Tainted Wings: Book Two (18+)

Chapter 31

VIRAGO

Being back in Hell solidified the fact that I really was safe again. Lucifer used the portal in his manor's basement to bring us back, all while carrying me in his arms. We appeared in his bedroom. Placing me on the bed, he told me to wait for him to get the bath ready.

Lucifer moved away and I snatched his wrist. "No!"

"Yes?"

"Take me to the bathroom with you. I...I wanna stay near you."

Sadness clouded his features and he nodded, picking me up and bringing me to his bathroom. He placed me on the edge of the bathtub and gently removed my raggedy dress. Once Lucifer saw the rest of my skin, he gasped at the number of bruises and dried wounds on my body.

Lucifer fell to his knees, terror overtaking his features. My hands moved on their own, hiding as much as I could from him. "He um...didn't want me to fight back."

"Virago, I'm so sorry," he said, voice breaking as he placed a hand on my bruised thigh. "I'm such a fucking idiot. I should've figured it out sooner."

Tears escaped the corners of his eyes. I wiped each of them away. "Don't cry. You did everything you could, Lucifer."

He continued to cry in my thighs. "It's still my fault he did this to you, all my fault! I don't deserve you!"

Lucifer's sobs pierced my heart, shooting up the agony dwelling up inside me. I let him cry and slid off the tub to hug him. We stayed in each other's arms until his cries died down to sniffles.

"Don't you ever say you don't deserve me again," I whispered, running my fingers through his hair. "You deserve to be loved, Lucifer. Whether you believe it or not, you deserve all of me and my love."

He remained quiet. Once he stood up, he turned the faucet in the bathtub on – hot, just the way I liked it. While we waited for the bathtub to fill up, he brushed out the knots in my hair, placing kisses on my shoulders.

Lucifer helped me into the tub. The heat soothed my bruises as I sat in the water. He got my hair products and favorite soaps ready.

He began healing my bruises as he bathed me. Before healing a bruise, he placed a kiss on the ones his lips could reach. Closing my eyes, I let him give me all the tender love and care he had. Oh, how I missed this. I haven't felt a single caring touch in days. It almost felt foreign to me.

After taking care of my bruises and dried wounds, Lucifer washed my hair. His soothing fingers rubbed my scalp.

"Did...did he not feed you?" he inquired softly.

"He did but he always put something in it to make me unconscious. I refused to eat because of that."

Lucifer stopped asking more questions. For that, I'm grateful. I didn't even want to think right now. I just wanna feel. I just wanna feel and be with him.

Lucifer scrubbed all the dead skin off of my body and out my scalp, washing what he could from the past two weeks away. He pulled the plug out of the bathtub, letting what he took off of me go down the drain.

"I don't wanna get out now," I said.

"You should sleep, Virago."