“Gifted me what?” she half-hissed at him.
“Do you truly not remember, Flower?”
Nope. She had no idea what Laz was talking about.
“One night, in the cage, you had a nightmare. Lucifer watched over you, guarding you as you slept and he tucked you in tight to him.”
Eve’s throat tightened. “I don’t remember.”
Lazarus plucked a feather from his wing and twirled it between his thumb and index finger. “He asked me how to protect you - from your nightmares, your fears, your enemies. He was so dead set on making sure you always had a backup, even if he couldn’t be there himself to guard you.”
Eve really didn’t understand where this was going. They needed to stop talking and get back to helping her guys with the Scourge. Her pack was in the middle of a war right now and Eve was just sitting on the ground in Gabriel’s tunic with no pants on.
“Laz, we need to go back. We can’t abandon them.”
“I’m to keep you safe,” he swatted the air with his feather. “And you need to know what he’s done.”
Whatever Lucifer did, Eve didn’t care. “Okay, so he held me.” Nothing wrong with that.
“He bonded with you,” Lazarus poked his feather at her. “He gifted you a piece of his actual soul, Eve.”
She paled. Eve felt the blood drain out of her face. As if her heart had frozen, ice pumped in her veins. “Oh no,” she panicked. “Get it out!” She started swatting at her arms and legs like there were fire ants on her. “Get it out! Get it out!”
Lazarus rushed towards her and held his hand over her mouth. “You wish to forsake such a gift from him?” She bit his hand as hard as she could. He released his hold on her and growled, “Keep your voice down, female.”
Eve shoved him away, panic surging in her bones. “No, I don’t want to forsake his gift. I need to fucking preserve it.” Her palms grew clammy. “Why would you let him do that, Laz?”
“Lucifer does what he wants, when he feels he must. Who am I to stop him?”
“But his soul?”
To make it worse, he’d given it to her before he knew her secret. Gifted her the most precious piece of his existence before he knew what she’d done. Before he knew her soul was tied to all of mankind. Before he knew she was the link between the Divine and the Damned.
“He wouldn’t have cared what the risks were, Flower.” Lazarus cupped her cheek, “He loves and hates and fights with the same heart. He understands that nothing is perfect. It was never meant to be that way or it would have been already.”
Eve blinked back unshed tears. She was so scared she ruined Lucifer’s soul in some way… or worse, that the world would suck it out of her like it was her own spiritual energy already. “I can’t let it be taken from me,” she let one tear fall, then another. “Please, help me preserve it, Lazarus.”
“It might be what saved you the day of the snakes. You should have died that day.”
Eve’s heart hammered in her throat and she felt woozy. “I’m not going to rely on it to save me. I can’t.”
“Can’t or won’t?”
“Won’t.” Eve scrubbed her face with her hands. “And Merri? If she learns I have something this powerful in me, she’ll never stop until she gets her claws on it. If she and Michael are working together now….” Eve clicked into flight or fight mode. Snapping her wings out, she wasn’t sure which direction to even go in.
“Where do you think you’re going to go, Flower?”
“I… I…” She didn’t fucking know! “I want to be with them.”
A fresh wave of panic hit her and she couldn’t tell if it was hers or not. Not now that she knew a slice of Lucifer’s energy was inside her. But the thought of her males fighting the Scourge right now while Eve sat safely in the woods pissed her off like nothing else.
They were a team. A fleet.
A pack.
Yeah, they were a pack and the idea of her being the odd-Angel out of this fight felt wrong on so many levels. Part of this was all her fault. Had she not breathed life and energy into that child, the chain reaction of souls and threads to the divine would have never been forged. She’d own her shit. Take the blame for it if she had to. Fuck Michael. Fuck Merri. Fuck anyone who deemed that a sin.
Humans should feel emotions. Humans should care. They should have light and dark and grey and stardust in them. Sure, they weren’t perfect, but neither were Angels, damnit. No one was more superior than another.
Same as Michael versus Lucifer.
And Gabriel, Uriel, and Constantine versus every other in the Brotherhood of Angels.
They were all born for great purpose. Hers was to give souls to those who’d been made with none. She wasn’t sorry for it.
“Which way must I go?” She couldn’t find her bearings at ground-level and didn’t want to take to the skies without a little bit of direction. “I need to find them. Fight with them.”
“That won’t be necessary,” Laz frowned.
Eve’s panic ricocheted. Anger coursed in her veins. The future felt scary and lonely and she didn’t know why. The unknown gnawed on her thoughts like a starved rat. Were they all dead? Had the Scourge destroyed her males, one-by-one?
As each new question flitted to the surface of her mind, Eve’s panic ticked up another notch until she was shaking so furiously, she was damn near foaming at the mouth. “If they’ve killed my pack, I’ll not rest until I bury them all and drink from their motherfucking skulls.”
Eve ran towards a clearing so she could take off in the air and go after the Scourge when a huge figure slammed down from the sky right in front of her. The earth quaked with his landing.
Eve’s heart smashed around in her chest like a wild rabbit with one leg caught in a trap. She screamed and a hot hand covered hers. Thrashing around, she bit down on the fucker’s palm. Eve had a moment of temporary insanity when she all out fought like wild – her legs both kicking up in the air, her wings flapping hard as her teeth sank down on flesh until her mouth filled with blood.
“EVE!” Lucifer’s voice was morphed and deep and terrifying. “Damnit, female! Stop fighting me!”
Something in Eve sparked to life and filled her with heat that consumed her from the inside out. Whether it was Lucifer’s soul or her fight response, she wasn’t sure. Either way, she inhaled deep breaths and exhaled through the bloodied palm still wedged in her mouth. Eve eased her jaws open and Lucifer pulled his hand out of her mouth.
Those blue eyes of his cut right through her like a hot knife. “What happened?”
“I’m fine.”
“You don’t feel fine,” Lucifer growled.
And that’s when Eve realized Lucifer could feel her through the bond they shared. Whether it was because of his soul, or something else, she wasn’t certain. But right now, she knew Lucifer could feel her panic and had come to her immediately.
“Where are the others?” she said after licking her lips. Lucy’s blood coated her tongue and mouth. She probably should have spit it out, but she didn’t. She let it linger on her lips and watched his gaze lock onto her mouth. He growled deep in his chest and it didn’t sound Angelic. It sounded much more deadly than that.
“Don’t ever spare me the rod,” she shoved her fist in his pec. “We are in this life together, Lucy. Never spare me the suffering. If you all fight. I fight too. All or none, understand?”
If he wanted to argue about it, he refrained. There was no telling a female of her ilk No in a situation like this. “Were you hurt?”
Lucy shook his head.
“Are they dead? Did you defeat them? Are Gabriel and the others okay?”
She watched the lump in his throat bob up and down when he swallowed. “They’re with them now. And we’ve got a plan to take Michael down.”
Chapter 50
Michael’s lust was slaked far too quickly, but another round would have to wait. The two females could barely move. The blonde’s legs were at odd angles. Her breaths shall
ow. The brunette remained tied up where he’d left her an hour ago, dangling by her wrists, her flushed body swaying limply.
He swaggered over and grabbed one of their cloaks to wipe his dick off with. Then he untied the brunette and gently placed her beside the blonde one. He nudged the brunette with his bare foot. “You okay?”
“Mmph.”
She was coherent enough to respond, that was good enough for him.
Taking turns with each other, Michael pushed them to their limits. Their screams were a pretty choir of pain and pleasure. Fear laced their eyes as tears slid down their cheeks when he fucked their pretty little pink mouths and shot his pleasure down their throats. They gagged. Choked. Gasped for air.
It made him desperate to suffocate them with his cock again, but that could wait for another day.
And there would absolutely be another day.
All because he gave up Lilith didn’t mean he couldn’t replace her with these two.
Of course, they’d need to be broken in. He didn’t always have time for the cat and mouse games. If he wanted them on their knees, they better slam down to the ground hard enough to bust the stone floors.
Maybe he owed Lucifer a little gratitude for introducing lust and desires of the flesh to the Angels. It would have been a shame to live an eternity without ever experiencing something so exquisite.
Michael paused. Frowned. Regrouped his thoughts.
Grabbing a whip from his wall, he slid the leather rope through his hand slowly, his heart pounding with embarrassment and disgust. He should not have done this. He should have not indulged. It was wrong. No matter how good it felt, it was still wrong. Hate rose to the surface and heated his need for atonement.
Anything Lucifer brought to this world should be forbidden. Enjoying these two females in lustful ways was a sin. And sins need to be answered for. Forgiven. Atoned.
Michael dropped to his knees and lashed his whip across his back. He stared at the blonde’s pink, wet pussy. Watched white cream drip out of it and knew that was their pleasure mixed together spilling out from between her thighs right now.
Crack! This second hit stung far more than the first. Michael’s eyes cut to the brunette. The bite marks on her body, the red welts on her ass from him spanking her when she begged him to do it. Their desires and need for pain and pleasure matched Michael’s.
That shouldn’t have surprised him. They belonged to Merri. She conditioned them the same way the old ones had conditioned her.
The same way they’d conditioned Michael.
Crack! He shuddered from the white-hot pain. The blonde kept her gaze locked on him as she crawled on her hands and knees. Leaning in, her tongue darted out of her mouth and licked up his cheek. Michael vibrated with the desire to snap her neck for intruding right now. His fury faded to fascination when she took the whip from his hand and lashed her back three times to match his.
Then the brunette calmly walked over to the wall of purification and plucked two more whips from their hooks. The three of them were spaced out far enough to not hit one another, each with a whip in their hands, and they began the purification ritual again.
Six hours later, Michael and his two new submissive servants returned to his chambers. Merri was sitting in the same spot he’d left her in – only now she held a book in her hands. When they approached, she snapped the novel closed and placed it on the table with a bored expression. “Your literature collection is quite interesting.”
Indeed, it was. Michael kept journals of everything Lazarus ever told him. Constantine wrote it all down and would embellish some of it as a form of entertainment. The result was a small library of books about inventions of the future, wars of men, prophecies twisted into fantastical tales.
The writing was good, storylines both detailed and extravagant, it was nearly impossible to decipher which were Lazarus’s proclamations and what was made up by Constantine’s imagination.
“Are you thirsty?” he asked his two new pets.
“Very,” purred the blonde.
“What are your names?” Why did he even care?
“Ambrosia,” said the blonde.
“I do not have a name,” said the brunette, as she cast a quick glance to Merri.
Odd. Michael shrugged and poured them each a glass of water. He wasn’t going to put healing herbs in their drinks because the sting on their backs should serve as a reminder of what they’d done.
Even if they were going to do it again.
Michael poured himself a glass next.
Merri watched with hawk eyes. “What’s in that pitcher?”
“Ambition,” he tipped his cup in salute before draining the whole thing. “Now, let’s discuss how we’re going to fix the world’s problems, one imperfection at a fucking time.”
Chapter 51
Lucifer escorted Eve back to the others. Something felt off. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” she tossed him an easy smile.
He almost spilled the secret of him giving a piece of his soul to her just so he could say, You don’t feel fine to me. Biting his tongue, he respectfully walked along in silence.
“I’m sure she’s only nervous of the war.” Lazarus ran a finger down Eve’s arm, “Isn’t that right, Flower?”
Eve nodded.
Lucifer wasn’t buying it. “This is the right thing to do, isn’t it, Lazarus?”
“What would your other options be?”
He thought about that for a moment. The only other option would be for them to go their own way and let Michael continue to destroy mankind and anything else he felt wasn’t up to his expectations. So no, there was no other way.
“We can’t have him running loose,” he snarled. “I can’t stand the thought of him hurting others. And now that we know Eve is tied to the human souls, I will not stand for him to try and destroy those either. Not if it’s going to hurt her.”
Eve’s cheeks reddened. She looked angry.
Lazarus’s gait matched Lucifer’s and they kept up with each other easily. “And, what will you do with Michael?”
“I’ll have to defeat him like I am fated to,” Lucifer just didn’t know how yet.
For a moment he almost hoped Lazarus would tell him the secret to defeating a skilled Angel of Michael’s caliber. But he knew better. Laz didn’t offer guidance for things of the future. No matter how close that future was to being destroyed.
Odd, to think nearly backwards about it. But Lucifer only thought of the future and never of the past. The past was too painful. And it was done and over. He tried to not hold grudges because they held power over Lucifer. Just like hate could. Those things were food for the evil Lucifer felt sure he harbored inside his soul somewhere.
That was the only explanation that made sense. The more he hated, the darker he got. The more he let grudges fester, the bigger the evil and negative energy in him grew. And yet, he was an Angel who ran entirely with his instincts. He might have studied the behaviors and nature of others, but when it came down to taking action, Lucifer followed his own rules.
Protecting mankind’s souls were becoming a top tier priority for him.
Right below protecting Eve and his brothers.
He didn’t understand why he felt like they were a pack. Was it strange to feel so connected with Angels like Gabriel, Uriel, and Constantine? Shit, he even felt a bizarre closeness to Lazarus – but that bond was formed from familiarity. Not trust. He believed Lazarus too. Down in those cages, when Lazarus would carry on about the strangest things, Lucifer tried to memorize all of it. He had no clue how to read or write. He had nothing to draw pictures with. So, he would keep quiet and listen to everything Laz said.
Sometimes Constantine would sit down there with them too. He’d have something to write on and would jot down whatever Lazarus told him. On the rare occasion Lucifer stirred in his cell, Constantine would slip a piece of fruit to him.
Not that he’d ever taken it. At the time, he didn’t trust Constantine at
all. Figured he was just like the others. It wasn’t until he saw how Con treated Eve that got Lucifer to change his mind. You learn a lot about someone when you see how they treat others and think no one else was looking.
“What’s wrong with you, Lucy?”
Eve’s voice broke his train of thought. It took major effort to relax his tight fists, “I’m thinking of the righteous retribution that Angel is going to suffer when I get my claws in him.”
Lazarus half-chuckled, “Righteous retribution?” His wings scraped along the ground as they took a path to the left, “Now that sounds glorious indeed.”
“I’m not doing it for glory,” Lucifer frowned. “I’m doing it because that’s my purpose.”
“Is it?”
Lucifer stopped. “Isn’t it?”
“Only one way to find out what your purpose is. And that’s to follow your gut and see where it leads you.”
Those words slammed home in Lucifer’s soul and his wings stiffened with pride. Fuck right he was going with his gut. There was a reason he was made a well-blended Angel of the trinity. His fire elements healed – a gift he’d happily pass to anyone who needed it. His protection instincts literally fueled every move he made – a service he would happily spend the rest of his life doing for others. And his heart was pure – no matter how jumbled his emotions became lately, he only ever had the best intentions for everyone and not once thought about what it would do to him in the process.
He was built to protect and honor. He was gifted with blessings that no other Angel had. Lucifer would use this knowledge to stop Michael from destroying what was going to one day be a beautiful world – if only the fucker would leave it alone so it could bloom.
There was no doubt in Lucy’s mind that mankind was something to be treasured. They had Eve’s energy attached to them now. A bridge, a link, a thread that tied them all together. Even if a human carried a smidgen of Eve’s nature in their soul, Lucifer would make sure it stayed safe. He could only imagine how free-spirited humans must be because of Eve’s precious gift.
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