Page 24 of All's Hell That Ends Well

Incredible what a good shower could do.

I found new clothes in the spacious wardrobe in the bedroom, all to my taste and fit. Just another sign of how premeditated this whole kidnapping thing had been. Lucifer had definitely planned this well in advance.

I ignored the fact that he’d actually gotten me stuff I liked instead of just shoving a bunch of nondescript and ill-fittingbasics on me. There was probably a nefarious motive for that as well, so best not to dwell on it.

Once dressed in a dark green tank and black jeans, I stood a bit forlorn in the middle of the bedroom, unsure of what to do with myself. Vengeance yipped and came over to me, and I scratched each of her heads while talking sweet nonsense in a high-pitched voice.

Oh, it was so good to have her here. The amount of comfort she gave me was immeasurable, fending off the waves of fear and anger and despair that would no doubt roll right over me if I were alone.

Planting a kiss on the top of her middle head, I cooed, “You’re my emotional support hellhound, aren’t you?”

Vengeance wiggled her butt so hard she shook me a little in the process, since I was currently framing her middle head with my hands.

A knock on the door made me flinch.What now?

“Come in,” I hollered while Vengeance stood up, staring intently at the entrance.

The door opened to reveal Gilarion, who sketched a bow. “His Grace has summoned you.”

What? Already? I needed a watch or something because it didn’t feel like a whole day had passed. Dammit, I hadn’t even had time to halfway come to terms with everything, and now I’d have to hoof it to Earth and play Lilith radar.

“All right,” I said with a sigh and followed Gilarion, who eyed Vengeance with a healthy amount of wariness.

My trusty hound, of course, decided to come along, and while I didn’t need her protection anymore, I wasn’t going to turn down her offer of company. I’d have to figure out what to do with her while I was away on my Locating Lilith missions. Someone would have to take good care of her during those weeks, and I’d have to make sure they treated her well.

And now my stomach fizzed with anxiety about finding a demon I could trust to be there for Vengeance. Here, in Lucifer’s palace? Yeah, right. I didn’t trustanyof these fuckers here. Not even as far as I could throw them, because now that I was a demon, I could probably throw many of them quite far.

Ugh, I wished I could just take Vengeance with me, but that wasn’t possible, though it pained me to have to leave her back here in Hell when she’d just found me again after years of separation. But the fact was that she couldn’t fly, and I imagined a lot of my search would involve flying around while somehow trying to sense Lilith’s reincarnation—and I still wasn’t sure how exactly Lucifer figured this would work.

He seemed to be convinced that I’d sense her presence somehow, but to be honest, I feared he was like one of those out-of-touch-with-reality managers who supervised groups of engineers but had zero actual knowledge of engineering and subsequently demanded feats from their subordinates that basically violated a bunch of laws of physics.

Gilarion led me back to the room in which I’d met Lucifer earlier, bowed again, and left. I steeled myself, knocked, and then entered at Lucifer’s call. Vengeance traipsed inside on my heels.

I went down on one knee and lowered my head in greeting. “Your Grace.”

“Rise.”

I got to my feet again. Lucifer still lounged on the same armchair as before, his legs crossed with one ankle on the opposite knee. His cold gaze rested on me for a moment, then traced to my side, where Vengeance had taken a seat.

Lucifer narrowed his eyes. “You seem to have acquired a hound.”

“Astutely observed, Your Grace.”

He flicked his gaze back to me, and the malice in it made my chest cramp. One of these days, my smart-ass mouth would get me in huge trouble.

“Explain that,” the Devil said.

Fidgeting in place for a few seconds, I tried to phrase the whole thing in the least incriminating way. “My hound sensed my presence when I entered Hell and has run here to find me. I didn’t want her to get hurt, so I went outside to claim her.”

“So you left your quarters after I explicitly told you to stay inside?”

I grimaced and shifted from foot to foot. “She’s very loyal, Your Grace. She would have put up a fight against anyone trying to keep her from reaching me, and I couldn’t stand the thought of her being injured. Ihadto get her. And besides, even if they’d sent her back to Azazel, she would have run to me again at the next opportunity. She’s nothishound.”

His expression was unreadable as he stared at me for a moment. “What’s her name?”

I blinked in surprise. “Vengeance.”

His gaze on my hound, Lucifer snapped his fingers. “Come.”

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