Page 26 of Azure Mania

“What do you want?” I croak out, still slumped against the wall, trying my best to stand up. My knees buckle, and I have to grip the wall to prevent myself from falling right back down.

I suck in a sharp breath, my hands trembling. The ache in my back is there, and I know it’ll leave a bruise. Whatever this vampire’s business is with me, there was no need for such brutality. We could’ve just talked it out.

The man steps forward, and I immediately freeze.

It’s not just any sibling of Lucifer’s. It’s Darius. The one I wished to never encounter. His reputation is far from good, so I know better than to willingly mingle with him.

His black hair falls just below his ears, a blank expression on his face. That’s the face of someone who has nothing to lose in this life. The red eyes hold no compassion, no remorse, nothing. He’s just observing me silently, without moving an inch further.

“You’re Lucifer’s… whatever. You’re the one who cursed Lucifer.”

“Yes, I am,” I breathe out, wincing at the sharp pain in my back. “What do you want from me, Darius?”

He drags his eyes all over my body, slowly sizing me up. His lips thin into a line, his hands clasped behind his back. This is the most emotion I have ever seen the man possess, and I’ve met him a handful of times over the years.

“You’re also the one who lifted the curse.”

A frown etches onto my face. I don’t sense hostility from him, though the tone is far from welcoming. He takes the smallest step forward, and that is more than enough to make me feel like the smallest person in the world.

“I wouldn’t say I lifted the curse,” I breathe out, using some of my magic to heal the wound on my back. The relief is instant, and I can feel myself growing stronger. “I merely woke him up.”

“Which means you lifted the curse,” Darius drawls out, and he seems to be over this conversation already. His brows crease a little, and he steps closer to me. “You need to break another curse.”

Everything I have ever heard about this man starts pouring inside of my head. He’s been in love with a mermaid for centuries, until she was cursed and turned into a siren. Back then, she was able to turn into a human at will, but now, as a siren, she gets her legs once a year.

Despite how this situation came to be, my heart breaks for Darius. I know he’s spent the past couple of centuries looking for a solution to their situation, and I have to be the villain of his story and tell him that there’s nothing that could be done.

“Darius,” my voice is calm, though there’s a careful edge to it. “Once a mermaid turns into a siren, there’s no way to turn them back,” I swallow. “Whoever cursed your mermaid, they paid a big price for it, too.”

His jaw clenches. “Elaborate.”

I suck in a sharp breath. “That kind of a curse is very unique. Unlike the one I did on Lucifer, which was on a whim, this one was precise and specific to your mermaid. The person who did this to her is either long dead because the consequences of that kind of a curse, are too severe, if they’re not dead, they’re in a worse state than her.”

“You’re telling me that as the oldest witch alive, you don’t have a solution for this?”

“A mermaid’s heart turns to stone when she becomes a siren. If someone; regardless of how powerful they are, dared to mess with a stoned heart, the chances of it breaking are bigger than it returning to its original, beating form.”

Darius doesn’t like the answer, his eyes are now blazing with unfiltered, raw fury. It’s not directed towards me, but I still flinch when his fist goes through the wall beside me. The sound of concrete cracking echoes in my ears, and I stop breathing for a moment. His body trembles, and I don’t know how to approach this situation.

“If you tried fixing it, what are the chances of you killing her?”

The question seems simple enough, but I know that tone. It’s a threat, a clear warning. He wants raw honesty, I just don’t know how he’s going to react to it once I say it out loud. It’s all I can do for him, though. Giving him false hope will be catastrophic.

“Too high to even try.”

Darius opens his mouth to speak, but he doesn’t get the chance to. The door falls off the hinges, the loud noise making my eyes snap toward the entrance. Lucifer enters, furious and it’s only now that I remember, where I was before all of this.

He sees the hole in the wall next to me, and the way debris fell on my dress.

“What the fuck did you do, Darius?”

Oh, no.

Chapter 17

Lucifer

“I’m going to kill the bastard!”