Hell on Wheels (Faetal Attraction #1)

White Wedding

“You made a fool of me,” Luca says as he leans back in his huge throne-like office chair. “I don’t suffer fools.”

We certainly have to suffer him, so why should he get to skate by without joining the fun?

I arch a brow, purposefully staying quiet until the sigh of irritation fades. Luca doesn’t continue; he’s in ‘power pose’ mode now. Deciding to let him win this minor victory, I shrug. “Luca, we didn’t plan to make it public. You made it a big deal because you were mad we aren’t following your path despite the intervention of the Fates.”

He tilts his head, studying me for a moment. I’m the more rebellious one, but my brashness appeals to him versus Damon’s submissive behavior. Luca admires aggression, so my willful rebellion both impresses and vexes him. He’s never sure how to address it, which is how I stay one step ahead of the dickhead. “Fine. I’ll stipulate that my anger at your acceptance of a lesser being as a mate affected my behavior. However, that decision stymied my plans for you boys and it’s only natural that my shock was difficult to manage.”

That’s the closest he’ll ever get to saying he might be incorrect.

“Denying the hags is rarely an intelligent choice,” Damon says mildly. “We were lucky to be given someone amiable to us rather than an enemy.”

Luca’s gaze cuts to D, wrinkles forming at the corners as he glares. “Even if your assessment is correct, that does not excuse informing me at a public soiree.”

“We were told attendance was mandatory,” I drawl as I lean back, mimicking Luca’s pose. “At similar affairs, you and Lola have tried to make a match for us, though unsuccessfully. It didn’t seem prudent to leave Rogue at home.”

Our father sucks in a long, loud breath through his nose, the annoyance obvious when his statements are quietly refuted by logic. This was D’s plan, and it’s working well. I’m pleased that he’s been paying such close attention in the past. It means we won’t have as much trouble plotting Luca’s eventual de-throning when it’s time.

“Boys, I called you here to discuss the upcoming Appalachin, not your shitty taste in friends.” He pushes back from his desk, then braces himself on the dark obsidian surface. “There are many things in the works below, as well as here on the surface. I need you to keep your ears to the ground to see what floats around during the event. You should not catch even a whisper about politics in Hell at this event. If you do, I need to know immediately.”

What.

“No one speaks of our realm. You don’t even talk it about it much.” Damon scratches his chin as his eyes glaze over in a way that tells me his brain is working a million miles a minute. “Why would people be talking about the ridiculous shit that goes on at court?”

Luca ignores him to look at me—that’s not unusual, but the question was pertinent, so it’s suspicious. “Tell me you understand, Angelo.”

I have to fight to not to roll my eyes. “Yes, I understand. However, I agree with D. This stupid meeting is for all the above ground supes. Mentions of demons or Hell will be limited to your activities and holdings, not whatever the King and his ilk are doing below.”

“I didn’t stutter and I owe neither of you an explanation.”

Luca is such a fucking self-centered blowhard that he rarely uses the ample resources he has on-hand; it will be his undoing, eventually.

“Luca, darling, I’m ready to head out for the—oh, boys!”

My expression goes blank as our mother breezes in, her faux casual surprise not fooling anyone in the room. “Good morning, Lola.”

A cloud of Clive Christian No. 1 Imperial Majesty fills my nostrils as she strides over and bends to air kiss both of my cheeks. At almost thirteen thousands dollars an ounce, the scent she’s made her signature is one that triggers memories of my childhood I’d prefer to forget. It’s easy to write-off your parents’ lack of commitment when you’re an adult, but as a kid, it’s hard to comprehend, even for demons.

“Good morning, Angelo, darling.” Her voice is husky and I have to school my reactions to Lola’s never-ending supply of pretend care for D and me. She floats over to Damon and repeats her gesture, but D isn’t as good as I am with keeping the anger off of his face. “Damon, my love, you seem tense. Is everything okay?”

Is there some sort of paparazzi filming us? She’s never this effusive.

“I’m fine, Lola,” Damon says tightly. “We’re almost done meeting with Luca. You won’t be late to whatever function you’re attending.”

Our mother straightens, laughing as she makes sure her tight dress isn’t wrinkled. “Your father isn’t joining me at a boring ladies’ social function. You boys know better than that.”

I frown. She’s dressed like she’s headed for something much more important than a ladies’ luncheon, and that remark makes me wonder just what the fuck she is doing to hide it so poorly. Luca has to know she’s lying; he’s not stupid. That means he knows exactly what she’s doing—either he doesn’t care or he’s asked her to do it. “Why are you here then, Lola?”

Her picture perfect face mars for a moment. Damon and I started calling them by their above ground names the second we realized that they spent every breath lying and manipulating us for their own gain. We were pretty young, but no punishments ever swayed the decision. It still annoys her more than it ever did Luca. But that flash fades as she flashes a fake smile. “Because I enjoy seeing my boys. You don’t come around enough, Angelo.”

Snorting, I shake my head. “Lola, you have enough kids to field a football team between you and Luca’s years of whoring. The only two you two even pretend to care about are D and me. Even then, it’s fairly hands-off unless you want something, so… what do you want?”

“I wanted to marry you off to advantageous demonesses, but that has been summarily denied by your rash actions.” The dirty look she gives me is filled with resentment, but I don’t rise to the bait. “However, I’ll settle for planning your enormously expensive and grandiose wedding, of course.”

Oh shit, is she fucking serious? Rogue is going to lose her mind .

When D and I finally wrangle ourselves out of Luca and Lola’s webs, I sigh heavily. Quality time with our parents is draining; it’s why we avoid it as much as possible. Attending meetings for Luca’s gang is much less annoying because he spends most of those bragging or punishing others for minor slights. Since none of them are especially good beings, we’re able to sit back and let them think we’re fine with whatever shitty thing he’s planning at that moment.

Usually, we aren’t, but we have to bide our time until we can send that asshole packing.

“Is it weird that Lola dropped in or…?”

Whipping out of the driveway, I nod at Damon as we head down the private road that leads to our folks’ mansion. “It’s very strange. She doesn’t give a shit over ninety percent of the time and now she wants to plan a wedding no one said was happening? She’s after something.”

“That’s what I thought, too.” He pauses, fiddling with his hands before pushing his glasses up. “And Sparkles is going to hate the idea of some grotesquely opulent affair full of stuffy ass people they want to court.”

I snort. “Without a doubt. Not to mention, she’s not there with Reb yet and no one has discussed any kind of handfasting or whatever Fae do. The concept of a demon wedding—or what passes for it—will not sit well with her.”

“Because she doesn’t trust us?” he whispers.

My soft hearted twin is more worried about that than anything else.

“ No, dummy.” I reach over and sock his shoulder. “Rogue is very non-traditional. She’s said she never intended to find a mate and has dated no one seriously before. The idea of this big, fancy bullshit sideshow done for everyone’s benefit, but our own will repulse her.”

His breath comes out in a relieved whoosh, and I have to cover my smile. “Oh, well, yeah, that sounds right.”

“Plus, no one has even asked her to commit in that way. If one of Lola’s minions gets to her before we do and mention her plans, we’re fucking toast.” I speed through the changing light, trying to figure out how to keep Rogue away from any other demons—particularly female ones—until D and I speak to the guys. “And we haven’t told the Kings or Archie’s folks yet about the mating. This is too soon.”

“That’s true. I doubt Javi’s folks would want to be involved in this shit, but Samara will. She’ll be pissed if the damn ceremony isn’t… all inclusive.” Damon grins a bit, his expression mischievous. “Which means we’d have to talk to grumpy ass Rebel, too.”

By Satan’s chapped ass, that Fae will be worse than Rogue. He’s such a drama queen.

“ This is just bad news all around, huh?” I reply ruefully. “Maybe we’ll get lucky and Luca will distract Lola with whatever shit they seemed very inclined to hide from us. She’s definitely not going to some wealthy demoness luncheon today.”

Damon wrinkles his nose and I can imagine what he thought of. “Well, I don’t want to know unless it’s non-sexual. She traumatized us enough as kids, flaunting her affairs and predilections in the faces of our friends.”

He’s not wrong. Demons see things very differently than humans or the closer-to-human supes we went to school with in the early years. Explaining why our mother said and did the shit Lola did was pretty difficult. It was easier not to ever meet or hang in our home, and we all eventually settled on Archie’s place because his dads and mom were pretty normal. It also kept people from overhearing some ridiculous secret demon mob plan and worrying Luca would arrange for an accident, no matter how old the supe was.

He’d have zero compunction about killing a kid and I’ve never had the illusion that he would.

“Ang, we should drop by Gui’s and grab the suits. I’m sure he’s done by now and it will be easier without all the tagalongs. He creeps them out and we don’t want to alienate him if Lola really has this stupid wedding thing in her head.”

When I hit a red, I pinch the bridge of my nose, not liking the amount of times that idea has come up since Lola mentioned it. I don’t want D to get attached to the thought before we discuss it with all the parties involved. Unfortunately, I can’t stop his squishy little heart from doing just that without me knowing.

Being the older twin sucks ass sometimes.

“Fine. We can pick them up, but I swear to fuck, D… If you say the ‘w’ word one more time today, I’m going to blast your ass into next week. You know how you are,” I warn him. It’s a futile effort, I know, but a demon can try, right?

“What do you think that email about the Games being re-instated really means?”

Now, that’s a good question and one I would have loved to address with our father. Lola’s entrance blocked that line of discussion and I wonder if that was on purpose. Luca had Lucian Darkstar in his house for a meeting not long ago and now Discordia’s Caliphate Games are back in effect. Someone would have had to convince the royal family heads to petition the King, and the King is an even bigger dick than Luca. He must have been convinced all the heirs were too weak to pull off what he and his caliphate did millennia ago.

“I think it means there’s some sketchy shit going on in Hell, and Luca’s association with Darkstar means he’s ass deep in it.”

Damon nods, thinking for a moment. “Think maybe we should take the gang to one of the trials when they start? With Rogue as our mate, we can get a pass and there will be a box…”

I ponder for a moment, then nod. “Once we get through this stupid meeting, we can consider it, D. It’s probably better to get them acclimated now, especially if something bad is going on.”

As if we have fucking time for Hell to go to war right now—ain’t no one got time for that.