Page 116 of Like Grim Death: Part One
“Yeah,” I say, answering his unspoken question about where his family is. “Both of them.”
Slowly, Luce turns to look at me again, and I see he’s got blood on his knuckles. His skeleton bandana is around his neck, his hood brushed back. He’s dressed in all black, and his eyes flick from me, to Cain at my back. He furrows his brow, looking questioningly toward me, but he doesn’t say anything, maybe sensing the tension between us.
I think about the last time we saw Luce. All of us all over him. The lethargy that lingered after our trip, and how he probably doesn’t want to tell Sid anything about it and how I feel uneasy about that. Maybe that’s why I wasall overSid, as Ella claims. She probably isn’t wrong. I just feel… fucking guilty. I haven’t told Ella, either, and I don’t want to. I don’t want her to think she’s got permission to fuck around with anyone else.
My brother turns his back to us, and I see a gun in his waistband too, the hem of his hoodie caught at the top of his black sweats. “I need your help with someone.”
After I tell Ella to go upstairs, leaving our confrontation for later, and I leave Ezra and Brooklin on the back deck, Cain, Luce, and I stand around Luce’s BMW outside in the night. He’s leaning against the driver’s side door, his windows down for whatever reason, his arms crossed, all of us on the circular driveway, his car close to the front doors. I note a black SUV down the long drive, lights off, tinted windows, and I know it’s one of our guards.
Lucifer is staring at the ground, and the scent of nicotine is heavy in the air even though he isn’t currently smoking. “What the fuck is going on with you?” he asks without looking at me. “Cain said you attacked Atlas.”
I glare at Cain, but I haven’t forgotten what Elijah said, about stabbing alackey.The shit I couldn’t follow up on since we’ve had rituals. So all I say to Luce is, “I could ask the same of you.”
Cain cuts in before Lucifer can respond. “Fuck that for now. Where is he?”
The three of us are so close, Cain’s shoulder brushes mine.
Lucifer doesn’t speak.
In the quiet that follows, I hear “Snow White” by Highly Suspect playing from inside Luce’s car, which makes my skin crawl.
I open my mouth, about to echo Cain’s question, but finally, Lucifer picks his head up, his gaze flicking from Cain, to me. It’s the first time I’m seeing him head-on, in the glow of lights from his front porch, and I notice the bruise on the side of his face, just over his pale cheekbone. Given his complexion, it’s startling, red and purple and clearly fresh.
“The trunk.” His voice is hoarse, and he lifts his eyes, locking them with mine.
The fucking trunk.
Cain glances at it and asks, his tone level, “He still alivein there?”
“Possibly.” Lucifer grinds his teeth together for a moment before he adds, “His name isSevryn.”
It’s startling, hearing it, and Lucifer says it like it’s disgusting. Contaminated.
Sevryn.What a fucking name.
“I can’t deal with this shit tonight.” It’s like an admission of failure, the way he says it, his eyes on the cement beneath our feet.
The next words out of my mouth are reluctant, but automatic. “We’ll handle it.” It’s loyalty and love that forces me to say it, but I’m thinking about spending another night under the same roof as Atlas, Ella with me, and how I want a distraction from that. Her outburst about me being too close to Sid has me thinking maybe she’s feeling guilty about something. I held her the entire time. I made sure to touch her. She’s not going to keep me from my own fucking sister. My nephew’s mother. She won’t rip that apart.
Besides,I’mnot getting drunk and playing cards with Sid right in front of her like she was fucking doing to me.
“He needs to recover.” Lucifer snarls the words out, his chin dipped, but he lifts his gaze to mine. He looks skeletal like this, his lean face cast in shadows and the trick of light dancing on his bruise, causing his bone structure to appear hollow. His demonic eyes don’t leave mine. “Someone will come to change his bandages. But I don’t care. I need to talk to my wife.”
My mouth goes dry. I think of Ella’s jealousy, and I wonder how Sid will take Lucifer’s confession tonight. Because as twisted as their marriage is, I have no doubt he’ll tell her everything he can. About the girl, aboutus,and I don’t know how much more she can fucking take.
“Maybe you should save that for later.” Cain says it and I’m glad. Maybe too, it makes me feel less guilty about the fact I haven’t confessed to Ella yet.
“What exactly doesSevrynneed to recover from?” I jump in. The name feels strange on my tongue. I don’t like it. “His wounds from over a week ago shouldn’t be too nasty now.”
Lucifer smirks at me. “It was a hell of a day.” But he doesn’t elaborate, and the longer we stare at one another, the further his shitty smile slips. Until, after several moments… it’s gone.
He blinks, and redness rims his eyes. I watch his chest rise beneath his crossed arms. It lifts and lifts and lifts, his lips pressed together, and I know he’s holding his breath, but instinctively, I know it’s more than that too.
He’s keeping everything inside. Whatever happened today, last night, maybe eventonight,he’s pushing it down. Like if he swallows all of the poison, if he can only get it down his throat, it won’t kill him. It’ll pass through his system and he’ll breathe again when it does.
He doesn’t want to break in front of us, because he isn’t supposed to. None of us are, but especially not him. He’s always had the weight of all of us on his shoulders because of his father, because of his rank. And now he has a family, and you can’t fall apart when your family needs you, can you?
“Lucifer.” I whisper his name, but I want to say something else too. I want to say I’m here for him.We’rehere for him. I mean, even Cain, who never lets anything slip past his heart, is clearly keeping secrets and feelings in check.
