Page 26 of Claimed By Her Monsters

“It’s not weird,” he whispered and hugged me even tighter while his lips gently brushed along his favorite spot. “You simply feel like you finally belong, don’t you?”

That was exactly what it felt like. His arms were a place I could call a home of safety and reassurance.

Pulling back rewarded me with the sight of my wings wrapped around us like a cocoon. The inner walls glimmered with blue, purple, and gold, which illuminated this protective space.

“I think my wings like you,” I voiced and enjoyed the way he chuckled.

“Or maybe a certain goddess is extra fond of me,” he offered.

“Maybe,” I decided to agree. “Don’t tell Erebus though. He’ll plot your murder.”

“I feel like he’ll start plotting my demise if I don’t get you back to the surface in a timely manner,” he noted with a smirk.

“Where are we?” I decided to ask, and I watched the way he debated whether to tell me. “Is it bad?”

“Not necessarily bad,” he voiced. “To simply put it, your Daddy Dearest’s place.”

“Daddy Dearest,” I voiced and arched an eyebrow at him. “I don’t have a dad.”

“Well, with Athena being your mother and the fact that you aren’t the female Messiah, you definitely have a dad,” he reasoned, which made me groan.

“Oh no. Do I have to study the bible or something?” It was so off-topic and yet I needed to know. “Listen. I know at least three Commandments and that Eve ate the apple. I ain’t reading about all the other craziness in the Bible.”

“It’s actually not that bad,” he voiced, and I gave him a look.

“There’s a dude in there who killed like seventy-five children because they called him bald!”

“2 Kings 2:23-24,” he stated the exact verse. “It was forty-two young men, Sweet Theia, and it occurred because they wished to mock a prophet of our Savior, who wasn’t afraid of serving our Creator in public.”

“See, this is why I’d fail as an angel,” I concluded. “I wouldn’t be able to translate that!”

“You don’t need to for now,” he assured me. “Why don’t we focus on one thing at a time?”

“Right.” That seemed easier to do. “So bath time?”

“Yes,” he agreed. “And I’ll get you something to nibble on until we can speak with Lucifer.”

“Wait…Lucifer?” I gawked at him. “Why are we speaking with Lucifer?”

“This is his place, Nessa,” he said with a wink while I gawked at him. My shock made my wings retract and with a blink, they were gone.

“Damn. The mere mention of the devil made my wings poof!”

“That’s your bewilderment matched with a dose of shock,” he translated instead before he began to prep the bath and speak at the same time. “We’re at Lucifer’s palace.”

“Palace?” I repeated the word and stared at him in horror. “We died?”

“No.”

“We certainly died.”

“Sweet Theia, we did not die.”

“That’s why I have wings!” I gasped. “Oh fuck. We’re in Hell!”

The poor man paused in dumping some Epsom salts to look at me.

“We’re…not in Hell?”

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