Page 8 of Can't Bite This Feeling
My talons bite into my palms. “She’s mortal again?” I hiss through gritted teeth, fighting the red haze that threatens to drown me.
“Oh, did I neglect to mention that part?” he asks innocently. His mouth turns down as he tuts. “Oh, Rapha. Did you honestly think I would return her to you as a vampire?” Lucifer’s eyes gleam with delighted malice as he leans forward, elbows resting casually on his gold-embroidered knees. “No, no, my dear Rapha. That would hardly be sporting. Where is the fun in reuniting two perfect monsters? It’s so much more…dramaticto see if you can win her heart again.”
My fangs pierce my lower lip as I clench my jaw. Blood wells on my tongue, tasting of copper and fury. “You resurrected herhuman,” I grind out, trying to keep my voice steady, “in a world she won’t understand, in a place crawling with predators, and you call that sporting?”
Lucifer’s grin is ice and fire all at once. “Don’t look so wounded. You know I adore a good love story, especially one dripping with potential tragedy.”
I stare at him, trying to find the words, but none can contain the rage vibrating through every bone in my body. My talons flex again, itching to rip his smirking face apart.
“She’s vulnerable,” I manage at last, swallowing the scream clawing up my throat. “You’ve left her vulnerable.”
Lucifer’s eyes widen theatrically. “Why, Rapha, you almost sound… protective.” He taps one perfectly polished nail against his ruby pin. “How terribly sweet. And yet youarethe demon of greed now. Surely you understand the price of a bargain?”
I look away because if I look at him one second longer, I might truly try to kill him. And that would end with my skull decorating his throne room.
“You said if I took Mammon’s place, you would bring her back to me,” I say, forcing my voice to stay low, steady, dangerous. “Back to me.”
Lucifer shrugs again, all breezy indifference. “She is back, is she not? Alive, breathing, with that delectable heart still beating away in her lovely little chest. It’s not my fault she did not choose to come to you directly.”
He leans back and bites into another honeyed locust, chewing as though savoring a fine vintage. “But look on the bright side, Rapha. You get to chase her. Woo her. Convince her that all of this”—he gestures vaguely at my crimson eyes, at my talons, at the hellfire dancing along the marble—“is still worth loving.”
A muscle in my cheek jumps. I think of Drusilla, of her laughter, her warmth, the way she once looked at me like I was salvation instead of damnation, and I almost break.
Almost.
I draw in a breath that tastes of brimstone. “Where exactly in Screaming Woods?”
Lucifer gives me a fox’s grin, all teeth and triumph. “What would be the fun in telling you? Go on, my demon. Hunt your precious mortal. Let’s see if love trulycanconquer all.”
He flicks his wrist in dismissal, a final bored wave. “I will, of course, expect your next quota of souls as usual.”
I turn on my heel, every step coiled with hate, and leave the throne room before I do something that would get me flayed for eternity.
Drusilla.
She’s a mortal. Alone in Screaming Woods. Likely terrified.
My mind chants her name with every step I take, every heartbeat echoing in the hollow place where my soul used to live.
I must find her.
As I walk through the Below, the floor beneath me morphs into a gravel path in Screaming Woods. Pulling the chain from beneath my shirt, I wrap my fingers around the locket I’ve held onto for centuries.
My cold, dead, demonic heart squeezes with fear. Nobody touches her ever again. No one will ever get close enough to hurt her again.
I will destroy any who dare to try.
But first, I must find her.
Chapter 2
Drusilla
Blood.I taste blood.
It lingers like smoke on my tongue.
And my body feels strange. As though it isn’t mine.
