"Will you tell us the story of how all this was created?" Jaenelle asked Azazeal one evening after taking whirl tour of the wonders of this world that they hadn't yet seen by a very adventurous Elizabeth and Lucifer. Those two were a special kind of mischievous at this point in time.
Azazeal looked down at Cassie with a smile and a raised eyebrow. She looked back at him similarly.
"Oh come on Dad!" Malachi urged. He'd wanted to hear this story all his life.
"I don't think it's a good idea," Cassie responded.
"Just because he doesn't want to spoil any of your precious notions and you're not willing to force him…"
"Malachi!" Azazeal thundered and his son fell silent. There was a noiseless battle of wills as they stared each other down but as usual there was no resolution.
"Lady Jaenelle, why don't you tell us more about your world and the Blood Protocol I've heard you mention in the past?" Malachi suggested and even though Cassie and Azazeal had heard it all before, their children hadn't and if it kept the peace to hear it again, that was fine.
Jaenelle went through an impressive summary of Blood Protocol and the reasons behind it. When she got to Virgin Night and the need for a trusted male to guide valuable Queens through it, Malachi piped up again.
"So, would you ever order Daemon here to perform said duties, if the need arose?"
Jaenelle blushed slightly but Azazeal knew that his son's seemingly innocent question had been meant to stir up whatever emotions it could.
"I imagine she'd ask me," Lucifer interjected quite seriously.
"No never you, Lucivar," Jaenelle responded, "You've given enough already…"
But just as Daemon was about to put his two cents in and add to the tide of emotion that Malachi had set in motion, he turned his attention to his parents.
"What about you Dad? If Mom asked you to screw someone for the good of mankind would you do it?"
Cassie narrowed her eyes furiously at her son.
"Your father's not a parlor trick, Malachi!"
She then turned her attention back to Azazeal who had the uncomfortable look of a man who knows that no matter how he answers this question, he's going to get into trouble.
"Would you?" She asked now interested because of his discomfort.
"I…" was all he said and he didn't need to finish.
"You would, wouldn't you and you'd enjoy it too!" Cassie was livid at the thought of him even agreeing to such a thing and then realizing that he wouldn't detest it with every fiber of his being…was just not acceptable.
"And you Dad?" Luke started in, now riding the wave of Malachi's impishness. "Would you do it?"
"I would never ask him," Elizabeth interjected.
"Yes, but what if you had to? What would you expect him to do?" Malachi asked.
"I would expect," Elizabeth started in a confident and sexy voice that reminded Malachi of the brief period that he had wanted Elizabeth because he had been told he couldn't handle her, "absolute obedience, my boy, so he damn well better do what I ask."
Malachi was a bit rattled but smiled at this, having apparently going the rise out of everyone that he had wanted.
Elizabeth didn't look at Lucifer for even a hint at his opinion on the matter and then continued, "But he trusts me never to ask that kind of thing of him, never to require of him what goes against his nature. That's love, child, maybe you'll figure it out one day!"
At this Malachi rose and stormed off and Ella followed with an apologetic look on her face. They loved each other but still had their issues to work out. Azazeal watched his son go and then turned to see Lucifer looking at Luke with a mixture of love and regret.
Azazeal knew that they had both made their share of mistakes with their first sons but he wished it wasn't their love for their mothers that cause the biggest problems. Lucifer wished, just as he did, that there was a way to go back and maybe handle things differently, but ultimately they both knew that it was pointless because they were what they were, angels, and even their children had to deal with that.
Luke and Malachi had always understood things, maybe too well, and now they were trying on jealousy to see if it fit, because they were tired of understanding. They were tired of the times when they had to go to their mothers because their fathers wouldn't give them what they wanted and they were tired of knowing that it was because sometimes their fathers were incapable of acting without permission. They were tired of the times when the light in fathers eyes belonged only to their lovers and of knowing that there was nothing a son could do, now matter how impressive, to change that.
It only made it worse that sometimes their fathers looked at them as proudly as any mortal father might because there were other times that their fathers regarded them more as some wondrous thing that their mothers had created. And it only made it worse that they knew and understood why.
When he was little, Luke had even snuck into his parent's room a few times, though his father always knew that he was there, and watched them together. He had seen the joy, the ecstasy, and the love in his father's face when he worshiped his mother. Lucifer had never held back even when he knew his son was watching, but now the beauty of knowing how much his parents loved each other no longer comfort him.
Then suddenly, Luke's jealously eased, he had never been one to hold a grudge, and Sara grabbed his hand tightly. She knew what he was going through right now and she was determined to help him through it, especially because her own brother was the insigator.
Unfortunately, waiting for Azazeal later that evening was a very unhappy Cassie.
"I can't believe you would still enjoy the hunt, still enjoy the conquest, after all this time, after all we've been thorough. You would go right back to that!"
"I'm sorry," Azazeal said obviously in distress, "I…Should I refuse you?"
The pain and confusion in this question was lost on Cassie in large part due to the fact that she was unused to such emotion from him. Cassie just huffed and paced around in irritation.
"Please!" he said and fell to his knees. This got her to stop and consider him carefully.
In this moment, the desperate thought that Lucifer was right popped in to his head, that these women could reflect the kind of love and acceptace that would allow Cassie to understand this as something that he could do out of love not lust. By the way that Elizabeth had handled Lucifer trailing after her in blissful submission for the past few days before the wildness took them both over and by the way she had handled the situation today, Azazeal believed that she had finally found it in her to accept everything he offered and she understood that she didn't need to deserve it, need it, or even know what to do with it. She only needed to let him put it in her hands. He hoped Cassie would find the same thing.
"What I am, what I am capable of, is yours," he said earnestly. "I don't know how to hate the gifts that are yours to command. I…"
But she stopped him by rushing over to him, kneeling in front of him, and throwing her arms around him.
"I'm sorry," she said.
"There are things I would refuse you," Lucifer said matter-of-factly to Elizabeth when they were alone.
"Oh, yeah, like what?" She asked, not really taking him seriously.
"I have done it before and I would do it again, but…"
"What are you talking about?"
"I cannot bring back people from the dead, it is beyond my power," he said apologetically.
"You would refuse me things you're not capable of?" She asked and he nodded.
"What do I care about that?" She laughed relieved.
"And I would not bow to another," he said meaningfully.
She gave him a comforting smile. She understood now that he was trying to avoid the misunderstanding that had happened before between him and God. When he got worried, he tended to forget that there where things she would never dream of asking him to do.
"I would never ask you," she said, though interestingly he was doing exactly what God had asked him to do all those centuries ago.
