The scene immediately shifted to the kitchen. My dad was standing at the stove, a skillet in one hand with a big spoon in the other. He was cooking fajitas, from what I could see. He always made fajitas for me every Sunday afternoon when I was growing up. But once he got sick, he stopped cooking altogether. And now, not only was he cooking, but he looked like he was having a blast doing it. There was no sound coming through, but I could tell by the way he was bobbing his head and swaying his hips that he was listening to music.
It was just two days ago that he could barely walk. Now he was standing straight, with not a trace of body language that betrayed any sort of pain.
“He looks like he’s in…” My voice trailed off, not daring to say the word on the tip of my tongue.
Lucifer’s golden eyes gleamed with warmth in the reflection of the pool’s surface. “Remission. He’s in remission, Jessica.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Jessica
Museum of Violence – Present
Remission.It was a miracle of a word, music to my ears. I had never been into the whole God thing, but I had stilled prayed for it. I prayed, and the devil had been the one to answer.
I spun around, my own eyes wild with hope. “You mean…?”
The corner of his mouth tugged up into a honied smirk. “A deal is a deal, Kitten. I always keep my promises.”
“But I thought you said you needed something of equal value,” I squeaked, my eyes watering with emotion. “I didn’t sign the contract.”
“Forget the contract. That was just a way to easily compel you so that I could get you to the Underworld without a fight. I asked for your heart instead, remember?”
I gave a weak nod. “I remember.”
“I wasn’t just talking about the kiss you’d given me. As sweet as that was, it wasn’t enough. I needed your whole heart.”
“Meaning…?”
He held my head in his hands and tilted it back, so our gazes locked. “Meaning, it was your love I needed in order to heal your father. And now that he’s in remission, it’s your love that I have.”
“Why didn’t you tell me it was ‘my love’ you needed?”
“Because then our little play session before dinner would have turned into a full-on reenactment of that night our beasts bonded on the second layer. As much as I would have liked that, I wanted you to remember who I was first. In any case, as delicious as your body is, that’s not what I meant by love. I needed your whole heart in order to pull off the trade.”
His arms tightened around my waist possessively, and his teeth grazed along the shell of my ear, causing me to inhale a sharp breath. “I needed you and the demon still inside you to know deep in your heart that you are mine.”
His words filled me with flames that licked at my core.
The devil had kept his word. My dad would be okay. I didn’t have to sell my soul to do it. Because according to him, he already had that.
He had all of it.
My soul.
My heart.
His tongue slipped from his lips and dragged over the delicate flesh of my throat, tasting the heavy thrum of my pulse. “And your body,” he rasped in my ear.
“I don’t remember giving you that,” I teased. “Maybe we should watch another memory in Lust?”
He flashed me a heated grin, his dark chuckle tickling my skin. “I’d rather make a new memory. But first I’d like you to look into the last pool, Kitten. I want you to get a glimpse of your future.”
My heart clenched at the idea of seeing any fragment of my future with Lucifer entwined in it. But curiosity was burning me up, so I stepped out of his embrace toward the third pool and peered inside.
“Step into the water, Kitten.” He directed from behind. “Ask the pool what it is you want to see.”
Kicking off my Louboutins, I grasped my skirt and tugged it up to step inside the pool. Wading to its center, cool water lapped at my ankles and soaked into the lower hem of the Alexander McQueen dress.
