Alain only stared at the purple lights outside for a few seconds, mouth agape, before forcing himself to recover. Already, he could see hordes of Demons spilling out into the city. Gunfire echoed through the night, though it was barely audible over the sound of the bloody rain pounding against the building and the ground outside. He turned towards his friends, but before any of them could say a single word to each other, another flash of bright purple light enveloped the White House, followed by another ear-piercing crack of thunder. Again, they all stumbled, their hands going to their ears as they attempted to block out the noise while it resounded off the walls.

And when it finally stopped echoing through the building, it was replaced by a loud crash as something landed on the roof, and then broke through it. Alain wasn't offered a further chance to say anything to anyone, as another sound began to leak through the White House.

It was the sound of all-too-familiar manic laughter.

Immediately, Sable's eyes widened, and her face contorted in rage. "Alain-"

"I know," he assured her. "Okay… I need everyone to-"

At that moment, several doors down the hallway came flying open. The cultists within, apparently having finished their ritual, spilled out into the main hall, though Alain and his group were very quick to start pouring lead into them all. Several cultists fell immediately, though a few managed to break away and sprint further into the building, disappearing down another nearby hall.

"Shit…" Heather breathed. "Sable, what do you want us to do?"

"We need to get upstairs," Sable said to her, urgency leaking from every syllable. If she's here, then Lilith won't be far behind. Leave the strays to Thorne and her group, they can handle that much."

"Are you sure?" Alain asked, casting a glance around the hall they were gathered in. "There's only seven of us here right now. You're asking less than ten people, yourself included, to essentially avert the apocalypse."

"It'll have to do," Sable growled.

"Come now, Alain," Az told him. "There is precedence for this sort of thing. Think of us as the seven seals, more than anything."

"Don't those all get opened in the end?" Danielle questioned.

Sable shook her head. "Come on," she urged. "Let's get up there, already. Every second we waste here is another one that Lilith can use to regain her powers."

"She's right," Father Alex confirmed. "Come on, I'll lead the way."

Without another word, he took off running. Alain hesitated for just a second before following after him. Off in the distance, he heard gunshots ring out through another part of the White House, and knew that meant Thorne and her group were fighting the cultists already. With any luck, they'd be there to reinforce him and his friends before long.

Something told him they were going to need the extra help.

XXX

It took them almost no time at all to find a staircase leading up to the second floor of the White House. They all charged up it with abandon, weapons at the ready, unsure of what they would find when they got there. Curiously, they encountered absolutely no resistance on the way up; it appeared that Cleo hadn't bothered to bring anyone else with her, and had come alone.

She had always seemed equal parts crazy and overconfident, but now Alain was dreading that she was capable of actually backing it up even more than she already was.

Alain wasn't surprised to find that the second floor of the building had been completely trashed. The walls were pockmarked with bullet holes and bloodstains. Doors had been ripped and thrown from their hinges, and the ones that hadn't were full of jagged holes or otherwise missing chunks of wood. Pieces of furniture had been overturned and used as impromptu cover; they were in no better shape than the walls that surrounded them. Dead staffers, guards, and cultists littered the ground, along with a few dead vampires. He saw no sign of the President or any of the other higher-ranked politicians among them; his staffers and guards had stayed and fought to their deaths anyway, perhaps to serve as a diversion for him and his cabinet members to escape.

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In any case, Alain supposed it didn't matter too much anymore, because at the rate things were going, whether the President survived or not was about to become the least of the world's worries.

Alain looked around, and spotted something odd-looking – there was a small pile of bodies clustered around outside a pair of double doors, which were riddled with bullet holes. Through the holes in the doors, Alain could see intense purple light spilling through. He turned towards the others to point it out to them, but it wasn't necessary; they had all already seen it, if the looks on their faces were any indication.

Az didn't need anyone to tell him what to do next. He scowled, then began to step over towards the doors and push bodies out of the way so he could get to it. Then, as Alain watched, Az ripped both of the doors off their hinges and tossed them aside. Instantly, that same light spilled into the hallway in its entirety, so bright that it was almost blinding. Alain squinted for a few seconds as his eyes adjusted to it, and when they finally did, he wasn't surprised at what he saw.

"Cleo," he announced, shouldering his Winchester. "Knew I recognized that laughter."

The woman in question stood across from them all, her arms crossed over her chest as she sat on the edge of the desk in the middle of the Oval Office. Just like the rest of the second floor, the Office had been ransacked completely, though there were no dead bodies within it. Az went to take a step forward, only to collide with an invisible barrier that impeded his movement and prevented him from entering the Oval Office. He glared at Cleo, and she responded to it with that same wide grin as always.

"I was hoping you all would be the first ones I met upon returning from Hell," she announced. She focusing in on Alain. "Especially you."

"Yeah, I know how this song-and-dance goes," Alain growled. "You've made it perfectly clear what you intend to do to all of us already."

"Great! Then it won't be a surprise when Lady Lilith finally makes her appearance. Shouldn't be much longer now."

Alain peered past her, his eyes locking in on the swirling mass of purple energy floating in the air behind her. It wasn't nearly as refined or clean as the other portals he'd seen popping up throughout the city; with those portals, he could still clearly make out the confines of Hell within them. This portal was different, though – there was an image there, held inside of it, but it was blurred and distorted. It took him a moment before he realized what he was looking at.

Through the fog within the image, he could just barely make out a tall woman with pale skin, raven-black hair, and blood-red eyes. She was advancing through Hell, a sword held high in the air, from which that same purple light was emanating. Demons bayed in the distance, chanting as she strode among them. Whenever the light from her sword fell over a Demon, there was a bright flash of purple, and the Demon disappeared a split-second later. Alain instantly realized what was happening – Lilith was pouring as many of Hell's Legions through the portals as she possibly could. Even in just the short time he'd been watching, he'd seen her send through what had to have been dozens of Demons. And as she did so, her veins pulsed with that same light each time, and the light from her sword grew ever brighter.

"Pretty, isn't it?" Cleo asked, shaking him out of his thoughts. She began to kick her legs in the air, her head tilted to the side. "Ah, but I am excited. Truly, these are interesting times we're all blessed to live in. Well, maybe not you humans so much, but for the rest of us? Definitely blessed."

"Enough talking," Sable hissed. "Drop this barrier, coward, so I may kill you and put an end to this."

"Oh, my sister… why would I do that?" Cleo shook her head. "I am supposed to prepare Lady Lilith's entry point for her arrival. I can't do that if I'm busy fighting you all. Besides, she would be cross with me if I lost sight of what the real objective here is and got distracted so closely to the end."

That was apparently enough for Heather. She let out a shout of anger, then began to fire round after round from her rifle at Cleo. Each one broke apart against the barrier, and by the end of it, her weapon was empty. Cleo watched the whole thing, a glint of amusement in her eye, before letting out an exaggerated sigh and shaking her head.

"I swear, Alain and my sister are the only fun ones out of your entire group," she lamented. Her gaze fell upon Az. "Even your pet Greater Demon is no longer a Demon, it would seem. Such a shame for you to have fallen for the Church's propaganda and dogma. And to think I was such a fan of your earlier work…"

Az paid her no mind, instead stepping over to investigate the nearby wall. Alain had a good idea of what he was about to do, and his suspicions were confirmed when, a moment later, Az punched through it, only to wince as his hand collided painfully with the barrier on the other side. He reluctantly withdrew his arm from the freshly-made hole in the wall, all while Cleo looked on, a disappointed look on her face.

"You were so powerful," she said to him. "You gave it all up, though, and for what?"

"Salvation," Az growled. "Something someone like you could never understand."

"Look around you, Azazel. If this is your idea of what salvation looks like, then I shudder to imagine what your idea of ruination would be."

The portal behind her suddenly pulsed, and Cleo paused, her eyes widening in shock. She turned to look over her shoulder, and her grin widened at what she saw.

The picture within the swirling mass had seemingly frozen on a still image of Lilith staring at them all. Alain couldn't make it out in its entirety, as the entire thing suddenly distorted even more before collapsing in on itself. A split-second later, there was an enormous explosion of brilliant purple as the portal expanded outwards. Again, they were all forced to shield their eyes for a few seconds as it washed over them, and once again, thunder resounded from outside. Alain didn't dare cover his ears this time, though.

Not when he knew what was coming.

It was over almost as soon as it had begun, and when it was, Alain hurriedly snapped his weapon back up to his shoulder, as did all his friends. His heart just about skipped a beat as the light suddenly dissipated, leaving a figure behind in its wake.

Her deep crimson eyes met his, and a chill went down his spine. Alain felt a lump form in his throat as she eyed him up and down, sheer malice radiating from her gaze. His grip on his weapon tightened, for what little good he knew it would do him; already, he could tell that she was appraising him the same way he would an ant. Outside, the resounding cries of Demons filled the night once more, so loud that they drowned out the deluge of blood pouring down from the sky.

Lilith had arrived, and she had brought Hell itself with her.

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