Bound By Lucifer by Aiden Pierce

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Jessica

Museum of Violence – Present

Like a broken flood gate, memories came rushing back to me.

My bitter life spent as Abaddon’s slave queen.

The moment I had met Lucifer, the unholy angel, cast off from God himself.

The memory of us trapped on the River Styx and the moment when I had gone into heat, and we’d resonated.

Maybe she had waited until that moment, knowing neither of us could run away from the inevitable. She was cunning like that. I almost missed my demon.

I did miss her.

I never really cared for her back then. I associated her with Abaddon. But what he had done to us wasn’t her fault. In fact, she had shielded me from the worst of his abuse. Guilt stabbed at my belly, and suddenly I was filled with a sense of emptiness. She was gone.

Forever.

Tears prickled in my eyes as we stepped out of the elevator onto the Seventh Circle. I couldn’t see any of it. My vision was blurred, and I realized I wasn’t ready to see more. I wasn’t ready to see the life that had been ripped away from me.

Lucifer’s strong arms wrapped around me and pulled me against the heat of his hard chest. I tucked my head into the juncture of his arm and shoulder and began to sob. I was so used to remaining strong. In my human life, I always had to. People depended on me. Weakness was not something I could ever afford.

But tucked safely in Lucifer’s arms, I felt at peace. For the first time in so, so long, I felt at peace, regardless of the dark memories that filled my mind. I welcomed them back. With them, I had the complete picture, no matter how bittersweet a picture it was.

“I remember my death… At least bits and pieces,” I murmured so softly that for a second, I thought he didn’t hear me. Then his body stiffened against me, and he exhaled on a sharp breath that feathered over my cold skin.

“Do you want to show me?”

I nodded, not having the strength to find the words. He placed a hand on my cheek, barely caressing it. Not that contact was needed for him to see into my mind, but I was happy for the comforting touch all the same.

I relieved that horrible moment in my mind when Lucifer had left me in Limbo to get the last box of my possessions.

Once construction was complete, we’d spent several human lifetimes in the Second Circle we’d built together. It had been paradise. But eventually, he’d grown restless. He wanted to leave. He wanted his wings. After much discussion on the subject, I had pointed out that his deal with his father had been for him to return with his fated mate. Which was not Eve.

Of course, God was under the impression that He did the choosing for all matters. I’d be floored if He was even aware of my nieces and their influence on the spirits that inhabited shifter kind. But a deal was a deal, and He’d said what He said.

Lucifer was to find his true mate and make her fall in love with him. And he had. Those wings were rightfully his. So we had pried ourselves away from our paradise to seek out the surface, and beyond that, The Silver City.

But things had taken a sour turn.

When Lucifer had gone to grab the last bit of our possessions, his brother had entered Limbo and kidnapped me. My beast had fought hard for me. But she ended up not being able to take on the arch celestial. And beyond Limbo’s gate on the surface, Abaddon stood waiting for me, ready to rub his victory in my face. He had been the one to let Michael into the Underworld.

Michael had been the one to deliver the killing blow, but Abaddon had basically hand-delivered me.

“It was him. He was the one…”

Seering hatred radiated off Lucifer like a noxious gas. “I didn’t know. I swear I didn’t know.”

“I know,” I swallowed. “But what I don’t understand is how I’m here as Jessica, not Lilith.”

“My best guess is that my father discovered what my brother had done after the fact. I know he didn’t have anything to do with Michael and Abaddon’s plots, else he would have never offered me a means to get my wings back. He pointed me in Eve’s direction because he thought that she was my true mate. Why else would I have fallen to temptation for her? Only, it turns out, I haven’t the temperament for rules, and I’ll break them if it means getting my dick wet. But He couldn’t keep His end of the bargain if it meant you weren’t alive for me to find you. So your spirit was reincarnated.

“I’ve been looking for you for the past several centuries. And I’ve finally found you.”

“But Lucifer, my beast is gone. Am I really even Lilith anymore? Aren’t I just Jessica, with Lilith’s memories?”

His lips quirked into a small, knowing smile. “Jessica. Listen to me. I am not the same person I was when I fell from Paradise. With my wings ripped away, I lost the ability to let loose my celestial spirit. But that doesn’t mean he isn’t inside me. He’s still there, guiding me, sometimes irritating the hell out of me.”

“What are you saying?”

“Come, there is something I want you to see.”

Taking my hand, he guided me through the halls of Violence. The elevator had opened up to a luxurious space that reminded me of the Sistine Chapel. It was huge, with marble columns and ancient paintings hung on the walls. Marble statues sat erected every few feet. A beautiful museum in the dark depths of Hell.

We walked down a long hall with ceilings so high I had to squint to see the mural painted over it. And although the place looked a lot like the Sistine Chapel, on closer inspection, I realized the art was depicting scenes more hellish. Most of them featured familiar scenes. Lucifer crawling from the frozen lake. The bloody fight between Lucifer and Abaddon for the crown, their slick muscles drenched in sweat, blood pouring from Lucifer’s face in the wake of his newly broken nose.

Our kiss on the River Styx.

A demonic Lilith standing over Abaddon, who kneeled at her feet with his intestines wrapped around her talons, the hill of the Fourth Circle in the distance.

Lucifer carrying Lilith through the Glutton’s Mire.

The half-finished tower at the center of the Second Circle with Lucifer and Lilith arm and arm, looking down on the new kingdom they would erect in the coming decades.

Then finally, locked in each other’s embrace in Limbo, smiling at each other with so much love in their eyes.

“Lucifer, this is our journey through Hell…”

“When I was with you, all I could think of was the future. Then when you were gone, all I could think of was the past. When we were here last, we built this place as a museum because you said you wanted a place to serve as a memorial to what Hell used to be. Once you were gone, I came here, and it became so much more than that.”

He led me into a room with a fountain and various pieces of art displayed on pedestals. Unlike the last room, this one only had single painting on the wall.

My heart squeezed.

It was a portrait of us, one of those classic oil paintings of a queen and king, dripping in jewels and an absurd amount of fabric. The only difference with our painting is that you could tell we were holding back stupid grins the entire time the artist had been painting us. With all the years it took to climb from the Ninth Circle all the way to the First, we had worn rags, mud, feces, blood… Each other. Fancy clothes were never really our thing back in the day.

“Do you remember that day?”

I smirked, and his eyes glittered beneath the dim track light illuminating the Fountain Room. “Only because you insisted on me wearing that stupid crown.”

His gaze flicked to the painting, then back to me, his expression full of reverence. “You looked radiant in it.”

My cheeks warmed, and I glanced around at the different items displayed in the room. Reading my mind, he gave me an almost nervous smile. “Go look at them.”

Curiosity pushed me towards the first pedestal that displayed a golden brooch that looked oddly familiar. Lucifer’s emblem was stamped into metal, a crest that I had helped him create once we’d settled in the second circle.

I always kept it pinned close to my heart. Sometimes I even wore two.

My heart pulsed with a heady ache when I remembered I’d been wearing two that day in Limbo. And one had been torn off in the struggle with Michael.

My throat tightened and I moved onto the next piece.

It as a beautiful gold crown, encrusted in countless diamonds and rubies. Any queen’s wet dream. I never really cared for the thing, too gawdy. Abaddon had never bothered giving me a crown and Lucifer, having never ruled anything before, made it a point to ‘do the opposite of that bastard.’ That little trick ended up turning him into a good king and an even better mate.

Next to the crown on another pedestal was piece of broken pottery. Emotion cut through my lungs, making it hard to breath when I realized what it was.

It was a fragment of the jug of soup we’d shared the night we sealed our bond.

It wasn’t a piece of art, to an outside eye it was just trash but he displayed it like a precious piece of treasure.

When I turned to look at him, I found him regarding me like any art critique might look upon the Mona Lisa.

I felt completely priceless, the most valuable thing in here next to all the gold and jewels. His eyes were banked with admiration and love.

When I was Abaddon’s queen, I was an object to be owned.

When I was Lucifer’s, I was worshipped.

It was that reverence banked in his gaze that made me want to throw myself in his arms and never leave.

But he kept his distance, his arms board stiff at his sides like he had to actively stop himself from reaching for me.

“There is one more thing you need to see…” he whispered, his own voice chocked with emotion. His chin jerked towards the fountain.

It had three outer circles where the water gathered, with one large fountain at the center with three spigots that siphoned off into each separate pool.

“These weren’t here before.”

“No, they are something newer. The three rings of Hell, just like the old Seventh Circle as Abaddon had it to punish the greedy. But these three rings show the person looking into their past, their present, and their future. Mostly I just use it as a way to punish the overly violent. Nothing like tormenting a murderer by making them relieve their past, the present, and their lack of future.”

“Is that a just punishment for assholes who feel no remorse?”

Lucifer stepped closer, studying my expression. He reached to tuck a stray wave of my blonde hair behind my ear and sighed. “You’re referring to Abaddon. When I see him next, Jessica, I will kill him if that will bring you peace. And as you know, when demons die, they don’t come back here. They don’t go anywhere.”

“Except for me.”

“Except for you. But you’re special.”

I didn’t know what I wanted to do with Abaddon. I didn’t really know what to do about anything at the moment. This whole thing started with an evening that was just supposed to be a night out at Siren’s so I could console my best friend and talk to her about her guy problems.

I knew Reckless Jessica was going to lead me into a situation one day that would change my life forever. But I always thought she would get me roofied, or sex trafficked, or a nipple piercing.

I never would have expected her to lead me right where I was supposed to be.

You’ve never given me enough credit, she said in the back of my head.

“Look into the pool of the past, Jessica.” Lucifer’s silken direction urged me forward until the tips of my stiletto’s brushed against the elaborate tiling of the ceramic and plaster poolside. I slowly leaned over to peer down into the water’s surface.

And gasped.

A reflection starred back at me. But it wasn’t blonde-haired Jessica wearing the red Alexander McQueen dress. It was a demoness, the same one I had seen in Lucifer’s memory in the Fourth Circle, where Lilith had shifted to save herself from Abaddon. The reflection’s skin was a soft pink, almost the same color as my cheeks when I blushed. Her eyes were gray like mine, like the ocean sky just before a storm. Her hair was raven black, and from this angle, I could see the tips of her wings.

My heart thudded hard against my ribs. It made my chest ache.

She was beautiful.

She was Lilith’s beast.

She was me.

“Do you understand now?” Lucifer’s asked. He was standing so close behind me that the sensual rasp in his voice sent butterflies down my spine. I could feel his masculine heat and how it seeped into the skin of my bare shoulders, its intoxicating warmth sinking straight to my core.

His fingers traced my shoulder blades, then dipped to the valley between my shoulders where my wing had once been. Then a low, rumbling growl revibrated from his chest—a purr of a growl meant only for me.

The animalistic sound stirred Reckless Jess—no, it stirred my true nature. The demon spirit. My beast.

“Do you see?” he muttered in my ear, his teeth grazing the soft skin below my earlobe. “That fiery side of you, the one that’s always driven you to search for something more behind your human existence, the one you call ‘Reckless Jessica.’ That’s your beast. Even if your wings are gone, she’s still in there. She led you to me.”

“Lucifer…” My heart was in my throat, my pulse pounding so erratically I thought it might just give out. This was all so much to process, but everything was falling into place. As emotional as it was, it felt right.

“Before you say anything, I want you to look into the next pool.” With his hand on my hip, he guided me a few steps over to the second pool that would show my present. I was surprised to see two faces that I recognized. I had seen Melanie and Gabriel on Friday night, but it felt like an entire lifetime ago. They were in their condo, with Mel almost completely naked, wrapped up in the red afghan she’d knitted him one Christmas. And Gabriel was shirtless in bed while Mel argued with him from the doorway.

“Well, looks like they’ve finally put the whole ‘will they or won’t they’ thing to rest. I’ve been waiting for them to get together for years.”

“They are fated too, unfortunately.”

“Unfortunately?” I looked over my shoulder at the celestial to see him frowning down at the water.

“Mhm. Gabriel is a guardian, and Mel is his ward.”

“Just like you and Eve?”

“Exactly. Think of how the Almighty punished his own son. No doubt Paradise has already uncovered his sins of the flesh.”

“What’s going to happen to him?”

“Hard to say. But knowing Michael and the rest of the arch celestials, twisted as they are, they won’t waste the opportunity Gabriel presents. He knows me; he’s familiar with the business I do in Seattle. And he’s one of their best warriors. I’m sure my brother offered him some sort of olive branch. A deal where he’d be allowed to keep his wings and Mel if he kills me.”

I gapped at Lucifer in horror. “You think that’s what they’re fighting about?”

He gave a grim nod. “Yes.”

“How can you know that if you can’t read their minds from here?”

“Well, I can’t read his mind at all regardless of proximity. But in any case, I don’t need to. Look at the dresser.”

I looked at the dress and saw an ancient sword sitting on its surface, casually next to the Old Spice deodorant and his car keys. The crazy thing was, it was on fire, the flames having no effect on anything around it.

“It’s the Flaming Sword of Justice. It’s an angel-killing sword, one used for only severe punishments. All arch celestials have one. And that one in particular, with its garishly over-ornate details, is my brother’s.”

Being speechless wasn’t something I ever had a problem with up until this weekend. But what was I supposed to say? Gabriel, my friend since freshman year of college, had been tasked by an angel to kill my… What was he? The word mate was weird to use. Was I even really a shifter anymore? He wasn’t my boyfriend. He was more than that.

He’s mine, my beast purred. That’s all that matters.

Lucifer’s arms banded around my waist as he planted a kiss behind my ear, causing me to shiver in his arms. “Don’t worry about your friends, for now, Kitten. This Gabriel isn’t a threat to either of us. I may not be able to read his mind, but I do know he cares for you. He isn’t like the rest of them in Paradise. He’ll come around to our side eventually.”

Lucifer’s lips stretched into a grin against my neck, and a dark chuckle tickled me. “Gabriel hates Abaddon. Maybe I can get him to help me kill him. That sounds like a lovely bonding actively, wouldn’t you say? But for now, look into the pool again, Kitten. There’s one more thing I want you to see in your present.”

I did as he asked and looked back down into the pool. The image of Mel and Gabe had faded, and in its place was another scene, one that struck even closer to home than the last. It was my dad’s living room. A mariner’s game was on the TV, but my dad wasn’t in his recliner. Something was wrong. He was always in his recliner, and when he was able to summon the energy to get up, he’d take his oxygen tank with him.

Instead, he’d left it under his TV dinner stand beside the recliner.

“Where is he?” I cried, my voice splitting with panic.

“Ask the fountain to show you your father,” the devil whispered over my shoulder.

“Um, fountain? Show me my father.”

The scene immediately shifted to the kitchen. My dad was standing at the stove, a skillet in one hand with a big spoon in the other. He was cooking fajitas, from what I could see. He always made fajitas for me every Sunday afternoon when I was growing up. But once he got sick, he stopped cooking altogether. And now, not only was he cooking, but he looked like he was having a blast doing it. There was no sound coming through, but I could tell by the way he was bobbing his head and swaying his hips that he was listening to music.

It was just two days ago that he could barely walk. Now he was standing straight, with not a trace of body language that betrayed any sort of pain.

“He looks like he’s in…” My voice trailed off, not daring to say the word on the tip of my tongue.

Lucifer’s golden eyes gleamed with warmth in the reflection of the pool’s surface. “Remission. He’s in remission, Jessica.”