2. Chapter Two

Iawoke with a roar of uncontrollable rage. She was gone. Taken from me by my own creation and I hadn’t been able to stop it. Selene had made sure of that.

“Lori!” I screamed. The rage was agonising. It rushed through my veins, burning me from the inside out until all I could feel was the agony of losing her. How could I have been so foolish to let Selene try and help us? I knew she was going to do something, but Lori had persuaded me to give her the benefit of the doubt. And I had, for her. Because she’d asked me too and I couldn’t deny her. Now look where that had gotten me.

Well, no more. I was going to tear down anyone who stood in my way this time.

“You need to calm down.”

I turned to the idiot who dared to speak to me right now. Torsten visibly flinched as my gaze landed on his. His mismatched eyes instantly found the floor.

“Where is she?” I yelled.

“I don’t know, sire.”

“That’s not good enough!”

I paced the floor, unable to keep still. I couldn’t feel her through the bond. Selene had managed to fix the connection to Lori by taking me to the very edge of death but doing that had knocked me unconscious. I hadn’t been there when she had needed me and now she was missing.

“We will find her, sire. And Mordecai won’t harm her. He needs her for something.”

“Don’t you think I know that?”

“Yes, but—”

“This is your fault.” I turned on him. “You took me away instead of staying to protect her.”

“She ordered me to. I didn’t have a choice.”

“You killed her.” I pushed his chest, and he stumbled a step backwards. “This is your doing.”

His eyes dropped from mine, and I saw all the shame and regret in them. The sorrow I saw there made me snap. His head snapped to the side as I connected my fist with his jaw. All my rage manifested into aggression, and I took it out on Torsten.

He didn’t even defend himself, believing on some subconscious level that he deserved this punishment as much as I did.

“Lucifer, stop!” Hands grabbed me and pulled me away, but I was so angry, so consumed by it, that I didn’t see anything other than the red hue of my own fucking wrath.

I fought against the grip, desperate to unleash my fury on something, anything, damn it.

My head snapped back, and pain radiated along my jaw.

Awareness flooded back and I found a pair of bright emerald green eyes staring at me, full of pity, anger and a touch of amusement.

“Micheal?”

“You need to calm down, brother. You’re not going to be of any use to anyone if you catapult yourself into one of your Hellfire rages.”

“You hit me.” My tone was barely civil. I’d never been this angry, not even when I Fell. This felt like a living, visceral thing that yearned to consume everything in its path.

He nodded. “You were getting out of control and that’s no good to anyone. Lori needs you, so get it together.”

He was right. I wasn’t going to be useful to anyone until I burned through this anger. And I knew just how to do that.

“I’m going to see to some personal torturing. I’d suggest that no one comes to find me until I leave the Pit.” I wasn’t going to be able to guarantee anyone’s safety until I’d calmed the fuck down. And as much as I wanted to maim and murder someone, I didn’t want that someone to be my brother, or Torsten. So I called my magic to me, grateful it was back to normal, and disappeared into thin air. Selene might have rendered me unable to stop Lori from disappearing, but she had fixed the soulbond to the extent that I was back to full power.

That was going to be her biggest mistake.

The symphony of screams still rang loudly in my ears. I’d forgotten the sweet music the damned made when they were being punished. It went a long way to soothing my mind to the point where I was almost able to think about talking to someone without wanting to kill them.

I put on a dark charcoal grey suit and immediately thought of Lori. She’d always liked me in a suit. Her eyes lit up and her lips parted on a silent gasp as she drank me in. It made me feel like the king of the damn universe when she looked at me like that.

Fuck, I missed her. My wrath threatened to rise to the surface again but I pushed it back down. There’d be time for that later, when I had Mordecai’s throat beneath my boot. Right now I needed to focus on making a plan.

I would get her back. And I would make Mordecai pay for this. But first, I was going to need some help.

I pressed the intercom and Darius, my head of security, answered gruffly.

“Yes, your Majesty?”

“Bring me Iver.” I didn’t wait for a response before disconnecting the intercom. Iver was the last of the original three to cross my path since the other two had managed to escape. He was the original demon and he’d always been the less hot headed out of the three of them. He’d also been somewhat of a mediator between us all. He always tried so hard to keep the peace and look where that got him. Left behind in the Pit by the other two while they went off on their mad plan to take control of my throne.

There was a knock at the door and Darius entered dragging a lump of rags and chains behind him.

“That will be all, Darius. Make sure we aren’t disturbed.”

The brute of a demon nodded and then left me looking at the pathetic state of my original demon. He was nothing more than skin and bones. His black hair was lanky and thick with grease, his fingernails long and grubby. I couldn’t even see all the swirls of the tattoos that covered most of his body because of all the dirt. I almost felt a scrap of pity for him, but I was too angry and still hurt by his betrayal. Perhaps if he helped me in finding Lori, I’d lessen his sentence.

“Hello Iver.”

Black soulless eyes met mine. “Lucifer.” His voice was raspy from being unused.

“I need your help.”

He laughed, the sound a wet croak. “And why the fuck would I help you after what you’ve done to me?”

I lowered the collar of my black shirt and showed him the soulbond mark. It was a thick black symbol, almost like a tattoo of two crescent moons facing each other, one slightly larger than its mirror image, connected with a line and surrounded by Enochian symbols. This mark of old magic, even older than mine, was a symbol of the bond Lori and I shared. We were joined heart and soul. If one of us died, so did the other. There had already been a couple of close calls but Lori had managed to persuade me to let Selene fix it.

“Mordecai took something of mine. I want her back.”

Iver grinned widely showcasing a mouth full of sharp teeth. “And what do I get in return?”

Demons. Always wanting to make a damn deal. But I couldn’t blame him. I was just the same.

“Iveri.”

His smile dropped and his face paled. “But she’s dead. Burnt away by your Hellfire.”

That was true. She’d instigated a rebellion against me with my other original creations and as punishment I’d killed her and sent the others to the Pit. However, Iveri had made a deal with Selene to save her soul. She would be able to cheat death by claiming bodies as her own. The last person she’d inhabited was Lori until Selene had decided to separate them. Now Iveri was wandering the earth as a lost soul made solid by Selene’s magic. I was still trying to figure out how to sort that disaster out. In order to save Iveri now, I’d need someone who could wield the scintillam vitae but there had only ever been one of those known in history and I didn’t think the Divine was going to help me.

“Not completely dead. I will admit, it is complicated, but I am willing to make a deal with you.”

Iver canted his head, his greasy locks tumbling to one side revealing more of his gaunt face. “I’m listening.”

“Help me rescue Lori and I will move heaven and earth to save Iveri.”

His gaze dropped to the floor, his mind whirring over my words. When I made a deal, it was binding until complete. I would have to uphold my end, even if it took me forever. The problem was, I didn’t know whether Iver’s feelings for Iveri still existed, or if they’d festered into something worse. And would those feelings be more powerful than his wish for vengeance upon me. I was taking a risk, but he was the best hope I had of getting someone close to Mordecai and Selene.

Iver grinned as he brought his gaze back to mine. I couldn’t quite decide if it was a grin of amusement or one of malice.

“I’ll take your deal, your Majesty,” he spat the words. “But I want to be clothed and fed before I go.”

“Fine,” I snapped, holding out my hand. I hadn’t expected anything less anyway. Mordecai wouldn’t want him to turn up looking like this. He was far too snobbish for that.

Iver captured my hand, and I felt the magic of the deal bind us.

Hopefully, I now had an inside man who would help me get closer to saving the love of my life.