Page 4 of Rescuing Air

“Really?” I shot back, my own irritation flaring up. “I don’t know, maybe because you needed sleep and time to let your bodies heal. You three had it the worst, and there’s nothing more to be done other than let your body do what it needs to. Jay and I couldn’t sleep, so instead of twiddling our thumbs, we decided to be useful and get a head start. There is so much I needed to get caught up on that it made sense. We were going to tell you. It’s not like we planned to hide it, but you needed sleep.”

“Guys, please let’s not argue,” Hudson cut in, handing out coffee to the others. “Lailah is right. We needed sleep before we could handle this news. Nothing has been done without us, so there’s no sense in getting all upset.”

Micah glared at him, letting out a scoff as he took a sip of his coffee. “Of course you would be on her side. Can’t risk losing the only pussy you’ve ever gotten.”

My brows shot up at this. Micah had been a lot of things, but never this kind of cruel. “That was a low blow, Micah, and you know it. I don’t know what crawled up your ass and died, but you better get your shit figured out before I figure it out for you. Apologize.”

“You can’t order me around like I’m a dog, Lailah,” Micah snapped.

This had me out of my seat and up in his face, refusing to let this stand. “What the actual fuck, Micah? Hudson didn’t deserve any of that from you. He simply stated his opinion, and you went right for the kill. Don’t think I won’t lock you in your bedroom and take away your crutches, so you can’t leave, while you think about your life choices. I lost one of you already and I’ll be damned if I let this group shatter when we need each other the most. So, apologize for being a prick—please.”

Micah blinked at me a few times and his anger seemed to dim as a different type of fire started to build. Heat simmered just under the skin as he refused to break from my gaze, letting me know how turned on he was that I’d just verbally spanked him in front of the others. The man might like to be in control, but it was clear he didn’t want a submissive partner all the time.

“You’re right,” he said finally and blinked, ending the standoff. I tried to back away, but he grabbed my arm and pulled me onto his lap, wrapping his arms tightly around me. “Hudson, I’m sorry, man. That was a dick move that you didn’t deserve. I’m angry at this whole thing and at being wounded, knowing I would slow the team down if we needed to move fast with this.”

Hudson nodded and waved off his apology. “I get it. There are times that I feel useless to this team and it can get under my skin rather easily. Thank you for your apology, but I have a feeling each of us will need to apologize to the others by the end of this battle. Demons feed off turmoil of all kinds and are very good at stirring it up.”

Micah kissed my neck and whispered in my ear, “Thank you, Cookie Monster.”

“Did you really think I was just going to let you be an ass?” I murmured back.

He shifted me so my ass was pressed right up against his rock-hard dick. “Promise you won’t hit me for saying this, but you pissed off and getting in my face like that was hot as hell.”

“Seriously, you’re going to pull that right after I scolded you?” I spluttered, trying to get up, but he only held me tighter, moaning as I wriggled in his grasp.

“You keep that up and I’m going to come right here in front of all of them,” he said against my neck, his lips brushing my skin. This got me to sit still instantly, causing him to chuckle as he pulled me against his chest. “That’s better. Now you have to sit here until my boner goes away in case your parents come out.”

“You’re evil, you know that?” I grumbled.

“Yeah, but you love me anyway,” he countered.

The others were trying not to stare at us, but it didn’t really bother me. It was inevitable that they would all catch one of us fooling around together at some point and I didn’t want them to ever feel like they couldn’t be free to act comfortably around me.

“Now that we have that settled,” Hudson spoke, bringing us back to the matter at hand. “What can you tell us about the situation?”

“Unfortunately, there isn’t a lot for us to go on and we’re on our own. My father doesn’t see the need to put in the energy to go after Mother, since he believes she’s most likely dead or possessed and beyond our help,” Jay informed the others.

“I’m sure you’ll all agree with me that I told him no matter what, we will bring her home. We owe her that and it’s what any of us would do for our families in the same predicament,” I added.

They all nodded in agreement with my sentiment.

“Jay and I spent the morning going over everything we learned from all our encounters and the knowledge that we have now to track their past movements. Jay’s father has been searching for this camp for months but is always a few steps behind, missing them. Lilith made it clear that the Dark Lord needs to keep them in places away from people stumbling upon them because his demons tend to kill them and draw attention. There is more that I learned as well from spending time with her in my head...” I ventured, unsure how they would all react to this next bit of information.

Brayden leaned forward and grabbed my hand, giving it a squeeze. “We’ll handle whatever comes our way, Angel.”

“The Dark Lord is a Prince of Hell. Not one of the top four princes, but one of the sub-princes, Beelzebub. He’s just under Lucifer in the ranking of the four main princes, which is why he has so much power and control. This means he’s also a child of Lilith, since she gave birth to all the Princes of Hell. Beelzebub also worked in conjunction with his brother Astaroth, making them two out of the three Evil Trinity,” I explained, pausing as I watched all of them look at me in fear and shock.

“Holy fucking shit, we are so screwed,” Micah swore, dropping his hands from holding me to run through his hair.

I took the moment to stand and face all of them. “This is a gift, guys. If I hadn’t shared her mind, there is no way that we would have understood how bad this is and we would’ve walked into the fight unprepared. Their goal is to make literal hell on earth but their hell, not the one ruled by the four princes, but by the Evil Trinity. Lilith will be their queen and be free to roam the world once again, not to be locked away like she is now. When I returned her to Hell, I drew the attention of the four princes, hoping they would notice she wasn’t in her cell any longer. I have no idea if it worked, since Lucifer is sure to be involved in this as well. Guys, Hell is waking up to a war among the princes, if we let it happen, I don’t know that anyone will survive it.”

“That is a heavy realization for this early in the morning.” Brayden sighed, rubbing his chin, deep in thought. “How did we miss this? Do you think the Elementi knew and didn’t tell us?”

“It does seem odd that they would miss something so massive, doesn’t it?” Hudson mused. “We did lose Mr. Creed. Who knows what information they got out of him or if they have others on the inside, steering us in the wrong direction?”

“I think we need to call Beth,” Cami announced, causing us all to snap our heads up. There she was, sitting on the railing, looking down at us from the second floor like it wasn’t at all odd for her to do so. “There might be double agents in the Elementi, but it won’t be my sisters. They drank all the Kool-Aid and believe in their souls they are doing the right thing.”

“How long have you been listening, midget?” Micah asked, crossing his arms.