by Leigh Kelsey
The weight of his arm in the dip of her waist seemed to promise that he wanted her, and wanted her close.
“Sleep, Liliana,” Luc murmured, his voice sleepy as he adjusted his legs behind her, his hand flattening on her stomach. “I’ve got you. I’ll be here all night.”
That was another reason adrenaline rushed through her system; if she slept, she knew Gabriel would be in her dreams. But they had a plan, and she could feed him lies if it kept Luc and the others safe. It was bad enough that those rebel demons thought they could take Hell from him; she wouldn’t let Gabriel try to hurt him too.
“Your heart’s beating so fast,” Luc said, nuzzling her shoulder. “What are you thinking about?”
“All the ways I’ll kill Gabriel if he tries to hurt you,” Lili admitted quietly.
“My bloodthirsty little angel,” Luc murmured, a smile in his voice.
Lili calmed, some of the adrenaline fading at his words. Or rather that one word—my. He still wanted her. Of course he did; he wouldn’t be wrapped around her in bed if he didn’t. Lili rolled her eyes at herself, reminding herself to trust her instincts—and those instincts promised her that Luc was safe, trustworthy, and honest.
Sleep snuck up on her gradually, helped along by the sense of safety borne of Lucifer’s arms around her, his breath fanning across her neck.
“I’ll be here,” Luc murmured, and that promise stripped the last bit of fight from Lili.
She slipped into sleep quickly, the days activities and the magic she’d exerted exhausting her in a heartbeat.
Wisteria formed in Lili’s dream, a street she’d walked down every day, the smell of fried dough and crushed raspberries enticing her to stop at the stall on the corner, but instead of growling hungrily, her stomach retched. She recognised the wrongness this time; the dream didn’t feel quite right, quite hers. And she knew he had to be lurking somewhere, that cold sneer on his face.
But Lili told herself this was okay, this was what she wanted. She and Luc had spoken about it before she dared to lay her head on the pillow. She knew what she had to tell Gabriel. It would be okay. Better than okay, it would keep the archangel far from the palace in Iarlon.
Lili’s shoulders were up by her ears by the time she’d reached the food stall. She realised now where the wrongness was coming from: the dream was too accurate, too precise, lacking the haziness of slumber. Even in the dream, a familiar woman manned the food cart, using a funnel to drip curls of dough into the boiling oil the way she did every day in the real Wisteria.
The smell as the dough began to cook made Lili’s stomach tighten, and any appetite she might have had fled as Gabriel landed two feet away from her, his bronze wings tucking into his sides and hard eyes fixing on her. “Report.”
“I…” Despite the plan, Lili’s courage fled. All her barely-muffled hurts sharpened again, stabbing right through her chest and into her heart, piercing her soul. He was supposed to love her.
Lili’s bottom lip wobbled, but this time she had something to focus on to block out the pain. The feeling of Cerny pressing against her from behind, his soft, honey-sweet voice promising to give her everything she needed. Luc’s arms tight around her middle, his mouth intent as he kissed her breathless. Russ cuddling close in her bed before he went to Earth, his presence an effortless comfort. Even that however-brief softness she’d glimpsed from Bernard in the garden of living sculptures.
All of it filled her with strength, helped her straighten her shoulders. She’d fought alongside Tali and Renna, two of Lucifer’s best warriors, and helped them capture two rogue demons. Lili was strong; she was capable. Even of lying to the archangel she hated and loved in equal measure.
“There’s nothing much to report,” Lili said, her eyes on the frying dough so he wouldn’t glimpse the spark of rage and magic through her eyes. “They don’t let me know things; I’m kept in my room all day. I’m not a useful spy.”
He took a step closer and Lili flinched despite her resolve to be brave. He towered over her, all burnished glory and seething righteousness. “What do you know, then? Make it useful.”
Lili’s backbone strengthened at the condescension. She cast off the whisper, the fear, and faced him fully. His eyes seemed to radiate dominance and control. “I found out where he is, the city I’m kept in. It’s called Gualla, right on the edge of Hell.”
“What does it look like?” he pushed, and Lili was immensely glad Lucifer had armed her with this knowledge. He’d known Gabriel much better than she did, she realised, to know the way the archangel’s mind worked.
“There are trees everywhere, a forest maybe, and those army buildings I told you about last night.”
“Good,” he barked.
Just last week, that rough word spat at her would have made her glow with pride. Now she heard it for what it was—brutal and empty. No praise it in whatsoever, just a word meant to keep her dangling, desperate for even the hint of approval. Anger raced through her but she tamped it down. Not now, not yet.
“That’s all?” he demanded, taking a step nearer.
Lili’s eyes flew wide as she nodded, backing up, the fear only partly faked. “That’s all I could find out.”
“Well.” Gabriel’s smile was a terrifying thing. “You’ve proved useful for once. I suppose we won’t kill you after all.”
Cold spread through Lili. The idea that he was trying to keep her desperate, greedy for his praise and hanging on his every word, cracked like shards of ice. He didn’t care anymore. Gabriel had just admitted he was going to kill her, and it didn’t make any difference, because she didn’t have a choice but to tell him what she knew. Or so he thought.
“One more thing,” he said, and Lili’s heart faltered. “You say they don’t let you know things. Who are they, Liliana?”
She shook but quashed the urge to run, her breathing fast. “His soldiers,” she said quickly. “They guard me.”
Gabriel’s eyes flickered darker but he nodded, and Lili nearly sagged with relief that he believed her. Again, his underestimation of her was working in her favour. He didn’t think she was capable of lying. Neither had she before he’d kicked her off Wisteria’s cliff edge. “I’ll be back tomorrow.”
He walked away, and Lili could breathe again, gulping down fried dough and raspberry scented air like she was suffocating. When he pushed off, his wings carrying him into the air, Lili sagged. It was done. He was gone.
As they’d planned, Lucifer had been monitoring the dream, and as soon as Gabriel was out of sight, Lili flailed awake, able to cast off the dream because of Luc’s shadow magic.
“Shh,” Lucifer murmured, cradling her close. He’d sat awake while she slept, waiting for this exact thing—for her to wake terrified, needing comfort. “It’s alright, Liliana, I’ve got you.”
“We’ve got you,” a rasping, soft voice corrected, and Lili sobbed, rolling over to find Cerny climbing into bed behind her, his clothes chilled by outside air but blessedly cool against her panic-feverish skin. Russ perched on the end of the bed, rubbing her leg, and even Bernard was there, standing by the door like a sentry.
They were here. They were home.
Lili pressed a hand over her mouth as her bottom lip wobbled, her eyes filling with tears that spilled down her cheeks, brushed off by Luc and Cerny both. “He was there again,” she gasped, the words cracking in the middle. “He didn’t hurt me but—he scares me so much. I hate him, I don’t know how I ever loved him.”
Her demons were quiet but Cerny and Lucifer comforted her with slow, reassuring caresses, and just having them there—all four of them—soothed her enough that she explained the dream.
“He took the bait with Gualla,” Bernard growled, taking a step closer. “Good. Serves the bastard right.”
Lili’s heart stumbled. “What did you do?”
“Nothing,” Russ assured her, his chocolate eyes so gentle behind his glasses and a smile curving his face. “Don’t worry, Lili, it’s no big deal.”
>
“I set a few explosions,” Bernard disagreed, a savage grin on his face. Gods, even his deep rumbly voice was a comfort after having them gone. And it had only been a day. “Well. Twenty explosions.” His chuckle was at once alarming and heart-warming. She’d never heard Bernard laugh before; it figured that it took blowing a city up to make him happy.
Lili was so dazed by his laughter that she didn’t realise what he’d said for a few moments. “Wait, you’re going to explode Gabriel? Oh, Gods. You—” She turned on Russ. “You said it was no big deal.”
“I might have fibbed.” He held his thumb and forefinger apart an inch, a lopsided grin on his face. “Slightly.”
“It won’t kill him,” Lucifer murmured, caressing her arm.
“But it’ll take a decent chunk out of his arse,” Bernard added, beaming so widely that he looked like a different person. He looked almost … handsome when he wasn’t glaring.
Lili groaned. “You’re going to make him even angrier at me. And my dream tomorrow—he’ll know I lied to him—”
“Shh,” Lucifer soothed.
“He won’t touch you,” Cerny swore, his blue eyes blazing.
Lili found herself smiling, especially as Russ caught her hand, rubbing her knuckles with the pad of his thumb. “He’s going to be so mad,” Lili echoed, and despite her panic, a giggle escaped. Just picturing the look on Gabriel’s face when he realised he’d been tricked, and even better that Lili had tricked him … it would be priceless.
“Vicious little Angel,” Bernard said with a crooked grin, his green eyes glinting.
“He deserves it,” Russ insisted, his voice uncommonly hard. “He shouldn’t have hurt Lili.”
“No,” Lucifer agreed. “He shouldn’t have. Now enough talking. Lili needs to sleep.”
Her mouth fell open on a pout but … she was kinda tired, and his fingers trailing up and down her arm were lulling her to sleep. And Luc would make sure she didn’t dream again that night. On a yawn she said, “Maybe.”
She fell asleep again, this time in Lucifer’s and Cerny’s arms, with Russ curled around her legs and Bernard standing watch by the door. She slept deeper than she had in weeks.
Three days later, Lili was sure Bernard’s good mood had been a delusion she’d had while half-asleep. Coming out of the bathroom, she yelped at the sight of him looming by her bedroom window, clutching her towel tighter to her chest as her heart lurched into a sprint.
“Stars, you scared me,” Lili said on a laugh, waiting for her heart to settle. Her voice, to her surprise, was a little stronger than it had been, less rasping; maybe her vocal cords were healing.
Bernard’s rough face settled into an even deeper glare as his eyes slid down her body. The towel felt like thin insulation against his narrowed stare, those crystal green eyes boring into her. With the watery light coming through the window behind him, he looked otherworldly, his muscular edges limned in silver. He was dressed differently, not in a tight-fitting black T-shirt and camouflage trousers but in the all-black leather jacket and pants all three of the brothers had worn when they went to Atlanta.
Lili’s mouth fell open. “You’re leaving. Again.”
A grunt was her only confirmation. Lili crossed the room, her toes sinking into the plush carpet two feet from him. She had to tip her head back to see his face, and the backlighting still shadowed his features, concealing his expression, but it drew attention to a curl of gold ink on his neck, the sun catching glints in it like opals.
“You have a tattoo,” Lili breathed, her fingertips daring to brush over the whorl. His skin was heated, like he ran hotter than anyone else, but as soft as silk. “I’ve never noticed this before.” It blended in with his tanned skin, only revealed in the light. Lili craned her neck to see where it disappeared into the collar of his jacket but couldn’t see more than an inch. She wanted to know what the rest of the design looked like.
“You weren’t meant to,” Bernard said in his deep growl, catching her wrist to pull her hand away.
“It’s a secret?” Lili breathed, looking up at him with wide eyes. She hadn’t meant to uncover a secret but there was something thrilling about it. “I won’t tell anyone.”
Bernard rolled his eyes, expelling a sigh of irritation. “Precocious Angel.”
Lili narrowed her eyes. She didn’t fully know what that word meant but she knew it wasn’t a compliment. She wrenched her wrist from his warm fingers. “So you just came to my room to insult me?”
He gave another of those heaving sighs, like she was testing his patience. Lili’s eyes danced as she contemplated it; it would be fair, since he sparked her temper. “I came,” he ground out, “to say goodbye. And to tell you if you want to say goodbye to my brothers, you’d better be quick.”
Alarm lanced through Lili, his words sending her into a flurry of urgency and movement. She rushed to the wardrobe, throwing the doors open. “Turn around. Look out the window.”
Bernard snorted.
“Now!”
“What are you gonna do if I don’t, Angel?”
He was trying to provoke her. Fine. She could provoke him right back. With a shrug, Lili let the towel drop, baring her back and ass to him before she wriggled into underwear, hooked a bra over her full breasts, and pulled a long-sleeved dress over her head. All the while, complete silence filled the room behind her. Lili tried not to smile but failed miserably. It felt a lot like she’d won a battle of wills.
Lili closed the wardrobe, admiring herself in the mirror on its doors. The dress was fitted in the bodice and sleeves, covering most of her scarring, and it flared into a full circle skirt that hit her knees, the whole thing made of a deep wine-red velvet. It looked good, but there was nothing to do for her hair other than towelling it dry. She needed to ask Lucifer for a hairdryer, straighteners, and—if he could work miracles—her make-up bag from Wisteria. She wouldn’t say no to her own underwear, either, not that she didn’t admire the lacy lingerie that filled the drawers.
Lili laced her feet into boots and finally slid a glance at Bernard. He stood by the window, his eyes fixed on her, bulging arms crossed tightly over his chest.
“That,” he said, “was a cheap trick, Angel.”
Lili shrugged, feeling smug. “Rule number one of being a woman: use the weapons you have.”
Bernard’s long strides ate up the carpet until he loomed over her. Bernard did a lot of looming, to be fair. Lili refused to tilt her head back as he clearly wanted, but his finger hooked under her chin and lifted her face anyway. “You are playing with things you don’t understand, Lili.”
“Don’t condescend me.” Lili scowled, her face warming.
“I’m warning you,” he corrected, edging closer so his low voice vibrated through her ribcage. Lili’s breath caught but she ignored it, and ignored the effect he had on her too, like a shiver hovered at the tip of her spine, a second away from racing down her back. “Don’t poke the grizzly bear.”
“Grizzly bear,” Lili said doubtfully, pretending to scrutinise him. “I don’t know. You exploded a whole city just because Gabriel hurt me. I think you might be a teddy bear.”
Challenge flashed in his green eyes, the smallest smirk on his mouth. Lili’s stomach did a somersault. “That’s a dangerous assumption to make,” he rumbled, tightening his grip on her chin. “You could get eaten.”
Lili didn’t think she missed the double entendre. Her heart beat even faster, heat creeping up her face. “I might tame the bear,” she whispered, not sure why she was even suggesting it. She didn’t even like Bernard. Did she?
Oh no. When did that happen?
A low rumble moved through Bernard’s chest and it look a second for Lili to realise he was laughing. “You can try, little Angel. You can try.”
Another thrill moved through Lili, releasing a swarm of butterflies into her belly. She changed the subject before she could dig herself even deeper into that dangerous hole. “I want to come with you. To Chicago. And before you g
et all growly, I bet it’d really annoy Cerny and Russ if you okayed it. And I know you love annoying them.”
“That’s calculating, Angel.” Bernard sounded impressed. “We might make a demon out of you, yet.”
That, Lili thought, sounded like a compliment. She hadn’t expected to ever get one of the mountain of muscle and moodiness. “So can I go?”
“As long as I don’t have to babysit you.” He shrugged. “And as long as the boss clears it.”
Lili groaned.
It turned out to be easy to get Lucifer’s permission; she’d simply asked. He’d shaken his head, ground his jaw, and said, “I wish you’d stay here where I know you’re safe, but I’m not your keeper, Liliana. And after the way you fought in Aarvul, I know you can hold your own on Earth. If you want to go, I won’t stop you.” He’d hauled her close, an arm around her waist and his lips scorching hers until the room spun around her. “All I ask is you be careful. And come back to me.”
“I will,” she’d promised him, and meant it.
She thought about the way he’d held her extra tight now as she, Cerny, Russ, and Bernard jogged across a road during a break in traffic, all of them dressed in human clothes—the men in jeans, jackets, cotton shirts, and casual shoes, Lili in her wine red dress and boots. Her wide eyes struggled to take in the busy human activity around her. This city was similar to other cities she’d visited, but the buildings here were all two storeys or above, most made of an unfamiliar stone, and the roads were crammed with cars, so loud and fast that for a second Lili froze, overwhelmed.
“Lili!” Russ cried out, grabbing her hand tight and pulling her up onto the pavement as a car went screaming past. His brown eyes were panicked behind his glasses as they scanned her head to toe, his fingers squeezing hers tight. “Are you alright?”
“I…” Lili looked at the car that had almost hit her, her heart belatedly racing. “I didn’t mean to…”