Page 54 of To Crave Truly

“Oh,” she said, dragging out the syllable. “Maybe it’s just a coincidence?”

I rolled my eyes at her. “No such thing as a coincidence.”

She shrugged and brushed her chestnut curls over her shoulders. She really did have a lot of hair. All thick and long and why was I thinking about that?

Her eyes held mine for a moment before her head cocked imperceptibly to one side. Then a smile tugged at the corner of her mouth. There she went, talking to her demon again. It was odd watching them have a conversation and I wanted to study them. To see where Lori ended, and the demon began. Was that weird? Probably, but I was curious about them, nonetheless. She was an anomaly and there was nothing I loved more than a mystery to solve.

“Ah, here it is.” Lori reached out and opened a box on the shelf in front of her and there, sat on a cushion of black silk, was a perfect orb about the size of a grapefruit.

She reached out to grab it, but something prickled along the back of my neck. “Wait.”

Lucifer and Lori both snapped their eyes towards mine and the prickling sensation increased.

“Something’s wrong.”

The temperature dropped and the fiery torches went out.

“Shit,” Lori breathed. “Something’s definitely wrong.”

“Grab it and let’s go!” Lucifer shouted as he grabbed Lori’s hand and started to drag her back to the portal. She slammed the box shut and grabbed, tucking it safely in her arms.

Smoke started to pour into the room from vents in the ceiling and the air crackled with the electric hum of magic. What the fuck was all this? Why make it so easy to find what you wanted before setting the alarms off? It made no fucking sense, but I didn’t have the time to analyse it at the moment. Shouts and the echoes of boots thudded through the smoke.

“There’s someone else here,” Lori shout whispered as we made our way back to the portal.

“No shit,” I muttered back, and she gave me the middle finger, muttering something like ‘asshat’ under her breath.

“Fan out!” someone shouted, but I couldn’t pinpoint where they were. There was too much smoke. It was a magical smoke, no fire created this. It was thick and made it difficult for our supe senses to function which meant I couldn’t see the hand in front of my fucking face.

We hunched down behind one of the shelves and listened.

“They have to be here somewhere,” the voice came again.

“Shit,” Lori hissed. “It’s Alec.”

My eyebrows flew up. “As in leader of the Elite, has a major crush on you, that Alec?”

“Yes,” she growled. “And the drop in temperature means Cassian is here too.”

“Oh, well isn’t that fucking peachy,” I mocked.

“Will you two stop squabbling,” Lucifer seethed. “Now is not the time or place. Iver, take Lori and go. I’ll hold them off.”

“What? No.” Lori scrambled to catch hold of Lucifer before he disappeared into the smoke.

“You know it’s the right thing to do,” he said gravely. “Besides, what are they going to do to me?”

She gave a little laugh, but it lacked any real warmth. “It’s not you I’m worried about.”

Lucifer cupped her face and placed a kiss on her forehead. “They’ll be fine. I’m literally going to distract them to give you and Iver a chance to get back to the surface. I know what they mean to you.”

They embraced for a moment, and a wave of jealousy hit me square in the chest. I missed that. Those quiet moments of affection. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I missed sex too, but it was the little things I missed the most. The intimate touches, the quiet peacefulness of being with your soulmate. And, as I watched Lucifer and Lori exchange a quick kiss, a yearning rose inside me that wouldn’t be quashed.

I looked away from them, suddenly uncomfortable witnessing a moment of tenderness between them. My eyes burned and fuck, was I about to cry?

A hand wrapped around my arm softly. “Are you okay?”

Lori looked up at me with sympathy and pity in her eyes and I couldn’t bear it. “I’m fine,” I snapped, and almost regretted it at the look of hurt in her eyes. I sighed. “Lori—”

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