Chapter 26
Chapter Twenty-Six
B ianca nursed her hangover along with a serious case of regret all through the next day. Relegated again to the backseat, she was happy to stay there.
Lucifer had almost kissed her last night, and she’d been happy to let him. If Raphael hadn’t woken up, she had no idea how last night would have ended. That was a rotten lie. She had a few interesting fantasies about where last night could have ended.
The most troubling thing was trying to decide if her morning after regrets were more that it had nearly happened or that they’d been interrupted before it could.
Lucifer had gone straight into business-as-usual. A brief argument had ended in Raphael on the couch and Lucifer in the bed beside hers.
This morning, he’d been back to his usual annoying self, and they’d gotten on the road. If he could pretend nothing had happened, then so could she.
And she’d been doing a great job until hours on the road had allowed her mind to wander.
Raphael looked back at her. “You okay back there? Hungry?”
Even the idea of eating made her stomach roil. “Not hungry, no.”
“Bianca is regretting her actions last night,” Lucifer drawled.
Bianca nearly choked on her spit.
“Drinking.” Lucifer’s eyes gleamed a challenge at her through the rearview mirror. “Honestly, I don’t know why you humans do it, when it only leads to misery.”
She wasn’t going to take that lying down, or stretched out, so she sat up. “There’s a lot about humans you don’t understand.”
“She makes a good point.” Raphael chuckled. Then he fidgeted in his seat and pouted. “How much longer?”
“About another hour or so,” Lucifer said.
“Ugh!” Raphael dropped his head back against the rest. “Wings are so much better than cars.”
Bianca was certain they absolutely would be.
“Next time, I shall carry Bianca as I fly.” Raphael grinned at her.
“No,” Lucifer snapped. “If Bianca flies with anyone, it will be me.”
Raphael gaped at him.
Bianca did some gaping of her own. Did he like her? No, she was putting the facts together all wrong. Okay, he’d been about to kiss her last night, but he was Lucifer. He probably went around kissing other people all the time. Looking the way he did, with the sexy growly thing, and the unmistakable air of power about him, people were probably lining up to be kissed by him.
“Didn’t you lecture me yesterday about being too conspicuous with humans?” Lucifer glanced at Raphael. “I’m sure none of them would notice a winged man whipping above their heads with a screaming woman in his arms.”
“Hey, now.” The woman in question needed to defend her honor. “What makes you think I would be screaming?”
“Fine.” Raphael crossed his arms. “You could, at least, let me drive.”
“No.”
“Excuse me.” Bianca wanted to make sure they understood her. “I’ll have you know I am not a screamer.”
Lucifer’s gaze met hers, and his eyes blazed. “That remains to be seen.”
Bianca had no response to that and subsided into a squirming silence.
She must have dropped off, because she woke to the changing sound beneath the tires. They’d turned off the main road and were driving down a tree-lined lane only wide enough for one car. Branches scraped the side of her car and made her wince. Twilight had fallen, and the looming trees surrounded the car in a creepy gloom. “We’re there?”
“Yes.” Lucifer stopped the car in the abandoned lane. “If he is here, I want you to wait in the car and let us handle this.”
Aaand Lucifer’s control freak was on the rampage again. “Yeah, no.”
“You are safe in the car.” Lucifer turned around and gave her a stern look.
He should know better than to think that would work on her. “I’ll be perfectly safe coming with you. This is Christen we’re talking about.” She gave him a smirk. “Unless you’re afraid of Weaz-adj?”
“I’m not arguing with you.” Lucifer jaw muscle ticked.
“No, you’re not.” Bianca raised her chin and scowled back. “And I’m not waiting in the car like some quivering damsel.”
Raphael hummed an agreement. “She doesn’t really seem like the quivering damsel type.”
Lucifer kept glaring at her.
Bianca kept glaring right back.
“Fine,” Lucifer snapped and put the car back in drive. “But if you get hurt, I’m adding it to the list of shit you need to atone for.”
That list was so long already. “No problem.”
* * *
Lucifer focused on the lone lighted window in the ramshackle cabin. Although cabin was too romantic a description for the rundown clapboard house at the edge of the lake. Someone had attempted to cheer it up by painting the exterior a jaunty blue. They should have saved the paint because it only made the dwelling look even more depressed.
“What’s the plan?” Raphael’s voice was low, his gaze fixed on the cabin.
“No plan.” Lucifer parked the car. “I find Christen. I ask him once nicely for the grimoire. If he refuses, I beat the crap out of him until he tells me.”
“Old school.” Raphael nodded his approval. “Simple and effective.”
Bianca made a soft noise of protest. Whether it was for Christen or the situation, he chose not to ask. He wished she would do as he asked for once and stay in the car. Things were about to get ugly, and he’d rather she not see that side of him.
What was he thinking? It shouldn’t matter to him what a witch thought of him. Increasingly, however, it seemed that it did. All day, he’d sensed her fretting over what had nearly happened between them. That he wanted to reassure her baffled him.
A silhouette crossed the lighted window. Weaz-adj was here and Lucifer’s hunting instinct stirred.
It was almost completely dark, and the lake was an inky smear in the distance.
He had to try to reason with Bianca one more time. “Are you sure you won’t stay in the car?”
She made a face at him.
Stubborn bloody woman.
Lucifer climbed out of the car and Raphael flanked him as they walked the overgrown path to the cabin. Loud music poured through the cabin’s thin walls and provided an explanation why the sound of a car approaching hadn’t drawn Christen out of the cabin.
Along with his myriad faults Weaz-adj also had horrible taste in music.
They climbed the two rickety steps to the front door. The porch protested loudly about their weight on its rotting boards.
“Let me knock,” Bianca whispered. “If he sees you two, he might panic and run.”
Panicking sounded about right to Lucifer, and even if Weaz-adj did run, he couldn’t go fast enough or far enough to escape the lesson heading his way.
Bianca’s gaze met his, imploring him. “I might be able to persuade him to give me the grimoire.”
He hated her looking at him like that, but most of all he hated that he caved like a faulty mineshaft. “All right, but you have two minutes before we take over.”
“I commend you for sticking to your guns,” Raphael murmured.
Bloody archangel could fuck right off.
Bianca knocked.
There was a pause, and then the music volume lowered. The door muffled Christen’s voice. “Who is it?”
Blood lust surged through Lucifer.
“Christen,” Bianca called. “It’s me. It’s Bianca.”
“Bianca?” The music snapped off. “What are you doing here?”
One and a half minutes down. Lucifer raised his brow at Bianca, letting her know time was ticking down.
“You know why I’m here,” Bianca spoke to the door. “Now open up and let me in.”
A floorboard creaked inside.
Raphael rolled his eyes.
“No,” Weaz-adj said. “You shouldn’t even be here. In fact, I don’t know how you found me.”
“That’s not important.” Annoyance laced Bianca’s tone. “Now please open the door.”
“Go away, Bianca.” Weaz-adj gave the wrong answer—for him.
Lucifer relished Weaz-adj’s reply, because it meant they would do things his way.
Bianca pounded on the door. “I’ve come for the grimoire, Christen, and I’m not leaving without it.”
“What grimoire?” Christen blustered.
“Time’s up,” Lucifer said and blew the door off its hinges. He stalked into a living room filled with shabby, mismatched furniture and one cowering asshole. “Surprise.”
Weaz-adj shrieked and bolted through one of the two doors leading off the living room.
Oh, goodie! Lucifer loved it when they ran.
“I’ll go around.” Raphael loosed his wings as he ran.
Lucifer shattered the door with a quick fist swipe.
Weaz-adj whipped his head round and gaped at them. He was halfway through a window, one skinny leg still dangling over the sill. He heaved himself through and landed with some breaking brush and a thump.
Even knowing it was pointless, Lucifer said to Bianca, “Stay here.”
He dove through the window after Weaz-adj.
Raphael took to the air and hovered above a fleeing Christen.
And then things went awry.
A red film dropped over Weaz-adj’s eyes, and he shot toward the forest, his shape nothing but a white blur. No human moved that fast.
Raphael threw him a loaded glance before setting off in pursuit. Yes, indeed, this was not at all good.
Lucifer released his wings and joined the hunt.
Weaz-adj disappeared in the woods.
Cursing, Lucifer furled his wings and legged it.
Raphael dropped back to earth and wove through the trees and brush beside him. They sensed their prey up ahead and closed on him.
Weaz-adj broke through the trees onto the road.
Raphael launched himself skyward and got ahead of Weaz-adj.
Weaz-adj stopped and glanced from Lucifer to Raphael. His eyes glowed lambent crimson, and his features contorted into a mask of hatred.
Apparently, Christen had left the building—or body, in this case.
“Name yourself.” Lucifer locked his compulsion on the demon.
The demon squirmed “You know who I am.”
“It smells of Wrath.” Raphael growled and curled his lip. “And something else.”
It was the something else that interested Lucifer most.
“Fuck.” Raphael grimaced. “What the fuck is that?”
“Rebel horde.” Lucifer stalked closer. “And it looks like they’re trying their hand at possession.”
“You can’t win.” Weaz-adj bared his teeth. “We are everywhere. The master’s power knows no limits.”
“Fascinating.” Demons had an overinflated sense of who they were. “Let’s talk about your master.”
Weaz-adj licked his lips, gaze swiveling between Raphael and Lucifer. “The master is all powerful. He will free us from oppression. Heaven, hell, and earth will all be ours.”
Lucifer yawned.
“Sorry to ruin your evil monologuing,” Raphael drawled. “But if your master brings about the end of days, we all go bye-bye.”
The demon laughed. “That’s what you think, but you know nothing.”
Raphael shot Lucifer a glance. Lucifer shook his head. He hadn’t been expecting that either.
“I tell you what.” Lucifer drew closer to the demon formerly known as Christen. The corporeal body hadn’t started to rot yet, so the possession was recent. “You tell me where Ashe is and give me the grimoire, and I’ll let you leave this body and escape.”
“How about I take the witch instead?” The demon smirked.
And with vile timing, Bianca crashed into the clearing. “Christen?”
“It’s not Christen anymore.” Without taking his eyes from the demon, Lucifer moved to stand between it and Bianca. The moment a demon possessed a human, their soul was released, and the physical body started to die. The idea of that happening to Bianca caused gelid terror to creep up his spine.
The demon’s tongue flicked, tasting the air. “Witch,” it purred. “The master likes witches, all the witches.” Its high-pitched giggle grated on Lucifer’s ears, and speeded up the demise of his rapidly receding good humor.
“He wants the witch child, but this one is powerful too.” The demon took a step nearer.
Her features frozen in horror, Bianca stared at the demon.
“Lucifer,” Raphael said.
He didn’t need Raphael’s warning. They couldn’t let that thing near Bianca.
Lucifer lunged and grabbed the demon by the neck. With a sharp twist and a crack, he ripped the head off its neck in an arc spray of blood.
Bianca wretched.
But Lucifer could afford no distraction. Reaching inside the neck cavity, he latched onto the surgat demon and yanked it out.
Raphael was there with his heaven wrought sword and plunged it through the thing’s neck.
Lucifer ripped out its heart and crushed it in his fist.
The surgat disintegrated into dust.
“Bianca?” Raphael softened his tone and approached her, arms spread, and palms raised. “It’s okay. It’s over.”
“No.” Bianca stared at Christen’s decapitated body, swallowing hard. “He’s dead. You killed him.”
The unadulterated revulsion on her face tugged at the deepest part of Lucifer. He wanted to take it all away. Take away the murdered witches, the rage demon, the surgat, Christen’s corpse.
“Haglette.” He ached to hold her and soothe her. “We didn’t kill Christen. That wasn’t Christen anymore.” He edged closer to her. “It’s over, darling.”
“No.” The word was torn from the depth of her. “It will never be over.”
By heaven, she had been so strong through every part of their journey. Fearlessly, she had faced terror, gore, and danger, and laughed in its face.
He had forgotten she was merely human. Just a woman propelled by a necessity she had no part in creating into extraordinary circumstances.
Moonlight glinted on the tears tracking down her face.
Lucifer reached out to wipe them away.
“No.” She reared back from him. “Don’t touch me.” As an afterthought, she whispered, “Please.”
“She’s in shock,” Raphael murmured.
In all his millions of years of existence, Lucifer had never felt so helpless.
“Take me home,” Bianca said in an awful little wooden voice.
“Go.” Raphael prodded him toward Bianca. “I will take care of this.”
“Of course.” Lucifer motioned for Bianca to precede him. “I’ll take you home now.”
He had to fix this—fucking fix her—his wonderful, clever, brave, beautiful haglette.