Satan's Queen

11

'Jacob!' the girl cried.

She scrambled from the bed. Like a fool, she tried to help him but the flames were too hot and she fell back, arms across her face.

'No!'

Lucifer watched calmly. 'Such a waste. You could have been something.'

He climbed out of the bed. Jacob was shrieking and bellowing. Lucifer rustled his feathers—it was agitating. The girl was standing before the doomed angel, her hands to her mouth, blubbering Jacob's name over and over again. So weak. So human.

Seizing her hips, Lucifer spun her around. 'After all I've done for you, after all I've given you, this is the thanks I get?'

She raised her hands defensively and Lucifer grabbed them.

The girl gritted her teeth as the tears gleamed on her cheeks. 'Stop it. Stop hurting him!'

'Why? What's in it for me? You wanted to be brave, Kaitlyn. You want to be resolute? Then this is the price you pay!'

'Stop it,' she begged. 'Please. I'll submit. I won't fight. I'll do anything. Please, just let him go.' Sliding to her knees she bowed her head, her dark hair falling around her face.

Lucifer stared at the row of bones down her back. He remembered how he used to stroke them while they laid in bed together. His hand twitched as he felt it now.

'Do as I ask,' he said. 'Do all that I ask without arguing and I will have him free from pain.'

She raised her tear-stained face hopefully.

'Promise me, Kaitlyn. Promise me that you will do all that I say.'

'I promise.' She flinched as Jacob's screaming took on a new crescendo.

With a fling of his hand, the flames snuffed out.

Jacob was lying on his belly, his wings rising and lowering as he gasped for breath, perfectly intact as Lucifer knew he would be.

'Jacob!' the girl cried.

Lucifer seized her wrist before she could go to him. 'No.'

The girl looked up at him desperately.

'My first command is that you do not touch him. You'll never touch him again. You'll never touch any man again. Only me.'

The girl swallowed hard. 'Please.'

With a snarl, he squeezed her wrist until she gasped. 'What did I say? Shall I burn him AGAIN?'

Smoke began to steam from Jacob's skin.

'No!' she cried. 'Okay. Okay. Just-just don't hurt him. I can't bear it.'

The girl sobbed. Rolling onto his side, Jacob watched them both, his dark eyes coveting Lucifer's vessel in such a way that stirred the flames in the pit of his stomach.

Lucifer should kill him. He should kill him and simply take her for his own. What was stopping him? All it would take was one lift of his finger.

He almost did it. He almost turned him into a pile of ash, if it hadn't been for the damnable girl clinging onto his ankle. 'Lucifer, please. I'm sorry.' She leaned her head against his knee. He could feel the weight of her backside upon his foot.

He looked down upon her dark, shining head. 'You'll do as I say. You will be there for me at my beck and call.'

'No!' Jacob snarled, leaping to his feet.

'Shut it, Brother,' Lucifer snapped. The angel froze, his lips pinched shut. The only thing moving was his eyes swinging in his head. 'You will not refuse me,' he continued. 'You will do all that I say. If you argue with me, if you speak about him, if you beg me, or even look at me the wrong way, he will burn—and I'll make sure to have you watch. If you try to escape or make me angry, I'll turn him into a pile of ash. Understood?'