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

Candace pitched forward onto his chest, panting. He wanted to hold her, run his fingers through her hair, but his wrists were still bound.

“Fuck,” she whispered.

“Can I touch you now?” he asked.

She nodded against his chest. The ropes dropped the next instant and he wrapped his arms around her, kissing the top of her head. The battle between them wasn’t about winners or losers, it was about love and the need to consume each other.

“Are you really afraid I’ll stop wanting you?”

“Only because it scares me how much I love you,” she murmured.

His arms tightened around her. Nothing could induce him to let this girl go.

Not now.

Not ever.

“You’re the only woman I’ve given my brand to. Others have worn the sixes, but you wear my wings, little witch. No one else.”

She looked up at him.

“I never got a chance to tell you how beautiful it is.”

“Just like you, beautiful, strong, so self-assured yet fragile. A bird with clipped wings.”

Her eyebrow raised in question.

“Is that supposed to be a metaphor for how I crave my dad’s approval and affection?”

“No. They clipped your wings, but I’m showing you how to be free even when you’re broken.”

She shifted, raising her arms and holding his face in her hands.

“You have shown me more than just freedom. In some crazy, fucked up way, I finally understand myself. I see a girl who thought she wasn’t worthy of anything until she met an angel who gave her the one thing she was missing in her life. It was simple. He showed her she always had a choice. That’s why that girl now loves without conditions and without restraint. And that’s why this angel, right here, will always have her heart.”

His heart thumped wildly. The words were on the tip of his tongue. She kissed him before he could say anything.

“I don’t need you to love me back. I’m sorry if I pushed you. You don’t have to show me anything.”

She pulled away, sitting up and staring down at him with those incredible violet eyes of hers.

“I made a promise, little witch. I keep my promises,” he said. “But first, you’re going to tell me what happened this evening.”

Shifting off him, she sat down with her legs crossed. Her fingers traced the outline of his brand.

“My best friend, who I’ve looked up to as my brother my whole life, told me no one deserves me, especially not someone who punishes people for their sins. He acted like I had no idea of what I was truly getting into by following you home to Hell. That’s when I saw the truth. No one will ever deserve me in his eyes, only him. And I swear my heart felt like it’d been tossed in a meat grinder.”

She didn’t look at him as she spoke. Her eyes filled with tears and her fists clenched in her lap.

“He’s lied to my face since we were kids. Everything he’s done is tainted by that simple fact. The feeling of betrayal made me sick. It’s not as if I’ve never kept secrets from Jax, but he’s kept the biggest one of all from me. It’s fucked up that even though he has Sam, he still loves me. I don’t see a way through this mess. I suppose that’s what hurts the most.”

The problem with secrets is someone always got hurt when they all came out. He put a hand on her fist. She looked so lost and scared.

“You’re terrified of losing everyone you care for because of your love for me,” he whispered.

Her eyes snapped to his. A single tear fell down her cheek.

“Am I really that transparent?”

He shifted turning on his side and propping himself up by his elbow. She opened her fist and he entwined his fingers in hers.

“Not to others, but I’ve been inside your head, little witch. I know you in ways no one else can. Do you think you’re not free to return to Earth as you please? Do you think I’ll place restrictions on you?”

“No. I know you won’t. I’ve never had any love for the fae but going against my mother isn’t a prospect I relish. And feeling as though I’ve lost my best friend in the midst of all this when I actually need him on my side. That just plain sucks.”

He brushed her hair from her face, wiping away the stray tear. His little witch hurt.

What can I do to make her feel better? Clearly, sex hasn’t worked completely.

“What do you need, animus meus?” My soul.

Her fingers tightened in his for a moment.

“I don’t need anything but time, which I’m running out of. My engagement party is next week. I have to face her then.”

He let go of her hand, pulling her towards him. She went willingly, curling up against his chest with her hand on his heart.

There was nothing left to say about her problems. It was time he allowed her a little insight into his life.

“I’ve never spoken of what happened that day except with Azrael, but he was there so that’s different.”

“You said you were going to show me what happened. How?”

“Close your eyes.”

She did as he asked. He placed a hand over them, a soft glow of yellow erupting from his fingertips. Reliving this was never easy, but Candace was right. He had to let her in some day.

She let out a soft gasp, her fingertips pressing into his chest.

He closed his eyes, sucked backwards into a memory he wished he could forget.

§

The shouting match between Azrael and my father made my head hurt. I couldn’t do anything but watch silently. What could I even say? He would never allow us the