“You’re lying,” he said.
“You don’t know that.”
“Yes, I do.”
“How?” Damnit, he was sharp. “Why do you think I’m lying?”
“Because your lips are moving.”
It took a hot minute for his insult to sink it. “You know what?” Retreat to fight another day. Any more time with him, and she’d start begging and blubbering. Eddie hadn’t mentioned how intimidating these hell princes were when you were up close and personal with them. Not that Eddie spoke to her, but if she had, she might have mentioned it. Bianca stood and gathered the tatters of her dignity around her. “I’m not going to sit here and trade insults with you. I’m tired, and you’re being unreasonable.”
He tracked her as she took the glasses back to the kitchen. “Where are you going?”
“To bed.” She rinsed the glasses and put them in her ancient dishwasher. The thing was almost as old as Lucifer and just as unpredictable. She yawned and made like she had every intention of trotting to bed and drifting into dreamland with a pissed off hell prince plotting and fuming in her living room.
He growled. “You’re not leaving me like this.”
“Yes, I am.” She wiped her hands slowly and methodically on a dishtowel. “I don’t see that I have a choice.” Keeping her movements calm and controlled despite her jack rabbiting pulse, she wiped the counters. “Thanks to your history lesson, you’ve let me know in no uncertain terms what will happen if I unbind you.” She shrugged and met his scowl. “So, I’m going to give that a pass. I’m sure you understand.”
“Haglette.” He snarled. “I’ll kill you if you don’t release me.”
“Yeah.” She made a regretful face, and what had he called her? “Either way, you kill me. So I’m going to take my chances on the amulet.” She stopped walking as she drew level with the sofa. “By the way, this killing me if I release you and killing me if I don’t is not the compelling argument you think it is.”
Keeping it at a stroll, she made it into her bedroom. Her legs were shaking so badly, she had to perch on the edge of her bed as soon as she was out of sight.
“Witch!” Lucifer bellowed. “Hag!”
Faking it until she made it, Bianca unlaced her boots and slipped them off. Her tired, hot feet gave a throb of relief. She padded through to her attached bathroom and turned the shower on. As the water heated, moist steam filled the bathroom. As much as she’d love to wash the grime off and let the hot water soothe her tense muscles, she wasn’t actually going to take a shower and put herself in such a vulnerable position. But Lucifer didn’t know that. What he also didn’t know is that she had no idea how long the amulet would hold him. None of the coven did, and the grimoire had been short on detail. The plan had always been to bind him with the amulet for as long as it took to get a blood oath out of him. A blood oath would hold him forever. She’d planned to explain and get him to agree to help but that had gone out the window. Bluffing it would have to be.
“Bianca!” He roared.
She brushed her teeth as the shower ran. When she judged she’d left the water going long enough, she turned it off and changed into trackpants and a T-shirt. It was a relief to wash the makeup off her face, although it might not be the best strategic move. Without her thick cat’s-eye eyeliner and signature scarlet lips, her face looked younger and more vulnerable. This was the version of herself she kept carefully hidden from others. Those who saw you as weaker were quick to take advantage. It was a picture she’d like to have kept away from the hell prince in her living room. Then again, he already saw her as lower than shark shit, so not much to lose there.
Those other witches—the dead ones—had summoned him because they all wanted something from him. That was the only thing they had in common. She wanted her friends safe and the missing witches found. If her coven could have managed it themselves, they would have done so.
But nobody else was listening, and if she and Patty were right, what they were dealing with was way outside the RCMP’s jurisdiction. No, they needed supernatural powers—a hell prince. So they’d summoned one. Now, she had to be smart enough to get him to play on their team.
“Bianca.” His tone had softened. “I will allow you to tell me more.”
A small bubble of hope floated in her chest, but she forced herself to stay silent and let him simmer before she replied. “I’m tired. We can talk in the morning.”
“Fuck!” He exploded, his voice echoing through her small home. “I will fucking—”
Even from the next room, she heard the deep draw of the calming breath he took.
Like a cheap cut of meat, he needed to stew a bit longer to soften him up.
Throwing back her covers, she rolled hard enough to get a decent bed spring creak.
“I need a piss,” he called.
That might get messy, if she believed him.
“Oh, dear,” she called back. “Patty’s gone home. Good night.”
She prayed for her upholstery’s sake that she’d read him right.
From the little she’d seen of Shade and Wrath, they seemed to have human biological functions. Not that she’d followed either hell prince to the bathroom to verify that particular detail. Come to think on it, she hadn’t seen either of those two eat. Maybe they didn’t have human biological functions. Then again, Lucifer had drunk her wine.
He might really need to pee.
She was about to get up and find out, when he spoke again. “I’m calm now. Let’s talk.”
Giving it a hefty pause, she eventually said, “Are you calm?”
“Yes.” He sounded like he’d forced the word out through a clenched jaw. Given that she had summoned and then abducted him, she could cut him a bit of slack. That would be galling for any powerful being, and doubly so for the hell prince who embodied pride. “I’ll be out in a minute.”
Climbing out of bed, she drew a couple of bracing breaths. Strategy. It was all about clever strategy.
“Any more wine?” Lucifer asked.
At this stage, she might handle him better when she was drunk. “Yup.”
“Good.”
When she walked into the living room, he was still where she’d left him, propped up on the sofa. Of course he was, she’d near enough paralyzed him in place. The look in his eyes had downgraded from imminent incineration to carefully blank. The latter scared her more. “Do you need the bathroom?”
“No.” He smirked. “Keen to get a good grope like Patty?”
“No.”
He studied her as if she’d surprised him. Then he nodded. “You will be. All the witches are.”
Rather than smack him, she fetched more wine and filled his glass before taking a seat in the armchair across from him.
“Tell me about your missing coven members,” he said.
If they were going to talk, she needed to get her head straight. “Let me get you a shirt.”
Chapter Seven
With Lucifer’s immaculately sculpted torso covered, Bianca took a seat and got into it. “Right then.” After smirking about her covering him up and giving the sweatshirt a look of unadulterated horror, Lucifer was listening—or pretending to.
“It started a couple of months back,” she said. Months in which nobody had noticed anything amiss. “At first, we didn’t think anything of coven members being gone. One went to visit her daughter; another went on vacation. That sort of thing.”
“And they didn’t?” He sat back and sipped his wine. He did good listening face.
