Free Cataclysm (Alternate Earth Series, Book One) by S.J. West

bracelet grows warm against my skin. I’m not sure why, though. The warmth is supposed to warn me that someone in the vicinity wants to harm me, but no one knows I’m in the room. I’m not sure what the bracelet is sensing.
    “Thank you, Mindy,” a man, whose voice I don’t recognize, says from the chair. “You can leave now.”
    Mindy exits the room and leaves us with the man who is presumably President Draeke’s Chief of Staff.
    “You know,” the man says contemplatively, keeping his chair turned to face the images being projected on the wall in front of him, “when I first saw you, I thought I was hallucinating.” The man finally spins around in his chair to face us. He’s good-looking with short, blond hair and a day’s growth of beard on his face. His light blue eyes are piercing as he studies Lucifer with sincere, candid curiosity. He’s dressed in a black tuxedo with slim black tie, all of which match the darkness of his aura. “But I can see that you’re real.”
    “Obviously, you want to ask me something, Gabriel,” Lucifer says, sounding bored. “Why don’t you just ask me what you want to know? It will save us both a great deal of time.”
    Gabriel? Why did Lucifer just call this man Gabriel?
    “All right, then,” the man says, standing from the chair so that he’s eye level with Lucifer. “Who or what are you? You’re sure as hell not the Lucifer I know.”
    Lucifer doesn’t say anything for a moment. I suspect he’s weighing his options carefully, before either denying or confirming what the man said to him.
    “I’ll answer your question if you answer one for me, too,” Lucifer finally says. I’m not sure if he’s trying to stall Gabriel for more time to think over his own options, or if the question will be about something he genuinely wants an answer to.
    “You can ask,” Gabriel says, “but I can’t promise I’ll respond to it.”
    “How did you end up here?” Lucifer asks, sounding sincerely interested in the answer. “What made God cast you out of Heaven to live as a rebellion angel?”
    “Then you aren’t the Lucifer I know,” Gabriel says as Lucifer’s question confirms his assumption.
    “No, I’m not,” Lucifer replies, unafraid to admit such a thing. “I’m from the Origin. Now, answer my question.”
    “I sided with my Lucifer during the war in Heaven,” Gabriel declares proudly. “Everyone who rebelled against God was sent to Earth as punishment.”
    “The same thing happened in my reality,” Lucifer says. “Though, you never sided with me during the war. You stayed true to our father’s cause.”
    “Our father was blinded by his love for humanity. Still is,” Gabriel says scathingly. “But we’re finally ready to make him pay for exiling us here.”
    “How…exactly?” Lucifer asks, sounding highly-interested in what Gabriel has to say next.
    “Wouldn’t your companion be more comfortable if she came out of hiding and joined in on our discussion?” Gabriel asks, running his hand over the desk to bring up a set of holographic controls. He presses a sequence of numbers, and I see live footage of the office’s interior appear on the wall. The image is infrared, and I can clearly see myself in it.
    I curse under my breath and make myself visible again, since remaining hidden is pointless.
    “Do you always carry around a human pet when you visit other realities?” Gabriel asks, sounding amused by the prospect.
    “I’m not his pet,” I say, annoyed by this Gabriel’s rudeness.
    “Sometimes, I do wish I could put her on a leash,” Lucifer grumbles. “Then I wouldn’t have to worry about her interfering with my plans.”
    “If she bothers you that much, why don’t you just kill her?” Gabriel asks, as though killing might be the way he solves many of his own problems.
    “I did once,” Lucifer replies with a sigh, “but she came back from the dead. Personally, I think she did it just to annoy me.”
    With this revelation, Gabriel