Chapter 6
Adrian
I refuse to be soft with her. She’s always been someone I could go toe to toe with, but whenever I see that look in her eyes, I know I need to tread lightly.
Because of our previous relationship, I know how close she is to shutting down. I can feel it radiating off of her and see it in her shining eyes, but where’s the fun in that?
I haven’t smiled in years, yet since I’ve had her back she’s pulled the expression out of its depths more times than I can count.
I’d thank her for it if I knew how, and even if I did, we’re far from pleasantries at the moment. “How will you do it this time?”
“Kill you? I don’t know, I haven’t exactly had time to mull it over. But don’t worry, your friend will be first.”
“Kael?” I say with a chuckle. “Good luck there. As you could see, many have tried before you.”
“Because they led with anger instead of lust,” she argues. “He lingered a little too long on certain memories, and I’m guessing you didn’t see the way he looked at me before he left. The key to killing any powerful man is to fuck him into a stupor first.”
I yank on those bars so hard, one breaks free. “Are you trying to get me to kill him? Manipulate me into a blind rage so I solve the problem for you? Fuck you, Lysandra.”
Yet here I am, wondering how the fuck I’m going to kill the only real friend I’ve made down here.
Part of me doubts what she’s saying, but Kael is still a demon, and he’s been here far longer than I have. Could I really put it past him? Fuck.
“Who said he’s a problem? He’s hot, I’m sure I’ll have a great time. I don’t understand why you’re so upset, I’m just trying to carry on your legacy, baby. Killing every man, woman, and demon who has ever seen me naked. Who else will do it once you’re gone?”
“You always did think you were funnier than you actually are,” I growl. “And I’m not laughing. Keep talking about fucking other people, and I’ll burn this entire fucking place to the ground with both of us inside of it.”
Too bad it will accomplish nothing, but she doesn’t know that.
“Yeah, that definitely sounds worse than being locked in a cage with crusty cum all over me. Please don’t.” The sarcasm dripping from her words almost pales in comparison to the expression on her face — this isn’t my Hellcat. This is... something entirely different.
She might actually kill me on purpose this time.
“I take it a blowjob is off the table? You look kinda hot right now.”
She opens her mouth to say no, then pauses, smiling almost sweetly at me. “Sure, baby. Come here.”
Yeah, no. I like my dick attached to my body, and in all the torture I’ve endured over the years, I’ve never had to deal with that. “Never mind. Maybe just come lean against the bars and bend over?”
Her eyebrows shoot up. “And why the fuck would I do that?”
I toss the broken bar down because she can’t fit through that gap anyway, then move closer to reach inside. It’s a risk, she could break my arm with ease, but I take that risk and gently grip her chin. “Because you look hot as fuck and my dick already wants you again. How could it not?”
I’d much rather take her out of here so she could ride me, but something tells me that’d get violent.
Damn, that thought just made me harder.
Slowly, I watch the fire leave her eyes. “Is this the only way you want me now? Caged and sad and angry?”
“No.” I drop my gaze to her lips and slide my thumb across them. I don’t know if I’ve ever needed to kiss her as badly as I do now, but I refrain. Not yet. “Not sad.”
“So just caged and angry then?”
“And horny,” I joke, but I can tell it doesn’t land. “If I let you out, will you be a good girl?”
I’ll just put her back if she isn’t, but I’m attempting to play nice so I can fuck her to sleep and go hunting.
One of the guys she fucked is already down here.
“I’ll be as good as I’m capable of being right now,” she says after a minute. “I guess you’ll have to decide if that’s good enough.”
I’m sure it will be. In spite of everything, I know her inside and out, and underneath that hard exterior is a girl that loves being good for me. Or at least she used to. “I’ll be as good as I’m capable, too.”
I blink her clean so she can be more comfortable and make the cage disappear, tilting my head in challenge as I wait for her next move.
She shudders a little and touches her back over the shirt I put on her, then actually smiles a little bit. “Thank you. It’s not that I don’t love your cum, I just love it a lot more when it’s inside of me.”
Me too, Lys.
Fuck, I want it so much my balls hurt, but there’s no way I don’t completely crumble for her after I do. She still has me wrapped around her finger, and I’m not ready for her to know it yet. “Do you still like it when it’s in here?”
I slide my finger down the center of her lips, watching her pupils dilate as she kisses my fingertip. “Probably, but I can’t say I’m excited to try now that you can make your dick grow and you apparently hate me.”
I don’t.
“You act like you don’t like it rough.” I step closer and tug her in by her jaw, my other hand gripping her hip hard. “You look good in my shirt.”
Her breath catches as she grips my balls just as hard. “And you’ve always liked a little fight.”
I grunt from pleasure, pain and a little bit of fear I won’t show, because even though I’m dead I still feel pain — and no one has ever hurt me worse than her. “Must be why I fell for you.”
She releases me and steps back, spinning slowly to take in the room. “So is this it? All of Hell?”
So she’s going to pretend she didn’t just feel my rock hard cock? Fine.
Adjusting myself, I watch her closely as she looks at the dumbass Christmas decorations and move to lean against the wall. “No. This is just mine. I showed you another one, but everyone’s is different. I can go to other Hells but I’ll always end up right back here.”
Spinning to face me again, she walks a little closer. “At least your mattress is comfy.”
Crossing my arms, I let her feel in control as she slowly closes the distance. “Is it? Is that your way of asking if you can sleep there?”
“Maybe.” She shrugs one shoulder, looking unsure for the first time since she summoned me. “I’m in Hell and still need sleep?”
“You’re not dead, so yeah. Me on the other hand, I can go about a week without it, but I tend to get a little sloppy with my powers if I don’t give my brain some rest here and there. Probably more of a habit thing than anything. Kael doesn’t sleep at all.”
Her nose scrunches in disgust, but she doesn’t say anything. “Oh. Then yeah, I hope you don’t expect me to sleep in a cage.”
“If you’re a good girl, I don’t mind you sleeping in the bed. I kind of missed your drooling,” I tease, watching her as she moves a little closer.
“And what does that mean to Azazel?” she asks. “Or Christmas, or whatever you call yourself these days?”
“No one calls me Azazel, I made it up on the spot,” I admit with a huff. “But if you call me Christmas I’ll bring back that cage.”
She huffs, but tentatively sits on the edge of the bed. “I just meant... this version of you. I used to know what being good for you looked like, but something tells me it’s different now.”
Damn. She was moving closer to me and my response halted our progress. Baby steps, I guess. “I don’t actually know.” Because I haven’t had any sort of relationship since you. “I don’t think I’m that different. Am I?”
Shrugging a little, she stands up to pace again. “You don’t seem like the Adrian I knew. I didn’t think you’d ever put me in a cage, for example. And you definitely didn’t used to have a tail or wings or that... tongue.”
She’s not wrong. I haven’t felt like myself in a very long time, and was convinced the old me was dead.
But she stirs something familiar inside of me I can’t fully grasp yet.
I’m different, I’ve changed, but the one thing that hasn’t is how desperately I want to touch her.
To keep her. I’d have done anything to make her stay back when I was a human, but now I have powers that ensure she will.
Would I have done the same if it were possible back then? Who knows.
“Would you like to see what I can do with this tongue?”
Lys eyes me with a little bit of wariness as she stops walking. “I mean... yeah, obviously, but I still feel pretty gross. Do you ever actually shower or bathe down here, or do you actually feel clean when you do that little snappy thing?”
“No, I still like to bathe. Probably another thing that is more habit than anything. Do you not feel clean, Hellcat?”
I look her up and down, and try not to imagine her covered in my cum again.
As she glances down at her body, her eyebrows pinch. “I can see that I am, but no. I guess I don’t. Do you have a bathtub then?”
“Of course I do, but you hate baths.” I have a shower as well, but she doesn’t need to know that yet.
“I think a one-way premature trip to Hell allows me to change a few things about myself,” she mumbles. “If you can grow a tail and horns, why can’t I take a bath?”
“I wouldn’t call it premature, it was past due from my perspective,” I joke. “But fine, bath time it is.”
Using all of my supernatural speed, I grab her and toss her over my shoulder, ensuring I pull a yelp from her as I whisk her off to the bathroom.
Setting her down, I watch her take in the oversized black polished tub and glance at the doorless shower that takes up half the space thanks to the multiple detachable shower heads.
“Don’t expect clothes when you’re through. Down here, all you get are my shirts.”
She squirms a little, but I can’t exactly tell if it’s because she hates the idea or loves it. “Can you at least turn the music down a little? This song sucks.”
If fucking only.
“The DJ may as well be what you would know as the spawn of Satan. He doesn’t take requests, nor does he listen to volume suggestions. It only stops when I feel any semblance of happiness, and I’m convinced he only does it to make it feel even worse when it comes back on.”
Her face falls a little more, but she begins filling the tub as she looks around. “So you really aren’t happy to see me then.”
Happy doesn’t cover what I feel inside about this woman, but how do I explain it to her when I don’t understand it myself?
She was right, I’m not the same man I was before I died. How could I be? I’ve been broken down here like glass, had pieces stomped into dust that blew away in the breeze, never to be seen again.
And yet... she makes me forget, makes those jagged edges feel smooth and painless as they slowly slot back together the best they can.
Happy? Lysandra, you make me feel closer to whole than I’ve felt since you killed me, and for this feeling right here, I’d let you do it again.
But this feeling isn’t something that will change the music, because the DJ knows he can never take this away. No song ever could.
It’s mine.
She’s mine.
“I wouldn’t say that.”
It’s a lame response, but it’s all I’ve got right now.
Lys nods, still looking uncharacteristically uncertain as she strips my shirt off and slides in the tub. “Well in that case, I think there’s only one thing to do.” Her fingertips dance on top of the water before she drags the droplets up her arm. “Care to join me?”