Lucifer Damned (Morningstar Book 3), Percival Constantine [electric book reader .txt] 📗

Lucifer, his arms folded over his chest. “Or should I say ‘good afternoon’?”

Mara’s yellow eyes nearly bulged out of her skull when she saw who her visitor was. She immediately dropped down to her knees in supplication. “Forgive my manner, My Lord. I-I didn’t realize it was you.”

“Stand up, stop embarrassing yourself,” said Lucifer as he walked past Mara and into her apartment. “You know how I hate that.”

Mara rose to her feet and closed the door. “I’m sorry, it’s been a while since I’ve seen you.”

“Yes, I’ve been a bit busy as of late,” said Lucifer.

Mara stared at his clothing—or rather, lack thereof. Lucifer could feel her eyes crawling over him.

“Go on, you know you want to ask,” he said.

Mara was uncharacteristically bashful, her cheeks actually turning red as she looked down. Slowly, she raised her chin, her eyes still moving from side to side as if she were trying to avoid looking directly at Lucifer. This routine went on for a few moments before finally, she addressed the elephant in the room.

“Why…why are you wearing a robe?”

“Because I had just woken up. I made myself some coffee, went out to the deck, and just enjoyed the slow start to my day,” he began. “And then I was suddenly attacked.”

Mara’s reticence turned into shock. “What? Who would dare attack you?”

“Oh, I imagine lots would dare,” said Lucifer. “But in this instance, it was two humans. I got the sense they were some sort of demon hunters. And I thought who better to go to for information than the queen of the supernatural underworld.”

Mara looked away again with a smile forcing its way onto her face. “I’m hardly any sort of queen…just keep things in order for my mistress. More of a regent, really.”

“Whatever you choose to call yourself, you’re my best source of information on this,” said Lucifer.

“Of course, I’d be happy to help you in any way I can. But…there’s one thing I’m still not so clear on.”

“What’s that?” asked Lucifer.

“These men attacked you, you dispatched them, and then you came here,” she said. “So…I still don’t understand the robe.”

Lucifer frowned. “I…actually didn’t—the hunters are still alive.”

“Why would you leave them a—oh, I see,” said Mara, believing she’d discovered some master plan. “You left them alive as a warning. Probably maimed them terribly so other hunters would know not to come after the Morningstar.”

Lucifer’s lips pursed and stretched as he tried to push himself to say the words he didn’t want to say. “No. I…had to escape. In their beat-up old van. And so I didn’t have time to get dressed.”

Mara looked concerned. “Do you think it might have been Heaven attacking you? Because I do know about this one time when an angel imbued his followers with his own power. Could be that Uriel has decided to make a move against you.”

“They weren’t imbued with anything,” said Lucifer. “They were just normal demon hunters.”

“They must have been extremely formidable then. I know the Vatican employs highly trained assassins. And there’s also the Sons of Solomon and some very dangerous independent guilds…”

Lucifer’s lips tightened. He walked over to a liquor cabinet and opened it, helping himself to a bottle of bourbon. Without even asking, Lucifer removed the top and started drinking straight from the bottle.

“…sir?” asked Mara.

“It was two of them. Their names were Shem and Ham,” said Lucifer. “And they were utterly incompetent.”

Mara looked as if Lucifer had just spoken gibberish to her. “I don’t understand…if they were so incompetent, then why did you have to escape from them? Is this some sort of ploy to lure them into a false sense of security?”

“It’s no damn ploy!” Lucifer shouted. He closed his eyes and took a breath to calm himself. “I’m sorry. What I mean is I have…a situation.”

“…situation?”

“I inadvertently seem to have burned out my powers. At first, I thought it would be temporary. But now, it seems as if it’s permanent,” said Lucifer. “And without my powers, I’m just…”

“Human,” said Mara in disbelief. “When did this happen?”

“About a month or so ago. Barbatos was one of the Cocytus escapees and I lost my powers dealing with that situation,” said Lucifer. “Since then, I’ve been left stripped, so to speak. No psychometry, not even a spark of hellfire, I can’t even use basic magic without some sort of intermediary.”

“If this happened a month ago, then how come I’m just hearing about it now?” asked Mara.

Lucifer took another swig from the bottle and collapsed on Mara’s couch. “I didn’t want to broadcast it for obvious reasons. Enough people already know that the Devil is on Earth. If they knew he was powerless as well…”

“There would be waves of enemies out to kill you,” said Mara. “So that begs the question—how did these two learn about it?”

Lucifer took another drink. All this time, his assumption was that Shem and Ham simply attempted a foolhardy assault and had no knowledge of his current state. They certainly seemed stupid enough to think they could face the power of the Morningstar on their own. But what if Mara had a point—what if someone had informed them of his current state?

“That’s a very good question,” said Lucifer.

“What do you know about them?”

“They were brothers, and they also mentioned something about their father’s guild…”

“And you said their names were Shem and Ham?”

Lucifer nodded. “In the Bible, Noah had two sons named Shem and Ham.”

“Their father must run one of those independent guilds. A number of them exist across the world, quite a few here in America. More often than not, they tend to be ultra-zealous religious militias. Not too many operating in Chicago, they tend to exist in more rural areas,” said Mara.

“I’d imagine they’d face significant pushback from the different factions out here,” said Lucifer.

“That’s before you consider the larger, more organized groups, like the Vatican, the Sons of Solomon…”

“And OSIRIS,” said Lucifer.

Mara raised an eyebrow. “What’s that?”

“Seems Uncle Sam is getting involved in supernatural affairs as well,” said Lucifer. “Though they