text: Bill fought beside the Seraph, swinging his glowing sword into another of the small, spindly shadow monsters — the Demons. The blade sang in his mind, an uplifting tune that strengthened his limbs and whispered advice to him.
  
  And he heeded that advice, his attacks growing more sure. He didn't understand how the blade taught him, but he was grateful for it as he fought in the blistering heat. His sweat evaporated off his skin the moment the droplets escaped his pores. Blasted, red rocks reared everywhere, the air stank of sour eggs, and pools of molten rock glowed across the landscape.
  
  "Watch out, Bill!" Cynthia shrieked.
  
  He pivoted, swinging the sword down in an overhand arc and severing the shadow Demon in half. "Thanks!"
  
  "I got to watch out for my fiancé," she answered, color suffusing her cheeks.
  
  They had made love on the long fall into Hell, and Bill had finally freed her from Daevia's clutches after the Succuba had thrown her upon the Hellgate. And as they made love, Bill had proposed to her, and she had accepted.
  
  But now they were surrounded by the hordes of Hell. More and more kept skittering around jagged rocks or leaping out of the hazy, yellow gloom, a noxious smog worse than any Bill had seen the few times he had been to LA.
  
  Sophia danced past him, graceful as ever, her white feathers trailing behind her as her flaming sword cleaved three Demons in half. "That's it," Cynthia muttered, and Bill noticed his blonde fiancée, naked and lovely, had her blue eyes fixed on Sophia.
  
  A white feather drifted past Bill's face, fallen from Sophia's beautiful, white wings and on a crazy impulse, he held out his hand to catch —
  
  The feather fell straight through his hand like it wasn't real.
  
  "Oh, no, Bill!" Cynthia shouted.
  
  Sophia's sword lunged past his face and impaled a Demon that had been leaping at him.
  
  "Thanks, Sophia!" he cried out.
  
  The Angel didn't answer, pivoting to attack another group of Demons.
  
  "Pay attention, Bill!" Cynthia snapped.
  
  "Sorry," he said sheepishly, putting the mystery of the feather out of his mind. Maybe Sophia wasn't really here, but was projecting her mind or something. Rochelle probably would know. She had that book almost memorized. The last Bill had seen of the Seraph, she had been lying on the altar at Our Lady of Angels badly wounded by Daevia's chain. A black-green corruption, like the patina on bronze, had been slowly consuming her flesh.
  
  "You stink of love," purred a beautiful, hungry voice.
  
  Bill whirled and there stood Daevia, black chain in hand and —
  
  No, it wasn't Daevia, but a being that looked very similar. She had black wings and blood-red hair, like Daevia, but her face was more haughty, her lips narrowed almost to a point, and her breasts were not as big.
  
  "I will enjoy corrupting you, Mortal," the Succuba hissed, reaching out at Cynthia with a black-gloved hand.
  
  "I am beyond your power!" Cynthia hissed and spat in the Succuba's face.
  
  There was a gray ribbon about Cynthia's throat and it flared with pure light as the Succuba touched her. The leather glove covering the Demon's hand burst into white flames, and she reeled back, face twisted in pain.
  
  "A soulmate's love!" hissed the Succuba. "Well, there are other ways to crack that armor."
  
  The blasted, red rocks crunched beneath Bill's feet as he charged across the ground. The Succuba raised her black chain. Fear clenched about his heart. He remembered what that chain had done to Sophia, and Cynthia just stood there calmly facing the Demon.
  
  He had to save her.
  
  His fiancée pointed her finger and Sophia flew past Bill in a flurry of white feather's, her flaming sword jutting forward like the prow of a ship, knifing through the air and impaling into the Succuba's chest.
  
  "No!" the Demon shrieked, and then her body shriveled black and disgusting, her breasts becoming two dried sacks. The truth of love had dispelled her illusion of lust, revealing the true monster that lurked at the heart of a Succuba.
  
  The shadowy Demons cried in despair, and skittered away, crawling over the craggy terrain.
  
  "Yeah, and don't come back!" Bill shouted, kicking a severed head at the fleeing mob. He turned and nodded to Sophia. "Thanks for the help."
  
  "You're welcome," Cynthia smiled. Sophia stood immobile, not answering at all. Then she distorted like an image viewed through a prism, transformed into rainbow light, and wavered away like a mirage.
  
  "The hell," Bill muttered. The ground rumbled beneath his feet.
  
  "I made her," Cynthia smiled, then walked over to Bill, and he found he couldn't take his eyes off her lovely, naked form. Her breasts were small, little apples, with bright-pink nipples, her body was toned and athletic from playing lacrosse, and she had a neat thatch of straw between her legs.
  
  "You made her?" Bill frowned as she threw her arms around his neck and pressed her lithe body against his. His cock hardened against her. She wasn't the only one naked.
  
  "I'm not sure how," Cynthia frowned. "She wasn't real. I formed her out of the light."
  
  "Wow."
  
  "So when those things charged me, I panicked, and there was this lovely energy filling me up." She blushed. "I think you gave it to me when we..."
  
  "Made love?"
  
  She nodded, blushing deeper. She had been a virgin when he had taken her, and though Daevia had forced her into many sexual situations, she still maintained that innocence. "Anyway, I had this reservoir of power, and I used it to shape the light."
  
  "An illusion?" One of his dreams tickled at his mind.
  
  "Yeah. I was scared, and I remembered how terrifying Sophia was to me when she appeared this morning, and I... created her."
  
  "Only she affected the Demons."
  
  Cynthia shrugged. "I saw her feathers fall through the ground and through you, so I don't know. You gave me this power."
  
  "It's love."
  
  She blinked. "What?"
  
  "It's the antithesis of the Demons. My love gave you the power, and your love for me let you shape it into the illusion. It embodied love. No wonder it was so effective against the Succuba."
  
  Cynthia smiled at that, looking up at him. "That's kinda beautiful, Bill. Our love defended us."
  
  "Yeah, that's how it works," Bill smiled, giving her a kiss. "Rochelle gained prescience, Juanita empathy, and Hikaru telekinesis."
  
  She stiffened in his arms. "What?"
  
  "I was telling you the powers the other women gained."
  
  Cynthia frowned. "Let me understand this. You made love to me and gave me this power."
  
  "Yeah."
  
  "And this power is the embodiment of your love for me."
  
  "Right."
  
  "And I can use this power because I love you."
  
  "I think you understand it."
  
  "So does that mean you made love to these other women."
  
  "It does."
  
  Her expression turned frosty and, despite the boiling air around them, Bill shivered. "So you had to love these women, and they had to love you to access their powers."
  
  He swallowed. Shit. I introduced this too fast. "Cynthia —"
  
  "So you love me, and yet you fucked these other women!" she screeched. "I don't get it! You've always loved me. I've known that. This is like Tonya all over again."
  
  "This isn't anything like Tonya!" Bill protested.
  
  She pushed away from him. "As we were falling, you said you loved me!"
  
  "I do love you!"
  
  "And yet you're fucking three other women!"
  
  "I love them, too!"
  
  She gave a hysterical laugh. "Oh, Lord, this is what I've always been afraid of, Bill!"
  
  "What? That you'd have to share me?"
  
  "Oh, I can just imagine what you mean by share!" she spat. "You probably want all of us together. In some sort of perverse orgy!"
  
  "I love them as much as you, okay. And I would be thrilled for all of us to share that love."
  
  Her eyes widened. "Really? Do the other three even know about this? Or have you just strung them along!"
  
  "Yeah. They're on board. They understand that I love them all equally."
  
  "Oh, that's wonderfully romantic!" she sneered
  
  "I'm sorry, Cynthia. But I do love you all. And I know you love me."
  
  She flinched. "That doesn't matter. I've loved you for years, but I've kept my distances because I feared you were wrong for me. And you are. I can't be involved in such a perverse thing. It's bad enough I can remember everything Daevia forced me to do!"
  
  "I would never force you," he promised. "But I would love for you to join us."
  
  "How would it even work? You just proposed to me, so the other three would be your mistresses?"
  
  "Well, I already married two of them."
  
  "Are you kidding me?" she shrieked, her voice growing even louder.
  
  Fear suddenly spilled through Bill. What if something hears us. "Is this really the time for this? We're in Hell!"
  
  The ground rumbled, a deep, ominous quake.
  
  She froze, taking a deep breath, trying to calm down. "You're right. But I'm not joining your harem!"
  
  "I understand..." Bill sighed. "That's not why I threw —"
  
  "Help!" a woman shouted, her voice carrying on the searing wind. "Please, help me!"