I start to reach for Lucifer’s hand. “After we save Lucas, are you going back to Hell?” I cringe at my words, and my heart thumps away in my chest as desperation claws at me. “I know you don’t want to, but I can’t do this.” I rest my hand on my stomach.
“Someone needs to stay here and help you.”
“Help me?” I echo.
‘Who else is going to keep my brothers and sisters off your trail?”
“True, but I think it would be most helpful to not worry about being Queen of Hell.”
“Maybe, but I’m not ready to go back yet,” Lucifer says, looking almost pained as he admits it.
“Why?” I rush out, brows pinching together.
“Because I’m evil,” he says simply and adjusts the button on his dress shirt. He’s wearing another designer suit like usual, and it would just be weird at this point to see him dressed casually. “It’s who I am.”
“No.” I shake my head. “I don’t think you are. You’re angry and hurt and have been treated unfairly by your family, but that doesn’t make you evil. Julian told me the demons were created from darkness, and darkness is all they know. That’s evil, but you…you were created from light just like the other angels. Evil isn’t who you are. It’s a choice you make.”
He looks at me, expression softening. His eyes, which are usually more gray than blue, look a little clearer. “Your mother thought the same thing.”
“How…how do you know that?”
“Because I loved her, too.”Chapter 21“What?” I blink several times, pushing back the tears that were annoyingly welling in my eyes again.
“That’s a story for another time.” Lucifer extends his hand. “Let’s go.”
“Yes.” I wipe my eyes and pick up Binx, cradling him against my chest.
“Hello, old friend,” Lucifer tells Binx, whose actual name is Oberyth, a powerful spirit.
“You know him?”
“We’ve crossed paths a time or two when dealing with demons. That’s one powerful familiar you have there.”
“I know.” I nuzzle Binx’s head against me, and Lucifer closes his fingers around my hand, and he flies us out of here. Elena does flips in my belly. Maybe Lucas was onto something when he said she likes to go fast. Don’t worry, little girl, we’re going to get your daddy out.
“Good cop, bad cop?” Lucifer asks excitedly.
“Doesn’t that usually work when you’re questioning a suspect, not trying to break an innocent person out of jail?”
“Apparently only with your imagination,” he grumbles.
“Are you sure this is the right police station?” I look at the building.
“It’s the closest one.” Lucifer shrugs. “Let’s go find out.”
I set Binx down, and he trots along next to us. Two officers struggle getting a man in handcuffs out of the back of their car. The guy is yelling and goes to headbutt one of the officers.
“Behave,” Lucifer says, eyes flashing red. The man’s face goes pale, and he stops fighting against the officers. “I do miss bossing people around,” he says, mostly to himself.
I wave my hand in front of us, opening the doors to the police station. It’s busy and loud in here, and Lucifer and I walk right in pretty much unnoticed.
“Excuse me,” Lucifer calls loudly, cupping his hands around his mouth. Several officers stop what they’re doing and look at us and then eye the empty desk at the front of the lobby.
“Can I help you?” a female officer asks, coming up to us. She’s young and must be brand-spanking-new, doing desk duty or something until she’s gotten enough hours under her belt to go out in the field, if that’s how this even works.
“Yes, I’m looking for my husband,” I say, and she eyes Binx. It’s not normal for cats to walk along beside people like well-trained seeing-eye dogs, I know. “Lucas King.”
“Um, okay.” She grabs a clipboard from the desk. “I’m not familiar with the name, but give me one moment.”
“Trust me, you’ll know this one,” Lucifer starts. “He’s a tall, dark, and handsome vampire with an ass you can bounce a quarter off of.” He elbows me. “Am I right?”
I look at him with one eyebrow cocked. “Right.”
“Be a good girl and go fetch him.” Lucifer tips his head to the side, and the officer hesitates for just a second and then smiles.
“Okay. I’ll bring him to you.” She smiles, cheeks turning bright red as she bats her lashes at Lucifer, and then speeds away. Lucifer leans over the counter, picking up a folder from the desk.
“Boring,” he huffs and tosses the folder back down. Phones ring and more people bustle about, and again, we go by pretty much unnoticed. Michael told me people aren’t able to remember seeing him popping in and out, and Easton’s memory of what he looked like faded from his mind not long after he saw both my father and Julian at the wedding. Is Lucifer using some sort of archangel powers to cloak us right now, too?