Cipher (Demonica Underworld #8) - Larissa Ione Page 0,67
with his finger. “I love you too.” Tenderly, he pressed a kiss into her hair. “And now I have a favor to ask of you.”
“Of course,” she said. “Anything.”
Shadows of hesitation danced in his eyes before he blurted, “Someday we’ll have kids, right?”
She hadn’t really thought that far ahead, but yes, she absolutely wanted to have Cipher’s babies. Lots of them. “I can’t see why not.”
His lips curved into a happy smile, but his eyes remained shadowed. “If we have a girl, and it’s all right with Azagoth, I’d like to name her Amelia. Would that be okay?”
“Oh, yes,” she whispered. “What a wonderful tribute to Azagoth’s daughter.” And what an incredible male he was to want to honor her that way. How had Lyre gotten so lucky? She held him tighter, putting their hearts together. “Thank you, Cipher. Thank you for hacking my password and rebooting my system.”
He laughed at the computer reference and pulled back just enough to look down at her, his gorgeous eyes mirroring the joy she felt. “I can say the same about you. I can even thank Flail. If she hadn’t gotten me abducted, I never would have found you or discovered my unique power.”
She wondered where Flail had gone after the torture box had opened. Who was she working for now? And was she going to seek revenge? The female would be crazy to attempt it, but she’d never struck Lyre as all that stable. They were going to have to be on guard.
Lyre playfully drummed her fingers on Cipher’s chest. “So Flail’s forgiven?”
The dark, deadly smile tipping up one corner of his mouth gave her delicious shivers. “Oh, I’m still going to kill her. But I’ll thank her before I do.”
“That’s my evil boy,” she teased.
But really, the good/evil battle they both were facing as True Fallens was something everyone, from demons to humans to angels, had to endure on a daily basis. It was part of life, and there was a reason for it. There was a reason for everything, and for the first time in years, she believed that again.
She believed in a lot of things again.
Epilogue
Moloc stared out the window at the glorious scorched earth and burning corpses that surrounded his stronghold. One would think there had been a battle, but it had been better than that.
The explosion of his soul merging with Bael’s had caused a catastrophic blast he still felt inside him. And oh, it was good.
He was whole for the first time in his life.
He and Bael had always had a strange relationship, knowing that they were both brothers and a single person, and he’d wondered how it would feel when they were finally melded together inside one body.
Now he knew. It felt like power.
He reached for the vial next to him, a vial he’d been saving for thousands of years. A gift from Satan himself, the little glass tube contained the Dark Lord’s blood, meant to strengthen him and, he hoped, give him a psychic connection with his king.
As he brought it to his lips, there was a tap at the door. The chaotic half of his soul that had been Bael wanted to strike out at the interruption, but the calm half, the one Moloc had possessed, overruled.
“Come in,” he said, but added for Bael, “but if you displease me, you die.”
The door swung open and Flail strutted in, a smile on her usually pouty lips. “I have news from our agent inside Sheoul-gra.”
“I’m listening.”
“Cipher and Lyre are there,” she growled. “Azagoth has accepted them.”
“Disappointing, but not entirely unexpected,” he said. “What about his young human-realm children?”
“They’ve all been taken to Sheoul-gra. We won’t be able to kill more of them.”
He smiled. “No matter. I have a new a plan. One that is guaranteed to force the Keeper of Souls to release Satan from prison.”
“You won’t be able to kidnap Lilliana,” she warned. “Not even with your insider. She’s guarded all the time.”
“That’s the beauty of it, my love,” he said, Bael’s influence already affecting his choice of words. “I won’t need to abduct her.”
“Why not?” Confusion pulled her brow down. “I don’t understand.”
That was because she was beautiful but not all that bright. Females never were.
“Because,” he said, his heart racing with anticipation, “when the time is right, Lilliana will come to me, and Azagoth will be mine.”
* * * *
Coming October 15, 2019 from 1001 Dark Nights and Larissa Ione:
REAPER: A Demonica Novel
THE DEMONICA SERIES RETURNS...
He is the Keeper of Souls. Judge,