“They’re with Judas at one of his safe cells. We were instructed to bring your crew down as well if we found any of you,” he said.
He showed us his tattoo to prove he was part of the coven, and we followed him around a part of the building that was done burning. Smoke smoldered from the ashes of what used to be the side of the casino. He led us right to a back door. All four of us stepped through it, and a sensation similar to time-traveling took over me.This must be some kind of portal…When we got to the other side, we were in a secured safe room. There was sparse decoration or luxury. Aside from a couple of couches, a table, and a fridge, there was barely anything here at all. Charlie and Angie were there, holding each other and sobbing. I didn’t see Nonna…
I ran up to them, launching myself into their arms. My breaths hyperventilated as I cried with them.
“I thought you two were dead,” I murmured. “Thankfully, you’re okay.”
Neither of them smiled, which didn’t bode well for what I suspected. If she wasn’t here… Michael, Bash, Mal, and Oisín barreled through the door with Judas and August, sealing it behind them and distracting me from my thoughts.
“Where’s Desmond?” I asked, my voice a deadly calm.
“Diana…” Michael started, trailing off.
“WHERE IS HE?!” I shouted. This couldn’t possibly be reality right now. My face heated, and smoke plumed out of my ears. Zaz took my hand, trying his hardest to influence me with positivity, but I yanked it away.
“He’s gone,” Mal said, his voice small and lacking the sarcastic bite it usually had. “Red attacked us, and Desmond made us go ahead so we could get out alive. He said he was right behind us… Red took him.”
I shut down, staring out into space as tears cascaded down my face. Angie hugged me, patting my hair as she tried to bring me back into the present. All of her motions seemed so muted and distant, even though she was pressed against me, squeezing me like I would float away if she let go.
“Belissima…I have some bad news. Nonna was captured, too,” she said through her own tears.
I suspected as much, but hearing the words aloud felt like a knife to the heart. “Where is she?” I croaked, not understanding what Angie said.
Judas took my hands, squeezing them so I lifted my head from Angie’s hair and focused on him. “Diana, dear, I’m so sorry. Damon’s forces stormed the casino. They used magical bombs to level the place. They tried to take Angie and Nonna hostage, but Angie was able to fight her way out. Nonna wasn’t so lucky.”
“I wasn’t strong enough to fight them all off,” Angie choked out through her tears.
“It’s okay,” I said in a lifeless voice. “I’m just gladbothof you aren’t gone.”
“I already have a team of my best on it. We’ll find Nonna, I promise,” Judas said, hugging Angie from behind. He handed her a tissue from his pocket, and she broke from me to blow her nose.
The entire room went silent. No one dared to speak a word. I stood there for several minutes, not saying anything as I stared at the floor. My whole world was crumbling around me like the bricks and mortar of the casino above us. The woman who raised me was captured by a vindictive psychopath. One of the men I loved could be dead or captured by a megalomaniac who wouldn’t hesitate to take his life, if he was lucky. We had nowhere to stay, and all the work we’d done over the past few weeks was ruined. Could things possibly get any worse?
Ares tried to hug me, but my arms wouldn't move. My tears stopped falling, and all the sadness and despair inside me grew, morphing into a rage I couldn’t control. Everything was my fault. I led our crew into a trap; Desmond only came with us to keep me out of trouble. Nonna was gone because I insisted she and Angie were safer here than in Brooklyn. I held my head in my hands as my entire body started to vibrate. Peeping through my splayed fingers I watched my skin tint red. The balloon threatening to explode finally popped. I pushed Ares away from me right before my entire body caught fire.
An empty wail tore from my throat. “It wasn’t supposed to go this way!”
The fucking crystal, the only thing I had to show for putting Desmond in danger, weighed heavily in my pocket. I took it out, holding it in both hands while engulfing it in flames.
“Diana, no! What are you doing!” Michael barked, trying to take the stone from me. I waved my hand, slamming him into the wall.
I channeled all of my anger, pain, and guilt into crushing the stone between my hands. The flames surrounding my body burned blue as my rage multiplied. Pieces of white crystal turned to ash, falling at my feet. A red cloud of dust rose into the air above me. It disappeared, materializing as a tall man with dark brown hair, chocolate-colored eyes, and a wickedly serious face that seemed too familiar. My father, Lucifer Morningstar, was in the building, and he did not look happy.
My flames extinguished, leaving me bereft and confused; I struggled to hold my own in front of my father as my nose tingled. Tears threatened to fall again, but I blinked them back.I refused to cry like some kind of damsel in distress.The room was silent, everyone staring at him as time seemed to slow down. Lucifer took in his surroundings with a precise awareness. His gaze fell to each person while he scanned the room. I couldn’t read his thoughts, but he seemed less than impressed with the situation he found himself in.
“Diana, my dear daughter, you have some explaining to do.”
Chapter 26
Lucifer
Diana has no clue what she got herself, or the world, into when she opened my crystal prison. I had lived in that cramped, stuffy rock for years on a fucking shelf in my basement office because Damon—my own fucking flesh and blood—trapped me there. That little shit had been a nuisance since the day he was born, the apple not falling too far from the tree in that regard. His mother had been a ruthless, conniving cunt, and so was he. I had spent years existing as a shell of myself inside a hollow rock, plotting my revenge and thinking of ways to make him truly suffer for his crimes. By the time I was done with him, he’dbegme for death.
I’d had so many enemies gunning after me over the centuries, I’d lost count. Each poor, delusional soul who challenged me met a fate so appalling, so undeniably fucked up, that death seemed like a cake walk in comparison. Greed for power and fame drove people to commit insane atrocities. I had had multiple assassination attempts on my life, lost some of the people closest to me, including Diana’s mother, and had been forced to do things that immortalized me as a monster in history, even to the most deplorable creatures below and on Earth. There was a room full of trophies in my home from past adversaries who thought they could pull one over on the Prince of Darkness. The Original Evil. I regretted none of it, but I had never wanted Diana wrapped up in all of that. Her safety was imperative for the survival of the world as we knew it. She needed to succeed, and my lifestyle would only get her killed, at best. I never wanted a repeat of what happened to Marilyn… There were way worse things that could happen to Diana in the supernatural world than death, and I would not be the cause of someone else I loved being harmed again. So I did the only logical thing I could think of to keep her safe… I abandoned her.
Over the years, I fought my desire to be a father to her tooth and nail, trying my hardest to stay away from her like Michael begged me to, but I couldn’t stay away. Watching Diana grow up was addicting. The man I loved and I had somehow managed to make a beautiful child together, and I couldn’t even raise her. He tried to stop me so many times, and every time he’d almost talk me into keeping my distance, but knowing I couldn’t be around my only surviving little girl was torture. There were occasions where I would watch her from afar. I’d morph into an animal, preferably a squirrel, and watch her in plain sight. I’d sit in a tree and watch her swing or play on the see-saw with her aunt and cousins.
Other times, I would manipulate my appearance and go on dates with Marilyn. Michael had ruined any chances I could ever have with her as myself again when he made me leave her. At least when disguised as someone else, I could catch a glimpse of her and Diana to make sure they were okay. I dated Marilyn for six months once as a Henry Cavill look-alike, until Michael caught me and made me break her heart a second time. I had been at my wits end. To abandon Marilyn and Diana was cruel, but to stay in their lives was dangerous.