Considering what I could remember, I thought that was it.
"I think?" I shrugged. "Who knows?"
"Someone has to have done all this to you two," Michael said. "Lucifer is not acting like himself. I can't believe I didn't see it years ago. He's more likely to be in a seedy bar than a country club."
I sighed. "Now that I remember it all, the way he is here on Earth is amazing, so different than before. He's attentive, loving, and worries about my needs. In Hell, he'd been letting the chaos get to him. Being in charge of all the sinners and tempting the wicked was getting to his head."
"Come sit," Michael said. I settled beside him again and Gabriel grabbed my legs. He slipped off my shoes and rubbed my feet.
"I'm sorry we didn't see it before." Michael wrapped his arms around me. "The job must be getting to him. If this break on Earth doesn't give him the reset he needs, tell us. We'll make sure he gets some Angelic interaction to help combat the stresses of the job."
I sighed and sank into them. "Thank you. It was getting to me."
As long as they didn't do anything drastic until I had the baby, we could figure it out. Once I delivered, we could make sure the baby would be safe or take Turtle back with us, depending on whether he or she came out human or angelic.
Only time would tell.
9
Constance—Lilith
Gabriel stopped in again every day this week when Lucian went to work. Adam came by as well, but not as often, as he had his human job to maintain. I missed him when he didn't come with Gabriel. I'd never been able to spend time with my mates on Earth, not all three. It had always been one at a time.
And never in this lifetime.
Every time Gabriel or Adam was near, they tried to convince me to kill Lucian, but I couldn't get them to understand how I felt about the baby. To them, it was simple. The baby would be born, I'd die and go to Hell, no big deal. They meant well, but they weren't fathers, not yet. They couldn't understand how I could be so attached to a child that wasn't even born yet. I had news for them. We'd been a team for several thousand years, and we'd be a team in this too. Lucian may have fathered this baby as a human, but they'd all be helping me take care of it. Whether that meant finding a surrogate family to raise it or helping me raise it themselves.
If they did something that ended up harming this baby, I'd kill them. With my bare hands. Or maybe use a spoon. A dull spoon.
"Gabe," I said nearly a week later. He'd been hanging out with me all day and spent half the time still trying to convince me to kill Lucian. His pleas fell on deaf ears with me. "You've got to wait for the baby to be born. Full stop."
"Lil." He was growing testy with me. "You don't see how bad it is. The gates are crumbling." He'd said it before, several times.
The Gates of Hell were both physical and metaphysical. They held the realm of Hell closed, and only the Fallen and some of the higher Demons were able to go in and out on their own. A physical gate guarded the entrance to the realm, and the condition of the metaphysical was reflected there.
If Gabriel saw the stones breaking, that didn't bode well for the condition of the realm as a whole.
Demons slipping out was a huge deal. I'd never known a demon to escape Hell without the help of a Fallen or higher Demon. And those higher Demons were closely monitored to ensure they didn't take matters into their own hands and let their lesser Demon counterparts out.
My home in Hell was both inside and outside the gates, positioned so that I could both help Lucifer with the management of the realm as well as have a place to live with all three mates.
"Do what you have to do to shore up the gates." I took his hand. "Use the Fallen and have them add layers of protection to it. We only have weeks to go. Surely, we've waited this long, we can wait a few more weeks." He had to see reason.
Gabriel shook his head. "I'll try, but if it doesn't work, I'm going to have to take him out."
I thought about my handsome, winsome husband. As much as I knew it was necessary, I didn't want to lose him. Lucian was the husband that Lucifer had forgotten how to be. Over the last few centuries, Lucifer had become jaded. He'd gotten into his role as the devil a bit more than I thought healthy. He enjoyed sentencing the dark souls sent to us from the Pearly Gates. "You just hang on until this baby is born if you know what's good for you." I'd argued with him enough. I left no room for argument in my tone.
Gabriel froze and turned his head toward the road, which wasn't too close to our house. We had a long driveway. "Lucian is home."
He pressed a firm kiss to my mouth. "I may be gone a few days," he said. "Trying to deal with the gates without killing your new favorite husband."
I rolled my eyes. "Oh, stop. You've never been jealous before. Don't start now." The guys had always been happy to come home to me. Our jobs meant that all four of us were always busy, always doing something or another, but when Lucifer and I settled down to run Hell, I had a bit more time. I was able to create a schedule for my part of the realm's management and give the guys time and attention as well.
Gabriel gave me several more kisses then disappeared as the garage door opened. I sighed and waddled into the kitchen to greet my husband. It would be nice to get Lucian's memories back. Maybe I could figure out a way to wake his memories so that I could quit sneaking around like a cheater.
Two days later, I walked beside Lucian into our favorite restaurant, an Italian place with the best breadsticks in the world.
Literally. Now that I had all my memories, and they were sticking around thanks to the frequent visits from Michael and Gabriel, I remembered the plethora of restaurants I'd visited over the years. Of them all, I couldn't remember a place with better breadsticks.
