Page 64 of All's Hell That Ends Well

When Lucifer faced me, I swallowed hard and said, “Thank you. Thank you for saving her.”

No matter what, I’d be eternally grateful for this. There’d been no reason for him to act. He could have just ignored my plea, wasn’t bound to help me with this. I’d be compelled to keep working for him anyway, and his intervention or lack thereof wouldn’t have changed that.

But it meant the world to me.

He made a dismissive gesture. “Her death would have been a waste. She is a fine hound.”

“She didn’t go berserk.” I lifted my chin. “She did exactly what she was trained to do—she protected me.”

His eyes were shrewd as he studied me. “Because you failed to protect yourself.”

My jaw dropped, and I wanted to argue, but…he was kind of right?

“You’re strong enough to repel several attackers at once,” he said, his voice hard. “They couldn’t all have been seraphim because their numbers are the fewest, so it stands to reason that some were of lower rank than you. You were fully armed, and you have the power of an archdemon to defend yourself, yet your hound had to dispatch the assailants for you. Given your previous display of uncoordinated use of power, I am inclined to believe you’re like a toddler who’s been handed a fire hose, and every time you turn it on, it tosses you to and fro.”

“Okay, first of all, can we stop it with the toddler comparisons?” I put my hands on my hips and glared at him. “That’s getting real old, real fast. I know I’m young in terms of immortal lifespans, but I’m not a child.”

The look he sent me was full of dark authority.

“Respectfully, Your Grace,” I added with a wince.

He raised a black brow. “Is there a second point to your monologue, or are you done whining?”

I held up a finger. “Secondly, I agree with you. I don’t know how to use my power because I never had this much and have never been trained.”

“And there it is,” he muttered. “A flicker of wisdom in a sea of impulsive shortsightedness.”

“Oy!”

Next to me, Vengeance shifted her weight, and a small sound of distress escaped her at the movement. Whipping my head around to her, I remembered she still wasn’t recovered from the injuries she’d gotten during the fight.

“Oh, Venny,” I whispered. “I’m so sorry, sweetie.” Turning to Lucifer, I bit my lip. “Could you please heal her?”

“No.” Before I could reply, he added, “You’ll do it.”

I grimaced. “I’ve never done that before.”

He rolled his eyes. “I’ve gathered that. Which is why this will be the first part of your lesson. It’s an excellent way to practice using your power in a small burst and with a limited target.” He paused and studied me. “You must have at leastsomeexperience with this. Has there ever been a moment where you were able to focus your energy and change it from simply existing within and around you into a concentrated effort, like a touch, or to move something?”

I pressed my lips together, my cheeks heating at the memory of the only time I’d managed to use my power in such subtle ways as Azazel had always been capable of. When we’d last had sex, I sure had been able to wield my energy in a physical way, and I’d done so very intuitively. Of course, I’d also been highly motivated.

“Well?” Lucifer asked, his eyes narrowed.

“Yeah,” I mumbled, rubbing my nose. “There’s a…there was a situation…just…kind of…private.”

He sighed and rolled his eyes again. At this rate, they might get permanently stuck toward the back of his head. “Humanprudery,” he muttered. Out loud, he said, “There, you’ve already practiced fine-tuning your power to only use a fraction and in a very targeted way. The same principle can be applied to wielding it aggressively or defensively, as well as on a molecular level to heal the body.”

I nodded, infinitely grateful he wasn’t further commenting on what his grandson and I were doing in private.

He gestured at Vengeance. “Lay your hand on her. Feel her energy. This here will be different from forming your power into touch, but you’ll still connect with her. When you focus on sensing her energy, you should notice where it flickers, which indicates her injuries. As demons, we have an innate sense of the presence of illness, pain, or wounds, even internal ones. Concentrate on the darker patches within her energy, and then send out your power with the intent to repair.”

I’d just placed my hand on Venny’s flank and was about to focus on healing her when Lucifer added, “Make sure to get the intention right. There are two sides to this. Our power can mend tissue and regrow flesh and bone, but it can also tear them apart.”

“What?” I snatched my hand back as if bitten by a snake, my heart pounding out of my rib cage. “Why are you telling me this? Now all I can think of is flesh ripping apart!” I flailed my hands wildly.

“You’re being ridiculous.”

“And you’re a bad teacher!” I flailed some more. “Don’t you know anything about human brains? If you tell us not to think about a pink rhinoceros, all we do is think about a fucking pink rhinoceros!”

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