Hell's Belle - Eve Newton Page 0,59
me visions of Lucifer. I’m not buying that you don’t want something.”
I’m pretty sure I know what it is, but I want to hear it from her.
“Fine, you’ve got me,” she giggles, caving easily as I knew she would. “I’m here to offer you something that I think you won’t be able to refuse.”
“What’s that then?”
“Lucifer is ready to be released from his prison,” she says, leaning forward conspiratorially as if it is a big secret.
“No shit,” I drawl.
Her eyes flash at my disrespect, but she reins it in. “He has an offer for you.”
I try not to show my surprise. She is communicating with him somehow. Not at all worrying.
When I don’t say anything, she purses her lips in disappointment. “You don’t want to hear it?”
“Not interested.”
“Oh, you have no need to be afraid,” she chortles. “He doesn’t want this throne back. He is proud of you, Annabelle.”
I grimace at her. Afraid. Who the fuck does she think she’s talking to? “That’s nice.”
“He wants to help you, Annabelle. If you release him, he will be your advisor, your right hand. You are so new to this role, while he made Hell what it is…”
She lets that hang there for a moment as if to intimidate me.
“And?”
“And he wants to help you grow. He has no interest in taking back his rule.”
“You’ll forgive me if I don’t believe you.” I roll my eyes at her.
“So untrusting,” she tuts at me. She flicks her dark locks over her shoulder. “What I’m offering to you is all the wisdom and power you will ever need right out of the gate.”
“I have power. Ruler of Hell, remember.”
“Yes, but Annabelle doesn’t exactly instill fear into mankind now does it? The Demons don’t fear you either from what I’ve seen. Now Lucifer, that is a name that will live on.”
I narrow my eyes at her. I’m not sure if she meant to give the game away or not. That one sentence tells me everything I need to know. Let Lucifer out and he will come for my throne. Simple.
“Sorry, not interested,” I say, standing up.
She regards me closely. “You will do this.”
“Will I? Are you going to make me?” I smirk at her.
She may be powerful but there is no way her power outmatches mine.
She stands up as well and stalks closer. “You need him. I see how your rule is failing.”
I waver for a moment, her words making me doubt myself, but I shake it off. No ancient bitch is going to rattle me or my faith in myself. I open the door and gesture the way out.
“Let me tell you a couple of things, Leviathan. For starters, if you ever go within a thousand meters of Sid again, I will nail you to a wall and peel strips of your skin off painfully slowly. Then I will dig your heart out with a spoon and eat it while I get Shax to bleed into your gaping wound, incinerating you from the inside out, torturing you to the point where you wish that Great-Gramps had never made you out of that primeval ooze from the Hell swamps out there. And secondly, I am Lucifer now. Hell, and everything in it is mine, kitty-cat. Including you. Including him. Now get your ass out of my house before I decide to torture you after all. Know that if I catch sight of you, or even a whiff of your cheap perfume, here again, I will shove you into that painting with your precious master and find a way to burn it. Are we clear?”
She gives me a scathing look. “Quite,” she clips out. She saunters past me but pauses before she leaves. “You are making a big mistake, Annabelle. Lucifer will rise again.”
I reach for her, but she shifts to her cat form and scampers off down the hall before turning to mist and then disappearing.
“Little shit,” I mutter and slam the door, just to make myself feel better.
One thing has been made noticeably clear from this conversation. I am the only one that can release Lucifer from his painting prison. I hold all the power here and now she knows it and soon he will as well.
I slip out of the room and look at Shax’s door. It’s quiet in there. I risk pushing the door open for a quick glance to make sure he is okay.
He is still but he is frowning. The pang of guilt stabs me in the heart. I walk over