Hey, look at me, planning movie dates with my long-lost father, the actual devil.
“He’s a prude, and he’s been slut shaming her over her clothes and choice of men,” Nero said.
Kujo poked Nero in the side. Yeah, Kujo, Nero, and Celix were with me when we rescued Lucifer, but as far as Lucifer knew, they were just my bodyguards. My father didn’t even know what my favorite food was. He probably shouldn’t learn I was really looking forwards tothatfoursome before he found out if you wanted to bribe me, lasagna usually worked.
And of course, Lucifer was half starved and about as clean as Lilith could get him with a sponge bath. He couldn’t eat a proper meal or take an actual bath until Lilith’s potion did its thing. But fuck me if he didn’t perk right up and put his dad face on when he found out I might have chosen a demon.
“Tell me more,” Lucifer said.
“Okay, so my job before I ended up here was writing romance books. I have alotof shirts about smutty books that seem to pucker Mammon’s butthole. Also, these three aren’t just my bodyguards. They aremine.I don’t care that Nero and Celix are lower demons and I also don’t give a shit what anyone says that I’m with three of them.”
“You done?” Lucifer asked. “Because I don’t give a shit about any of that either. They all feel like powerful demons. Do they make you happy?”
I didn’t hesitate.
“Yes.”
“Then keep them close. But first, we need to end this. Who knew you found me and were coming to get me?”
“Just the people in this room.”
“Good. Keep it that way. The cage and the lack of food weakened me. I’m an archangel and I heal fast. If there’s one person who can augment celestial healing and get me in fighting shape faster, it’s Lilith.”
“So, I get why you kept your new lover and child a secret from your brothers, but you shouldn’t have hidden it fromme. When your brothers came asking if I’d seen you, I wouldn’t have betrayed you, but I would have known you hadn’t disappeared in another spiral. I could have kept them safe.”
“I didn’t want you to think I was rubbing it in.”
“Sir, we’ve been broken up thousands of years. I’ve had loads more sex than you have.”
I snorted because Ireallyliked Lilith. And yeah, if he told Lilith about Mom and me, Mom might still be alive and I’d be mostly prepared for all of this. But I didn’t blame Lucifer. He thought he was protecting us and he had no way of knowing any of this would happen.
“What do you need to get back on your feet?” I asked.
Ihoped Lilith decided to stick around for a while. Now that I knew magic was real, I wanted to learn all of it. It was amazing learning from Wrathhog, but I had the feeling Lilith had spells even Wrathhog didn’t know.
Lilith had set up an IV drip with a bag of her potion in it. I didn’t know how much of that had to do with what she said about my father being shitty about taking medicine and what Kujo said about her potion tasting like actual shit.
Once the bag was empty, a golden shimmer enveloped Lucifer, and he looked way less gaunt. Kujo had slipped away to cook. We’d given all of Lucifer’s servants the day off before we left. Lucifer didn’t have to tell me we probably needed to keep his appearance back in Hell a secret. I trusted the servantswaymore than I trusted the Fallen, but I’d also turned Asmodeus’s servants and I was under no grand assumption that I was everyone’s cup of tea.
It didn’t shock me Kujo could cook. They all probably could. It shocked me Kujo was such a wonderful cook. It was beautifully plated and there was fucking garnish. I had no idea what I was looking at, but it was very pretty.
“Who blabbed lamb ragu over polenta was a favorite of mine?” Lucifer smiled.
“So, a restaurant you ordered it from once before you went missing started advertising it as your favorite food once you were gone. It started popping up in nearly every restaurant and there was this whole battle over who did it best. There were even twists like burritos and pizza. Some of them were not all that great. Kujo’s very is really good,” Nero said.
Kujo just shrugged.
“I took a risk that it was your favorite food. I didn’t do a lamb ragu and polenta pizza or burrito because that sounds like something you’d order in a restaurant with pretentious beer.”
“It is. And thank you, this is perfect. I’m liking your men a lot more, Sydney.”
“Good because I do too.”
“Eat up because we desperately need to get you in a shower,” Lilith said, wrinkling her nose.
I mean, yeah, I wasn’t going to say anything, but Lucifer was pretty ripe.
“Yeah, I’mnottaking a shower. The only way I could clean myself for the past forty-six years was a bucket and cheap soap. My hair is matted and I’m going to have that and this beard off. My first non bucket bath in forty-six years is going to be in my giant tub with the jets and bubbles.”
