Bound By Lucifer by Aiden Pierce

Chapter Two

Jess

As soon as the front entrance of Siren’s shut behind me, it was like I’d stepped into another world completely. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up as if some deep-seated part of me knew I’d just entered a place I had no business being.

A long hall stretched ahead of me, lit only by a neon sign mounted over the door on the other end, painting everything in a dull red. “Abandon all hope, ye who enter here,” it read. A quote from Paradise Lost.

It was just a stupid sign, put there to enforce the fantasy that this was a club truly owned by the devil. But when I read it, the words rang in my head like a warning. Not a novelty.

Melanie had picked this place, but only because I’d begged her to get drinks with me here ever since it opened weeks ago. I was sure she finally caved because she was fighting with Gabe, a close friend of ours who she was madly in love with.

He’d always been protective of her, and he was very adamant that neither of us come here. I’d just brush it off as him being superstitious, one of those people who actually bought into the whole devil thing. But as I walked down the hallway, unease began to knot my belly.

A small voice in the back of my head—my sanity, no doubt—told me to turn back, but reckless me pushed me forward.

Keep going, just a little further, she whined in my ear, practically begging me not to turn back.

Of course, I listened to her. This was the weekend. The weekend was when I was released from the shackles of responsibility, where I could pretend that there weren’t stacks of bills to pay on my counter, people to take care of, and a demanding job that wore me ragged. If I turned back, I would be going back to face all those things. I refused to let that side of me, the cautious, stressed giver, make me a prisoner. Besides, this was the thing I craved the most, the unknown, chaos, light.

The bouncer’s words pinged around in my head, tormenting me because I knew just how true they were.

“Don’t worry, Little Moth. You’ll find the destruction you crave inside.”

It’s not like I had a death wish. I just craved things that made me feel alive. Even though sometimes those things weren’t always the best for me.

I’d graduated college a couple of years ago, but on the weekends, I was still that crazy party girl, because unlike the rest of me, she was truly free.

Melanie called me an adrenaline junkie. It’s not like I was jumping out of planes or doing drugs or anything. But I did love to drink. I loved to go places I wasn’t allowed, and I liked to drive real fast on dark, deserted roads at night and scream…

And now, apparently, I liked to wander into Seattle’s supernatural underworld.

Friday nights were made for bad ideas.

Friday nights were for letting Reckless Jess off her leash.

I just hoped I hadn’t made a mistake in convincing Mel that coming here was a safe, bad idea.

When I opened the door at the end of the hall, the pulse of the music grew louder, the scent of brimstone coiled with the sweet tang of sugary alcohol, and the heady scent of sex all rushed me at once.

At first, all the chaos was disorienting. The main floor of the club was dark, illuminated only by red and pink LED strip lighting. A perfect blend of old and new. The stone walls of the church were exposed, along with all the stained glass windows, bathing the club’s modern black furniture in splashes of rainbow light. The main stage sat to the left, and to the right, the floor descended into a lounge pit blocked off from the rest of the club with a curtain of beads. A light above the pit labeled it as “The Sinner’s Den,” probably where private lap dances were given. And dead ahead of me was the bar. I’d never seen such a collection of alcohol. Shelves upon shelves were filled with glass bottles of various sizes and colors, all the way up to the ceiling. It looked more like a collection of a witch’s potions than anything else.

The entire atmosphere was eccentric as all get out, brimming with a sort of energy that had me excited and uneasy all at once. But the staff were an exception to that. They just seemed…normal. The dancers, “Satan’s Succubi,” while beautiful, looked like any other kind of exotic dancer. No tail, no wings, no gigantic cartoon boobs. They didn’t even have horns unless you counted the plastic ones they wore on their head. While the horns were cheesy, everything else they wore looked expensive. Silk stockings and garters, crystal-encrusted pasties, fur-lined harnesses, and all sorts of other accessories adorned their writhing bodies. It looked like they had all raided a luxury French kink shop.

I’d expected the staff to be the most bizarre part of Siren’s experience, but instead, it was its clientele that caused me to be uneasy.

While I was sure everyone here was some kind of supernatural creature, a cluster of rowdy men sitting down by the main stage drew my attention. They were the only group that I could put a name to. Wolf shifters.

Everyone in the King and Pierce County areas, human or otherwise, knew about the Tacoma Shifter Pack, a slimy biker gang. They hadn’t been much of a problem since they usually stuck to the Tacoma Hills Trailer Park where they were based, but now that Siren’s served as a watering hole for the supernatural, the notorious gang made frequent trips into the city.

They didn’t have to shift for you to know when you were looking at one, either. The members all wore black leather jackets with the pack’s logo—a wolf howling at the moon—stitched onto the lapel.

Shit, there were a lot of them in here. At least a half dozen. Luckily they seemed completely distracted by the dancer currently on stage and didn’t so much as throw a glance my way.

I needed a drink desperately but decided to wait for Melanie. What is taking her so long? I sat down at an empty table in an empty corner of the club and pulled out my phone to text her when a familiar face approached in front of me.

“Mel, there you are!”

My friend stumbled over to my table, an exhausted swagger to her step like she’d been trapped on a shotty amusement park ride for an hour. The tight black club dress that clung to her curvy figure was soaking wet, and her mahogany hair was a mess, with the back, in particular, bunched and covered in grass stains.

“Oh. My. God. You had sex!”

A flush of red stained her cheeks, confirming my suspicions. This was great news for two reasons. The first being that at twenty-six, my college bestie had finally handed in her V card. The fact that tonight was her birthday of all nights made it even better. The second reason was that it couldn’t have been with anyone other than Gabriel, our college best friend, her childhood sweetheart, and her current roommate. She’d been in love with him practically forever. I knew he loved her too, but for whatever reason, Gabriel hadn’t been able to seal the deal.

Until now.

I gave an enthusiastic pat at the seat beside me. “Sit down. Tell me everything.”

God, I hoped she told me everything, every dirty little detail. I wanted to know about every thrust, every moan. She was a half-decent artist, so I wouldn’t complain about a napkin sketch detailing the position, his size… Okay, so I was going through a dry spell. I didn’t have time for boyfriends, so I had to vicariously live through other people.

She collapsed into the seat next to me, her jaw falling open. “How did you know? Are you a witch now? Can you read minds? If you’re a witch, you have to tell me like, now. Because I don’t think I can handle any more secrets.”

A witch? Fuck, I wish. That sounded more exciting than changing bed pans and giving sponge baths in the intensive care unit at work. I mean, I loved my job, but it was exhausting. I knew little about professional witches, but I’d heard of them. Tarot card readings, creating hexes for jilted wives, hosting crystal dildo parties. Now that would be a job.

“Girl, I don’t need to read minds when you’re sporting just-got-fucked hair like yours. And with those grass stains on your back, you look like you and Seattle’s entire football team just took the freshly mowed Safeco Field out for a spin.”

When she turned her head to the mirror mounted on the wall behind us to take in her appearance, I spotted the marks on her neck where someone had suckled. Jeez, way to go, Gabe.

A stab of jealousy struck me in the ribs, causing me to take a sharp inhale as I foisted my gaze away from the marks. It’s not like I was envious of Mel because I was interested in Gabriel. I mean, the guy was hot as all get out, but he didn’t do it for me. And that was the problem. Nobody did it for me. As cliché as it sounded, there was no spark, no chemistry. Zip, nada, nothing.

I was destined to be a spinster for the rest of my life. I guess that was okay, but fuck did I hate the hollowness in my heart. A hole that Sane Jess couldn’t fill with meaningful work at the hospital, or paying bills on time, or taking care of dad, or rounding up the total of a Taco Bell order to save homeless puppies. And it was a hole Reckless Jess couldn’t fill with her crazy weekends of one-night stands, cosmopolitans, or drunken late-night runs to Dick’s Burgers to eat copious amounts of dollar burgers until I vomited. Something was missing from my life. Maybe that was why my reckless side was so gung ho about doing new things. I was on a mission to find that missing thing. Whatever it was.

But I was still happy for Mel. Whatever she and Gabriel had, it was electric. It was high time they shagged.

I gave her a wide smile and tried my best to untangle her hair, plucking pieces of grass from her trusses as I went. “He really gave it to you, didn’t he?”

Her lower lip trembled, and tears welled in her eyes. I wasn’t sure what happened between her and Gabe, but I was instantly pissed at him. Mel was sweet and a little naive. But she was good, the kind of person you wanted to protect from the asshole world because it hadn’t screwed her up yet.

Scooting closer to her, I took her hand in mine and gave it a consoling squeeze. “Hey, hey. Tell me what happened, babe.”

“Gabriel says he can’t be with me.”

“But… Wait, so you guys had sex but then right after he said he wasn’t interested in making it a thing?”

She gave a tearful nod.

“And you didn’t talk about that before you guys…?”

“No. He said he loved me but that we couldn’t be together.”

I had known Gabriel for as long as I’d known Mel. Mel was my college roommate at Western Washington University, and Gabe had always been attached to her hip. Wherever she was, he was there too. I saw the way he looked at her like she was his whole world. These days he was a rich software developer, owning his own business. He showered her with expensive things, and she lived in his luxury condo in Capitol Hill. He was always so protective of her because while I only tended to ignore the better of my survival instincts, Melanie completely lacked them. He was in love with her, we all knew it. Which made the fact that he still kept her at arm’s length a real puzzle.

“When we were at Club Glow earlier tonight for drinks, I was really nervous because tonight was going to be the night I told him about my feelings. Mixed with nerves and the alcohol, I started to feel dizzy, so I excused myself and went to the bathroom, but there was a huge line, so I stumbled outside through a backdoor exit and found myself locked outside in an alley where a bunch of gangbangers were hanging out…”

My chest tightened. “Holy shit, Mel. Please tell my Gabe found you in time.”

“He did. He was outnumbered. There were three of them, but Jess… He kicked their asses. I mean, you know he’s strong. Remember in college when he shattered that one guy’s jaw?”

How could I forget that? We went to some rager on campus during our sophomore year, and some guy made a move on Melanie. Maybe it was Mel’s big, soft eyes, her pouty lips, and her inviting demeanor that made guys swarm her like bees to honey. Mel said she wasn’t interested, but the drunk frat boy wouldn’t leave her alone. Gabe seemingly dropped out of the crowd from nowhere and punched the guy so hard the poor asshole had to have surgery. No guy dared to speak to her at a party ever again, and Gabriel had been smug as fuck about it.

“Yeah, he packs a punch, alright.”

“Well, tonight he went completely Chuck Norris on those guys, Jess. That strength, it wasn’t normal. Then when we chased them away, we…” Her gaze dropped to the table, and her blush deepened.

I raised a brow. “He did not fuck you in an alley.”

“It didn’t feel wrong. It just started out as a kiss. I told him how I felt about him, and he…” Fresh tears leaked down her cheeks. “He said he felt the same way.”

Finally! We’d both been waiting for Gabe to say that for years. “Well, that’s great, Mel.”

“Yeah, it was great. But then everything just kind of melted away. I know it was my first time, and I’m going to sound really naive here when I say what we have… It isn’t normal. It’s like the universe has been pushing together, and tonight all walls were broken down. The void in my heart was filled. Everything felt complete.”

There was that pang of envy again.

“What happened next?”

“He carried me to his car and helped clean me off.”

“Oh, well, that’s kind of sweet.”

She scoffed, her eyes flashing with anger. “It would have been sweeter if he hadn’t have been acting like he was trying to cover up a crime scene. He acted like it was a mistake. One we could never make again. And you know what the most bullshit part is? He said we couldn’t be together because his “organization” wouldn’t allow it. That’s the bullshit excuse he gave me. Can you believe that?”

My brows crinkled. “Organization? What, like a religion? Since when is he religious?”

“Exactly. He said it was more like a cult.”

I let out an exasperated huff. “What the fuck, Gabriel. Really? That’s the excuse he came up with?” This was troubling. I would expect this from a one-night stand with a random douche bag but Gabriel? That didn’t sound like him at all.

“Something is going on with him, Jessica. He’s covering up a secret. It’s something…big. So then I called you to go to Siren’s, and he freaked out on me going on about how the devil works here and fallen angels are dangerous or whatever. He dropped me off, and there was a Tacoma Pack shifter outside who grabbed my butt. A fight almost broke out.”

Holy crap. Gabriel almost took on a member of the Tacoma Pack? “Please tell me he’s still alive.”

“Yeah, the owner of the club came out of nowhere. He broke up the fight. The bouncer escorted Gabe and the wolf off the premises.”

“You met Lucifer Morningstar? Just now?”

I don’t know why my stomach fluttered at that name. It should have made me cringe because what normal, well-adjusted man would call themselves that? It’s not like it could possibly be his legal name.

But I didn’t have to know the billionaire tycoon who was buying up downtown Seattle like one giant game of monopoly to know he wasn’t anything close to well-adjusted.

And that made me all the more curious.

“Yeah.” She gave a slow nod, a look of confusion settling on her face. “He was…odd. He acted like he knew Gabriel.”

For a long moment, we sat in silence, her processing all that had happened to her and me processing all she’d told me. Man, what a birthday. I would kill to have crazy things like that happen to me. I had to chase trouble, but Mel just seemed to attract it. And she wasn’t the sort to handle that kind of thing well. Her idea of a perfect birthday would have been to stay inside curled up watching TV with a plate of pancakes. And maybe her reclusive nature just made it easy for Gabe to be hiding something from her all this time because she was right. He was hiding something, something huge.

“Holy crap. That’s a lot to unpack, Mel.”

“Jess…” She paused and gave a tentative swallow as if tasting the words that she was about to say, unsure of them. “I don’t think Gabriel is human.”