44. Kujo
Ireally didn’t want to like a fucking angel. Sydney didn’t count. Her mother was human, and she was raised on the mortal realm. Plus, she didn’t like angels either. But Lucifer was kind of cool. Now that he was up and about, he finally saw what I did to his painting.
And he was laughing and critiquing my art skills.
“Fairly decent rendition of an imp dick, but there’s some hesitation in the lines. What did my portrait do to deserve defacement?”
None of us said anything. He seemed pretty cool so far and found the imp dicks on his portrait funny, but we did know what pissed him off.
We’d all have to admit I got shit faced to distract myself from Nero and Celix railing his daughter.
They were either going to get smote for the threesome or he was going to ask her if she enjoyed it.
Basically, both options were bad.
Thankfully, we were saved by a knock on the front door. Or not thankfully because I was pretty sure whoever was out there just noticed their prisoner was missing. But would they actually knock? Lucifer stood and Lilith shoved him right back down.
“Get to your secret room. I don’t know which one, but one of your brothers installed a security system. You can watch.”
“But—”
“Nope,” Sydney said. “We’re totally going to gang up on you if you don’t go hide. I’ll bet we can make you cry.”
He just gave Sydney a gentle smile, said he didn’t doubt that, and disappeared. Yeah, I didn’t doubt that either. Lilith was terrifying and Sydney was well on her way. If these two couldn’t make the devil cry now, they probably could when Sydney was a little older.
Lilith and Sydney weren’t related, looked nothing alike, and had just met, but there was a similar set in their shoulders and look in their eyes when they both decided to march towards that front door and do the devil knew what to whoever was out there. Lilith stopped her.
“Let them see me first. I don’t have super strength or laser hands, but I do have magicks that scare them and I experimented a lot with that once I was somewhere safe.”
Sydney just bowed and gestured to the foyer, but we were all hot on Lilith’s heels. It could be anyone at the front door and whoever was doing this was clearly intelligent. I wasn’t a total dipshit either, but I also had no desire to keep the King of Hell as a pet.
We all thought it was obvious they’d come straight here as soon as they realized he was missing to do damage control, but they might know that too. If it were me, I’d go for another group ambush so it would be impossible to guess.
Of course, it wasn’t me and it was just Mammon standing on the front porch and he looked about as sad as Lucifer said his captor did. That was enough for me, but Sydney didn’t immediately assault his testicles. Which was a little unfair to my boys because mine got smashed for way less.
“What do you want, Mammon?” Lilith demanded.
“Listen, you know what you did and why I don’t like you. You infected Hell with a vile, drunken, violent plague because you didn’t like something I said. But I don’t even know her. She’s done nothing to me.
“I can’t explain it because she’s obviously Lucifer’s spawn and half archangel.
I was captured by Seraphim and Cherubim during the war.
They killed my brothers and nearly tortured me to death.
I’m the only Cherubim in Hell and there are no Seraphim here, so it hasn’t been a problem.
It’s very faint, but sometimes you feel like a Seraphim and it brings me back to being tortured.
I know that has nothing to do with you and I wanted to apologize for being a jerk. ”
Ugh. He was good. Because all of that made total sense and lined up with what Lucifer told us. Mammon wasn’t trying to peek over anyone’s shoulder to see if Lucifer was lurking.
“Do you want to come inside?” Sydney asked.
What was she doing? We didn’t need Sydney and Mammon in an enclosed space. I went to take a step forward, but Nero subtly wrapped his hand around my hip. I stopped because Nero had completely different magic than I did and knew how to read a room better.
Mammon just blew out a sigh.
“No, sorry. It’s my issue, not yours, but ever since your magic fully manifested, it’s worse.
I’m not trying to be a jerk, but I think I’ll need to acclimate myself to you in baby steps.
Maybe we could start slow? I have a lot of respect for your father and don’t want to be rude to his spawn.
I’ll be on my way, but I did want to apologize, Sydney.
You haven’t done anything to me to warrant how I treated you. ”
And with that Mammon turned and left.
And she let him. I was so confused.