Page 85 of Hell Raising and Other Pastimes (Grave Concerns 2)

“I live in the world, don’t I? It sort of is my issue.”

“I have seen humans from the start, and if there is one thing I have learned, it is that they are more than willing to sit back and let someone else take the risk. So, Ms. Harlin, what is it that makes you feel this is worth you risking yourself for?”

My words felt liquid, as if they sloshed around in my head then poured from my lips. It seemed the ambrosia was good for more than just trying to get some power of mine to work. It also made me answer questions I had no business answering. “You ever wonder where you fit into the world?”

“No. From the start, I have always known exactly where I belong.”

“Well, aren’t you lucky? Most of us don’t get that.” I shifted and leaned backward, the room spinning. I’d sure had a larger dose than the last time.

“It isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.”

When I fell over toward Lucifer, he set a hand on my shoulder and pushed me back the other way.

“The reality is that knowing where you belong does not mean a person is content there.” He took another drink as if watching a show. “How are you feeling?”

“Pretty damn good.” And…I was.

It was better than the alcohol, as if it reached my bloodstream faster, as if it smoothed over edges the alcohol left sharp. “So, you going to let me in on your little plan?”

“Why do you think I have one?”

“Because I know your type. You always have a plan.” He reminded me of Kase—an unflattering comparison. Someone who was always a few steps ahead and playing close to the chest so no one could guess his moves.

All I knew for sure was that he was out-maneuvering me by a long shot.

“What do you remember about your parents?”

“Nothing.” I frowned, then shook my head. “I saw a something, in a dream, but I don’t think it was real. I saw a woman rocking a baby, and she called it my name. She told it the spirits couldn’t hurt it.”

“So your mother knew what you were? What you could do?”

“Maybe. Or maybe she just abandoned me like everyone else, and I just want to believe she cared at one point. Abandonment issues can play one hell of a trick on the psyche.”

“And your father?”

I shrugged. If Lucifer wanted information, he was barking up the wrong hell-tree. I knew less about my parents than I did about myself.

“I heard Lilith is your daughter,” I said.

He nodded before going to the bar to pour himself another drink. “Yes. I have many children, but she was the first.”

“And how do you measure up as a daddy-o?”

He paused, as if he’d never considered the question before. “Lilith was different. My other children were created, how should I say—the more traditional way. Lilith was not born but made, much like Adam.”

I thought back to what little I had heard about such stories. “She was Adam’s first wife?”

Lucifer nodded before taking his seat again. “Yes. As a means of balance, Adam was made by”—he hesitated, as if unsure how to phrase the next part—“you would think of him as God. Reality is always more complicated. A compromise was decided that between Adam, forged by him, and Lilith, forged by me, we would have a mix of influence. However, our children were much as we are, stubborn and difficult. Adam wished to dominate, and Lilith wished for freedom. They were incompatible.”

“So then the whole ‘Eve from Adam’s rib’ thing happened?”

Lucifer nodded. “Lilith was set aside for her failure, and God created Eve from Adam, a more biddable female for him. Of course, you women showed him, didn’t you? I don’t think anyone expected quite so much in the way of bite from you.”

The joke didn’t land as I thought about the woman I’d seen, about Lilith, about how lonely that life had to have been.To be created for a single purpose and to fail in it?

“So she was just cast out?”

Lucifer took another drink, a slow one as if he didn’t care for the subject. “She has always yearned for freedom, has always loathed control. She was made sterile, so she could never carry on her line since she rejected what was laid out for her, but she has always been exceedingly smart. It was Lilith who created the first vampire.”

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