Page 58 of Found In Destruction

“Angel, can you turn into an animal for me?”

She scowled at me but complied. Her body vibrated, and a few seconds later she morphed into a raccoon. I picked her up and ran my hand over her silky fur.

Ask her to turn into another animal. I’m trying to expel some of her magic,I explained to Ares.

“How about Feta? He’s so busy roaming the compound I barely see him anymore,” he said.

Diana jumped free from my arms and morphed into the spitting image of Ares’ huge, black dog, weird ears and all.

“Oh my brimstone, this is so cool!” Marilyn exclaimed. “Lucifer, she had to get this from you. Can you turn into humans too, Di?”

Diana jumped onto her hind legs, then morphed into Marilyn. The real Marilyn cackled, clapping her hands in appreciation. “Bravo! Oh! Turn into Lucifer!”

“No, don’t—” Lucifer said, but not quick enough. Diana morphed into a mirror image of the man standing before her, designer suit and all.

“I’m Lucifer Morningstar,” she said in his voice, “And I’m thePrince of Darkness. I strut around the compound barking orders at everyone, because I’m a control freak.”

Michael burst into a fit of laughter, and so did I. It was a dead-on impression and accurate assessment.

“Okay, that’s enough. You’re fine now and there’s no risk of you destroying the conference room,” he groused.

“Thank you, I feel a lot better. Okay, let’s get this fucker to talk.” Her determination was admirable, but we had to get everyone on the same page first.

“Ares and I will gather the other boyfriends. Michael, can you drop Marilyn at her barrack and grab Oisín?”

Marilyn rose from her chair and gave Lucifer a hug. “Be careful. I still have questions you need to answer.”

We all faded our separate ways, and Diana brought us to a random, doorless hallway somewhere in the compound. I had never been here before, but she seemed to know it well enough. She sat down on the floor and took deep breaths.

“Getting ready?” I asked her, sitting next to her.

“Yeah. I need to make him crack. There’s no room for failure.”

I grabbed her jaw, bringing her mouth to mine for a quick kiss. She deepened it, invading my mouth with her tongue in an anxious frenzy. When we parted, I gave her a cozy grin.

“Diana, what did I tell you? You’re a big, bad Morningstar—anythingbuta failure. You’re going to crack that asshole like a nut,” I assured her.

She leaned her head on my shoulder, her skin burning hot from her fire magic.

“I’m going to make him wish he never crossed my path. He’ll regret the day he ever targeted his baby sister, and I’ll make his mistake an example for the world. You don’t fuck with Diana Morningstar without consequences.”

25

MAL

Mal, Desmond, and Bash, please meet me in my quarters,Lucifer’s voice rattled through my brain, like an intrusive thought.

His demand came right in the middle ofParanormal Conqueror, our favorite reality competition show. Supernatural pairs from all over the world would travel through the four realms, collecting clues to a shared destination. Whoever overcame the many obstacles along the way and got there first won. Since we had moved out of the New York house, we fell behind on the most recent season.

“We can go after this episode ends,” Desmond said, absorbed in the show as he scratched Feta behind the ears.

“Yeah,” I agreed.

One of the pairs was a hellbound and a vampire-siren hybrid, and they were the favorites to win this season. They just traversed through the volcanic sludge of the Third Circle of Hell when Lucifer interrupted again.

There better be some sort of cosmic emergency. Where the fuck are you all?

“One of us should go to hold him off, then the rest of us can finish it,” Bash suggested before cramming a handful of potato chips in his mouth.

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