Devil With Benefits (Gods & Guardians)

She stares into my eyes for a long few seconds. "I don't ever want to lie to you," she says. "So I'm going to go ahead and tell you the hard truth. I extracted my firm's data. I took everything. It's all on a small USB."

"But why?" I ask.

I can't imagine we'll need her company's data for anything important. Then again, my mind has been opened on a daily basis since I met Lucifer. Maybe it's all part of the plan.

She simply shrugs. "At the time, I was just reacting. I reached into my desk and took the most important items."

"You wanted revenge," I say.

She admits it with a nod. "My boss is a bad person, Ash. He governs over people's hopes and dreams. A crash in the economy is a beautiful fantasy to people like him. They live to take what others have built. Not only that, but he has worked with some of the most dangerous contractors in the world. Weapons and arms dealers. He may not be Lucifer, but he's pretty damn close, and I wouldn't put it past him to work out a deal with the guy."

She takes out the USB stick and lays it into my palm. "Here you go. Take it if you want," she says. "Throw it out the damn window. I don't need to seek revenge anymore. I have you. I have this."

I hold it into the sunlight and smile at her level of quick thinking. Somehow, I know this thing is going to be as important as the gun Lucifer gave me.

"I don't think it should be destroyed," I say. "I think you were right to take it."

She is silent, but I know she's thinking the same thing as I am. I don't need a revelation to understand what has to happen.

I raise my voice so that Loki and Heimdall can join in on the conversation. "Guys, I think there may be more people involved in this," I say.

Loki turns his head and asks, "Come again?"

I bite my lip and try to rephrase my idea. "Lucifer might be the least of our worries. Those Hellhounds, for instance. How did he find them? If he's not a god, why do they follow him? They have certain powers. For one, they can shift into faceless souls. When I shot them, they exploded into dead insects. Two, they have the ability to scent us out. What if there's someone else behind this?”

"Something more powerful than Lucifer?" Raven asks.

"Exactly," I say. "A whole network of bad dudes."

"Sounds like a bunch of new age malarkey to me," Loki says.

But I can tell both Heimdall and Raven are into the idea.

Heimdall smiles and taps against his seat. "Keep going. This is interesting," he says.

"Lucifer embodies the lower side of life. Greed, pride, total ego. By his very nature, he brings people into his realm, leaving them desperate and hopeless."

At this point, I'm just riffing on an idea, but it feels so real. Plus, what other information do we have to rely on? We don't have a map to reference. All we have are our hearts and minds.

I keep going. "Odin said that he's building an army. We have to dig deeper and find out what that means," I say.

Raven rolls her palms against her face, sighing loudly. "Right now, we have no one on our side. It's just the four of us, Ash. If the world heard us talking, they'd think we were crazy. The devil's influence has already started to spread."

Heimdall interjects. "People are easily influenced. That doesn't mean they're stupid. It simply means we need to show them that good can exist. Good can be powerful. It just takes some organizing."

"Love," Raven says. "It's more of a weapon than most care to admit."

Loki chuckles. "It's easy to think like that when you're getting laid," he says.

"C'mon, Loki. Don't be rude," Heimdall says.

Raven rolls her eyes. "Don't worry about it. I'm used to snide, male commentary. It's part and partial to being a woman."

I close my eyes and try to understand it all. I start to feel light headed. It's happening again. Another vision is starting to take control of my consciousness.

Even though I'm learning how to organize my revelations, the feeling still takes me by surprise. A swoosh of color penetrates my eyes, and I'm lost in the energy that seems to be encasing the future.

I see a building, old and completely abandoned. I hear screams. It's Raven's screams.