Cipher (Demonica Underworld #8) - Larissa Ione Page 0,30
point while he’d been practicing his new powers, and she’d come back with clean clothes free of scorch marks. He definitely approved of the outfit. In the months he’d known her, she’d always worn earth or muted tones, but today’s black cargo pants had been paired with a purple tank top that emphasized her perfect, rounded breasts and slender waist. And her combat boots had matching purple laces.
He wondered what color her bra and panties were.
“You know that asking someone how they fell from grace is considered a rude question,” she huffed.
Yeah, he had totally sick social skills. “Do I look like I’m concerned about being rude?” He looked down at his palm and summoned a ball of crimson light in an attempt to use his new powers without his wings extended. Maybe he’d have more control this way. One thing that didn’t change was the oily, malevolent vibe that skated over the surface of his skin when he was using one of his fallen angel powers. “You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to.”
“No, it’s okay,” she sighed. “I fell in love with a demon.”
“A demon?” His hand jerked in surprise and his ball of light fell to the ground, exploding into a thousand shards of light on impact. “Was he hot? Like, not all scaly and snouty?”
“Of course he was hot,” she said as she leaped backward to avoid a spark of super-heated light. “He was a...what are they called? Ter-taceo? He looked like any other human male model.”
“He was a model?”
“He was a psychotherapist.”
Sounded boring as shit. Lots of talky. And he’d bet the guy wasn’t even that attractive. “What species?”
“Somniatus.”
He revised his thought. Not so boring. “A nightmare devil.”
Demon slayers claimed they were one of the most dangerous demons there were, attacking their victims in their dreams where they were vulnerable.
She smiled wistfully, and Cipher cursed the trickle of jealousy making its way through his body. He had no reason to be envious of a freaking demon.
Had it fed on her like Cipher had? Had it tasted the sweet nectar that had flowed over his fangs and tongue? The very idea that the guy might have taken her like that made him a little prickly. Again, for no freaking reason.
“He was a nightmare,” she said softly, “but only to those who deserved it.”
“So he was a benevolent demon? Really?” Color him skeptical. “Somniati feed off of terror.”
Her smile turned wicked, matching the gleam in her eyes. “And who better to terrorize than those who hurt others?”
Okay, yeah, he’d give her that. There was no sport in hurting innocents. Bringing a tough-guy asshole to his knees, though...that was satisfying.
“So you lost your wings for fucking a demon?” Cipher regretted asking the moment it was out of his mouth, because now he couldn’t stop picturing her naked. With another male. “I thought Heaven stopped doing that a few centuries ago.”
“They seem to pick and choose,” she muttered. “But no, that’s not why I got a one-way ticket out of Heaven.” She looked off into the distance again, beyond the lake bubbling with shit-brown liquid and the mountain range shaped like skulls, but this time, her expression was etched in anger. “I was to be confined to the Heavenly realm as punishment, so before the sentence was carried out, I went to say goodbye to him. But while I was at his place, we were attacked.”
“The Aegis?”
“I wish those demon-slaying idiots were the ones who attacked us. They were angels. I fought back. I had to protect him, you know?” She didn’t wait for his acknowledgment. “I accidentally killed a novice battle angel who was there to assist in Dailon’s capture.”
Oh, fuck. “Yeah, that would do it.” He made another light ball, but smaller this time. “So they booted you after that?”
“Oh, no,” she said, her voice dripping with bitterness. “That would have been too easy. First they forced me to watch as he was tortured and killed.”
He winced, having witnessed a few executions by angels making a point. “That had to have sucked.”
A few strands of silky hair had escaped her messy bun, and a hot breeze spun up, whipping them around her cheeks, softening her expression. She didn’t belong in this hellscape, and for the first time, he wanted to know about her background not for tactical reasons, but for personal ones.
“I knew going into our relationship that we didn’t have a shot at a meaningful future, but I wanted time to figure that out,