“I am the devil. My true name is Lucifer.”
“You’re trying to tell me you’re actually the devil. Fallen angel. Evil incarnate.”
“Evil? Probably. Fallen? Definitely.”
I could no longer deny it.
Lucas Ifer really was the devil.
And I’d made a deal with him.
8
Lucifer
With one last look at the star-filled sky I'd plucked Hannah from, and the bright lights below where everything could have ended, I cradled her closer to my chest and strode inside the penthouse to settle her on the sofa. Her blonde hair spread over the black leather cushions like spun gold, and her blue-eyed gaze watched me with a mixture of shock and something else. Fear? Curiosity?
Fire raced through my veins as I turned in a circle and raked a hand through my hair as I tried to figure out what to do. Water. That’s what she needed. I headed to the bar and poured some for her, and a whiskey for me. This certainly called for a drink.
That was too close. I’d nearly lost her. How had she fallen? By the time I spotted her in the panicked crowd, it was already too late. If she hadn’t screamed, I wouldn’t have seen her in time. Someone must have shoved her, and hard too. Only supernatural strength could have gotten her over that wall.
Was he after her already? Or was it someone else? Fuck. I couldn’t even keep her safe on the roof of my own building. Would it be better to send her away? Would she be safer?
No. No. She was safest by my side. This time would be different. It had to be.
When I returned with her water, Hannah sat on the sofa in the exact position I’d left her in. She hadn’t moved or said a word, she just stared off into space with her perfect lips slightly open. This was definitely shock. Falling from a roof would do that to anyone, not to mention being saved by the most infamous villain in the world.
As soon as I realized she was shivering, I waved a hand at the fireplace and it ignited, instantly. Then I snatched a velvet throw from the chair by the fire and covered her with it. As I tucked it around her shoulders, she finally moved her eyes upward, focusing on something behind me. I whirled, expecting to find someone there, but we were alone.
As I returned my attention to Hannah, I realized her wide-eyed gaze was glued to my wings. I tucked them away quickly, making them vanish.
“I was planning to show you my wings, and prove to you all I’d been saying,” I said in my softest voice—the one I reserved only for Hannah—as I squashed all the fury still roiling inside me. “But not like this.”
She jerked her gaze to my face, and her perfect little mouth formed an o. “It’s true. It’s all true.”
“Yes, it is.” I reached up to stroke her cheek, but she flinched back from me and I stopped myself. “Do you know what happened back there? How you fell?”
She shook her head silently, her eyes still wide.
“Whoever attacked you will pay.” This time, I wasn’t able to keep the menace from my voice, and she recoiled again. I drew in a sharp breath and regained control of myself. “Hannah. You have nothing to fear from me.”
Hannah’s chest began to heave under the blankets as she took rapid breaths. “But you’re the devil!”
Without waiting for a response, she threw her blanket to the side and kicked her heels off. Her red dress rode up her legs with the movement, revealing inch after inch of pale, soft skin. My cock twitched as I remained ever aware of how perfect she was, inside and out, even in the midst of an existential crisis. I averted my eyes.
“God,” she whispered. Ah, she’d discovered the larger implications of me being…well, me. “Does God exist? What about the Bible?”
“I’ve known many gods in my time, and I’ve been a god or two as well, but I don’t know if the God, an all-powerful and all-knowing deity, actually exists. No one does.”
She jumped to her feet and scurried across the room, but she didn’t leave, which was promising. I had a sliver of hope I hadn’t completely scared her away. “And the other demons you keep talking about. Imps, succubi, incubi…. Those are real too? What about angels?”
“Yes, all real. Everything I’ve told you is true.” I wanted to reach for her, to help her through this difficult realization, but I stayed back. She was still here. She knew where the door was, and she hadn’t left. That was the important thing.
Hannah stopped pacing and stared at me with her jaw hanging open. “But…how?”
“Demons come from a…” How to describe it? “Parallel universe of sorts, known as Hell. Angels came from another realm known as Heaven, and fae come from Faerie.”
Her eyebrows rose with every sentence I spoke. If I carried on, she’d lose them somewhere in her hair. “Fae?”
“Let’s focus on angels and demons for now and worry about the fae some other time.” I walked over to the bar and poured myself another whiskey. Sometime in the last few minutes I’d downed mine without realizing it. “Drink? If there was ever a time for alcohol, it’s when you realize your entire view of life has been upended.”
“No, thanks.” She walked over to the armchair by the window and collapsed into it, completely unaware of how the dress had shifted on her frame, exposing those thighs again, not to mention most of her midsection. Another inch and I’d see the lower curve of her breasts. Not that I was complaining. “The last thing I need is for this revelation to be muddled by alcohol.”
“Many humans find life preferable when muddled by alcohol. Alas, it has no effect on me.” I took a sip of whiskey anyway, mainly because I liked
