“Your child would’ve been like that—like you,” he said. “But that was before.”
“Before what?” Zayne asked.
Grim’s smile spread. “Find Lucifer. Take care of Gabriel, and then worry about that. In the meantime, I would invest in birth control.” His ancient gaze drifted from Zayne to me. “I’ll see you again.”
And with possibly the most unnerving words the Angel of Death could ever say, Grim vanished from the kitchen.
“He’s...” I slowly shook my head. “He’s something else.”
“That he is.” Zayne turned to me.
I looked up at him, mind still reeling. “The actual Angel of Death just popped in to yell at us and to tell me I’m not pregnant. Our lives are so strange.”
A smile played over his lips as he placed his hands on my upper arms. “It is definitely strange. How are you feeling about what he told us?”
“I...” There were so many emotions and thoughts rolling through my head, but there was a lessening of tension in my chest. “I feel relieved? Does that make me a bad person?”
“No. It doesn’t. I also feel relieved.” Curling his arms around my shoulders, he stepped into me. “Don’t get me wrong. If you were, we would’ve been okay. We would’ve figured things out, but now...”
“Now is so not a good time for any of that.” I rested my chin on his chest. “At least we know it can happen.”
“He did give good advice about birth control.” His lips twitched.
“That was advice I never needed to hear from the Angel of Death,” I retorted. “As were his parting words, but I guess all of us—or at least most of us—will see him again one day.”
Zayne’s jaw hardened. “That’s not going to happen.”
I smiled as I rested my cheek on his chest. He said that like he could somehow prevent death from taking me. He couldn’t. One way or another, I would meet death. Hopefully it was a long time from now.
“But it’s good to know that it is possible. You know?” He threaded his fingers through my hair. “If down the road we decide we want to.”
“What? Ruin a child?”
He laughed. “Yeah, that.”
Another smile curled up my lips. I still felt a little guilty for being so damn relieved, but I was so not ready for that. Not with everything going on. Maybe not ever, but at least that would be a choice we would get to make.
“What do you think he meant about the whole ‘before’ part?” Zayne asked. “About what our child would be.”
“God, that’s anyone’s guess. We’re going to have to obsess over that later.” I started to pull back.
Zayne stopped me, dipping his chin so that when he spoke, his lips brushed my cheek. “What happened to the Protector and the Trueborn? That’s not us. That will never be us.”
“I know.” I stretched up as far as I could, and he lowered his head the rest of the way. I kissed him. “Whoever would be stupid enough to try that wouldn’t be walking back out of our bedroom.”
“Agreed.” The kiss he gave me then was longer, deeper, and when it was over, I wished we had more time. “We need to get out there and find Lucifer.”
“We do.” I stepped out of his embrace. “At least we don’t have to go to a drugstore.”
“We still need to get you new sunglasses,” he reminded me as we left the kitchen.
Since the living room was dark, Zayne had worked his way so he was only a step ahead of me, leading a path around the furniture. God, I had missed that. I reached out, curling my fingers around the edge of his shirt.
Roth was waiting for us in the foyer, alone.
“Where’s Layla?” Zayne asked.
“Chasing down Robin. He thinks it’s playtime so he ran upstairs.”
I stepped around Zayne. “Where’s your nope rope?”
“Nope rope?” Roth chuckled. “My danger noodle is on my arm. She’s not as ill-behaved as Robin. It’ll take her a minute to catch him, so I figured you guys can go ahead and head out. If you guys want Dupont Circle, we’ll check H Street.”
“Sounds good to me,” Zayne said as we started for the door.
I was thinking it was going to be a long night as we stepped out into the muggy July night air.
“By the way,” Roth started.
Zayne turned back to him. “I really hope you’re not bringing up what you heard Grim talking to us about.”
“Nope. Knowledge that you two aren’t going to be parents isn’t any of my business,” Roth said, and I frowned. “There’s just something I need to say.”
“Can’t wait to hear this,” Zayne replied.
“I know you can kick my ass up and down the city now.” Roth leaned against the threshold of the door. “You’re a Fallen with grace. I’m demon enough to recognize when I’m outgunned, but if you go toe to toe with Lucifer, you will lose.”
“And knowing you wouldn’t win against me, that wouldn’t stop you from coming at me if you thought Layla was threatened,” Zayne replied. “Right?”
“Not for one damn second.”
“Then you understand why knowing I’m likely to die won’t stop me,” he stated, and I rolled my eyes. “But it warms my heart to know that you care.”
Roth smirked. “Whatever, Stony.”
“You missed me.” Zayne grinned. “Admit it.”
The grin on Roth’s face was brief. “Just be careful. That’s all I’m saying. If you find Lucifer first, don’t push him. He’s impulsive and has a tendency of destroying things before he thinks his actions through. He’d happily cut off his own nose to spite his face. If you irritate him, he’ll kill you. He’ll kill both of you.”
28
Searching for Lucifer was like a game of Clue, if the game of Clue included things like attractive, half-naked Satan found with a shot of vodka in the bathroom of a shady-as-Hell club.
Zayne and I had hoofed it through most of Dupont Circle, stopping at every bar and club we came across, and God only knew why there were so many bars.
Strangely, no one asked for our IDs. I had a feeling that was Zayne’s doing. Again and again, a bouncer or waiter would say that our description sounded familiar, reporting that a man who looked a lot like who we were looking for did come in, shirtless. This was often told to us right next to the no-shoes, no-shirt policy on a window or door. Then they’d direct us to a bartender who would swear that a man matching our description had come in and ordered top-shelf vodka, watched the crowd like a total creeper and then asked for recommendations on other bars he should check out. The first club we’d stopped at seemed more like an exotic dance club to me, since there’d been a whole lot of half-naked people on the dance floor, but then, I didn’t think there were unisex exotic clubs. By the third establishment that would’ve fit right in with Sodom and Gomorrah, we quickly began to realize that wherever Lucifer went, his presence was felt, leaving behind an aura of temptation that thickened the air with sin.