Page 84 of Death is My BFF

“Tell me, kid, does being on the same page include you admitting your mistake today?”

“I don’t make mistakes.”

My phone went off from my pocket, blaring “Hells Bells.”

Lucifer placed his own phone flat on my desk, since he was the one who had called me, and ended it. “Subtle,” he said.

I rubbed the back of my neck and silenced the device.Damnit.

He knew about that too.

“Whatever, man. I broke things off with her as David. Got her all sad and vulnerable, just like you wanted, and yeah, I forgot to turn my ringer off. She put two and two together, so I had to save face with some bullshit story. Who cares?”

The temperature of the office rose to a sweltering level, enough to make my vision spin. I loosened the collar of my shirt with my finger, the heat in question coming from within me. Lucifer’s glare sparked to flame with condemning rage.

“Youcare,” he said suddenly, and there was a split second where I didn’t know what to say back. “Youlikeher.”

An irritated smirk sliced across my mouth. “You have misconstrued my actions as affectionate. Faith is not my type—”

“You’ve lost your touch, kid—”

“Donotpatronize me like I am a child,” I snarled, my temper flaring with a whip of shadow in the air. “I’ve existed on this planet far too long to have crushes on mortals.” My head tilted to one side as I lazed back into my chair again. “No offense . . . ”

Lucifer lunged toward me, launching himself over the desk. His hand bit into my throat, pinning me immobile against the chair, and I just sat there, unafraid, indifferent.

“For centuries, I have treated you like you are my own son,”

Lucifer said, looming over me. “Together, we have lived a life of luxury and power, butdo notforget how this alliance began.”

“Take a joke, Lu,” I said. “People will start to think you’re getting sensitive in your prehistoric age—”

Lucifer wrung my neck in a vise grip. His power lapped across my skin like molten flames, searing a layer of my skin underneath my sleeves. I grinned like a masochist basking in the anguish, fangs clenched together and bared, daring him to do his worst.

He squeezed my throat harder, and even though I didn’t need to breathe, the innate mortal instinct snapped into place, and I could feel the sensation of suffocating. I clamped down on his forearm to try to tear him off me. It was useless. He was too strong. I conceded, albeit reluctantly, with an animalistic snarl.

“I’m sorry,” I choked out. “I’m sorry, all right!”

Lucifer’s hand released me at once. I quickly recovered to show no outward weakness, though I was humiliated and seething inside.

He’d crushed my esophagus like a goddamn soda can with little effort. When was the last time I’d indulged on souls? I couldn’t let myself get weak like this. Not around Lucifer.

Back behind my desk, Lucifer uncapped my bottle of “whiskey” and poured it into a glass. He took a sip and grimaced. “Iced tea.

You’re a little shit, you know that?”

I kept silent, still simmering with rage, my jaw wired shut to resist all the snarky, venomous comments rampant in my vindictive brain. Immortal or not, an archangel of Lucifer’s age could tear my body limb from limb with ease and scatter my remains in all seven continents to slowly mend back together. Not that I’d personally tortured someone in that way . . .

“You and I, we have an understanding,” Lucifer said. “Don’t you want revenge? Don’t you want freedom? Without her, you know I cannot lift your Seven Deadly Sins curse.”

The grand illusion that our alliance was equal shattered centuries ago, after I’d struck a deal with the old Devil. I was twice cursed: my death curse, and the Seven Deadly Sins curse. In exchange for helping Lucifer secure a prophecy, he had promised to free me from the Seven Deadly Sins, which bound my soul to the realm of Heaven. It forced me to use my powers to collect all mortal souls and distribute them for the lucrative business of the afterlife.

Lucifer carved a shape on my desk with his talon. If I failed him, that single talon could cleave my entire body in half, black blood and gore pouring from the gash. He’d drag me to Hell and hang me up by my spine with my intestines spilling out. Where I’d stay, cursed, unable to feed and slowly mummifying, trapped in my own harrowing thoughts as I lost my mind. More than I already had.

“Bring me her soul by midnight tomorrow,” Lucifer said. “On All Hallows’ Eve.”

“Your wish is my command, Your Majesty.”

He vanished in a fit of flames.

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