Chapter 42 #2
His eyes drift to Seraphina and instantly glaze over like a teenager spotting his first porn magazine."Who's this enchanting—" Kyle starts, already slipping into his smooth-operator routine that's worked on half of Washington's eligible population.
"Eyes front and center, Romeo," I snap because I know that look. Kyle's the kind of guy who could charm a nun's habit off without breaking a sweat.
But my angel cake steps forward with that megawatt smile that could probably power Las Vegas. "Hi, I'm Seraphina. Lucian's mate." She delivers the last part with just enough emphasis to make Kyle's smile falter.
That's my girl—sweet as sugar with just enough spice to let them know she's off limits.
"Mate?" Kyle's eyebrows shoot up like they're trying to escape his forehead. "Well, shit. Never thought I'd see the day Lucian 'Commitment-Is-For-Suckers' would actually settle down. What's next, matching sweaters and a white picket fence?"
I scrawl my signature across the papers like I'm signing away my soul, then grab Seraphina's hand. "Sanitize this shit, Casanova. And keep your horizontal tango sessions out of my office—that's what the dumpster behind the club is for. You know, where your standards usually hang out."
I tug Seraphina toward the door, not looking back at Kyle's probably scandalized face.
Time to show my heavenly honey what a real VIP experience looks like. Besides, my throne's been lonely without its queen, and tonight will be one for the highlight reel of "How to Corrupt an Angel documentary." Produced, written and starred in by yours truly.
I guide Seraphina through the crowd to my private booth above the dance floor. The VIP section gleams with chrome and black velvet. My throne is positioned perfectly to survey my kingdom of sin below.
She hesitates at the entrance, taking in the luxury, exclusivity, and raw power radiating from this space. I tug her closer, pulling her down onto my lap. She gasps—
"Like what you see, Cupcake?" I whisper against her ear as she stares at the mass of writhing bodies below. The strobing lights paint her skin in flashes of red and blue.
Her breath catches as my hands slide up her thighs, the silky dress riding up. "It's... intense."
"Baby girl, you haven't seen anything yet." I nip at her neck, feeling her pulse jump under my lips.
Time to show my celestial troublemaker exactly what kind of devil she's fallen for.
A few drinks later, the bass pulses through me as Seraphina grinds in my lap, her dress riding dangerously high. My hands roam her curves, my fangs aching to claim her right here on my throne. Blood and lust cloud my mind as I lean in to taste her skin.
The doors slam open.
Fuck.
My spidey senses start screaming loud as a pack of beefy dudes strolls in like they own the place. The reek of wet dog and aggression slams into me, and I know what they are before I even see the glowing amber of their eyes.
Werewolves. In my fucking club.
I'm on my feet and shoving Seraphina behind me in the space of a heartbeat, fangs bared and ready to tear out the throat of anything that so much as looks at her wrong. But it's not the wolves that seize my heart in my chest.
It's her.
Lilith slinks behind her pet mongrels, all sleek curves and a razor-sharp smile. Her green eyes gleam with malice and cruel amusement. She moves like smoke-made flesh, gliding across the floor in her blood-red stilettos.
"Time to make like a tree and get the fuck out of here, Cupcake," I mutter, my eyes never leaving the hellspawn Barbie as she eye-fucks the room like it's her catwalk.
Seraphina tenses against my back, confusion and fear rolling off her in waves. "Who is—"
Her question is cut off as Lilith appears before us, moving faster than any human could track. Up close, her beauty is a poisoned blade, ready to cut down anything in her path.
"Why hello, darling," Lilith purrs. "I'm Lilith. It's an absolute pleasure to meet Lucian's little slice of heaven finally."
I can practically feel Seraphina's confusion morph into righteous fury, her body going rigid against mine. The wolves close in, their hulking frames forming a wall of steroid-fueled muscle around us.
Fucking fuck. Lilith's got herself a pack of loyal dogs to do her bidding. And here I thought that was only Azrael's gig. What is this, evil villain timeshare for werewolves?
"Make this easy on yourself, Lucian," Lilith demands, trailing one blood-red nail down my cheek. "Tell me where Rhyland is, give me the stone, and your little angel might just leave here intact."
My celestial snack cake? She is not having any of it.
Seraphina steps forward, golden eyes blazing, and shoves Lilith's hand away. "Don't you ever touch him," she says, her voice honeyed yet razor-sharp, like a cupcake with broken glass inside.
Holy shit. My angel's gone from 'Disney Princess' to 'Avenging Seraph' in 0.5 seconds flat.
Lilith's face twists into a shark smile. "My, my. Aren't you full of surprises?"
"You have no idea what I can do," Seraphina replies, her tone maintaining that angelic melody but carrying the unmistakable edge of someone who's personally witnessed the creation of stars and isn't impressed by discount designer evil.
Uh-oh. My angel isn't happy right now, and I can feel her power surging through our bond. It's like dating a nuclear reactor with wings and a cute ass.
Lilith only laughs, examining her manicure like we're just mildly inconvenient speed bumps in her day.
"You do realize I can take both of you without so much as breaking a nail?
Darling, I was terrorizing dimensions while you were still delivering bland celestial telegrams. Now be a good little halo and step aside before I turn your boyfriend into a very fashionable coat rack. "
Shit's about to get real. And by real, I mean apocalyptically, biblically, 'someone call Michael Bay' real.
"Go back to the pit that spawned you," Seraphina snarls, her voice carrying the weight of Heaven's entire customer service department.
And then she fucking explodes with light, her body going supernova as she launches Lilith across the room like a designer-dressed ragdoll. The stench of burning flesh fills the air as Lilith screams, her perfect skin blistering and peeling like an overripe banana in the Sahara.
Note to self: Do NOT piss off the angel.
My girl might not be packing the same holy firepower as Dani's DNA-enhanced ass, but her light?
That shit's like mainlining sunshine straight into your veins.
And trust me, for vampires? That's about as fun as deep-throating a UV lamp.
Lilith may be a psychotic, older than dirt bitch, but even she's got to be feeling that heavenly burn right about now.
I don't think. I just move.
I grab Seraphina, throwing her over my shoulder like a sack of righteously pissed-off potatoes, and blur us the fuck out of there fast.
I practically rip the car door off its hinges, shoving Seraphina inside and slamming it shut with enough force to make the whole vehicle rock on its suspension. In the blink of an eye, I'm behind the wheel, my finger jabbing the ignition button like it's Lilith's fucking eyeball.
The engine roars to life, and I punch the gas. The tires scream as they fight for purchase on the asphalt. The stench of burning rubber fills the car, acrid and biting, as we peel out of the parking lot like a bat out of hell.
My mind races as I push the car to its limits, the engine snarling like a living thing as we fly through the empty streets.
What the fuck just happened?
Lilith, in my club. And not just her, but fucking werewolves too. Since when did that designer-wrapped demon bitch have mutts on her payroll? And how the hell did she know I would be there tonight?
Something smells fishy as fuck.
Questions whirl through my head like razor blades, slicing at my sanity. But one thing is crystal fucking clear.
We're in trouble. Deep, deep trouble.
Seraphina is a coiled spring beside me, her entire body vibrating with a potent mix of fury, fear, and adrenaline. Her breaths come hard and fast, like she's just run a marathon through the pits of Hell itself.
"That... that thing was Lilith?" she grits out, her voice shaking with rage.
I swerve around a slower car, the force of the turn slamming us both against the doors.
"In the rotten fucking flesh," I confirm, my knuckles white on the steering wheel. "The one and only Demon Queen herself, complete with her pack of rabid dogs."
Seraphina's eyes blaze in the darkness of the car, twin pools of molten gold. "I should have ended her right there," she says, her hands clench into fists. "Sent her screaming back to the abyss that birthed her."
I can feel the power rolling off her in waves, crackling the air inside the car. It's intoxicating and terrifying at once.
"Believe me, baby girl, there's nothing I would have loved more than to see you go all angelic wrath on her demonic ass," I growl, weaving through traffic like a man possessed. "But we were outnumbered and outgunned. Discretion is the better part of valor and all that shit."
The rearview mirror might as well be a horror movie screen because all I can see are three sets of headlights bearing down on us like the hounds of Hell themselves. They're gaining fast, the distance between us shrinking with every passing second.
Double fuck.
"Buckle up, beautiful," I warn my hand already on the gearshift. "Things are about to get a little Fast and Furious."
"Lucian, what are you—" Seraphina starts, but her words are lost in a yelp of surprise as I downshift, the car lurching forward like a beast unleashed.
We rocket down the street, the engine's roar drowning out everything but the pounding of my heart. The speedometer climbs higher and higher, the needle swinging past numbers that would make a sane man piss himself.
But sanity is for people who don't have a pack of demon-driven douchebags riding their asses.