by Rae Foxx
He waved one arm, and the blood disappeared, but we weren't able to heal ourselves. And I didn't have enough magic to do it for him.
Michael held out his arm as the sword disappeared. He gave me a dark look then disappeared himself. Presumably to get someone to heal his foot.
Well, that hadn't gone well at all.
I calmed Jellybean down and turned out the light, then curled back around Lucian. I'd hold his hand as he died, but I didn't want to be the one to do the deed. Let Michael and Gabe handle it, the three of them loved one-upping each other.
Sometime later, as I was dozing restlessly, Jellybean growled again, but not as urgently this time. Michael stood in the doorway, waving me over. I slipped out of bed, leaving Lucian still sleeping with the aid I'd given him earlier, and followed him downstairs.
"What happened?" I asked. "Why were you jumping?”
"I wasn't," he hissed. "I had to go get Gabe to heal my foot, and you know how much that burned me to do."
I considered his feelings and held in my laughter. "Did he give you a hard time?"
"Of course."
"So, what happened?"
"I don't know. It might be the curse on him, but I'm going to chalk it up to a freak accident and try again." He sucked in a deep breath and walked over to my cabinets. Pulling a small paring knife out of a drawer, he held it up then marched up the stairs.
I scrambled to follow. When we reached the bedroom, Michael waited for me to get in bed beside Luc and grab his hand. I nodded when I was ready for him to try again.
He leaned over and got close to Lucian laying the knife at his throat. "One," he whispered. "Two..." As he opened his mouth to say three, our house phone, which never rang, shrilled sharply into the quiet room.
Michael flinched, apparently more keyed up this time. His hand jerked, and I watched with my mouth open as the blade headed straight for his face.
I didn't mean to laugh. Truly I didn't. But as Michael straightened with the knife sticking out of his cheek and blood pouring out of his mouth, he looked so consternated I couldn't help myself.
He blew a deep breath out of his nose and disappeared.
"Hey!" I called. "Clean up this mess!"
The blood disappeared without Michael coming back, but at least the job was done.
I reached back onto my bedside table and grabbed the phone.
"Hello?"
"May I please speak to Ronald?" The man's voice was completely unfamiliar to me. He sounded older, elderly.
"There's no-one here by that name."
"Oh, I'm so sorry." He sounded embarrassed. "I hate that I called so late." He rattled off a phone number. "Is that your number?"
"No, dear, the last number you dialed is nine, not eight."
"My fool fingers. Please accept my apology."
He hung up before I could. I sat for several minutes and stared at the handset. A freak wrong number had prevented Michael from killing Lucian again.
This wasn't an accident. That curse was actively keeping Lucian safe more than we knew. Even with Michael and I working together to let it happen. Without my interference or Jellybean’s, Lucian was still alive. And I still couldn't go to my baby even for a visit.
Even after the events of the night, it was only a little after two. I tried to snuggle in beside Lucian and sleep again, but it took a while.
I must've drifted off eventually, though, because I woke and sat straight upright when I heard Michael scream. He held his hand out in front of him, and though I couldn't see a weapon, his hand and arm were covered in blood.
He was panting and staring at his fingers. Moving his gaze to me, he shook his head. "Don't ask." Then, he disappeared, along with the blood.
I snorted and settled back down to try to fall asleep. Again.
A good hour later, I had rolled onto my back and was pretending to count sheep on the ceiling. And it wasn't working. Michael's voice floated through the air. "I've had enough for tonight. I'll try again later."
I smiled and knew he could see me. "Hey, give me a little help sleeping, how about it?"
He didn't respond, but I felt a flutter against my cheek. Then, my eyes grew heavy, and I yawned.
"Thanks," I whispered.
Damn, those two were handy to have around.
The next day, I had no choice but to carry on as normal Constance. After seeing Lucian off to work, I even worked on a beauty video, editing it. Surprisingly, I enjoyed myself and found it to be a good distraction, even though my eyes filled with tears several times without warning.
Halfway through the day, as I stood in front of the fridge, Michael appeared just inside the back door. "Hey, love."
I closed the fridge and held out my arms. "I'm happy to see you." Sighing in relief, I let him support me as I pressed my cheek against his chest. "I'm blue."
"I figured you might be. We've been discussing Lucifer and what to do. The sooner we get this done the sooner you can work on moving forward.”
"I'll leave her there. It's the right place for her as a human." The words still hurt to say even though they were true.
"I know, but there are lots of options to put us in her life in some way."
He squeezed me, then pulled back. Reaching up, I brushed his wavy hair away from his forehead. When he was Adam, he hadn't had much curl, but it had returned as soon as he was back in his ethereal body.
"I'm going to show up for dinner." He stroked my hair in return. I loved their fingers in my hair and all of my mates knew it, too. "As Adam. I'll glamour myself."
I nodded. "Okay, then what?"
"I'm going to poison his food. See if we can go at this from a different direction. Direct attacks don't seem to be working, we'll go for a sneak attack."
I nodded. "Okay, sure. I'll make sure to make enough for you."
He grinned. "I doubt any of us will be eating much, but you need to keep up pretenses, I guess. Just doesn’t feel right to eat while you’re poisoning someone at the table.”
"I need to stay busy." I collapsed into a kitchen chair. "If I don't, I'll be tempted to go see Ariel and that can't happen." If Anna thought I wasn't leaving, that I might try to take Ariel away from her, she might try to call the whole thing off or notify the authorities. Gabriel and Michael's magic would keep her from doing that, but it would only go so far. We hadn't had time to craft a spell or curse that would be more foolproof, so we had to keep from triggering Anna's emotions enough that she could break through the magic.
Michael pressed a kiss to my forehead. "Try to stay busy, and we'll get through this as soon as we can. This pain is temporary." With that, he disappeared.
He was wrong, though, the pain wouldn't leave. I had a daughter, after thousands of years of yearning, an actual daughter.
I'd carry this pain forever.
What I'd told him about staying busy had been true. I couldn't stand being idle.
I fully edited the video and got it posted, and filtered through dozens of emails and hundreds of comments on my channel. By the time the garage door opened announcing Lucian’s return from work, my steaks were ready to be cooked. I set them to sizzling in butter in the cast iron skillet.
It was a waste, really. Cooking steak that would only be an avenue for the poison. But maybe we'd get a few yummy bites before it happened.
I pulled the baked potatoes I had cooking out of the oven and put them next to the big salad that was waiting on the kitchen table.
Lucian walked in just as the front doorbell rang. He raised his eyebrows at me, but I shrugged and feigned ignorance. "No idea."
"I'll go see," Lucian said. I watched him walk out of the kitchen and down the hall. When he opened the door, both he and Adam shouted obscenities at each other.
Soon, he reentered the kitchen with his arm around Adam's shoulders. I reminded myself to think of him as Adam in my mind tonight, so that I wouldn’t accidentally call him Michael.
"Hey, Adam, long time no see." I cocked my head at him behind L
ucian's back and widened my eyes.
"Hey, Connie." He looked around the room. "Oh, man, I didn't realize the time. I'll go, we can hang out another time."
"Nonsense," I said. "Have you eaten?"
"No, but I see you're making steaks. That's not the kind of dinner you can easily add a person to." He smiled blandly as Lucian looked between us.
Luc pursed his lips at me as if asking me for permission for his friend to come over and play.
"You're in luck. I had one steak left in the freezer. Somehow, we ended up with an uneven number. I already have it in the pan, and I even put an extra baked potato in the oven. I was going to send it for Luc's lunch tomorrow."
Lucian clapped Adam on the back. "I guess I'll have to deal with a ham sandwich, my friend."
Adam ducked his head and grinned. It was so cute. Now that I knew who he was, I had to fight the urge to kiss his bashful grin. I'd seen that same smile many times over the years, but it had never made me want to love on him. But I hadn't known then who he was.
I finished cooking while they sat at the table and talked. I intentionally forgot the steak sauce. If Adam hadn't had a chance to poison Lucian's plate by the time I asked for the sauce, he could then.
When everything was dished out and everything was settled, I sat down to cut my steak. "Oh, shoot. Luc, will you grab the steak sauce?"
He rolled his eyes. "You kill me, Conn. How you can eat a strip steak like this with sauce, I'll never know. It totally covers up the flavor."
"Yeah, well, at least you aren't lecturing me about it being well done."
He snorted as he stood. "I should. You ruined yours."
Adam poured a clear liquid all over Lucian's steak, and it blended in with all the juices before Lucian returned with my sauce.
Butterflies swarmed my stomach as I watched Lucian take a bite of his steak. Nothing happened.
Michael...Adam and I took bites of our own. Mine tasted heavenly. I cooked it to perfection. Three or four bites in, Lucian was happy as a clam, chowing down on his steak and potato, which he'd covered liberally in toppings. I glared at Adam, who shrugged.
A few seconds later, Adam made a strange gurgling sound. His eyes turned bloodshot in seconds, and he began to wheeze. I widened my eyes at him. I'd watched him put the poison on Lucian's plate. How could it have possibly ended up on his own?
He lurched from his chair and ran to the sink, retching the whole way. Thankfully, he made it to the sink that had a garbage disposal in the bottom before emptying his stomach.
I rubbed his back, trying not to act too familiar with him as I comforted him. He kept throwing up until there couldn't have possibly been anything left in his stomach. He flipped on the water and buried his face under the faucet, washing out his mouth and letting the water cool his heated skin.
"I'm going to go home," he whispered after I handed him a towel to dry off. "I don't feel good."
"Of course," I said. I wanted to go with him and take care of him. I had no idea what poison he'd used or if it would cause any lasting damage to him.
Lucian stood behind us, bouncing from one foot to another, worried about his friend. "What happened, Adam?"
He took one of Adam's arms, and I took the other as we helped him to the front door. "Luc," I said. "Walk him down to his house. I'll get rid of the food. Something in it made him ill. We'd better not try to eat it."
"Good call, Connie. Be right back."
A few minutes later, Michael popped into the kitchen just as I finished scraping all the food into the trash. "Lucian is on his way back," he said. "I'm going to get Gabe's help with this. I don't think this poison could kill me, but holy fuck it hurts." He was half bent over with his arm around his waist.
"Okay, go. But first, give me the poison," I said. He hesitated, but I arched an eyebrow and held out my hand. "You and Gabe can't get the job done. I'm going to try."
He sighed. "I don't like it, but it’s fine. Here."
He pressed the small vial into my hand. I held it up to the light. Still about half full. Good.
When I looked down, he was gone, and I heard the front door opening.
"How is Adam?" I asked.
Lucian shook his head. "I've never heard of a case of food poisoning setting in that fast," he said. "More than likely he had a stomach bug already." He shrugged off his suit jacket.
"Well, I'll wipe down the kitchen and make us a quick bowl of ramen." We didn't eat the packaged noodles often since they were incredibly bad for us and we tried to stay somewhat healthy, but we kept a few packs on hand for quick meals.
"Sounds great, thanks." He ruffled Jellybean's head. The pooch had been sitting in the corner of the kitchen, observing the hoopla. "Come on Jelly, let's go change clothes."
He headed upstairs to get out of his suit and remembered to grab the suit coat he'd taken off and thrown over the back of a kitchen chair. I grinned at his consideration.
Ten minutes and one microwaved meal later, I poured half the poison in Lucian's and half in mine. That way whichever bowl he ended up with, he'd get the poison. Foolproof.
And to keep myself from getting it, I simply wouldn't eat.
Luc came back down in his jogging pants. "I want to go run after dinner; you want to come?" he asked. "Jellybean needs a good run."
"I'd love to." I smiled serenely at him and indicated the bowls on the counter. "Help yourself."
"Man, I love these noodles." He grabbed his bowl and set it on the table, a little too close to the edge. "Let me grab some hot sauce."
As he turned to get the bottle out of the refrigerator, his butt bumped the table, and it jarred the bowl of noodles. They went flying onto the floor with a crash. The bowl broke and noodles and broth went everywhere.
"Are you fucking kidding me?" I asked.
Lucian looked at me in surprise. "It's okay, Conn. It's just noodles. I can eat a sandwich." He grabbed the paper towels and got up the bigger pieces of the bowl.
"Grab my bowl and eat, Luc." I pulled the mop out of the utility closet. "I'll finish this. I had a big lunch anyway. I may just have a big salad." No way I'd be eating anything from our house tonight.
"You sure?" He held the bowl out. "I don't mind a salad either."
"Positive. Eat." I nudged the bowl toward him and set to mopping, as I watched him out of the corner of my eye. He set the bowl securely in the center of the table and turned again to get hot sauce.
My jaw dropped as I watched Jellybean's nose lift into the air. That damn dog had been with us for several weeks now, and not one time had he ever stolen food from the table. Before I could gather a yell in my throat to shoo him away, he jumped up onto the table and inhaled the bowl full of noodles and poison in seconds.
"Jellybean!" I screamed.
Lucian turned around to see an empty bowl and a very naughty dog looking up at me with big eyes.
"Bad boy," I said in a low voice, worried about the poison.
Lucian grabbed the bowl and the instant he looked away, Jellybean burped. A small burst of fire erupted from his mouth. If I knew hellhounds, and I did, that meant his body had burned up the poison.
"Well." I walked into the utility room and slapped the mop into the floor sink to be cleaned later. "I'm done. I'm taking a bubble bath. Feed yourself."
Lucian gave me a dumbfounded look. "Did I do something?"
"No, darling, you are perfect as always. I'm just feeling grumpy." I shrugged. "Sour mood, I guess."
After patting him on the cheek, I headed upstairs. There had to be a way to get Lucifer back. This was getting frigging ridiculous.
20
My sigh felt like it came from my toes. I was in the office, setting up a photo shoot. I'd already cleaned the house (which hadn't needed cleaning), made lunch, picked at it, and folded a load of laundry. I still had hours before Lucian came home. I couldn't leave, because if I set one foot out of this house I'd go straight to Anna's.
"Gabe? Michael?" I'd called for them several times alr
eady, but they were ignoring me.
To my surprise, they popped in this time. Jellybean gave a lazy woof from his spot on the sofa in the corner of the office.
"I hear you're a very bad boy," Michael said. He ruffled Jelly's ears. The big oaf just chuffed and closed his eyes.
"Very bad." I put my hands on my hips and stared at him. "But now what?"
"Now, I tell you I've been to see Ariel."
My heart slammed in my chest when I processed his words. "You did? When? How is she? Are they taking good care of her?"
Gabriel walked toward me as I walked out of my videoing area. He wrapped his arms around my shoulders and kissed my hair as I stared at Michael.
"She's perfect. I watched as Anna rocked her and put her down for a nap. She was wearing clothes I know we didn't take over there, so they've shopped for her already. And then I checked her over while she slept. She's in perfect health. She does have a slight allergy to the formula they're using, but I put that idea in Anna's head with a sliver of magic, so she'll correct it before it becomes irritating to her little tummy."
I sighed in relief. The weight of the world lifted from my shoulders momentarily with the knowledge that my baby girl was safe and healthy. "Anything else?"
"She grinned in her sleep, but then she farted, so it was just gas." He pulled a cell phone out of his pocket. "I did get you these."
He pulled open an app, then handed me the phone. Gabe helped me walk to the couch and slapped Jellybean's big rump, so he'd get off. I sank into the cushions and swiped through several pictures of Ariel sleeping in the crib I'd painstakingly picked out for her. Gabe and Michael sat down with me and put their hands comfortingly on me wherever they could reach.
At the end of the photos was a video. Tears rolled down my cheeks as I listened to her sigh in her sleep with one fist raised and resting beside her face.
"I heard Anna coming after this, so I hightailed it out of there." He took the phone and pressed a few buttons. Seconds later, my phone dinged from my desk. "There. They're in your inbox now. To hold you over until you can see her again."
