It was terrifying addressing the man who’d hurt me, but to even call him a man right now was a stretch. He was a monster in every sense of the word. His stature was so great, it took up most of the elevator, leaving little room for me. The flesh of his true form was the color of steel, the only color on his skin being the elaborate mural of satanic runes covering his chest and forearms. His razor-sharp teeth glinted in the elevator’s fluorescent lighting as his lips peeled back into a baleful grin.
“That’s right,” he seethed, leering down at me. He took a step closer, and I instinctively took one back. But there was no place to run. I was trapped, practically smashed up against him with no room left between us. The heat rolling off him was like standing next to a furnace. His leathery wing curved around my body like a hellish hug and pulled me up so that his mouth was level to my ear. I cringed at the touch of his grinning lips against my skin.
“I wanted to see all that hatred filling up your pretty eyes when the celestials drag you away. I love when your face twists up like it is now, carved with so much loathing.” His tongue flicked out, dragging over my neck, rough and slimy over my flesh. A dark cackle split my ear as he watched me struggle against him. “Because damn, does it make me hard, My Queen.”
Everything inside me turned to stone as the demon pressed my back up against the elevator, imprisoning me between the cold steel and hard muscle. I could feel every inch of him. The sandpapery drag of his tongue on my flesh, the ripple of his abdomen against my belly, the thick meat of his hunger jabbing into my thigh.
Even the archdemon’s scent was invasive. And yet, the small enclosure still smelt faintly of Lucifer’s smoky musk. Its flavor in my nostrils was the only thing keeping me from audibly retching as Abaddon’s metallic breath slithered inside my mouth. His grunts in my ear, his dark chuckle as he tasted the frantic hammer of my pulse, his crushing grip… It all took me back to a dark place.
Using every fiber of my willpower, I forced my lips into a smug smirk and centered my gaze on his.
“If you get off on my hatred so much, why give the satisfaction of my suffering over to the celestials? You despise them.”
“I hate Lucifer more,” he snarled through a manic grin. “You should have seen his face when he discovered Michael had broken into Limbo and stolen his precious mate right out from underneath him.”
Flashes of that horrible day were trickling back. I could still feel the warmth of Lucifer’s lips on mine with his parting kiss as he went to fetch the last of my things. We were supposed to leave the nine circles that day. Our centuries-long trek through Hell had finally come to an end, and I had been wrestling with a wine cask to celebrate the journey when I felt a gust of wind. The door to the cellar had opened, and I turned, expecting to see Lucifer there. Instead, it had been another celestial.
I’d never seen Michael before, but I knew who he was the moment I saw him. And I knew by the evil glint in his eye why he was there.
He’d been too strong for me, even in my true form. He overpowered me in seconds, and when he’d dragged me out to the surface, Abaddon had been there to rub in his betrayal. I still couldn’t remember much of what happened after that. White clouds. Whispered voices. Rough hands. The glint of a dagger. The sudden stab of excruciating pain. Then nothing.
“Except he didn’t break in. You let him in. You gave me to Michael.”
“That’s right. All these years of kissing Lucifer’s ass, pretending like I just forgot that he stole my crown and my queen will almost be worth it, seeing it a second time.”
“Why the long game? Why not try to kill him?”
Abaddon shrugged his massive shoulders, momentarily blocking out the fluorescent light, shadows swallowing my frame. “The celestials want to be the ones to kill him. Once he follows us to the surface, they’ll be ready for him this time. If you’re lucky, they might even kill you together. Wouldn’t that be romantic? And once you’re both gone, I’ll be able to reclaim Hell’s throne.”
“What if I’m reincarnated again?”
“God reincarnated you so he could hold up his end of that stupid deal he struck with Lucifer. The one where Lucifer could get his wings back if he found his fated mate and could prove it. But he won’t reincarnate you if his son is dead. There would be no reason to.”
Something wasn’t adding up. If God didn’t care enough about his son to stop Michael from killing him, why would he care enough to offer Lucifer a way to get his wings back by going as far as to bring back his fated one? It didn’t make any damn sense.
“Even if you are reincarnated, what’s it matter?” Abaddon challenged, his spittle flecking my face, yanking me out from my thoughts. “You won’t come back with your memories. Celestials and demons are gone forever once they die, so Lucifer won’t be finding you again.”
The half-assed plan that began to unfurl in my head was as shaky as all these old memories flooding back to me. But if I knew anything about Abaddon the Destroyer, he wouldn’t be able to resist the temptation of killing me himself if there was something in it for him. Something he’d always lusted for.
Pain and suffering were brought by his own hand. Or, in this case, maybe his cock. Who knows how long he had gone without getting his fix. He wouldn’t have been able to wreak the sort of havoc he did back in the day while under Lucifer’s watch.
I couldn’t blame Lucifer for thinking the demon had changed. Hundreds of years of acting like an almost normal person, you’d think would change a man. But no. Abaddon was all bent up. He was like a shaken bottle of soda, and now he needed a place to explode. After so many years plotting his revenge, he wanted more satisfaction than witnessing mine and Lucifer’s demise under the hand of someone else he hated. Especially a second time.
That was my only shot of stalling him, and it was a dangerous one. Not only that, it was bat-shit insane. Not to mention the mere thought of it made me want to vomit. But for the sake of making it convincing, I’d have to keep any puke out of the equation.
“So that’s it?” I gave a dry cackle. “That’s your big revenge? You do all the hard work, then you stand by and watch as the celestials reap the rewards? Why should they get to kill us? Why shouldn’t it be your hand that deals the final blow? Why shouldn’t your face be the last we see?”
The demon’s eyes slitted. “You’re going to die either way. What do you care who does it?”
“You’re not the only one who hates the celestials. You and I have a past. I may love Lucifer, but even I can admit that I fucked you over. You deserve your pound of flesh.”
I’d never been much of an actor, but that one semester I took that theater elective must have paid off because Abaddon was drinking up every word I managed to push out, my tone dark and sultry. “At least we can have a little fun before I go.”
Since he still had me pinned between him and the elevator wall, it wasn’t like I had to convey my meaning. I ground my pelvis into the mass of his thigh, biting my lip which probably looked enticing when in reality, it was to hold back a shudder.
The demon’s monster-sized cock swelled, urged on by my depraved suggestion. He could probably see my contempt for him under the thin layer of my act. But by the lick of his grinning lips and the deep, guttural purr rumbling from his chest, he didn’t care.
“So desperate to stay alive that you’d fuck the monster about to kill you? Damn, you really are my mate.”
