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“I’m gonna let Kat come up to play now.” Little Cassius got up, walking to the basement door.

“No, not yet,” Dom told him from over his shoulder, watching his father walk to his car, knowing Lucifer never backed down. Something felt off.

The basement door creak open, and then Cass yelled out, “Kat! Come up and play.”

“No, it’s not s—”

Dominic went to the basement door to hurry up and stop her, but seeing her happy, little face as she was already excitingly starting to come up the steps, he couldn’t tell her no now. Knowing she hated the basement, he went against his instincts, letting her come up before their father could drive off.

Watching Kat practically skip to the couch where her twin brothers went back to sitting, her butt didn’t touch the couch for a second when the front doorknob jingled.

Dominic ran to the door in a split-second, keeping it from opening. He looked over at a scared Kat who had jumped back up from off the couch.

“Go.” He mouthed for her to run. Every nerve ending in his body was struck with cold fear as he watched Kat run off, horrorstricken.

“What the fuck!” Lucifer hissed from the other side of the door.

Looking at his twin brothers, who had made it to the door beside him, he asked them gravely on a whisper, “Ready?”

A prepared Angel nodded, followed by a scared Matthias.

“Open this damn door! I’m going to fucking kill—”

Dominic flung open the door once he heard Kat close the basement door behind her, knowing he couldn’t hold the devil off forever.

It was his brother, Angel, who jumped him first, and even though the fifteen-year-old was brave, he didn’t stand a chance against his father. The back of Angel’s head split on the wall the second Lucifer threw him back on it.

Dominic was thankfully quick enough to get to his father before Matthias, knowing he would be scared shitless, tried to face Lucifer.

When Lucifer reared his fist back, Dominic caught it, showing him a trick he had learned from his own enforcer.

The look of Lucifer’s face switched from shock, to disbelief, and then to cold murder. The student had now become the teacher, so what did Lucifer have to do? He fought dirty.

When they had destroyed the whole house and ended up in the kitchen, Lucifer picked up the kitchen chair, smashing it over his son’s head and breaking it into pieces.

Matthias didn’t go into action until he saw Dominic fall to the floor. However, he was no match. Even though Lucifer had to be tired after the fight he and his oldest son had, Matthias had gone down quick. The punch his father planted on him sounded like he had possibly broken his nose.

The sound of the basement door opening had true fear setting in for Dominic. Lucifer was too crazed and hungry to get ahold of Kat after the phone call and now this.

Dom had done his best to keep their father away from her, but over the years, Lucifer had slipped past him a few times and got to her before he could protect her. In the past, he had just been in a torturing mood, but this time, he was in the mood to kill.

Shaking his head to get his thoughts back, he fought through the pain to somehow get back up. The world had become blurry from the blood that seeped into his eyes, so he didn’t even notice little Cassius going out the back door and into the night.

Limping to the basement door, he could already hear her little body tumbling down the steps. Knowing Kat had probably stayed on the other side of the door to hear them fighting. He really wished she would have listened to him when he’d told her to go hide under the bed if she ever heard anything scary coming from upstairs.

When he got to the door, he used the doorframe to hold his broken body up, and when he saw the scene of her crawling across the concrete floor to get away from Lucifer, his heart broke in two.

“No!” Dominic tried to go down the steps, but his broken body fell, hitting the concrete floor with a thud. The last of his adrenaline shot through his body, letting him stand up to grab the back of his father’s shirt as he stalked toward a crawling Kat.

Lucifer turned, spitting the words, “You can’t fucking protect her from me this time,” before he smacked Dom across the face with the back of his hand.

The hit on his already defeated body had him kissing the concrete again, but Dom wouldn’t give up protecting her, so he tried to get up for what would be the last time until Lucifer’s foot kicked him to the ground for good. However, he didn’t stop there as he continued to beat his son over and over, making sure he stayed down this time.