Premonition of Peace (Her Immortal Monsters #3)

Chapter 1

one

NATHALIE

This whole situation was fucked six ways to Sunday.

“Sasha?” Mist bolted across the room to hug Sasha, wrapping her lithe arms around her body, and squeezing tight. It took Sasha a good second to respond, hugging her in kind. It was short and quick, as I would expect. Neither of them were much for hugging.

If anyone was, it was me, but I couldn’t bring myself to move. Not with the state of uproar going on inside me. Ann was focused on Sasha’s appearance. The Warden wanted to defend Mist from Lucifer. Peace wanted to go back to bed with him, which wasn’t a surprise. Caretaker was trying to get them all to settle. The only one who was silent was Bad Nat.

She sat with a completely neutral expression, waiting to see what I would do.

“Nathalie?” Mist asked hesitantly, clearly holding on to her calm by a thread. She moved a fraction closer to Sasha and eyed Lucifer, who stood stark naked in the living room with an arm wrapped around me. Clearing my throat, I stepped out of his embrace. Or I tried to. He moved with me, as if we were dance partners in a choreographed routine. Lucifer had watched me for nearly a year. He knew me to my core. He also knew, apparently, that I would try to put space between us.

“This isn’t the time,” I said quietly, not taking my eyes off Sasha.

“I didn’t ask about the time,” he replied with a slight shrug.

“You know what I mean.”

“No, actually, I can’t say that I do?—”

“Oh for fuck’s sake,” I said, finally tearing my eyes away to stare at him. “I don’t have time for this. Go wait in the bedroom until I can figure out some clothes for you.”

“You’ll have to forgive me, love, but I’m not comfortable leaving you with?—”

“Lucifer. Bedroom.” When he didn’t move, I added a demanding, “ Now.”

“I wasn’t aware that caring was a crime,” he said, using a deep timbre that made me want him to do unspeakable things to me.

I sighed, rolling my eyes. “Stop it. I know what you’re doing.”

His only response was to tip his head at us. “Ladies,” he said.

A sense of guilt nagged at me. I knew he was trying to manipulate me, but that didn’t change the fact that we needed to talk. That conversation would have to wait. Sasha’s return trumped everything.

As he left the room, I turned back to Mist and Sasha, both of whom were watching him with expressions that couldn’t be more different. When the sound of a door closing echoed, Sasha spoke again.

“You didn’t have to send him away.”

“You’re back, and he’s a distraction right now.” I kept my tone warm and sincere. I felt anything but.

“He’s the devil; you don’t say?” she replied with a wry smirk while she followed him with her gaze. Her expression was so familiar, it caused an ache in my chest . . . right up until the moment her green cat-eyes pulled away, coming to focus on me.

“Is Se?ora Rosara on her way up?” I asked lightly, glancing at the door.

She shook her head. “No, she wasn’t in the shop when I woke up. Everything was closed, lights off.”

“Have you gone to see Sienna yet?” I forced a smile, but it kept it smooth.

“No, I wanted to come see you first. After all, I know what you did for me . . . with the lure . . .” Her response felt like it was meant to have emotion, but the delivery was just off somehow.

“Well, that’s not important now.” I waved it off. “Sienna is going to be beside herself. We have to get her.” I looped my arm through Sasha’s, laying my palm against her forearm.

“I can do it,” Mist volunteered, playing into my hand.

“That would be great,” I responded, and she was out the door within seconds.

“Is everyone seeing what I see?” Ann asked, her voice strained as she looked to the others who wordlessly nodded. They were all in agreement now that Lucifer was gone. “This takes precedence over everything.”

Pulling her away from my front door, I headed toward the couch.

“Shouldn’t we be concerned about Lucifer too?” Her eyes darted to the door where he had exited the room. “We’re both back from the dead. Seems newsworthy.”

“She’s awfully interested in him,” The Warden noted.

I grimaced as I slid my hands out from under her arms, taking a seat and patting the cushion next to me. “I can only deal with one thing at time, so for now, let’s pretend he’s not.” I gave her a concerned look as she sat down. “How did you finally make it back?”

Sasha stared for a moment before shrugging apathetically. “It wasn’t that hard once you told me what to look for.”

“Right,” I pushed out a chuckle. “Was Se?ora’s human Ouija board really what did it?”

“It was,” she answered. “That and the lure. It helped, but it also made things tricky.”

“Tricky?”

She nodded slowly. “Think of the room where my body was being kept as a fence. The lure acted as a hole in that fence, but not a very big hole. And when I was in the veil . . .”

I narrowed my eyes a fraction, leaning forward with rapt interest. “What happened in the veil?”

“I wasn’t alone. Someone, or something, is there too. Hunting.”

The very notion of it rocked my foundation. I swallowed, considering my words. “What do you mean by ‘hunting’? Hunting other souls?”

She lifted a delicate shoulder, her tank top drawing attention to her perfectly smooth skin. It practically glowed beneath the soft lighting of my apartment. “I don’t know,” she answered. “But it made it difficult to work my way past the lure. I needed a long enough gap where they were gone so I could push myself through it.”

I sat back, hands folded over my lap as I took in what she was saying. “Do you think they were trying to prevent you from coming back?”

She thought about it for a moment. “I really don’t know. It’s all a bit of a haze. Like a bad dream that lingers after you wake up. I remember things in fragments.”

That was when I should have comforted her and said it was all okay. That’s what a good friend did. Instead, I skipped over false assurances and said, “You should see Se?ora.”

“What for?” Sasha asked sharply.

“You’ve basically been to hell and back. I just want her to look you over. Make sure everything’s okay.” I shrugged. All things considering, it wasn’t an odd request.

“I’m fine. It wasn’t that bad.” She waved away my concern.

“I mean, just to be sure?—”

My front door opened, interrupting us. “Sasha?”

Sienna stood in shock with Mist, Piper, Ronan, Anders, and all of the kids in tow. Sasha jumped up from her seat beside me.

My eyes found Ronan as his brow furrowed. “ Don’t say anything,” I mentally said to him. His features smoothed and nothing but the hands he placed on Honor and Orson’s shoulders gave him away.

“Sienna,” Sasha said with the most emotion she’d shown since coming to my apartment. Sienna rushed into her twin’s arms, wrapping herself around Sasha and holding her tight—as if she feared she would vanish at any moment.

“I thought you were going to die. I didn’t know what I was going to do,” Sienna said between sobs. Sasha patted her back, shushing her cries, and if I didn’t see it with my own eyes, I’d question if I’d overthought things only moments ago.

“I missed you too,” Sasha said, wrapping one arm around her sister’s shoulder in a hug.

“I’m glad you made it back from the veil okay,” Piper chimed in, her violet eyes meeting mine. “Did you find the spirits we were looking for?”

“I . . . I can’t remember,” Sasha answered, seeming flustered.

Piper smothered the moment of disappointment with a half-smile that didn’t meet her eyes. “It’s okay, we’ll just have to find another way to contact them.”

I grimaced. Our window for a proper séance had passed with Samhain and there weren't enough of the bodies left for a resurrection.

“Are we going to talk about Lucifer?” Sasha’s question broke through the brief peace that existed in the room, and her words hit like an anvil in a pond.

“What the hell does that mean?” Piper bit out. Her eyes found mine and she arched an eyebrow. “Nathalie, what does she mean by ‘talk about Lucifer’? Is there something I need to know about your not-so-friendly neighborhood poltergeist?”

I cringed and opened my mouth to speak, but of course, bad had to become worse and Lucifer appeared beside me out of thin air. He was dressed in a three-piece suit and adjusting his cufflinks. I craned my neck to look at his face, but his ineffable mask of pleasantness was firmly in place.

“Not a poltergeist, thank you,” he said, “I’m her familiar, or didn’t she tell you? Either way, I like to think I’m quite friendly these days.”

My elbow shot out, nailing him in the side. The asshole didn’t even do me the service of pretending it hurt. I absently rubbed my arm where I was sure to bruise.

“I thought you were dead,” Piper said, appraising him like she would a bug that dared crawl beneath her boot.

“So, things progressed . . . unexpectedly.” I winced but held my hands up in surrender. “I’m handling it. I promise.”

“Yes, I was dead, thanks to the lot of you. What? No celebratory hug? Not even a high five?” Lucifer grinned like he wasn’t perturbed. If I thought it would make me feel better, I’d elbow him again. “Tough crowd.”

Piper lifted an eyebrow as if to question how well I was “handling it.”

“How exactly are we handling him?” Peace asked, poking her head out of the greenhouse.

“Trust Prime, she’s got it,” Caretaker said with a soft smile.

“I have this under control. Mostly.” I met her gaze and pleaded with my eyes.

“If your concern is ‘what will Lucifer do now,’ I can share my plans and put you at ease.” His words earned an eyeroll from both me and Piper. Ronan’s eyes were more focused on Sasha than Lucifer, which was telling given he and his brother hadn’t parted on the best of terms. It seemed they wouldn’t reunite on them either.

“Okay,” Piper said, putting her hands on her hips. “Lay it on me. What are these ‘plans’ of yours and do they involve me sending your ass back to the spirit realm?” She jutted her chin toward Lucifer, taking a not-so-subtle step in between him and Mist, who was pulling at her sleeves in discomfort.

“For starters, I have no intentions to usurp you from your metaphorical throne,” Lucifer replied with a disinterested look. “In fact, I have no desire to rule again at all.”

“As if you could,” Piper muttered in response. “So what, you just expect us to believe you have no purpose coming back? Just happy to be alive, huh?”

“Oh, I have a purpose.” Lucifer’s eyes locked on mine. “I’ve been given a second chance, and I intend to use it wisely.”

I swallowed under the weight of his gaze. Looking away, I noticed a coolness in Sasha’s features as she watched our interaction.

Anders moved forward and clapped Lucifer on the back. I wasn’t surprised he was the first to accept his return. They’d worked together for years and always got along well. “Glad to have you back, man,” he said with a crooked smile.

“Nice to see you in the flesh,” Sienna added, giving him a fierce one-armed hug while holding onto Sasha’s hand with her other. I could only imagine what she was feeling; her long-dead lover and almost-dead sister back in one day.

Sasha stepped forward; her eyes bright. “I’m so glad you found your way back to me,” she said, moving closer to him in a way that made my stomach twist with an emotion I refused to admit was jealousy. “We have much catching up to do.”

“Hmm.” Lucifer looked her over before flashing another half-smile.

His noncommittal response was not lost on Sasha, and it clearly didn’t please her. She pulled away and looked at her sister.

“I’m tired. I want to go home,” she declared.

“Of course,” Sienna said, nodding. “Hallie, come on?—”

“Wait.” I jumped in. The room snapped to attention. I internally cursed and told myself to tone it down. “I was going to offer for me or Piper to keep Hallie for the night, so you and Sasha could spend time together and she can get her rest.”

“Hallie, stay with me,” Orson added, instantly keen on the idea.

“We can have a sleepover,” Hallie agreed, holding hands with Orson in the pure way that only small children could.

I forced a smile again. “Is that okay with you?” I asked Piper.

“Oh yeah, for sure.” She frowned. “We’re skipping over some of the finer details of the whole Lucifer-is-back-in-the-flesh thing, but I’ll entrust this one to you.”

I mouthed “thank you” to her and Sienna pulled Hallie into a hug, saying goodbye.

“Can I sleep over with you guys?” Mist asked, not hiding her wariness of Lucifer. I couldn’t blame her given he compelled her to not compel him.

“My Angel sleepover too?” Hallie beamed, staring up at her with absolute adoration on her face.

“Of course, Mist. You’re always welcome,” Piper answered easily.

“Great, all settled. Ready to go, Sienna?” Sasha pushed, heading toward the door.

“I’m coming. Bye, baby.” Sienna blew Hallie one more kiss and gave us all a wave. A second later, the door slammed shut behind them.

“Mist, why don’t you take the kiddos into your room to hang out?” I suggested as soon as they were out of the apartment. Mist looked at me curiously but followed directions.

Everyone but me had super hearing, so sending the kids to the other room didn’t do much. Hopefully Mist would be enough of a distraction. They were all at an age where secrets were hard to keep.

As the door closed to Mist’s bedroom, silence fell over the group. I took a deep breath before finally speaking the dreaded words that had been swirling in my head.

“That wasn’t Sasha.”