The sunlight entering the forest from in between the thick leaves, fell on my face making me groan tiredly in my sleep. I brought my hand to my face, rubbing my eyes as I shifted around. My joints cracked as I continued to stir, half asleep.

I pressed down on the hard mattress with my palm, trying to raise my aching body. The mattress huffed and moved underneath me, my eyes opening almost immediately as I sobered up from my sleep, alarmed.

My eyes fell on my mate's naked chest as it moved up and down, matching his deep breaths. He stirred, his head moving slightly, taking in a deep breath.

"Stop moving so much" Lucifer's groggy and sleepy voice sent weird tingles down my spine as I placed my knees on the ground, getting off his lap. His head was placed on the roots of a tree, and his semi-naked body sprawled on the ground.

I felt horrible for letting him sleep on the ground, while I was sleeping peacefully and comfortably on top of him. I cringed at the sight of his weirdly twisted neck against the roots and looked away guiltily.

"Sorry" I mumbled sleepily as I rubbed my eyes again, flexing my entire body in the process. I shivered from the cold as the warmth from Lucifer's body disappeared and hugged myself, rubbing my arms to create friction.

"I said stop moving, not get off me" My core clenched at the sound of his raspy voice, before I felt his hand snaking around my waist and pulling me back on top of him. Warmth hugged me immediately as my naked body came in contact with his. Lucifer's hand went to caress my back and I hissed in pain, as my skin stung.

Lucifer quickly and stiffly rose from his lying position, as he quickly examined me from head to toe. His expression was a mix of sleeplessness, exhaustion, and alarmed concentration, with an adorable touch of messy hair. His eyes were focused as he scanned my body for injuries. He softly turned me around, my bare back now facing him.

"Oh, fuck..." He exhaled and I could almost picture him scrunching up his face. His hot fingers trailed lines in between the scratches.

"Is it that bad?" I chuckled, not really worried about the damage. Scenes from last night popped back into my mind and I blushed furiously, scratching the back of my head and pulling my disheveled hair over my left shoulder.

"No, not really. Just some scratches and bruises here and there. But curiously, there's a lot of dried blood all over your back. And dirt. And some leaves. And maybe a few claw marks..."he chuckled and I started giggling as he listed everything.

"That about sums it up" I laughed and shivered as he softly run his hand over my back, chips of dried blood falling all over his lap. Even though he didn't show it, I sensed his slight worry pulsating from his body into my own. "Don't worry, I'll survive. What kind of a phoenix will I be without a few battle scars?" I joked and shifted around on his lap, getting comfortable. His body stiffed as his hand moved upward, reaching the nape of my neck.

My mark itched and I felt needles throughout my body, realising that his mark was extremely close to mine. At any other point of our past, I would have moved away, showing my discomfort at what this action meant. But this time it was different. Somehow I knew that he wouldn't do it without my consent; this time I trusted him.

"Battle scars, huh?" He breathed out as he continued to trail lines and circles on the nape of my neck. His fingers went higher, grazing my mark, and I felt it heat up almost immediately. I shivered violently, my body trembling against his. "Would you like some more...battle scars? I think I can help you with that"He trailed off seductively and I felt something sharp against my mark. His claws run up the back of my head, and then they were dragged down my back, softly grazing the sensitive skin, going over the previous scratches.

I gasped as I was instantly aroused by the way his claws felt against my skin. I didn't know that I was into this shit until I met Lucifer. The constant fear and distress that he caused me at the start, has built a very strong relationship between me and pain, to the point were I find it exhilarating.

Which is problematic in a million different ways, but I don't have the time or will to analyse it right now.

He wrapped his hands around my waist, colliding our bodies as his clawed hands rested on my hips, softly poking my skin. I exhaled unevenly and covered his hands with mine, only now noticing that there was dried blood all over his palms and my stomach and my bruised hips. I saw the claw marks on my hips, some of them stretching all the way down to my inner thighs. Damn, he was rough.

"I think I have enough battle scars for today, don't you think?" I hummed as he nestled his face on my shoulder, planting a wet kiss on my neck before biting down softly.

"Are you sure?" He whispered huskily against my ear and moved his lower abdomen underneath me. My eyes widened a little as I felt his boner rub against my ass. I was too stunned to speak as Lucifer exhaled weakly on my neck.

He was acting so different to what I was used to. Laughing, chuckling, caressing me softly, letting his guard down... and apparently getting horny at even the sight of me. He seemed to have calmed down since last night with Dante, which was a good sign. But still, I don't know how they will react when the see each other again. Hopefully, better than yesterday.

"Are you seriously hard again? We had sex a couple hours ago..." I sighed and giggled at him as I side eyed him. His magnificent red eyes looked sharply at me and he smirked knowingly. I frowned at his expression, unsure of what he was planning.

"Don't act like you're any better than me, mate" He said smugly as he brought his hands down to my sex, quickly inserting two fingers. I shrieked and my whole body tensed as I waited for the stabbing pain of his claws, but he had retracted them. My breaths shook as I tried to calm down my quickened heartbeat. "See, you're wetter than the fucking ocean"

"Lucifer, no" I screeched as he started teasing my clit with his thumb, his two digits still buried inside of me. I quickly pushed my palms against the ground, standing up and escaping his embrace. My knees buckled from the sudden pain in my inner thighs and my abdominal area, and I almost fell over as I started walking away from him. My ankle was bruised and stung a little, but it was easy to ignore it.

"Walk away all you want now, because next time you won't be able to stand up at all" I heard him sneer and the blood rushed to my face once again. I looked back at him as I continued walking -almost crawling- towards the cabins.

"Why don't you think of that while you jerk off? Malaka..." I flipped him off and grinned at him as his whole face darkened. I laughed out loud as he just stood there, with his elbows resting against his knees, looking intently after me.

As I turned back around, continuing my way towards my cabin, I heard his voice through the mind link.

You're going to regret that...

.

.

.

It was still very chilly which meant that it was early in the morning. During the past few weeks I had learned how to approximately tell the time, because there wasn't a single clock in the cabins. Judging by the temperature and the place of the sun , I could tell if it was early noon or late noon, if it was midnight or beyond that.

I focused my hearing around the cabins, and when I heard the two steady breaths, making sure that both Dante and Gabriel were sleeping, I skipped across the field. My naked body was basically freezing as I entered the cabin.

I opened the small drawer next to the bed and grabbed a baby blue shirt, a pair of underwear and a pair of black shorts. Gabriel had visited a small town in Romania during the previous week and had brought me some new clothes that were more fitting, a lot of women's underwear, a couple of dresses for no reason at all, and a few makeup stuff saying that "he wanted me to feel good while I was staying with them". I appreciated the sweet gesture and thanked him many times, but I never once thought of using any of the cosmetics, usually because I was training and sweating every single minute of every day.

Now don't ask me how this angel found money to buy all that stuff, because I bet my life that they don't own any money...

I smiled at the thought of my two celestial hosts and how kindly and warmly they treated me, as I gathered my towel from the bathroom and exited the cabin. I walked down the field, shivering as my bare feet brushed over the soft grass. After walking around the lake, I found my usual spot that was hidden from the cabins, behind a large cherry blossom tree and close to the waterfall that was just a few hundred meters away.

I set my things on top of a huge rock close to the shore and immediately walked inside the lake. The water was always calm and clean, with only a few pink petals floating on the surface. Dante would probably scold me for getting in the lake with dirt and blood on me, but he wasn't here, was he?

Taking a deep breath, I dove inside. My wounds stung and I shivered violently once I was underneath the surface, as the cold water engulfed me. Pulling some slightly sad memories from my mind, my hands glowed orange, heating the water around me.

Once my head was out, I sighed in bliss as I started rubbing my whole body, getting rid of the dirt and the dried blood from my waist and my lower back. I rested in the now warm water, my eyes closing as the knots on my muscles slowly smoothed over.

I swam around for a few minutes as the sun slowly rose high in the sky, the temperature rising along with it. Birds started chirping cheerfully all around me and the leaves on the trees started shaking slowly as small gusts of wind swiped through them.

I was swimming across the lake and towards the waterfall, going deeper into those crystal waters. My arm muscles were aching and my legs were still sore from yesterday's training, so I figured that a bit of swimming would be a good morning exercise to wake my body up. After a few minutes, I reached the waterfall and carefully swam under it. I found my balance against the rocks at the bottom and stood up, letting the strong water hit my back.

I groaned in blissful pain as the water hit my scratched back in a continuous, harsh way. The power of the chilly water falling cleaned everything on my back and my hair as I stood underneath it, the wounds stinging. A minute or so passed before I could feel my balance faltering, so I quickly dove in the water, swimming away from the waterfall.

I swam back towards the place where I left my clothes and I felt my heart skip a few beats as I was emerging on the surface. I didn't need to look up to know that Lucifer was standing a few feet away from me, as I immediately sensed his presence.

I wiped the water off my eyes and glanced towards the shore. The sight caused alarms to go off inside my mind and my head started spinning.

Lucifer's naked back was on full display as his wet hair fell to the nape of his neck. One strong arm was rubbing his shoulder, making his bicep stand out in the most delicious way. His body looked like it was slowly crafted and carved to perfection, with everything being right in every way possible.

A strong muscly back with broad shoulders, and a slightly thinner waist that had muscles protruding in all the right places. The proportions of his body could only be described as perfect, with his wide chest and his lean abdominal area. He wasn't chiselled in any way, nor his muscles stood out abnormally. Not too little, not too much. They flexed and appeared every time he moved, indicating his strength and the hard work that he put into maintaining this body.

Or maybe he was created like that, and he doesn't have to do anything in order to keep staying fit. Unfair.

My eyes hungrily run over his body again and again, almost devouring him as I slowly walked towards him. He was now on his side, his perfect profile visible to me. The water was up to my waist as I got closer to him, and up to Lucifer's...lower abdominal area, the crystalline water doing nothing to hide what's underneath.

His nudity or mine used to make me uncomfortable. I would blush and get all fidgety, looking away from him. But the way he looked at me last night, like I was the only woman in the world, the only one he wanted to look at, made it all disappear. The discomfort and the nervousness just vanished, leaving me with a constant need to look at him and have his eyes on me.

I closed our distance and caressed his arm, running my fingers up to his shoulder and down towards his wrist. His scarlet eyes found mine, hypnotising me and keeping me focused on him. I could feel the electricity between us as our eyes burned into each others. Wet strands of raven-black hair were falling everywhere, sticking to his cheeks and his forehead.

A strong wave of lust and need hit me out of nowhere, and a primal feeling started bubbling in the pit of my stomach.

I slowly circled around him driving my fingertips across his back, caressing the wet rough skin. His muscles tensed underneath my fingers as I moved my hand over his shoulder. I stopped right in front of him, the sounds of nature filling in the heavy silence, trying to brush away the tension in the air.

My thoughts were loud and clear in my mind as I looked deeply into his eyes, and with that tingling sensation in my brain I knew that Lucifer could see them very clearly. His eyes decreased to slits as his eyebrows furrowed. Without moving an inch he pinned me down with his hard stare, his eyes glowing.

"Don't play with me, Eli" He voiced roughly. I rested my hands against his chest and tilted my head back, looking directly into his eyes, seeing the underlying emotions behind the red hues. Normally he would hide them, or attempt to do so; but not now. I saw them and felt them pulsating from his skin to mine, his confusion and his curiosity, his arousal and his neediness.

"You call this playing?" I purred sensationally up at him, colliding my naked body with his, my hardened nipples pressing against his stomach. I could feel my arousal building up, my core clenching with need. He braced my arms tightly, huffing out and lowering his head towards mine.

"As much as I would like to pin you down and fuck you until you scream my name again," he whispered harshly, his eyes levelling with mine. "We have important matters to discuss"

I blushed furiously at his dirty words, but sensing his concern flowing through my veins, I forced my body to calm down. I brought my hands up to his neck, and lazily hooked them around it. The friction between our naked bodies caused all kinds of tingles to go up and down my spine.

He straightened his back, wrapping his strong hands around my torso and dragging me out of the water. He slowly walked towards the shore, as I shivered against him, wrapping my legs around his waist.

I didn't know for how long this sweet side of Lucifer would continue, but I craved every ounce of attention and care he had to offer. But he seemed different, changed. So I kept wondering if he's changed because he chose to, or if the traumatic events forced him to. Is he okay? Has he recovered from what happened?

But how can one recover from being caged and tortured for hundreds of years?

I shuddered violently, goosebumps forming all over my skin, not even capable of imaging it. I tightened my arms around his neck, and hid my face in his neck, comfortingly stroking his nape.

"Are you okay?" I voiced my thoughts, not being able to contain my concern, and he froze, his feet halting. I looked up at him, noticing the sudden stiffness. His eyes pierced mine with a passion so intense that I felt my body shake.

"I-" He started but quickly stopped as his wide eyes seemed to lose focus. Suddenly a surge of emotions started flowing inside me, my mind turning foggy. I groaned as I tightened my grip on his shoulders, every inch of my body touching Lucifer's. I tried to focus as his grip on my waist tightened as well, a million emotions rushing in between us like electricity.

"Lucifer, slow...down" So many unspoken feelings bursted through me, and if felt like I was being burned alive. My stomach and heart clenched from the rushing pain. Bright light erupted in my vision, my sight slowly fading as an orange glow took its place, blinding me. This glow was somehow so bright yet it was drowned by darkness.

I felt everything he felt; the nostalgia and the trauma, the pure pain and the disappointment. Then the heartbreak and the sadness, the feeling of abandonment. His emotions pierced through me and I whimpered out his name, my nails digging deep into his skin. Suddenly everything was replaced by concern and... terror. The orange glow brightened and I shut my eyes tightly trying to get rid of it. The glow persisted, as if it was ignited inside my brain, and I felt my body being lowered down.

I curled into a ball, as I felt the grass underneath me, shaking from the intense pain. The sounds were drowned out and I could only hear the blood pumping inside my veins. A constant flow of blood and flames surging up and down my veins in a frenzy.

I understood what was happening, because something similar happened when I first started training with Dante. He calls this Oblivion. I was blinded by this bright orange glow and my body lit up in a second when I had touched Dante, trying to train my ability to read emotions. It wasn't this intense and Dante soothed my racing fire immediately.

I could hear Lucifer's faint voice but it was so muffled that I couldn't make out what he was saying. I don't know how many minutes have passed, I lost track of time. But I knew that I had to get to Dante somehow.

"Dan...Dante" The words barely made their way out of my mouth, and a second later, intense feelings of fear and concern flowed through me once again. Even though it highlighted my pain to touch him, I clung to his shoulders as he picked me up and started running.

I placed my palm against his sternum, and felt his quick heartbeat thump against it. Concern, fear, anger, defeat, pain. The emotions multiplied and I groaned out in pain, shaking against his tight embrace. This time, his heartbeat wasn't helping me calm down, because his heart was the source of my pain.

After a few moments, my naked back touched something soft and warm, and then I felt it. The calmness, the serenity.

Dante always felt like tranquility. Peace and silence. Absence of chaos.

Come back to me Eliana, follow the light.

I heard his faint voice in the back of my mind, probing me to return.

You can do this, come on. Focus on me and follow the light out of your darkness. You have done this before.

I tried searching for his light, but the darkness didn't falter. The orange glow strengthened for a few seconds, before slowly dying down. Finally, I saw it, Dante's light. A small sphere of yellow glow, flickering in the distance. His light faltered, almost going out as I felt a surge of fear and uncertainty flow through me.

Eliana, God Dammit, focus!