Following my directions he faced the window and let out a breath we both seemed to be holding. "Wow. It's gorgeous."
"Are they supposed to be that big?"
Lucian shook his head. "I don't think so. I went through a bird phase in middle school."
I interrupted him. "I remember." He'd driven me crazy with books about birds. He wanted to go bird watching. I'd taken my romance novels and read while he sat for hours looking for birds.
"Well, that looks like a Great Horned Owl. They're supposed to get to maybe two feet. This thing is three times that."
I tried to judge how tall it was as it sat on the railing and he was right. Its head nearly went to the top of the porch. Another two feet and it would brush the ceiling.
"Its eyes are too aware," I whispered. "It's freaking me out."
"Yeah, I see what you mean." Both of us stared at it for several long moments. "That thing is clearly a barn owl. I'm sure of it. But it's size is alarming."
"Could it break that window?" Suddenly I was more than freaked out. If it got inside, it could cause serious damage to the house and us.
"I don't see why it would. It has no reason to want to come inside." His words were reasonable, but his tone was worried.
"It has no reason to sit on the porch and fucking stare at us through the window either," I said in a squeaky voice. "But there it is."
"Okay." Lucian sucked in a deep breath. "We should move."
"Where? Toward it, or into a room with no windows?" I laughed, but I wasn't kidding.
"Um." He turned his head toward the stairs, calculating our move away from the window. As soon as he moved, the owl launched itself off the porch railing and into the air, its wingspan wider than we could see through the window. "Sweet Lord!" Lucian yelled. He and I both flinched and ducked, but I didn't move my gaze from the huge bird.
Its wings beat up and down a few times, then it turned in an unnaturally smooth flight path and disappeared above the porch where we couldn't see it.
"Holy shit," I breathed. "Now do you believe me?"
Lucian wrapped his arms around me. "Damn, baby. That was some insanity. That's what you've seen flying past the window?" His voice went up an octave. "That thing was out there while I was looking over the fence?"
"It could've eaten us. I knew we shouldn't have gone out there."
He turned away from the stairs. "I don't know about you, but knowing that thing went toward the upstairs makes me want to stay down here for now."
I nodded. "My lady-boner has disappeared."
4
Gabriel
One of the most difficult things about having to experience human life cycles was that I was not on the same one as Michael, Lucifer, and Lilith. While they lived life as humans, they didn’t remember the stresses of Heaven and Hell. They didn’t remember that they had a huge responsibility in ensuring the demons stayed in Hell. But worst of all, Lilith didn’t remember who I was or that we were lovers.
So during their human lifetimes, I had to watch, at a safe distance, as Lilith and Lucifer fell in love each time. Two magnets endlessly cursed to be drawn to each other. And I had to try not to feel like my heart was being torn outside of my chest every time he touched her, and I couldn’t.
Because, there was just no other choice. This was just how life was.
Luckily or unluckily for me, the chaos in Hell lately had been a big distraction. I still missed Lilith like mad, but I’d been so busy dealing with the consequences of the queen and king not returning to Hell yet that I’d barely had time to miss my Lilith.
Even though I was getting concerned.
Demons were escaping. The gates were weakening. And Luifer’s death, something that should’ve worked like clockwork, didn’t seem to be coming. It was as if some great force of trouble was at play, but none of us could see it.
This wasn’t how it was supposed to be. Lucifer never lived past thirty years of age as a human, because each day that he and Lilth were away, the gates of Hell weakened. But this cycle the years had passed, and he continued to live.
Now, I had to do something to remedy this situation.
