Page 56 of Love At the Gates of Hell (The Seven Sinners Trilogy #1)

thirty-seven

Luke

“You told me I would never see you again—”

Luke lingered by the door leading into the bedroom, his arm resting against the jamb as Tefi kicked off her heels. She had one of the most expensive suites at the Four Seasons, which didn’t surprise him. Tefi was always particular.

She pulled a few pins from her hair, and he watched it cascade around her bare shoulders as she moved toward the dresser.

Her things were scattered everywhere, her lipstick, her jewelry, a half-empty bag of blood from Roxborough Memorial Hospital.

She was always a little frenzied, a little unorganized.

He was constantly cleaning up after her.

She took off her earrings, her eyes meeting his in the reflection of the mirror.

“I didn’t expect you to be in town.”

“Bullshit,” he said. “If there was anywhere I’d be, it would be here.”

“Not everything is about you, Lucas.”

Tefi reached behind herself to undo the zipper of her gown but couldn’t seem to reach. She turned to look at him directly over her shoulder, a smile curving at her lips.

“Could you?”

Just like old times.

Luke pushed off from the door jamb and crossed the room toward her.

He hadn’t seen her in months. Not since they parted ways in Memphis.

He had missed his life, or what it was before he died.

He’d missed Gideon. But relaying those thoughts to Tefi had been a mistake.

She didn’t understand, or maybe didn’t want to.

She was more than two hundred years old and had lived a thousand lives in that time.

Human lives were meaningless to her—a life source, but nothing more.

That had been what she tried to teach him. In the whirlwind that was his transition to becoming a vampire, Tefi became his teacher. His sire. She showed him things he never knew existed in the world. She showed him how to be the vampire she turned him into.

And in the splendor of the pleasures she had provided for him, he realized he didn’t want it.

The life of a vampire was dangerous in how addicting it was. How easy it would be to take whatever he wanted. She had given him that power.

And it scared the shit out of him.

But he never expected that fight to be their last.

His fingers grazed against her skin as he reached for the zipper. The cut of her gown dipped low in the back, and he tried to ignore the realization that there was nothing beneath the black fabric as he undid her zipper. He looked up to find her watching him, something mournful in her face.

“I didn’t mean to just disappear.”

He stepped back.

“It was better you did.”

She frowned as she turned around, her hands resting against the edge of the dresser as she fixed him with a heavy look.

Tefi was one of the most beautiful women he’d ever seen.

Especially when they’d first met. Before he knew what she was.

He had been completely infatuated with her, with the way her eyes held a wickedness he wanted to investigate, the curve of her jaw, the way her skin seemed to glow even at night, even without the kiss of the sun.

Their relationship had been exciting and chaotic and seductive in a way he’d never experienced before.

It was blood lust.

It was hard to be here with her like this.

Tefi leaving had been the best thing for both of them.

She stepped toward him, her hand resting against his chest, her fingers teasing between the overlap of his shirt. The straps of her gown were slipping from her shoulders, and Luke inhaled. Would there always be this pull between them?

Would he ever feel free of it?

She reached up and traced the arm of his glasses.

“Why do you still wear these?” she asked. “You know you don’t need them.”

His lips twitched.

Because they made him feel like himself. Like he always had been.

“Why do you want to help us so badly?” he asked instead.

Her brow furrowed. “Can I not just want to help? Must there be a reason?”

But he knew her better than that. There was always an ulterior motive.

He walked her backwards until she was pressed against the dresser, his body crowding up against hers.

He hated how good she felt, all soft curves, all heat.

He reached up to brush a strand of hair behind her ear before tilting her chin up, his thumb tracing the long line of her throat.

“You saw something,” he said. “Tell me.”

Her eyes darkened into red pools, her skin paling as the vampire took over.

A guttural sound passed through her lips as she pressed back against him.

That transition would always stir something in him, watching the way the blood lust seeped into the skin.

He could feel his body react, each and every shift of her against him bringing his blood to the surface, his cock twitching in his pants.

“I saw destruction,” she bit out. “I saw total chaos.”

“Tefi,” he said as he hooked his finger around the strap of her gown, tugging the fabric down her shoulder. “I need more.”

“You know my visions are not exact, Lucas,” she said. “I can only tell you what I saw, and what I saw was a mess of death. I was telling the truth when I said this ritual would be terrible for all of us.”

“And just how terrible for you?” he asked, raising a brow.

She smiled as she reached for his belt, her fingers working the buckle.

He had no intentions of stopping her.

“Am I not allowed to have some self-preservation?” she countered. “Do you think it has been easy to make it this far?”

Tefi undid the fly of his pants, and Luke couldn’t help the groan that passed through his lips as her fingers grazed at his cock, the fabric of his boxer briefs hardly a barrier against the cool of her skin.

“You know you’re going to outlive us all, Tefi.”

A wry little smile tugged at her lips as she tugged him closer.

He pressed his thumb against her throat before he leaned forward, his tongue dragging against the same spot.

His fangs nipped at her skin as he trailed his mouth up to meet hers, a small gasp passing between them as he deepened the kiss.

Time away from Tefi made things clear, made him understand what about them didn’t work.

The kissing? That wasn’t one of those things.

He craved it.

His hands were rough against her skin, one still curved around her neck, the other traveling from her waist to her breast, fingers tugging at a pert nipple until she cried out against his mouth.

Luke knew her body like he knew his own, every inch of her, and he relished in knowing how to elicit every moan and sigh, like a little game only he knew how to win.

She shrugged herself from the other strap of her gown, the fabric pooling at her waist as Luke hoisted her onto the dresser, her legs welcoming him between them.

She raked her fingers through his hair, scratching at his scalp.

“You left me to play human, and I find you fighting demons.”

“You moved to Spain,” he reminded her as he slid his hand up her thigh, fingers slipping beneath the fabric of her dress.

“You could have come with me,” she said, her voice catching as he pressed his thumb into the soft flesh of her inner thigh. “Lucas, we could—”

“I’m right where I want to be,” he said firmly.

Whatever proposition she had for him, he didn’t want to hear it.

It was hard to say no to Tefi. She knew how to weave a very convincing argument.

Instead, he spread her legs just a little bit wider, allowing himself to fit against her.

His cock ached as he teased his fingers against her folds, smiling at the whimper of pleasure against his ear.

He wasn’t gentle, not when he could feel how wet she was, how hungry, and he slid in one finger, then a second.

She twitched, her legs tightening around his waist, her hips rocking against his hand.

“Lucas,” she moaned, her head tilting back.

“Tell me you’re not going to fuck us over,” he said, his thumb pressing against her clit.

She clutched at the edge of the dresser, her other hand digging into his shoulder.

“I wouldn’t,” she breathed. “Not with this.”

He increased his pace, his eyes settling on hers, as if he could read if she was telling the truth or not. But even if he could, even if she was bullshitting them all, it didn’t matter. Because they needed all the help they could get, and Tefi knew that.

She lived for the weak spots.

“Lucas, I’m—” she cried out.

“I know,” he replied, his thumb rubbing circles against her clit, the little tremors building in her body the sign.

There was a hitch in her breath, her thighs tightening around his wrist. She was clinging to him, and he was going to let her take it from him.

Just this one last time. And when she let out a breathtaking moan, when a shiver ran through her body, Luke pressed a rough kiss to her mouth.

“When this is all over,” he said, voice low and rough against her skin. “I want you to leave, Tefi. Because I won’t do this anymore.”

She sank back against the mirror, her chest heaving, her eyes wild and red.

But she didn’t say anything.

Luke tucked himself back into his pants and refastened his belt. The sooner he was gone, the better. He could already feel the pull of her. And he didn’t want that anymore.

It was when he was at the door to the hotel room that she finally spoke.

“Your new friend is going to die, Lucas.”

“Where the hell have you been?”

It was nearly dawn when Luke finally returned to the loft.

He was exhausted and frustrated and fully planned to take a shower, jerk off, and collapse into his bed face down until the insanity of the ritual began.

But Gideon was a mess, clearly running on some kind of adrenaline, still half dressed in his tuxedo and reeking of whiskey.

“Did you sleep?”

“I met a fucking angel tonight, Lucas.”

He blinked.

“You what?”

“A fucking goddamn angel,” he replied, throwing his hands up in the air.

“How much have you had to drink?”

“Not enough,” Gideon muttered.

Luke sighed as he undid the buttons of his dress shirt, pulling it from the waist of his trousers.

He sank down onto the sofa and something hit his thigh.

He glanced down at the offending object, curious to find a small leather book.

He smoothed his hand over the cover before flipping open to the first page.

The only thing written was ‘Notes’ in a delicate script.

He hitched a brow. Was this the journal Benny had told them about?

But when he looked back up at Gideon, he found his brother pacing back and forth in front of him.

One thing at a time.

“Tell me about the angel,” he started. “While standing still, Jesus Christ.”

“They said I have a role,” Gideon said, rubbing his hand against his jaw. “This whole thing with Frank, I knew it was big but this—”

“A role? A role in the ritual?”

“I don’t know!” Gideon snapped. He sighed. “They talked about a battle. They said something is going to happen to Benny. That’s she’s going to—”

For the first time in a very long time, Luke saw real fear flicker across his brother’s features.

He shifted forward, his elbow resting on his knee as he thought back to Tefi’s vision.

She had been given the gift of sight long before she became a vampire.

She had told him once in their quieter moments that she hoped the visions would have stopped when she turned, but no such luck.

They were flashes, mostly. Nothing consistent.

Sometimes bits of the past, sometimes bits of the future.

What Benny had to do with Tefi, he had no idea.

“What else did they say?” Luke asked.

“A lot.”

Luke glanced up at Gideon with a questioning glance. There was something Gideon wasn’t telling him. But he said nothing as his brother sat down on the edge of the coffee table across from him.

“ Seven sinners bring seven atrocities. ”

“What?”

“Frank is one of them,” Gideon said. “But whether he’s the sinner or the atrocity, I don’t know. It’s not clear.”

“Seven sinners bring seven atrocities,” Luke repeated, intrigued. “Well, in Frank’s case, he sounds like both. Was there anything else?”

Gideon stared at him for a moment before shrugging his shoulders.

“It was so fast,” he said. “A lot of fucking gibberish. And then poof, over.”

He had a few more questions about this angel interaction. But most of them would probably result in Gideon knocking him out. Instead, he reached for the leather book.

“What’s this?” Luke asked, holding it up.

“It’s her mother’s,” he said. “Benny’s.”

He swallowed and then cleared his throat.

“She asked me to read it.”

Luke’s interest was piqued, and he flipped open to a random page.

“Lucas,” Gideon said, reaching for the book.

“What?” he asked. “There could be something important in there.”

“She didn’t give you permission to,” Gideon said.

“And if it saves Benny’s life?” Luke countered.

“What do you mean?” his brother asked, his voice cracking. “What does that mean?”

Luke rubbed at his jaw.

“There’s something I have to tell you about Tefi.”