Veiron grunted in agreement.
“Nice.” The crimson in her eyes faded as she glanced at Veiron and Dante, her smile gaining warmth and losing its humour.
She took measured steps towards her husband and child, and embraced both of them. Dante squirmed and opened bright golden eyes, and reached for his mother.
Lucifer bit back a sigh at the tender sight of his daughter taking her child and cradling him, her gaze soft as she peered down at him.
Coming to know his daughter had made Lucifer miss knowing of her when she had been a baby. He had come to realise that he would have enjoyed being there for her, raising her and watching her grow into an incredible woman, and that perhaps he would have been set on his path towards the light long before now.
He might have become a man more deserving of Nina’s love.
Love that part of him still feared he would never have.
He lowered his gaze to Dante as Erin rocked him. He had missed his daughter’s childhood, but he was determined to be there for Dante as the boy grew up. His intentions hadn’t been noble when he had brought Erin and Veiron together, had awakened her powers and set her on the path towards having Dante. He had desired the boy as his vessel, but that desire had disappeared the moment he had set eyes on Dante.
He could never bring himself to corrupt the boy.
His golden gaze slid towards Nina where she stood just feet from him, her green eyes filled with tenderness as she watched Erin with her son.
She was pregnant.
His child grew inside her and that flooded his heart with warmth and light, filled him with emotions he would have considered a weakness just days ago.
Before he had met her.
Now, he didn’t want to extinguish those emotions. He wanted to embrace them.
He would ensure Nina survived the birth of their child, and he would give that child everything they desired. He would do his best to raise it well with her, because now he felt capable of doing such a thing.
Now he knew how to cherish rather than corrupt.
Dante reached for Nina. Erin looked to her and back down at Dante. The boy stared up at his mother and she nodded, as if she had sensed something from him and was responding to it. She turned with Dante, carried him over to Nina and held him out to her.
Nina’s peridot eyes darted between the boy and Erin, her uncertainty making Lucifer’s feet move, carrying him towards her so he could offer the comfort that she needed. When he reached her, she glanced at him, and then down at the boy again. She pulled down a breath and very carefully reached for Dante, taking him into her hands and lifting him.
Dante giggled and pressed chubby hands to her cheeks.
Erin smiled. Veiron smiled too.
Lucifer had the feeling he was missing something, and he didn’t like it.
“Explain,” he snapped and Erin raised a single eyebrow at him.
Then grinned.
“Around the time someone went invasion of the body snatchers on me, Dante learned to use telepathy.” Erin glanced back down at her son, her eyes shining with love and amusement. “He wanted to hear my voice. He hasn’t been able to switch it off since then… so we’ve kinda been subjected to a constant stream of baby babble most of the time and I can’t tell you how annoying that is.”
She glared at Lucifer.
He refused to apologise for what he had done. It had been necessary.
“You can understand him sometimes though?” he said and Erin nodded.
“Sometimes he gets his words straight and makes some sense.” She tickled Dante’s chin and he bounced in Nina’s arms, making her eyes shoot wide and her grip on him tighten as fear flashed across her pretty face.
“What did he say?” Lucifer peered closer at the boy, wondering whether they would be able to communicate telepathically soon. It was bad enough when Erin accidentally invaded his mind. He wasn’t sure he was ready to deal with ‘baby babble’ as Erin had put it.
Erin smiled over Dante’s head at him. “He wants to know when he gets to meet his aunt.”
It took Lucifer a moment to make sense of that. When he did, he groaned and scrubbed a hand down his face, and tried to ignore the sympathetic look Veiron gave him.
“Another daughter? One is trouble enough.” Lucifer grinned inwardly when Erin huffed and scowled at him. “I had hoped for a son.”
“A daughter?” Nina beamed, and she was radiant and breathtakingly beautiful, making him instantly change his mind.
Daughter. Son. Triplets. He didn’t care. Not when she looked so happy.
He could raise a whole army of hellions with her if she kept smiling at him like that, overflowing with love and joy.
Her smile faltered and he reached for her, placing his hand on her shoulder as he sensed the reason for her sudden change in feelings.
“I will find a way to ensure you survive the birth, Nina. I swear it. I will not lose you.”
She nodded, but the solemn edge to her eyes didn’t lift.
Erin clapped a hand down on her shoulder, making her jump and suddenly tug Dante to her, swiftly cradling him to her chest. Lucifer curled his arm around the boy too, ensuring she didn’t drop him and hoping to allay her fears that she might.
“Don’t worry,” Erin said and when her words didn’t have the desired effect on Nina, she pouted. “I said, don’t worry.”
“Why not?” Nina asked and Lucifer had been close to asking that question too.
His daughter had something else up her sleeve. He could tell by the mischievous look in her eyes, the one that told him she was enjoying herself because she had some power over him for a change.
Erin stroked Dante’s head, sweeping his black hair to one side and neatening it. The boy gurgled and kicked in response, wriggling in Nina’s arms. Lucifer looked down at Dante and then at Nina, heat spreading through his chest at the sight of her with the boy. He couldn’t help imagining that it was their child in her arms.
She would make a wonderful mother.
There was so much love in her.
Erin slid him a knowing look. Lucifer schooled his features, hiding his feelings from his daughter. The wicked edge to her smile said it was too late for him. He was done for. She knew how deeply he loved the woman he held in his arms and the thought of having a child with her, and he was never going to hear the end of it.
“Dante can protect people from harm,” Erin said and stroked Dante’s pink cheek. “He protects Veiron and me, and anyone he feels like protecting really… and he feels like protecting you. When the times comes, we’ll bring Dante to you and he’ll be able to protect you from the power of your baby.”
Nina raised her eyes to meet Lucifer’s, and he could see that she needed to hear it from him.
He hadn’t thought about it as a method of keeping her safe, because he hadn’t believed Erin would do such a thing for him, allowing her son to help him, but his daughter was right.
“Erin is telling the truth. Dante has the power to protect others from harm, Nina.” Lucifer lowered his hand and gently stroked the small of her back. “Even powerful angels cannot exert their power on those he chooses to protect. It may mean that I also still possess that protective power and that it was not stripped from me when I fell. I have not tried to protect people, not before today, but it is possible that I could help you withstand the effects of giving birth.”
“And Dante too.” Erin took Dante from Nina. “Because I’m not missing the birth of my half-sister… mainly because I want to see my dear old dad lose his shit.”
She grinned at him.
Lucifer scowled.
Nina laughed. “He really lost his shi—should we be swearing in front of Dante?”
Erin shrugged at the same time as Veiron.
“He can already swear in the demon tongue,” Veiron said, his deep voice gruff but edged with affection as he looked at his son. “We think it came built in.”
“Well, Lucifer certainly lost his temper a moment ago with
the angels,” Nina said, her smile holding and her words fuelling his hope and keeping it strong.
He had lost his temper, had revealed the darker side of himself to her, and she wasn’t running from him.
Erin smiled. Veiron gawped at him.
“Your name is Lu—” he started.
“Silence, Maggot.” Lucifer waved his hand and cut him off, stealing his voice from him. The immense male’s lips moved but no sound left them.
He bared his fangs at Lucifer, his eyes turning crimson again as his red wings unfurled from his back and his black clothing melted away, replaced by the pieces of his scarlet and black armour.
Erin sighed, stepped up to her husband and pressed a kiss to his right biceps. That single brush of her lips seemed to work magic on the male, easing his anger so his eyes darkened back to their natural colour.
“I think I’ve tried his patience enough for one day,” Erin said and rested her cheek on Veiron’s arm. She glanced up at him. “Speak, Baby. Get it off your chest and let’s get out of here.”
Veiron reached down, covered Dante’s ears, and snarled at Lucifer, “Little Fucker.”
Lucifer waved him away, and the male looked as if he wanted to land a physical blow on him rather than the verbal one he had been allowed to deal.
“You really owe me now, Pops.” Erin pressed closer to Veiron and darkness flared, engulfing them both. When it dissipated, they were gone.
Nina’s gaze burned into the side of his face.
Lucifer slowly edged his eyes towards her.
He had a feeling that he would be paying his daughter back for a long time to come.
But he also had a feeling it would be worth it.
Because she had given him a chance with Nina.
A shot at winning her heart.
CHAPTER 16
Nina wasn’t sure she would ever get used to teleporting. The second her feet touched the floor in her apartment in Lucifer’s castle, her knees gave out. He caught her waist, his grip firm but gentle, as if he feared hurting her.
She wasn’t sure he could ever do that.
He seemed incapable of it.
He attempted to prove her wrong by releasing her and drawing away from her, distancing himself as he backed towards the fireplace across the room. His striking golden eyes touched on everything but her, refusing to settle on her even when she moved towards him. He had been quiet from the moment his daughter and grandson had left with the big man she presumed was married to Erin.
A man who appeared to be an angel of Hell.
Seeing them together, seeing how deeply the man loved Erin and his son, and how much Erin clearly loved him back, had given Nina the final piece of courage she needed to face her feelings for Lucifer.
“Lucifer?”
He still refused to look at her, and she didn’t like the troubled edge to his eyes. She wanted to take away whatever was bothering him, but she couldn’t do that if he kept avoiding her gaze and remained silent.
“What are you thinking?” she whispered and closed the distance between them.
He tried to back away, but his bottom hit the rear of the red couch, stopping his progress.
Nina slowly approached him, afraid he would teleport away from her if she made him feel she was pushing him. She didn’t want him to leave, and she didn’t want to upset him. She wanted him to stay.
She wanted to make him feel better.
Whatever he feared, she would chase it away for him.
She would take care of him.
He lowered his head, his tousled black hair falling down to caress his brow. His horns were still out, and his wings brushed the back of the couch at his sides, but his skin was more cream than white and his lips were pink again.
She had expected to be afraid when she had seen him change, but no matter how long she had waited, that emotion hadn’t washed over her. She hadn’t feared him.
She had only feared for him.
He had disappeared on her after announcing that Mihail had come and her heart had lurched in her chest, fear filling it as she had realised he had gone to fight the angel again.
He had gone out to protect her.
The need to protect him had been so strong that she had sprinted through the building and burst out onto the battlefield without thinking through what she was doing, determined to make Mihail and the angels see that she didn’t want to go with them.
She had reacted on instinct when she had seen Lucifer falling, burned from the weird light that had speared Hell. Everything in her had screamed at her to shield him, because she had felt certain that Mihail wouldn’t dare hurt her. She was important to Heaven, and she had wanted to use that to her advantage in order to save the man she loved.
“Lucifer?” Nina placed her hand on the hard black breastplate that protected his chest, wishing she could reach through it to the spot between his pectorals, directly over his heart. “Tell me what you’re thinking.”
He closed his eyes and sighed, shifting the breastplate and her hand with it.
“Can you imagine what demons do to angels when they end up in Hell?” He slowly opened his eyes and lifted them, hesitating on her lips before he forced them up to meet her eyes.
The haunted quality to them told her the answer to that question and she placed her other hand against his cheek, unable to ignore her need to comfort him. He had been an angel once, and he had been cast into Hell. He wasn’t asking her to imagine what demons did to angels in his realm now, while he ruled, because she had seen angels in this land, both his men and those of Heaven, and they had been left alone by the demons.
He was asking her to picture what it had been like for him.
He looked off to his right. “It was a land without a ruler then. Nothing to stop them or hold them back.”
“They did terrible things to you, didn’t they?” Her palm trembled against his cheek, her heart aching as she pictured his back and all the scars that littered it.
I have survived atrocities. Torture so vile.
His words haunted her and her mind ran with them, throwing image after image at her, each worse than the last. How many times had he been tortured?
She stared at his chest, remembering how he had reacted when she had touched the vertical ridges of scar tissue on his back.
How many times had they torn his wings from him?
Tears lined her lashes and she blinked them away, not wanting him to think that she pitied him because she knew it would upset him. It wasn’t pity that filled her heart. It was anger. Fury. Rage that he had been put through so much pain.
Nina pressed her palm to his cheek and drew his gaze back to her. “You were betrayed.”
His eyes searched hers and he tried to look away again but she refused to let him.
His gaze narrowed, darkening a degree. “I gave them my loyalty… I carried out my orders without question… and in return I was cast into this hell. I am not a good male, Nina. I did not choose the right path, even though I tried to walk it. I did not have the strength to remain walking towards the light as you did.”
He disappeared and she feared he had left her, but then he spoke from behind her and she turned to face him.
“I trod the darker path… I allowed that darkness into my heart and I embraced it. Whatever torment I had suffered, I dealt it back a hundredfold. I bathed Hell in the blood of my torturers.” He held her gaze, his golden eyes turning crimson. “I destroyed what had been here, a prison for the angels who had sinned as I had, and in its place I built my own kingdom… a kingdom I rule, Nina… and nothing will change that.”
Not even her.
She knew that.
She knew that if she chose Lucifer, she chose everything that came with him. She chose a life in Hell, with a man who had a duty to punish those who were sent to his realm, as he had been punished before them.
“We’ve both been punished for things that weren’t our fault,” she said and continued before he could speak. “But now we have e
ach other.”
He snarled and advanced a step, his enormous black wings unfurling to span the room.
She didn’t flinch. Didn’t move a muscle. She wasn’t afraid of him. He could rage all he wanted, test her as much as he liked, but she would never turn her back on him.
Because he was her home.
He was where she belonged.
“We are not the same, Nina,” he growled and stalked another step towards her, his horns flaring forwards as his ears turned pointed. “You are light and beauty… I am darkness and sin. I deal in pain and suffering. Everything that was dealt to me in this realm, I now deal to others.”
Nina sighed softly. “That isn’t truly the case is it?”
He glared at her, but there was a flicker of confusion in his red eyes, a pause in his step that told her that she could get through to him if she just kept pressing forwards and refused to retreat.
She could make him understand her feelings for him and that they were real.
He was lashing out at her because he thought they weren’t a good fit, he thought that she would never accept the things he had done or the person he was, and that wasn’t the case at all.
They weren’t perfect, no couple was, but she loved him and she knew he loved her.
He had already told her as much, just without saying the actual words. He had shown her that he loved her.
She would show him that she loved him.
“You have angels working for you. I’ve seen them, remember?” She took a step towards him and he frowned at her feet and bared his fangs. Nina ignored the warning and advanced another one. “Tell me that I’m wrong if I’m wrong… but when an angel is sent here now, they don’t receive punishment, do they? You take them in. You give them a new home.”
He tossed a black look at her, but he didn’t deny her.
“They serve you and you’re lenient on them… although, I imagine some get hit by the pointy end of your temper.”
His face darkened and he growled through his fangs. Nina smiled at him. She was getting to know him now. He wouldn’t hurt her. All he could do right now was growl, huff and attempt to scare her, and she found it amusing and endearing in a way. He wanted to be the monster he had painted himself as, the one she was meant to see him as because of all the stories people told about him, but all she could see was a man that loved her and was hurting because he feared she would leave.
Dark and Damaged: Eight Tortured Heroes of Paranormal Romance: Paranormal Romance Boxed Set Page 61