Reign of Night (The Thorne Hill Series Book 7)

by Emily Goodwin

  “Many have, but not this one.”

  I’m all shaky, with half of me trembling from seeing Lucas get arrested for doing nothing, and the other half is vibrating with power, which again, felt so damn good to wield. “My mother,” I rush out, brain needing to think about something else for a hot minute to avoid being overwhelmed, but I picked the wrong subject for that. “Did she sell her soul? Tabatha told me she was excommunicated from her coven for practicing dark magic. Is that true?”

  “Yes,” Lucifer says and gets a distant look in his eyes. I’ve only seen this expression on him once before, and it’s the most raw and real he’s presented himself. “She did not sell her soul, but she did practice dark magic. Devil-worship, as it was often called back at that time.”

  “Was Michael sent to save her from…from…”

  “From me? Yes, he was. He was sent to save several souls, but I never made a deal with your mother, Callie, and I want you to trust me on that.”

  “I do trust you,” I say honestly. “Do you know why she practiced dark magic?”

  “What is dark to you wasn’t dark to your mother. She saw things differently, and that’s what drew many people in, including Michael. He fell in love with her, and she changed him. For the better, if you ask me.”

  “You helped them hide me,” I say, but there’s question in my voice.

  “I did.”

  “Why?” I whisper.

  “Because they asked me to,” Lucifer answers.

  I inhale, soaking in all the information I can about my mother. “Did Michael really love her?”

  “Yes, he did very much.” He holds out his hand. “Now, you want to go bust your vampire out of jail? We can play a little good cop, bad cop, and I’ll let you be the bad cop. No, that’s lame. Bad cop, worse cop is much more entertaining. Though if we’re being cops to the other cops, it loses most of its appeal.”

  “I don’t really care, as long as we get Lucas back. He did nothing wrong.”

  “He’s a vampire, and in the eyes of many humans, just being different makes you wrong. If I’d done what I wanted, if I’d been able to remind humans they were created in our image, kept them in their places, maybe they would treat each other better.” He points to Scott. “Being this fucking guy doesn’t make you better than any other human on the planet. But us, my dear niece, we are better. And once his soul goes to Hell, he’ll be a fun one to punish.”

  I start to reach for Lucifer’s hand. “After we save Lucas, are you going back to Hell?” I cringe at my words, and my heart thumps away in my chest as desperation claws at me. “I know you don’t want to, but I can’t do this.” I rest my hand on my stomach.

  “Someone needs to stay here and help you.”

  “Help me?” I echo.

  ‘Who else is going to keep my brothers and sisters off your trail?”

  “True, but I think it would be most helpful to not worry about being Queen of Hell.”

  “Maybe, but I’m not ready to go back yet,” Lucifer says, looking almost pained as he admits it.

  “Why?” I rush out, brows pinching together.

  “Because I’m evil,” he says simply and adjusts the button on his dress shirt. He’s wearing another designer suit like usual, and it would just be weird at this point to see him dressed casually. “It’s who I am.”

  “No.” I shake my head. “I don’t think you are. You’re angry and hurt and have been treated unfairly by your family, but that doesn’t make you evil. Julian told me the demons were created from darkness, and darkness is all they know. That’s evil, but you…you were created from light just like the other angels. Evil isn’t who you are. It’s a choice you make.”

  He looks at me, expression softening. His eyes, which are usually more gray than blue, look a little clearer. “Your mother thought the same thing.”

  “How…how do you know that?”

  “Because I loved her, too.”

  Chapter 21

  “What?” I blink several times, pushing back the tears that were annoyingly welling in my eyes again.

  “That’s a story for another time.” Lucifer extends his hand. “Let’s go.”

  “Yes.” I wipe my eyes and pick up Binx, cradling him against my chest.

  “Hello, old friend,” Lucifer tells Binx, whose actual name is Oberyth, a powerful spirit.

  “You know him?”

  “We’ve crossed paths a time or two when dealing with demons. That’s one powerful familiar you have there.”

  “I know.” I nuzzle Binx’s head against me, and Lucifer closes his fingers around my hand, and he flies us out of here. Elena does flips in my belly. Maybe Lucas was onto something when he said she likes to go fast. Don’t worry, little girl, we’re going to get your daddy out.

  “Good cop, bad cop?” Lucifer asks excitedly.

  “Doesn’t that usually work when you’re questioning a suspect, not trying to break an innocent person out of jail?”

  “Apparently only with your imagination,” he grumbles.

  “Are you sure this is the right police station?” I look at the building.

  “It’s the closest one.” Lucifer shrugs. “Let’s go find out.”

  I set Binx down, and he trots along next to us. Two officers struggle getting a man in handcuffs out of the back of their car. The guy is yelling and goes to headbutt one of the officers.

  “Behave,” Lucifer says, eyes flashing red. The man’s face goes pale, and he stops fighting against the officers. “I do miss bossing people around,” he says, mostly to himself.

  I wave my hand in front of us, opening the doors to the police station. It’s busy and loud in here, and Lucifer and I walk right in pretty much unnoticed.

  “Excuse me,” Lucifer calls loudly, cupping his hands around his mouth. Several officers stop what they’re doing and look at us and then eye the empty desk at the front of the lobby.

  “Can I help you?” a female officer asks, coming up to us. She’s young and must be brand-spanking-new, doing desk duty or something until she’s gotten enough hours under her belt to go out in the field, if that’s how this even works.

  “Yes, I’m looking for my husband,” I say, and she eyes Binx. It’s not normal for cats to walk along beside people like well-trained seeing-eye dogs, I know. “Lucas King.”

  “Um, okay.” She grabs a clipboard from the desk. “I’m not familiar with the name, but give me one moment.”

  “Trust me, you’ll know this one,” Lucifer starts. “He’s a tall, dark, and handsome vampire with an ass you can bounce a quarter off of.” He elbows me. “Am I right?”

  I look at him with one eyebrow cocked. “Right.”

  “Be a good girl and go fetch him.” Lucifer tips his head to the side, and the officer hesitates for just a second and then smiles.

  “Okay. I’ll bring him to you.” She smiles, cheeks turning bright red as she bats her lashes at Lucifer, and then speeds away. Lucifer leans over the counter, picking up a folder from the desk.

  “Boring,” he huffs and tosses the folder back down. Phones ring and more people bustle about, and again, we go by pretty much unnoticed. Michael told me people aren’t able to remember seeing him popping in and out, and Easton’s memory of what he looked like faded from his mind not long after he saw both my father and Julian at the wedding. Is Lucifer using some sort of archangel powers to cloak us right now, too?

  “Callie.”

  I jerk my head up at the sound of Lucas’s voice. He comes to me, taking me in his arms and putting his lips to mine. One hand lands on my stomach, and I hook my arms around him.

  “How did you—” Lucas cuts off, seeing Lucifer behind me. He doesn’t trust him and doesn’t think I should, either. He’s mad Lucifer vacated Hell, leaving me in a vulnerable position.

  “I got really mad, accidentally summoned a demon, kinda blew up Scott’s office, and then Lucifer showed up.”

  Lucas’s beautiful dark blue eyes lock with mine for a moment. “A typical Mon
day for you, then.”

  My lips curve into a smile, and tears well in my eyes. “You’re okay?” I ask him, running my hand over the burned fabric of his shirt, right over his heart. He was shot in the back of his shoulder, too, tearing his clothes and staining them with his own blood that spilled before he healed.

  “I’m fine, my love.” His eyes leave mine and look at Lucifer. I turn, too, wanting to thank my uncle again. “What’s the plan now?”

  “You two love birds go outside,” Lucifer tells us. “Leave this to me.”

  “Lucas, I—”

  “Shhh,” he soothes, pushing his hand under my shirt, fingers going to the indent of my spine. “It’s okay.”

  I take in a shaky breath and rest my head against his chest. We’re standing outside the police station, waiting for Lucifer to come out, though I’m starting to get the feeling he’s going to fly away and I won’t see him again for god knows how long. Binx is in a frozen flowerbed that wasn’t cleared out before winter, chasing a mouse. I swear he loves being a cat more than he likes being a badass spirit.

  “It’s not,” I go on. “I cast a soundproof spell on the office because I was so angry I didn’t want anyone to hear what was going on and try to stop me. If I hadn’t done that, you wouldn’t have gotten arrested and shot and burned and—”

  “Callie.” Lucas cups my face in his hands and turns my head up to his, shutting me up with a kiss. “I’m here now, and I’m fine. And so are you. Breathe, my love. I can hear your heart racing.”

  I close my eyes and focus on my breathing. “Remember when the biggest thing we had to worry about was the Grand Coven wanting to sentence me to death for dating you? I was pretty damn scared then, but it seems like such a small problem now, considering I keep accidentally using my angel powers and alerting Heaven and Hell of my whereabouts.” I swallow hard, throat feeling tight from anxiety. “The more angel power I wield, the more of a ticking time bomb I become, and in this it’s a literal bomb. I could have hurt someone.”

  “Did you?”

  “No, Ella and Scott were unconscious but alive when we left.”

  “That’s a shame.”

  I give Lucas a pointed look. “I could hurt someone, and every time I use a lot of power like that, it’s sending out another hey, here I am! beacon to the other angels.”

  “What are you getting at?” He holds me at arm’s length, looking into my eyes.

  “Maybe I should take that potion, but not just once. From now until Elena is born, we could hide out at your place in France and go to all those incredible museums all over Europe. Anything I do puts her at risk, and I love her so much already, Lucas, and I know you do, too.”

  “Binding your powers from now until June is a terrible idea,” he tells me. “As much as I want to say I will do whatever it takes to keep you safe, we both know you need your powers, even if we are hiding out having sex all day long in France.”

  “You had to add in the sex part, didn’t you?” A smile slowly starts to creep onto my face, easing some of the tension.

  “Of course. If we’re hiding, we’re going to entertain ourselves with primal, passionate, all-day love making.”

  “Now I really want to hide out in France.”

  He kisses me again. “If the angels come to Thorne Hill, then take the potion. Your powers, Callie…it’s more than a safety issue. Your powers are part of who you are. You are a witch from your mother’s side, and angelic from your father’s. You are my wife, and I love you just the way you are.”

  “Dammit,” I mutter as tears start falling. Lucas wipes them away with his thumbs and rests his forehead against mine. “I’m so lucky to have you,” I whisper.

  “I’m the lucky one,” he whispers back.

  Sirens ring out around us, and we look out to see four squad cars tearing out of the police station parking lot. I inhale and slowly let my breath out, feeling better the longer I stand here with Lucas.

  “He’s not coming back, is he?” I ask, not even wanting to look at the building. “I should stop hoping.”

  “I wouldn’t stop just yet.” Lucas runs his hands down my arms, and I turn, seeing Lucifer walking out of the police station.

  “You’re good to go, my niece, and my…my nephew-in-law,” he says to Lucas, and the thought is so fucking weird. Lucas and I are legally married, so my family would be his in-laws, in that sense.

  “Just like that?” Lucas questions.

  “Yes, just like that. There are no records or memories of you being arrested, except for that asshole ex-brother of yours, and I suggest you let him keep that memory. Nothing like falling back to the old you’re going crazy tactic when it comes to torture.” He looks at me for a second, small smile on his face. “You do look just like your mother. Take care, niece.”

  The sound of feathers rustling echoes through the night, and Lucifer disappears.

  Lucas wraps an arm around me again. “What do you think the chances are he’s going back to Hell?”

  “Slim to none. He told me he wasn’t ready. But that’s not all he said.” I pull my hair over my shoulder thinking back. “And it wasn’t what he said, but how he said it.”

  “What was it?”

  I meet Lucas’s gaze. “He said he loved my mother. She was a Satanist who Michael was sent to save, and he ended up falling in love with her. I’ve asked both Lucifer and Julian before if Michael really loved my mother, and they both said yes. But maybe I should have asked if my mother loved him, too. Because now I’m starting to wonder if my mother was involved in one of the biggest cosmic love triangles of the universe.”

  “I suppose that could be possible. You’ll get your answers someday. I’m sure of it.” He brings a hand to my stomach once more. “But speaking of mothers, we’re supposed to see our baby.”

  I gasp. “I kind of forgot.”

  “The last hour or so was a little distracting.”

  “You’re telling me.” I let my eyes fall shut, feeling Elena move around. “I left my phone in the car. I need to call Abby. She’s probably wondering if something bad happened because I said I’d be there right at sunset.”

  “I have my phone,” he tells me, pulling it from his pocket. “And Abby’s number. We’re closer to the hospital here than at the office.”

  We drove Eliza’s Mercedes to Scott’s office, and Lucas had planned on taking it to the hospital as well, not wanting to park his six-figure prized car in a public lot. Lucas hands me his phone, and I bring up Abby’s number. The call goes right to voicemail.

  “Hey, Abby, it’s Callie calling from Lucas’s phone. We got a little hung up but are on our way now. I don’t have my phone with me, so if you need to get ahold of me, call me here.”

  I end the message, give Lucas his phone back, and pick up Binx. I whisper an incantation, cloaking him from everyone other than Lucas and myself.

  We get an Uber and Abby calls when we’re halfway to the hospital. After a super busy start to her shift, they hit a bit of a lull that won’t last long. She’s getting a room set up for me now and said to text her when we get there so she can try and sneak us in without having to go through the administration process.

  I’m getting a little nervous and a lot excited again, as well as incredibly exhausted. The night turned so fast, going a direction I never thought it would go in. My anger got the best of me, and in all honestly, I’m surprised this hasn’t happened sooner. Lucas says he likes my petty and impulsive side, but those two things are bad enough on their own and dangerous when you mix it with my uncontrollable surges of power.

  We go in all together, with Binx walking at my side, still cloaked from everyone’s eyes. A woman is at the check-in counter, angry about having to fill out insurance forms. She’s throwing such a fit it offers a good distraction, and Abby is able to slip us back into a room before anyone takes notice.

  “What kind of hang-up did you run into?” She closes the door to the little room and wheels an ultrasound machine over, looking at Lucas
with concern. Right. The front of his shirt is burned and one of his sleeves is bloody, with a tear in his shirt.

  “It’s probably one of those situations you’d rather not know about,” Lucas answers for me. “Everything is good now.”

  “You know what? I think I’m fine leaving it at that.” Abby motions for me to get on the bed. “I’m not an OB, but I do have an OB friend who’s on-call tonight. I already paged her to come down and do an emergency ultrasound on my sister who fell going up the stairs and wants to be checked out just to be safe. Though given the state you’re in, I should have said you were in an accident.” Her eyes go to Lucas’s chest again, and she shakes her head. “When was the last time you had anything to eat or drink?”

  “A while ago,” I say ruefully, remembering that my hot dog and pizza were already delivered to the house, and I didn’t get to eat them.

  “Is she moving around a lot? They tend to be pretty active after you’ve eaten.”

  I put my hand on my stomach. “Not at the moment, but she’s usually pretty active.” I take off my coat and get on the gurney, lying back and adjusting the pillow under my head. Binx jumps up with me, sitting at the foot of the bed, staying out of the way but still offering me comfort. We wait a good fifteen minutes until Abby’s OB friend comes in.

  “Hi,” she says, going to the little sink in the room to wash her hands. “I’m Dr. Forester. I heard you tripped and fell?”

  “Yeah. I’m such a klutz,” I lie.

  “Are you in any pain?”

  I look at Abby, wondering if I should fake it so I get special treatment, though I don’t want it to be too special where the OB thinks I need further monitoring. Abby ever so slightly shakes her head.

  “No,” I tell Dr. Forester. “I’m just freaked out. This is my first baby, and we didn’t think we’d even be able to get pregnant.”

  “There’s nothing wrong with wanting to be sure things are okay. Let me check you out and then we’ll take a look at Baby.” She pulls up my shirt, revealing my belly, and feels for my uterus, the same way the midwife does.