Page 41 of Demon Demands

Whatever Lucy wanted to talk about clearly couldn’t wait until it was a more reasonable time of day, and that had my shoulders tensing for the coming stress. Was it too early to spike my coffee or was it still late enough?

“Good morning, my darling Monster,” Lucifer sang from his seat at the table.

“Nope.” I shook my head at him, glaring and willing the coffee maker to make the coffee quicker.

He chuckled, and I heard him slide a mug across the tabletop. “I made you a cup before I summoned you.”

I huffed at him, too stressed to even smell the goodness. “I don’t like this,” I stated, but I took the seat across from him anyway. The black coffee screamed “drink me”, and I loosened up as the heat slithered down my throat, warming me from the inside out.

Sighing, Lucy propped his head on his hand. “You don’t have to, but we need to talk. Lil will be here soon. She wants to officially be introduced to your mates since she still doesn’t know their names.” He quirked his brow at me.

“Fuck. She’s going to embarrass me, isn’t she?”

“I’m sure she will.” He waved the topic away. “What was your latest vision about?”

“How did you… You know what? No,” I replied flatly. “Start with your shit, and then we can talk about mine.”

“Fine. Easy stuff first,” he agreed. “Levi, your angel friend, is doing well.”

“I know who Levi is,” I interrupted, earning myself one of those disapproving parental glares. “Right. Continue, please.”

“He’s been meditating, remembering, though he’s not happy about some of his recovered memories. I think he’ll be at it for a few more weeks, but he’s made astounding progress so far.” Lucy shrugged, sipping at his coffee.

“You didn’t wake me up to tell me about Levi, Lucy. What else? Spit it out.”

“Sam hasn’t heard from Nathaniel in several days. He’s concerned, but he doesn’t want to stress you out any more. I thought you should know, my Monster. You’ll be going to the fae realm soon, and I believe you’re going to have to rescue the stubborn vampire. Possibly Sam and Charlie as well. They want to go get him.”

I massaged my temples, thankful that Lucy was being straightforward without being asked for once.

“Of course I will. Father thinks he found my mom, and after listening to my fae talk about the mage in the dungeon, I think I believe he did too. I don’t know anything about the fae realm really, but I get the feeling that Vaughn doesn’t want to go back.”

“I don’t blame him,” my grandfather confessed. “The winter realm is dreadfully cold, and the summer fae are much too enthusiastic for my liking.”

Smiling at Lucy, I lifted my mug to my lips. “What else? I know there’s more.”

“I have a spy planted in Satan’s horde. He’s just gotten back to me, and there seems to be some tension brewing between Satan and Hannibal. That wasn’t surprising, but what was surprising is that their numbers aren’t as high as I thought they were.”

“What kind of numbers are we talking about? Seventy-five?” I questioned hopefully.

“Three hundred and some change.” He grinned at me. “And Lil is dead set on helping. Don’t crush her spirits by telling her no.”

“I wouldn’t dream of it, Lucy. Not after what you told me at Dolyn’s. She can kill Satan herself. I know I won’t be the one to kill him.”

“How do you know that?”

“That’s what I saw in my vision. Part of it anyway.” I shrugged as I finished my coffee. “I didn't kill him, but I didn’t see who did it. It looked like Jack killed Hannibal, though. I couldn’t see too much. It’s tricky to peek into the future. This conversation could change what I saw. We don’t know for sure.”

“You must visit the Fates while you're here,” Lucy abruptly demanded.

I nodded hesitantly. “Yes, sir. Can I ask why?”

“You’re going to need all the help you can get, Monster. I know they speak in riddles, but they always speak the truth. Sometimes,” he said, dropping his voice, “they tell you exactly what you need to know.”

I stood from my chair, ambling over to the coffee maker for another lifeline in a cup. While I had my back turned to Lucy, I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. On the exhale, I peeked over my shoulder at him. “Blue is looking for me.”

He narrowed his eyes. “Blue? The gorgon from Oren?”

“Yep. That one.”