Page 38 of To Crave Deeply
I was dying. And so was Hell.
“Lucifer…?”
I tried to make a sound, but my throat was so dry. How long had I been asleep?
A gentle touch cupped my cheek, and it was like a balm to my soul. I instantly relaxed and opened my eyes to see the most beautiful sight. Thick dense lashes, masses of chestnut curls and full kissable lips that were stretching into a glorious smile.
“Hello, little dove.”
No sooner had I uttered the words before I was wrapped in a death-defying embrace and choking on the mass of curls I’d just been admiring.
“Lori… you’re choking… me,” I spluttered.
She pulled back with a look of horror splashed across her face.
“Sorry. I’m sorry. I just…” She gave me a quick hard kiss on the mouth. “I missed you and I thought you’d died. And I’d died and then you were in a coma, and I didn’t know what to do and—”
I pulled her lips back to mine. I was so hungry for her. My body felt like it was on fire the minute I set eyes on her. It always did. I burned for her, and it surpassed mere lust. I needed her with every fibre of my being. She consumed me, and I would gladly give her the world if she asked me for it.
She sighed into my mouth, and I devoured her whimpers as if they were my saving grace. I fisted my hands in her hair and I tasted her moan. Fuck, this woman was everything to me. I wanted her. I wanted her to give me all of her. I wanted—
Pain sliced through my chest, and I pulled away from Lori with a roar. It felt like a hot poker seared my skin where the soulbond mark was.
“Lucifer? What is it? What’s—” Lori’s words cut off as the same pain consumed her.
Shit. This was bad. Worse than bad. My magic was failing, and somehow this soulbond was now trying to kill Lori and me. I don’t know what her dying had done to this old magic, but it can’t have been anything good.
Just as suddenly as the pain had started, it stopped, leaving me breathless and more than a little confused.
“Lori, are you okay?”
She nodded, but her mouth was in a tight line, and I could tell she was uncomfortable.
“We will figure this out,” I promised as I rested my forehead against hers. “There is no way I am losing you again.”
Her shaky breaths touched my lips and the fear of losing her washed over me all over again. I had watched her die in my arms, and it had been the most painful thing I’d ever experienced. I had thought my fall from grace had hurt, had destroyed me, but it was nothing compared to the moment I had realised that Lori was going to die.
That was something I never wanted to experience ever again.
She looked at me and it was only then that I realised her eyes swirled with wisps of shadows, like a tumultuous storm above a raging sea.
“Have you caged your demon?” I asked incredulously. I was both shocked and curious as to how she managed it. It should be impossible to separate the demon from the soul, yet I couldn’t sense the presence of Lori’s demon at all. I should be able to sense any demon; I’d created the original one, and that meant that a part of me was always connected to them. It was the same for witches and vampires. I was linked to them all, but as I stared at the swirling shadows in Lori’s eyes, I couldn’t see her demon at all.
“I don’t know. I don’t know what I’ve done. But she’s not just any demon.”
Fear darted rapidly in the depths of her eyes, and she pressed her lips together as if she was about to spill a secret she shouldn’t.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean that I’m not the first person she’s done this to. She wasn’t born when I was.”
Shit. I bolted upright from the bed and wrapped my hands around her shoulders. “Tell me everything. Tell me now.”
“We all thought that she had been part of me, that I’d managed to assimilate with her and that I had become the Sin Reaper. But she lied. It wasn’t until Camael had claimed my soul that we realised she wasn’t just any demon. When I came back from the holding centre place, she told me that she had no control over who she picked, that that wasn’t how the magic worked. Turns out that she’s old as dirt and she’s been body-hopping for centuries.”
Fuck. No wonder the soulbond was playing havoc; there were too many souls careening around Lori’s body. I still needed to see the Upper Council after that fiasco at the Gathering. I wanted to know what they were playing at, showing themselves in such a public place, with possessed witches and mages, trying to steal more and kill my Lori. That whole thing was still a mystery to me and one I needed to figure out fast, especially now that Lori had returned. I was sure it was only a matter of time before they were knocking on my door to continue what they started.
But more worryingly than that, Lori had no ordinary demon.
