“It just seems strange as it is,” she whispered and then found some strength to place into her words as his eyes narrowed on her, a flicker of curiosity in them. “The sun never moves… the stars never shine… the seasons probably remain the same. Time never flows. It’s static and you must grow bored of seeing it always the same?”
Lucifer’s eyes left her, returning to the valley and remaining there, the distant edge back in them. He looked absorbed in the scenery, but she knew he was thinking about what she had said and she feared she had overstepped the mark and offended him by finding a flaw with this place of his creation.
“Do you desire to see the stars?” He didn’t look at her, not even when she nodded.
He looked taller in the shadows, wrapped up in them, with only the flickering light of the torch illuminating his face. He looked as if he belonged in the inky black with them, and she began to feel he had been asking about more than the valley when he had asked why she desired to see the darkness.
“I do want to see the stars, Lucifer,” she said and his golden gaze fell to her, narrowing slightly, as if hearing his name leaving her lips had been as thrilling as when she heard hers leaving his. She pressed on, wanting to get her point across before her nerve failed. She was sure she might offend him, but she couldn’t let fear of that deter her. She wanted to talk to him and the valley had opened up an avenue of conversation. She also wanted to know why this place remained as it was. “I want to see the stars but that wasn’t my point. My point was that nothing changes in this valley. I’ve been here fourteen hours by your calculation and nothing has changed. It all remains the same. The temperature. The position of the sun. The sound of the river. The breeze. Everything here is static.”
“Static,” he murmured and stared across at the mountains. His expression darkened, the black slashes of his eyebrows drawing together, turning his golden irises a full shade closer to amber. Those eyes slid down to her, piercing her with their intensity and stealing her breath. “Not everything here is static. You are not. You are changed.”
Nina felt keenly in that moment that she had. Seeing the valley and discovering more about Lucifer had changed her. She was no longer afraid of him or the castle, but she didn’t understand why. Perhaps understanding was part of the reason. She felt she knew a piece of him now. She felt there was a part of them that was the same.
They were kindred spirits.
“If I show you the stars, will you be inclined to leave this place and dine with me?”
Her eyes leaped to meet his, her heart stuck on the part where he had asked her to dinner while her head screamed at her to focus on the first part of what he had said—the part about the stars. The logical part of her won and she looked up at the blue vault above her.
“I would, but is it really possible?” Her eyes scanned the scattered clouds and their backdrop. A star could never penetrate such light. Not even a planet had the brightness to shine through the strength of the sun here.
But Lucifer had said she could see the stars. He had offered to make them shine for her but she still wasn’t sure how that was possible.
He moved behind her and she looked back at him, her chest aching as she caught the sorrow in his amber eyes as he stared beyond her at the valley. He raised his left hand and she wanted to press hers to it, wanted to feel his fingers slide between hers and close over her knuckles, needed him to know that he wasn’t alone.
She was here with him.
He pressed his palm to the invisible barrier that stopped him from entering a valley of his own creation and closed his eyes. The muscles of his jaw popped, his sensual lips compressing into a thin line as he frowned, his eyebrows drawing tight together. His nose wrinkled, his top lip drawing off his teeth in a grimace that spoke of pain.
Pain she wanted to ease.
He was hurting himself with whatever he was doing.
Why?
Nina took a step towards him but stopped dead when his canines lengthened. She blinked, sure she was imagining things, but they remained longer, almost like small fangs.
Lucifer grunted and made a sound that was close to a snarl, and she swore the shadows in the tunnel flickered and moved, dancing around him like smoke.
The light dipped.
She whirled to face the valley, her eyes growing enormous as a shiver ran down her spine and thighs.
It was changing.
Her lips parted, the shivers growing in intensity as she stood on the brow of the hill, awed by the sight before her.
The air grew cooler as the sky rapidly changed, the sun drifting lower towards the mountains to her right and the forest there. Another shiver danced down her back as the white cragged peaks of the mountain changed to gold and threads of pink and yellow laced the fluffy clouds as they all raced to her right. The blue vault turned orange beyond the mountains and then a rainbow of colours burst upwards, from pink to yellow to green and then the deepest blue she had ever seen.
Her breath hitched as the sun sank below the cragged peaks on her right and a huge full moon rose on the left side of the valley. It glowed red as it ascended into the darkening sky and slowly turned orange and then paled to a white so bright that it hurt her eyes, but she couldn’t make herself tear them away from its beauty, not even to see the valley stretching below her bathed in blue hues.
Stars emerged, one by one, gradually brightening until they broke through the light of the moon to shine above her, like nothing she had ever seen before.
A chill erupted across her skin as she tipped her head back, her breath lodging in her throat and her heart pounding as she took in the most beautiful heavens she had ever witnessed.
She was amazed.
Her gaze followed the spine of the Milky Way above her, her mind numbed by the beauty of it, empty of thought as she stood beneath it and tried to take it in.
It was incredible.
A laugh bubbled up, born of the joy bursting to life in her heart, and she turned to face Lucifer to thank him for what he had done, because he had done it purely for her.
That laugh died as her eyes met his. They were intent and focused on her, sending a different sort of shiver through her, an awareness of him that stole her breath.
“Is it to your liking?” he whispered and drew his hand away from the barrier, lowering it to his side.
Nina nodded and swallowed hard as she realised something. He was to her liking too. He was handsome, charming and considerate. He had been treating her well and taking care of her, all because he had found her outside his home. She knew that now. He was the one who had found her and had brought her inside to protect her, but she still didn’t know why she was here or who had taken her, or if it had anything to do with her ex-husband and his demand that she return to him.
She still only had a vague memory of the events that had happened and it frightened her.
Lucifer shot his left hand out and grasped the wall there.
Nina gasped and rushed into the tunnel, grabbing him by his waist before he could collapse.
He snarled and pushed her away, sending her back out into the valley.
“I am fine,” he bit out and glared at her. “It is none of your concern.”
It struck her that she was concerned. She was concerned because she had wanted to see the stars and now he looked as pale as those orbs that twinkled above her, drained of colour.
“Return with me.” His gruff command echoed along the corridor as he turned and strode away into the darkness.
Nina lingered, able to understand why he was upset but unwilling to obey his orders. She hated it when she showed weakness around anyone too. She didn’t like to let people see her vulnerable. Not anymore. Not for a long time.
She drew down a few deep breaths and turned her back to the castle, giving herself a minute to smooth out her feelings and admire the stars that he had made just for her.
No one had ever given her a more beautiful gift and it seemed a shame that she had to leave them.
It felt as if she was wasting what he had given her, what had taken him great effort to change for her, but she also didn’t want to leave Lucifer alone up there in the castle, waiting for her.
Could she come back tomorrow?
If she did, would the stars still be here or would the valley have changed back to day?
She stared at the moon, charting its position by the peaks of the mountains below it, and realised that, just like the sun, it wasn’t moving. It gave her hope that the stars would still be here when she returned.
Nina slipped her tights on, her eyes on the sky the whole time, and then backed towards the tunnel. She knew the moment she crossed the threshold without even looking. A sense of coldness ran through her, a feeling that unsettled her. She pulled the wooden torch from the holder mounted on the black wall, turned away from the valley with a heart that felt heavy in her chest, and trudged along the corridor towards her room in the castle.
The heaviness in her heart began to lift the closer she came to that room, the cold sensation chased away by heat that steadily grew inside her as her thoughts turned away from the valley and back to Lucifer.
A greeting balanced on her lips as she stepped through the door at the other end and died as she realised that she was alone.
Nina padded across the room to a white-cloth-covered dining table that had been set up near the fireplace. Two candlesticks, each holding six black candles, provided the only light, casting a golden glow over the food on the serving trays beneath them.
And the single place setting.
She placed the wooden torch down into the unlit fireplace, turned back to the table, and idly ran her fingers over the empty end, her thoughts with Lucifer.
Where had he gone?
She had upset him, and she didn’t know how. She wanted to leave the room and go in search of him, but she rounded the table instead and sat at the opposite end to the one Lucifer should have occupied.
The heaviness returned to her heart as she stared at that spot, easily imagining him there with her, dining with her and perhaps even talking to her about things other than the man who had taken her and who might want to hurt her.
If he talked about himself, maybe she would find the courage to tell him about herself too.
Maybe she would finally lower her guard for the first time in years and let someone inside.
And neither of them would be alone anymore.
CHAPTER 8
Lucifer flashed his fangs at a lower demon as he appeared near the prison. The hideous creature scuttled away into the shadows and hissed at him from behind a rock. He flicked his left hand towards it and black blood splattered the ground where the demon had been. Vile little bastards. He did despise the lesser creatures of his realm.
Especially when they were dragging him away from something pleasant, something he desired to do with every drop of his blood, and were forcing him to deal with something repulsive instead.
He eyed the three male brown-skinned scaly demons kneeling in the circle in the black courtyard of the prison ahead of him, surrounded by six of his finest Hell’s angels. The demons’ huge yellow eyes all locked on him, their rough throats working on hard swallows as they spotted him. The spines that ran up their arms trembled in a wave like motion, revealing their fear to him. The one in the middle flicked his forked blue tongue out to wet wide lips.
His own men were equally as restless, their red feathered wings shifting constantly, a bright bloody backdrop for their crimson-edged obsidian armour. Two of them held curved black blades pointed at the three demons. Two stood behind them to ensure they didn’t attempt to escape.
The remaining two broke away, approaching him as he glared at the demons and did his best to ignore how bleak his realm looked when compared with the valley where he had left Nina.
Fuck, he had wanted to dine with her. A stupid and ridiculous desire, one that showed only weakness and deserved to be crushed out of existence. If his men learned he was falling for a mere slip of a mortal, they would mutiny.
Falling?
Lucifer blinked at that and then growled as darkness surged within him to eradicate the insane notion and replace it with something more fitting.
Lusting after.
Never falling.
He had vowed to never fall again, and it was a vow he meant to keep.
Nina was beautiful, a very attractive little human, and if she wasn’t part of his enemy’s plan, he would gladly fuck her and might even keep her around for a spell.
But she was part of Mihail’s plan, whether she knew it or not, and he had to remember that.
He reached the courtyard and snarled again as he felt the familiar tug in his chest, the one that pulled him back towards his fortress behind him.
His golden gaze sought the towering black block of the prison to his right, followed the drop on the open side of the cells that plunged into a boiling river of lava so broad the prisoners couldn’t even attempt to leap from the cells to escape them. Not that it stopped some from trying and burning in the river. He scanned from there to the courtyard and then off to his left, following the invisible line that marked the boundary of his own personal cell.
The imprisonment imposed upon him by his failure to defeat Apollyon in their last match was fading, allowing him to stretch the limits of his cell, but it was still powerful. It hindered him and stopped him from going where he pleased in his own damned realm.
It had irked him before, in the millennia when he had been allowing the angel to win and keep him imprisoned in the bottomless pit in order to stop the princes of Hell from escaping into the mortal realm and beyond. It pissed him off now that those same princes had escaped the boundaries of Hell and were free.
It pissed him off now that he had seen the valley again.
His thoughts drifted back to it as he issued orders to his men to retrieve information from the three demons who had been allied with the princes. Information was more important now than ever. It was only a matter of time before Heaven desired knowledge on the princes in order to aid their attempt to locate the four rogue fallen angels.
Lucifer wanted all the information that he could get on the bastards, and then he would make Heaven pay dearly for it and his help.
They would have to bargain for it.
He smiled grimly and watched the two senior Hell’s angels go to work on the demons, using their claws to shred the flesh of one and force the other two to talk in order to avoid the same treatment. He had trained his men well. It wasn’t long before one of the demons broke, muttering panicked things to himself about the princes.
Lucifer stepped forwards, his own black nails growing into claws as he approached the babbling brown-skinned demon.
A flash of Nina standing in the valley stopped him in his tracks.
She had looked beautiful bathed in sunlight.
It had threaded her rich auburn hair with gold and the way she had smiled at him, her face aglow with happiness, had almost brought a smile to his lips too.
Had almost given him a share of that joy that had shone in her pale green eyes.
It had faded before taking hold though, driven away by the sight of the valley. It had been centuries since he had locked the doors and shut that small slice of paradise away, because it was a paradise that felt like Hell to him now.
It was a place he had made but couldn’t step into while he was under the laws of Heaven.
He could only enter it in the times when he had won against Apollyon, securing his freedom for a few centuries. He had created it as a substitute for the mortal realm after realising his power negatively affected that fragile world whenever he ventured into it, even when he tried to contain it, and he had no desire to end that plane.
So he had spent time in his valley instead.
Lucifer lowered his hands to his sides and looked at his men, silently issuing them orders to continue with their interrogation.
He didn’t feel like bloodying his hands today.
H
e backed off a few steps, an unfamiliar heaviness pressing down on his chest.
In his mind, he didn’t see the three demons as his men terrorised them, spilling their vile black blood onto the bleak obsidian ground.
He saw Nina standing in the valley, surrounded by nature, seemingly at one with the beauty.
As if she had been made for that place.
For him.
She was light with a seed of darkness inside her heart.
He was darkness with a flicker of light.
A sigh escaped him and the yellow eyes of the demon on the right of the three narrowed in a way he didn’t like, one that said the male knew something was affecting him and he wasn’t his usual self.
Lucifer flicked his left hand forwards and the male’s head exploded, showering black blood and bone over three of his men and the demon beside him. One of Lucifer’s men looked back at him and he snarled, flashing his fangs as his eyes briefly burned crimson, warning the wretch to return to his work before he suffered the same fate as the demon.
The fallen angel wisely obeyed.
Lucifer huffed and tried to keep his mind off Nina and the valley, but it was impossible. She constantly filled his head, was all he could think about and had been from the moment he had set eyes on her in the courtyard.
He tried to focus on something else, but the something else his mind chose was the valley, and he immediately pictured her in it.
It had given him both joy and pain to take Nina there. Joy he had gained from seeing how much she enjoyed the world of his creation. Pain he had gained from being unable to remain there with her as she had wished.
He looked over his shoulder, his gaze scanning the winding path that cut across the cragged bleak land to the spires of rock that rose in a curved wall around the courtyard of his fortress. A fortress that had towers so high their roofs melted into the dark ceiling of Hell.
His home.
She waited there.
Her Angel: Eternal Warriors Romance Series Complete Series Box Set (Books 1-5) Page 151
