Chapter 30
Chapter Thirty
R aphael blinked at her and frowned. “I beg your pardon?”
Bianca had hoped he wasn’t going to be difficult, but she’d come prepared before running him to ground in the theatre parking lot. “I need you to take me to hell.” She’d spent a good portion of the night stewing about everything. Trying to sleep on the greenroom couch had been a challenge and left her with too much time for thinking.
Enough time, in fact, for her to acknowledge the embarrassing reality that she’d had a meltdown with Lucifer. In her defense, there had been a lot of violence and death to process. Her feelings and thoughts had jumbled and fixed on Lucifer as the cause.
“I can’t take you to hell.” Raphael folded his arms.
With his shoulders stretching the seams of his pale blue button-down and those molten golden eyes, it was an intimidating look. Unfortunately for Raphael, she had experience. Not only had she seen Raphael’s soft underbelly, but she’d also faced down Lucifer in a temper. “Why not?”
“Mortals are not allowed in hell,” he sputtered.
He was going to have to do better than that. “Eddie went.”
“Eddie is Nephilim.” Raphael glowered.
“But Dee isn’t, and she went.” Bianca had him there, and they both knew it.
Raphael stared around the empty theatre parking lot as if searching for inspiration. The cool, clear morning obviously gave him nothing because he huffed. “No.”
“Then I’ll ask Shade to take me.” It was a bluff, but he didn’t know that.
“Shade is needed here.” Raphael threw an arm out in a silent plea for her to be reasonable.
Bianca had guessed he’d go that direction. “But Wrath isn’t. I could ask Eddie to ask him.”
Loose gravel crunched under his Oxfords as Raphael closed the distance between them. “Be reasonable, woman; there’s a war in hell. Wrath needs to concentrate on that.”
“Exactly!” Bianca snapped the jaws of her trap shut and poked him in the rock-hard chest for good measure. “Everyone else who could take me is busy or needed elsewhere.” She batted her lashes. “Except you.”
He opened and shut his mouth. Then growled at her. “The end of days is upon us. I don’t have time to play cupid with you and Lucifer.”
Her and Lucifer? The combo caused a major flutter in her chest. “This is not about playing cupid.” However delicious the idea. “This is about playing our part in the crisis.”
A sprightly breeze toyed with Raphael’s shirt. “How is that?”
“Lucifer is looking for Ashe.” She pointed to herself. “I have a way of finding him, or, at least getting close to whoever is taking the witches.” Bianca went for the kill shot. “Lucifer promised Emma he would help find her mother. He owes that child.” She layered on the guilt. “That child who has gone through an ordeal no child should suffer.”
Raphael screwed his face up, like a tiger caught in a net. “I cannot go to hell without an invitation.” Inspiration and triumph glinted in his eyes. “Neither of us can go without an invitation.’
She’d already planned for that. If she were dealing with Lucifer, he would have guessed her forethought and been way ahead of her, but Raphael didn’t know her as well. “I know, and I have one.”
“From who?” He squinted at her.
Eddie stepped out of the theatre. “From me.”
Bianca had gotten up early and laid her nighttime rumination before Eddie over a cup of coffee.
Raphael gaped. “You? But…but you can’t…you’re not…”
“A hell prince?” Eddie sauntered toward them.
Shade slipped into the parking lot behind her. “But I am.”
Raphael glared at her accusatively. “You planned this.”
“I did.” And she was proud of her preparations. Laying a hand on Raphael’s arm, she said, “We both know Lucifer is having a massive sulk right now. He picked up his toys and took them home.”
Raphael pursed his lips. “I don’t know if I’d call it a sulk.”
“I would.” Shade chuckled. “Pride comes with those prickly feelings.”
“Regardless,” Eddie cut in. “Leona needs to be found, and Bianca doesn’t stand a chance on her own.”
Raphael frowned and thought it over. His face lit up. “I could help her search.”
“And you should.” Shade clapped him on the back. “But you can’t be on this plane without Lucifer, so you need to take her to fetch him. The three of you working together will shut those fuckers with their amulets down, and the witches will be safe.”
“Argh!” Raphael speared his scalp with his fingers.
“He’s angry with me.” Bianca didn’t enjoy putting her favorite archangel on the spot, but she had to get Lucifer back on the search. “He’s owed an apology, and I’m the only one who can give it.”
“He’s owed a kick up the ass.” Shade scoffed.
Nobody had the right to say rude shit about Lucifer but her. Bianca rounded on Shade. “Hey! You don’t know what went down.” Lucifer had seen all the horrible shit she had and handled it a fuck ton better. “You don’t get to judge.”
Shade’s eyes glowed silver, and he grinned. “Ah! I see now.” His smile sapped the outrage from her. “And you are quite right.” He looked at Raphael. “I think you should get going. Bianca and Lucifer have a lot to…er…cover.”
Eddie threw Shade a hard glance.
Shade smirked at her. “I’m not doing anything. This is all Bianca.”
Bianca didn’t care to decipher his meaning. She concentrated on Raphael. “So, you’ll take me?”
“All right,” Raphael grumbled before his expression grew stern. “But hell is dangerous for mortals. You do exactly what I say, when I say, or you can get Shade to take you.”
“Deal.” First hurdle down. Now she had to persuade her pissed off hell prince to get over himself. No problem.
* * *
Eddie’s stare burned the side of Shade’s face as Raphael trailed unhappily after Bianca into the theatre so she could get what she needed for the trip to hell. “What?”
“Don’t try that innocent act with me.” Eddie wagged her finger at him.
Hells below but he loved how she called him on his shit. He grabbed her finger and nibbled it before sucking away the small hurt. “I did nothing.”
“I felt your lust thing.” Her gaze locked on his mouth. Her pupils dilated, and she grew breathless.
Shade’s answering desire surged through him. “That’s hardly surprising as it’s focused on you all day, every day.”
Screwing her eyes shut, Eddie moaned. “Don’t torture me.”
Each day he made up his mind to find a quiet corner and drag Eddie into it. To finally make her his in every way. But every new day brought a new fucking challenge. Much more of this, and one or both of them would explode. He snagged her waist and pulled her flush to him. “This is torture for both of us.”
Her body fit so perfectly into his, like she was created for him. The brief interlude in the costume room had only whetted his appetite. He’d waited centuries for his mate, and now he couldn’t wait another day to have her.
“There’s always your room at the B&B.” Eddie slid her arms around his neck.
There most certainly was. Emma’s power was bound. Sophia was on guard duty with Dee and Daniel. Shade’s cock throbbed. “Flying or driving?”
“Whatever is faster.” Eddie’s face was flushed, her eyes dazed with answering desire.
“Edme!” Rodney Sykes, board member and financial director for the Paradise Players strode into the parking lot. “I’m glad I caught you. We really need to discuss the number of persons currently residing with you.” Sniffing at Shade, he smoothed his mustache with his thumb and forefinger. “Fire safety regulations govern how many persons are allowed to domicile within the facility.”
“Can you make us invisible?” Eddie stared at Shade.
“Afraid not.” Shade tightened his grip.” But I can make him not want to speak to you.”
Eddie brushed her mouth against his. “Do it.”
Rodney produced his phone and swiped it open. “At last count, I identified two adult females.” He jerked his head at her. “You and Dee. And that is as it should be. But I have also?—”
“You have nothing to say to Eddie.” Gripping Eddie’s hand, he compelled Rodney. “You want to return to the theatre and count the individual squares of toilet paper.”
Eddie giggled. “Driving would be more discreet.”
Shade’s lust power snapped and snarled at its leash, desperate to claim its mate.
They trotted to Eddie’s car.
Wrath’s power signature announced him stepping through the hell gate.
Eddie faltered and then quickened her pace. She yanked open the car door. “Whatever it is, it can wait an hour or two.”
“More like the rest of the day and night.” He would need hours to slake his thirst for Eddie.
“Eddie? Shade?” Sophia’s voice floated across the parking lot. “Wrath is here, and he needs to talk to all of us. He’s called a gathering.”
“Who is Wrath?” Rodney broke the compulsion and stopped abreast of Sophia. “I have no person named Wrath on the volunteer list. Is this another person residing above stairs?”
So close. Shade bumped his forehead against the car roof. So fucking close. He wanted to tell Sophia and Wrath to fuck off and let the world burn.
Eddie screwed up her face and groaned. “Why?”
With the heat coursing through him, Shade could incinerate the world on his own. “We could ignore them all,” he whispered, willing her to say yes.
Eddie wavered and then sighed. “You know we can’t.”
“We could.” There would be consequences, but it would be worth it.
Eddie leaned her forehead against this chest. “You know we can’t.” Her eyes were fever bright as they met his. “Not today we can’t.”
A phone was thrust between them. “Edme.” Rodney huffed. “I insist we discuss this list of persons I have seen apparently resident in the theatre.”
Eddie’s power stirred as she turned to the antiseptic little man. “Go away and do as Shade told you.”
Her power lashed at Rodney and drove him six feet back. He staggered to stay on his feet, then turned and trotted into the theatre.
Sophia watched him go before turning to them with a raised eyebrow. “Not very subtle.”
“He shook off my compulsion when you and Wrath arrived,” Shade said.
Eddie wrestled her power back under control. “He annoys me.”
“Understandably.” Sophia looked genuinely apologetic as she said, “I’m sorry but you both have to come. Wrath has news.”
Shade managed to find a civil tone. “What is it?”
“It’s Belle.” Sophia’s sapphire eyes clouded with worry. “Gabriel dissipated the mist, and they were able to reach her palace. Belle was not there.”
“What?” Sophia had stopped him for this? Belle was notorious for going off on her own. “So what?”
“No, Shade.” Sophia shook her head. “Her seal is nearly fractured, and none of her demons know where she is.” And then she dropped the bomb. “And Gabriel is clueless as to where she is. Belphegor has disappeared.