Chapter
Eight
LUCIFER
Well, that didn’t go quite as expected.
I tugged on my restraints, annoyance curling in my chest at the inconvenience of being bound in nearly the same chains I’d used on Gabriel. Except this time, my blood wasn’t the key. That crafty demoness had changed the locks. A reluctant smirk lifted my lips. I’d taught her well. It was only a matter of time before I figured out how to escape. But Merri needed me, so I’d play along.
Heaving a sigh, I rested my weight against the cool concrete wall and bided my time. Merri would come for me. There was no way she could resist the pull of the mate bond. I certainly hadn’t been able to. Thus my impromptu visit. If I was being completely transparent, I’d barely known what I was doing when I followed the invisible thread tying me to her and appeared in the midst of their “meeting of the minds.”
I wasn’t sure who was more surprised. Me, Merri, or everyone else. It’s honestly a miracle we all made it out alive. Moi against... well, to be fair, I’d stopped counting once I needed more than two hands, but I’d definitely recognized afew of the participants. Merri, obviously. Three of her stupid horsemen. Lilith and her pet. Three of my brothers, though truth be told, Evander’s presence was a shocker, Michael’s and Gabriel’s less so. Those two stuck their noses into business that didn’t belong to them as if it were their job.
Speaking of the fuckers . . .
“My, my, brother. How the tables have turned,” Gabriel said as he entered the small cell where they had me held captive.
I glanced around the space: bare walls, a bucket in the corner, one scant, threadbare blanket. “It’s not the Ritz-Carlton, but I’ve been held in worse places.”
Michael tossed me a smile that was little more than a sneer. “And yet it’s still better than you deserve.”
I raised a brow, my voice dripping with boredom. “I’m sorry. Was that supposed to hurt my feelings? You should know by now I don’t have any.”
“Lies. Your emotions are spilling out all over us. That girl, it would seem, has unlocked them.”
Fucking Michael. I hated him most of all.
I could feel Gabriel’s gaze boring accusingly into the side of my face.
“Oh, just spit it out. I know it’s fucking killing you.”
“Why do you get a mate?” he snapped, right on cue.
My brothers were exceedingly predictable.
With another gusty breath, I turned my gaze on him. “We all have mates, Gabriel. I just happened to claim mine.”
“Liar.”
“Am I? Ask yourself this. Why would he make us mates if he never intended for us to have them? To torture us? To test us? What good does that serve?” I scoffed, and my millennia-long resentment surged to the surface, fueling the fire. “The fallen found their mates, and Father was so filled with rage hekilled them. Innocent humans fated to his children by his design, guilty of nothing but love, and he rewarded them with death.”
“It was never supposed to be,” Gabriel whispered.
I shook my head. “Tell yourself that all you want. You know the truth. You found your Ruby, she was yours for the taking, but didn’t choose her. You chose yourself. You pretend to grieve her loss, but the truth is you just didn’t want her more than you wanted Daddy’s love. You still don’t, or you’d have gone to her ages ago. I, however, am already amongst the fallen—one might even call me their king—so what’s another transgression added to my already endless list? Especially when this one is so beneficial.”
“That’s exactly why I won’t claim Ruby. She wasn’t put on this earth to be used by me. I’d rather live without her than give in to temptation and have both of us be damned.”
“Keep telling yourself that. But you and I both know the truth. Choosing Ruby means turning your back on heaven, and you’re too fucking scared to take the plunge. You already lost your wings. I’d say I’m sorry, but...”
Gabriel’s eyes flashed with fury, but he didn’t rise to the bait.
“I don’t even have them anymore, you know. I lied when I told you I did. I tossed them aside for heaven to reclaim. They could have given them back to you at any time. But they’re still testing you, and as far as I’m concerned, you’re a failure. You don’t deserve your mate, you selfish, sniveling?—”
“Enough,” Michael snapped.
I snapped my mouth closed, not because I was submitting to his orders, but because pissing off Gabriel didn’t actually serve my best interests in this moment.
Even though it was ever so much fun.