“As in Luxuria?” A cynical smiled crossed her lips. “Lust? I never should’ve taken the irin hair off of you.”

Really, she should’ve known the moment she saw him – his tailored suits, blond hair slicked back, and the chiseled curves of his chest and stomach. He was gorgeous. Not to mention the spell he had Lily under. She’d blush any time she talked about him. Lux had been made to lust after girls, and have them lust after him in return.

“It doesn’t matter what you think of me.” Lux tried to ignore her as he fixed the collar of his jacket. “I’m going to help Lily.”

“You’re not going near Lily.” Wick pulled her wand from her waistband and stepped toward him. He held his hands out to her in a gesture of peace. He could take her, but he didn’t want to. “I’m not going to let her be some conquest for you.”

“She’s not going to be!” Lux shouted.

“As if you would pass up the chance for the bragging rights of the millennia!” she scoffed. “The luxuria bedding the castimonia. What a stunning feat that would be.”

“What?” His stomach dropped, and it got harder to breathe. “She’s the castimonia? She’s … chastity?”

Lily was a virtu, the exact opposite of him. He reached out for the chair next to him, and he collapsed back into it. He suddenly felt too weak to stand.

“No. Why wouldn’t she tell me?”

“I don’t think she knows yet.” Wick lowered her wand as she studied him. His eyes were widened in shock, and he’d had the wind knocked out of him. “You really didn’t know?”

“No.” He shook his head and swallowed hard. “I never even suspected.”

“Then what were you doing with her?” Wick asked skeptically.

“I already told you. It wasn’t about that.” Lux ran a hand through his hair, feeling sick and confused.

“You can’t possibly care about her.” Wick dismissed it before he even suggested it. “You’re not capable of love.”

“I don’t know what I’m capable of anymore,” he said resignedly.

“The fact that she’s not with you is evidence that you don’t care,” Wick countered, but even she wasn’t sure of that. Lux had been in a terrible state when she’d found him, like he’d put up a hell of a fight.

“Ira’s too powerful.” He stared down at the floor. “I fought as hard as I could, but I did nothing against him.”

“How could you do nothing to him, if you fought so hard?” she asked.

“I’m lust and he’s wrath!” he yelled. “I’m a lover, he’s a fighter!”

“You’re a demon!” Wick countered.

“I’m a minion!” Lux got to his feet.

“As if there is a great distinction!”

“There is! I’m not evil incarnate!”

“No! You just spread its message! How many girls have you bedded? Do you even know?” She stepped closer to him, unwilling to be intimidated by his larger size, and glared up at him.

“Why does it matter?” Lux wanted to meet her gaze, but he averted his eyes. His new found shame was getting on his nerves.

“It doesn’t. Except that your only mission in life is to corrupt the innocent, and few are more innocent than Lily.”

“I don’t want to corrupt her,” Lux said emphatically, meeting her eyes this time.

“Then what are you doing with her? How do you think this will all end? A sin and a virtue, living happily ever after? Do you think her master would allow it? Or yours?” Wick calmed her tone, dropping the antagonism, and simply asked him the question.

“She doesn’t have a master yet,” he pointed out. If Lily didn’t know that she was the castimonia, she couldn’t have taken the vows to serve anyone.

“Oh. Is that your plan, then? Bring her back to your master?” Wick asked icily.

“No! I don’t want her anywhere near him!” Lux shouted, surprised by his own vehemence. “I’ll kill him if he does anything to her. If he touches a hair on her head –”

He balled his hand up into a fist and gritted his teeth to keep from lashing out at anything around him.

“You really care about her?” Wick wasn’t sure whether she believed him. This all might be a show he was putting on, but she didn’t know what he would get out of that.

“Yes.” Lux thought about it a moment before finishing.  “More than I’ve ever cared about anything.”

“I’ll help you rescue Lily,” she said finally, convinced of his intentions. “But once she’s free, I’ll do everything to keep you from corrupting her.”

“Don’t you see? I’m not corrupting her. She’s taming me,” Lux gestured around him. He would’ve elaborated further, about how he’d been unable to pursue anyone since meeting Lily, but he thought that might hurt his case.

“That’s not how it works.” Wick shook her head sadly. “When you mix dirt with water, the dirt doesn’t get clean. The water just gets dirty.”

He turned away from her so she couldn’t see how her statement had rattled him. He’d only been thinking of protecting Lily, but he hadn’t really thought about whether or not she’d need protection from him.

“Lie down and finish resting,” Wick told him and went over to her shelves. “I need to get things together before we go, so I have something to help you fight.”

“We really don’t have much time. Every moment she’s with Valefor…” Lux trailed off, not wanting to finish the thought.

“Then you need to be as strong as you can be if you’re going to go up against Valefor.” Wick shot him a look over her shoulder. “He is the most powerful daemon on Earth, isn’t he?”

Lux grumbled in response and grudgingly lay down on her bed. She was right, but he hated doing nothing.

“I don’t know why I’m trusting you,” Wick said, mostly to herself, as she shoved vials into a small sack. “You’re all master manipulators and liars, especially luxuria.”

“I don’t know why you speak so harshly of me. We’ve never met before,” Lux pointed out tiredly.

“No, but I know your kind.” She opened a vial and tasted a bit of the potion, checking to see whether it was still good, then recapped it and tossed it in her pouch. “There’s a reason I live alone in the woods.”