“Fine.” Loki jumped out of the bed and landed five feet from us.
“How did you breach our ward?” Paxton growled.
“How dare you?” Axel hissed.
“Relax,” Loki said with a lazy smile. “We’re family now, despite our difference in religion.”
“You don’t have a religion, demon king,” Axel said.
Loki grinned. “You might be surprised.”
Zak frowned at Loki. “We were in the middle of something.”
The sexual tension between us was still thicker than butter, and their arousal permeated the air.
“I apologize.” Loki sniffed in mockery. “I had to swing by before you got started. Once you get it on, it can go on forever. You boys are insatiate for my lovely cousin. I admit I’m not a man of patience. And there’s so much to do in Hell and so little time.”
My face flushed at his mentioning of our sex feast. My mates and I usually went for hours.
“Did you spy on us, Loki?” Héctor demanded.
“It’s the power of observation I happen to possess,” Loki said.
“You could have just made an appointment or knocked on our door,” I said. “Didn’t you keep Lucifer’s old suite in this building? My mates are jumpy these days. Next time you pop out so dramatically, you’ll for sure get stabbed. And don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
Loki smiled. “I’ll keep that in mind, Princess Celeste.”
“Refrain from saying that name,” Héctor snapped. “My Lamb isn’t safe even on Earth. We don’t want any knucklehead gods from some galaxy to come looking for her.”
“Some already came while you were having fun in the Void,” Loki said. “The most notable visitors included archangel Michael and the Olympian war goddess Athena. She wore full battle armor in blood-red and looked murderous, kind of like Ares.”
My heart skipped a beat and my mates tensed.
We could take down any assholes and their armies, but we didn’t want to turn this planet into a battlefield. We didn’t want the people we cared about to get hurt. We were Earth’s defenders.
Then a spark of ember pulsed in my mind.
We didn’t need to fight on Earth. With my Living Flame, we could go to any world. We would bring the fight to the hunters’ homeworld and see how they liked it.
“Michael and Athena asked a lot of questions,” said Loki. “I caught up with them and told them there wasn’t anything to do on Earth unless they wanted some entertainment in Hell. They declined to come to Hell and I took it offensively, but then I understand every power is weaker in my realm except for Lucifer, Lilith, Marigold, and me of course.”
“We’ll pay attention to future visitors,” Zak said, lightning flashing threateningly in his blue eyes.
“Thank you for looking out for me, Loki,” I said.
“You know I’ll always guard you,” he said softly.
He’d been ready to give up his life for me to protect me from his father in Hell. Although my mates loved to snarl at the new King of Hell, they didn’t really regard him as an enemy. Just a pain in the ass.
“You say all the sweet things now,” I smirked at him, “because you’re dying to know what happened to Lucifer. Admit it, Loki. I’m the only source of the information.”
“Don’t tell him anything,” Axel advised wisely. “The intel is invaluable.”
“What did I do in my past life that I deserve to deal with you demigods?” Loki gave Axel an exasperated look. “Family is overrated.”
I could hear the rapid rhythm of his heartbeat at the mention of his father. Lucifer had terrorized his heir for centuries even though Loki had earned the title with blood and scars in order to survive.
“We need to finalize the truce between you and my demigods,” I said. “Your pain-in-the-butt dukes have been dragging it out for too long.”