The Redeemable
Part Two
By
Grace McGinty
Copyright © 2017 by Madeline Young
Writing as Grace McGinty All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the author except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
First Printing, 2017
Chapter One
When I opened my eyes, the Devil was sitting on my couch drinking a beer. Not a devil; the Devil. Big D.
Well, I've only just got my memories back, but from what I remember you’re right. He has a really big D…
I screwed my eyes closed again and let out a frustrated scream that could only be heard inside my head.
What the fuck was that, Ace? You nearly gave me a goddamn aneurysm and you knocked me out, in front of the fucking Devil. That scream… I shuddered. And now you are making dick jokes?
I sounded screechy even inside my own head but I was equal parts pissed off and scared.
Excuse me if I was finally remembering all my past lives at once, including my immortal soul being ripped from its vessel and placed into yours. I'm not sure if you are aware of this, Arcadia, but that shit hurts. A lot.
She sounded choked up and I felt momentarily bad that I yelled at her.
If you are done with your little shit-fit, I feel compelled to tell you that he can hear inside your head and knows everything we are saying. She sounded smug.
My eyes shot open again, and the Devil was still there, saluting me with his beer bottle, a slight grin on his face.
I sat upright so fast my head spun, and I clutched at it against the residual headache. Two strong arms came around me and pulled me onto a lap. I didn't fight it; I'd know Lux’s scent anywhere.
“Not so fast. You're okay. I've got you,” he whispered to me in his gentle voice, as he pressed me against his chest. “You are the scariest person I've ever met, Arcadia Jones.”
I twisted so I could see his face and raised both eyebrows. “How can you say that when we are sitting across from He Who Shall Not Be Named?”
“Hey, I resent the Voldemort comparison. That guy was seriously evil,” the Devil said as he took another sip of beer. “Please, call me Luc. I insist.”
Well, if the Devil insisted.
He can hear you, remember? You have to call him Luc in your mind as well, Ace said and I wanted to scream again. There were already two people in my head. Three was definitely a crowd.
Lux gave a little disgruntled huff. “Lucifer doesn't lose consciousness on me all the time, terrifying me that he might never wake up!”
I looked up into Lux’s face, slightly pale despite the natural gold of his tan. His jaw was tight and two adorable worry lines fought for dominance amongst the scars. He looked scared. For me.
“I'm sorry. It doesn't usually happen this often but it has been a bit of a crazy week. You can blame Ace for that last one though.”
“Who's Ace?” Another voice asked, and I looked over to see Eli was in my apartment too. Actually, all the guys were here, except Tolliver and Sam obviously, who were at Fashion Week. Oz was pacing near the kitchen. I'd never seen Oz pace. Ri was in the corner, his face as strained as Lux’s. I gave him a little finger wave and a smile.
“I'm with Lux, Beautiful Girl. You are one scary mama,” he croaked out as he shook his head.
Valery was drinking wine from the bottle in my kitchen, although last time I checked, I didn’t have any wine lying around. Actually, he was most of the way through the bottle and his cheeks were a ruddy pink. He placed the bottle on the counter and came over to me. He bent down and said something stern in French, placing a palm on both of my cheeks and kissing me solidly on the mouth. His lips were soft and tasted like a fruity red.
As far as first kisses went, it was delicious if slightly unexpected.
He walked away, still muttering in French, but whatever he was saying made the Devil, I mean Luc, smile.
“Who is Ace?” Eli repeated, and I sighed.
This should be interesting, Ace said, back to her usual nonchalant self.
INDEED.
I flew to my feet as the Devil’s - I mean Luc’s- voice boomed in my skull.
“No, no, no get the hell out of my brain. Two is already a crowd and you are so loud. You just doubled my headache.” Arcadia Jones, chastising the Devil and failing survival instincts since 1998.
APOLOGIES ARCADIA. I AM NOT SHOUTING. WE ARE JUST ON DIFFERENT FREQUENCIES I AM AFRAID. UNFORTUNATELY, YOU ARE THE ONLY CONDUIT I CAN USE TO SPEAK TO MY BELOVED ACEREZEAL.
Ugh, I hate that name. It sounds so angel-ish, Ace whined.
“Arcadia…” Eli was beginning to sound worried.
The urge to scream was beginning to build again. I huffed and sat back down on Lux’s lap.
“Fine. Ace is the voice in my head who has been with me since I was sixteen and she's not a brain tumour but I don't know what she is other than the fact she swears like a pirate and is right about most things and that she loves me and protects me if I need it.” It all ran out in one long, peevish sentence, and Eli remained silent. He just blinked at me slowly. Then he turned to Lucifer.
“Is this your doing? I checked her brain scans literally yesterday. There is nothing to support her having auditory hallucinations. She has no family history of psychosis or schizophrenia.”
Luc drained his beer, and another appeared in its place. Guess I now knew where Valery's wine came from.
“Well, yes and no. Acerezeal, or Ace as Arcadia knows her, was one of the fallen, like me. She is my consort and her immortal soul lives inside the body of your Arcadia.”
Lux pulled me closer to his chest, every inch of his body poised protectively around mine.
“Relax, I'm not about to commandeer your new toy, Lux. I would like Ace back where she belongs, in her own body.”
I felt like I'd been sucker punched. For so long, I'd assumed that Ace was some long buried part of me that I need to cope with my life. She was everything I wanted to be; calm, intelligent and a complete badass.
But she wasn't part of me at all. She was an angel stuffed into my body. It felt like I was losing something, my best friend. A piece of my soul.
Hey now, I'm not going anywhere yet. You're stuck with me being a parasite in your body for a lot longer. Even when I'm not… with you, I'll always have your back. Always.
She was preparing me. But for what?
“What aren't you telling us?” I narrowed my eyes at Luc, and he laughed.
“You are much more of a badass than you believe, Arcadia.” He sighed and shifted in his seat. “You must remember that my life has been endless. The perpetual flow of time around me an imperishable object. And not just for me, for the other guy too.”
I just stared. The other guy?
“Keanu Reeves?” Oz asked from where he rested against the wall. At least he'd stopped pacing. I resisted the urge to go to him and wrap him in my arms.
Lucifer grinned. “No, not Keanu. He goes by many names, like me, but we are obviously speaking of God. Big G,” he laughed and winked at me.
“I am the first to admit that I probably broke the old man's heart when I fell, though in my opinion he massively overreacted, but I made my peace with that and I quite like my new role. There's something to be said for the freedom to live how you wish. But Big G, well, he's seen a decline in numbers, while I gotta tell you, my domain is brimming. You should see the line to the eternal punishment chamber. Hell, I'm beginning to think that waiting in the perpetually unmoving line is punishment enough.”
You're getting off track, Ace interrupted.
YOU ARE CO
RRECT, THANK YOU MY HEART.
I grimaced. Painful and weird. Great.
“But I digress. Upon our last game of chess in Central Park in 1982, I remarked upon my current overcrowding problem. You see, he was having the opposite problem. There were so few without sin these days. He will forgive most things, but indulging in one of his ordained deadly sins, the very ones he cast his favorite son out of heaven for? Those he could not forgive and forget. And he is a stubborn old ass when he wants to be. I informed him that there were millions of souls in my domain that were truly repentant and would happily atone for their sins, without reward. He didn't believe that a soul, once judged, could change so much. So we had a wager. And here you guys are. The first of my Redeemable souls. And my secret weapon, the Redeemer.”
There was silence around the room, every one of us grasping at the tiniest glimmer of hope, and looking for a flash of deceit.
“And if we succeed?” Valery’s voice sounded hoarse.
“If you succeed, people will be able to work their way up from hell and past the pearly gates. You guys get a free pass to heaven. Win-win for humanity.”
“And what do you win, personally?” I raised both brows. Altruism isn't a trait usually associated with the Devil.
“If I win, Ace gets her body back. Her immortal soul was torn out by Azriel, on the Father’s say so. I kept it in a vessel until the bet was decided and then I placed her inside you as you emerged from your mother’s womb. Such a strong spirit already, I knew that Ace would not overcome you. I apologize. I am sure it must have been difficult, but there is little I wouldn’t do for the woman I love.”
Pfft, don’t let the sweet talk fool you. He just likes this thing I do with my wings when we are in bed. I reach them around an-
“La la la la!” I plugged my fingers in my ears, and Luc laughed. A full, deep belly laugh that sent a thrill of pleasure through me. It made me happy to see him laugh. Or maybe it made Ace happy. Semantics.
YOU KNOW THAT IS NOT TRUE, ACEREZEAL. I WANT YOU BACK FOR YOUR HELLISHLY AMAZING TITS, Luc teased and Ace snorted, but it was a happy sound. Geez, it was sickeningly sweet inside my head right now.
Eli tapped a finger along the sharp line of his jaw rhythmically. “So you have been concealing a voice in your head all this time?” He sounded… hurt. I should have known that he wouldn’t let it drop after Lucifer’s explanation. Not my good doctor.
“Deep down I didn’t think it was related to my illness. And I wasn’t hiding it, really. I just didn’t think there was a good time to bring it up? I mean, when is a good time to bring up the fact you hear voices in your head?”
Ri scoffed, one eyebrow quirking. “Probably at the same time we told you that we were returned souls from hell. I mean after that, voices that tell you to burn things are quite mundane.”
He had a point, and I stuck my tongue out at him.
“I’m sorry guys. But hey, at least we don’t have to worry it’s a brain tumor now, right?”
Eli was still frowning. “But it could have been.”
I shifted from Lux’s lap, giving my butt a little wiggle for thrills, and was rewarded with a small smack.
“Tease,” Lux growled. Heat pooled in my stomach as I had a brief flashback to the other night. He growled all sorts of dirty things in my ear as his body conquered mine. Heat flew to my cheeks. I was still a little way from being a sex kitten, but boy, I was really ready to ditch this room and get him naked again.
I swung my eyes back to Eli. Or him. Three little lines ran across Eli’s forehead, but his eyes looked disappointed. I knelt down in front of him.
“I’m sorry. I promise no more secrets. Trust me, I don’t have any left. Unless you count that time I stole a chocolate bar from the grocery store when I was ten.” I placed my hands on his strong thighs, pressing the tips of my fingers into the hard muscles because I just couldn’t resist, and leaned in close. “I didn’t even take it back. I ate it in secret behind my house in case anyone was trying to track me down.”
Eli’s lips twitched into a small smile. “I’ll add kleptomania to your list of symptoms.”
I couldn’t help myself. I leaned forward and pressed a light kiss to his full lower lip, sliding my hands up his thighs to his waist. He nipped my lower lip.
“Soon.”
Lucifer cleared his throat and stood. “I guess that is my cue to leave. Places to be, people to poke in the ass with a pitchfork.”
“Really?”
“No, Sweet Cady. How could you have a hellcat like Ace live inside you all these years and yet you are still be so unbelievably innocent? You seven need to fix that.” He waggled at a finger at them. “But if you hurt her, I will personally assign you to the very lowest level of hell and you will beg for reprieve for eternity and there will be none.” The temperature in the room dropped to frigid levels. “There are millions of you in my realm, you can be replaced easily, but Arcadia is special. Best you remember that.”
A cold shiver ran down my spine at his words, and I resisted the urge to do what my brain was screaming at me to do and run away.
Lux stood, stepping toward me. “Received loud and clear.”
Lucifer gave a curt nod, and then his normal pleasant demeanor was back. Note to self, do not fuck with the Devil.
“Arcadia, can you walk me to the door please?” I stood from where I was on the floor and walked him out. I brushed against Ri on the way to the door, his fingers lightly running against my stomach. My eyes went to his, expecting his hooded eyes to shine with the lust that was always there but all I saw was a show of support. Ri had my back. I gave him a half grin.
But I was pretty sure I was safe with the Lucifer. Safer than I’d ever been in my life. The guy had literally made a bargain with God to save the soul inside me. While ever I held Ace with me, I was safe.
You will be safe regardless of whether I am inside you or next to you, Arcadia. You know this.
INDEED, YOU HAVE MY DEEPEST GRATITUDE. BUT YOU MIGHT WANT TO BLOCK YOUR MENTAL EARS RIGHT NOW.
How the hell did someone do that? I decided to sing Jingle bells on repeat in my brain, but it didn’t block it all out.
YOU WILL BE BACK IN MY ARMS SOON, ACEREZEAL. THEN I WILL MAKE LOVE TO YOU LIKE THAT TIME IN THAT ITALIAN VILLAGE. DO YOU REMEMBER, WHERE THE DANCING SICKNESS TOOK THE WHOLE VILLAGE AND WE MADE LOVE IN THE CENTER OF THE TOWN SQUARE AS THE BODIES FELL AROUND US FROM EXHAUSTION?
Eesh. I couldn’t hear Ace’s response, she was much more in tune with my mental frequencies, but I could imagine.
Out loud, Lucifer chuckled. “I bid you farewell, Arcadia. I will return soon.”
“Wait. I need to ask. If I succeed redeeming one of the guys, what happens next? Do they just poof up to the pearly gates? Turn to dust? Because, I’m sorry, but I can’t help if it means that I just have to watch them die. I have feelings for them already, I just can’t.”
Luc patted the top of my head and gave another booming laugh. “Oh, I chose well with you. Do not worry. The terms of the bargain states that if they are redeemed, they will be able to live out the remainder of their natural human lives here on earth. They all died quite young, and they have good hearts. It is why I chose them. Given more time on the earthly plane, I am sure they would have repented naturally. But they have to continue to live well once redeemed if they want to get up there, otherwise it's back to me downstairs. But there is a time limit, Cady. Any who aren’t redeemed in that time will be back in my realm. There are no third chances.”
“What is the time frame?”
Lucifer shook his head. “I do not know. The other guy decided that one.”
Panic made my heart race. “What if it’s a week? What if it’s tomorrow?”
Lucifer shrugged. “You’ll just have to have faith.”
With that, he disappeared.
“Huh. I thought there would be smoke or flames or something,” I said to the now empty corridor.
He’s known to be a little theatrical when h
e wants to make an impressive exit.
I stared at the ornate cornice on the wall and tried to process everything that just happened. And failed. What had become of my boring, sedate life?
My door opened and Oz poked his head out. “Is he gone?”
I’d barely finished nodding when the door was flung open and I was in Oz’s arms. “I was so fucking worried. Mini Oz sent out a help alert and I was the first one here and you were unconscious on the couch with Luc standing over you and I didn’t know what to do, and then Lux was the next in and I thought he was going to try to kill the Devil. It was a mess. God, I’m so glad you are okay.” He pulled back and put his hands on my cheeks, peppering my face with kisses.
I laughed. “It’s okay, Oz. I’m okay, you're okay. We’ll all be okay.”
He picked me up, and I wrapped my arms and legs around him as he walked me back into my apartment. I pressed my face into his neck, appreciating the woodsy smell of him.
He walked me to the small breakfast bar and plopped me on top.
He stepped away and I was once again the focus of everyone in the room.
“Well, at least life isn't boring around here.”
“It was until you came along, mon chere.” Valery ran a hand over my short hair, smoothing down the spiky tufts.
Oz slapped a hand to his forehead and pulled the phone from his pocket.
“Ah shit. I forgot to cancel the help call once we’d worked out you were in no danger.”
Lux grunted. “She was dealing with the Devil. I wouldn't say that's safe.”
Oz rolled his eyes. “You know what I mean.” He scrolled through the notices on his phone. “Oh well, too late now.”
Valery handed me a cup of tea he'd pulled from somewhere. I definitely didn't own these delicate little fine China tea cups. I was beginning to think Valery was some kind of magician too.
“Too late for what?”
“Sam and Tolliver are on their way home.”
Oops. “But what about fashion week?”
“You are more important than fashion week. When they didn't hear from anyone, they dropped their engagements and took Tolliver's private plane home. They should be here in a few hours.”
The Redeemable: Part Two Page 1