Chapter Nine #4
“Damn,” he said, finally breaking it. “That speech was unbearably sexy. I swear, you’ve got me packing a semi right now, darling. Are you sure you won’t reconsider having my bastard—?”
“Will you cut that out!”
Dora poked her head out of the bathroom. “Is everything okay, Hathor?”
Seriously, where is she getting these names?
“Everything’s fine,” I told her.
“Everything is not fine.” Lucifer crowded into my ear. “But it will be... when you deliver unto me the power of the All Hallows.”
I froze.
“Speaking of, tell me how much progress you’ve made. Have you identified the hallows?”
“I... I, uh...”
“If Lucifer Lightbringer becomes a god, he will lay waste to all realms. The mortal realm he despises, the demon realm that pulled him off his throne of blood, and the heavenly realm that threw him out and slammed the gates. In his eyes, mortals, demons, supernaturals, angels, and gods have all wronged him... and we’ll all pay. ”
“I haven’t but I’m close,” I finally said. “I think I have a way to narrow down the list.”
“You think, you might, you’re close.” That jaunty, light, devilish tone crept back into his voice...
which was bad news for me. An angry Lucifer was out of control, but a mischievous one wasn’t.
Right then, Lucifer was feeling fully in his element.
“So, what you’re saying is, you’ve not only thrown my House into upheaval, but you’ve done it all while frittering away your time and ignoring the task I’ve set you.
“I guess I was hasty in giving you that gift, sweet Charlotte. I’ll just take it back now.”
“Take it back? What do you mean—?”
Snap.
A thud sounded from the bathroom, snapping my head around. “Dora? Dora!” I raced to the door, threw it open, and saw...
...no one.
“Dora!”
“There’s no need to scream, darling.” Lucifer laughed. “Little Adora can hear you just fine.”
“Dad— Daddy?” Dora’s voice came through the phone, stilling my heart. “What am I doing here? How did I get here? Where’s Margaret?”
“Margaret has been very bad, my beautiful child.” Lucifer sounded soft—almost sweet. “But I’m afraid, you’re the one who’ll be punished for it.
“The three weeks you’ll stay in the pit with no food or water ought to communicate to your sister just how serious I am.”
“No!” I screamed. “No, stop!”
“Take her,” Lucifer barked at someone.
“Stop it! Leave her alone!”
“Charlotte!” Ronin was at my side in a blink, taking me into his arms. “What’s going on?” he cried, checking me all over. “What’s wrong?”
“He took my sister is what’s wrong!” Tears flooded my eyes and shredded my throat. “Give her back!”
“Hmm,” Lucifer hummed. “Nah. Don’t want to.”
“Fuck you, you evil bastard!” I clung on to Ronin. I don’t know why. Every good sense told me to push the other evil bastard away, but if I did, my legs would spill me to the floor. His arms around me were the only thing keeping me upright—keeping me anchored. “Just tell me what you want!”
“Ahh, now that’s more like it. That’s what I wanted to hear.” His voice hardened. “I want the identity of a hallow—right now!”
I clutched my head, choking on a sob. “R-right now? But I don’t—”
“Make it four weeks, Enrique,” Lucifer called. “And drop someone particularly ornery and unpleasant down there with her.”
“Angel!” I blurted, latching on to the first thing that came to mind, and the last thing I read. “The hallow of the air is an angel!”
“An angel?” Lucifer hissed. “Are you certain?”
“I’m sure.” The words were tumbling out of my mouth. “I need the feather of a real angel. Not a kicked-out-of-heaven reject like you!”
“Hmm.”
Everything stopped—my breathing stopped—as he pondered.
“Well.” Lucifer broke the silence. “It makes sense. An angel feather is an item of untold power, and untold power is what we’re going for here.”
“Send her back.”
He laughed. “Slow down. You haven’t told me how you plan to acquire one yet.”
“Acquire one?” I straightened, drawing back from Ronin.
“You mean an angel feather? How in the fuck should I know!” Suddenly, I was screaming all over again.
“You’re the fucking angel, you fucking fuckwit!
You’re the all-powerful devil who can hop between worlds!
When do you get off your ass and do something! ”
Lucifer laughed his wings off. “Someone’s tetchy.
Maybe that’s why you’re getting it all wrong.
The gates are closed for me too, Charlotte.
I can only return to earth when I’m summoned by a witch, and I can’t get into heaven at all.
And even if I could, I wouldn’t,” he dropped. “I don’t do... legwork.”
I’ve never wanted to wring someone’s neck more.
“Collecting a feather from the Air Hallow is your task, and I want a concrete plan on how you’re going to make it happen, or Dora’s going to have a very bad time of it over the next five weeks.”
I gritted my teeth. The bastard was going up. “Are you going to return us to earth so that we can—?”
“Nope.”
You monstrous beast. Out loud, I took a deep breath, untangled from Ronin, and then said, “Fine. If you can’t bring me an angel, I’ll just bring an angel to me.”
“Bring an angel... to you?” Was it my imagination, or did the king of lies, tricks, and being-a-piece-of-shit sound stumped? “What in the hell does that mean?”
“Exactly what it sounds like,” I replied, injecting my voice with confidence I didn’t feel. “I’ll lure an angel to hell and get them to give me their feather.”
He laughed out loud. “Lure an angel to hell? Has the heat gone to your head, darling? That’s impossible.”
“A couple of weeks ago, you thought the power of the All Hallows was impossible.” That stopped his laughter cold. “When are you going to learn to stop underestimating an Avos witch?”
He paused a beat. “How?” Lucifer demanded. “Tell me exactly how.”
“Give. Me. My. Sister. Back.”
Lucifer snarled. “You’re not the one in a position to make the demands.”
“Aren’t I? If I’m not, then you can be the one to do the legwork,” I rasped. “Because if you ever pull this shit again— If you ever kidnap and threaten my sister again, I’ll kill myself.”
“What!”
“What?!” Ronin belted, grabbing my shoulders. “What are you saying!”
“Save your idle threats for someone who believes them,” Lucifer said, recovering fast.
“It’s not an idle threat. Now that I know heaven and hell are real, and that I can reincarnate myself into a new, cushy life on earth—death isn’t half as scary as it was before,” I crowed.
“Right now, I’ve got everything to gain from my death, and you’ve got everything to lose.
You need a living Avos witch to get your hands on the All Hallows, and that’s the one thing you won’t have. ”
“You won’t do it!” Angry Lucifer was coming back fast. “You’d never leave your sister in danger.”
“Doing it would free my sister from danger. If I die”—I threw Ronin off, glaring into his eyes—“all you bastards will stop using her as a pawn to control me.”
Neither Lucifer nor Ronin had a thing to say to me.
I heard a noise on the other end of the call. Dora whooshed back into the bathroom.
“Cleo!”
“Dora!”
I shoved Ronin aside, rushing to hug her.
She squeezed the stuffing out of me. My sister may not have her memories, but she knew who was there for her—and she knew it was me.
“Your play worked this time.” Lucifer’s frosty hiss stole the smile off my face. “But never make the mistake of thinking I’m easy to manipulate. The next time I call, I want the identities of the other three hallows.”
“When are you going to—”
“And one more thing,” he sliced in. “Your little vampire boyfriend can give all the warnings he wants—”
My jaw, my legs, my soul fell out from under me.
“—but don’t you dare think of double-crossing me, Charlotte Hunter. The power of the All Hallows is mine. You can either give it to me willingly, or I can rip it out along with your beating heart.”
“H-how—? How—?”
“You have a nice chat with those dryads, darling. Talk soon.”
Click.
I NEVER MADE IT TO class that day.
I was too busy stuffing blankets in the vents and rigging boobie traps for the doors. Dora read in Ronin’s room while Ronin stared at me in mine.
“Why so tight-lipped?” Ronin asked. He reclined on my bed, uncaring of his dirty boots on my sheets. “What did Lucifer say to you? Why’d you threaten to kill yourself?”
“You know what he said.” I focused on my task of filling small, individual vials with the bath oils.
From then on, I’d dump the oil by the doorway so anyone speeding in my room at night would have a nice trip.
“I’ve told you all of this already. He wants progress on my search for the hallows.
He wants names, identities, and items in hand. And he’s threatening Dora to get it.”
“So you threatened him right back.”
“It’s not a threat.” My voice was calm—steady.
“It’s a promise. I’m not letting this go on anymore.
Lucifer is done hurting Dora to get to me.
My sister is innocent in all this, but she’s been suffering worst of all.
Her childhood was a lie, her mother killed her, her bio father gutted her mind and personality, and now, she’s being tortured in her sister’s name.
“No more.” Setting down the vials, I faced him. “And that goes for you too.”
If I expected a big reaction, I didn’t get it.
Ronin merely raised a brow. “Why are you mad at me? In that list of suffering, I don’t even make the top ten.”
“Don’t feign innocence, demon. It doesn’t suit you.”
Ronin laughed.
“Stop laughing, you jerk, and say it! Say that you won’t use or hurt Dora to manipulate me again—”
“I won’t use or hurt your sister to manipulate you again,” Ronin rattled off without the slightest hesitation.
I froze, mouth still open. I hadn’t expected it to be that easy at all.
My eyes narrowed to slits. “You’re lying.”
“I’m not.”
“Oh, and I should believe that? You lied and tricked me into the sub bond,” I cried, slapping the name on my arm.
“Yes,” Ronin replied, gazing deep into my eyes. “A bond that will force you to submit to my will at my mere whim.”
I backed away, face falling.