Page 23 of Widow

They were getting a little too comfortable, but so was I. It had all happened so quickly with them inserting themselves into my everyday routines. It felt natural; almost too natural.

"What are you guys doing here?" I ignored the fact that they had somehow gotten into my condo without a key. I poured myself a cup of coffee and sat down at the table. "I hope these doughnuts are to share."

I opened the box and grabbed a chocolate bar. My diet had really gone down the toilet since they'd been around. Not that it was that great to begin with. Pop-Tarts, wine, and ham weren't doing me any favors.

I looked between both of them and sighed. "How did you even get in?"

Lou put down his paper and looked at me. He slid a leather-bound book in my direction. It was titled Widows. It looked like something straight out of the Hogwarts library.

"We've been thinking about ways we can help you with your little problem." Lou nodded towards the book. "Everything there is to know about Widows is in that book."

Ric walked down the hall in just his jeans. At least he had half-listened to my rule. "That book is written by bloodsuckers. You can't trust anything they have to say. They're biased as fuck. Did you know that there are no books written about them? Idiots."

"Do you have an issue with vampires?" Kai put down his paper and grabbed a sprinkled doughnut out of the box. "I can't tell if you have an issue with vampires or not."

We all laughed at Ric's expense. He narrowed his eyes at Kai and sat down in one of the chairs in all of his shirtless glory.

"I have some steaks left if you would prefer that instead of doughnuts." I flipped open the book and looked down at a drawing of a group of women. They looked normal. I looked normal.

"I only eat raw meat when I'm a wolf." He drummed his fingers on the table. "I will take one of those pink sprinkled doughnuts, though."

He pulled the box towards him and opened the lid, grabbing a sprinkled one.

"Those are mine." Kai reached over and plucked it out of his hand. Ric just shrugged and grabbed a different one.

"Reve finally texted me back while I was indisposed. He thinks when you were bitten, that was actually her mark so she could find you later. Widows can't lay eggs through their bite." Ric looked over at me and then grabbed the book out of my hands. "Do you remember seeing a spider anywhere?"

I put my half-eaten doughnut down and looked at him. "Yes." I felt like I was going to be sick.

"So, there's a main spider?" Lou raised his eyebrows and shook his head. "One of her spiders bit me back in May, I'm fine."

He rolled up one of his sleeves. He had scars marring the skin, but he pointed to two spots right below his elbow. "It healed at the touch of a finger."

I reached my hand over to try to touch Lucifer's arm, but he pulled it back and rolled the sleeve back down.

"Did the widow bite you, or was it one of her spiders? Because if it was one of her spiders, they don't mark you."

"Well, if you think she's inside of her, we should try to bring her to the surface. Spiders hate heat, right? I can heat her up a little and see what happens." Lou looked down at his hands. "It shouldn't kill her."

"That is a crazy fucking idea." Kai crossed his arms over his chest. "What would we do when she came to the surface?"

"I assume we would need to kill all of her spiders. That's how she's feeding herself, right?" Lucifer looked at Ric as if he held all the answers.

I listened to them talk back and forth as I sat right there. I was not keen on having an exorcism performed. The mental image of my head spinning around and vomiting peas all over the place made me shudder.

I shuddered a lot. Spiders did that to you.

"If she's in there, I can bring her out with all of her little minions with heat. Then we can drown all the little buggers." Lou looked awfully excited about his idea.

"Absolutely not." Ric put his hands on the table and stood. "What if the Widow bitch gets mad and tries to kill Lia."

"We can't have Lia kill any more innocents. If she kills one more person, her soul will be irredeemable." Lou seemed so sure of himself that my stomach tightened. I already felt like my soul was a lost cause.

I glanced back and forth between the two men that were getting angry at each other. Lou seemed calm, but I could see in his eyes, those dark gray smoldering eyes, that he was getting pissed off at Ric. Then there was Ric, who looked like he had his wolf hackles raised.

"Fuck you, Lucifer." Ric smacked his hands over his mouth and then looked at me with wide eyes.

Lou stood from the table, sending his chair back several feet. It felt slightly warmer in the room, but I didn't know if it was because they were fighting or if he was doing it himself. Was he actually Lucifer? The devil?

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