Page 131 of Guarded
If I thought there was a chance he could do it, maybe I’d allow myself some hope, but as much as I loathed it, this place had been my home once upon a time. I knew all too well how protected it was. The variety of powers and abilities the demons who lived here had. How they’d all fight to their immortal deaths to protect the circles.
It just wasn’t possible. Even with the Seraphim at his back, it would be too difficult.
All that would happen would be Noah’s execution. Lucifer would make me watch, too.
It’d be the best way to torture me.
Fortunately, Lucifer seemed to be in the dark about my connection to Noah. If he knew I’d found my mate, and that he was an archangel, he would’ve thrown it in my face by now. His silence on the topic meant he had no idea.
Thank fuck for small mercies.
Since going topside, being trapped back in this room again had been my biggest fear. But now I was living it, I knew how wrong I’d been.
My biggest fear was losing Noah. Knowing that he’d given up his immortality for me. Because of my past actions.
I forced my mind away from that and back to how I’d got here. Curiosity got the better of me. “What happened to the wolf shifters?”
Lucifer smirked over his shoulder. “They joined their kin in the endless nothing.”
I shouldn’t have been surprised, but somehow, I was. “What, you hired them to kidnap me, then executed them for their efforts?”
Lucifer tutted as he picked up some pliers. “All of these impertinent questions, Jeremiah. Have you really been topside for so long that you’ve forgotten how this works?”
He drew closer, his thumb biting into my chin as he forced my mouth open. “I’ll answer, but only because you won’t have a tongue to ask any more questions. Your screams are all I want to hear going forward.”
The cool metal of the pliers fixed around my tongue. I braced myself, waiting for the excruciating pain that was about to flood through me.
“I didn’t hire them,” Lucifer said, drawing out the moment. Fucker. “Someone else did.”
What the fuck?If it hadn’t been Lucifer, then who?
“You were simply dropped on my doorstep as a gift. But naturally, I couldn’t let the shifters live. Not after they thought perhaps I owed them something in return.”
A shiver went through me. This right here was why I didn’t want Noah coming down here. Those eight shifters weren’t weak. They’d taken me down almost effortlessly.
But Lucifer had executed them all single-handedly. Likely at the same time, knowing him.
He always did love the dramatics.
“Deep breath,” he crooned, a cruel grin playing on his lips. “I’ve been told this hurts a touch.”
Cunt.I understood why his sons hadn’t executed him. Someone had to be the figurehead down here, and it wasn’t a role any of them wanted. But right now, I really wished they had.
Before he could do more than tighten his grip, there was a huge explosion.
Lucifer’s head snapped up. His hand went slack, the pliers falling from my mouth. “What the?—”
Several more blasts sounded in quick succession. The table beneath me vibrated as the whole room shook. Dirt fell from the ceiling, lightly covering Lucifer’s raven hair.
“We’re under attack,” he bellowed, striding for the door and throwing it open. “Demons to your battle stations. Now!”
Chaos was breaking out in the halls around us. Screams from the outer ramparts suggested there were at least a few who’d been caught up in the explosions.
Please don’t be Noah. Please. Anyone else. Not him.
Lucifer had disappeared from the room now, buying me a few minutes’ reprieve. He likely didn’t think I was connected—there was no way he would’ve left otherwise.
Hopefully I wasn’t. Lucifer had countless enemies. It came with the territory of being the leader of Hell. It could be anyone. Anyone at all.
