Azrael went to great lengths to hide his angelic appearance. His eyes were still a pale blue, but his hair was dyed black and hung around his face. His lip and left eyebrow were pierced. In his earlobes, he had large black plugs. As for his clothing, he always dressed in black. Unlike the other angels, who dressed to impress, Azrael looked like a goth teen who’d found his clothes in the dumpster behind a consignment store. There were several holes. Even his black combat boots had duct tape covering a hole near the toe.
“You don’t look happy to see me,” he said with a smirk.
“You don’t look happy,” I shot back before stepping aside so he could enter.
“Life is an endless cycle of misery,” he complained. “The only release is death. Lucky for the world, I’m here to release them from their torment.”
“Morbid as always,” Rainer muttered.
“It’s hard to be anything other than morbid considering what I do,” Azrael pointed out before his eyes moved to Beatrice and Persephone. “You have two lady friends in residence? Clearly, they aren’t from around here. They still look too innocent to be from this end of the demon realm. Seducing one innocent wasn’t enough for you?”
I wasn’t about to correct him. It was better if Azrael didn’t know more about Beatrice and Persephone. I was grateful neither responded to him. Azrael might be the angel causing problems. He could easily enter the demon realm.
“We’ll be back in a few minutes,” I told Beatrice. She nodded, and I led Azrael farther into my home where we could talk in private. Rainer followed us.
“What did you want to see me about?” I asked when we reached my den.
“I heard some dickhead archangel came here,” Azrael spat out as he sprawled out on the leather sofa.
“Where did you hear that?” I asked suspiciously, taking a seat behind my desk. Rainer remained standing by the door.
Azrael shrugged. “You know how much angels love gossip.”
“You’re not one to follow gossip,” I stated as I continued to watch his reactions carefully.
“I didn’t ask to be included in the gossip this time,” he told me. “Michael told me. He’s pissed about this whole thing.”
“He’s also one of the few angels powerful enough to enter the demon realm,” I reminded him.
“Yeah, but he’s too prissy to get his hands dirty,” Azrael argued. “Even if he’s involved with whatever shit you have going on, Michael won’t come here.”
I wasn’t nearly as convinced. “I’m still not sure why you’re here.”
“Because I am the only angel allowed to enter all realms,” he growled. “This is my domain.”
“Bullshit,” I spat out. “You know that as the messenger, Gabriel is here at least once a week. There are a few other angels who enter this realm when they have business.”
“Unlike them, I don’t need to ask anyone’s permission to enter,” Azrael argued.
“Who do you think is behind it?” I asked.
He shrugged. “It could be any of the white-winged assholes with access to Hell.”
I bit back a laugh at Azrael’s description. He happened to be one of the white-winged assholes, regardless of how much effort he put into looking different.
“You must have a guess,” I pushed.
There was a long hesitation before Azrael responded. “Gabriel.”
As a messenger, Gabriel could easily enter and leave the demon realm without anyone noticing. He had the power. Still, I couldn’t picture him associating with demons long enough to help with an uprising. “Why would Gabriel want to start a rebellion in Hell?”
“He’s bored, like most angels,” Azrael replied.
Sadly, that made sense. I tried to give fallen angels plenty of work to keep them from getting too bored with their existence. It was harder with the ones who’d been considered gods. They didn’t follow orders well. They were also my biggest problem. If Gabriel had grown bored with his existence, he might try to start a war just to give his existence more purpose.
“I know you aren’t here to warn me,” I began. “What brings you to my home?
“I want to make a deal with you,” Azrael stated.
“What kind of deal?” I asked suspiciously.
“I’ll contact you if I learn anything new about the angel causing you problems, and you’ll do the same for me,” he explained.
I considered his offer. While it would be useful to have Azrael helping us, I didn’t trust him.
“I’ll get back to you,” was my answer.
“You’re refusing to accept my help?” he demanded. Clearly, he’d expected me to jump at his offer.
“I don’t trust your help,” I told him. Why lie?
“Because I’m a white-winged asshole?” he asked, sounding more curious than angry.
“That about sums it up,” I agreed.
He stood and shrugged. “Fine, but you need me to help you stop this angel. You can’t do anything to him. I can make sure he’s dealt with.”
“Even you can’t make that happen,” I told Azrael, calling him on his bluff. “I haven’t refused to work with you yet, but I’m not about to make any hasty alliances.”
He nodded and stomped out of the room. I followed him to the front door where he exited without another word. Not because he was pissed. Azrael was just an asshole.
“The Angel of Death is a real dick, isn’t he?” Beatrice asked.
Her question startled a bark of laughter out of me. “Yes, he is,” I agreed.
She was standing by the table setting out the food. It must have been delivered while I was meeting with Azrael. I moved toward her. I couldn’t help myself. I needed to be close to her. She turned toward me, her eyes locked with mine. I leaned forward and brushed my lips against hers.
Rainer cleared his throat, reminding me we weren’t alone.
When I glared at him, he chuckled and said, “I wanted to remind you that I’m taking Persephone to work in thirty minutes.”
“Why?” Beatrice demanded. “I thought it was safer for us to stay down here.”
“She’ll have guards,” I assured her.
“I insisted,” Persephone added as she slipped a slice of the zellafruit past her lips. “Oh my, that tingles.”
“Are you eating the skin?” I asked.
There was no need to answer; her skin was already turning bright blue.
Beatrice giggled. “You’re going to work like that?”
“Like what?” Persephone asked. “Oh! I forgot about the blue skin. How do I look?”
“Blue,” I replied.
She walked out of the kitchen to look at herself in the mirror above the mantle. Her brow drew together in a frown. “This will never do.”
“You don’t like being blue?” Rainer asked with a laugh.
“I love being blue,” she replied. “It’s this green dress. It looks horrible with my blue skin. I’d better change before I go to work.”
“What about breakfast?” Beatrice asked.
“I filled up on zellafruit,” she called out as she raced up the stairs.
“She is going to make Hades crazy,” I muttered.
“From what I can tell, Hades is already crazy,” Beatrice said with a snort.
I couldn’t argue with her about that.
Chapter 51
Desmond
“Are you sure it’s a good idea to hide in the same place you used last time you were here?” Zareya asked.
“It’s a brilliant idea,” I assured her. “Everyone will assume I’m too smart to come back here. They’ll expect me to find someplace new. You’ll also be able to help me add some new concealment spells.”
“I’m not good at those,” she confessed. “This is a stupid idea.”
I laughed at her reaction. “Don’t worry about being discovered. This section of the cabin was added a little over a year ago. We’re the only living souls who know about it. The demons who cast the original concealment spell assured me no one woul
d ever find this addition, right before I killed them. Besides, we won’t be here long.”
“Of course, we won’t be here long,” she began thoughtfully. “We’ll be returning to the demon realm soon.”
Returning to the demon realm wasn’t what I’d had in mind. I had plans to get to my sister, plans that meant I needed to stay in the human realm.
“I have a plan,” I began, knowing she wasn’t going to like it. “We need to stay here longer to make it work.”
Zareya glared at me. “Are you playing games with me, Desmond?”
“Never,” I assured her. “Trust me. I know how to get to my sister. I just need to play on her concern for the familiars. Once we get my sister, we’ll take down Lucifer.”
Zareya took several deep breaths. “Fine,” she agreed. “We’ll stay here a little longer. If your plan doesn’t work, we’ll return to the demon realm.”
“As soon as our plan is in motion, we’ll be able to destroy Lucifer,” I insisted. “You can take your place as queen of the demon realm.”
With a wistful smile, she said, “And you’ll be my king.”
As much as I hated the demon realm, the idea of being king was growing on me. “First, I need to find the address of a certain warlock.”
“Why not just start killing all those stupid familiars your sister cares so much about?” Zareya asked.
I considered her suggestion before responding. “That’s not a bad idea. I’d love to see Beatrice’s face when she hears they died because of her.”
Chapter 52
Beatrice
I’d been making calls all morning, trying to combine all my patient appointments into two days a week. Lucifer had insisted on one day, but I had too many patients who needed to see me in the next two weeks. Two days a week was going to be difficult. His original suggestion had been to use something like Skype, but that wouldn’t work for two reasons. First, my touch offered comfort to several of my patients. I needed to be with them. The second and most important had to do with my magic. Whatever power I possessed that allowed me to communicate with familiars only worked in person. Like my ability to change forms, none of it made any sense.
“How’s it going?” Lucifer asked as he peeked his head into his den.
“I’ve managed to move almost everyone to either Wednesday or Friday. Those are going to be long days for me,” I replied. “There are a few who haven’t called me back yet.”
He came up behind me and put his hands on my shoulders. “I’m sorry this is so difficult for you. Were you able to get your out-of-town patients to come to you?”
“Most of them,” I replied. “I haven’t heard back from two witches. If I can’t get in touch with them, I’ll need to go out there for their appointments.”
Lucifer was quiet. “We can always use alternate routes to get there. If the locations are close to one of my private portals, it should be easy to get there and back with no danger to you.”
“Good,” I replied with a sigh. Rescheduling was exhausting. “Are you sure Persephone is okay going into work? Even if Desmond doesn’t know she’s my friend, he may go after Julia again.”
“The werewolf has added additional security at the building, and the witches arranged for extra protection spells to be added,” he assured me. “I’ve also got half a dozen demons and a fallen angel guarding the building lobby.”
“You also aren’t as worried about them,” I muttered before standing and storming out of the room.
“Are you angry with me?” Lucifer asked as he followed me.
I hate when I know I’m being unreasonable, but I can’t seem to stop myself. There was no good reason for me to be pissed at Lucifer. I should tell him that I was just stressed out. Instead, I said, “Yes. You could at least pretend you’re worried about my friends.”
“You want me to lie?” he asked.
“No,” I snapped. “I want you to actually care.”
Yep, I was in a bitchy mood. Apparently, my sex-induced euphoria had passed.
He regarded me thoughtfully. “I can see how you’d feel that way.”
“Lovely,” I muttered. “I’m so glad you can see why I might want you to care about others.”
“I care about others,” he insisted.
“Not many,” I argued. “I thought I was an asshole when it comes to worrying about others, but you’ve got me beat.”
He shrugged in response.
“That’s all I get?” I asked.
Lucifer sighed and ran his hands through his hair. “What would you like me to say?” he asked. “Never mind. It was a stupid question. You want me to tell you I’m a sensitive guy who’s just misunderstood.”
I was about to argue when I realized he was right. “Fine,” I relented. “I’m not being completely fair by expecting you to be someone you’re not. I still don’t think it’s too much to ask that you care about people who matter to me.”
He nodded. “I’m trying. It’s been a very long time since I’ve cared about anyone new,” he confessed. “And, I’m not a good person. The stories of me starting a rebellion among the angels are true. I didn’t have some noble reason. I wanted power, and I didn’t care who got hurt.”
“That’s ancient history,” I said, waving off his warnings. “You’ve changed. I’m not saying you became a nice guy, but you aren’t the same person you were back then either. We all grow and change. Six months ago, I mostly stayed in my trailer, but look at me now.”
“Are you saying I can change?” he asked. “Is that what you want?”
“No, you idiot,” I said with an exasperated sigh.
Lucifer let out a startled bark of laughter. “Did you just call me an idiot?”
I placed my hands on my hips and regarded him with a raised eyebrow. This was my normal behavior when people asked me ridiculous questions. He’d heard me.
“Only people who’ve known me for a very long time dare to speak to me that way,” he remarked thoughtfully.
“Oh,” I began in a mocking tone. “No one wants to stand up to the devil.”
“And now you’re making fun of me,” he added, his lips twitching. “How is it that a little witch like you has no fear of me?”
I shrugged. “You don’t seem as dark and evil as I’d expected.”
“I’m beginning to wonder if maybe you would have given me a chance had you known who I really am,” he remarked.
I wanted to tell him I would have, but I had stolen his car. “Probably not at first,” I confessed. “That doesn’t mean I’m okay with you lying to me.”
“Are you trying to pick a fight with me?” he asked with a raised eyebrow.
I opened my mouth to tell him he was crazy for asking me that, but then I closed it and considered my own behavior. “Yes,” I admitted with a frustrated sigh. “I’m stressed out and looking for someone to take it out on.”
“You need something to take you mind off everything that’s going on,” he told me.
“What did you have in mind?” I asked.
“I need to do a little work before I can go anywhere,” he began. “After that, we can grab a late lunch and spend some time together.”
“We’re going to leave the demon realm?” I asked.
“We have restaurants here,” he reminded me.
“Really?” I asked. My succubus friend had never mentioned demon realm restaurants. Then again, sex demons tended to go to the human realm to dine. “You mentioned the one in the tourist area being dangerous. You have other restaurants?”
He nodded. “And ice water,” he assured me again.
“You have restaurants, ice water, and a strong internet connection,” I mused. “What next? A snowball fight?”
Chapter 53
Lucifer
We were on the terrace of a small café overlooking the River of Fire.
“It’s beautiful in a frightening way,” Beatrice mused as she watched the molten lava flow by us. Every few minutes, flames would shoot from the river.
“Yes, it is,” I agreed. “It’s also been used in some truly horrific art.”
Beatrice nodded and looked at me. “I’ve seen some art that shows people in there. It’s supposed to be used for punishment, right?”
“We’ve never used it for punishment. I’ve only been tempted to toss someone in there a handful of times,” I admitted.
“You’re joking, right?” she asked.
“No,” I replied. “I’ve only been tempted to fling someone into the river of fire about five times.”
“You wouldn’t really do something like that,” she insisted.
“Would it make you feel better if I told you that three of those times it was Hades I wanted to toss in?” I asked.
“Hades can’t be that bad,” she argued. “When he was at your home, he seemed nice.”
“He’s insane,” I reminded her.
“And you told him who Persephone is,” she grumbled. “You keep saying he’s crazy, yet you told him Persephone’s real name.”
I didn’t blame her for being annoyed and confused by my actions. Hades was only going to behave for so long. “I feel bad for my cousin,” I confessed.
That earned me a smile from Beatrice. “You care about him.”
“Yes,” I admitted. “Hades owes me nothing. Most angels who’d once been worshipped as gods do absolutely nothing but sit around and lament the loss of their former status. They have no assigned tasks because they are lazy bastards. Hades chooses to help me. He takes on a lot of unpleasant tasks, and he’s always tried to avoid being a problem. It’s not easy for him.”
“So, he’s more than your cousin,” she began. “Hades is your friend.”
“Yes,” I replied. “He’s one of the few people I trust. That doesn’t mean I’m happy about the problems he’s going to cause me with your friend. I should have lied to him. I’ve been kicking myself over this.”
“But she might be the one for him,” Beatrice remarked. “If there’s a curse, there must be a way to break it. There is a Persephone who’s destined to end the curse on Hades.”
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