Chapter 26

"Why?" JD asked. "Why take him? Why not you?"

"God has a plan for me that involves Criss, and I think Beelzebub is hoping that somewhere deep within Criss' subconscious that he knows what it is."

"Why would he think that?" Costa asked.

"Because Criss is Touched." Elidra said.

"What?" JD asked.

"He's Touched." She said again but they continued to give her blank stares. "Must have not shown you that memory."

"Obviously." Costa said. "Explain "Touched"."

"The only reason Criss can do what he can do, the only reason he can do slight-of-hand and illusions so good that other magicians have no idea how he does it is because when he was a baby, only days old, I went to the side of his cradle, picked him up and kissed his forehead." She said.

"What?" JD asked.

"I was doing what my Holy Father told me to do. He told me to set in motion things that I couldn't possibly understand yet." Elidra said. "He's not the only one through history that has been Touched. Gandhi, Martin Luther Kind Jr., Abraham Lincoln…"

"Those people were all assassinated." Costa said, interrupting her.

"That's beside the point."

"So you Touched those people?" JD asked.

"No," she said. "Criss is the only person I have ever done that too. When I kissed his forehead, I set everything in motion, and I also may have implanted deep within his mind what God's plan for us was, without even knowing…" her voice trailed off, her eyes going distant.

"Elly?" JD asked.

"He knew." She said absently. "He knew all along, and He never let on."

"Who knew what?" Costa asked.

"God knew that I let Lucifer live. He knew, He knew all along, and He didn't decide to punish me until now because…"

"He was waiting until Criss was fully grown." JD said, finishing the thought.

"Clever." Costa said and JD and Elidra nodded.

"Okay." She said, shaking herself out of it. "Back to the subject at hand, I'm going to go down to Hell and get Criss back."

"What's your plan, specifically?" JD asked.

"I'm going to use that link that Criss and I have between us, which was created when I Touched him, to pinpoint his exact location. I'm going to go there, kill any demon that gets in my way, and rescue Criss."

"Alone?"

"Well, yeah, Michael can't come with me because he's still a full Angel, he'll glow so bright that it'll give us away immediately that we don't belong there. Because I'm a Fallen, my appearance will change slightly when I go down there and I'll blend right in, well except for the Holy Blade I'll be carrying, but they won't see that unless I want them to."

"Change how?"

"Not important." She said, dismissing his question quickly. "That and I don't want to disturb you with the details."

Michael listened to them talking from inside Elidra's bedroom, his hand clenching when she told the others that Criss was Touched. Lucifer fidgeted in his sleep and gave out a low moan of pain making Michael's eyes snap to him. The wounds on his body were very slowly healing; only slightly faster than human slow. It would take days for him to heal every wound on and in his body, days of being vulnerable since every ounce of Power in him was being used to heal him. Michael brushed the hair away from his brother's forehead.

"My beautiful brother, I've missed you so much." He whispered, bending over from his chair position at the side of the bed, he kissed Lucifer's forehead and straightened, once again at attention. Getting up from the chair, he went into Elidra's bathroom and got a washcloth, soaking it in hot water and wringing it out before going back into the bedroom. Sitting down again, he began to gently wipe away the blood from Lucifer's face. When he was done, he went back into the bathroom and tossed the washcloth in the sink, getting the basic First Aid kit and going back to his brother's side. Opening the kit he dug out the disinfectant and began to clean Lucifer's wounds. Any other time, they would have healed too fast to worry about infection, but now was different.

Lucifer made several pained sounds but stayed unconscious as Michael cleaned his wounds, bandaging what he could. The raw head wound was going to be a challenge. In was about two inches long and it looked as if the skin had been torn away rather than cut open. Lucifer cried out in his sleep as Michael dabbed at it with a disinfectant soaked square of gauze, the sound deadened by the wards Michael had put on the doors and walls so Elidra wouldn't worry. The hydrogen peroxide bubbled and fizzed as it cleaned the wound and when Michael wiped it away along with blood that had seeped out, the wound itself was white and molted looking. Michael didn't even know he was crying until a tear fell onto Lucifer's cheek. Sniffling slightly, he wiped the moisture from his cheeks and continued what he was doing.

Putting antibiotic cream on a gauze pad, he laid it gently over the wound and taped it down with medical tape, making sure it was secure. Lifting Lucifer's tank-top up slightly, Michael moved his hands long his ribs, gently pressing to see if any were broken. There were a few line fractures, but no real breaks. Satisfied that his brother wouldn't slip into a coma while his body repaired a punctured lung, he put the shirt back where it belonged and put the kit back together again, taking it back into the bathroom.

"How is he?" He looked through the bathroom doorway and saw Elidra standing at the end of the bed.

"Still unconscious, I managed to clean him up as well as I could, but they worked him over pretty good." Michael said looking down at the sink, still cleaning up.

"Yeah, they did at that." Elidra said and there was silence.

"You getting ready to get Criss back?"

"Yeah."

"Be careful, okay?"

"I will be." Elidra said then sighed. "I always am." She said and Michael smiled.

"Not…" he looked up and saw her gone. "Always."