“Yes!” I shouted at her back.

  Clara smirked at me when I finally rolled into the kitchen twenty minutes later, but the woman pushed a cup of steaming coffee at me, so I forgave her.

  I groaned after my first sip. “Thank you.”

  She sipped her coffee. “You look like shit.”

  “Thanks.” I padded into the living room and sank onto the recliner.

  Clara followed behind. “You were up late last night.”

  “Couldn’t sleep.”

  She pointed to herself. “Vampire. Old as dirt. I haven’t slept properly since I was turned.”

  “You turned in early. I thought you’d be dead to the world when I woke up.” I didn’t question it last night. She had a difficult day, so I assumed she wanted to be left alone. Though I thought I might not see her until tonight. The stories weren’t just inaccurate, they’re dead wrong.

  Clara looked fresh as a daisy this morning, her long dark hair falling in a stream across her shoulder. Her dark eyes were unreadable. “Age has its benefits.” A small smile played over her lips.

  I wouldn’t get anything more from her.

  “So. What’s the plan today?” Clara said.

  “Are you really drinking that coffee?” I blurted.

  Clara snorted and tipped her mug to me. “Yep.”

  I peered inside. Half of it was gone. “Where does it go?”

  She laughed. “You have no fear, do you?”

  “I’m too tired to be afraid,” I admitted. “Things were a lot easier before anyone knew who I was.”

  “I’m different,” Clara admitted. “Don’t ask how. Don’t ask why. I don’t know. I can eat and drink. I don’t have to sleep at night, and I can walk in the sun.”

  “Is that why the angels are after you?”

  “They’re after me to prevent this.” She gestured to me, then herself. “You and me teaming up, the best, most powerful BFFs in the world.” Clara winked and sipped her coffee. “We’re going to kick ass and take names.”

  The thought of it was laughable. I had a knack for survival, but I was still a ticking time bomb. If I couldn’t master myself, I might kill everyone around me. “I’m not going to do much if I can’t figure my shit out,” I muttered.

  She leaned forward, a gleam I didn’t like in her eyes. “You have me now. We’ll figure it out.”

  “That’s what I’m afraid of.”

  Clara grinned and held her mug up in a toast. “You’re going to love it.”

  Lucifer was waiting for me when I came downstairs. Clara said she’d be down later and that I needed to ask my handler for some time off because she had things she wanted to show me.

  She’d made no move to leave my house, and I wasn’t sure how to feel about it. Should I start charging her rent? Do a chore chart? Get some nail polish and paint each other’s toes?

  “Violet,” he greeted me. His tone was serious.

  “Everything okay?” I asked, snagging an apron from the rack and tying it around my neck and waist.

  “We haven’t spoken in a while.”

  I eyed him. “We speak every day.”

  He clasped his hands together before him. “You’ve avoided any conversation about the fae lands.”

  My lips thinned. “I told you what happened to me.”

  He tilted his head and studied me, a curious look gleaming in his bright blue eyes. Lucifer was beautiful, perfection incarnate. I crushed hard on him for a long time until my mom came back into the picture. Knowing their history and seeing him for who he really was softened something inside of me.

  Now he felt more like a favorite uncle. A really hot favorite uncle, but I no longer had the urge to jump his bones.

  Because he might really be my uncle. And that’s gross.

  Lucifer was under the impression Michael might not be his brother, but that wasn’t something I dwelled too long on. He was an angel, the wings and his place in Heaven proved that, but if he wasn’t God’s, whose son was he?

  And, what unholy power might he possess?

  Michael’s powers were the stuff of legends, spoken about in whispers among the other angels. As God’s favored son, Michael acted as the angel of justice, meting out punishment for his father and passing judgment on his own.

  But things changed over the years, and Michael slowly fell out of favor, leading him and all of us to this moment—the potential of a war looming before us.

  All because Michael couldn’t handle not being the one in charge.

  That’s the simplistic way to describe it, but if I needed to dole it down even more, Michael was jealous and threw a potentially world-ending temper tantrum.

  There. That’s better.

  “You have,” Lucifer admitted. “But you don’t seem okay.”

  Running for my life in a strange land was enough to traumatize anyone, but I held my tongue. I grabbed a glass and polished it as I gathered my thoughts. “I’m not sure what you want me to say. You aren’t my therapist.”

  Lucifer blinked. “I’m aware. I care about you. So does your mother. We only want to make sure you’re okay.”

  “I’m fine, Lucifer. I promise. But there’s something else I need to talk to you about.”

  His eyes tightened at my abrupt change of subject, but he flicked his fingers. “Go on.”

  I flicked my gaze up at the area above the bar.

  Lucifer smiled. “No one is here. I checked.”

  “I need to figure out a way to break Olive’s contract, send her home, and also keep our secrets.”

  One dark eyebrow went up. “Oh?”

  “She’s…” What was she doing? Being annoying, yes. Sneaking around, yes. But she wasn’t breaking her contract. Dancing on the edge, yes, but not breaking it.

  “Being a fae?” Lucifer supplied.

  I had to laugh. “I don’t like her,” I admitted. “There’s something about her that rubs me the wrong way.”

  He shrugged. “I don’t like many of my demons, Violet. It doesn’t mean they don’t serve me as best they can.”

  “Yes, but they’re loyal to you. Your demons are creatures of your realm. Olive belongs to Ariel, and we both know how the queen feels about me.”

  He grunted. I suspected if he could get away with it, he’d pop Ariel’s head off like a plastic doll. “Has she done anything serious enough to warrant this?”

  “She tried to negotiate my murder with Lachlan.”

  Lucifer’s fingers tightened into a fist. “She did what?” His voice was deadly quiet.

  “It’s not a big deal. I expected it way sooner, to be honest.”

  Lucifer’s face turned to marble. “How did you find out?”

  “Lachlan told me.”

  His eye twitched. “Why don’t you just kill her?”

  A short laugh escaped me. “Keelie said the same thing.”

  He shrugged. “I agree with the tiny fairy.”

  “I don't want her to die, Lucifer. I just want her away from me.”

  “Two can keep a secret, if one of them is dead,” Lucifer quoted.

  “Creepy. I agree, but still a little ominous. I thought about a memory spell. Do you think I could get away with it?”

  Lucifer studied me. “Produce the contract.”

  I snapped my fingers. The paperwork appeared in front of him with a shimmer.

  Lucifer’s eyes lit up. “You’re practicing!”

  “It’s not a nuclear bomb, but I guess it will do,” I said lightly.

  He gave me a reproving look. “Every single bit of magic builds upon the other. Do not dismiss your efforts. If you can produce something like this, with practice, you’ll be able to produce something larger.” He studied the contract. “It’s perfect. No damage. No smears.” Lucifer’s nod of pleasure sent a warm, fuzzy feeling through me. “Excellent work. I’ll stay here for a while and review this if you don’t mind.”

  I glanced up at the fairy lighting area.

  “I will know if she returns,” Lucifer said, his eyes straying to the contract. “But I still think you should kill her.”

  “Duly noted,” I sighed.

  chapter seven

  The only problem with a memory spell was a powerful magician could reverse it.

  Or a fairy queen.

  The only way to block those memories was to remove them.

  Permanently.

  But doing so could shatter Olive’s mind.

  Lucifer suggested I speak to Lachlan about it. When I told Lucifer Ariel and Lachlan were married, his eyebrows rose a hair.

  “Should you kill him too?” he said a moment later.

  “I can’t kill everyone who annoys me!” I snapped.

  Lucifer shrugged. “I do.”

  I blinked at him, but his eyes sparkled with good humor.

  “I have no idea if you’re joking, but don’t answer that. Please.”

  Lucifer winked and rose from his seat, sending the contract wherever things went when dismissed with magic. “Your fae seems reasonable. Perhaps bargain with him beforehand to keep your secrets.” He pushed the chair back in. “Either way, I don’t see the harm in him knowing about Olive provided he doesn’t know the secrets she keeps about us. Olive is bound to that part of the contract. She may try to hire a hit man…” He bared his teeth at that, “but she can’t do the job herself.”

  “I’ll talk to him later. Thanks for looking.”

  He dipped his head. “How’s the Dragon King revenge plot going?”

  I chuckled. “Not fast enough, first of all. I’m still trying to get that perfect mix of shock and awe.”

  “I’m sure whatever you come up with will be enough to suitably awe anyone, Violet.”

  “Aww. You say the nicest things sometimes.”

  With a wink, he disappeared, leaving me in the bar alone with a bundle of work to do before I opened.

  Dave lay slumped over a table he’d commandeered toward the back of the room. Normally, he sat at the bar, nursing his favorite drink—The Hydration Special—but Swan’s was packed to the gills tonight. I hadn’t seen him in quite a while. His tentacles were tucked in, for the most part. One had snuck out from the top of his shoulder and rested inside the glass. No one bothered him, and I didn’t have the heart to wake him up and tell him to put it away.

  Last time we chatted, he mentioned something about the new undersea queen’s coronation. What happened to the last one, I had no idea. It sounded like she was still alive, so I guess that’s positive.

  Poor dude looked knackered. His mouth was slightly open, his breath rustling the napkin. At least he was alive.

  Landry came up beside me and snorted when he saw who I was looking at.

  “How is he sleeping through this racket?” he whisper yelled.

  Gary had finally found his new groove in this weird ass gate to hell bar. For the first few weeks after we moved in, he only played when someone paid him—the jukebox’s equivalent of a paranormal temper. Now, he struck up the music as soon as Landry or I walked in to start setting it up for the night’s business. I never asked him to play anything anymore. I thought the damn thing had some kind of inherent empath magic because his magic always matched the mood.

  The dance floor was filled with monsters of all kinds—wolves, demons, vamps, succubi, all dancing together with no strife. I smiled at the sight. My place sat at the gate to Hell, and I’m the person responsible for making sure no one comes in or goes out who isn’t supposed to. So far so good. What Lucifer didn’t count on, I don’t think, is the rest of my clientele finding me when he moved me here. He expected this place to turn into a demon bar only, but it’d become something so much more.

  A place where we could all be who were meant to be, and no one would pass judgment on us.

  Except for me, of course.

  I had to remain Violet—Brewer and Guardian of mysterious, mixed origins.

  I shrugged. “No idea. He looks wiped.”

  Landry grunted.

  “Any idea what’s going on with that coronation?”

  Landry shook his head. “The Undersea is as secretive as the angels are. Maybe more so.”

  “What about the last queen?”

  Landry’s gaze lingered on Dave. “Rumor is she was forced out for being a shit queen.”

  My brow furrowed. “Isn’t the queen the most powerful of all the undersea people?”

  “You’d think so,” he said cryptically before a table of gorgeous succubi waved him over.

  Hmm. Dave’s tentacle slipped from the empty drink and flopped onto the table. Shaking my head, I snatched the empty glass and walked it over to the bar to make him another.

  Santana music boomed through the bar, the guitar and drum beat sliding under my skin. My head bobbed with the beat as I made his drink. Keelie and Olive stayed up in the rafters providing fairy light ambiance. The other fairies all hovered beside them. I glanced up at them and wondered if I should worry about any of the others.

  I worried about everything these days. We had too much to lose not to.

  Lucifer left before the bar opened. He always came back when emotion ran high and the dance floor filled. Something about all the emotion drew him in.

  After I topped the glass off with a touch of purified seawater, I stepped out from behind the bar and headed over to him.

  Several demons nodded to me as I passed by. Clara, wearing one of my tank tops and a pair of my old blue jeans, shook her ass on the dance floor, moving perilously close to one of the crankier werewolves. My brows lifted, and I wondered for a brief moment if she was about to bite off more than she could chew, but Clara winked, and I bit down a grin.

  Dave hadn’t moved a muscle, so I set the glass down quietly beside him. As I straightened, I watched that tentacle ooze its way back into the glass. A shudder racked my spine as I backed away.

  Clara waved to me and reached out for my hand. “Nope!” I called. “I’m on the clock!”

  “Spoilsport!” she shouted.

  I gave her a feral grin and skipped away from her wandering fingers.

  Her wild laugh followed me back to the bar.

  Just as I was about to head to the back, Lucifer stepped through the portal.

  He looked devastatingly handsome tonight. I waved, but he held up a finger to stop me.

  Everyone stepped out of his way as he moved through the crowd. I thought of Moses and wondered if he’d get a kick out of me thinking the waters parted for him.

  “A minute, if you please.”

  I untied my apron and hung it up. “Want to come into the back?”

  He nodded and followed behind.

  The noise died abruptly as the door shut. He leaned against it and studied me, his blue eyes cataloging everything I wore, my state of mine…everything. The perusal made me squirm.

  “Everything okay?” I hedged.

  “No one has seen Michael in over a week.”

  I chewed on my lip. “You think he’s in hiding?”

  “No. I think he’s planning something. We need to be on guard. When I step back out, I’ll add extra protection to the portal.”

  I frowned. “Aren’t they pretty fool proof?”

  A shocking boom rattled the entire bar, sending me sailing off my feet. Lucifer grunted, flinging himself away from the door.

  He caught me around the waist seconds before I hit the ground. Glass shattered all around us, pans crashing to the floor, the metallic banging reverberating through my brain.

  “Holy shit.”

  “Stay,” Lucifer commanded, disappearing in a whisp of dark shadow.

  I caught my breath. “Nope.”

  Last time I checked, I wasn’t a dog.

  When I got my bearing, I ran through the double doors and right into a scene of total chaos.

  Ten angels stood at the portal. I recognized one of them wearing a female form this time. She’d switched the pink gown for a seafoam green this time. Her long blonde hair fell like a waterfall down her waist, and her blue eyes sparked with smug satisfaction as she took in all the creatures in the bar.

  “Oh good,” she said, her voice like bells. “More to play with.” She licked her lips.

  Lucifer stepped up. “Gabriel. State your purpose.”

  “Oh, Brother! How good to see you. Michael sends his regards.”

  Lucifer’s face flashed with fury. “This is your decision? You’ve chosen destruction over redemption?”

  Gabriel snorted derisively.

  Nine other angels stood in a semi-circle. Four of them had dark hair and dark eyes. One resembled Gabriel, but male. Tall, lean, but with piercing green eyes similar to my own. One had strange crimson hair and golden eyes, and the other three had white hair with crystalline silver eyes.

  The bar patrons shifted closer together.

  Not a single one of them looked afraid. Pride filled me. If we died today, I had no doubt we’d go down fighting.

  “You’re on the wrong side of this,” Lucifer continued. “We will have no mercy on the battlefield.”

  Gabriel laughed. “Battlefield? You’ll die like the carrion you are far before it gets to that point.”

  She snapped her fingers. The other nine angels stepped forward, ominous power sparking from their fingertips. Her gaze flicked to me. “Kill them all,” she commanded. Her red lips curled in a smile. “I’ll take the Guardian.”

  Someone shuffled forward, the sound an odd break in the ominous silence.

  Dave pushed to the front of the crowd, wiping the sleep from his eyes, that same tentacle dropping slime everywhere it touched.

  Someone snorted. Another person gagged.

  Gabriel’s brow furrowed as Dave grandly interrupted her glorious entrance and soliloquy.

  “What’s going on, Violet?” he asked.

  Lucifer gawked at Dave.

  “Uh,” I said. “Well.” A hysterical laugh bubbled from me. “We might all be about to die.”

  Dave blinked, slow, like a turtle unconcerned with the hare kicking its ass in a race to live. “Is that right?”

  A few nervous chuckles came from the back.

  “Um.” I waved a hand at Gabriel and her cronies, all staring at Dave like he’d lost his fucking mind.

  Which…he had.

 

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