3. Chapter Three
Chapter Three
Jay
Scotty was still in the shower when the doorbell rang, so I threw on a satin bathrobe—one of the three I had in my closet—and put one on the bed for Scotty. I went to the door and checked the peephole. It was Brok and Er’on.
I opened the door with a smile. “Did we interrupt you?” Er’on studied me for a moment before they looked away, their face flushing.
“No. I wouldn’t have answered if you were interrupting anything. Let me throw on some clothes. You wanna wait inside. It’s chilly out.”
“No need, General. We can get your things inside. Where shall we put them?” Er’on looked eager to please.
“Uh, just put them against that wall. I’ll be right back.”
I hurried back to the bedroom, where Scotty stood by the bed in a towel, studying the bathrobe. “Whose was this?” The scowl on his face was cute.
“It’s mine. My mother went through a weird gift phase, and I got three silk bathrobes with matching pajamas for Christmas and my birthday one year. As you know, I sleep au naturelle. The pajamas are in the dresser if you’d rather have them.”
I kissed his cheek and went to my closet, grabbing a pair of jeans and a sweater. “Er’on and Brok are here with our stuff. I’ll go help them if you want to take a nap. I’ll join you when they leave.”
Scotty dropped the towel, and my mind went in an entirely different direction. “I think we need to start looking for Asmodeus before he can do any damage. We should also cover our bases and check in with Jonas. He’ll have sensed anything dangerous entering the Human Realm. It probably wouldn’t hurt to check the portal at Dearly & Son.”
I was about to say, “Okay, after we fuck,” but Scotty went to the closet and grabbed some clothes. He came out in a pair of briefs that would haunt my mind all day. He smirked at me as he pulled on black jeans and a black Henley. He looked good enough to eat.
Skilled fingers quickly braided his long hair behind him, and then Scotty sat on the bed to pull on his boots. “I thought you were going to help Brok and Er’on.”
The fog cleared from my mind as I blinked away the fantasy of slowly relieving him of his clothes and running my tongue over the bulky muscles on his body. I missed the days when we stayed in bed all day during our bonding.
“I’m going. I’m going.” I hustled out of the bedroom to see Brok and Er’on rushing around, opening the boxes to put our things away. That could wait.
“Where’s Beelz? I really need to talk to him.”
“Prince Beelzebub is at a bar with Mistress Lilith. They’re waiting for us to finish here so we can take the prince home.” Er’on didn’t stop moving the whole time they spoke.
“Well, go get him. Bring her too. There’s a problem we all need to discuss. Why didn’t he hang around here to wait for us?”
Er’on giggled. “The prince said he didn’t want to be within earshot of the two of you because he was sure you’d be having sex.”
Brok chuckled. “He said, ‘No way do I wanna hear those two fucking. They give me dirty thoughts.’ Then he laughed.”
“Does he have a uh...?” I circled my index finger and thumb like a hole and pushed my other index finger through it to simulate sex. It was a crass gesture, but it was effective.
Er’on blushed. “The prince has many concubines.”
I laughed. “I bet. Okay. Go get him. We’ll be here. Assure him we’ll be fully clothed when he arrives.”
Brok looked at Er’on. “Please go collect the prince. I’ll help the general unload the boxes.”
Er’on bowed and hurried out, gently closing the door behind them. I turned to Brok, seeing a concerned expression. “Is there something on your mind, Brok?” Might as well get everything out in the open.
“Asmodeus has lied to the prince about things before, but lying about mating with a child of Nyx is a grave offense. Fathering a child with Apate will be quite upsetting to Lucifer. I’m worried my prince will feel I’ve let him down by not having the information. If I disappoint Prince Beelzebub, it will be a burden I cannot bear. Gremon phoned while we were on our way here and said Lycus believes you to be a liar. He said Asmodeus has never laid with Apate.” Brok hung his head, almost as though he were ashamed of something.
“All demons lie, Brok. Why are you upset about this? I’ll explain it to Beelz. Everything’s gonna be fine.” I wasn’t worried.
He glanced up to stare at me through his lashes. “If Asmodeus didn’t impregnate Apate, then one of the other princes did, and we may be misjudging Asmodeus. Master Lucifer will kill Vagar’s father. If Asmodeus is not the father and Lucifer ends him, I will have failed Prince Beelzebub.”
“This sounds like a bad television show.” Scotty stepped into the room in all his angelic glory. I really was a lucky man.
“If I failed Prince Beelzebub in obtaining the correct information, I must end my existence.” Brok then dropped his head.
“Wait, wait. There’ll be no falling on the sword or suicide pacts. Let’s go find Asmodeus and end this bullshit.” I liked Brok and Er’on, and I was sure if Brok ended his existence, Er’on would do the same. They were good demons—if that was a thing—and because Asmodeus was hiding the fact he was Vagar’s father, they shouldn’t be blamed.
In my gut I knew we were right about Asmodeus, and I’d go even further to say that he was working side by side with Nyx to attempt a coup. How we’d solve that problem was a question for another time. But if we could establish that Asmodeus was indeed Vagar’s father, we could take that information to Lucifer and convince the Ruler of Hell that his own son was plotting against him.
Before I could say anything more to put Brok at ease, there was a quick knock on the front door before it flew open. Beelz stared at us before he laughed. “You’re good to your word. Clothes on. No dicks hanging out. So, you thought you’d summon a prince of Hell? To what means?”
Beelz stepped inside, carrying a walking stick with a diamond on top that would choke a horse. And with him was the Mistress of Hell, Lilith. Brok dropped to his knees in front of them, and Er’on did the same, bending forward and putting their head on the floor. It was a little dramatic for my tastes, but to each his own.
“They do that every time?” Lilith said exactly what I was thinking, and the smirk on her face matched mine.
“One of the many benefits of being me, my dear. So...” Beelz looked at me and raised an eyebrow. I bowed to him and when I stood, the prince picked me up in a bear hug. I was sure my ribs would’ve been broken if I were still human.
“Prince.” Scotty bowed his head a bit, which was more than he’d done when we met Lycus.
“Alba Protectoris. It’s good to see you survived the bonding process. Now, I’m looking forward to going home, so what’s so urgent?” Beelz walked over to the couch and took a seat, uninvited. It wasn’t really a surprise.
Lilith sat in a chair next to the couch. Er’on closed the front door and sat on the floor while Brok stood guard behind Beelz. At least he wasn’t hanging his head in shame.
“Your nephew is dead. An Arch ripped him in half and ate him. He possessed an innocent human at the direction of—”
Beelz held up his hand. “I heard this through the grapevine.”
It was my turn to lift an eyebrow in his direction. “Grapevine?”
“Michael told me. Do we know which of my brothers did the deed?”
I gave a sigh of relief that we weren’t the ones delivering the message. “Did you know about Vagar?”
Beelz kicked off his ugly rubber clogs and put his feet up on my coffee table, leaning against the back of the couch with his hands clasped behind his head. “No. I missed out on the good news, as did my father. When I told him about the demon child, he wasn’t happy. We aren’t supposed to reproduce.”
That was interesting. “We, like all of us?” Not that I worried about getting Scotty pregnant. I was usually the one riding his joystick.
“No. Just the princes. The Ruler of Hell is allowed to create more sons and daughters, but we aren’t. It creates jealousy among the offspring. My brothers and I can father children, but it’s a big no-no as far as Dad’s concerned. Who broke the rules?”
“May I speak, prince?” Scotty asked.
I glanced at Brok to see him staring in our direction with concern. I offered a covert wink of reassurance that we wouldn’t do anything stupid.
“By all means.” Beelz held out his hand in invitation for Scotty to share his thoughts.
Scotty cleared his throat. “Prince, we haven’t been able to confirm it, so we’d prefer not to make the accusation at this point. We’d like to try to find the bound witch who cast the spell and have him confirm the father is who we believe him to be.”
Beelz nodded. “Smart. Brok, generate a hellhound to go with them. He can report to us daily.”
Brok closed his eyes. His body shook violently until it split in half, and there we were with two Broks. It was the weirdest fucking thing I’d ever seen, and I’d seen some shit in Hades—like Brok’s mother, the three-headed dog.
Lilith stood and stepped over to Scotty. “I’d like to be kept in the loop on this as well, Scott. We’ve declared our loyalty to the Council in this one instance, but if we find out this is a ploy on their part to interfere with how things are handled in the underworld, all bets are off, and things will get quite messy. I’m sure you can imagine how we’d react to being tricked by the Council again.”
It sounded like a threat and that had me enraged in a nanosecond. “If it’s a power play, Scotty had nothing to do with it. You know everything we know, Lilith. Are you still with Quinn? Is Adonis still protecting Keir? It would be terrible if something happened to either of them in all the confusion, wouldn’t it?”
“Jay, it’s okay. Lilith has a right to be worried. Sometimes the Council doesn’t play fair with her kind. I’d be skeptical too.” Scotty then looked at her. “If I find anything suspicious during our search for the witch, you’ll be the second to know. Jophiel will be the first.”
Lilith gave him a smile and turned to Beelz. “I need to get back to work. Trent and Amelie are going to San Francisco for a few days, and I’m minding the store. Call me.” She then went through the house and out the deck door, taking to the sky.
I turned back to Beelz. “How’d you two end up spending time with each other today?”
The prince of Hell chuckled, playing with the large diamond-encrusted pendant on a thick gold chain around his neck. “Given her history with Daddy, we may seem like unlikely confidantes, Lilith and me, but we have the same goal—keep the balance between Heaven and Hell and keep the Human Realm safe from Nyx. Just because Lilith was my father’s mistress, doesn’t make her less of an ally.”