Neither of them moved as I looked for the very scary third arrival, but they were alone as the portal closed behind them. Did that mean they failed?
“Holy shit,” Roth whispered, his attention fixed on Zayne.
Layla stepped forward, her hand falling free of Roth’s. “Zayne?” she whispered, not making it very far. Roth captured her hand, holding her back as he stared at Zayne. “Is that—?” Her voice cracked. “Is that really you? How?” She jerked her head toward me. “Did Grim help you?”
“It wasn’t Grim,” Zayne answered, his voice thicker. “But it’s me, Layla-bug.”
“Layla-bug?” she whispered as I repeated the rather cute nickname in my mind, and then it appeared as if her face crumpled. A knot of emotion swelled in my throat as she pulled against Roth’s hold, reaching for Zayne.
“He doesn’t feel right.” Roth stopped her. “What do you see around him, Layla?”
“I...” White-blond hair swayed as she shook her head. Her gasp reached my ears. “I don’t see anything.”
“You wouldn’t, because I’m not a Warden any longer,” Zayne said, standing still. “Roth knows what I am. Apparently he’s always known what we once were.”
Layla’s head jerked back to Roth and then swung back to Zayne. “Wardens were once angels who Fell, but you’re not an angel. You don’t have an aura—”
“That’s because he’s a goddamn Fallen.” Roth yanked Layla back then as he stepped in front of her. “With his grace.”
“What?” Layla demanded, sidestepping Roth.
“Yes, he’s a Fallen,” I chimed in. “And yes, he still has a whole lot of heavenly fire in him, but he’s still Zayne.”
“Impossible,” Roth bit out.
“I’m standing in front of you, so I don’t know how you think that’s impossible,” Zayne responded. “But to make a long story short, I was restored, given back my Glory. They let me Fall and keep my grace to help fight Gabriel.”
“They let you?” Disbelief filled Roth’s tone. “A restored angel Fall and keep the grace when the only other being that equals that monumental bad life choice is—”
An intense burst of white light streaked across the sky, startling me. I looked up, flinching as another bolt of light ripped through the darkness, slamming down to the ground not too far from where we stood. A boom of thunder rattled my very bones and then the sky erupted in lightning. I jerked back, heart leaping.
“We’re going to have to finish this conversation later,” Roth said.
Dozens of lightning strikes hit the ground, the impact a continuous roar of thunder. Static charged the air, raising the tiny hairs all over my body.
Zayne was suddenly beside me as another thick crack of lightning hit a nearby tree. The oak split straight down the middle and then went up in flames.
Thunder roared through the skies, and the ground...the ground rolled, knocking me off balance. Zayne caught me by the waist, holding me as steady as he could while the earth seemed to quake to its very core. There wasn’t even time to really feel fear or to wonder if standing in a field surrounded by trees was a good place to be in the middle of an earthquake. Everything stopped as quickly as it started. The lightning. The thunder. The earthquake.
Heart thumping, I glanced up at Zayne. “Um...”
Twin bright lights appeared behind us, funneling through the darkness. A creepy, crawling sensation shimmied over my skin as Zayne and I turned to where his Impala was parked. The headlights were now on. So was the interior light.
“That’s odd,” Zayne commented.
A second later, the radio kicked on, volume near eardrum-bursting levels as it rapidly changed channels like someone was in there spinning the dials.
Except no one, not even a really bored ghost, was in that car. It was empty of the living and the dead.
“That’s really odd,” I said.
“What in the Hell?” Zayne murmured.
The radio stopped spinning channels, and the sound...the sound of a guitar riff drifted out from inside the Impala. It was a song. A vaguely familiar one. A scratchy male voice sang, “‘I’m on my way to the promised land...’”
My brows knitted as I started mouthing the words. The chorus picked up in a very recognizable lyric. “Is that...?”
“‘Highway to Hell’?” Zayne finished for me as he looked over his shoulder. “Please tell me he doesn’t have his own entrance song?”
Before Zayne’s question could be answered, the ground by the burning tree erupted. A geyser of dirt and flames spewed hundreds of feet into the air.
I turned slowly, head tilting to the side as I stared into the mass of churning flames and dirt. There were shadows in there, a darkness that took shape, and even with my poor vision I could make out massive wings and horns—wings the length of two Impalas and horns the size of a person.
“He’s heeeeeerrrre,” Cayman’s voice echoed eerily through the phone Zayne held as AC/DC sang “Highway to Hell.”
My mouth dried.
The thing inside the fire stretched toward us. It was a monster made of rippling flames—a type of demon I’d never seen before. Its mouth gaped open in a deafening roar, spitting fire into the sky and across the ground. The heat blew back our clothing and hair.
Dear God, was Lucifer a giant?
Probably shouldn’t be asking God that question, but how in the Hell were we supposed to work with and hide something like that?
Man, this was a bad idea.
The fire monster stretched its arms as it tossed its head back in a fiery laugh.
A very bad idea.
The flames flared brightly and then evaporated. A small breath parted my lips as the fire monster thing shrank down until it was just under seven feet tall.
Definitely a more manageable fire monster size, but still, fire monster.
The grass sparked and then smoldered with each step the creature took as it stalked forward.
“Um,” I repeated, forcing myself to stand still and keep my grace locked down.
“It’s okay,” Roth assured us. “He just likes to make an entrance.”
“Understatement of the year,” Zayne murmured.
Just when I was about to ask if the fire thing was permanent, the flames faded, revealing skin—skin that surprisingly carried the same kind of glow Zayne’s did, but brighter. It did the same thing my father’s did, an ever-changing kaleidoscope of pinks and browns before settling on a tawny hue that seemed neither white nor brown. As the glow receded, the first thing I noticed was that his features were clear to me—well, as clear as they could be in the moonlight, but definitely more visible than Roth’s or Layla’s. The second thing I noticed was how much he looked like my father, even his eyes. They were a vibrant, unnatural shade of blue, and the wings were the same—something else that surprised me even though I knew that Lucifer had retained his wings after his Fall and his grace. I just hadn’t expected them to be so white and pristine, because he was, after all, freaking Lucifer. They were as large as my father’s, stretching at least ten feet. The sculpted jaw and cheekbones were the same. The prominent brow and straight nose nearly identical. The fair, shoulder-length hair also similar. They could be brothers, and it struck me then that Michael and Lucifer were brothers, as were Raphael, Gabriel and all the rest.
Oh, man, wasn’t that a dysfunctional as Hell family.
That I was a part of.
Wait. Did that mean Lucifer was...was my uncle? My nose wrinkled. We had to have some really messed up DNA relatives on 23andMe.
But family genealogy was so not important right now, because finally, the third thing I noticed, unfortunately, was that he was naked.
Why were they always naked?
Keeping my eyes northward wasn’t a problem, though. I didn’t want to see any of what he did or did not have going on down below.
/> He came to a stop a few feet from Roth and Layla, his wings moving soundlessly behind him. A coldness drenched my skin and my bones as those ultrabright eyes drifted over us, and when he spoke, ice encased my soul. His voice...it was like a melody—a hymn. The kind of voice that could convince you to take part in any unimaginable sin.
“Bow,” Lucifer ordered. “Bow before your true Lord and Savior.”
None of us moved.
Or bowed.
We all stared at him, which probably meant we were seconds away from being brutally murdered in really horrific ways.
Lucifer clapped his hands together, causing me to give a little jump. “I’m just kidding.” He chuckled, and the sound was like dark chocolate, smooth and sinful. “So, I’m told I’m needed to save the world.”
“Yeah,” I said hoarsely.
Lucifer smiled, and I’d never seen anything so beautiful and so equally frightening before. Goose bumps broke out over my flesh. “Then let’s raise some Hell.”
26
“Can you put some clothes on first?” Roth asked.
I so seconded that request.
“Does my nakedness make you uncomfortable, Prince?”
“Yes,” Roth replied. “It does.”
“What about you two...?” Lucifer looked at Zayne and I again. His head tilted to the side. “What in the forbidden fruit do we have here?”
I wasn’t exactly sure which one of us he was referring to.
“A child of an angel...” He tipped his head back, inhaling deeply. “Not just any angel, though.” His chin snapped back down, and those eyes were no longer blue. They burned a deep crimson. “Michael,” he sneered. “You reek of Michael. I’ve been looking for you.”
Zayne was in front of me in a heartbeat, the sound of his shirt tearing as his wings unfurled from his back, bright white and streaked with pulsing grace. I thought I heard Layla gasp.
“And a Fallen? A Fallen with his grace? What has come of this world that the first thing I see is a nephilim and a Fallen still in possession of grace?” Lucifer’s laugh sounded like icicles falling, and I kept my mouth shut about the whole nephilim thing. “You think you can take me, Fallen? I’ve stripped larger wings than yours. Want to learn how that feels?” The scent of brimstone burned my nostrils. “I’ll be happy to oblige you.”
“I’d rather not, but if you make one move toward her, I’m more than willing to find out when I tear your wings off,” Zayne warned.
My eyes widened.
Lucifer let out another dark chuckle. “Cocky. I kind of like it.”
“That’s not really a good thing,” Roth commented from the sidelines. “He likes to collect things he likes.”
“And put them in cages,” Lucifer confirmed, and what the Hell was up with the whole putting things in cages obsession? “You didn’t tell me there was a Fallen involved, Prince.”
“I didn’t know there was one,” he replied as I peeked around one of Zayne’s wings. Lucifer was still eyeballing Zayne like he wanted to have him for dinner. “This is the Warden we were telling you about. The one Gabriel killed.”
“Aha, so you were given back your Glory. Restored to righteousness, but you Fell. For her.” Lucifer’s head snapped to his left, and those glowing red eyes met mine. “Peek-a-boo, I see you.”
I shivered. “Hi?”
He dipped his chin, smiling. “How is your dear old father? Haven’t seen him in a spell.”
“I really don’t know.” I stepped to the side and under Zayne’s wing. He cursed, but I ignored it. “He’s kind of an absentee father.”
“Well, don’t we have that in common?” Lucifer’s gaze shifted to Zayne. “And don’t you and I have things in common? But I still have my Glory, Fallen. Step to me, and I’ll have you in chains fashioned from your own bones, and your nephilim at my side and in my bed.”
Zayne tensed beside me as grace surged, overriding my already limited common sense. I took a step forward as the corners of my vision turned white. “If you touch a hair on his head, I’ll cut off what you think you’re going to use in that bed and force-feed it to you.”
Lucifer’s brows shot up as his smile grew. “Now, you shouldn’t flirt with me so obviously in front of your boy. That may hurt his feelings.”
“Boy?” The growl that came from Zayne reminded me of something a very large, very predatory animal would make.
“Guys,” Roth sighed. “Can we not do this? You both have big wings and all three of you have a whole lot of grace. Zayne isn’t going to step to you. Lucifer isn’t going to hurt Zayne, and, Trinity, you’re not cutting off any unmentionable pieces,” he said. “And can I also not be the voice of reason? I don’t like it. At all.”
“I kind of like it,” Layla said. “It’s a nice change.”
“I so wish I was there to see this,” Cayman’s voice came through the phone. “All of this sounds really hot, but it’s me time.”
“What in the Hell are you still doing on the phone?” I snapped.
“Living my life,” Cayman shot back. “Don’t judge me—”
Zayne disconnected the call, and I felt his wings lower behind me. “I wasn’t a part of this decision that brought you here. I’m sure we’re all going to regret it.”
“Probably.” Lucifer smirked.
“But Roth seems to think you can help us defeat Gabriel,” Zayne continued, his voice as thin as his patience. “If you’re here to do that, I don’t have a problem with you, but you come at her—”
“You’re going to hurt me?” Lucifer pouted. “Real bad? Make me go ouchie?”
“She’s going to hurt you real bad,” Zayne warned. “And I’m going to stand by and laugh as she does.”
“Just so you know, Zayne,” I said. “If we were alone and possibly not about to throw down with a naked Lucifer, I would so be all over you right now.”
“There’s always later,” Zayne told me. “And there will be a later.”
I smiled.
Lucifer eyed both of us for several moments, and then I swore he rolled his eyes. “Love,” he spat, the blue returning to his eyes. “How quaint. I hope you all are at least somewhat less sickening than these two.”
Sensing that the immediate threat of Lucifer stripping the skin from our bones had eased, I reined in my grace. Zayne’s wings were still out, though, spread wide behind me. “Did you send demons after me?”
“What?” Roth demanded.
“Ghouls and an Upper Level demon came for Trinity,” Zayne answered. “They’re dead now.”
“That’s a shame,” Lucifer murmured in possibly the most disingenuous tone imaginable. “I learned of what Gabriel planned before my latest and greatest disappointment showed up.”
“Wow,” Roth muttered.
“Bael was acting sketchy for a while now,” Lucifer explained, and my brows lifted. Sketchy? “So, I got curious and put some feelers out. Didn’t take long to learn what the whiniest of all my brothers planned. I knew I had to do something to stop him.”
Surprise flickered through me. “You already wanted to stop Gabriel?” I glanced at Roth and Layla. “Before they even spoke to you.”
“You’re surprised?” Lucifer glanced back at them. “She thinks I wanted to help mankind, doesn’t she?”
“She doesn’t know you like I do,” Roth replied.
“How cute.” Lucifer laughed as he refocused on me. “Make no mistake, I don’t give a flying shit about mankind or Heaven, but there are rules. Agreements. Ones that even I follow. What Gabriel plans to do upsets the balance, and that is one of two things I cannot allow.”
“What is the other thing?” I asked even though I knew I probably shouldn’t have.
“Bael or Gabriel upstaging him,” Layla supplied.
“True,” Lucifer confirmed, and my eyebrows rose. “I’m the biggest
badass, something Gabriel needs to be reminded of apparently. He is not who others should fear and pray for protection against. That’s me. My job. And just like the greatest television show of all time, Highlander, there can only be one.”
I blinked once and then twice. “You know of the show Highlander?”
Lucifer looked at me like I was half-stupid as Roth said, “Every so often, a stray iPad makes it to Hell and has some movie or TV shows downloaded on it. One of them had Highlander.”
“Have you seen the movie?” I asked.
“There’s a movie?” Lucifer’s eyes widened with interest.
“A couple actually. Six or seven, I think?” I answered.
“I don’t think now is the time to talk about Highlander,” Zayne said, and the look Lucifer shot him would’ve sent most running. Zayne simply cocked an eyebrow. “Why did you send those demons after Trinity?”
“Because logic? Duh?”
The devil did not just say the word duh. I refused to accept that I had heard that.
“I figured that I’d be helpful and save Heaven from its own creations and ignorance by removing the key component of what Gabriel needs to complete his rather clever plan.”
“Unfortunately, I’m that key component,” I stated.
“Unfortunately for you, that is.” Lucifer tilted his head again. “Removing you from the equation seemed like the easiest and quickest method of solving this issue. You can’t disagree with that. Everyone should be thanking me.”
“I can one hundred percent disagree,” Zayne bit out.
Lucifer’s eyes narrowed. “With you out of the picture, problem solved. It’s nothing personal.”
“Sorry but it feels sort of personal.” I kept my gaze fixed on Lucifer.
“Wasn’t like I was going to kill you,” Lucifer said. “They were only going to bring you to me.”
“What he’s failing to mention is that without demonic blood, you wouldn’t have survived very long in Hell,” Roth clarified.
I crossed my arms as I stared at Lucifer.
Grace and Glory Page 29