The Devil as a Father, Chapter 39
That night he sat in bed next to the glorious Amazon, and for the first time he could remember, felt incredibly shy. He who escaped hell and seduced people through the ages, felt emotionally vulnerable near this woman.
"My wife," he said, "I fully understand if you want to wait until I remember you to engage in sex and will honor your wishes, mrflgl!"
His wife was apparently NOT shy and she flung herself on him and proceeded to seduce the Devil with such passion that he nearly swooned at the blissful sensations. This was not just passion; it was love, it was fondness, it was joy, it was loyalty, it was acceptance and full knowledge of him. This mortal was a goddess and he was never looking at anyone else again. His soul and body were tied and bonded. She knew just what HE desired, and for the first time that he could remember in his existence, he felt truly loved, not merely lusted over.
The next morning he slept until he smelled bacon and coffee in the air. Arising, he put on a lovely red silk robe and followed the aroma to where everyone was eating. "Dad!" said Harry happily, and the boy rose and filled a plate with Lucifer's favorite foods."
Lucifer sat down and ate happily. Chloe sat next to him with her hand on his knee all through breakfast. He found himself smiling at her and she smiled back.
He noted that Aradia and Goldy the small dragon were still sound asleep in a basket nearby. Aradia didn't snore, but occasionally the golden dragon would snort a little smoke into the air.
Later.
When Octy came to he was in the place of his nightmares locked in his personal cage. He knew the mean angel had made them prisoners again and had lied to him about his father getting rid of him. He knew the angel had destroyed his whole family's memory of him and the others. He lay cautiously and let his body simply sink in to the many shadows of his cage.
The mean angel thought he would be terrified. Well, he was right, he was terrified, but his Daddy had taught him things and the angel was stupid not to have wiped him of knowledge too. He used the shadows to go to Les' cage and open it and then sink his brother into the shadows too. Les stared at him in terror at first and realized who he was and hugged him. "They stole our family," Les whispered sadly.
"Call out to a strong intelligent beast to protect us when we get away," Octy said softly. Then he took his brother's hand and snuck to Rose's cage and freed her. She gasped, but then fell silent and hugged her brothers with tears in her eyes. Then they all snuck to Daffodil's cage and pulled her into the shadows. Daffodil seemed lost, "I'm glad you are here, but Daddy and Mommy don't remember us at all. If they don't find us, we may be lost forever."
Octy kissed her head. "Daddy taught us to be strong and stay together. We'll find them."
Using his unique ability Octy walked them off the McNair Manor into the woods, while Les appeared to be distracted. Daffodil said, "He is calling something."
There is a dragon near here, who is working for Gringotts. His name is Chain Breaker and he says we can come to see him. He will protect us. They made their way through the shadows for many hours and finally hungry and tired reached Gringotts. They walked in unafraid and walked up to one of the big guards. Octy pulled his family out of the shadows and tapped the guard on his elbow, causing him to swivel and point his axe at them in surprise.
"We're here to see Chain Breaker. He said we can visit him." Octy said breathlessly.
"Who are you, child?" asked the Goblin.
Octy stood tall, "I am Octavian Morningstar. We all were adopted by Mommy and Daddy and then a mean angel came and took Daddy's memories away and took all the family memories of us. We just want to visit with Chain Breaker."
The Goblin looked at them with compassion rarely seen by humans, "Your Father is our father," he said, "The ally and father of the entire Goblin nation. You are our family too. I can see you are truly of the Morningstar family and will take you to Chain Breaker. It is his day off and he just came in from flying and hunting. I will arrange to give you a nice meal and if you don't mind, our King will want to visit you."
Daffodil smiled at him, "I would like that. Daddy said the goblins are the most honorable people he knows, except for Mommy."
The goblin looked extremely pleased and then took them on a roller coaster ride. They squealed all the way to the end and then Les looked around and ran to a large dragon. The dragon snuffled at him and he hugged the dragon.
The Goblin gave them all nice blankets and they piled in and snuggled the dragon known as Chain Breaker with no fear. As far as they were concerned, this was a taste of home. The other dragons came up and told Les all about how their Daddy freed them. Les would listen and then dramatically pass on what he learned with gestures and flamboyant faces. The dragons thought it was funny and snorted at his expressions. One fell on its back and roared and hiccupped fire into the air.
Then a high level Goblin came with attendants and brought food for them and really big pieces of meat for the dragons, who were in Daffodil's opinion a bit messy. She liked Beauty the best, she was definitely ladylike and dainty as she tore into sides of beef and never got a drop of blood on her scales.
Daffodil felt that it was strange the King hadn't come. "Is the King well?" she asked. The older Goblin smiled at her. "This is a secret, but your Mother came here and did a spell that took away the spell they had on her and the rest of the family. Our King and many of our finest warriors have gone with her and your eldest brother Harry to Hell to bring him back."
Daffodil's little face lit up with joy. "This is good. This strengthens our chances for them to remember us again."
"Child," said the Elder Goblin, "Are you a seer like Mrs. Edwards?"
"Yes," said Daffodil, "My parents threw me away because they didn't realize I was a seer. Otherwise, they would have done worse things."
The Goblin picked her up in his arms and hugged her gently, "Poor little one, the magicals don't appreciate their children or even their families."
"They would have used me for wealth," said Daffodil. "Octy, the Elder says Mommy is going to find Daddy in Hell. The King Goblin is with them. Our paths have opened in our favor."
Octy cheered and Les told the dragons who bugled in joy. Rose danced, but then stopped, "Why don't they remember us?"
"I think it was a different spell," said Daffodil, "He used it to hide his trail, but he was sloppy."
"You need not fear," said the Elder, "Even if they never remember you, they will still want you. They will know you are family and stolen from them, and fight to get you back. And you are part of us too. We will take care of you till your Father comes for you."
Xxxxxx
Lucifer sat at the desk that Mazikeen had said was his, and thought quietly about magic. He invented magic, he'd been informed, and was greatly loved by magical beings for it. So he sat and concentrated on the magic he had made and realized that the building had protections he had made. He examined them and approved of them. Then he noticed something. There was a bedroom next to the master bedroom he shared with Chloe. He smiled thinking of Chloe and all the sheer joy she had given him, then frowned. He kept forgetting that bedroom. Who resided in it? Was it another person or persons loved by him that he had forgotten because of the spell? Perhaps the others had forgotten too.
He got up and rushed to the bedroom and then forced himself to stand in front of the door to the room he really didn't want to enter. The room had a door and he kept wanting to turn around and check the bar or even see if he could cook. Instead he forced himself to touch the door knob.
He opened the door and found a room for children, boys on one side and girls on the other. He gasped in pain. Somehow, children had been stolen from him and Chloe, he just knew it.
He walked to a little dresser decorated with daffodils and touched a recording device. A little girl's voice began to sing:
Daddy hear me call
In the night where the dark angel lurks
He stole me and stole your memories,
He stole our hearts. Find me in the shadows
I'm coming home to you.
Anguish brought him to his knees. He had lost memories of little ones that belonged with them.
"Chloe!" he screamed and was rather surprised when damn near everyone in the building rushed to his side, Harry with a wand ready for action, Maze with her knives, Dan with a gun drawn, and Chloe in the lead with a gun in hand.
"Look," he said, and they stared into the room.
Chloe began to cry. "They stole babies from us." She said. "There are four little children out there, abandoned and frightened."
Lucifer grabbed her and held her as she wept at the horror of it all. "This is truly vicious," she said.
Trixie stood there staring at the room, "One of the children is a seer," she said, "She left us that song as a clue."
Harry reached out with his senses, "They took their memories from all of us, but the children remember us all." His green eyes narrowed.
Hermione came and touched his arm and he could tell she was also feeling the magic. "Harry, I feel ill intent against them, the one who did this hates them because he is jealous of the love they have for Lucifer. He plans on them dying."
Draco touched Lucifer's hand gently, "Lord Morningstar, the goblins did the spell to bring our memories back. You noticed some of the magic and broke it. We have to get to the goblins as soon as we can and do the spell. We should take something from each child, something personal."
They looked at the room they still hadn't dared to enter, and saw a single toy on each bed. Maze stumbled forward and grabbed each toy. She handed them to Chloe who squeezed them to herself in an agony of worry.
"I don't remember how to get there," said Lucifer.
"I do," said Trixie and held out her little hands. They all touched her and Lucifer took that tiny hand and thought, 'she is elder to them, and yet she is so small."
Suddenly they were at Gringotts in the main banking hall. A dozen goblins dropped everything and cried out, "The Father is here. Tell the king."
And the King of the goblin nation popped in with one of Lucifer's gift rings of power on his right hand. He smiled at Lucifer, the smile of a friend, and held out his hand and Lucifer took it. "My wife, with your help, invaded hell and brought me home. My memory is still gone, but I remember that you are my friend and have great honor. We just realized they stole 4 little ones from us that we can't remember, so we came to you to for help."
Lucifer's eyes filled with sudden tears. He supposed he should be appalled at his lack of discipline, but he kept thinking of those little beds and a childish voice singing to him.
The King held up a hand. "We have found them, or rather they found us." he said. "One of them is a shadow walker and he helped the other ones escape and come here. One is a beast master speaker and he found our dragons, who you freed. They are with the dragons now. They have made friends, and we made sure they were fed and comfortable. I just found out myself."
Lucifer picked up the King in his arms and kissed him and bit at his ear (goblin affection to be shared with family) and smiled at everyone.
Chloe, hugged the King too, crying freely.
The King looked really happy. "We can do the ceremony later, you need to be reunited with them first, and may I say they are definitely Morningstars. Rose has developed wings and went flying with the dragons. They are so brave."
"What are their names?" asked Lucifer urgently, "Rose,…."
"Daffodil, Hercules or Lee or Les and Octy or Octavion," said the King.
They popped to the deepest dungeons and found four small children frolicking with huge dragons and playing. The children turned, and so did the dragons and all of them converged on the group.
Chloe gave them their toys and then hugged all of them at the same time. One dragon stopped in front of Lucifer and said, "You are our father too", and gave him a huge wet dragon kiss that nearly knocked the whole group down and then gently rubbed his head against Lucifer in affection.
Lucifer had no memory of adopting dragons, but he kissed the dragon anyway. "Thank you for protecting them, you darlings," he said, and then fell to his knees and proceeded to hug the babies.
"I am so sorry, I didn't know we forgot you," he said, "We found a song and knew we were enchanted."
One child spoke, "Daddy, I knew but I couldn't tell you. It was one of those types of prophecies, if you tell it gets worse. I was so scared and I miss you all."
Lucifer picked her up in his arms and held her to his heart, "You are the one who sang," he whispered. "The bad angel put a spell on us so we forgot you and it was very hard to go into your room. I had to fight to do it."
He was the Devil. He had fought for centuries and always had been alone and unloved. But his child, she loved him and trusted him. She was a seer of all things, one of the mystic ones. They were a particularly pure type of being and he rarely saw there like in Hell, but she saw with clear eyes and loved him.
He looked where Chloe, his queen, was holding the little boys, tears shining in her beautiful eyes and Harry was sitting next to the dragons and holding Rose, who was clinging to him.
"To make me forget my family, this was the worse thing I can think of.
Harry kissed Rose's little head and said, "What's this I hear from the Goblins. You flew with the dragons?"
She sniffed, and wiped her tears away, "Yes, I wanted to fly like you can, and the dragons have been teaching me." She stood and said, "Watch Daddy!" Wings of the most beautiful Rose color sprang from her back and she lifted and began to fly all around the dragons.
Harry laughed and sprouted wings and flew to his little sister and kissed her mid-air.