What was the foreign emotion burdening his chest that made him feel full? Gently, Satan laid his clawed hand over hers, and she slowly opened her eyes. Swallowed by the abysmal brown, their souls locked together as their fingers did. The softening of Andrea's gaze moved him. She cared of not what he was, but ultimately who he was. Even through the pain and scars, she saw the light of his soul. The simplicity of her touch reassured him. There'd been no power, no energy swapping as he assumed there would be. Her presence caused him to feel more powerful than he had ever been. With her at his side, he could do anything, be anything. Bargaining for her soul was no longer an option. He had to have it, but most importantly, he wanted to earn it.
"Kiss me." Her lips barely moved on the whisper, but he heard it, clear as if she'd shouted it.
Kissing was an intimate trait, and Satan had never softened himself for a female. Ruthless fucking had always been in his repertoire when dealing in sexual activities. Gentle pecks of sweetness never appeased him, but he could not deny the woman the simple kiss she demanded.
Hesitantly he leaned in, staring deep into her eyes as the inches closed between them. He watched her gaze skim over his face, and for the first time ever, he worried about his appearance and how she must see him. He was a beast, a travesty burned from grace, and yet she still wanted to kiss him. Other than Lilith's succubi, other females didn't willingly come to him for erotic endeavors. Her acceptance humbled and terrified him all in the same breath.
Andrea's free hand came up and slipped behind his neck. With a gentle pull she guided his face closer to hers until their lips pressed together. A little awkward at first, Satan saw her apprehension and the slight tremble starting in her hands. The sweetness of her lips caused him to close his eyes in ecstasy, a sensation so unnatural to him that he lost his breath and any coherent thoughts.
Andrea moved her lips against his. Her hand cupped the back of his neck. The prick of her fingernails set a rush of blood to his cock. Before he could explore their connection any further, there was a tightening in his torso, the numbing burn of something acidic and chilling. The weight of his conviction and the emotions she awakened in him caused something to shudder in his chest and echo in his ears.
Ba-thump.
XI
"But who prays for Satan? Who, in eighteen centuries, has had the common humanity to pray for the one sinner that needed it most?"
― Mark Twain
Andrea's eyes opened in time to see Satan stumble back from her reach. His massive wings flapped once to keep him from falling to the ground. He pulled back from her so fast her nails scratched his neck. Red-hot pain shot up her arm before it lost contact with his chest. She shook her hand, hoping it would help cool the searing heat that dulled to a pulsing sting. Her lips burned too, but it was a different tingle. She never expected for the unsightly creature before her to cause such a rise in her blood pressure. She hoped the joining of their lips would cause Lucifer to surface. After a brief moment their link intensified and she almost believed Luc was kissing her back. Yet, Andrea believed she'd dug herself deeper into Satan's clutches.
Staring down at her open palm, her gaze fixated on a blackened mark of some kind of symbol before it faded away in a puff of smoke. What in the hell was that? She looked toward Satan as if he was the culprit of the smoky symbol. Judging by his astonished face as he eyed at the charred replica of the mark on his chest, she was betting not. The demonic sign sizzled as little tufts of smoke rose from his freshly singed skin. Her touch had somehow burned him, but instead of being angry, he seemed awed.
After his sign dissipated, he met her gaze. Andrea stared back into Satan's uncanny glare and sensed she might've done something that would surely condemn her soul. The demons surrounding them murmured under their breaths. All of them shifted around nervously and cast dark glances in her direction.
"Master, what has she done?" Lilith rushed forward, her ridiculous old-fashioned dress swishing around her heels. She moved to steady Satan, but before the demoness reached him, the illusion of the masquerade ball dripped away like a vat of turpentine dumped on a painted canvas. In between frames, a backdrop of fire and brimstone made Andrea wonder if the scorched landscape was what the inside of a volcano looked like. Demons wailed as the image of their costumes faded away, and their dark shadows turned into vapor to cry into the flames. As hot as the fire looked, Andrea sensed no heat. When the demonic screams died, the fire snuffed out as well, leaving a cool blackness surrounding them.
A sinister wasteland faded into view. Continuous silver lightning streaked across the sky and gave the sand a navy-tint. A big flash of lightning illuminated the wasteland, and Andrea used that as her chance to see as much as she could. Mountains created jagged black spires against the cloudy indigo sky. And though all seemed still, geysers of molten lava erupted and highlighted the navy cracked desert a fiery-orange. The arid land stretched on for miles and had been the vision of what she'd expected to see upon arriving in Sheol. A shriek echoed in the distance. The chilly wind stung her skin as it carried sand particles. The soft patter of rain began and the ice chill of the water on her skin caused her to cross her arms. Andrea kept an uneasy gaze on her surroundings with her peripheral vision because no way in heck would she taking her eyes off the bigger threat in front of her.
Satan stood hunched over, hands pressed against his chest as if suffering from a severe case of heartburn. His crimson glare was no longer shocked but furious. With each nervous breath puffing out of her chest, Satan's expression grew grimmer, and Andrea knew burning the Devil within his own dwelling wasn't a smart thing to do.
"That little stunt will cost you." He lunged with a livid growl, and Andrea wasn't fast enough to dodge his massive form. She wasn't sure, but he might've even teleported. He took her down to the ground, flipped her over to face him, and then grabbed both her wrists. She couldn't jerk free of his iron grip. He brought her hands up over her head with one hand. Andrea kicked and twisted underneath him, but it seemed to give him an advantage and tire her out. She screamed out in rage and frustration. Plumes of dark dust fogged the air around them and choked her. The heat from the ground caused a layer of sweat to coat her skin. Still, with the last of her energy, she bucked, hoping to dislodge his grip. If he was going to own her soul for eternity, he'd have to fight her every day. A silent promise she made to herself, and she'd also never stop trying to bring Luc back.
"I will fucking destroy you for what you've done to me! You've ruined me once before. It will not happen again. I will not be weak and let you suppress me. I'll bathe in your blood and leave your carcass for the hellhounds!"
The sudden roar of thunder made Andrea jump. The raindrops were heavy enough to cause her to tilt her head slightly to keep them out her nose and mouth. The dirt underneath her quickly became a puddle of unsettled sludge as the rain assaulted the cracked dirt. Blinking away the last of the stinging raindrops, Andrea wondered why the rain suddenly stopped. The Devil's face hovered above hers, blocking the rain. Andrea noticed his hand that gripped her wrists shook uncontrollably. His eyes looked a like wild, like a feral cat spooked but too stubborn to move.
Eve's betrayal really did a number on him. She couldn't blame his reaction to what happened between them; it scared her too. It wasn't going to be easy for him to heal from millenniums of pain, but she wanted to try. For the both of them. She'd stay in Sheol and do it if she had to. Lucifer was more than a scorched angel cast out of Heaven, he was a being that had eons to dwell on his hatred and suppress it when he stayed on Earth. However, she had a moment to wonder what the burning in her hand had been and why Satan seemed to grow more aggravated since she accidentally singed him.
"Lucifer wanted to give me happiness," Andrea said over the thunder. "He wanted us to be together."
A bolt of lightning highlighted the sneer on his face. "And you declined, just like she did. I will be strong for both of us; he is too fucking sentimental when it comes to females." His face leaned in,
hoping to drive his dark words in like a spear through her heart.
"He is you! Forgive her, forgive my soul! Damn it, don't you see it's yours without all the trickery and a damn signature. It's yours because I gave it to you lifetimes ago! In case you are too stubborn to see it, I'm giving it to you again. This is our fresh start." Andrea closed the space between their lips, hoping a kiss will throw him off balance. Satan jerked, but he quickly melted into her kiss. Their bond was too impossible to deny. Even in his devilish form, she couldn't reject him, nor would she. Her fate twisted with his, and she was willing to succumb to an eternity of pain in hopes to redeem her fallen angel.
Andrea closed her eyes, savoring in how his deeper kiss felt like Luc's. Their weight sank deeper into the muddy ground. She opened her eyes in a quiver of dread and saw the wastelands of Sheol become volatile around her. The night storm was angry and loud, splintering the sky with fissures of orange light and white fire. The raindrops had fully loosened the warm soil around her and turned it into a mud pit that pulled her farther down into the deep. Satan refused to break their kiss; he greedily nibbled and licked at her lips, his fangs scratching her soft skin. Even when she froze and tried to assess their situation, he didn't seem too concerned about them sinking. Perhaps Satan dragged her deeper into his bottomless pit. She'd given him her soul, and now she was his forever. She would be lost in damnation for however long he chose to keep her.
The black quicksand engulfed her face and clogged her nose. She twisted away from the demon prince and tried to gasp for one final breath as the heavy muck caved in and crushed her lungs. The thick soil constricted her body, but she couldn't cry out for fear of the sludge choking her. She lost sight of Satan when she had to close her eyes and fully submerge. Andrea recognized him there with her, sinking into the depths with a firm grip still on her. She drifted along weightlessly as the sludge seemed to hold her in suspension. Who knew how long she stayed there, dwelling in the dark. Satan drifted away from her, but she couldn't panic about him being pulled away. It could've been a blessing. All she had was her thoughts to sustain her in the void. None of her senses worked in the blackness, but she floated along, feeling a tingling itch against her cheek.
The mud seemed to thin out, the consistency changed and she seemed to rise slowly toward the surface. She saw the warped globes of lights through the hazy water. Trepidation wasn't a feeling she normally perceived as a paranormal investigator, but the way her life as of late had been going, who knew what nightmare she'd be force to live when she broke surface.
XII
“Confounded, though immortal. But his doom, reserved him to more wrath; for now the thought both of lost happiness and lasting pain torments him.”
― John Milton
The harsh air softened like a spring breeze heavy with dew and the aroma of something sweet and musky. The wind skimmed her damp skin like satin, and every part of her wanted to see what caused the sensations around her to change. It took too much effort to open her heavy eyelids. Satan had probably teleported her to another twisted vision of Sheol. One minute her last breath was stolen from her lungs, the next she felt buoyant and tried to identify the calming scents. An illusion, it had to be. One she wasn't sure she was prepared to see yet.
She shivered as a thumb made little circles on her moist cheek. She smiled, feeling Luc's essence, but knowing it might be a lie. She didn't care; she loved his touch, even if Satan teased her with fragments of him. She'd promised herself to the Devil in exchange for this. Satan's touch was so delicate that his claw didn't scrape her skin as she would've expected. She hummed as the gentle caress filled her with bliss.
"Look at me." Luc's voice broke the heavy spell shielding her eyes. Andrea slowly opened her eyes. A few blinks to clear the fuzzy picture revealed a drenched Luc kneeling beside her and gazing at her through his dark eyelashes. "There you are." He was so beautiful, and she wanted to believe Luc had somehow found his way out. She wanted to believe she'd somehow saved him. She was no fool though. You couldn't save the Devil.
"What happened?" She was glad to be out of the void, but not sure her current situation would be any better.
Luc glanced around them before gazing back down at her. "It seems we came around full circle." What the heck did he mean by that? "Can you stand?" He rose to his feet and offered her a hand up.
Wiggling her toes and shifting her legs a bit, she seemed to have control of her limbs enough to steady herself. With a silent nod, Andrea allowed the Luc illusion Satan cast to pull her to her feet. She dropped his hand and put a little distance between them. She watched the Devil wearily, not trusting him as far as she could throw him. He could throw them back into the wasteland and shed away their surroundings as he did the ballroom. Andrea waited for him to melt the beautiful image of wet Luc and Venice away and laugh at her through the flames. Though, Satan was the type to rip the hallucination away when she least expected it and try to scare her with his ghastly body. She wasn't as afraid of him as she initially was, but it still left her a bit unwilling to trust the being in front of her.
Luc/Satan stood in silence, looking at her in such a manner that caused her to be a bit nervous. He had the Luc mannerisms down now, the sensual gaze stole her breath and caused her to momentarily forget that she needed to act like a tactful lady.
"What?" She wrapped her arms around herself, fighting off the chill trying to slice through her bones.
"You don't trust me or anything around you do you?"
"Should I?" She cast a quick glance at her surroundings. The backdrop of the dingy city buildings behind Luc seemed pretty damn real. The historical architecture of Venice caused Andrea to remember the Italian woman's visions and the night of the masquerade carnival happening in the streets. She could finally place those sweet scents she caught a whiff of earlier. The same damn smell that haunted her nose she associated with Venice. The intoxicating aroma of rich food and aged wine. Satan was good; he provided a very tempting and believable sight to say the least.
Andrea noticed she had been dressed in the same work outfit she wore before she stepped into the rift. She'd somehow lost one of her heels, and she tried not to laugh at the fact that through her whole hellish ordeal, the only thing she lost was a shoe and not her damn mind. Andrea noticed the trail of water surrounding the area; it came from the nearest canal steps. It looked suspiciously like Luc might've pulled her from the water.
"Are we in Sheol, or did we go back in time?"
"I'm fairly certain we are in present day. It's impossible to travel backward through time, even for me." He snorted and flashed a smile that warmed her. "And this is definitely Earth."
She gave him a skeptical look.
"I promise we are on Earth, Andrea." She wanted to believe him, but she'd seen enough screwed up shit to not question the truth in everything. "I will lie to everyone but you. I'm assuming it's the annual masquerade festival in Venice, and we're hardly dressed for the occasion." Luc was back in the inky suit he'd worn when she interviewed him. Though, he'd removed the jacket and left it in a soggy heap a few feet way. The sleeves of his dress shirt were pushed up to his elbows, and his crimson vest's top two buttons were unbuttoned. Both their clothes were worse for the wear with rips in various places and soaked with dirty canal water.
She glanced down at herself and noticed the drab charcoal business suit and again her one heel. If he wanted to go for an elaborate illusion, Satan would probably fashion her to have both shoes. Hobbling around on one shoe seemed more like her in the real world. Andrea lost it then. The fear and the worry, the stress, came out in uncontrollable giggles. She let the laughter roll out until her gut hurt and tears collected in her eyes.
Andrea calmed herself to a few chuckles and studied Luc, noting he gave her the space she needed to get her bearings. He looked unsure of her state of mind and gave her a curious glance that had one of his eyebrows lifted in mild concern. His look caused her to giggle again. She wiped the salty tears off her cheek and
took a deep breath to compose herself. She cleared her throat and looked at the being she walked through Sheol to save. Luc was beautiful though, tall, dark, and of course every bit as dangerous as the legends said. Andrea couldn't believe she was smitten with this devilish male.
"Still, I'm not sure if any of this is real anymore."
He reached for her hand and placed it against his chest, the same spot she'd touched Satan and that weird demonic brand had appeared. "I'm real. You made me real, Andrea. Here's your proof, you've enriched my existence and nurtured my soul."
"The Devil has a soul?" She gave him an easy smile so he'd know she was making light of the situation, but if she were being honest, she was falling fast for him.
"Everything has a soul, even the damned. You gave me mine back."
Yep, fast train to Crazytown with the Devil by her side. Her life had been filled with chasing one paranormal extreme to the next. It would be hypocritical for her to run from it when one stared her in the face. She had to tell him her promise in Sheol wasn't made in some quick desperation to rescue Luc from himself.
"I meant what I said. I accept every part of you, Lucifer, the beautiful and the burned." A small smile played at his lips and Andrea couldn't help but grin at him like a love-struck fool.
"I know and I believe you. It's why we are here instead of Sheol." He reached out to cradle her cheek. His warm palm a big comfort to the unstable hours she had to endure. She covered his hand with her own and gazed up at him. To anyone else his eyes were mercury embers holding eons of secrets and lies. Not with her, he regarded her with a resolve of pride and truth, and she could see glimpses of the angel there. The eyes were the window to a soul, and Andrea knew what Luc's soul looked like. The small sparks of amber had frightened Ciana, but Andrea recognized it for what it was. The fire between them and the passion he displayed when in her presence. The flames were the madness that consumed him and spread between them by a mere touch alone.
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