46. Nero
Oh, this was going to be so messy and I loved other people’s drama.
Lucifer and Lilith disappeared to plan, and we were left to hang out for a bit before Lilith came to get Sydney.
Lilith let us keep the suits and told us to wear them to dinner, which was awesome because I’d never be able to afford something that nice and it fit me perfectly.
She took Sydney away, and I was dying to see how she dressed her.
Sydney was stunning in the dress Wrathhog dressed her in.
My favorite thing was just staring at her.
Now that Kujo had gotten over his shit, things just felt complete.
We had the start of a budding family. Lucifer was back, and we had a plan to find who did this.
I saw Lucifer before I saw Sydney. He came out dressed in an impeccable suit that the designer probably wouldn’t sell to me even if I had money.
I was not completely straight and I couldn’t decide if he looked that yummy because he looked like a male Sydney in a tux.
It was also making me feel weird to think about that, so I stopped.
And then Sydney and Lilith came in. Lilith was poured into a skintight skirt and a sexy corset and Sydney wasn’t remotely dressed up, but I got why they chose this outfit for her.
Sydney was wearing tight leather pants and a black tank top, but it was a Sydney tank top.
It said Proud Monster Fucker with what I’m pretty sure was what the humans called Sasquatch on it.
Sasquatch also had a massive donkey dick on him that fell to his knees.
This was probably going to trip up some angels.
The rest of us just took in her top. I had no idea what Etsy was, but the next time we were in the mortal realm, I was creating an account to peep if there was anything I could have shipped to a mortal post office box. We were used to her shirts, but Lucifer wasn’t.
“So, that shirt is going to ruffle some feathers and I love it. Most of them aren’t offended by sex, but they think as a woman, you shouldn’t be proud of enjoying it. I like your men, but they won’t. Especially since Nero and Kujo can actually hurt them. Use that.”
Oh, yeah. I’d never seen Lucifer in action, but he’d never seen his daughter antagonize millennia old angels in all her glory. This was going to be a total shit show and I couldn’t wait.
Earlier today, Lucifer invited his servants back for the dinner party.
You could tell a lot about someone by how they treated their servants and how their servants reacted to them.
The ones I’d met liked Sydney, but she didn’t grow up here and she was also outspoken that demons shouldn’t be shat on just for their DNA.
But they liked Lucifer too, it seemed. Their lives would have been easier with him gone.
Satan was making sure they got paid to tend to the house, but until we got here, there was no one to cook for or clean up after.
They were crying and hugging him like he was their father and he was letting them.
Lucifer knew all their kids’ names for the most part and was asking after them now that they were much older.
Lucifer did warn all of them to get out of the house if things started to go sideways.
I didn’t particularly want to be sitting at a table with angels going nuclear, but I knew why I was there.
I knew I was strong, but I also knew I might be the only incubus in the room.
I didn’t know if I could take on this many angels.
I definitely knew I was just going to piss off the Beast of Eden if he came out to play.
Hopefully, Sydney and Lucifer could piss over everyone but Abaddon.
Speaking of, he was the first to arrive, and he was carrying a bottle of wine that probably cost ten years of my salary. He grinned and gave Lucifer a bro hug.
“Had a feeling after I met your secret spawn that it wouldn’t be long before I saw your stupid face again.”
“That’s my stupid face, and it’s weird we look so much alike,” Sydney said.
It was. I’d only met two children of the Fallen so far. Sydney looked like Lucifer, but Wrathhog looked exactly like her mother. Abaddon just gave her a crooked grin.
“Proud of you, kid.”
I had to remind myself he was a suspect. Abaddon had the most experience with my kind, so getting a read on him magically was next to impossible. He had that locked up tight. His body language was relaxed and playful, like he was happy to have his brother home.
Satan and Wrathhog showed up before Lucifer could let Abaddon inside. Satan did look tense. He looked ready for a fight. I let my magic pool in my belly just in case, but I didn’t immediately jump to any conclusions.
Satan being tense didn’t necessarily mean he was behind all of this.
Lucifer was back and his brothers knew him best. They had to know this wasn’t a Welcome Home dinner.
This was a fishing expedition. I’d been told how violent it was when angels brawled and they all had this weird thing about not hurting each other as they hurt demons.
It was different this time because this hurt each other.
One of them was most likely going to die tonight.
The rest of the bitch pigeon goon squad showed up together like they always did and the body language was all over the place. Asmodeus, Belphegor, and Beelzebub were tense, but Mammon was an absolute mess.
“Were you home when I stopped by earlier?” he demanded.
He was upset enough that his mental shields slipped for just a second.
Long enough that I was able to read everything.
Mammon didn’t do this. He loved Lucifer and was happy he was back.
He was anguished that he showed up alone to apologize to Sydney and Lucifer didn’t make himself known because he considered Lucifer his best friend.
He actually couldn’t stand the rest of his brothers, but he legitimately loved Lucifer.
I saw Sydney tense because she could feel what I was feeling.
I knew more about her magic now. We’d be fine if she erupted again, but the rest of the Fallen wouldn’t be.
She didn’t like them, but she wouldn’t want them dead.
Especially if they hadn’t been the one to kill Kir and kidnap her dad.
She wanted them out of power, but not that.
I couldn’t say anything because I didn’t want them to know I was part of the plan.
I put my hand on her lower back and traced small circles with my fingers.
She instantly relaxed, and I liked that she knew what I was saying with just a touch.
I couldn’t do that with Kujo, who looked ready to punch someone in the throat because he would punch me in the throat.
You couldn’t tell Celix was ready to pounce from look at him, but I knew him.
He was scenting and using his own gifts.
We exchanged looks over Sydney’s shoulder.
With everyone’s mental shields still firmly in place, he was getting more than I was.
Aside from Mammon, I could just read body language and everyone here knew Lucifer was up to something.
“It wasn’t personal,” Lucifer said to Mammon.
“I was trapped in a cage with so much warding and barely fed. You know how much we need to eat to balance our magic. I was typically left a loaf of bread and a jar of peanut butter, but the deliveries weren’t regular.
I could never guess when they were coming.
Even rationing the food, I sometimes ran out and had to do without. You know what that does to our magic.”
Lucifer was in terrible shape when we found him, but the Fallen knew what that meant without having to see him. They all looked horrified, but I was focusing the most on Satan and Abaddon since Mammon let his mental shields slip.
“No need for the theatrics of one of Lilith’s dinner parties, brother. Just tell us who did it,” Asmodeus said.
He was such a dick. There was a reason we all thought it was him at first. He looked annoyed, and a little bored.
Asmodeus looked like he didn’t want to be here and it wasn’t because one of his brothers was most likely going to die tonight.
Asmodeus didn’t like Lucifer and didn’t want him back.
I could tell that much by watching them interact.
If I was just going off body language and no knowledge of the passages, I’d still think it was him.
Beelzebub looked wary, but not outright annoyed.
Belphegor looked sick and I was pretty sure that was because he was an empath.
Mammon seemed to be the only one who just realized Lucifer didn’t actually know who kidnapped him.
Whoever wore Kir’s face also knew, but they weren’t giving anything away.
Lucifer just smirked.
“I waited forty-six years in that cage for someone to figure out where I was and help me. None of my brothers showed up. A youngling did what you couldn’t. You can humor me and eat my delicious food.”
“That’s not exactly fair,” Satan argued as we all walked towards the dining room.
“Most of us were looking. You were gone so long, the gates started to weaken. Abaddon had to come up with a new alarm system so we could locate the souls when they got out. So, we were doing that in addition to trying to find you. You know if an angel doesn’t want something found, it won’t be.
I still don’t even know how that one managed to get visions about your location because it’s never happened before. ”
Abaddon just clapped him on the back.
“He’s allowed to be angry, brother. No matter how bad things got with the wards, he had it worse.”
I wished Abaddon had said nothing. Satan was emotional enough to let his shields slip, and I had a feeling if Lucifer had said something instead of Abaddon, they might have fully dropped. But the moment was lost.
As we made our way to the dining room, it hit me.
Lucifer’s place was like a maze. There were plenty of places to hide if you wanted to drug someone without being seen if we were to believe Satan.
I’d never tried my magic on one of the Fallen, but if they were more focused on hunting for hidden cameras than keeping up their mental shields and didn’t know I was there, I could probably chip away until I knocked one out.
A well trained Fury could too, and we already knew the Furies were involved.
Either Satan was lying or he’d just been confused about how he got knocked out.
Which could honestly happen with a Fury or someone like me.
And it was illegal for someone like me to use that kind of magic at all, much less on a Fallen, but a Fury didn’t have those kinds of restraints.
They were also arrogant enough to use their magic on a Fallen.
I needed a minute and a word with my family. As the Fallen entered the dining room, I held everyone back.
We needed to be looking at everyone, even the people we’d ruled out. The only person I knew for sure was innocent was Mammon.