I stared at him.
“That’s all?” Zayne repeated.
Lucifer nodded. “All three things have to be done as simultaneously as possible. You’ll have seconds to remove his head and pierce his chest before his body regenerates his heart. By the way.” Lucifer started to turn as he looked at Roth. “You’re out of Pop-Tarts. I need more.”
Roth glared at his retreating back. “I don’t even know where he got those Pop-Tarts. Neither of us bought them.”
“Cayman,” Layla said, glancing over her shoulder. Lucifer had made his way back to the living room. “His minions?”
“He likes words like that.” Roth tapped his fingers off the table. “Well, now we know how to kill Gabriel.”
We did, and it sounded a little impossible. And it sounded like completely impossible if we didn’t have Lucifer, because how in the world would Zayne and I been able to pull that off? Maybe that was why the biblical end times hadn’t kicked off...yet. God knew we needed Lucifer’s help.
“Whether any of his contacts will be useful, who knows,” Roth went on. “I’d be surprised if he can stop watching Supernatural long enough to even contact anyone.”
“I wish I had his life right now,” I murmured, placing my mug on the table. “I know God hasn’t been all that hands-on, but to think that God would allow Earth to just be contaminated?”
“Hard to believe, right?” Roth rubbed his palm along his jaw. “But free will. It’s a bitch.”
“How is that free will, though?” I reasoned. “If Gabriel’s grace and his Glory is like an infection that corrupts people, how does free will come into play?”
“Good question.” Zayne squeezed my shoulder. “That can’t be free will. It sounds like a violation of it.”
“That’s one way to look at it.” Roth leaned forward, resting his arms on the table. “But infections can be beat, right? At least most of them, with medicine. God could take the stance that this infection can be beat by faith.”
I rolled my eyes. “That’s stupid.”
“I don’t make the rules,” Roth replied.
“Thank God for that,” Zayne murmured.
Roth winked at him. “All I’m saying is I wouldn’t rely on God, and I’m not saying that because I’m a demon. I’m just relying on statistical, historical evidence.”
I exhaled a heavy breath as I tipped my head back against Zayne’s arm. “Either way, it doesn’t matter. We have to risk the nuclear-level Gabriel fallout. We don’t have a choice.”
* * *
It was a little after one when Zayne and I made it back to the apartment. As he hopped in the shower, I plugged my phone in to charge and headed for the dryer to retrieve clean clothing. We were going to head out in a little bit, hoping we could draw more of Gabriel’s cohorts out. I’d stepped out of the small hall when I thought I saw movement to my right. Turning sharply, I caught sight of Peanut by the TV.
“Peanut!”
He squeaked, flickering out for a moment.
“Don’t you dare disappear!” I charged across the room. “You and I need to chat.”
He reappeared a few feet from the TV. “How dare you scare me like that. You almost gave me a heart attack.”
“You’re dead, Peanut. You can’t have a heart attack.” I folded my arms. “You have a whole lot of explaining to do.”
“I was only watching you sleep the other night to make sure you were breathing.” He floated through the coffee table. “It wasn’t even that long.”
I blinked. “Okay. That’s not what I was planning to talk to you about, so we’re going to have to get back to that.”
“Oh. My bad.” Half of his legs were obscured by the table. “You can always just forget about that.”
“Yeah, that’s not going to happen,” I told him.
He looked toward the hallway. “I hear the shower running.”
“Don’t you dare,” I warned him.
“Is that Zayne? Did you bring Zayne back?”
“I did. You would know that if you’d been around.”
Peanut started bopping up and down, clapping his hands. I supposed he was jumping, but I couldn’t see his lower body. “Yay! You did it!” He stopped bouncing. “He’s not, like, evil fallen angel anymore, is he?”
“No, he’s hot, supernice fallen angel now, and stop distracting me.”
“How am I distracting you?” He sank halfway through the coffee table.
I arched a brow. “You’ve been lying to me.”
“About watching you sleep?”
“No. Not about that. About Gena.”
His eyes widened in his nearly transparent head. “What do you mean?”
“There’s no one who lives here named Gena or any variation of that name. I had the apartment records checked.”
He rose from the coffee table. “Have you been checking on me?”
“Yes.”
“I feel attacked.” He pressed a hand to his chest. “I feel—”
“Why have you been lying to me, Peanut?” I interrupted before he could go drama spiral. “And what have you really been doing?”
“I haven’t been lying. Not really, Trinnie.” He drifted toward me. “I swear. You see, I just didn’t clarify some things.”