Page 181 of Wicked Believer
She still isn’t here. I can’t call the cops.
Not without alerting my brother that I’m here. Charlotte, please answer me.
Followed by:
I don’t have any choice. I’m calling the cops now. My brother’s going to find me, but I can’t keep doing nothing like this.
Charlotte, please answer.
And last but not least:
A photo text from a number I haven’t seen that often lately.
Ian.
I open it only for my whole body to turn rigid, cold.
“What’s wrong?” Azrael asks from where he suddenly forms beside me.
Ever since Lucifer assigned him as my “watchdog,” he always just appears whenever I need him.
Slowly, I turn the screen of my phone toward him, my hand trembling.
Death’s cold eyes take stock of the image of my closest friend, bound and gagged, the blue light of the photo now reflected in his knowing gaze. His jaw hardens when he sees the familiar blade in Ian’s hand, and somehow, I know from the grim look on Azrael’s face thatthisblade is the real one, the one he regrets putting into play. Though how did a human ...?
Then Death’s sights fall toward Ian, a person I once thought was my friend. I may not have been on the best of terms with him currently, but I never would have thought he’d do something likethis. He holds the Holy Lance ruthlessly against Jax’s bleeding throat.
The last and only other text from him reads:
Come and get her, Mrs. Lucifer.
Chapter Sixty
Charlotte
“Wehaveto go after her!”
Lucifer shakes his head. Azrael’s just summoned him and his style team from upstairs. “I shouldn’t have to tell you all the reasons that is not a good idea right now, Charlotte.”
Azrael steps between us, acting as a sort of immortal buffer between Lucifer and me. “That blade can kill you as much as it can her. Allow me to—”
“No,” Lucifer and I say in unison.
At least he and I can agree on that.
If Azrael were to be killed, regardless of the facthewas the one who initially put the blade into play—something neither of us seem to have any plans of telling Lucifer yet—Lucifer’s lack of power would no longer be shielded from the other Originals. And with me still having no idea how to use my powers or any of the other abilities Lucifer’s finally disclosed that God’s redemption gifted me, I’d basically be a sitting duck for Michael or another one of his siblings’ taking, and then ...
Chaos would ensue.
We all know it.
“I’ll go.” Lucifer brushes off the lapels of the Armani tux he’s wearing. “I may no longer have my power, but I’m more than capable of offing a pathetic little human in other ways.” He unbuttons the coat of his tux to reveal the loaded gun he’s apparently now started carrying.
So, his suspenders really were a shoulder holster after all.
Why doesn’t that surprise me?
An immortal with a loaded gun.
