Chapter 7 Lucifer
LUCIFER
“Want to skip dinner?” Dex asked in a low voice, sending shivers from Luc’s head to his toes.
Luc bit back a groan. I’ll make a meal of you.
Dex’s expression went from heated to eager, almost as if he’d read Luc’s mind. “We can go back to my place and order in later.”
Yes. Luc pulled Dex close, their bodies pressing together. “I love the sound of that, but I’d like to take this slow. There are things you need to know about me before we go to bed.”
Dex cocked his head. “Like what?”
“Like who I am. It’s a long, complicated story.”
Dex opened his mouth, and Luc hurried on.
He couldn’t allow Dex to talk him out of this.
“I want to get to know you, to know as much as I can about you. Sex has too often been an empty pleasure for me. I don’t want that with you.
I’m greedy—it’s one of the things you should be aware of—and I want more from you than bodily release. ”
Dex’s pupils blew wide, and he gripped Luc’s shirt. “Saying stuff like only makes me want to fuck you more. You being open and understanding is why I want to skip dinner. Though your looks don’t hurt.”
Luc chuckled, a smoldering heat building inside him. “I promise the anticipation will make it better when we finally give in.”
“Ugh, fine. If that’s what you want, I won’t push. I respect wanting to wait. But to be clear, I’m good to go the second you are.”
Luc hummed in appreciation. “Noted. I love that you say what you want and aren’t shy about it.”
Dex opened his mouth once more, hesitated, and abruptly closed it, his smile faltering. “I like that you aren’t afraid to want more than sex and stick to your convictions.”
Luc had the impression that wasn’t what he’d originally intended to say. Perhaps there was something Dex was shy about.
Before he could ask, Dex’s voice dropped back into that sultry tone. “Most guys would take a sure thing and put the get-to-know-you stuff second.”
“Oh, you tempt me to,” Luc rumbled, letting Dex’s moment of hesitation go.
There was plenty of time to discover his secrets.
That was the whole point of taking it slow.
“But I’ve learned that temptation isn’t everything.
I mean it when I say you won’t be another of my regrets. And I don’t want to be one of yours.”
Dex laughed. “Not possible.”
Was that true? Luc hoped so; his desire for Dex burned from the inside out.
Would a sweet man like Dex go to bed with the Devil? Would a man who’d known pure love find anything to love in him? Luc was a terrible person. Not flawed, but rotten. He’d known it for a thousand years, but maybe he didn’t have to be rotten forever. Maybe he could change.
Luc tilted Dex’s chin and kissed his sugar-sweet lips. He’d guard Dex like the precious soul he was. Luc’s demon senses flared, hidden wings scorching his back. Dex was his mate, and Luc never wanted to let him go.
But he had to.
Luc let that truth wash over him as they kissed.
He could never mate Dex. If he bound them together, he’d regret it more than anything else in his life.
Mating would prevent Dex from ever entering the Eternal Realm, where his parents waited.
Luc knew he would never be allowed to return, no matter what he did, and refused to drag Dex down with him.
Dex deserved to see his beloved parents again. He needed to complete the sacred journey of passing from one mortal life to the next, healed of all the hurt this lifetime had caused him. Luc would not rob him of that.
Letting Dex go would be the first truly selfless thing Luc had ever done. It seemed there was something redeemable in him after all.
He should be raging at the unfairness of not getting to keep his mate—of being denied the eternal connection that he’d fallen to Earth to find—but how could he? What Dex needed was more important.
Luc wanted to give Dex everything. He wanted to love Dex, take care of him, explain the nature of who he was and what magic meant for Dex, and do anything he asked of him. If Dex wanted him, Luc would be his partner until the day he died.
But he would die.
Perhaps Luc would find Dex again after he reincarnated. Not if the council held his soul back, but even if they did, after his death, Dex would heal from this life and experience all the magic of the universe, and that was what mattered most.
The time Luc had on Earth with Dex deserved to be treasured, starting now.
Luc withdrew from their kiss. Dex’s gray eyes were hazy, his lips plump and shiny. Luc ran a hand through Dex’s hair. “Would you like to go to dinner?”
Dex cleared his throat. “Yeah. I’m ready.”
An invisible string wrapped around Luc’s heart and pulled tight, as if his yearning had manifested into a physical force. Knowing Dex would be wonderful, even if it wasn’t forever.
Luc brushed a thumb across Dex’s cheek. “Perfect.”
And he was. Luc’s sweet, delicate human was perfect, flaws and fears and all.
Dex slipped his arm around Luc and turned toward the street. “So, what’s the long story? I’m dying to know more about you, and—”
“Dex!” someone shouted.
Dex whipped around, and Luc followed suit.
Across the street stood Dante and his mate.
Luc’s heart stopped at the murderous look on Dante’s fine-featured face. This was Ollie and Harper’s neighborhood, but Luc had never run into any of them by accident before.
“Dex!” Ollie screamed as he frantically checked for cars, his face splotchy red and eyes wild. When the traffic was clear, he launched across the street, Dante at his side.
The scent of salt air and blood filled Luc’s nose, washing away Dex’s earthy musk. Luc froze, ice in his veins.
No. Wait. How did Ollie know Dex?
“Hey, Ollie…” Dex pulled ever so slightly away from Luc. “What’s wrong?”
Ollie and Dante reached them in a rush, and Luc’s chilled blood pounded in his ears.
Ollie glared at Luc, naked fear lining his face. “Get away from him!” He grabbed Dex and yanked him from Luc’s embrace.
Dex stumbled into Ollie’s arms. “What?” His gaze volleyed from Ollie to Luc and back.
Luc hadn’t looked into Ollie’s face that day on the beach, not until he’d been bleeding out in Dante’s arms.
Coward. Couldn’t even face the man before trying to kill him.
Now, Luc saw red blood splatters where there were none. For a flash, Ollie was cold and broken, and Luc hated himself.
“What the fuck are you doing?” Dante growled, his eyes flaming. He got in Luc’s face, chest to chest, fisting Luc’s shirt. “I told you to stay out of our lives.”
“What’s going on?” Dex sounded frantic now. He hadn’t disentangled from Ollie, and Luc missed his touch like he’d lost a piece of himself.
Luc couldn’t move. His insides quivered, brittle and breaking like a paper-thin ice sculpture.
They all knew each other? How?
Dante shoved Luc in the chest, and he stumbled against the river wall. “I’ll ask you one more time, what the fuck are you playing at?”
Luc had eyes for no one but Dex. Their stares locked, Dex’s piercing gray gaze confused and edged with panic.
“We’re on a date.” Dex pulled away from Ollie, but Ollie wouldn’t let go. “What’s happening? Ollie, how do you know Luc?”
“Luc?” Ollie heaved a ragged breath, voice breaking. “He’s not Luc, he’s the Devil. He tried to kill me.”
“What?” Horror broke over Dex’s face, cracking Luc’s heart. “Kill you?”
Ollie grabbed Dex with both hands. “At the beach. When I said I was attacked, I couldn’t tell you everything. He—he—I would have died if Dante hadn’t saved me with magic.”
“Died?” Dex rounded on Luc, not letting go of Ollie. The two friends clutched each other fiercely, as though the thought of letting go was impossible. “You hurt Ollie?”
Dex didn’t react to the mention of magic. Ollie must have told him. If Luc had known, he could have…fuck. He needed to say something, but his thoughts were sluggish, like the ice in his veins really had frozen him.
“What are you doing with Dex?” Dante was in his face again, smoke tinging the air. “Hurting Ollie and Harper wasn’t enough? You had to go after their friend, too?”
“N-no.” Luc choked on the word.
“You hurt Harper?” Dex’s features twisted into hard lines. “Is that why you followed me into Dorthy’s?” He shook Ollie, panic bleeding into his tone. “What do you mean, the Devil? You said angels weren’t real.”
“They’re not. But he is. Luc is a nickname.”
“Wait.” Glass seemed to tear Luc’s throat apart as he spoke, the word no better than poison.
“No.” Dante shoved him aside. “You have ten seconds to get out of here, Lucifer, or I’ll knock you out and throw you in that prison after all. Fuck your truce. I should have known it was a lie.”
“Lucifer?” Dex whispered, recoiling and moving further into Ollie’s trembling grasp.
“Dex, please.” Luc took a shaking step forward, but Dante dragged him back.
“D-don’t listen.” Ollie pulled Dex farther away, his voice shaking. “He can trick you with illusions, mind control.”
“No. I wouldn’t,” Luc pleaded.
Dex trembled. “Mind control? This date wasn’t real? You tricked me with magic?” His devastation shook the earth beneath Luc’s feet.
Dante grabbed Luc by the collar, shocking him with invisible lightning. Luc’s body went rigid, his heart stopping. He would have fallen if not for Dante’s hold.
“Ollie, call Ash. Now.”
Ollie scrambled for his phone.
No. Luc had to explain. But how could he?
Facing Ollie now, it had never been more apparent that he was utterly irredeemable.
He’d betrayed Dex before he’d even met him, hurting a friend he clearly loved.
Dex, who was so afraid of loss that he held himself back.
Luc couldn’t have done worse if he’d tried. There was no fixing this.
Dex looked at him like he was a monster, and he wasn’t wrong.
The second Luc’s heart restarted, he fled, disappearing to the Realm of the Damned, where he belonged.