The Spider Queen

by Emma Slate

  I sighed. “Look, you clearly have information that I’d like. So what do you say we come to an agreement? Tit for tat.”

  He cocked his head to one side in thought. Finally he nodded. “One condition.”

  “Shoot.”

  “The Prince doesn’t find out that I was the one who told you.”

  I shivered at the sense of foreboding. “He’d punish you, wouldn’t he?”

  “More than punish me. He would turn me completely into stone and then crack me into non-existence.”

  “I swear,” I said automatically. “This is between us.”

  He studied me for a long moment. “You have honor.”

  “What about you, Jax? Do you have any honor?”

  “I didn’t. When I was human. But I haven’t been human for a long time.”

  “Honor on your existence as a gargoyle then.”

  He held out his hand. I glanced at it. It was scaly and gray and more rock than skin.

  “People still do this, right?” Jax asked in amusement.

  “They do.”

  “Gargoylism isn’t contagious, ya know.”

  I grinned and then slapped my palm against his. “Come in out of the rain.” We dropped hands and then Jax stepped over the threshold into the room. I attempted to close the door as the wind blasted my face. Lucifer’s rage was clearly intensifying, and I didn’t know how long I had before he discovered my whereabouts.

  When I turned around, Jax was perched on a chair that didn’t look strong enough to hold him but surprisingly didn’t crack under his weight.

  I took a seat on the edge of the bed, what with there not being another chair in the room. Lightning flashed and thunder rolled through the dark sky, yet the room was surprisingly bright and cozy. Maybe it had something to do with the fire, which blazed into existence. There hadn’t been a fireplace there before, but like I was learning, things in Hell liked to spring into existence.

  Even better, there was a pot of hot chocolate on the small table and two mugs.

  “Where did all this come from?” I wondered aloud.

  “The Prince, no doubt,” Jax said, not at all concerned. “Seeing to your well-being.”

  “Does that mean he knows I’m here?”

  He shrugged. “Probably. Pour the hot chocolate and let’s have our discussion before he comes and finds me in your boudoir.”

  I laughed. “Antiquated, Jax.”

  “I was from a different time.”

  Once we were both situated with our cups of hot chocolate, Jax leaned back in his chair, comfortable and clearly ready to tell a tale.

  But before he spoke, the door to the bedroom burst open, and a very angry Lucifer loomed in the doorway.

  Chapter 14

  Lucifer’s indigo eyes glowed bright as they focused like a laser on Jax. The gargoyle scrambled from his seat and dropped the mug of hot chocolate in his haste to back up toward the bedroom window.

  “Don’t even try it, gargoyle,” Lucifer growled.

  I quickly jumped up and put myself between Lucifer and Jax, spilling the hot chocolate all over the front of my shirt in the process. “Honey, you’re home.”

  Lucifer transferred his glare to me.

  “Thanks for the chat,” Jax said. “I’ll be off.” He saluted, dashed for the open window, and then was gone in a flash.

  Lightning cracked through the sky, and then there was a scream. I rushed to the window to peer over the ledge. I saw Jax falling through the air, one of his wings on fire.

  “What did—how did—his wings are made of stone!”

  “He’ll be fine,” Lucifer snapped. “And his wings are only partially made of stone. The outer part is like armor.”

  I whirled and glared at him. “Why did you do that to him?”

  “He was in your bedroom.”

  His voice was calm, but his jaw muscle twitched. Still, he somehow was keeping his rage on lock down. Well, his anger at me anyway. He’d set Jax on fire.

  “I asked him to bring me here,” I stated. “No thanks to you.”

  Lucifer’s jaw dropped open. “No thanks to me? How do you figure?”

  “You left me in the meadow.”

  “You didn’t want me there.”

  “You let me wander. Alone.”

  “I was giving you time to cool off.”

  “Correction, you were giving yourself time to cool off!” In the midst of our exchange, I’d marched toward him. I was glowering up at him, and I wanted to press my hand against his naked chest and shove him out the door. But a part of me worried that when I felt his warm skin against mine, I’d want to bring him closer, drag his mouth to mine, and demand he take me to bed.

  His chest heaved. “Stella.”

  Before I knew it, his hand clasped the back of my neck, and he dragged me to his lips. I eagerly sought his attention, despite knowing I’d regret it when it was over.

  I launched myself into his arms and wrapped my legs around his waist. My fingers tangled in his dark hair as I melted over him, drowning in the feeling he elicited in me. I was burning from the inside out, desperate, aching, wanting him the way I’d never wanted another man.

  Maybe I was never meant to want another man—maybe I was designed only to want him, the Prince of Darkness.

  If that were the case, then I was ready. I was ready to give him everything I had. Not because he owned me. Not because I was bound to him. But because in my entire short life, I’d never felt this alive.

  He smelled of destruction and damnation, of my complete and utter ruination. But I didn’t care.

  “Stella,” he whispered, trying to pull his lips from mine.

  “No.” I adamantly yanked him back to my mouth. I found him with my tongue, blindly seeking, my body leading me.

  “We have all night. There’s no rush.”

  I was afraid that if we went slowly, I’d have time to think. I was afraid the desire would clear, and I would exist again in that dark place of hating him but wanting him all the same.

  “Make love to me under the Tree,” I begged.

  “Not for our first time.” He walked with his hands underneath me to the bed and gently set me down. “Our first time is here. Among the clouds.”

  Lucifer waved his hand. The door creaked shut. A heavy leather flap covered the window, blocking out the storm.

  I thought about asking him why he didn’t just shut it off—the storm—since he clearly controlled the weather with his emotions, but then I realized he still felt the tempest. Deep inside. Restless. Unyielding.

  Mercurial Lucifer.

  Whenever we interacted, I never knew which side of him I would get. The charming, affable, smiling man. Or the brutal beast caged by skin, bone, and wings.

  But there was another side of Lucifer, one he hadn’t shown me until now. The gentle lover. The tender caresser.

  He came down on top of me, using his elbows to keep his weight off my chest. He pressed his warm lips to the column of my throat as he drenched me with desire.

  Lucifer would not be rushed, no matter how much I thrashed against him, demanding more. He spoke no words. The language of passion needed none.

  I shivered and clenched, I moaned as my body commanded. It was too much and yet not enough.

  When I was naked, he gazed down at me with a languid look. He was the creator of sin, and here I was ready to sin with him.

  His fingers glided across my naked flesh, causing me to tremble. The warmth from the fire teased my body, but inside I was a raging inferno.

  Flames of want licked along my nerves, setting me ablaze.

  Lucifer slid his face in between my legs and feasted. I gripped the bed linens and would have bucked beneath him as the onslaught of desire grew to be too much, but the fallen angel pinned me in place and had his wicked way with me.

  And even as I coated his tongue with my release, he continued to devour me like he’d never get another chance.

  When the tremors subsided, Lucifer lifted his head
and grinned.

  There was the man I recognized—and it made me grin back.

  I reached for him. He wouldn’t let me worship his body the way he’d done mine. Every time I attempted to touch him, to bring him pleasure, he gently pushed my hand away. He evaded my tongue. It was as if he derived pleasure from the sheer torture of denying himself to me.

  He shucked his trousers and then straightened to his full height. He stood tall and defiant, his wings expanded.

  My heart pounded in my chest when I took in his glorious form. Fallen angel, indeed. Pride, stubbornness, an unlawful prince who lived to destroy.

  I spread my legs and welcomed my destruction.

  My eyes were closed, my cheek pressed to Lucifer’s bare chest. His fingers danced along my upper arm. Our legs were tangled and so were the sheets. Logs crackled in the fireplace, which was the only sound in the room. I couldn’t even hear any trace of the thunderstorm. It had run its course, it seemed.

  “Why didn’t you tell me?” he asked softly.

  “It wasn’t important.”

  “Lie.” His fingers trailed over my arm to my spine. He flattened his hand against the curve of my back. “I love this part of you.”

  I snorted. “You don’t smell how I thought you’d smell.”

  “You expected fire and brimstone?” he asked with a low chuckle.

  “Something like that.”

  We fell silent again for a moment and then he asked again, “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “Because I thought only mortal men cared about bagging a virgin.”

  “Don’t.” His tone hardened. “Don’t deflect.”

  “Why does it matter? You were gentle. Far more gentle than I ever expected you to be.”

  His hand moved from the small of my back to rest on my hip. “You had different expectations?”

  I raised myself up so I could look at him. His wings were tucked underneath him, but the edges of one bat wing poked out. I wanted to stroke it, but I wasn’t clear on the rules when your lover had wings. Were they a no-go? Were they an erogenous zone? I’d have to ask later.

  Lucifer’s indigo eyes were banked with lust, but he was momentarily lulled into submission by what had just transpired between us. My body hummed with pleasure, and it was only a matter of time before I wanted more.

  We stared at one another. I’d been the most vulnerable I’d ever been in the most elemental way I knew. I’d been bare before him, but now he was asking me to be bare in another way. To strip off the armor of emotion completely.

  “I’ll show you mine if you show me yours,” I said lightly. “Tell me why you hate me and yet why you want me.”

  “I don’t want you, Stella,” he said softly, reaching up to brush my tangled hair away from my face. “I need you. There’s an inherent difference. And it’s…a foreign concept. Wanting, I understand. I want what I can’t have. I want my brother’s realm. I want to rule over it all. I want to take and take until I’m satiated. But I know nothing will be enough because that’s not my nature. I’ll always want more.

  “But need?” He shook his head. “Need is so inherently basic.”

  I suppressed a smile. Lucifer needed me? The Prince of Darkness needed me? It was hard not to feel warm and glowy on the inside.

  “We all have needs,” I reminded him. “Mortal or no. Deity or human. Angel or…fallen angel.”

  “It’s why I hate you,” he admitted, his tone still soft. “I shouldn’t need anyone.”

  “You don’t really hate me.” I leaned over and pressed a kiss to his chest. “You hate that I make you feel. And that’s the crux of it. Say what you will, Lucifer. But if you truly hated me, I think we’d both find ourselves in a very different position.”

  He was silent for a long moment, and then he said, “You’re right. Absolutely and unequivocally. Your turn.”

  I arched an eyebrow. “You gave in far too easily.”

  Lucifer grinned. “We’re talking, when I really want to be doing something else.”

  “Then let’s do the something else.”

  “Not until you tell me why you kept your virginity a secret from me.”

  “It’s not enough that I gave it to you?” I huffed.

  “No.”

  “I wanted to give it you. That’s all there was to it.”

  He peered at me for a moment then asked, “Explain to me your change of heart. Why now? Why did you let me into your bed?”

  “Because you make me feel things I’ve never felt with anyone else.” I met his gaze, even though I wanted to hide.

  “We have that in common, I guess.”

  I nodded in agreement.

  His fingers traced scrolls across my back. “I’ll never let you go, you know.”

  “And I’ll never forgive you for it.”

  “If I thought you’d stay of your own volition, I’d give you your freedom.”

  I snorted. “No, you wouldn’t.”

  Lucifer grinned. “You’re right. I wouldn’t.” His smile slipped. “It’s not in my nature.”

  Desire pulsed between my legs, making me restless. “What is in your nature?”

  He pulled me into his arms and rolled us over so he was on top. “I’ll show you.”

  Chapter 15

  Days passed in a blur of passion. It was easy to forget the Sibyl’s riddle and the story Jax was going to share with me before Lucifer had put a stop to it. It was easy to forget everything except the two of us, and what we could do with our bodies.

  We shared more than lust. In between, we talked and laughed. We learned the little things about one another that strengthened our bond into something more than just physical satisfaction. Something unique, something that belonged to us.

  I didn’t call it love.

  I wouldn’t call it love.

  Lucifer was…emotionally limited to say the least. But I found myself picking at the locks he kept chained to his heart, wondering if he hid all his feelings behind armored walls. For millennia, he’d been the villain.

  A villain with no hope for redemption.

  “Why do you want more? Why can’t you be satisfied with what you have? I lifted myself up to look at him.

  He gazed at me with languid blue eyes. I wondered if I’d ever know what was beneath them. I’d let him into my bed, but that didn’t mean anything. Bodies were not hearts.

  “Why do you feel the need to ease the burdens of humans?” he fired back. Not in accusation, but inquisition.

  I shrugged, my silky dark hair falling across my shoulder. “I just have to.”

  “There’s your answer.”

  “You need more. Always?”

  “Always.”

  I pondered his words for a moment. He had cut out all the nitty-gritty and gotten to the meat of the matter.

  “You look confused,” he stated, brushing my hair behind my ear in a strangely intimate and gentle gesture.

  “I am.”

  “Why?”

  “You make it sound so simple.”

  “It is. We are who we are. We don’t change.”

  “We?” I murmured.

  “Deities, creatures, fallen angels.”

  “Humans change. They adapt. They evolve.”

  “They have to, to survive. Their lives are finite. It’s different for them.”

  I traced his forehead. There were no lines there, no emotion or age markings. “Some say that if you don’t change, you’re dead.”

  “You are so strangely human, for a non-human.”

  “My parents believe deities and immortals change. They don’t believe we’re stagnant.”

  “No, we’re not stagnant, but fundamentally, who we are who we are. Do you really want to debate philosophy with me?”

  “No. I don’t think I do.” I knew I would lose. How was I supposed to debate with a fallen angel who had been around since the dawn of time? Who’d seen the rise and fall of empires, dynasties, and kingdoms?

  “Do you have a hand in destruction
?” I wondered.

  “You mean in the destruction of humanity?”

  I nodded.

  “No. They do that all on their own. They are their own worst enemy. I just capitalize on it.”

  Bitterness burst on my tongue like a tart fruit. How could I want someone I didn’t even like? I climbed out of bed and wrapped a sheet around me.

  Lucifer sprang up. Nude, erect, wings unfurled, no sense of modesty. He was a tireless lover, insatiable.

  Who else had the honor of his pleasure in bed?

  The thought didn’t trigger bouts of anger or jealousy. I simply wasn’t wired that way. I’d witnessed firsthand the tangled knots humans got themselves into over possessiveness. It was just as destructive as anger. It eroded trust.

  I sauntered to the small table by the fire and poured two glasses of wine from the pewter jug and held out a goblet to him. He grasped it with a smile and nod before drinking two hearty swallows.

  “Who’s taking care of Cerberus,” I asked, I held my glass of wine and put a grape into my mouth as I waited for him to answer.

  “I have servants who take care of him when I’m occupied.”

  “Occupied?” I smirked. “Like causing trouble and wreaking havoc in the mortal realm?”

  He inclined his head. “Among other things.”

  I slowly raised the goblet of wine to my lips. “We can’t stay up here, can we?”

  “And shut out the world? No, we can’t.”

  What was I supposed to do here? I was now Lucifer’s consort. His mistress. His bed partner.

  He grasped my hand and threaded his fingers through mine. “You can do all the things here you did in New York. Nothing has to change,” he said, nearly reading my mind.

  My mouth pressed into an acrimonious line. “Except I’m a prisoner.”

  He brought our linked fingers to his mouth. His breath was warm and made me shiver. “Having second thoughts about sleeping with me?”

  “No, actually. That’s not even what crossed my mind,” I answered truthfully. “But would you like it if you were a prisoner? If you couldn’t leave and you were beholden to someone else?”

  His jaw clenched.

  How did he do it? Look sexy and riled while also completely nude.