Chapter 2
Chapter Two
Roxy
“Here, drink this.” Ursula handed me a vial from her bag. “You look like something just barfed you up.”
I took the small bottle filled with the best hangover cure ever invented and, without a word, drank it down greedily.
Ursula was my sister. I loved her, and I was so glad she was coming with me, at least for the first couple of days, but right then I needed her to shut the hell up because I was fighting really hard not to empty my stomach all over the cavern floor.
Her elbow dug into my side. “Hey.”
I ignored her and kept walking.
She elbowed me again. “The last thing you want is to appear weak when we meet up with Lothar. Pull it the fuck together.”
“I’m not worried about Lothar. I’m hungover, that’s all.”
“Bullshit.”
“Uma was making my drinks stronger than everyone else’s. Blame your twin for my messy state.”
Ursula scowled. Uma was two minutes younger than Urs and had spent their entire lives trying to best her.
The two hated each other with a passion.
“That traitorous hag needs me to fuck her up again. She’s getting too cocky lately.
” She glanced at me, her bright green eyes seeing too much.
“But that’s not why you’re all quiet and moody.
This”—she waved her hand at my face—“droopy expression is about Lothar and this fucked-up mission Lucifer’s sending you two on. ”
My fingers curled around the strap of my pack, and I forced a smile, shaking my head. “It’s not a problem, honestly. I see Lothar all the time. How is this any different?”
“You’re going to be with him twenty-four seven for a start. And you’re not fooling me with the bubbly, smiley, Roxy sweetness. Don’t try to bullshit a bullshitter. I know you, Rox.”
I shrugged, even as my belly clenched uncomfortably.
“I’ll be fine.” Beelzebub had been making moves to overthrow Luci, and no one tried that shit and got away with it.
Beelzebub had run, leaving his cohorts high and dry.
But I was determined to haul his big red ass back in record time.
I was just struggling to understand why it had to be me and Lothar who did it.
Urs snorted. “Right, that’s why your eyes are still all puffy after your drunken crying jag last night.”
I spun to her. “My what?” I shook my head vehemently. “I did not.”
“You were hugging that fucking ratty old leather jacket of his and listening to eighties hair bands.”
Crap. I woke up hugging the jacket, and she was right, my eyes were puffy this morning.
I inwardly cringed. I only let myself hold it…
I winced, sniff it, once a year. I’d tried several times to throw the beat-up old jacket away, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it.
The only reason it hadn’t disintegrated completely from age was because I’d gone to great lengths to care and protect the centuries-old leather.
“I’m fine, Urs,” I said again, giving her another wide smile.
“It’s December 10th.”
My smile fell. “I know what date it is.”
“And so does Lucifer.” She shook her head. “This whole thing couldn’t come at a worse time for you.”
You could say that, since it was the anniversary of my world shattering into a million pieces. “I’ve got it under control. Promise.” And maybe if I told myself that over and over, it would eventually be true.
Ursula growled under her breath. “Why the hell is Lucifer making you do this?”
I wish I knew, but nothing I said had changed his mind.
He’d insisted he wanted me, one of his best warriors, and Lothar, his best tracker, on the job.
I got the feeling there was more to it, but as always, Lucifer only divulged what he deemed necessary.
He always had his reasons, and I was usually fine with that—when I wasn’t on the receiving end of his mysterious ways.
“Luci would never intentionally hurt me,” I said, parroting what he’d said to me earlier.
“I know whatever his reasons, they’re good ones. ”
Urs muttered under her breath.
We were still in Lucifer’s quadrant, which meant we had to travel on foot to put space between us and his quarters.
No one could open a gateway close to Luci, it was a safeguard that had been in place for centuries, and as we rounded the final corner and the meeting point came into view, my heart danced a freaking jig.
Taking a deep, fortifying breath, I dumped my pack on the ground and leaned against the stone wall to wait.
“He better not be late,” Urs said, tightening her vibrant red ponytail, then leaning against the wall beside me.
“He won’t be.” Lothar was always punctual.
Light flared across from us right on cue, and a gateway flashed open. I straightened, waiting for Lothar to step through. He was standing on the other side, in the clubhouse parking lot. He turned and said something to someone before they came into view.
Asher.
The wolf shifter he was fucking. Well, I assumed they were fucking. They spent a lot of time together, what else could they be doing? She grinned at him, and he pulled her in for one of his wonderful tight hugs.
My throat tightened and breath hissed through my teeth as feelings that I’d repeatedly stabbed to death gasped and fought, struggling for air.
“Keep the knives sheathed,” Ursula muttered.
My fingers were curled around the hilt of my knife, the grip punishing.
I hadn’t even realized I’d reached for it.
I didn’t know what was going on, but my control was slipping more every time I saw him.
Urs was right, I needed to get my shit together, and I needed to do it fast. Quickly releasing the hilt, I shook out my hands.
Asher stepped back, and Lothar turned to the gateway and walked through.
“Hey,” he said when he saw us. “Am I late?”
“Yes,” Urs said at the same time I said, “We just got here.”
The gate closed behind him as he frowned. “What’s up, Urs? You just here to see us off, or are you coming as well?”
“I’m tagging along for a couple days, then I have somewhere I have to be. Why? Disappointed?”
His frown deepened. “Why would I be?” He hooked a thumb under the strap of his own pack.
Why would he be, indeed.
“I need to drop this meat off to Kurgan first, then we can head out.” He lifted a huge black trash bag. “So we got a game plan?” he asked me. “Any luck with Poe or Tarrant?”
“They’re not talking, no matter how many times I peeled off their skin.” I took a shirt from my pack and tossed it to him. “Beelzebub’s stench is all over that.”
Lothar grabbed it and scented it. His eyes glowed, turning distant.
“Anything?”
“Nothing concrete. The trail’s faint, broken.”
I nodded. “I thought as much. Our best option until you can pick up something concrete is to head to Asmodeus’s quadrant,” I said, ecstatic when my voice came out strong, if a little hoarse from all my drunken crying. “Since he’s super tight with Beelzebub.”
Lothar’s brows lowered. “Can’t see that fucker sharing anything with us.”
Ursula grinned, and it was wicked. “Asmodeus loves our Roxy. If anyone can get him to talk, it’s her.”
“I’d planned to carry Rox,” Lothar said, “so we could move quicker, but if you’re coming, we better get going, his quadrant’s four or five days’ travel if we’re walking.”
My stomach flipped. How the hell was I going to get through this?
“Nah, we planned for that,” Ursula said. “Gus is coming. Maddox said he could spare him for a couple days. I’ll text and tell him to meet us at Kurgan’s quarters.”
Lothar nodded, and we headed through the caves.
My gaze skimmed down his muscled back, down to his tight ass and strong legs.
The male had a swagger that was pure arrogance, and he didn’t even try—it was built in.
He was created with that confidence and it never wavered.
I forced myself to look away and smiled when we rounded the corner and saw Zurriah.
She was standing at Kurgan’s door, about to go in, then changed direction when she saw us, striding over and giving me and Urs a hug.
“That for Kurgan?” she asked, looking down at the bags Lothar carried.
“Yeah, from Jag.”
Zuri had made a huge difference in her brother’s life, now that she was finally able to be with him.
She visited him every day, had taught him to read and write, and was working with him on his self-control.
Lucifer had expanded his quarters, and he had a few more comforts now that he didn’t immediately tear everything to shreds.
She was also doing what Willow had done with the hounds aboveground, watching movies with him and teaching him about emotion and social interactions.
He still had outbursts and was still more in tune with his beast than any hound I knew, but he was making progress.
She unlocked the door.
“I’ll take it in,” Lothar said.
Now that the other hounds knew about Kurgan, they were trying to get to know him, to make him feel part of the pack—not easy when he was forced to be locked up down here.
When the door opened, I caught a glimpse of the main room.
One of the first names he’d asked Zuri to teach him to spell was Lenny.
Now his female’s name was written all over the walls in different colors, along with beautiful sketches of her and of things and places I’d never seen before.
Kurgan was on the other side of the room, his skin slick with sweat, doing pull-ups. He did that a lot, and I wasn’t sure if it was to cope with the helplessness and rage he had to be feeling or if one day he planned to tear it all down. Either option was equally possible.
Lothar disappeared inside with Zuri, and by the time he came back out, Gus had arrived.
Loth lifted his fist for Gus, and the much younger hound pounded it.
“Brother, good to have you with us for a couple days,” Loth said.
“Mad said if I didn’t get the fuck out of his face, he’d toss me in the burning river,” the younger hound said in his matter-of-fact way.
Lothar’s lips twitched. “Yeah? He say why?”
“I ask too many questions,” Gus said.