Lucifer had all he could take. "Now, we get our answers."
He opened the barn door and walked in to face the treacherous angels. "This is simple. We want to know why Raphael wants the gates open. What his plans are to make it happen, and what our daughter has to do with it."
Uriel sneered. "You have no powers,Fallen."
I masked it as best I could then flooded Lucifer with as much power as I could. As my power filled him, I realized Michael and Gabriel had done the same.
He hummed with energy and walked toward Uriel, who was being held captive by my powers. Only my death or choice to release him would do it now. It would take an angel more powerful than all of them to break my magical chains. Lucifer at his highest power might have been able to, but I didn't think anyone else could have.
Lucifer let the power filling him flow outward so that Uriel could feel it. He might have been able to tell where it came from, or figured it out, anyway, but he hadn't expected us to share. Lucifer was known for his lack of compassion when torturing the evil souls that needed to understand the meaning of pain.
They didn't expect me, however. Lucifer used our combined power to make them all hot. Not much at first. Just a barely perceptible shift of the air in their immediate vicinity. I stepped forward. "Have you heard the story about how to get a frog to be boiled willingly?" I asked.
They looked at me like I was nuts. "It's a good one." I chuckled. "Something about an old man who was too slow to chase frogs anymore but loved the taste of frog legs. So, he set up a nice pond for them. Unbeknownst to the frogs, underneath the pond was a fire. Now, at first, he had that fire burning real low," I lowered my voice and put a soothing quality to it. "But as time went on and the frogs hopped around, playing and enjoying the pond the old man had made for them, the water got warmer. But the frogs' body temperatures compensated for the gradual increase in temperature." I knew Lucifer was gradually upping the temperature. Enough now that they noticed. "And by the time the frogs figured out the temperature had gone up, the water was already near boiling."
Sweat popped out on all of their foreheads. "It's not fun to be boiling frogs, is it?" I laughed and grabbed the magic I hadn't sent to Lucifer.
Torture didn't require much, after all. Now that they were sweating, I used my power to stab them with a thousand needles. Not enough to bring blood. Just enough to bring pain.
They cried out in unison, matching looks of panic on their faces.
I let the needles of power go and let Lucifer speak. "I always get the information I want, in the end." They didn't respond.
"Why are you all being so loyal to Raphael?" Michael asked. "Is he worth your lives? Your souls?"
Gabe nodded. "If they kill you, they'll own your souls, you understand that don't you?"
"Okay," I said. "Let's try something else." I pointed at Genevra. She floated toward me, separating from the crowd. I moved her into one of the horse stalls and walked in behind her. Throwing up a ward through the stone, I masked any sound from the rest of the barn. Then, I grabbed Genevra's head and hammered at her psyche with my magic. She had pretty good defenses to keep me out of her head. I couldn't get in everyone's. It wasn't my strong suit. It was Lucifer's, but he wouldn't be able to do this with any magic but his own. Michael and Gabe didn't have the stomach for stuff like this.
It took a minute, but I got in there. Splitting my focus, I sent the sensation of pain directly into her mind without touching her body. I still didn't want to hurt the baby. With another tendril of magic, I opened the ward and let her screams reach the ears of the other two prisoners.
Slamming the ward down, I cut off her screams then let go of her mind, so she'd calm. With a close eye on her heart rate and the physical reaction of her body to the torture, I gave her the false sensation of pain again and opened the ward.
Her heart rate remained normal, at rest. She wasn't showing physical manifestations of the total mind warp I was giving her.
Good. I amped it up and her screams grew in pain and terror.
I cut it off abruptly, so the barn was silent again as I pushed her against the wall and asked my magic to keep her there. Then, I used my power to cut my finger and let it bleed. Wiping that blood all over my hands, I walked out of the stall.
Uriel's face paled as he looked at my hands. Ezekiel began to shout. "Genevra! No!"
Interesting reaction, that. "What? Were you fond of her?" I asked. Affecting a false attitude of sympathy, I tutted at him. "Sorry for your loss."
She wasn't dead. She was safe and sound in the stall, but thanks to my power and the big ruby, they didn't know that.
"She was my sister," Ezekiel sobbed. Real tears flowed down his cheeks.
Uriel looked at him, moving his eyes since I had the rest of him bound too tight. "Shut up your sobbing," he snarled. "That's what they want."
Lucifer chuckled. "Don't worry, Ezekiel. I'm sure she'll eventually be able to redeem herself and be reborn. Maybe you'll see her again."
"She was pregnant," Ezekiel yelled. "You are demons at heart, aren't you?"
Lucifer smiled and leaned forward. "Are you just now realizing that?"
"You know, Ezekiel. I can help her," I said. "I can make her time in Hell comfortable."
I leaned forward beside Lucifer. "Or we can make it horrible."
