by J. E. Taylor
His jaw tightened. “The boy tells me he will kill me if I so much as touch you again. That would be a neat trick since he’s on lock down,” he said through grinding teeth. His fierce anger made me shake, and my tremors shook the chains holding me in place. He stepped close and I caught the brimstone scent of his breath. “Enough of this game. I want my grace back.”
I braced myself for the pain, but it didn’t help. A cry still ripped out of me when his fingernails dug into my skin. A cry with Alex’s true name on it echoed off the walls, shaking the foundation we stood on.
I needed Alex to take control.
I needed him to stop this, or otherwise I was as dead as I wanted Lucifer.
The light in the orb around Grace’s neck flared just before the glass shattered. The brightness shot like a bullet and slammed into Lucifer with the power of a lightning bolt. His skin lit up like a true Nephilim as Alex’s soul knocked Lucifer clean out of his body.
Black smoke swirled. My eyes widened at Alex standing in front of me. My Alex. His aura radiated white, and there was a power in it that had never been there before.
Grace roared, struggling against her chains at the turn of events.
Alex’s angry blue eyes met mine, and he tore his nails from my skin while the black smoke formed behind him. He dug in his pocket and pulled a key out. The key to the shackles. He unclasped my right hand and moved to the other shackle.
The black smoke coiled to strike.
“Watch out!” I splayed my right hand over Alex’s shoulder, aiming my palm towards the oncoming smoke as he worked the lock for my other wrist.
The moment the shackle released, fire shot out. Lucifer’s soul dodged it, twirling away. He slammed into Grace with such force, her own soul didn’t have a prayer. Lucifer consumed her, and the chains holding her in place shattered.
Before Alex could turn towards the oncoming danger, Lucifer launched, turning into Grace’s tiger in midair. He hit Alex hard enough to drive him into the ground a few feet away from me.
Alex bellowed as the tiger’s claws ripped into his shoulders.
I lunged for heaven’s blade, swiping it off the bench and threw myself at them while praying my blind aim was true. The blade ripped through the tiger’s flank before it scraped on the concrete floor.
The tiger bellowed and shot a glare at me. I propped myself up on my elbow with the blade gripped tightly in my hand. Lucifer’s eyes went to the knife and then widened as the transition turned him from a tiger back into Grace’s form.
“You bitch,” Lucifer said in a weakened female voice.
“Damn straight,” I said.
Alex’s face filled with fury, and he shoved Grace’s form away from him. When he put his hand out to me, I knew what he wanted. I slid the blade across the ground and Lucifer lunged for it, but Alex was faster even with his injuries.
He snatched it, and before Lucifer could scramble away, in one violent motion, Alex slammed the knife into Lucifer’s chest. Burying it all the way to the hilt before he released. He pushed himself back against the wall.
They say when heaven and hell collide, it’s as powerful as an atom bomb.
They weren’t wrong.
The explosion that took Lucifer and Grace was magnificently bright, but instead of annihilating us and everything in the room, all that hit us was pure wind. It pulled at me until I tumbled back into the wall, hissing with the pain of impact. Alex covered his face with his arms, and his open shirt rippled like he was in the eye of a tornado.
And then it sucked back into a bright spot in the center of the room and blinked out with a pop. The knife dropped from the air with a clang.
I stared at the blade, blinking, waiting to snap out of existence just like Lucifer had.
And then my focus landed on the blood coating the blade.
If the knife had wiped Lucifer from ever existing at all, the blade would have been clean, if it even had been forged at all. But there it was, in all its bloody glory.
My gaze snapped back to Alex.
My Alex.
My wonderfully sensitive, loving Alex whose eyes were full of every ounce of emotion he had lost months ago.
Tears blurred my vision as I crawled to him. Sobs echoed on the concrete along with the scraping of the metal ankle chains that were still attached to me.
His shoulders were torn and bloody, but he still had a smile for me. The smile that made my heart clatter in my chest despite all the bruises and cuts traversing my body.
His eyes widened at something behind me. I spun and shot my fire. The jerk who had held my head and fondled me turned to embers in a blink. I lay on my back, staring at the ash floating on air before I looked back at Alex.
“You’ve gotten really good at that,” he said, his voice slow like he was just getting used to being back in his own skin.
I lifted my legs and willed the cuffs on my ankles to release. Nothing happened.
I laid my head back down. “It doesn’t always work,” I said with a heavy sigh and opened my palm, blasting fire through the center chain. It disintegrated but the chain heated to a point it scalded my ankles. I closed my fist and lay back on the concrete with one more injury to deal with.
I turned, crawling the rest of the way to him, giving into the burning need to make sure he was real. I pressed my lips to his and sighed. His kiss was soft and warm, and the void in the center of my body shrunk to nothing.
Until he gently pushed me away. My heart plummeted. Maybe Lucifer hadn’t been lying.
He must have seen the hurt filling my eyes because he cupped my cheek despite the scowl of discomfort. “While I would love to kiss you into eternity, and trust me when I say that is what I want, I do not want to do it here.” He glanced around the room and shivered. “And maybe we can get my mom before I bleed out?”
My gaze jumped to his wounds. I hadn’t realized just how deep the tiger’s claws had ripped. I dug his phone out of my jacket pocket with shaking hands, punched a button, and handed the phone to Alex.
He took the phone and put it to his ear, blinking at the voice on the other end. “Dad?” He closed his eyes, and tears dripped from his lashes. “I kind of need Mom.” His eyes opened, and he looked at the ceiling with his lips pressed together in agony. And it wasn’t just physical. He handed the phone to me.
Even from this distance, I felt the mistrust coming over the line. CJ did not believe this was his son. He believed it was another one of Lucifer’s tricks, and after the last couple of months, I couldn’t blame him.
“Mr. Ryan, I’m sorry, I wasn’t thinking when I gave him the phone. This isn’t a trick. It is really Alex. Our Alex,” I said, and closed my eyes. “And he really needs Valerie.”
Quiet permeated the line.
“Are you okay?” he asked, but he still had doubts as wide as the Grand Canyon.
I let out a laugh. “I’m a mess physically, but I’ll live. Mentally, I’m the best I’ve ever been. I almost feel like I could fly.” I opened my eyes and stared into Alex’s soulful baby blues. “I have all of him back, Mr. Ryan. All. Of. Him,” I whispered, and a new set of tears sprang to my eyes.
Alex smiled and his chin trembled as tears leaked from the corners of his eyes. He lifted his palm again and cupped my cheek as his thumb caressed my bottom lip. “You’ve had all of me since I first saw you,” he said in a shaky voice that I didn’t think Lucifer could ever mimic.
The change in CJ hit me—hope flared through the phone and the air shimmered next to me. I looked up into Valerie’s wide eyes.
“I swear if this is a trick...” CJ said on the phone, his voice shaking with barely contained emotion.
“It isn’t a trick, Chris,” Valerie said loud enough for her husband to hear. Then she dropped to her knees next to Alex. She covered his face with kisses through sobs of her own. Each kiss bloomed light over his skin that traveled directly to his wounds.
“Enough, Mom. Jesus,” he said, pushing her away. His cheeks turned crimson.
“I get it. You’re glad I’m back. I am too.” He wiped his face and glanced at me as his jaw tightened and his breath came in long slow pulls until the light dancing across his skin faded.
We both knew his mother’s magic didn’t work on me, so when she reached out and tweaked my nose, I didn’t expect the flare of pain.
“Ouch,” I said, and my eyes teared up from the sudden relief that followed.
“I just snapped it back in place.” She smiled at us and stood. “Hurry home,” she said, and then faded.
I disconnected the call as Alex climbed to his feet. He offered me his hand. That crooked smile gracing his lips sent a chill up my back. I had just a moment where I thought maybe Lucifer had tricked me, but when he nodded for me to grab the knife, I knew that was impossible. Lucifer would never trust me with heaven’s blade.
With his arm around my waist and Heaven’s blade in my grasp, I slid the knife into the built-in holder on the inside of my boot. I limped with him towards the broken stairway, but I paused before we left the room.
“We can’t leave them like that,” I said and lifted my palm towards the grotesque scene. I focused, because this place would go up in flames faster than Naomi’s panic room had if I didn’t control this. And I was sure we needed a little time to get out of the building.
I needed angel fire to purify the room, and I needed to be careful. I didn’t want to annihilate the entire building with us in it. But I did need to get rid of the bodies if Alex ever had hope of fabricating some logical explanation for the videos Lucifer sent to the news stations.
I scanned the area once more and sucked in a large breath. I met Alex’s gaze and smiled. “Here goes nothing.”
I opened my hand, and pure white light filled the room, wiping all traces of human occupancy away, along with the makeshift throne and anything that could be traced back to Alex, or Grace, or Bridget, or Tom, or Gabriel or Naomi. When I closed my fist, all that swirled on the air was white dust.
I hoped it was enough.
Alex squeezed my hand and then put his arm back around me as we climbed our way out of the dilapidated asylum and into the clean air of the New York countryside.
Nick was leaning against the brick a few feet away, and when he saw us, he straightened.
“Have you been here the whole time?” The thought that Death was lingering about really set my teeth on edge.
“No. I came when you used the blade.” He held his hand out.
“Did you know where he was this whole time?” I couldn’t help the escalating anger. If Death knew where to find Alex and didn’t tell us, I was going to slam him right out of existence.
His jaw tightened. “If you do not give me that blade...” He pressed his lips together and closed his eyes at my glare. “Faith,” he started and glanced at Alex. “I could not intervene.”
“You knew?” I hissed.
“I knew as much as Gabriel and Naomi did.” He met my gaze. “I knew enough to get Tom that blade.” He pointed to my boot. “Now I need it back.”
I crossed my arms even though the movement hurt. I wasn’t feeling like obeying. Not after everything that had happened. It was Alex’s non-reaction that pulled me out of my obstinance. He just stared at Death, dumfounded like nothing that had been said computed.
Instead of continuing this crazy argument and letting the darkness blooming inside me take over, I pulled the blade out and flung it towards Nick. He jumped back as the blade sliced into the ground between where his feet had been.
“Just take the cursed thing,” I snapped.
Anger and the malignancy of Lucifer’s grace scraped at my insides. I pushed it down into a box, mentally locking it before it decided to lash out on its own.
I turned towards the building, remembering CJ’s plan to exonerate Alex. It was something to let my aggression out on instead of taking it out on Death.
I raised my hand, pulling forth only fire this time, and shot a blast right into the entry we had climbed out of. I forced it to incinerate the room where we had just escaped from, using my aggravation and anger to power it. The dry tinder of the building caught immediately.
I closed my hand and turned, expecting to see Nick still standing there, but he was gone and so was the knife.
We needed to get out of there, too. I hobbled away as fast as I could with Alex by my side.
As soon as we were off the grounds and away from the burning building, Alex stopped and pulled me into his strong arms.
His hug hurt and I winced, but I needed his arms as much as I needed the air around me. He loosened his grip and put me on the ground again, leaving very little space between us.
He pushed my hair out of my face and stared down at me. “I never thought I would see you again,” he said and delivered a searing kiss that nearly knocked my knees from under me.
When the kiss broke, I whispered, “I thought I would have to kill you.” Tears filled my vision.
“Would you really have done that?” He searched my eyes and then closed his, nodding. “If you’d had a chance while Lucifer was in me, you would have taken it.” He broke away from me and started walking again, blocking me from his head. His gait announced aggravation.
“Alex?”
He kept walking.
“Ty?”
He stopped and stared at the ground kicking the dirt. I approached him, limping. When he turned, his face was washed in tears.
“I would have done the same damn thing,” he whispered, and pain filled him. “I was present for all the hideous acts he did. I was there, climbing the walls of my own head, and Grace had the rest of my soul locked in that glass orb. For months I wanted to smash that thing. I wanted to knock that bastard out of my body and find my way back to you.” He swiped his face and looked at his hands. “My fist punched through both Naomi’s and Gabriel’s chests. My mouth swallowed their hearts.” He shook his head and turned away. “When Bridget didn’t bring you with her, he used my fists to pummel her to death. The sick bastard reveled in it.”
I put my hand on his arm. “Ty.”
His eyes closed. He covered my hand. “I’m damaged, Faith. Fucked up beyond belief. I don’t have those rose-colored glasses that I had when I first met you, either.”
“I don’t care. I’ve been to hell and back. Literally,” I said and laughed at his cocked eyebrow. “We had to jump through one of the breaches to escape an avalanche.”
“Really?”
I nodded. “That’s what took me so long. What seemed like days down there was months up here.”
“I thought you had given up on me.” His eyes were serious, and my heart just about tore in two.
I stood on my tiptoes and pressed my lips to his. “Never. I always clung to the idea that I could somehow save you.”
“And you did.”
I shook my head. “I couldn’t do anything in those chains. He had me helpless. Well, as helpless as a mere human is. I still got a solid shot at his balls.”
He grimaced and his hand went to his crotch like he remembered the pain too.
Heat bloomed in my cheeks. “I think you broke that orb. I was chained by some serious mojo and couldn’t do a thing. Nothing. At. All.”
His mouth popped open.
I laughed under my breath. “You have a little more of your father in you than you think.”
“Don’t bullshit me right now.” He crossed his arms.
“I’m not.” I stood taller, wincing, and his gaze dropped to my ripped shirt. He blinked like he hadn’t noticed that my entire torso was exposed. My little black lace bra peeked out along with the bruises dotting my abdomen.
His eyes narrowed and his head tilted. When my shirt started to slide back exposing more of my chest, his eyes widened. He stared at the exposed crescent marks of Lucifer’s nails. But my shirt kept moving.
I grabbed at the fabric before it slid off my shoulders, covering myself up again.
“Well, shit,” he said. A slow smile gained traction on his lips, and
a chuckle escaped. “So, I could lock the keypad on my father next time?” He wrapped his arm around my waist, and his eyes twinkled with the prospect.
I shifted, uncomfortable with his arm pressed against the bruises, but I didn’t want to lose the connection. However, Lucifer’s words painted doubt in my mind.
I clasped my shirt together. “Was what he said true?”
His smile faded and his fingers traced the welts in my skin that he had been an unwilling partner in inflicting. He met my gaze and shook his head. “No. There is no comparison to what we had. Fucking Grace made my skin crawl. The memory of making love to you is what kept me holding on. My promise to you kept me sane even with every fucked-up deranged thing Lucifer did.”
“Stop swearing,” I scolded and licked my lips.
“Sorry,” he mumbled and offered me a strained smile.
I stretched on my tiptoes ignoring, the stabs of pain in my body, and kissed him softly. “I’ll let you take the heat for locking the door next time.” I lowered myself back to the ground.
His smile became more natural. “You still want a next time?” He teased by running his fingers down the line of my bra, careful to avoid the painful welts his nails had left.
When I didn’t answer right away, his smile faded.
My skin dotted with gooseflesh at the motion of his fingers, momentarily erasing my ability to speak. Whatever connection we had seemed to shoot me into the stratosphere.
Worry flared in his eyes enough to help me find my voice. “Despite the damage Lucifer tried to do to both our psyches, I still want the first, the last, and the always with you.”
He cupped my cheek. “I go where you go,” he whispered, closing the distance to my lips.
The beep of a car horn made us jump apart. I was acutely aware of our bloodied condition along with the spark of carnal need in both of us. When the car stopped and the car door opened, a German shepherd jumped out and trotted up to me.
“Are you done with your little venture?” Levi said.
I glanced at Alex and back at Levi. “No.” I wanted Alex time.
The dog had the audacity to roll his eyes at me.