Total pages in book: 85
Estimated words: 80563 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 403(@200wpm)___ 322(@250wpm)___ 269(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 80563 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 403(@200wpm)___ 322(@250wpm)___ 269(@300wpm)
*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************
Chapter
One
“Callie.”
Lucas’s deep voice reverberates off the house, echoing through the silence of the dark night. I swallow hard and push my shoulders back, looking at the spot where Osiris just stood. I had to do it. What other choice did I have? My breath leaves in a shaky huff and I blink a few times before turning to look at my husband. His handsome face is strained with worry, the same worry that’s on my dad and Lucifer’s faces as well.
Leave it to me to stress out an archangel, the devil, and a sixteen hundred year old vampire in one fell swoop.
And then there’s the slight issue with everyone still inside the house finding out what just went down…along with the whole other issue of Eamon in the first place. He helped us get Juliet back, but we can’t forget that the whole reason he showed up at the house from the start was to, well, start shit with the hopes of starting a whole war against humanity.
My chest tightens and my heart speeds up. Able to hear the change in my heart rate, Lucas grips my hands and pulls me to him.
“My love,” he says gently, but is unable to hide the concern in his eyes. Swallowing hard, I inhale, refusing to let my confidence waiver.
“I did,” I start, each word echoing around me. Pausing, I take a breath. “I did what I had to do in order to protect my family.” I did, and it worked. Lucas is still here. Each demonic horse has a rider.
And Uriel is gone.
“Now,” I continue, unable to look away from Lucas’s deep blue eyes. I love him so fucking much, and that love fills my entire soul and completes everything that I didn’t even know I was lacking. And through that love, we had a child, which is something neither of us thought possible.
Yet here we are, a perfectly imperfect family. And I’ll be damned before I let something take that away.
“We are going to go back inside and make a fresh bowl of popcorn and watch a romantic comedy with an extremely predictable plot, yet we’ll still feel the angst of not knowing if it’s going to pan out in the end.” I hear myself talking and my voice sounds familiar yet foreign all at once. I force a smile at the same time nerves prickle down my back.
What the fuck did I do?
“Callista,” my father says and I internally wince at being called by my full name. I’m named after my mother only because Michael whispered it to Nancy the first time she held me in her arms. “Tell me this was not your doing.”
“I…I didn’t summon Uriel,” I stammer and fight hard to keep my composure.
“Of course not.” Michael’s brows furrow and I can feel Lucas’s gaze still searing into me. Everything happened so fast and it’s been a long fucking night. Physically, I’ve healed already, yet snuggling up on the couch next to my undead lover sounds more than ideal. He’ll hold me as I hold Juliet and will carry us both to bed after the others have left for the night. There’s an ache in my heart matched with desperation to get back inside and to my daughter. Only hours ago, I thought I’d lost her.
“Whatever happened,” my father continues. “Tell me so we can deal with it. The sooner the better before things spiral out of our control.”
“There’s nothing to tell,” I say and try to make a move to go back into the house. Fuck, I wish that were true. But there is so much to tell. So much, in fact, that I don’t even know where to start or if I fully understand it myself.
“Kiddo,” Lucifer starts and takes a tentative step forward, hands slightly raised to let me know he’s not going to try anything. I tear my eyes away from Lucas and look at my uncle. That one look is all I need to know that Lucifer has a pretty damn good idea what just went down. After all, when it comes to making deals he’s kind of a mastermind. He’s been making them for several millennia. “You know I’m not usually one to side with your old man over here.” He raises his eyebrows and mouths the word lame before going on. “And I don’t know if I should be proud or terrified to think you might have out-deviled me.”
A shiver runs down my spine because I know—deep down I know—I did do just that.
“Look,” I start, fighting against the anxiety that threatens to take over. “I did what any of you would have done.” The words tumble out of my mouth yet even I don’t believe the lie. In my desperation to save my family, I did the right thing.
I know I did.