“Got any wine?” Lucifer sighed.
“All right then.” Dee chuckled. “I was thinking coffee or tea, but judging by the way you two look, wine it is.”
“Lucifer.” Daniel came up the stairs. His smile of greeting was as warm as ever but looked a little strained. “Bianca.”
“Raphael is on his way,” Lucifer said.
“Good.” Daniel nodded and rocked back on his heels. “I think we can avoid a full gathering for now.”
Whatever had happened must be bad for Daniel to even consider asking for a full gathering. Oh smashing! More craptastic news.
Lucifer followed Dee into the kitchen. “Any word from Wrath?”
“Yes.” Dee handed a bottle and a corkscrew to Daniel. “Wrath is putting together an army in hell. The other hell princes have turned what’s left of their hordes over to him.”
Lucifer handed her a glass of wine before accepting one for himself. “All of them?”
“Except Belle.” Daniel gave Dee a glass of wine but poured himself water. He caught Bianca looking and grimaced. “I’m on watch while Sophia is on stage.”
Everything she was hearing only confirmed what Bianca must do. She was way, way, waaahay out of her league. Now that she’d made sure Ethan and Emma were safe, she needed to step back into her lane. She had been kidding herself by believing the coven could look after them. They hadn’t been able to look after any of the dead witches.
“Belle refused her army?” Lucifer frowned.
“Not exactly.” Shade joined them. “Wrath wasn’t able to talk to her. She’s surrounded her demesne with some sort of impenetrable mist.”
Lucifer gaped at him. “Why?”
“Who knows why Belle does anything.” Shade shrugged. “Did Dee tell you what happened?”
“We’re waiting for Eddie,” Dee said in a no-nonsense tone and took a seat at the small kitchen table. “I imagine she’ll want to ask Bianca some questions.”
“Right.” Shade gave Bianca a questioning look. “You okay?”
“Fine.”
“Not really,” Lucifer said.
He had no right to answer for her, so she scowled at him. “I’m fine.”
“I beg to differ.” He raised an eyebrow at her.
Dee glanced between them. “Oh-kay. No tension here.”
“Well, this might help.” Daniel bravely stepped into the building friction. “Chris has taken Patty, Lynn, and your sister to a safe house. The guardians are watching them. We also sent out a warning to all other covens we’re aware of.”
“Good.” Bianca was a coward because now she had an excuse not to tell Carmen about Christen right away. But she also had driven off with Raphael and Lucifer and never considered the danger to Carmen. How could she have been so fucking stupid and selfish? It was her job to keep Carmen safe, and she’d gadded off without a second thought. She might have no power to influence all the other crap swirling around, but Carmen was her responsibility. She had been since their mother had brought Carmen home from the hospital. “Can I see them?”
“I’m afraid not.” Daniel grimaced. “But I can get a message to them.”
Letting Carmen know about Christen in a message was wrong, so she shook her head. As much as she wanted to see for herself that Carmen was okay, those dead witches in that abandoned bunker were a visceral reminder of the stakes. “Let them know I’m safe. And thank you for taking care of them.”
“We should take you to join them,” Daniel said.
“Bianca stays with me,” Lucifer snapped.
Staying with Lucifer and getting even more attached to him was the last thing she needed. “No. I mean, I can take care of myself.”
Lucifer growled. “No.”
“What no?” Bianca didn’t understand him. A handful of days ago, he couldn’t wait to get rid of her.
Dee’s eyes glimmered with mischief as she said, “Bianca can stay here. What’s one more person at this stage?”
“We’ll speak about this later.” Lucifer glowered.
“Did you find Christen?” Shade also looked like he was barely containing his laughter. “Carmen said you’d gone looking for him.”
Her news would deal nicely with Shade’s fit of giggles. Bianca took a seat at the table. “We found him all right.”
“And?” Shade looked at Lucifer.
“There was a complication.” Lucifer finished his wine.
“When the fuck isn’t there?” Dee rolled her eyes.
“A surgat demon had gotten to him first,” Lucifer said.
Shade inhaled sharply. “Shit!” His face softened as he turned to her. “I’m sorry, Bianca. That’s a horrible fate for anyone to suffer.”
“It’s fine.” Bianca went for airy but ended up sounding hysterical. “Lucifer ripped his head off.”
Silence bellowed through the kitchen.
“Um…that is…unfortunate.” Daniel looked pained. “But it really is the only way to deal with surgat possession.” He cleared his throat. “Because the…er…thing is that once possession has occurred—”
“Christen was the walking dead.” Bianca spared him the necessity of further explanation. None of this was Daniel’s fault, or even Lucifer’s.
No, the problem here was all her and her stupid desperate need to be valued—loved even. Not that love and Lucifer should ever share a thought bubble. She’d wanted to be needed and loved by her coven as their savior and had dragged them all straight to hell in the process. Christen hadn’t even wanted to summon a hell prince, but she’d insisted. Then she should have stepped back and let Lucifer handle things, but Saint Bianca had taken over and charged in to help. Jesus, her medals for bravery must be in the mail. She needed a subject change. “When is Raphael getting here?”
Lucifer gave her a loaded look. “He just arrived.”
His haglette was doing those human cogitations that invariably led to a load of erroneous conclusions. That she would barely glance in his direction was an excellent indicator that he was tangled up in her in mental meanderings.
Humans! Infuriating species. It boggled him how they’d been gifted the ability to reason, and after all these centuries, still hadn’t developed the knack for it. Setting his haglette straight, however, would have to wait until this meeting was over.
Once Eddie had shut the theatre for the night, they all gathered in the greenroom. The news about Emma was concerning. It also raised more questions. The child had power and plenty of it. Her healing compulsion would need to be monitored. Witches with a healing compulsion had often been driven straight onto a sacrificial stake. In Emma’s case, keeping her on the earth plane may not be the best option.
