Page 61 of Midnight with the Devil

Her phone buzzed in her pocket, and she pulled it out.

Asshat: Looking forward to tonight. Be ready for me, sweetheart.

She couldn’t help but grin as she paused before responding.

Diana: I’m always ready for you.

With a giggle she added a pineapple emoji. Her phone buzzed a second later.

Asshat: You’re killing me. I’m sending the car early. I don’t want to wait, and we have a special reservation tonight. Opera tickets to seeDon Giovaniat the Met.

Diana bit her lip, still smiling.

Diana: You know I love that opera.

Asshat: Of course I know. I’ve made it my mission to know everything about you.

Diana: You know, you’re really not all that villainous…for the devil.

Lucien replied with an emoji of a devil smiley face with horns.

Diana rolled her eyes with a laugh, lifted Seth up from the edge of her bed, and rubbed her cheek against his fur.

“Don’t wait up for me.”

Seth’s purr was like a small car’s motor, rumbling away as he moved his head so he could rub his cheeks against her chin, and then she set him back down. He flopped onto his side and twitched his tail back and forth as he watched her smooth her skirt down, and then she snatched her purse and waved at him.

When she got down to the car waiting for her, her mind was miles away. Tonight felt…special. She couldn’t explain why, but she had that sense in the air that something was going to happen, something good. It made the fine hairs stand up on her neck, like the way the air seemed tense with energy before a thunderstorm, and she liked the feeling. She looked out the window as they drove their usual route. When the rain started, she smiled and traced the droplets on the window with her fingertip, watching their paths blend and blur over and over as the storm grew.

“Sure hope you guys are staying inside tonight,” Douglas said as he cranked the windshield wipers higher to see through the storm.

“We’re going to the opera, but I don’t mind the rain.” She winked at the driver through the reflection of the rearview mirror.

Diana sat back in the car and closed her eyes, trying to picture her and Lucien sitting at the opera. He would look so sexy in his black suit.

“Shit!” Douglas’s curse was the last thing she remembered before the world spun out of control. She tumbled like a tiny fragment of colored glass in a giant kaleidoscope. The shriek of metal and the hiss of shattered glass surrounded her, and pain exploded through her as the car came to a rocking halt. She couldn’t breathe, the air simply wouldn’t fill her lungs.

“Lucien!”She screamed his name inside her head.

“Diana!” His voice was there, echoing in her head, or was it outside? She reached through the broken window, unable to move, and every bone in her body felt shattered.

“Diana!” This time she was certain Lucien was there. Somehow he’d found her, had come, but it was too late. She could feel the living part of her…dying. It was the most curious sensation. Her heart was so full of sorrow. She didn’t want to leave him, didn’t want to lose those sacred, secret hours between midnight and dawn with him.

I love you…I love you with everything that I am, with my last breath.She willed her thoughts out into the universe, praying he would somehow hear her. The pain that had seconds ago felt so crippling was drifting away, like a wisp of smoke from an extinguished candle.

Where goes the smoke, so shall I…to lands far and away from here.She wanted to stay with Lucien, but she knew it wouldn’t be possible.

White clouds slowly built around her, cushioning her with warmth, and then she saw it, the gleaming towers and endless rays of light. Heaven was everything she’d always dreamed it would be, but Lucien wasn’t there with her.

I would give anything to go back to him. Anything.

There would be no deal with the devil to bring her back. It was far too late.

Ten minutesearlier

“You’re doing it again,” Andras grumbled.

“Doing what?” Lucien studied his clothes in the full-length mirror. He’d chosen a dark-blue tie tonight, abandoning his red one for the first time since…well, ever.

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