Page 63 of Lust

Guilt eats me up as the platform comes to a stop outside his door. He pulls out his Hell Cell and holds it up to the sensor, unlocking the door, then he pushes the door open.

“Let me do something,” I insist, feeling distraught. “I can’t let you go in there on your own.”

“You don’t permit me?” Despite everything, he cracks a strained smile.

Fucking hell. He almost had his leg ripped from his body and he’s doing the least Dade-like thing possible - cracking jokes.

“That’s right,” I croak, tasting the salt of my tears over the demon’s blood. “I don’t permit you.”

He places his hands on my shoulders and puts his injured leg to the ground. I gasp as he puts weight on it.

“As you can see, I’m already healing.”

“I don’t want to leave you. I can’t leave you like this.” My voice is coarse and full of despair and I’m clinging to something, but I don’t know what. I only know that I don’t want him to close that door and have us on different sides of it.

His hands glide from my shoulders to cup my face, the touch electrifying and safe at the same time. “You saved me tonight, Valentine.”

“I nearly got you killed,” I choke out.

He brushes a strand of hair away from my face in a gesture that’s so incredibly intimate and then when I don’t think I can take anymore, he brushes his thumb down my cheek and over my lips that part slightly at the touch.

“Let’s stop this. Whatever distraction and menace we’ve created between us. No more tears for me, Valentine. I will be fine and so will you. We should put the past behind us and be friends.”

Friends seems such a bland word for the energy and adrenaline pulsating through my body right now. Then, in a gesture that most definitely isn’t friendly, he brings his lips to mine. Soft. I close my eyes and lean into him, but then he’s gone and when I open my eyes, the door is shut and I’m on the outside. Alone.

“Jesus Fuck!”

I look up to see Rowena and Juliette peering down at me from the level above.

They both begin to run down the stairs toward me. Juliette’s heels echoing on each step. “What happened to you?”

I don’t know what they mean until I look down. My clothes are ripped and coated in the demon’s blood. “It’s not my blood,” I huff out. “How long have you been standing up there?”

I shouldn’t care if they caught the interaction between Dade and me, but I want to keep it to myself. Especially the kiss.

“We just came out now.” Rowena glances up at the closed door behind me. “Is Dade okay?”

He’s not okay, but he’s way too much of a maddening asshole to admit it. “It’s not his blood either,” I concede. “I bit into a demon. Turns out they taste disgusting.”

“I don’t know,” Juliette shrugs. “They taste pretty damn delish when I…”

She’s cut off by Rowena’s dark stare. “Let’s get you upstairs. You need a bath. You stink.”

“It’s the demon.” My whole body hurts as we traipse up the stairs to the seventh level, but it’s my heart that stings the most.

“I’m guessing you didn’t find Twila?” Juliette asks as we stop at my door.

I shake my head. “The demon I bit told me it wasn’t possible that Hades invited us down. She’s not there. Hades either. I don’t know where they are, but at some point after we spoke to her, they left the Second Circle.”

33

THE SECOND CHALLENGE

QUINN

Every time I close my eyes, I hear Dade’s scream, feel the flash of pain in his aura, and see his face. The second trial is tomorrow and I should be concentrating on that, but my mind has other ideas. Tomorrow I’ll have to go into a room with Dade and lie to him. After agreeing to be friends, I’m going to be forced into deceit and if I try to warn him, we’ll lose even more points. I turn my mind to Remy. I’m going to have to lie to him too, but somehow I think that will be easier. He’s not my partner in the games. What I do tomorrow in the Earthery won’t affect him one bit. He could guess my identity the second he walks through the door and it won’t be him losing points, it will be me… and Dade. As my partner, Dade’s points are linked to mine. So, just like everything else in this God-forsaken hell hole, I’ll just have to take tomorrow as it comes and hope that I don’t manage to fuck it up somehow.

By the time the next morning arrives, I’ve twisted my mind into every conceivable scenario, and I’m exhausted from lack of sleep.

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