“Gage was her favorite,” Kai tattles. “Her name is Chloe, and she’s a castle guard.”
“Would it be petty of me to recycle her for abandoning her post when I technically don’t have the authority to do that?” I muse aloud.
“Yes,” they all four answer in quick unison.
“Are you seriously defending her over me?” I ask with a mock gasp, hoping they buy my act, since it’s funny to watch them actually be horrified by me.
They don’t give me a horrified look, unfortunately. It’s more of a bland, exasperated look.
“Congratulations. You’ve officially become the most psychotic person here,” Jude states with a fuck-you smile that is too much like mine, even though mine’s still better.
Rolling my eyes, I once again give the people on their bellies my attention. “Now that we’ve sufficiently snuffed out any individual complaints this day, can anyone point me in the Devil’s direction? I need to appropriately mock him for not being able to handle this uprising himself or with the help of all those lesser heirs of his,” I prattle on, not understanding the value of less is more.
Jude scrubs a hand over his face, and Gage groans while shaking his head. Kai grins at me, which makes him my current favorite, since Ezekiel is giving me that neck-wringing motion.
Instead of a death maze in hell’s belly, I’m going to give them all mime-school certificates for their next birthdays so they can learn some new tricks.
A feminine set of giggles from far above has my spine stiffening. My gaze swings up to see the Devil’s heirs lounging carelessly in some hammocks attached to the overhang of the castle.
Sure. Makes perfect sense to put hammocks there.
Both Hera and Lilith are sharing a hammock and a bowl of popcorn, their lips curved in familiar grins.
Cain is scratching his balls with one hand while snorting something up his nose that looks suspiciously like hell drugs. Are there hell drugs? I’m sure there are.
Manella and Lamar are lovey dovey in their little hammock, looking drunk off the carnage.
The twins are in separate hammocks. One has a guy sucking him off, and the other has a girl sucking him.
Classy bunch, I tell ya.
Hooking a thumb in their direction, I look back at the guys. “Who did you say looks the most psychotic?” I ask Jude, giving him the fuck-you smile right back.
He bristles, unamused, and the four of them move toward me as someone starts a slow-clap.
Everyone else remains on their bellies as the clapping echoes, coming from one of the holes that has been blown into the castle wall just in front of us. The clapping nears with all the dramatic, ominous build one would expect at a moment like this.
It’s cliché, if you ask me.
The guys cut off my vision when they line up in front of me like a wall, so I go phantom and zap to be in front of them just as the Devil emerges from that gaping hole and steps out, still clapping like am underachieving smartass.
The smirk on his face has me almost hating him for what he’s about to say, because I realize now what just happened.
Damn that Devil and his manipulations.
All these heirs were simply waiting on me to arrive, like they knew they didn’t have to lift a lazy finger to help out. And Lucifer just let it bait me down here because he really does know me far too well.
He stops clapping, that calculated gleam in his eyes twinkling as he gives me the definition of a devilish grin.
“Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to reintroduce my favorite child and her harem,” he says, never looking away from me. “You’ve probably heard of them,” he goes on, looking away for a brief second before his eyes lock on mine again.
Apparently he likes suspense, because he leaves everyone hanging for an annoyingly pregnant pause.
“The Four horsemen of The Apocalypse,” he concludes.
“Dun! Dun! Duuuuuunnnn!” one of the Twins adds with even more theatrical dramatization.
I think I hear every person on the ground suck in a terrified breath, so I stand a little taller to ensure I look the part. It’s too late to take it back now, and it’d a horrible idea to look like I’m anything less than super crazy and powerful.
The Devil played me, and I was too stupid to realize it.
He wins.
This time.
Everyone rises from the ground enough to get on their knees and bow to me properly in a wave of motion that gives me little tingles. Adjusting my crown, I keep in character. Sort of. Not really though.
A grin spreads over my face as I reach back and thump Jude’s chest.
“Now that’s the reaction I expected from the four of you after I appeared and became the solution to all your problems; not that any of your ungrateful asses took notice,” I say, gesturing to all the bowing people on the ground who respect my awesomeness.
My grin only grows as I look at my psychos’ stoic faces. Kai snorts derisively, and I wink at Gage when he gives me his best unimpressed expression. Ezekiel becomes my favorite when he grins too.
My gaze collides with Lucifer’s once more, as he adds, “Welcome home. We have a lot of work to do now that the world knows you’re back.”
Damn Devil.
Even my smile dies with that announcement.
Chapter 7
The Twins have lost their appointed cocksuckers when they walk into the room the guys and I are already seated in. I’m drinking out of a jeweled chalice, but there’s no virgin blood in it.
There is, however, some really awesome wine of some kind in it, and I’ve decided it can be my “ice cream” the next time the guys hurt my feelings or whatever.
They’re the Four Horsemen—beings so evil they once had a maddening imbalance that apparently even haunts my nightmares. I suppose some hurt feelings isn’t so bad in the grand scheme of things for hell spawn.
The twins smirk in our direction, and a rumbling sounds underground when they get too close. Both of them laugh like they enjoy provoking me, and they take a seat across from us.
I’m wrath, so…why would anyone want to provoke me? Psychos. It’s like I’m surrounded by people who don’t have a lick of sanity.
Gage pulls me onto his lap, and Jude takes a seat on the ground in front of us, dragging my bare foot over his shoulder and resting his hand loosely on my ankle.
Kai sits on my right, his hand settling onto my thigh, and Ezekiel sits on my left, his hand also going to my thigh.
I’m still in my level-up outfit that I haven’t fully explored yet, but those wide slits go all the way up to the gold belt at my skirt’s waist. My top is really ornate, matching the red and gold trimming of the skirt to make it seem more like a two-piece dress.
The gold cuff on my neck reflects in the warped mirror far across from me, but I barely glimpse the golden crown full of red rubies before I’m distracted.
“I hardly think it’s fair that she’s immediately your favorite again, considering she disappeared without a word for five hundred years and had to be tricked into returning,” Lilith is saying to Lucifer as they walk in.
She barely even tosses a dismissive look in my direction, as Lucifer’s lips twitch.
Something sizzles inside me, and a visible spark ignites on her dress, erupting it into flames that have her hissing and shrieking as she manages to extinguish the flames with just her mind. At least, I assume that’s how…
Her gaze narrows on me, and she takes a threatening step forward as something dark and sinister rises to the surface once again.
She’s launched back suddenly, slamming into the wall so hard that it spider-veins all around the area of impact. Then…she drops in a heap to the ground with a grunted curse.
I feel genuinely badass, because I’m not even trying to do this stuff. Sibling rivalry is where all the wrath is really hiding.
Duly noted.
“What the hell was that for?” she snaps as she leaps to her feet and pushes her hair out of her murderous eyes. “You know you don’t deserve to be his favorite.”
“She has more envy in her than you,” Lamar tells me from the corner, working damn hard to keep a straight face.
“That’s why Paca’s the favorite when she’s home,” Manella drawls, like this is yet another rerun. “Lilith whines more when Paca is the favorite, and whining entertains Lucifer.”
To spice things up, I send her sailing through the wall this time, as her shrieks echo through the corridor. I arch an eyebrow at Manella, expecting a reaction, but he simply smirks at me like he knows exactly what I’m thinking, and he’s still unimpressed.
Drat.
Still a rerun.
She rushes back in, hand in the air like she’s about to strike, when Jude is off the ground in a blur of motion, his scythe blade slinging out of his bo staff thingy and pressing right against her throat before she can budge another inch.
“That was for Kai,” I tell her, feeling Kai’s hand tighten on my thigh as a sideways grin forms on his lips. “You let him writhe in pain as you walked away, and if you know me, then you knew you’d be punished. I’m just getting started, I assure you.”
The words just flow from my mouth on autopilot, and she snaps an accusatory glare at Lucifer. “You said she didn’t remember us.”
“She wouldn’t have stepped in and saved the day if she had her memories. But she has echoes of memories,” he explains, studying me like he’s filing away every bit of information I unintentionally reveal.
I don’t like how our minds seem to work too close to the same. Sort of creepy, since, you know…he’s Lucifer.
“Why wouldn’t I have stepped in?” I ask, staring right at the manipulative asshole.
“Because clearly you’d have known it was a ruse to make you out yourself so I could keep my end of our deal,” he says with a careless shrug.
“But you still manipulated me,” I accuse.
“Of course I did. I always try, but you always used to see right through me. It’s nice having an edge on my favorite again,” he drones on, causing Lilith to groan as she backs away from Jude’s scythe like she never truly feared it.
“She really doesn’t remember,” Lilith sighs as she drops down next to Hera, and Hera pats her hand like she’s comforting her.
It’s just one more weird thing to add to the weird list.
Hera rakes her eyes over my guys, causing me to shift my interest in which sister to fling through walls.
“They look a lot better like this. Why haven’t I noticed sooner?” she asks more to herself than anything, as a very pungent sense of seduction palpates the room.
After all, as one of the seven deadly sins, her dark influence is lust.
I’m a little unnerved when I realize that growling noise is coming from me. Jude is currently my favorite, since he’s the only one of the guys who doesn’t have to resist laughing.
Dicks.
“Some things never change,” she mutters, rolling her eyes as the heady, seductive air dissipates. “She’s still as selfish as always, and they may as well be impotent.”