Chapter 78
“I would die for her. I would kill for her. Either way, what bliss.”
—GOMEZ ADDAMS, THE ADDAMS FAMILY
“ W e have a mole,” Hazai said as soon as I shut the door behind us. My eyebrows shot into my hairline.
“We have a what ?”
“You heard me,” he said. It took a lot to rattle Shemhazai, but I could tell he was pissed. He ran a hand through his dark mop of hair in frustration. “All of the general managers of Voodoo seem to have spontaneously gone to a conference. The team I sent last night returned saying they were unable to meet with any of them. It’s like they knew we would be coming.”
An intoxicating mix of terror and rage coursed through me.
“Who do you think it is?” I asked, running through the list of people in my head who were aware of our plans. “Do you think Gabriel turned on us?” I asked, and Shem pursed his lips.
“It’s possible… I like that theory better than the alternative, which is that one of our own turned on us.”
“What do you mean, turned on us? ” Both Hazai and I looked up to find Lilith had followed us into the hallway, disobeying a direct fucking order. Fuck, she was getting ballsy .
I opened my mouth to reprimand her when I took in the outfit she had chosen for the day. Holy fucking shit, she was just begging to get fucked. Her leather pants were painted over her supple hips, and a soft line of her waist peeked out from a skin-tight black crop top. I felt my cock harden at the sight of her and found myself unable to speak. All I could think was how satisfying it would be to peel those leather pants down her thick thighs.
“I thought Ramel told you to stay put, sweetheart,” Shem warned, but he too seemed to be enthralled by how fucking good she looked.
She cocked her head to the side, her long butterscotch and honey waves swishing gently around her shoulders with the movement.
She glanced at Hazai, her eyes suddenly turning glassy. Without warning, she threw her arms around his neck and buried her face in his chest. He stiffened, his eyes widening in surprise before his arms found their way around her exposed waist. He pulled her in close and kissed the side of her head fondly, giving me a questioning look over her shoulder.
‘She had a nightmare last night that Yahweh unmade me. Maybe you were there too?’ I explained into his mind, shrugging. His expression softened, and he gave her head another gentle kiss before pulling back and looking down at her, wiping a tear off her cheek.
“What’s wrong, Lil?” he asked softly. She shook her head.
“Nothing. I’m just glad you’re safe,” she whispered, and he frowned.
“Why wouldn’t I be?”
“Yahweh sent me a threat through my dreams last night. He said He’s going to unmake you both.”
Hazai frowned, his green eyes filling with rage. “I would like to see him try,” he muttered, tilting her chin up and kissing her softly on the lips. “We’re not going anywhere, Lil. You don’t need to worry about us.”
“I can’t help it,” she replied, her voice quiet and vulnerable. “I want to help fight him. Please, let me help.”
We exchanged a look, and Hazai sighed, tucking her hair behind her ear.
“It’s too dangerous, Lilith.”
“I won’t leave Hell,” she promised. “Just let me help with the planning. You know I’m good at it.”
I pursed my lips. “She has a point. She’s smart as fuck,” I agreed, somewhat half-heartedly. Hazai looked unsure, but she gave him her best ‘pretty please’ face and even the cat demon didn’t have enough resolve to say no to those big mossy greens.
“Ugh, fine. But if you step one foot out of Hell, I’m locking you in the dungeons for the next century,” he warned, and she nodded eagerly.
“Cross my heart!” She made an ‘X’ over her chest earnestly, and I chuckled .
“Alright, deathtrap. Let’s get you something to eat; we’ll update you over breakfast,” I said, taking her hand and gently pulling her out of Shem’s arms. He took her other hand, and together, we led her to the dining hall.
If we were going to let her participate, I was going to make damn sure she was well-fed and had her strength up first.
Shemhazai relayed what he had told me to Lilith. She frowned pensively and mulled over this new information while I scanned the room full of demons blissfully eating breakfast around us, unaware that another war was brewing.
Could one of them have betrayed us? It felt unfathomable. Every single demon here had left Heaven of their own free will. I could remember the pain of my angel form clearly now that I had my memories back, and I couldn’t imagine anyone wanting to willingly return to Yahweh once they had experienced the glory of being a demon.
“We need to talk to Art and Jezebel to see if they told anyone else our plans,” Lilith said as she stabbed a strawberry with her fork, a little more ruthlessly than necessary if I was being honest. She was feisty today, and it was fucking adorable. I had been expecting her to mope and wallow in her depression, but instead, she seemed to have decided to tackle Yahweh’s threat head-on. I didn’t know why I was surprised. Her resilience was one of the things I loved about her so much.
“If they haven’t told anyone else, it narrows down our list of suspects quite a bit,” she said, her tone dark.
Shem and I nodded just as Jezebel approached our table. My lip curled in anger. I yanked Lilith out of her seat and pulled her into my lap, curling around her protectively. She squeaked in surprise, dropping her fork with a clatter. The strawberry she had stabbed flew off and rolled across the floor, stopping at Jezebel’s booted feet.
“Uhm… hey? I was just coming to see how you were doing,” Jezebel said, bending down to pick up the rogue strawberry. She looked hesitant and apologetic, but I didn’t trust her. We had a mole, and she was one of the three people outside of Lilith, Hazai, and myself who knew of our plans to overpower Yahweh.
My fingers dug into Lilith’s hips, and a low growl rolled through my chest; every instinct I had was telling me to protect her from any potential threat. Until Jezebel could prove to me she wasn’t the one who had warned all the GMs of Voodoo that we were coming for them, I wouldn’t allow her anywhere near Lilith.
Lilith dropped her hands to mine, stroking them gently. She leaned back and whispered quietly in my ear.
“Act normal. If it’s her, we need to pretend nothing is wrong.”
‘I can’t do that,’ I growled back into her mind.
“If you want to find out who the mole is, you’re going to have to.”
‘You will not be alone with her again until we figure out who it is.’
“Ramel,”
‘That was not a fucking request, Lilith. Don’t push me on this. If you want to play Nancy fucking Drew with her, be my guest, but you will do it supervised.’
“Fine,” she agreed, before turning to face Jezebel, giving her a big, genuine smile.
“You’ll have to excuse Ramel today, Jez. He clearly woke up on the wrong side of the bed.”
Jezebel eyed me warily but said nothing as Lilith continued.
“I’m doing much better, thanks for asking. I just needed some time to process and grieve… Mike was… Mike was a friend,” she said, and I didn’t miss the way her voice cracked as she sat forward in my lap.
Jezebel’s eyes softened. “I know. I’m really sorry for your loss,” she said, and she sounded like she meant it. “Anyway, I’m hoping I can make it up to you? Maybe I can help you get ready for the feast later?”
Lilith twisted in my lap to look at me, raising an eyebrow. I glared at Jezebel over Lilith’s shoulder, remembering what she had said about my wife being desperate for friends. Getting ready for a party together seemed harmless enough.
“I’ll allow it,” I said finally, though even to me, I sounded angry about it. I met Jezebel’s gaze head-on. “You may come to the room later. Lilith will not be going to you. And I will be there as well to make sure you don’t get any more fucking ideas,” I snarled, but Jezebel rolled her eyes.
“Well that takes all the fun out of her grand outfit reveal,” she muttered, and Lilith turned her pleading eyes back to me.
“Yeah, come on Ramel, how am I supposed to surprise you with my outfit if you’re looming in the corner the whole time like a big creepy stalker?”
Despite my foul mood, I barked out a surprised laugh at that. I had essentially spent her whole life looming in corners and stalking her. I didn’t see why tonight should be any different.
“I’ll chaperone.” Shem offered, and Lilith’s eyes lit up at that. Jezebel also looked relieved. I glanced at Hazai, and he shrugged.
“It’s cute that she wants to surprise you. Plus, I have excellent taste. I can make sure Jez doesn’t turn her into a hooker.”
“Hey! I’m all class, baby, and you fucking know it!” Jezebel protested, and Shem rolled his eyes.
“Tell that to the fishnets you wore to the Yule ball last year,” he drawled, and her face flushed red with rage. Lilith giggled into her hand, and I couldn’t help but relax. For a minute, I had a small glimpse of what life could be like without Yahweh constantly threatening our happiness at every turn.
I really needed to wipe that fucker off the face of the universe once and for all .
“Fine. Be at the room for six, and don’t be fucking late,” I snapped at Jezebel, though my tone wasn’t as harsh as I had intended it to be. I waved her off, and she smirked at me before winking at Lilith.
“Sounds good; see you later, Lil,” she chirped before prancing back to her seat in the dining hall.
“Hmm. Well, she seemed innocent,” Lilith observed, and I growled, tugging her in closer to me.
“I’m not convinced.”
She shrugged and climbed out of my lap and back into her seat. Hazai manifested a clean fork for her, and she went back to her breakfast.
“Didn’t you guys say angels come to the Samhain feast every year? Do you think the GMs might come too?” she wondered.
Shemhazai and I exchanged a look.
“It’s possible. The managers my team spoke to just said they were at a conference. Who knows if that’s actually true.”
“Well, even if just a few of them come, we should be prepared with some idea seeds to spike their food; getting even a few stores to shut down would be better than none.”
Shemhazai chuckled. “Why would we put the seeds in their food?” he asked slyly, and I felt my own lip curl in amusement.
“Isn’t that how you plant the seeds?” she asked, cocking her head to the side.
“If they were human, sure. Angels need the seeds to be planted in a more… immediate orifice,” I mused, and Lilith’s brow furrowed as she tried to make sense of what I was implying. I saw it the moment she realized what I was getting at and could barely keep myself from laughing out loud at her expression.
“ Ew!” she cried, and both Shemhazai and I cracked up laughing. “So you stuck it up Rafael’s butt?!” she asked in disbelief, her nose wrinkling in disgust.
“Sure did, sweetheart,” Shem purred, winking at her.
“That’s disgusting.”
“Hey, at least I wore gloves.” Shem shrugged, still smirking. She just shook her head in disbelief.
“You two are something else.”
We went back to the room after breakfast, and Lilith announced that she was going to take a shower. I offered to accompany her to help her redress her bandages but she brushed me off, saying she was fine with doing it herself.
Since I was trying this new thing where I didn’t smother the shit out of her, I forced myself to sit down with Hazai and play a game of chess while we waited .
“While you’re supervising girl time, I’m going to meet with Gabriel and Art,” I said. “I need to know who else Art told.”
Hazai gave me a hard look. “Don’t be too rough with him if he happened to have told a few more people. There’s no way he could have known someone might turn on us; no one ever has since the founding of Hell.”
I knew Shem was right. Before now, there had never been any reason for us not to trust our own people. We liked to torment each other, sure, but when it came down to the real shit, we were typically loyal to a fault. It didn’t stop me from wanting to fucking rot Art’s brains out of his ears for putting Lilith at risk, despite the fact that it wasn’t his fault.
“I can’t make any promises, but I’ll try,” I muttered, moving a black pawn onto the board.
“See if you can figure out which angels are planning on attending the feast from Gabe without giving our plans away.
“What if none of them show? I’m sure they’re all skittish now if they really were informed of our plans to impregnate them with idea seeds,” I muttered dryly.
Shem’s eyes flashed. “Then I’ll blow each and every store to kingdom fucking come. It’s nice that Lilith wanted to do this the gentle way, but I fucking refuse to take this shit lying down. If I have to, I’ll do whatever it takes to get the upper hand,” Hazai replied darkly.
I sighed. “I promised Lilith I wouldn’t hurt people she cared about anymore,” I muttered, already feeling annoyed with myself for making that promise. It really limited my options when it came to protecting her. “Somehow, I feel like putting the entire human race at risk counts.” I thought of her reincarnated mother and how much it seemed to have meant to her that the soul of the woman who had birthed her was thriving in its new life.
Shem shrugged and moved a white pawn into play. “I made no such promises. We’ll try to do it her way first, but if none of the GMs show up tonight, the gloves are coming the fuck off.”
I gave him an evil smile across the chessboard, feeling a swell of affection rise in my chest for my friend.
“I fucking love you, man.”
He smirked back at me. “Love you too, asshole,” he chirped back, claiming my pawn. “Let’s get Yahweh off our asses once and for all.”