He was nearly as tall as Kobal as his head almost brushed against the rocks above him. Black hair fell in waves to the collar of his shirt and about his face. Features chiseled into perfection kept me riveted upon a face so flawless it could only be the face of an angel.
I’d never seen anything as beautiful as this man, or so distantly cold. He robbed the breath from my chest as the heat encompassing the room faded away to become filled with the iciness radiating from him.
His black eyes surveyed me from head to toe and back again. “Daughter,” he greeted.
“Lucifer.”
A muscle twitched in his cheek, and his eyes narrowed subtly; apparently he really didn’t like his angelic name. Go figure the Devil would be pissy about a name when he had so many of them.
Something rippled behind him, drawing my gaze to the coal black wings I hadn’t noticed amongst the darkness embracing him. Sensing my attention to them, a smile curved his mouth before he unfurled his wings. I gasped when they spread around him, nearly brushing the walls on either side of him. Each of them had to span six feet off of his towering frame.
There was nothing angelic about these wings, from their black color to their almost bat-like form. Where were the feathers? These were more like scales. No, not scales; if there had ever been feathers on them, they were gone. Now all that remained was a leathery blackness, which I realized wasn’t solid as my gaze fell on the veins running beneath the flesh. Those veins pulsed black blood through them as I watched.
At the center of the top of each wing was a spiked, almost foot-long silver point, one I knew he could drive straight through my eye and out the other side of my head without so much as blinking. The bottom tip of each wing had another long point. When he took a step closer to me, those points clicked off the rock floor in a way that made the world lurch threateningly.
How could someone be so beautiful yet so twisted?
“What is your name, child?”
I didn’t respond; I far preferred it if he never knew my name. Thankfully, his attention was distracted when his gaze fell to my neck; an eyebrow rose as his head tilted to the side. “Who has marked you, child?” he inquired. “Who thinks to claim you without asking for your hand first?”
I took a step away from him as he drew closer. I didn’t know if I could die in these dreams, and I didn’t want to find out. “Demons are beneath us, daughter. You would do far better with one ofmymen than with one ofthem.”
“I’ll choose my own man, but thanks for the concern,” I replied.
I took a startled step back, turning to the side when one of those wings shot out. I felt the air of it against my skin as my hair blew in the breeze it had created. The rock beneath my feet cracked when the bottom tip embedded itself into the ground with a solid thud, effectively cutting me off from going that way. I didn’t think there was any chance of me going anywhere with him in this room with me.
“Whohas marked you?” he hissed.
Everything in me screamed to keep it a secret, one I would take to my grave if it turned out he could kill me in these strange dreams. Kobal had said every demon would know I was his, but Lucifer wasn’t entirely a demon. Or maybe he did know and was just toying with me.
Leaning closer to me, I heard his sharp intake of breath as he inhaled deeply. I could feel the evil emanating from him in waves that beat against my skin and rattled my bones. Maybe Kobal didn’t think of good and evil as I’d always thought of them, but this man was evil incarnate. I had no idea if he’d been this way before he’d been thrown from Heaven, or if he’d become twisted and broken by his fall, but he was definitely evil now.
When he pulled away from me, a malicious smile curved his lips. His eyes sparkled in a way I hadn’t believed possible for one such as him. “Interesting,” he murmured and licked his lips. “I could not havechosena finer daughter than you.”
I resisted the impulse to rub my hands over my chilled flesh.He knows. Perhaps there was more demon in him than any of us realized if he’d been able to sense it was Kobal’s mark on me.This is bad, very, very bad.
He yanked the pointed tip from the earth and retreated a few steps. The wings folded behind his back once more so all that showed were those lethal, silver tips above his broad shoulders. Those icy black eyes surveyed me from head to toe again before he turned to retreat into the shadows.
“Wait!” I cried.
His head turned, and his gaze found me over his shoulder. “Yes, daughter.”
I shuddered at the realization this man saw me as his child as much as the demons did. I didn’t kid myself into thinking he wouldn’t kill me because of it; he may kill me justbecauseof it.
“Why did you bring me here?” I demanded.
There was that smile again. “Oh,mychild, in this it wasyouwho finally sought to meet your creator.” He turned back to me and took a step forward. “Every child is curious about their father after all.”
Sickness twisted in my gut.Ihad broughthimto me! I wanted to deny his words, but I couldn’t shake the certainty they were true. “You are not my father.”
“Am I not? You would not be standing here if not for me. The powers you possess were given to you through me. You aremyoffspring and, therefore, part of me resides in you. The more those powers grow, the more they will eat at you until one day it will be you standing within these cavern walls.”
“I willneverbe anything like you.”
“Will you not? You’re only beginning to tap the potential of your power.”
One wing flowed forward. The deadly point tapped against his temple much like a person would do with a finger. I realized those wings were as much an extension of him as my own hands were of me.
