Devil Possession

1

Shide smiled as hell rained down upon the Angels. Most were able to summon protective power as in time, but not all. Some screamed as they burned and the Devil took a deep breath of satisfaction. There was a muffled sound beside him that had his eyes sliding over towards the vampire leader.

Ray didn't appear as happy as the Devil had thought he'd be.

"What ever is the matter?" he asked, his voice light and airy despite the scent of burning flesh that filled his lungs.

Ray lips twisted. "You're playing with them."

There was more than a hint of disgust in the other man's voice and it was enough to have glowing devil eyes focus entirely on the young Vampire. Ray blinked, his shoulders tensing as he realized that he might have said something to offend the Prince of Hell.

Shide was tempted play with him a bit, but Ray was . . . not unlikeable-even with his rather pedantic and tedious personality. He moved his gaze back to the battle and gave an unconcerned shrug. "They're so predictable, these angels-one must derive one's fun from somewhere."

The vampire apparently didn't know when not to push because his tense voice sounded once more. "We didn't ask you to torture them-"

Shedi was before him in a fraction of a second, cutting Ray off. His eyes flashed and Ray let out a strangled gasp. "But you did ask for our help all the same." Shide said, his tone taking on an otherworldly demonic hiss. "You allowed my father access to this plane to fight this war. Do not complain at our methods for winning."

Alex stepped forward then. "The vampire is young, Shide. He still feels a connection to Angels. Do not take his words to heart. We are very grateful that our demonic king came to our aid when we needed you."

Shide looked away from Ray and towards the Alex, a smile pulling at his features. The help of the demonic realm hadn't come free of charge, of course. Despite what the Angels believed, Lucifer hadn't been interested in invading the human world-he liked human women too much to release the unrelenting hunger of his demonic armies upon the Earth.

He had less of a problem releasing them into Heaven so long as he was given his tribute. The vampire and other creature populations had been decimated by the sacrifice they'd been forced to make-Immortals lives were far more valuable than most and a true sacrifice had been required . . . especially when one of the conditions was to leave when the war was finished.