Page 72 of Absolved In Death

The sky was the limit when we renovated Pit 13. We could create anything we wanted, and I made sure to make a special place for Diana. It took time to customize and decorate, but it was finished enough for her to see it. Maybe even use it.

I landed us right at the outskirts of our part of Pit 13. I had asked Lucifer to create a dense forest to separate our part from where the punished rotted for eternity. At the edge of the treeline, I built her a tiny, unassuming cabin.

She peered around with a confused look. “What are we doing?”

“This is the forest separating the punished from our military base. The cabin is my gift to you.”

Taking her hand, I walked her the short distance to the cabin. She gasped as I opened the door, revealing walls lined with book laden shelves. In the center of the tiny cabin was a comfortable king-size daybed, perfect for curling up with a good book. I even included a little mini fridge and snack pantry.

“Bash, thank you. It’s amazing…” she trailed off as she flitted through the titles.

“You never take time to yourself, and even if you did, there’s nowhere private for you to rest. You share your apartment with us. The library is a public place. This space is just for you. I’m the only other one who knows about it.” Not even Lucifer, in his all-knowing glory, knew I built this for her. “It’s warded to keep everyone but you and me out.”

“You and me?” she teased me, running her hand down my chest. “Are you going to corner me in here while I try to read?”

“No, but I may bring you here when I want alone time with you,” I admitted, pulling her into me. I weaved my fingers into her hair and kissed her neck. “I’m an incubus, it’s only natural for me to want to hoard you all to myself.”

She kissed me, slow and deep. “I’m sure it’s absolutely bollocks to share me.” She giggled, falling back onto the bed.

She snapped her fingers, and two copies of a paperback book with a shirtless man on the cover appeared in her hand. “I’m setting a two hour timer. You want to read this dark romance with me?”

Honestly, not really. Reading was more Mal’s hobby than mine. But if reading with her meant being able to hold her in my arms and having her to myself…I was game.

I got into bed, scooping her in my arms so the book laid between us. “Let me guess…he’s a hot, stoic guy with a deep, dark secret that will break the lady’s heart?”

She cackled, the sound of her laughter vibrating through me. “Of course he does!”

As she flipped through the pages and sank into me, I reminded myself it was all worth it.

23

LUCIFER

Two weeks had passed, and I was growing antsy. I sat on the couch with Marilyn in my lap, watching one of the human’s national news channels. The news anchor was a classically handsome man in his late thirties, and it was obvious he read his lines off a teleprompter. How could humans even watch this dribble?

Further investigation shows that last week’s footage from the L.A. and NYC attacks may have been doctored as part of a nationwide deepfake…

Seems like Vaulo had been successful in leveraging his media contacts to fix the damage Red caused, but only time would tell what impact it had. I didn’t like having him in Pit 13, and as soon as his necessity had run out, I planned on altering his memory and dumping him somewhere.

“So it worked?” Marilyn asked me.

I buried my face in her hair, holding her tighter as I took a deep breath in. Her earthy, floral scent calmed me down when I was stewing in my moods like this.

“In the short term yeah. The humans don’t trust the news, and now there’s enough discord about what actually happenedfor anyone to reach a consensus on it. Long term, we still have a lot of work to do.”

“You’re going to be busy when you take back the throne…” she trailed off.

“Yeah, Satans are busy. That’s part of the job,” I admitted. Her brows furrowed, and I knew her well enough to know she had more to say. “Talk to me, what’s going on?”

“You and Michael have always had issues when it came to your collective work. Don’t you think taking back the throne will make them worse? He’s on a break now, but eventually he’ll have to go back to Heaven…” A tear fell onto her cheek, and I kissed it away.

“I have a feeling he isn’t going back. If he is, we will work with it. Don’t forget, this time I have O, Diana, and her boyfriends.” I tried not to grimace, because for some unknown reason, she actually liked them all, even Bash.

“Don’t say it like that. They’re good men. You can tell they all care about her.” Her defense of them just made me jealous.

“They’re not as good as me?” I asked, pinching her thick thigh.

“Obviously. But I’m not worried about her being with them. They practically worship the ground she walks on. Take care of her every need. Yesterday Diana said she was thirsty and Mal teleported her not one, not two, but three different drinks to try. That’s over the top.”

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