The Devil's Wife (16 page)

      The light was stronger in the kitchen. I quaked in his grip as Lucifer tilted my head this way and that, looking at the bruises on the sides of my neck.

      "Are there any elsewhere on your body?" he asked, his voice almost a growl.

      I nodded, too scared of him to speak.

      "I want to see them." He looked over my head at Clarissa, who nodded.

      I could tell by the look on her face that she was now as scared of Lucifer as I was. That wasn't a good sign. Clarissa was never scared, not even by Jason and his entire gang.

      "Jayce, come with me," she said in a no-nonsense way, grabbing my hand. She pulled me from the kitchen, toward her bedroom.

      "What've you done with Aspen?" I asked Clarissa as she looked through her drawers for fresh clothes that would fit me.

      "He's locked in the bathroom." She pulled out a black bra and handed it to me. "He doesn't like Lucifer much."

      "That should be your first sign that he isn't trustworthy," I said, looking around the room as she handed me a matching pair of underwear.

      "Grab a shower," she suggested, looking me over. "You look like hell. Let me just catch Aspen before you do, though. I don't know what mess he's made. He's jealous of Lucifer, and keeps trying to tear his face off." Clarissa opened the bathroom door.

      Aspen yowled at his freedom, a streak of ginger fur flying past me, toward the bedroom door. Clarissa grabbed his tail, stopping him before he could dart off into the kitchen. She looked in the bathroom and sighed, picking the cat up by the scruff of the neck.

      "Why did you make such a mess?" she asked the cat, gesturing me into the bathroom.

      Aspen yowled and hissed a reply as I shut the door. I heard the bedroom door close and Aspen hissed again, Clarissa yelling an argument at him. It sounded strange, and I hoped she wasn't losing her mind. Jail can do that to people...

      I peeled my clothes off, looking at the bruises in the mirror. They spread from my jaw line to my shoulders, with blisters on my wrists from where the rope had burned me in my struggles. There were bruises on my legs and back, and my stomach was very sore. The space between my legs was tender and felt swollen. I felt blood starting to dribble down the insides of my legs as I removed my skirt. A truly unpleasant feeling...

      I tried to banish the sight of my bruised body from my mind. Jason had hit me before, but he'd never gone this far. And to involve his friends to such a degree as to hurt me so badly, tie me up...

      I felt a tear fall from my eye as the memories of the rapes and the beatings—so recent as to stain my memory with their scent, the feel of their bodies pressing down on me, the pain that laced my arms and legs as they hit me— crashed down on me at once, jockeying for position in front of my mind's eye.

      I barely made it to the toilet before I threw up what felt like everything I'd ever eaten in my life. Clarissa must have heard the sounds, because the next thing I knew, she was next to me, holding my brown hair from my face as I threw up.

      This scene was depressingly familiar. Countless times Clarissa had held my hair out of my way as I vomited, from the memories, from the beatings, from my excessive drinking, or from my attempts to poison myself out of grief or anger. Countless times she'd hugged me around the shoulders as I sat on the mat, crying. Like I was now.

      She'd whisper things to me, telling me it would be all right, that she would take care of the gang for me. I never believed her, but I realized that tonight I did. Clarissa had never had a man over to her house in all the years I'd been her friend, almost her sister. She'd never felt the need to keep men around longer than it took to sleep with them. She must have been serious about this Lucifer, if she had him over for dinner.

      Lucifer. The name itself brought alarm bells to my mind. There was something off about him, somehow. Something that wasn't quite...Human? Maybe. I mean, he does look like a god, and with that skin...He could probably pass for the Devil, even if he isn't him. Except, of course, that the Devil has black hair...maybe Lucifer could dye it...but no horns, or wings...

      I was raised a good Christian girl, despite my current lifestyle. I knew the stories about the power of the Devil, about everything he could do.

      "Are you all right now, Jayce?" Clarissa asked gently, and I realized I'd stopped crying. She smoothed the hair back from my face. "Your face... you look determined, almost happy now."

      I nodded to her, making an effort to smile. It felt like it might have succeeded. "I feel...better. But what if Jason comes here looking for me?" I started to panic again, fear clawing at my throat.

      "Don't worry about him, Jayce. I can handle him, and if I can't, Lucifer will be able to easily."

      I nodded, frowning. I opened my mouth to ask her about Lucifer.

      "Clarissa? Jayce? Are you two all right in there?" Lucifer called, and it sounded as though he was waiting around the corner to the bedroom.

      I was glad he was, because if he'd come around the corner, he would have seen me sitting, naked, on Clarissa's bathmat, bleeding, occasionally sobbing, and covered in bruises.

      "Yeah, Lucifer, we're fine," Clarissa called back, helping me to stand.

      "Okay. I'll be cooking dinner if you need anything." I heard his heavy boots walking back across the living room, the noise vanishing as he stepped onto the rug.

      "Will you be all right to have a shower?" Clarissa asked, flushing the toilet and putting the lid down.

      She put a small pile of clothes on the top of the closed lid, as well as a pad. She knew how to deal with these situations better than I did, it seemed. On top of the sanitary napkin, she left a couple of painkillers, and I smiled. Since I'd tried to down the whole bottle one of the first times I'd been here, she hadn't trusted me with drugs.

      I nodded to her. "Thank you, Clarissa, for everything."

      "You're welcome. Now, have a shower. We'll be out in the living room when you're finished, unless you just want to go straight to bed. You can have the spare room for now." She smiled at me.

      "What did I ever do to deserve a friend like you, Clarissa?" I asked her as she started to close the door.

      She continued to smile at me. "I'm sure you'll do something to justify my years of loyal service eventually, mademoiselle." She bowed to me with a smirk, and shut the door as I shook my head.

      "What a loon," I muttered, turning on the hot water. "Thank God for crazy people. It seems it's the sane ones who

should be locked up."

~ * ~

      I emerged from the bathroom dressed, feeling clean and safe, with a towel around my hair. Clarissa was still arguing with her cat, who would occasionally just glare at her, setting her off again. They were on the bed, Clarissa lying down, Aspen standing on her chest and hissing in her face.

      "What's the deal between you two?" I asked, rubbing at my hair. "You and Lucifer, I mean, not Aspen."

      Clarissa looked up and smiled at me. "He saved me from Bradley's faction when they were about to kill me, and patched me up. We've been friends since."

      "Wait, they were going to kill you?" I asked, incredulous. "You're the most kick-ass bitch I've ever met, Jason's old second-in-command! Which of Jason's friends would have tried to take you on?" I paused. "Wait, hasn't Jason placed a price on you being brought to him alive?"

      "Yeah, but Bradley and his band of Hellraisers were never the greenest grape on the vine. They won't do it again." Clarissa smiled darkly. "Lucifer heard the ruckus and interfered. They stabbed him in the kidney and held him captive while Bradley tied me up, using the threat of harm to Lucifer to keep me still."

      "Really?"

      "Yeah." She grinned. "He's a really bad fighter. He just looks like he could kick your ass." She sighed. "Anyway, Bradley cut open my shirt and my bra, and was straddling my hips, holding the knife to my stomach to stop me throwing him off."

      "How'd you escape?"

      "Lucifer created a distraction to keep the gang occupied while I threw him off. He underestimated me, because I put up with the pain of the knife in my gut to get rid of him."

      "What happened to the gang?"

      "Well, Lucifer might be a bad fighter, but he's a brilliant marksman. Trained professionally, I think."

      "When was this?" I asked, intrigued. Surely it hadn't been too long ago, or I would have heard Jason going off about it...at least. Maybe he would have taken it out on me,

as usual.

      Clarissa smiled. "It seems like forever ago. I even got a scar."

      She lifted her shirt and showed me the scar just to the left of her belly button. It was straight, but there were also some parts of the scar that looked like stitches that had been torn out a few times and replaced.

      "Wow. So—so, if I show Lucifer the bruises, will I see Jason on the news as a murdered citizen?"

      Clarissa laughed darkly. "Would it bother you?"

      I thought about it for a second. "Is Lucifer a member of a gang or a mob or something?"

      Clarissa laughed again. "No, no. But he does have a lot of influence and a group of friends that could make Jason and his drinking buddies look like amateurs. They could make the Hellraisers vanish off the face of the earth forever, if you want him punished that way."

      I thought that over as well. "Be careful, Clarissa. He sounds really dangerous."

      Clarissa smiled, looking me over. "You have no idea how dangerous he could be. But he would never hurt me. Seeing women in trouble might get his temper up, but he has a longer fuse than me." She grinned at me. "Unless he has a gun, I'm more dangerous than he is."

      I digested this information, rubbing at my hair again. "Is it okay? Me showing Lucifer my bruises?"

      Clarissa smiled. "If there is one thing in this world I am sure about, it's that he wouldn't use that excuse to hit on or perv on you."

      "How do you know that?"

      Clarissa's expression said that she knew something that she wouldn't—or couldn't—tell me. "Trust me. I've known him, in one capacity, at least, for a while."

      Aspen growled and yowled, seemingly in protest, and Clarissa barely glanced at him. I picked him up from where he was twining around my ankles, taking him to the bathroom door.

      "Sorry, Aspen," I said, putting him inside, "but what Clarissa says goes."

      There was a rebellious chuff from the other side of the door, then silence.

      I smiled nervously at Clarissa. "What's Levi's full name?"

      Clarissa hesitated for a second. "Leviathan."

      "Sounds like they're part of a dangerous gang naming themselves after Hell's most dangerous Demons." I frowned as we left the bedroom, heading back to the living room.

      It was already midnight, and I wasn't sleepy yet. I probably wouldn't be sleepy until I knew that I was safe. Adrenaline was a good thing, in some ways.

      Lucifer was alone in the kitchen, cooking up a storm. He was singing along quietly to Clarissa's iPod, layering lasagna into a dish.

      "Haven't you had dinner yet?" I asked Clarissa, who sat down on the couch.

      "No. Ah, Lucifer works late, and he wanted to cook me dinner." She smiled at me as I sat on the couch, watching Lucifer zipping around the kitchen. "I volunteered here because last night I was at his place." She smiled thinly at me.

      Lucifer finished with the lasagna and put it in the oven. He was searching through a green bag on the counter for something, pulling things out and putting them back in.

      "If you'd run here last night, I wouldn't have been here, I wouldn't have been able to help you—" Clarissa said, the slightest hint of worry lacing her voice.

      The sound of someone knocking on the door cut Clarissa off. Lucifer frowned, looking at the door. Clarissa got off the couch, heading to open it. I got up and vanished into the spare bedroom. If it was Jason, I didn't want to be there for him to attack me. I would leave Jason to Lucifer. Clarissa trusted him to deal with my ex, so I would trust in Clarissa, as I had so many times before.

Lucifer Morningstar

      I let Clarissa get the door, as it was her home and I was looking for the bottle of scotch I could have sworn I put in the bag. I glanced into the living room. Jayce was gone.

      I frowned, crossing the living room to find her. I heard the front door open slightly, and the sound of someone hitting it.