by Sweet, Izzy
Tossing the empty bottle away, Gabriel looks at James. “Why don’t you be useful, thumb boy, and find me a light.”
James opens his mouth, but Lucifer cuts him off.
Looking to me, his eyes piercing right through me, he says, “There’s a zippo in the right pocket.
It takes me a second to figure out why he’s telling me that, then I realize it’s his suit jacket I’m wearing.
Reaching my hand down into the right pocket, I find the zippo and pull it out.
“Tell me when,” Andrew says, walking back over with a syringe.
Gabriel nods to me. “On Meghan’s go.”
All the guys look to me, and I have no clue what the fuck is about to happen, but I can’t put this off any longer.
Lifting my chin and stiffening my spine in preparation, I tell Andrew to, “Do it.”
Andrew gives me a quick, sharp nod, then he crouches down and sticks the syringe in the side of Alexei’s neck. Pushing in the stopper, he yanks the needle out and stands back up.
As if the drug is a breath of life, Alexei sucks in air and his eyes snap open.
Andrew takes a step back, but I find myself taking a step forward.
And another.
And another.
I walk up to Alexei until I can look him in the eyes.
At first, he doesn’t look at me, and isn’t aware of me staring at him.
His eyes stare up at the ceiling.
Groaning, he struggles to get up from lying prone, his arms and legs giving out on him until he finally manages to get his body into a kneeling position.
“If he goes after her, put a fucking bullet through his head,” Gabriel says.
Hearing Gabriel’s voice, Alexei’s head lifts. He looks to him, then his gaze finds me.
I stare into the black abyss of his swollen eyes. Stare into the darkness that stole so much from me.
My mother…
My father.
Not only did he steal all the years I would have had with them, he created a rift between my father and I that will never be mended now. There’s no hope of reconciliation.
I can’t get any of it back. Killing him won’t bring them back.
They’re lost to me forever.
And it hurts. It hurts so fucking bad I can barely breathe.
Pain slices through my chest, tears push at my eyes, and hatred boils up inside me. A hatred as thick, black, and endless as the emptiness in his fucking gaze.
He’s hurt me… he’s hurt me more than I can bear, more than I can fucking process right now. Hurt me so bad, he almost broke me.
But I’m not his only victim.
There are countless others out there. Countless other lives he’s ruined and destroyed without care, with pure malice in his heart, and I’m not only doing this for myself.
I’m doing it for them.
Flipping open the lighter, I spin the wheel that lights the wick.
“Meghan, baby…” Gabriel calls out behind me, and I almost ignore him for trying to ruin my moment.
I want…
No, I need to watch this motherfucker burn for his sins.
“If you’re going to light that fucker on fire now, come back here and do it.”
I feel a tug on my sleeve.
“Here, let me escort you,” Lucifer says.
As my feet carry me backward, my focus remains locked on Alexei. I keep staring in his eyes, hoping to see… something.
Anything.
It’s not until I reach the safety of the doorway that he tries to work his mangled jaw. A garbled word comes out of him. A word that sounds Russian.
A word he used against me.
Then his mouth mangles my name as he reaches a hand out to me. “Meghan.”
“You should be safe now,” I hear Lucifer say beside me.
And that’s all the push I need.
Tossing the zippo forward, I hold my breath as it moves through the air.
When it lands, it catches the trail of liquid that Gabriel left on fire.
A line of flames blazes up to Alexei.
Giving up on standing, he falls to his hands just as the flames reach him.
The heat and pain must not register at first. As the flames climb up him, he begins to crawl forward.
Then he suddenly stops and rears back, screaming.
His agony is a beautiful lullaby, soothing the dark, vengeful monster that’s awakened inside me.
I watch, mesmerized, as the flames lick, flicker, and dance across his body.
His suffering, his screams, cleansing me.
His desperate attempts to put the fire out, and failing, filling me with a sick joy.
I hope to god, he’s experiencing the worst pain a person can feel right now. I hope it’s a taste of what he’ll feel in the bowels of hell.
I don’t know how long I watch him, my eyes literally burning from the light and smoke, before someone finally speaks.
“Damn, I almost forgot what a burning body smells like,” Andrew grumbles.
“Pussy,” Gabriel chuckles.
But now that Andrew has mentioned it, I’m starting to smell it too…
Searing the image of Alexei thrashing around, trying to put his flames out, one last time into my brain for those long nights when I’m missing my parents, I turn my back on him.
“Damn, I knew you would do it right,” Johnathan grins at Gabriel, walking up to us from the end of the hallway. “I can’t wait to tell Beth.”
Chest puffing up with pride, Gabriel jerks his chin toward me. “Wasn’t me.”
Johnathan’s eyes cut to me and then fill up with appreciation.
“I don’t mean to rush things along,” Lucifer says apologetically, “but Simon has just informed me that we’re about to go outside our window. Shall we be on our way, gentlemen?”
“You ready to go?” Gabriel asks me, and once again I feel all eyes on me.
Voice raw, I nod my head and say, “Yeah, it’s starting to get a little smoky in here.”
Gabriel chuckles and wraps his arm around me. I lean into his side as we walk down the hall.
“I can’t fucking wait to get home,” he says as we step outside, and takes a deep breath of fresh air.
“Don’t even think about it, asshole, “Andrew says, coming through the doorway. “You still need to get stapled up.”
Gabriel mutters, “Fuck.”
Andrew nods his head. “Yeah.” Then he looks at me, staring at my head like it’s somehow personally offended him. “That’s a nasty looking knot you’ve got on your forehead…”
I reach up and wince when my fingers find the knot on my forehead.
Gabriel snarls. “Alexei cracked her with a gun.”
“Yeah, I can tell,” Andrew says. “And I don’t like those bruises around your neck…. You’ll both need a thorough look over.”
Funny, I didn’t notice any pain until Andrew pointed out the knot to me, but now I’m aware of nearly every little ache in my body.
I hurt all fucking over.
“We can do it at the compound,” Lucifer says, coming up to join us. He smiles at me. “Lily has been worried sick about you, Meghan. And I have it on good authority that Evelyn and Abigail have been baking up a storm, preparing for your return.”
His words floor me, and I can only gape at him.
People were worried about me? People besides Gabriel?
“Yeah, Beth will probably want to give you a hug too for taking care of that bastard,” Johnathan says. “If you’re up for it.”
Looking at the faces of the men surrounding me, it suddenly hits me. Almost every one of them has a wife and kids waiting on them.
And they put themselves in danger. They risked their lives to save me.
Choking up, I push out a smile for Johnathan and try not to burst into tears as I tell him, “I think I’m up for it.”
“Excellent,” Lucifer says and then motions to a dark car. “You can ride with Michael and me.”
Voice dropping down to nearly a whisper, he frowns and asks, “You okay?”
No, I’m not quite okay with everything that just happened. It will take some time to process and deal with it all.
But looking up at him, at the man I love, at the man who saved me, I know, “I will be.”
Because despite all the shit that I’ve gone through. Despite everything I’ve lost…
I’ve gained Gabriel and a family that cares about me.
And I fucking love them.
Epilogue
Gabriel
Pulling up to Lucifer’s warehouse, I’m ready to start figuring out what the fuck Alexei was doing with his old man.
We’ve got a lot of questions for the old fucking pile of shit, but we might not get any answers. We have no clue what shape he was in when he went into the coma, he could have fucking Alzheimer’s for all we know.
Only Simon’s car is out front, so that means the body hasn’t arrived yet.
Andrew and a trusted medical friend of the family were charged with waking the old fucker up from his coma and assessing if he’s even worth talking to. That started yesterday, and there were good signs that we’ll be able to get something out of him, but how much is the question.
Like Lucifer said, he could have a mushy fucking brain and we don’t get shit.
“Where the fuck is everyone?” I ask Simon as I walk into the backroom of the warehouse.
Fucking place looks a bit different than normal, filled with all the medical equipment that’s been brought in for this shit show.
“Lucifer is on his way now. Johnathan and Andrew are bringing the man here. He’s still under a light sedation in case he gets volatile during the transport,” Simon says as he waves his hand toward the medical equipment. “James is off on whatever the hell Lucifer gave him permission for, and Thad is on his way home.”
“What about Jude?” I ask as I start to remove my phone, wallet, and keys from my pockets.
Looking up from the laptop he’s typing shit out on, Simon says, “Flying to Ukraine. He’s going to be visiting an old friend of ours to see if he can find out more about Alexei’s father.”
“Sounds good,” I say as I drop all my shit on a cleared desk.
When we got home last night, Meghan worried like a mother hen over my shoulder. She was worried that Andrew didn’t really know what he was doing, and it took a lot of explaining to get her to understand that I was fine.
I had to grit my fucking teeth when he did a quick exam of her body. Thankfully they both agreed that she didn’t need to be inspected like Alexei’s doctor inspected her. With all my heart, I wish I was the fucking one who killed that motherfucker.
Fucking Armenian bastard.
I’m surprised how easily we both fell asleep last night, though. No sex, of course. I wasn’t willing to risk hurting her on top of what she’s already been through.
I did tell her though that she needs to find out which doctors the wives use for themselves and their kids. We need to get shit in order. No reason not to make sure she is completely taken care of.
Fuck, no sex last night is fucking killing me right now. Even if there’s a chance I might have already knocked her up, I want to pound her ass so fucking hard there’s no way she’s not pregnant.
Those sexy fucking hips of hers are going to look so good when she’s walking around with my kid inside her. Fuck, there might even be two, given that the chances of a twin having twins is higher than normal.
“What the hell are you doing?” Simon grits out at me as I pull my gun off my hip.
“How long till they all get here?” I ask.
“Twenty minutes,” he says, and then realization flares across his face as he figures out what I’m up to.
“Twenty should be enough time, right?” I ask as I watch him stand up from the laptop.
“Yes, just enough.” Simon grins at me with that little twinkle of violence in his eye.
Yeah, this motherfucker’s been wanting to do this as much as I have.
“Meghan thinks I knocked her up,” I say with a laugh, and deep down inside I’m pretty damn sure I did.
I’ve fucked the hell out of her since I’ve met her. Fucked her hard enough and long enough that there’s no doubt in my mind that she isn’t.
“Is that so?” Simon asks as he removes his suit jacket and then begins to quickly remove his tie.
“Yeah, she’s got the idea in her head that if she’s knocked up, then that means you’ll be an uncle. She wants to get to know you and your wife,” I say while I yank my shirt up and over my head.
I wince slightly because of the wound on my shoulder. I keep forgetting I need to be more careful with how I move for now.
“I’m going to be an uncle?” Simon asks, and for the first time in a long time I see something I didn’t think was still there inside of him.
He’s got a smile on his face.
“Sure, just like you’re going to be a father.”
“That’s not too surprising given our family has a very healthy reproductive ability.” He chuckles. “Although, that also means Coss will be a grandfather.”
Both of us still at that thought.
“Will Lucifer give us the go ahead to kill him?” I ask.
“I don’t honestly know,” Simon responds.
“It’s easier to beg for forgiveness than ask for permission,” I say without a hint of remorse in my voice.
“How very true,” Simon says before he continues to remove his dress shirt, followed by his undershirt.
“It needs to be done before your wife gives birth,” I say while I start to get the blood pumping through my body.
“Agreed,” Simon says before dropping his shirt onto his suit jacket.
Following behind me, Simon and I make our way over to a clear area of the warehouse.
“Same rules as always,” Simon states.
“Of course.”
No nut shots, no eye gouges, and no throat jabs.
Everything else is legal.
Simon’s not slow about starting it.
Ducking down to avoid a high arching kick he aims at my temple, I rush in to strike at his chin. As his head snaps to the side, the best feeling I’ve had since fucking Meghan floods through me.
Both of us pull back from the first flurry, warily eyeing each other.
“I want to fucking kill the old man for everything he’s ever done to us, but I’ll say this… He did teach us how to fight.” I grin before I rush in again to swing a massive haymaker at his face.
Ducking quickly under my arm, Simon slams his fist into my ribs and gives me a good taste of the medicine I just gave him.
Wrapping my arms around his torso, I try to wrangle him in while I slam my foot on the top of his foot.
Need to slow his ass down so I can hurt him some more. He’s always had speed on me, but I’ve always had brute strength.
Squeezing my arms tight, I can see the pain I’m causing him from those still cracked ribs. He probably should have waited to fight me… But fuck it. We both need this shit to happen.
Slamming his head into my nose, I momentarily see stars and drop him back down.
“Yes, he did do that.” Simon snickers.
Taking a couple steps back, I reach up and wipe away the blood that drips down from my nose. He didn’t break it, but there’s some busted capillaries up there.
Fuck, it feels good to be fighting this prick again. It’s been too fucking long since we’ve gone a couple of rounds.
It’s not exactly like I hate the man who stands across from me. But I can’t love him, either. We’ve been through too much, seen too much to ever be able to come to terms with who and what we’ve become.
Coss made sure of that, knowingly and willingly. The death of my twin fucked him up too, I guess. Coss got twisted up in a bad mental way, Simon became the germaphobe neat freak, and I became the blac
k sheep. Mom… Well, mom drank herself to death, so fuck her and the gun she used to finally end her suffering.
Fucking stupid waste.
Slowly wading into closer range, I snap my fist out twice before I kick hard at the side of his knee.
Taking the blow to his knee, Simon delivers a quick uppercut to my chin that knocks my head back.
Pulling away again, I shake my head to clear it.
The fucker starts limping toward me and I grin at him. “Missed you too, big brother.”
* * *
“Well…” Lucifer grins at both Simon and I as we sit on a desk beside each other, addressing our bloodied noses.
“We had to talk some shit out,” I say as I remove my shirt from the desk and pull it over my head.
“Yes. Gabriel and I decided to go over the finer points of the conversation we’ll be having with Mr. Rastov when he arrives,” Simon says as he begins to retie his tie. “He should be arriving at any moment.”
Sliding off the desk, Simon nods his head in my direction.
Nodding back to him, I know he understands this was only round one.
“Meghan doing okay with Lily?” I ask Lucifer.
“Oh, they’re happily house shopping as we speak.” Lucifer grins at me and I know that he knows what kind of a fucking punch in the face that is for me.
Fuck.
House shopping…
Meghan’s going to try to domesticate me.
Fuck.
Before I can think of a way to keep it from happening, I hear voices coming from the entrance of the warehouse.
I stand up from the desk as Andrew pushes a gurney past us and into the opening we’ve created for this special moment.
Almost as one, we all walk over and surround the bed.
Lucifer looks down smugly at the drowsy man.
Andrew pulls a needle from his black medical bag and looks over to Lucifer. “Ready to get this shit started?”
“Of course.” Lucifer grins.
Shaking his head with a chuckle, Andrew pushes the needle into the IV that’s connected to the old man’s hand.
“He should come to pretty quickly. I’m using one of Simon’s wakeup cocktails. Not good for the heart, but it’s not like that matters much,” Andrew says.