Page 73 of Falling for the Devil

If his men were destined to die, then the very least Lucifer could do was bring down the mountain on the demon princes responsible. He’d gladly give his life to obtain his vengeance against them.

And if Diana had betrayed him, as they’d claimed... well, it was a fitting end for them both.

Chapter 34

He Looks at the Earth and It Trembles, He Touches the Mountains and They Smoke

In Diana’s mind, she screamed, she beat against an invisible barrier that kept her locked away from the real world. She could see everything going on as if peering through a clear prism. Lucifer’s feet were pinned to the ground. His mouth was opened in a howl she could not hear. Strange hands pawed at her breasts and held her against her will, but her body was paralyzed. She could not move away, nor could she fend off the unwelcome touches. Then... the rumbling earth beneath her feet exploded, and she found herself suddenly free.

Lava squeezed through fissures in the walls and even in a couple of places along the floor. Rocks rained down, blocking her path to Lucifer. She had to get to him. With all the chaos going on around them, he still stood in place, screaming her name. One of the creeps who’d been touching her lashed out to grab her arm, but she lunged away. Instead of recapturing her, he fell under the onslaught of more rocks—some small like pebbles and others the size of her prized hound.

She ducked and wove between falling debris, burning the soles of her feet in lava that leaked up from the gashes in the rock floor. There was no time to allow herself the pain. Lucifer was in danger. One of the demon princes—this one in full body armor—recovered his balance from all the quaking and pulled his sword, aiming it at Lucifer’s throat.

“No!” Diana wrenched out the tiny dagger he’d given her from a hidden pocket in her tunic.

A giant pit that appeared to be leaking stars separated them. Struggling to reach Lucifer, she vaulted over it, glancing down to witness what looked like entire galaxies swirling in a giant abyss. She was so mesmerized by what she saw, she lost focus and almost didn’t clear the hole.

Pain sliced through as she landed hard on the other side, sliding through rocks and fallen debris with her blade aimed at the demon’s only vulnerable, exposed area—his heels, where the golden laces of his sandals wove up his calf. The gravelly ground scraped her knees raw, and a tiny stream of liquid rock sizzled the rest of her skin. But the dagger found its mark. Her brother, Ares, would be proud. He’d been the one to teach her of the vulnerability of a tendon there that would fell any warrior if severed.

Blood spewed from the slice and the demon fell to the ground, right into the same patch of lava that had burned her. His agonizing screams and the sizzling of his flesh were heard over the clamor of the mountain seeming to implode all around them.

Lucifer lunged for the fallen demon. His teeth gnashed before latching onto the demon’s neck. He jerked his head side to side until the flesh ripped free and blood gushed over the scuffed golden armor. For a moment, Diana caught sight of Lucifer’s eyes and she scurried away. Whatever she saw there, she knew for damn certainty, those were no longer the eyes of a revered archangel, nor the eyes of the man she loved.

Those were the eyes of a monster.

Arms circled around her neck, squeezing, and dragging Diana to her feet again. No longer imprisoned by whatever spell had been cast on her when she’d entered the interior of the mountain, she kicked her legs back and her heel caught something soft.

Her captor doubled over, but he didn’t release his grip. Diana swung her dagger hand up and over her shoulder in an arc. A sickening pop made her flinch. The blade had found a vulnerable spot. Suddenly, she was released.

Pivoting to face her attacker, she cringed to see where her dagger now protruded from his face—into one cheek and the pointy end out the other. Blood streaked down in thick torrents like a rushing waterfall of deep crimson. He flailed, trying with one hand to grasp the hilt of the dagger.

Diana knocked his hands out of the way and wrenched the blade from his face before driving it into his chest and twisting until there was a squishy snap. The demon prince’s eyes drained of their inky blackness until nothing but the white parts of the eyes showed. He collapsed to his knees, then slumped over into the oncoming river of lava.

She braced herself for his screams, but no sound burst from his lips. Lava raced over him, his body caught fire and seemed to melt into a giant puddle of goo, skin sloughing off muscles and bone. The sickening stench of burned flesh mingled with the acrid sulphonic odor as what had once been the body of a demon prince transformed into a lump of black ash before her eyes.

Panting in deep breaths of scorching air down her throat, Diana shook herself out of her stupor. Watching someone—anyone—go up in flames, their skin peeling from their body before turning into glowing embers, was not something she wanted to repeat. However, if anyone deserved it... he did. She still didn’t know which demon he’d been. That didn’t matter.

Lucifer was the only thing that mattered.

And he was lost in a literal blood bath. Her stomach knotted with the need to retch when her eyes found him among the fallen debris and blood. She’d never seen so much of it, not even when she’d burst into the butcher’s workroom after they’d come back from a successful hunt.

Lucifer was covered in a dark crimson-almost-black liquid, splatters of gray tissue, and entrails. The vanquished demon lay still, his eyes widened in what she suspected was the shock of death. Still, Lucifer ripped shreds from the demon’s skin with his teeth. She’d only witnessed something like this once—when she came upon a vulture tearing into the corpse of a giant animal with tough gray skin and a long snout that had hung where a nose should’ve been. The bird had cleaved the trunk until it was hanging by a lone tendril.

Part of her wanted to race from the scene and leave it—and Lucifer—far behind. Her feet made to run in the direction she thought they’d come in. With all the chaos, it was hard to tell anymore. But her heart refused to obey.

Her throat forced down the bile rising in her throat as Diana sprinted toward the repulsive scene.

Not knowing if he’d only see her as an attacker and rip her apart as he’d done to the demon, she raised up a prayer to the Creator and whoever else was listening for divine intervention.

Her love alone would not be enough to pull Lucifer from his monstrous, murderous state.

AN ACERBIC, METALLIC taste coated his tongue. He’d never been squeamish around blood. He’d bled plenty. He’d made others bleed more. He’d been responsible for rivers of the life-giving liquid flowing out of the bodies of mortals and those who were thought to be immortal as well. But Lucifer had never savored its taste... until now.

Somewhere, far off as if calling from another dimension, there was screaming. That voice! Slowly, it penetrated through the primal fog of battle.

Craning his neck up, dust and debris fell into his eyes and obscured everything around him. Funny how he didn’t hear anything in the melee but her voice. Diana! The bitch who had betrayed him... lured him into a trap.

Well, all involved had underestimated his strength and fury. Glancing down at the mutilated carcass of what had once been the demon prince of wrath, Lucifer felt his cheeks stretching in a wide grin. His eyes darted around in search of Asmodeus. He wouldn’t be satiated until both demons were in pools of their own blood and guts.

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