Chapter 1
A rude beating at the door woke me from my not-so-peaceful slumber.
I was dreaming of a letter from my mother that Kaito had given me shortly after fighting Lucifer. I’d read it a while ago, so I wasn’t sure why I was thinking of it now.
Perhaps because I knew that today, I was supposed to go to Hell’s Heart.
And I wasn’t ready.
Olivia had fallen asleep over my lap while Yuri hung upside down on the backside of the couch. We’d been binging a vampire show until I hadn’t been able to keep my eyes open any longer.
A part of me wanted that night to last forever. I loved my mates dearly, but it was an unusual reprieve to just be hanging out with friends watching a television show as if I could entertain a normal life.
But I wasn’t normal.
Yuri screeched as she slipped off the couch and crashed onto the other side on the hard floor.
“Who the fuck is banging on my door?” she yelled, popping up on her feet as her hair frizzed in wild spikes around her face.
“It’s Raze! Is Lily in there? I have news!”
My heart stopped as Olivia popped up. She glanced at me and we shared a look of dread.
Raze, the Unicorn Shifter who had been overseeing my unconscious Virtues—Orion, Hendrik, Dante, and my sweet Logan—would only come to us if the news was really good.
Or really bad.
Checking my bonds with them by searching inwardly, I found them all intact and the same as they had been the night before.
I relaxed.
They weren’t dead, at least.
Yuri grumbled about ripping Raze’s rainbow-colored balls off as she marched to the door.
While the Unicorn Shifter did have rainbow hair, I wasn’t sure if that trait applied to other parts of him. I’d leave that for some other lucky girl to find out, assuming Yuri didn’t dismember him first.
The vampire ripped open the door. “What?!” she growled. “Don’t you realize what time it is?”
Raze lifted a multi-colored eyebrow. “It’s almost noon.”
Yuri huffed and whirled, marching back into the room as she went to the fridge. “It was a rhetorical question, rainbow-boy.” She pulled out a thermos and set it on the table. Grabbing a glass, she poured herself a sparkling drink that looked like orange juice, but it had a red tint to it.
Definitely not juice any of us would want to drink, unless we wanted a little blood with our breakfast.
Raze eased into the room and watched the vampire as she downed the drink. She sighed, then released a small burb, making Olivia chuckle.
“Yuri! Have some manners, seriously.” She gave Raze an apologetic look as she got off of me and pulled a sweater over her head. “Sorry about her. She’s not a day person.”
Raze chuckled. “Most vampires aren’t. It’s fine.”
Yuri gave us all her best glare then announced she was going to shower, leaving us in peace as she sauntered off to the bathroom.
“You have news?” I asked, trying and failing not to sound too eager.
He smiled. “I do, in fact. Why don’t you sit down?”
I was already sitting, but Raze had pulled a stool from the round breakfast table. Glancing at Olivia again, she squeezed my hand, knowing that I needed the support.
Her black eyes betrayed her status as a Dark Mage, a soulless supernatural who had always been there for me. She’d earned her soul back, but sacrificed it for me and my mates.
I’d find a way to make it up to her, even if it was just to find my happiness and make sure she found hers. She was in love with the Demigod, Trevor, and I knew she was shirking time with him to be with me when I needed her most.
Sitting on the stool which was there to accommodate me since I had wings, Olivia joined me by taking the adjacent chair.
Raze pulled a dark crystal from his pocket and placed it in the center of the table.
We all stared at it for a moment.
“What is that?” I asked.
Raze laced his fingers and regarded me with his uniquely ruby eyes, not the Hellfire kind of red, but a red that came from jewels and fractured light at the edge of rainbows during a sun shower.
“We’ve been experimenting with a technique that Kaito suggested,” he said with a smile. His glittering eyes and rolled back shoulders assured me that he had something positive to share.
“Well out with it!” Yuri barked from the doorway, wrapped in a towel as she yanked a brush through her hair.
Apparently even the vampire wanted to hear the update. Anything that captured her interest enough to delay a shower must be important to her indeed.
My lips lifted in a slight smile at the vampire.
Raze chuckled as he shifted his chair back so that he could look at all of us.
He picked up the crystal and turned it around, demonstrating a deep darkness that I recognized.
Calamity’s power.
“We’ve extracted some of Calamity’s influence, Lily.”
My heart skipped a beat as his lips stretched into a wide smile.
“Lily… they’re awake. And they’re asking for you.”