by J. E. Taylor
“Or this?” He held up the potion that had been in my coat pocket.
I glared at him as if he had stripped me of all my hidden gems, and I tried to move my legs.
When he pulled heaven’s blade out from behind him, my heart plummeted.
“I’m guessing this is what you really were hoping we wouldn’t find. It was so cleverly hidden inside your boot. The boots that the boy recognized immediately.” He inspected the knife in the small space between us. “You do understand I have the memories associated with this body.”
I held my breath, staring at the blade, terrified.
He looked beyond the blade, wearing Alex’s thoughtful expression.
“Let Alex go,” I said with authority. I knew it was foolish, but I had to try.
He smiled, and amusement danced in his eyes. He placed the tip of the knife to my neck. “You never should have been born.”
I swallowed and the chains started to rattle with the shakes that gripped me.
Instead of slicing my skin and erasing me from existence, he leaned closer. “I am conflicted.” He leaned back and met my gaze. “While I would love to run you through with this knife, that would annihilate my grace which lies within you.” He turned and placed the blade on the bench and returned to the spot in front of me. “Just in case I get carried away.”
The hardness in his eyes belied the softness of his voice. I broke out in gooseflesh, more scared now that he didn’t have the knife in his hands. He grabbed my shirt and tore it in half, exposing my skin.
“I find the attraction that this boy feels for you strange.”
He was close enough for me to feel the heat radiating from him. He ran his hand down my cheek, but I pulled away from him.
“The boy is having an all-out fit right now. He’s worried that I might act on his feelings.” Lucifer enunciated feelings as if it were a dirty word.
If I could have kicked him, I would have, but all I could do was level the kind of glare that I hoped would give him pause.
He just laughed. “He knows your greatest fear,” he whispered and ducked under my bound arm. He pressed against my back and wrapped his arm around my throat, squeezing my neck with the inside of his elbow. “And he knows you are going to die today.”
I couldn’t claw him away. I couldn’t fight. I was completely helpless. My airway constricted with the force of his tightening arm. I yanked at the cuffs holding me in place, and they dug into my skin.
His arm released slowly. “But you won’t die of asphyxiation,” he whispered in my ear as he reached around my waist and unbuckled my belt from behind.
I snapped my head back, connecting with him. The growl that came from behind was followed by a punch to my kidney. My breath locked in my chest as spiraling pain pulsed through my body.
He went back to pulling my belt loose. He smacked my legs with it, pulling a hiss from my already tight lungs.
He slowly paced in front of me. “You’ve caused me quite a bit of grief since your mother died. I think perhaps it’s only fair to repay the favor.” He spun and his fist connected with my nose.
White light flashed, and then heat like someone had put an iron on the middle of my face blasted through my nose. I gagged on hot liquid sliding down my throat. My face throbbed in time with my heartbeat. I didn’t scream though. I was too shocked to make a noise. I blinked the lights away and spit at him.
The light in the necklace around Grace’s neck became chaotic, like Alex’s soul was struggling to be freed from his glass prison.
I couldn’t wipe the blood from my face. It dripped on the black leather of my jacket.
Lucifer licked his lips as he stared at the blood dripping from my chin. His fist connected with my stomach. “When I am done with you, the screaming fool in my head will finally shut up.” He landed bruising punches to my torso and then swiped one of my knives off the ground.
He stared at me with a cruel expression I had never seen on Alex. He twirled the knife and looked at my wrists like he was contemplating cutting my hands off. Instead, he flicked the knife, cutting my chin.
He looked at my pants, and the evil gleam in his eyes chilled me.
He leaned closer and pressed the blade against my stomach, leaving a thin cut. “He’s always wanted to taste you.” Lucifer dropped the knife, and it clattered on the ground as he swiped a thin strip of blood onto his finger. He slid it into his mouth suggestively and closed his eyes as he sucked it clean. “I’m sure that wasn’t what he had in mind.” He winked at me and picked up the belt, moving behind me again.
Drawing air was difficult, and he made it more of a challenge when he wrapped the belt around my throat and yanked, nearly crushing my airway.
“Do I kill you now?” he whispered in my ear. “Or do I make you watch.”
I shivered with revulsion and struggled in the chains, pulling one foot up and then the other. The wheeze from my mouth was the only noise I could make.
He snapped his fingers. Grace crawled over the arm of the chair, and she had the audacity to grin at me as she spread her legs in a wide invitation.
He sauntered to Grace with a grin. “Here kitty, kitty,” he said in the same seductive tone I’d heard in my dreams.
I screamed breathlessly and struggled in the chains, closing my eyes against what I knew was coming. Lucifer whistled.
A hand grabbed a fistful of my hair and pulled my head back, tightening the belt on my neck. A large hideous demon stared at me. His disfigured face made me blink. It sported the scars of a burn. A burn I probably delivered. His slow smile sent a rush of frigid air over my body.
I didn’t think I had left any demons alive, but then again, I had been knocked out by something. My guess was it had been this monstrosity.
“Make sure she watches,” he said and approached Grace from behind as he unbuttoned his pants. “If she doesn’t, make sure she feels it.”
In that instance, I hated him with every fiber. I didn’t care who he was wearing, I was going to rip his heart out with my bare hand.
I kept my gaze on the ceiling. Even when the demon’s hand started to wander on my torso. He pushed down on a bruise and chuckled when I winced.
“She feels so good,” he purred in my ear.
I clenched my teeth and yanked at my legs. The bolt holding my feet loosened. I kept struggling and staring at the ceiling as this creature held my head in place and rubbed his body against my back like we were at an orgy and I was fair game.
“I will burn his soul,” Lucifer growled.
My gaze snapped to him. He smiled as he held Grace’s hips and rode her hard. He knew that threat would bring my gaze to him, and he knew I wouldn’t ever be able to unsee the lewd scene. He closed his eyes, and an expression of ecstasy appeared on his face. The same one I had seen on Alex’s face in the panic room when he’d made love to me.
My heart clenched.
“You bastard,” I whispered, choking on blood and tears.
He smiled.
I had inspected enough of CJ and Tom’s memories to understand what he was doing. If by some blind luck, we made it out of here, this moment was meant to make it impossible for me to fall into Alex’s arms again.
I knew his tricks.
I knew his twisted mind.
And there was no way this side of hell I was going to let him win.
He shuddered with a throaty groan and then pulled out, swatting Grace’s behind. She obediently sat back down on the floor by his throne, her face pained, like what he had done was no pleasure for her whatsoever.
That small tell gave me a flair of satisfaction.
He zipped himself up and crossed, waving the demon back to wherever he had been stationed. The belt around my throat loosened. He stared at me, and I struggled in the chains, yanking one foot and then the other.
“Want to know a secret?” he whispered and stepped too close. “He thinks she’s much better than you were.” He pulled back enough to look into my eyes.
H
is close proximity offered me an opportunity, and the sudden flare of fury took control. I slammed my knee upwards, and the bolt in the floor sheered, freeing my feet. My knee connected to his groin.
“Liar,” I hissed.
The “oof” that escaped his lips, followed by his slow descent to the floor, gave me a weird sense of satisfaction. I kicked out, aiming for his reddened face.
He rolled out of the way. His glare was as deadly as the fire raging through my blood.
His hands curled into fists again and he slowly stood and stepped close like he was purposely tempting fate.
I tried to knee him again, but he grabbed my knee in his hand, and squeezed. Hard. Hard enough to do damage.
Burning pain gripped my leg. I ripped it from his grasp with the small latitude of movement I had. I kicked his shin with a growl.
His jaw tightened. “The boy tells me he will kill me if I so much as touch you again. That would be a neat trick since he’s on lock down,” he said through grinding teeth. His fierce anger made me shake, and my tremors shook the chains holding me in place. He stepped close and I caught the brimstone scent of his breath. “Enough of this game. I want my grace back.”
I braced myself for the pain, but it didn’t help. A cry still ripped out of me when his fingernails dug into my skin. A cry with Alex’s true name on it echoed off the walls, shaking the foundation we stood on.
I needed Alex to take control.
I needed him to stop this, or otherwise I was as dead as I wanted Lucifer.
The light in the orb around Grace’s neck flared just before the glass shattered. The brightness shot like a bullet and slammed into Lucifer with the power of a lightning bolt. His skin lit up like a true Nephilim as Alex’s soul knocked Lucifer clean out of his body.
Black smoke swirled. My eyes widened at Alex standing in front of me. My Alex. His aura radiated white, and there was a power in it that had never been there before.
Grace roared, struggling against her chains at the turn of events.
Alex’s angry blue eyes met mine, and he tore his nails from my skin while the black smoke formed behind him. He dug in his pocket and pulled a key out. The key to the shackles. He unclasped my right hand and moved to the other shackle.
The black smoke coiled to strike.
“Watch out!” I splayed my right hand over Alex’s shoulder, aiming my palm towards the oncoming smoke as he worked the lock for my other wrist.
The moment the shackle released, fire shot out. Lucifer’s soul dodged it, twirling away. He slammed into Grace with such force, her own soul didn’t have a prayer. Lucifer consumed her, and the chains holding her in place shattered.
Before Alex could turn towards the oncoming danger, Lucifer launched, turning into Grace’s tiger in midair. He hit Alex hard enough to drive him into the ground a few feet away from me.
Alex bellowed as the tiger’s claws ripped into his shoulders.
I lunged for heaven’s blade, swiping it off the bench and threw myself at them while praying my blind aim was true. The blade ripped through the tiger’s flank before it scraped on the concrete floor.
The tiger bellowed and shot a glare at me. I propped myself up on my elbow with the blade gripped tightly in my hand. Lucifer’s eyes went to the knife and then widened as the transition turned him from a tiger back into Grace’s form.
“You bitch,” Lucifer said in a weakened female voice.
“Damn straight,” I said.
Alex’s face filled with fury, and he shoved Grace’s form away from him. When he put his hand out to me, I knew what he wanted. I slid the blade across the ground and Lucifer lunged for it, but Alex was faster even with his injuries.
He snatched it, and before Lucifer could scramble away, in one violent motion, Alex slammed the knife into Lucifer’s chest. Burying it all the way to the hilt before he released. He pushed himself back against the wall.
They say when heaven and hell collide, it’s as powerful as an atom bomb.
They weren’t wrong.
The explosion that took Lucifer and Grace was magnificently bright, but instead of annihilating us and everything in the room, all that hit us was pure wind. It pulled at me until I tumbled back into the wall, hissing with the pain of impact. Alex covered his face with his arms, and his open shirt rippled like he was in the eye of a tornado.
And then it sucked back into a bright spot in the center of the room and blinked out with a pop. The knife dropped from the air with a clang.
I stared at the blade, blinking, waiting to snap out of existence just like Lucifer had.
And then my focus landed on the blood coating the blade.
If the knife had wiped Lucifer from ever existing at all, the blade would have been clean, if it even had been forged at all. But there it was, in all its bloody glory.
My gaze snapped back to Alex.
My Alex.
My wonderfully sensitive, loving Alex whose eyes were full of every ounce of emotion he had lost months ago.
Tears blurred my vision as I crawled to him. Sobs echoed on the concrete along with the scraping of the metal ankle chains that were still attached to me.
His shoulders were torn and bloody, but he still had a smile for me. The smile that made my heart clatter in my chest despite all the bruises and cuts traversing my body.
His eyes widened at something behind me. I spun and shot my fire. The jerk who had held my head and fondled me turned to embers in a blink. I lay on my back, staring at the ash floating on air before I looked back at Alex.
“You’ve gotten really good at that,” he said, his voice slow like he was just getting used to being back in his own skin.
I lifted my legs and willed the cuffs on my ankles to release. Nothing happened.
I laid my head back down. “It doesn’t always work,” I said with a heavy sigh and opened my palm, blasting fire through the center chain. It disintegrated but the chain heated to a point it scalded my ankles. I closed my fist and lay back on the concrete with one more injury to deal with.
I turned, crawling the rest of the way to him, giving into the burning need to make sure he was real. I pressed my lips to his and sighed. His kiss was soft and warm, and the void in the center of my body shrunk to nothing.
Until he gently pushed me away. My heart plummeted. Maybe Lucifer hadn’t been lying.
He must have seen the hurt filling my eyes because he cupped my cheek despite the scowl of discomfort. “While I would love to kiss you into eternity, and trust me when I say that is what I want, I do not want to do it here.” He glanced around the room and shivered. “And maybe we can get my mom before I bleed out?”
My gaze jumped to his wounds. I hadn’t realized just how deep the tiger’s claws had ripped. I dug his phone out of my jacket pocket with shaking hands, punched a button, and handed the phone to Alex.
He took the phone and put it to his ear, blinking at the voice on the other end. “Dad?” He closed his eyes, and tears dripped from his lashes. “I kind of need Mom.” His eyes opened, and he looked at the ceiling with his lips pressed together in agony. And it wasn’t just physical. He handed the phone to me.
Even from this distance, I felt the mistrust coming over the line. CJ did not believe this was his son. He believed it was another one of Lucifer’s tricks, and after the last couple of months, I couldn’t blame him.
“Mr. Ryan, I’m sorry, I wasn’t thinking when I gave him the phone. This isn’t a trick. It is really Alex. Our Alex,” I said, and closed my eyes. “And he really needs Valerie.”
Quiet permeated the line.
“Are you okay?” he asked, but he still had doubts as wide as the Grand Canyon.
I let out a laugh. “I’m a mess physically, but I’ll live. Mentally, I’m the best I’ve ever been. I almost feel like I could fly.” I opened my eyes and stared into Alex’s soulful baby blues. “I have all of him back, Mr. Ryan. All. Of. Him,” I whispered, and a new set of tears sprang to my eyes.
Alex sm
iled and his chin trembled as tears leaked from the corners of his eyes. He lifted his palm again and cupped my cheek as his thumb caressed my bottom lip. “You’ve had all of me since I first saw you,” he said in a shaky voice that I didn’t think Lucifer could ever mimic.
The change in CJ hit me—hope flared through the phone and the air shimmered next to me. I looked up into Valerie’s wide eyes.
“I swear if this is a trick…” CJ said on the phone, his voice shaking with barely contained emotion.
“It isn’t a trick, Chris,” Valerie said loud enough for her husband to hear. Then she dropped to her knees next to Alex. She covered his face with kisses through sobs of her own. Each kiss bloomed light over his skin that traveled directly to his wounds.
“Enough, Mom. Jesus,” he said, pushing her away. His cheeks turned crimson. “I get it. You’re glad I’m back. I am too.” He wiped his face and glanced at me as his jaw tightened and his breath came in long slow pulls until the light dancing across his skin faded.
We both knew his mother’s magic didn’t work on me, so when she reached out and tweaked my nose, I didn’t expect the flare of pain.
“Ouch,” I said, and my eyes teared up from the sudden relief that followed.
“I just snapped it back in place.” She smiled at us and stood. “Hurry home,” she said, and then faded.
I disconnected the call as Alex climbed to his feet. He offered me his hand. That crooked smile gracing his lips sent a chill up my back. I had just a moment where I thought maybe Lucifer had tricked me, but when he nodded for me to grab the knife, I knew that was impossible. Lucifer would never trust me with heaven’s blade.
With his arm around my waist and Heaven’s blade in my grasp, I slid the knife into the built-in holder on the inside of my boot. I limped with him towards the broken stairway, but I paused before we left the room.
“We can’t leave them like that,” I said and lifted my palm towards the grotesque scene. I focused, because this place would go up in flames faster than Naomi’s panic room had if I didn’t control this. And I was sure we needed a little time to get out of the building.
I needed angel fire to purify the room, and I needed to be careful. I didn’t want to annihilate the entire building with us in it. But I did need to get rid of the bodies if Alex ever had hope of fabricating some logical explanation for the videos Lucifer sent to the news stations.
