Felt the intent.
Tucking his span close, he dove down, veering to the right before flipping on his back and extending again to slow his descent. The glint of a sun’s ray off metal armor momentarily blinded him. Already familiar with Michael’s tactics, he shot straight at the threat, mindful of additional trickery.
The impact of their bodies jarred him, not dissimilar to running full steam into a freight train. He’d done it once, and the comparison was apt. The jolt traveled from his toes to his teeth.
Michael had put on muscle.
Unfortunately for Luc, his brother had also learned a few new tricks.
Dirty ones.
The knee to his groin nearly plunged him straight to earth, but he caught himself in time for Michael’s follow-up strike. Steel scraped across his scapula and cut into the base of his flight joint. Feathers exploded in a spray of black, a sharp contrast against the sky, as pain ripped through his back.
“Fuck!”
Off balance, he fell.
But Michael had accounted for that, too, and was already hot on his heels.
Luc had two choices: fight wounded or call in reinforcements.
A quick scan of the landscape beneath him showed the perfect battleground. He touched down, retracted his left wing, and tucked his right as much as his injury allowed. Similar to how he had with Nadia at the pool, he stilled in relaxed anticipation.
Michael dropped from above, in full warrior regalia, so self-assured and righteous, Luc almost laughed.
Arrogant ass.
“I want the triscelene, Lucifer. Hand her over, and I will let you walk away.”
“Why didn’t you take her last night when you murdered Dina and Raziel?”
Resentment burned in Michael’s sapphire eyes. “Fool. If I’d have been within feet of that abomination, I’d have put her to death.”
Rage detonated in Lucifer’s brain, flowing through him with such fierceness, he feared he’d kill him. His reaction stemmed from years of suppressed emotions. The trigger? Michael claiming Nadia an abomination.
She was worth a thousand of him.
Red angel fire burst from Lucifer’s right palm, keeping his enemy at bay as he withdrew his sword from a back sheath with his opposite hand. Once armed, he ran his fingers along the blade in a deceptively casual manner, setting it alight. The action took less time than a mortal blink.
“The only death you should be concerned with is your own, Michael,” he replied. The ice in his tone and the promise of retaliation in his gaze would convey that he meant business.
As expected, Michael’s eyes widened a fraction in recognition of the threat. Angel fire, unique to the advanced of their kind, could cause untold agony. Not many things killed one of them, but the damage would be great and the healing a slow, arduous process.
To a one, the celestials knew Lucifer as the master of the flame.
“She will hinder you, not help. Why protect her, Luc?” Michael asked. The question was calculated to lower his guard and make Lucifer pause to think, but the tactic proved useless against him.
In reply, he lifted his sword and sliced through the fabric of space, effectively providing a portal for his daemons to join him.
“To me!” he shouted.
Michael swore and took flight.
Sending a blast of fire in his direction, Lucifer grinned. When his wing was fully healed, there would be Hell to pay, and Michael had better have the coin.
Luc reached Nadia’s sliding door, and finding it partially opened, paused to listen. Hearing nothing out of the ordinary wasn’t reassuring. A perpetrator could be lying in wait, expecting him to react as he had by rushing to her side. Only a fool would play into their hands this way. But he couldn’t stay away.
Closing his eyes, he drew on his Creator-given power and halted time. He had three minutes at best. With a focus on finding any celestial energy, Luc swept through the main areas of her home. Discovering them empty, he headed for the bedroom.
