Zayne’s jaw hardened in a way that told me there would be nothing simple about that.
“She’s smart. I like her,” Lucifer commented, and I resisted the urge to take a step back. “Anyway, I’m here to help now, so me trying to kidnap you is water under the bridge. No harm. No foul.”
“I wouldn’t go that far,” I muttered under my breath. “But yeah, whatever.”
One side of Lucifer’s lips curled up as he stepped back, taking in our group. “Don’t worry, my newfound friends. I’ll save the day. I’ll even save Heaven,” he said. “Now, the problem is the problem we’re going to create when we kill Gabriel, but that’s not going to be my problem.”
“Wait,” I said. “What problem?”
“Cross that bridge later.” Lucifer waved my question off. “There’s something I need to do real quick.”
Lucifer vanished.
Like there one moment and straight-up gone the next.
Slowly, I turned in a full circle, finding no sign of him. My heart started thumping.
“Please tell me,” Zayne began, “that he just likes to make himself invisible to mess with people and that he didn’t just disappear.”
Roth sighed as his head fell back. “I was afraid this was going to happen.”
* * *
Standing in the kitchen of Roth and Layla’s place, I mentally prepped myself for the last thing I wanted to do. And that was saying something since there were a whole lot of things I didn’t want to do at the moment.
But calling Nicolai and letting him know that Lucifer was MIA topped the list of I don’t wanna.
I glanced over my shoulder, spotting Zayne and Layla. They were in a darkened sunroom off the kitchen, talking to one another. I squinted, trying to see their expressions, but it was no use. At least it no longer looked like Layla was crying, so I hoped that was a good sign. My gaze lowered to the thick, dark mass coiled around Zayne’s leg.
Bambi.
The moment we walked into the McMansion, Bambi had peeled herself off Roth’s arm and all but attached herself to Zayne’s side. When I left the sunroom to give Zayne and Layla some privacy, the familiar had her diamond-shaped head resting on Zayne’s knee and was staring up at him with a look of pure adoration.
I guessed I was no longer her snuggle buddy.
A moment later, a small reddish blur scampered across the kitchen and into the sunroom. A fox. Layla’s familiar, to be exact. His name was Robin, and he was a hyper little thing, running from one corner of the house to the other. According to Roth, it was a baby...familiar.
I wanted to pet it. Just once. On the top of its furry little head.
Sighing, I returned to staring at the blurry contact on my phone.
“You can do it.” Roth bent at the waist and leaned against the counter. “I believe in you.”
“Shut up.”
His golden eyes glimmered with amusement as he looked up at me. “Rude.”
“If you knew there was a chance that Lucifer would up and disappear, that should’ve been the first thing out of your mouth,” I shot back.
“Not like it would change anything. No one would’ve been able to stop him. Stop procrastinating and give them a much needed heads-up.”
Swallowing a mouthful of curses, I called Nicolai. He answered on the third ring.
“Trinity? Was just getting ready to call you.”
“You were?” I winced, hoping it wasn’t because Lucifer had already done something to catch their attention.
“Yeah, got good news. We’re able to get the stones from Yellowstone.”
“Stones?” Roth murmured.
“Really?” That was great news. “So that just leaves...?”
“The onyx and tourmaline. Hopefully we’ll hear something soon about them,” he said. “So, what’s up?”
“Well,” I said, drawing the word out. “You got a moment?”
“I’m on the phone with you, so yes.”
“I just wanted to make sure you weren’t busy,” I said, and Roth raised an eyebrow at me. Flipping him off, I turned away from him. “So, I’m just going to say it.” I cleared my throat. “Roth and Layla were successful—well, I guess successful would be considered subjective and would depend on whether or not you were on board with the idea of bringing Lucifer into the fold.”
“I still haven’t made my mind up when it comes to that,” he replied flatly.
I doubted what I was about to tell him was going to push him toward Team On Board. “So, Lucifer did come topside, and good news is he did agree to help. Was actually pretty enthusiastic about it.”
There was a pause and then Nicolai said, “Okay?”
“But we, uh...” My entire body and brain cringed. “We sort of lost Lucifer.”
“What?”
“Don’t freak out—”
“Don’t freak out? Are you kidding me? You lost Lucifer, and you’re telling me not to freak out?” Nicolai shouted from the phone. “How in the world do you even lose Lucifer?”
“Well, it’s easier than you’d think. He did that really annoying demon thing and popped out of existence.”
“Don’t be a hater,” said Roth.
Nicolai sounded like he was trying to take several deep breaths. “Are you legitimately telling me that Lucifer—the Lucifer—is out there, roaming around because you all lost him?”
“I wouldn’t say we lost him—”
“You just said you lost him!”
“Okay. Bad word choice. We just misplaced him, but we’re going to find him.” I hoped we found him. “And he seemed pretty calm for, you know, being Lucifer, and all, so I don’t think he’s going to cause much trouble.”
“You seriously think Lucifer, who hasn’t walked Earth in how many years, isn’t going to cause trouble?” Nicolai asked. “Are you high? Am I high?”
The corners of my lips turned down. “I’m not high, and hey, at least I’m not calling to tell you that we’ve jump-started the biblical end times.”
“Yet,” he growled. “You’re not calling to tell me that yet.”
He kind of had a point there. “Look, we’re going to find him. I just wanted to give you all a heads-up in case you happen to run into a hopefully fully clothed Lucifer to not engage. Okay? So, I’ve got to go and find him now.”