Chapter 23 #2
“I don’t get it. What do you care?” I pressed. “Do you want me to think you’re so much better than them? You pushed into my mind, invaded my thoughts when I was with Logan. You had no right to do that.” Even now anger and shame twisted inside me and my face flushed from the memory.
He stalked closer, face tightening with anger.
“But I’m your Virtue, as you keep telling me. Don’t I have a right to you just as much as your pathetic wolf?”
“Not until I give you those rights!” I fired back at him.
He went rigid. “You could have pushed me away. You didn’t. You want what I can give you, Lily. The things I can give you that no other can.”
Again, shame twisted inside me. Shame… and an insidious voice that whispered Cole wasn’t entirely wrong.
Sensing my hesitation, he grinned. “Don’t play the victim when all I did was walk through the door you opened.”
The rage in me roared to life.
I tried to fight it, because I could feel his influence working that rage like clay.
“You called me,” he reminded me, his voice a silken rasp. “I have no power over you that you haven’t already given me.” He let his gaze trace over my face, then lower before he finally met my eyes again and smirked. “As they say, careful what you wish for, little angel.”
That smirk set me over the edge and I lunged at him.
A second too late, I saw the gleam of victory in his eyes and knew I’d been played.
The trap snapped shut, a magical barrier rising up to pin me in place. I couldn’t slow my forward momentum, though, and I didn’t try, slamming my fist into Cole’s jaw with all the strength I had.
He flew back, slamming into a column. A crack raced up the middle of it.
Cole didn’t seem to care. He sat there, staring at me as he laughed.
“You made that so easy, little angel.”
“You piece of—”
Metal clinking together cut me off. Cold metal. It snapped around my ankles and wrists, dragging me down as I crashed to my knees.
“You shouldn’t let your anger overpower you, Lily. You’re a Champion. You have entire realms depending on you.”
“Asshole,” I snapped.
I tried to reach out for the connection back to my body, but couldn’t seem to move. Languorous warmth replaced all the blood in my veins.
“Don’t bother,” he said, his smugness making me want to slap him in the face. “I’ve bound your soul to this place. Your physical body will slip into a coma while I untangle the mess you’ve made.”
“The mess I’ve made?” I shrieked.
He sighed and looked again to the horizon. I spotted it now, that faint, distant gleam of brilliant light.
“Fallen angels are an incredible nuisance, and you’ve poured a legion of them into my brother’s domain. Their anger… it’s so righteous, I can hardly even use it.” He knelt at my side, the tip of his tail running up the inside of my thigh. “I’ll deal with them… and then? Then, you’re mine.”
Cole had made a mistake yapping his mouth, thinking me defenseless. He’d lowered his guard too much.
And then he touched me.
I opened myself to the succubus darkness within me, divulging it a freedom I never would have allowed with anyone else.
Cole went rigid when I stood, snapping the chains as I spread my wings. The poor fool. His magic ran off of Hell, a power that ran through my veins, too.
I traced my finger under his chin, drawing him to me as a glimmering blue fog of my own drifted around us, tickling his nose. His nostrils flared as he took in my scent.
“Ambrosia,” he whispered, his voice holding a tremble of desire that made me bite my lip.
The floral scent I’d come across in Purgatory had been one of my own making.
My angelic powers coming to life.
Now, I twisted them, working them in tandem with my hybrid nature. I was a succubus and a fallen angel, an intoxicating combination for a creature like Cole.
“You underestimated me, Cole.”
He growled as I hauled him to me. “It won’t happen again,” he vowed as I threaded my fingers through his hair, gripping at the roots. I tilted him in the way I wanted, then I formed my lips to his.
He didn’t fight me as I let my hunger free.
I devoured him, drawing in his magic. I ran my tongue along his as he gave himself over to me. The temptation I offered ran too hot, too fast.
The raw potency of his power punched into me, making me gasp.
His tail wound up my ankle, gripping me, not wanting me to go. “Lily…” he breathed out, his voice harsh with need. “Stay with me.”
He knew I meant to leave him here, just like he had planned to do to me.
He kissed me again, his intoxicating power flowing into me in ruthless waves.
He had passed my test, but he still had a long way to go. He wanted to claim me, to own me, and as it stood now, he would not share.
It would be too easy to give myself over to my natural state, one where I lived as a creature of Hell and darkness, but my other Virtues had brought so much more out in me. I had only just begun to understand myself and my destiny.
The correct path is not always the easiest one. I tore away from him before I could give in to the future he unfurled in my mind.
He roared, his familiar rage bursting out in a shockwave at the denial.
I stepped outside the inner circle and the barrier reacted, snapping up again.
Guilt flared and I couldn’t shove it away. Even if he’d been planning on doing just this to me, I didn’t like the idea of leaving him trapped.
But I couldn’t risk leaving him free to interfere, either.
I still had two more Virtues I had to find.
And with six days to go, time was running out.
“Behave, Cole,” I murmured before turning back to the fog. “Think about which side you’re on while I’m gone.”
As soon as I did, the dream started to fall apart, a chaotic noise pushing into that weird twilight that lingers between dreams and waking.
“Lily!”
Olivia’s urgent voice had struggling up out of the lingering dregs of the dream world and I sat up, looking around in confusion.
And Olivia perched next to me on the bed, her hand on my arm. “Lily… wake up!”
“I’m awake,” I said, adrenaline shooting through my veins. “What’s going on? I thought you were with Trevor?”
A thunderous boom came from outside and glass shattered as heat billowed into the room. My uni-hare squeaked and curled into the soft feathers at my back.
“It’s Lucifer,” Olivia said, her eyes wide and filled with terror. “He's here!”