Page 11 of Unholy Bond
“Good girl,” he said, and the room hummed in approval.
He released my face and paced a slow circle around me, leaving streaks of bloody footprints in his wake. The other demon knelt, head bowed, awaiting instruction. Lucifer ignored it, eyes locked on me as he made a show of inspection.
“Not bad for a mortal incarnation,” he mused. “I’d worried you’d come back diminished. But you wear her well, Lilith. The lines are cleaner. The hunger’s truer. The sadness is new, though.” He leaned in, sniffed at my hair as if searching for the scent of someone else. “Who did you leave behind, I wonder?”
I bit back a retort. Instead, I pictured Aziz’s arms, the strength in them, the comfort, the possibility of safety. I pictured Levi’s irreverence, his ability to make anything a game. I pictured Ian, the only one who’d ever understood what it meant to lose control and still want more.
Lucifer’s smile widened. “You’re thinking of them, aren’t you? The demons who fancy themselves kings.” He knelt behind me, pressing the hard shape of his chest against my spine. His breath was ice on my ear. “They’re nothing. Shadows. The only real thing in any world is us.”
I tensed but didn’t answer. His hands slid down my arms, lingering over the place where the claws had punctured me. He pinched the wounds, forcing blood to the surface. Then he traced a single finger along the vein of my wrist, as if contemplating how best to open it.
“Why did you bring me here?” I asked and winced at how small my voice sounded in the cavernous hall.
He laughed. “Because you belong here.” He licked the blood from my wrist, tongue hot and abrasive. “You always have. You were made for this place, even if you never believed it. You were the first, and you will be the last. And when everything else is ash, you and I will remain.”
He pressed his mouth to my neck, biting, not hard, but enough to draw blood. I gasped, more in surprise than pain, and he used the moment to tilt my head back, exposing my throat. He spoke into my skin.
“The others want to use you. Corrupt you. Make you a tool.” He paused, tongue snaking out to catch the blood. “. You are no sheath for demon cock. You are made for greater things. I want to make you my queen”
The word was loaded, meant to wound as much as seduce. I let him savor the moment, then spat a single, bitter laugh.
“You could never handle me,” I said. “You had to make a new breed just to fetch me from my bed. Afraid the old stock wasn’t up to the job?”
His grip tightened, claws threatening to break the surface of my skin. “They were soft,” he hissed. “Your children. My children. Weak from too much sentiment.” He let go, stood, and spread his arms wide, encompassing the hall. “Look at what I’ve built in your absence. A kingdom worthy of the name. A new world, Lilith. You should be flattered.”
I forced myself to stay still when what I really wanted to do was rip Lucifer’s heart out of his chest. That would have to wait.
The dead demon sprawled at my feet, leaking heat into the stone. I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand, the taste of blood thick on my tongue.
“Impressive,” I said. “But you still haven’t answered the question.”
He smiled, and this time there was nothing human in it. Only a vast appetite waiting to be satisfied.
“You’re not here as a prisoner but as a vessel.” He stepped closer, the air warping around him, the world itself bending to accommodate his desire. “You’re going to carry the Void, Lilith. You’re going to nurse it, let it fill you, let it devour all that petty mortal morality you picked up on the surface. And when you’re ready, you’ll open the gate.”
My heart hammered with a surge of forbidden hope. The Void was already a part of me. It pulsed inside me, a tide I’d tried to ignore. He wanted it to do what? Consume me? Control me? Then he was the fool, not me.
He circled again, running a single talon down my spine. I shivered, and it was not entirely unpleasant.
“Do you feel it?” he whispered. “The way it moves in you? The hunger?”
I closed my eyes, searching for the shape of the Void. It was no longer an absence. It was a solid, coiled entity, ready to strike. It waited for me, patient and sure, confident that I would welcome it when the time came. For the first time, I realized it wasn’t a parasite at all. It was a partner. An old, old friend.
I opened my eyes and looked straight at him. “I feel it,” I said, and let a slow, wicked smile creep across my lips.
He blinked, surprised by something in my face. Just for a second, the balance shifted, and I saw the shadow of doubt. His confidence, for the briefest instant, was shaken.
The moment passed. He gestured, and the remaining demon seized my arms again, rougher than before. He bent down to the corpse, licked the blood from its cheek, then looked back at me.
“Rest up, darling,” he purred. “The next time you’re here, it won’t be in chains.”
He turned, walking back up the dais, his bare feet leaving wet prints on the black. The demon hauled me toward the doors, and for a second, I let it, let the pain and humiliation settle into my bones. Then I looked down at the blood on my skin, the red smears across my lips, and I tasted victory.
Inside, the Void churned.We should kill him now and find our mates.
We will wait. Our time will come.
And it purred, pleased.
