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“Hunter, can you give us a minute?”
He hesitated.
“He could have killed me in hell,” I reminded Hunter. “I don’t think there’s really much risk right now.”
“Even if there was,” Lucifer tagged on, “you wouldn’t be able to stop me.”
Hunter snorted, an entirely disrespectful and dismissive sound.
Lucifer’s gaze hardened. “You doubt me?”
“Doesn’t really matter if I could do anything to you,” Hunter pointed out. “Pretty sure shadow-girl here could put you on your ass herself.”
Lucifer narrowed his eyes, but Hunter turned his back on him as though he mattered little. Hunter pressed his lips to mine—and boy, his kiss was a hell of a claim—before he strolled out of the house.
Lucifer’s gaze followed Hunter. “I’m going to need to put that thing down at some point. He doesn’t seem to understand his place in the world. I once had a wolf creature I found when it was just a pup. I brought it into the palace, expected it to be a faithful guard dog. It worked fine when it was a pup, but it grew larger, bolder and eventually stopped listening, stopped respecting my authority. It thought it could take me.”
“What happened?”
“It couldn’t,” Lucifer said simply. “I believe your hellhound will follow the same suit. They both have the same hardheaded nature.”
I pointed my finger at Lucifer. “I thought we discussed not threatening them.”
Lucifer crossed his arms. “I don’t think I will ever understand your obsession with those four. They’ll be the end of you.”
“Maybe it’s like how you’re still trying to protect Lilith?”
Fire sparked in his eyes, the deep red so similar to what had danced across the landscape in hell. “Careful, Ms. Harlin. I’ve granted you leniency because you are likely to be useful, but do not make the mistake of overstepping my patience.”
The look in his eyes made me want to pull back out of instinct, the same reaction as when a person heard a rattlesnake.
I swallowed it down, though, because I hadn’t called Lucifer to walk away empty-handed. “I can’t blame you forbeing torn. She’s your daughter—anyone in your place would want to protect her.”
Lucifer’s shoulders lowered a hair, the only outward sign that I’d landed a point. He let out a slow breath. “She must be stopped.”
Talk about an understatement.
“So help me stop her.”
“She was my first, the only thing I made with purpose. My other children are only half mine and created by random chance. They are a mixture of genes, just accidents. Lilith, though? I made her in my own image, gave her all I could.”
I stared at him, even as his gaze was locked on a far wall. It was easy to think of Lucifer as unfeeling, but that wasn’t true, was it? It was written in his expression, and even if it wasn’t obvious, even though he didn’t wear it on his sleeve, that he was hurting.
I’d never had children, didn’t know if it was even possible—certainly not with the men of my life at the moment. Parental love was a foreign concept to me, something I’d never understood or really seen up close.
At least, other than Gran, and that hadn’t turned out all that well for her.
Still, in that moment, I saw it from Lucifer. Lilith might be horrible, might have betrayed him, might be trying to destroy the world, but she was still his child.
And how depressing was it that the devil made a better parent than my own had been?
“I need to stop her,” I said, softening my voice. “You can’t ignore this just because it’s her, because you don’t want to deal with it.”
“She didn’t used to be like this,” he whispered back. “She was never a child, but when she was new, she was different—lighter, happier. After Adam rejected her, she hardened. It is never easy when one’s children suffer, when there is no way to fix what is wrong. I have so much power, yet I have no recourse. I have tried for so many centuries to help her. Perhaps…” He let out a sigh. “Perhaps I failed her.”
“I can’t give you parenting advice. There’s a reason I haven’t popped out any kids…” I let that statement hang, unwilling to go into my Daddy and Mommy issues with the devil. “But this isn’t about just your child. This is about everyone’s kids. If we don’t stop Lilith, she’s going to tear everything apart.”
“And? What do I care about mortals? Maybe tearing apart the status quo could be worth it?”
