“Let’s get this over with.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
We walked an additional twenty minutes or so without incident. The walls didn’t shift again, and nothing else attacked us. When we got to the end of the tunnel, the opening spilled out into a small round room with seven doors. Above each one was a series of symbols.
“Um,” Lukas said, taking a step inside. “Now what?”
I pointed to the door on the end. It was gold and encrusted with jewels the size of my head. “I think each door is for a different house.”
He walked forward and studied the first one. “Can you read them?”
I shook my head. “Nope. I think that one is Greed, but that’s going on the appearance of the door, not what the symbol says.”
“And if we walk through the wrong one?”
I shrugged. “Who knows? Maybe there’s a guy on the other side waiting with chocolate milk and cookies?” My stomach roiled at the possible—and more likely—alternative. “Or, ya know, we could get vaporized.”
“No, no. Nothing quite so dramatic,” a new voice said.
Lukas and I whirled around. The entrance we’d come through was gone, sealed over by pristine white wall with a single decoration. A small girl who looked to be about eleven or twelve.
Lukas spread his feet, ready for a fight. “We’re here for the prison, and you can’t stop us.”
The little girl laughed, and I cringed. Pigtails tipped with bright pink ribbon, a frilly white dress accented with shiny black Mary Janes, and snow-white knee socks with bows to match the ones in her hair. She looked to be the perfect little angel—but that laugh was demonic as hell. And when her image flickered, a moment of clarity showed a vaguely shapeless black thing with blood-red eyes.
“While I can’t physically stop you, I can’t let you through. Not without passing the test.”
“Test?” I asked. “You’re joking, right? This cave has been trying to kill us. Now you’re saying you’ll let us have the prison if we pass your test?”
The little girl laughed. She stomped her foot and doubled over, guffawing so hard I thought she’d pee herself. “Silly little half breed. The cave has no intention of letting you take the prison. If you’re foolish enough to take the test, you’ll never pass. It’s impossible.”
Lukas was tense beside me. “What’s the test?”
She gestured to the doors behind us. “One door for each of the great houses. Inside each lies their essence. All you would have to do is overcome two of them.”
“Is that all?” I said, folding my arms. Obviously, it wasn’t as simple as the thing was making it seem. “Fine. I pick Sloth and Envy.” I was neither lazy nor envious. Those were safe bets for sure.
Again, the demon-child laughed. “As if we’d let you pick. No,” she said. “If you choose to move forward, you will both have to survive the house of Lust and Wrath.”
And there was the catch.
I understood Wrath. Lukas was terrified of the anger that still lived inside him, and me… The cave had proven that, apparently, I wasn’t as fearless about the whole thing as I’d thought. While I didn’t believe he’d ever really hurt me, my subconscious had normal, human concerns. But Lust? That one I didn’t get.
“Sounds simple enough,” I said, trying to mask my suspicion. Beside me, Lukas was quiet.
“You know nothing about yourself or your limitations.” The demon-girl played with the end of her pigtail. “I find it amusing. Pity. It would have been interesting to see how you turned out upon maturity.”
It was goading me. Trying to incite a firestorm of questions. It was working—but I also realized it was trying to stall. Keep us occupied. Though it killed me, I declared, “We’ll take door number one, if you please.” With a quick glance over my shoulder, I said to Lukas, “Can you do this?”
He slipped his hand into mine and squeezed. “I suppose we shall see.”
Well, that wasn’t very encouraging.
The demon girl giggled. She snapped her fingers, and all the doors except the one in the middle vanished. I started for it, but she moved to block my path. “Just one question first. What is the day of your birth?”
“The day of—” It took me a second to realize what she was asking. “What’s that got to do with anything?”
“Call it a matter of curiosity. Valefar has never…had a Regent so young.”
I didn’t buy that for a second, but wasn’t looking to waste any more time. “May 20th.” I’d missed my mom’s birthday by two days. “Curiosity satisfied? Can we get on with it now?”
“So eager to fail, aren’t we?” She snapped her fingers, and the door creaked open. “This should be very interesting…”
I didn’t wait. Tugging Lukas forward, I stepped over the threshold and into…my bedroom.
The door slammed closed behind us. “Um, I don’t get it.”
Lukas let go of my hand and backed away. When I turned around, he looked different. Instead of the black T-shirt, worn blue jeans, and leather jacket he’d had on when we entered, he was in black jeans and a simple black tank that showed off every glorious muscle.
And he was staring at me with his mouth wide open.
I looked down at myself and gasped. “What the hell?” My favorite Mashing jeans were gone, replaced by a little black dress. I raced to the full-length mirror by the bed and stared. Little black dress my ass. This thing was like a silky second skin, painted on and hugging every single contour of my body with perfection. I would have died rather than willingly put something like this on.
And yet…
I turned around and glanced back over my shoulder. My hair tumbled wildly down my back, falling just below my waist. My makeup, artfully applied and darkly mysterious, gave me an ethereal look. On my feet were a pair of strappy black heels.
“Wow,” I muttered, impressed by my reflection. Part of me was horrified by my reaction, while the other part stretched and twisted, ogling the mirror and playing it up, knowing Lukas was still watching.
I turned back to face the mirror, and he came up behind me, throwing his arms around my waist. “This is the cave’s plan? To lock me in a room with the most beautiful woman on earth? However will I overcome?” He laughed. A deep, throaty sound that made my stomach quiver.
“It must be total agony,” I said with a laugh. My voice was low. Raspy. Unlike me. Sexy.
I liked it. A lot.
Lukas gave a chuckle of his own and let his hands slip, palms flat against my stomach. My heart thumped a little harder. “It is agony. To be this close to the sun and know that to touch it would be to burn.”
His hands slipped a little lower.
“This is Lust, after all,” he whispered in my ear, the warmth from his breath igniting a fire in every nerve ending. “We shouldn’t give in.”
I wanted to speak. Words formed in my head and rose in my throat, but the actual act of forming a sentence was too complicated. Too time consuming. He was right. This was the thing we were here to fight. But how? Why? Resisting something so powerful, so magnetic that you felt it everywhere, in every pore, with each breath, couldn’t be right.
“What do you want, Jessie?” he asked, lips skimming the top edge of my ear. I nearly screamed. “Tell me what you need…”
“I need—” I gasped as he moved his hands to my hips, gripped tight and turned me to face him. He was breathing hard. Eyes ravenous with desire and hands itching to explore. He let the fingers of his right hand slide down my hip, then slipped them underneath the edge of my short skirt. Playing with the hem for a moment, he tugged the material up an inch, giving me a wicked grin.
“I’ll tell you what I need.” The material rose another inch. “I was trapped for over a hundred years. In darkness and despair. A neighbor to pain and misery. I was dead, Jessie. Dead, yet still present. I need to scrub that away. Erase all that pain of being nowhere, of being no one. I need to feel alive.”
Alive.
The word rang li
ke a thousand church bells echoing inside my skull. It was perfect. The perfect word. The essence of how I felt when I was with him. There was no more time to waste. I kissed him.
Hands, limbs, lips. We were a jumble of moving parts and insatiable need as we tumbled back to my bed. The mattress had never felt so soft. The air had never smelled so sweet. Lukas’s hands, venturing beyond the boundaries, had never felt so right.
Right.
More. I needed more. I pulled at his shirt. When I couldn’t wrestle it over his head, I gripped the middle and tore. The ripping fabric was like a timer going off inside my head. Suddenly, I’d never needed anything more than him. I’d never wanted anything more than this.
He ran with my enthusiasm, pulling at the straps of my dress. I wriggled my arms, trying to make it easier. It wasn’t fast enough. He growled, a dark, delicious sound, and the straps popped free. In seconds, the smooth material was around my waist.
The cave was wrong. This wasn’t sin. It was sustenance. It was life. Being here with Lukas, like this, was fire and fuel and…
Love…
“I want this,” he said between kisses. “You. I want you. So badly. It’s been so hard to hold back. I don’t know why I—”
My head began to swim. I was drowning between the miraculous sensations, looming on the edge of a life-altering moment, but something chewed at my subconscious. A single, terrifying word.
Love…
We’d come here to… To what? There was something we should have been doing. Someone we should be looking for. I chased the thought, but it was too fast and skittered well out of reach. With his lips, borderline magical, Lukas traced a molten trail across my shoulder and up my neck. It felt like heaven. This couldn’t be considered wrong. This wasn’t lust. It was—
“Why did we wait?” he pleaded, and slid the material up a few inches. I’d never been more exposed with another human being in my life—and it didn’t bother me. All my insecurities, all my fears, all vanished.
It wasn’t right.
I brought my hands to his chest and pushed, the truth of it slamming into me like a million pounds. Why we’d waited. It wasn’t about a quick fix or an itch that needed to be satisfied. It wasn’t about lust.
“I love you,” I said.
He froze. “What did you say?”
I hadn’t realized it’d been there, but the invisible hand pushing down on my chest lifted, and I could breathe. Hell, not only could I breathe, but I could sing. I could fly. I could do anything. The one thing that held me back, three simple, stupid little words, were no longer my prison. They were my freedom.
“I love you,” I repeated, stronger than the first time. “And you love me. That’s why we waited. Because there’s no rush. We have a lifetime.”
There was a loud crack like lightning, only all around, and we were back in the main room, in our own clothing, and standing in front of that creepy little demon girl.
Lukas stumbled back, taking me with him. “What—”
The demon grinned, but it was all tooth. Predatory and furious. “Congratulations.”
I inhaled to try to even out my breathing. Three seconds ago, I’d been mostly naked with Lukas. My head spun.
“Aww,” I said, taking a step back. “Don’t feel bad. Not everyone can be great at what they do. Besides, it’s not like you can hurt me.”
When would I learn to keep my mouth closed?
The demon-child’s lips twisted. “You are not worthy of the House of Pride. A creature such as you, born into our ranks, is an abomination. Some may find disappointment if your life were to end. Others”—she snapped her fingers, and the Lust door disappeared, replaced by another—“may reward me.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
We didn’t walk through the door this time. One minute the demon was there, the next Lukas and I were transported to another place.
“Awesome,” I said, folding my arms. I didn’t recognize the scene. We were outside what looked like a barn. It was dark, and there were people everywhere. Milling around in bunches, chatting as though we weren’t there. It was some kind of party. “Does that mean the demon-imposed hands-off label has been removed from my ass?”
Lukas didn’t answer. He was staring at something over my shoulder.
When I turned, a sick feeling bubbled in the pit of my stomach. Through the crowd, one person stuck out. A girl about my height with long raven hair and a wicked grin.
Meredith, his witch of an ex, came forward, stopping a few feet from where we stood. “You gave me such a precious gift.” Her eyes flashed red. “It’s only fair I return the favor.” She winked. “Again.”
Lukas screamed. He stumbled away, knocking over several people in the crowd as he tried to run, but it was no use. The bright red light welled inside Meredith, pulsing in her belly twice before rocketing up the length of her body. Through her throat and out her open mouth, Wrath broke free and dived for him.
I tried to drag him from its path—not that it would have done any good—but the Sin was like a heat-seeking missile. It slammed into him, knocking him out of my grasp and off his feet with a thunderous crack like lightning.
Lukas doubled over as his body was engulfed in red. There was a flash of blinding light. Still, no one seemed concerned. They all kept going about their business, oblivious to what was taking place.
“Lukas!” I rushed to where he sat huddled in a ball on the grass a few feet away. Meredith was gone, and the people around us didn’t seem to care. “Are you okay?”
“Jessie,” he groaned. A shiver ran through his body, and when he lifted his head, his gaze met mine in a storm of blazing red. “Get out of here.”
I gasped. In his eyes raged a violent war. “This isn’t real,” I said, reaching for him. If I could just get him to calm down…
He knocked my hand away with brutal force. “Don’t tell me it’s not real. I feel it.”
As if in agreement, the chatter in the crowd around us grew louder. More volatile. A small group of women to our right, previously laughing, were now trading harsh words. The one on the end, a tall brunette with pointy heels, shoved the woman across from her. When her friend-turned-foe pushed back, the brunette whipped off her shoe and buried the spiky heel in the other woman’s neck.
My stomach roiled as her eyes went wide and her body collapsed to the ground. It was the action that ignited the crowd. Multiple fights broke out, people pushing, punching, and wrestling each other to the ground.
Lukas was shaking, threading his fingers through the long blades of glass. An occasional tremor rocked his entire body, making it look like he was having a seizure. “You can do this,” I pleaded. “Just breathe. Concentrate on something peaceful. Concentrate on me—”
“You?” He gave a twisted chortle. “You’re the cause of this. The reason I get so worked up.”
“I—”
He stood, and I did the same. Advancing a step, posture nothing short of menacing, he growled. “You will never learn. This is me. Who I am. Who I will always be. Violent, angry, and dangerous.”
My heart hammered, and the air caught in my throat, but I held my ground. “No. You’re more than that. Stronger than the anger. I’ve seen it.” I reached out again, taking his hand in mine. “I’ve seen an amazing light—”
He jerked away. “You’re a fool. A stupid, clueless fool.” He advanced another step. “If you knew a fraction of what was going on behind the scenes, you would run and never look back. You would leave and pray for your life in the shelter of light.”
Logic told me to be afraid—and I was—but his words also made me cringe. There’d been multiple hints dropped, enough clues accidentally slipped, to make me suspicious to begin with. But this? This was bone chilling. “What is that supposed to mean?”
He laughed. A venom-filled chuckle that, for the first time since we’d met, made me genuinely scared. “And there you go again. Question, question, question. Except you never ask the right ones.”
Wi
th a howl, he lunged for me, fingers hooked and ready to do damage. I sprang to the left and, with a lightning-quick glance over my shoulder, took off across the field. I didn’t make it that far, though. Ten paces. Possibly fifteen. Lukas slammed into me from behind, taking us both to the ground.
While no one would ever get me to believe Lukas would hurt me, this was the cave. Not him. I wasn’t afraid. I was terrified. That little demon-bitch made it clear she wasn’t playing by the same rules as the other denizens of Lucifer’s cave-o-crazy. I was fair game. And that meant this Lukas—my possessed Lukas—could feasibly hurt me.
Time to get serious.
I threw my head back as hard as I could. It connected with something solid, and everything swam for a moment before some of the weight eased from my back. I went with it, clawing the grass and mud to gain some leverage. But really, all I did was coat myself in muck.
“You’ve had everything,” Lukas howled. Hands gripped the back of my shirt, hoisting me back and dragging me around. We were face-to-face. “Power, freedom, and love. It infuriates me that you show no sign of gratitude. You think we all have these things? That we all grow up bathed in the warmth of family?”
“Lukas,” I said as calmly as possible. His weight was like a truck, and it was getting hard to breathe. “Control this. This isn’t how you feel.”
“Yes,” he spat, wrapping his hands around my neck. “It’s exactly how I feel. You’ve wasted all you’ve been given. Squandered so much. Taken it all for granted. You never lived in hell, you have no idea the misery you’ve been spared.”
“Lukas, please. No,” I managed. Though, in the back of my mind, I wondered if that was true. As what little oxygen was left in my lungs flittered away, my mind churned his words, over and over again. Compared to my childhood, his had been a nightmare. In comparison to how I’d gained my demon status, and the power that went with it, his had been devastating. Mom had always been there for me. Kendra… Dad… I’d had the love and support of everyone around me. Had grown up strong and wanted for nothing.