by J. L. Myers
Lucifer didn’t turn around as he left the stage flanked by his growling hellhounds and shadowed above by a black sea of crows. The image of what was happening behind him was as clear in his mind as if he’d been staring right at it. Monstrous hellions moved out of his way fast, evading his direct path that removed him from this display and left a promise in his wake.
Cross me and you too will suffer this fate.
Chapter Thirteen
Gabriel jolted as the doors to their private chambers flung open and clapped like thunder against the walls. She spun from the window, from the earlier memory of Darius’s limbless body lying in bloody pools on the ground. Her hand went to her mouth to strangle her gasp. Lucifer appeared through the veil of tall fire. He was covered in the man’s blood, spattered and drenched in the sticky liquid that bubbled and dripped from the leather strips that surrounded his waist and coated half his thighs. The look on his face made her blood run cold. It was blank and detached, his eyes as dark as the sky now was outside. Gabriel went to rush to him, needing to capture Lucifer’s face with her hands and bring that liquid silver back to his gaze.
But she didn’t get far.
The dogs by her sides, the ones charged with her protection and to kill anyone who threatened Gabriel, darted in front of her. Baring their lethal teeth, Zallina and Zax snarled—at Lucifer.
With their hackles raised and the aggression emanating from their rigid stances as they crouched low in readiness to leap at any moment, Gabriel expected something. Anything. A reaction. A retaliation. After what she had seen Lucifer do down there, it was clear he was capable of horrendous things, even worse than all she had already witnessed. The depth of his ability to act out heinously worsened each time, each day. This had been the worst so far, executed by his own bloody hands.
But Lucifer didn’t move. He didn’t glare or spit words or lash out.
Breathing hard like he’d run here, even though with the hours that had passed since the public exhibition it was clear he hadn’t, he simply stared. At his hands. Chest rising and falling too hard and fast, the shifting of Lucifer’s black irises was like he was seeing something that wasn’t there. Although he was physically here, it was as if he had left a part of himself, a monumental and imperative part of himself, back down in the center of the city.
Touching a hand to the tops of each hellhounds head, she bent down between them. “Zallina and Zax, heel.”
As obedient as they were protective, Zax snapped his jaw while Zallina whimpered. Still, regardless of their obvious objection, they both dropped their backsides to the ground, followed by their bodies and finally their heads that they laid down atop their huge front paws.
Gabriel stepped slowly, quietly with purpose past their bed, between the pillar and bubbling pit, her gaze never leaving the one man who had saved and protected her despite the threat to himself…and his soul. A chill trickled down her spine the closer she got, teasing all the way to her damaged wing that throbbed. Gabriel gulped at his lack of movement, the lack of recognition as she came to stand right in front of him. Her heart pounded wildly as she stared into the endless black pools of his glazed eyes. “Lucifer?” Reaching up so slowly, she brought one hand to the rough stubble across his cheek—
Lucifer moved with angelic speed, catching her arm and flinging her around. The fire around the room fell to the ground right before Gabriel’s back hit the open door. Air belted from her lungs but was cut off as his forearm pressed into her throat. Lip curling on one side, the blind anger in his dead eyes terrified her. But she refused to show it. Even as Lucifer leisurely sliced his sword from its scabbard, Gabriel refused to let her face show the fear that was now racing through her veins like the promise of fire in his eyes.
With a flung-out hand, Gabriel halted her hellhounds that had crept swiftly forward and leaped over the bubbling lava pit. With their menacing chorus of rumbling growls, she kept her voice level, touching Lucifer’s face again, faster, more forceful this time. “Lucifer, it is Gabriel.” She grazed her thumb along his bottom lip that quivered over his clenched teeth. “Your Gabriel.”
Confusion pinched his golden eyebrows as his own animalistic growl escaped.
Then recognition widened his black eyes.
Shooting back from her so fast he was a blur, his sword fell to the ground with a clatter. Lucifer slammed into the central pillar, and his hand went over his mouth. His gaze remained frozen on her throat where his arm had pinned her to the wall. Instead of apologizing or begging for forgiveness, his words shocked her. “It didn’t work. There is no escape. Your feathers…” His beautiful face that had been deadly aggressive a moment ago fell with sorrow, and silver remnants coiled their way through the black of his irises. “You cannot escape me.”
Gabriel rushed forward, grabbing his hands as he tried to back around the pillar and away from her. When his heel hit the edge of the pit, he had nowhere to go. She held on tight to keep him from falling back and gave a little shake. “I am here with you. I will never need to escape you. I will never want to.”
Lucifer’s tortured eyes cut through her and he tore his hands free. “You should.” Spinning around, he plunged his hands into the lava and began washing away the remnants of Darius’s blood from his arms, legs, body…everywhere. “You should run, get away. Better yet, take me out, before it is too la—”
“No.” The word was no more than a whisper from her lips, but her absolute determination that had Lucifer whirling upright sent him stalking around the pit. “You didn’t choose this existence. You don’t want to be what He has made you.”
Lucifer sucked in air as he faced her and fell back on the bed’s edge, dropping his tense arms to his sides. “He?” They’d never spoken in depth about how Lucifer had come to be the Dark Prince of Hell. But now it was time, and by the understanding that flared in Lucifer’s eyes, there was no question to what she meant. “You know what I bargained for? What I was offered?”
Gabriel nodded once, crossing a winding lava track to reach him “When I was caged on Earth, Remiel revealed the truth before his rescue.” Tears burned behind her eyes with the guilt she felt at his choice, but she refused to let them lose. “God offered you the chance to get your wings back. To be allowed to fly back up to the light one day.”
“No.” Lucifer reached up and stroked her face, his touch so tender and gentle. “Not the light. Never His light.” He seemed to focus on the wetness he smeared across her porcelain skin, drying blood that had transferred from his leathers. He glared and dropped his hand, scouring down her healing chin to her thigh and then her shorter wrapped wing that no longer dripped blood. “It was always you. Only you. I have never wanted anything more.”
So her suspicions had been right. And now Lucifer was damned because of his choice, forced to be a monster that threatened to take hold and never let him go.
“But it is not safe. I am dangerous. I will not risk…”
Gabriel’s finger to Lucifer’s lips cut off his self-deprecating words. She knelt before him, filling the space between his knees. “The only way you can hurt me, Lucifer, is if you give up. On yourself. On what we share. You have saved me above and below. I am not afraid of you. I know you, Lucifer.” Even when he pinned her to the wall in a blind haze of darkness, he hadn’t followed through. He had held her there, but that was all. A long ago memory resurfaced then, the time he ran her through with his sword on Earth. The first time he’d seen her in decades. He hated himself for what he had done, and he’d pushed her away to ensure she returned above to heal. “You regretted what you did on Earth. You would never harm me again.”
“Gabriel…”
“Even with all your self-loathing and the fear of what you try to contain, you know it is true.” She rose up between his legs, motioning to dismiss her hellhounds who obediently slipped from the open doors. Now alone, she captured his face, pulling him down to her. “You would go to the ends of the realms to fight for me. To save me. You would die for me.”
<
br /> When Lucifer’s eyes met hers, it was like she was seeing into his open soul. That fear, that anger, it was gone. All that remained was truth and love, a complete belief that what she had said was the truth. “A million times over.”
“Then kiss me.” Gabriel met his lips first, seeking, searching. There was a slight resistance as she kissed his mouth, but as she swept her tongue inside and threaded her hands through his hair, Lucifer gave in with a groan.
Now taking her mouth with fervor, Lucifer’s hands found her ribs. Gabriel wriggled a bit at the placement of his palms as they slid up her sides to her neck—until his roaming stopped dead. Gabriel stiffened with a worried intake of breath until she remembered the injury that was slowly healing from where she’d let Darius’s blade cut into her. “It makes me wild that someone hurt you. It makes me even wilder that I’ve hurt you in the past too. I am no better than—”
Gabriel’s kiss cut off Lucifer’s words before they could breathe life and before she could air the growing concern that could detour the return of light from his eyes. “You are better. You have changed. You do not want this life, and you fight the darkness. You fight for me.” Crawling up onto his lap to straddle him, Gabriel ignored the jab of pain along her thigh from where Darius had stabbed her. She thanked—well, not God—the stars that she had been injured there and rather than in a place that had now become a vital part of her survival in Hell since the first day of her fall. Still, a little worry remained as Gabriel tried not to dwell on any internal injuries that may reveal themselves later, instead choosing to live in this moment with the man she loved. She hiked up her robe’s skirting so that the only thing left separating them below the waist was his leathers. “And I will fight for you and all we share, now and forever more.”
Lucifer’s teeth clenched, though this time it wasn’t with anger. Throwing his hands up and around her and clearing her flowing wings, a fireball burst from each of his palms. They hit the open doors with speed, bouncing them off the walls hard enough to slam them closed. Fire shot up around the room, securing them inside their private place and blocking the secret doorway. With fast movement, Lucifer unclipped the blood-soaked leather from his waist and tugged it out from around him. As it clapped the floor, his hands returned to Gabriel’s body and he finally kissed her with open hunger and need. Through the rough kissing that hiked their breath up to panting gasps, he said, “And I will be worthy.”
Gabriel pulled back from him, lifting her body higher as her sheltered breasts pressed into his dirty armor. She lowered herself down onto his readiness, taking him into her body with devastating slowness. Holding his face in her hands as they both struggled for breath, she smiled. “You already are.”
Moving against him, Gabriel no longer felt her wounds or the constant tingling as they healed. All she felt now was him inside of her, filling her, bringing her to life in a way nothing else in Hell, Earth, or even Heaven ever had. It was magic with him, an uninhibited experience that broke down all her worries and let her live in this moment with him, perfect in their love for one another.
Mindful of her injuries, Lucifer cradled the back of her head, keeping their lips reconnecting with every descent of her rolling hips against him. His other hand curled around her body, gently tugging the rope that tied her robe undone. When warm air hit Gabriel’s breasts, everything heightened. Lucifer’s kisses, the way his rough hand caressed her back, her waist, her breast as his thumb teased the pink peak, it had her gasping and him groaning. Moving faster as his pelvis rocked with her, he held her tighter as Lucifer’s mouth broke from hers—to claim her nipple. The sensation, the sight…it threw Gabriel over the edge, riding her body in delicious waves that crested and receded over and over again. Gabriel cried out, and with her pulsing around him, Lucifer jerked inside her, a grunt coming from his lips around her breast as he sucked harder, driving those last few waves out longer until they were both breathless and sagging against each other.
After long moments of breathing, of remaining joined and lost in the moment they’d shared, Lucifer took Gabriel into his arms. Laying her out gently on the bed, he kissed her forehead and slid off the edge.
“Where are you going?”
Lucifer threw a smile over his shoulder, the love and determination in his eyes so full and true that it made her tear up. “I am never leaving you again.”
Gabriel gathered up the top section of her robe and sat up, ready to question him when he struck out. His fist blazed with fire and plowed into the covered mirror that sided the end of the bed, shattering the slab that was underneath. Fat shards and chunks fell to the ground like a rain of hail, splintering and cutting Lucifer’s feet. “Lucifer, stop!”
With his fire receding, Lucifer swooped up a small fragment and spun to face Gabriel’s wide eyes. As he walked closer, his feet made sticky wet noises, the silver in his blood leaving marbled footprints among the dusty black glitter of the floor. Turning the shard around, the mirrored side faced her, and in it was an angled reflection of her face. “No matter where I am, you will always be with me.”
Chapter Fourteen
Michael fell through the clouds, his mighty wings slowing his descent, beating slowly in time with his steady heartbeat. His task was set. Lay waste to the hybrids on Earth. With the power God had infused in him, the job was easy and less rewarding than hand-to-hand combat. Touching down on the ground to exact his might was as unnecessary as the help of the twelve warrior angels that accompanied him.
But unnecessary did not equal restricted, and Michael planned to burn off some energy before putting a total end to the rampant hybrids he descended upon.
The clouds that were grainy and cold thinned out, revealing—
A slew of dead bodies lying broken and bloody on the dirt between the huts of this small village. Twenty, no, twenty-three in total, all with vacant red eyes
Tucking his wings in, Michael fell faster, landing in a crouch before rising up. His fellow warriors landed to either side of him, equally stunned at the gory display of men and a few women that had been driven through with sharp weapons that left bullseyed slices through each of their chests—right through their hearts.
“Death by silver. It is the surest and cleanest way.” The man that appeared was young with eyes wise beyond his adolescent years. With dark ash-blonde hair and a body that had matured in height and muscle mass, his youthful features and poreless chalky complexion still managed to give him away.
A gentle hum warmed Michael’s body, increasing since his descent, but he remained focused. “You are one of the twelve that bowed to God’s demands. One of the first vampires. You turned away from Lucifer and what he made you into and accepted the light.”
The young man tipped his head once before brushing back his chin-length hair. “I am Lord Bathory.”
Once arguing the title, being nothing more than a peasant from the streets, this young man now owned who he had become. The way he stood in his leather-lined metal armor was proud and tall with his spine straight and shoulders back. His bloody sword held loosely in his hand revealed the actions he had taken to nullify the threat this village had succumbed to.
Other men, eleven more in total, meandered from around the sides of huts that on the outskirts were framed by lush farm pastures. Each dragged hybrids by their ankles across the beaten and rocky ground from where they’d lain still in death. They were the rest of the twelve, the monsters turned vampire and announced as royalty by Gabriel on that fateful day.
Gabriel…
It was the first time he had thought of her in the longest time. Not since returning above after his failure when she had fallen to Hell had she entered his mind. And now was not much different. As soon as thoughts of her threatened to swell, they were swept away as if by the gentle breeze that cleansed the smell of death and blood from the air. Watching as the bodies were piled on top of each other to create a bloody mound, Michael’s accompanying angels helped to retrieve the last few. Bathory retrieved a tall unl
it torch and neared the pile.
“You burn them?”
Another vampire, Lord Ruthaven, held up his sword. “To ensure there is no chance of a miraculous return.” His once red eyes that were now silver-blue were filled with purpose.
“Silver through the heart works best, but even that fails to keep them down at times,” Bathory added. A tink-tink sounded as he crouched and struck flint against a stone.
“You’ve done this before?” With warrior training and Earth missions, for the most part, Michael had little time to glimpse through the looking glass. Since the Dawn of Reckoning when Lucifer was cast down to Hell, he had not even glimpsed these once hellish monsters. He had only heard of their continued alignment with light and God. “You hunt down these creatures that you once were akin with?”
Lord Bathory rose up from his crouched stance at the edge of the piled bodies. The torch one of the other vampires held crackled to life as he handed it over to Lord Ruthaven. “Many times. It is our life’s work. Once we learned of their continued existence, we could not allow the conditions upon which we live to be challenged by what we once were. We have forged a community, new lives for ourselves. And we do not plan to let these soulless half-breeds take it from us. We hoped our actions to stop them would show your God that we have not broken the promises we made. That we have not turned to darkness, but rather, that we have continued to align with light and endeavored to do his bidding to protect this world.”
Pockets of orange-red sprouted up from behind the vampire as the older male set about touching the torch to various body parts around the mound of once-living flesh. Despite the lack of dry substance or kindling, the fire grew with hunger, blazing as those pockets joined up to create one rushing peak of dancing, hissing, and popping flames.
