“Don’t call me that,” Rev ground out. “My father was an angel.”

“Sandalphon was a self-righteous jackass,” Satan scoffed. “I’ve been a father to you in all the ways that matter.”

So apparently, what mattered in a father was that they kept their sons in cages and forced them to witness their mother’s abuse. Oh, and then, to be a truly good father, one should send said son to the Mines of Agony to slave for decades.

Revenant would have to remember that if he ever had a kid.

“Let’s agree to disagree.”

Satan smiled. The nasty smile that always came a split second before pain and death.

Oh, fuck —

Revenant didn’t have time to brace himself before the Dark Lord, who had mutated into a wet, blackened, skeleton-like beast, had him pinned to the wall. Satan’s claws dug deep into Revenant’s rib cage, and pain rocked him hard as his blood pumped in thick spurts onto Satan’s bony chest. Drool dripped out of the king of demons’ mouth, which had taken on a snout-like form, his jagged sharklike teeth glistening as he gnashed them.

“Your promotion to Shadow Angel has made you the most powerful being in Sheoul,” he growled. “Except for me. It would take a thousand of you to harm me. A hundred thousand to destroy me.” Indescribable pain carved out Rev’s insides as Satan yanked his X-Man claws out of Revenant, ripping out his beating heart through his chest. “Keep that in mind.”

Alpha demon display of power noted.

Revenant couldn’t speak a word as he slid down the wall, his wobbly legs unable to support him. All he could do was watch as Satan bit into Rev’s throbbing heart. Agony like he’d never known ripped him apart. He heard screaming, and through the black curtain of misery he wondered if someone else was being tortured, too. Maybe even killed; one of the surefire ways to kill an angel – of either fallen or fully haloed variety – was to eat their heart.

Then Revenant realized the screaming was coming from him.

The world spun around him in endless, miserable loops. Was he dead? Were the Grim Reaper’s griminions even now on their way to reap his pathetic soul?

He didn’t know how long he lay like a piece of meat on the cold floor before he heard the Dark Lord’s voice calling his name.

Opening his eyes, he found himself lying in a pool of blood. Satan was back in his usual humanlike form, dressed in a nice suit and licking blood from his lips. Biting back a groan, Revenant shoved himself up to his knees. It took a lot more effort than he’d have liked.

“Why am I not dead?” Revenant muttered.

“You’re a Shadow Angel. Only I, the entire contingent of archangels, or God himself can kill you, and it’ll take a lot more effort than simply noshing on your heart.” Satan strode through the pile of remains on his way to the throne, his Italian leather shoes squeaking wetly in the gore. “And if you’re entertaining any ideas of defecting to Heaven, let me just end that right now. Sandalphon might have fucked you into existence, but it’s my blood that runs through your veins.”

Revenant rubbed his chest, which was already mostly healed. He could even feel a new heart thumping around in there. “I don’t understand.”

“When you were a baby, you were fed your mother’s milk, mixed with demon blood.”

“I know that,” he said. At least, now he knew that. Two weeks ago he’d been clueless.

Satan sank down on his throne made of bones. “Surely you didn’t think we gave you something that came from some random demon’s vein? It was my blood. I bound you to me and this realm forever. You are corrupt, and entering Heaven will corrupt the very realm. So yes, in all the ways that matter, I am your father.”

Revenant’s gut rolled. Being Satan’s “son” didn’t give him any special privileges. On the contrary, the king of demons expected more from his children, and when they let him down, he had a way of not taking it well. His daughter, Harvester, was living proof of that. If Reaver hadn’t saved her from his clutches, she’d still be in Satan’s dungeons, being tortured every minute of every day, in ways even Rev’s sick mind couldn’t comprehend.

“Is this why you summoned me, my lord? To dine on cardiac tartare and regale me with stories of my childhood?”

“Father,” Satan said, his voice distilled into pure malevolence. “You will call me Father.”

Fuck that. To do so would be a disgrace to his mother and his real father. “Why did you summon me?” Rev repeated.

“Why did you summon me, Father?” Satan snarled, and abruptly, pain squeezed Revenant’s brain. “Say it.”

Clutching his head, Revenant ground out, “Why did you summon me?” Another blast of pain struck him, and blood spurted from Rev’s ears.

The king of demons got in his face. “Say it.”

“Why did you summon me?” Revenant shouted, and then an unbelievable crush of agony drove him to his knees. Blood poured from his nose as his skull caved inward.

Satan went down on his heels in front of Revenant. “So fucking stubborn.” A sly smile curved his crimson lips. “Call me Father. It’s a new rule.”

Damn him. Deep inside, Revenant trembled with the need to obey. The one thing that had been drilled into him almost since birth was the need to follow rules. Breaking them meant pain, and while pain was something Rev could handle, watching his mother suffer the most heinous torture because he broke rules was not something he’d been able to deal with.