Lilith laughed as she severed that final, pathetic arm, and Dhumorna dropped with the blow. She came to a skidding halt in front of us and flopped around; trying to get to her feet. The blood from her wounds was making it hard for her.
I took another bite.
“I will regrow my limbs and kill you all!” Dhumorna vowed. “I will have my revenge just as he promised me!”
“Can she do that?” I asked Odin.
“Hell if I know,” Odin said. “Anything's possible.”
Anything's possible. Yeah; Katila had taught us that.
“No; she can't. She won't have the chance,” Lilith declared as she kicked Dhumorna onto her back, tore open her chest, and yanked out her heart. “Here, sweetie; have a fresh one.”
Lilith tossed me Dhumorna's heart. I caught it and threw the mangled one over my shoulder.
“Thanks!” I exclaimed. “You sure you don't want a bite?”
“Nah; I don't like to dance and eat.”
As I set my dragon teeth into my new treat, Lilith proceeded to dance on Dhumorna's corpse. I cocked my head at her. It looked awkward, but the demoness was doing exactly what she'd vowed to do.
“I should have made him beg,” I muttered.
“Minor mistake,” the Wolf said sympathetically. “You beat Eros with his arm; remember? You keep your vows”—he cast me a lopsided grin and a wink—“most of the time.”
I elbowed him and huffed, “I fixed it, didn't I?”
“Yes, you did, Mate. Even better than I hoped.”
Lilith finished her jig, put her deadly fists on her curvy hips, and stared at her husband in satisfaction. She was covered in blood and amazingly beautiful. Samael must have thought so too; he rushed forward, kicked the flattened corpse out of the way, and pulled his wife into a wild kiss.
I sighed as I ate Dhumorna's heart. It was so romantic. Chomp. Love, sweet love. Chew. There was nothing like the aftermath of a battle to stir the libido. Bite, chew, swallow, lick. I absently enjoyed the bloody heart of my enemy while I watched God's Wrath make-out with the Mother of Demons.
“I wonder who she was talking about?” I mused with my mouth full.
I know it wasn't very ladylike but what can you do when your dragon takes over?
“Which 'she?'” Azrael asked.
“Dhumorna,” I clarified. “She said she'd have the revenge he promised her. I wonder who the 'he' is.”
“Probably her son,” Azrael said with a scowl that said otherwise.
“Maybe,” I agreed. “It just sounded odd to me.”
I took another bite of Dhumorna's heart as I contemplated her last words. Last words were important; I've learned to pay attention to them.
“Lala, could you stop that, please?” Re asked as he looked pointedly at my bloody hand.
The heart was gone, but it had been finger-lickin' good.
I looked up at my fiance in surprise; a finger still in my mouth. “Sorry,” I mumbled as I jerked it out.
“This is a part of her,” Azrael said sternly to Re. “Accept it or get out.”
I gaped from Az to Re.
“You know that I accept all that she is,” Re snapped. “But watching her eat two hearts as if they were fried chicken while Lilith hacked up Dhumorna and danced on her, is a bit much.”
“Relationships are about compromise,” I said as I wiped my hands off on the bedspread. “I can control myself if it bothers him. He just won't be the one having wild, dragon sex with me when we get home. Will he, Azrael?”
I smiled wickedly at my death angel. He had a thing for my dragon-form; it was very similar to demon forms, and Az loved him a hot demoness. Azrael grinned broadly and held out a hand to me. I took his hand eagerly. Samael and Lilith continued to suck face. The Wolf and Odin just shrugged at each other and traced home. As Azrael and I traced away too, I heard Re call after me.
“Can't I at least watch?”
Chapter Forty-Five
There was a wild party in Hell that night. The Ice Blocks were abandoned; prisoners left to be tortured without demon supervision. The Durbs—the demon suburbs—were empty, and most of Hell was quiet. Everyone was at Satan's crib throwing back hellbrew, tapping their hooves to the wild music, and generally making a ruckus that the King of Hell would normally hate. Not that night.
Lucifer Morningstar was celebrating.
“To my son and his friends!” Lucifer cried as he held his crystal beer stein aloft. “For vanquishing our foes!”
The Demons filling Luke's normally-pristine home cheered.
“To Vervain and Trevor for slaughtering the demon-killer so viciously!” Luke went on. “And to Lilith, for destroying the Destroyer of Demons!”
Everyone cheered, and Lilith held up one claw-tipped hand as she nodded in acknowledgment. Samael stood stiffly beside her, but he wasn't immune to the praise, and finally cracked a little grin. It was the first time that this particular Angel of Death had been inside Luke's home. Samael was staring around himself with morbid fascination. A demon horde dancing and drinking inside a mansion that looked straight out of the pages of House Beautiful was something wondrous strange to behold, but I think it was the Devil himself who really threw Sam for a loop. Frankly, he was surprising all of us.
Beelzebub was drunk.
It takes a lot to get any god drunk. I've lamented that fact numerous times. To start with, you need a powerful drink, and then you need to consume vats of it. Hellbrew has done the trick for me before, and it did the same trick for Luke tonight. Lucifer didn't even care that demons were using his throw pillows as their name suggested and
