Bonbon turned even paler than she already was. “I don’t want to know what else there could be to hunt, thank you very much.”
Sage put her double-barrel to a demon’s head and blasted it with salt and iron shot. Shadowy gore exploded out, splattering on her face, but her whites remained untouched.
Oriak? grimaced. “And here I thought prayer and exorcism was the best way to deal with demons,” she said, almost to herself. “Nigerian churches have alotof misinformation to answer for.”
Celestial chuckled, and I moved on again, leaving the battle and the humans behind me. It didn’t matter if this brief incursion was stopped. These demons were just a spurt, nothing compared to what would happen when the hellgate finally gave way. It would be glorious then, bloody and terrible, and there simply weren’t enough Kincaids alive to stop it.
All I had to do was wait.
9.
Lucifer
It was slicing at Lucifer to see Galilee cry. He’d seen the humiliation on her face the moment things clicked for her, right before she locked it up behind a dull and numb wall. Galilee had every right to be upset—she was begging him to believe her, after all, even though she’d done nothing wrong. His princes would call him a fool, but Lucifer had meant it when he said he didn’t care if she was there to destroy him. Still, he couldn’t tell Galilee that she wasn’t a threat because that would be a lie—her power made sure of that, no matter her intention. The fact that she truly seemed to have no idea what she was didn’t help—it was possibly evenmoredangerous than if she’d had an answer.
When she broke down and reached for him, it took her barely a second before she tried to pull away again, but Lucifer caught her by the wrist, pleasure and fire leaping through him the moment their skin made contact. Galilee’s eyes widened, and she tugged against his hold.
“I’m hurting you,” she said. Tear tracks were tangled in her freckles, and Lucifer wanted to lick them away. He settled for bringing her palm to his mouth and kissing it, relishing the way lightning danced past his lips, flashing against his tongue.
“Touching you is like making love to a storm,” he told her, smiling asher pupils spread out even more. “Hurt doesn’t mean the same thing to the both of us, little demon. To you, it’s something that feels bad, that you seek to avoid.” He wrapped her in a hug, tucking her head under his chin. “I like it, Galilee. Iwantit. You burn me, but you don’t wound me.”
She let out a shaky breath and slid her arms around him, trailing fire along his flesh. “You sure?”
His chest twisted at her concern. She treated him gently, like he was the mortal one. Levi would assume it was a mask or a trap, but Lucifer knew the truth. He could feel it brushing up against him, and he believed it. Galilee Kincaid was an innocent, even with all that incomprehensible power. It wouldn’t stop Levi’s execution sentence against her, but it did mean Lucifer was going to fight to keep her safe, even from the ones he loved most.
Galilee’s voice nudged at him, pressed against his chest. “Lucifer, are you sure?”
He dragged himself back and dropped a kiss on her hair. “Yes, beloved.”
She made a rough, pleased sound at the endearment, and Lucifer swore under his breath, his entire body pierced with the flame of her body flush against his. She was going to be the death of something, if not him.
“You make me more sure every moment,” he said. “Not just with what you do to me, but with who you are, every little glimpse I see of your soul. I want to keep touching you.” All these confessions, spilling foolishly out of his mouth, and he was still holding back the biggest one. Belial would kill him if she heard any of them, or at the very least chain him somewhere with sanctified iron while she killed Galilee.
“What would it take to wound you?” Galilee asked. She sounded curious again, and Lucifer was grateful for it. Anything was better than when she had been so heartbroken a moment before.
“Most likely just intention,” he answered. “You already burn me without even thinking about it—if you were to focus your power deliberately,you could probably cause some damage.” Lucifer was aware he was handing her an instruction manual against him, but Galilee was a gamble he was willing to take.
She pulled slightly away and tipped up to brush a molten kiss against his jaw. It danced over his skin and into his bone, and Lucifer growled in the back of his throat.
“And you like this?” she asked, a small flame of mischief lighting up in her eyes.
In answer, he backed them even more against the wall and pressed his hips against hers. Galilee gasped as she felt the length of his erection against her stomach, and Lucifer slid a hand behind her neck, leaning down to lick her ear.
“Does it feel like I like it?” he murmured.
“Damn, Lucifer.” Gali dragged his head down and kissed him, her tongue electric as it slid through his lips. He drew in a scorched breath, and for a moment, Lucifer swore he could almost taste her soul, so clear and bright, calling to him. In a moment he would stop and explain everything—how to protect her from his princes, how he was the best bargain she could make—but for now, he bit the tip of her tongue and ate the whimper that leaked from her mouth. Gali was a rush of delayed deliverance against his skin, her every touch converting him into a burnt offering. If he was something that could die, then this was how he’d choose to meet his end.
All his intentions to continue the conversation sloughed away as Gali hiked a leg up, hooking it behind his knee. Lucifer obliged her by sliding his hands under her thighs and lifting her up so she could wrap both legs around his waist, so she could press her sweet cunt even closer to him. She shrugged off the robe impatiently, letting the black linen drop to the floor, and wound her arms around his neck like they wouldn’t be close enough until every molecule of air between them was pressed away.
Lucifer wanted nothing more, but first he broke his mouth away, hiscock getting even harder at the sight of her kiss-swollen lips. This wasn’t the conversation heshouldbe having with her, but it was the conversation he was about to have, because fuck his princes and fuck their paranoia. Galilee Kincaid was in his arms, and he was going to make love to her before he sweet-talked her for her soul.
“Two things,” he said, brushing soft kisses on her temple. “First, protection.”
Galilee raised an eyebrow and slid her legs off him so she was standing again. “Go on,” she said, with a smirk. “You got demon condoms?”
Lucifer laughed. “You do know I control every single cell of this body, right? I can make myself sterile. I could grow a tail for fun. Iamthe protection.”
“Ooh, a tail, sexy.” She grinned at him, but her eyes were wary. “I’m supposed to take your word for it?”
