The Devil's Lover: The Wish (13 page)

“
Will they ever go
away?”

“
Unfortunately no, but in
time you will be able to force it into a state of dormancy,” Soren
replied.

She betrayed you!
The voice continued to persist.
She offered him the body that you have been
wanting, after you’d waited for so long.

Soren stopped in front of an enormous
door and turned to tell Chevalier to enter without him.

Chevalier opened the door without a
moment’s hesitation, expecting anything to happen. She was lying in
bed, pondering her own thoughts, when she heard the door open. She
expected Lucifer, but her eyes widened with surprise when she saw
someone else. She bolted up immediately. “Chevalier?”

“
It’s me,” he
answered.
Look at her,
the voice said,
the
whore.

She jumped off the bed and
ran to him, quickly throwing her arms around him.
Do you see?
The voice
said to Chevalier,
when he’s not here, she
throws herself at you.

“
I’m dreaming, right? How
can you be here?” she asked happily as she buried her face in his
chest. “I thought I’d never see you again.”

“
Did he hurt you?” he
asked. She shook her head. He let out a sigh of relief. His entire
body suddenly became stiff.
Her body is
tainted by him. She let him do it. She was supposed to be
yours!

“
Chevalier?” She looked up
at his pale face.

“
We have to go,” Chevalier
said to her, after briefly scanned her body for injuries. “We have
to leave this place.”

Kali hesitated. “Leave this
place?”

"We must leave now before that fiend
returns.”

“
I can’t…” she shook her
head in refusal. “Chevalier, I must fulfill my part of the bargain.
I can’t go back on my promise.”

The whore still doesn’t
want to leave.

“
Shut
up
!” Chevalier shouted at his instinct,
forgetting to keep his anger internal. She gasped and took a step
back.

He wanted to say ‘not you,’ but it
would just make things all the more confusing. He took her hand and
led her toward the door. She pulled her hand back from him before
they could reach the hallway.

“
I promised,” she said
when he looked back. “I promised in exchange for your
life.”

“
I don’t give a damn!” he
snapped.

“
She does not want to come
with you,” his voice startled the both of them. Lucifer stood in
front of the door with a displeased look on his face. "She belongs
here now.”

Chevalier stood defensively in front
of Kali. “It’s not that she doesn’t want to come. You won’t let
her,” Chevalier corrected him. “She doesn’t belong to you, not if I
can help it!”

“
Your scent..,” Lucifer
murmured, sniffing the air. Then he chuckled mockingly. “So that is
how it is. You agreed to become Soren's lab rat.”

Chevalier glared at Lucifer, a low
growl issuing from his throat. Kali could sense the tension between
them rising. If they kept this up, Lucifer would lose his temper
and who knew what would happen to Chevalier.

“
Please leave,” Kali said
to Chevalier, fighting her need to beg him to stay longer. She
walked to Lucifer’s side.

“
He’ll be leaving soon,”
she pacified him.

“
Face me, Lucifer,”
Chevalier said. “I challenge you.”

“
I suppose you want to
test out your new powers,” Lucifer nodded. “I will gladly
comply.”

“
No!” she pleaded to
Lucifer. “Don’t hurt him! Lucifer, don’t hurt him!”

He looked down into her eyes, shiny
with unshed tears. “This is the second time you’ve cried for
another man,” he warned. "There is a limit to how much I can
tolerate.”

He turned his attention to Chevalier.
“I despise those beautiful golden eyes of yours, and I hate your
defiant confidence. I will get rid of you this time, once and for
all!”

 “
No!” Kali brought
her hands to her face and shook her head violently. “Chevalier,
don’t do it again. Please, leave before you make him any
angrier.”

Look at those fake tears.
She just wants you to leave her sanctuary.

“
Having trouble
controlling your instincts?” Lucifer saw right through him. “You
are a newborn demon, after all.”

Kali looked to Chevalier. “What is he
talking about? What instinct? What demon?”

"I did what must be done!" he was
upset at the idea that he had distressed her. She has no idea the
pain he had endured to get this far, or the high price he had to
pay. "I sold my soul and my humanity to these fuckers to get here,
so don’t tell me to just leave!"

"What have you done?” she grabbed his
forearm and searched his eyes. "Do you realize what you've done,
Chevalier? Was it worth the life you've left behind? Was it worth
the normal life you could have had? Answer me!"

"I've made my choice and chose my
battle. Don't tell me you're not worth fighting for, because I am
willing to pay the price even if more is at stake,” he said in a
much softer voice now. "I will get you out of here even if it kills
me.”

"I don't want to see you die!" she
cried. "I want you to live, even if I never see you
again!"

"You see, Kali, I’m not willing to
make that trade-off.”

A force swept by her and tore
Chevalier from her grasp. The next thing she could comprehend was
the sight of his feet as he was thrown out of the
window.

"Chevalier!" she screamed as she ran
to the window. She reached for him by instinct, even though he was
too far away now.

A pair of black wings sprung from
Chevalier’s back, beating at the last moment to save him from the
fall moments before he hit the ground.

"Lucifer!" She angrily shouted at him,
but he ignored her.

Lucifer summoned his sword and jumped
down to land next to Chevalier. Chevalier dodged him by leaping
away with the help of his new wings.

If you want to live,
summon your own sword.
The voice said to
Chevalier.

“
How?”

Just call
it
. The voice instructed.
Just call it and it will come to you.

A sword appeared in Chevalier’s hand.
He managed to dodge Lucifer’s attack as the enemy’s sword whistled
through the air towards his head. Chevalier pulled a few offensive
attacks, but suffered from the heavy recoil of fending off the
demon lord’s blows. He began to pant for breath.

Lucifer grinned. “Not bad for a new
demon. However, this will end very quickly.”

“
Don’t hurt him, Lucifer!”
Kali yelled. She had raced down flights of stairs to make it
outside while they sparred.

“
Give her back to me!”
Chevalier shouted at Lucifer when their swords met, forming a
shining cross between them. Chevalier pushed his sword against
Lucifer's, but to no avail.

“
Give her back to you?”
Lucifer inquired as he sent Chevalier flailing to the ground. “I
would rather break her soul with my bare hands so that no one else
can have her. I will not allow anyone to lay a hand on what
is
mine
.”

She had accepted that she didn’t meant
much to him, but to hear it with her own ears made Kali’s heart
weep.

Adria’s words rang in her
mind.
Once you are no longer of any
interest to him, he will discard you without a moment
hesitation!
Kali clutched her chest. It
felt unbearably uncomfortable.

Soren appeared beside Kali. “It hurts,
doesn’t it?” he asked her with softness that completely out of
character. “Do you feel like you’re suffocating, now that you know
what you mean to him?”

“
You’re up to no good,”
she accused.

"If you have to choose between them,
which will you choose?" when she could not answer immediately, he
smiled. "I can make the decision easier. Would you choose the man
who has loved and sheltered you your whole life or the man who has
done nothing but deceive you?"

"How much more can he deceive me?"
Kali asked. Her eyes were rimmed with tears. "How many more lies
can there be?"

"Do you think that he was your
savior?” Soren made a 'tsk' sound. "Everything went perfectly
according to his plan. Didn't you find it strange that he was there
with you at the hospital?"

Her chest grew tighter.

"No,” she breathed out the
denial.

"Yes, Kali,” Soren confirmed her worst
fears. "Lucifer would never want you to find out that he had killed
Chevalier in order to trick you into a bargain. I should know, I
was ordered to kill him. Lucifer wanted you to come crawling to him
for help so that you would be grateful to him forever. He had you
eating right out of his hand.”

"I see,” she said calmly. The streams
of tears on her cheeks contradicted her expressionless face. "I
should have expected this.”

"I could offer a solution,” he lifted
her chin. "I can put you out of your misery.”

“
Are you going to kill
me?”

“
Am I that heartless in
your eyes?”

"Why would you help me?" Kali managed
to ask. "You’ve always looked at me with contempt.”

"You are right, I have,” Soren
admitted. "It was unfair that he placed a mere mortal above me
after all of the years I have served him. How could I not despise
you when you have stolen my brother?"

"Then why help me?"

"I want you gone.”

It was reasonable enough. "At least
you’re honest about it.”

He gave her a small red vial. “This is
a potion that will allow the person who drinks it to forget the
things they do not want to remember. One sip and all of your
troubles will disappear.”

Kali looked at the red
vial.

“
It’s what you wanted,
isn’t it? To forget the memories that cause you so much pain? To
forget all of this ever happened, but most importantly, to forget
about Lucifer?”

“
Yes,” Kali whispered. She
took the vial and slowly pulled the cork out. She looked up to the
demon fight above her before making her final decision. She closed
her eyes and brought the potion to her lips.

"Just one little sip,” Soren whispered
to her ear, "and everything you thread will go away.”

Leaning her head back, she swallowed
the liquid from the vial. She dropped the empty container to the
ground, a blankness stealing into her eyes. Soren leaned in closer
and whispered a suggestion into her ear. His command echoed inside
her hollow mind.

Lucifer caught sight of Kali and Soren
from the corner of his eye. She was walking dangerously close to
the blackthorns.

“
Kali!” he yelled out. He
was clearly distracted from the fight. “Kali, get away from
there!”

Chevalier took advantage of the
opening and struck Lucifer with his sword. Lucifer lost his balance
and fell into the thorns, the tiny daggers digging into his skin in
a thousand different places.

Jumping to his feet, Lucifer fought
his way out of the brambles and ran to Kali’s side, his attention
completely preoccupied from his fight with Chevalier. He caught her
wrist before the blackthorns could touch her skin.

“
I told you not to touch
that!” he shouted at her.

She turned toward him. Her eyes were
utterly lifeless, like a doll. Lucifer turned to Soren for an
explanation and saw the fragments of the red vial on the
ground.

“
What did you give
her
?” Lucifer lashed out wrathfully. He
created a massive energy force and directed it toward Soren. It
forced the other demon to fall back into the wall. The impact
caused a sizeable indentation in the stone.

“
It is a potion that
allows her to erase the memories she does not want,” Soren said,
wiping the blood that leaked from the corner of his
mouth.

Chevalier attempted to land and
tumbled to the ground. He still hadn’t gotten the hang of this wing
thing, yet. Kali's hands reached for him.

Lucifer was rendered
immobile. He gritted his teeth until his jaws felt as if they were
breaking.  He grabbed her slender neck in his hand.
“
You choose to forget me but you can still
remember him?
"

The rage in his voice shook the
foundations of the earth.

Kali couldn’t breathe. She struggled
to free herself from his grasp. Chevalier tried his best to remove
Lucifer's hand from her neck, but he just wasn’t as
strong.

“
After you promised me
that you’ll never regret meeting me? Are you aware that you are
committing a serious sin? I won’t forgive you! I cannot forgive
you
!”

Chevalier felt Lucifer’s power quickly
diminishing. He noticed Lucifer had loosened his grasp and took the
opportunity to pull Kali away from the deranged demon.  Soren
was there to catch Lucifer before he could fall. The poison on the
thorns was beginning to take its toll.