“Yeah, and that has made him testy.” Layla walked us through the kitchen and toward another narrow hall. “Which is why we’re in the sitting room. The floor is tile in there.”
I didn’t have to ask why tile floor was important, because I saw enough of what was going on in the sitting room. A human male stood in the center of the room, trembling. Thin rivets of blood ran out from the sleeves of his suit jacket, dripping onto the floor. The back of his trousers looked damp, and I had a feeling that wasn’t blood.
Lucifer stood in front of him, arms crossed over his bare chest. He seemed unaware of us as we entered the room, wholly focused on the man. I gave a quick glance around the oval-shaped room. Roth and Cayman were standing on the opposite side, the latter chowing down on a slice of pizza.
Jada came to a complete stop, her eyes widening as she stared at Lucifer.
“Now, Johnny-boy, you’ve been so helpful with just the littlest motivation required,” Lucifer said, his voice wrapping around the room like cool silk. “And I really don’t want things to get ugly in front of my new friends. Johnny-boy, say hello to my new friends.”
The man gave us a shaking glance. “H-hello.”
Zayne’s hand slipped free from mine. “What are you doing to this man?”
“Ah, don’t worry, Fallen. Johnny-boy here was always destined to come face-to-face with me.” Lucifer smiled, and there was a catch in my chest at how stunning that smile was. “It’s just happening sooner than later. You see, Johnny worked very closely with one Senator Josh Fisher.”
My gaze flew to the man. I hadn’t seen Fisher’s ghost since the night outside the church.
“Johnny-boy has already told us the names of every living person who was working alongside Fisher to aid Gabriel. They are being dealt with.” Lucifer lifted a finger, pressing it to the man’s cheek. “You don’t want to be dealt with, now do you, Johnny-boy.”
Smoke wafted out from the skin under Lucifer’s finger. The smell of charred flesh filled the air as a slice of skin burned off. The man jerked, letting out a low whine.
“Jesus,” Jada whispered, and I bet she was regretting her decision to come here.
I was starting to regret this decision.
“As if,” Lucifer replied, falling onto the chair by the window. “I’m nothing like that whiney, all talk and very little action golden Boy.”
Jada sat on a couch, I think so she didn’t fall down.
I turned to him. “Did you, like, know Jesus?”
Those unfathomable eyes met mine as he hooked a leg over the arm of the chair. “Who do you think was whispering in Judas’s ear?”
My eyes widened.
The corners of his lips curved and spread in a slow smile.
“Man,” I whispered, sitting down beside Jada. “You are so creepy.”
“Thank you.”
“That wasn’t a compliment,” I murmured. “But whatever.”
Lucifer refocused on the man. “What I need to know is, where is Gabriel?”
“I don’t kn-know.”
“You don’t?” Lucifer tilted his head to the side. “What about Bael?”
“I d-don’t know where either of them are now. They were at that h-hotel. The one the senator was s-staying at,” the man said in a rush. “But they’re n-not there any longer.”
I wisely kept quiet as Lucifer studied the man. “What you’re saying, then, is that you’re virtually useless to me?”
“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?”