Bound By Lucifer by Aiden Pierce
Chapter Twenty-Two
Jessica
Highway to Greed – Present
As Lucifer’s memory melted away, I shook my head and refocused my own vision, veering my attention toward the world beyond the passenger window of the DeLorean. Unlike the Second Circle, the third hadn’t changed much. It was still a wasteland filled with nothing but mud and dead trees. The only difference now was the concrete parking garage that was nothing but a shrinking dot in my side rearview mirror and the paved road ahead of us. Also, the absence of any Frankenstein creatures—at least from my immediate view—was nice.
“They’re all gone,” Lucifer interjected, answering the question I hadn’t voiced. “We pulled them out.”
I looked back at him, brows contorted with confusion. “You and Lilith?”
“And Cerberus. It was his shack the mire souls had taken us to. He took us in, helped us rescue all those poor souls. All the ones intact anyway. One by one, each one we rescued made their way up to Lust. It was with the help of all those souls that we were able to build a new home for them there.”
It was difficult to picture the energetic, bright-eyed chef in the middle of such a horrible, empty nightmare-fueled hellhole. “What was he doing out there?”
Lucifer let out a disgusted scoff, his hands flexing around the steering wheel. “Just what his king had commanded him to. Guard the mire, don’t let the gluttons leave.”
“And Cerberus obeyed Abaddon?”
“He had to. You saw how the magic of the crown compelled those souls to obey me. It’s no different with native creatures of the Underworld.”
“So he helped you and Lilith rescue all those bodies because you had the crown?”
Lucifer gave a nod. “Yes. I suppose it wasn’t really until I embraced the power of the crown that I truly came to be known as the New King of Hell. Even though I hated the damn thing. It was handy at that moment, but to this day, I still don’t wear it.” His brow crinkled. “People shouldn’t wear crowns unless they’re either cosplaying, or they’re the Burger King mascot.”
“But it has the power to compel people. You can’t tell me that you, Mr. Billionaire Playboy, never use it.”
He slid me a sharp look. “There is much more to be said for earning people’s loyalty through good intentions and mutual respect. And I’d like it if you stopped referring to me as a ‘playboy.’ Contrary to popular opinion, I haven’t taken a lover since you. And yes, that is a very long time. Especially for one whose favorite sin is lust.”
An uncomfortable silence settled over the car cab as we drove through the Third Circle. My gaze skirted over the endless stretch of muck that Lucifer had carried Lilith through. Being in his mind like that, I could feel the things he had felt. That raw, desperate need to keep her safe and how that feeling had managed to stay stronger than the exhaustion that had ravaged his body. Even if he still believed Eve to be his mate, he had loved Lilith. Deeply. And that love had been the force to keep him moving, even when his body had screamed at him to stop.
He hadn’t.
He kept going. For her.
Then, on top of that, he’d stayed to rescue all the souls from the mire? How long did that take? I couldn’t even fathom.
Suddenly, I got Cerberus’s joke with the bread pudding that he’d made to jog my memories of this place. The bread pudding that had too many raisins crammed in it. So many that I had to pick them out. So many that Lucifer had joked it would take two hundred years to pull them all out.
Holy crap, had it taken them two hundred years to rescue all of those souls?
I almost wanted to laugh at how absurd the subtle hint the bread putting had been, compared to Lucifer’s Plan B on getting me to remember. And I didn’t want to laugh. I didn’t want to feel the things I was starting to feel.
“There is something else I don’t understand. You said you could heal my father. But you couldn’t heal Lilith’s ankle?”
His brows shot up as if he was surprised by my question. “Reading minds has always been a God-given talent of mine. A remnant that I miraculously kept even after my wings were ripped away. But another gift of mine is the ability to make deals. I can pretty much give anyone anything, as long as I receive something of equal value in trade. A rare skill that I didn’t quite grasp until after I was able to fully harness the crown’s power. Now it’s something I can do without the crown.” He shrugged as if his “skill” was as trivial as crossing your eyes or being able to burp the alphabet backward.
“Okay, so that begs the next question… What do you get out of this exchange? Say you can actually help my dad. What do you get?”
“I already told you, I get your heart.”
“What does that mean?”
He tugged his gaze away from the road to look over at me. His golden eyes simmered through the dark car cab, and his perfect lips pulled up into a sensuous smirk. “Isn’t that obvious?”
“If it was obvious, I wouldn’t be asking, now would I?” I snapped, a vein throbbing in my temple.
Much to my irritation. He began to laugh.
“Why are you laughing?”
“Because I think you’re cute, Kitten. Trying to search for reasons to still be angry with me.”
“Well, you’re giving me a good one right now.”
“And what’s that? I’m simply pointing out the fact that you’re coming to realize that I’m not as terrible as you want to believe. You want to hold a grudge. You want to resist your beast’s inherent desire to be close to me. But take it from me. That’s a losing battle. You’ve always liked me. It’s why you followed me through Hell, Kitten. You were there for me when I needed you most. Even when I didn’t appreciate you and cherish you to the depths that you deserved.”
He threw me another glance. “You woke me up. And now that I’ve finally found you, I plan on repaying the favor. Time to wake up, Kitten. I’m your soul mate. Abaddon and Eve? Just distractions. They aren’t important. No one can separate us, not forever anyway.”
He reached over, his palm curving over my thigh. He was only touching me because physical contact was needed for him to transfer his memories to me, but still, my skin heated beneath the warmth of his own.
He flashed me a heart-breaking smile. “And I’m about to prove that.”