Steal My Soul

I continued to stare at Shabriri’s teeth unable to comprehend what I was seeing. My brain kept telling me that those teeth and his face in general couldn’t possibly be real. That it was just makeup or a mask of some sort. My eyes began to travel upward to see if his eyes were colored contacts, but a large hand gently covered my eyes blocking my vision.

“Please refrain from looking Riri in the eyes,” Luc whispered in my ear. I heard Shabriri groan and stomp his foot on the floor.

“You never let me have any fun! Why couldn’t you have let her learn the hard way?” He whined like a child.

Luc chuckled and pulled me in closer to his side. “Because Riri that would not have been a very kind thing to do to my date.”

The air around us dropped a considerable twenty degrees cooler when Luc called me his date. Goosebumps formed all along my body at the sudden chill that raced up and down my spine. Even though I still couldn’t see Shabriri thanks to Luc’s hand over my eyes, I could FEEL his intense gaze on me that was full of absolute hatred and disgust.

“I can’t believe our Prince would stoop so low,” Shabriri growled under his breath.

Suddenly, the hand over my eyes disappeared to wrap around the man’s throat. Luc pinned him to the adjacent wall by his neck and leaned in close to the man. Shabriri didn’t even bother putting up a struggle to try and remove Luc’s iron grip from his neck. He just dangled there with a scowl tugging the corners of his mouth down.

“Watch your tongue or I’ll rip it out of your mouth with rusty pliers and shove it so far up your ass, it’ll be permanently implanted in your brain so that maybe that way you will learn to THINK before you speak against me again,” Luke threatened in a low, murderous tone.

My gaze slid up to rest on Luc’s face. His teeth were bared and clenched in anger; a muscle ticking in his jaw as he spat the words out. The neon dance lights washed over his face giving me a good glimpse of my date’s eyes. They were no longer the icy blue that always seemed to hold me captivated. Now the entireties of his eyes were colored a deep, inky black. Even the tips of his fingers that were wrapped around Shabriri’s neck appeared to look like talons.

“What…are you?” I breathed, my eyes never leaving Luc’s face.

His grasp on Shabriri suddenly released making the man crumble to the floor at our feet. His eyes snapped up at me making me quickly glance away. I still was clueless as to why I had to refrain from looking into his eyes, but at the moment I was not going to question Luc.

“Come,” Luc ordered gently nudging me forward away from Shabriri’s burning glare. Even though Luc had almost killed a man, none of the other club members had stopped there dancing or drinking to possibly try and break up the fight. It was like they could have cared less about someone dying. What kind of human being could just stand by and watch such a thing happen without a care in the world?

Just then a…well….I can’t even say man. A thing glided passed us. It’s body was covered with onyx black scales that sparkled a deep sapphire blue under the fluorescent lighting. It stood at least eight feet tall with long limbs that made it’s talon-like fingers nearly drag the floor. The creature’s feet had three toes and were large enough to kill a small child. Deep red horns jutted their way out of the thing’s forehead to curl up and around towards the back of the head.

I watched in horror and fascination as it crossed our path and continued on It’s way to the bar. My mouth still open in shock, I met Luc’s amused gaze that had returned to its normal icy blue color.

“What…?” I couldn’t even bring myself to finish the question. Was I going crazy? Surely these were all just costumes, right? Really, really, REALLY good costumes?

“That was a Dream Demon. They invade a person’s dreams, whether it be at night while sleeping or daydreaming in class, and they sh—”

“Wait,” I interrupted Luc. “Demon?”

Luc nodded as he continued pulling me through the large crowd of people towards the back of the underground club.

“Demons don’t exist,” I told him matter-of-factly. Luc merely smiled down at me in that ‘you’re so cute when you act clueless’ sort of way.

“There is much you need to learn, my love,” he chuckled opening a black oak door that had a golden doorknob.

“Excuse me? What do you mean? There is nothing that needs to be learned. I know what kind of club this is,” I huffed stepping into the room. It appeared to be an office considering there was a large desk sitting in the center of the room with bookcases lining either side of the wall. Two leather clad chairs sat in front of the desk at a crooked angle.

Luc closed the door behind me and walked over to the desk to lean the small of his back against the front. He folded his arms across his chest making the muscles in his arms flex underneath his white button down shirt. He cocked his head to the side as he waited patiently for me to explain what kind of club I thought this was.

“It’s one of those…fantasy….halloween….club things,” I nervously began not quite sure what they were called. “It’s where people come dressed up as a vampire, werewolf, DEMON, or whatever else kind of supernatural being there is and they dance. I have to admit though this must be a high class club if everyone out there is all decked out in the best guises known to man. I mean did you SEE that one dude? Whoa. He went all out didn’t he? And what was up with Shabriri, huh? Does he like ha—”

“Those aren’t guises, Leighra,” Luc stated seriously interrupting my ramblings.

“Right,” I scoffed rolling my eyes. “And I’m married to Hades.”

“Everyone you see out there is in their true form. Well…some of them are. It’s a club for the demons that are stuck here in the mortal realm. It is where they can relax and let go of their human disguise to be themselves for the night,” Luc calmly explained.

My eyes narrowed in disbelief. “Luc, you can’t be serious. There is no such thing as demons, angels, vampires, werewolves, faeries, or whatever.”

“You humans have many names for us, don’t you?” Luc smiled amused.

“What?”

“While it is true that maybe not vampires, werewolves, faeries, elves, warlocks, wizards, or whatnot may exist as their own species…they still exist. I mean, surely you don’t believe that there is only ONE form of demon or angel?” Luc explained.

“I…well…wait, what?” I stammered trying to wrap my head around what Luc was trying to tell me.

Luc pinched the bridge of his nose and released a long sigh. “I thought this would be much easier to explain if I took you here,” he mumbled under his breath. “Sit and I will try my best to explain this to you.” He waved his hand toward one of the chairs in front of him.

Cautiously, wondering what I had gotten myself into with this guy, I moved to sink down into one of the plush, leather chairs. Luc hopped up onto his desk to sit on the edge of the frame. He crossed his ankles and leaned towards me.

“Originally, there were only angels. Those were the only form of supernatural beings or whatever you wish to call them. They were separated into different categories though. There is no such thing as just one type of angel just as there isn’t a single type of human being. Angels each had their own qualities, powers, weaknesses, strengths, and whatnot. Some of the different forms of angels would be your creatures of the Light.”

“Like faeries, elves, sprites…” I started listing off.

Luc nodded. “Indeed. It wasn’t until God made the first human being that some of the angels began turning more toward…the darkness, you could say. Especially one angel in particular.”

“Lucifer, God’s Morningstar,” I answered. A muscle ticked in Luc’s jaw at the mention of the name. It made me wonder if he had a problem with discussing the Bible.

“Indeed, although he does not go by that name any longer nor does he like to hear the mention of it. Anyhow, God started losing interest in his very first creations: his angels. That included his beloved…” Luc paused squeezing his eyes tightly shut as he spat the next word: “Morningstar.”

“All of his love and attention went towards the pathetic humans who couldn’t even survive for one minute on their own. They were constantly whining about needing help and praying for inane things that God had already provided for them. The majority of them just needed to take the time to learn how to survive, but they were too lazy to care. They wanted God to give them everything. And so he did. This made…Lucifer…angry. God was ignoring his creations in Heaven to amuse the inferior beings below.

“This did not sit well with his once favored child, Lucifer. So Lucifer rebelled with a large mass of other angels who agreed with his outrage. That’s when the war among Brothers and Sisters began. Even then…God did not care. Only when Lucifer started involving the humans did God finally begin to give a fuck!” He spat angrily. I jumped startled at his sudden outburst. Luc jerked his head away so that his angry, yet sad stare was focused on anything else but me.

“He was disappointed in what his favored creation had done. He was willing to give m-him another chance, but Lucifer didn’t want that. The battle was not yet over for him. So he fell from the Heavens. He was the first to fall. It was his hatred and murderous rage towards his Father that turned Lucifer into what you humans claim to be the Devil. Many angels followed after him turning into various dark creatures depending on their level of revenge and hate. Those would be the beings you call vampires, werewolves, wraiths, warlocks… Of course there were those who fell that worked both sides. You might call them witches, wizards, shifters…but we know them as Rogues.”

I sat in silence for a moment as I mulled over his words. The way he talked about it…he made it sound like he had been there. Because that was definitely not like any story I had ever heard on what could have possibly happened. I watched him grip the edge of the desk; the hard wood cutting into his palms. His head hung down almost as if in shame although I knew it wasn’t because of that. I just think he didn’t want me to see the sadness in his eyes over the events. And if what he was saying was the truth…then everyone out there was in fact a demon. Not only that, but with the way he had talked about Heaven and the war…that meant he was a demon as well. Not just any demon though. Shabriri had called him Prince and so had the bartender up in the restaurant. Which could only mean one thing.

“Luc...” I softly mumbled under my breath thinking back to what Natalie had said about his name.

~~*“I mentioned that the poem made him sound like he was a demon. Like he was Satan. And then you tell me his name is Luke? If you think about it, Luke could be short for Lucifer.”

“But then wouldn’t it sound more like loose?” I questioned as we reached B&N.

Natalie narrowed her eyes in thought before shrugging. “Not necessarily. Plus that sounds like it would be short for Lucy, but who knows? Maybe he likes stuff like that.”*~~

My head snapped up, my eyes colliding with his. That icy blue stare penetrated deep like he was glimpsing my very soul. And if Natalie was right about him being Satan…he very well could be right now.

“So are you saying…” my voice quivered as the reality of the situation struck me.

Luc clenched his jaw tight and nodded.

“I am the very demon people fear. I am the thing that parents tell horror stories to their children about so they don’t misbehave. I am the Prince of Darkness, Satan, the Devil, but I prefer the name—”

“Lucifer,” I breathed.