Dance of Wings (Curse of the Guardians #7)

13. Lucifer

Chapter 13

Lucifer

L ucifer pretended to snore. The sound was comical and over the top, and he had to force himself not to smile in response to the little giggles, including Ruhne who sat on his shoulder.

There had been a few new kids arriving at the Vault, and more than one seemed anxious. The human that ran the best underground fighting cages in the city used to allow Kace to close the place once a week to allow the kids who lived on the streets, as well as ones in difficult home situations, inside for defensive training, as well as clean clothes and hot food. Now Kace ran it most days, and every night there wasn’t an active fight. Even then, the kids were welcome if they felt threatened or unsafe, and someone there would be able to assist.

Many of the kids who came were just young boys, starved, addicted and abused. They were fed some toxic masculinity bullshit, and needed to learn to control their aggression and anger without killing themselves, or others.

Slowly Kace had brought more and more Guardians into the arrangement, and Lucy had jumped at the chance to lend a hand when he wasn’t out hunting down hounds or Skulls. It had become a usual hangout, a place to distract himself from his continuously racing thoughts while feeling like he was useful. Now he was using it to distract himself from a certain pretty little angel, one who seemed to have cursed his dreams with her sharp arrows and even sharper tongue. It made a change from the usual nightmares, but even those creep through.

‘Because just like you, I don’t have a choice.’

Scarlet was hiding something, and he found the idea of her secrets strangely enticing.

Letting out another loud snore, he slightly opened his eyes to find Titus, who still stood in the centre of the room with his fists clenched, mouth pressed in concentration. The cages were at his back, and all the benches usually lined up for the boisterous crowds had been stacked at the edges. A group of around ten kids, aged from four to seventeen sat on the floor beside Lucifer, all waiting for Titus to drift from one side of the room, to the other.

Growing impatient, Lucifer stretched his arms out before releasing a long, dramatic yawn. “Shit, are we still here?” he teased, much to Titus’s annoyance. “Come on, my granny can do this faster.”

More sniggers from the kids, who’d already practiced their self-defence with Titus, and were now eating snacks. It had taken Lucifer a while to pretend to ignore the bruises on their skin, and not to hunt down their parents or whoever had dared hurt them. The only reason he didn’t was because Kace assured him he dealt with it.

Ruhne, on the other hand, was still not used to it, and Lucifer knew for a fact the little maniac was planning a trip to said parents. Lucy knew he should probably stop him, but would rather wait and see how far the fucker could get away with. Pixies, he’d learned recently, could create different powders using their wings. One of those was itching powder, and fuck does it hurt. He hadn’t believed him when he said he could make any man, woman or child piss their pants in under thirty seconds. Lucy hadn’t pissed himself, and for that he was a little disappointed because it may have at least relieved the intense itching sensation that felt like his skin was peeling off.

He’d made a plan to never piss a pixie off. Ever.

Honestly, fuck that shit. Eaten by a hound with acidic spittle? No problem.

Two minutes with a rather disgruntled man the size of his palm? No. Thank. You.

“You shouldn’t even have to think about it. Just picture the destination in your head, and then poof, you’re there,” Lucifer said, hoping it sounded encouraging rather than patronising.

Titus flipped him the middle finger, but a smile twitched. Or it may be gas, you never knew with Ti. Without even jumping to his feet, Lucifer drifted from where he sat with the kids, to across the room to stand in front of his brother.

“Fucking toadstool!” Ruhne grunted, gripping onto Lucy’s hair for dear life. “Warn a guy before you fuck his molecules without consent.”

Flicking at his shoulder so Ruhne had to jump up, he dropped his voice. “Come on Ti, you’re good. You’ve done it before. This is just practice.” He was more than capable of drifting, and Lucifer had witnessed him doing it on numerous occasions. “Stop doubting yourself and get out of your own head. Push all your thoughts away, and concentrate.”

Titus licked along his bottom lip, catching the ring in the centre. “Is that how you do it? Because you have nothing but air between your ears?”

Lucifer snorted. He wished he was able to turn off the constant noise that was his brain.

Ruhne shrugged, which caused a ton of glitter to fall from his wings. “Just think of all the kinky things you can do with Rae if you can drift on command.”

Titus narrowed his eyes, and Lucifer simply grinned sheepishly in response. It wasn’t like Ti’s sexual preferences were a secret. They all lived in the same house.

“It’ll be like a ghost dick,” Ruhne continued. “You could strap her down, and then drift in and out… hey, what was that for?”

Titus swatted him away, expression less than impressed. “You’re leaking glitter,” he commented dryly. “Isn’t that like premature ejaculation for pixies?”

“Says the Daemon who can’t drift.” Ruhne hovered by their heads, dragonfly-like wings moving so fast they were a blur. “It’s not even like you can fly, either. Not with one wing.”

“Great pep-talk, Ruhne,” Lucy sighed, shaking his head. “Go sit over –”

A bang, loud enough the floor vibrated beneath his feet. Turning he found the kids gasping, eyes wide.

“Everyone get away from the door!” Kace barked, appearing from the back office with Hunter. “Come on, let’s go!”

Sharing a single look with Ti, they rushed outside.

Lucifer ignored the crowds of people rushing in the opposite direction, instead looking up at the dark smoke billowing above.

“Is that…?” Titus asked, unable to finish the sentence.

A silhouette of a winged man hovered in the distance, what looked like orange sparks raining down.

“It’s fucking hellfire.” Lucifer gritted his teeth, tearing his eyes away from Gideon to face Titus. “Call it in.”

As Titus nodded, Lucifer drifted. One second he was standing there, his boots solid on the street, and the next he was falling. There was a split-second pain searing parallel to his spine, and then his wings tore through his skin. They widened, catching his fall as the wind whipped violently.

He took in the situation instantly, realising the roof of a building had been destroyed, and Gideon was using arcane flames to gut the inside. In the time Lucifer had gotten close enough he had finally stopped, and was growing a mass of black flames in his single hand.

Lucifer flew harder, quickly tightening his wings in a freefall to gain speed. Gideon aimed towards the angels that had perched at the edge of the broken roof, and Lucifer didn’t need to look to know Scarlet was one of them. He could feel her, her spike in fear choking at his throat, and making every breath hard on his lungs.

She shouldn’t be affecting him. He’d only fucking marked her soul, not bonded to it.

“It’s time for you all to bow to me,” Gideon said, his grin wide as he released the carefully concentrated ball.

Scarlet shoved at the Archangel, her foot slipping and her wing twisting to try and stop her fall. Lucifer didn’t think, simply diverting his flight to grab at her waist. He braced himself for the arcane hit, knowing it would be painful as he carefully settled Scar back on her feet.

“Get out of here!” he growled, needing her out of Gideon’s eyesight.

He’d easily taken hits from other Daemons before, and had even absorbed the excess power. Except Gideon wasn’t like any other Daemon. Ignoring the dark tendrils trying to eat away at his skin, he reached back to grab the magic before crushing the remnants between his hands.

Gideon laughed, throwing his head back. “Ah, Xahen. Was wondering how long it would take for you to join me.”

Lucifer’s back ached, and he could tell it wasn’t just his skin that had been damaged, but his aura. Gideon’s magic was like oil, slowly flowing over the contours of his spine, searching for any weakness. The more aura it destroyed, the more likely it would be able to infiltrate his body.

Rolling his shoulders, Lucifer concentrated a blast of his own arcane down his back, sealing any wounds closed and destroying any remaining specs of Gideon’s influence.

“Well, don’t you look like shit,” he commented, conscious not to reveal any weakness.

Gideon grinned, his neck thicker than the last time they’d faced each other. Even his body was bigger, wider with his skin seeming stretched tight over his muscles and bones. Dark veins writhed beneath grey flesh, and there was a distinctive black circle around his red irises.

“This is what a God looks like,” he replied, and even his voice had changed, smokier and more guttural. “I’m evolving.”

“Alrameth claimed he’d evolved, and now he’s nothing but dust.”

“Alrameth was a fool,” Gideon spat, his lips turning into a smirk. “He was too weak to control such power.”

“I think you’re just going to burn everything, even yourself,” Lucy hissed, catching another ball of arcane Gideon had aimed at a building. He quickly crushed the power, feeling the bones in his hands throb with how tainted it was. Gideon’s magic was by far the most powerful thing he’d ever felt.

“For me to evolve, I have to rise from the ashes.” His missing arm had been removed just above the elbow, the visible skin neat and completely healed. But even without it, he was gathering even more arcane, growing far faster than it should.

“Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but you’re not a fucking phoenix.”

The magical ball oozed with dark green gelatinous goo, seemingly floating within the black flames. Well, that was new, he thought.

“This is your last chance to join me, Xahen.”

“Honestly, all this power and what?” Widening his wings, Lucifer kept his position. He needed to keep him still, and distracted. “You’ve become nothing but a cunt with a lava lamp.”

The goo seemed to swim, rolling itself through the flames without being burned.

“Seriously, I think you just need some glitter in your life.” Lucifer relaxed, stretching his fingers in preparation to catch the next round of arcane. “Might help with the whole god complex.”

Gideon sighed, any amusement disappearing from his expression. “You’re a disappointment to our kind.”

Lucifer dramatically sucked in air through his teeth. “Ouch, but not as painful as being a disappointment to my mother. Years of therapy, and I’m still not over it.”

Come on. Come on .

A low, tutting sound broke through the cracking of the flames below. “This is why you will never be remembered,” Gideon said, his tone absolute. “You’re nothing, Xahen. A forgotten child who ascended into his power kicking and screaming. You were nothing back then, and you’re still nothing now.”

Lucifer ignored how the wind and smoke shifted into his eyes. “Yet you can’t stop obsessing over me.”

He’d pushed the screams and sirens to the back of his mind, but the heat from below was getting harder to ignore. The hellfire would have likely eaten through most of the building, and would start to move out until it eventually died out.

Gideon sniggered, the arcane so large it was the size of his torso. His gaze strayed sideways, and before Lucifer could react the magic was thrown. White in his peripheral, Scarlet shoving him hard enough his wings collapsed at the force before he caught himself. The arcane soared above them both, gaining mass before it collided with a skyscraper. Glass shattered, and metal melted instantly. Any lives caught within the impact would have been lost immediately.

With a maniacal laugh Gideon disappeared, and Lucifer twisted to Scarlet with a snarl. “What the fuck was that?”

“I was saving you!” she hissed, her glare sharp and her face covered with a slight sheen. “A thank you would be nice!”

Realising she was struggling to keep her hover, he reached over and gripped her arm. It was testament to how much pain she was in because she didn’t stop him. In fact, she reached over to steady herself.

“You let him get away!” A myriad of dangerous emotions festered in his blood, corrupting his thoughts.

“He was going to kill you!”

Trying to calm the sudden rage, Lucifer bit his tongue. The taste of copper didn’t ease his anger, but it gave him a moment to control the haze that threatened to take him over. His instincts called to kill something. To absorb a life force, and twist it against his blackened soul.

Scarlet’s pulse thumped against the side of her throat, replicated in an echo beneath his ribs. The urge to touch it, and feel the evidence of her mortality was almost too much to bear. Her skin was warm, not hot like the flames below, and her eyes were full of pain. They fucking glittered with it.

Her jaw clenched at his scrutiny, her breathing laboured.

Grabbing her around the waist to help ease the weight on her wing, he drifted them both to the ground. The screams were louder, as were the sirens and general noise. Everything was overwhelming, testing his control. Gripping Scarlet tighter, he didn’t allow her warmth to step away even as she retched, the effects of the drift twisting her stomach.

The building was beyond saving, nothing but a blackened husk with the remnants of flames slowly moving outward. Fire engines had already arrived at the scene, but no water would be able to stop the hellfire. It would eventually burn itself out, but until then it would swallow everything it touched. They could only try and contain it in one specific area until then.

“Luce!” A voice called his name through the dissonance of noise, and Lucy turned to find Titus running over, Rae, his mate, tight on his heels. She looked annoyed, a large sniper strapped to her back.

“I didn’t get the fucking shot,” she seethed.

Scarlet tried to twist out of his hold, but he tightened his grip. “Gideon’s evolving,” he said, his voice alien in its detachment. It shocked him, and it was a reminder not to let his darker impulses win.

Scarlet collapsed to her knees when he suddenly let go, body bowing over as she continued to dry-heave.

“Hey, you good?” Titus came over to grip his shoulder, the concern evident.

Lucifer let out a steady breath, pushing through the haze that had descended over his thoughts. “Yeah.”

“What about her?” Titus jerked his head in Scar’s direction.

Lucy followed his line of sight, noticing that Scarlet was walking away. Her wings were held against her back, but the left was sagged lower as she tried to pass the police tape that had already been set up in the perimeter.

What the fuck was Scarlet thinking? He felt her beneath his ribs, her soul so fucking present it ached. Lucifer had marked and absorbed more souls than he cared to remember, and each was nothing but a blur. He couldn’t remember a single one that was as distinctive, and persistent as hers.

Taking in a deep breath, he returned his attention to his brother. “Gideon wasn’t using his full strength, but even then he was more powerful than we could have predicted. I don’t even think the obsidian bullets would slow him down for long.”

“This was just a statement,” Rae added, watching the flames dance. “He’s planning something big.”

“He believes he’s a God.”

It was Rae that answered. “I’m sure even a God can be killed.”

Fuck. He hoped so.

“Update the boys,” Lucifer said, unable to pull his attention away from a certain celestrial.

“And what are you going to do?” Titus raised a brow.

“I need to take care of something.” With that, he drifted in front of Scarlet. “Where do you think you’re going, love?”

Scarlet glowered, but jerked her chin up when he went to grab her wrist.

“You and I have something to discuss.”