Robert Browne - The Paradise Prophecy

Placing his palm against her forehead, he blessed her and sent up a silent prayer. It was a formality more than anything else, but he hoped it meant something to someone out there and that this poor girl’s soul would do well in the otherworld.

As her pulse finally came to a stop, he glanced down at her hand and noticed a mark on the back of it, just above the crook of her thumb.

A faded stamp of some kind.

Lifting the hand, he tilted it toward the light from the doorway and took a closer look:

An orange flame. The numbers 904 below it.

He recognized it: an underground dance club named 904, near La Brea and Wilshire, that had derived its name from the local police code for fire. It was rumored to be owned by a media mogul named Jonathan Beel.

Beel, of course, was just a skin. A shell. Occupied by Michael’s old friend and nemesis-brother to Lucifer, and sometime lover of Belial.

Beelzebub.

Michael had never been to the club, had never had the desire to walk right into the lion’s den. But he knew now that he had no choice.

He was certain he’d find Jenna there.

What’re you gonna do to her?” Zack asked.

Jonathan Beelzebub Beel flicked his gaze toward the annoying little insect, his voice weary with contempt. “Are you still here?”

“I’m just curious, is all.”

“I’m beginning to think Belial didn’t do a thorough enough job when she turned you. Or are all of her drudges so nettlesome?”

“What does that mean?”

“Never mind,” Beelzebub said, and waved a hand at him dismissively. “Just sit the girl on the bed, then go wait in the hall.”

Beelzebub had been living above the club for several months now. He had a house in Bel Air and a penthouse in Century City, but he preferred the atmosphere of 904. He particularly enjoyed the feel of the relentless beat that seeped up through the floor all day and night. It made him feel alive.

“I had to give her a little taste,” Zack told him. “She didn’t want to at first, but she finally-”

“Didn’t I just tell you to go?”

“Okay, okay.” The insect took the girl by the shoulders and led her to the bed. She was indeed high. A little too high. And Beelzebub wished he’d simply handled the matter himself.

But he was a busy man. He had been using his network of media outlets to help fan the flames of insurrection around the world (humans believed anything they saw on TV) and the task was often difficult and time-consuming. He had people to help him, of course, but he’d always been a hands-on kind of guy.

Now he wished he’d been a bit more hands-on with young Jenna.

Zack sat the girl down and she teetered slightly, but caught herself before she fell. Despite the drugs, she was a lovely little thing. Beelzebub had always been attracted to older women himself-like the reporter he’d met the other night-but this one was something special. She was at that point in her life where her face and body had not yet betrayed her, and the smooth tautness of her young flesh was quite captivating.

If it turned out that Belial had been wrong about her, he might consider putting her on the market.

As the insect headed for the door, Beelzebub said, “You did as I instructed, right? With the other girl?”

Zack nodded. “We left her in the bathtub.”

“And the stamp?”

“Just like you told us.”

“Excellent,” Beelzebub said, then waved him away.

Michael found the battered blue Malibu parked in the lot behind the building.

The building itself was made of crumbling red brick, an old garment factory with boarded-up windows. The rear door looked like something out of a medieval torture chamber, and he assumed this was his old friend’s decorative addition to the place. During the Middle Ages, Beelzebub had spent many years in the skin of a lieutenant at the Tower of London, the proud inventor of a racklike device that would compress a subject’s body until blood ran out of his ears and nose.

The door was unlocked and Michael stepped inside. With the windows boarded up, the only light filtered in through the cracks and seams. The place was huge and musty and mostly vacant, except for the row of old sewing machines on one side of the room, covered with cobwebs, most of them still carrying giant spools of thread. Several bolts of faded fabric were stacked in a nearby corner.

On the other side of the room was a pile of old plumbing pipes, and at the far end was another door. Michael moved to it and pushed it open, and the moment he did, he heard the steady thump thump thump of a dance beat.

A set of steps led downward into darkness, black graffiti and shallow gouge marks covering the walls on either side-signs and symbols that were very familiar to Michael, including Beelzebub’s sigil, buried beneath a string of profanity.

Somebody obviously knew him quite well.

Moving down the steps, he followed a dingy hallway to another door, where a drudge about the size of a Winnebago stood guard, staring at him as if he were an invader from Mars.

Michael tried to push past him, but the guy put a hand on his shoulder. “Who’s your sig?”

“The man himself,” Michael said.

The Winnebago gave him a snort. “Yeah, I’ll bet.”

But then he stepped aside anyway, letting Michael into another hallway with graffiti-scarred walls. As Michael moved toward the far end, he listened carefully for Jenna.

Her song was still weak, but he had no doubt that she was here somewhere.

Beelzebub crouched next to the girl. “How are you feeling, my angel?”

Jenna wobbled slightly, tried to focus on him. “Kinda weird… Who’re you?”

“My name is Jonathan. I’m a friend of Zack’s. He said you weren’t feeling well and asked if he could bring you up here for a while.”

She looked around the room. Blinked. “… I don’t like it here. Where’s Zack?”

“Dancing. Do you like to dance?”

She shrugged. “Yeah, I guess so…”

“Well, I’ll tell you what. As soon as I get the phone call I’m waiting for, I’ll have Zack take you downstairs so you can have some fun. Okay?”

“…I still feel weird…”

“Don’t worry. That’ll wear off in a few minutes and you’ll be fine. Would you like to lay down?”

“Yeah … ,” she murmured. “I think I better.”

She carefully pulled her legs onto the bed and lay on her side, closing her eyes. Beelzebub studied her, admiring her delicate features, the pale white throat. Too bad Belial wasn’t here. She’d so enjoy this.

He reached over and smoothed her hair. “Zack tells me you’ve had some bad things happen to you, Jenna. Is that true?”

She stirred. “…What kinda things?”

“He says you ran away from home because of your stepfather.”

She hesitated. “I don’t want to talk about that.”

“Does it give you pain, Jenna? Thinking about what he did to you?”

“Yes … Stop.”

“What if I could make all that pain go away, my angel? Would you like me to help you take away the pain?”

She opened her eyes. There was a trace of tears in them. “…Who are you? Why are you asking me this stuff?”

“Because I want to help you, Jenna. There may come a time when you’ll have to make a choice. And I want to help you make the right one. Will you let me do that?”

The phone rang before she could answer.

He reluctantly got to his feet, went to his desk, and hit the intercom. “Yes?”

“Guy just came in. Could be him.”

“What did he look like?”

“Solid. Gray hair. Beard. Maybe sixty or so. But not somebody you’d wanna go one-on-one with.”

The same description the insect had given him. Assuming the idiot knew what he was talking about.