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I KNEW LUCIFER WAS GOING TO BE mad at me for this, but I needed to get out of the house. With everything going on, I could feel that I was starting to fall apart and I was scared - no, terrified. I needed to feel again and I felt that the best way to do that was to do one of the things that I’d always done best: partying.
I teleported to the surface before heading to one of the many night clubs in the area: this one in particular was always one of my favorites, it was called The Rosette and it was always the perfect place for those that loved to party.
When I walked in, the sound of music immediately began to pound against my ear drums and the neon lights above made it where I had to stop walking for a moment because I couldn’t see well enough to walk down the stairs and into the main part of the club where the dance floor and the bar was. I stopped at the bar briefly to get a drink - not at all worried about the fact that I would get drunk considering I was a demon and getting drunk was literally impossible for me - before heading out to the dance floor.
Within seconds, my mind began to fixate at the people around me. Everyone - men, women, and everyone in between - were dressed scandalously and dancing in a way that was clearly intended to be seductive. I tried to pry my eyes away, but I couldn’t - especially when a woman walked over and grabbed one of my arms. She grinned broadly as she started trying to pull me over to dance with her and her friends.
Women weren’t exactly my type when it came to the love side of me, but the lust side of me never seemed to discriminate.
“Come on, Handsome,” she cooed, “You know you want to.”
She wasn’t wrong. I did want to, but I always wanted to. This was why I’d stopped going to parties or even to clubs about a year ago. I was barely able to control my urges when I was in Heaven, but the little control that I had ceased to exist and I was never fully able to regain even a morsel of what I had. The only time I didn’t feel the urges was when I was with my brothers, but anyone else seemed to be fair game for me. Even when it came to King Victor or Eddie, it seemed.
When I was younger, I was so embarrassed by it that I would keep myself locked in my room and not even Lucifer or Wyatt could get me to come out for days at a time. It never got any better, though - actually, it seemed to get worse as time went on.
I followed the woman over to her friends (mostly because she didn’t give me much of a choice), but as we danced, more and more people came over. Most of them seemed to be coming over for me and they made a lot of comments that seemed to point that way, too. I could feel my heart race as I watched them. I had only been in this kind of situation one other time when we were still in Heaven, and I didn’t like it then.
I looked up at the clock on the wall and swallowed. It was almost midnight - I needed to be getting home.
Still, no matter how much I fought it, I was no match for the dark thoughts once hidden away in my subconscious and less than half-an-hour later, I found myself going into one of the back rooms with a number of willing participants in tow. The only thing I could think of, though, was how disappointed Lucifer was going to be.
❀
WHEN I GOT BACK TO the Palace of Sins, the sun was already rising over Las Vegas, but I wasn’t sure what the exact time was. My mind was nothing but a blur. I rarely had any thoughts after a night like the one I’d just had. I walked into the Palace of Sins, closing the door softly behind me in an attempt to not wake up my brothers when I looked up to see Lucifer standing by the stairs.
He had his arms folded across his chest, plus his wings and curly, black horns out. I could tell that he wasn’t happy with me, but I couldn’t really form anything to say to him. I tried to urge myself to say something to him, but he started talking before I could even open my mouth.
“Lachlan, your horns...” he mumbled.
I looked at him blankly before reaching up to my head to, indeed, feel two pointy horns on my head. I tried to hide them, but they wouldn’t go away. I felt my heart begin to race as I looked at Lucifer. This felt far too much like when I was a little and couldn’t control my demon form - when I couldn’t control anything at all.
Lucifer walked over, putting his hands on my shoulders. “Don’t panic, Lach,” he warned, “You’ll make everything worse.”
He looked me up and down, probably noticing that my clothes were torn in places.
“Lach, what did you do last night?” He asked, seemingly distracted from the (more important) subject at hand. I shrugged him off of me and moved away, trying to remember.
What did I do last night? I couldn’t recall any of the events that took place. I knew that I’d given into my temptations (several times over, by the way) and I’d spent most of the early morning hours doing so, but other than that I couldn’t remember a thing. The sad part was, the minute I realized that that was the case I thought to myself that I needed to go out again tonight. It seemed that I was right back to how I was last year before I stopped going to parties and clubs altogether... great. Just great.
“I... uh...” I stammered.
Lucifer narrowed his eyes at me, grabbing me and shaking me. “You did it last night, didn’t you? You let your reputation get the best of you again, didn’t you?” He asked.
I looked down, unable to look at him when he was looking at me the way he was now. He shook me again.
“Answer me, Lachlan Asmodeus,” he demanded.
I shoved him off, “Yes, I did! So what?”
“So what? So what? Lachlan, what happened to all that work you put in? Why did you throw that all out of the window for just one night?”
I still didn’t look at Lucifer, but I could hear his voice faltering as he spoke. He let his arms drop to his sides and he hid his wings and horns away.
“Lachlan, why did you do it?”
I turned away, feeling something burning deep inside my stomach.
“Because,” I growled, shocked by how deep my voice suddenly got, “Because it’s my choice what I do with my life! You can’t control what I do! Besides, I’m the prince of Lust, Lucifer. It’s in the job description.”
“Lachlan...” Lucifer began, going to put his hand on me again when the door opened behind me.
We both looked to see Gus standing there with piles of shopping bags and probably stolen items behind him. Not to mention, he, too, had his horns out.