Steal My Soul

I glanced over my shoulder and saw Luc still following silently behind me as I reached my apartment building. I let out a frustrated sigh, impatiently waiting for him to finally catch up. While I was waiting, I removed my headphones and shoved my iPod into the side compartment of my backpack. Once he was standing beside me his face lit up with a goofy grin. I had to keep myself from busting out laughing when I saw it. I shook my head and jogged up the staircase to my apartment door. Fortunately, Natalie was still in class for the next couple hours.

I dug around in my pocket looking for the small silver key that would unlock the apartment door. My fingers searched every inch of both of my front pockets, but to no avail. *Ok, no need to freak out yet. You could have put it in your back pocket.* Taking a deep, calming breath I slid my hands into my back pockets. Empty. *Ok, NOW is the time to freak!* Beginning to panic, I slid my backpack off my shoulder and started digging through all of the little compartments.

“Looking for something?” Luc questioned, his voice dripping with amusement. My hands abruptly stopped their searching as I slowly stood from my kneeling position on the ground. My honey brown eyes, dark with rage, locked on with a pair of entertained, curious pale blue eyes.

“I swear to God, Luc. If you have my key and don’t give it to me right now, I WILL kill you. With or without your precious, special demon killing blade,” I threatened in a low tone. My voice was on the precipice of growling at him.

A tickled laugh escaped his lips as he rubbed a hand over his heart. “Ouch that hurts. Blaming me for something I didn’t even do,” he said with a faux tone of hurt in his voice.

I just held out my hand waiting for him to place my key in my palm. He glanced down at it before shaking his head.

“I don’t have it, love,” he assured.

“Then where is it?” I spat not fully convinced.

“How should I know? With as tight as those jeans are, I’m not sure how the key COULD be able to escape,” he chuckled.

I took a step closer to him thrusting my finger hard into the center of his chest.

“You better not be lying to me, Lucifer,” I hissed in his face. If it hadn’t been for the fact that I was so angry right now, I might have taken more notice to how close our lips were to each other.

He held his hands up in mock surrender. “I swear on my eternally damned soul,” he teased.

“Ugh,” I scoffed turning away to pick up the welcome mat from the floor. I grabbed out the spare key from its hidden section under the carpet and unlocked the door. I returned the spare key to its hiding place and threw open the door. As soon as I took a step inside I realized something. I whipped back around to face a bewildered Luc that abruptly stopped when I abruptly twirled to face him.

“Just so you know, in case you try to get into our apartment using the spare, I WILL be changing its location after today,” I snapped continuing on my way back to the bedroom.

“Sure thing,” he chuckled quietly closing the door behind him. Before I stepped inside my bedroom, I turned my head to look down the hallway at Luc. He was standing in the living room, his eyes scanning over our small living quarters. Even to me our apartment was small, but it was large enough for Natalie and me to live comfortably in. I’m sure to him our apartment was the size of one of his hallway closets or something.

I turned the knob on the door and glided into my bedroom. Don’t get me wrong. I wasn’t complaining about the fact I was going to be meeting his parents. It was just a little…intimidating knowing that his father was—well, at the current moment IS—THE Lucifer. He was the one that fell from God’s grace so long ago. Like…A LONG ass time ago. It made me wonder what kind of person his mom had to be in order for someone to marry a man like that. Or maybe his dad wasn’t that bad of a person. Maybe he was one of those guys that just automatically got a bad reputation because of a bunch of stupid rumors that no one cared to disprove.

I tossed my backpack onto my bed and considered changing into something nicer. Right now I was only wearing a pair of dark blue skinny jeans and a white tank top beneath my flannel purple plaid shirt. My thick, curly brown hair surrounded my face and hung passed my shoulders in a disheveled mess. I wasn’t exactly dressed for meeting anyone’s parents let alone Satan and his wife.

As I started searching through my closet I heard the faintest sound of someone entering my room. I stretched myself backwards to poke my head out of the closet. Luc was standing over by my dresser examining some of my framed photographs. Leaving him to it (as long as he didn’t touch anything), I went back to searching for something more appropriate to wear.

“What are you doing?” Luc sighed as I pulled out a simple red, knee length cocktail dress. I remembered having bought it for some small occasion, but I couldn’t remember what the occasion was. Shrugging, I tossed it on the bed and turned to him with my hands on my hips.

“What does it look like? I can’t exactly meet your parents looking like THIS,” I emphasized with a sweep of my hand over my current outfit.

Luc quirked a black brow as he folded his arms across his chest. The muscles in his biceps flexed underneath the thin fabric of his sleeve.

“Do you want my honest opinion of your current outfit?” he offered. I narrowed my eyes in suspicion at him wondering if I really wanted him to offer me his opinion or not. I did at the same time I didn’t. If he was too harsh with his judgment, I’d push him out of the room and slam the door into his face. However, if he was nice…a shiver ran down my spine. Luc was always teasing me. I just couldn’t see him being nice to me.

I mirrored his nonchalant stance. “Fine. Tell me, oh wise one, what do you think of my outfit?” I questioned, sarcasm dripping from my words.

Luc slowly removed his glasses and slid them onto the top of his head; those piercing blue eyes locking with mine. I swallowed passed a dry lump in my throat as he approached me slowly, cautiously. Like a predator with a prey. I jumped when I felt a sudden pressure against the small of my back. I glanced down and noticed I had bumped into my vanity. As he had been approaching me, I must have started backing up without even realizing it. My eyes flew back up to his face as he stopped just inches away from me. Our bodies so close I could feel the electrical tension.

He drifted his fingers down my cheek without touching me. Just close enough to where I could feel the slightest brush tickling along the surface of my skin. Goosebumps erupted all along my flesh as his hand continued downward over my exposed collar bone and passed my breast. He snaked his arms around my waist to rest his hands on the vanity behind me officially barring me between his arms. He looked down at me through hungry blue eyes that were framed by impossibly long, thick lashes. I would kill to have eyelashes like his.

The tip of his tongue dragged along his bottom lip before rounding the corner of his mouth and moistening the upper one. There was a flash of pearly white teeth as he bit his bottom lip in a way that made me my insides burn. I was so focused on watching the seductive movement of his lips that I nearly missed out on the words that coming out of them.

“I think you look absolutely ravishing in that outfit. Enough for me to eat,” he whispered in a voice that made my toes curl. His voice had grown into a deep growl when he had called me ravishing. I wasn’t sure if I was growing hot from our body heat or from the effect this man was beginning to have on me.

“Noted,” I responded breathlessly. His lips curled into the most charming smile as he pushed himself away from me. As soon as he had taken a few steps back, I felt like I could breathe air into my lungs again. I placed a hand over my heart as I felt it racing a mile a minute while it pounded against my chest.

“Well, if you’re ready to go then?” Luc asked with a raised brow. He slid the square framed glasses back over his eyes.

Still not able to speak, I merely nodded my head hoping my heart would calm down sometime soon. I jumped when I felt a pair of cool hands gently grip my face.

“First, there is something I must give you,” he said gazing deep into my eyes.

“What?” I was desperately hoping it wasn’t a kiss. If it was I don’t think my heart could survive it right now. Luc’s hands dropped from my face as he pulled an eye dropper from his back pocket. I looked up at him in confusion.

“Eye drops?”

“Not just regular eye drops. These will help keep Shabriri from blinding you. His power as a demon is to blind mortals,” Luc explained twisting the cap off.

“Why? What is that supposed to accomplish really?” I scoffed with a nervous chuckle. Finally, my heart rate was lowering back to normal.

“Well, after blinding you, it is in his nature to skin the flesh from your body, eat your muscles, bones, innards, and whatnot, collect your soul in a pouch at the back of his throat, then deliver your soul to my father. Or me.”

My mouth dropped open in shock and disgust. “And the skin that he peels off?”

“A trophy of his kill,” Luc answered nonchalantly. I clenched my jaw tightly shut as a sudden wave of nausea overcame me. I snatched the eye drops from his hand just now taking notice that the substance was a murky black color.

“Um…what is this?”

“Shabriri’s blood. Don’t worry, it won’t burn your eyes out of your socket or cause you to go blind. Although I can’t promise that it won’t sting just a bit. It IS still blood after all going into your eye,” Luc chuckled at himself.

Trying not to think any more about what I was about to do, I tipped my head back and quickly squirted a single drop of the black blood into each of my eyes. There was about as much discomfort dropping those into my eye as there was when you accidentally put your contacts in backwards. I could definitely feel a burning sensation settling into my retinas while I went temporarily blind, but as soon as the pain began…it stopped. I was able to see again.

“Everything ok now?” I asked Luc once I was able to focus on him once more.

He nodded and capped the eye dropper slipping it back into his pocket.

“Yeah. Now Shabriri shouldn’t have any effect on you if you look into his eyes,” Luc smiled brightly.

He turned around to head out the bedroom door when, without thinking, I grabbed his hand in mine holding him back. Surprised, Luc glanced back at me over his shoulder.

“Um…thank you,” I blushed quickly releasing his hand.

Luc stared at his hand for a few moments before finally meeting my eyes.

“Of course. I can’t have my fiancée going blind before the wedding now can I? What sort of husband would that make me?” he joked continuing out the door.

I should have known he would brush aside my kind words with a joke. It saddened me, but I should have known better. Before I left the room, something shiny caught my eye near the edge of my bed. I crouched down and picked up the object recognizing it as my key. There was a blow to my heart as a wave of remorse coursed through me. I had so confidently blamed for Luc for stealing my house key when the truth was it had just fallen off my bed onto the floor. I released a sad sigh as I straightened to my full height.

“Are you coming?” Luc hollered from the living room area.

“Yeah,” I called back. I shoved my key into the front left pocket of my jeans and exited the bedroom.

I stopped upon seeing Luc waiting patiently in the living room. Feeling my presence, he turned to glance at me. I briefly wondered if I should apologize to him for having blamed him or not.

Then he did something that blew me away. He reached out his hand as an award winning smile swept across his face. Like he was honestly happy to see me. Like he was looking forward to introduce me to his parents. That smile…it made my anger towards him crack. I could feel myself begin to give into this dangerous demon.

“Ready, love?” he asked. I slipped my hand into his never breaking eye contact with him.

“Yeah,” I gulped nervously.

“Don’t worry,” he chuckled. “The only one that bites in my family is Rafe,” he assured with a wink.

I cracked a smile as he led me out of the apartment.

Next destination: Hell.