Dark and Damaged: Eight Tortured Heroes of Paranormal Romance: Paranormal Romance Boxed Set (76 page)

The Devil.

A fallen angel.

The
fallen angel.

Whenever she thought about that, there was a part of her that said she was crazy to be considering staying with him. In Hell. Where he no doubt spent his days terrorising souls just as the stories said he did. Those souls might deserve the torment they suffered, but that didn’t mean she could condone it or be comfortable with it.

She had felt there was darkness in him, but she hadn’t expected that darkness to be as strong as it was. She had expected it to be more like the sliver of darkness in her heart, the sort that many people carried with them.

But now she realised that while she held only a sliver of darkness inside her, he held only a sliver of light.

He was darkness.

He was the being that most mortals feared.

She studied his eyes, trying to see that being, but only saw Lucifer looking back at her. She only saw the man who had been kind to her, had fought to protect her, and had risked everything he held dear to bring her back to him.

But would she always see him that way?

Would she continue to feel love for him when she finally saw the darker part of himself that she knew he was hiding from her?

She dropped her gaze to his chest, closed her eyes as her mind churned, and then lifted her head and looked up at him as the answer came to her.

“Lucifer—”

The entire castle shook and Lucifer’s arms tightened around her, keeping her upright as the floor trembled so violently her knees gave out. Her heart pounded, her fingers grasping the chest of his suit jacket as she squeezed her eyes shut and pressed against him. He covered her head with his hands, shielding her as dust rained down.

The quake stopped as quickly as it had started.

Lucifer eased back and she emerged from his arms, and looked up at him.

Black wings made of shadows covered her. Polished obsidian horns curled from behind Lucifer’s now-pointed ears, parting his jet hair as they flared forwards beside his temples into fierce points. Blazing red eyes held hers. His lips peeled back off his fangs as he snarled, the sound startling her almost as much as his appearance, but not as much as the word he growled.

That single word struck fear into her heart.

“Mihail.”

Lucifer teleported directly to the courtyard of his fortress, leaving Nina in the safety of her room and landing just metres from his enemy.

He snarled at Mihail and the six guardian angels flanking him, their polished silver-edged blue armour bright against the black backdrop of the spires of rock that enclosed the courtyard. Each male stood with their silver-blue wings furled against their backs and each wielded a curved silver blade, held point down at their side, close to the strips of armour that shielded their hips. None were a match for Lucifer. He could kill every one of them with a thought.

Or turn them to his side with little more than a push using his voice.

They were weak.

Their leader was not and Lucifer knew from experience that the angel wouldn’t give him a chance to exert the power of his voice on the angels at his back.

Mihail stood a few feet in front of them, his white wings drifting down to rest against his back. The dull black armour he wore shifted as he moved a step, the chest plate rising as he inhaled.

He wielded no weapon.

“Return the female to us.”

Lucifer chuckled at that and grinned at the angel.

“She will remain with me.” He canted his head and flexed his fingers at his sides, biding his time as he studied his opponent.

He wouldn’t allow Mihail near Nina, and he wouldn’t make the same mistake as he had the last time they had fought. He wouldn’t let Mihail trick him into firing on his own fortress. As long as Nina remained inside it, she would be safe.

Wingbeats filled the air, the steady drone making his grin stretch wider.

Mihail lifted icy eyes to the air above Lucifer and glared at the Hell’s angels descending behind him. The six men touched down, their black leather boots silent as they made contact with the obsidian stone floor. Lucifer issued them a mental command, ordering them to shield the castle from their intruders while he dealt with them.

Unlike Mihail, he hadn’t brought weaker angels to do his dirty work. He intended to take Mihail down by himself, without anyone interfering.

This was his fight.

“Hand the mortal female over.” Mihail drew a white blade from the air and pointed it at Lucifer.

He responded by shaking his head.

“Never.”

Mihail kicked off, but Lucifer was already moving, his shadow wings beating the thick air as he shot towards the angel. He threw his left hand forwards, sending ribbons of darkness rocketing towards Mihail. They broke apart when they reached him, rendering the urgent swipe of his sword redundant, and shot around him. Mihail’s blue eyes widened and he looked off to his left.

Lucifer sneered at the three guardian angels there.

Mihail’s white wings hammered the air and his body twisted, his left boot touching the ground. He kicked off, propelling himself towards the guardian angels. He wouldn’t be fast enough.

Lucifer’s shadows divided again and he turned away from them, leaving them to do their work while he shifted his focus to the remaining three angels.

Mihail should have brought more allies with him.

An agonised bellow filled the air as the first of his shadows struck, slithering around the neck of one of the guardian angels. The male went down in a heap as it tightened, strangling him. The other two angels fought valiantly, their silver swords bright blurs against the darkness. Mihail joined them and Lucifer growled as the angel raised his hand and white light shot down from the vault of Hell, engulfing the three guardian angels.

Dissipating Lucifer’s shadows.

It seemed Mihail had gained control over some new powers since their battle millennia ago.

Ones that Lucifer didn’t like.

“You dare call on the light in my realm?” Lucifer kicked off and ran at Mihail.

The angel turned swiftly to face him, his white ponytail sweeping in an arc behind him and his blade cutting through the air. Lucifer teleported, easily evading the blow, and appeared above him. He roared as he tossed his hand forwards at the same time as he beat his wings to carry him higher, clear of the blast zone of the black ball of energy he hurled at Mihail.

Mihail beat his wings and flew hard, tossing a grim look over his shoulder at the same time.

He launched forwards as the orb struck the ground where he had been and grunted as the blast struck his back, sending him tumbling head over heels through the air. His roar of pain was music to Lucifer’s ears as he hit the wall of the courtyard and slid down it to land in a heap, his white wings covered in black dust.

The three angels he had protected didn’t fare so well.

The blast caught the right foot of the fastest, devouring it and sending the angel crashing onto his face.

It cut through the lower half of the second and a beam of golden light shot down, reclaiming the fallen male and returning him to Heaven.

It hit the third male head on.

No light claimed him.

Mihail lifted his head, his eyes wide and filled with horror as he looked across the courtyard to the remains of the male.

“No.” He raised his eyes to Lucifer and the disbelief in them tugged at his heart.

“Someone neglected to mention to you that you are not the only one with new powers.” Lucifer drifted down to land on the flagstones of the courtyard. “He will wander Hell as nothing more than a spirit now, tormented in the shadows… for eternity. Withdraw your men before they suffer the same fate. Leave my realm.”

Mihail shoved onto his hands and knees, steely resolve filling his pale blue eyes as he set his jaw. He rose onto his feet, dusted himself off, and called his blade back to him.

“I will not leave without her.” The angel swept the sword down at his side. “I did not ask for this mission, but I will not fail in it. I will carry out my duty, or I will die trying.”

Those words struck a chord in Lucifer, one that only stirred the darkness inside him. Mihail didn’t agree with his orders. He was doing this out of loyalty to his master. Lucifer had been in his position, knew how the male felt, how it must torment him to do something he didn’t agree with, but he couldn’t give the angel what he wanted.

He couldn’t allow Mihail to carry out his duty.

The male would have to settle for dying while trying.

Lucifer shrugged, causing his black wings to shift with the motion. “Very well.”

His fingers twitched at his sides, his shadows flowing from them, eager to tear into his old adversary and end him this time.

He raised his hand to launch his next attack.

“Wait.” Nina’s soft voice cutting through the thick silence snapped his focus towards her where she stood in front of the now-open doors of his fortress, out of breath, her cheeks flushed.

Lucifer cursed as he realised the reason the damned doors kept opening for her even though he had adjusted the wards so they wouldn’t. It was because she bore his child. The doors recognised his blood in her and that kept overriding the command to remain locked to her.

Mihail slowly smiled.

“Nina!” Lucifer launched his shadows towards Mihail at the same time as he teleported towards her.

He reappeared in time to see the angel evading the ribbons of darkness and coming straight at him, his wings pinned back as he flew hard.

Lucifer flicked his left hand towards the angel, releasing another blast of energy and then another. The smaller orbs zoomed towards Mihail. The male rolled, set his right foot down on the ground and kicked off, changing direction. The first blast hit the ground where he had been. The second changed course, tracking the angel as he continued on his trajectory.

Aiming straight for Nina.

Darkness raged through Lucifer, stronger than he had felt it in a long time. Stronger than it had ever been since he had set himself up as ruler of Hell. He felt the changes as they happened to him. The ache in his skull as his horns grew longer. The pain in his fingertips as his nails became long black talons. The cold as his skin paled to white and his lips darkened to black.

The burn as his eyes blazed crimson with the fires of Hell.

“Stay back,” he snarled at Nina where she stood behind him, her fear trickling through his veins, increasing his fury and his need to protect her.

She was mortal.

He needed to protect her, both from Mihail and from himself. It would be too easy for him to kill her by mistake with his power when she was outside the fortress, exposed to the battle.

Why the fuck had she placed herself in danger?

“I don’t want to go with you!” She hurled those words at Mihail.

The venom in them surprised Lucifer but it was the meaning in them that shocked him, distracting him for a moment as he took in what she was saying.

She wanted to stay with him.

Pain burst through him, the air blasting from his lungs as something hit him hard, taking him down onto the ground. He skidded across it, a weight pressing down on him, and grunted as fresh agony erupted in his shoulder, the white-hot blaze stealing from him what little breath he had gathered.

Mihail grinned down at him and shoved forwards. Lucifer bellowed at the black vault of Hell as the white blade cut deeper into his right shoulder.

Piercing light erupted within him, driving his shadows back, and he cried out again, tears cutting lines down his temples as he fought the pain, clinging to consciousness.

“Lucifer!” Nina’s shriek, filled with fear and agony, roused his strength and he clawed at Mihail, somehow managed to grab the bastard’s arm and shove upwards.

The sword pulled free of his flesh and he twisted with the angel, shoving him onto his back and pinning his wings at a painful angle beneath his body. Lucifer growled and punched him across the jaw, snapping his head to his right. Mihail grunted and swung with his blade.

Lucifer rolled to his right, grimaced as he landed on his injured shoulder, and onto his feet.

He threw his hand forwards the moment he hit them, hurling a blast of shadows at Mihail. The angel’s blade cut through them as it caught fire, burning with pale flames.

Lucifer launched more shadows at him, forcing him to flee in order to avoid them and buying himself some time. When the angel was at a distance again, regrouped with the remains of his men, Lucifer pressed his left hand to his shoulder and funnelled his power into it.

He screamed as fire ripped through him, staggered backwards and pulled his hand away from his shoulder.

Blood coated his white palm, the red stark against it.

He couldn’t heal the wound.

He lifted his head and glared across the gap between him and Mihail. The look in the angel’s eyes said that he had known his blade would deal wounds that Lucifer couldn’t heal on the fly with his power.

Cursed Heavely blade.

Lucifer bared his fangs at it.

He was going to get his hands on that blade and destroy it.

Without it, Mihail was nothing but a gnat, ready to be squashed out of existence.

Mihail swept the blade forwards, pointing it towards him.

Lucifer growled as he realised the angel hadn’t pointed at him.

The remaining three guardian angels moved as one, their silver-blue wings pounding the air as they took flight, heading straight towards his fortress.

Towards Nina.

Lucifer roared and teleported, appearing in the air before them. Each readied his curved silver blade and flew harder, the ones on either side breaking away from the one on the middle. He sent his shadows after them, his focus on the central angel. The male kept flying at him, his green eyes filled with hatred and determination.

Lucifer had seen that look in a thousand angels’ eyes. They had all wanted to be the one to take him down and claim the glory. Fools.

They had all looked differently when they had been dying at his feet.

He readied his claws.