There was an energy to the twitchy man similar to what I’d expect of someone who’d helped themselves to the entire coffee pot in the back. That or it was just his personality. He had wiry brown hair that stuck out from under his chef’s hat and a long, hard nose with thin lips. He was handsome in a gangly sort of way.
“Ah, Jessica. This is Cerberus. My personal chef.”
“Cerberus?” I tried the name out on my tongue, weighing it. I wasn’t an expert on Greek mythology, but pretty much everyone knew the name Cerberus. Still, there was no way this man had any resemblance whatsoever to the three-headed hound said to guard Hell.
Lucifer grinned. “Cerberus is a shifter, his true form being a three-headed hound, and as it so happens, he once guarded the Third Circle of Hell. But he’s more akin to a Labrador than a terrifying hell beast, so he wasn’t so good at the guarding part. Once I took up the throne, I pulled him from the Third Circle and put him to work on the Second. A more suitable position there, wouldn’t you say, Cerb?”
“Oh yes, Sir!” Cerberus beamed with nothing but genuineness.
A moment of awkward silence settled between the three of us as I gapped stupidly at Cerberus. This was a whole shit ton of information to unload in itself, with Heaven and Hell being real, not to mention the devil wanting to own my heart for whatever diabolical reason. Now I was meeting the three-headed hound of the Third Circle of Hell? And he was going to serve me dinner?
Sensing my retreat into my rioting nerves, Lucifer cleared his throat and took the bottle of wine from Cerberus, who began wringing his hangs with giddy excitement.
“Cerb here has prepared a nine-course tasting menu tonight, each dish representing a level of our home. You’ll find his cooking to be no short of exquisitely divine, as close as the damned can get to Paradise while living a life steeped in sin. You’ll find his dishes will take you as close to the nine circles as possible without a literal portal.”
I tensed. “Um. I’m not sure Iwantto be transported to Hell.”
A small, almost secret smile touched his lips. It warmed me for reasons I couldn’t name. “Oh, but Hell is a fantastic place, Jessica. We only have one rule. Don’t be a dick. Although that doesn’t apply to Nazis, Catholic priests with a sexual inclination for choir boys, and people who microwave fish in communal microwaves.”
He uncorked the bottle with a pop and a hiss and poured me a glass of red wine, the burgundy liquid bubbling as it settled into the crystal.
“I thought this might be a pleasant way for you to learn of my home and me.”
Cerberus gave me an overly enthused nod as he took the bottle from Lucifer. “This is the first dish representing the First Circle of Hell, Limbo.”
I smothered a chuckle. “Wine is the first dish?”
“Oh yes, My Lady. You’ll find its strong flavor has a life of its own. When our king took up the throne from the archdemon Abaddon, he converted Limbo into a wine cellar. This bottle is a significant vintage, the same year our king concluded his renovation of Hell and left for the surface to seek out—”
“Er— That’s enough, Cerberus.” Lucifer cleared his throat and waved the chef off. With an awkward bow, the hound made his hasty retreat back to the kitchen.
I stared at the dark liquid in my glass with slack-jawed awe, trying to digest what any normal person would have excused as impossible.
Lucifer smiled at me over his glass. “You’re anything but normal, Jessica.”
“Are you going to do that all night?” I sighed. “This is weird enough for me as it is without you rooting around in my head.”
“I’m sorry.” His apology caught me off guard, and I would have mistaken it as genuine if it weren’t for his rueful smile affixed to his lips.
A lump formed in my throat as I dropped my attention back to the wine. Whenever he looked at me, it was like he could see so deep inside me that I was sure there were parts of my being exposed to him even I didn’t know about. I took another hasty sip of wine and nodded to it, eager to break the strange, blistering tension.
“So wine from Limbo, huh?”
His lips curved in a way that made the gold of his eyes light up with memories. He took a sip of the wine and let out an airy sigh. “That’s nostalgic.”
“Is it true what Cerberus said? That you came to the surface all the way back then? I thought you just came to Seattle.”
“To Seattle, yes. But I’ve been on the surface much longer than that. I’ve been more discreet about who I am and my origins up until now. I don’t believe the celestials knew I’ve been up top for this long. I’ve done well flying under the radar until now.”
“What’s changed?”
“I’m coming close to what I’ve been looking for.”
My eyebrows rose with curiosity. “And that is?”
His smile slipped some. “We’ll get to that in time, Jessica. Let’s enjoy the meal for now.”
I pinched the crystal glass by the stem and took a sip of the Limbo wine. I’d had a lot of wine in my day. But this taste was unlike anything I’d ever experienced before. Which was to be expected from ancient wine, seeing as most of the wine I’d consumed in college was from a box.
