Chapter Seven

Cary

Cary stared at his reflection in the window above the kitchen sink as he washed his hands. Lucifer had been gone for an hour. Gage for two. He was missing his mates and hated that he’d been left behind. Oh, he understood Lucifer needed to concentrate on finding Gage. Not worry about him .

“Do you need help in here?”

Cary smiled at Adam over his shoulder. “Not really. There wasn’t much of a mess.” No one had even eaten the pizza they’d ordered. “Just trying to keep busy.”

“I understand. Just holler if you need anything or want company.” Adam winked before returning to the living room where Mal, the master of punishment, was coordinating the search for Gage. What even was a master of punishment?

Hell. Cary had so much more to learn about Lucifer and their new home realm. He had to guess that they’d all move into Lucifer’s house, leaving Cary’s childhood home behind. It made sense after all. Lucifer was a powerful being. Cary just didn’t know how he felt about leaving his home, the memories. Maybe they could split their time? Would Gage want that now that he’d been kidnapped?

It had to be the clowder that took Gage.

Except Josh, their pizza delivery person, was human. Had never been around the clowder as far as Cary could remember.

His gaze drifted back to his own reflection.

Cary felt useless. Human. Why would the fates have matched him with the king of hell and a brave feline shifter? What did Cary contribute to their dynamic? He loved Gage so much that he couldn’t ever imagine being away from him. It hadn’t been long since they’d found Lucifer, but Cary already knew that Lucifer belonged perfectly with them. They fit.

Yes, they fit.

There was no reason for Cary to start doubting himself. Again. Gage told him every day about how empty his life would be without Cary. Gage needed Cary. So would Lucifer.

Cary needed to remember that he wasn’t lesser because he was human. Humans were a vital part of societies, including the paranormal. He’d read that himself. In some book or another.

Closing his eyes, Cary thought hard about his mates. Sending out his love and support from his heart. It might be silly but if Cary couldn’t be with his mates physically then he wanted to connect the only way that he knew how.

He felt better and opened his eyes.

He nearly fell on his ass as he pushed himself away from the sink.

In the reflection of the window, he could see Gage sitting against a cement wall with his head tilted back as he hummed quietly. Cary knew that basement. It was where the clowder kept extra supplies, including canned food and water. There might have been times that his family had been short of provisions, leaving him and Gage to break into the basement.

It hadn’t been stealing, really. The clowder had more than they would ever have needed. They’d just never told his grammy where the supplies had come from. She would have totally called it stealing.

“I know where he is!” Cary yelled. He raced into the living room where Mal and Adam were. Adam leapt from the couch as Mal held up a hand. He was on his cell.

Cary couldn’t wait though. He danced in place. “He’s in the church’s basement!” They needed to get there. Gage looked okay but he was all alone. Gage hated being alone!

“Hold on.” Mal rose before he turned to Cary.

“They’ve already checked out the church,” Mal said quietly. “There is no sign anyone has been there since Lucifer locked it up.”

“Look again!” Cary demanded. “He’s in the basement.”

Mal’s eyes narrowed.

Adam placed his palm on Mal’s arm. “Listen to him. They’re mates.”

“I…” Mal sighed. “I’ll send a team back there.”

“Thank you!” Cary started to pace the living room. He’d seen Gage clearly. Cary knew where his mate was. They had to believe him. But what if they didn’t? Cary had no idea how he’d received that vision, but he knew he wasn’t wrong. Turning to the big picture window, Cary closed his eyes. He thought about Gage. Six weeks ago, when Gage had turned up at Cary’s house devastated by his parents’ announcement that they’d found him a wife.

Even though Gage had come out to his parents in junior high about being gay, his parents had never accepted that fact about their son. Gage’s mom ignored that the conversation had ever taken place while Gage’s father had tried to force Gage into dating women.

Gage had refused his father but that just meant that he’d been punished and grounded to his room.

Not that Gage would ever have stayed grounded. He’d snuck out every night to be with Cary until his parents just stopped trying to stop him.

There was a part of Gage that wanted his parents’ acceptance but that had never happened. Gage told Cary everything and hadn’t hidden that he’d been promised to a woman.

Gage had cried.

Cary had cried.

They’d made love. Not something that they did often since they both preferred to bottom but that night Cary had loved on Gage for hours.

Gage had clung tight to Cary as they slept.

And Gage needed him now.

Determination had his adrenaline spiking. “I’m going to make tea.”

“That’ll help calm your nerves.” Adam smiled at him. “They’ll find him. Mal is sending a group of demons back to the church now.”

Cary nodded before he rushed into the kitchen. He kept going, ignoring the stove and his tea kettle to pass through and into the back hall. Cary didn’t need any lights since he had been raised in that house. He could avoid the nicknacks on shelves, a table, even the squeaky board. Cary didn’t make a sound as he carefully pulled open the back door and slipped through the small gap.

Once his feet hit the porch, Cary began to run.

‘I’m coming, Gage! I'm coming!’ he mentally repeated as he raced as fast as he could to the church.

Instead of taking the main street that would lead him to the church, Cary used back streets, knowing the quickest way to Gage. It had the added benefit of avoiding where he suspected Lucifer’s men were searching.

Cary knew he shouldn’t have snuck out, but he couldn’t get the vision of Gage all alone out of his head.

He slowed to a jog.

Dang, he really should have taken Gage up on all the times that his boyfriend invited him out for his morning runs. Cary didn’t like exercise. Didn’t believe in running unless something was chasing him. Or he was headed to save his mate.

* * * * *

Gage

Bored. He was so bored. Either his abductors needed to come back or Gage needed to be rescued. He was also hungry. And cold. Gage sighed. He’d truly expected that Lucifer would have already found him.

So why hadn’t he?

Gage stretched his arms over his head. There was food and water in the room, but Gage was being held inside some sort of barrier. He’d already tried to get to a case of water. After hearing how evil magic was his entire life, Gage wondered how much of it being used he’d missed. He slammed his fist onto the concrete floor. Ow! Fuck that hurt!

He cradled his wrist as he heard one of the outer doors open.

Finally!

“Hey! Let me out of here, assholes!” he yelled.

There was squeaking from tennis shoes on the floor before Cary ran around the corner.

Gage leapt to his feet. “Wait!”

Cary ran at him.

“No!”

Instead of running into the barrier, his boyfriend passed right through and into Gage’s arms. Gage grunted as Cary’s momentum knocked him back. He grasped Cary’s arms.

“I knew you were here!” Cary panted to him.

“How?” With one hand wrapped around Cary’s wrist to keep him close, Gage dragged Cary back to the barrier. He waved his hand through the air. “Damn it!” The barrier was still there.

“What are you doing?” Cary asked.

“You try it,” Gage said.

“Try what?”

Gage waved Cary’s hand in the same place that he had waved his own. Maybe because Cary was human?

Nope.

“Ow!” Cary jerked his hand away as his knuckled smacked the barrier.

“Maybe it’s one way?” Gage wondered. “You can enter but not leave?”

“Wait! I’m stuck now too?” Cary beat his fist against the barrier.

Like Gage hadn’t already tried that. Multiple times. Until his hands ached.

“I’m going to be in so much trouble!” Cary kicked the barrier.

Gage pulled his boyfriend into his arms. He kissed Cary’s forehead before smiling down at him. “How’d you find me?”

Cary bounced. “It was so cool. I was trying to mentally send you and Lucifer my love and support. It totally sucked being stuck in the house even though Mal and Adam are very nice. I was concentrating on you and Lucifer then I opened my eyes and saw you! In the reflection of the window. I saw you leaning your head back against the wall. I knew this room. Remembered when we snuck in here and stole some cans of beans.”

His boyfriend was talking very fast. Gage was already lost. Who was Adam? What was a Mal? Did Cary have a vision or was this something more?

“I told Mal where you were!” Cary continued. “At first, he’d said that the church had already been searched. That he would send a team back. But I knew you were here. I couldn’t wait for someone else to come rescue you. Not when I knew you were all alone.”

Gage hugged his boyfriend. It bothered him that Cary had risked himself just to keep Gage from being alone. Yes, he hated that, but Cary could have gotten hurt. Someone could have seen him around the church. But he loved Cary for it as well.

“I’m here now.” Cary patted his back.

He snorted. “Yeah, but that’s not necessarily a good thing.”

“We’re together!” Cary argued.

“What if they come back and see you there?” Gage asked. Shit! Now what? There wasn’t anywhere in the small corner to hide Cary.

“There wasn’t anyone around,” Cary told him. “I checked.”

He’d checked? “Cary.”

“I’m not an idiot. I waited outside to make sure no one was walking around before I broke in here.”

“I know you're not an idiot,” Gage assured his boyfriend. “But I don’t know how we’re going to get out of here now. You said the church had already been searched?”

“Yes. That’s what I was told.”

“But I’m obviously here.”

“It has to be magic,” Cary said.

“It’s weird that I don’t feel the magic being used. That I didn’t know Stan Fisher was using magic.”

“Me either,” Cary agreed. “And I always knew about my grandma.”

“Same.”

“Black magic?” Cary guessed.

“Lucifer called it blood magic. I don’t know the difference.”

“Me either.”

“He also mentioned that book we used for the summoning. I just can’t see your grandma knowing this was all going on and not trying to stop it. Can you?” Gage asked.

Cary shook his head. “She would have wiped the floor with Stan Fisher.”

“Yeah.”

“It is weird. And she did have the book.”

“Yes, it is.” Gage drew his boyfriend across the room before urging him to sit. He huddled in the corner as Gage tried to think of what their next steps should be. In his heart he wanted to believe that Lucifer was already on the way. His head knew better. Magic was being used against them. Black magic.

“It’s going to be okay, right?” Cary buried his face in Gage’s chest.

“Of course it is,” Gage assured him. “It’s going to be fine. Lucifer is going to be here any minute. We just have to wait.” This time Gage didn’t believe the words.

* * * * *

Lucifer

“What do you mean that you can’t find Cary?” Lucifer asked quietly. “And think very carefully about how you answer that.”

Mal sighed over the line.

Lucifer was going to send every one of his demons to the pits. They’d suffer for all of eternity and would burn. The world would burn! He was the fucking king of hell. No one took his mate—mates—and got away with it.

Bel gripped his shoulder and Lucifer realized that the entire area around shuddered with his anger. He needed to get control of himself. Lucifer was too old for temper tantrums.

He took several long, deep breaths.

“It isn’t his fault!” Adam shouted. “Your little human is tricky! He went out the back door!”

Lucifer was about to lose his fucking mind. He cared for Adam. Loved him like a nephew. That didn’t mean he didn’t want to strangle him. “Where did he go?”

“I think he went to the church. He had a vision or something and swore that Gage was locked in the basement.”

“The basement?” Lucifer repeated. “We checked the church already.”

“That’s what we told him,” Adam replied. “He still believes that’s where Gage is.”

There was a shuffling sound before Mal growled. “I’m going to spank you raw later. Give me the phone!”

Lucifer had to bite his lips to keep from yelling.

“Sorry, my Lord.” Mal was back. “I take full responsibility—”

“Just…” Lucifer interrupted. “I’m going to the church.”

“I—”

“It’s fine, Mal. My mate went to find our other mate. He would have found a way out even if I had been there.”

“I do apologize,” Mal said.

“Meet me at the church. I’m going to the basement.”

“I will.”

Lucifer hung up the phone before transporting himself to the front of the church where he’d met the clowder leader earlier. The place where all of this started in the first place.

Bel, Asmos, Mal, and several more demons popped up around him.

He pushed his magic out in the area, seeking the closest shifters and humans. Nothing for several streets. There were only demons around at least five, no six, neighborhoods, which didn’t make sense as there were houses across the street.

“Can you sense any magic?” Lucifer asked his demons.

They each took their time before revealing that they did not.

“Magic is most definitely being used,” Lucifer said.

“That we can’t pick up on?” Bel asked.

“I couldn’t feel the barrier at the house earlier,” Asmos commented.

“That’s right.” Which shouldn’t be possible. “Spread out. Find my mate and secure any human or shifter that you come across. I want to question them.”

Mal began to bark orders as Bel and Asmos stepped closer to him.

“We’re staying with you,” Bel said. “There is something hinky going on. We wield magic—it doesn’t get wielded against us.”

“Except right now it is,” Asmos said.

“Fine. Cary said that Gage was in the basement,” Lucifer told them. “We check there first.”

He stomped up the steps. With a wave of his hand, the doors opened. The entire time that he moved, Lucifer had his magic seeking out his mates. There was no doubt in his mind that Cary had come for Gage. Lucifer couldn’t blame his little human. And if Cary had a vision, did that mean that the magic that was somewhat upside down here was reaching out to Cary? Lucifer had seen crazier things happen.

Magic didn’t just rely on the caster.

Just like the magic that allowed shifters to make their transformation.

If magic had been abused in the area for long enough, it would begin to reach out, wanting a better master. That could easily be Cary, since his grandma had the gift. Lucifer knew many mages that would welcome the chance to speak with Cary. He was making a list of mages in his head as he descended the stairs to the basement.

He reached a landing that would take them to the lowest level when Asmos tackled Lucifer against the wall while throwing an invisibility cloak around them. Six humans scurried to the door that Lucifer had nearly reached.

Once they were alone again, Asmos backed off him.

“Hurry!” Lucifer whispered. “We can’t let them reach my mates!”

* * * * *

Cary

“Do you think it’s possible?”

Gage thought about his boyfriend’s question. Really thought about it. And what it might mean for Cary. “Yes,” he replied carefully.

“You do?” Cary questioned, perking up.

“Remember that I saw your grandma use magic in the garden. I even mentioned it to Lucifer, and he said you might have the same gift. Sort of underdeveloped since you never tried before the summoning.”

“But I did do the summoning,” Cary reminded him. He lifted his hands and wiggled his fingers. Staring at his own hands like they were foreign to him.

“Yes.”

“I could be magical?”

“Baby, there is a very good chance.”

“And Lucifer won’t care? He won’t be angry?”

“Of course not!” Gage squeezed Cary tight. “You’ve been to his house. His realm. He uses magic as second nature.”

Cary giggled. “He used magic to take off his shoes and socks when we were going to take a shower.”

That had Gage smiling. “And how did that shower go? Give me all the details. Did you show him what you can do with your tongue?”

“No.” Cary sighed. “We might have gotten distracted with kissing and touching. I’d barely gotten him naked and under the water before we heard Asmos yelling your name, and he took off.”

That was disappointing. “We are totally sexing up our mate when we get out of here.”

“I’d like that.”

“What would you think about finally completing the mating? The three of us, I mean.”

“The real mating?” Cary asked. “Where you bite and claim me?”

“Yes. I suspect Lucifer will know all the details of what has to take place. I’m tired of waiting. I want to claim you both. If you do! If you’re not ready—”

“I’m ready,” Cary told him. “I’ve been ready.”

“I know. And I’m sorry that I didn’t push harder.”

“It’s okay. Even if we had mated, it wouldn’t have been complete since we hadn’t met Lucifer yet.”

“True.” Gage grinned. “It’s almost like this was all meant to be.”

“Yes!” Cary hissed. He wiggled to fit more comfortably on Gage’s lap. “The concrete is cold.”

“I know.” What was taking Lucifer so long to rescue them anyway?

“Do you think Lucifer will get here soon?”

Gage snorted. At least their thoughts were running along the same lines. “Soon.”

“I’m hungry,” Cary whined.

“There better be pizza left,” Gage replied.

“I put it in the fridge. No one wanted to eat when you went missing.”

“We’re going to have to find a new pizza place,” Gage said.

Cary laughed. “I wonder if they have pizza in Lucifer’s realm.”

“Magic,” Gage said. “I bet he can just conjure it up. And ice-cold Coke.” He nudged Cary’s cheek with his chin.

“That will be cool.”

“Or you could do it for me,” Gage teased.

“Conjure you a pizza and coke?”

“Magic you,” Gage said.

Cary wrinkled his nose as he closed his eyes. It took Gage several moments to realize that Cary was trying to do magic. When nothing happened, Gage kissed Cary’s temple.

“No?”

Cary opened his eyes. “Sorry.”

“Hey! It was worth a shot.”

The door from the stairwell banged against the wall. Whoever was coming did not care about being heard. That could be a good thing or bad. Gage pushed Cary off his lap before helping him up. He placed Cary behind him as he stood with his feet planted and waited.

Either they were finally being rescued or the bad guys were back.

“Who is it?” Cary whispered.

“I can’t tell,” he replied softly. Even with his shifter senses Gage wasn’t picking up anything about their visitors. He moved his hand behind his back, thankful when Cary gripped his fingers. They were in this together. Good or bad.