Bound By Lucifer by Aiden Pierce
Chapter Twenty
Jessica
Gluttony – Present
The elevator ride down to the third floor was a tense one. Lucifer and I hadn’t said a word to each other when he’d finished showing me his memory. I hadn’t been able to finish my minestrone, which I felt bad about because Cerberus asked three times on our way out if he’d put too much pepper into it. I reassured him that it had been perfect.
And that was the problem. It was too perfect. It tasted like absolute heaven. It tasted like comfort, like waiting out a storm while being snuggled up in the warmth of a lover’s arms.
It tasted like home.
Eating that soup felt like a memory that wasn’t mine. One that I now had all the details to, one that snapped together perfectly with the emotions I had experienced the moment I’d tasted the soup at Canlis.
Lucifer’s memory should have felt like a stranger’s in my mind. But it didn’t. It felt like it was every bit as much mine as it was his.
Their intimacy, it didn’t make me uncomfortable to see. It… It made me hot all over. Like I’d just seen the best porn ever, perfectly tailored to my tastes.
Lucifer was right, good-bye PornHub.
Like Lilith, I loved rough sex. There was nothing better than being man-handled by a lover who knew how to properly fuck his woman to madness. If it had been Lucifer reading my mind, I would have been imagining something pretty damn close to what Lilith wanted. Scary close.
Almost like we were the same person.
Lucifer’s golden gaze settled on me, making the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. I knew what the bastard was thinking. “You are the same person.” But he held his tongue. He could tell me that as much as he wanted, but I would need more proof before I could start believing it.
But little details were nagging at me. Lilith’s body language was eerily similar to my own. Through Lucifer’s memory, I was able to read flashes of her thoughts, and it’s not like I was an expert in the way other people thought, but fantasies of Lucifer, her hopes, even the way she organized her thoughts were almost uncanny to mine.
“Do you have any questions?” Lucifer asked, his attention now on the digital display over the elevator door.
“Why don’t you just look in my mind?”
His brow creased with the frown he wore. “You’re angry.”
“Yeah, no shit. It’s not like I want to be here.”
“You agreed to go on this little tour with me.”
“You kidnapped me, asshole. You strong-armed me into it.”
“I don’t think you’re angry with me. I think you’re upset that what I’m showing you is making you uncomfortable.”
“Yeah, thanks for the heads up about the freaky fuck fest under the tarp, by the way.”
He clamped down, putting his attention back on me, his eyes glittering with dark mirth. “Oh, Kitten, don’t pretend that didn’t turn you on. Your arousal’s stinking up the elevator. If I were to peek into your mind right about now, I’m sure I’d find a few juicy fantasies starring me. Such as one, in particular, involving me fucking you against this elevator with your legs wrapped around my waist.”
My cheeks burned red. “Stay out of my fucking head, Lucifer.”
A dark growl of a chuckle rolled past his lips as he licked them. Then he advanced on me slowly, backing me up against the wall. Fuck, he loved doing that. And I hated to admit that I loved it just as much.
He smirked, baring his teeth like a predator taunting its prey. “You know, Kitten. I would stay out of your head if I actually thought that’s what you wanted. But the truth of the matter is, you love it when I’m inside you. Fight your animal all you want, Jessica. But if you taught me anything, it’s to trust what your instincts are telling you. Your beast won’t lead you astray.”
“I don’t have a beast.”
He backed away with a laugh like I’d just told a funny joke. “We’ll address that in time. For now, you have other questions. A lot of them, so pick out the most pressing ones because I plan on making good on my promise to wrap up this little trip down memory lane by tomorrow evening, and it’s already almost midnight.”
“Alright, first one. Lilith didn’t like shifting to her human form, right? Because of something Abaddon did. What did he do to her exactly?”
Lucifer’s expression darkened. “You’ll learn more about that in memories of the lower floors. In short, Abaddon was an abusive asshole back then. I don’t really know the fine details… She hid many of those memories from me. All I really know is he didn’t like Lilith in her secondary form. He thought it made her look weak, like just another mortal soul.”
It didn’t sit right with me knowing Abaddon had been an abusive partner. Especially not knowing the details. What he’d done to her had to be horrible if she’d gone as far as to hide her memories from Lucifer, who she clearly trusted. No wonder he made me feel uncomfortable when I was around him.
“Okay… So if you think I’m Lilith, why exactly did you let him pick me up to go on our ‘date?’”
“Because an incredible time has passed since you two were together, Jessica. He’s not the same demon. He’s loyal to me now. He knows you’re mine. Even a brute like him can respect The Fates’s wishes.”
“Alright, second question. Why in the heck are we going through these memories backward again?”
“Because I want to end on the memory most likely to jog yours. The most pivotal point in our relationship. The moment we met.”
“Why is that the most important?”
“Because it was the moment I fell in love with you.”
“If you fell in love with Lilith on the ninth level, why did it take you all the way until the second to claim her as your mate?”
“As you saw, I was shutting out that nagging voice in my head telling me the truth. Much like you’re doing now. My beast knew Lilith was his mate the second he saw her. But I was stupidly affixed to Eve because, well, she was my first love. Not that what we had could really be called love. But ‘first lay’ doesn’t really sound as good, does it? Remember, I come from Paradise, where we’re taught to suppress the urges of our true nature.”
“Why?”
“Because they’re hypocrites, love. Hypocrites who think they are better than the animal shifters of the surface realm or the demon shifters of the Underworld. Spoiler, they’re not. Immortal or not, we’re all animals. We all need a mate. And it’s The Fates who have their hand in that, even for shifters not native to Hell. And that doesn’t sit right with Paradise. They like having ultimate control. So what do they do? Create a list of rigid, stuffy rules while I serve as the poster boy for what happens to depraved, filthy little celestials who dare put their own needs and interests above ‘the greater good.’”
“So, God doesn’t determine the fate over shifter kind?”
Lucifer scoffed. “Not as much as He’d like. Wish I had figured that out earlier.”
“Lilith had mentioned that The Fates were her nieces. That means that Nyx is their mother?” I wasn’t an expert on Greek myth, but I recall the Goddess of the Night having three daughters who determined the fate of the world. It was an odd thought, imagining the woman I’d just met as the mother to such powerful triplets.
“Yes, and before you can ask if you can meet them, no, you can’t. No one knows where they are. They aren’t really like you or their mother. Or anyone, really. They are feral; they never shift to their secondary forms. Their beasts are their dominant personalities, and any humanity they have is left to whisper in the back of their minds much like our beasts do with us.”
“How could they have the ability to manipulate people’s futures?”
He shrugged one shoulder. “They’re powerful witches, so powerful much of this realm worship them like gods.” He gave a small smile that touched his eyes, making the little amber flakes in them burn like embers. “You used to joke how you imagined them off in a cave somewhere in the lower layers, huddled over a bunch of voodoo dolls made out of their own pubic hair and teeth.”
“Ha, that does sound like me.”
His brows arched high. “So you’re starting to believe me?”
“No,” I said with a hasty snort. “I’m just admitting that your girl had a bomb sense of humor.”
Lucifer chuckled. The sound was light and airy coming from his smooth, baritone voice, and it made me think of the way he’d been with Lilith in his memories. Exhausted but happy. Those two had clearly been through Hell and back together, and they’d formed the most intimate of bonds I couldn’t even begin to imagine. At least there were parts of it I didn’t have to imagine. He’d shown me a very intimate moment shared between them. And it left Reckless Jessica partially salivating with jealousy.
“Alright, what’s next on the tour from Hell? You know, you should really consider making this a tourist attraction. You could make a killing bringing single women down here, convincing them one by one that they’re your reincarnated queen. Then in the Second Circle, you can have a gift shop that sells t-shirts or fridge magnets with ‘Satan’s bitch’ stamped on them or something.”
“You think you’re so funny, don’t you?”
“You’re laughing, aren’t you?”
His lips spread into a diabolical grin, his tongue running over his teeth. “I’m laughing because I think it’s cute the way you tell jokes to try to distract me from all the dirty thoughts in your head. Your beast is going mad for me, Jessica. You’ve been practically dripping for me after you saw what I did to you that night. That was the result of decades, rather, centuries of pent-up sexual frustration. Just imagine how good I’m going to fuck you after the thousands of years we’ve been apart.”
He was looming over me again, starring down at me with an unholy grin that had my lady parts throbbing, making me wish I had packed a change of panties in my clutch.
I fumbled with the proper response. What was there to say to him that I hadn’t already said? That I wasn’t Lilith?
What bothered me was that I was becoming less sure of that with every passing hour.
With the way he was looking at me, like I was his whole world, seeing how in love they’d been in Limbo, I almost wished I was her.
The elevator came to a halt with a ding, and the door opened. I sent a little prayer of thanks to The Fates for the distraction. Lucifer had said that they governed the fate of shifters but hey, praying to triplets crouched over voodoo dolls in some hellish cave seemed more appropriate than praying to Lucifer’s dad.
”Welcome to the third layer,” Nyx’s voice announced over the intercom. “Though I’m not really sure what it is you two are planning on. There’s nothing there. Why don’t you come back up to Lust? I can show you around Downtown. Or I can arrange a meet and greet with some noteworthy souls. The Einstein lectures we have are popular, as well as the interactive display where you can flog Hitler. Or we can—”
“Thank you, Nyx,” Lucifer interjected with a curt dismissal. “I know you’re eager to catch up with Jessica, but there will be plenty of time for that later.”
“Of course, Sire.” The demoness said her goodbyes with a pouty tone, and with the click of the intercom, she was gone.
“Why did you promise her I was going to be going back to hang out with her? You said you were going to take me right back home once we reached the ninth level.”
“I didn’t promise her anything. What I said was that there would be plenty of time for you two to catch up later,” he sniffed. “Though if you don’t, you’ll properly break her heart. You two were very close once upon a time.”
“Excuse me. Don’t go playing mind games with me, trying to get me to stay through guilt. A deal is a deal. I get to leave at the end of this weird tour.”
“I keep my promises, Jessica. Once you have all the pieces in place to properly decide if you’re going to acknowledge your past and accept me as your mate, then you can choose to return to your old life.”
“Then stop making me feel guilty.”
“Could it be that you’re experiencing guilt for snubbing your own sister? She loves you. And it doesn’t sit well with your beast that your flighty little human inhibitions are going to quite possibly keep you two separated forever. Now, let’s get on with the show, shall we?”
He stepped out of the elevator, and I followed. So far, every single layer of Hell was not what I’d been expecting, and the third floor was no exception. Although, this place left me a little disappointed.
“It’s just a parking garage.” I blinked, looking all around the concrete structure to see if there was something, anything I was missing.
But nope. It was just a parking garage. And judging by all the empty parking spaces, it wasn’t even that busy of a parking garage. “Um, is there more to it than this?”
Lucifer shoved his hands in the pockets of his slacks and shrugged both shoulders. “Not really. To be honest, I really couldn’t think of what to do with it. Gluttons are some of my favorite sinners, so you see, in my eyes, they don’t really do anything wrong. Most of the souls sent here on account of gluttony spend their better days up in Lust, where they can really gorge themselves. Some of the more feral demons native to this realm still roam out in the wastes, but that’s pretty much it beyond these walls.
He strolled over to a car at the far end of the parking lot. I trotted after him, my platforms clicking against concrete, bouncing off the walls and making me accurately aware that we were once again completely alone. There wasn’t another soul here.
“Great. So, can we just skip this level then and go to the next?”
“Sorry, Kitten. You and I had a hell of a time here, rescuing poor souls, plucking them out one by one. This place sits on what used to be a rather nasty mire, a really shitty place, pun intended. Abaddon was a bit of a psychopath way back when which you’re probably picking up on. The fellow has his strengths, but creativity really isn’t one of them. When he ruled the Underworld, he just stuck all the gluttonous in the mire, letting them stew in their own filth.
“While you and I spent many years on the second layer building a paradise, we spent many years here simply rescuing all the souls from their eternal shit bath. Some of them are still trying to wash the stench off their flesh. Those are the folks that run the water bill up real high at the hotel.”
He paused near a parked vehicle and pulled out a comically large key ring, like the kind in cartoons when the protagonist needs to make a hasty getaway, but there are too many keys to sort through. While Lucifer searched for the right key, I caught up with him, and gaped at the car. It was gray, sat low to the ground, and was so high tech it looked like something that should be sitting in one of NASA’s hangers and not in the Third Circle’s parking garage. Then I realized that I’d seen it before, all over the internet.
“Wait a second. This is one of the new DeLorean models. The re-imagined car from Back to the Future, right? This model hasn’t even been released yet.” Not to mention it was a car with a price tag well into the six figures.
He held up the correct key, a modern-looking fob that looked incredibly peculiar amongst the ancient, rusty skeleton keys on the ring. “That’s right, Kitten. I’m a resourceful man.”
I rolled my eyes and stomped around to the passenger door. “Don’t tell me you got this just for the joke because we’re going back in time through your memories.”
He flashed a grin that was all shiny white teeth and pressed a button on the fob. The doors folded upward, just like the classic DeLorean, only this particular model actually looked like it had come straight out of the future.
“You’re not the only funny one, Kitten. Get in.”