Lucifer (Apocalypse #5)

Chapter 1

Chapter

One

LUCIFER

For the first time in my existence, I didn’t know what to make of the image in the mirror.

To anyone else, the reflection in the gilt monstrosity would be a blessing.

Blinding beauty. Impossible to resist. The absolute measure of masculinity.

But they don’t know the truth I’ve been hiding since the dawn of man.

My facade is unarguably beautiful. But that is all it is. A facade.

I am broken. Flawed. And worst of all, unwanted.

With a snarl, I drained the last of the bottle of brimstone whiskey I’d been nursing for the better part of an hour and revealed my deepest shame.

Pain burned through my back and shoulders as my wings emerged.

Or what was left of them. What were once so glorious to behold they could blind a mere mortal, were now nothing more than tattered remnants of angelic grandeur.

They were little more than a tree in the fall.

Skeletal branches with a few puny holdouts hanging on ‘til the gruesome end.

As I watched, one weary soldier lost the fight, and a matted, dull feather drifted to the ground.

Fear and something that tasted a whole lot like fury burned through me.

My eyes blurred with what I refused to acknowledge as tears.

Steeling myself against unwelcome emotions, I recalled my wings and turned my back on my reflection.

This is what I’d been reduced to.

Me.

The Morningstar.

I was a mockery of my former glory. No wonder Merri tossed me aside like so much rubbish.

She’d used her wiles and her power to get away from me, and I’d allowed it.

I’d lain there and let her manipulate my heart at her whim, and I’d bloody liked it.

The conversations, the banter, the playful fights, the feeding session behind the screen in her room.

Oh, and the cookies. How could I forget watching her eat the cookies I made with such care?

We’d connected.

Become one.

Biblically.

And then she chose to leave me when I was at my weakest.

Whatever happened to ‘in sickness and in health’? For pity’s sake, we could have made a little Lucifer already. I needed that rapscallion, regardless of Merri. Unlike my deadbeat of a father, I would never abandon Luc Jr.

Alas, the damage had been done; she was free and with them once again. If she thought that meant I’d retreat, she was wrong. I might be at square one, but I had a decided advantage now, and she had obviously forgotten a most important detail.

Merri could run as far and as long as she liked, but it wouldn’t change the facts.

She was my mate.

Mine.

That meant we would always be bound. Whenever I chose, I could find her.

There was nowhere she could run, nowhere she could hide, that I could not follow.

But for now, I’d allow her the delusion of safety with those horsemen. Let her think she’d successfully reunited with them and bested me. But once I was fully recovered from feeding her so deeply, I would strike.

She’d never see me coming.

Striding from the room, I entered my wardrobe and selected my most pristine suit. One must dress for the role one aspires to. As far as I was concerned, there was only one role worthy of my attention. I would settle for nothing less.

I dressed with care, selecting every item as though one wrong choice would ruin everything. Because it bloody well would. There was no second chance here.

I was a king.

And no one would deny it when I was finished claiming what I was owed.

It was far past time for Lucifer to take his rightful place.