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“What? Three? How? Who?” he stammered.
Nithe looked over at Roth and Athon with a beaming smile. Athon cackled with glee.
“She may be your sister now, D, but mates trump brothers.” Athon stuck out his tongue and put his thumbs in his ears as he wiggled his fingers about.
Gasps and murmurs filled the room. Someone went to speak but stopped abruptly as the doors opened behind them. The shift of power filling the room had both butterflies swirling in her stomach and liquid lead trying to drown them. You’d think when the Devil himself walked into a room it’d get hotter than hell, but no. Instead, Jezzie felt pure ice slide down her spine as chills covered her flesh. Probably not caused by him in actuality, and more to do with how this might all play out. If she were honest, his reaction back at her Uncle’s place had pissed her off more than anything, but now? If he kicked her out she’d either lose Roth and Athon, or the guys would lose their family, their home, possibly their purpose?
Could that be the reason for Roth’s weird attitude? Had someone told him this might all go pear shaped? Was he preparing to say goodbye to her and Nithe already?
She glanced at his face but could detect no real emotion and when she probed along the link and felt the air around him, she found nothing but a solid barrier bouncing her own feelings back at her. How had he learned to do that? And so fast? What even was it?
It appeared, as she shifted her gaze around to watch Lucifer waltz into the room, he hadn’t yet noticed her presence. Perhaps due to the fact both Roth and Athon’s broad backs shielded her from his view. Nithe sensed her thoughts and moved between her and Athon, trying not to draw attention to them and give her a little more time to breathe.
Feet stopped moving on the carpet as Lucifer reached the table, and the air really did shift, finally filling with a fiery ire. As an angry buzzing filled her ears, he rounded on them, his eyes locking in on her, scanning her, noting her company, and her presence. She could almost see the steam come out his ears.
“Luc, take a breath, mate. Don’t go feral.” The green-eyed, shaggy-haired blond guy built like a linebacker shook his head with a sigh.
She’d have to thank him for trying later, if she wasn’t incinerated within the next ten seconds. Not much could kill her, but someone as powerful as Lucifer stood a better chance than anything else. She inhaled deeply and let it out slowly. It was now or never.
“Hi, I’m Jezzie. I?—”
“I don’t give a flying fuck who you are, missy. You need to get your ass out of my fortress, away from my realm, and never cross my path again. Show the lady out, Deus,” Lucifer snarled, his lip curled up angrily.
“But you don’t know me. What the fuck have I ever done to you, Luci?” Jezzie felt rage take over her mouth as the reins on her mixed up emotions slipped her hold.
Lucifer seemed to grow bigger, his shoulders broader, and his skin darkened as he stalked closer, barely leashed menace in every step.
“You stand here, in my home, the very image of the woman I lost, and yet you are not her. Can never be her. Your very presence is a reminder of what I can never have again, and I should let you stay? And it’s Lucifer to you. Or sir. Hades, if you wanna die. My friends call me Luc. My enemies don’t call me. Ever. Only one person ever called me Luci, and she died, then disappeared without a trace,” he said the last part almost breathlessly. Despair filled the narrow space between them. Jezzie felt tears well in her eyes as Nithe and Athon closed ranks beside her, until he snarled his next words and the flames in his eyes snuffed the urge out. “Now, get the fuck out!”
She could see the vein pulse at his temple as the heat of his angry words stung her face. Her anger was greater than his, though she felt his words hit her in the chest. The only thing which held her back was the knowledge she was playing with a full deck, whereas he was not. Twisted pleasure filled her and her lips curled up at the corners as she took half a step toward him. She looked around the room as best she could. Twelve faces watched on warily, bodies poised for action, tension filled the space, she sucked just a little of it in and felt power fill her, giving her strength. Just a smidgen to get her through this.
Jezzie looked back at Roth and Athon and gave them a wan smile as Nithe squeezed her hand and whispered along the link.
They’ll understand.
Athon, trust me I wanted to tell you before, but I couldn’t, I promise. She sent the thought to him as quickly as she could and then shut the link down fast, but not before his utter confusion rippled back at her. She stepped forward, giving herself enough room for her revelation.
“My name is Jezebeth Lucinda Poisson, and I should look like her, asshole, since she’s my mother.” Jezzie’s colorful wings unfurled, her shadows escaped her hold to flow about her in a writhing mass, and her eyes burned with the raging fires of a thousand hells.
“What the fuck!” She had no idea who’d exclaimed the words into the silent void, and she didn’t care. Her entire focus was centered on the man in front of her, her tattered childhood expectations, his utterly frozen expression, and the confusion twisting the slow-moving cogs behind his eyes. Ah, there you go, maybe.
“Yeah . . . Hi, Dad,” she murmured, her eyes locked onto his dark brown, almost black eyes as the room erupted around them. Not that either of them noticed, locked as they were in the moment.
It was the little, old, odd woman from earlier in the hallway who snapped them from their staring contest as she entered the room and bustled about setting up tea and coffee on the sideboard, as if it were an everyday occurrence for the Devil to discover he had a daughter. As far as she knew it could be. Jezzie had never contemplated whether her father had other children before, siblings bound by blood, or what it could mean. Though the way his mouth dropped open, his eyes widened, and his skin paled as he stumbled back was nothing short of utter shock, or maybe terror—she couldn’t get a read on his tumultuous emotions when hers were just as chaotic—told her otherwise. She tucked away her wings and tried to settle her unruly shadows, with very little luck.
“Three, two, one,” the odd old lady counted and everything slowed down.
The one named Deus jumped forward a second too late as her father hit the ground hard. She’d knocked the devil out cold with two little words. Fuck! Everything was about to change . . . again.
Chapter 42
He watched Luc hit the deck, he collapsed as if his bones had turned to jelly. Never had Ramiel seen his friend, the mighty Lucifer, toppled by the words of a female. Not that she was just any female, of course. From all appearances, she was his progeny. One he clearly knew nothing about. Odd, because angels could usually sense their progeny up until adulthood. Something didn’t add up. As the head of the Praesidium it was his job to question oddities such as this. Had the Almighty changed the rules on them? It wouldn’t be the first time they’d been the victims of some multi-Realm reshuffle or game of whimsy. He looked away from his fallen friend and latched his gaze on the girl. He cleared his throat.
“Come here, daughter of Lucifer, if that is who you really are?” his silky tone, like a spider to a fly, dared her to refuse.
“I don’t respond well to orders, mister. Especially not from strange men I don’t know, and whose emotions and intentions are locked away so tightly within the Almighty’s golden cage that is . . . well . . . you. Praesidium, I assume? I mean, you practically scream it,” the sassy chit responded. Though the look in her eyes screamed both concern and forced calm. He had a feeling the concern was not for herself. One of his brows rose in response.
Ramiel noted the movement of her hands as she reached out to both of the males, Nithe and Athon. They quickly stepped to either side of her and took one each. Athon looked back over his shoulder at Roth, but the male looked stunned, oddly defeated, angry, as if his blood were turned to ice as he stepped up to cover her back, almost reluctantly. Jezzie didn’t turn to look at him, but Ramiel noted her visible shudder, the goosebumps on her skin, and the hitch in her breath. Interesting, not all was well in their little lover’s paradise.
