He opened the door and let me go in first. When he flipped the light on, I realized how much he’d actually loved my mother. It was completely different from his place, but that was the point. Lucifer’s house was all him, but this place screamedMom.Her favorite color was green and so was mine. She also had this green thumb and loved plants. This place had both.
There was a portrait of her over the mantle and Lucifer was a skilled painter. He’d completely capturedher.He’d framed some drawings she’d obviously done and given to him. I recognized her style. When I wandered over to the bookcase, the titles were the types of books she loved.
I hadn’t yet, but I threw my arms around my father’s neck and just squeezed him.
“Thank you. She would have loved this and so do I.”
He seemed surprised I was hugging him so soon, but he didn’t hesitate. He wrapped his arms around me and hugged me.
“I would have preferred watching you grow up, but you’re so special, kid.”
“Wrathhog pointed out we both have several firsts to experience together. I can’t control my magic and I don’t know how to fly. I want to learn to do those flips and lights you all did. And Nero was saying something about holidays?”
“Oh, yes. They are not the same as the mortal realm, but similar. Some of your stories were just demons playing during your holidays. Krampus and Yule Cat were ours. We have holidays where we exchange gifts. We have a version of Halloween where the kids dress as scary as possible to scare offany angels who might come. It’s the anniversary of a time one of my brothers got curious and got a little close to the gates before chickening out.”
“I’m listening. Is this like human Halloween where it’s a vibe and all ages can participate if they want to? Before Mom passed, I always went to her house for Halloween. We did these elaborate costumes and would watch horror movies until the sun came up while handing out candy.”
“I know because we did the same thing. Go look on the coffee table. I hid that and I don’t think you found it when you were looking for clues.”
There was a thick leather-bound book on the coffee table. When I cracked it open, I realized it was a photo album. It was full of polaroids of my mother and father as they fell in love. There were so many photos and she looked so happy.
“One day, when I’m not buzzed and haven’t been awake this long, I want to hear the story behind every single photo in this book.”
“And I look forwards to telling them to you, but it’s been averylong day. I had to move straight from finding out one of my closest friends killed my son and kept me in a cage, to burying my brother, and then announcing the new government and throwing a party before any of my brothers could change their minds. I don’t think they will after everything, but just in case they think about it, they can’t now.
“My magic has mostly done its thing and healed me, but I’m not completely recovered. I’m going to pass out for about twelve hours and then eat breakfast in the bathtub. That should do me wonders.”
“Yeah, you know that’s weird, right? Not eating in the bathtub because the Styrofoam Chinese takeout containers float for a reason, but how fast you heal. You looked runover garbage when we found you.”
“It’s a perk, trust me. Get some sleep or keep the party going, but your old man is turning in. I hired a staff before I got kidnapped. I asked and Satan said they’ve been running the place. He thought I was just planning on moving and not that I built this for anyone. I guess he didn’t connect the dots when they found you. I sent word to have the kitchen stocked in the morning when everyone was done partying.”
Lucifer disappeared, and I was left with my demons. We were all buzzed, full of street food, and exhausted, but I wanted to keep going if they did.
“We can sleep if you’re tired,” Kujo said. “It was a lot, and you nearly died.”
Nero just chuckled.
“She’s not even remotely thinking about sleeping. She wants to find the master suite and see if she can make us blush.”
“Something tells me she’s perfectly capable of doing that,” Celix said.
“Challenge accepted. Let’s find the master suite.”
The rest of the house was just as beautiful as the foyer and living room. I knew it was designed for my mother, but I honestly wouldn’t change a thing. He left plenty of space free for someone to buy their own art and there were plenty of empty bookcases for my books. When I was looking for the bedroom, I found an office that was meant for her to draw in, but would make the perfect writing room.
The bedroom wasperfection.Lucifer had no way of knowing I’d be sleeping in here with three massive demons, but the bed was big enough for all of us. I only briefly thought about why he bought a bed that big for him and my mother and then turned that right off. Honestly, good for her. Then again, I guess hewouldn’t know if she was going to get wings or not and bought a bed for it.
Before I took a running leap onto that bed, I stuck my head in the master bath because the King of Hell had his thing about bubble baths. Oh, fuck me. That wasn’t a bathtub. It was a huge soaking pool that was big enough for all four of us. Celix came up behind me and wrapped his arms around my waist.
“You want us to draw you a bath? You barely got to shower Asmodeus’s blood off of you while Lucifer was addressing Hell.”
“After? Because I have a feeling you three are going to leave me sore and limp.”
“Only if we do it right.”
“Yeah, I don’t think it’s possible for any of you to get that wrong. Nero, you promise you can make my traumatizing butt sex experience a distant memory?”
I could do this. I was a big girl who was totally capable of taking a demon up the ass. I wanted it to be them I did this with.
