Lucy, Fallen (The Infernal Paradise) Read online

  Maybe I can put in a good word for her and Kei.

  Maybe I can get them transferred.

  Maybe I should go check on Deveraux.

  Eight

  I looked at Arissa who was standing in front of the open door waiting for me. I shook my head slightly and turned to walk back in the direction I came in. Like his room and hallway, most of his home was dimly lit with only candles lighting the way. I walked quickly and quietly not knowing where Stratus might be lurking and made my way up the first staircase. I looked around trying remembering which way to go before proceeding. After getting turned around a few times, I finally found myself on Dev’s floor. I squinted down the long hallway and saw that his door was slightly cracked. I also noticed a figure propped up against the wall, half slouched and half sitting. I quickened my pace and the figure stirred when I got closer.

  “Hello Pet,” he said in a very tired voice.

  “Dev, are you okay?” I asked worried.

  He nodded slightly with his eyes still closed.

  “How did you know it was me?” I inquired as I leaned down and helped him off the floor.

  “I can smell you.”

  I immediately became self-conscious. I didn’t know if that was because almost a day had passed since I had cleaned myself.

  “You smell like sweet alyssum in bloom and you intoxicate me,” he whispered.

  My body shook and my mind raced. The scent of him so close and so prominent in his room seemed to have such a strange effect on me.

  I don’t know what came over me at that moment, but I laid Dev on his bed and slowly climbed on top of him. He looked at me with lust burning in his eyes and I kissed him, parting his lips with my tongue. We lay there, me on top of him exploring each other with our kisses and him holding me tightly against him.

  I ran a hand over his chest and slid it down his stomach. When I reached his pants, I undid the zipper and slid my hand in and began to rub him to stimulate his desire for me. I needed to be with him right now and I didn’t know why.

  “Oh Lucy,” he whispered into my ear. “My sweet, precious Lucy.”

  He slid a hand under my shirt and grabbed my breast firmly in his hand fingering the nipples and pulling on them harder and harder the more stimulated he became. He seemed to regain his strength with each yelp of pleasure that would come from me as he continued to pull on my nipples. Dev turned over and placed me on my back, pulling my shirt up to expose my bare breasts to him and began to nibble on them. Softly, then harder, then softer again.

  “More Dev, please,” I whispered.

  He nibbled more and pulled with his teeth. I moaned and arched my back in pleasure.

  “Do you taste as sweet as you smell, Lucy?” he asked more to himself than me.

  I was in such a state of euphoria that I didn’t quite understand his question. Soon he was pulling my pants and underwear off and began to kiss my inner thighs. He slid his fingers inside of me while he kissed and then pulled them out and tasted them.

  “Oh yes. Yes you do,” he said before burying his face between my legs.

  I lay there in an indescribable bliss as he used his tongue to lick me gently. My wings began to twitch underneath me and it was all I could do to lay there and let Dev have his way with me. He found my weakness and he was exploiting it.

  And I wanted him too.

  More than I ever wanted anything in my entire life.

  Placing my hands on the back of his head I pushed him so that his tongue would slide deeper inside of me. Dev pleasured me until I reached the exquisite point of climax.

  “You’re a naughty little thing aren’t you?” he asked as he looked at me with a sexy grin.

  “Huh?” I asked with bated breath.

  “You reached your ecstasy without me. How do you think that makes me feel?”

  Before I could answer he flipped me and propped me up on my knees sliding himself inside of me. I folded my wings so that they wouldn’t be in his way as he grabbed me by the hips and started to thrust with a ferocity that I didn’t know was possible. I was being rocked so hard that I fell forward, my face landing on the large, soft pillows.

  “No you don’t,” he said as he brought me back to my knees. “Stay just like that.”

  He continued thrusting harder and faster and I found myself ready to explode again. Reaching down he grabbed me by my hair and arched my body back against him, kissing the side of my neck and grunting with effort as he continued to pump inside of me.

  “Lucy...” he whispered grabbing my breasts.

  His body shook and so did mine.

  “Together,” I whispered.

  In a matter of moments, we reached nirvana again. He held me tightly against him until we both stopped shaking before he lay down and pulling me close against him.

  He chuckled softly.

  “What?” I asked as I tried to stop shaking.

  “Your wings are tickling my face,” he said.

  I smiled, “I can’t help it.”

  “I know. I wasn’t complaining. I was quite enjoying it.”

  “Dev?”

  “Yes Lucy?”

  “Why do you call me Pet sometimes?”

  I felt him shrug behind me.

  “I’m a devil, you know this. My natural instinct is to see you in chains. Whipped, tortured, beaten, executed, or enslaved. My inner devil still desires this at times and that’s when I call you Pet. I can get keep it under control though, I’ve done quite a good job at it so far, haven’t I?”

  I nodded and pulled my wings around the parts of me that he didn’t have his arm around. We lay there in silence and then I heard him steadily breathing behind me. He had fallen asleep. I felt so safe in his arms that it bothered me. How could I have been born an angel and feel the most comfort in the arms of a devil? I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. I didn’t want to think about these things anymore. I just wanted to lie in Dev’s arms.

  Tomorrow, I would go get Kei.

  Nine

  The next morning was quiet.

  Almost too quiet.

  I woke up to Dev gently playing with my wings and holding me around the waist.

  “Good dawn, Lucy,” he said.

  “How did you know I was awake?”

  “You’re wings twitch when you’re asleep. They stopped.”

  “Oh.”

  Silence.

  “Good dawn, Dev.”

  Whatever you do, don’t think anything that will let give you away.

  Don’t think of anything.

  Don’t think.

  Don’t.

  “I already know your intentions, Luce,” he said letting me go and rolling onto his back. “You also talk in your sleep. I heard you talking to Kei telling her that you’d be going to get her soon. I also happen to know that you’re desperately trying not to think of anything right now, so it must be today that you’re going to attempt to get her back from the Thunderbirds.”

  Damn.

  “I also know that you’re worried about Stratus. Not because you talked about him in your sleep but because Arissa is as well and she’s who I left you with. I knew that I would be able to take her emotions from you because she’s too respectful to tell me her concerns so she projected them onto you as a way for me to know.”

  ...

  He sat up and looked over at me, “And if you insist on going to get Keilyn, then you must let me go with you. I will not let you near the Thunderbirds without the knowledge of how to destroy one, but I have a feeling you won’t be able to do so when the time comes. As such, if you do not allow me to go with you, I will chain you back in the catacombs for your safety, and no one will be there to free you this time.”

  I lay there quietly not daring to look at him because I was trying to figure out how to concoct a plan in my mind without him plucking it out.

  “Who do you trust most out of your family?” I began carefully.

  “I would have to say Hadrian. He was created alongside me and he’s
the lover of Arissa. They’re both good friends and always have been.”

  “Then let him go with me instead of you.”

  Dev sighed angrily and pushed the sheets off of his naked body and stood in front of the bay doors leading to his balcony.

  “For an angel you have to be one of the most stubborn beings on the face of the Earth. I said either you let me go with your or you go back to the catacombs,” he said.

  “Do you love me, Dev?”

  I was getting desperate at this point to keep him out of danger and I knew that would throw him off.

  “I don’t know what love is. You know this,” he said through grit teeth.

  “But ... if you did know, would you say that you did?” I prodded.

  Sighing he leaned against the large dresser that sat near the bed, “I’ve never in my life known what it feels like to love. I don’t imagine it to be a powerful emotion, but I would say that if I did have to analyze what I feel for you, it would be dangerously close to love.”

  “Then stay here. For me. I can’t risk anything happening to you.”

  I moved to the foot of the bed and folded my legs under me.

  “You’ve told me how you feel about your family. You told me how you feel about Kei. I can’t let them go on forever without you if something were to happen. I’m not saying that you can’t handle yourself. I know you can, but I can’t let something happen to you because of me. Please just let me go with Hadrian. We’ll come back with Kei before you know it,” I begged.

  Tears welled in my eyes while I pleaded for him to see reason. Dev turned his face away from me and reached into the dresser and pulled out clothes for the both of us.

  “Let’s wash ourselves, and then I’ll take you to Hadrian,” he said quietly.

  Ten

  We showered together but in silence and apart from each other. I think it was because he didn’t trust me enough to let me out of his sight now that he knew that I would absolutely go without him. I don’t think he had it in his heart to lock me in the catacombs again, but his idle threat still lingered in my mind.

  After we had dried ourselves off and dressed, he led the way down to the main floors and walked into a ballroom I had not yet seen. Inside were all forms of devils, man and woman alike, bustling about. Some were sitting gossiping, some were playing cards, and some were watching TV, while others were tending to children.

  I saw Arissa sitting near a very large man devil with hair almost as white Dev. She had her head on his shoulder and he had a hand on her leg, while he played cards.

  “Wait here please,” Dev said giving me a kiss on the cheek.

  I watched him walk over to the couple and slap Hadrian on his broad shoulder and lean down and say something to him. Hadrian looked up and him and nodded, giving Arissa’s leg a squeeze and excusing himself from the card table.

  I thought that Dev was a specimen to behold when I first saw him; his height, the strength of his body, his mischievous face. Hadrian walking next to Dev toward me was almost intimidating. He was bigger than Dev. Much bigger. He was also a few inches taller and he looked as if though he could smile at you and rip out your heart at the same time.

  I was immediately reminded of something I had seen in my youth.

  The Nephilim were on the earth in those days. (*Genesis 6:4)

  Hadrian was scary and as they got closer, both of them saw the mixture of shock and fear on my face.

  But ... something about him is oddly familiar.

  “My Lady,” he said in a voice slightly deeper than Dev’s.

  “You’re big,” was my childish response.

  Dev and Hadrian both laughed at that.

  “Luce, this is Hadrian. My oldest and most trusted friend. Hadrian, this is my Lucy,” he said reaching over and taking my hand.

  “Arissa speaks highly of you,” he said with a smile. “She says you are very kind.”

  I smiled shyly.

  “I like her. She’s one of the most beautiful creatures I’ve ever seen and she too is very kind,” I said to Hadrian.

  His face turned slightly red which made Dev laugh.

  “Master Deveraux says you wish to speak with me?”

  “Hadrian, for the last time. You are not to call me Master. We are equals my friend,” he said slapping him on the back. Hadrian smiled at him and nodded.

  “Dev, can I speak to him privately?” I asked looking up into my devil’s eyes.

  He nodded and went to the table where Arissa sat and picked up Hadrian’s deck of cards. I smiled as I watched him sit with his family and interacted as if though they were all of the same hierarchy.

  “Let’s go outside,” I said to Hadrian who nodded and followed close behind.

  Once we were in the brisk false noon air, I turned to face him and told him everything.

  “I need your help. I can’t let anything happen to Dev for his sake and for the sake of your faction. I need him alive. I ... I love him. I wouldn’t be able to stand if anything happened to him because of me, Hadrian. I also need him to find my brothers and sisters like he promised me when I bound myself to him. He doesn’t want me to go after the Thunderbirds alone. He wants to go with me, but I won’t let him. I need your help. I need you to come with me. Please. For your friend that you’ve known your entire existence. For the survival of the Western Province. For the little girl being held captive. Please.”

  Hadrian was looking up toward the window with a somber look on his face. I knew what I was asking him to do; betray his friend and listen to me instead.

  “Forgive me my friend,” he said quietly.

  Then before I knew what was happening, he grabbed me and tossed me on his back and ran so quickly that the world was nothing but a blur underneath his feet.

  When we reached the end of the Western Province, he told me to fly.

  “But I won’t be able to carry you,” I yelled over the sound of the rushing wind.

  “Yes you can, I won’t let go. Fly!”

  I did as I was asked and spread my wings, flapping them as hard as I could and I easily lifted us off the ground. With a grim determination and a giant attached to me, I made my way toward the island of Old St. Lucia and I swore to myself that I wouldn’t be coming back without Keilyn.

  Zenith

  The air was like ice.

  The pitch black skies obscured my sight and I could feel myself starting to falter.

  My wings were straining against the frost and I struggled to hold on to the giant that was tucked firmly in my arms.

  Deveraux was infuriated with us; I could feel it deep inside of me. We ran away when the moment presented itself and headed off to Old St. Lucia. Braxon and Deveraux had deduced that’s where the Thunderbirds had to be hiding and I was done waiting for them to spring into action to save Keilyn.

  It didn’t take much to convince Hadrian, Dev’s most trusted friend to run away with me to save her.

  “Keep your thoughts closed, My Lady,” Hadrian yelled at me at one point. “Deveraux is trying to find us and I can block his thoughts from yours but you must help me!”

  I felt like a traitor.

  Dev had taken me in and cared for me. He kept his family from doing me harm and he swore to help me return my brothers and sisters to safety after we found them.

  He loved me.

  Inside, as well as out.

  Will I ever feel your touch again?

  Closing my eyes, I felt the sensation of his fingers on my body. I could feel his lips tracing my body and him sliding his desire inside of me. I needed to be with him again. I needed to feel his weight on top of me. Oh God, I needed to be in Deveraux’s bed submitting to his every desire again.

  “My Lady, look!” Hadrian yelled pointing to a small island floating in the middle of the ocean.

  I pushed Deveraux far from my mind and closed off my thoughts. Keilyn was somewhere below us and we had to save her.

  I was afraid we had already run out of time.

  Eleven

/>   Taking a deep breath, I tightened my grip on him and dove. Not knowing where and if the Thunderbirds were housed on this island, I chose to land us on the furthest part that looked like it was non inhabited. Hadrian took off his large jacket and wrapped it around my shoulders, zipping the front up for me.

  “Cover your wings. Stay close. If anything happens, I’ll take care of it,” he instructed quietly as we began walking up the sand dune.

  “Will he ever forgive us?” I asked him sadly.

  “Yes.”

  “How can you be so sure?”

  “Because he knows that I would not betray him. He knows that what I do right now is to keep you safe. As for you... he cares for you the way I care for Arissa, my Lady. I can see it in his eyes and I can feel it when he’s around. I’ve never seen him like that before. He bound you to him because he doesn’t want to lose you. You make him feel vulnerable and he likes it. I don’t understand why he and you were chosen for each other and I never will, but to see Dev as he is now, I won’t question it,” he said glancing at me.

  “Take this,” I said handing Hadrian his jacket back. When he opened his mouth to protest, I held up a hand. “I know. I shouldn’t be this exposed on an island possibly riddled with Thunderbirds, but I refuse to hide from them. I know we’ll leave this island together and I know we’ll be okay. I came here to find Keilyn, not to hide from these murderous monsters.”

  Giving me an admiring look, he put his jacket back on and nodded at me. We walked quietly around the outskirts of the island trying to see if there was any sign of life. I had figured after a while that if something was here it would be easy for it to sneak up on us since we could barely see two feet in front of us.

  “My Lady,” Hadrian said suddenly stopping.

  I looked up at him and saw him looking at a small bonfire that seemed to have sparked out of nowhere somewhere in the middle of the island.

  I took a deep breath as we started to make our way toward the new sign of life when the skies suddenly lit up in a display of lightning so bright that we had to shield our eyes.