"I have an idea," Jaenelle announced, knocking Daemon mind back in to focus, "Us girls will go to Los Angeles to shop, while you boys clean up and…"
"NO!" was the resounding response that this idea received, almost simultaneously, from all of the males in the room.
"I don't see why not! Elizabeth says it's perfectly safe and we'll be there during the day."
"We will not let you loose in a city that we do not know," Daemon replied as diplomatically as he could, "Even for only an hour," he muttered under his breath.
Jaenelle pouted at him and then turned to Cassie.
"Oh come on!" Cassie admonished looking at Azazeal who didn't like the idea either, "We'll be fine. We go out by ourselves all the time."
"This is different," he said, trying not to make it obvious that he felt that Jaenelle and even Purple Dusk jeweled Marian were a danger to Cassie.
Cassie stood up and moved close to him, casually putting a hand on his still bare chest.
"But Jaenelle and Marian are our friends," she said bringing her mouth close to his as he looked down at her through his eyes lashes and his body softened. Their lips were very close and he almost moved to kiss her, but then smiled broadly and said, "No!"
Cassie huffed and Azazeal chuckled as she deposited herself back on the couch in annoyance. Elizabeth and Janelle gave Cassie looks of approval at her devious attempt to win her man over and then the women looked to Marian as their next champion.
Marian looked uncertain and she was still somewhat shocked at Cassie's use of her sexuality to try to convince Azazeal, but she started to feel feisty at this quick denial of their ability to venture out on their own on a harmless shopping trip. She straightened herself up and said, "You are all being ridiculous. Janelle has the Twilight's Dawn, I have my Purple Dusk, Cassie's a strong witch by all accounts, and it's Elizabeth's city. What could go wrong?"
Lucivar snorted and muttered to himself before saying, "Everything, everything could go wrong!"
"If I bring my skillet we could go!" she mocked.
"I would feel more comfortable, yes, if you had your skillet, but, no, it would not change my mind!" he growled.
"Well, we're not going anywhere with you lot until you're clean," Elizabeth announced, smiling as if enjoying the idea of assisting in the shower but no enough to let it stop her, "And what's to stop us from just going and leaving you to hunt us down? Now that would be fun!"
"Lady," Daemon said, too quietly, "You don't want to be hunted by a Warlord Prince."
Elizabeth's eyes flashed at him mischievously, "Maybe we do," and suddenly all of the women disappeared.
Daemon and Lucivar reflexively went to the couch and examine it but the girls were well and truly gone. Both of them whirled around angrily at Azazeal and Lucifer. Azazeal looked thoughtful, understanding the little predicament they were in, but Lucifer just smiled and shrugged.
"Is this amusing to you?" Daemon said though clenched teeth nearing a dangerous level of rage that he knew could spark the same in Lucifer and Azazeal.
"My boy, let the girls have their fun!"
"Just because you kneel and submit and let your woman do whatever she likes, doesn't mean that we should do the same!"
"It's not about that," Lucifer said quietly, now with a wicked smile on his face that Azazeal had learned to fear.
"Daemon," Azazeal said, "This is not going to help. Let us get cleaned up and go look for them. They should be safe enough for an hour or so and when we catch them we can scold them. But there's no point it killing each other over this."
Daemon stared at Azazeal wildly and tried to cool his temper. What he said had made sense so why was it so hard to see reason?
"Besides," Lucifer said, with provoking arrogance and amusement, "The woman at whose feet I kneel was kind enough to tell me where she was going before she left and if you're a good boy maybe I'll tell you."
Daemon flew at Lucifer, livid with rage. Lucivar and Azazeal moved quickly to keep them apart. Lucifer regarded Daemon mildly as Daemon struggled to get his hand with the poison snake tooth free, knowing that a blast of Black-power would probably be ineffective, but needing to hurt someone.
"I told you, Daemon, let the rut come," Lucifer said softly and kindly. He looked meaningfully at Lucivar, who had not realized that Daemon had been holding it back, and he understood that Lucifer wanted him to try to get through to his brother on this subject.
"Now," Lucifer continued, as Daemon trembled in his effort to calm down, "I'm going home to take a shower and I will be back shortly. Then we'll go hunting!" Lucifer grinned devilishly and vanished.
Daemon eased a bit and wrenched himself from the grasp of Lucivar and Azazeal to straighten his rumpled suit and sit neatly on a couch.
"Well, what are you two waiting for?" he snapped, "Get yourselves together and let's go!"
Lucivar and Azazeal glanced at each other and then Azazeal lead Lucivar back into the depths of the Church to set him up in a bathroom.
The ladies, oblivious to the stir that their disappearance had caused were now in the great city of Los Angeles. Elizabeth had first taken them to Starbucks because with the time difference between California and the UK, she hadn't had a proper cup of coffee this morning and she needed one. After a long and confusing discussion about all of the types of coffee drinks one could obtain, everyone finally settled on something and they left with warm cups of deliciousness.
Elizabeth hated mall shopping, hated it with a fiery passion, so she decided that they should start in LA's Fashion District, moving over later, of course, to the Jewelry District. She figured that, here they could adequately entertain themselves, while the boys kept themselves busy. She had expected that Lucifer would not offer up their location right away and that they might have a few hours to work with.
Jaenelle and Marian stared in amazement at all of the various shops and Elizabeth explained that there were several streets of this and the jewelry section too.
"How will we buy things?" was Jaenelle's first question. "We usually put things on our account at the local shops."
"Oh, don't worry about it, I've got a credit card and I'm not afraid to use it!" Elizabeth laughed and Cassie laughed with her.
"You don't have to do that," Jaenelle said.
"Yes, I do, you don't have any money and besides Lucifer's got more money than God and I hardly ever spend any of it."
"That's an interesting way to put it," Cassie said.
"Oh, and Azazeal's not filthy rich too?" Elizabeth countered and Cassie just smiled back.
Marian was still looking around quietly at all of the stores, not really used to getting excited about buying anything but what she needed for her kitchen or Lucivar's eyrie.
"Come on, Marian," Cassie said taking her arm and leading her into the first shop, "Let's look around shall we?"
Within twenty minutes, they take fast showers, the boys appeared inconspicuously in the Fashion District, well, as inconspicuously as four intense, suit wearing men can be when they appear out of no where, and they all looked at Lucifer.
"So where are they," Lucivar snarled.
"Touchy, touchy! Patience is a virtue…or so they say! Did you think she has a homing device or something?" Lucifer chided.
Azazeal laughed, "If we call them, do you think they'll come?"
"Don't be daft," Lucifer responded in good humor, "That will just give us away."
"Well, what we need to know is which of them will be leading the pack and type of things she would be looking for," Azazeal said.
Daemon had been furious when they arrived, truly seething, but listening to the angels actually playing along with this game, some how relaxed him. They must have done this before.
"Jaenelle will have taken over by now," Daemon said a smile starting to play on his lips, "And she'll be looking for clothes and books."
"Well, where dto we start?" Lucivar asked, now determined rather than anger.
And the hunt began…
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