Chapter 1 #2
I swallowed thickly. Yeah, I knew. At least that explained the wary excitement I felt right before Lucifer’s call, a feeling that still throbbed through me now. “She won’t go for it,” I said instead of flat-out refusing like I should.
“She’ll come around.”
“It’s not a good idea,” I said, even as my heart pounded harder, faster at the idea of seeing her again, of being close to her.
He was silent several beats before his gaze locked on mine again. “No? Then let me ask you this. Do you trust anyone else to go with Ursula in your place?”
My heart slammed against the back of my ribs, just hearing her name.
No.
No, I did not.
“Thought you’d see it that way,” he said when my silence dragged on. “Just remember, Si, when Urs feels threatened or exposed, she lashes out.” His gaze darkened. “And if someone she truly cares about is stupid enough to cause her pain, she will cut them the deepest.”
Was he saying she constantly lashed out at me because she cared? Or was it just another way to manipulate me into doing what he wanted? “What are you implying?”
His grin returned, and he shrugged. “Not a thing.”
He was purposely being abstruse. Prick. I should say no.
It would be the sanest thing to do. “If I agree to this,” I said despite myself.
“You need to know that I won’t kill for you, not for something like this.
” Yes, I killed demons regularly, but only those who had gone rogue.
Killing for a tournament wasn’t something I would do.
And that included Nathaniel, even if I’d love to hack him into tiny pieces.
It couldn’t happen, for several reasons.
“I never asked you to, Si.” Lucifer turned to whoever was in his torture chamber and flashed them an evil grin. A terrified cry echoed down the phone. His gaze slid back to me and he winked. “Glad to have you on board,” he said, knowing he had me. “I’ll be in touch soon.”
I walked into the common room after showering off the demon blood and dirt and gotten rid of the forest worth of leaves I’d somehow gotten down my shirt and in my hair.
Zen, Roc, Laz, and Kryos turned my way when I stopped in the doorway.
All four were sitting on the floor surrounded by toy cars and trucks and several dolls.
Zen was leaning on the couch, Zeph asleep on his chest, the scarred and inked warrior’s hand protectively resting on his son’s back.
Lysander and Revere, Laz and Roc’s sons were lying on a huge beanbag chair together watching one of their favorite shows.
And Astra stood behind Kryos, putting sparkly barrettes in her father’s hair.
“You look so pretty, Daddy,” she said, leaning around to look at his face.
He grinned at her. “I feel pretty, bug.”
His brothers chuckled.
“The blue ones match your eyes,” Roc said.
Astra smiled proudly. “I’ll do your hair next, Uncle Roc. I have lots of blue barrettes left.”
He winked at her. “I’d love that, bug.”
All the children had the markings of a knight, even Astra, and so far, she was the only female to bear them. They were young to have the markings, and none of us knew what that meant yet, but it definitely meant something.
Zen spotted me and lifted his chin in greeting. “Been expecting you.”
“Lucifer told you why he wanted my number?” My stomach muscles clenched again, like they had been doing all night when I thought about the tournament.
Zen nodded. “Yeah, I also just met him at a gateway. He gave me something for Ursula.”
“What is it?”
“Official invitation for the tournament. He needed someone with his bloodline to hand it to her. That’s the way it’s done apparently.”
I crossed my arms. “Why can’t he just give it to her himself? She’s in Hell with him, right?”
He shrugged one shoulder. “No idea. Timing, apparently. He said she’s leaving in a couple days with Roxy and Lothar, heading off on some mission, but he wants to wait before he clues her in on what he’s got planned for her.”
Seemed like an asshole move to me. Lucifer was all about his mysterious ways, some bullshit about the greater good, meanwhile, as a result, he frequently hurt the people he purported to love the most.
“So you’ll be spending quality time with Urs?” Laz said, a smug look on his face. “How do you think she’ll feel about that?”
“Yeah, how’s this gonna work?” Roc said. “You just gonna show up and give the female a jump scare? Like hey, it’s me, the cheating ex-boyfriend of Christmas past here to ruin your night, only in this case it’ll be longer.”
He wasn’t wrong. Ursula was going to be pissed.
I knew this, yet still, I couldn’t stay away.
The idea of anyone else going with her didn’t sit right with me.
This tournament was dangerous, competitors died.
The female didn’t need my protection, but I wanted to be the one to have her back during whatever tasks and trials they threw at us.
“You think you’re gonna get her to forgive you, don’t you?” Kryos said and kind of winced.
I said nothing, because yeah, after what Lucifer said about her lashing out at those she cared about most, it had crossed my mind, but before I could reply, I got hit with a pity tsunami of epic proportions, the combined emotional runoff from every male in the room slapping me in the face.
“Brother,” Roc said, looking pained. “You don’t need me to tell you this, but Urs is a proud, take-no-shit female. You kissed her sister, Si. You made out with her twin.”
“I know what I did,” I said, feeling like shit all over again.
It had been an accident. I knew how weak that sounded, but it was the truth.
Urs wouldn’t believe me, though, no matter how many times I told her or tried to explain.
Uma, her biological twin, had known exactly what she was doing that night—and whatever fucked-up game she’d been playing had worked spectacularly well.
“I say this with love, my man,” Roc said. “It’s not gonna happen.”
He was right, of course. It’d been several years since we’d been together, but no matter how I tried to hide how I felt, no one had missed I still had feelings for her. “Maybe she and I can be friends,” I said.
Roc’s and Kryos’s pitying looks told me what their emotional bombardment already had, and yeah, what I knew deep down.
That wasn’t going to happen either.
Ursula wanted nothing to do with me, and there was no changing that female’s mind once she’d made a decision. Lucifer had only said the shit he had to manipulate me into doing what he wanted, but I would have said yes anyway. As soon as he’d said her name, my mind had been made up.
“I’m heading back out on patrol,” I said and strode from the room. Gunner and Chaos were already in the city. I was rostered off the rest of the night, but what else was I going to do? Maybe I’d get to kill a rogue demon. That always made me feel a bit better.