Page 83 of Hell Bound

Any time I let my eyes fall shut for more than a few seconds, some new horrific memory would surface.

Torture, degradation, abuse of every kind.

Well,almost.

Following that first night, I had yet to see Asmodeus touch me for any reason but to inflict pain, usually with a well-placed backhand or a shove between the shoulder blades.

He liked to save the latter for when we were around stairs.

All the trauma had accumulated in my mind so quickly the events felt fresh. Gaping wounds that seeped constantly, never getting the chance to heal before yet another memory came along to dig that wound a little deeper.

And now Lucifer was here with his broody beauty, earnest and concerned for my well-being.

It was too much to handle.

His promises to protect me from the horrors that awaited me in that graveyard fueled my desire to cling to him, to let him protect me from the dangers of this world that I still didn’t fully understand.

And that’s the quickest pathbackto the graveyard.

It was a struggle to move away from him, resisting every urge in my body that wanted to bury myself in his arms and hide. I forced myself anyway.

His fists clenched and unclenched at his sides, a hint of claws already on their way to being unsheathed.

This isn’t going to go well, but it has to be done.

“Lucifer, I… we need to talk.” I said a silent prayer of thanks that he didn’t understand the drama that inevitably followed those four words. Maybe we stood a chance of getting through this and…

And what?

Stay friends? Were we even friends beyond our intense attraction to each other? He cared if I was alright, but was that enough to risk everything?

“Do you… uh, will you sit down?”

He did, staring expectantly at me.

I flicked at the Pop-Tart wrapper, searching for the best way to say what was on my mind.

“I appreciate everything you’ve done for me. I didn’t understand before, but I do now.” I’d been so blissfully unaware of the dire nature of my situation.

Sweet, blessed ignorance.

“I know how you’ve gone out of your way, put yourself and your pack at risk to help me, but I can’t let you continue. Can’t letthiscontinue.” I waved a hand between the two of us.

The refusal I expected from him never came. He just eyed me blankly.

That should have been it. The end of the conversation. I’d said my piece. He hadn’t argued.

Let it go, Lil. Just drop it.

“I mean, you have to see that this whole thing is pointless. Any time we’re together, we’re dancing with the devil. He’s looking for any reason to hurt us, and we can’t give it to him. We can’t let him win.”

Lucifer’s slow smile should have warned me that I’d already lost the fight.

“Then we won’t, Lily.” That deep voice of his was so smooth, sliding over me and calming the unraveling threads of my sanity.

Ignore it.

Staying wary, keeping the consequences at the forefront of my mind, holding him at a distance. Those were the best chances I had at getting out of this alive.

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