“This way,” Lucifer said with a jerk of his head. He began walking down a set of stone steps sunken into the middle of an uneven floor. I hurried to keep up with him, not wanting to get lost in Hell.
Thankfully, the icy wind didn’t follow us down the stairs. Flames erupted along the torches as if responding to the Devil’s presence. It was his domain, after all.
“Show off,” I muttered as we trotted down the thin set of steep steps. He glanced over his shoulder and grinned.
“Here I am the king, Cora, you would do well to remember that fact.”
“You might be a king, but you are not my king.”
“I suppose that crown goes to the cat?”
“Hudson doesn’t need me to worship at his feet.”
“You really believe that?”
“Yes.”
“Then you are a fool. All men need their woman to bow down to them, it is their nature.”
“Clearly, you are stuck in the previous century. Since then, women have burned their bras, gone into space, and fought for equal rights.”
We spilled out into a throne room, complete with hundreds of candles and a red carpet leading down the center to his dark and twisted throne. He probably built it with bones of the damned. Ugh, please don’t let it be a bone throne.
“It isn’t about society’s progress,” he continued. “It’s about the fundamental nature of a man needing to control a beautiful woman. It’s a greater symbol of power than any amount of money or status.”
A tremble of apprehension rippled through me. “Well, he’s shit out of luck if that’s what he expects.” The words flew out of my mouth before I could stop them.
The seed of doubt wiggled in my soul. If Hudson needed that kind of worship, I couldn’t give him it. We were doomed.
I shook my head. This is what the Devil did, he made you question what you knew in your heart to be true. Hudson didn’t want a simpering female, there were a hundred of them begging for his attention in the pack. He wanted me. He wanted my darkness, my secrets, he took my ugly along with my beauty and made anything seem possible. With him I am complete, not oppressed. The Devil was wrong.
Lucifer’s smile widened as I raised my head and squared my shoulders. “Nice try, Uncle.”
He shrugged. “Just testing the strength of your connection and conviction, making sure he is a worthy partner for my niece.”
We passed through the empty throne room and out a door on the right. Another cold empty corridor. Where were all the demons?
“I had the castle cleared of all my servants for your arrival. I didn’t want any of them getting ideas about the purity of the angelic soul in their midst, as it is, you will be difficult to conceal.”
“Thank you, I think.”
He pushed open a set of double doors and I came screeching to a halt. Gone was the medieval castle with stone floors and cold drafty corridors. Now we’d stepped inside a modern room with a white marble floor. Gold accented furniture littered the space, and it was warmed by a roaring fire.
I blinked.
“You think I command the legions of Hell and sit in that barbaric atmosphere?”
“Well, yes.”
He snorted as he shook his head and shed his suit jacket, placing it on the back of a huge overfilled cream sofa. Not exactly the color to cover blood stains.
“The rest of the castle is for show, it’s the posturing needed to lord over the worst of humanity. Here is where I live and conduct much of my business, in warmth and comfort. Out there, you’ll catch your death.”
“Literally,” I mumbled, not enjoying this very domesticated and ordinary peek behind the curtain.
I clutched my bag to my chest tighter, using it as a barrier to stop me seeing him as an actual person. It’s easier to think of him as the embodiment of evil.
“I have two of the victims in the kitchen,” he said. Oh, wellnowit was easier. Who kept bodies in the kitchen? Any self-respecting person would at least keep them in the basement. That’s what I did.
