I pulled up a chair next to Dierdre. She was engrossed in her art, and I let her paint, watching the sunset form on her paper until she plunked her brush into a glass of greyish water. She'd matched the sky nearly perfectly.

"That's beautiful, Deirdre," I told her.

"Thanks! We did watercolors the last two weeks of class with Dr. Bennington. They're hard, but I think I'm getting the hang of it. I'll come and work on the skyline once the paper is dry."

I chuckled. "It looks like you're getting the hang of it to me." I let the conversation idle, not knowing how to start telling my daughter I was Death Incarnate. Just get it over with!

I took a breath and began. "Hey, Deirdre?"

She looked at me, pausing in her cleanup. I rarely called her by her name, tipping her off that I had something serious to say. My expression must have done the rest because she focused all her attention on me. "Yeah? What is it? Is something wrong?"

"No, nothing's wrong, hon. I just have news, big news, but I don't know how to tell you."

She scowled. "Well, you could try just telling me."

"Okay. So, you know how I told you that Mr. Phillips is Death?"

Her eyes got wide. "Yeah?"

"Well, he retired today, and someone else took his place."

She narrowed her eyes. She put the pieces together before I could say them. "You're Death now."

I nodded and reached for her, but she shrank away, shooting daggers of anger through glaring eyes. Of all the reactions I could have expected from her, rage was not one of them.

"How could you! You didn't even ask how I felt! Don't touch me!" She scrambled away from me, knocking over her table of paints and water. The glass shattered as it hit the concrete, splashing our legs with the contents. "Stay away from me!" she exclaimed before she turned and fled. Her bedroom door slammed in the distance.

As one, all the heads that had followed Deirdre into the apartment turned to me. It took several heartbeats before I realized what had happened.

Four things happened at once. Uzza and Mrs. Hamilton stood to leave, Azza whipped out his phone, Lucifer made a beeline for me, and I burst into tears.

"Olivia." Lucifer took me into his arms. I clung to him as I cried. He wrapped me in his embrace as I did. In the background, the sliding door opened, and Azza, talking on the phone, went inside. Uzza and Mrs. Hamilton followed close behind.

"Shh. Olivia, love. Take some deep breaths," Lucifer encouraged, and I tried to take his advice.

I swallowed the sobs, packing them away to revisit later if I needed them. The process did little for my quivering, knotted stomach. It took some time, but finally, I was able to whisper, "She hates me, Lucifer!" I wiped my nose on the handkerchief he'd given me as always.

"Azza has called Lazarus. He will come and help you talk to her," Lucifer reassured me.

I nodded, sniffling. I glanced over to the door when I heard it open. Azza came through along with Laz. Both came to me, and Azza gathered me up.

"I'm so sorry, Olivia," Laz said as Azza and Lucifer comforted me. Laz reached for my hand, and I gave it to him. "Can I talk to her? I think I can explain it in a way that she'll understand."

I nodded.

He tugged on my hand. "Okay, darlin', let's go and see her together."

"But, she's seething! She doesn't want to see me!" I protested.

"I know, but she needs to see you, sweetheart."

I cleared my throat against the tightness. "Okay."

He pulled me gently from my Fallen Angels, and we went, hand in hand, to Deirdre's room. He tapped lightly on the door. "Dierdre? It's Laz. Can your mom and I come in, sweetheart?"

"You can. Mom has to stay in the hall. I don't want her in here."

Tears welled in my eyes again, and I wiped them away, determined not to give in.

He opened the door gently and stepped inside. I stayed in the doorway as she had requested.

"Hey," he said as he propped himself up on the corner of her desk by her bed. She was lying on it, clutching a pillow. George was curled up behind her, snug up against her back.

"Hey," she answered in a monotone.

"So, your mom told you what happened today?" he asked.

I felt Lucifer come and stand behind me as Azza stood beside, to offer support.

"She said that you retired, and now she's Death."

Laz nodded. "That's right. We've been looking for my replacement for weeks. We'd gone through everyone except two people."

She scowled. "How come the other person didn't become Death?"

"Your mom wouldn't allow me to ask them. She became Death so they wouldn't be given a choice."

"But why? Why not ask them? Why does she have to be Death?"

I spoke up. "Hon, the other candidate was you. You and I were the only ones left to ask, and we had a deadline of midnight tonight. I have been looking for someone, anyone, to take Laz's place so that he wouldn't ask you."

She blinked at me, then pushed herself up to sit, still clinging to her pillow. She turned to Laz. "You would have asked me? I'm just a kid! What would I know about being Death?"

"It's a long story, darlin', but yes, I would have asked you. Your mom would have loathed me for it, and I would have regretted it for the rest of my life."

She looked at me again, her face softer, though her brow still furrowed. "So, you took his job so that I wouldn't be asked?"

I nodded. "I couldn't bear the thought. So, when Death—Laz—asked me, I said yes."

She paused, then scrambled off the bed to run to me. I knelt for a hug and attempted to stifle my crying.

"Thank you," she whispered. A little louder, she clarified. "For the record, I would have said no."

I coughed a sigh of relief. "I thought that you would, but I wasn't sure, Deirdre. There was always that chance you'd say yes, and this wasn't something that I wanted for you."

She took the handkerchief Azza held out for her and sniffled. "Well, this isn't exactly something I wish for you, either, mom."

I kissed her cheek and let her go. "I know. But, here we are."

"Can it be undone? I mean, can we find someone to replace you? Like you replaced Laz?"

I opened my mouth to answer, but a roll of thunder cut me off. "I don't think so, at least not right away." Another roll sounded. "Or, maybe not for a long time." I looked deep into her eyes. "I didn't have a choice. You understand that now, right?"

She hugged me again. "Yeah." She pulled back with a watery smile. "So, what cool things can you do now?"

I couldn't help but laugh. Complete one-eighty in the emotions as always, my girl. "The only thing I know how to do right now is to open a portal."

She rolled her eyes and smiled. "But, you could do that before!"

I grinned in return. "Yeah, but I could only go places if I went through Lucifer's office. Now, I can go places directly." I waved my hand and opened a portal in the living room of our beach cottage, one that we hadn't visited since Dierdre returned.

She gasped and brightened. "Oh! Can we go to the beach?"

Relieved the moment had passed, and she had forgiven me. I agreed. "Sure, I don't see why not. I need to meet with someone all day tomorrow, and then I'm spending the night with Laz, but how about we plan on going later this week?"

"That'd be great! Can Melissa come?"

"Why don't we go first for a few days ourselves and then invite the Benningtons to join us?"

"They can stay in my cottage," Lucifer offered.

"That'd be great!" she exclaimed. "Thank you!"

I hugged her one more time. "Now, I don't know about you, but I'm hungry!"

"Me, too!" she answered.

I heard a small snap behind me and looked up at Lucifer.

He winked at me. "We needed new steaks. The others burned."

I grinned before looking back at my daughter. "I love you, you know."

"I love you, too, mom."

During dinner, I called the Benningtons to invite them to meet about a week after we arrived. They agreed, both being professors and having the summer off, and we worked out the details. By the end of dinner, things had settled back into cheerful banter and plans of plein air painting on the beach.

When my loves and I settled for the night, I turned to face Lucifer, with Azza on his elbow looking over the two of us. I traced Lucifer's jaw with the back of my hand. He took it and kissed my fingers.

I smiled at the tenderness. "I love you both so much."

He closed his eyes for a moment and sighed. "This afternoon was a trying time." He moved a curl while Azza reached across him to touch my hip.

I wanted to reassure them. "Let me show you I love you?"

He reached for me and rolled me on top of him. I felt the first stirrings of Azza's power in me.

"I want to watch," Azza growled, "and make your eyes roll back in your head with pleasure. Can I do that, Olivia?"

I reached out to him, grabbing a handful of hair in the way I knew he liked. "Yes, Azza, you can watch and pleasure me as only you can." I pulled him to me by his hair, and I kissed him as he flooded me with his energy. I drew back. "Not yet, Azza. I want Lucifer to feel every one."

Lucifer snapped our clothes away, and I moaned to feel him, skin-to-skin. I kissed him, and he moved me, running my slickness along himself until I was whimpering.

"Let me in, love," he whispered.

I shifted and felt him slide into me. I gasped at the feel of him filling me. I sat up and began to roll my hips.

"Now?" Azza asked with a raw voice.

"Yes. Nice and slow, Azza," I requested.

He did what I asked, and I slid into the pool of pleasure I craved from them.

Lucifer moaned as I clenched around him. "You feel amazing, Olivia."

"As do you, love."

"Do it again, Azza," Lucifer ordered.

Azza did as our love bid him. I rode Lucifer and came around him until I'd lost track of the world around me. I'd reached the point at which they do almost anything to or with me, and I wouldn't care as long as Azza kept rolling me.

I felt Azza begin to pull back his power. In its place, I felt an energy of my own rising. It bubbled to the surface and, as Azza yanked the last little bit from me and sent me over again, I called out Lucifer's name. I felt the power drain from me into him but was aware enough to slam the imaginary door shut in time before passing out. As it was, I collapsed on him as he writhed, spilling into me, my name on his lips.

I was weak but conscious once the exchange had finished, and Lucifer gently rolled me over to lay between them. "More," was all I could utter.

Azza chuckled, a rumble deep in his chest. "What shall we do with her, Lucifer?"

"It is your turn, Azza," my darker Fallen Angel replied. "What do you want to do with her?"

"Let's let her rest. When she's recovered, she can go down on me while you fuck her. I'd like to see that."

"Yes," I agreed, slurring the word.

We settled once more, me between them, and napped. Just before dawn, I woke and smiled at a sleeping Azza. I kissed Lucifer awake and gave him a mischievous grin as I crawled down to take Azza in my mouth, flaccid. He woke as soon as his body responded and looked at me with hooded eyes.

"That's something to wake up to," he said and made me ready for Lucifer in moments with his power.

I went up on my knees, and Lucifer wasted no time entering me from behind. I moaned around Azza as Lucifer gave him exactly what he wanted to see: a slow, sensual fuck.

"God damn, that's beautiful," Azza said, running a hand under my curls. "I want to see me run down your chin, Olivia."

In response, I renewed my efforts to get him off. Lucifer kept a steady pace so that I could concentrate. I felt Azza grow harder and thicker and knew he was close. When he came, calling out to Lucifer, I let what he gave me run out of my mouth and down my chin for him. He yanked his power from me, and I crashed over. Lucifer fucked me properly then, spilling into me before my orgasm finished. I collapse once more between them, wiping my chin of fluids. Lucifer snapped them away.

"I love you. Always," I proclaimed.

Azza wrapped me in his arms and spooned me. "We love you, too, Death. Always."

I felt Lucifer's wings around us and sighed. It wasn't long before I was drifting away.