We all jumped as he sighed and plopped down on the coffee table in front of us. "You three look like your best friend just died," he said.
None of us felt like correcting him, so mostly we just glared. "What is going on out there?" I asked.
"The world leaders know what it is. They're all talking back and forth. I think Joel sent a delegate of angels to put their minds at ease that our best people are on the case." He chuckled. "And they say angels can't lie."
"Is there anything we can do?" I asked.
"Did you figure out how to send the demons back to hell?" Gabe retorted.
I shook my head.
"Then, no."
"I'm going to bed," I mumbled and slowly stood. Even my Ethereal body was achy. I was just that tired.
Gabe jumped up. "Ah, well, you better let Michael and I clean up a bit first." He winced as I turned a glare his way. "Your bodies are sort of in stasis in the bedroom."
Michael's eyes widened and he jumped up. They both disappeared.
“That’s just great," Lucifer said. "Our dead bodies are upstairs in the bed we want to sleep in." He jumped up and pushed past me a bit too roughly.
I wasn't about to put up with that nonsense. I pushed his shoulder as he passed by. "Stop being such a jerk," I said in a near-yell. "We're all going through a tough time, you know?"
If looks could have killed. "You have your magic. You don't have what amounts to a limb missing," he snarled.
That was all I could take from him. I pushed him again and again until he was against the wall. My wings erupted from my back, filling the room as I let my anger fill my body. "I'm missing ourchild,Lucifer. Our child!"
He pushed back, his black wings appearing between him and the wall as he used them to help him push against me. With just physical strength, I was no match for Luc. But he had no powers. I could've squashed him like a bug.
Not literally. We weren't that easy to kill. But I wasn't in the mood to actually hurt him. Just to get him to stop being such a jerk. "I know you're frustrated; we all know! And we're doing what we can to fix it."
He pushed back at me, driving me across the room. "You don't know. You're not doing enough. You should be burning the world to the ground. You've got more magic than anyone, except maybe me, why aren't you using it?"
By the time my back hit the wall, he was shouting, and his face was enraged.
"You know why!" I still didn't want to use my magic against him. For one thing, I knew he wouldn't hurt me. He was pissed beyond anything I'd seen in a very long time, but still, I didn't worry about my safety for one second.
Neither did Gabriel or Michael, or they would've intervened. They were taking our bodies somewhere else. Probably next door. We could've just gotten rid of them, but that usually caused big drama with the humans. They needed a body and an investigation.
"Why don't you explain it to me?" Lucifer seethed.
I held in my anger. He knew very well why, but if he needed to hear it, I'd say it. "If I use the power it would take to solve this problem, not only would I probably kill myself, I'd expose everything to the humans, which would basically be doing Ralph’s work for him."
He lost some of his fight and leaned against me, his great black wings moving slowly behind him. "Fix this," he said pitifully.
"Oh, Lucifer..." I wrapped my arms around him and pulled him close, tucking my hands into the warm spot between his wings and back. "I wish I could. I could light this world on fire, that doesn't take that much power, but it wouldn't fix the problem. Your powers are gone, and Ariel is missing."
Luc pulled back enough to look down into my eyes. "I'm still so angry with you. I know you didn't do it on purpose." He shook his head. "I love you, Lilith."
My emotions whirred inside me. He loved me. I knew he did. He always had. But he couldn't get past my colossal mistake in giving Ariel to the humans.
Neither could I. "I'm angry too, Luc. But instead of focusing on what happened, you should channel your anger to something more productive."
The light in his eyes changed, and I knew what it meant. My words altered his anger into something more... productive.
Lust.
My heartbeat rapidly increased until I panted under Lucifer's gaze. He pressed me back, our wings outstretched, mine pressed against the cool living room wall.
