Page 79 of Knight’s Retribution

He pressed his mouth to her cheek. “Pumpkin, I’m gonna need you to wake up now.”

Kyler muttered and moaned softly, then rolled onto her back. She was soft and warm, her cheeks pink, lips kind of puffy. What he wanted to do was strip down and get in there with her, pull her relaxed, sleeping body against his, and just breathe her in.

“Kyler,” he tried again.

Her lids fluttered, then opened. Her eyes were unfocused for a second and so goddamned cute he wanted to kiss her, then fuck her, then hold her—in that order. But he couldn’t do that either.

“Roc? What’s going on?” she asked, voice husky.

“I need you to get up and get dressed, baby, there are some people here who want to meet you.”

She frowned. “What? Who?”

“Silas is here, and he has two of Lucifer’s handmaids with him…and Lucifer’s here as well.”

She froze and her eyes widened. She shook her head.

“You have nothing to fear from any of them. Lucifer is not like Diemos, not in any way. Forget all the crap you’ve heard during your human life about Lucifer or the devil or any of that horseshit. Zenon and Mia will be there, and Chaos, and Laz and Eve as well.”

“He’s not like Diemos?” she whispered.

“No, baby.” Rocco honestly didn’t know what Lucifer was. But he knew he wouldn’t hurt Kyler. “He’s…unusual, but he’s not here to cause harm.”

Finally, she nodded and climbed out of bed, and Rocco passed her a shirt and some yoga pants. She quickly pulled them on, dragged a brush through her long dark hair, slipped on some shoes, and let Rocco take her hand and lead her out into the hall.

Laz was walking out with Eve at the same time. He had no idea why Lucifer had requested Laz and Eve be there as well, and going by Eve’s confused expression, she felt the same. Roc waited for them to catch up before they headed to the elevator and got in. He noticed Eve taking Kyler’s other hand and thanked whatever higher power chose their mates, for not only giving him Kyler but for choosing the fucking awesome females his brothers were now mated to.

The doors slid open, and they walked into the control room. Zen and Mia were already there, Chaos as well. Lucifer had his ass resting on one of the desks, Mia beside him, while they all looked at his phone. Zenon was watching them, a harried look on his face.

“She’s so cute,” Mia said.

Lucifer grinned. “She sleeps curled up by my head every night.”

Zenon looked skyward and Mia laughed, delighted. Lucifer glanced up when he saw them walk in and gave him a chin lift, then held out his phone. “Mini, my cat,” he said. “She’s honestly the cutest little feline in existence.”

Kyler paused, staring at the true king of Hell, Diemos’s father, his yellow eyes and slicked-back hair, the tattoos covering every inch of visible skin apart from most of his face, then to his phone and the selfie of him smiling wide with a sleek green-eyed black cat perched on his shoulder, smooching his cheek.

Kyler nodded, but she was still frozen.

Lucifer shoved his phone in his back pocket and his expression gentled. “I know you’ve been through some seriously fucked-up shit, sweetheart. Diemos is my son, and I love him, but the kid takes after his batshit crazy mother. The way he was with you, the way he looked, yeah, he never used to be like that, but hatred and anger, greed, it eventually makes you ugly on the outside as well.” He lifted his hands in surrender and shook his head. “Promise, I’m not gonna hurt you, babe, not even a little bit.”

For some reason, she believed him, which was probably why she opened her mouth instead of staying quiet. “He’s so full of anger,” Kyler whispered.

“He told you how much he hates me, then?” Lucifer said.

Lucifer had a hand in making Diemos the monster he was, and despite his flippant tone, there was pain in his eyes. “Just the part about you taking his wings.” As soon as the words were out, she wanted to take them back. Especially when his yellow eyes flashed.

“I didn’t take his wings, Kyler. When he welcomed in the darkness, he pushed out the light. His wings were a gift from Heaven. They disintegrated, slowly rotted away. There was no goodness to sustain them. He blamed me because it was easier than admitting what he’d done to himself.”

“Tobias told us what you did for him. You brought Scarlet back to life,” Roc said.

Lucifer grinned. “Nah, I just stopped her from getting all the way dead. I mean, she was dead, but not dead dead, you know? Anyway, I healed her. I had to take her memories ’cause being down there and knowing what she lost would have fucked with her big-time. You being here, I take it that means she’s got her memory back and T’s with her…along with some nifty new powers?”

“Yeah,” Roc said. “They’re safe for now…”

“In my quarters, yes? I made sure Scarlet would find the key.” He glanced at Roc and Laz, then Chaos. “You have to know by now that I’ve been trying to help you fuckers out?” He looked at Zen, his grandson. “Your grandpa’s been trying to make up for fucking up so bad.”

Zen’s jaw went tight. The grandpa thing was not their volatile brother’s favorite thing. Mia grabbed her mate’s hand, and Lucifer watched, a small smile curling his lips.