Chapter 29
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Luce
The door of my bedroom closed with a soft click, enveloping the entire room in silence save for the crackling of the fireplace, the household staff leaving me to my relative peace.
Although, peace was the last thing that I was feeling.
No, instead I was feeling a myriad of emotions that I hadn't thought were even possible for me to experience anymore, all because of... my Little Temptress.
Amare wanted me to prove that I was real by appearing to her, so I had.
My gaze ran over her stunning face, her features relaxed and eyes closed, something that I both hated and loved.
I loved the fact that she was sleeping because it allowed me to look over her without disturbance, basking in how perfect my mate looked in a room that had been filled only with loneliness for centuries.
I hated it because I couldn't see her gorgeous eyes and the way they lit up with a thousand emotions at once, a flame of passion almost always evident.
I moved a piece of hair off her face before moving from the large, dark bed to the bar near the fireplace.
I had to admit, it felt damned good to be awake, instead of in a state of slumber. Sure, sleeping for so long came with its benefits, but those did not include Ama or the hundred-year-old whiskey I was pouring. I much preferred my current state.
After ensuring the bedroom was locked, knowing my Little Temptress would try to run the moment she woke, I walked into the ensuite bathroom, examining every inch of modernized detail.
They had done exactly what I'd asked while I’d been away and had kept the estate up, ensuring it was prepared for my return.
I eyed the new shower and turned on the water, wanting to feel fully awake when I had to explain to Ama why she could never leave here.
I had a feeling she wouldn't be agreeable to the notion, but I’d ensure that she came around. No matter how long that took.
I knocked back the whiskey I had poured before leaving it on the countertop.
Stepping into the shower, I briefly remembered the last time I'd been in this room, when there had just been a tub, and how disenchanted I'd been by my life.
After seeing thousands of people fall in love and find peace and contentment in their lives, I'd become inspired by it.
I'd found it beautiful, the concept of finding my own soul mate and love of a lifetime... which, in my case, was never-ending.
I’d soaked in the tub and pictured a grand life with a wild and carefree love. I had assumed that, if others could find that love in Hell, then surely so could the devil himself.
I'd been wrong. Instead, after centuries of searching for the soul destined to be the other half of mine, I had become a broken, bitter shell of the devil I used to be.
Jaded and cynical of the concept, and lonely to the extreme because it seemed the fates had not only destined me to be unloved but also to spend all of my immortality in that state.
Why was I being denied love? I had asked the question millions of times.
Honestly, at some point, it had grown rather tragic.
I'd driven myself mad—but could anyone blame me?
Who the fuck would want to live for eternity if you had no one to share it with?
When wars broke out between the purebred elites and the hybrids after the eons of harmony I'd watched over, I had found myself reveling in it rather than attempting to fix it.
I'd sat back and allowed massacres to occur because the bloodlust present symbolized an ounce of the rage I had been harboring.
If I was doomed to feel as I did, then so should my subjects.
If I couldn't be happy, satisfied, joyous...
then I would do what I could to stoke the flames higher and incite as much bloodshed as possible.
I'd been a very different man back then.
Eternity lends you perspective, and I’d realized all too quickly that the part of me I’d thought would be satisfied had only been agitated further.
I had not only felt rage at the harsh realization that I was doomed to be alone, but also guilt that I was failing horribly at the one job I was in charge of and my actual purpose—leading this realm.
By the time I’d come out of my state and realized my transgressions, I had nearly fallen to my knees at the deplorable state I found my realm in.
All because of me. I could blame no other for the fact that my once glorious realm was in burning shambles.
The hybrid community, which had once flourished and developed their own culture, had become the minority.
Thousands had been slaughtered, and the rest had been treated horribly.
Their blood was on my hands. I had failed my realm, and that reality had struck me at my core, causing me to feel a sense of dread and doubt within myself that I'd never experienced before.
For the first time in my life, I questioned whether my immortality was the best for the realm or not.
At first, I'd tried to make amends by pointing the couple hundred hybrids left to the darklands and providing a drop of my blood to a line of my choosing. I made sure their leaders would bring them from the dark into a prosperous future.
Yet, I knew it would never be enough. Not when I felt so damned empty inside.
So, I did the right thing. I left the keys to the kingdom in the hands of the monarchs of Hell’s pure-blood factions, who I felt wouldn't burn the realm to the ground in my absence.
I had no desire to watch hundreds of years go by, continuously reminding me of how I was not only incapable of earning love but also not deserving of it.
So, I did the only thing I could do...I went to sleep.
The body I now had was much the same as the one I'd fallen asleep with. The spell to preserve it had worked flawlessly, but my mind had aged. The deep, meditative, sleep state I'd been in had allowed my mind to wander in the time I was asleep but I couldn't remember most of it...well, until Ama.
Nothing should have woken me from that state except the call of my soulmate. I had ensured the spell was set that way.
As I washed my hair, I thought of how everything had changed in a span of seconds.
When everything had gone from a hazy, relaxed existence of sleep to sudden clarity and sharpness, I had heard the call of my Little Temptress.
Of course, I was now realizing that it had been subconscious on her end, since she thought I was a damned figment of her imagination because all I'd been capable of was projecting myself into her dreams.
The spell on my physical body had worn off, but my energy and magical levels needed to be recharged.
Over the few days since awakening, I’d used a minute amount to be with her in the only way I could manage at the time while recuperating my strength.
But when she’d challenged me to appear, unknowingly goading me, I’d known I could no longer stay away from her.
I’d been strong enough to create a portal again, and my rage had been simmering within me knowing the company she kept.
Of course, it didn't help that she had essentially pushed me when she’d allowed another man to physically mark her as his mate.
That had enraged me. Not at her—no I couldn't be mad at my Little Temptress because she wasn't aware of what was happening between us. She didn’t know that I was real and coming for her, to make her the queen of this realm.
To rule with me for eternity. Instead, I felt fury towards him.
A Hellhound. A creature of my creation had laid claim to my mate.
I had thought I would have time to court Amare properly...but when she’d claimed she was mated to the other men in her company as well? I’d absolutely lost it. She had only one mate, and that was me. I had waited thousands of years for her, and now that I had her, I would not be sharing her.
Absolutely fucking not.
Turning off the shower, I grabbed a towel to dry off, frowning as I tried to determine how the hell I was going to handle the Hellhound scum who had marked her.
A small part of me wanted to peel that mark off her skin and heal it, so that she had no trace of whatever they'd shared together.
It made me so damned angry that I could practically level the entire fucking realm whenever my eyes landed on it.
Deal with it later. That was what I kept telling myself.
When I walked into the bedroom, I noticed Ama had shifted slightly, curling around a pillow as she frowned in her sleep, making me feel distressed. I didn't like her upset. Fuck. I usually never cared when anyone was upset, but with her, it hit hard enough that it made me feel almost panicked.
I quickly got dressed in the closet, putting on a pair of black dress pants and a white button-down.
When I came back out, I noticed that this time, her face was flushed, and my jaw clenched, knowing she was in a dream.
I could feel her fucking Succubus magic teasing me as it blossomed with her, and considering I wasn't with her...
that made me want to reach into her mind and take whoever was in there with her and rip their spine out.
I could give it to her as an apology present for kidnapping her to my castle or something. A show of good faith that I would always protect her from anyone and that I had no intention of letting anyone else lay a finger on her.
Perhaps that would be more of a present for myself...I’d have to think of a different one for her.
Sitting on the edge of the bed, I placed my hand right below her throat and yanked her magic forcefully into the present and out of the dream state.
A gasp of pain escaped her lips as her eyes flew open, panic infusing every part of her expression.
I nearly winced at that, my frustration at wherever she'd been in the dream now replaced with concern I'd hurt her.
I reminded myself that it needed to be done. It was either pull her back to reality or destroy whoever had been in the dream with her. I couldn’t risk upsetting her further by doing the second option, which really had been tempting.
Maybe she’d grace me with a kiss for restraining myself.
"Holy shit, that hurt," she groaned, grabbing a pillow and squeezing it. Fuck. It was clear I'd accidentally used too much power. Good job, Luce. Definitely not getting that kiss.
"I didn't mean to hurt—" I explained but was cut off as her attention changed.
Ama's eyes snapped to mine, the reality of where she was clearly taking hold as surprise and a series of other emotions flashed through her gaze...before settling on anger. Shit.
"You," she hissed, her wings snapping out as she lunged forward, catching me off guard.
I grunted as I fell back onto the bed with her over me, her hand around my neck as she locked me onto the bed as if she had any chance of holding me there.
I let her believe it. Let her believe that the devil himself was being held to the bed by this sexy little hybrid...
And I would be the first to admit that it sort of turned me the fuck on.
I hadn’t expected her to be such a wild little thing, but she was my other half, so I supposed it made sense.
"Yes, me, Little Temptress," I couldn't help but smirk at the heat in her gaze.
I also saw the jolt of surprise as she realized how hard I was underneath her.
I didn't feel bad about that shit, since she was the one on top of me, but I did take pleasure in the surprise and heat that crossed her face.
"What the hell did you do?" she demanded as her hair fanned out around us like a privacy shield.
"I think it's pretty obvious," I smirked, "You told me to appear in reality...so, I did."
"You kidnapped me!" she shrieked, her eyes wild with confusion and anger.
"That has such a negative connotation. I prefer saying I brought you home to your rightful place," I pointed out and offered her a charming smile, "Besides, Little Temptress, if you think about it, I actually saved you from those vile men you were with."
"Those vile men are my mates." Her eyes narrowed and her hand around my neck tightened.
My good humor evaporated, and I rolled us easily, caging her beneath me, her breath catching and eyes dilating. My fingers easily gathered her hands, removing them from my neck and pulling them above her, in an easy effort that contrasted how she was pulling against me.
"They are not your mates," I stated softly and tilted my head, this time demanding, "Tell me you know that."
"No," she growled, "I don't even know who you are—"
"Lucifer. But you may call me Luce."
Ama's eyes went round at the realization of who, exactly, I was, before she offered an eye-roll, "Okay, right, and I'm the devil himself, as well." She looked to the side, frowning, "Maybe I'm still dreaming—"
"You are not dreaming, Little Temptress," I tightened my grip on her and let her feel how hard I was as I dropped my weight slightly, "Does this feel like a dream to you?"
"Why do you call me that? It’s ridiculous," she sassed back.
“I thought that would be obvious. You are little, and you tempted me from my slumber.”
She had the audacity to roll her eyes, which made my blood boil as she glossed over my answer and asked, "Who are you really?"
"Lucifer,” I asserted.
"You are not the fucking devil—"
My magic wrapped around her almost on command, the black smoke smoothing over her skin and causing her entire body to light up in a pink flush.
Her eyes widened as I tried to show her just how much power I had without overwhelming her.
I leaned down and brushed my lips against her, and I was surprised to find that she kissed me back, her sweet taste making me nearly groan...
before she tried to bring her knee up and hit me in the balls.
"Amare," I snapped, putting more pressure on her so she couldn't move and leveling her with a look. "Stop it."
"Fuck you,” she hissed, looking furious, "I am not going to stop, even if you are the devil."
Bold Little Temptress.
"I am the devil, let me assure you. There is no if about it." I snapped back to a good mood so that I didn’t alarm her with the rage stewing within me, "And do you know who you are, Little Temptress?"
"Who?" She stuck her chin up, boldly, but the fear I saw in her eyes told me she had an idea and she really didn’t want me to say it out loud.
I felt pleasure course through me as I brushed my nose against hers. "The devil's mate."