Flaming Dove Read Online Free Page A

and Lucifer during their rebellion, when God banished them from Heaven to become demons. But his divine beauty and strength remained. I could have any woman, and I have found the one of my dreams, he told himself. Zarel is of great lineage, powerful and famous in Hell; she is my perfect match. Laila means nothing to me now.
    "There is no more pain," he said, still facing the statue, not turning to look at his wife. "Only old pain, long dissipated."
    "Then let me kill her," came Zarel's voice behind him.
    He shook his head. "We need her."
    Zarel leapt, flew over his head, and landed before him, smoking and flaming, fangs bared. She hissed, flames rose from her nostrils, and her scales glinted. "You need her, my lord? Do you miss your Laila's kisses? She must not live. If she returned to this city to join Michael, she must die. I will kill her myself. Many fear Laila the half-demon, but I don't."
    Beelzebub lifted his hammer and chisel. He chipped a speck from the statue's left wing, smoothing it to look like leather. "Laila would not join Michael," he said. "She hates Heaven more than she hates Hell. She is Lucifer's daughter. Heaven's holy water burns her, and its harps make her ears bleed."
    Zarel grabbed his arm, pulling his hand away from the statue. She glowered. "She hates Hell too. Remember when she visited? The hellfire burned her skin; she fled back to Earth half dead. Why do you let her live? Lucifer would have killed her."
    Beelzebub snarled, surprised at his sudden anger, and shoved Zarel against the wall. She hit the bricks, chipping off pieces of stone, and growled, drooling like a mad dog. "Lucifer is dead now," he said icily. "Hell is mine."
    She laughed mirthlessly, drool like lava falling from her maw. "Lucifer? Forget not, my husband. You killed Lucifer because he refused to let you marry his daughter. You killed him because you loved Laila, and he did not approve. So do not speak to me, your wife, of Lucifer dying."
    Gazing at his wife, Beelzebub felt his anger fade, felt guilt fill him. Of course this would be difficult for Zarel, and of course he loved his new demon wife. After Laila fled into exile, refusing to marry him, Beelzebub had chosen the greatest demon in Hell to be his bride instead. Zarel. She was unlike him in every way. He was a fallen angel, a cursed being of dark beauty, banished from Heaven, one of the original angels who rebelled against God. And she was an archdemon born in hellfire, forged in the deepest pits of Hell, an ancient evil of horns, scales, flame. Perhaps we will never fully understand each other, Beelzebub thought, but still he loved her; she was the most powerful being he knew of, aside from himself and perhaps Laila. No one better to be his bride... after Laila fled, that was.
    Could Laila have truly returned now, after all these years? He remembered her last words to him. "I love you, Beelzebub," Laila had said, bloody tears on her cheeks, after he killed Lucifer. "But I'm half angel. I can never be yours."
    The candles guttering in the belfry around him, Beelzebub lowered his head. "Zarel, I'm sorry. I promise you, you are the only woman I love. Laila means nothing to me now."
    "Then let me kill her."
    He turned back to the window and stared at that distant glow of angels, those troops of Heaven hunkered down, waiting, still fighting after so long. "Zarel, this war has been going on for twenty-seven years. We are old and tired now, Michael and I, and we might never beat each other down. But Laila... with her power, she could change the tide. If she joins us, we can—"
    "She will never join us," Zarel said. "She is half angel, and Hell is poison to her. Isn't that why she left you in the first place? She will never fight with us, and I will not have her here, I will not have that woman in my court. Do you hear me, Beelzebub? If truly you have no feelings for Laila, then send me on the hunt. I will bring back her body, scorched and broken. I will feed upon her