Epilogue Charlotte
Charlotte
Three days later . . .
Much to my delight, Lucifer and I don’t stray far from his bedroom or the playroom for the next several days. Every touch, every kiss, every stroke of his tongue is suddenly heightened in the face of our infinity. We’re both riding an intoxicating high. One of pain turned to pleasure that feels like it’ll last for all eternity. If we only allow it to.
I sigh a little, melting into where he holds me, the unshaved scruff on his cheek brushing against my neck as we lie tangled in his bedsheets.
I don’t think either of us is fully prepared to face the outside world just yet.
The mess the Righteous left in our city. The media.
Or what it means for us, for the world, for humanity, and the possibly impending apocalypse to follow, now that he’s gifted his Father’s redemption to me.
We both want to hold on to whatever this feeling of ... peace is a little longer.
Before divine reality comes crashing down on both him and me.
It isn’t until the morning of the third day, both of our phones turned off and all our team communications silenced, that an unexpected knock at the door forces me to finally separate from him.
I lift a brow. “Did you call down for food?” I ask, throwing back the covers and quickly using the top sheet to cover my nudity as my stomach growls.
Lucifer shakes his head lazily. “Leave it, dove. They’ll find an excuse to barge in here eventually,” he grumbles as I slip away from where I’ve been practically encased in his arms.
Like a tomb of my own making.
“You’re not always the boss of me, you know.” I toss a playful smirk over my shoulder at him, watching as he lifts onto one of his elbows.
From the aroused gleam in his eye, I know I’m going to pay for that little bit of rebellious teasing the moment I return to his bed.
My ass has already been deliciously and continually red for the past several days.
And I love it.
I pad toward the door, still holding the top sheet clutched to my chest, but when I pull it open, expecting to find Ramesh or another one of the staff, I don’t find anyone waiting for me.
I glance down the hall, anticipating seeing them make a hasty exit, but the hall’s empty. Instead, all I find waiting is an expensive-looking bottle of wine placed just outside the doorframe, a smooth, sleek envelope attached.
Hmm. Some kind of immortal honeymoon gift, maybe?
From Az, would be my guess.
I pick up the bottle by its neck, bringing it back into the room with me as I bump the door shut with one sheet-covered hip. I set it down on a small table near the fireplace, on top of some of Lucifer’s sheet music.
As I turn to head back to the bed, I do a double take, surprised that the card attached bears my name scrawled in impressive-looking script.
I pause, turning it over in my hand, admiring the quality before I use a nearby letter opener left on the fireplace mantle to open it. Immediately, a cloud of white dust pours out and onto my hands, causing me to cough.
I stumble back.
What the fuck?
“Did that lust-filled lothario you call a brother just send me a freaking envelope full of drugs?” I snap, now trying and failing to brush some of the powder off myself and the sheet.
Lucifer saunters over to my side, as naked as I am, but unashamed, naturally.
With a body like his, why would he be?
“Where did you get that?” he asks, clearly suspicious. He dips his pinky finger into the small mound that’s now poured out onto the table, then licks it, his expression shifting from mildly amused to grave. “That’s not cocaine, darling.” He snaps his fingers, and abruptly the substance and all its particles are gone.
My stomach drops.
“Then what—?”
Suddenly Lucifer catches my chin in his hand, roughly forcing me to look him in the eye. “ Never open anything that hasn’t been scanned by the mail room or the security team, do you understand me?” All relaxation is stripped from his face, his voice harsh, cold. But it’s the fear in his eyes that shocks me.
I nod timidly before he releases me, watching as he drags a rough hand through his hair. “That could have taken out the whole bloody building,” he mutters, more to himself than me.
What in God’s name could scare Lucifer?
And if it wasn’t cocaine, then what ...
I’m still standing there processing exactly what kind of threat was inside that envelope that he just magicked away, when the grim look on Lucifer’s face as he glances toward the air vents seems to answer it for me.
Anthrax.
My skin crawls. No.
No. No, no, no.
My head shakes back and forth of its own accord, in denial. Only Lucifer and Gabriel know I’m immortal now. We haven’t told anyone else yet, which means whoever sent this thought I would ...
I swallow.
I can’t even bring myself to think it.
And not just me.
All the waitstaff. The whole building ...
I shudder. Thank God Lucifer was with me.
“Who ... who would do this?” I stammer.
At first, Lucifer doesn’t answer me, but the mixed expression of concern and fury on his features is more than answer enough. “My enemies are now your enemies, Charlotte,” he says slowly.
The color drains from my face, my palms shaking and clammy.
“But I’m safe, right? I ... I thought that now I can’t ...”
“I’m afraid there are other ways to kill an immortal, darling.”