“N-no! I’m not saying that all,” the man was quick to respond. “I don’t know where they’re at, but I know they’re planning something.”
“Really?” Lucifer replied dryly.
The man nodded. “Yes. They have this portal—”
“You’re boring me.” Lucifer snapped his fingers.
The man’s skin—it just peeled right off his body, exposing muscle and bone.
“Oh my God!” I jumped up, losing my balance on the cushion. I tumbled over the back of the couch while Jada remained frozen. Zayne moved incredibly fast, catching me as the man went down in a twitching, strangely bloodless heap of raw...raw meat.
Layla gagged as she clamped her hands over her mouth.
“Don’t!” Cayman pointed at her. “Don’t make that sound. I’m a—” His shoulders heaved as she gagged again. The man had stopped moving. “I’m a sympathetic puker.”
“Oh my God,” she gasped. “The smell—”
“Stop!” Cayman cried.
Layla pivoted, rushing from the room.
“Well, he’s superdead.” Roth pinned a glare on Lucifer. “Nice work.”
“What? He can’t...oh, yeah. He wasn’t already dead.” Lucifer shrugged. “My bad.”
“How do you forget he wasn’t already dead?” Zayne’s chest rose with a deep breath. “I mean, really? I want to know.”
“Well, I was kind of lying. I didn’t forget.” Lucifer picked up the remote. “He was just seriously boring me, and the last episode of Supernatural ended on a major cliffy.”
I stared at him and then spoke a sentence I never thought I’d ever have to say. “You can’t peel the skin off people just because they bore you.”
“I can’t?”
“No!”
“But I just did.” Lucifer looked over at Jada. “Didn’t I?”
I snapped out of my stupor. Pulling free from Zayne, I planted myself between Jada and Lucifer. The devil’s smile kicked up a notch. “What good is he to us if he’s dead?”
“What good was he alive?” Lucifer rose from the chair with the grace of a trained dancer. “He told us all he knew, which was the names of the other humans. They, too, will be questioned.”
“By peeling off their skin?” Roth asked.
“If need be.”
I shook my head as a demon appeared in the doorway. He gave off major Upper Level vibes as he strode into the room. He didn’t even look at us as he picked up what was left of Johnny-Boy and carried him out of the room.
The smell was slow to follow.
“I’m getting some air freshener,” Roth grumbled, stalking out the room. “And disinfectant.”
“Do you think any of the names he gave you will know where Gabriel or Bael is?”
Lucifer appeared to consider that. “I’m going to be honest with you all. Like I always am,” Lucifer said, and I fought to not roll my eyes. “I may have overestimated in my earlier confidence when it comes to rooting out their location. I have serious doubts that anyone knows where those two are. So, whatever plan you have to draw him out better work.”
And with that, Lucifer sauntered out of the room.
“What was your plan again?” Cayman asked.
“Draw him out by challenging his ego,” Zayne explained.
“There is plan B,” I reminded him.
“Plan B is not on the table.”
“It’s not off the table, either.” Dragging my gaze from the spot the man had fallen, I turned to Jada. “You okay?”
She nodded.
“If I’d known he was going to be doing that, I wouldn’t have brought you,” I told her.
Jada looked up at me. “I mean, you were bringing me to Lucifer. Not like I expected him to be knitting.”
“He does like to do that, but with human skin,” Cayman decided to share with us. “By the way, I’m Cayman. Your friends suck at introductions.”
“Jada,” she said.
Roth returned with air freshener. Layla was with him, carrying a WetJet and a tub of disinfectant wipes.
“Heads-up,” Zayne said to him as Layla got down to scrubbing the floor. “Those angel blades? They’re missing.”
Roth stopped midspray. “What?”
As Zayne and Roth went down that road of whether or not a Warden would’ve taken the blades, Jada finally rose and wandered over to one of the windows. I didn’t realize she was even listening to the conversation until she said, “You know, I wouldn’t be surprised if a Warden did take them.”
Everyone turned to her.
“I don’t know you,” Roth said. “But I like you.”
She looked a little uncomfortable. “What I’m thinking is that I wouldn’t be surprised if a Warden took them and hid them. I mean, most Wardens aren’t...friendly with demons, and even though that seems to be, uh, different here... No judgment,” she was quick to add. “But I imagine not every Warden here is on board with that.”
“They’re not,” Layla confirmed, looking over at Zayne. “You know that.”
He blew out a heavy breath and nodded. “I could see one of them thinking the blades were safer stowed away where Gideon or Nic wouldn’t know where they were.”
“Or they want to use them against one of us,” Roth stated. “Those blades need to be found.”
“We’ll add that to our ever-growing list of things that need to be done,” Zayne commented.
Roth looked around the room, frowning. “Where is Lucifer?”
“I think he’s in the living room.” I yawned. “Back to watching Supernatural, I guess.”
“Huh. Kind of like parenting a really annoying toddler, I imagine,” Roth replied.
Layla closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “I don’t think today can get any weirder.”
“Um, guys?” Jada was staring out the window. “I think there is a legion of actual demons out here, playing...badminton? With a...” She took a step back from the window. “They’re playing with that dude’s head. The dude Lucifer de-skinned.” She faced us. “They’re actually playing badminton, using that dude’s head as a shuttlecock.”
We all turned to Layla.