23. Chapter Twenty-Three

Iwatched the pair of them curiously. There was a familiarity that I sensed towards Lori, even though I’d never met her, and I felt drawn to her, even though I knew she wasn’t Iveri. There was a part of her that was, and I ached for it. It was like a constant pull, a pain that couldn’t be dulled and, no matter how often I said it to myself, the woman in front of me wasn’t the woman I loved. I just had to keep reminding myself whenever I felt Lori’s demon surface. Hopefully the pain would lessen at some point. I doubted it, but my heart seemed to be a fickle thing where Iveri and her demon were concerned.

Not that the demon belonged to Iveri anymore. I could sense the shift in her allegiance. She belonged to Lori, was part of Lori. Intricately woven into her being in a way that would soon make them completely inseparable. I’d never seen anything like it before. Never, in all of demon history – and I knew a fair bit – had I ever come across a demon changing bodies. I was created a demon. Demons were born as demons. Lori and her demon were unique, and I wasn’t sure I liked it. That was probably only because I didn’t understand them, though.

“So, what do we do know?” I asked, interrupting the lovebirds and their little chitchat. Lucifer was so sweet with her, it kind of made me feel queasy. Where was the wrathful dark angel I was used to? And ew. Never thought I’d see the day where I actually missed that guy.

“I guess we jump through the portal,” Lori said, eyeing the glowing circle ominously. She might fear jumping into it, but there was an excited energy pouring from her demon.

“Guess we better had,” I said with a grin before jumping straight into the unknown. I had no idea what I was going to find when I emerged the other side, but I was confident in my own abilities that I would pretty much survive anything.

My feet hit a solid surface, the thud echoing in the space. Flames burst to life along the perimeter of the room and rows upon rows of shelves appeared in every direction.

Another thud followed by a smack sounded behind me and I turned to see Lori face down on the ground. I failed miserably at holding back my laugh. “How do you never land on your feet?”

“Urgh, it’s clearly a skill,” she groaned as she pulled herself up. “Fucking hate portals.”

Lucifer appeared a moment later, landing elegantly on his feet, much to Lori’s dismay. She gave a little huff in his direction before heading off down the centre avenue of shelves. I trailed behind her, looking down the rows of shelves as we passed. There were all sorts of things down here, wonderful and magical things that I would love to play with. Something shiny caught my eye and I stepped towards it.

“Iver,” Lori shouted. “We aren’t on a shopping spree. We’re here for one thing and one thing only.”

There was a tone of no argument lacing her words and I found myself complying. The fuck? Since when did a prim little miss have any kind of power over me? I stepped back in line behind her and scowled. I didn’t miss the way her mouth turned up into a smug little smirk and I knew that it was her demon that was putting the power behind her words. But no way was she more powerful than me. Must have been a fluke and it definitely wasn’t going to happen again.

Even if I secretly kind of liked it.

“Here we are,” she said, pulling me from the worrying direction my thoughts had taken me.

“Row thirteen?” I asked.

“Yep,” she replied, popping the ‘p’. “We need shelf ‘M’ and location 1313.”

I gave her a flat look. “Seriously?”

“Yeah, why?”

“I think he’s concerned over all the number ‘13’ references,” Lucifer said as he came to stand by her side. God, were they ever inseparable?

“Oh,” she said, dragging out the syllable. “Maybe it’s just a coincidence?”

I rolled my eyes at her. “No such thing as a coincidence.”

She shrugged and brushed her chestnut curls over her shoulders. She really did have a lot of hair. All thick and long and why was I thinking about that?

Her eyes held mine for a moment before her head cocked imperceptibly to one side. Then a smile tugged at the corner of her mouth. There she went, talking to her demon again. It was odd watching them have a conversation and I wanted to study them. To see where Lori ended, and the demon began. Was that weird? Probably, but I was curious about them, nonetheless. She was an anomaly and there was nothing I loved more than a mystery to solve.

“Ah, here it is.” Lori reached out and opened a box on the shelf in front of her and there, sat on a cushion of black silk, was a perfect orb about the size of a grapefruit.

She reached out to grab it, but something prickled along the back of my neck. “Wait.”

Lucifer and Lori both snapped their eyes towards mine and the prickling sensation increased.

“Something’s wrong.”

The temperature dropped and the fiery torches went out.

“Shit,” Lori breathed. “Something’s definitely wrong.”

“Grab it and let’s go!” Lucifer shouted as he grabbed Lori’s hand and started to drag her back to the portal. She slammed the box shut and grabbed, tucking it safely in her arms.

Smoke started to pour into the room from vents in the ceiling and the air crackled with the electric hum of magic. What the fuck was all this? Why make it so easy to find what you wanted before setting the alarms off? It made no fucking sense, but I didn’t have the time to analyse it at the moment. Shouts and the echoes of boots thudded through the smoke.

“There’s someone else here,” Lori shout whispered as we made our way back to the portal.

“No shit,” I muttered back, and she gave me the middle finger, muttering something like ‘asshat’ under her breath.

“Fan out!” someone shouted, but I couldn’t pinpoint where they were. There was too much smoke. It was a magical smoke, no fire created this. It was thick and made it difficult for our supe senses to function which meant I couldn’t see the hand in front of my fucking face.

We hunched down behind one of the shelves and listened.

“They have to be here somewhere,” the voice came again.

“Shit,” Lori hissed. “It’s Alec.”

My eyebrows flew up. “As in leader of the Elite, has a major crush on you, that Alec?”

“Yes,” she growled. “And the drop in temperature means Cassian is here too.”

“Oh, well isn’t that fucking peachy,” I mocked.

“Will you two stop squabbling,” Lucifer seethed. “Now is not the time or place. Iver, take Lori and go. I’ll hold them off.”

“What? No.” Lori scrambled to catch hold of Lucifer before he disappeared into the smoke.

“You know it’s the right thing to do,” he said gravely. “Besides, what are they going to do to me?”

She gave a little laugh, but it lacked any real warmth. “It’s not you I’m worried about.”

Lucifer cupped her face and placed a kiss on her forehead. “They’ll be fine. I’m literally going to distract them to give you and Iver a chance to get back to the surface. I know what they mean to you.”

They embraced for a moment, and a wave of jealousy hit me square in the chest. I missed that. Those quiet moments of affection. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I missed sex too, but it was the little things I missed the most. The intimate touches, the quiet peacefulness of being with your soulmate. And, as I watched Lucifer and Lori exchange a quick kiss, a yearning rose inside me that wouldn’t be quashed.

I looked away from them, suddenly uncomfortable witnessing a moment of tenderness between them. My eyes burned and fuck, was I about to cry?

A hand wrapped around my arm softly. “Are you okay?”

Lori looked up at me with sympathy and pity in her eyes and I couldn’t bear it. “I’m fine,” I snapped, and almost regretted it at the look of hurt in her eyes. I sighed. “Lori—”

“Forget it. Let’s move.” Then she disappeared into the smoke whilst Lucifer did something fun with fire in the opposite direction that she took off in.

God fucking dammit. Why was she so vexing?

I followed her to a door at the end of the room, hoping that there were some stairs or some kind of way out. I didn’t think we’d be able to magic our way out of here, but I really didn’t fancy climbing thirteen flights of stairs either. And that’s even if we were on the numerical thirteenth floor. Who knew what system this place worked to. These rooms could just be suspended in a pocket dimension or created purely by magic. There was nothing to say this place was logical.

Lori flung open a door and I ran through it after her.

“Hold this.” She thrust the box with the stone into my hands before wrapping her arms around my waist.

“Whoa. What are you doing?” I tried to push her away, but she just gripped me tighter.

“I’m just going to Shadow Jump. Well, try. Not sure if my magic will work down here. And I’ve never done this with someone else.”

“What?” Panic bubbled in my chest. She wasn’t choosing now, of all moments, to try something new. Was she?

“Hold tight.”

Fuck. She was! “Lori, you can’t be serious. Surely that’s not going—”

Then I yelped. Me. The Original Demon. I yelped like a scared little child.

Fuck my life.

Coldness seeped into my bones, into the very core of me as my body faded into shadow. Darkness engulfed us and the noises from the thirteenth floor turned to muffled shouts. It felt like my insides were being rearranged, shifting uncomfortably as Lori did… whatever it was she was doing.

Wind whipped around us. Sounds came in and out of focus. Shadows moved like the sea, and I gripped Lori as tightly as I could. She was the only tangible thing I could hold onto.

Suddenly, my feet hit solid ground, sending a jolt juddering up my legs.

The air smelt damp and fresh. Guess we weren’t in the vault anymore. As the shadows began to disperse around us, outlines of trees emerged. Shafts of moonlight splintered through their branches, and I took a minute to recentre myself. I felt as though I’d been pulled apart and shoved back together in a clumsy way.

“Please don’t ever do that again,” I mumbled, still feeling unsteady on my feet.

Lori was still holding me tightly, her head resting on my chest as she drew deep breaths. “I can’t believe that actually worked.”

What. The. Fuck. “Are you kidding me?”

“No,” she said with giggle. “I’ve never jumped that far or with someone else. I…”

Her words trailed off and her body trembled in my arms. Shit. That must have taken a Hell of a lot of power to do.

“Lori?”

Her head tipped back, and her eyes went a bright, ruby red. She whimpered and dug her fingers into my arms, her nails sinking into my skin. I hissed at the sharp sting.

“Hungry,” she whispered. “I’m so hungry.”

Oh, fuck. Bloodlust. Great. Just fucking great.

“Call Mordecai.”

She looked at me, confusion swimming in her vampire eyes. “How?”

“In your mind. He’s your Sire. He’ll hear you.”

She doubled over as a scream wrenched itself from her mouth. Fuck. This was bad. Her whole body jerked as tremors ran through her limbs.

“Iver, make it stop. Make it—” Another scream.

Fuck. Those Elite fuckers were going to find us if she didn’t do something.

I grabbed her face and forced her to look at me. Her mouth was twisted in a grimace and sweat peppered her brow.

“Lori. Say his name. Call Mordecai.”

She snarled and snapped her fangs. “No.”

Stupid stubborn woman. “Think of them. Your men. You can still save them but not if you don’t save yourself.”

She whimpered again, and she knew I was right. Knew that she had to live another day so she could win this fight.

Another convulsion ripped through her, and she screamed his name. Then she collapsed, her body no longer able to bear her weight.

A portal appeared to my left, a bright shiny beacon to guide us back to the monsters. I picked Lori up, bridal style, and placed the box between the two of us. Her head lolled backwards, her hair tumbling over my arms.

Then I stepped into the portal and hoped she hadn’t left it too late.