Nope, I wasn’t actually considering it.
It’s not like he could actually save my dad… Could he?
I laid in bed for hours, thinking about Lucifer Morningstar.
There were a lot of things troubling me, and the least of it was that I now believed he was who he said he was. I mean, yeah, okay, so he was the devil. That shit was pretty heavy. This meant Heaven was real; Hell was real. I’d never really been a religious person, but maybe it was time to get into the whole Jesus thing, especially if I was having these kinds of thoughts about the devil.
Why was I so attracted to Lucifer Morningstar? Lucifer—fucking—Morningstar.
The Prince of Darkness.
The King of the Night.
Lord of the Fallen.
The Light Bringer.
I tasted that last one out loud, testing its weight on my tongue. I wondered if that’s what the bouncer had meant by calling me “Little Moth;” that I was attracted to a light that would destroy me?
It made me wonder if the precarious chemistry Lucifer and I shared stretched deeper than mere physical attraction. Whatever it was, it was electric. It was dangerous. And intoxicating. I couldn’t stop thinking about what it had felt like when his hand brushed against mine, that inexplicable warmth, like the most delicious hellfire. And the way his lips twitched and his dark lashes fluttered when he’d gleaned all my filthy thoughts, and how he didn’t make me feel embarrassed for them.
I had two very different sides of my personality, and one of them I actually talked to in my head. I had arguments with the little voice in my head that tried to make me do stupid things. That shit wasn’t normal. But he hadn’t made me feel abnormal. He made me feel desired. It had me questioning exactly what it was he wanted from me.
I turned my head on my pillow to gaze at the contract that I’d placed on my bedside table. I’d been starring at it for hours. It wasn’t until the cusp of dawn began leaking through the drawn curtains of my bedroom window that I finally drifted into a shallow sleep, dreaming of the devil and his infernal smile.
Chapter Five
Lucifer
She’s the one, my internal beast purred as we watched Jessica Sims rush out of the club like she had a demon on her tail. I chuckled at my own joke and threw back the last drops of the drink she’d made me. Her scent lingered on the air, and I breathed it in, reveling in its fresh fragrance. The little human with the bravery of a lion smelled like fresh air and sunlight.Just like her.
I wanted to believe it was her. Desperately. After centuries of searching, I wasn’t sure my beast could handle yet another year without his mate. I was aching for my sweet Lilith. Years of searching for her reincarnated soul had left us exhausted and ready to throw in the towel. I had to consider that maybe this woman stirred the spirit of my celestial beast simply out of wishful thinking.
It has to be her,he whined in my ear.
As much as I wanted to believe him, I needed proof. She had no memory of me. That was to be expected since her soul had been reincarnated. She was going to look different, too. She was bound to bedifferent.But I wanted so desperately for my mate to be buried somewhere in there.
My attention shifted, my gaze locking with sky blue eyes glaring at me from across my club.
He’d been watching me with Jess, and by his venom dipped glower, he’d wanted to break it up.
I’d never formally met him before, but I knew who he was. There weren’t many guardian class celestials in the city, and this one was no doubt keeping tabs on me. Probably on my brother’s behalf.
My lip curled at the thought of Michael.
What made it even more complicated was that his ward was Melanie, Jessica’s friend. By the thoughts I’d extracted from both their minds, neither of the women knew about guardian celestials or Paradise at all.
They would very soon.
The celestial had come in here to find his ward. Even more curious than the fact that he’d somehow gotten past Abaddon was that he had shifted. His feathery white wings spread out, taking up much of the lounge space. A celestial glow emanated from him, the entire area pulsating with his holy power. His celestial eyes on his forearms, three on each arm, blinked at me.
I always thought the extra eyes of a guardian’s true form were curious. They could see seconds into the future in combat situations. It was a power I’d never had back when I was a guardian, eons ago. As the first-ever guardian, my father had thought it would be great fun to give me the power to read the minds of humans instead.
Ironically, He’d lacked the foresight to see where it had gotten me. I was able to glean my ward’s thoughts, and temptation could not be avoided. I’d had my wings ripped away as punishment, and in doing so, I was robbed of my ability to shift into my true nature.
The beast inside me growled low in my ear, my stomach twisting with heady envy as we looked upon the celestial in his true form.
Meanwhile, my beast was forever stuck inside me, my own body a prison. I could quite possibly never shift again, never fly, never feel the stretch of my wings. At least until I saw her.
