4.6

There was someone in her room. The sound of their heart beating, loud and obnoxious, was what woke Grace up. A low growl permeated the silence of the room, and then turned into a groan when the smell of cigarette smoke and bad food filled her nostrils. “Jesus Christ, Jane. You’re going to get yourself killed one of these times.” She sat up from her bed, and glared at the teen girl sitting on her counter. Jane was still wearing her work uniform, a plain white button up shirt and blue apron, and had a cigarette precariously dangling from her lips.

The cigarette came out of her mouth so she could flick the ash in the sink. “If you used your chain lock I wouldn’t be able to break in.”

“You’d probably just use bolt cutters,” Grace mumbled under her breath. Her body felt heavy, and her eyes were threatening to close. “The sun’s not even down. You better have a good reason for being here.” One of the hounds grumbled their agreement in their sleep.

“I wanted to talk to you.” Jane was nervous. Her hands were shaking and her voice was an octave higher. When she finished her cigarette, she put it out in the sink and immediately lit another one. Extremely nervous.

“It couldn’t have waited another hour?” The sun would have been hanging just above the horizon then, the time Grace normally woke up.

“It could have,” the girl admitted, “but I couldn’t. I want to know where Lucifer is.” Grace had come to know that Jane never calls Lucifer “father.” Just Lucifer or, when she’s feeling feisty, Asshole. Asshole is probably the one that Grace had heard the most. At least she worries about him, it appeared.

“I don’t know where he is, but I have someone looking for him. He’s supposed to be very good at finding people, and I have the high confidence that he won’t put me off.” Jane didn’t need to know the specific details. All she needed to know was Grace was actively searching for her father, and it seemed to relax the girl. She immediately put out her second cigarette.

“Alright. I guess let me know when you find him. I’m almost out of cigarettes.” Grace didn’t need to hear the girl’s heart speed up to know she was lying. Lucifer was the only family that she had, and it was understandable that she was worried about him. Grace may hate the fallen angel, but he did take care of his daughter, so she couldn’t begrudge him for that.

Jane hopped off of the counter and started to head out of the room. She took one last glance at the pile of hounds on the floor. “I’ll never understand how they all fit in this room.”

Grace allowed her eyes to shut and her body to fall back in the bed. “And you never will. Get out of here so I can sleep a little longer.” Before she plunged back into her dead sleep, she heard the click of the door shutting.

What felt like ten minutes later, Grace was awake again. The sun had just gone down. She felt refreshed, awake, and annoyed. Someone was having a party down the hall. At least, it sounded like they were having a party. There was loud music and people shouting at each other, mostly men. This was not the kind of awakening she wanted, and she knew exactly where the noise was coming from. Beth’s apartment. It was her fuckwad boyfriend and his “gang.” They liked to believe they were tough, and maybe they were, but they were small timers trying to seem big. Little dog syndrome, Grace liked to think of it as. Normally, she let those little dogs play, but not that day. She had had enough of it. It was time to show them how a big dog played.

Grace flung off her cover and headed out of her door, not bothering to change out of her spaghetti strap shirt and short shorts. Beth’s apartment was two doors down from Tony’s and on the opposite side. There were several people gathered around it, arguing on who should knock on the door. “Move,” Grace growled when she came up on them, and then pounded on the door hard, the wood protesting under her fists. She turned back to the small group. “Get out of here.” They didn’t have to be told twice.

The people in Beth’s apartment, however, did. She knocked on the door again and screamed, “Open the goddamn door before I break it down!”

“Grace,” a tiny voice said. It was Jane. Grace had barely heard it, but she could recognize the girl’s voice all the same. Jane was in that room with those men, and she was scared. That enraged the Sin Eater to a whole new level. She had known that Jane liked to hang out with Beth, but had hoped she would be smart enough to stay away from boyfriend who, as everyone in the apartment building knew, liked to beat Beth. Apparently, she didn’t. And now, Grace was going to have to go in there and save her, not knowing exactly how many people were in there and how much force she could use. Though if Jane was hurt in any way, she doubted she could stop herself from killing them.

As Grace was about to knock on the door again, it opened. She stood face-to-face with Beth. There was a fresh bruise on her face, and her eyes were red and puffy. If it had been any other time, Grace might have felt sorry for her, but not right then. Not when Jane was on the line. She all but shoved Beth out of her way as she came into the room. “Let’s go, Jane!” she shouted over the music.

Jane attempted to stand, but the man on her right forced her to sit back down. He made a mocking gesture of not being able to hear Grace over the music. Grace recognized the man as Beth’s boyfriend. He had light brown hair, brown eyes, and a decent looking face. There were tattoos on his muscular arms, of which he liked to show with short sleeved shirts that appeared to be two sizes too small for him. He wrapped one of those arms around Jane’s shoulder, and gave Grace a smile. It pissed her off that he actually had a nice smile.

Grace turned her attention to Beth. “Turn the music off.” Beth lowered her gaze and did as she was told. Silence filled the room. “Much better,” Grace said, a pleasant smile spreading across her face. “Now, let her go, before I make you let her go.”

Beth’s boyfriend started to laugh. “You really think you can make me let her go?” Grace could feel his eyes as they roamed over her body. “Though you are welcome to try.”

The disgust was plain on Grace’s face. “I’d rather you just let her go.” She chanced a look at Jane. The girl was paler than normal and tears were welling in her eyes, and her work uniform was still on. She must have gotten sucked into this shortly after she had left Grace’s room. This might have been avoided if Grace could have stayed up just a little while longer.

“James, please,” Beth pleaded. Grace clenched her jaw at the name. This pathetic human being shared the same name as her James. Her sweet and kind James. The man that loved her and fathered her child. And that asshole had the same name!

That was more than Grace could handle. “Yeah, James, please give me Jane,” she said, all but spitting his name out. There was a crazed look in her eye. She wanted to kill the man, and felt something egging her one. Practically begging her to kill him, and everyone else in that room.

Someone moved to her left and Grace’s eyes snapped to him. She had forgotten to check her surroundings, so focused on getting Jane out of there. Lucifer would have laid into her about that one. “Always be familiar with that around you, Grace,” he told her time and time again. That was enough to squash that little voice and its murderous intent.

Not including James, there were three other men in the room and a boy; she would not count Beth or Jane, since they would not join in a fight. The three men were around James’ age and seemed like they were having fun. Two were smiling, one sitting across from James, the other standing to his left, close behind Jane, as if ready to grab her, if necessary. The other was to Grace’s left and he stood next to the couch where the boy sat. There was a smile on his face as well, but it was hesitant.

The boy, on the other hand, was terrified. He appeared to be in his early twenties, but his brown eyes said he was closer to Jane’s age. He didn’t want to be there, and by the way one of the men kept glancing at him, he didn’t want him to be there either. Both were Hispanic and had similar facial features. Brothers. Looked like James roped the younger brother into coming here, against Big Brother’s wishes. Must have been a similar situation with Jane; Grace knew Jane was smart enough not to get herself in this mess on purpose.

James removed his arm from around Jane, but gave her a look that was clear she was not allowed to move. “A’right, since you asked nicely, I’ll let her go. But I want to you to have sit and drink with me first.”

“Fine.” Grace moved forward to the seat across from James, the one his friend was sitting in. He had a wide grin on his face, showing off his crooked, yellow teeth. His dark blue eyes sparkled the same as his bald head. “You’re in my seat.”

The man got up and gave a bow. “M’lady,” he said, earning laughter from his friends. For a second Grace thought about punching him, but she chose not to. There were other matters she needed to attend to. Like this drink. She didn’t know how it would affect her. Since her death she hadn’t eaten or drank any actual food. Just hearts. She didn’t even know if her body could digest it. None of her normal body functions worked. Even her circulatory system didn’t function correctly. Her heart beat, but it didn’t pump any blood into her body. From what she learned in high school biology, she shouldn’t be able to do anything. But she was a monster, so there had to be some kind of exception for her.

Grace sat back in the chair, crossing her arms over her chest. “So, what’re we drinking?” A bottle with gold liquid was shook in front of her face. “Tequila. How fun.” It was because of tequila she got pregnant. It had never been her drink of choice, but especially wasn’t after then. Not because of her pregnancy but the terrible hangover she had after. It had lasted three days. Three miserable days of puking and her mother giving her lectures. The lectures were the worst part.

“We’re here to have fun,” James shot back. He poured each of them a shot sloppily, spilling some on the table. “Cheers.” He lifted the shot glass, and Grace did the same. Even clinked glasses with him and then downed the shot.

“Huh.” She started at the empty glass in her hand. The burn she had been expected had not happened. There hadn’t even been a taste. It was like drinking water, though it sat weirdly in her stomach. Her body wasn’t accepting it, but it wasn’t going to purge it. She was grateful for that. James might not have taken her seriously if she started to puke.

Her attentions turned back to the man across from her. “We had our drink. Give me the Jane.” A bubble of laughter threatened to come out, but she forced it down. She felt like she was in a crappy action movie, trying to save some damsel in distress. If it hadn’t been Lucifer’s daughter, she might have laughed. She didn’t want to take a chance of her laughter getting Jane hurt. Lucifer would be more than upset. He might actually hurt her or Chase, knowing his sense of justice.

A familiar scent filled Grace’s nostrils and she felt herself relax. Tony. “I would suggest finishing this soon, Grace. Iblis just called.” His voice drifted into the room from the doorway. The brothers made frightened noises and put their backs against the wall, the oldest muttering something about diablo. Both of them were able to tell what Tony was. Interesting information, but not the kind that Grace needed at the moment.

“Hey Tony, think I should kill him?” Grace asked, staring James down. Killing him sounded really tempting. And he smelled really good. Not Andrew Wood good, but still good.

It was Jane that answered her question. “Don’t kill him,” she started, her voice firm and strong, “just hurt him.” Before Grace could react, James hit Jane. Struck her on her right cheek. It didn’t do much damage because of the angel, but there was going to be a bruise. He was about to go in for a second hit when Grace grabbed his arm.

Grace squeezed until she heard his bones groan, ensuring she had a good grip. “Jane, go to Tony.” Tears were falling from Jane’s eyes as she headed toward the demon. The man behind her made a move, but Grace stopped him. “I’ll kill you, if you touch her.” The man backed off seeing the trouble his friend was having getting out of her grip.

“Make him wish he was dead,” Jane told her as she passed the woman.

That she could. “Tony, take Jane and that boy,” she gestured to the younger brother with her head, “to my room.”

“My brother ain’t going nowhere with that thing.”

Grace turned to Older Brother, a tight smile on her face. “What I’m about to do to your friend is extremely violent. If you don’t want your brother to see that, I would suggest him going to my room where the most he’ll hear is James’ screams.” She squeezed harder on James’ arm, causing him to cry out, punctuating her point.

Big Brother nodded and pushed the younger man toward the demon. “Go, Arturo. I’ll be there soon.”

No one said a word until the door closed with a click. Grace was the one to break the silence. “Now, where were we. Oh yes, me hurting you.” She forced his arm toward the table, making him lay his hand out flat. Using the index finger of her free hand, she roughly rubbed the back of his hand, searching for the bones.

“You know, two months ago, I would have never even dreamed of torturing someone.” Not that that was going to be real torture. Just a little pain. There were worse things Grace wanted to do to James, but time was of the essence. So she pushed hard against the middle bone of his hand until it cracked. James screamed. Beth started to sob, but didn’t attempt to stop Grace. “I was a mother. All I could think of was taking care of my son.” Crack. “Then, I died. Apparently dying changes everything. Especially if you sell your soul to a fallen angel.” Crack. Crack. Crack. She didn’t have too much time to waste with James. She had to meet with Iblis after all.

Grace heaved a sigh. “It sucks I can’t spend more time with you. I do have stuff I need to take care of.” The last thing she did was squeeze his arm until the bone shattered. He screamed almost as loud as Andrew did when she ate out his heart. “I would suggest,” she started, getting to her feet, “not to come around here anymore. I have your scent now. If you come by, I’ll do worse to you. I really will make you wish you were dead.” Her eyes met the three friends. “The same goes for you three, as well.” The her eyes fell on Beth. “If you let him come into this building again, I’ll do ten-fold to you.” She left the room after that and headed to her own.

When Grace made it back to her room Jane was crying and Arturo was awkwardly trying to calm her down, both sitting on her bed. She moved to the bed, gesturing for the boy to move aside. He gladly did so, going to stand next to Tony. Jane sniffled a couple of times as Grace rubbed her back, trying her best to comfort her. Then, the girl slammed into her wrapping her arm tightly around Grace’s ribs. “I want my dad,” she sobbed, burying her face into Grace’s chest.

“Don’t worry, I’ll find him. Tonight.” A promise Grace hoped she could keep.