lips together to stop the laugh. I launch myself at him, box be damned and hug him from the side tightly.
“I missed you, you dick. Don’t ever leave me again. You can’t…the implications…”
“I’m not going anywhere,” he reassures me, giving me a swift kiss on my forehead.
I frown at the box. “You can put that down now. It’s hurting you.”
He glowers at it. “It’s burning my fucking hands off, but I can’t get rid of it.”
“Get Axelle,” Killian’s calm voice comes from over the top of my head.
I don’t know who he spoke to but when I look up, it was Gregory. He rushes off and I feel bad. Then I groan and feel terrible.
We were about to get it on with some serious sexy time and not only did I put a stop to it, I called out Shax’s name while I had Gregory’s dick in my hand. What must he think?
I put my hand to my face and take a breath, shaking it off.
“Start at the beginning,” I say to Shax.
He stands up and I stand with him, putting my hands over his. I can control the pain, the Hellfire, it is mine, but Shax’s hands are destroyed.
“Give it to me.”
“I can’t,” he says. “I wish I could, but it has attached itself to me.”
“Oh?” I ask curiously and stare intently at it. I try to take it off him, but I can’t.
“Shax!” Mom calls out, appearing next to us and staring at the box before she goes around it to hug him. “Is that it?”
He nods grimly. “But without a doubt, Lucifer is inside it as well. Vazna wanted me to destroy it. He says only my blood can either destroy it or open it.”
“What?” I ask in confusion. “What about the key?” I bring the key that Elijah kept from me to my hand and insert it into the lock.
“Annabelle!” Mom snaps at me, clutching at her throat.
I turn the key, ignoring her and everyone else’s protests but nothing happens.
“Told you,” Shax says with a sigh. “There’s more. This was Luc’s plan all along. He made sure that Vazna ended up with the box and that Vazna found me. It was his plan that I destroy the box with them all inside.”
Mom strangled gasp is barely audible over my own. “Liar,” I hiss. “Dad would never have said that. That Angel prick lied to you.”
Shax shakes his head. “There was a letter from Luc. I know it was from him, there was something personal between us. He knew I would question it and made sure that I knew it was his wish.”
“No,” Mom chokes out. “Luc wouldn’t do this to me.”
“I’m sorry, Mom,” Shax says quietly.
“Damn you,” she hisses at the box and places her hands on it. It releases Shax from his hold on it and hovers in the air between them.
“Well? What the fuck are you waiting for? Open the damn thing!” I bark at him.
“No!” Mom says, putting her hand up. “If we know for definite now that Lucifer is inside it as well, we have to think about this. Be ready.” She waves her hand over it and the box disappears.
“Mom!” I growl at her. “What the fuck are you doing? Don’t you want Dad back?”
“Of course, I do,” she hisses at me. “But there are things about Lucifer that you don’t know,” she adds icily.
“Oh, I know,” I snarl. “Dad told me all about how you are supposed to be Lucifer’s Demon Bound to breed the fucker that he wants to take my place.” I jab my thumb in my chest.
My mother’s blue eyes bore into mine in fury. “He had no right,” she says stiffly. “But you see how this affects me as well as all of my children. You aren’t ready to take him on, Annabelle. He will kill you and Shax and this baby that I’m carrying and then rape me until he gets what he wants.”
Out of the corner of my eye, I see my males all take a giant step back from us. I don’t blame them. That was harsh and makes me feel like shit for more than one reason. “You don’t think I can beat him,” I state coldly.
“He is so much older, more…”
“If you say more powerful then you are dead wrong,” I snarl. “The power of Hell is in me. I know what I can do. None of you have seen the tip of the iceberg, so do not tell me that