Bound By Lucifer by Aiden Pierce

Chapter Sixteen

Lucifer

Lucifer – Past

Istood at the very heart of Limbo, among the crates of possessions—mostly wine—that had been packed up, ready to move to the surface. Limbo was the first layer of Hell, and ironically, it was the last one of my journey before I reached the surface. I could only guess how long I had been down here. Time here wasn’t like in Paradise or on the surface. There was no sun, and hours felt like years, years like decades. The demanding journey through Abaddon’s Hell had been a laborious one, filled with nameless horrors and obstacles I could never have imagined even in my wildest nightmares. It would have gone a whole hell of a lot faster if I hadn’t decided to rebuild it, layer by layer. But the state in which Abaddon keep the majority of hell was completely abhorrent. Thank fuck he hadn’t messed up Limbo. I’d rebuilt pretty much everything else, and by the time Lilith and I crawled our way up to the near-surface, we were both tired as hell and ready to make our breakout.

Limbo was a ceaseless labyrinth just below the earth’s surface. Abaddon had used it as Hell’s storage for all the junk, including the aimless souls that he didn’t know what to do with. Unlike the rest of the levels, I had no special plans for Limbo. I would still keep this a storage room but only for intimate objects. I had moved all the wandering souls down to Lust, where they could actually have a little fun.

A door opened behind me, and I turned, half expecting it to be one of the imps I had ordered to bring up the rest of our things. Instead, I was greeted by a far more pleasant form standing in the doorway leading down to the lower levels.

Lilith.

My beast purred with delight, seeing our mate standing there looking like Aphrodite herself, dressed in the latest human fashions.

She was in her human form, as she preferred. For once, she wore her ink-black hair loose, which reached all the way down to the back of her knees. I hadn’t realized just how long it had gotten, as she always wore it up during our travels. It was brushed silky smooth and full of her scent. She smelled of sunshine even though she’d never once seen the sun.

Her silver-gray eyes sparkled, and her full lips softened as my gaze centered on them. Her lean body was wrapped in a flowing dress of red silk with two brooches of gold bearing my symbol fastened to either shoulder, positioned so that the fabric draped over her cleavage in a way that left little to the imagination.

Who needed Father’s Paradise when I had my own down here, wrapped in the color of sin, wearing my crest, looking at me like that?

Like I’m the only male in all nine circles.

She held a small crate filled with the things she wanted to take to the surface. I moved forward and took it from her, pressing a sweet kiss to her lips in exchange. “Have I told you lately how absolutely fucking radiant you are?” I muttered through a silken growl, nipping at her bottom lip.

Her beast purred for me, leaning into the kiss with a happy sigh. “You’re just saying that because, for once, I’m not covered in mud, blood, or shit.”

I set the crate down with the others and returned to her, gathering her in my arms. She laughed as I delivered a flurry of heated kisses to her lips, her cheeks, her throat. She squirmed in my arms, playfully pushing me away. “Oh no, the King of Hell isn’t going soft on me, is he?”

I lifted my head from my task of kissing her breasts and flashed her a wolfish grin. “Soft around you, Kitten? Never.”

I thrust my hips forward so that my erection pressed into her hip, demonstrating my point.

“Oh, you devil.”

Her fingers entangled in my hair, clutching my head close to her bosom. For centuries, I had traveled with her. Years to immortals like us was a blink in time. But centuries were a different story, and we’d been traveling for centuries. It was hard to pinpoint exactly when I had fallen into the frozen lake, but Lilith had been by my side for all of it. Although, it wasn’t until the Second Circle that I truly claimed her as my mate. It took me too damn long to shake my father’s planted idea that Eve was supposed to be mine.

Even after years spent in the new, reimagined lust wrapped in each other’s arms, I still felt as though I had lost time to make up for. From the beginning, I’d been so focused on making it out of Hell. But now that I had her and this new realm we’d built together, I wasn’t sure I wanted to leave.

“Are you sure you’re ready for Paradise, Lilith?”

She pulled back in my arms, her full lips pursing into a confident smile. “By the way you’ve always gone on about it, I’m going to go into it pretending it’s just another layer of Hell. Can’t be worse than the Underworld.”

“Ha. You think Abaddon is the worst being to ever live? You haven’t met my brother.”

“If he’s anything like you, I’m sure we’ll get along just fine.”

“Well, he isn’t,” I sniffed through a brittle smile. “And I prefer you hate him.”

She laughed, pressing up on her tiptoes to kiss the crooked bridge of my nose, then broke the kiss to run her index finger to the place where my nose had healed incorrectly after the fight with the former King of Hell.

“Sorry, but all my hatred is currently being used for Abaddon. Look what he did to you. This never set correctly, you know.”

My fingers curled around her wrist, and I kissed her knuckles, smirking against them. “Let it be. I won his crown and a queen from that fight, didn’t I?”

“Oh, please. The crown, sure. But you wanted nothing to do with me at first.”

“I wanted everything to do with you, Kitten.” I combed a hand through my hair, chuckling at the memory. “But I was an idiot then.”

“Still an idiot,” she muttered through a playful smirk, stormy-gray eyes banking with a warmth that had my beast begging me to take her hot little body beneath me again. I grabbed her hips and spun her around so that her back was to my chest and her ass was pressed against my erection. I nuzzled the soft juncture between her neck and shoulder, breathing in her scent.

How I ached to transform into my true nature and take her in my celestial form. How I could make her moan for me and scream in pleasure. Sure, the size of my human endowment wasn’t exactly leaving her wanting, but oh, the things I’d do to let out my beast and let my monster rut her into oblivion. I would wrap her tight in my wings. I could glean even more of her thoughts, such as her deepest desires, the ones she couldn’t bring herself to ask for, the ones she didn’t even dare think of.

I’ll get my wings back soon.

She twisted in my arms, her eyes glittering with mischief as she wiggled her hips, teasing my cock with the valley of her firm ass cheeks. “Lucifer Morningstar, you are a ravenous beast, aren’t you?”

A guttural growl rumbled from my chest as I grabbed the fabric of her dress and pulled it up to slip a hand beneath. She gasped, the sound immediately sliding into a swollen pant of pleasure as I began to rub over her labia.

I nipped at the shell of her ear, cackling darkly. “With a mate like you, how could I not want to gorge myself on your dripping cunt every chance I fucking get?”

Her body gave a little shiver of anticipation, my words causing little goosebumps to erupt over her flesh. To my dismay, she pushed away from me, her cheeks stained red.

“Let’s finish packing. We’re almost done. I just have one more crate. Then we can stay here for maybe another year or so, and you can fuck me as much as you want.”

Gleaning her thoughts, I gave her a knowing smile. “Ah, so you are nervous about meeting my father. You’re trying to stall.”

Her blush deepened. “Is it working?”

My lips stretched into a wide grin as I raised my hands, palms up. “Hmm, stay here, surrounded by an endless supply of wine and fuck until Armageddon comes around, or we can go to The Silver City now where sex is forbidden, and everyone, including my dear father, will be able to scent my seed upon your flesh. I know you’ve got a wicked taste for making sexist prudes squirm from your sexuality, but that’s going to be less fun for me than it has any right to be, so if stalling here means I get to be drunk off my ass buried balls deep inside my queen’s cunt, I’m going to go with that.”

Her thick lashes fluttered, and I could practically taste the scent of her arousal curling up from her thighs. “Alright,” she murmured. “I’m going to go grab that last crate, and then we can hole up here for a little while longer.”

She made for the door leading to Lust, but I moved in front of her, blocking her exit. “Don’t be silly. I’ll grab it for you. You’ve done enough work in this pit to last the rest of eternity.”

I pressed one last kiss to her mouth, savoring her flavor. How I craved her kisses, they tasted like salt, sunshine, and sin. And when I was inside her, with her screaming my name, she tasted a little like me.

She moaned under my mouth, her breathy pants turning sharp and hot as my greedy hands curved to give her ass a possessive squeeze, hard enough to leave my fingerprints on her skin. “I’ll be right back, and you had better be naked when I get here.”

“Mmm. I’ll crack open a case of wine while you’re gone. Oh, but we don’t have anything to drink out of. Bring up some flagons?”

I snorted and licked my grinning lips. “Who needs flagons? Cover yourself in it. I’ll lick it off of you.”

The scent of her arousal grew so strong, my mouth began to water, and my beast wined for its mate.

“Hurry,” she said.

“I will,” and then I was gone, hurrying down the dark tunnel that would lead to Lust. I wasn’t gone long. The tunnel connecting the first and second layers was free of any wandering souls since I had shooed them all away to the lower levels. I snatched up the very last of her possessions and rushed back with all the speed of a demon on my tail.

Never in all my days could I recall being this happy. Not even when I was in Eden. Especially not when I was in Eden. Hell, when I was in Father’s “Paradise” on Earth with my head between my ward’s legs, I was miserable compared to when I was sloshing through the human filth that was the Third Circle, or stranded for Fates knew how long in the tiny little boat on the River Styx. All because Lilith had been by my side.

I had stolen the throne to Hell but being king of a hellish cesspit of suffering and chaos was a sad little prize for beating Abaddon. It was his queen’s company that had been the true prize.

Fuck me for taking so long to figure out she was my true mate. I had so much lost time to make up for. I wanted to shower her in everything I fucking had.

When I burst through the gate to Limbo, I was practically glowing with anticipation and excitement. “Got the last box, Kitten. We don’t have to go back to the lower levels for a long time. Or ever again if you don’t want.”

My words froze like ice in my throat. The room I had left Lilith in was completely empty.

There was no trace of her. Her warm, sunny scent was gone, proof that she wasn’t here. I scanned the area, my throat tightening as I took in the little details that told me exactly what had happened here while I was gone.

The barrel of wine she’d drug out to the middle of the room had its lid half-opened. Something had stopped her mid-task. The metal pry bar she was using lay on the floor, feet away from the barrel.

It was covered in blood.

On our journey, her blood had split enough that I was well akin to the tangy, metallic scent. It wasn’t her blood on the iron. She’d given a good beating to whoever had attacked her.

I stepped closer to the door on the other side of the room, the one that led up to the surface.

It was agape.

My beast was alive inside me, screaming with rage as soon as my gaze settled on the thick claw marks carved into the stone around the doorway. She had shifted. She never shifted unless she was in danger. Whoever had attacked her had dragged her out.

My vision shrunk to pinpoints as I stooped beside the door, my breath becoming short.

In Lilith’s struggle with her assailant, two items had been left behind. One of the golden brooches bearing my crest from her dress. And past the door, a lone brown feather rested on the second step toward the surface.

My stomach went sour. My beast roared, and all I could see was red.

I clutched the brooch in one shaking hand and the feather in another. The scent coming off the feather was one I hadn’t smelled in centuries. But it was one that summoned foul memories, and I would know its bitter, pungent odor anywhere.

Michael.

That cunt of a brother had stolen her.

My own blood had stolen the only thing that mattered to me anymore.

A whirlwind of questions slammed around in my skull, making my head spin. When I had fallen, everyone back home had thought Eve was my mate. Even Father. So how had He found out about Lilith?

How had Michael gotten in here?

What was he going to do with her?

Lilith was a powerful demon shifter, but she couldn’t take on an arch celestial like Michael.

I had to find her. Before he hurt her. Before he… No.

I swallowed my heart, refusing to consider the dark and ugly thoughts that had wriggled into my mind. I couldn’t think of the worst. There was no time for that.

With my heart in my mouth, I made my way for the surface.

I had to find Lilith before it was too late.