27. Lucifer
Chapter 27
Lucifer
L ucifer kicked his legs out, comfortably sitting on the edge of the Elizabeth Tower. It made him look like some creepy gargoyle, looking out over the city. His feet dangled just above the blue clock face, the constant hum of the gears strangely comforting now he’d calmed down. Then there were the quarter bells, going off every fifteen minutes while he waited for the hour mark.
Leaning back on his hands, he looked to the sky, and the angry clouds that were obscuring his stars. It had been a long time since he’d thought about his time down in the Nether, and he’d barely held back his temper. He wanted to go back and kill Blaze, if only for being the reason he’d dragged up memories he’d have rather forgotten.
Closing his eyes, he concentrated on the general hum of the cars below, the clicking of the cogs of the clock and the subtle rustle of wings. He knew Scar was close, his mark echoing her heartbeat like his own personal siren song.
Looking over she stood beside him, her wings extended in all their glory. They were beautiful, the inner feathers closer to her spine a pale blush usually hidden. He doubted many people had been lucky enough to see them, and it just confirmed how Scar was built for the sun, and not for the darkness like him.
The heart he thought he lacked ached. Yes, he was pointedly ignoring the fact she was likely told to track him down, but he preferred to live in denial and would actively encourage the fantasy as long as she remained harmless to his family. He, on the other hand, was fair game when it came to her preference for pointy, sharp objects.
She was silent as she took a seat, the wind whipping at her hair. He didn’t do silence. It was too close to the years he lived in solitude, an outcast even amongst the outcasts.
“Hope you said hi to Cassiel for me.” She’d changed her clothes, the corset replaced with her usual crossed fabric. At least she still wore her skirt, which was bunched up to reveal a splash of red on her pale thighs. “Don’t want him to think I’m rude.”
She looked at him from the corner of her eye, but said nothing.
He’d scared her. He’d seen it in her eyes, and the way she stepped back once he’d broken the guy’s neck to the point he almost pulled off his head.
“I’m sorry,” he said, the apology dragged from his throat.
“You’re not sorry.”
Lucifer chuckled. “No, I guess I’m not.” She’d been right, it should have been the woman’s decision. But he’d reacted impulsively, his past blurring into the present. He just hoped that when she finally recovered, she would find peace in knowing the man that had hurt her wouldn’t ever do it again.
“I find death too easy a punishment,” Scar continued, looking out over the city he called home. “Death is too fast. He deserved to face justice in the most painful way.”
“You’re right, I should have dragged it out more.” She looked at him then, a smile tugging her lips. “So whose justice are you looking for?”
Her pulse ached with sorrow, her emotions easier to identify the more time he spent with her. It was as if he was becoming attuned to her heartbeat, and just the thought of the mark sent a surge of heat behind his ribs.
The smile slipped, her expression vulnerable. “My brother.” She paused, her throat rolling with a delicate swallow. “For a celestrial to pass onto the next life you must be burned on a pyre, your ashes returning to the earth.”
“The memory,” Lucifer said, knowing he was right with the way her shoulders subtly stiffened. “You saw your brother’s death.”
She seemed surprised that he remembered that fact.
“His body,” she confirmed, nodding gently. “Moments after he was murdered.”
Lucifer stilled, even as Scarlet held herself straighter.
“There’s this phenomenon when a soul can’t pass on called the Null, and it’s a result of uncleansed violence.”
“Uncleansed because he couldn’t be burned at the pyre?”
Her bottom lip wobbled, but she flashed him a brittle smile. “It’s why I’m here, to try and find what remains of him. He doesn’t even get his peace in death, forced to relive the pain of his final moments over and over because he’s grounded to his only living relative. Me.”
Lucifer pulled her onto his lap, her face pressed against his chest.
“What are you doing?” she asked, pushing against him.
“This love, is called a cuddle.” Her wings tightened, and he had to wrap his arms around her lower back to stroke along her skin. “I’ve heard great things.”
“You’re not funny.”
“Lies.” His fingers continued to stroke, and it took her a moment to finally relax. “So I don’t remember my birth family,” he said, using the conversation as a way to distract her from her own memories.
“You don’t?” She pulled back so she could look at him, but didn’t move off his lap.
“I remember the last eighty years or so in detail, and flashes here and there. It’s strange though, I don’t remember my childhood. But I remember my Rite, which is the ceremony of a Druid becoming a Daemon. I remember being forced, and beaten.”
Scarlet watched him, as if every word he said held her full attention.
“Yet I can’t remember my parents, or whether I had any siblings. Or if I was even loved.”
“I’m sure you were loved,” she said quietly, the wind gentle despite them being so high. “Everyone has to be loved.”
“Maybe,” he mused, her skin hot against his palm. “I remember the survival, but not the happiness. Some people are dealt a shitty hand and it’s up to them whether to dwell in the dark, or embrace the light.”
Scar tipped her head back. “You make it sound so easy.”
“That’s a decision you have to make. Otherwise you’ll wither in despair, and that’s no way to live.”
She frowned, and he reached up to brush his thumb across the delicate little lines between her brows. She was so fucking beautiful, even as she watched him with a cynicism he found amusing.
“I choose to thrive rather than simply survive because I refuse to let a situation where I had no control dictate the rest of my existence.” It was something he lived by, whatever the circumstance would be. Too many years he dwelled down in the dark, and now he was free he’d make sure he lived for every moment.
And right then, that included Scarlet. For however long he had her. Which would be forever, if it was his decision. Which it would be if he just never gave her back her soul.
Which was beyond tempting.
“What are you smiling at?” she asked, her frown deepening.
“I’m imagining your soul,” he said, just to watch her lips purse with disapproval. “I think I may just keep it.”
“What? That’s not funny.”
“Love, I thought we’ve already established that I’m always funny.” He sat straighter, forcing her breasts flush to his chest. Her head automatically dipped back to maintain eye contact, and he didn’t miss the way her breath hitched. She may act cold, but her body was anything but. He should be happy in the knowledge that the attraction wasn’t one sided. But even as the air crackled with awareness, and her eyes darkened with desire, it wasn’t enough. He wanted it all, to have her mind, body and soul.
“What are you doing?” she whispered, and he realised he’d moved so his lips almost touched hers.
She was pure temptation, and if he didn’t know any better he’d have believed she was purposely put in his path by the Fates themselves. But as he hated the old hags that the druids revered as goddesses, he refused to give them any credit.
“I’ve already told you, living in the moment.”
Her lips parted, and their eyes locked. There was always an undercurrent of tension between them. An unacknowledged anticipation that hummed just beneath his skin.
She was a fucking enigma, his Scarlet. An obsession that had poisoned his blood.
Her heartbeat roared, a steady thump that drowned out everything else. She may deny it, but she wanted him just as much as he wanted her. He went to close that last distance, but just as his lips brushed against hers the bell of Big Ben chimed sadistically. The sound vibrated the bricks beneath them, and Scarlet clutched at him while he laughed.
It was only when the bell stopped, and she hit against his chest did he finally lift his head from where he’d buried it in her hair.
“What the fuck was that?” In spite of the sharp words, she was laughing.
“That was a sign that we’ve overstayed our welcome.” Moving her to the side, Lucifer jumped to his feet before holding out his hand towards her. “You ready?”
There was no hesitation as she took his hand. “Ready for what?” she asked as he pulled her to her feet.
Lucifer winked. “To fly.”
SCARLET
Scarlet shook her head as Lucifer fell backwards off the side of the tower, his wings nowhere to be seen before they burst from his back to catch his fall. His laughter reached her with the wind, and she couldn’t help but smile in return.
His effervescence was addicting, and she realised she craved it. She’d never met anyone like him, who saw the world in such a way. She definitely had no intention of seeking him out tonight, needing space to think and yet she found herself in his orbit once more anyway. It was as if she was attuned to him on another level, because she was simply flying, trying to clear her head when she just felt him. The mark ignited like her own, personal compass.
“You scared?” Lucifer asked as he swept up to crouch on the edge. He gave her a mocking, crooked smile that set butterflies off in her stomach.
Which was ridiculous. No one had ever given her butterflies, which meant it was just nerves, and nothing more.
With a wink, he grabbed onto her waist.
“Don’t you even think…”
Lucifer dived back, taking her with him.
She gripped onto him automatically, her wings snapping out to slow their descent as Lucifer moved them into a spiral before finally snapping his out. His wings were twice the wingspan of hers, catching the wind easily as he spun them away from the growing ground.
She shoved at his chest, her wing anchors straining with the effort to hit out while maintaining her hover.
“Come on, I’ll race you.” Like a grinning child, he pointed to a building that looked like a glass shard sticking out from the earth. “One… two….” He shot off in the direction he’d pointed, and Scarlet followed only a heartbeat later.
He was fast, a dark shadow in the sky that blended in with the night. She pushed her wings, following in his slipstream even as he descended towards the water of the Thames. Reaching down he skimmed his fingers, his eyes glowing when he looked back over his shoulder at her. She shot past him, manoeuvring past buildings with an agility he could never match. It was where her size helped, able to twist between spaces rather than having to go over, or under. The large bridge they were heading towards began to move, lifting to allow a boat waiting patiently through. Tightening her wings she let herself fall, only to snap them out at the last second to glide just above the boat.
Lucifer swore, having to manoeuvre away at the last second or risk flattening himself against the side of the bridge. The building was in sight, and Scarlet found herself smiling as she got closer to the skyscraper made of glass. Adrenaline raced through her, pulling back to slow her speed so she could reach out and touch the…
A weight tackled her, and she squeaked in surprise. Familiar arms wrapped around from the back, her wings crushed as she was pulled away from the window so Lucifer could reach for it first. Scarlet gasped, knowing he’d been caught at the bridge and would have been impossible to catch her.
“You cheated!” She twisted away and glared. He must have drifted, closing their distance.
With a smirk he dropped, and Scarlet followed to land beside him.
The street was quiet, the surrounding buildings closed, and even the streetlights seemed to be dimmed. The privacy of it all brought her straight back to before their race. To those pesky not-butterflies and the way heat flooded her veins.
Lucifer stood there with his head cocked to the side, uncharacteristically quiet. The moon bounced off his skin and piercings, his chest still bare from when they were at the club.
“You cheated,” she repeated. “It’s clearly a habit.”
His smile was deliciously slow, the wings at his back disappearing with a roll of his shoulders. “So? What are you going to do about it?”
Scarlet stepped back when he stepped forward, his eyes dipping to her lips which automatically parted under his attention. They continued this dance, him advancing while she retreated until she came flush against a wall.
“Looks like the big, bad Daemon has caught an angel.” His laugh was a gentle puff of air, his eyes dark with unapologetic delight. Hands flattening beside her head, his arms bracketed her in without a single part of them touching.
Her breath hitched with how quickly the air changed, like the drop of pressure seconds before the strike of lightning.
His dark mane of hair fell messily around his face, making him look even more unhinged, and Scarlet pressed her thighs together at the sudden pulsing between her legs.
Lucifer’s smile slipped, his hard body coiled with tension. “Are you okay? Your heart’s racing.”
Scarlet felt the skin on her face burn. Right… he could feel her heartbeat.
“Fine,” she said, trying, and failing to calm her pulse. Whether she wanted to admit it or not, physically, Lucifer made her body respond in a way she needed to ignore.
He didn’t move closer, but he didn’t break eye contact either. “You sure about that, love?” he asked, his pupils widening until the red was just a thin circle.
He knew exactly the way he was affecting her, which only electrified the air between them. The intensity of it crackling against her skin.
“What do you need?”
His question made her pause. “Need?”
He hummed, the tension growing thick and heavy. “There must be a reason you’ve hunted me down.”
Scarlet licked along her bottom lip, fighting against the inappropriate desire that had been slowly building with every interaction.
It’s just the mark, she thought, but even in her own head she wasn’t convincing.
“So say it.” Lucifer’s head dipped, his lips stroking along her ear. “Did you find me because you were told? Or because you wanted to?”
“Does it matter?” she asked, her voice lacking her usual bite.
“Everything matters,” he said, his fingers brushing along her collarbone until they reached her jaw. He tilted her head, slanting his own to hover just above her lips. “You matter.”