Chapter 11 Lucifer
LUCIFER
Luc’s phone had to be lying. He stared at the new message.
Onyx:
We need to talk.
This must be for someone else, sent to Luc by mistake. But a second later, another text came through.
Onyx:
Now, Luc. Where are you?
All right then. Not a mistake. He replied with his address and waited, tail twitching impatiently.
It was late in the evening. Not that Luc was busy doing anything except obsessing over Dex walking away on the rooftop. A visit from Onyx would be a welcome change of pace.
A short time later, someone banged on the door, and Luc went to open it.
“A loft? Really?” Onyx curled his lip as he sauntered in, wings out and horns and tail hidden away.
Luc slammed the door. “I’m not copying you.”
“Whatever. This place doesn’t hold a candle to mine.” Onyx made a cursory inspection of the mostly empty loft before facing Luc. “I had dinner with your mate tonight.”
Luc’s throat ran dry. Was Onyx taunting him? “How nice for you.”
Onyx’s eyes flashed. “Nice? Don’t start walking on eggshells now. Say what you’re thinking, dammit.”
The tightness in Luc’s chest released, and he staggered forward as if Onyx’s permission had opened a floodgate. “How is Dex? Was everyone there? No one told him, right?”
Onyx’s expression softened. “No one told Dex anything about mates. Ash and Dante haven’t even told Harper and Ollie. They’re staying out of it completely.”
“And you?” Luc’s heart beat faster, hope threatening to take hold, even if he wasn’t sure why. There was nothing Onyx could do. Luc had ruined this beyond repair.
“Does it look like I’m staying out of it?”
Luc shook his head. No, it didn’t.
Onyx sniffed, seemingly satisfied with the acknowledgment. “I won’t lie, Dex is upset and confused, but he’s your mate. You need to fix this. What’s the plan?”
Luc’s pounding heart clenched painfully. “Plan? There is no plan. What am I supposed to do?”
Onyx threw up his hands. “Figure it out. Anything other than give up.”
“Gee, having you on my side is helping already.”
“Fuck you, Luc. You miserable piece of shit. I have a dozen better places to be than this lame, definitely-copying-me loft of yours.”
A grin tugged on Luc’s lips despite his best efforts to scowl. Onyx’s attitude could be exhausting, but his candor was amusing. “I’m not copying you.”
Onyx didn’t dignify that with a response, unless you counted pointedly ruffling his feathers.
Luc’s amusement didn’t last. “Dex hates me, and I don’t blame him. There’s nothing I can do. I won’t stalk him if he doesn’t want to see me.”
“You won’t?”
“Don’t look surprised. How would that help?”
Onyx shrugged. “It probably wouldn’t. So, how do we get him to talk to you?”
“We don’t. I’m not forcing anything on him.”
A growl ripped from Onyx’s throat. “Did I say you should? Dammit, Luc, you wanted your mate so badly that you dragged us all to Earth. You aren’t giving up on him. We need to figure this out.”
Dragged them all to Earth? As if he’d been the only one willing to forsake their home. He’d dragged Onyx, not everyone.
“I’m not giving up. I’m respecting Dex’s boundaries. I’m capable of doing the right thing on occasion.”
“Yeah, when it allows you to feel hard done by,” Onyx muttered.
Luc’s wings twitched, his fire smoldering. He forced it down and let the comment go. “Is Dex doing any better than yesterday?”
Onyx paused, considering. “He seemed okay. We didn’t really discuss you. Though he did mention he feels like he’s betrayed Ollie.”
Shame burned hotter than Luc’s internal fire. “Does Ollie agree? What does he think of you keeping me around?” Perhaps Ollie didn’t know Onyx was giving Luc a second chance. If he found out, then Luc would lose Onyx, too.
Onyx paced to a nearby window and gazed out. “Ollie isn’t holding my decision to see you against me. He understands that your attack is one piece of a long history, and trusts me as a friend to do what’s right in this fucked up situation.”
Luc swallowed his surprise, the taste bitter. “So what? The boy is a saint?”
Onyx whirled around. “No, but he’s certainly less petty than either of us. Did you know he asked Dante not to kill you? No one would have blamed him for wanting vengeance, but he had compassion instead.”
Onyx’s words hit Luc in the chest, knocking the wind out of him.
Onyx wasn’t done. “If Ollie knew you and Dex were mates, he’d understand eventually. I bet he’d even believe that you weren’t trying to hurt Dex yesterday. Maybe you need to work things out with Ollie before you try with Dex.”
“Work things out with Ollie? Oh, is that all? Simply ask the man I nearly killed to forgive me?” Luc would have laughed if he didn’t feel dead inside. “That’ll never happen. Dante will stop my heart the second I approach his mate.”
“Then don’t sneak up on him, genius. Tell Dante you want to explain being Dex’s mate to Ollie. If Dex doesn’t feel like he’s betraying his friend, I think he’ll talk to you.”
“So I need Ollie’s forgiveness and a favor? To see if he’ll put in a good word with Dex for me?” That was even worse.
Onyx clenched his jaw so hard, Luc heard his teeth grinding. “Is there a way to figure this out without involving Ollie? If so, I’m all ears.”
No. There wasn’t. If Luc ever wanted to see Dex again, he had to mend fences with the others and their mates. But that was impossible. They wouldn’t forgive him, no matter what Onyx thought Ollie was capable of.
“None of it matters.” Luc turned away, staring blankly at the nearly empty loft. “I’m never mating Dex. Even before I realized he knew Ollie and that I’d fucked this up, I was never bonding with him.”
“What the hell?” Onyx grabbed Luc and pulled him around, glaring, nose in the air, and eyes flaming. “You have no intention of mating with the man that you destroyed everything for?”
Luc’s own fire raged back to life. “I didn’t destroy everything.”
“Yeah, yeah. You didn’t father the first witch.
Big whoop. I told Ash and Dante that, by the way, and they believe your story.
They’re softening. Seeing things in a new light matters even if it doesn’t excuse everything you’ve done.
We need to understand what the fuck is happening in your head, Luc.
If you’d shared from the start, maybe things wouldn’t have turned out this way. ”
Was that so? Luc doubted it, but he had nothing to lose now.
“What’s happening in my head is this: Dex lost his parents and struggles with grief.
He needs to pass into the Eternal Realm to reunite with them at the end of his life.
I refuse to take that away from him. So we aren’t mating no matter who forgives who. ”
“Oh…” Onyx’s aggravated expression smoothed out, leaving him almost blank.
Being right brought no satisfaction. “You see? There’s no need to harass Dex into giving me a chance. No need to torture Ollie. Dex and I aren’t going anywhere.”
Onyx’s lips twitched into a ghost of a smile, his eyes sad as his hand came to rest on Luc’s forearm. “Maybe not, but I think you should talk to Ollie anyway. Tell him what you’ve just told me.”
Why? So Ollie could point and say, See, this is what you deserve? Luc shook Onyx off. “No.”
Onyx smacked Luc’s upper arm, all tenderness gone as if it had never been. “If you’re as sorry as you say and want to make amends, this is your chance. Show everyone what kind of person you are.”
“Haven’t I? I’m someone who kills innocent humans when he gets angry.”
Onyx smacked him again. “If you don’t want to be that person anymore, then be someone else. Stop feeling sorry for yourself and make up for it. Do something other than complain about how misunderstood you are. Apologize to Ollie if you regret hurting him.”
Luc took a step back, spreading his wings, the urge to fly almost overwhelming. “Ollie won’t want to hear it. There’s no way to apologize for what I did to him.”
Onyx stalked closer, pointing an accusatory finger.
“Why don’t you let Ollie decide if that’s the case?
You have to try, Luc. You asked how to prove your remorse is real.
This is how. You have to actually do something.
I’ve heard you out and I believe you, but that’s not the end of it.
If you want our relationship to grow and improve, you need to make an effort with me and everyone else.
Dante, Ash, me, and our mates are a package deal. ”
Luc closed his eyes. He didn’t want to hear it.
And he didn’t have to. He could easily convince himself that Onyx had it all wrong.
That Onyx was unreasonable. The argument was on the tip of his tongue.
Luc could twist this until he felt like the wronged one.
But why? What was the point in being right and feeling sorry for himself?
What Onyx was asking for was impossible. But Onyx was right. Luc had to be different. He had to do what scared him, even if it wouldn’t be enough.
He had to try.
Nearly a week later, Luc stood outside Onyx’s loft. He was a fool for agreeing to this, and his expectations were lower than low, but that wasn’t stopping him.
He knocked, heart banging louder than his fist on the metal.
Onyx opened the door. “Come in and don’t fuck this up.”
“Thanks,” Luc muttered, his stupid heart leaping at Onyx’s version of encouragement. He was lucky to have him.
Luc followed his brother into a huge room cluttered with books and art. Even though Luc hadn’t been inside the loft on his previous visits to the building, the space seemed familiar, as if Onyx’s essence was embedded in everything around them.
A cozy seating area was arranged near a full wall of windows. Ash and Harper sat on a couch, Ollie and Dante on another, and Nico, Onyx’s mate, sat in an armchair. Onyx flounced into Nico’s lap, who wrapped an arm around his waist.
What a sweet picture of everyone with their mates. This was a sight Luc had lost hope in ever seeing, and yet here it was.
Too bad the simmering tension radiating off everyone tarnished it.