LAILAH
THREE
Two cups of caffeine and a sunrise later, the rest of the guys started to drift downstairs, helping Micah manage his crutches.
Jay was hunched over his computer and I was looking over some information from their previous missions on a tablet, trying to catch up on what he already knew about the Dark Lord’s army.
This wasn’t going to be a quick mission, but we needed to sift through things with fresh eyes to make sure nothing was missed or any assumptions were made.
Now we had the knowledge of what their plan for the future was, using the serum to make conduits and hosts for the demons.
Taking in the information with this in mind made some things make more sense, like how they needed to get someone in at the labs and with Brayden’s family.
The person in the labs could be like Tabitha, the nanny, who was a human that was gifted demonic power, or possibly promised to gain some with the creation of the serum.
It had been a long con, taking years in the making.
The Dark Lord hadn’t planned on me showing up when I did—right at the tipping point of them getting away with it.
Now I was here, bonded to four out of the five Elementi Knights, getting stronger every passing day as we strengthened our connection.
Losing Parker was going to be a blow we couldn’t afford, but I refused to let the fate of the world dictate who I gave part of my heart and soul to.
There was no way we could do this mission without him, but that didn’t mean he was forgiven or all was forgotten.
I had promised Jay we would get his mom back in whatever way possible and I planned on keeping that promise, no matter how uncomfortable it made me though.
“How long have you guys been up?” Brayden asked, getting Micah settled in one of the armchairs. “And what are you working on so intently?”
I glanced at the time, surprised to find it had been three hours. “Ah, since four—”
“Don’t avoid the harder question, Lailah,” Micah muttered, scowling at me. “What are you guys working on?”
Jay closed the lid to his laptop and looked at the others for a moment before answering. “The demons took my mother to their camp. It was a backup plan to stop me from bonding with Lailah, but they broke Parker first.”
“Why didn’t you wake us up to help, damn it?
Also, why the fuck would you hold this back from us?
We have every right to know, not be left in the dark to think things were fine,” Micah shouted, his body rigid with anger.
I could feel it beating against my own shields, letting me know just how pissed my fiery lover was.
“Really?” I shot back, my own irritation flaring up.
“I don’t know, maybe because you needed sleep and time to let your bodies heal.
You three had it the worst, and there’s nothing more to be done other than let your body do what it needs to.
Jay and I couldn’t sleep, so instead of twiddling our thumbs, we decided to be useful and get a head start.
There is so much I needed to get caught up on that it made sense.
We were going to tell you. It’s not like we planned to hide it, but you needed sleep. ”
“Guys, please let’s not argue,” Hudson cut in, handing out coffee to the others. “Lailah is right. We needed sleep before we could handle this news. Nothing has been done without us, so there’s no sense in getting all upset.”
Micah glared at him, letting out a scoff as he took a sip of his coffee. “Of course you would be on her side. Can’t risk losing the only pussy you’ve ever gotten.”
My brows shot up at this. Micah had been a lot of things, but never this kind of cruel. “That was a low blow, Micah, and you know it. I don’t know what crawled up your ass and died, but you better get your shit figured out before I figure it out for you. Apologize.”
“You can’t order me around like I’m a dog, Lailah,” Micah snapped.
This had me out of my seat and up in his face, refusing to let this stand.
“What the actual fuck, Micah? Hudson didn’t deserve any of that from you.
He simply stated his opinion, and you went right for the kill.
Don’t think I won’t lock you in your bedroom and take away your crutches, so you can’t leave, while you think about your life choices.
I lost one of you already and I’ll be damned if I let this group shatter when we need each other the most. So, apologize for being a prick—please. ”
Micah blinked at me a few times and his anger seemed to dim as a different type of fire started to build.
Heat simmered just under the skin as he refused to break from my gaze, letting me know how turned on he was that I’d just verbally spanked him in front of the others.
The man might like to be in control, but it was clear he didn’t want a submissive partner all the time.
“You’re right,” he said finally and blinked, ending the standoff.
I tried to back away, but he grabbed my arm and pulled me onto his lap, wrapping his arms tightly around me.
“Hudson, I’m sorry, man. That was a dick move that you didn’t deserve.
I’m angry at this whole thing and at being wounded, knowing I would slow the team down if we needed to move fast with this. ”
Hudson nodded and waved off his apology.
“I get it. There are times that I feel useless to this team and it can get under my skin rather easily. Thank you for your apology, but I have a feeling each of us will need to apologize to the others by the end of this battle. Demons feed off turmoil of all kinds and are very good at stirring it up.”
Micah kissed my neck and whispered in my ear, “Thank you, Cookie Monster.”
“Did you really think I was just going to let you be an ass?” I murmured back.
He shifted me so my ass was pressed right up against his rock-hard dick. “Promise you won’t hit me for saying this, but you pissed off and getting in my face like that was hot as hell.”
“Seriously, you’re going to pull that right after I scolded you?” I spluttered, trying to get up, but he only held me tighter, moaning as I wriggled in his grasp.
“You keep that up and I’m going to come right here in front of all of them,” he said against my neck, his lips brushing my skin.
This got me to sit still instantly, causing him to chuckle as he pulled me against his chest. “That’s better.
Now you have to sit here until my boner goes away in case your parents come out. ”
“You’re evil, you know that?” I grumbled.
“Yeah, but you love me anyway,” he countered.
The others were trying not to stare at us, but it didn’t really bother me. It was inevitable that they would all catch one of us fooling around together at some point and I didn’t want them to ever feel like they couldn’t be free to act comfortably around me.
“Now that we have that settled,” Hudson spoke, bringing us back to the matter at hand. “What can you tell us about the situation?”
“Unfortunately, there isn’t a lot for us to go on and we’re on our own. My father doesn’t see the need to put in the energy to go after Mother, since he believes she’s most likely dead or possessed and beyond our help,” Jay informed the others.
“I’m sure you’ll all agree with me that I told him no matter what, we will bring her home. We owe her that and it’s what any of us would do for our families in the same predicament,” I added.
They all nodded in agreement with my sentiment.
“Jay and I spent the morning going over everything we learned from all our encounters and the knowledge that we have now to track their past movements. Jay’s father has been searching for this camp for months but is always a few steps behind, missing them.
Lilith made it clear that the Dark Lord needs to keep them in places away from people stumbling upon them because his demons tend to kill them and draw attention.
There is more that I learned as well from spending time with her in my head...
” I ventured, unsure how they would all react to this next bit of information.
Brayden leaned forward and grabbed my hand, giving it a squeeze. “We’ll handle whatever comes our way, Angel.”
“The Dark Lord is a Prince of Hell. Not one of the top four princes, but one of the sub-princes, Beelzebub. He’s just under Lucifer in the ranking of the four main princes, which is why he has so much power and control.
This means he’s also a child of Lilith, since she gave birth to all the Princes of Hell.
Beelzebub also worked in conjunction with his brother Astaroth, making them two out of the three Evil Trinity,” I explained, pausing as I watched all of them look at me in fear and shock.
“Holy fucking shit, we are so screwed,” Micah swore, dropping his hands from holding me to run through his hair.
I took the moment to stand and face all of them.
“This is a gift, guys. If I hadn’t shared her mind, there is no way that we would have understood how bad this is and we would’ve walked into the fight unprepared.
Their goal is to make literal hell on earth but their hell, not the one ruled by the four princes, but by the Evil Trinity.
Lilith will be their queen and be free to roam the world once again, not to be locked away like she is now.
When I returned her to Hell, I drew the attention of the four princes, hoping they would notice she wasn’t in her cell any longer.
I have no idea if it worked, since Lucifer is sure to be involved in this as well.
Guys, Hell is waking up to a war among the princes, if we let it happen, I don’t know that anyone will survive it. ”
“That is a heavy realization for this early in the morning.” Brayden sighed, rubbing his chin, deep in thought. “How did we miss this? Do you think the Elementi knew and didn’t tell us?”
“It does seem odd that they would miss something so massive, doesn’t it?” Hudson mused. “We did lose Mr. Creed. Who knows what information they got out of him or if they have others on the inside, steering us in the wrong direction?”
“I think we need to call Beth,” Cami announced, causing us all to snap our heads up.
There she was, sitting on the railing, looking down at us from the second floor like it wasn’t at all odd for her to do so.
“There might be double agents in the Elementi, but it won’t be my sisters.
They drank all the Kool-Aid and believe in their souls they are doing the right thing. ”
“How long have you been listening, midget?” Micah asked, crossing his arms.
She just grinned at him as she jumped down, landing on the couch in a heap. “Let’s see, when did Lala flip you over and beat your ass for being such an ass?”
“Fuck, Cami, why didn’t you just come down and join in the conversation instead of being such a creeper?”
“Are you kidding, flame boy? It was far too much fun watching the five of you interact like no one was watching. Shows me just who wears the pants in this relationship, and that person doesn’t have a dick, in case you were wondering,” Cami stated with a wink at me.
“So, am I calling the den mother, or are one of you?”
Hearing her call Beth that made me think of Parker and I knew I was going to need to broach that subject at some point. None of the guys were going to be happy that we needed to include him on this, but I wasn’t going to hunt the Evil Triad without the full team of Elementi Warriors.
“I think it’s better if you call her,” Micah suggested.
Cami just rolled her eyes as she held the phone to her ear. “Chicken shit, that’s what you are. Scared of my big sister when she finds out what all went down yesterday.”
“Not scared, just a healthy respect for her is all,” Micah explained, trying to redeem himself.
When Beth picked up, Cami switched it to speaker phone so we could all hear. “Cami, I thought I would be hearing from you sooner. They never made it to the Chicago HQ and now I’m hearing a doctor along with a healer were needed? What the hell happened?”
“You’re on speaker phone with everyone, Sis,” Cami warned her. “I’ll let them explain what’s going on.”
The five of us all looked at each other, unsure who should take the lead. They all motioned for me to do the honors. “How much time do you have, Beth? This is going to be a long story.”
“You guys are always my priority. I have all the time you need,” Beth assured me.
“So, where did we leave things with you? I know Cami has been keeping you in the loop and helping us with things on your end,” I asked, not wanting to waste time rehashing something that was already known.
“Phoebe had been taken, you managed to find the power plant they were holed up in, events happened between you and Parker, then you were going to Chicago to figure out where the other base of operations was that the demons were using,” Beth rattled off, surprising me how well informed she’d been kept.
“Turns out we didn’t need to go looking for the demons. They found us.”
Micah scoffed. “She means they rammed into us with a truck to incapacitate us and make getting us back to their hideout easier.”
“Oh my God, are you all right?” Beth gasped.
“Beaten and bruised, for the most part. Micah has a dislocated knee that will take some time to heal, but it’s better than being broken. That’s not the worst of it though...” I said, trailing off as I readied myself to go through all this again.
It took about an hour to cover everything with Beth, getting her up to speed and answering her questions along the way.
“Makoto, the old fool,” Beth growled after hearing his feelings on the matter. “Jay, I’m sorry to hear about your mother. You have the full weight of the Elementi at your disposal. Tell me what you need and I will make sure that it happens. You have my word on that.”
“Thanks,” Jay answered in true Jay fashion. I was beginning to think I was the only one he talked to in full, complete sentences.
“That goes for the rest of you as well. In my personal opinion, it seems that we’re coming to a head in this fight and even though you have the power of the angels, having backup isn’t a bad idea either,” Beth pointed out.
“Keep me informed and I’ll work on things this side of the world, tracking down any suspicious movement or money being moved around. ”
“There’s one more thing,” I said, cutting in. “Keep this to only the people we know we can trust. It doesn’t matter if they’re loyal. The more people who know, the more that can get out.”
“Wise advice, Lailah. I’ll keep it in mind. Until we talk next, stay safe.” Beth hung up, leaving us to figure out the next step.