I wanted to make that clear.
Trevon had been down in Hell because I invited him to that stupid party, thinking that everything would be fine because I was watching him. And I was slowly learning that demons were ruthless creatures that would do anything for a laugh. Lucifer said that I could trust this doctor, but I didn’t know his true intentions, especially when he didn’t contact me about him.
“How will you treat him here?” I asked the doctor.
“I don’t have a direct answer for you at the moment. Angels who end up in Hell are never treated for their burns, so I don’t know what will work. Though I have a couple ideas that I’ll try as soon as I can head back down to Pride to retrieve medication and lotion.”
Zane stepped forward and cleared his throat. “We know that you have a lot going on, Dani, since you just became queen,” Zane said to me and the doctor while glancing at Maria. “I can watch him here to make sure nothing happens to him while we find a cure.”
I glanced back down at Trevon, brushed my fingers over his scorching forehead, and frowned. The burns didn’t seem to stop and his skin just became redder by the second. Hesitantly, I raised my gaze again. “You will be able to find a cure, correct? You’re not going to screw me over? Lucifer recommended you to me. You won’t betray me and let him down, right?”
It came out as a slight threat, just as I needed it to be.
“I believe so. I have some medication that I gave him earlier, which slows the burning but it’s just temporary. I need to run some tests and find something more sustainable,” he said to me. “But I’ll try my hardest to get it back up here as soon as possible.”
“Hurry, because I need your help healing someone else as well.”
“Commander Dani.” The doctor grimaced. “There are so many patients that I have to see in Pride. I don’t know if I’ll have time, and I cannot do anything else like this, keeping another angel under my watch. It is dangerous to even be here, especially with all the demons I see in my office. Someone will smell an angel out quickly.”
Ushering him into the other room to relieve some of Maria’s anxiety, I stopped by the floor-length windows and looked out into the snowy city landscape. “This doesn’t have to do with another angel.” At least, I hoped it didn’t. “My therapist has been beaten and abused badly by two demons from Envy. She’s a human. I want her to recover quickly, so she can get back to her normal life, and I need one of the Pride doctors to run some tests to make sure those Envies didn’t give her any drugs from Hell.”
“I’ll see what I can do.”
After he departed, Maria peaked his head into the room. “He’s finally gone?” She glanced around just to make sure, rushed into the room, and threw her arms around me. “Zane told me what happened to you,” she said, shaking her head and burying her face into the crook of my neck. “I’m so glad that you’re okay. Those demons deserved everything that happened to them.”
I wrapped my arm around her and walked back out into the living room, glancing down at Trevon who had fallen into a deep and agonizing sleep. With the burns still prevalent on his arms, I hoped that him being on Earth would help him, even just a bit.
“What exactly did he tell you about me?” I asked, arching a brow.
The microwave beeped, and Maria pulled away. “Hold on.” She disappeared into the kitchen, and I narrowed my eyes at Zane. “What did you say to her about what happened?”
He sat down on the couch opposite to Trevon and leaned his forearms onto his knees. “Those vicious demons had challenged you for your rightful spot.” He cracked one of the typical, sinful smiles from Lust, dark hair falling into his face. “And that you used everything you had to defeat them. She doesn’t need to know how you did it, how that angelic part of you turned bad, sucked out the souls of any demon who got in your way. What happens in Hell, stays in Hell, Commander.”
I glided my tongue across the tips of my fangs. “Are you flirting with me, Zane?”
It was common practice amongst Lusts, but it also awakened that part of me I was trying to suppress at the moment. Losing control like that was only for Hell. It couldn’t be brought to Earth. Who knew what would happen here?
The pupils in Zane’s eyes dilated, almost capturing his whole eyes. But when he inhaled Maria’s scent, they immediately returned to his normal human color, and he relaxed against the leather couch and looked over at the door.
“I made hot chocolate!” Maria said, walking back into the room with two steaming coffee mugs and handing me one. She sat down across from me and looked at Zane. “Do you want a cup too?”
Zane stood and shoved his hands into his pockets. “Nah, I’m going to grab some stuff from my place next door, so I can come watch Trevon tonight. I guess we’re officially living together now, Maria. It’s going to be a good time.”
When Zane shut our apartment door, Maria turned to me with a grin. “Okay, I know how I always complain about demons and how they freak me out, but I’m so excited for Zane to be here. We’ve been on and off for the last couple weeks, but…” She jumped up and down in her seat, her hot chocolate nearly sploshing over the edge of her mug. “He’s amazing!”
“In bed,” I clarified with a smile.
She playfully smacked my arm, cheeks flushing red. “Don’t have to say it out loud! He might hear you.”
“He already knows it, Maria. All Lusts do.”
Two hours later, I stomped the snow off my boots and walked into the Lounge, my gaze immediately finding Eros and Lucifer sitting at our usual table and smiling at each other. Even from afar, I could not only see the lust in Eros’s eyes but the desire for Lucifer on the most intimate of levels. And while I wanted to feel jealous, I didn’t, at all.
Maybe Eros was right, being jealous just wasn’t in a Lust’s nature.
But that didn’t stop the Envies inside my head from making me think the worst. I pushed them away, deciding not to listen to them, because the last time I listened to a demon in my mind I almost killed the man I cared about the most.
Not Javier nor any other demon would make me that weak again.
When I walked to our table and slid into the red booth, Eros glanced up at me with his big sparkling emerald eyes and kissed me. “You made it in one piece,” he said, tucking some hair behind my ear. “I thought you went back to Lust. I couldn’t find you.”
Lucifer chuckled, strands of his long white hair falling into his face, illuminated by a flickering candle. “I don’t think she’s the one you have to worry about, Eros.” He turned to me and nodded to Eros, smirking. “You know how many demons want to jump Eros’s bones? You can’t leave him in my kingdom alone, especially in the Chains.”
“Very funny, Lucifer,” I said, grabbing Eros’s Passion Delight and taking a long gulp of it.
“Slow down.” Eros took his drink from me. “We don’t want another episode with you hyped up on Lust like earlier.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “Episode?”
“Let her have another,” the annoying waiter who always seemed to bother us here said, setting down three more Passion Delights in front of all of us. “It’s nice to see you, Commander. I heard your crowning went… well.”