Page 21 of Signed in Blood

The expression on his face is just as addicting as the words he speaks. I don’t know what’s happening to me, I’m morphing into this…demon?

“Don’t do that,” he orders in a tone that means business. “Don’t try to make sense of it, don’t label it. Good, bad, it’s all relative in the end. What society teaches you isn’t fact, understood?”

I nod. There’s two sides of Lucifer. A soft side who seems to understand everything I feel. And then this side… This…teacher, master, dominant role I find myself admiring and wanting to please.

“You shouldn’t focus on who you were; you need to understand who you are now.”

“They made me this?”

His handsome features scrunch at the thought. As if the idea that they had a hand in who I am is distasteful. He considers it for a second. “We all evolve from things we cannot control, but no, you chose to be who you are.”

I inhale a deep breath, catching my bearings. I want to please him, but most importantly, I want to satisfy this thirst I have breathing new life into me.

He’s a beautiful distraction though. And the way he looks at me… I’ve never had anyone want me the way he obviously does. Although I question how long he’ll want me. And what happens after.

Before I can second guess myself, I ask him, “So if I die, I come back here?” I run my hand through a lock of hair that’s fallen from my face and then peer down with confusion at the feel of something on my fingers. Red. There’s blood in my hair.

With a sigh, the anger returns. It’s evidence of my failure. With both hands I check my scalp. I may not be in pain but that doesn’t mean my body is whole.

Bastard got a good hit in. A chunk of metal is stuck in my skull and I pull it out.

Oh fuck, that does hurt. I wince from the pain but Lucifer is quick to place a hand above my head and like magic, the pain disappears. I can’t help how my heart ticks slower, how the air seems to bend around him, and how utterly submissive I feel beneath him.

It’s a heady feeling.

“Your anger is one thing, but this side of you…” he murmurs before placing his hand under my chin. “I must say the desire is mutual.” His admission forces a blush to rise from my chest to my cheeks. He orders me up and I obey.

In front of the fire, where I swear there was a black velvet settee, there’s now a drawn bath in a clawfoot tub. The steam rises and a faint layer of oil sits atop the still water. A simper plays at my lips. I could get used to this. When I was young, I dreamed of such luxuries. And now they’re at my fingertips.

Although a faint voice in the back of my mind whispers for me not to trust it.

Lucifer doesn’t hesitate to clean me up and strip me down. I can tell he’s taking me in. It’s obvious he likes this side of me, the dark one.

It makes me feel beautiful. And like I could tell him anything and he’d understand. Do I even have to do that? He can read my every thought.

“In, my little piece,” he orders and I obey, slipping into the delectable bath. The water sloshes slightly but it’s heavenly. It eases my muscles even more than his touch did.

Changing the subject, he questions, “Did you enjoy the look?”

I blink several times. The look? “The clothing?” he clarifies.

“Ah, yes. All black? I did.”

“And your face… It was not your own, but a version of a woman you once admired.” He offers me a sponge from a small dish that hangs off the side of porcelain tub.

I take it and then peer down at my hands, turning to the tall oval mirror edged with a carved obsidian by the bath.

“Here, you are yourself.”

“I’ll always be me here?” I ask.

He nods a yes.

Washing myself, I continue the conversation. “Could I change what I look like up there? My clothes? I don’t want to look like an assassin if I need to be less threatening in appearance to kill them.”

He smiles. “You sound confident, you think you can kill this time?”

I smirk, mocking. “I guess I’ll die trying.”