Those dead eyes gave him one final promise from experience. “Lucca always wins.”
Twenty-Nine
A Match Made from Heaven and Hell
Taking an empty seat beside Chloe, Adalyn didn’t move her chocolate eyes away from Angel, watching their quiet exchange from afar. When their exchange ended with Amo finally leaving out the front door he had just come in, she took a deep breath and turned to the scarred beauty.
Chloe had followed her eyes, seeing Angel for the first time tonight. Goose bumps visibly rose on her pale skin.
“He scares you …” Adalyn whispered unknowingly. Never had she been able to talk to Chloe about the horrible things that had happened to her at the hands of Lucifer, and never had it been any of her business. Seeing her look that way at Angel, completely terrified, it did start to involve her.
I need to know if I’m making a mistake.
Pale, haunted gray eyes looked away from the fallen Angel to her.
“D-did he do something to you?” Adalyn asked nervously.
Chloe started to wring her hands.
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have asked you that.” She bit her lip, regret settling in. Taking another deep breath, she admitted something that frightened her. “I only asked because … I think I like him … a lot.”
Chloe stopped fidgeting, now only lightly squeezing her hands together. She could see it, the truth about how Adalyn felt about Angel.
Taking her own deep breath, she focused on her words. “When L-Lu …” Pausing, she couldn’t get the devil’s name passed her lips. “When h-he took me, Angel and his twin circled me the entire time.” Chloe’s voice dropped to an almost whisper, like she was fully realizing something for the very first time. “I-I think they were protecting me.”
Adalyn looked at the tatted bad boy, a smile forming at her lips. Knowing about Matthias and thinking about how each brother had circled her as well, she fully believed they had been protecting Chloe that night.
“It’s just …” Gray eyes looked back at Angel, the fear still apparent. “They look just like him.”
Goose bumps now trickled on Adalyn’s tanned skin.
“I-if they didn’t look so much younger, didn’t have all those tattoos … I would th-think I was looking right at the devil.”
Adalyn’s eyes travelled down the length of Chloe’s scar, sending a shiver so deep it rattled her bones. I’m so sorry, Chloe.
“Come outside with me, darlin’,” a low voice appeared with an outstretched hand.
Watching the broken girl take the demon’s hand sent a pain to her heart and continued to do so as she they walked out the back door and into the gazebo, where they sat. Without thought, Adalyn had gotten up from the couch, finding herself staring out one of the many windows, just to gaze at them a little longer.
Too enthralled, she hadn’t even noticed Angel standing beside her until his voice haunted her. “You really love him, don’t you?”
Her instinct was to lie, but she couldn’t find it in herself to do so. “Is it bad that I want to be her? That I want a love like that?”
“Yes, it is.” The response was harsh and took her off guard. “Their love is twisted, almost sick.” Putting a finger on the glass, he pointed at the couple. “I want you to look at them, Adalyn. Really look at them. Individually, they are fucked up in their own ways and need the other to survive. They are doomed apart. God help them if one were to endure life longer than the other. Their love is the rarest of all. A sick one that’s only made beautiful by those two souls and those two souls alone.”
The scarred beauty and the boogieman, a match made from heaven and hell.
“Is that really the love you want? Is he really the man you want?” Angel took her chin in his hand, forcing her to look up at him. “I know things about the boogieman that wouldn’t only give you nightmares in your sleep, Adalyn, but every time you opened your eyes.”
Looking into the eyes of the son of Lucifer, she could feel her heart splitting in two. “I don’t know what I want anymore.”
Angel dropped his cold, tatted fingers from her face. “I can tell you now, sweetness, it’s not going to be me.”
Her vision blurred.
“Goodbye, Adalyn.”
Thirty
My Weakest Creation
“You wanted to speak to me?” Lucca asked, sitting back in his chair.
Angel looked at the city that was backdropped behind him, not speaking for several minutes, letting everything that had happened since coming here sink in. When he finally spoke, he looked the demon right in the eyes.
“How long are you going to keep me here, Lucca?”
“When I no longer have to worry about your family coming after mine, I will let you go, and not a moment sooner.”
Shaking his head, realization settled in. “As long as both our families exist, there will always be that possibility, Lucca.”