“Why does everyone dump on demons like Nero when he can make my pain more manageable?”
“You forget who is running this place. They might have started a rebellion and got spanked to another dimension, but they are still angels. Some of them still hold to the idea that sex is only for procreation and only focus on that aspect. Nero can manipulate lust, but part of lust is dopamine, so he can control that, too. It’s how he’s helping your pain.
“An inexperienced Incubi or Succubae who try to overload dopamine as a defense can end up triggering a psychotic episode instead of knocking someone out. Instead of making sure they knew what they were doing, they just outlawed them from ever using their magic like that.”
“Some of the princes and people in charge here are fucking stupid.”
“You don’t have to tell me that, killer.”
“Can you grab my big, ugly, comfy sweats and my eReader?”
Kujo started cramming my stuff in a bag and then turned around with one of my giant sweatshirts across his chest with his eyebrow raised. Yeah, that one had a possum hissing on a pile of books and readIt’s not smut, it’s cliterature.
“I regret nothing. Etsy is a beautiful place. My ex hated that shirt.”
“Your taste in mortal men is shitty. Nero and Celix are definitely an upgrade, but you know Abaddon and Satan only get away with slumming with the lower demons because they arefull angels and men, right? No one is going to let that happen. They are going to try to marry you off for an alliance.”
“Yeah, I only do things I don’t want like going the speed limit and paying a bigger portion of my income in taxes than people who have access to better tax breaks because I kinda have to. Marrying someone who might be my cousin so their dad can slither closer to the throne of Hell isn’t somethinganyonecan make me do. IlikeCelix and Nero. If things don’t work out, it’s because things ran their natural course and it wasn’t meant to be.”
“This isn’t the mortal realm, killer. The princes are untouchable. If they don’t want you with Celix and Nero, they’ll just have them killed.”
“Listen, I don’t have a drop of loyalty for anyone here except the ones who earned it. None of these bitches seem to like each other and instead of doing anything about it as they have an Angels Gone Wild thing in Hell, they all look the other way while they plot against each other. Lucifer has probably been stuck in a cage for the last few decades because of it. That’s never going to be me. I don’t give a shit that there’s just a few of them here. If they come at me or mine, I’ll come at them back.”
“Good. Hey, you’re going to be laid up and stuck near Nero for the next few days.”
“Yeah, that’s not the worst thing in the whole world.”
“Yeah, but I’m guessing you also want to work and find your father. We should pack some of the diaries you found.”
“Good idea. There’s a lot of them, but we should grab the last few he wrote. Find out if he told anyone about Mom or suspected someone knew he was sneaking off to the mortal realm. I’m thinking Asmodeus, but I don’t exactly have proof. Maybe Lucifer found something he could punish him for and that was why he got kidnapped.”
“He’s a dick with a silver tongue. It could have been his idea, but he wouldn’t have gotten his hands dirty. If it’s all of them, we only have one fallen to help us fight. Abaddon probably wouldn’t join another war. Satan won’t risk Wrathhog with the numbers being that skewed. We’re probably fucked, killer.”
“We’ve got us. The two of us will do it anyway out of spite. That slightly lessens our odds of being completely fucked.”
I gasped when a painful spasm hit my back. Kujo jumped into action.
“The salve takes the edge off, but we need to get you back with Nero somewhere safe while someone figures out exactly where the leaks are coming from in this house.”
“Good call. I wassoexcited about the wings, but this sucks.”
“When the pain stops and you fly for the first time, it’ll all be worth it. You usually get a big dump of magic when it happens, which is why everyone is telling you it generally doesn’t happen this early. Then again, you’re breaking most molds for this place, so I suppose it’s expected.”
I grunted and hobbled out of the room because I really needed to be touching Nero again. I didn’t know what was going on with Kujo, but I liked this side of him.
Mom wasn’t one of those parents who snuck in my room and read my diary. She usually just asked and gave me ‘Mom’ face until I told her. I never really got into LiveJournal later because I didn’t want other people reading my shit. So, reading Lucifer’s diaries made me uncomfortable as fuck, even though I got why it was needed.
I was cuddled in Nero’s lap with one of the journals while Celix painted my toenails with polish he borrowed from Wrathhog. Wrathhog and Nero had also taken a diary and Satan had gone back to Lucifer’s to figure out where the leak was coming from.
The journal I had was from long before I was born and seemed focused on Kir. He was still grieving his son thousandsof years later and hadn’t figured out who killed him. Lucifer was starting to think it wasn’t the angels, it was one of the fallen.
He’d looked into everyone, even Satan and Abaddon, even if his notes said he didn’t really think it was them. He wrote he was just being thorough. Lucifer highly suspected Asmodeus, just like I had him pegged for Lucifer’s disappearance, but there was zero proof.
“Hey, what was your mom’s name?” Kujo asked.
“Mina. Did you find something with her in it?”
“Yeah. And an answer why your wings are here early. Lucifer has been watching out for her since she was fifteen. He didn’t make himself known until she was twenty-four and he wasn’t expecting to fall in love.”
