Doomed Cases Box Set: The Complete Collection Books 1- 4 & Prequel

by Joanna Mazurkiewicz

  This whole thing stopped being funny a while back.

  “Calm down and keep breathing. I understand that’s it’s a lot to take in. The deal that we had, your fight with Alexis, and your journey through Hell was just a test. Normally I don’t keep in touch with my children, but there was always something intriguing about you. And I did truly love your mother,” he stated, sounding nostalgic and sad.

  I shook my head and continued to pace around. This was the only way that I could think.

  “A test?” I repeated, shaking all over, and when he nodded, I wanted to scream. “A fucking test? Are you having a laugh?”

  He didn’t even realise what I had been through. Being chained up to the wall in Mammon’s castle, nearly ripped apart by some mythological creature, then locked in a cage, and then moved through—

  He cut off my line of thought. “I know, Maxine, I know what’s been going on with you.”

  “So, you can read my mind, too?”

  “Yes, but this isn’t my point.”

  “Well, it was a freaking test that I obviously failed, because apparently your ex-girlfriend was healed, and Arthur … my Arthur paid the price for it. He’s dead now. Thanks to you, Daddy.”

  I couldn’t help but sound cynical. He was making me mad. I had never been angrier before.

  “Yes, Arthur’s death was unfortunate, and in some ways, you have failed, but only because you refused to ask for help, and you should have told him the truth much sooner. On the other hand, you showed a lot of courage and determination. You were willing to save yourself in order to protect your daughter. I was impressed with your progress, not so much in the beginning.”

  Silence fell between us and I just stared at him, still angry over all that happened and his glib assessment of it. Lucifer was my father. No. This still didn’t feel right. Morpheus wasn’t Lucifer.

  I needed my tequila; otherwise my brain was just about to explode.

  “You can’t be Lucifer. I don’t believe it. If you were him, then you would have stopped the uprising. Yeah, other demons are unhappy about the way things are handled in Hell. They are marching here … they all are planning to take you down,” I said, folding my arms over my chest, tapping my foot against the floor.

  “Demons will believe anything that anyone says. They are fighting, but they are going to lose,” Morpheus or Lucifer said. “No one can get in here without my permission, only messengers maybe. Berith has taken control of the rebels. That demon can be useful at times.”

  Berith. I didn’t even want to talk about that scum. That coward deserved to fry in the pits forever.

  “What about Cyril? He helped me. He betrayed that bastard Rodriguez for me. Please tell me that you didn’t let him die,” I said, sitting down and hoping that Morpheus was going to show some mercy. Cyril was a decent demon and he was a friend.

  “He is safe, and I sent him back to London. This wasn’t his fight, and what he did was noble.”

  I wiped the sweat off my forehead, thinking that at least Cyril was all right.

  “Prove to me that you’re Lucifer. How can I be sure? For months, you let me believe that you were Morpheus. You told me yourself that Lucifer wanted my soul,” I argued, not feeling any different around him. Lucifer wasn’t the kind of demon who would travel back to Earth because he liked human women. I mean, how ridiculous was that?

  “As I said before, this was a test. I kept watching you when you were growing up without your mother. I saw the way you changed and started thinking for yourself when she died. Then you joined the royals and started that silly affair with the prince. I guess you have inherited that from me. Through the centuries I have gotten myself involved with the wrong type of women and demons. Over that period of time when you were with him, I began to believe that you weren’t worth my attention. Your choices were poor, your judgement was clouded by your heart.” He was saying, and I felt a little embarrassed. Arthur had loved me, and I was in love with him, too. It was hard to listen to this, knowing that I had made many mistakes in the past.

  “Then your daughter was born, and you left her with that Warlock witch and ended that silly romance. Things started changing and you kept drinking to forget about your guilt, about the fact that you had to keep her hidden. At some point I decided that it was better if I didn’t get involved. However, our paths crossed again when Alexis started causing trouble at my expense.”

  Something happened when Lucifer stopped talking. The cosy living room had vanished and I was back in London. I recognised the surroundings instantly: it was the office of Doomed Cases. Ricky was sitting at my desk, staring at the empty wall. Emma was looking out the window. Her normally cheerful and happy expression was missing, and she looked worried. My heart skipped a beat, and then began racing faster than ever before. I didn’t have to guess—they were all worried about me. I hoped that they weren’t in any kind of trouble.

  Then the image changed, and we were looking at the broadcast of the news. The camera was moving over Buckingham Palace. Crowds were placing flowers in front of the gate, hundreds of them. The members of the royal family were walking inside the main cathedral in London. The Queen mother was there, Natalie, and Princess Layla. The reporter was saying that the whole nation was grieving over the young prince. I swallowed hard watching the father of my child, knowing that his life was now truly over.

  Seconds passed, and we were back in Mammon’s quarters. He sat on his throne, shouting orders around to other demons and Watchers. I couldn’t believe that Lucifer had tested me in such a sadistic way. Surely, he knew that I could have died in there.

  Then Morpheus started talking, his voice loud.

  “Six demons. The time you’ve all been waiting for has come. The election will begin in two days. Prepare the polling stations and encourage your demons to vote.”

  Mammon nearly fell off his throne. He picked up his long cloak and looked around with fear. All his Watchers exchanged worried looks with each other.

  “My lord, let me see you, my lord,” he shouted, looking up like he was expecting that Lucifer was somewhere on the ceiling. He was pathetic.

  The tiny voice in my head told me that now I had proof—Morpheus was really Lucifer.

  My jaw was hanging on the floor and my magic was going berserk. Soon we were back in the room and Mammon’s castle had vanished. I was trying to digest this calmly, but my heart felt as if it was going to jump out of my chest.

  Lucifer was my father and he was Morpheus. I felt a little nauseous, ready to throw up.

  “But Alexis, she’s alive and healed,” I mumbled.

  I wanted to be that other Maxine that drank way too much and gambled all her money away. Her life seemed much simpler. I didn’t want to be the disappointment, the daughter of Lucifer who had failed.

  “Hold on—so you were the one who stopped the Watcher from tossing me down to the pits when I thought that I was in Gjoll,” I said.

  “Yes, I started changing my mind about you when you defeated Alexis. Your mongrel abilities are magnificent and impressive, but you had never tried to fully control them. I started paying attention to you again. Alexis had potential, her future looked so promising, and at times, I believed that she truly loved me, until I caught her stealing from me,” Morpheus or Lucifer said. I had no idea what I was supposed to call him.

  The demon was my father, and that felt surreal and totally unbelievable. The dark lord, the most powerful demon in Hell had feelings. This was so inhuman of him. And that bitch. Damn, I wished that I’d killed her when I had a chance.

  “I tossed her down when I saved George, but she escaped. A couple months back, a demon showed up outside my flat and said that someone had helped her. He also said that my mother’s death wasn’t a coincidence,” I said, now remembering all these small details from the past.

  “Unfortunately, I failed to notice that Alexis had many significant contacts in Hell. I never considered her a threat, but then her sister came into the picture and things starte
d changing. It was time to act, so I called an election,” he explained. “The order in Hell needs to change, and I needed to shake things up. Mammon is too lazy, and Asmodeus has betrayed me too many times. I want to see new demons in power.”

  Suddenly I was boiling with anger and resentment. The election was bullshit. As his fucking daughter, I was ready to let him know what I thought, but first I needed to know everything.

  “What about my mother?”

  “She didn’t die from cancer as you believe. She was poisoned by one of my enemies.”

  “What?” I shouted. “And you let her die? You’re Lucifer. You left me on Earth with no one, and you didn’t even try to bring her back!”

  I lost my cool then, as fury overtook my thinking process. My beloved mother had died because my father needed to satisfy his demonic urges. She was kind and innocent. This wasn’t the kind of truth that I was expecting.

  Then that whole bullshit test; he literally put me through Hell, just so he could make sure that I was ready to finish Alexis.

  “Trust me, I regret many things, but I can’t bring people back. This is against the order, and I don’t have that kind of power. I loved your mother, Maxine. She was the one and only.”

  “Bullshit!” I shouted, losing control. “You were fucking other women on Earth for centuries. She wasn’t the one and only. Stop trying to justify what happened!”

  Okay, I literally had lost my shit with him, but after what I had been through, I didn’t give a crap anymore.

  My father stared at me, and I no longer cared if he was going to punish me for speaking my mind.

  “You’re wrong. She was special to me, but I hadn’t done enough to protect her. There were other women, yes, there have always been other mortal women, but I had huge plans for your mother and you.”

  “This is bullshit,” I muttered, furious. “So, what the hell am I doing here if I am such a disappointment?”

  “We will get to that in a moment. Let me just finish my thought. I had to interfere when Alexis decided to take your daughter. At that time, I began to see you stepping away from the sad, drunken, Maxine. You cared for your friends, and you were trying hard to do the right thing. We are very similar, Maxine, despite what you may think. I saved you when you entered the underworld illegally. Maybe you failed in Purgatory, but you overcame your weaknesses. I sent you through the journey in Hell because I needed to be convinced that you were ready.”

  “Ready? Ready for what?”

  “To become my prodigy, to kill Alexis, to take over for me, and become the Queen of Hell.”

  Chapter 11

  “The nettle of remorse now stung so sharp, whatever else had drawn me most to love became for me my utmost enemy.”

  ― Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy

  A Queen of Hell? Me?

  He was funny, really, really funny. He couldn’t possibly believe that I would want to stay in the underworld. I didn’t think he realised how ridiculous and crazy that actually sounded.

  Okay, Lucifer was my father, and he had been testing me to see if I was capable of killing that bitch Alexis, who was technically his ex-lover. He stared at me and everything he said was slowly beginning to sink in. Lucifer had been using me this entire time and I hated that I didn’t see it.

  And my poor mother, she had been a victim. Someone had poisoned her, just because she was involved with him. I should have suspected that her death wasn’t coincidental. Being young and naïve wasn’t an excuse anymore.

  “Did she know that you weren’t human?” I finally asked, knowing I meant to talk about Alexis, but that conversation could wait. I was here because I needed to know the truth about my life. Lucifer had been keeping stuff from me for over a decade and that wasn’t fair. I went through life believing that I was fathered by some random demon, just to find out that this was never the case.

  Lucifer sighed and shifted on the chair. This house was just one of his illusions. I’d bet that he really didn’t live like this. I wished that I’d had more time with my mother. We were so close.

  “She knew that I was a demon, but I never really told her the whole truth,” he admitted.

  I thought about my life in a nutshell. Other demons had always treated me like a second-class being, and I encountered prejudice on a daily basis. Lucifer was a hypocrite. He oppressed mongrels, and now he was planning to let the whole world know that I was his daughter. Hell wasn’t my home, and I would never agree to stay here.

  “So, how did you two meet? I don’t believe that one day you just decided to leave Hell and have some fun on Earth?”

  “You may not believe it, but Hell can be monotonous, and I get bored easily. Humans are such fascinating creatures and I like being around them. Your mother caught my eye straight away. It was love at first sight, Maxine,” he explained, sounding nostalgic again. I wanted to laugh, but instead I rolled my eyes.

  He couldn’t have been serious. From what I had seen, Hell was twisted and convoluted.

  “And now after you put me through this test in Hell, you want to declare me your real daughter. Tell me, do I understand this correctly?” I asked, thinking maybe after that I could change something—change the way other full-blooded demons treated mongrels.

  “My other daughter is the Princess of Monaco; my son works in the intelligence in Russia, and Marisa is a doctor in the US Army. They are mongrels, too, and they are doing fine. My children made their choice to stay on the outside. None of them have any idea who they really are. You will be the first, Maxine. Despite your flaws, I’m confident that you’re ready,” he said, and I continued staring at him, trying to understand what he wanted from me. Lucifer was obviously proud of what his other children had achieved, and I didn’t give a crap if he thought I was a loser. It was entirely his fault that my mother was dead, and I ended up the way I had.

  Fucking Princess of Monaco could go to Hell for all I cared. Lucifer was playing with my life like it was a Monopoly game. Throwing dice and wondering how Maxine was going to screw up next.

  I thought about Summer. Matilda was looking after her, and I knew if I agreed to Lucifer’s terms then I could see her again very soon. Suddenly his offer was making sense.

  “So you brought me here because you want me to take care of Alexis for you?” I asked, making sure that we were on the same page.

  “That demon is becoming problematic. She’s trying to prove that she was born to defeat me,” he explained.

  “Why don’t you kill her yourself? Why do you need me to do all the dirty work for you?”

  “We both know that you have violated many of my rules on Earth, Maxine. The illegitimate royal baby and the affair with the future king. Many demons would have been sent directly to the pits, but you on the other hand, managed to live without caring for the consequences. I’m willing to overlook all that insubordination and leave you be, but you need to eliminate Alexis for me. I believe it’s a fair offer.”

  I thought about the past and all the mistakes that I made on the way. I could defeat Alexis. She was healed, but I had my enhanced mongrel abilities. My experience and knowledge gave me some sort of advantage. I felt like I had a right to avenge Arthur, the father of my child. He didn’t have to die.

  I knew that this wasn’t going to be easy, but I was done with Hell. I needed to get back to London.

  “All right, I’ll kill her for you, but I have a few conditions of my own. You might be Lucifer and my father, but that doesn’t give you the right to treat me like a lab rat, but what’s done is done. After all, I’m alive,” I stated firmly, having had enough of this bullshit. I wasn’t scared of him, even if he was the most powerful demon alive. I had lost my mother because of him, and I just couldn’t forget about it. I suspected that my new identity would come with many new responsibilities, but I wasn’t going to worry about that now.

  Lucifer didn’t look too pleased with what I said or probably thought, but I was done with messing around.

  “What do you wan
t?”

  “Mongrels have been oppressed for as long as I’ve been living on Earth. That has to change,” I said. There was a possibility that I could die going after Alexis. That bitch was dangerous, and I was negotiating with the dark lord—demanding conditions that may never be executed. “Also, Rodriguez, that bastard tried to kill me. I want him gone from the palace.”

  “I have to agree with you on that one point. I made a mistake appointing Rodriguez to the head of the faction. That demon went over my head too many times. I’ll deal with him accordingly.”

  “That old demon tried to kill me twice, and now he’s planning to go after Summer, too. This isn’t even funny anymore,” I said, raging inside when I thought about Rodriguez conspiring with Beelzebub. Politics were never my strong side, but even I realised that all the six sinister demons had been doing what they pleased for a very long time. Lucifer wasn’t keeping any order in Hell. He was right—things needed to change.

  “Yes, consider it done, Maxine.”

  “All right, so what about the first condition? Demons have been treating mongrels worse than animals. A group of them were being sold like slaves in the first circle. That’s not on. We have to be given more rights and we need to be treated equally.”

  I remembered the way Bianca had talked about mongrels, and the way I had been treated over the years. It was racism on a huge scale in demonic terms. Maybe I was getting ahead of myself, because killing Alexis wasn’t going to be easy. Now that she was healed, I suspected that she didn’t care about me anymore. She had way bigger fish to fry.

  Lucifer stared at me intensely, probably trying to read my mind again. His power felt overbearing. I felt it zooming around me. I suspected that he was concealing most of his energy. It was a good tactic, trying to keep me calm.

  I didn’t want to be worried about what was just about to happen. He said it himself that I deserved to be here, sitting in front of him. Over the years I never bothered to look for my father, and now I knew that there was diabolical blood coursing through my veins. I was more powerful than any other mongrel on Earth, excluding his other children of course.