The hellhounds are all there. They are bone-thin and have whip marks and blood on their bodies. When they open their eyes, they have no energy to greet Lucifer and me. Anger grows inside of me.
Whoever did this to them will pay.
“How did they get here?” I gasp while rushing to their side. Lucifer and I get there at the same time. The hellhounds whimper when we touch them.
“It must be the connection we have to them. Usually, I can summon them on my own, but whoever is after us has me blocked somehow. Now that you are connected to them too, it seems we were strong enough to break through whatever block they had and call them to us,” Lucifer states.
“We need a healer. Something is draining their power and life force,” he states.
I feel the power and rage grow in the room.
All of a sudden, Silas and his brothers are in the room.
“What’s going on? I felt a shift in power,” Lorenzo says, and they all look at me and Lucifer cradling the hellhounds.
“What the fuck? It takes a lot of fucking power to do this to them,” Lorenzo states.
The guys help get the hellhounds on the family table so they can be examined.
“Can you read anything off of them?” Silas asks me.
“I can, but I won’t know who anyone’s faces are, so I don’t know how much help it would be,” I tell him.
“We have to show her portraits of everyone; we should have thought of it before. Then she can tell us who is behind all of this,” Otis says.
“Go show her where they are,” Lucifer demands.
I follow Silas, Otis, Gareth, and Fredrick to where these portraits are. This place is huge, so I probably would have never found them on my own.
I follow them down several hallways that feel like a maze. I know I won’t be able to find my way back now.
They open a room that looks like a museum.
“Holy fuck,” I say before slapping a hand over my mouth.
“It’s a big room,” Gareth says with a laugh.
I look around and see portraits of fallen angels and other beings of great power who are close to this family.
“What is the difference between the black and red frames?” I ask.
“The red ones mean they are still here, and the black ones mean they are dead. It’s not often we lose someone in a battle, but it does happen,” Silas tells me.
I don’t recognize anyone on the side I’m looking at. I come to the middle and see each sin still looking the same as ever. In the middle is Lucifer and a woman who I’m assuming is Lilith.
“She’s beautiful,” I whisper in awe.
“She is. It’s too bad none of us had gotten to meet her,” Gareth says. They all take a moment to look at Lucifer’s bride; the woman that would have been their mother.
“Do the beings get recycled, or are they just gone forever?” I ask.
“Usually recycled as a mortal. There is a myth that says if a being finds their way back home, their memories and powers are restored. I have never seen it happen, so I can’t say for sure that it’s true,” Otis says.
“So, Lilith could just be getting recycled over and over again until she finds her way home?” I ask.
Silas nods. “Yes, we have never found her though. There are too many people up top.”
“That’s so sad. She could be up there now, not knowing she has family waiting for her to come home,” I whisper.