A Darker Past (The Darker Agency #2)(59)
Cassidy glared at us. “I’m aware of the stakes, Klaire. Very aware.”
…
“So, since when do you go around promising the impossible?”
Mom was on her knees in front of her closet, stuffing assorted items and weaponry into one of our duffle bags. She looked like she was loading up for war. Three vials of quartz powder, quartz-tipped arrows, and enough metal to down an entire nest of harpies.
I hated to be the voice of reason—like, really hated—but we didn’t have a clue as to where to start looking. “How are we supposed to find Asmodeus’s prison? I mean, if it were that easy, wouldn’t we have done it already?”
She looked up from the bag. “I know where it is.”
The air stilled. “I—you—how did you not tell me?”
“I just did,” she said, zipping the bag. She stood and slung Grandpa’s crossbow over her shoulder.
“You just did,” I repeated. “Nice. Way to include me, partner.”
She rolled her eyes. “We are partners, Jessie.” She brought her hand to the top of my head and proceeded to muss my hair. “You’re also my kid. That means I have free license to withhold dangerous information. Besides, I only found out this morning.” She pointed to the door. “Hurry up. Go pack a bag.”
“Pack a bag for what, exactly?”
She grinned, and Dad and Lukas appeared in the doorway. “You girls ready?”
“Ready for what?”
Mom handed the bag to Dad and rose onto her toes. Placing a quick peck on his cheek, she said, “We’re going on a little family outing.”
…
This was crazy. But sometimes crazy was the only thing you had. We were teeth deep in an impossible situation. The only way out was to get our hands dirty.
Really dirty.
It was going on one in the morning. Dad had called in a favor from a fellow demon in the House of Pride. Someone that, while not under him, he trusted. He gave us a crystal that would cloak Mom’s presence in the Shadow Realm for three hours. That’s where the prison was. Made sense, I supposed. It was Lucifer that trapped his brothers, and Lucifer that wanted to keep control over hell. He’d want it stashed in a place not many people could tread.
I pointed to the deep blue rock Dad hung around Mom’s neck. It was the size of ping-pong ball, though not as perfectly round, and dangled on a long leather cord. Simstone, he’d called it. Apparently it was extremely rare. “I get that it’s against the rules to bring a live human into the Shadow Realm, and that thing will cloak her presence, but what about us? You don’t think Lucifer will know what we’re up to? It’s kind of the opposite of what he told Lukas and me to do. Not to mention you were ordered to stay out of it. This is pretty much breaking all the rules.”
“If all goes according to plan,” Dad said, zipping up his bag, “then it won’t matter. We have no intention of giving the prison to the demon. It’s merely a tool to lure him in and get your friend back. When we’re finished, Lucifer gets the prison back and our uninvited friend is retrapped.”
“That’s one issue, but what about the you not helping part?”
“I have that covered,” he said with a grin.
Mom matched his smile with her own. “Lucifer told everyone that you and Lukas could have no help from the Shadow Realm in retrapping the demon. That’s not what your father is doing. He’s helping us rescue Kendra. If the two should be mutually beneficial, then it is what it is, but it breaks no specific rule.”
“That’s splitting hairs,” Lukas said. He was wearing the same leather jacket that he’d first walked into our office in, with black jeans and a T-shirt. Simple, but incredibly hot. Even hotter was his expression. All business and totally badass. There was a gleam in his eyes. A spark not human. It was dangerous and demonic, and I found myself comforted by that. A normal guy would have never hacked it in my world. Lukas fit in perfectly. Like the universe had stashed him away for a hundred plus years to get him ready and plop him right into the Darker puzzle. The missing piece of a puzzle I’d been itching to solve my entire life.
“That’s dealing with a demon,” Dad said, slapping a hand down on his shoulder. “It’s all about the wording.”
He made a good point, and I’ll admit it, a sick, and badly timed, part of me was kind of geeking out at the thought of taking our first family vacation. The fact that we were Monster Mashing to the last place on earth any sane person would want to go was only a huge plus in my book. This was what I’d dreamed about my entire life: Dad, Mom, and me. Mashing together. Add in a sinfully hot ex-incarnation of Wrath and take away the bff danger, and I would have been in heaven.
“We ready?” Dad asked.
Mom took a deep breath. She was tapping the thumb on her right hand and fiddling with the strap on her duffle. “I suppose so,” she said finally.
Dad stepped in close and took her face into his hands. “Do not worry, Klaire. I will always keep you safe.”
“I know,” Mom whispered in response.
Dad nodded and wrapped her tight in his arms. She looked into his eyes, and I knew in that moment, there was no one in the room but them. The look in their eyes—that’s what I wanted. The feeling that I’d do anything, give anything, be anything, for someone. I hadn’t said I love you since the day we’d boxed up the Sins. Neither had Lukas. I think he knew better. Even if the feelings were there, this was something I needed time to ease into. But I wanted it. After meeting him, and really seeing my parents together, I wanted it.