Page 108 of All's Hell That Ends Well

Blinking against the hot wetness coating my eyes, I said, “Let’s make one thing clear.”

“I’m all ears,” Lucifer drawled.

“When you die as a human, and you come down here because you’ve sinned”—I gave him a faux-haughty look—“I will personally torture the fuck out of you.”

A laugh erupted out of him, transforming him into a vision of the darkly divine. When he calmed down again, his eyes sparkled. “I’d expect nothing less.”

CHAPTER 32

Azazel

Ifound Zoe in the library—vastly bigger than the one she’d known in my previous residence—lying on one of the chaises longues with her nose in a book.

And about half a dozen hellcats snuggled on top of and around her.

One was even wrapped around her head to the extent that her eyes barely peeked out from underneath the silken black fur. Other than the lower half of her face and her hands holding the book, no part of her was visible underneath the pile of felines.

“Can you even breathe?” I asked with a laugh, eyeing the way her upper body was buried under more than one cat.

Her gleaming hazel eyes tracked to me. “Breathing is overrated,” she wheezed. “I don’t need to, anyway.”

In response to her speaking up, all hellcats started purring at once. The floor shook under my feet.

Zoe appeared to be blissed out. “See?” she rasped after a moment. “Who needs a weighted blanket when you have enough cats?”

“You can’t move.”

“That’s thepoint.”

I gave in to the grin wanting to sneak onto my face, though I sobered again a moment later when I remembered the letter in my hand—the reason I’d sought her out just now.

“A message from Heaven,” I said without preamble, holding the note up between my index and middle finger. “The meeting is set.”

Zoe’s eyes widened, a ping of alertness coming across the bond, and she twitched. The pile of cats shuddered but didn’t disperse.

“Guys,” she said, glancing down at the felines clinging to her, “I need to sit up. Could you, like, scooch a bit?”

“Just sit up, and they’ll rearrange themselves.”

“Noooo, I mustn’t!” She looked affronted. “Thou shalt never displace a cat!”

I raised a brow. “I thought we established that the universal cat law was fiction?”

Zoe scoffed and tried to wiggle upright without disturbing the felines, failing miserably. She gave up after a few seconds and groaned.

A flap of wings from above, and the next second, Mephistopheles landed on the back of the chaise longue. Spreading his wings, he puffed up his fur and snarled at his brood. In an instant, all of the cats lying on Zoe scattered.

She sucked in air and sat upright, swinging her legs around so her feet hit the floor. “Thank you, Mephisto!”

He blinked his luminous yellow eyes at her.I did not come to liberate. I came to occupy.

And then he elegantly snuck onto Zoe’s evacuated lap and made himself comfortable, complete with kneading her thighs, which elicited whimpers of pain from her.

“Mephisto,” I growled, ready to pluck him off her.

“No, no.” Zoe waved me off. “It’s fine.” With a wince, she added, “So, the letter? When is the meeting? And who are we talking to?”

“About that.” I sat down on a chair opposite her. “I was thinking…it might be best if you don’t join me.”

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