18. Roman

Chapter eighteen

Roman

M y eyes bounced worriedly between Mia and Lucifer. I wasn’t sure how one protected their mate from Satan, but I’d die trying if it came to that. As it happened, my worry was ill-placed.

“I like your friend, Evangeline. You’ll have to bring her to the company cookout this year. Go on then, Kitten. I’ll collect his soul later when you’re done with him, but if it’s ok with you, might I leave your mates a little present to prolong Parote’s torture?”

Mia nodded and stepped aside as he let Jacqueline’s body fall to the floor. A hazy cloud followed behind him as he crossed to Parote, attached to him by a tether. I wrinkled my nose. That had to be her soul, and it was more than a little weird to look at it.

Lucifer touched Parote’s head for a few seconds and then stepped back. “There,” he said, seeming rather proud of himself. “Now, he won’t die until you call me back to take his soul. Enjoy,” he laughed, backing away. “I would suggest making the pieces very, very, small. Hounds, your new assignment is to guard this building until all of the bodies can be safely returned to their families. Many souls will cry to the heavens in the coming days, so let’s make this difficult process as easy as possible. Also, might I suggest recording his torture? Some families may find comfort in seeing the monster who destroyed their loved ones be destroyed himself.”

The hellhounds nodded and left to do as they were ordered. Evangeline hugged Mia and left the room, leaving the five of us alone with Parote. I went into the cell and pulled out the metal bed frame, sitting it on its end.

“Let’s move him,” I ordered.

We went to untie him from the chair and found that we… couldn’t, as in Lucifer’s bindings were unbreakable. I couldn’t even see where they connected.

“Useless, all of you,” Parote sneered. “Would you like to hear how easy it was for me to take advantage of your loved ones? How spunky little Annie was so excited to get new abilities?”

Mia hissed and slashed out at him, her claws slashing deep cuts into his face, his eyes splitting and spilling out like jelly. Parote screamed in agony for a few seconds while we watched in morbid fascination as his body stitched itself back together.

“Oh, this is going to be fun,” Theo purred.

“He wanted to live forever,” Hollis laughed.

“Oh, Lucifer,” Mia called.

The devil appeared on her shoulder again, and I wondered how often we would have to deal with him, considering he seemed to have taken an interest in our mate—not physically or romantically, more like an entertaining pet.

“Yes, Kitten?” he asked.

Mia jumped and then huffed in annoyance as she raised her hand to flick him off her shoulder. “Stop doing that,” she growled.

Lucifer laughed as he appeared beside her in his proper size. “What did you need?” he asked.

“We need him bound to the bed,” she replied, “but we can’t seem to undo his restraints to move him.”

“Oh! That was a silly oversight on my part. Allow me.” Lucifer snapped his fingers, and Parote was suddenly tied spread eagle to the bed frame. “There you go. If you need anything else, just yell.”

Lucifer disappeared again, and we turned as one to Parote. His eyes, cloudy from their recent injury, bounced between us in fear.

“I’m not the only monster in the room,” he yelled. “You’re no better than me!”

Mia scoffed. “We’re loads better than you dickhead, but don’t worry, Lucifer is preparing a special place in hell for you, so you’ll die soon enough.”

Hollis found a video camera and set it up to record Parote’s torture and then shifted into his bull. With zero hesitation, he charged Parote and gored him, ripping his abdomen open from groin to sternum.

The good doctor screamed again before he began to choke on his blood. We waited for his body to stitch back together, and then Aiden stepped before him and began to beat him to a bloody pulp with his hands. The sickening sound of bones cracking filled the room, soon joined by a wet sound as his fists turned Parote into a sack of minced meat.

When Aiden ran out of steam, he stumbled back and fell to the floor. Mia ran to his side and held him as he panted in exhaustion. Yet again, Parote slowly healed, and his previous cockiness was gone.

“Please,” he begged, “just kill me. Send me to Hell. It has to be better than this.”

Lucifer’s humor-filled voice filled the room. “Don’t count on it, though I am taking notes.”

So he was still with us. He really was a creep.

I looked at Theo and waved my hand, offering him to go next. He stepped up to Parote and let his inner monster out, his face twisting, his fangs descending, and his nails lengthening to lethal points. Theo alternated between slashing Parote open and biting pieces of him off. Then he let him heal again before sinking his teeth into his neck and draining him until Parote was almost unconscious.

Theo squeezed Parote’s jaw, breaking it as his nails stabbed through his cheeks. “Had the two of you come to me, I would have turned you so you could be together forever. None of this was necessary if you had only asked. So much death and destruction for nothing.”

Finally, it was my turn. I shifted to my wolf form and let him loose, unconcerned about the damage he caused. We ripped into Parote with a feralness that I had never experienced before. Remembering Lucifer’s suggestion, we sent chunks of Parote flying all over the room. I lost myself to the bloodlust as everything went red. When it finally cleared, Parote no longer had a bottom half, and all that was left of his top half was his spine, ribs, lungs, heart, half his face, and arms. The most intact part of his body was his hands, which looked odd attached to the rest of him. Even with so much of him missing, Parote was still alive, wheezing and moaning in pain.

I shifted back and looked at Mia, with the other three wrapped around her on the floor. “He’s your mark, Sweetheart. It’s only fitting that the final blow comes from you.” I helped her to her feet, and she approached Parote.

“Do you have any remorse for what you’ve done?” she asked.

It took him several attempts, but finally, Parote squeezed out one word. “No.”

Mia nodded. “Luce.”

The fallen angel appeared beside her. “Yes?”

“Tell me when,” she replied, extending her claws.

Lucifer placed his hand on Parote’s head and closed his eyes. “Now!”

Mia raised her hand and slashed her claws through Parote’s throat, slitting it open. The man’s eyes popped open as he finally succumbed to his wounds.

When he was dead, Lucifer said a few words and then beamed at us: “He’s on his way to Hell, where I will take over from here. I will say, though, that you five were very impressive. If you’re interested in a job in the afterlife, let me know. I could use you.”

“Thanks?” I said.

Lucifer looked around at the mess we made and wrinkled his nose. He rubbed his hands together until they began to smoke and clapped them together. A wave of heat blew past me, and when I looked around, all of the blood and guts were gone. Lucifer chuckled at our surprise, and with one final wink at Mia and a quick pat on her head, he disappeared.

Mia glared at the space he had occupied. “I don’t know if I like him,” she huffed. Lucifer’s laughter filled the room once more. “Creep!” she yelled as a smile tugged at the corner of her mouth.

“Now what?” Hollis asked.

“Now we go home, get cleaned up, eat enough for a hundred people, and sleep,” Mia replied. “We have a lot of work ahead of us. We need all the rest we can get.”

Theo, Hollis, and Aiden stood heading for the stairs. I slung my arm over Mia’s shoulder as we followed them.

“Home, huh? Does that mean you expect us to move in with you?” I teased. “No,” she replied. “But I’ll let you spend the night just this once.”

She giggled when I started to growl at her and ran ahead of me, shifting into her cat form to slip past the others on the stairs, nearly tripping them up.

“Fucking cats, am I right?” Hollis laughed.