Page 75 of Falling for the Devil

The dizziness from being twirled around like a toy top was nothing to the iridescent fireworks tingling throughout her mind, body, and soul from that kiss. Ever since laying eyes on the Archangel of Light, Diana had been shaken from one extreme to the other—from hot to cold, from desire to revulsion to indifference. Then back again.

But that kiss could not in any way be misconstrued as anything other than pure, unadulterated love and undying passion. For once, all the barriers Lucifer had erected to mask his emotions, to hide his feelings for her were laid bare. A gift.

“You are mine and I am yours.” His words lit up Diana’s heart with pure joy.

Mere moments earlier, the mountain had been falling on top of them. Now, the bad guys lay in crimson pools of blood and guts. Lucifer had somehow stopped the destruction. And, they were together. Any doubt of his love for her demolished. All that had passed, all the hurt and insecurities, vanished in a puff of smoke.

He held her face between his blood-coated hands. A normal girl would’ve been repulsed, but not her. She basked in their victory and their love.

It was with a cold sadness that Diana pulled away from his embrace. His eyes were once again the golden amber hue she’d been entranced by when they’d met, no longer black as the granite mountain around them. His skin—bloodied but whole—was sun-kissed golden instead of the paler tone he’d sported when they’d entered the mountain. His wavy hair spilled down his shoulders holding auburn highlights again, so that with light behind him, Lucifer appeared to have a halo over his head.

This was the perfect likeness to Lucifer when she’d seen him on the coliseum floor defeating one of Ares’s best warriors. The look was rendered complete with the confident smirk that edged up his face.

This was the Archangel of Light. Fully and truly restored.

“Diana, I am so ashamed of my behavior. I promise...”

She hushed his apology with a kiss, mumbling against his lips that none of that mattered anymore. It didn’t. They were alive. They were free. And they were together. They both groaned when he pulled away.

“We need to check on the others. I promise, my love, we have eternity to be together. Once all is settled, we will never be parted again.” His words were his promise, his gift to her.

Diana vowed, in that moment, to never doubt him again.

THEY EXITED THE MOUNTAIN to a horrific scene of blood-covered everything—rocks, grass, tree trunks; even the tiny stream leading up to the base of the mountain ran dark red. All was quiet. Whatever battle had been waged was over. But where were the bodies?

Lucifer called out for his troops. No response.

He screamed for Olivier. Again, no reply.

Diana’s warm eyes were wide with terror. She began shrieking for her companion, Puck. For a moment, he recalled her earlier grief when she’d thought he’d perished in the vastness of space. He’d survived that, but he vanished like the others.

Nothing.

Her sobs filled the air, already heavy with the acrid odor of death. He pulled her in close. His other hand reached for his sword again... just in case. There was no energetic vibration around them to indicate anything was amiss, but something was. No signs of life—no birds chirping or the sound of leaves rustling in the breeze. No voices of those living or injured.

And again, he found it odd that despite the signs of a fight... all that blood... there were no bodies. Had a dragon gobbled them up and flown away? Had a black hole punched into the planet’s atmosphere and just sucked out his warriors and the creepy Puck, then closed up?

A high-pitched whistle pierced the unearthly silence of the forest.

Diana wrenched free of his embrace and raced ahead of him, dragging him by the hand while she dodged large, protruding rocks and tree roots that could cause any normal person to stumble. “Come on. Hurry!”

The whistle repeated a short sing-song melody, much like a nightingale.

“Over there!” She pointed to a thick tuft of thorny-looking bushes encircling a giant redwood tree that rose into the sky. “Puck!”

“Stop yelling, darling. You’ll wake the dead... and I’d rather they stay deceased.”

Lucifer recognized that voice but couldn’t tell from what direction it came from. This was not an issue for Diana. She stared straight up the tree. He peered but saw nothing unusual. Even the lithe Puck couldn’t have climbed and hidden himself so far up that he couldn’t be seen.

“It’s safe now! Lucifer has defeated the demon princes. We’ve seen no other enemies. Come down this instant!” For the first time since Lucifer had known her, she’d used a regal, I-shall-be-obeyed tone. It was rather sexy. Perhaps she’d use it on him later... when they were alone.

A blur of black smoke dropped from high above and landed with a soft plunk in front of Diana. Lucifer’s eyes had to adjust to make out more than the hazy mist she’d embraced.

How did he do that?

The joyousness of the reunion was short-lived when Puck extracted himself from Diana’s arms and turned a sour expression on him. “I am afraid to report, sir, that your soldiers were all killed in battle. The enemy’s warriors who were quite organized and brutal.”

Sorrow knocked on Lucifer’s chest, but he refused to give into the emotion just yet. There would be time to grieve, time to mourn, and a time of reflection. It would have to wait. Now, he just wanted simple answers.

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