Page 81 of Wicked Believer (Original Sinner #2)

Chapter Sixty-Eight

Azrael

The last time I had to save Charlotte from herself, I understood that, despite all appearances to the contrary, she didn’t actually have a death wish.

This time, I’m not so certain.

She strips off her heels and barrels down the aisle with all the grace of a bull in a china shop.

I never have figured out how humanity came up with that particular saying—what idiot fucked around and found out?

Though, in truth, I’ve seen stupider deaths—but in this instance, the description is fitting.

Lucifer likes his women gutsy, I’ll give him that much.

All eyes turn toward Charlotte as she rushes down the stairs, her friend thrashing and struggling at the sight of her.

I take that as my cue and hit the recording booth button, fading into the Nothing so that I’m no longer visible. When I reform, I’ll be right where Charlotte’ll need me.

Michael and Lilith might feel me, but they sure as fuck can’t find me.

I’m a ghost, plain and simple.

That feeling you get when you think someone’s watching you, only to turn around and find there’s no one there.

The hairs on the back of Charlotte’s friend’s neck rise. Like she can feel me too.

She’s a powerful Seer. No wonder Lilith wants a piece of her.

Lucifer’s Mother loves her fucking prophecies.

Michael, that predictable fucker—who I so regret gifting my old sword to—looks furious at Charlotte’s sudden appearance. “I thought I told you to stay out of my way.” His voice is full of self-righteous fury.

Fuck, I regret ever dating him.

Lucifer never would let me live that particular rebound down.

But when you’re as old and ancient as we are, well, everybody ends up fucking everybody sooner or later. There’s no such thing as a choosy immortal.

Or a heterosexual one, for that matter.

Charlotte smiles, giving a devil-may-care shrug. “Why don’t you ask Lucifer how good I am at listening?”

I chuckle. Lucifer’s little siren is ballsy.

A she-devil in her own right.

Clearly, she’s been taking a page out of her “Daddy’s” playbook.

Though it won’t be long before Lucifer’s not the only one she calls Daddy.

Come hell or high water, I’ll make her mine.

She turns her attention to the guy with the knife on her friend. “I’d say I’m sorry that Michael fucked you and the other members of the Righteous over, but I’m not, so ... Sorry, not sorry?” She shrugs like she couldn’t care less about this whole thing.

Though I know that couldn’t be further from the truth.

She’s a freaking Chaos Muppet.

How did I not see it sooner?

She and Lucifer are starting to make a whole lot more fucking sense. Even without Lucifer’s malicious bitch of a Mother having a hand in it.

“There’s only one way to expose a false prophet for what he is, did you know that, Ian?

” Charlotte turns her attention back to Lucifer’s brother.

“You let him speak his truth for the masses. Say hi to the world, Michael.” She points up toward the high-end cameras mounted on the ceiling and gives a cheeky wave.

The church’s livestream is broadcasting this whole thing.

But Michael’s truly in this for the blade.

He withdraws the sword I gave him so long ago, and Charlotte’s eyes go wide.

Like hell will I let him use it on mine and Lucifer’s woman.

Because until she makes her choice, she’s exactly that.

Ours.

I can’t speak for Lucifer, but I won’t ever make her choose.

I seize the moment to reform as I tackle Michael, just as Lilith lunges forward like the venomous snake of a son she gave birth to and tears into the guy with the spear who’s got a hold of her precious Seer. She’s been a total man-eater since God majorly fucked her over.

Not to say that I blame her.

The asshole with the lance gets what was coming to him.

Within a few seconds he’s nothing but blood, a few wayward limbs, and viscera.

Charlotte’s friend is screaming for her ever-loving life behind the gag before I’m pretty sure she passes out from shock.

Charlotte pales like she’s all of two moments away from doing the same, but then her eyes narrow on where the Holy Lance has now clattered to the floor, and she darts toward it.

Just as Michael manages to land an uppercut on my jaw and wriggles himself out from under me. He moves to blast some of his blinding light toward Charlotte.

Lucifer isn’t the only one of his angelic siblings who has light-wielding abilities.

He was just the first who was smart enough to figure out how to wield other kinds of light.

Hence, Lightbringer. Plus, the whole spreading knowledge to Eve and humanity is its own kind of enlightenment.

No more shadows-on-the-walls-of-Plato’s-cave sort of thing.

Even if I will never admit to him that I thought the whole thing was fucking brilliant.

“Charlotte!” I shout, drawing her attention just in time for her to dive out of the way and roll.

I growl in approval.

Clever girl.

I fucking told her those practice falls would come in handy.

Lilith breaks out of her feeding frenzy then as she lets out a furious shriek.

“Absolutely not , Michael! You will not ruin my one chance of your brother finally giving me grandbabies.” She rounds upon Michael, stepping in between him and Charlotte with the furious look only a mother can give, and Michael shrinks back like the celestial child he’s always been.

“Mom, be reasonable.” Michael lifts his hands in surrender, backing away as Lilith advances on him. “I just want the blade, that’s all.”

I take that as my cue and evaporate as I make my way toward Charlotte’s friend.

Charlotte’s now covered in blood, mostly from the guy whose soul I still need to reap.

Though some of the blood may actually be hers thanks to the shards of that fucking glass dress she’s wearing.

As her trainer, we’re going to have a long discussion about choosing fashion over function. Glass clothing is not practical for battle.

Charlotte picks up the Holy Lance, clutching it tight with the correct grip just like I taught her.

Good girl.

Something dormant inside me stirs.

Lucifer isn’t the only one of us who has dominant tendencies.

Another reason why he and I didn’t exactly work out.

“He aimed to kill me,” Charlotte says, egging Lilith on. Despite how she just witnessed Lilith completely eviscerate the guy who was about to hurt her friend, for some reason she trusts her future Mother-in-Law not to turn on her.

What is it with this goddamn family?

I can’t begin to make heads or tails of it.

“Did you?” Lilith’s head snakes back toward Michael, and the edges of her naked body flicker like static on an old television screen. The Goddess of Creation is considering becoming three again, instead of one.

Michael shakes his head. “It wasn’t like that, Ma. I wasn’t trying to kill her, just stop her. I want to convert her.”

“To help in your effort to get your Father to return?” Lilith sneers. Now Michael has majorly pissed her off.

Nothing like divorce drama between the two creators of everything.

Michael looks to Charlotte. “Come to my side, and there doesn’t have to be any more fighting. Mother’s just going to borrow your little Seer here, and then—”

“Oh, shut up, Michael,” Lilith snarls. She snaps her fingers, and Michael suddenly doesn’t have any lips, his mouth no longer even there. He paws at his face, desperately trying to shout but sounding like Charlotte’s friend did before she passed out.

Lilith turns her attention to Charlotte.

I take that as my cue.

“What do you want with her?” Charlotte asks, inching slightly closer toward her friend.

Lilith’s eyes track the movement, but she seems stymied over what to do.

She really wants grandchildren.

One of the many reasons she was never thrilled about the prospect of Lucifer and me.

Death isn’t exactly known for creating life, even if I’d chosen to take a female form.

And Lucifer is Lilith’s oldest and favorite child.

The apple didn’t fall very far from the tree.

Lilith watches Charlotte curiously, as if she’s trying to divine what the new little immortal she created is going to do next.

I’m not sure what God expected when He shaped the divine chaos that created Him into the form of a woman and then made her into His wife and sub, but I don’t think it was this.

Lilith is a true monster.

And that is why we do not fuck with raw celestial materials.

“I just need to borrow her for one teensy-weensy little prophecy.” Lilith smiles, and the look is so similar to Lucifer’s, Charlotte stiffens slightly.

Almost there, baby girl.

I circle the matter that will soon be my hand around her friend’s wrist.

“I thought you could make your own prophecies?” Charlotte says.

If I had eyebrows right now, they’d definitely be lifted.

Okay, clearly Charlotte and Lilith have met before.

I nearly swear and give my exact location away. I knew I shouldn’t have left her alone before the play party the other day. I’ve kept my eye on her every other minute. Save for when Lucifer has her in his playroom.

I’m not that much of a creeper.

“That was my prophecy.” Lilith smiles like a human mother who’s patiently teaching her daughter how to cook. “Your Seer is one of my Husband’s prophets, and I’d love to know what He’s doing.”

Just keep her talking, baby girl. I’ve almost got you.

I snake what will soon be my other hand around Charlotte.

This would be a helluva lot easier if I knew Lilith couldn’t sense me, but she’s taking her sweet old time because she’s trying to discern how to find me, sniff me out.

She hated when I refused to be locked up along with the other boy toy Horsemen.

I am no goddess’s concubine.

Except maybe for the budding little goddess right in front of me.

Charlotte’s going to give Lilith a run for her money by the time Greed and I are done training her. If Lucifer doesn’t fuck it up in the meantime.

“And what do you need His prophecy for?”

Lilith remains uncharacteristically patient. “I gave up some of my power to support my Husband’s creation. The fail-safe to His little humanity experiment, which we locked away as—”

“The Four Horsemen,” Charlotte finishes.

She’s a quick study.

Lilith nods. “Well, three of them were locked away. Their power belongs to me, and when Michael and Lucifer release them, I intend to reclaim it as mine.”

“To do what?” Charlotte asks. “Punish God?”

“Yes.” Lilith grins like she’s ridiculously pleased that Charlotte understands her.

Charlotte’s gaze darts toward Michael. “Then why not just let Michael start the apocalypse? Why play him and Lucifer off one another?”

“Caught on to that, did you?” Lilith’s smile widens.

The only reason I haven’t dragged Charlotte and her friend right the fuck out of here is because whatever Lilith’s up to, I’m pretty certain Lucifer and Charlotte need to hear it. I’m poised to go at any second.

Until one of Lilith’s heads tilts toward me, and I know that she’s found me.

Motherfucker.

“Why don’t you tell her yourself what ending my Husband would mean for the souls He created, Azrael?”

All at once, Lilith turns into three, the nearest snatching a clawlike hand out toward me, but then a blast of dark shadow sends her tumbling backward, and I realize that Charlotte has just dropped the Holy Lance and used some of her powers on purpose. For the first time.

To pick a fight with her future Mother-in-Law over me.

Shit. We are so fucked.

An echoing bang sounds from the church’s stadium doors, drawing all attention.

I become corporeal and lift my gaze just in time to see that the one immortal who could manage to talk Lilith out of destroying both Charlotte and me has just arrived.

“Lucifer,” Charlotte gasps.

“Fashionably late as always, I’m afraid.” He grins.

How the hell did he—?

He steps into the megachurch, Lilith and his brother’s eyes going wide at the sight of what—no, who —he’s brought with him.

Demons.

Hundreds. Thousands of them.

His legions brought topside.

Their possessed, blackened eyes train upon his Mother.

Holy shit.

My ex has finally unleashed full Hell upon Earth.

Dread twists in my gut as I realize how majorly fucked we’re all about to be.

God help us.