The Gathering #3

LUCIFER WAS A total jerk. Allie knew that should have been no surprise, because of his “prince of darkness” title and all. But just how much of a jerk he was became all too evident once he had captured her.

She was still kicking herself for allowing that to happen. Truthfully, she felt like a total moron. She’d been warned that Lucifer wanted her; even Abba Himself had given her a heads up. But pride had blinded her… she was the Mistress of the Remnant Warriors, the freaking leader of the warriors in charge of keeping Lucifer and his minions in line, for Pete’s sake. There was no way she’d get caught.

Again.

That was the worst part; she’d been caught by the enemy once before, but that was before she’d discovered her new ability of using inner sense to know what was coming at her. Allie thought that her new ability gave her some sort of protection. Somewhat of a talisman, so to speak.

Apparently not, if her current circumstances were telling the story.

As far as dungeon masters go, she supposed His Royal Scumbag wasn’t too bad, in all honesty. Lucifer was actually playing the part of host, rather than kidnapper. He seemed to be going out of his way to make sure she was comfortable, provided for. It was almost like he was trying to get on her good side.

And that made Allie snort; the ultimate bad dude, trying to get on Abba’s top human warrior’s good side.

At least I’m not hanging in the Pit this time. That had seriously sucked. The Pit was where Lucifer had hung for the past millennium, before The Releasing. Even though she herself had only hung there for a handful of days, it had literally seemed like centuries. Abba had designed the place that way, as an extra punishment for Lucifer and his demons, to make the thousand years seem that much longer.

No wonder the dude was crazy.

So far, Lucifer had been intent on wining and dining Allie, like they were dating or something. She knew he was trying to get her to relax, to think of him as a friend or something. As if. But he’d always been known to be a charmer, so it wasn’t surprising that was his first line of attack.

It had been two weeks since he’d snatched her in Guwahati, the last place where he’d unleashed his demons, and she was pretty sure she’d gained weight from all the food he was forcing on her. Plus, the lack of exercise wasn’t helping either.

What she wouldn’t give for some combat training. Or to be able to kick some demons’ butts.

When she’d hung in the Pit, Allie had figured out that Lucifer was causing chaos in various places around the globe that formed a wide circle around Abba’s City. She knew his next plan was to enter those places, work his “miracles” and cure the diseases that he’d caused, promise a bunch of stuff, then get the people to join his army.

And then they’d attack The City.

What she didn’t know was what Lucifer wanted with her.

He’d told her once that he was going to make her cry. She’d been taunting him when he hung in the Pit, and of course, he’d been ticked off. He’d threatened her. He’d put a bounty on her head, with the reward of being able to lead the attack on The City. She knew Lucifer was angry with her and wanted revenge.

But now… he just seemed like he wanted a friend.

Allie was going along with it for now. She knew it was just a matter of time before one of the angels came for her. Or maybe Nick. Her husband had to be losing his mind — again — over her disappearance. At least this time, they knew who had her. Last time, the demon who’d snatched her had been invisible and no one knew what had happened to her.

She’d already expected Charo to show up. Her pet bobcat had an uncanny ability to find Allie no matter where on the earth she went. She also figured maybe Zad would send some bugs or some other creature to find her, like he had last time. Commanding the animal kingdom was just one of that angel’s cool abilities.

Allie missed her husband and her friends. She really missed Metatron, even though she knew he was going to be really ticked at her for not “using her senses” before Lucifer had snatched her. But she’d been busy studying the water supply that the demons had been poisoning, trying to figure out the best way to get word to Abba of the possibility of a global contamination and she’d been distracted.

It was a big mistake.

She moved away from the window in her room. The window with no view. They were underground somewhere with no fresh air, no light, no plants.

Ugh, I really miss my garden.

It wasn’t really her garden, but the recreation of the Garden of Eden that Abba had given to the Remnants behind the mansion He’d created for them in the Inner Circle. It was Allie’s favorite place to be, especially if Abba were there with her.

A knock on the heavy wooden door startled her out of her thoughts. She sighed.

“Come in.” At least the demons had manners. Who wouldathunk?

Cardun, the demon assigned to her care, came in with what looked like strips of cloth draped over his arm. Allie groaned; Lucifer kept insisting that she wear stupid outfits that were getting skimpier and skimpier. She’d called him “Jabba the Hut” the night before at dinner, and surprisingly, he’d laughed. She didn’t think he’d get the reference, but then she remembered that Lucifer had been in control of much of the entertainment world back in the Old Age, so yeah, it stood to reason he was familiar with every old movie, television show, song, et cetera.

Allie liked to reference Old Age things. Too bad the only being to get all of her references was Mr. Evil.

“Master wants you to wear this for dinner,” the demon smirked at her as he dropped the clothes on the bed.

Allie walked over and picked up a corner of the sheer material. It was almost completely see-through. She gave Cardun a sardonic look, but he just grinned at her, dimples showing. That jerk was handsome too. It never ceased to shock her at how human demons looked, especially after all the Old Age depictions of the horns and red skin.

“Seriously?” she asked as she held up the sheer blue cloth to her face and stared at him through it.

He crossed his muscular arms over his chest and winked at her. “Yep. Can’t say I’m not looking forward to seeing you in it myself.”

Allie gave him a look that should have fried him on the spot. He laughed and turned to leave. She sighed; if she didn’t wear the stupid outfits Lucifer sent, he threatened to strip her and drag her out into the dining hall naked. So, sheer cloth was better than skin.

“Princess Leia had more on when she was chained at Jabba’s feet,” she muttered as she started to peel off the robe she was wearing.

It irked her to no end that she couldn’t fight. She couldn’t even transfer out of… wherever she was. For whatever reason, any special ability she had was gone. That frightened her more than anything else.

What if it meant Abba had turned His back on her and taken away her abilities?

She knew it was stupid, that there was no reason why He would. But what else was the cause of it? Why was she so freaking helpless now?

Horrified, she felt her eyes fill. “Warriors don’t cry, dang it!” she muttered to herself once again, then mentally girded her loins as she dressed.

“Yards of cloth and I might as well be naked,” she griped once she’d changed. She’d never been a dress kind of gal. In fact, the one and only time she’d ever worn one before had been in the Old Age when she’d married Jaden, who was now a martyr. Come to think of it, that dress had been made of the same sheer material. But back then, she’d had multiple layers on, so everything was covered. Now, she was sure her body was visible under the material.

A mirror in her room would be nice, but she hadn’t been given one. She wondered if she could talk Lucifer into having one brought in. Not that she was vain or wanted to look good for the creep, but it would be nice to see if she was flashing anyone.

Another knock startled her. She straightened from where she’d been bent over, trying to see if body parts were visible through the cloth. It was hopeless, actually. The room was too dark to tell without a mirror anyway.

She expected Cardun, so she was surprised to see Lucifer himself at the door. His multicolored eyes took her in from the top of her head to her sandal-covered feet. Her eyes caught on the medallion he’d stolen from her, the one Nick had made for her after her last capture — that had hidden throwing stars within it. She’d love to get her hands back on it and use one of those stars on Lucifer.

Allie put her fists on her hips. “You taking me to dinner, Jabba?”

He laughed. It irritated Allie that he had a nice laugh. She really wanted to just think of him as gross, evil, wicked. He definitely was the latter two. Unfortunately, he wasn’t gross.

But he was bad. And a condemned creature.

He put his arm out for her to take, like a shiny knight escorting the lady of the castle. Allie fought not to roll her eyes; she needed to make it seem like she was playing into his hands if she wanted to have any chance of him relaxing the guard so she could escape. Especially since it didn’t seem like a rescue party was on its way.

Apparently, getting out of there was on her this time.