“Check, asshole. Maybe next time, don’t be in such a rush to lose.”
He chuckled and shook his head. “The game’s not over yet, Ram,” he purred, and I grinned at him. He was right. He was notorious for stealing the win at the last second when no one was expecting it.
He glanced over at Lilith and gave her a considering look. I had adjusted her restraints. After the last time, I didn’t want her hands to get sore again. I made sure she had enough slack while she was sleeping to have full range of the bed. I could always tighten them while we were playing.
She asked if I could take them off while she slept, and I refused her. She had definitely lost free-range privileges… at least until after Yahweh’s meeting.
It was coming up fast, and I needed to be prepared. As much as I would have loved to let her loose and chase her down every day, I didn’t have time for that. If I wanted to keep us out of purgatory, Shem was right. I needed to focus.
“Well, it does seem that the Stockholm is starting to set in, at least. Whatever you said to her at the wedding seems to have lessened the hatred in her eyes.” Shem observed dryly as he eyed the chessboard.
I nodded. “I meant what I said to her. I hope she truly does accept this soon,” I murmured, and Shem pursed his lips.
“We have five days before the meeting, Ramel. That’s not a lot of time to convince her to want to be here.”
My stomach churned. We would need to go to Heaven for the meeting and could not take Lilith with us. Without Shem and I here to protect her, even the Watchers would not be enough to keep the manor secure.
She could not be removed from Hell against her will, but if she agreed to leave, anyone could take her. That was why the test with Art had been so devastating. She failed, which meant that if an archangel came and offered to ‘free her,’ she would likely fall willingly into their fucked up feathered arms.
“She still needs to be punished as well. She broke two rules,” Shem said as he fingered his rook.
I nodded, scratching my chin. “You’re right, but I’m starting to think we should put it off until after the meeting. Maybe we can use the next few days to work on our little issue of her willingness to stay.”
Shem moved his rook and glanced up at me, his eyes shining with mischief. I looked down at the board and swore.
Shem smirked. “Checkmate.”
I flipped him off, laughing. Shem grinned and leaned back in his chair, glancing over at Lilith. He looked at her fondly, then his brow furrowed.
“What?” I asked, and he shifted his gaze to me, his green eyes darkening with something that looked like resentment.
“She has started to warm up to you, but she still hates me.”
“You love that she hates you,” I pointed out, frowning. He sighed and ran a hand through his thick, dark hair.
“Yeah, mostly. I miss her, though. It was fun when she thought I was her cat. She used to feed me bacon and little crumbs of potato chips, and we would watch fucked up scary shows together.”
I chuckled at the thought of her and Shem watching TV together while she fed him chips like he was a little king.
“Maybe you just need to spend more time with her. I was thinking we could spend the next couple of days working on obedience. I was going to do it, but youcan lead if you want. I’ll lead when we punish her. Maybe she’ll hate you less.” I winked.
Shem perked up. “What did you have in mind?”
“If everything goes well after the meeting, we can decide what we want to do with her.”
Shem’s evil grin widened. “Let’s set her loose in the Infernal Woodlands,” he purred, and I chuckled.
“That could be interesting,” I said with a smirk. Of course Shem would want to hunt her. I wasn’t surprised.
He glanced over at her again. “Okay. You keep working on figuring out your past, and I’ll work on getting Lilith conditioned to want to stay, or at least to fucking listen to us when we tell her to do something.” He ran a hand down his face. “Even for that, five days is not a lot of time.”
I patted his hand. “If anyone can do it, it’s you,” I assured him, and he sighed again.
“Maybe I’ll teach her a command to feed me chips whenever I want.”
I let out a surprised burst of laughter and shook my head. “I don’t think you need a command for that. You just need to stay in your cat form until she forgets how much of a dick you are.”
He smirked at me. “Maybe, but it would still be fun to have a command for it.”
