Gabriel held up a hand. "Hundreds. We've got angels searching for them constantly. If we had a contact inside Hell, we'd enlist the help of your forces, but with you two here, we can't get in to talk to anyone."
"Can we go see her?" Lucifer asked.
His question hurt my heart. I'd been afraid he'd ask it. "I've been avoiding going to her," I said. "If her adoptive mother thinks we're going to come to whisk her away at any point, she might back out."
"Could we sneak in when they don't know? I just want to see her." Lucifer took my hand and pulled me close to him. "Oh, Lil. What you must have gone through."
I buried my face in his chest and tried not to burst into tears. "I wanted you there for the birth, but at that point, we were still trying to kill you. We couldn't have Lucian there, witnessing a birth assisted by magic."
He tightened his hold on me. "I know. I understand. Maybe when it all calms down, Michael or Gabriel can share the memory with me."
I nodded, rubbing my face on his suit jacket. He still looked like Lucian, but having my capable, strong husband back was a comfort.
And it seemed he'd kept some of Lucian's heart with him. I couldn't remember the last time Lucifer had held me like this.
We stood like that for several minutes, whispering words of love and regret, until Michael cleared his throat. "I could take you to see her. We can distract the parents so you can spend a few minutes with her."
The thought of seeing my Ariel again brought more tears to my eyes and made my heart soar. "Please, Michael."
Gabe hopped up. "I'll go see what they're doing and see if we can just make them sleep for a few minutes. Give me five and follow."
He disappeared, and we walked into the kitchen. Now that I knew I was going to see Ariel, I was ravenously hungry. I munched on a slice of pizza and ignored the butterflies racing through my stomach at the thought of seeing my baby again. What if I couldn't leave her?
"She's gone." Gabriel appeared and dropped that bomb without any of us realizing he was even in the room.
I jumped a mile and whirled around. "What do you mean? Where are they?"
He looked scared. "They're there. The baby is not."
My heart froze. He had to be mistaken. "Take me there. Now."
He grabbed my hand and we appeared in Anna's living room. Lucifer and Michael materialized beside us moments later.
"In here," Gabriel whispered.
I followed him into the kitchen where Anna sat with a police officer. She jumped up when she saw me. "Connie!"
"Anna, what happened? Where is Ariel?" I looked from her face to the officer's, searching them for the truth. "Where is Rupert?"
Anna rushed forward and held out her hands. "When we got up this morning, Ariel was gone. She's disappeared. We filed a police report, and they've put out an APB. They're searching for her now."
I turned to Michael. "Find the boyfriend and see if he's behind this."
Before he left the room, he narrowed his eyes on Anna. After just a few seconds, he shook his head. "She's clean," he whispered, then left the room.
"Rupert is in the boys' room, trying to get them to take a nap." Anna sat back down at the table and sobbed. "She was just gone."
Gabe and Lucifer disappeared into the hallway, and I didn't have a clue what to do with myself.
I couldn't look at Anna, so I walked into the hall to find Lucifer, and spotted him coming down the stairs. "It was Raphael. Michael and Gabriel sense him upstairs. If I could get out of this damn human flesh, I could as well." He clenched his fists and sucked in a deep breath. "And I could rip him limb from limb."
Raphael had my baby. "How is this possible?" I whispered as I sank to the floor. "This can't be happening." Lucifer rushed to my side as I dissolved into hysterics, my mind breaking at the news that my innocent baby was with someone that may or may not intend her harm.
We sat in the living room a week later, no closer to finding Ariel or killing Lucifer. He'd tried a couple of times to kill himself again with no luck, no matter how big of a no-no it was. The gates of Hell were holding on by a thread.
Michael and Gabriel were due to check in with us. They'd been scouring the heavens and Earth for our baby.
"How is this happening?" I whispered. "We tried so hard to do everything right. God asked us to take charge of the sinners, so we did. What did we do wrong to deserve this?"
