoner."

Lucas scoffed, making a sound for the first time since we entered the room. "Oh really, not a prisoner. So the locked door and swarm of Furies guarding the corridor outside were what? Coincidence?"

"No, they were obviously there to stop you lot bursting in here."

"Hmm, and look how effectively that worked. No, if he wanted to stop us, Malick would have been more clever than that, they were set up to keep you in, that much is clear." I watched Lucas roll his eyes in disdain, I already knew he had little time for Jesse – he had little time for most humans in general really – and now he couldn't see him for anything more than a pretender. Like a reverse of the old cliché, a sheep wearing wolf's clothing, a human pretending to be something much more deadly than it really is.

"Well unlike all of you, he's actually been helping me. Do you so easily forget that it was you, and that huge monstrosity that brought me here to be a prisoner in the first place."

I sighed, "No that...I didn't have a choice then and you know that. We didn't even know everything that was going on when Frank dragged you here, now we do, and Malick is right smack in the middle of all of it." I took a deep breath to try and stop myself from ranting or shouting or doing something else rash, I had to try and stay calm.

"Look, this is how things are. Lucifer wants to take sole control of Hell, which to put it bluntly is bad they're a collective of power for a reason. And if that wasn't bad enough, Malick cottoned on to the idea and think he might quite like to stop being Lucifer's dogs body and have all that tasty power for himself, and he'd quite like to use you for his own ends. You won't benefit from this arrangement, Jesse, not in the slightest."

I was summarising mightily, but I knew there was no way Jesse could fully comprehend the implication of what was going on around us. He wasn't born in Hell, he was human – or had been until very recently – and had been brought up with all the stories and legends that came with various religions and history, stories that we actively encouraged humans to believe so that they might never fully figure out the truth. They were far better off not knowing the truth, it left us free to do our jobs as we needed to. Although even that was being called into question now given Lucifer's practice over the last few centuries, however that was an issue to consider later. Jesse was at a severe disadvantage, and we didn't have the time to catch him up, not there.

"Just trust me, Jesse. You want to come with us, we can fill you in as soon as we're out of here, but for now we have to go."

"Trust you? How the hell do you expect me to trust you?" Jesse shouted, slamming his hand into the large bookcase against which he had been leaning, hard enough to send a few of the heavy, leather-bound tomes thudding to the floor. "You've done nothing but lie ever since I met you, I don't believe a single word that comes out of your mouth. And you." He turned to face Lucas, a look of pure fury contorting his formerly handsome face. "I still remember what you did to me, what you made me do..." He didn't go on, even though I had a feeling there was much more left unsaid it was as if he couldn't bring himself to let the words escape from his mouth.

"Good, because that was just the beginning of things." Lucas stood up, drawing himself up to his full height and squaring his broad shoulders. He moved towards Jesse, staring down at the shorter man until they were almost nose to nose. "And if you think that was bad, then you're in for a serious shock, because things around here are only going to get a whole lot worse. Killing Rayne was for the greater good, and look there she is again perfectly in tact. You think your a demon now? Well you're going to have to get used to having a little blood on your hands. And trust me, the things Malick will have you do will be a whole lot worse, and they won't be for the good of anyone but himself. So are you going to see sense? Or are we going to have to knock that sense into you?"