It was midnight when Luca and I entered our new hotel room, and I carried him in before setting the three suitcases I packed beside the door.
I sighed and held him with one arm, unzipping one of the cases and pulling out another one of my T-shirts.
He just rested his head on my shoulder, half-asleep right now.
“Dante…” he whispered gently.
“Yes, Prince?”
“Dress me…” he said, “for bed.”
I just smiled and lifted him higher in my arms. “Yes, Prince.”
I then carried him to his bedroom, setting him onto the bed as he rubbed his eyes lazily.
I just knelt in front of him and guided his arms out from the sleeves, and he stared down at me lazily as I pulled the shirt over his head.
“Would you like a bath first?” I asked him.
He shook his head. “Sleep.”
I smiled then. “Alright. But promise me you’ll take one in the morning.”
“Kay.”
I lowered my lashes and helped him into another one of my T-shirts.
After I pulled it down, I just drew back the covers.
He scrambled under them, and I pulled them back over him when he snuggled against the pillow.
“The bed is uncomfortable,” he said then.
“I’m afraid you must deal with it for a little, Prince,” I said gently. “Your safety is my priority.”
He just turned over to face me. “Dante… why did you come seek me…?”
I smiled slightly. “I’ve been searching for you for quite some time. You managed to slip away from me for a while, you’re very lucky you hid from me for so long.”
He just watched me tiredly.
I just got on my knees beside the bed. “You are the Prince of Hell, master. I am your servant, remember? Your parents took me in and cared for me, and in return, I would take care of you.”
“But you’re free now,” he said quietly.
My smile widened a little. “I don’t want to be free. You are my prince forever. Don’t forget that.”
He just sniffled and buried his nose in the covers. “Are you going to be my servant again?”
My smile widened a bit. “Master…” I gently pulled the covers slightly back and lifted his shirt, exposing the crescent scar on his side, “I told you that I would take care of you. And you asked me to keep defining it. Yes, you are not a child. But I serve you, my Prince of Darkness, and I forever will.”
He blinked.
“I will dress you, bathe you, do your scheduling,” I explained, “like I always have since you and I were seven years old.”
He still watched me tiredly.
“You recently got your memories back,” I said with a small smile. “You now know all memories of your human life are fake. You’re very calm about everything, Prince Luca.”
He rubbed his eyes tiredly. “In all honesty… they didn’t feel real.”
My lips parted.
“It all felt too good to be true,” he said to me, voice dark, “the angels sugar-coated all my memories which was stupid of them. No childhood was without bullying and pain and learning of one’s actions. It didn’t feel real at all.” He was silent for a moment. “I felt like my memories of human life were feeble and weak… like thin strings stretched to tightly… like it would break the moment I remembered what actually happened, and I was afraid of them to, because I thought it was the only thing I remembered.”
My lashes lowered.
“But… but then the darkness set in,” he told me quietly, “my father died, my mother… well, I guess she’s not really my mother, is she? But… she abused us. Mable took us away and tried to raise us on her own, but I ended up having to pitch in. After I was cursed, I managed somehow and scraped together enough money to go to college. I was going to get a degree in psychology so I could be a therapist… especially after…” he trailed off.
“The money you scraped together…” I said gently, “was it from that drug trade?”
He silenced then, lips thinning.
That’s a “yes”.
“I didn’t want to do it,” he whispered to me as my lashes lowered. “I was kidnapped when I was sixteen. I was tortured for too long and….” He trailed off again.
I just gently undid the bandage over his eye, starting to gently unwrap it as he lifted his head for me. “It’s alright. Don’t say any more.”
Because I already know.
I was the one who got you out, but you were so muddled and broken you don’t remember.
He just breathed quietly when I took the last of the bandage off. “I’m glad I got my memories back, though. Even though the string has broken, I somehow feel… complete.”
My lashes lowered.
He rubbed his eyes again when I set the bandages aside, gazing down at him as I pulled the covers over him. “Why don’t you sleep now?”
“Dante,” he said before I could get up.
I gazed down. “Yes, Prince?”
He just watched me quietly. “Why… why don’t you hate me?”
My lashes lowered. “Why do you ask such a thing?”
“You could’ve been free,” he said then. “And the daem hate me because I’m part fallen… and the angels hate me because I’m part daem. Not only that, but… the angels also target me because I’m the Prince of Hell. So… so why are you different?”
I just smiled, eyes glowing a slight red as my lashes lowered. “Because your race does not define you, master.”
His lips parted.
“You might have both blood but be as weak as a human,” I said as he glared in annoyance. “But I know you deep inside.” I pressed my finger to his heart, making his lips part. “You are more than what you display,” I told him. “You are in constant pain, master, but you use it to your advantage. You power through even though you are broken, don’t you see? You are special, master. You are better than any human out there, you are hyperintelligent.”
“But I’m not who I was,” he said to me.
My smile fell a little. “I know.”
I heard his childish giggle echo through my thoughts from so many years ago, and how he danced around the castle in hell… and then it dimmed to this moment—where he lay on his bed with his straight face, his tired eyes, and his weakened expression.
And it hurt. It hurt how he changed… it hurt that some curse and some fucking drug trade damaged him completely.
I didn’t know if I could see him smile again, but I longed for it.
Luca just watched me with the X in his right eye glowing a bright red, and it made my lashes lower as my smile widened a bit.
Luca just sniffled and gazed up at me. “Do you seriously want to be my servant?”
“I am yours and forever yours,” I told him. “You order me as you please.”
“I’ll be a bitch,” he stated then.
I gazed up. “I’ll long for it.”
“If I tell you to kill someone?” he questioned.
“I’ll kill them.”
“If I tell you to make me fifteen meals in ten minutes?”
“Then I’ll make fifteen meals in ten minutes.”
“If I tell you to bathe me fifty times?”
“Then I’ll bathe you fifty times, master.”
He just lowered his lashes. “If I tell you to let me die?”
My eyes glowed a bright red. “You will not die.”
“But if I tell you to let me?”
“If you’re in danger, or your survival is at risk,” I told him, gazing up as my eyes glowed a brighter red, “I will not listen to what you ask of me. I will save you.”
“Why?” he demanded then.
I just smiled. “Because you are mine.”
He stared at me for a long moment, lips thinning. “Are you that loyal to me?”
“Yes.”
“And if I kick you?”
“You’ll miss,” I said with a smile. “And I’ll commend you for trying.”
“And will you call me Luca?”
“No,” I said then, shaking my head, “I will call you master, prince, lord. Not your name.”
“But you did before.”
“That was because you didn’t have your memories,” I explained to him, gazing up. “I didn’t want to confuse you or scare you off.”
He was silent then, lips tightening. “You knew the entire time?”
“I can read your mind, master,” I told him gently. “It’s hard not to notice something off.”
He stared down at the bed then. “You will bathe me? Cook for me? Walk behind me while we go down the streets? Clothe me? Help me with my hygiene?”
“I have always done that for you, my Prince,” I said to him. “I won’t be against doing it again.”
He just looked up at me. “If I ask you to help me find a killer who’s roaming the streets?”
“I will help you find a killer,” I promised him. “Without putting you in danger.”
He just pulled the covers higher over him. “I don’t understand your loyalty to me, Dante.”
I just smiled, lightly running my thumb under his eye as his brows drew together. “How could I not be?”
“Because I’m a bitch to you,” he stated then, glaring, “and I’m not going to stop. You piss me off sometimes.”
“Yes,” I said then, gazing into his marked eye, “but you willingly gave yourself to me knowing that no one else could lay hands on you. You let yourself sign with me in order to belong to me, just for a wish to save other people.” I gazed up. “Be as much of a bitch as you want,” my lashes lowered with my smile, “I will serve you until the end of time.”
He just lowered his lashes. “You really mean it, huh?”
I nodded.
But a wide, sadistic smile spread across his face, and he quickly turned over to the other side of the bed.
My brows raised.
What was that smile?
I could feel the dangerous gloom of darkness coming off of him, and his body shook with silent laughter.
Should I be concerned?
“I will go to sleep now,” Luca said, voice dark with amusement. “Good night.”
I stood then, eyes glowing a slight red as I bowed. “Good night, my Prince.”
I then turned and started to the door, flicking off the lights.
But I turned slightly to him, smirking. “Order me to do whatever you want. You can’t break me.”
“I know,” he said, chuckling darkly. “That’s what’s going to make this so fun.”
I just smirked and started out from the room.
You may be a bitch, but you’re my bitch.
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