Page 39 of Wicked Believer

Until it isn’t, I guess?

Until I’m being confronted by what could possibly be one of his exes in our living room.

His living room,that familiar voice of doubt whispers to me.

I squash that thought like the pesky bug it is, not stopping until I close the door to one of the guest bedrooms behind me. I sink against it.

I have half a mind to crash in mine and Lucifer’s master suite, thanks to Mia and her perfect, stupid face, but I won’t let the deluded fantasies of one of his employees get to me, potential ex or not.

Youused to be one of his employees,that awful thing inside me hisses.

The thing that’s been prowling around inside my chest since that night in the forest.

My anger, my powers unleashed.

I let out a frustrated growl, my hands suddenly clenching.

Without warning, I strip off my heels and toss one of them across the room, its spike hitting the wall with a loud thud and taking an unexpected chunk out of the drywall. My eyes go wide.

Oh shit.

I blink, staring at the hole I created in disbelief, before I start to pace back and forth, my chest heaving in and out as I remember the porcelain sink handle and how I crushed it in my hand so easily.

What in God’s name is happening to me?

I continue to pace, my fists clenching and unclenching as the lights at the edges of the room start to flicker, until I stop and let out a fierce shriek.

The electricity inside the penthouse surges, and the sound of shattering glass follows, dying alongside my scream.

Immediately, I go still.

The lights come back on a moment later, a few shouts from the staff downstairs alerting me to the fact that it wasn’t just me. It wasreal.

It wasn’t inside my head.

None of it has been.

Slowly, I lift my hand to my mouth, my fingers shaking as I cover my lips and stumble toward the en suite. I grip the doorframe, needing its support as I flick on the bathroom light.

A large, newly formed crack runs down the bathroom mirror, distorting my reflection.

And the haunted woman staring back at me.

Oh God.

I reach out my shaking fingers and touch her, horrified by what I see.

Not because of the damage I’ve caused, but because I ... did it because I wanted to hurt another human being.

Chapter Fourteen

Lucifer

I leave Astaroth’s unresponsive form lying in the diner for one of my other demons to retrieve. He’ll suffer until I return and restore him shortly, only for us to begin this whole bloody process over again.

It’s tedious, really.

I snap my fingers, finding myself amid the grime-ridden meat locker I reserved specifically for Charlotte’s father. My Mother quickly grew tired of torturing him. His head hangs limp upon one of his shoulders, where he’s tied to a rusted metal chair above a steel drain. The too-cool fluorescent light overhead casts the dark circles under his eyes in stark relief, making the dried blood that’s crusted into the grout of the green tile beneath him appear almost black.