Chapter 37
“People say there’s a fine line between genius and insanity. I say that line’s in your head.”
—HANNIBAL LECTER, HANNIBAL
I took my bride home, chained her to the bed, and fucked her until morning. I almost felt bad by the time I was done with her.
Almost.
She was exhausted, raw, and spent, but something had definitely changed. I watched her sleep from my place by the chessboard, and Shem snapped his fingers at me.
“It’s your move, focus,” he chirped, and I tore my eyes away from my sleeping wife. I smirked at him and made my move.
“Check, asshole. Maybe next time, don’t be in such a rush to lose.”
He chuckled and shook his head. “The game’s not over yet, Ram,” he purred, and I grinned at him. He was right. He was notorious for stealing the win at the last second when no one was expecting it.
He glanced over at Lilith and gave her a considering look. I had adjusted her restraints. After the last time, I didn’t want her hands to get sore again. I made sure she had enough slack while she was sleeping to have full range of the bed. I could always tighten them while we were playing .
She asked if I could take them off while she slept, and I refused her. She had definitely lost free-range privileges… at least until after Yahweh’s meeting.
It was coming up fast, and I needed to be prepared. As much as I would have loved to let her loose and chase her down every day, I didn’t have time for that. If I wanted to keep us out of purgatory, Shem was right. I needed to focus.
“Well, it does seem that the Stockholm is starting to set in, at least. Whatever you said to her at the wedding seems to have lessened the hatred in her eyes.” Shem observed dryly as he eyed the chessboard.
I nodded. “I meant what I said to her. I hope she truly does accept this soon,” I murmured, and Shem pursed his lips.
“We have five days before the meeting, Ramel. That’s not a lot of time to convince her to want to be here.”
My stomach churned. We would need to go to Heaven for the meeting and could not take Lilith with us. Without Shem and I here to protect her, even the Watchers would not be enough to keep the manor secure.
She could not be removed from Hell against her will, but if she agreed to leave, anyone could take her. That was why the test with Art had been so devastating. She failed, which meant that if an archangel came and offered to ‘free her,’ she would likely fall willingly into their fucked up feathered arms.
“She still needs to be punished as well. She broke two rules,” Shem said as he fingered his rook.
I nodded, scratching my chin. “You’re right, but I’m starting to think we should put it off until after the meeting. Maybe we can use the next few days to work on our little issue of her willingness to stay.”
Shem moved his rook and glanced up at me, his eyes shining with mischief. I looked down at the board and swore.
Shem smirked. “Checkmate.”
I flipped him off, laughing. Shem grinned and leaned back in his chair, glancing over at Lilith. He looked at her fondly, then his brow furrowed.
“What?” I asked, and he shifted his gaze to me, his green eyes darkening with something that looked like resentment.
“She has started to warm up to you, but she still hates me.”
“You love that she hates you,” I pointed out, frowning. He sighed and ran a hand through his thick, dark hair.
“Yeah, mostly. I miss her, though. It was fun when she thought I was her cat. She used to feed me bacon and little crumbs of potato chips, and we would watch fucked up scary shows together.”
I chuckled at the thought of her and Shem watching TV together while she fed him chips like he was a little king.
“Maybe you just need to spend more time with her. I was thinking we could spend the next couple of days working on obedience. I was going to do it, but you can lead if you want. I’ll lead when we punish her. Maybe she’ll hate you less.” I winked.
Shem perked up. “What did you have in mind?”
“If everything goes well after the meeting, we can decide what we want to do with her.”
Shem’s evil grin widened. “Let’s set her loose in the Infernal Woodlands,” he purred, and I chuckled.
“That could be interesting,” I said with a smirk. Of course Shem would want to hunt her. I wasn’t surprised.
He glanced over at her again. “Okay. You keep working on figuring out your past, and I’ll work on getting Lilith conditioned to want to stay, or at least to fucking listen to us when we tell her to do something.” He ran a hand down his face. “Even for that, five days is not a lot of time.”
I patted his hand. “If anyone can do it, it’s you,” I assured him, and he sighed again.
“Maybe I’ll teach her a command to feed me chips whenever I want.”
I let out a surprised burst of laughter and shook my head. “I don’t think you need a command for that. You just need to stay in your cat form until she forgets how much of a dick you are.”
He smirked at me. “Maybe, but it would still be fun to have a command for it.”
“I would rather you teach her to come on command.”
Shem’s eyes glistened with glee. “Oh, believe me, Ram. I plan to.”
We played chess until Lilith began to stir. My heart leapt the moment my name tumbled from her sleepy lips.
“Ramel?”
Fuck. The fact that my name was the first thing on her tongue when she woke up did crazy things to my insides.
I abandoned the game and went to her. Sitting on the edge of the bed, I ran my hand down the side of her perfect face. She smiled up at me, and my stomach flipped.
“Hello, deathtrap, how did you sleep?” I asked, kissing her softly. She made an mmm sound, and whatever was left of my heart melted.
“Good, I was tired,” she murmured against me.
I chuckled. I bet she was.
Pulling back, I stroked her cheek. “I need to do some work for the upcoming meeting,” I informed her. “You’re going to spend the day with Hazai.”
The smile immediately slipped off her face, and I frowned. Shem hadn’t been kidding. She was not happy with him .
“But I want to spend the day with you,” she said, and I felt my chest tighten. Even if she was just saying that to get out of spending time with Shem, it felt good to hear she wanted to be around me.
“We can spend time together tonight. Right now, I need to take care of some things.” She genuinely looked bummed out, and I tried to ignore the pang of guilt in my gut.
“Give me your hands, I’ll unchain you, and you can get dressed. Shemhazai will take you to breakfast.” I ignored the way her eyes darkened again at the mention of Shem’s name and uncuffed her wrists. With a wave of my hand, I manifested some clothes I had collected from that shitty haunted apartment she used to live in, and her eyes lit up.
She ran her fingers over the dark leggings I had coupled with a soft Iron Maiden T-shirt, and her eyes welled with tears. I felt a small pain in my chest at the fact that something so small could make her so happy. I bit the inside of my cheek. I really was a fucking asshole.
“If you’re good for Hazai, I’ll give you the rest of your clothes, and you can sleep in whatever you’d like tonight,” I told her. I was hoping we had turned a corner. I found myself not wanting to punish her as much as I wanted to reward her. She was so fucking cute when she smiled. Hopefully she would need less and less correcting over time.
Was there something else nice I could do for her? I looked over at Shem and cocked my head to the side, thinking. Finally, I had an idea. Waving my hand, I manifested a large TV to stand at the end of the bed.
“Hazai mentioned the two of you used to watch scary shows together. Maybe this afternoon, you can get caught up while you wait for me.”
Shem gave Lilith a hopeful grin, but she just scowled at him. His smile faded, and he narrowed his eyes at her. I sighed. He had his work cut out for him.
“Be good, deathtrap. I’ll see you later.” I leaned down to kiss her on the head. She looked up at me, and her eyes softened incrementally.
“I will.” She promised me, and even though I wasn’t sure I believed her after her lie from the day before, I still liked to hear her say it.