Page 108 of Blood

“What the...?” I blink, attempting to orient myself, and swear I see familiar emerald eyes staring down at me, rife with pain. But then I blink again, and the face dissipates like ashes in the breeze. Still, his name settles on my tongue, the sweetest of poisons, acerbic in flavor but tantalizing my taste buds like melted chocolate. “Mason?”

“Violet!” Hands reach for me, touching my face, my hair, my legs—basically wherever they can reach.

The heaviness in my chest lightens, and safety floods me, something I don’t get to experience often.

My mates.

They’re here.

The compulsion to pull them close is undeniable, but I feel as if there’s something I need to remember, something I need to do...

“You did it, Precious Treasure.” My breath mingles with Hux as he presses his forehead to my own, his lashes fluttering against his cheekbones. However, despite his words, the sharp jawline that blesses his features is bunched, betraying his fear and tension. “Zeus is gone.”

“What?” Confusion swirls around in my chest like a typhoon as I struggle to coincide his words with everything I know. The last thing I remember is Zeus using his magic to toss Cal aside as if he were nothing but a rag doll, and then...rage. So much rage, it seemed to encase me in an icy shadow, crawling up my throat like a spider.

Oh god. Cal.

I desperately search for my cupid, only breathing a sigh of relief when I see his face directly above Frankie’s shoulder, his eyes hooded with worry.

“You’re okay,” I breathe, tears burning my eyes. I flick my gaze from his to take in the rest of my mates—all dirty, disheveled, and bleeding, but alive. “You’re all okay.”

The tightness in my throat subsides, even as panic beats like a snare drum in my chest.

What the fuck happened?

I don’t know if I spoke those words out loud or if my mates are just apt at reading my face, because, in eerie unison, all of them turn to stare at the figure leaning against the doorway.

“Lucifer,” I breathe as my bio dad hobbles toward me. His face is haggard, and violent black shadows hover beneath both of his eyes. “You look like shit.”

“Is that anyway to greet your tortured dad?” Lucifer’s lips twitch in the beginnings of a smile.

A throat clears obnoxiously from behind him. “Bio dad. Not real dad. There’s a difference.” Dracula moves to stand beside Lucifer, his eyes intent on me, love emanating from every pore of his...very, very naked body.

I immediately turn away with a cry of disgust. “Dad! Oh my god! Put your dick away!”

“Ha!” Dracula sounds smug. “I’m Dad, and you’re Lucifer. Suck it.”

“Nobody is sucking anything!” I plead.

My skin quite literally crawls.

“Dracula, put your dick away.” Hera’s musical voice reverberates through the room. “And Lucifer, talk to our daughter. She’s freaking out.”

Our daughter.

Sparks of excitement shoot off through my body at those two words, crackling down my nerve endings.

Our daughter.

“I don’t know what you did, Vi, but you stopped Zeus. You did it.” The warmth of Dimitri’s breath hits my earlobe and sends chills down my spine. I can feel his arms coil around my waist from behind as he pulls me against him.

“I...did?”

“You called upon the souls of the damned,” Lucifer tells me briskly, straightening a hand down his rumpled tunic and tattered pants. I’ve never seen him in anything but an immaculate white suit, so I can’t help but think he appears almost unrecognizable in his ordinary clothes.

My parents...are alive.

They’re okay.

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