Reignite (Extinguish #2) (10 page)

Clutching the knife
tightly, Lucifer stepped straight into the gate. It resisted, the pain from the
mark radiating through his body like a jolt of electricity, frying his insides,
but the charms gave way, pushing him through to the other side. It shoved him
so hard he lost his balance, nearly falling, as he breathed a deep sigh of
relief.

The reapers barely took
notice of him once he was outside.

Luce didn't look back,
striding away, venturing through the gates and stepping back on Earth. He went
straight to Chorizon, straight to the small motel on the outskirts of town. As
soon as he arrived, he sensed her there, but she wasn't the only one.

Abaddon.

"Son of a
bitch," Luce muttered, looking toward the main lobby of the motel in
disbelief. He was actually here. Luce strode that way, pausing outside and
glancing through the window with the florescent vacancy sign shining from it.

Serah sat behind a desk,
humming to herself, her feet kicked up and a magazine on her lap. Abaddon
lurked nearby, stone cold silent as he watched her. He was invisible to the
human eye—should be invisible—but there was no telling where Serah
was concerned. After all, she'd seen
him
.

Don.

Luce silently called out
to him, the name ringing loud and clear in his mind. Abaddon immediately
shifted position, glancing toward the window a second before he vanished from
the room. He popped up in the parking lot, a grin lighting up the angel's face
as he regarded him. "Luce, good to see you again."

Luce glared at him.
"What do you think you're doing?"

Abaddon raised his
eyebrows. "I'm just hanging around."

"With Serah?"
Luce asked incredulously. "You thought that was wise? That I'd be okay
with that?"

Abaddon raised his hands
defensively. "Relax, brother. She couldn’t see me."

"Are you sure about
that?" Luce asked.

Abaddon's gaze darted
toward the motel with confusion before he looked back at Luce. "Yeah,
positive. She had no idea I was there. I didn't show myself to her."

"But you have,"
Luce said, stepping toward him. "You've shown yourself."

Abaddon laughed lightly,
shrugging a shoulder as if it weren't a big deal. "She needed some help.
That's what Guardians do, right? Help the humans."

"She's not just a
human," Luce said. "She's different, and you know it. Stay away from
her."

"Ah, come on… don't
be like that."

Luce got right up in his face. "Don't make me
tell you again, Don. I don't take well to being disregarded."

Abaddon's posture
stiffened, his playful expression fading away. Gone was the old friend Luce
once knew, the angel's eyes darkening a shade, the blue deepening to a peculiar
purple. It was a color Luce knew well… the next step from there was black and
then red, the eyes that had stared back at Luce every time he caught sight of
his reflection in a spans of crystal clear water or a sliver of glass down in
the pit. They were the eyes of evil, the eyes of someone who had gone over the
edge and allowed
themselves
to be consumed by wrath.

Blue was pure; blue was
the color of benevolence.

When sin crept in,
taking over every cell in the body, darkening the soul, the world turned bright
red.

Abaddon was just a few
steps away from the point of no return.

"Careful,
Don," Luce warned. "Don't do anything you'll regret."

Abaddon scoffed. "I
regret nothing."

"Nothing?"
Luce asked. "You don't regret double-crossing me? Turning your back on me?
Leaving me to face the consequences alone? What about sinning, huh? You don't
regret that anymore?"

Leaning forward, Abaddon
narrowed his eyes indignantly, a mocking smirk turning the corner of his lips.
"Nothing."

With
a loud pop of static, the angel was gone, leaving Luce alone in the parking
lot. Before he could react, a loud gasp echoed through the air around him. He
quickly turned his head toward the sound, tensing when he saw Serah standing at
the glass door, looking out. Her eyes were fixed straight to him. While he
couldn't see his reflection in the glass, knowing nobody else would know he was
there, he could tell she saw him.

Fuck
.

She squeezed her eyes
shut tightly and counted to ten. Although she whispered, the words barely a
breath, Luce could hear her. She reopened her eyes, meeting his, and blinked
rapidly before doing it again.

And
again.

She expected him to
disappear.

He probably should've
disappeared, vanishing while her eyes were closed so she'd think he wasn't real
again, but he couldn't.

Michael was wrong. He
wasn't a coward. But he was a pathetic son of a bitch who couldn't bear to keep
letting go of her.

Shaking his head, he
laughed dryly to himself before turning toward the door. Serah's eyes widened
when they broke from his gaze, drifting down to his chest as she gasped again.
He glanced down, realizing he wasn't wearing his shirt, and although the wound
he'd inflicted on himself had started to slowly heal, blood covered his chest.

The door to the motel
thrust open and Serah stepped out into the darkened parking lot.

"Hello?" she
called out. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine."
His voice was quiet, barely loud enough for her to hear. "Go back
inside."

"You're
bleeding," she said, ignoring his command as she slowly approached.
"Do you need some help? Do you need me to call someone?"

"I'm fine," he
said again. "Go back inside."

Once more, she ignored
him, closing the rest of the distance between them. Lucifer exhaled loudly, the
scent of her swarming him when he inhaled again. Flowers. She smelled like
fucking flowers. How he missed that…

Before he could react,
her hands were on him, touching him, one hand grasping his bicep while the
other reached for his chest. He hissed when her fingertips connected with the
bare skin. It was scarcely a graze, but he felt it deep down like a jolt of
electricity. He damn near shivered.

"Oh God, I didn't
hurt you, did I?" she asked, yanking her hand back away. "You're
hurt. Geez, you're burning up! I'm so sorry. I just… come on, come inside. I'll
get you some help."

"I'm fine," he
said for the third time, but it was pointless. She yanked on his arm, and
although he was strong enough to resist her, he didn't. He let her drag him
toward the motel, heading inside with her. She shoved him toward a chair and he
plopped down in it, shaking his head as she scrambled around for something,
disappearing into a side room briefly.

She returned with a wet
rag and immediately started blotting the blood from his skin. Lucifer sat as
still as possible, watching her with disbelief as she rambled on and on.
"What happened to you? Did you get cut or something? Did somebody do this
to you? It looks like something, like a pattern or something… it's starting to
heal already, though. How long ago did it happen? Does it hurt? What happened
to you?"

The same questions asked
in a loop.

Lucifer didn't answer a
single one of them, just staring at her, stunned to be this close again. She
was utterly beautiful… flawless creamy skin and the deepest brown eyes. Blue
was pure, sure, like the sky above, but her brown eyes were as rich and warm as
the earth. There was something comforting about them. He once envied the humans
because they were given the Earth, but looking at her, he wondered if maybe
Paradise was to be found in a person and not a place.

"What is
this?" she asked, running the rag around the wound. "It's some shape,
like a triangle with a graph, and hook and a 'V'. I've, uh… I've seen this
somewhere before. Who did this to you? What is it?"

Reaching up, Luce palmed
her cheek, his touch making her eyes flutter before she met his gaze again.

"I'm fine," he
said. "You should've stayed inside."

She stared into his
eyes, her anxiety fading as her shoulders relaxed. She paused the rag near his
collarbone, the only movement the rise and fall of her chest, the blink of her
eyes, the beat of her heart.

Thump.

Thump.

Thump.

Lucifer listened to the
steady rhythm, relishing the sound of it.

"Tell me I'm not
crazy," she whispered.

"You're not
crazy."

"Tell me you're
real."

"I'm real."

"Really real?"

He cracked a smile, his
thumb gently stroking her cheek. "As real as you."

"Who are you?"
she asked tentatively, biting down on her bottom lip. "Where did you come
from?"

He laughed dryly.
"That's a long story."

"I have time."

"Not enough,"
he responded. "Never enough time."

For
her, anyway.
Luce had all the
time in the world. Eternity. But her life would be barely the blink of an eye
in the grand scheme of things, and then she'd go to Heaven, and stay in Heaven.
And he'd still be here.

Or back down there.

"I have to be
crazy," she whispered, more to herself than anyone as she pulled away from
him. She plopped down in a chair beside him, tossing the rag down on the desk.
She ran her hands down her face, shielding herself as she lowered her head.
"You're not real. I'm dreaming again. Wake up, Sarah. Time to wake
up."

"Serah," he
whispered, pulling her hands away from her face. "Your name's Serah. And
you're not crazy… not the crazy you're thinking, anyway."

Crazy
for falling for him, maybe.

Eyes wide, she met his
gaze again. "You know my name?"

"I do."

"You knew me?"
she asked, hesitating before clarifying, "You know me?"

"Yes."

"Who am I?"

"That's another
long story."

She sighed with
frustration, whispering her name to herself, like she was trying it out. Luce
watched her mouth move, sounding it out. Fuck, how he wanted to kiss those
lips…

"Were you
there?" she asked, the question distracting Luce from thoughts of kissing
her before he slipped up and acted on the impulse. Who knew he had any sort of
self-control?

"Was I where?"

"In the
street," she said. "The day I woke up. Were you there? Because I
remember you… I remember your eyes."

He nodded slowly.
"I was there."

"What happened to
me?" she asked.
Such
a loaded question
.
Luce was about to say it was a long story when
she cut back in. "Please, I don't care how long it takes, I want to know.
I
need
to know."

He considered it for a
moment, considered making up some lie, some boring, believable story that would
soothe her curiosity, but he couldn't. Lying used to come so easy for him, and
it still did, but he couldn't lie to her about this.

 
“It was a mistake,” he said quietly. “You
went somewhere you shouldn’t have gone, got caught up in someone else's fight,
and you ended up hurt because of it.”

 
“How?” she asked. “How did I get hurt?”

Luce was quiet for
a moment, staring at her, as he finally pulled his hands away, his fingertips
leaving her skin. “You trusted someone you shouldn’t have ever trusted.”

 
“Who?”

 
“Someone who nearly destroyed you.”

She shook her head. “Do
you always speak so cryptically?”

He shrugged a shoulder.
He was trying to convince her she wasn't crazy. Any more details than that and
she was liable to check herself into a mental institution.

The devil tricked you to trigger the apocalypse,
and then he stuck a knife through your chest, but I swear it was out of love.

"Have you
considered maybe you're better off not knowing?" he asked. "That maybe
there's a reason you don't remember any of it?"

"What if it was
you?" she asked. "How would you feel?"

He laughed dryly.
"I'd give just about anything to have a clean slate."

"But I just... I
want to know who I am. I want to know where I came from. Do I have a family?
Friends? Does anybody care? Does anyone miss me, or remember me, or even think
about me?"

"I do," he
said quietly.

"And who are
you?" she asked, cutting him off when he tried to respond right away.
"I know you said it's a long story, but can I get the short version?
At least a name?
Something?"

He considered it for a
moment. "Luce."

"Luce," she
repeated, brow furrowing. "Is that short for something?"

"Yes."