Reignite (Extinguish #2) (5 page)

"What do you mean?"

"I mean are you more afraid of your brother succeeding or of her
failing?"

Michael considered that, his gaze fixed to the projecting image.
Nothing seemed to matter more to Satan than listening to Serah's heartbeat. It
had become an obsession to the fallen angel, something that terrified Michael.

He remembered the last time Satan became obsessed with a beating heart.

It had changed everything.

"I'm afraid those are the
same thing, Father," Michael admitted. "I'm afraid he'll corrupt
another innocent mortal, and I can't just stand around and do nothing this
time."

"It's mesmerizing, isn't
it?"

Lucifer sat alone in a section of vast white space in Heaven. Or at
least, he
thought
he was alone. But the voice behind him shattered the
moment of peaceful silence, pulling him from the depths of his thoughts.

He glanced beside him as his brother sat down. Michael looked on in
awe, his gaze fixed straight ahead at their Father's newest creation before
them.

Earth
.

It was the middle of the third day since the project had begun. An
abundance of green was growing on the land, the first stitch of life appearing.
Lucifer had been sitting there since it started, watching every moment with
conflicting feelings.

"Yes," he said. "It's certainly something."

"I wonder why He's making it," Michael said. "Do you
have any idea?"

They knew what it was from the beginning, but
why
had evaded them.
Blessed with knowledge, but so far robbed of insight. Lucifer had been trying
to riddle it out on his own since it started. He was the closest to their
Father, the only one ever granted time alone with Him, but even he had little
more than a guess.

He'd been made to leave the throne room when it all started, as if it
were supposed to be a surprise. He had a few theories, the current overwhelming
him with thoughts of love.

"I think
it's
paradise," Lucifer
said quietly. "A home for His children."

"Home," Michael repeated. "I like the sound of
that."

The first sprinkling of color started to appear, what Lucifer seemed to
instinctively know as flowers. Although angels weren't
all-knowing
,
they possessed an innate knowledge thanks to their connection to their Father.
Lucifer watched with morbid fascination as the plants bloomed, dotting the
landscape.

Beautiful
.

His lips slowly turned up into a smile. "Me, too."

Michael sat beside him in silence for a long while, watching the
landscape shift as another day dawned. Surrounding the Earth, the sun and the
moon formed, stars appearing in the sky, seasons created right before their
eyes. It was amazing, full of their Father's love.

A true gift.

Lucifer couldn't wait until it was finished. He looked forward to calling
it
home
.

Day four breezed by, dawning day five.

Waves crashed against the land on earth, the water now teeming with
life. Lucifer stared in wonder. Thousands upon thousands of different creatures
had popped up before his eyes, each one unique and mesmerizing. His Father's
ingenuity was beyond anything Lucifer imagined. There were ones with the
ability to create, others that could fly
;
from a
massive gentle giant in the ocean to the tiniest speck of a creature in the
sky.

Lucifer's chest was so full of love he felt like he would burst if he
felt anymore.

The day came and went, the creativity not stopping. Creatures appeared
on land, animals of all kind, just as elaborate and breathtaking. He sat in
awe, his brother silently by his side, as time wore on and the world began to
flourish.

How much more could their Father bless them with?

It was during the sixth day, in a glorious garden, when another
creature formed, molded out of the earth. Unlike the four-legged animals, and
the ones with scales, and gills, and fins, this creature looked eerily like
him
.

Lucifer watched in shock as the first human came to life.

For the first time in days, his Father's voice could be heard.

Welcome, my child
.

The voice was strong and mighty, not spoken out loud, but heard in the
mind. Lucifer thought God was speaking to him, one of the few who were blessed
enough to hear His voice, when the man on earth responded. "Thank you,
Father."

Confusion ran through Lucifer.

He could only gape as the human carried on a conversation with God.
Adam was his name, and he was tasked with naming all of the other living
creatures, a job he took on happily.
Cattle, and cats; Fish,
and fowl.
The naming went on for most of the day, until they ran out of
nameless creatures and Adam was alone.

Lucifer could hear his Father again then, hear his musing about how His
new child needed a companion. Adam went to sleep, and from him spawned a second
human, a woman named Eve.

A wife for Adam.

"Be fruitful, and multiply,
and replenish the earth, and subdue it," He told them. "And have
dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every
living thing that
moveth
upon the earth."

A sensation Lucifer never encountered before twisted inside of him. He
felt as if he were tied in knots, pulled in different directions, like part of
him might break. There's no way he really heard what he thought he just heard.
He had to have misinterpreted. There had to be a mistake.

There was no way their Father just gave earth to this
human
.

"Home," Michael said. "For His children."

Lucifer glanced at his brother. Michael was smiling, still watching it
all with awe. He looked genuinely elated about everything that was happening,
while Lucifer felt anything but.

This paradise was supposed to be for them.

Wasn't it?

The afternoon air was warm, the sun
shining brightly in the sky, not a single cloud to be seen anywhere. The blue
went on for as far as Serah could see, crisp and clear. The color reminded her
of a set of eyes that frequented her dreams, a set of eyes that watched when
she was awake, haunting her.

They were eyes that held countless secrets, eyes that told a thousand
stories, but none of which Serah could understand. They spoke to her, implored
her, but she couldn't hear what they had to say. It was a whisper of a memory;
he was an apparition, there one second and gone the next, fading into thin air
like he were made of dust, and the tiniest breath would blow him away. She
wasn't even sure if he actually existed, but he was real to her.

If only she could think of his name.

It hung on the tip of her tongue, swallowed back again and again.

She wondered if she were crazy…
if she were legitimately full-blown, call-the-doctors insane. She still knew
nothing of the person she had been, nothing of where she'd come from or where
she was supposed to be.

The only thing she knew was
him
.

But then again, she didn't even really know him, considering she didn't
know his name, or if he were more than a figment of her imagination.

Ugh, maybe I am insane
.

Serah walked down the street, heading away from the motel one
afternoon, wandering the same familiar neighborhoods she'd wandered every day
since the accident. She greeted people warmly as she passed them, her eyes
flickering to the windows of the shops as she strolled by, catching sight of
the stranger's reflection in the glass with hers, always just a few steps
behind.

She knew if she turned around, he wouldn't be there. Nobody would be.

She was strolling along when she came upon the community center, the
door propped open to let the air flow in as voices spilled out into the street.
Serah stalled in front of the building, surveying it for a moment. She felt a
certain draw to the place that she couldn't explain, like she'd been here
before.

Curious, she stepped inside. The place was lit up, filled with rows of
flimsy metal chairs—maybe three-dozen, but less than half of them were
used. Serah slid into the closest one by the door, going undetected. A man
standing at the front spoke softly, words washing through Serah. She listened
silently, hands folded on her lap.

Something about it all felt
familiar to her.

Church.

She fucking went to
church
.

Did she realize she was going there? Luce didn't know. No matter how
hard he tried to get a grasp on her, it stayed as foggy as if she were
submerged underwater and trying to talk through it.

The human mind always was a mystery to him.

He stood in the middle of the street, in the exact same spot where he'd
lost her, and glared at the community center, listening to the voice inside.

…Satan disguises himself as an
angel of light…

…The devil
sinneth
from the beginning…

…Satan hath desired you…

Always the bad, none of the good.

"There is no good."

Lucifer closed his eyes at those words, spoken from the sidewalk behind
him. He'd sensed her essence in the area when he followed Serah here, but he'd
hoped she was too preoccupied to bother him.

Hannah.

"Lying lips are abomination to the Lord," Lucifer said, an
odd tingle of satisfaction deep inside of him. Oh, what irony… he was quoting
scripture to rebuke someone who still had Grace.

"I don't lie," Hannah said, stepping out into the street
behind him. "There is no good in Satan. He's the enemy, the lying snake,
pure evil that needs eradicated. The name alone says so."

"I hear you, sister. Heard you last time, too. You're just wasting
your fucking breath at this point."

He cut his eyes to the right when she paused beside him. Her gaze was
trained on him, eyes narrowed suspiciously. He sensed no fear from her, and her
anger was still present, but it wasn't as strong as before. No, it had given
way to something tougher—grief. It was easy to be pissed, to throw blame,
but it was a completely different game trying to come to terms with heartache.