Page 59 of A Chip on Her Shoulder

“I know.”

“Will the kittens bother Lucifer?”

“Immensely.”

I grinned at the thought of yanking the Devil’s tail. “Okay. That sounds reasonable. Is it strange that I’m not really afraid? Shouldn’t I be afraid?”

“It is not terror that kills a mortal soul upon seeing our faces, Darlene. It is the awareness of everything that humans are and are not, and the beauty of it is too much for a soul to tolerate. You will emerge on the other side changed, but not all change is bad. Change is change. You will understand soon enough. I have prepared you as much as I can. You have nothing to fear, for I am with you.”

Chapter Eleven

How could someone so beautiful exist?

The Devil had many forms, and the dark-skinned beast he’d become intrigued me. With black leathery wings sheathed in flame to cloven hooves that burned wherever he stepped, a sane woman would’ve feared him. Add in his long, curved claws dripping a rusty, thick fluid, and fear would have been a sensible response.

A few scraps of stubborn fabric, charred on the edges, clung to his wrists. Had his beautiful suit survived the transformation before being incinerated from his heat? The loss of his clothes annoyed me.

How dare he show off his perfect chest to anyone who might come wandering by? Unlike his angelic brothers, he possessed nipples, and the flames crackling around him did a good job of hiding the rest of his physique.

Damn it. I turned my ears back and lashed my tail at that, and I opted to focus on his face before the mystery of the rest of his body either drove me mad or my temper snapped a lot like his. The lingering remnants of my headache had something to do with my irritation.

I forced my attention upwards with a slight detour to admire his chest for a few extra moments. Beyond darkening and the presence of fangs and horns, the Devil’s face remained as I remembered. The unbridled fury in his expression promised death.

If I hadn’t known better, if I hadn’t seen the Devil masquerading as a human already, I might’ve believed the man dumb enough to face off against the Devil was nothing more than a mortal man, handsome enough to turn heads wherever he went. A red gleam in his brown eyes gave him away.

The urge to get up, unsheathe my claws, and leave some marks across his face as a reminder of why he shouldn’t cross me or the Devil roused. I flexed my hands, and I concentrated on the wild part of me, the one that led to fur over my skin and the manifestation of my perfect, beautiful spots.

Growing claws hurt, but I accepted the pain and focused.

The unfamiliar living room irritated me, as did my place on an old, worn, and comfortable couch. Movement in the corner of the room drew my attention, and Belial regarded me through narrowed eyes. I flexed my hands, slid off the couch, and debated how to best tear strips out of my new opponent.

Belial raised a brow, and at a glare from me, he raised his hands in surrender.

“You dare to disobey me?” the Devil demanded, and the fires of his many hells crackled in his voice.

“You allowed a human female to undermine your authority,” the lesser devil countered. “Be rid of her, or I will get rid of her myself.”

Blue sparks danced over the Devil’s skin, and the flames cloaking him flared white before brightening to an icy blue. His form shimmered, and much like a glass dropped to the floor, something around him shattered, sending a cascade of shards raining down, which sparkled before dissolving away to nothing.

The beastly visage fell away to a golden skinned man with sun-bright wings, each feather clouded with white and tipped with blue. Something about the Devil’s face had changed. From the gentle curve of his jaw to his eyes, which had shifted in color to the sapphire of a winter sky, I found no evidence of human imperfection.

My breath caught in my throat and lodged there.

How could someone so beautiful exist?

Even if I could have breathed, I wouldn’t have for fear he’d vanish like smoke whipped on a growing wind.

How could someone so perfect exist?

How could I compare?

I couldn’t.

Mocking laughter rang out, but I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the Devil’s face. I could understand a moth’s determination to fly close to the flames. I couldn’t compare, but I yearned to touch and discover what perfection felt like.

Part of my very soul despaired for what I could never be, withering away while my lungs burned for the breath I refused to draw.

A cold darkness crept in, stealing away the Devil’s golden beauty and leaving me with nothing but shadows reminiscent of his glory. While my eyes could no longer focus or pierce the black shrouding my vision, I could still move my arms.