Page 26 of Providence

Cain

My blood turned to ice, and my Brothers spread out around me. Even Sera stepped closer to me, as if she was trying to protect me. God, I loved her even more for it. I’d been waiting for this moment of reckoning. I felt strangely calm, really. I would do it again. There wasn’t any version of reality where I wouldn’t sell my soul to the Devil over and over again so she could live.

I tried to look bored, unworried about the cost. On the inside, I was desperately scared. Not for my life, I’d give that to Sera in a heartbeat. But if Luc wanted me to give her up, to leave her behind, it would kill me.

Lucifer rolled his eyes. “You can all stop looking so fucking terrified. What kind of fucking asshole would exact some kind of terrible punishment for saving his best friend’s daughter and grandson? Honestly, it’s like you think I’m evil or something,” he said, smirking. I didn’t like that smirk at all. The woman beside him, his angelic consort, elbowed him in the ribs. “Stop with the foreplay.”

He gave her a hot look, and I swear the temperature in the room rose three degrees. “You weren’t saying that last night, my love.”

She grinned, an expression that was all sex and sin. “I won’t be saying it again tonight, either. But don’t play with your Horsemen. It’s not fun to break your toys before you even get them out of the box.”

Judas stiffened at being referred to as a toy, but I brushed a hand across his arm. A warning.

Lucifer rolled his eyes. “Fine. You used to be more fun, my consort. You’ve gone soft in your old age.” She raised a fist at him, and he laughed. “No. What I want from you, Cain, the Horseman of War, is something you are entirely too good at. I want you to take in a stray.”

A stray? What the hell? Another pregnant Nephilim like Sera? A human? What kind of stray could the Devil want me to care for?

My questions were answered in the next second, when an angel that was all too familiar appeared in the room, his body curled in on itself, his snowy white wings wrapped around his body. He looked up at us, his anguished eyes still as depressed as the last time I saw him.

The motherfucking Archangel Raphael. What the actual hell?

Everyone started talking at once, confusion and distrust being the general theme. Why did we need to babysit an Archangel? We didn’t want the wrath of the Legion of Heavens. One run in with Michael was enough, thank you very much.

During the whole thing, Raphael looked down at his feet. No, not at his feet. At the tips of his wings. My breath caught in my lungs. The tips of his wing were pink. He was beginning to Fall. Holy shit.

I swallowed hard. “He can stay. However long he needs,” I said loudly, speaking over the top of everyone else. Raphael looked at me, relief, regret, fear in his eyes. Damn. What the fuck happened? Did saving Sera start his Fall? Was it something else?

Lucifer nodded, like I actually had a choice. I didn’t know why he couldn’t stay with Hope, or wherever Luc lived when he wasn’t in Hell. I didn’t know why Lucifer thought that plonking him in the middle of an MC filled with sinners was the best idea. But if it was where Raphael wanted to be, then I was okay with it.

“He’s not a prisoner or anything, right? Because keeping Archangels prisoner is a little out of our pay-grade,” Solomon asked, and his eyes were wild.

Raphael shook his head. “I am here voluntarily.”

Well, that’s all that mattered. Judas was still staring at Lucifer. “Cain’s price has been paid. It is agreed?”

Lucifer nodded again, and I breathed out a sigh of relief. Ace walked over to the Archangel, who towered over us all. She wrapped her arms around his waist. “It will all be okay,” she whispered against his chest, then disappears from the kitchen with a pop. Luc gives a warning glare at us, and disappeared too.

All that remains in the kitchen is one Archangel, three of the four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, a Nephilim and a run of the mill human. Just your average Sunday, right?

To say, it was awkward, would be an understatement. Sera, the fucking angel she was, gave him a tentative smile and pointed to a stool. “Grab a seat. I’ll make some breakfast.” Squeals of happiness from the backyard made us all smile. “You might want to hide your wings, unless you want to field a thousand questions from a small child about them. And I mean a thousand. Cara can definitely talk,” she said fondly. Hell, we all loved Marco’s kids, even G. They were cute as fuck. Raphael nodded, his eyes still impossibly sad. But his wings, with that dusky pink tinge, disappeared from sight.

I walked over to the espresso machine. “Coffee?”

“No, thank you.”

Eesh, this was awkward. I walked behind Sera and kissed her temple, grabbing her ass where the Archangel couldn’t see, and was rewarded with a mock stern look. Marco went out to check on the kids, but the rest of us stood awkwardly around the kitchen. No one knew what to do or say when the overwhelming power of an Archangel was making it difficult to breathe.

Judas was practical as ever. This was why he was President. “Are there any threats you could bring to our doorstep that we should know about? Are you knocked up by Uriel too?”

I snorted out a laugh, and Sera threw Judas a bemused look. But hey, you could never rule shit out with Angels.

“No, my disgrace is all of my own making. There will be no repercussions for your family. I just need a refuge for a moment.”

Sera reached across the bench and put her hand over Raphael’s. I watched him flinch, but he didn’t pull away. “You can stay for as long as you like,” she said softly, ignoring Judas’ incredulous expression. She was right though. We had Raphael for as long as he wanted to stay. That was my deal with Lucifer.

Still… “You wouldn’t be more comfortable with Hope and her guys?”

Raphael’s face got impossibly sadder. Well, shit. What did I say now?

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