I trembled at each word, as if he’d struck me with each one.
Too much, too much, too much…
Why couldn’t he have been cruel? Hated me? Punished me like Wild had been expecting?
Then I could’ve hated him: the bastard who’d abandoned me.
Hate myself.
Lucifer sighed. ‘You never should’ve been left with the humans. Tell your daddy: those little creatures didn’t treat you kindly…? No matter, you’re with me now. Safe. And on my bones, you’ll never doubt your glory again. Although,’ he grinned, ‘it’s interesting to know what makes you cry. Praise: is that a kink or…?’
I snarled, booting him away from me, as I jumped off the bed. My heart thudded, and I pulled my clothes straight with shaky hands.
How had he broken me down so fast?
I couldn’t think. Confused, I opened my mouth, only to snap it shut.
‘I’m messing with you.’ Lucifer reclined on the sheets, wriggling his leather clad arse. ‘Come on, loosen up. Have some fun.’
‘I’ll have some fun,’ I flexed my fist, ‘going medieval on your arse.’
‘Always so dramatic.’ Lucifer waved his hands in the air, before lifting his pale eyebrow. ‘Did your mother teach you that?’
Suddenly, Mischief plummeted through the roof of the four-poster in a swirl of silver, landing with a squeak in Lucifer’s arms.
I stiffened: Mischief had said Lucifer was waiting for him to Fall to Blood Bond with him.
No way in this freaky-glowing-bones-hell was that happening.
Lucifer cooed at Mischief, who was breathing so rapidly his chest rose and fell like a horse that’d run the Grand National. He was slicked in enough sweat for it too; ashen and shaking. The angel was still suffering from using his magic to help me and would Fall faster because of it.
Screw it, he was fam.
‘What’s wrong, rascal?’ Lucifer rested his hand across Mischief’s forehead, as if lovingly taking his temperature. He tutted. ‘You’ve taken your masochistic streak a little far, wouldn’t you say?’
Mischief’s smile was tight. ‘I’m certain I shall still be able to service you, Your Majesty. I wouldn’t wish my pain to inconvenience you.’
Lucifer tightened one arm around Mischief’s chest, locking his small leg around his hips. When he slipped his fingers beneath Mischief’s tunic, Mischief’s breath hitched. ‘So sassy; you know, it’s lucky I love fire in my pets. Still…’
When Lucifer’s gaze met mine, my hands curled into fists, and my wings stretched out, beating violently. ‘He’s Mr Sassy Bitch, but he’s also on the No Touching List. See, the humans might’ve been bastards but they had a thing called consent. I reckon that’s what should’ve been branded across your chest.’
The bones blazed fiercer, and the room shook. I swayed, before steadying myself.
Then the bastard giggled.
Lucifer pressed the heel of his foot against Mischief’s balls, and he moaned. ‘You truly are my daughter: a rebel. Good, good. But you see, there’s only power and pain and…’ His expression became flat and distant, as if he was remembering just such pain, before he shook his head. ‘Here in the Under World, we’ve broken the shackles of Angel World. But we’re not human.’ His gaze darkened. ‘Angels are pets to be killed or played with.’ He ground his heel harder, and Mischief keened. ‘Kill or play, champ?’
I blinked. Hell, he meant it. Right here, I chose Mischief’s fate.
Power and pain…
Did I deserve to wield it? Did anyone?
‘I believe you were asked a question,’ Mischief bit out, strained. He clasped onto Lucifer’s forearms, almost for comfort, even though Lucifer was the one hurting him. ‘It’s a simple choice.’
But it wasn’t.
To kill Mischief or turn him into a pet against his will? To have that guilt on my shoulders?
‘Added bonus,’ Lucifer clucked his tongue, ‘if you choose play, which will after all mean we can indulge ourselves in so many angelic fantasies…’ I was going to hurl. ‘…Then you have permission to ask me three questions.’
I froze, my breath caught. For a moment, I even forgot Mischief. ‘Anything?’
‘Well, no questions about how you escape, kill me, or...you know? Come on, this is a onetime offer and your deepest desire, hmmm?’
The top boy on the Estate didn’t rise through the gang’s ranks because of his shank or shooter but because he could read your desires and fears, before turning them against you…until you lay chained at his feet.
Lucifer had wound chains around me, until I stood shackled because he’d dangled the one thing I’d always wanted.
Answers.
It was no longer a choice, and he knew it.
He’d never wanted to gank his pet; he’d been making me perform instead.
‘Play,’ I whispered.
Mischief grunted with relief, but Lucifer only smirked. ‘I knew you’d make the right choice. Come, let’s play now.’ He bounced on the bed, pulling Mischief with him like they were toddlers hyped up on sugar, before smacking a kiss onto Mischief’s cheek. ‘What? Pouting? Like I’d let you be harmed by the big bad monster.’
I bristled.
My dad had been threatening Mischief like he was no more than a fly waiting to be swatted, but now I was the wolf stalking in the shadows…?
‘You’re the one with the fangs, bitch.’ I booted the bed, and it shook.
Lucifer’s canines curved to gleaming fangs, as he hissed, yanking Mischief off the bed by his hair and twisting his head to the side to gouge scarlet lines up and down his slender throat.
Bitch move to remind a vampire of his fangs: I wasn’t a wolf, I was a wallad.
Lucifer peered at me over Mischief’s neck, as if to check I was watching his performance; I almost rolled my eyes. ‘Fangs, claws, spark… The things I can do would perk up this party a treat.’ He licked up the blood dribbling down Mischief’s neck, before hurling him to his knees. Mischief winced. ‘We already have our hunt, however, and a Quiz of the Day.’
‘Hunt?’ I licked my lips, unclenching my hands.
Why did my blood sing at the word, even as the powers inside uncoiled, like scorpion tails tensing to strike?
Trained as a huntress, it’d been too long since I’d hunted even for sport.
Mischief’s gaze flitted between us, his eyebrows raised. He edged himself to his feet, backing away until he hit the graffitied wall.
‘Uh-huh,’ Lucifer tutted, ‘no escaping. We want to play…hunt…don’t we?’
I nodded, biting down on a smile. My vision blurred like fireworks were pop — pop — popping in my brain.
‘The light, you witless beast, the king’s spark…it’s inside you…’ Mischief smacked his hands together, as if attempting to awaken me.
Crack — Lucifer darted to Mischief, smashing his head against the wall.
‘Naughty… Who said you were invited to play? The prey is silent, see?’ He chucked Mischief towards me.
Mischief dived under my arms, dodging behind the bed.
Yet Mischief’s words had been enough to darken the lightshow in my head. I squinted at Lucifer. ‘My three questions, bro. Time to pay up.’
Lucifer swung his arms, limbering up. ‘Give me your best shot.’
I swallowed.
I could do this. I had to bastard do it…
‘Why did you abandon me?’
Lucifer doubled up with a pained groan. ‘Straight for the balls.’ Then he straightened with a grin. ‘I didn’t. Your mummy did. Next question.’
‘Wait…what?’ I gaped at him.
Unconcerned that he’d shattered my world into a thousand-piece jigsaw and stolen all but a single piece, Lucifer launched himself over the bed, clutching at Mischief, who stumbled away with a gasp.
Absentmindedly, I caught Mischief as he passed, pulling him close and feeling the panicked thud of his heart against mine. I stroked down his back; he trembled.
&nb
sp; Lucifer stalked towards me. ‘If I could’ve sensed you before your powers came in, I’d have ridden to your rescue. Didn’t I fight to get you back? To have you by my side? How much do you like the men in your life to sacrifice for you? It seems to me a hot topic…?’ He ripped Mischief out of my arms. ‘Next question.’
‘Why’d you fight at all?’ I tugged Mischief back: a gazelle between two lions. His sleeve ripped. ‘When you raped my mother? And all I am is—’
‘All you are is glorious,’ Lucifer hissed. His arm around my shoulders was hot and comforting in a way I knew it shouldn’t have been. His wings wrapped both Mischief and me in their bonfire scent. ‘By the shadows, I didn’t…force…the Matriarch. She forced me. And you’re the perfect gift from the union. I’ve missed you.’
I struggled, pushing to be free of Lucifer’s suddenly suffocating embrace. But he only held on tighter. Mischief whimpered.
Violet crackled beneath my skin, stinging to burst out and mess up Lucifer for daring to lie about this. But when my gaze met his…the flames died. Because he meant it.
He bastard meant it.
Tears streaked my cheeks. ‘Don’t…’
‘What?’
‘Pretend I’m anything more than a Bone Princess in a cage.’
‘That’s your mother’s poison,’ Lucifer sneered. I didn’t miss the tremor that ran through him. ‘She kidnapped me, after I’d thought myself free. All because she wanted an heir: that’d be you, my monstrous daughter. A weapon.’ I flinched. That’s all I’d been? From the moment of conception? Nothing more than a shank to kill? ‘I play, you know, but she’s a whole other league of twisted. She wanted you to win the war for her but have me see it was my own daughter who’d defeated me. Dog doubly beaten and all that jazz.’ His expression softened. ‘The Brigadier didn’t get off on such methods. He was my angelic shining knight, sweeping me to safety and Falling because of it. He became my most honoured and darkest soldier.’
Ash had told me he didn’t fight. Yet once he’d been the darkest soldier at Lucifer’s side…? He’d fallen to save Lucifer from the Matriarch…?
Yeah, I couldn’t even think about that, as I’d witnessed first-hand what she’d done to Drake.
Slam — I headbutted Lucifer, and he stumbled backwards.
Mischief tripped to the floor between us; his hair was stuck at angles, his clothes dishevelled, and he was still a sickly grey colour.
Less a hunt than a mauling.
‘If Ash saved you, then why is your ungrateful leather arse punishing him now? He stopped you from being a bed slave to my psycho mum, but you’ve made him bed slave to your psycho army. What the hell gives?’
‘Oh goodie, third question!’ Lucifer steadied himself against the bedpost, which was carved with the rays of the sun, whilst massaging his bruising temple.
I sighed.
Epic fail on the Trick Three Questions Game.
Lucifer’s expression hardened, dangerous and deadly. ‘We both have a power; you’ll learn it. We enflame — spark — loyalty in others. Some we can catch and pull more deeply, and the fun to be had with those…fervent followers. They’ll walk into the fire for you. But here’s the problem: what happens if someone disobeys? Breaks your hold?’
‘You stop being a control freak before you’re slapped with a restraining order?’
‘Huh, you’re not really seeing the parallels yet, are you? See, when you’re a ruler, you can’t just spank and forget. You have to make an example. And the Brigadier, our sweet Seducer, started obeying someone else more than me. His loyalty belonged to them. And when the spark fades…then so must your follower.’
My gaze became as hard as flint. ‘You’ll be fading, sparky.’
Lucifer shook his head. ‘You wanted answers. Afraid of a little honesty?’ I swallowed, looking away: bastard. ‘It’s been just splendid to catch up, but now I must put on my official face.’
Mischief scrambled back against my legs for protection, and I frowned.
Lucifer waved his hand once, and his leather boy outfit changed into sleek black armour that covered him, as much as he’d been on display before. His wings surged on demon fire. A flaming horned helmet flared on his head.
It had to be bastard horns, of course.
My dad was as much a drama queen as J.
In a moment, my dad transformed himself into a terrifying vision: exactly the ancient supernatural I’d imagined lurked in the Bone Palace as King of the Under World.
He smirked. ‘Impressive?’
‘You’re smaller than I was expecting; more Satan’s Little Helper, than Beelzebub himself. The Matriarch’s taller than you.’
Lucifer’s smirk faltered. Then he touched his helmet; a flame leapt from the horn onto the palm of his hand, pirouetting like a fire fairy. ‘Size isn’t everything.’ He crushed his fist, killing the fairy. ‘How’d you like the taste of my light?’ The swirling living light that’d torn whirlwind through the battle, chillingly cold and bright. I shuddered. ‘Isn’t it chaos in its most pure form?’ He blinked, as if steadying himself. ‘A spark must be fostered and helped to grow. Like a daughter. You fought against me. Protected the angels. Defied me in front of my army. See what a bind you’ve put me in? How can my followers trust you? Your loyalty? They think you’re a wild traitor who’s a danger to us, and now I’ll have to take you into the Crypt to be sentenced and tested.’
‘What is it with you and your tests?’
‘Option two is execution…’
‘Test away.’
Lucifer snatched my arm, marching towards the wall. The bones glowed violently, before peeling back, like ribs in an autopsy.
Bones and blood. Bones and blood. Bones and blood.
I steeled myself, as the chants grew louder from the Crypt beyond.
The vampires had been there, waiting for us, all the time I’d been with Lucifer. Had he always been planning this?
Lucifer leaned closer. ‘A leader doesn’t get what they want, oh no. You have us pinned as the enemy because you’ve been brainwashed by the angels. We’re the freedom fighters, however, and I put my people first. Even if my daughter must be the one to prove herself. Remember, whatever happens, I love you.’
I gawked at the King of the Under World — Lucifer, Light-bringer, dad — clutching my arm in Big Bad of Comic Con outfit and shook.
Because the bloke who I’d always thought the biggest bastard of them all hadn’t ditched me at birth: I’d been stolen from him. And maybe…please, please, maybe…he wasn’t a bastard because he loved me.
Yet, despite that, he was a king, and he was dragging me before his court in the Crypt to be sentenced as a traitor.
11
Even I knew that a bitch didn’t laugh when she was being tried as a traitor.
Yet terrified as I was of the sentence, I was being convicted to the cheers of my fanboys.
Bones and blood. Bones and blood. Bones and blood.
I bowed my head in an attempt to look contrite, snuffling on the stuffy dust, but the vampires who sprawled across the stone floor of the Crypt, pawing at each other like they were at a hippie party, weren’t chanting to have my guts sprayed over the marble walls. Rather for their favourite Bone Carnival Champion in excited fervour, as if this was just another fight.
I peeked a glance around the medieval arched court room, with gold inscriptions on its walls and Lucifer’s lights hovering along the dipped roof, and I finally got that we were below a human cathedral, which had been abandoned or bombed out in the Blitz.
The vampires had built their kingdom on the human dead.
And I was their Champion.
I buzzed, giving up on the sombre and throwing back my head to grin. The temptation to snatch this celebrity…power…acceptance flooded me.
Along with a desperate desire to snigger.
I preened, until I caught Lucifer’s eye.
Lucifer crouched on a tomb, his eyes flaring as dazzlingly as his wings and horned helmet. And
jealousy…? Move over, because your new name was Lucifer.
I guess Devil Daddy hadn’t been the one who’d sweetened the audience towards me…
Misrule sprawled against the far wall, clutching Harahel to his chest in comfort. I scanned Harahel as I’d once done when he’d been owned by a sadistic Glory, expecting to find the same evidence of bruises now he’d become a Blood Lover.
Misrule had forced the Blood Bond with Harahel, and I knew from Marking Rebel how wrong that was. But Harahel’s skin was still unmarred. Perfect. And right now? Harahel was safer than I was.
The Feathered prowled between my new worshippers like security guards at a festival, whilst Wild stood akimbo behind Lucifer, sending me a nana nana na sneer.
No one can be everybody’s cup of tea.
‘Crack on with it, bro. Do I get multiple choice?’ I tilted back my chin.
When Lucifer gaped at me, I chuckled.
‘On my heart of pain, you do have spark. But you see, we must be fair, huh? All those who aren’t First Fallen are tested, if they wish to escape the Bones…’
Suddenly, the chanting stopped. That one word — Bones — conjured an eerie silence.
I shivered. ‘Why haven’t I been shown that part of the freaky Carnival? How much more of the Under World are you hiding?’ When I marched up to Lucifer, Wild blocked me.
Lucifer waved back Wild, however, who reluctantly retreated.
Lucifer’s fire wings beat, blowing warm air across my cheeks. ‘You know, hiding is such a strong word. When you stop hiding from me, maybe you’ll earn my secrets, and they’re a cartload of fun.’
‘We may have different definitions of fun.’
Lucifer smiled, tapping at his lips. ‘Wow, I do hope so, or what will I have to teach my daughter? Now…’
Rizzz — Lucifer pulled down a hidden zipper in the front of his armour, exposing his chest.
I recoiled. ‘Different definitions, kinky bastard Fang. And there’s going to be no teaching if this is your fun.’
Lucifer clutched his chest like a violated maiden. ‘Yikes, you didn’t think…? Those kinky angels have poisoned your mind, missy.’ He wagged his finger at me, and I blushed. Then he slipped his hand under the tight leather and drew out a toy, proffering it to me like it was a relic. ‘This is your inheritance.’
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