“Neither do I.” I took my phone back, slipping it in my pocket. “But thank you. This is smart.”
“No problem. Hopefully it doesn’t become useful.”
As Dez walked out, I turned to Zayne. “I can’t believe the angel blades are missing.”
His jaw was still set in a hard line. “Me, neither, but I also don’t see how it could be one of the Wardens.”
Rubbing my temples, I cursed under my breath. “Well, at least we still have Lucifer.” I dropped my hand, twisting toward Jada. “Uh...”
“We know,” Jada responded. “We heard all about you bringing him in.”
“And losing him,” Ty added.
“I wouldn’t say we lost him,” I clarified. “We misplaced him for a short period of time, but we found him.”
Jada shook her head. “If my father found out about Lucifer, he’d definitely flip.”
I was willing to bet Thierry was already flipping out.
My phone dinged from my back pocket. Pulling it out, I quickly read the message. “Hey.” I looked up at Zayne. “Roth says that Lucifer already has someone who may know where Bael is holed up.”
His brows lifted. “Damn. He works fast.”
“That he does.” I shoved my phone back in my pocket. If Lucifer had found someone, we needed to get over there ASAP. I hated to cut and run on Jada and Ty.
“Lucifer,” she whispered, shaking her head again. “I can’t believe you all are working with the Lucifer.”
“Yeah,” Zayne said. “Neither can we, so when this is all over, we’re just going to pretend like it never happened.”
I cracked a grin. “Sounds like a good plan.”
“What...what is he like?” she asked, and then cringed. “I can’t even believe I’m asking that.”
“I don’t think anyone can blame you for being curious.” Zayne smiled at her.
How did one describe Lucifer? “He’s, um, he’s unique.”
Zayne snorted.
“Unique?” Ty repeated.
I nodded. “He’s not what you’d expect and in a way totally what you’d expect from Satan. He’s kind of a mess.” An idea struck me—a way we could find out who it was that Lucifer had wrangled up and spend time with my friends. “Do you all want to meet him?” I offered, hopeful. “You would be safe. Or should be. I mean, he hasn’t seriously threatened us or anything.”
“He hasn’t seriously threatened you guys?” Ty glanced between Zayne and I. “What did he do? Casually threaten you all?”
“We kind of had words,” Zayne explained. “But things are fine now.” He paused. “Sort of.”
“That’s reassuring,” Ty mumbled.
“So? You guys want to come with us? He’s at Roth’s house.”
“The one who is the actual Crown Prince of Hell?” Jada said.
I nodded. “And Layla will be there. She’s part Warden and...yeah, so she’s also Lilith’s daughter. And yes, the Lilith. Also, Cayman may also be there. He’s—”
“Let me guess,” Ty interrupted. “He’s also a demon.”
“Middle management level, basically. Man, we have weird friends,” I said.
“That we do,” Zayne agreed.
I sighed. “Either way, if you guys don’t want to, totally understandable. I can catch up with you all afterward.”
Ty dragged his hand over his head. “Yeah, no offense, but I’m going to have to pass on that and take Dez up on his offer.”
Jada looked over at Ty and then back to me. “This probably has ‘bad life choice’ written all over it, but yeah, I do want to meet him.”
30
Ty wasn’t at all happy about Jada’s choice. He reminded her that her father would lose his ever-loving mind if he found out, which was true. I couldn’t even begin to imagine the rather warranted meltdown Thierry would have, but Jada argued there was no reason for her father to find out. I also agreed with that. Ty tried to put his proverbial foot down, and that didn’t end well for him. They argued. It was awkward, but Jada won out in the end, and Ty was going to have a lot of making up to do later.
“I kind of feel bad,” I said, looking back at Jada as Zayne guided the Impala down the road leading to Roth’s place. “I probably shouldn’t have made the offer to bring you here.”
Jada waved it off. “Ty will get over it. Besides, he really wanted to scope out the city with Dez. I think he has a friend crush on him.”
I started to laugh, but a sudden tingle of awareness forced me back around. We weren’t nearly close enough to Roth’s for me to be picking up on him.
“You feel that?” Zayne asked, and I nodded.
Jada leaned between the two seats as Zayne rounded the bend in the road. “Holy crap,” she breathed. “How many demons did you say lived here?”
My eyes widened as I took in the front yard of the McMansion. There were demons everywhere. Sitting on the steps. Sprawled across the lawn. Lining the driveway. Some of them looked human. They could be Fiends, demons like Cayman who were more like middle management or Upper Level demons. Others were definitely not rocking human skin...or human heads, apparently, because some had two or three.