by L-J Baker
"You're what?"
"Yeah, that doesn't usually come up in my mind. I don't know why. My brother Az and I are both attorneys. Neither of us practice, but we are licensed to do so."
She tilted her head and a small smile spread across her lips. "What else?"
"I've done… corrections, you could call it."
"Like for prison?"
"Yeah, something like that. I've also been a soldier and even worked in the medical field for a bit. I guess I had to try out a lot of things to figure out what I wanted."
"And what you wanted was to own a club, a super amazing, fancy-as-fuck club?"
"Are those the exact words you plan on using in the article?"
"I haven't decided." She nibbled at the top of her pen for a moment, then scribbled down something in her notebook. "Maybe."
"What about you? Did you ever want to be anything else?"
She paused the recording and thought for a moment. "I thought about being a photographer. Back home, I had this amazing camera. My dad bought it for me when I graduated high school. No expense spared, all the bells and whistles. I used to take long walks and photograph everything I saw that caught my eye."
"You don't have it anymore?"
"I sold it to move out here. I had to get rid of anything that wasn't going to help me do what I really wanted to do. It hurt to do it, but writing is my passion. Photography was just a hobby."
"And the writing? Journalism is where you want to be? Not the secret love stories?"
"Maybe. I mean, it pays the bills. It allows me to live here. Would I like to write fiction and have it be amazing? Sure. But I'm realistic and I know that the chances of that are slim. So journalism is a good second choice."
Luc frowned. He didn't want her to settle for second choice. He didn't want her to give up a beloved hobby. He wanted her to have everything that made her happy.
She tapped record again and nibbled her pen some more. "How long have you been having shows here?"
"A little over a year. It was Harley's idea to start bringing in entertainment. I had the stage built and the rest is history. Really, I can't take credit for any of it. She does all the work. She finds the acts, books them, and handles just about everything. I don't know what I'd do without her."
"How did you get the money to start this place? It had to be expensive."
"Actually, not as much as you might think. It started as a bar only, which I paid for with the money I had saved from everything I'd done before. Then it grew over time."
"But you had to buy this huge building to begin with. That had to cost a bit."
"It did, but it was in bad shape when I got it and we slowly made it what it is today. Plus, the original owner owed me a favor, so I got a good deal."
"That sounds very mob-ish." Anna laughed. It was a nice laugh and Luc really noticed it for the first time. The way her eyes crinkled up and sparkled only added to the effect.
"Nothing so illicit, I swear. Just an old man, at the end of his life, trying to pay up old debts. Besides, he had no children to leave it to. I'm pretty sure everything I paid him went to a charity."
"Sounds like you have some interesting friends."
"When you skip around through careers trying to find yourself, you meet a lot of interesting people. I don't know that I'd call them friends, because I save that word for something more meaningful, but I have met some unique individuals."
"Can I have some water?"
"Of course. I'm sorry for not asking." Luc reaching into his mini-fridge and grabbed her a fancy bottled water. Then he poured a bourbon for himself.
"Are you an alcoholic?" Her face was straight, serious, but Luc couldn't help but laugh.
"No, Annalee. I'm not an alcoholic. I just enjoy fine things. Does my drinking make you uncomfortable?"
"Not at all. It's just that you seem to do it all day and night. Though I've never seen you even buzzed. How is that possible?"
"I think if you get to know my family, you'll see we have an unnaturally high tolerance for alcohol. We all drink socially, often, and getting intoxicated is rare." Luc shrugged. "Just lucky, I guess. Tell me about your friends from home."
"My best friend growing up was Patrick. It was platonic on my part, but he always had a thing for me. We were pretty much inseparable from the time we were six. Our mother's were good friends. I'm not sure how I would have survived high school without him."
"Why? Were you bullied?" Luc leaned forward and watched her mouth as she spoke.
"I guess you could call it that. I was the quiet nerdy girl freshman year. Nobody really knew who I was and that was fine. I had Patrick and I was writing a lot of silly poetry. I was happy, ya know?"
"I do." Luc thought about his own childhood, back when things were good and his family was together.
"Then this senior saw me in the hall one night after school. I was at this freshman intro thing we all had to go to, but he was there late, after track or something."
Luc swallowed hard. He hoped her story wasn't about to take a bad turn. He wasn't sure he could handle another of his girls having that narrative.
"He was super hot and popular, and he just bumped into me, like on purpose, as I'm walking down the hall. It was… flirty, but no big deal. I went home and dreamed about having his babies." She laughed.
"As any freshman girl would, I assume." Luc sipped his bourbon.
"The next day in lunch, he jumps into Patrick's seat before he could sit down and put his arm around me. He started asking me questions, wanting to know all about me. I was kind of in shock, but I played along. By the end of lunch, he asked me to hang out. Of course I said yes."
"Of course."
"He met me at the park and we hung out by this huge oak tree, the kind where local kids all carve their names into. He hands me this pocket knife and says, add your name. So I did, and he put his. Then he kissed me. It was a great kiss, my first, but then he started trying to get his hand down my pants and I'm like no way. So I push him off, but he's a jerk about it, and ends up leaving me there alone."
"Teenage boys are dicks."
"Yeah, well this one certainly was. The next day in school, he told the whole school I gave him a blow job in the park. He had a picture of the tree, where we carved our names, to prove it. No one believed me, of course."
"Of course."
"So that became my story, the girl who gives out bj's in the park."
"Sounds rough. But you had Patrick?"
"Yeah. He was my person."
"Was?"
"Senior year, there was this rafting trip." Her eyes teared up, but she took a deep breath and pushed them back. "He drowned."
"I'm so sorry. That must have been awful." Luc reached forward and took her hand. She tensed, but didn't pull away.
"It was, but you can't change the past. You can only move forward."
"Or stay stuck. The fact that you didn't, says a lot about you."
"I guess I always felt like I had to do something, ya know, because he didn't get to?"
"I can understand that. I've lost people, never my best friend, but once, I almost lost her. I can only imagine what it's like to actually go through that, because even almost is terrible."
"I'm sorry."
"For what?"
"Telling you that whole sad story. You didn't need to know every detail of my life. I'm not even sure why I said all that. Even my roommates don't know any of that."
"Hey," Luc rubbed his thumb over the back of her hand. "I like hearing your stories. I want to get to know you."
She looked up at him with searching eyes, like she was trying to find out why he cared, but didn't want to ask. After a moment, she pulled her hand away and shook off whatever it was she was feeling.
"What's with the giant tattoo?"
Luc was used to that question. It was rare a woman saw him naked and didn't ask about it. "That's my wings."
"Clearly. What made you choose wings though?"
"I didn't r
eally choose them. They chose me. My family, I'm sure you've noticed all the angel names."
"Lucifer, Azrael, Uriel, Gabriel, uh yes. I've noticed."
"Well, it's a family thing, I guess you could say. We all have them."
"All your siblings have giant angel wings on their back?" Her eyes widened.
"We do."
"I guess it would be weird to want to see them all?"
"Um, yes. I don't think Gabriel would be interested in taking his shirt off. Az would happily strip naked for any woman who asked though, so if you're that curious, I'm sure he wouldn't mind."
"You wouldn't?"
"What? Mind?"
"Yeah, I mean, you wouldn't mind if I asked your brother to take off his clothes?"
"I…" Luc paused and smiled. "I wouldn't mind if you asked to see his wings."
Luc would mind very much if Az showed her more than that. He also wished he could show her that his wings weren't really a tattoo, that they were real, that he could fly her anywhere.
"What is this between us?" She was smiling, but Luc knew she wanted a serious answer.
"What do you want it to be?" He wasn't sure of the answer himself yet. He also knew he had to spend the next two months with different women. How was he going to take things where they needed to go with Anna, maybe even fall in love, and then walk away to be with two different women?
"I don't know. I haven't known you a week, but it feels like we have some connection. Is that just the sex? Is it more?" She chugged half her water bottle and gave him a moment to think. He was grateful, but even that reprieve wouldn't give him enough time to come up with an answer.
"I feel that connection, too. The sex is amazing. I mean, I don't need to tell you that. We both know that it is. Although I feel like maybe there's more to it. But I know that with the stuff going on with my family right now, I can't consider what that might be just yet. There's things I need to figure out first."
"Anything you wanna talk about?"
He wanted to talk about it all, spill the whole crazy truth to her, but he couldn't. She wouldn't believe him if he tried. He'd have to prove to her who he was and he couldn't do that unless she was his soul mate. The rest of the world didn't need to know what he was. He had enough problems as it was.
"Maybe some day."
Anna frowned. "I understand."
"How about we go supervise some deliveries and I show you how orders are done?"
"Sounds great."
"And after that, if you aren't bored to death, I can take you with me to meet with a potential business contact."
"I'd love that."
Luc got up and came around the desk to her. She stood, only inches from him. The electricity was there. The heat was there. Everything in him begged to take her on his desk, to make love to her until she couldn't move. But she needed this story to work. She was depending on this, and with what he was about to face, she might not be able to depend on him to be around to give her more for the article. Today had to count, for her, not for his out-of-control desire for her.
"Okay, let's go."
Luc dragged Anna around all day, doing one thing, or another. He answered all her question, both professional, and personal. She learned so much about him and got more than enough to write a great piece on him. She might even have gotten enough to make him a character in her next fiction story.
The way he acted, made her feel like this might be their last day together. They still had a couple days left in the week, and she didn't want it to be over, but this was supposed to be about the article, not finding a boyfriend. Her career needed to be her focus.
Except every time she caught him looking at her, she knew there could be something more.
At the end of the day, which for Luc was after eight at night, he'd said goodbye to her. They shared one kiss, albeit a fantastic one, then he tucked her into his car, and had Jason drive her home. She didn't want to leave, and he didn't want her to go, but neither said anything about it.
It felt wrong to leave, like if she didn't do anything to stop it, something would change between them. She'd told him things about her life that she hadn't shared with anyone, at least not since Patrick died, and even then, she told Luc more.
She could tell that Luc had a hard time opening up to people, but he'd been open with her. She could tell that he was telling her things he'd never spoken of. He had more to tell, but she thought they'd have more time to get there. Now she wasn't so sure.
It was silly. They'd known each other less than a week. The focus of their relationship, if you could even call it that, was sex. Feelings weren't built on sex. Not even when it was that good. She wasn't even sure she had feelings for him. It was just that every time they made eye contact, she felt like she did.
Georgia and Destiny were watching a movie when she got home. It was almost over and Destiny would be rushing out the door to go to work. Part of her wanted to tell her not to go, to stay with her and talk out everything that was swirling around in her head, but she just squished between them on the couch and watched the last ten minutes of their movie in silence.
After Destiny left, Georgia said she was tired and went to bed. Anna sat alone, in the dark on the couch, for a long time. Her mind was chaos, a jumbled mess of thoughts, and feelings, and regrets. This was the time to write. Maybe not her article yet, but something. She had to release some of the mess in her mind and writing was the best way to do that.
She grabbed her notebook, and her favorite pen, and wrote until her mind was empty.
10
There's no place like home.
Luc walked through the gates of Hell, passing through the invisible security like it wasn't even there. This wasn't the kind of security one could hack. There wasn't a workaround. It was built into the place, designed by dear old dad. The only way to override the way in or out, besides some elaborate blood ritual done only by Luc himself, was by using the Hell Tablet.
And that was permanent.
Even angels in general couldn't gain access to the place. There were exactly two angels who could come and go in Hell with no escort or assistance. And they were Luc and Azrael. Luc for obvious reasons, and Az because he was the delivery boy.
He hated when Luc called him that, but that's why Luc liked it. Basically though, that was his job. Az was in charge of delivering departed souls to their final destination. Whether that was Hell, or back home in Heaven, he shuffled them along to the right place. It used to be a one-man job, but with overpopulation on Earth, he had to take on some help. The help could deliver the souls to the gates, but not actually pass through themselves. So that left only Luc and Az.
There were a few ways into Hell that others could accomplish, but getting out wasn't easy. Actually, it was impossible. Unless they were escorted by Luc or Az. The only exception to that, was Harley. She could leave, but that took a century to accomplish, and a very painful ritual, for both her, and Luc. Like opening his safe, it took the spilling of Luc's blood. And not just any spilling, it had to be willingly.
When Michael had Harley, if he had known the truth, that the safe could be opened if Luc willingly spilled his blood, things may have turned out quite differently. He might have forced Luc into it to save Harley, and Luc might have agreed. If his father had refused to help, Luc wasn't sure what he would have done.
He was glad he never had to find out.
Az had escorted Gabe and Uriel there earlier when they had Melanie. Now they would meet and discuss the final plan, before Michael came looking for his toy. Luc was in Hell every week, to check on things, make sure his management was doing their jobs, and to keep morality high. But he rarely went into the depths where the prisoners were kept. He didn't like it down there. As much as Luc wanted the guilty to be punished, he didn't like seeing it anymore. His siblings would say he'd gone soft, and maybe he had, but he'd seen so much suffering already. He didn't need to see more.
Luc loosened his tie. It was hot, but not like the stereotypical
hell fires, pits of lava, and all that burning nonsense. Hell was more of a barren wasteland, a desert of sorts. They had seasons, to an extent. No snow, or much rain, but it got cold at certain times of the year. Of course in Hell, time worked differently, so you could never be certain when it would be winter, and when it would be summer if you were coming from another realm.
Down in the pits, his siblings set up a table and some chairs around a small circle. Inside the circle was a woman, crouched, covered in dark hair. He couldn't see her face, only the hair that covered as much of her as she could manage. It was like she was hiding under there, because it was all that she had to use as a shield.
The circle was normally where they held someone they wanted to interrogate. Once inside, human souls, or demons, couldn't leave. Luc never tried to put an actual live human in there before, but clearly that worked, too.
It all seemed unnecessary. The poor thing wasn't going anywhere. Where would she go if she tried? She probably didn't even know where she was.
"Lucifer, glad you could join us." Gabriel looked up with a bored expression.
"We just got here, don't listen to him." Az stood up and walked over to Luc. "I brought Oz with us."
Luc looked around. "Where is he?"
"He's with his sister. I didn't think you'd mind and we needed him to assess Melanie for magic. He did some weird juju on her and said that she was definitely under some sort of spell and a strong compulsion."
"And?"
"And he took care of the spell, but we have to wait for the compulsion to wear off, I guess. It's okay I brought him, right?"
Luc nodded. Oz wanted his sister free from Hell. It was his price for helping them. Luc would need to turn her into a demon for that to happen, but she had to agree to it. With Oz here, he could explain all of that and make sure she was on board.
"The circle seems like overkill, don't you think?" Luc looked around at his siblings. "Who's idea was that?"
Uriel and Az looked at Gabriel, and Luc wasn't surprised. Gabe was always on the cold side emotionally. It was probably what he and Michael had most in common.
