“If I failed Prince Beelzebub in obtaining the correct information, I must end my existence.” Brok then dropped his head.
“Wait, wait. There’ll be no falling on the sword or suicide pacts. Let’s go find Asmodeus and end this bullshit.” I liked Brok and Er’on, and I was sure if Brok ended his existence, Er’on would do the same. They were good demons—if that was a thing—and because Asmodeus was hiding the fact he was Vagar’s father, they shouldn’t be blamed.
In my gut I knew we were right about Asmodeus, and I’d go even further to say that he was working side by side with Nyx to attempt a coup. How we’d solve that problem was a question for another time. But if we could establish that Asmodeus was indeed Vagar’s father, we could take that information to Lucifer and convince the Ruler of Hell that his own son was plotting against him.
Before I could say anything more to put Brok at ease, there was a quick knock on the front door before it flew open. Beelz stared at us before he laughed. “You’re good to your word. Clothes on. No dicks hanging out. So, you thought you’d summon a prince of Hell? To what means?”
Beelz stepped inside, carrying a walking stick with a diamond on top that would choke a horse. And with him was the Mistress of Hell, Lilith. Brok dropped to his knees in front of them, and Er’on did the same, bending forward and putting their head onthe floor. It was a little dramatic for my tastes, but to each his own.
“They do that every time?” Lilith said exactly what I was thinking, and the smirk on her face matched mine.
“One of the many benefits of being me, my dear. So...” Beelz looked at me and raised an eyebrow. I bowed to him and when I stood, the prince picked me up in a bear hug. I was sure my ribs would’ve been broken if I were still human.
“Prince.” Scotty bowed his head a bit, which was more than he’d done when we met Lycus.
“Alba Protectoris. It’s good to see you survived the bonding process. Now, I’m looking forward to going home, so what’s so urgent?” Beelz walked over to the couch and took a seat, uninvited. It wasn’t really a surprise.
Lilith sat in a chair next to the couch. Er’on closed the front door and sat on the floor while Brok stood guard behind Beelz. At least he wasn’t hanging his head in shame.
“Your nephew is dead. An Arch ripped him in half and ate him. He possessed an innocent human at the direction of—”
Beelz held up his hand. “I heard this through the grapevine.”
It was my turn to lift an eyebrow in his direction. “Grapevine?”
“Michael told me. Do we know which of my brothers did the deed?”
I gave a sigh of relief that we weren’t the ones delivering the message. “Did you know about Vagar?”
Beelz kicked off his ugly rubber clogs and put his feet up on my coffee table, leaning against the back of the couch with his hands clasped behind his head. “No. I missed out on the good news, as did my father. When I told him about the demon child, he wasn’t happy. We aren’t supposed to reproduce.”
That was interesting. “We, like all of us?” Not that I worried about getting Scotty pregnant. I was usually the one riding his joystick.
“No. Just the princes. The Ruler of Hell is allowed to create more sons and daughters, but we aren’t. It creates jealousy among the offspring. My brothers and I can father children, but it’s a big no-no as far as Dad’s concerned. Who broke the rules?”
“May I speak, prince?” Scotty asked.
I glanced at Brok to see him staring in our direction with concern. I offered a covert wink of reassurance that we wouldn’t do anything stupid.
“By all means.” Beelz held out his hand in invitation for Scotty to share his thoughts.
Scotty cleared his throat. “Prince, we haven’t been able to confirm it, so we’d prefer not to make the accusation at this point. We’d like to try to find the bound witch who cast the spell and have him confirm the father is who we believe him to be.”
Beelz nodded. “Smart. Brok, generate a hellhound to go with them. He can report to us daily.”
Brok closed his eyes. His body shook violently until it split in half, and there we were with two Broks. It was the weirdest fucking thing I’d ever seen, and I’d seen some shit in Hades—like Brok’s mother, the three-headed dog.
Lilith stood and stepped over to Scotty. “I’d like to be kept in the loop on this as well, Scott. We’ve declared our loyalty to the Council in this one instance, but if we find out this is a ploy on their part to interfere with how things are handled in the underworld, all bets are off, and things will get quite messy. I’m sure you can imagine how we’d react to being tricked by the Council again.”
It sounded like a threat and that had me enraged in a nanosecond. “If it’s a power play, Scotty had nothing to do with it. You know everything we know, Lilith. Are you still with Quinn? Is Adonis still protecting Keir? It would be terrible if something happened to either of them in all the confusion, wouldn’t it?”
“Jay, it’s okay. Lilith has a right to be worried. Sometimes the Council doesn’t play fair with her kind. I’d be skeptical too.” Scotty then looked at her. “If I find anything suspicious during our search for the witch, you’ll be the second to know. Jophiel will be the first.”
Lilith gave him a smile and turned to Beelz. “I need to get back to work. Trent and Amelie are going to San Francisco for a few days, and I’m minding the store. Call me.” She then went through the house and out the deck door, taking to the sky.
I turned back to Beelz. “How’d you two end up spending time with each other today?”
The prince of Hell chuckled, playing with the large diamond-encrusted pendant on a thick gold chain around his neck. “Given her history with Daddy, we may seem like unlikely confidantes, Lilith and me, but we have the same goal—keep the balance between Heaven and Hell and keep the Human Realm safe from Nyx. Just because Lilith was my father’s mistress, doesn’t make her less of an ally.”
