Savage Wings: Book Three of The Whitechapel Chronicles

Chapter 20

He chuckled, raking his fingers through his floppy fringe when it fell across his forehead. "Michael always loved it here so it stands to reason that you would to." His smile was warm, gentle and inviting as his eyes overflowed with what appeared to be genuine concern. "How are you feeling? Much better, I trust?"

"Oh, you know, like I've just been trampled on by an angry mob of marauding dead people." My accusatory glare could have flattened skyscrapers. Lucifer's face fell, a flicker of hurt pulling on his brow and momentarily dulling the rainbow hues his eyes.

"Megan, you can't think that was my doing?" he pleaded.

"I saw them....your demons, or whatever the Hell they are. They were trying to stop me. They did stop me."

"Impossible. They could never lay a finger on you."

"They didn't have to. All they had to do was persuade the un-claimed to carry out their dirty work...your dirty work."

I wasn't entirely sure that accusing the Devil so vehemently was the smartest thing I could have done right then but my body still ached from invisible bruises and my head was whirling like a spinning top, sending waves of nausea into the pit of my stomach. I expected his rage and his wrath, but instead he averted his gaze for a moment, sucking gently on his lower lip and picking at the gilded frame with his long fingers as if struggling to know what to say in response.

When he looked up again, he nodded and shot me a brief and rather nervous-looking smile.

"I understand your anger and I appreciate how this must all seem to your eyes. It is just the way of things, you must see that? Michael has charged you with saving souls and taking them from Purgatory and it is the job of my....demons, as you so put it, to keep those souls here. They were.....overzealous in their efforts to impress me, I admit. But I swear that I never sanctioned any attack upon you."

My confusion deepened. Every second in Lucifer's company made me feel like the floor had vanished beneath me and I was plummeting from some terrible height, never managing to catch hold of anything to break my fall. Everything felt slightly out of sync when I was near him because he wasn't the man I expected him to be. He didn't talk like I expected. He didn't react in the way I expected. And he certainly didn't look anything like I had expected. Maybe that was the problem. Maybe all this would be easier to understand if he was more like the Devil he was meant to be instead of this vision of an indie rock god with a smile that could melt a glacier.

"Why did you save me?"

"Simple. I saved you because you needed saving."

I scowled. "That's not a reason."

Lucifer's face lit up in amusement. "I'm quite sure that it is. Although, maybe it might please you more if I was to say that I had an ulterior motive?

"It would neither please nor displease me. I just want the truth."

"Ah, spoken like a true angel. Stoic to the last."

I glared at him in frustration. "This is getting me nowhere. I think it's time I left..."

"No, no, please don't," Lucifer cried, looking genuinely distraught as he held out his hands to placate me. "Look, in all honesty, you were quite capable of saving yourself, although thanks to Michael, of course, you wouldn't have known that. So rather than see you suffer, I saved you. And yes, aside from holding no desire to see you come to harm, I did have an ulterior motive. One being that I get to spend more time in your company and other to get the opportunity to speak with you once more. Our last meeting was...regrettable to say the least, and I wanted the chance to explain."