Page 38 of Replaced Mate

"You've got your father's temper," Lucifer's voice was an overlay to Barimuzgrabbing Arias's ass. Even with the drain of the cage, I could feel my angel's fury. "Do you think she'll be embarrassed when she realizes?"

Don't tell Lucifer to shut up, I told myself.

I breathed through the rage, willing her to realize, to miss me or feel me orsomething. It's easier to just not talk to the fallen angel when he poked at me; he didn't really want a response, anyway.

"Either way, you should probably thank Barimuz since he saved your relationships after that outburst of yours. Honestly, did you think being a fallen angel was all rainbows and sunshine? You're just as predisposed to being naughty as any otherfallencreature. You didn't wonder where that sporadic empathy came from? It's definitely not your dad's side."

His chuckle was echoing in my cell. I wished I could block him out.

"I mean, sure, age has a lot to do with it, but your dad’s not just batty because of that. We're all a little off-the-walls in our own way."

I watched Aria lean into Barimuz, cheeks flushed and eyes sparkling, and the desire to tear him to pieces settled in my chest in a low growl.

Clapping broke through the red haze trying to take over, and I shook my head rapidly.

"Wonderful!” Lucifer cheered. “I know these cages block out… well, almost everything, but hopefully, your wolf will get a bit territorial. I'd hate to have to resort to torture so soon."

The time difference.

A wave of dizziness hit me in the chest at the realization that I hadn't been gone for a few hours—I'd been gonedays. Weeks, maybe. I tried to do the math in my head to no avail, feeling beads of sweat roll down my temples.

"I do wonder about your brothers, though. They're awfully soft, considering everything. Maybe it's the human in them? I know the Upper Council tried to portray them like a blank canvas, but they do dilute the bloodlines, you know. We'd have wiped them all out ages ago if anyone had listened to me."

I shuddered at the thought and closed my eyes when Barimuz pressed a—blessedly—chaste kiss to her lips.

"I wonder if he'll sleep with her." At that, he sounded a bit pissy. "It would ruin everything if he did. Though it would be interesting to see if the bond considered it a rejection since she did it unknowingly, or—"

"Shut up."

The snarl ripped out of me, and the silence that followed was eerie. I couldn't even find it in me to be nervous; the anger had settled over me like a warm blanket.

"I'll allow you that one since I know the bond is riding you hard right now, but keep in mind who I am, little boy."

Then, with that soft, hissed threat, he was gone.

It was amazing how I could feel him leave despite not being able to see beyond the image of my mate being doted on by someone wearing my face.

Bastard.

The days dragged on. I got to watch my mate speeding through her days without realizing anything was amiss—and it was driving me fucking insane.

I knew being angry with her was irrational, but seeing them together was the worst form of torture I could imagine.

Unfortunately, Lucifer was not as unimaginative as I was.

"Honestly, after everything you two have gone through…" He clicked his tongue, shaking his head. "Your bond being this weak is unexpected."

For some reason, when he appeared before me, clad in his pristine suit and that stupid mug I wanted to shatter on the marble floors, I felt a pulse of heat in my chest. It burned, lighting me from the inside out, and I let out a strangled noise when it became too much.

"Now I have to do this the old-fashioned way. What a disappointment."

I was pretty sure that the burning wasn't real, even though I could see my skin reacting to it and feel thescreamingof my nerve endings as he laughed.

"He said she can't feel you at all when he reported back."

Lucifer was watching me, head tilted at an odd angle and smile a bit too large. When the pain subsided and left me a trembling mass of skin and spasming muscle, I realized that he reminded me of the twins—he had features that looked normal but weren't sitting quite right on his face, giving off flashes of something beneath that I couldn't make myself comprehend. Even his stillness was disturbing, so far from human that I was unnerved despite my best efforts.

"That's very unusual, even given the circumstances. There should besomethingthere, even if it feels a little numb, but shereallybelieves he's you. It's fascinating."

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