Which explained why I’d always felt like she was the little sister I never had.
Hissing, I rubbed the back of my head as I climbed off of my living room floor. Gabriel must have restored her memories, but this wasn’t how many human lifetimes had gone so far. I’d never regained my memories while still in my human form. And usually, I was with someone, a partner.
What the heck was going on?
Stumbling over to the wet bar, I poured myself a stiff scotch and sank back onto my couch, taking a long sip of it. Wow! An angel? Really? And my sister was the queen of Hell?
The more my old memories circled in my head the less they felt like a weird nightmare. Instead, I felt like Michael. And my time spent as Adam was starting to feel like the actual dream. But I guess it made sense, I’d spent lifetime after lifetime as Michael and only one as this Adam fellow.
There was a light rapping at the screen door at the back of my house. I glanced up and saw Gabriel looking in at me, his expression amused. He’d left his long blond hair loose around his shoulders, and he wore a toga, like usual. And yet, he stood at such odds with my little human house and lumpy couch that it took me a second to find my voice.
“Well, come in!” I finally managed, then took another long drink.
Gabriel folded his dark blue wings tighter against his back and pushed open the screen door. He poured his glass of scotch as his wings melded into his back and disappeared, and then he sat down beside me. It felt miraculous and normal all at once.
“Remember everything?” he asked, lifting a brow.
I nodded, wincing as my head ached. Was it getting all the memories back that made my head hurt? Or had I hit my head when I fell?
“Although… I think there was a part of me that knew something about this life wasn’t right. And that Connie, Lucian, and I were all connected in some way.”
He didn’t look surprised, although he should’ve been. Retaining any memories as humans was extraordinary. “Lucifer still doesn’t remember who he is, but I just went over everything with Lilith.”
That was strange too. Usually, Lucifer died, and then Lilith did at the same time. Lilith!
“Holy crap, she’s pregnant?”
He winced. “Yeah.”
“And we’re older than we should be. Why? What happened?”
Gabriel slammed back his drink, then set it down on my coffee table. “I don’t know, but we need to get them back to Hell before the gates fall.”
A shiver ran down my spine. “How bad is it?”
He hesitated, then said, “It’s getting rough.”
Crap. I closed my eyes and rubbed the swelling bump on the back of my head. Lucifer was still alive, didn’t have his memories or his powers, and Lilith was pregnant.
Heaven help us now.
Chapter 7
Constance
"Have a good day.Try not to let it feel too much like a Monday." I handed Lucian his lunchbox and held out my cheek for a kiss. "I'll make something in the slow cooker for dinner."
He hummed his approval, then bent over to say goodbye to the baby. "Bye, Turtle. Daddy loves you!"
The baby kicked up a storm in response to his voice. Lucian pressed his cheek to my belly button and laughed in delight when his Turtle kicked him in the cheek. "I love it." He pressed another kiss to my belly and one to my lips, then walked into the garage.
I shut the door behind him with the irritating feeling that I'd been forgetting something important.
My video channel was sorely neglected, so I popped on the camera to get some content of a beauty box I'd received in the mail the previous Friday. That was probably what was bothering me. I'd been uploading far less content since hitting thirty weeks. Pregnancy was tiring, especially in my forties.
After turning on all my special lights and setting up the beauty box to be unboxed, I flipped the camera on and smiled. "Heyyyy, guys!" I chirped. "Welcome back to my channel." I didn't do live videos, so I'd have to edit it down later, but I'd gotten good at staying relevant in what I said and did, so my process was streamlined. We'd converted half our office to a mini studio with a clean white wall behind me. It contrasted beautifully with my shiny black hair and reflected the lighting well. Lucian always enjoyed looking for new lighting, better cameras, and the like. He helped me edit when he had time, as well. I'd been teaching him and one day we hoped to do this full time. It would make parenting wonderful, being able to split the work because we were both home. Another year or so, and I was pretty sure we'd be able to do it.
I was halfway through showing the camera the contents of my new box, still ignoring the voice inside that tried to tell me I had more important things to consider, when someone snorted from the other side of the office.
