“I thought demons were souls.” She looked down at the demon. “How is he still breathing if he doesn’t have a soul?”
“The body can only live for a while without a soul.” I was the only one who could rip a soul from a demon’s body. Others could kill a demon but couldn’t tear his soul from his body.
Reaching deep into the lower levels of the abyss, I grabbed a soul and transferred it to the demon’s body. His eyes shot open.
“Who did this to you?” I asked in the demon’s native tongue.
“Your Highness.” The demon tried to stand so he could kneel in front of me.
I pressed his chest, keeping him on the ground. “Stay. Who took the other soul?” Sometimes there would be memories left in the body from the previous soul. “I need to know who took the other soul.”
“It’s all black,” he whispered and started to chant in a language I’d never heard before. Seconds later, his eyes rolled back, and the soul rose from his body and disappeared.
I watched as the demon body turned from purple to black. Then I pulled out my cell and shot Paxdon a message, letting him know what was happening. Pandora had enough going on, and she wouldn’t know how to deal with the soul issue. Gemma didn’t look up from the body as I messaged with Paxdon.
“Do you think this is because I’m awake?” Gemma asked.
My fingers came up from the phone. Whatever Prometheus had done to wake Gemma had caused a significant rift in the world. Pointing down at the demon, I said, “You didn’t cause that, but someone is up to no good, and they are using you.”
“Yeah—to take life away from the gods. What’s going to happen when Prometheus comes looking for me and finds out I betrayed him?”
I’d never liked the whiny fucker. Now I had a reason to lock him up in one of the rings of hell. If I had to guess, he was making a ploy to take over, but he didn’t need Gemma for that. I wasn’t sure what the end game was, but knowing that would have taken the fun out of our mission anyway.
“Let’s get to the house.” I gestured for her to keep moving.
Gemma nodded and turned back down the path. We weren’t far from the place. I could tell she was getting exhausted from the walk, and I was worried that she was hiding her pain from me.
When Gemma stumbled in front of me, I reached out and grabbed her before she could fall. With a quick movement, I picked her up into my arms. She let out a squeal and giggled. When we made it to the last clearing, the house was in sight, but there was purple smoke coming from the chimney.
“Stay here.” I put Gemma down and dropped the two packs next to her. “I’m going to go check out the place.”
“I’m not a fucking dog that you can tell to sit.”
I pinched the bridge of my nose, hoping for once she would just listen. “I need you to be safe. Let me go check it out… please.”
She rolled her eyes. “Not happening.”
Not wanting to argue anymore, I pulled out my sword and headed down the trail. I could hear her footsteps behind me as we walked down the final path to the large house. The hum of magic increased the closer we got.
I rested my hand on the knob. Gemma’s hand pressed against my back as I pushed through the door. The smell of dark magic blasted through me. Gemma dropped to the ground behind me. When I turned to help her up, she waved me off.
The magic was affecting Gemma. I pressed through the house until I came to the living room. Purple smoke rose from the fireplace. Using my magic, I sent a stream of hellfire into the fireplace. When it connected with the purple smoke, there was an explosion of black magic and hell magic.
Gemma screamed from the front entrance.
5
Gemma
I never saw the blast of magic coming as Lucifer opened the door. The magic spun around my body, holding me to the ground. Usually, I could absorb magic. This was different. My body felt weaker as the magic wound itself around me.
Closing my eyes, I drew on the powers of the gods. I was able to use my abilities to push the magic away. Finally, when I untangled it from my body, I could breathe again. Taking a few breaths, I rolled to the side and pushed myself up.
At the bottom of the stairs stood a man in a dark cape with two wolves next to him, their eyes burning black. I couldn’t make out the man’s face. It was shadowed by the cape.
He raised his arm and pointed. “Attack.” The word came out hoarse. The two wolves bounded up the stairs.
I held a dagger as the wolves barreled toward me. The first one leapt through the air, and I twisted to the side and shoved the blade into him. He let out a cry as he fell to the ground. I wasn’t quick enough to dodge the second wolf as he came straight for me. His front paws pushed at my shoulders, taking me down onto the wood porch.
A cry escaped me as my back hit the hard wood. The dagger in my hand dropped to the ground. Drool from the wolf slobbered down on me. “Fight me like a man,” I said to the cloaked man a few feet away.
I pushed at the dog, keeping his teeth away from my neck.
“You were never to be awoken. Now you must die.” He sounded possessed.
“Why?” I asked, even though I knew the creepy person wasn’t going to tell me why he wanted me dead.
“You only make him stronger.” He glided up the stairs. The wolf turned his head, and I used the opportunity to push him to the side, grab the knife, and stab his neck.
I stood up as the man was at arm's length. “I make who stronger?”
Unlike before, I could see his face. I’d never seen this person before. The man was pale with black eyes. Purple magic came from his fingertips—the same purple magic rising from the chimney and pouring out the front door.
“Lucifer.”
Before I had time to ask any more questions, the ground vibrated as something inside the house exploded. The man gripped the railing and screamed. His eyes turned toward the house and sparked purple.
“Are you okay?” Lucifer grabbed my arm.
The cloaked man had disappeared. “He’s gone,” I said.
“Who?”
“I’m not sure who he was, but he had purple magic, and whatever you did in the house wounded him.”
“I divided the magic from its owner.”
That would weaken the warlock, or whatever that man was. Losing magic could cause a person to weaken or even die in some cases, depending on how much had been taken.
I pointed to the two wolves.
“I don’t recognize them as any creature I’ve seen in hell before.” Lucifer flicked the porch light on and knelt down next to the creatures.
The light illuminated the area around the house. I expected to see numerous creatures in the front yard since the sun was down and the moon had completely risen, but there were none. Lucifer scanned the area and grunted before standing up and pulling me into the house.
“You’re right—the creature isn’t from here. He’s from Mount Othrys,” he said.
“We already knew the Titans were behind this, but I never saw that Titan before, and he was upset to see me alive.” All the unanswered questions weren’t sitting well with me. What I needed to figure out was if the Titans were divided.
After walking into the cabin, I turned the deadbolt. It wouldn’t hold a Titan back, but the clicking of the lock made me feel a little safer.
“So we have two different sets of Titans at war. One wants you to take a few powers from the gods, and the other doesn’t want you alive, because it makes me stronger.”
I nodded. “But if I made you stronger, you would’ve known that years ago.” I plopped down onto the sofa covered in dirt from the explosion. Everything was coated in beautiful dark dust. My body was weak, and I didn’t care.
“But we didn’t bind our souls.”
My eyes popped open as I watched Lucifer pace back and forth in the living room. “You’re a god. You wouldn’t do that,” I said.
“What happens if you’re wrong? Fate always has a plan for everyone.” Lucifer pinched
the bridge of his nose. “If I bind myself to you, it might help you get better.”
I folded my arms. “Not happening. First of all, you’re not even sure you want to be with me. Secondly, what happens if we do bind and I die in a few weeks or a few days? If it’s true about soul binding, you will die soon. Furthermore, you’re Lucifer. I highly doubt you have a true love.”
He sat down next to me on the couch and rested his hand on my leg. My body buzzed with awareness, and I couldn’t help but lean into him. Every second were together, it was harder to keep telling myself I couldn’t have him. He was so… sexy.
“Nobody knows what tomorrow will bring, but I do know that I missed you.”
“Let’s not talk about the past.”
“We need to.” He let out a sigh. “Besides our close friends, who would know we were together?”
“It would have to be a Titan.” I glanced around the room. A painting of Lucifer and me hung on the wall. We weren’t the only ones in the picture. It had taken hours for Lute to paint us at Zeus's house, and in the background, Mnemosyne stood frowning. The old lady had always hated me. “You know, Mnemosyne can mess with memories.”
“You might be onto something. She’s been mad at me for years for keeping her eldest locked away in a lower circle.”
“Why are you holding her son?” I asked.
“He tried taking out Fate and other Titans. Fate asked if I would hold him in hell while they decided what they wanted to do with him. They never really ended up doing anything. So I’ve kept him locked up.”
“Are you sure he’s still locked up?”
Lucifer tilted his head. “If you’d asked that question this morning, the answer would’ve been yes. Now I’m not completely sure.”
I reached over and pulled the strange block out of the bag. Pandora had said it would ring to her and we could chat at any time. She was worried her father would drive me up the wall and I would need rescuing. She’d told me to hold down the button on the side.
Lucifer frowned at me as I turned the strange thing on. “How did you get a phone?”
“Pandora gave it to me.” An apple flashed across the screen. Every time I saw an apple, I thought about Lucifer's first love. I couldn’t help but frown. Seconds later, the screen came to life, and I clicked the green button she said would let me see her.
After a few seconds, Pandora’s face appeared on the screen. She was in Lucifer’s office, but it didn’t look the same as it had before. Like the room I was sitting in, black ashes were everywhere. Pandora was covered in the ashes also. In the background, I heard the two babies giggling and Paxdon lecturing them.
“Hey, Pandora.”
Lucifer leaned over my shoulder. “What the hell did you do to my office?”
“Oh, this.” She flipped the camera so we could see the scorched area and the two babies, the only things not covered in ashes.
He pulled the object from my hands. “Pandora, what did they do to my office?”
“You were the one who left me in charge. And Paxdon was the one who left the babies in the office while he went to take care of business for you.”
“Still doesn’t answer why my office is destroyed,” Lucifer growled. “You had one job—to run hell. It’s not that hard. A soul comes in, and you send it somewhere.”
“I was doing my work and handed the babies one of your books. Next thing I know, they’ve conjured up a large dragon. A fucking dragon. Not like the little pink one you have—one that barely fit in the office. Atieno and I fought the thing for a while, and then—poof! The babies made it disappear. But not before the dragon did this.”
A smile spread across Lucifer’s face. “They are going to be amazing.”
Pandora rolled her eyes. “They need to stop that shit around their aunt,” she grunted.
“Shit. Shit. Shit,” chanted the babies from the other side of the room.
I couldn’t hold back my laughter, and once I started, I couldn’t stop. Tears streamed down my face. When I finally got myself under control, I looked back at the phone.
“Not funny, Gemma,” Pandora said. “Paldon is going to kill me if she hears her babies swear.”
“No, she won’t. Paldon swears worse than anyone. I can bet money she’s said that word in front of those kids numerous times.” We were getting off track. I pulled the phone back from Lucifer. “I know you're busy, but I was wondering if you could check on something for me.”
Pandora nodded. “What do you need me to do?”
“We need to figure out if someone is still locked up in one of the rings of hell.”
“Sure. What ring?”
I wasn’t sure. “Lucifer, where did you put Mnemosyne’s son?”
“It’s not that easy to get to. You need to go down and check for him. He should be in the ninth ring and locked in the maximum-security side,” Lucifer said.
Pandora opened a strange thing on the desk, and her fingers clicked across the device. She looked back at me. “I have a list of people down there. What’s the name?”
“Erato,” I told her.
“Are you sure? There is nobody down there by that name. Maybe you listed the person another way.”
Lucifer grabbed the phone from my hands. “He won’t be in the database. This was a prisoner off the books I was asked to be held by Fate. You’re going to have to go down and look for him.”
“I’m not heading down to the ninth ring,” Pandora said. “It’s too fucking hot.”
“Send Paxdon,” Lucifer said.
Pandora nodded. “Before I let you go—I was doing some reading on Gemma, and I might know what could help you.”
“Tell me,” Lucifer demanded.
“Well, I was going to.” She glared at us. “But since you’re an ass, I want an open-ended favor.”
Lucifer said, “Yes?”
Pandora's lip curled into a menacing smile. “Gemma has all the symptoms of having found a mate and not being with him. You have the symptoms of someone whose mate has denied him. If you bind with your mate, I think her symptoms will go away, and she’ll stop dying.”
Lucifer grabbed the device and turned it off.
“I wasn’t done talking to her,” I said.
“You heard what she said. We need to go bind our souls, and it will fix your issue,” he muttered as he lifted me into his arms.
I huffed. “Not happening, buster.”
Lucifer glared down at me and continued to walk down the hall. I knew he was heading for the master bedroom.
“How do you know you're my mate?” I asked.
Lucifer stopped and stared at me. “There is nobody else for me but you. I should have done this years ago—claimed you as mine so you couldn’t go off and listen to some dumb Titans.”
“I want to wait.” Everything was happening too fast. I’d just walked back into Lucifer’s life, and I wasn’t sure I was ready to tie myself to him for the rest of my life. And I didn’t want him to tie himself to me because he thought it might be the only way to save me.
Lucifer pushed open the master-bedroom door opened and kept walking toward the large bathroom. It had a sizeable soaking tub. He placed me on the vanity, walked over to the tub, and turned on the water. “I will never force you.”
I nodded. “I know. Give me time. Tomorrow we’re heading to Atlantis, and we can finish the first mission and then see what happens with us, okay?”
He filled the tub with water and lavender bubble bath. “Do you need help?”
“I got this. But when I need my back washed, I’ll call you,” I teased him as I stripped the white tank top off my head.
Lucifer let out a sigh. “I’m going to go take a cold shower.”
“Think about me while you are showering. I’m going to be thinking about you.” I winked before climbing into the bath.
When he left the bathroom, he closed the door, and I rested my head against the back of the tub. It wasn’t long before I fell asleep.
“Why haven’t
you taken Lucifer’s powers yet?” Prometheus was dressed in the red toga I remembered he used to wear. He was in my dream.
“I need his help to get to Poseidon.”
Prometheus glared at me. “You have three more days, or I will kill you myself. The only reason you’re still alive is that I’m allowing it.”
“Why are you doing this?”
“Power.” He flashed a picture of Fate bound by a magical rope. “You won’t be the only person to die in three days if I don’t get the powers I want.”
“I need more time.”
“You’ve wasted enough, and I want the power in three days.” He flashed an image of Fate again. She was screaming in pain. “Tick tock.”
6
Gemma
I hadn’t been able to sleep since Prometheus had showed up in my dream. It was so real I wasn’t sure if it was a dream or if he really had come to me.
I told Lucifer about the dream. My fingers itched to reach out and run down his abs. He had stripped down naked and climbed in bed with me. I wondered if I couldn’t sleep because of the sexy man next to me or because I was worried about running into Prometheus again in my dream.
“You see something you like?” he grumbled with his eyes closed.
“You’re an arrogant bastard.” I punched his shoulder.
“An arrogant bastard you think is sexy.”
“You’re not too bad.”
“Neither are you.” He opened his eyes and looked at me. Lucifer reached out and pulled me against his body. His hard member pressed against my thigh.
I tried to push away because I knew it wouldn’t take much for me to start back up where we’d left off years ago. “We need to get going.”
Lucifer sighed. “It can wait.”
“No, it can’t. You said yourself it wasn’t a dream. If that’s the case, Fate is in trouble.” Her scream still echoed in my mind. I hadn’t been able to see what was actually happening to her, only that she was tied up and in pain.
Fated Mates of the Underworld, Books 1-3 Page 31
