I glanced around the room, wondering if I should pack anything or change my clothes, and instead opted for just throwing on my sneakers and a bra. Would anyone care if the Queen of Hell showed up to fight Pestilence in yoga pants? Probably not. Assuming anyone was even alive by the time we got there.
I rushed back into the nursery, where Aurora was riding on Cerberus's back while Zel fed the hellhound a biscuit. My chest tightened as the reality of the situation sunk in, and I accepted that I would have to leave Aurora behind. It was too dangerous for her to go with us this time. She would be safer here. I knew that, but it was still hard to leave her.
"We have to go to Vegas," I said, as I grabbed Aurora and pulled her against my chest. "Pestilence is free."
"Oh fuck." Zel rose to her feet. "Do you need me to go?"
"No, I need you to stay here and watch Aurora." I felt a slight pang of guilt that one of the greatest warriors of all time was relegated to babysitter duty, but there was no one else I would trust more with my daughter.
Zel nodded. "That I can do. Cerberus and I will keep her safe."
"Thank you." I hugged Aurora to my chest, kissing her face a hundred times. "Mommy will be back soon, I promise. I love you so much."
Lucifer came into the nursery and took Aurora from me, then said his own goodbyes while I wrung my hands nervously. We'd never left her behind before. Not even for date night. Not while Fenrir was still out there. Now we were going into certain danger, and there was no other option but to leave her here.
I took Aurora again and gave her more kisses and hugs, then reluctantly handed her to Zel. I opened my mouth to tell Zel about bedtime and what to feed her and everything else I could think of, but Zel held up a hand to stop me.
"I got this. Go save the world."
I hugged her close, then walked out of the room with Lucifer. We got in our Lamborghini, and Lucifer drove out of the estate so fast the world became almost a blur around us. The private jet waited at a nearby airstrip, and Lucifer was already on the phone telling them to get it ready to go.
When he hung up, we settled into uneasy silence. Finally I said, "I can't believe Theo did this."
"Another traitor," Lucifer said with disgust. "Maybe he thinks he's continuing his mother's plans after her death."
"That would mean he's been waiting all this time for the right moment to act." I swallowed hard, feeling the sting of his betrayal deep inside.
Lucifer shook his head. “I didn't know him as well as you did, so I can't say for sure. But we always knew there could be gargoyles who believed so earnestly in Belphegor’s mission that her death wouldn't stop their actions. Theo might be one of them."
"And Romana?"
"I think she is loyal." Lucifer sighed, his hands gripping the steering wheel so tight his knuckles were white. "I guess we'll find out soon enough."
I nodded and stared out the window as we zoomed down the highway. "I hate that we have to leave Aurora."
"She’ll be all right,” Lucifer said, his voice gentle. “Zel will be there, along with Cerberus. Neither of them will let anything happen to her.”
“I know. And our estate’s well-guarded and has plenty of security measures in place... I still hate it."
"Me too." He rested a hand on my thigh. "We'll take care of this problem and be back in no time."
I prayed he was right. I'd gotten so used to our perfect, happy, almost-normal life, but deep down I'd known it could never last. A threat would always emerge that we would have to face, and every time we would be forced to leave Aurora behind, knowing we might not come back. It had been the same during all of my lives. No wonder all of our sons had issues. We'd done the best we could with them, but we'd always had other duties too, duties that were so important we couldn't pass them off to other people. It was hard being a parent when you had to save the world all the time. I hadn’t really understood that until now, and I feared we would repeat the same mistakes with Aurora. But what else could we do?
Stopping Pestilence would help, for a start. Adam had been a threat during all of my kids' lives, and if he were finally out of the picture, we could relax a little. It was time to take the fucker down.
29
Lucifer
I tightened my thighs to spur Strife on as we left the airport and headed into downtown Las Vegas. We'd known something was wrong before the jet even touched down, as the sun glinted off the buildings bold enough to stretch their glassy tips farthest into the sky. This city was an oasis of life in the middle of the Nevada desert, but even from a distance, we could tell that Vegas was sick. Plumes of black smoke rose from various spots along The Strip, and I feared what we would find when we returned to The Celestial.
As we drew closer to my resort, the extent of the damage became clearer. Windows had been blown out, bodies were strewn across the pavement and covered in boils, and even the plants had withered and died from the sickness in the air. Our horses brought us to Hannah's garden that had once thrived with life, but now everything here was dead, the flowers black, the leaves
