“Except having a father’s love, of course.”
It was out before I could stop it.
Time slowed alongside my heart, and the end of immortality felt like it was a bullet flying down the barrel.
“Luci, I–”
“I don’t know what hurts more,” he started. “Having my biggest failure thrown in my face…” his head cocked to the side, studying me as the words drifted. “Or being made fun of by a stripper for having daddy issues.”
My ugly cackle rang through the car cabin like Santa’s fucking bells through the night sky. It was delicious and bubbly, fueled by nothing except this moment living between us. I watched his smile spread until two rows of perfect teeth stood out against the night.
“You know for a second there I thought you were going to kill me.”
“I’ve considered doing many things to you, Dany, but death has yet to be one of them.”
“Lucifer David MorningStar, are you flirting with me?”
Before I could get an answer, a chorus of car doors sounded off in the distance. Three other vehicles had arrived. Callen and the new arrivals stood huddled in conversation, but it was too dark to make out faces.
My stomach felt sick all of a sudden.
There he was. The cause of every deplorable thing in my life was standing less than two hundred yards away.
I’d spent the last twenty minutes in silence taking note of the different body language coming off each person. From their builds, I was sure they were all men. One of them I knew intimately by now. If my senses were correct, and they usually were, Callen was taking on an alpha role, leading the conversation with all heads and shoulders turned his way.
“What are the odds that this is some sort of fucked up, late night Bible study?”
“Bible study?” Lucifer scoffed “At midnight?”
“Hmm you’re right,” I hummed sarcastically. “Couldn’t be a Bible study. I forget that people do those during the day so that everyone can see how holy they are. Good call. This is probably more along the lines of an exorcism.” I took another large bite and smacked my lips obnoxiously.
“What are you eating? It looks abysmal.”
“Oh, this chunk of heaven?” The marshmallowy goodness stuck between my fingers as I held it up for inspection. “This is a Rice-Christy Treat.”
For the first time in biblical history (probably), Lucifer looked perplexed. “A what?”
“I was stalking this guy back in ninety-eight. Big Wall Street type, loads of money, but was sneaky modest about it in a completely narcissistic way.”
“Dany,” he interrupted. “I fail to see how this answers my question— ”
“Hey! Don’t be an interrupting cow.” I pointed one sticky finger in his face. “Anway, he made a huge point to make donations to the local Catholic Churchhe attended, went every Sunday and Wednesday, blah blah blah. I got curious,” I shrugged.
“About?”
“Church.”
“Did it make a believer out of you?” Lucifer smirked.
I hid my own smile behind the binoculars and checked in on the rag-tag group of shady assholes across the lot. Nothing had changed; I was beginning to think this was some sort of dramatic fucking poker night. Looked like Luci and I were in it for the long haul tonight.
So, I answered, “Hardly. It was a bunch of mightier than thou bullshit, guilting everyone to follow some made up set of rules by a guy who probably spent the majority of his life slipping roofies to schizophrenics and calling them prophets. Would you agree?”
Another smile crept its way up Luci’s lips. “I can neither confirm nor deny.”
“You don’t have to,” I shrugged and bit off another chunk of Rice-Christy Treat. “The only good part was communion. I’ve had a lot of men in my mouth, but there is nothing quite like consuming the body of Christ.”
“That tasty?”
