Page 31 of All's Hell That Ends Well

Azazel laughed, his eyes alight with humor, and the echo of his amusement—drenched with love—reverberated within me. “That is the most adorable snarl I’ve ever heard.”

Biting my lip, I played with the soft hair at the nape of his neck, my eyes on those strong shoulders of his. “The most?”

“Hands down.”

I preened.

When he spoke again, his voice was quiet, his affection touched with a serious note. “You make the most amazing demon.”

There was a suspicious amount of hot liquid in my eyes all of a sudden. “Do I?”

His hand cupped my cheek. “Zoe, I loved you as a human, and I loved you as an angel. You were perfect in either form. But this…” His thumb softly stroked over my lips, slipping between them to graze over my fangs that had not yet withdrawn again completely. “This might be my favorite iteration of you. Theyouthat you were always meant to become.”

I blinked to clear my eyes of tears, my smile wobbly. “So what you’re saying is that I’m basically a Pokémon?”

“What?”

“You know, I’ve been evolving. My starting form was human, then my first evolution was angel, and this is my second and final evolution—demon.”

He hung his head, his silky black hair falling forward, and though I didn’t see his face, I felt the ping of his amusement inside me.

I grinned, stupidly happy at making him laugh. It was by far one of my favorite pastimes.

He raised his head again, his gaze suddenly becoming laser-sharp. With a rough note that made me shiver deliciously, he said, “Show me your wings.”

The next moment, he turned us both around, with me straddling him. The move came so fast that I squeaked in surprise and steadied myself with my hands on his chest.

“Show me,” he ordered, and boy, when he gave a command in that sensual tone, I was ready to melt.

I extended my wings with a thought. Azazel’s eyes tracked over my shoulders, where my shiny new appendages rose in the air, and his face softened in awe.

“Even more beautiful than I imagined,” he murmured.

Butter me up and call me a biscuit, but I definitely melted at that compliment.

A crack sounded to my right, followed by a crumpling crash.

CHAPTER 10

With a wince, I looked around us for the first time since coming down from the high of our pleasure sesh.

The room lay in ruins.

Fire licked over the furnishings, eating at the tapestries. The table had collapsed underneath us, partially charred and broken, and we were currently lounging on the ashy rubble of it. More cracks split the walls than what I’d seen when I’d entered. The chandelier that had previously still hung, albeit a bit limply, had fallen and shattered on the floor.

Azazel grimaced as he looked around. “He’s going to have a fit when he realizes we wrecked his dining room.”

“Lucifer?” I scoffed. “Have you seen the rest of the palace? This is par for the course. He probably won’t even realize there’s more destruction here than before.”

His voice grew somber. “I noticed the decay when I walked through the halls. I’d heard rumors…” He shook his head. “Seems the state of his palace reflects the condition of his mind.”

“Yeah, he seems very much depressed.”

“I’m surprised he actually let you come here.” He raised a brow. “He didn’t appear particularly inclined to grant my request when I petitioned him earlier. I thought he was going to leave me standing here waiting for you for hours before eventually telling me to fuck off.”

“That was his plan, initially.” I pointed a finger at him and squinted one eye.

“Oh?” He tilted his head, boyish curiosity in his expression. “What changed his mind?”

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