Page 36 of Can't Bite This Feeling
I make my way through twisting backstreets, pausing to ask for Lucifer’s whereabouts in whispers. Most beings here don’t look twice at me, but the ones who do? Their eyes are sharp. Hungry.
Eventually, I find the crimson door carved with sigils that pulse softly under my fingertips. Beyond is the speakeasy-style club in the Below that Lucifer apparently likes to frequent. I push it open and step inside.
The heat hits me first, humid and perfumed. Then the sound. Low music. Moans. Whispers. Laughter. Shadows pulse against the walls like breathing things.
At the center of the club, I stop. A woman is sprawled on a table, moaning with abandon as a demon laps between her thighs, his tongue unnaturally long, working in practiced circles that leave her clawing at the air. Her pleasure is theatrical, but not false.
I blush, my thighs clenching involuntarily. I tear my gaze away. I didn’t come for this.
Lucifer waits for me in the back booth like he’s been expecting me, sprawled like a prince of excess, his velvet yellow suit immaculate, his grin indulgent.
“Drusilla,” he purrs. “Rapha’s queen, in the flesh. I wondered when you’d seek me out. Found the little doorway in the witch and gorgon’s bookshop, did you?”
“I’m not here for your games,” I snap, taking the seat across from him.
“Of course you are,” he replies with a wink. “You just don’t realize it yet.”
I lean forward, gripping the table. “Let him go.”
His laugh is low and musical. “Darling, Rapha traded himself willingly. He knew the price.”
“And yet you couldn’t resist bringing back my father,” I say coldly.
His expression sharpens. “Cassian? Yes. Delicious little twist, isn’t it? Will he take you? Will Rapha lose control and destroy you?” He licks his bottom lip. “You mortals do love your tragedy.”
I clench my fists. “There has to be a way.”
Lucifer’s smile turns sly as if he’s been waiting for me to ask. “Well, there is one. You could bind his soul to yours.”
I still. “What?”
“A soul tether. Very old magic. It would keep him close. Grounded to you. But it would limit him. Take away his full autonomy.”
My stomach flips. “You mean take his free will.”
He shrugs. “Tomato, tomahto. It’s not a cage. It’s a leash. With just enough slack to feel like freedom.”
I shake my head. “No. I won’t chain him. If he fights for me, it has to be his choice.”
“You mortals. Always so dramatic.” Lucifer sighs. “Well, all you have to do is call my name if you change your mind. But don’t take too long. I get bored easily.”
His attention drifts toward the table again, where the demon’s tongue is now drawing gasps loud enough to echo. He snaps his fingers, and I’m back at the manor.
Everything is quiet as I slip inside. I shut the door behind me and let out a breath.
And then…pain. A sharp crack to my head. My knees buckle. My vision blurs.
“My daughter,” Cassian rasps from behind me. “I told you I would return.”
Then everything goes dark.
Chapter 10
Rapha
There’s always been a thread between Drusilla and me. Invisible. Indestructible. Even during the centuries she was lost to me, it tugged at something primal, something ancient and sacred in my chest. A bond deeper than blood and older than death.
Tonight, that thread tightens.
