Fashionably Dead Down Under(91)

“Yes,” she wailed and threw herself back to the floor. “I am so fucking stupid.”
I couldn’t disagree, but I needed to stop her bleeding. I was unsure if I had healing magic, but it was worth a try. She was in for a world of hurt with her father if we all made it through this. I closed my eyes and wished her healthy and whole. I felt the magic leave my fingertips and wrap her in a warm glow. The bleeding stopped, but her strength remained weak. I supposed that would come back when her power returned to her . . . in a fucking half hour. Shit, an angry dead guy could do a lot in a half hour.
“Where did you find the Sword?” I demanded.
“Den of Iniquity,” she answered unsteadily.
Shitshitshit. It was the Sword . . .
“I’m leaving you here. You’ll be okay.”
“Thank you, Astrid. Can I ask one more thing of you?”
“Go ahead.” She personified her name.
“Would you please kill him? I’ve had quite enough and if I can’t have him, no one else can either”
I laughed. Hard. “You are all insane,” I muttered as I raced out of the library. “Completely insane.”
***
Chaos ensued.
The ballroom was a shit show of enormous proportions. Someone using magic who had no clue how to control it was dangerous. Add the Sword to the combination and it was horrifying.
Demons were dying left and right—exploding and turning to dust. Terrorized screams and frantic running made seeing where the danger was difficult. I pushed through the throngs and saw Dante on the stage. He was wailing in fear and moving his arms wildly. He held the Sword and paced erratically. OMG, he had caused this and couldn’t stop it. He shrieked at the Sword and covered his eyes with his hands to avoid the massacre his avarice and stupidity had spawned.
The Guards had surrounded Satan in a protective wall, but even they were exploding and turning to ash. Satan’s lips moved and I knew he was chanting a spell, but time was of the essence. I spotted Ethan and Cole. They were removing Demons and tossing them to the exits. Their animosity forgotten, they worked together like a well-oiled machine. My relief that he was okay was profound, but I had a Sword to retrieve and a psycho to stop.
Too many Demons blocked my path. I hadn’t wanted to show all my party tricks to the population of Hell, but emergency bred necessity. I jumped and flew to the stage, landing and tackling Dante to the ground. I grabbed him by the neck and squeezed.
“End this bloodbath. Now,” I said and squeezed tighter.
“I don’t know how,” he gasped and dropped the Sword to the ground. “I don’t know how.”
His wail of grief went right to my toes. If I destroyed him would the magic die with him? I had no freakin’ clue. It would have been lovely to get to ask someone, but everyone was busy at the moment. Could I override his magic? I was unsure how much longer he even possessed it, but at the rate Demons were dying, even a minute was too long.
“What exactly did you plan to do up here?” I shouted in his face. Maybe if I knew his plan I could untangle it and stop the death.
“I wanted to humiliate him,” he gasped. “Like he humiliated me.” His voice grew stronger as his delusions of grandeur and ego took over. “I am the greatest writer of all time and he has made me look like a fool,” he hissed. His eyes were wild and he truly was nuts. “I wanted to show him I could steal his precious Sword and kill him any time I liked.” His eyes glazed over and he laughed.#p#分页标题#e#
“You were going to kill him?” I shook him back to the present.
“No. Never,” he told me. “I just wanted to show his people how weak and laughable he was.”
“You showed them alright,” I screamed at him. “Look at what you’ve done.”
His shrieking was pathetic as he watched the death and destruction of innocent people before him. I looked up and to my horror and darkest nightmares, I saw a family of Demons with small children and a baby detonate and blow up in front of me. Time stood still for the briefest of moments and the world tilted on its axis. A red-hot rage blasted from my soul and my skin turned sparkly black. Dante’s eyes widened in fear and he tried to escape. He keened and groaned like an animal and grabbed for the sword to kill himself with the Sword. He sliced his skin several times and nothing happened. WTF? Another fake. All of this and the damn thing was counterfeit? The bastard was already dead, but right now I wanted him deader.
I put my hands on Dante and let the chant find me. Sacrifice the one who sins for the lives of the innocent. Would his death bring those children back? Probably not, but there were hundreds of others in the room who could perish in the twenty minutes or so he still had Greed’s power in him.