“You’re looking weary, brother. I thank Lucifer that I’ve never had to experience a single day as a human. I couldn’t fathom feeling so weak.”
Cassia stood in the doorway, armored from ankle to neck. She planned to join in the fight.
“You’re missing out,” I said, trying to buy time. I held my fist to my mouth and coughed. I could beat Cassia. Amaymon was a struggle but slow and ultimately beatable. Adding Orien’s arrival meant a fair fight, but it also meant that Paymon and Egyn were on their way. Egyn was the most fearsome of the four.
Cassia charged, her infamous double knives in each hand. I stood in a defensive stance, trying to keep my eyes on all three. She attacked, Amaymon released a glob of molten rock, and just as I tried to avoid both, Orien grabbed me in his enormous arms and squeezed. My ribs and spine threatened to snap and crush under the pressure.
I cried out, both in pain and frustrated at my weakened state. Before I could attempt to maneuver out of his grasp, he was gone, and I was on the ground. I coughed again, gasping just to breathe.
Orien’s body smacked against the far cliff, falling next to the Underling Cassia had killed earlier.
Cassia cried out, and I turned, my mouth falling open. Eden was less than fifty yards from me, grabbing one of Cassia’s knives and impaling her with it. Cassia cried out and stumbled back, as shocked as I was.
Amaymon reared his hand back, preparing to strike. We all knew Eden wounding Cassia meant punishment for us all if his loyal sons didn’t smooth it over with a win.
“Eden!” I warned.
She rushed to me faster than I’d ever seen her move, sliding on her knees. The ash kicked up again, this time creating a wall around us. She helped me to stand, and once I was upright, she smiled at me.
“Hi,” she said.
One corner of my mouth turned up. “Hi.”
In the next breath, we were in the courtyard of her home. The quiet night surrounded us; the air finally cool enough to breathe.
I looked into her big, bright blue eyes, her long lashes blinking as if she were just as surprised as I was.
“Eden?” I said, breathing hard.
She tackled me, and we fell to the ground. I wrapped both arms around her shoulders, unable to hold her tight enough. We were both breathing hard, and I cupped the back of her hair with my palm for a moment before leaning back to look into her eyes.
“You’re back,” I said, my chest heaving.
She nodded, then stood, pulling me up with her.
“That was close,” she said.
“How? You were… How?” I held her at arm’s length, looking her over.
She grinned, shaking her head. “I broke free and came straight home. When I realized where you were, I had to go back for you.”
I cupped her cheeks with both hands, feeling an overwhelming urge to break down. Again, I hugged her to me, but this time for just seconds before planting my lips on hers. Her sweet mouth was soft against mine and felt more than just familiar; they were an old friend, a lover, a safe place I had returned to again and again. Eden’s fingers pressed into my back, but when I growled in pain she stopped, frowning.
“You’re hurt,” she said. She looked down at her bloodstained shirt, and then her hands, sticky and crimson.
I leaned in to taste her lips once more.
She pecked my lips—her mouth softer than anything should be that had just come from Hell. “We have to get you patched up.”
I grinned. “Plenty of time for that. We should get you back to your parents. Your dad and Aunt Claire are probably sending Rhode Island’s entire demon population back to Hell right about now.”
Her face fell, looking at my chest where my heart lay behind my rib cage. Unlike her, I was still human, and my heart was struggling. “They’re inside. You have to come now. You’re running out of time.”
She was right. I was beginning to feel dizzy and cold. “Okay, then. Lead the way.”
Eden held me tight to her side as she helped into her family’s home. My feet barely touched the ground as she bore all my weight. Jared, Claire, and Bex waited inside, ready with lights, sterile covers, suture kits, bags of saline and Morphine, an IV stand and a silver standing tray with medical supplies. Bex was disgusted, not from the mess of blood pouring out of me and onto the floor, but because he sensed our kiss.
“Eden!” Nina said, touching her daughter’s arm as we passed.
“Sorry, Mom. Need to take care of this.”
Nina nodded, wringing her hands together. She’d probably been worried sick with Eden leaving so soon after dying in front of her eyes. The guilt I felt was obviously misplaced, but real all the same.
“Evening,” I said, nodding to Jared as I limped to the dining table. It was a futile attempt to ease their suffering. Politeness. As if that could change anything. “Evening,” I said, nodding to Nina and Cynthia. Ryan was there, too. “Everyone, huh?” I said, grunting as Eden helped me onto my back. Humor. Even worse. “Wow. How long was I down there?”
“Too long,” Eden said, cutting my clothes away. The two lines between her brows deepened as she worked, likely concerned about the amount of blood I’d lost. I was shivering, the human part of me nearing death.
Before I’d betrayed my father, my immortal half felt dominant. Injuries were an afterthought. Now, I felt weak, humanly fragile and far from in control of my fate. Hell had most certainly blamed me for Eden’s escape. My brothers or Lucifer himself could arrive at any moment. The punishment for treason was death, so it would be easy enough for my father to let me die, and I was close.
Eden frowned. “This is going to hurt.”
“Just get it done,” I said, growling when she poked around in my wounds with her fingers.
Eden spoke as she worked, “I don’t feel your father approaching. Nothing from Hell incoming, actually. What are they waiting for?”
I was suddenly too tired to speak.
She tried to smile. “Maybe they know we have a secret weapon. Levi?” she said, glancing to her aunt. She looked back down at me, her gaze meeting mine. “Stay with me, Levi. Fight.”
“Secret weapon?” I breathed out.
She shook her head. “Something that was mine a long time ago. Something I’d made to protect us. It was hidden away in the Oubliette lifetimes ago. Do you remember?”
I thought, shaking my head. Even that took an incredible amount of effort. My injuries were more dangerous than I’d realized.
“Bleeder,” Jared said, gloving up. “There.”
“Got it,” Eden said, wiping her brow with the back of her wrist.
“Do you need—” Claire began, running an IV line.
“That’s it. That was it,” Eden said with a sigh.
“Starting Morphine,” Claire said hanging a bag from the stand. “Ryan?”
“Perfect,” Eden said. “Bex, could you…?”
“On it,” Bex said, butterfly needle and tubing already in-hand.
Ryan breached the small circle around me and rolled up his sleeve.
I looked to Eden. She answered, seeing my confusion. “Ryan’s O Negative. Universal donor.”
“Family pin cushion,” Ryan said with a grin.
“At least you’re somewhat useful,” Jared said.
“Dad,” Eden said with a frown.
Jared glanced at Ryan.
“Save your breath. You’re not sorry,” Ryan said.
Jared looked to Eden. She rolled her eyes and shook her head. “Could you at least keep your thoughts to yourself? He kissed your girlfriend. It’s been nearly twenty years. Get over it.”
“We don’t have to talk about it,” Claire grumbled as she hung another bag of saline.
“Wife,” Jared clarified. “Nina is my wife.”
“She wasn’t at the time,” Ryan said. His eyes danced between the annoyed stares of Jared and Claire. “I’ll shut up.”
I chuckled. “You can�
��t win, huh?”
Ryan grinned and shook his head, his gaze settling on Claire. “Worth it.”
Nina cupped my hand in hers. “Levi?” I could feel her hesitation, but she did it, anyway. The gesture wasn’t lost on me. She loved her daughter that much, and that love overflowed onto me. “How are you feeling?”
“Pretty good, actually,” I said as the Morphine flowed through my veins. “Thank you for asking.”
Nina sighed. “Good. That’s really good. You’d lost a lot of blood.”
“He should be feeling better any minute now,” Bex said, taping the second needle to my arm.
Nina scanned my wounds, then looked over her daughter, feeling for any injuries. “Eden, you weren’t hurt?”
“They didn’t touch me,” Eden said. “In and out.”
Jared’s expression was that of a proud father. Something I’d rarely seen.
Eden finished the patch work and then removed her bloody gloves, tossing them in a garbage bin Agatha had provided minutes before. The Greys and Ryels were a well-oiled machine, working in tandem, predetermining one another’s moves, and rarely needing to communicate. It was a sight to behold.
My Cambion side finally kicked in, but it burned out the Morphine as my body reacted. Pain immediately set in.
“More?” Claire asked, manning the IV pole.
I shook my head. “My body is healing itself. I’ll just have to suffer through it. It could’ve been much worse, though, so thank you.”
“Who knew Satan’s son was so … polite,” she said with a fake smile and a shrug.
I started to laugh, but it hurt too much.
Jared approached, nodding. “In and out was a smart choice. I assume you had a run-in with something big.”
“My brothers,” I said. “And Cassia.”
Claire frowned, a glint of recognition and anger in her eyes. “Cassia.”
“Who?” Nina asked.
Jared paused and offered his wife a loving expression. She nodded, knowing he would explain later. Jared was lost in thought for a moment, then blinked, his gaze returning to me. “Cassia resides in Lucifer’s temple. Why were you there?”
“Looking for Eden. She was beneath the temple, imprisoned there. Or, Cassia thought she was.”
“I was,” Eden said.
“The Bo…” I trailed off, deciding it was best not to unleash a legion or two of demons for saying the word. The Bog was my father’s secret safe, and to speak of it outside of Hell was forbidden. “Basement of my father’s temple.”
“I was there,” Eden clarified. “I freed myself.”
“That’s impossible,” Jared said.
Everyone traded glances, seeming confused.
“I don’t think anything could have held her there, anyway,” Claire said with a smirk.
Nina stared at her daughter. “You’re different.”
“She died,” Bex said. “Maybe her human side died with her.”
“I don’t know how, but yes, I’m different,” Eden said. “But I’m still your daughter.”
Nina’s bottom lip trembled, and she pulled Eden to her, holding her tight. “Don’t leave me again.”
“I won’t,” Eden said. She looked to her father with the same smile she had before my father stole her from us.
Eden now had powers beyond anything any of us could understand—maybe she always had them—but she was still the young woman we remembered. She’d just saved me against two sons of Hell and Cassia, so different and still the same from the being I fell in love with so many eons before. Her light, her mind drew me to her in the beginning. Eden made me curious about how the other side worked, why they were so patient, loving, somehow more so with their enemies. She wasn’t just an angel, though. She was more: powerful, and confident—even in the presence of God Himself.
“Let’s get you both upstairs,” Jared said, gesturing to the door. “Unhook him, Bex.”
Bex quickly and carefully pulled the needle from my vein and connected it to a bag for Ryan’s blood to fill for later use.
Eden let her mother go and stood next to me, hooking my arm around her neck. She was unhappy about something.
“Bex?” Eden called. I couldn’t decipher her expression, but she’d gestured toward the doorway that led into the foyer.
“Oh shit,” he said, his eyes wide. He took a step then stopped, frozen.
In the space Eden had gestured to seconds before stood a woman I hadn’t seen before. Her long, reddish brown curls fell six inches past her shoulders onto her navy-blue scrub top, her honey brown eyes through her black, rectangular-rimmed glasses, her eyes wide as if she was the one caught.
“Alli,” Bex breathed, stepping into view holding a thick roll of gauze and a large bottle of antiseptic.
“Who’s she?” I asked, my eyes dancing between Eden, Bex, Eden’s parents, and the woman.
“Allison,” Eden said, smiling softly at her, but whatever tenderness Eden felt for her was replaced with concern. My father was en-route.
Allison slid her palm down her front, nervously flattening any possible wrinkles. She was older than Eden, closer to Bex’s age. It was hard to tell exactly how she fit into their circle besides that Bex was obviously in love with her. She only wore scrub and a thin gold band on her left finger, a small oval diamond shimmering in the sun that slipped through the window shades.
She began picking at her nails like Nina did when she was anxious. “Your phone call,” Allison stuttered. “I had to check on you. You sounded awful.”
“Bex,” Eden warned.
“I know,” Bex said. He sighed and took a step, finally unfreezing from the spell she’d unwittingly put on him. “You can’t be here. You have to go.”
Allison looked at each of us, her cheeks flushing pink.
“You’re right. I shouldn’t have come. I’m sorry,” she said, trying not to cry.
“Allie,” Bex began, and then looked up. “It’s too late. Allison, wait!” he commanded, his voice almost a yell. He rushed over to her and brought her back within seconds, holding her tight to his side.
I felt it, too, and Bex was right. Whoever Allison was, she’d be safer inside with us. Lucifer appeared next to Eden, smelling her hair. She wasn’t affected, but she put a hand on my chest because I was a second away from attempting to attack him.
“You’re still healing,” she said, calm. “Don’t move.”
I glared at my father, my voice shaking with anger, each word emanating from my throat slowly. “Don’t touch her.”
Lucifer smiled, then took a step back.
Jared pulled his wife close, stepping quietly into a protective stance. Human eyes may have missed him using his thumb and index finger to keep her from lurching between her daughter and the Devil. It wouldn’t surprise me, and it certainly wouldn’t have surprised my father. In fact, he was probably counting on it for one of his two dozen plans for what might happen next. I couldn’t blame Nina. Eden was her only child, and Nina had protected her since before she was born. Any rational thought left her once the entity that had murdered her child once had stood too close. Nina would try to end him with her bare human hands whether Eden needed protection or not.
“Mommy, don’t,” Eden said firmly.
Lucifer snarled in Jared and Nina’s direction, but then his attention was taken by the only other human in the room.
Allison’s mouth hung open, startled and confused by the impeccably dressed, clean shaven, black-eyed monster who had just appeared in the blink of an eye.
“Look away, Allison,” Bex said, but she was transfixed.
I could see in his eyes a mixture of fear, angst, and caution—that Allison was no stranger to him. If she wasn’t family, he was devastatingly in love with her. Bex took both of her hands in one of his, the other touching her chin with his thumb. His touch instantly broke her from her frozen state, and she looked up at him, a single tear falling down her cheek and cat
ching at the rim of her glasses. She was terrified, as she should be in the presence of evil personified.
“Look at me. Just me,” Bex said, staring down into Allison’s eyes.
Eden looked over her shoulder, barely acknowledging the dragon breathing on her neck. “Leave. I’m busy,” she said, taking a step.
Admittedly, my attraction to her in that moment reached an all-time high. The absence of fear in her eyes while she stood next to my father—a being who made the entire universe quake—was oddly arousing.
I relaxed, knowing she was in control.
Lucifer wasn’t convinced. He tried to whisper in her ear, but she swatted at him.
Jared breathed out a laugh.
Lucifer grabbed her arm, barely able to make it budge.
“What’s this?” he said, jerking at her once more without result. He looked around, then screamed into the air. “I demand to know the meaning of this!” Many voices circulated throughout the room, crowding us, passing through us, rattling the windows and walls of the house.
Allison’s shoulders shot up to her ears, but she remained relatively calm in Bex’s arms.
Eli stood next to Jared, appearing impervious to be a part of yet another quarrel between Hell and the Ryels. He was the only one besides Eden unaffected by the presence of the King of Hell. “Good day, all,” he said, cupping Jared’s shoulder.
Jared relaxed, as did his wife.
“She’s mine, Eli!” Lucifer seethed.
“If she belongs to anyone, it’s me,” I said. The excruciating pain just from speaking forced a groan from my throat.
“Suck it up, buttercup,” Eden said. “We have two large rooms and a staircase to go. Or, I can carry you.”
“Absolutely not,” I said, disgusted at the thought.
My father’s eyes rolled back in his head, and a collective moan began to sweep up from the floor as if he were torturing the entire Underworld. His head stretched from one side to the other in an unnatural way until he finally clenched his fists and shook them next to his face, screaming once more to the back of Eden’s head. “Did you hear me, you wretched bitch?”
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