Page 91 of Devil Bound
Mitch nodded.“Lust is a sin.”
Seriously, why were all psycho murderers so messed up when it came to sex?Lucy wasn’t.Fuck.I couldn’t think about Lucifer now.I needed to stay focused on buying the smith whatever time I could give him.I couldn’t think about the way Lucifer had made me feel, not now.It would leave me unable to do this.
“I didn’t know that then, not really.I…” I let my voice drop, speaking quietly.Mitch crouched down next to me again.
“What?”he asked.His voice had gone soft and caring.What had I even been thinking, letting this almost-stranger anywhere near me?
“I didn’t enjoy it at first, until I did.”Oh, the sweet half-truths.“I think I knew then and there that I was messed up.”All I’d known for sure was that Marc Deacon delivered a terrible performance in the sack, but at least he made a great show and tell.In retrospect.
Mitch put his gloved hand on my cheek.The gesture would’ve been tender if he hadn’t been wearing the gloves and wasn’t, well, crazy as fuck.
“Yes, you are.Temptation is everywhere.Everywhere you look.And witches like you choose it, every time.”
I knew he would kiss me even before he really initiated it.Everything went into slow motion, his reflective glasses and the smell of dried blood from that drain in the floor combining with the texture of his rubber glove against my skin.The smell of his skin.
The cold press of his lips against mine made something large and furious run through me, wilder than fear and harder to ignore than disgust.My magic stirred without me consciously reaching for it, and for the first time since I’d raised that dead bird back at school, the magic did what it wanted to do, and this time, rather than channel outward, itpulled, sucking the life force in instead of funneling it back.
It scared me.It almost scared me more than this place did, than Mitch did, than the knowledge of what he’d done did.
I gasped.Mitch stumbled back and fell to his hands and knees, the scalpel falling from his fingers.
What the fuck had I just done?Had I just—no, that couldn’t be.Reversed necromancy was the draining of the life force.It was…siphoning.Immortals who could do that were called succubi and incubi in the magical texts I’d studied at the Collegium.Some demons could do it.Some immortals too.Not humans.I was human.Channeling magic into and out of me wasn’t right.It wasn’t me.
But there was Mitch, on the floor.Clearly, I had donesomething.
The smith pulled against his restraints.Mitch wasn’t really down, and even as I watched him, he raised his head.Fury had turned his eyes glassy, and he was reaching for his scalpel again.That was not good.Not good at all.
“What demon spawn are you?”
Mitch’s voice sounded rougher, but he was getting back to his feet.Not fast, but steadily.
“I…I don’t know.”
I had no idea why I was telling him the truth.He wouldn’t let me do whatever the fuck I had done to him again, even if I knewwhatI had done or how to do it again.He’d kill me fast, and maybe the last thing I wanted to say before he slit my throat was the truth.
I hoped the scalpel wasn’t going to hurt.I hoped Christine would find the smith.A memory of Lucy flashed in my mind’s eye, looking too good, smiling like he was above the world and everyone in it.
His hair was always so fluffy, and I had a strange urge to touch it again, just one more time.
Well, it was too late for that now.
50
Lucifer
Tiamatwaskeepinghereyes on the road instead of looking at me.Probably a good thing.
“You are too old for this level of carelessness.But luckily, I’m just old enough to enjoy blood when it’s offered.”
“I will take responsibility.For Nelly.”
I’d informed her of this decision of mine a few times already, but driving the point home seemed advisable.I wasn’t entirely sure whether it was my blood she was talking about, after all.She was flooring the gas pedal of the Porsche, and Soul was providing the low background growl we all felt.
“Take responsibility.”She scoffed.“I shall be the judge of that.I don’t understand why you lied to me to begin with, Lucy.You’re not meant to be a liar.”
“I did not lie as such, Dragon Mother.I prevaricated.Nelly does owe me, and being my boyfriend is how I chose for him to pay.”
Or it had been.Now?Now, I just wanted Nelly back and chained to my bed, and if it took the Dragon Mother’s full support to get him there, then I was only too happy to do some groveling.I would even bleed, if that was what it took.
