Eddie kept her voice soft and nonthreatening so as not to startle the little girl. “Emma?”
“I can heal them.” Emma pointed at the television. “I can heal them.” Her high, childlike voice was at odds with the gravity of the statement. “I am here to heal them all.”
“Who, sweetheart, heal who?” Eddie looked at the screen.
A reporter was standing in an overcrowded hospital. The closed caption gave his name and the location as Muldersdrift, South Africa.
The reporter was talking about the outbreak of a virus in the region that had already claimed hundreds of lives. “Authorities are reporting the spread of the virus to surrounding urban areas.” The reporter stared portentously into the camera. “Coming so close on the heels of the COVID pandemic, the World Health Organization is urging—”
“Shit,” Shade whispered.
Eddie looked at him.
“Pestilence,” he said.
“I can heal them.” Emma raised her voice. She held out her small incandescent hands. “See.”
“Emma.” Dee approached the bed. “Those sick people are a long way from here.”
“In Africa.” Emma nodded at the television. “That man said so. You need to take me there.”
“We can’t take you there.” Dee gentled her tone. “It’s too far away.”
“No.” Emma wailed, and tears filled her eyes. “You don’t understand. I have to go there. I have to heal them.”
Dee sat beside her and reached for her.
“NO.” Emma shoved her hands away. “I have to go. I have to.”
Ethan’s lip quivered and he sobbed. “Emma! What’s wrong with Emma?”
Eddie sensed the compulsion before Shade said, “You’re tired. You need to sleep.”
Both children crumpled over fast asleep.
Eddie turned to him. “What the fuck was that?”
“She was getting hysterical, I—”
“Yes, I get that.” Eddie stared at a now not glowing Emma. “What the fuck did Emma mean by that?”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Bianca sat in the passenger seat feeling like she was submerged in water. Sights, sounds, and smells were all distorted and happening in distended time.
On a peripheral level, she was aware of Lucifer doing that time compression and also that she was in shock. Her rational brain questioned why now? Why was she checking out now? She might have pursued that line of reasoning if her growing panic had allowed it.
“Bianca?” Lucifer stopped the car outside the theater. “Haglette?”
“I want to go home.” She stared at the ornate Edwardian fascia of the theatre—red brick, iron scrollwork, cream columns and arches. Somebody had gone to a lot of trouble to build such an elaborate building in out-of-the-way Clayton, Ontario. “Why did you bring me here?”
“We need to check in with Shade and Eddie,” he said.
“Christen’s dead.” Even saying the words felt alien, as if the past few hours had happened to someone else.
He took her hand. “Haglette, I—”
“Don’t call me that.” She snatched her hand away. She needed distance between them. On this crazy journey, she’d forgotten who he was. What he was. Ripping Christen’s head off had been a stark reminder. This was Lucifer. Not a charming television character, or even a grisly horror movie demon, but the Lucifer. The one and only. The prince of hell.
He wasn’t her friend. He wasn’t her teammate in their insane mission. And he definitely wasn’t a being she should even consider getting close to, or kissing, or maybe more. When Christen had broken up with her after a few toxic months together, she’d sworn she would make smarter choices in the future. Boy, had she blown that promise to herself. Not merely blown it but smashed it to smithereens and capered through the debris. Christen had been a mistake. Falling for Lucifer would be more akin to a fucking disaster.
The plan had been so ridiculously simple: summon a hell prince; get him to help them find the missing witches. It had gone wrong from the first moment. She should have come clean to Eddie and asked Shade or Wrath to help her and her coven. A simple request for assistance. But nope! She had to do it her way. Had to shoot for the grand prize of compelling Lucifer to do her bidding. It was laughable how many times in her life that her way had turned into the hardest way. You would think she had learned her lesson by now.
Lucifer walked around the car and opened the door for her. “Raphael will meet us here.”
She hadn’t seen Raphael since she’d climbed into the car outside Christen’s cabin. Not that Christen would have much use for his family cabin now. And she still had to tell Carmen that Christen was dead.
First things first, if they were already at the theatre, she could check on Emma and Ethan. She unraveled her stiff limbs and climbed out of the car. It was like she had aged years since they’d left the cabin.
“Bianca.” Lucifer shoved his hands in his pockets. “I’m sorry you had to see what you did. I know it’s difficult for you to understand why I acted in that manner.”
“It’s not that.” She crossed the parking lot and stopped at the door. The image of Christen being decapitated would haunt her. “Not only that.”
Fathomless eyes hard to read, he studied her.
“It’s all of it.” Unable or perhaps unwilling to get into all her reasons, she opened the door and stepped through. The familiar smell of makeup, sweat, and air conditioning wrapped around her.
Low chatter from the greenroom broke the silence. A stagehand dressed all in black threw her a quick smile before disappearing through the door to stage right. And even now, the show must go on.
Aware of Lucifer behind her, she took the stairs up to the living quarters.
Dee appeared in the kitchen doorway. She tensed when she caught sight of Bianca. “Hi. When did you arrive?”
“Just.” Lucifer took the question for her.
Bianca owed Dee an apology too. She had misled her and withheld the truth. Later she would talk to Dee, but now she doubted her ability to be coherent. “Are Emma and Ethan okay?”
“They’re sleeping.” Dee jerked her head toward a closed door. “Eddie’s running the show tonight, but I know she wants to talk to you.”
Well, with the way her day was going—hell her life—that couldn’t mean anything good. “Did something happen?”
“I’d prefer if Eddie and Shade told you.” Dee’s closed expression gave nothing away.
“But the children are safe?” Bianca had to know that much.
Dee nodded. “Would you like something to drink while you wait?”
