Page 19 of The Redeemable 4

Luc must have sensed something, because he was there when we arrived outside the doors to the Sevens apartment building. He was leaning against the wall, his tight dark jeans did little to hide the fact he had Mount Dickerest in his pants. He did that slow, judging appraisal thing he does when he’s analyzing a situation, or weighing up a soul.

“Uriel said no?”

I nodded, and entwined my fingers in his as we walked into the apartment. Arcadia was eager to see her men. And her babies. I hustled my guys into the lift and pressed the button to Oz’s floor. Call it a hunch.

We knocked on the door, polite like, as if it wasn’t as easy as breathing for us to just appear in any room in this apartment. Ri opened it, his face drawn and haggard, white colored spit up staining his black shirt.

His eyes lit up when he saw me. “Ace! Do you have good news?”

Ah shit. Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea. Now I can feel guilty on all fronts.

I just shook my head sadly. As Orion’s face fell, the combination of everyone’s sadness, Ri’s, Arcadias and my own, threatened to sink me. Luc and Gus both placed a hand on my back, Gusion on the curve of my spine and Luc’s just above the slope of my ass. I felt their love, and their resilience through their touch, and it bolstered me.

Hug him for me. He needs it, Arcadia said softly. We all did. I stepped out of the grasp of my guys, and wrapped my arm around one of Arcadia’s Sins. The tension in his body thrummed against my angelic senses, and his pain, his guilt, was overwhelming. So I did something that I hadn’t done in years. Long before I lost my body, not since I fell. I sent some of my angelic light into his body to soothe him.

“She wants to be here,” I whispered in his ear. He nodded and pulled back. His face held less strain, but I couldn’t chase away all the sadness.

“Come on in. The babies came home yesterday. We are adjusting.” He pointed to the spit covered shirt. “Plus, Eli has been gone all day with your little surprise delivery.”

“Don’t blame me. It was all your Lady Loves idea.” I followed behind him as he walked into the apartment. He gave Luc and Gus a cursory glance.

How can they be home already? It was a rhetorical question. We could both felt time slipping through our fingers. Both babies were asleep in the one cot, and I reached out to trace a line down Hope's tiny cheek. Her eyes fluttered open and she stared into my eyes, deep down into my soul. To her mother.

Hello, my Sweet One, Arcadia cooed. Her tiny pink lips formed an O, and she gurgled softly, like she didn’t want to wake her sister.

“Memphis was correct, they are something special,” Luc said from behind me. Hope’s face changed, turning into a frown as she tried to discern where the voice came from. Luc stepped forward to peer into the cot. Hope stared at the Devil with a concentration that belied her 21 day old age. She should be asleep, or eating, or pooping, but instead she was taking the measure of Lucifer’s soul.

She’d managed to unswaddle a single arm, and she reached toward Luc. He reached into the cot, and Hope wrapped her tiny hand, no bigger than Luc’s thumbnail, around his finger.

Luc laughed with delight. Such a pure happy sound, something I hadn’t heard from him in centuries. Sure, we laughed a lot, but there was always a dark undertone of bitterness or sarcasm. This was just pure joy.

“I am so happy to meet you too, Little Hope,” he whispered softly.

Is the baby talking to him? Arcadia sounded equal parts aghast and jealous.

Luc just raised an eyebrow. “Of course not. She is an infant, she does not have language yet. But she sent me a wave of happiness, and I took that to mean she likes me.”

Hope's eyes fluttered closed, and we crept out of the nursery.

Where’s everyone else?

I repeated Arcadia’s question out loud to Ri.

“Not here, thank god. If Lux had seen Luc reach into the cot, he would have lost his shit. The guy has gone into super watchdog mode since the babies came home yesterday. He’s like Robocop or something.” He flopped down on the couch, putting his head back on the headrest and closing his eyes. “Eli, Tolliver and Sam have taken the boys to get checked out. Nazir looks fine, but hasn’t said a word since he arrived. Adnan is pretty perky for a kid that just had his leg blown off. Eli said that Raphael did a good job given the circumstances of the surgery. It’s healing nicely, and the kid is already a superstar on crutches, considering that it’s been only a couple of days. Lux is at your bedside. Valery is at work. Oz has gone to get groceries. And they left me to babysit. The most unqualified one.”

I shrugged. “They were both asleep and breathing when we got here, I’m pretty sure that makes you qualified. Congratulations Daddy-o.”

Ri looked like he’d been electrocuted. “What?” I asked, looking at my hands just in case I'd developed the ability to shoot lightning bolts from them. It was possible. Stranger things have happened this week alone.

His brow wrinkled. “It didn’t occur to me that I kinda am. I mean, not biologically of course, but I’m kinda their dad. It just seems so unreal without Cady-Lady you know? Like I couldn’t be their dad unless she was here, tying us all together. We all know Oz is biologically their father, but I can be their dad too.”

I resisted the urge to smack my forehead and say “duh”. I was saved by an unholy caterwauling cry from the bedroom. Instinctively, I ran into the babies’ room, ready to slay any threat, my sword already in my hand. Luc swaggered in behind me at a leisurely pace. There was no threat, unless the threat of a hungry belly counted.

Estrella was awake, her little face scrunched mid-cry as she looked around at the strangers in the room. Then she looked at my sword, fascinated. I put it away, making it invisible at my side again. Her face scrunched back up and she howled the most awful noise I'd ever heard, way worse than the wailing of the demonesses. Panicking, I drew my sword again, and she stopped. Huh.

Gusion was laughing his ass off. “Arcadia is going to have some serious problems with that one.” Luc was laughing too as he made a tiny stuffed sword appear from nowhere. It looked like mine, but baby safe. Estrella took the sword in her tiny hands, admiring it. The she put the end in her mouth and gummed it.

“We’ll have a talk about sword safety when you’re old. Rule one though, don’t eat your sword.”

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