Page 67 of Roman

Maalik let go of his shoulder, eyes going wide.He shook his head, his face darkening.“Not an option.I’m going to take care of this.Lucifer isn’t getting out.He needs a woman with angel blood in her veins.He won’t be getting one, and Lucifer’s little lap dogs won’t be killing Charlotte.Now, let’s go get your girl.”He slapped him on the back.“You owe me a new fucking wall,” he snapped as he stalked out of Roman’s room.

* * *

Romanand the rest of the fallen stood around the marble table.They were all dressed for combat, heavily armed with knives, guns, swords, whatever their choice of weapon.

Ariel sat down, others choosing to follow suit.Roman was impatient, stalking from one end of the room to the other.He wanted to get the fuck out of there and get on the jet.Turel already had an almost two-hour head start on them, so they couldn’t sit there wasting time.

What if he was hurting her?Roman stilled.What if the bastard was touching her?His eyes burned at the thought of any male placing their hands on her.He shook himself, reining his temper.Focus, Roman.

“Okay, can someone please finally fill us in on what the hell is happening?”Phoenix asked, taking a seat next to Ariel.

Roman owed him and Lucian big time.They had been taking care of the club and all the deliveries while Roman had locked himself away in his room to make love to Charlotte.He’d yelled,Go away!to anyone who’d dared come near the bedroom door.

“Turel has taken Charlotte, that you all already know,” Roman told them, forcing himself to sit in his chair and remain calm.

“Why would he do something like this?How did none of us know he was working with Lucifer?”Marius asked, leaning against the wall, arms folded, his dark-brown dreadlocks hanging down past his waist.He looked menacing in his black camo pants with guns strapped to his legs, a black army vest covering his chest, his dark-skinned tattooed arms bulging with blades strapped to them.The hilt of his prized scimitar sword stuck out over his left shoulder.His dark-brown eyes were almost black from across the room.

“I don’t know the timeline exactly, but I think it happened around six months ago.That’s when his behavior changed, but only in small, seemingly insignificant ways.I just figured he was having one of his brooding moments and put little thought into it.But I have it confirmed from Rome now that it was definitely Turel who let the demons into the Vatican.We had thought all the cardinals to be slain, but they found one hiding, barely alive.Before his death, he identified Turel as being among the attackers and leading them to the vault where the scroll was taken,” Ariel told them all.

“Then, it is done.He has betrayed us and taken Roman’s woman, the key to opening Hell.If thatbastardohurts Charlotte, then he needs to lose his head!”Grigori snapped angrily, tossing his dagger in the air.

Roman watched the blade spinning as it came back down, Grigori effortlessly catching it by the hilt.Roman gave Grigori an evil smile.“Finally, something we can both agree on.”

Grigori sat forward, resting his elbows on the table.“I am fond of your little half-breed, Roman.She has a kind heart and a pure soul, and that is something I have not seen in a long time.Not to mention she loves my cooking,” he added with a sly smile.

“Look, we are running out of time, and there’s something you all need to know about Charlotte,” Ariel cut in, staring at Roman.“You going to keep your cool this time?”she added.

Everyone looked at him like he was a ticking time bomb.“I will be fine.That was a once-off,” he said, waving his hand and brushing off the shit show of a hissy fit he’d had upstairs.

Maalik rolled his eyes, throwing a glance over at Armaros with a shake of his head.Roman chose to ignore them, nodding for Ariel to proceed so they could get out of there.

“Long story short, twenty years ago, my sister Arella crawled out of Hell.”There she was again, that rock.No emotion whatsoever, the opposite of the vulnerable woman he’d heard on the phone only an hour before.

Lucian leaned forward, his ice-blue eyes wide.“You didn’t tell us?”He sounded angry.

Roman vaguely remembered them being close before the fall.It had been so long that the memories seemed to fade.

Everyone around him erupted into chaos, speaking at once, all of them stunned.Arella had been close to every one of them.Not only had she been Ariel’s little sister, but they had all treated her that way.She’d only just started her training back then to join Roman’s elite.She had desperately wanted to be by Ariel’s side.Had begged Ariel and Roman to let her start her training, as they both thought Arella was too soft and timid to be a soldier.They both felt she was better suited as a Joy Spreader, an angel who helped humans feel happiness.But in the end, they had given in to her.

Flashes of old memories long forgotten clouded his mind.They were all hammering Ariel with questions, demanding answers to things he knew would be hard for her to answer.He could see her resolve cracking as the hard wall she had put up to block out the pain of what had happened slowly started to crumble.

“Let her speak!”Roman yelled, the room falling silent.

She gave Roman a small nod.“She was bordering on crazed and delusional when I found her.During her time in Hell, they subjected her to torture intermittently for thousands of years, occasionally leaving her alone for thousands more.”Ariel stopped to take a shaky breath before looking back around the table, then, in a whisper, she said, “When she crawled out of Hell, she was heavily pregnant.”

Gasps and shocked mummers broke out around the room.Lucian slammed his fist down on the table, causing everyone to fall silent.

“Who got her pregnant?”Lucian demanded, his tone dangerous.

Roman watched him carefully.He wasn’t the only one with a beast inside of him.Lucian was one of the calmest of them all, but once in a while, when something truly upset him, he transformed.No one liked it when his beast came to visit, and from what Roman could tell, Lucian seemed to be having an inner fight with it at that very moment.

Ariel watched him closely, also aware of his inner turmoil.“Lucifer raped her.”Her voice wavered so slightly that he was sure he was the only one to notice.

Roman was blown away.Raped.Ariel hadn’t been able to tell him that part.

Monster,his mind whispered, horrified.

How could he?Arella had been one of the most beautiful, kind, and generous of them all.Her smile had been contagious.More memories overwhelmed him.She used to love to watch the animals on Earth; he remembered how they would have to console her when Mother Nature had taken its course and a creature would die.

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