The demoness paused as though she held back a rebuttal.
Before she could bring Lucifer’s wrath on herself, Saer growled and shrugged out of her hold, stumbling to a stiff kneel.Crimson pooled under Saer’s knee.Lightheadedness threatened to pull him over.
Lucifer pivoted and gazed upon him with tired, hooded eyes.
Neyu’s hooves scraped and clopped as she retreated, and Saer lowered his gaze to the floor to avoid witnessing her disappointment.He swallowed past an iron-coated tongue.
“What have you brought me, Saerkhanum?”
No concern for his wellbeing, nor for the state he’d arrived in.Spite prickled under his skin as words lodged in his throat.Now that he’d been reunited with Neyu, that familiar and selfish urgency formoresang in his core.
“You’ve brought me nothing,” Lucifer said, Its voice lower and colder all at once.
Saer’s stomach plummeted, his pain-riddled mind working overtime.“Master, I’ve—”
Lucifer’s disappointment and rage filtered into Its foreboding growl.
“I’ve brought you information.”The words fled Saer’s lips, and the low rumbling from his maker quieted.
“Say more, child.”
“Creatures wounded me.They looked like…” Saer hesitated again.Would the description upset his maker?Would it be the last thing he said?
“Like what, Saerkhanum?”
“Like you, Master.”He squeezed his eyes shut.
Intrigue answered instead of anticipated pain.“Tell me more.”
Saer exhaled, dizziness spinning in his head.“Smaller, darker, without wings.They communicated in a language I couldn’t understand.”
“Hrm.”
He wavered where he knelt, wounds throbbing.
“I know you’ve never seen battle before, Saerkhanum, nor have you felt the pain of it, but that doesn’t excuse your failure to complete that which you swore to.”
Saer held his tongue against the frustration smoldering inside.He’d been given no guidance!No one could have done better than him.
“Show me your most severe injury.”
Pushing past the nausea roiling in his stomach, Saer managed to transfer his shuddering weight and bring his right leg forward for the fallen angel’s scrutiny.
Lucifer leaned in, Its eyes molten and hungry, bringing the starving surface creatures back to the forefront of Saer’s mind.
The fallen angel grazed a hand over Saer’s hip, smearing blood.His breath hitched with the unexpected sensation, caught between craving Lucifer’s touch and guarding himself from it.
Lucifer’s index finger lengthened and sharpened—then plunged into the worst of Saer’s wounds, just below his hip.An agonized howl caught in Saer’s throat.When Lucifer touched the base of the wound, It stopped and hovered over him, stroking the fingers of Its free hand along his muzzle.“Good, Saerkhanum.You’re already learning to tolerate pain well.That will only improve with time.”
Saer couldn’t respond, only gasp.
The fingertip heated within Saer’s flesh until it burned, then scalded, then cauterized.Lucifer withdrew the digit with slow intent.The concentration of Hellsfire healed him from the inside, out.It should have felt soothing.
It was anything but.
A harsher cry shoved against Saer’s clamped teeth.Lucifer’s searing appendage slid back through the thick, strong muscle, along tendons and ligaments.Blood boiled and flooded anew.Second after languid, nauseating second, Lucifer pulled back until only the tip of Its finger remained embedded in Saer’s leathery flesh.
The fallen angel’s digit at last emerged from Saer’s skin, and like rock to molten lava and back, the razored tip reformed.Lucifer dipped Its hand and swept up the scalding blood pouring down Saer’s shank and thigh.
