Lucifer's Cage (After Dark Book 6) by Sarah Bailey (short story to read .txt) 📗

never has been. Why do you think Jax sent me here? He wanted to save me from my fate.”

His hand came up, cupping her face. There was a wild look in his eyes and yet a tenderness in his expression.

“Then let me save you from it.”

Tears pricked at the corners of her eyes.

What? He can’t. No one can.

“I can’t stay here. You know that. You said it yourself. Hell is no place for a living soul.”

She reached out, pulling him to her. She curled her arms around his back, pressing her face into his chest. If she could stay like this forever with him, she would do it in a heartbeat.

“When I told you, I can’t walk away from you, I meant it, but that doesn’t mean I won’t have to leave you,” she continued. “Because I will. The thought of it makes me want to cry. I didn’t want to feel things for you, but I do. It hurts so fucking much. I can’t afford to want you. To need you. And yet I do. All I can think about is you. Do you understand why I can’t give you what you want? If I do, it’ll break me entirely.”

He kissed the top of her head before burying his face in her hair.

“Candace…”

“You don’t need to say anything. Just stop pushing me. I don’t want to go home broken.”

She pushed him away, her hands going to her buttons. She quickly adjusted her clothes.

I just lied to him. I’m already broken. He broke me the moment we kissed each other. Nothing has been the same since.

“Don’t give Jax any shit, okay? There’s nothing between us. Besides, he’s with someone, so you know, I kind of have to get him back home to his girlfriend in one piece.”

“Girlfriend?”

She looked up at him.

“Yes, girlfriend. There was never any need for you to get all possessive over me.”

“I did not get possessive.”

“No? What do you call dragging me into the throne room and telling me I’m yours, then?”

He folded his arms across his chest, expression dark.

“You are mine.”

She rolled her eyes. It was as if her confession hadn’t happened. It had though. She felt things for the angel in front of her. Things she should never feel. It didn’t even matter to her anymore that he was the Devil. He was the man she wanted in her bed, in her life and worst of all, in her heart.

“Are you going to behave?”

He looked sullen for a moment but nodded. She pulled away from the door and adjusted his shirt so it wasn’t bunched up where she’d tugged at it. She stopped short of taking his hand even though a part of her wanted to.

She opened the door, taking a breath before striding towards Jax. He was still standing in the same place.

“Cadmi… what’s going on?”

“We just needed to have a conversation. It’s fine. Come with me.”

She took his arm and pulled him along before opening the door to the living room. She made Jax sit down on the sofa. Lucifer had followed along behind. He stood a way off with his hands folded behind his back, his expression neutral. She sat down next to Jax.

“Does he know why I sent you here?” Jax asked.

“Not entirely no. I shouldn’t have even told you.”

“Keeping a secret like that can’t have been easy.”

She glanced back at Lucifer. His posture was stiff, eyes dark with repressed emotion. There was no doubt in her mind, he did not like her being close to Jax despite her assurance that there was nothing between them. Then again, she doubted Lucifer would be happy seeing her near any other man.

“It doesn’t matter. What we need to discuss is how we’re going to get home.”

“Because no one is getting out of Hell right now.”

“How did you even know about that?”

Jax shrugged, adjusting his t-shirt. He was in pyjamas. She looked down at her watch. It was midnight back on Earth.

“Rumours.”

“And how did you even send me here in the first place? You don’t have that type of power.”

“Alistair.”

“You involved him in this? Are you crazy? You know that could’ve got back to my father.”

Jax is a fucking idiot.

This was turning into the biggest mess. How was she ever going to explain any of this to her father when she returned home? He was going to be mad. Mad and disappointed yet again.

“I didn’t involve him. It wasn’t as if I was opening the gates. It didn’t involve blood magic. Alistair knows more about portals than anyone else. All he did was tell me how. No questions asked.”

“Portal magic is dangerous if misused, you know that more than anyone.”

“You managed to bring me here.”

She put her head in her hands.

“It wasn’t a portal. That was more like a summoning, which by the way, was not my intention. I was trying to create a gateway to Earth.”

“A gateway?”

She stood up, staring down at Jax. This conversation was exhausting and learning he’d involved someone else made it all the more frustrating.

“Yes, it’s all in this book. I’ll show you when we’ve both got some sleep. You must be tired.”

Mall came in and spoke softly to Lucifer for a moment. He nodded. She made her way over to Jax and Candace.

“If you’d like to come with me, I have a room prepared for you,” she said.

Jax looked up at Candace, his eyes questioning. She nodded her head. He was perfectly safe with Mall.

“Right,” he said, standing. “Sleep is wise, you did kind of wake me up. Sam is going to be pissed.”

“You can deal with that when we get home or blame me. Whatever works,” Candace said.

Jax left with Mall, leaving