Page 87 of Like Grim Death: Part One
Rain.
I wonder if Lucifer is thinking about him, the way his hands are balled into fists at his side, his head held high as he surveys the sanctuary, the hardwood floors creaking beneath our weight and velvet red pews empty, no Bibles in the back pockets.
Lucifer runs a hand over his dark, curly hair, and I catch sight of the ring on his finger, the veins in his hands. He’s in a black hoodie, fitted black joggers, and boots, a bandana around his neck. Basically the same clothes he was wearing on our walk Thursday night. His hair is a fucking mess just like before, and I wonder how much sleep he got this week, or what time he woke up this morning.
I think I see a tremor in his hand, dropped back by his side, and my stomach sinks, but I push it aside and refuse to think about his bad habit. The shakiness was probably nothing. He wouldn’t use with Rain in the house, right? He just… he wouldn’t. Now that they’re parents, Sid would probably cut him if he did. At the very least, she’d tell me, wouldn’t she?
Lucifer and I continue walking in a line, following behind Dominus.
Surprising me, he doesn’t turn right, toward the door that leads to the interior of the church—fellowship hall, classrooms, offices. Instead, he takes a left around the stage, past the pulpit, and to a smaller door I always assumed was a closet, but now, as he uses a key to open it before pocketing it, I realize this door leads to the baptistry. Sweeping my eyes to it, recessed behind the stage, that red, painted cross above it, I can’t really see anything. Just darkness, exactly like the hallway we walk through now, the door closed at my back.
I don’t speak as questions whirl through my mind, all three of our footfalls in sync in the dark hallway. There are no windows here, and it’s hard to even see the figures of my brother and Elijah in front of me. My heart thuds loudly in my ears, apprehension twisting my stomach into knots, but I know the gun isright there,and Lucifer is too. We have each other. Always. Still, I’m thrown off that Cain, Atlas, nor Ezra are here yet. Lucifer and I might be first and second in command, but we usually don’t meet without the others.
At what appears to be the end of the hall, Elijah hooks a left. “Stop here,” he says, his voice deep like his son’s. I stop, Lucifer does too, and a second later I hear the scratch of a match, the scent of sulfur, then a sconce is lit in the wall, flickering a soft, red glow over the small hallway we’re currently on.
Elijah shakes out the match, then turns to look at us, his dark green gaze flicking from me, to Lucifer, and back again.
“Both of you have broken many, many years of tradition this past year. And you…” His hazel eyes come to Lucifer.“Youmade a fool out of me inside this building on Monday night, in front of people none of us should fuck with.”
“We’ve discussed this,” Lucifer says through gritted teeth, his words news to me.
But Elijah just keeps talking like Lucifer didn’t.“Thenyoustaba very important—albeit a piece of shit—lackey.”
What the fuck?It looks like I’m not the only one keeping secrets. I cut my gaze to Lucifer and open my mouth to ask who and when he stabbed someone, but I’m cut off before I can.
“Now is not the time to ask questions, Maverick.” There’s a hard edge to Elijah’s words. He’s usually pretty calm, and he’s done all right in my opinion as Dominus. Far better than Lazar ever did, that sketchy, skeletal,deadfuck. But now he seems pissed and I’m not sure it’s all because of Lucifer’s refusal at the ritual. I want to know who the fuck he stabbed, but I shut my mouth because if it doesn’t come out now, I’ll beat it out of Lucifer later.
“An initiation ritual with outside members of the 6 isnota place you get to fuck up,” Elijah continues, hard eyes on my brother.
Lucifer snorts. “Thirteen,” he says softly, a rasp in the dim light. “I think I did just fine.”
Elijah’s jaw clenches.
Oh here we go.
“That’s your problem, Lucifer. Your arrogance will fuck you.”
I think his wife fucks him enough, but that’s just me…
“I’m all right with getting fucked.”
Don’t laugh.
Elijah smiles, and it’s concerning, because it’s certainly not a nice smile. Then his eyes come to me, and he studies me for a long moment.
I feel myself tensing, already on the defense, because Ella’s name is roaring in my head. I wonder if he’s going to bring up my secret interrogation right here in front of Luce. The commandment I had to make sure my brother follows orders. If he does, I’m going to tell him he and Mikhail can fuck themselves.
I take a step closer to Elijah, standing beside Lucifer. I can feel the tension rolling off my brother in waves too, but he doesn’t say anything else.
Elijah doesn’t look at all deterred by my move.
Instead, he glances at the gold watch on his wrist, and I see the flames from the sconce dance over the bronze of his 6 snake ring.
Apparently satisfied with the time, he clasps his wrist with one hand, both in front of him as he lifts his gaze back to mine. “You two have been allowed to engage yourself in petty pursuits and frivolous hobbies. Tonight, you will remember who you really are. The blood that runs through your veins. The two of you, in particular, need the reminder. First and second in command of who we are,whatwe are, cannot be given to mindless adolescents.”
Lucifer says nothing to this speech.
I have a lot to fucking say. “I do your bidding whenever you snap your fingers. I havemurderedfor you, Elijah. I’ve beenattackedfor you. I’ve killed forhim too.” I glance at Lucifer but don’t let myself think of Pammie. “What more could I possibly do to prove how seriously I take this?”I was beat over the head for doing absolutely fuckingnothing.
