Lucifer (Dark Angels Book 1)

by Mandy Lee

  Then there was that kiss...Katia had never experienced anything like it. The world had disappeared and every nerve ending in her body had come alive. She’d have made love to him in a heartbeat with no regrets. He had set her on fire. Luc was a mess of contradictions. He was dark and light, good and evil, strong and vulnerable, kidnapper and savior, her nightmare and her dream, all in the most hottest package she’d ever seen. He’d kissed her with a passion that had seared straight through to her soul; she could have stayed locked in his embrace forever.

  Katia grabbed her brush and dragged it mercilessly through her hair. Once the knots were out, she found a hair tie and began to twist her hair up behind her head into a rough bun. She watched herself in the mirror as she maneuvered the thick length of hair. Suddenly her vision blurred, her hair tumbled back down her spine as she dropped it to rub her eyes.

  She opened her eyes and looked back in the mirror. It was still there, blurring around the edges as she looked at her reflection. Katia blinked hard and rubbed her eyes again. Time to check and see if Amir had any eye drops lying around. She turned, ready to stand and leave the room, and realized as she looked around...everything was clear, sharp, and in focus. Shrugging, she spun back around to finish with her hair and gasped. Overlaying her shocked expression in the mirror was another face, a face so shockingly similar to hers it stole her breath. Heart pounding so hard she thought it would explode in her chest, Katia reached forward toward the ghostly image with a shaking hand. Shock, panic, and wonder flickered across the face of her spectral visitor. Katia wondered if he saw the same expressions in her. The image suddenly began to recede, as though it was being pulled backwards by a thread.

  “Don’t go,” Katia whispered as she reached forward. Just as her fingertips made contact with the cool glass of the mirror, the image vanished, leaving her alone and shaking. As her heart rate slowed, a profound sense of loss washed over her. Turning on the stool with her back to the mirror, Katia leaned her elbows onto her knees and dropped her face into her hands. An icy chill moved through her that seeped down to her bones. Her eyes burned as tears formed and slowly leaked out, they slithered in frosty tracks down her cheeks. A loud sob wrenched free from her throat. It felt like someone was reaching into her chest and squeezing her heart.

  The image of that ghostly face was burned into her mind. She’d seen the tangled mass of black hair surrounding a thin, pale face, the dark eyebrows arching over tell-tale mismatched eyes of green and blue. He was real. Her brother was real; he was alive somewhere in Halja suffering who knew what horrors while she sat safely tucked away in this apartment. Guilt assailed her as her tears began to pour.

  The bedroom door suddenly crashed open, the frame splintering. Katia’s head snapped up to see Luc standing in the doorway, wild-eyed with panic and concern.

  “What happened?” he shouted, eyes roaming over Katia’s body looking for injuries.

  The shock of Luc’s arrival on the heels of the soul-shaking image in the mirror had rendered Katia speechless. She sat mutely, staring up at Luc’s handsome face. He approached her slowly.

  “Katia, are you all right? What happened?” He asked softly as he crouched down in front of her. He sucked in a sharp breath as he looked at her. “Holy Halja, Katia, your tears are frozen.” He reached out to touch her face, but drew back at the last second, his hand dropping awkwardly back down to his side.

  “I’m so cold,” Katia whispered, a shiver moved through her.

  Luc looked uncomfortable, as though he wanted to help, but didn’t know how. “What can I do?” he asked.

  Katia lifted her eyes and stared straight into Luc's. “I saw him. He’s here.”

  “Who’s here?” Luc asked, looking around, but seeing no intruder.

  “My brother…in the mirror. I don’t know how...” she said, her voice barely a whisper. “He’s just like me…but backwards…” she trailed off.

  Luc frowned. “What do you mean backwards?”

  “Hold me.” She said, ignoring his question. Her eyes had crystallized with ice, the blue and green like frosted gemstones.

  Luc knelt in front of her completely torn. He wanted to reach out and touch her, and he wanted to run as far as possible in the opposite direction, to debauch her and save her all at once. He felt his moral compass swinging wildly between the two poles. He was being stretched and was certain he would snap from the tension inside himself. Her lips and the fine veins under her skin were slowly turning blue, standing out in stark contrast to her pallor. Her icy eyes were mesmerizing, and her breath puffed out in small white clouds.

  Luc’s hands itched to reach out and share his warmth, but his mind balked at the idea, terrified of infecting her with his darkness as he had at the motel. The past few days had been torture. All he wanted was to hold her again, to feel the fire when they touched. Keeping his distance was a knife to the heart.

  “What can I do?” Luc repeated, gazing into her eyes that shimmered like crushed diamonds.

  He watched with trepidation as she reached a shivering hand toward his face and cupped his cheek lightly. He gasped at the shocking coldness. The contrast between the softness of her skin and the biting cold caused his will to finally break. He needed to hold her more than he needed his next breath. Luc grabbed Katia and pulled her down into his lap, gliding his hand up her spine and grabbing a fistful of her glorious hair. Without a second thought he leaned into her and meshed their lips, the iciness of her skin made him shiver. Katia sighed, her cool breath trekking over his skin, igniting little sparks that danced over his lips. Luc dragged her body tighter against his own. He groaned as her full weight came to rest flush against him. Nothing should feel this good, he thought to himself.

  One delicate hand slid up his chest and came to rest on the bare skin of his neck. He licked at the seam of her chilly lips, urging her to let him in. The moment they parted, he slid inside and their tongues tangled, his warmth against her chill. His other hand travelled down her back to cup her ass, pulling her tighter against himself as she straddled him. Softness to hardness. She moaned as he arched up, rubbing against her. Katia speared her hand through the hair at the nape of Luc’s neck, raking her nails along his scalp and sending more of those erotic shocks skipping through his body. Luc felt moisture on his cheek. Ending the kiss, he pulled away and looked into Katia’s eyes. Her icy tears were melting, running down her face onto his. Her skin was a more natural hue, the veins no longer visible beneath her skin as she absorbed his warmth. Luc slid his hand out from her hair, reached up and gently brushed away her tears. The way she was looking at him made his heart swell. It was like catching a brief reflection of the man he could and might have been, a man who was worthy of her.

  “Don’t” she said softly.

  “Don’t what?” he replied.

  “Don’t go. I’m losing you, I can see it in your eyes…you’re pulling away again.”

  Sighing, Luc dropped his head back and stared up at the ceiling. “We shouldn’t be doing this, I'm full of evil and I don't want it anywhere near you. This was a mistake.”

  Leaning down, Katia kissed her way up his neck. Nipping his ear lightly. She whispered into his ear, causing a shudder of pleasure to run through him. “There is no absolute good or absolute evil. We’re all capable of both. It’s what we do with that choice that defines us.” She licked around the shell of his ear, causing him to shiver anew.

  Luc shifted slightly, causing Katia's body to slide along his. She moaned. His voice hoarse with need, he tried to make her see reason. “And what have I done with that choice, Katia? I started a war and caused the deaths of other angels. I’ve killed and hurt in the name of absolute evil. Those were my choices. I could’ve refused Satan’s missions. I could have suffered the torture for every refusal, but I didn’t, did I?”

  Katia slid her hand back down his chest to the hem of his tee shirt. Lifting it slightly, she glided her hand back up his bare chest, over the ropes of muscles on his abdomen, scraping
her nails lightly over his nipples. Luc felt like he was going to explode right then and there. His rock-hard cock was pressing painfully into the zipper of his jeans, desperate to get to the woman in his lap. Any more of this and he knew he would be past the point of no return.

  Luc locked eyes with Katia and his mind was blown as he realized he was looking into vampire eyes. The twenty-four karat gold signalling hypnotism – or desire. The passion that burned in their depths brought him to his knees. Katia had been in contact with Mara at The Advocate. It seemed Katia had absorbed a piece of her without even knowing it.

  He dove in and gave her a scorching kiss, plundering her mouth with his tongue, unsure if he would feel the descent of razor sharp fangs that always made an appearance when a vampire was aroused. That never came. As he lost himself in the heady kiss, he dimly realized that she’d absorbed only Mara’s lighter qualities, not the dark ones rooted in blood. She was irresistible to him. Luc was soaring to Heofon, flying for the first time in hundreds of years. He felt like Icarus, he was way too close to the sun. He kissed her harder, more deeply, his passion flaring, his arousal straining unbearably. He needed to feel her, skin to skin. If he didn’t, he would burst into flame and die.

  Grasping the hem of her shirt, he began to tug upwards, breaking the kiss briefly to draw it over her head and toss it carelessly across the room...no bra. Luc smiled. As his hands descended on her bare skin, they both gasped. Before he could blink, Katia was yanking his shirt up and off. She plastered herself against him, chest to chest. Her nipples had pearled and they rasped deliciously against his sensitized skin. Sighing, she leaned down and claimed his mouth again, rolling her tongue against his. Sliding his hand up her ribcage, Luc cupped her breast, testing its weight in the palm of his hand. His thumb slid up and rubbed back and forth over her nipple, she squirmed in his lap. Luc groaned in ecstasy. More. Please. Her demand echoed in his head, but this time it didn’t take him by surprise. If she wanted more he was happy to oblige.

  Flipping her onto her back, Luc came down on top of her, nestling himself in the cradle of her thighs, his cock pressed tightly against her. Katia's eyes were closed as she threw back her head and arched up into him. Diving down, Luc sucked her nipple into his mouth; Katia writhed beneath him, desperate. His brain went fuzzy, the only things that registered were the lances of pleasure shooting through his body, and the feel of her beneath him. Pleasure-pain travelled coursed through him as she ran her nails over the scars from his wings. Raising himself up on his elbows, he looked at her in wonder, such a small package full of explosive, decadent sexuality. She called to him on so many levels, was his match in so many ways, as though she had been made just for him. He lifted himself slightly to reach down and unzip her jeans. He slid his hand down her panties and found them damp over her core. He groaned and gritted his teeth, desperate to be inside her.

  Sliding his fingers under the elastic, Luc finally touched her. She was burning for him, wet and ready. She raised her hips to meet his fingers, angling for more. He fed her a wild kiss that went on and on as he moved his fingers over her heated flesh faster and faster. She pumped her hips beneath his hand with abandon. Feeling her desperation building, Luc slid a finger inside her and pressed on her clit with the pad of his thumb. Katia came apart, her inner walls gripping his finger in waves as she rode his hand, her release ripping through her.

  Pulling away from the kiss, Luc stared down at her face as she came. She was so beautiful in her passion, he could watch her come all day and never get enough. Katia’s breath sawed in and out as she came down from her peak. Her hands clutching at Luc’s biceps in an effort to ground herself, nails digging in with a sweet sting that kept him on the edge. As she opened her eyes, Luc felt his heart stutter. Burning red orbs glowed back at him, he saw the blackness working its way up the veins in her arms once again. With a cry of despair, he went to move off her, but Katia wasn’t having any of that this time.

  “No!” She cried out, rolling him to his back with a strength that hadn’t been there before. Straddling his waist, she pressed him to the floor by his shoulders.

  “Katia, it’s happening again. I shouldn’t have let it go this far!” he shouted in panic.

  Ignoring Luc’s plea for reason, Katia leaned down and fused their lips anew, stoking the fire back to a raging conflagration. She shimmied down his body, and her hand slid down his stomach to the waistband of his jeans. Luc tried to free his mind from the lust-filled fog, but quickly lost the battle as her hand closed around him, stroking his cock. It had grown so hard it was more like a titanium rod than flesh.

  “Whatever you do, don’t stop,” he pleaded in broken tones.

  Katia worked his length from root to tip as Luc writhed beneath her. Spears of pleasure were lancing up and down his spine as he grew closer to release. He’d been with many humans and demons over the centuries, but nothing had prepared him for what he felt with Katia, and he hadn’t even penetrated her yet. She was fire and ice, human but immortal, pure of heart but passionate and debauched.

  Leaning over his check, Katia licked her way to the sigil over his heart. As her tongue swept over the design he came violently, great spasms wracking his body, bucking Katia as she perched above him. He cried out her name. The first time that had ever happened. Gathering her in his arms, Luc drew her to his side. She nestled her head on his shoulder and rested one hand lightly on his chest. The gesture was so gentle and loving he felt his heart constrict. He wasn’t deserving of moments like these, but he was a greedy bastard and would take it. He rested his hand over hers.

  As they lay together on the floor, Luc realized he could never let her go. He would find a way to protect her. He’d planned on walking away and letting Sergei win her heart, but that was impossible now. There was no way he could bear the thought of her with another man, he’d kill the bastard. Luc had to admit that he liked Sergei...grudgingly, though it killed him that there was someone in the world who knew her better than he did. That would change though; they had forever after all.

  Luc was roused from his musings as Katia stirred, propping herself on her elbow to look at him. He reached up and brushed her hair back out of her eyes…eyes that had gone back to normal. Glancing down at her arms he saw that the blackness had once again receded. He breathed a sigh of relief and sank back down on the floor, throwing an arm over his eyes.

  “I told you not to worry,” Katia said as she poked his chest playfully. “I don’t know how, but I know it’s not going to hurt me.”

  Luc peered at her from under his arm. “I’m going to find a way to stop it. I don’t want to put your safety at risk.”

  “Sure, if that’ll make you feel better, but I don’t want you freaking out anymore, it’s kind of a buzz-kill.” She smiled.

  Luc rolled his eyes and chuckled. “Well, you managed to storm the castle this time. And I’m glad you did. That was ...”

  “…amazing.” They said in unison. Katia smiled so brightly at him he felt like he was looking at the sun. Luc suddenly he noticed that he was returning her smile. Weird. He hadn’t smiled this hard in eons...his cheeks had begun to ache.

  Luc felt a peace wash over him that had been absent for so many centuries he’d forgotten the feeling. Katia's fingers traced lightly over his sigil, drawing the pattern over and over again, spelling his name in angelic symbology on his flesh.

  “Luc?”

  “Mhmmm,” he murmured drowsily.

  “It’s gotten lighter again. Your Sigil — it’s more golden.”

  Cracking open his eyes, he glanced down at his chest. His Sigil was shimmering here and there with gold patches, and the dark spidering veins were shorter and less pronounced. “Wow,” he breathed incredulously. “It hasn’t looked like that in a very long time.”

  “Why do you think it’s changing now?” Katia asked as she rested her palm back on his chest.

  “I’m not sure, but I have a feeling you’re chasing away the darkness,” Luc replied.

&nb
sp; Katia laughed, it was music to his ears. “Amor vincit omnia.” she said softly.

  “What was that?” Luc asked, as she snuggled against him.

  “I don’t know,” Katia replied with a yawn. “It just popped into my head. But I need a nap. You do good work, sir.”

  As he listened to her breathing even out and deepen, Luc laid back and pondered her words. She clearly had no idea what she’d said, but Luc did. The words Katia had spoken were Latin…love conquers all.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  The week that followed was absolutely perfect. Well, as perfect as it could be hiding in a demon's apartment in actual hell. Weird as the situation was, She wouldn’t have traded it for anything in the world. Katia and Luc had talked about everything and nothing, they’d laughed and been serious, they’d bared their scars. Whatever he’d been, whatever he’d done, Katia knew Luc was good man at his core. Some of his confessions had shocked her, but the pain in his eyes had been real. He had blood on his hands that would never wash off, but he needed something different. Katia realized the blackness seeping into his veins was killing him from the inside out.

  “You make me want to live again, to fight the darkness,” he’d said one night as they lay tangled together on the bed. “For the first time in centuries, I feel like I have something to live for.”

  Amir popped in and out periodically as he did recon, looking for a better place for Luc and Katia to hide. Finding a coven of witches capable of the wards and spells they needed to stay hidden was a challenge. B was a frequent visitor, regaling them with dirty jokes and ribald stories of his various conquests. Katia couldn’t help but feel a special warmth for B. He'd saved her best friend after all.