The Beast and Beauty

Chapter 14: Vulnerable

Lucifer

I looked at her face filled with fear and asked, “what is it? I thought you wanted to come to my realm?”

She was still staring at the portal but then managed to pull her eyes away from it and look at me, quietly she asked, “did you mean all those mean things? About me being disabled and not lasting in your realm?”

There was that irritating guilt again, I took a breath to calm myself from doing what I always did when I felt something I didn’t want to, become angry. I walked back over to her and held my hand out.

Gently she put her hand in mine and bending down I lifted it to my lips and kissed the back of it. “You don’t need to be afraid in my realm, I will protect you and under my protection no one would dare try anything for fear of my wrath.”

I walked towards the portal and unable to push the guilt away completely, I stopped and said, “and to your question, no, I didn’t mean the cruel words about your disability, I was being a c.unt.”

She slapped a hand to her mouth and gasped, “Lucifer!”

“What?”

“Such foul language!”

I couldn’t help but smirk at her reaction. “That’s nothing to what you’re about to witness princess, let’s go.”

I walked through and waited, I didn’t wheel her through because when she came I wanted it to be completely and entirely of her own choice and her own actions.

Nothing happened right away, I thought she had decided not to come, but then a minute later she came through, and the portal closed behind her. I watched her face as she took in our surroundings, terror filled her face.

I knew this would be the worst part for her to first see, but the other portal that led directly to my rooms would have taken us over a day to reach. This portal led us directly here, where all the souls of the damned were t.ortured and punished.

One of the souls screamed in pain and Belle jumped and screamed too. “I’m sorry, let me get you out this part of my realm.”

Her hands were shaking, and she held on to the arms of her wheelchair tightly. I wheeled her out and told her to close her eyes, but would she listen to me? No. She looked on in horror as demons t.ortured souls, I almost winced for her when she looked at the souls being skinned alive, cut and then thrown into the fire.

She squeezed her eyes shut after that and as I finally got her out of the punishment area, I slammed the metal door shut and came around to check on her. She had her hands over her eyes and bending down to her level, I gently moved her hands away from her face. She looked up at me, her big brown eyes filled with tears, and then she began to cry.

“I’m so sorry you had to see that.”

She didn’t respond to me and covered her face with her hands again. I looked down at her lap and realised she wasn’t just crying from what she had witnessed. Her pale blue dress was wet and her chair was dripping water onto the floor, I figured pretty quickly that it wasn’t water, she had been so terrified and traumatised that she had wet herself.

I tried to move her hands away, but she wouldn’t let me, she was too humiliated to look at me. “F.uck,” I breathed under my breath. I got up and wheeled her to my room quickly and shut the door.

My bedroom was big, the walls were a deep brown wood and lanterns hung softly on them giving off a cosy glow, or probably a lighting fit for a horror movie in Belles eyes. My bed was king-sized naturally, the covers were thick and rich and a bloodred colour, the pillows, and sheets black.

The frame was wood and a black canopy was draped around it. The floor was gold marble with black veins, and on top laid a huge red rug with patterns of silver and gold running through it. I pushed Belle towards the adjoining bathroom and closed the door behind us. Again, the bathroom was huge, the same gold marble floor with black veins, the walls a deep dark wood, the bath was big enough to fit five people and beside that, a shower that could have easily fit ten.

I got onto one knee in front of Belle and gently but firmly pulled her hands away from her face. “I’m so embarrassed,” she sobbed.

I couldn’t stand seeing her sob like this. “It’s fine, Belle, I’ve seen worse. You’re safe with me, and you don’t need to be embarrassed. Ok?” She didn’t answer me, but she didn’t try to hide her face again either.

I went to lift her dress up, and she slapped my hand away. “What are you doing!”

“We need to clean you up.”

“I can clean myself.”

“I’m sure you can, but a bath this size you could easily slip and hurt yourself or drown or some s.hit, I’m not risking it. I’ve seen hundreds of naked bodies, you don’t need to be embarrassed and nor do you need to make it s.exual or me being some creep. I just want to help you.”

Normally, she would have argued with me and demanded she be left alone, but with the humiliation having made her vulnerable, she simply nodded in defeat. I lifted the dress off her and then removed her bra and wisely kept my face unreadable, I wasn’t perving over her b.reasts or anything, I was shocked by the scars that covered her chest and stomach, thick jagged nasty looking scars that crisscrossed the whole of her torso including burn scars.

She wouldn’t meet my eyes or look at me, I knew she felt self-conscious being naked in front of me, but I had meant what I said, I wanted to help her, I had no interest in making anything seem s.exual or uncomfortable for her, I had seen many naked bodies in my lifetime and though I enjoyed s.ex with Hecate and flirting I also wasn’t human and didn’t always view it in the same way a human did.

In my spiritual form I had accepted the energy that o.rgasms created, rather powerful energy actually, from people wanting something from me in return and there wasn’t anything s.exual about it really, not to me anyway it was simply an exchange of energy, it wasn’t like I would spy on them and think oh they’re teasing me why don’t I go be a creep and watch, that was a human thing, and I wasn’t human, although I had no intentions of explaining all this to Belle right now, it would probably only freak her out more.

She helped me with her underwear by using the strength of her arms to lift herself just enough for me to slide them off. I carried her over to the bath that had been filling up and gently put her in it. Like I had thought, she slipped unable to keep herself up in such a huge bathtub, she clung tightly to the handles.

I tried supporting her back, but she was sliding around like a f*****g fish. “F.uck it,” I snapped. I took off my boots and unbuttoned my shirt, I pulled off the trousers so that I was just in some boxers.

When she turned wide eyes to me, I snorted at her. “Don’t panic, I have no intentions of removing the boxers.”

“Boxers?” She asked.

“It’s underwear men wear in the earth realm.” I climbed in behind her and sat down so that she was between my legs. I sat up straight and allowed her back to lean against my chest.

Her back felt rough, and I moved her forward to see her back, that too was completely covered in scars and burn scars, and I mean there were scars that were so thick and jagged she must have been cut down to the bone with some of them.

I leaned her back against my chest and without thinking I gently stroked her hair away from her face. When she looked up at me, I frowned at her, “don’t even think it, I’m just being nice, that’s all, nothing more.”