"You WHAT?" Lucifer demanded.

The Wizard's voice sounded like rocks being crushed. "I must report intolerable news..."

"WHAT?"

Think! Ca.s.sie kept telling herself, using the distraction. It's in your head somewhere. So find it!

A droning pause, then the Wizard's lips parted and said, "The Etherean just committed suicide-"

"NO!" Satan exploded.

Think! Ca.s.sie kept repeating. Think! Remember! What was it?

"-at the Bastille of Otherwise Souls," the Wizard finished. "The Bastille is destroyed."

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

Lucifer rushed to the mouth of the Nectoport. He looked out, just as a distant light flashed. Even Ca.s.sie could see the light. A flash and a mushroom cloud.

Lucifer fell to his knees.

Then Ca.s.sie remembered, dragged the incomprehensible words from her mind, and said: "Enw nalde flveaaiz me staadpa stilluadte."

Silence.

Angelese smiled, and froze.

The Usher holding Ca.s.sie's net stood immobile from the Paresis Invocation. The remaining Ushers, the Biowizard, and even Lucifer himself were totally paralyzed. Ca.s.sie managed to shrug out of the Usher's grasp now, and dragged off the net. Wincing, she dug her fingers into her wound and unseated the glowing green chip of stone. She flicked it out of the Nectoport. Then she turned to the Usher behind her and said, "Out." The Usher churned against its paralysis, lumbered toward the Nectoport's Egress, and jumped out. "Pull those out of her," she commanded the pair of Ushers who still held the pikes in Angelese, "and then jump out." They did, and then a final command, to the Biowizard and remaining Ushers, "All of you, out!"

One by one, they all jumped out of the Nectoport. More silence. Ca.s.sie's hair whipped around in the wind when she looked out. The Bastille, she thought. Angelese had mentioned it during their Trance-Channel from the clinic. All those suicidal souls... released.

Suicidal souls...

"Lissa?" Ca.s.sie jerked around, stared down at where her sister's disfigured body had been lying.

It was just dust now.

She could only hope what that meant. She returned her gaze out the Nectoport. In the distance, the glowing mushroom cloud was dissipating, drawing a shroud of dust over the entire district.

So that's what happens when an Etherean or an Etheress dies in h.e.l.l. But a further glance showed her the now-familiar Atrocidome, its huge Killing Plate dropping yet again in the next Merge. Another Deadpa.s.s destroyed.

"Uh, excuse me?" Angelese said. "If you're not too busy, I'd prefer not to spend eternity unable to move from a Paresis Spell."

"Sorry," Ca.s.sie said. "But what should I do with him?" Her eyes fell on the Morning Star, who remained paralyzed himself.

"Send him on a trip. The f.u.c.ker will never die, but I'm sure a good long fall will at least muss his hair."

Ca.s.sie liked the idea.

"Don't," the First Fallen Angel said. "Join me. You'll be more powerful than any woman in history."

"Gimme a break!" His shoulders felt warm when she began to push.

"G.o.d d.a.m.n you," came his crystalline whisper. Black sparkles seemed to hover in the wake of his words. Ca.s.sie pushed him out of the Nectoport. She didn't even bother watching his fall.

"How do I break the Paresis Spell?" she asked next.

Angelese rolled her eyes. "You're an Etheress. Why do you think all those Ushers jumped out when you told them to? They were under the Spell too."

My words break the Spell, she realized. She looked at Angelese and said, "You're not paralyzed."

Angelese got up, worse for wear. Her blood had dried on her gown and had turned it into some kind of hip tie-dye. The wounds were already beginning to heal.

"I'd ask you if you're all right but that would be a pretty dumb question, wouldn't it?"

"I've been treated worse," Angelese said.

"I'm trapped here, aren't I?"

"Yes. By the time you found a Deadpa.s.s, they'll all have been destroyed by the Merges."

Ca.s.sie leaned against the Port's slimy wall. "I don't know what to do now. I know what I should do, but I don't know if I can do it."

"What do you want more than anything?"

Ca.s.sie's fingers touched her locket. "I want to see my sister."

"She's gone now. But you know where she is, right?"

"Yes."

The angel grinned slyly. "Have you been a good girl?"

"I've never stolen, I've never hurt anyone, I try not to lie, I try to be cool to everyone." Her mind ticked. Who knows? "Jeez, I've never even been to third base!"

"Then don't worry."

Ca.s.sie's heart was thumping. "What about you?"

"I'll be fine."

Ca.s.sie put a hand to her belly and looked down again over the edge of the Egress. They were still hovering. Directly below her stood the ma.s.sive Mephis...o...b..ilding.

Oh, man.

"I guess I'll never hear Rob Zombie or Sisters of Mercy again," she murmured.

Angelese laughed. "Probably not. But there are better things to hear. Wondrous things."

Ca.s.sie turned one last time to the angel.

Angelese was smiling. She took off her Obscurity Stone, and at once, the Nectoport was radiant in light. But even through that light, the angel's smile could still be seen, and that's when Ca.s.sie jumped out of the Nectoport.

Epilogue.

"This sucks. I'm gonna have to find some new digs."

Her name was Tony, a Human when she'd arrived here for a life of considerable indulgence, uncharitablility, and deceit. The appealing looks of her sultry Spirit Body quickly caught the eye of the Agency of the Constabulary, who'd just as quickly done the job on her, for the sake of commerce, of course. A simple Lycantropic Organic Vexation plus several Transfigurations had changed the attractive streetwalker from San Francisco's Mission District into an attractive werewolf streetwalker from the Mephistopolis's Eichmann District. Totty was now a full-fledged, to-the-max, turn-every-head-in-town, down-and-dirty Lycanymph.

"s.h.i.t, business is in the tubes," she complained to a half-melted woman at the carry-out cafe. "I've only had two tricks all night, and they were both bj's. f.u.c.kin' chumps arc such tightwads." She bought a hot cup of rusted water for a five-cent McVeigh piece. Awful, but at least it helped get rid of the taste. The taste Humans left in her mouth was bad enough, but-yowzah!-Trolls and Zombies were the worst.

"I knuh-low," the attendant mumbled back. "The-the duh-duh-dlagnets."

Totty guessed she meant dragnets, and she was right. The Merge operations were cleaning the streets. No customers! Like she was telling that skinny kid the other night. What was a girl to do? Erotopathic Lycanymphs had bills to pay too, you know.

Her silken blond fur shimmered in the sulphur light. Her high-heels snapped on the bone-embedded pavement. Rings pierced all eight of her gorged nipples, glittering like tinsel. She'd really dolled herself up tonight, but why? The dragnets made the johns too scared to come out for some action.

Two lousy tricks, she complained. Tap-tap-tap, went her high-heels. s.h.i.t, s.h.i.t, s.h.i.t, went her thoughts. She pa.s.sed some shops-GEIN'S CUTLERY (LESSONS AVAILABLE), WALLACE WHEELCHAIRS, MEHITOBEL'S ROTTEN HEAD BOUTIQUE-and at least noticed with some satisfaction that the dragnets were killing everyone's business, not just hers.

"Man-Burgers?" a voice inquired.

Aw, Christ. Totty hated to be tempted. The sizzling sound wafted wonderful aromas into her nostrils. She turned, stood arms crossed and hip c.o.c.ked, tapping her foot. The Troll vendor's liverwurst face looked hopeful as her vulpine eyes appraised the sizzling patties. I got ten bucks tonight! I can't blow my dough on food.

"Gimme one burger and I'll give ya a k.n.o.bjob, cutie. Lemme suck the chrome off that trailer-hitch."

The vendor crackled laughter.

Totty frowned. After all, she gave a great k.n.o.bjob. "All right, one burger for a half and half. And you can take all the time you want."

The vendor kept laughing.

"Hey, buddy, I've had your burgers before and lemme tell ya, they ain't all that great. What's so d.a.m.n funny?"

"No, no, you don't understand!" the vendor chuckled back. "I'd love to take ya up on that deal, but I can't."

"Why not?"

"I got penecomied and gelded by the Constabs five hundred years ago." He pointed to the groinal area of his blood-splotched ap.r.o.n. "There ain't nothin' down there you can do a half and half on!"

a.s.shole. Totty strutted away. Why does my eternal life have to be so f.u.c.ked up? Then she stopped. That's why ...

She'd stopped mid-stride in the middle of the street. She was looking up.

In the bright phosphoric spotlights of Satan Park, the 666-floor Mephis...o...b..ilding shined, the black sickle moon shimmering behind its obelisk form.

"That's why my life's all f.u.c.ked up. Because of the a.s.shole who lives there... " All right, so she hadn't been a model of good-will and altruism in the Living World, and, sure, she'd sinned her b.u.t.t off.

But this? Did she really deserve this?

I gotta live in this gore-hole of a city for eternity, turning tricks as a f.u.c.kin' eight-t.i.tted werewolf, and for what?

The question seemed legitimate, or at least to an eight-t.i.tted werewolf prost.i.tute in h.e.l.l. She pointed up at the impossibly high building, jabbing a finger like a knife. "You've got all the power, you schmuck. You could make things better for all of us. It doesn't have to be this bad, does it? No, but you make it this bad just 'cos you're an a.s.shole!"

Totty huffed off, fuming, and either fantasizing or praying, Yeah, man, one of these days I hope someone f.u.c.ks you up but good- WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWHAP!.

"Whoa-boy! What was that?"

Ahead of her, twenty-foot-long cracks spiderwebbed the pavement, and a figure lay there. He'd obviously fallen from a tremendous height.

Jesus Christ! And he's getting up!

It was hard for Totty to make out any details of the figure. He seemed tall, slender but toned and whatever it was he wore was dappled with blood that looked black. He struggled to his feet. Obviously broken-boned but somehow still able to rise, and before he staggered away, he looked at her.

Totty's eyes narrowed. He was looking right at her but for some reason she couldn't see his face.

Then he hobbled away.

A Fallen Angel? she wondered. Only one of that crowd would be able to get up after a fall like that. Totty just shrugged. Big deal. Crazy s.h.i.t happened here, and there were plenty of Fallen Angels bopping around. She sure didn't mind seeing one of them get his clock cleaned.

Just as she would stroll off again, though, she stiffened. Her fur began to stand up, like a cat in a room that had just been entered by a predatory animal. Totty had certain hyper-sensitivities now that she'd been transformed. Her hearing, for instance, was as perceptive as a wolfs.

Her ears p.r.i.c.ked up; her gaze shot high.

It wasn't a scream she heard, was it? It was a wheeling, swirling shriek, yes, but it seemed gleeful, like someone on the fastest ride at the amus.e.m.e.nt park.

"Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!"

Then Totty's eyes spotted something, too. Way, way up. Just a speck falling in a straight line.

In a second, it was gone, and so was the shriek. Whatever that speck had been, it had fallen right onto the top of the Mephis...o...b..ilding.

"What the h.e.l.l was that?" she wondered aloud.

She'd never really know.

A split-second later, Totty was knocked to the pavement by the concussive blast that hit her hard as a sledge-hammer to the chest. Before she could even think what had happened, a white flash lit the sky. It was blinding.

Then came the roar.

Like the loudest thunder she had ever heard. The ground vibrated, then trembled, then it seemed that the entire district, if not the entire city itself, was shaking at its foundations.

A pillar of fire rose in the distance. Through the teeth-chattering rumble, Totty watched astonished as the Mephis...o...b..ilding collapsed from top to bottom. A mile-high mushroom cloud rolled up over it, topped by a great flower of orange-tinted, smoky light.