“No,” I answered with a shake of my head. “I’m down.”
Maybe it was reckless. I could practically hear my mother in my ear.You don’t know him, Dany. Be smarter, Dany.
For once in my life, I ignored it. The thrill of that act alone sent a rush of adrenaline running through my veins.
A mischievous smile dimpled his cheeks and I swear I fucking melted right into his leather seats as Andrew turned a dial on the stereo with a cheer. Kiss blasted through the speakers, nearly matching the volume of my excited scream.
I threw my hands up to the sky and belted out the lyrics to one of my favorite songs with Andrew.“I was made for lovin’ you baby, you were made for lovin’ me!”
***
“Dany.” A low, melodic whisper wrapped around my dreams. “Wake up, dearest Dany.”
The last notes of Kiss drifted away, replaced by the low, sweeping chords of a cello.
My eyes fluttered open to a living darkness. Wisps of shadow moved like dancers across a ballroom floor, hues of blue and purple glittering with every swirl.
“What…” I pushed up from a cushion of onyx that sparkled as if plucked from the midst of a galaxy. “Where am I?”
“Where do you think you are?”
I startled, barely holding back a yelp as I turned toward the voice and froze. Not just any voice.
Hisvoice.
“Luci,” I breathed.
The small slant of his smile lit the surrounding dark and it was all I could see. “Dany.”
God he was dazzling. It made my heart flutter like a traitor.
Get it together, Dany.
“You know,” I said with a grunt as I stood, deciding that sarcasm was the best way to go until I could level myself. “Right around the time I died, this amazing thing happened with the telephone.”
“Oh?”
The way the word sounded like a velvet purr on his lips gave me chills. It was divine and devilish all at once.
“Yup.” I emphasized the P with a sarcastic pop to hide the sound of my gulp. “They removed the cord and made it pocket-sized. Now when you want to ask someone out on a date, you just call them. Ever thought about that, Luci?”
His eyes narrowed, and I stood hoping he couldn’t see the slight bulge of mine.
“I’m afraid I’m too old fashioned for a telephone, Dany.”
Small rays of light shown through arched windows of stained glass above, yet illuminated nothing. Flecks of debris floated through before disappearing back into the darkness.
“So the old nursery rhymes were right. The devil does make house calls.” My brows waggled above the most mischievous smile I could summon. “Except this isn’t any house I’ve ever lived in. So, where are we?”
Lucifer’s answer was a stare that robbed the air between us of oxygen.
I imagined that if normal people found themselves staring into the eyes of the devil, they’d do some sort of combination of shitting themselves, screaming the Lord’s Prayer, and pleading for mercy.
Me, though?
I felt like I was standing naked in a room full of people, but the only one I could see was Lucifer. A healthy dose of fear sent nerves flooding every nook and cranny of my insides. More than that was the anticipation coating my skin in sweat.
Judas help me. This man made me feel pent up in ways that I didn’t totally hate, but couldn’t come close to understanding. Rather than explore that with him–because why else would he bring me here other than to talk about the other night–I shut it down and did what Dany does best: deflect.
