Chapter Thirty-Two Lucifer
Chapter Thirty-Two
Lucifer
Hell was particularly chaotic this evening.
I’m alone in the penthouse, all the staff having been dismissed for the day after they stayed late to clean up the mess Charlotte and her friend made. I don’t begrudge her the indulgence. After all, I created temptation. Though debauchery is more my brother’s wheelhouse these days. I roll my shoulders, noting the muscles are tense and sore.
Suddenly, the door to the penthouse flies open, and Charlotte comes racing inside.
I can tell something’s wrong from the moment I look at her, and she’s clearly been drinking, but the question that burns on my lips leaves me long before I have a chance to rein the hellfire in.
“Tell me,” I snarl. “Who do I need to gut this evening?”
She stops in her tracks, blinking at me like for the first time since we’ve known each other she’s ... frightened of me, before she shakes her head, fortifying herself, and rushes forward, throwing herself into my arms.
I catch her, instinctually.
Everything with Charlotte comes down to instinct.
The way she laughs. The way she smiles. The annoying little way she revels in every mediocre bite of food she eats. Something about this woman bewitches me, and I’m ...
Powerless against it.
I hate it.
The spell she’s cast over me is a wicked one. Unusually cruel.
I hate every waking moment of it. The need it creates in me.
A need for things I no longer believed I was capable of. Until recently.
And the thought that someone may have hurt her ...
Well, that creates an entirely different kind of need. The sort I’m intimately familiar with.
Some might call me bloodthirsty.
“I said, who do I need to gut tonight?” My voice is barely human, like it’s been dragged over hot coals then forged in iron.
She doesn’t answer me. In fact, my human fiancée doesn’t say anything at all.
She simply sniffles against my chest, her small shoulders shaking, until I have no choice but to stand there and hold her, while battling the nearly irresistible urge to punch something.
To punish whatever or whoever did this to her.
I will raze this city to the fucking ground if that’s what she asks of me.
“There’s ... something I’ve been meaning to tell you, Lucifer,” she snivels finally.
“Tell me,” I growl.
Whatever it is, little in this world shocks me.
Other than how she makes me ... feel.
Is that what this is? Feeling?
No one else has ever made me feel before.
Her voice shakes as she speaks. “I ... I’ve been getting these ... text messages for the last couple of weeks.”
It’s the truth, I can tell. Lies have a distinct taste. Charlotte’s most especially. Ridden with guilt and a self-deprecating hate that speaks to her upbringing, but that’s ... not the whole of it. Not entirely.
“Texts?” I prompt her further.
“Yes. From an unknown number. At first, I thought they were from you, but then they ...”
“Give me your phone, Charlotte.”
She shakes her head, placing her hands onto my chest as she pleads with me. “It’s no big deal. I’m just sobering up from being a bit tipsy, that’s all, and I’m probably just being dramatic. But they—”
“I said, give me your phone, Charlotte.”
She stares up at me, lip quivering like she isn’t certain she wants to let me see, but then she nods finally before she presses her unlocked phone into my hand.
I scan the messages quickly. One look is enough.
“You will go nowhere without Astaroth or one of my demons tailing you. Do you understand? And that’s final.” I turn and head for the bar, suddenly in need of a stiff drink.
Though human alcohol has little effect on me.
And even I’m aware enough to recognize it will never be enough.
“Okay, Dad ,” she says sarcastically. She backs away from where I held her, swiping at her mascara-streaked tears. “You can’t keep me locked up like a bird in a cage.”
“Watch me,” I snarl, my fear for her getting the better of me as I glance over my shoulder. “Do I need to put you on the rack again? Teach you to behave?”
Her jaw drops as if I’ve slapped her. “Are you ... blaming me?”
The glass in my hand buckles beneath my grip, the shards starting to press into the palm of my hand at what she’s insinuating. “No, Charlotte. Don’t be ridiculous.”
“You are , aren’t you? Isn’t that what you’re trying to say here? That this is somehow my fault?”
My hand shakes from the fury I’ve barely leashed as I pour myself another glass in a different tumbler, the movement almost imperceptible thanks to my control. My concern for her should be apparent. “I would never cast blame on you for someone else’s deeds, but you should’ve come to me with this immediately.”
“So, you could do what? Murder whoever’s sending it?” She falls quiet for a beat, glancing out the darkened penthouse window. She rubs her exposed forearms, hugging them around herself. But when she looks at me, for once, her voice is devoid of emotion. “However big of a monster they may be, you’ll always be an even bigger one, won’t you?”
The words still me.
And I think that perhaps, since my fall, she’s the only person who’s ever truly managed to hurt me. Damaged my pride.
And that thought makes me furious. With her and me.
A flush of heat rushes through me, even as my voice turns cold, and the look I give her then makes her eyes go wide with fear.
A true predator will always be recognized by its prey.
“If it’s a monster you want, Charlotte, then fine, so be it. I’ll play your villain.” I step closer, crowding her space. “But remember this is what you asked for, darling, when the danger no longer thrills you.”