Lucas, having heard our conversation, speeds into the kitchen, dark blue eyes full of fear. He stops behind me and looks at the crime scene photos.
“How do you know this means he’s trying to possess Callie?” he asks, needing to hear a logical answer.
“Because I now know what prophecy Bael was talking about,” Julian tells us. Kristy and Tabatha come into the kitchen, wondering what caused Lucas to come speeding in like this. It takes one look at us to know something is going on.
And it’s not something good.
“Centuries ago, a dark prophecy was spoken about a child born of both light and dark, being perfectly balanced so if one side was taken away, the other would take over. Most took it to mean good and bad, but others interpreted it to mean two types of power.”
“I’m far from balanced,” I say, shaking my head. “And why does that mean he wants to possess me?”
“These markings.” Julian taps the photos. “They’re inverted.”
“And an inverted archangel sigil is like an upside-down cross?”
“Yes. Bael is trying to figure out which archangel you are part of so he can neutralize that side of you, making it possible to possess you because, like you said, demons cannot possess angels.”
“I’m still not following,” Kristy says, pulling her arms in close to her body. “What would possessing Callie have to do with his plans to rule Hell?”
“You need angel blood to sit on the throne,” Lucas answers, looking at Julian and hoping he’s not right.
“Right, and Bael found what you humans refer to as a loophole.” Julian’s brow furrows and he flips through the photos. “Each of these women were killed in a ritual. Were the hearts found?”
“No,” Melinda tells him, shaking her head so hard her ponytail shakes back and forth. “There wasn’t much blood by the bodies either, but no one could find the scene of the crime.”
“There have been how many murders so far?”
“Four. That we know of. This one was the most recent.” Melinda taps a photo of a young girl in a purple dress. Her body was thrown in a ditch, littered with garbage before she was found.
“How recent?” I ask, heart in my throat. I hadn’t been aware of any more murders, though I haven’t exactly been looking either.
“Four days ago,” she replies.
“You can expect more murders,” Julian says. “And you won’t find the hearts. Bael will need them to bind Callie’s angelic powers.”
“Three more murders?” I echo.
“Michael, Raphael, Gabriel, Uriel, Saraqael, Raguel, and Remiel,” are the most powerful archangels. He’s already gotten what he needs for Uriel, Gabriel, Saraquel, and Raphael.”
“Are you talking about Ninja Turtles?” Phil asks, coming into the kitchen to refill Penny’s water cup. He looks at the crime scene photos on the table. “Goodness. Apparently not.” His eyes dart to mine. “What’s going on?”
“Oh, you know,” I start. “It wouldn’t be a party without someone trying to kill me. Or in this case, use my body without consent. Not cool, Bael, not cool.” I twist my wedding ring around my finger, mind racing with no end in sight.
Three more women are going to die. Three more lives taken. Families torn apart. I can’t stand by and let it happen. I won’t.
Bael asked me who my father was, trying to narrow it down. If I had told him it was Michael, would those other women have died? I put my head in my hands, feeling my heart speed up. Even if I summoned him right now and told him who I was, he’d still have to cut someone’s heart out in order to bind my powers.
I can’t see a way out of this without anyone getting hurt, and we’re not strong enough to defeat Bael. The pendent lights above the island flicker, and Lucas’s hands land on my shoulders, massaging my stiff muscles to try and calm me down before I pull a Carrie again. Though maybe I should alert the archangels to where I am.
If they have me, Bael can’t use to me take over Hell. But I really don’t want to die, especially before I give birth to this baby. He or she at least deserves a fighting chance.
“Who wants dessert?” I ask, snapping my head up. Everyone in the room looks at me incredulously. “Lucas helped me make the pies,” I go on. “And he doesn’t even eat food.”
“You know I love pumpkin pie,” Kristy says, forcing a smile. “I’ll let everyone know it’s time for dessert.”
“I, uh, I’m going to go down to the wine cellar and get a lot more wine.” I exhale heavily. “You all better drink for me, okay?”
Melinda bobs her head up and down. “Okay. Need any help?”
“I’m good, thanks, though.” I need the few minutes alone to try and gather my composure. The air is tense when I leave the kitchen, and it’s only a bit better when I come back. I don’t think anyone is hungry for dessert yet, but we’re all gathered around the large island counter anyway. The file of crime scene photos has been closed up and tucked away, and I wish I could go back in time and save that conversation for another day.
“I’m really glad you all came,” I say, setting a bottle of Pinot Grigio on the counter. I hold my hand over it, magically pulling the cork out. “Who wants some?”
“Neat trick,” Melinda says and finishes the punch in her glass. “I’ll take some.”
“Me too,” Abby says, and by the look on her face, Phil must have told her everything he overheard. Lucas opens one of the cabinets and gets fresh wine glasses down.
“Are you sure you don’t want any?” Eliza asks Easton, coming up behind him. She’s wearing a pastel pink dress today, and her hair is hanging down around her face in natural waves. Usually, she has her hair up in some sort of elaborate braid, along with a full face of makeup. Today she’s uncharacteristically natural, and I think she looks even prettier because of it.
There’s no denying Eliza is beautiful, and her looks are the only reason Lucas chose her. He was seeking revenge after a military leader who attacked vampires. Eliza had several sisters, but they all paled in comparison to her.
She bats her eyelashes at Easton. “If you drink enough and I drink you, I’ll feel it.”
“I, uh, I—I’m good,” Easton forces out, unable to keep from checking Eliza out. She’s gorgeous, and if I didn’t enjoy being penetrated by a good old-fashioned dick so much, I might bat for the other team just for her.
“Well,” she starts and drags her fingertips over his shoulder. “If you change your mind, I’ll happily pour you a drink.” She runs her tongue over her teeth and looks at Julian. “It’s a shame you don’t eat or drink.”
“I am an angel of the Lord,” Julian says seriously, and for some reason, it does me in. I burst out laughing, unable to control myself.
“Sorry,” I say, bringing my hand to my chest, laughing so hard I double over.
“Are you alright?” Kristy asks, shifting her eyes from me to Lucas.
“I think she’s fine.” Lucas’s hand lands on my shoulders and I sharply inhale, wiping away tears from laughing so hard.
“I’m good,” I assure my friends, sucking in a breath. “I’m really glad you’re all here. This last year has been a bit intense.”
“You could say that again,” Evander mumbles, raising his drink.
“It has,” I agree. I met Lucas back in March, and I tried so hard not to fall for him. Flash forward to now, and we’re married with a baby on the way. If anyone had told me then what things would be like now…I’d punch them in the face. “So…thank you,” I conclude, knowing I’m seconds away from crying, and I really don’t want to cry in front of everyone. It’s bad enough Lucas gets to see me and my emotions in all their glory. Crying doesn’t solve anything, though Lucas has reminded me more than once my feelings are valid, and I shouldn’t be ashamed of any of them.
“And if anyone wants to take a walk around an empty graveyard to burn off some calories and make room for dessert, let me know.”
Abby laughs. “I would love to, but, uh, where is there an empty gravey
ard?”
“Right out back,” I tell her. “A good while ago I sort of accidentally brought back the dead. But Lucas and I got rid of the corpses. Most have been burned, so they’re gone and can’t even haunt you anymore.”
Easton reaches for the bottle of wine on the counter. I know for a fact he’s not a wine drinker. “I know there’s a story behind that, but I don’t want to know, right?”
“I want to know,” Phil counters, shrugging innocently. It has to be so weird for him and Abby to be the only two “normal” people in the room right now. What’s even weirder is that I have no freaking clue what that feels like.
“I do too,” Julian agrees, tipping his head curiously.
“To make a long story short,” I begin, “a demon possessed this guy, and when we went to question him, the demon killed himself. So Lucas buried the body for me and then we realized a resurrection spell might be all we need to get some answers. So I had Lucas un-bury the body and bring it into the woods. I didn’t know I was half angel back then, so when I did the spell to awaken the dead, I had no idea it would wake up every dead body close by. Blah blah blah, we killed the zombies and I burned their corpses in my yard. Problem solved.”
“So, there are no bodies on the property?” Melinda asks slowly.
“Uh, no?” I question, looking at Lucas. “You buried that zombie from the attic, right?”
“I did,” he says with a nod. “She’s eight feet under by the grove of pine trees.”
“Better than six,” Kristy says as she brings her glass to her lips. I laugh and look around the room once more. Fuck, I’m lucky. My life hasn’t worked out as I thought it would—not in the least. But I have an amazing team of family and friends, and as long as we’re together, we can get through anything.
“Cal?”
Abby’s hand rests on my shoulder and I blink my eyes open. After eating a few cookies and polishing off that bottle of sparkling grape juice, I fell asleep on the couch, snuggled up between Lucas and Eliza. Someone was rubbing my back, lulling me to sleep, and I’m pretty sure it was Eliza since Lucas doesn’t have long nails.
And I don’t care at all if it was her.
“Are you leaving?” I ask, inhaling deep. The sun has already set, and I’m ready to go upstairs and collapse into bed. I’m finally getting used to waking up in the new room. It’s more than double the amount of space than our old room, with a large window that overlooks the backyard and a real working fireplace.
Falling asleep to the sounds and smell of a crackling fire are more soothing than I ever imagined, and when I pair that to being wrapped in Lucas’s arms, it’s easy to fall in bed and never want to get up.
“Yeah, it’s getting late and I think you’re tired.” Abby puts her hand on mine and gives it a squeeze.
“Let me walk you out.”
“It’s okay,” Abby tells me. “You need to rest.”
“No, I’m good,” I protest and struggle to get up. I didn’t realize I’d fallen asleep, and now that I’m awake, everyone else says their goodbyes and leaves too. I hug my friends goodbye, sad to see them go while eager to go upstairs and fall into bed at the same time. Easton and Melinda leave along with Abby and her family, and then Kristy, Evander, and Tabatha hug me goodbye after that.
I wrap a blanket around my shoulders and go outside, letting Scarlet out. Thin clouds stretch across the sky, and the entire night is silent, promising more snow.
“Come on,” I tell Scarlet, opening the front door to let her in. I drop the blanket in the foyer and lock the door, turning around to seal it up with magic. Eliza is upstairs, and I can hear her talking on the phone with someone, no doubt asking for nudes or something of the like.
I take off my boots and pick up the blanket, going back into the living room. The fire is still going strong, and my plan is to wrap myself up tightly in blankets and lay down in front of the fire, not moving until I’m uncomfortably hot.
But then I hear Lucas and Julian’s voices coming from the kitchen. Scarlet trots ahead, going in to beg for leftovers. I move in rhythm with her, and her big paws hitting the floor cover up me sneaking through the hall.
“I didn’t want to tell Callie this,” Julian says. “There’s no need to upset her more than she’s already upset.”
“Tell her what?” Lucas asks, and I press myself against the wall, holding my breath.
“Bael doesn’t just want to rule Hell. He wants death and destruction. He wants the world to burn.”
Chapter 37
“Is that too hot?” Lucas stands by the fire, poker in hand. He just put another log on the fire in our room. I’m in bed, sitting up and holding the sheets over my bare breasts, watching the flames grow. I stripped out of my clothes and went right to bed, but now that I’m lying down, I’m not tired anymore.
“No, it’s perfect,” I tell Lucas, smiling at him.
“Let me know if you get too hot,” he tells me and comes into bed. Scarlet is stretched out on the floor near the fireplace, and my familiars will be joining us soon, wanting to lie by the fireplace as well.
“I will.” Yawning, I lie down, waiting for Lucas to come into bed with me. My eyes fall shut, and I want nothing more than to go to sleep, but I know I won’t get any rest any time soon. Only an hour or so ago, I overheard Julian talking to Lucas.
And now I know that Bael wants to bring Hell to earth.
They have no idea I know, and I’m not about to bring it up. Not now. Not when my mind is still whirling, trying to make sense of everything—spoiler alert, I haven’t made any sense at all. I don’t know how I’m supposed to stop Bael; he’s too strong.
He’s found a loophole in the whole getting me to willingly agree to walk through the gates of Hell for him, and will be able to slip on inside me once he performs the ritual to bind my angel powers.
And that’s after he has another innocent woman murdered.
The most recent victim wasn’t from Thorne Hill and didn’t even live in Indiana. If Easton and Melinda hadn’t found out about the marks, they wouldn’t have made the connection between the cases, since the latest was from out of state.
“Dinner was nice,” Lucas says softly, wrapping his arms around me. Like me, he’s naked, and the feel of his cool skin against my body is comforting. With the fireplace going, we won’t need the electric blanket. I’ll wake up hot in an hour or so, kick off the covers, and then be shivering by the time the sun comes up and the fire dies down.
The master bedroom is large, and the fireplace is right across from the bed. I prefer to sleep with the room being pitch black, and I never really realized just how bright a fire is until we started lighting one in our room at night. It sounds stupid, I know. I had a fireplace in the living room of my previous house, yet whenever we’d be down there, another light or the TV was typically on as well.
Nothing can beat the comforting smell of the logs burning, though, or the crackling of the logs in the hearth. I feel like an old-fashioned fancy lady falling asleep by the fire, and Lucas has already suggested I order some old-timey lingerie so we can act out the part of me being lady of the house whose husband is away in the war and has to sleep with the hired hand in order to get by. If it involves Lucas, this bed, and his penis, I’m in.
“It was,” I agree, eyes falling shut. I’m physically exhausted, and ate more today than I have in a long while, and it’s making it look like I’m showing more than I really am. Lucas pulls the blankets over us and nuzzles his face against my neck, hand going to my stomach.
“I love you,” he groans, kissing the nape of my neck.
“I love you, too,” I whisper back, not in the mood for sex. I’ll blame it on being overly full and tired, but it’s because I can’t get Julian’s words out of my head.
He wants the world to burn.
I won’t let that happen…but how can I stop him? I haven’t yet decided if I’m mad at Julian and Lucas for keeping that from me, though I really can’t blame them for wanting me to have one
nice day. It’s the first dinner party I’ve thrown that wasn’t crashed by demons, only talk of demons. No one rushed out because their lives were in danger, and I didn’t have to smear my blood on a blade and have Lucas go medieval on monsters summoned from tree-roots.
I roll over and resituate, resting my head on Lucas’s chest. My eyes are heavy, and I feel the physical exhaustion start to pull me under. I run my nails up and down Lucas’s arm, and start to feel the tug of sleep sooner than I thought.
I’m thinking about Bael the whole time, trying desperately to come up with some sort of plan on how to kill him. He’s more or less untouchable in that other dimension, and I’m not sure at all how that even works. Though if Julian was able to go…would he be able to take me?
Bael is on my mind as I drift to sleep. The heat from the fire surrounds me, and not long after I fell asleep do I wake up, hot and uncomfortable. As soon as I sit up, I know I’m dreaming.
I think.
The room is bathed in a pale gray light, and the flames in the hearth are frozen in place.
“Lucifer?” I ask, holding the blankets over myself as I sit up. Lucas is still next to me, and I can see Scarlet’s big feet sticking out from the other side of the bed. Binx is at the foot of the bed, stretched out and looking comfy.
Yet no one moves. I’m frozen in time, and the energy around me starts to get heavy.
“Hello?” I blink and feel weight pressing down on me. My vision suddenly changes, and I realize I’m not sitting up, but lying down, eyes slit open. I’m sleeping, paralyzed in bed, and desperately trying to move to wake up Lucas.
This has happened before not all that long ago, but this time I know.
“Bael,” I say, voice cutting through the dark. “I know it’s you.”
The smell of sulfur wafts through the room, and a dark figure steps from the shadows.
“And I know what you want,” I go on. “It won’t come to that, and I’ll be damned before you hurt another innocent woman.”
Queen of Night Page 33