Reignite (Extinguish #2) by J. M. Darhower Read Free Book Online

a big gray mass abruptly blocked his view.
    A Dominion.
    "You've got to be fucking kidding me," he muttered, stepping
to the side to see around the monotone angel. Those drab winged fuckers always
annoyed him.
    "Is, uh... is there a new task?" Hannah asked, nervousness
straining her voice. Being caught anywhere with Luce clearly hadn't been a part
of Hannah's plans.
    "Yes," the Dominion said.
    "What is it?" she asked. "What do I need to do?"
    "Nothing," the Dominion said. "The task isn't for you,
Virtue."
    Lucifer cut his eyes at the Dominion, seeing he was staring at him.
"You're kidding, right?"
    "The Dominion do not joke."
    "No shit." They'd been created without a sense of humor. All
work and no play does a boring ass angel make.
"But you must be mistaken, because I'm not one of your drones that you can
order around. You don't get to tell me what to do, not then, and certainly not
now."
    The Dominion glared at him. Lucifer heard the bitterness in his mind,
words he'd never verbalize. The arrogance of Archangels is astounding, but
the fallen miscreant takes it to another level .
    Lucifer smirked at that, amused, and shook his head as he turned away
from the angel. "Run along and tell Daddy I'm not interested in whatever
worthless assignment He's trying to shove on me."
    That clearly wasn't the answer the Dominion wanted, but instead of
pressing the matter, the angel nodded in acknowledgment and apparated away.
    "The Dominion's tasks aren't negotiable," Hannah said.
"It's God's will."
    "So?" Lucifer said. "It's been His will for me to be in
Hell for six thousand years, but that didn't stop me from finding a way to
escape."
    A way that stole Hannah's friend from her as
a consequence. Lucifer
heard those words, spoken silently. He stared straight ahead as church services
came to an end, the few parishioners filtering out. Serah lingered in her seat
for a moment before getting up and walking out, strolling down the street
without ever actually participating.
    Lucifer stared at her until she disappeared from sight. He could still
hear her heartbeat after that, pounding steadily.
    He said nothing to Hannah, no goodbye, no words of well-wishing. They
weren't friends. One thing connected them, and that thing knew nothing of
either of them anymore. He strolled to the community center and stepped inside,
his footsteps methodic.
    What do you know? I didn't
catch on fire .
    The preacher still stood at the front, absently flipping through his
worn bible, taking notes.
    Lucifer paused right in front of him, their faces mere inches apart. He
was skimming through Genesis, his next sermon to focus on the beginning of
time, the rise of man and the fall of Satan.
    It would be easy, so very easy, to just flip the switch and become
visible, literally terrifying the life from the man. But what was the point?
Another human dead, gone from the world, but there were seven billion more just
like him out there.
    Last time Lucifer stood on Earth,
there were only two .

    Thump.
    Thump.
    Thump.
    Over and over.
    Again and again.
    It
was Lucifer's first time on Earth. He stood deep in the Garden of Eden,
shielded from weak human eyes, surveying the one called Adam.
    For
creatures that looked much like him on the surface, Adam seemed inherently
inferior. He wasn't even advanced enough to sense an angel in front of him. Why
did he deserve such a gift like paradise?
    The
thumping came from Adam's chest, strong and steady. Most other living creatures
on earth had the same rhythmic sound echoing from them, but Adam's was louder.
It was his life force. Where Lucifer was filled with Grace, the warm glow of
radiant energy, burning as bright as the stars now viewed above, Adam was
filled with something else.
    Blood.
    Lucifer
had seen it, had watched as the man accidentally pricked his finger on a thorn
and spilled a drop of red onto the earth. It caused the man pain, something as
harmless as a beautiful bush of roses injuring him.
    How fragile.
    How