Grounded ~Book Four of Winged~

Hate

"If you'll excuse me..." Beleth slides out of a conversation with some of the people nearby and I see him slip away of the group of people and he heads toward a door off to the side. I know exactly where he is going. He is going to go find Lucifer. I pull away from Eli as he had an arm wrapped around me and start toward him. I disappear into the many people before Eli or Dominic can stop me. I go through the door that Beleth went through and look both ways down the hall. He's gone. This place is a maze and I'll never find him if I try to find him. I turn around and run straight into someone's chest. I back up and my throat tightens.

"Beleth's looking for you." My mouth is dry as the words come out whispery. Lucifer smirks.

"He won't find me, but he will find you... dead." He shoves me back and my head smacks against the wall behind me from the force. The glint from his Demon blade catches my attention and I quickly sprint down the hall away from him. It's hard to run with heels on and I stumble to a stop when Lucifer appears right in front of me.

"You really can't run from me." Lucifer throws me to the ground and is on top of me in seconds. I fight against him roughly and he presses the knife against my throat, making me stop. I breathe heavy and stare up at him. "I'm so sick of you." He mumbles and his eyes scan Dominic's sigil under my left collarbone. He makes a disgusted face and pulls the knife away from my neck. He sticks the tip of the knife into the middle of the sigil and I flinch in pain as it cuts. He presses into the sigil, drawing blood. He mumbles something in a different language and shoves the blade roughly into the sigil. It explodes in burning excruciating pain and I scream loudly. After a few seconds, he removes the blade and eyes the spot before suddenly stabbing the knife into my stomach roughly. I yell out for help. He pulls the knife out and stabs it down again... and again. All the pain blends together and he gets off of me. I can barely get one of my arms to move. I struggle to set a hand on my bleeding stomach. My vision blurs and darkens. Lucifer kicks me in the side, rolling me onto my side, before he leaves through a passage. I'm bleeding heavily.

I am in and out of consciousness for what seems like forever before I hear running footsteps approach me fast.

"Trinity!" I hear Beleth shout and I force my eyes open and see I am still laying on my side in a pool of my own blood. Beleth carefully rolls me onto my back and he looks at all the stabs wounds and then he looks at my face. His eyes look at the sigil and he becomes panicked.

"Where did the sigil go?" He questions and presses his hands against the wounds.

"It's gone?" I mumble barely audible, confused.

"Your lifespan is no longer linked to Asmodeus's" Beleth mumbles and he carefuly slides his arms under me as a dull ringing grows loud and darkness engulfs me.

I feel extremely heavy and my eyelids open sluggishly. My body aches all over and my stomach is tightly wrapped under the loose shirt I am wearing. I am being propped up with several pillows. My eyes move slowly around the room. They stop on Beleth sitting in a chair beside the bed, reading what looks like a journal. My hand twitches as I try to move it and Beleth immediately shuts the journal and looks over at me. I slowly bring my hand to my stomach and feel the bandages under the shirt. It hurts a lot when I put pressure on certain parts.

"What happened?" I mumble and look back up at Beleth.

"You died..." I stare at him confused, " But you're in Hell so you're okay." Beleth continues and sets the journal on the nightstand beside the bed. "Here." He picks up several pills and a glass of water, handing them to me. I put the pills in my mouth and then take the water from him.

"What was that?" I question lightly and drink some more water.

"Iron supplements for the blood loss and some pain killers for the pain." I notice he is speaking softly to me and I stare at him. Beleth carefully lifts the bottom of my shirt a little and looks at the bandages.

"If he would have stabbed you in the heart, you would have died and stayed dead even in Hell." Beleth comments and brings the blankets up to my chin. "You're really lucky." He softly pushes some hair out of my face.

"Why didn't he stab me in the heart...?" I mumble to him quietly, watching him examine me.

"He was dumb and careless." Beleth replies and straightens up, adjusting his formal attire. "You should stay in bed and rest, I'm going out for a little bit. If you need anything, I have a servant outside your door, just call out for them." He walks around the bed and towards the door.

"Beleth?" He stops and looks back at me. "Are you going to kill him?"

"He doesn't deserve something that easy."

Etheriel

I block the bright light with my hand in front of my eyes while Zerach and Azrael stare right into the blinding light. I can feel the immense heavenly power radiating from the portal in front of us and I'm sure that every single angelic and even demonic being in the mortal realm can feel this.

"Who wants to go first?" Azrael says, trying to be funny. Zerach does not say anything and walks closer to the backdoor portal to Heaven. It took hours to open, but we did it. Zerach walks into the light and his silhouette disappears immediately. Azrael strolls into the light next and I glance around the crumbling room before walking into the blinding light. The light dies down and the air is warm and humid. I open my eyes and look around, confused immediately.

"Where are we?" I question and look at Zerach who is standing still with his eyes closed.

"Like we said, this is the backdoor to Heaven, it's not going to put us directly into Heaven HQ. We are in the dreamscape. Where people end up when they go to Heaven. Where their subconscious exists after death." Azrael explains and casually starts walking. "We just have to find the way out of here." Azrael continues to walk and I start to follow. He stops and looks back at Zerach who is still just standing with his eyes shut. "Zerachiel, what's up? You having an orgasm or something overthere?" Zerach finally opens his eyes and stares at Azrael.

"I have not been in Heaven in so long, even a sublevel of Heaven, it has not been long enough."