“As your boyfriend,” he replies dryly.
“I don’t have much to say to him. He’s lied to me my whole life, left me with my terrible mother. Wasn’t there for Mara, causing her to go bat shit crazy and possess me. And look what a mess he has made with making demons breed on earth. I feel like I don’t know him or want to know him.”
Dax gently pushes my hair behind my ear before his large palm cups my cheek again, and he kisses my forehead.
“I’m not going to lie, Blair. The thought of you sticking up to Lucifer both terrifies me and turns me on.”
I can’t help but to let out a small giggle. “I wonder how fucking the boss’s daughter is going to pan out for you,” I say.
He groans, dragging his other hand over his face. “Don’t remind me.”
“At least things make sense now. I still have a lot of questions.”
“This is why you need to speak with him, if nothing else, to get answers to your questions.”
“Ugh, you’re probably right.”
Part of me wants Dax to try and touch me, bring back that connection that we have physically. The other part of me is scared shitless to be intimate again. I know I told him to stab me, and if he was in my dream last night, he knows I was just watching that over and over. I can’t help fixating on it. I’ve been through Hell and back—literally—in the past few days, and that’s the one event that I just can’t scrub from my mind.
“Hey,” he says, both hands gently holding my face.
“Hey,” I reply in a soft voice.
“I’m not going anywhere. I’m yours, Blair, and you’re mine. Nothing is going to change that. I don’t care if I have to grovel for the rest of my life or if we have to spend eternity learning to trust each other again. It’s worth it. You’re worth it.”
I nod my head and rest my cheek against his chest. I listen to his even breathing as he strokes my back. Not flinching while he touches me is a step. Deep down in the being of my soul, I know Dax would never hurt me, but my heart and brain have a hard time making sense of what happened.
There’s a light tapping of knuckles on the door, and Dax looks to me for confirmation. I nod my head. “Come in,” Dax bellows.
It’s Lilith. I don’t know much about the demon before me, but she seems kind enough. She’s not what you would imagine a demon to look like at all. She looks sweet and like a barbie doll. “Sorry to wake you, but we’re having breakfast in the formal dining room in a half an hour. We were hoping you would join us.”
“We being?” I say.
“Your father, myself, Mara, and the two of you,” she says, her voice steady.
“All right,” I reply. Lilith smiles and spins on her heel, her long blonde ponytail bouncing behind her. She shuts the door, and I groan against Dax’s chest. This breakfast should be awkward at best.
The formal dining room is expansive, it looks like they shortened the dining room table to house six people. My father—the fucking devil—sits at the head of the table. As a child I always saw our resemblance. I knew I was his, not just in looks, but by the way he looked at me affectionately. How could he care so much about me but lie to me and leave me with people who wished me harm?
Mara and Lilith sit across the table. Lilith smiles while Mara looks down as her fork pushes her scrambled egg around the plate.
Dax and I take our seats next to each other. He slides his chair closer to mine so he can place a reassuring hand on my thigh. His thumb rubbing circles, keeping me centered as I look at my father.
“Blair—” my father starts to speak.
“Why lie to me? Why not tell me when I was old enough what I was? Do you know how miserable I was up there? How I didn’t fit in. Did you know my mother and her coven tried to sacrifice me to Mara?” I say, looking pointedly at my half-sister.
“I am really sorry about that, Blair. Now that I’m in my corporeal body, some of my thoughts are a little more clear,” Mara says.
“Oh, like when you took over my body and were going to fuck my boyfriend and move us to an arctic tundra?”
“Yes, that would be a time when I wasn’t thinking clearly. It was confusing for my mind not to have a vessel, and I had Beelzebub in my ear telling me lies.”
“His soul has already been destroyed,” my father says, taking a sip of orange juice. How extremely domestic.
“Why have children at all?” I say, looking at him.
“I know you don’t want to hear this all right now, but I do love you. I would do anything for you and your sister. I thought that by letting you live your life out on earth, I was doing the best thing for you. If people knew I had offspring living in a different dimension, they would see you as my weakness, and I couldn’t allow you to become a target.”
