“I don’t care.” He looks into my eyes, needing to be sure I’m here, actually here, and that I arrived in one piece. Then he kisses me, holding me as tightly against him as he can. His tongue pushes into my mouth as we stumble back into the house. The door closes behind us, and I hear Julian and Lucifer move into the foyer.
“It’s her!” Kristy shouts, and I break away from Lucas, tears rolling down my cheeks. “She’s back!”
“I’m so sorry,” I tell Lucas as another tear makes its way down.
“It’s okay,” he says softly, cupping my face. The burns on his cheek are healing already, but the smell of charred skin hangs in the air. “It’s okay, my love.”
My familiars shadow around me, and Scarlet bounds through the house and over to her previous master.
“Hello, sweetheart,” Lucifer greets the hellhound. Everyone rushes into the foyer, and Lucas kisses me again. Things are right how we left them, but it feels like a lifetime has passed. In truth, we’ve only been gone for a few hours, yet so much has happened in that time.
“Callie?” Abby calls, and the sound of Penny’s innocent babbling grows louder as my sister runs into the foyer, along with the rest of my friends.
“Let her fucking breathe,” Eliza huffs to Lucas. “Or get a room.”
With a growl, Lucas pulls his lips away from mine and drops to his knees, hands on my stomach. “Elena,” he whispers.
“She’s fine,” I promise and rest a hand on his head, curling my fingers through his hair. “I think she likes teleporting like that.” I put my hand over his, moving it to where Elena is kicking. Lucas smiles, eyes still full of fear, and stands back up. “Hey, guys,” I say and look at my friends’ stunned faces.
“Oh, darling girl.” Tabatha comes over with tears in her eyes. “You had us all quite worried.”
“I know, and I’m sorry about that.”
“What…what happened?” Nicole vacillates, eyes flitting from me to Julian and Lucifer. Right. They give off a sense of divinity to humans. Kristy, who hasn’t seen Lucifer since the night I killed Bael, is staring at my uncle with wide eyes.
“Paimon,” Julian starts, cutting right to the point. “He was the one who opened the gates of Hell. Callie and I got there just in time to prevent any more demons from escaping. She closed the gates.”
“How?” Tabatha asks, slowly shaking her head side to side. “How did you make it out in one piece?”
“Lucifer,” I say, turning to look at my uncle, who’s still kneeling down petting Scarlet. “He came down and saved us from being torn apart by demons, which was all the time I needed to close the gates.”
Everyone stiffens, making the tense air increase tenfold. Lucifer is family. I trust him and care for him, just like he trusts and cares for me. Lucas is on the fence, I think Julian is slowly accepting Lucifer as an ally, but to everyone else, he’s the fucking devil.
“So, the gates,” Grace, one of the witches from our coven, starts. “They’re closed?”
“Closed and locked,” Lucifer answers, standing up and brushing dog fur off his expensive suit jacket. “No one is getting in or out for the time being.”
“How did you get out?” Tabatha asks, knowing there’s way more to this story.
“This.” Lucifer reaches inside his jacket and pulls out my mother’s notebook. I didn’t know he grabbed it, and the sight of my mother’s handwriting almost does me in. “I assumed you’d want this. It does me little good, anyway.”
“Thank you.” I take the notebook from him and run my finger over my mother’s name.
“It smells like your blood,” Lucas says and then takes my hand, holding my palm up and looking at the gash in my skin. “You’re hurt.”
“Archangel blood did the trick to close the gates.” I curl my fingers against my palm. “It’s just a small cut.”
“Can’t he heal you?” Lucas eyes Julian.
“Allow me.” Lucifer strides over and takes my hand in his. My skin feels warm for a moment, and when he lets go, the cut is gone.
“All better,” I say, holding my hand for Lucas to see. Silence falls over everyone, and I make the mistake of looking around. This is worse than being the center of attention while I open presents. Eliza catches my eye, and I see just how terrified she is—and she can see how I’m terrified too.
“Here I was thinking you brought another cousin back for me to corrupt.” She smirks at me from the base of the stairs.
“I told you, you’re not corrupting Julian,” I retort, thankful for her distraction.
“Well then.” She flashes another smile at Lucifer. “Maybe your uncle can corrupt me.”
“Don’t even think about it,” Lucas growls, and Eliza rolls her eyes.
“As much as I’d like to stay,” Lucifer starts, “I should be going. I trust you’ll make good on our arrangement, dear niece?”