Page 305 of The Spider Queen
“Why do you want more? Why can’t you be satisfied with what you have? I lifted myself up to look at him.
He gazed at me with languid blue eyes. I wondered if I’d ever know what was beneath them. I’d let him into my bed, but that didn’t mean anything. Bodies were not hearts.
“Why do you feel the need to ease the burdens of humans?” he fired back. Not in accusation, but inquisition.
I shrugged, my silky dark hair falling across my shoulder. “I just have to.”
“There’s your answer.”
“You need more. Always?”
“Always.”
I pondered his words for a moment. He had cut out all the nitty-gritty and gotten to the meat of the matter.
“You look confused,” he stated, brushing my hair behind my ear in a strangely intimate and gentle gesture.
“I am.”
“Why?”
“You make it sound so simple.”
“It is. We are who we are. We don’t change.”
“We?” I murmured.
“Deities, creatures, fallen angels.”
“Humans change. They adapt. They evolve.”
“They have to, to survive. Their lives are finite. It’s different for them.”
I traced his forehead. There were no lines there, no emotion or age markings. “Some say that if you don’t change, you’re dead.”
“You are so strangely human, for a non-human.”
“My parents believe deities and immortals change. They don’t believe we’re stagnant.”
“No, we’re not stagnant, but fundamentally, who we are who we are. Do you really want to debate philosophy with me?”
“No. I don’t think I do.” I knew I would lose. How was I supposed to debate with a fallen angel who had been around since the dawn of time? Who’d seen the rise and fall of empires, dynasties, and kingdoms?
“Do you have a hand in destruction?” I wondered.
“You mean in the destruction of humanity?”
I nodded.
“No. They do that all on their own. They are their own worst enemy. I just capitalize on it.”
Bitterness burst on my tongue like a tart fruit. How could I want someone I didn’t even like? I climbed out of bed and wrapped a sheet around me.
Lucifer sprang up. Nude, erect, wings unfurled, no sense of modesty. He was a tireless lover, insatiable.
Who else had the honor of his pleasure in bed?
The thought didn’t trigger bouts of anger or jealousy. I simply wasn’t wired that way. I’d witnessed firsthand the tangled knots humans got themselves into over possessiveness. It was just as destructive as anger. It eroded trust.
