Lucivar and Azazeal's conversation took a little longer to get started as Lucivar was more interested in surveying the angles in the room and choosing a potential battleground in the event of a fight. Their conversational was also was much less personal and more strategic.
"Is there any information you would like to assist in your plans for our destruction?" Azazeal asked mildly.
"You certainly have a way about you don't you?" Lucivar grumbled as he had almost started to ask Azazeal questions about the layout of the rooms and whether any other people were expected to arrive.
"Well, I was created to guide and encourage trust" Azazeal asked smoothly, "It's only natural that you should want to trust and listen to me."
"And yet you still enrage me! It's fascinating!" Lucivar growled obviously angry with himself that he bothered to listen to Azazeal at all.
"Lucivar, let's come to an understanding, shall we? Neither you nor your brother, or Jaenelle for that matter, will be able to harm me. I'm pure spirit and this body is merely my spirit condensed into physical form. I cannot be separated from my power and I have no mind for you to break. You might be able to toss me around a bit and maybe inflict some pain but since this body is not a body…"
Lucivar glared at him in pure hatred, but Azazeal continued undaunted and met Lucivar's glare with amusement, "Now, it is also unlikely that I will be able to harm any of you, other than purely physically of course. What power I do have pales in comparison to Lucifer's and his power lies in the manipulation of creation. Even he may not be able to manipulate and harm your being, despite the fact that he can obviously access your mind rather easily and can absorb a burst of power from you, because he had no hand in the creation of your world."
Lucivar was listening with more interest now.
"Cassie and Elizabeth however…they are fragile…" here Azazeal paused and actually looked afraid for a moment before his casual smile returned.
"Why would you tell me this? Why would you point out their weakness?" Lucivar demanded.
Azazeal inspected him closely and then his face became fierce and slightly condescending, "I will not let you harm Cassie."
Lucivar felt a bit silly now because he realized that Azazeal was going out of his way to tell him that Cassie and Elizabeth were the only people in the room who needed protection. And by pointing out the Ladies' precarious position he was extending a kind of olive branch. How was it that Azazeal would know that this was a perfect way to touch on Lucivar's instinct to protect the feminine?
"And what is very important for you to understand about me," Azazeal continued, "is that my first instinct, like yours, it to protect rather than to obey, so I am far more dangerous than Lucifer, who would never kill without Elizabeth's…"
They were then interrupted by Lucifer's antics with Elizabeth. When they were gone Lucivar watched Daemon wander around the room for a while before turning back to Azazeal.
As Daemon paced around the room, the things that Lucifer had said to him coalesced into the beginnings of meaning. She will not just open herself to your touch. You will have to teach her to trust you.
Since she had fully healed his mind, the relationship between Warlord Prince and Queen had become strong. She listened to his opinions, she respected his knowledge, and she treated him as a valued member of her Court. She had even let him into her bed now…ah, but there it was. She was not as hesitant to accept his attentions and the pleasure that he could provide…and yet she was still shy about approaching him as if…
Could it be possible that she still didn't trust him? Well, he was not about to allow that to continue.
And then the things that Lucifer had shown him, the sexual acts, began to play on his mind, certain ones lingering in his head more often than others, and he tried to fend them off. This wasn't the time for…
And then he saw it. It terrified and thrilled him beyond anything he'd ever thought of. Could he really? Was he capable? Would she understand what it meant for him to…?
Of course, she would understand. After their first time together, she had asked him, to his horror, what he had meant when he had said that he wanted his first time to be in a bed.
"Haven't you done all this before?" she had asked shyly, not telling him that Surreal had told her that he was a virgin but that it hadn't really made sense to her.
"I..." he had started, "I have done many, many things, sweetheart, but…the one of the few things I was able to keep from them…" he looked away and then back at her, "the rest of my body was theirs but…"
"Your maleness you kept for yourself," she said almost reaching out a hand to touch him there but then pulling back. He couldn't see her hand but felt the movement under the sheets. He watched her as she considered this and then she smiled shyly to herself and snuggled up to him.
He had thought that she had been too distracted by her own pleasure to notice that his own experience had been overwhelming as well, but she had noticed and she had even cared enough to ask about it. And then he realized that it wasn't only her reluctance to trust that was holding her back, it was that she was trying to protect him, trying not to use him as Dorothea and those other horrible women had done. Well, the idea that she was anything like those women was even less acceptable than her hesitance to trust him!!
But could he show her that he trusted her and possibly gain her trust in return? He wanted to, but was he capable? Or was he too used up to… No, he would surrender everything and he would do exactly what those particular images from Lucifer had suggested.
He would lead her to their bed and stretch out on it naked and inviting, pulling her towards him with only his eyes. When she joined him, he would kiss her gently and touch her teasingly to encourage her to explore him. He would lay back and let the feel of her touch engulf him, opening his inner barriers to let her mind brush against his. He would let her watch him as he writhed and moaned in pleasure at her attentions. He would guide her hands and mouth to increase his pleasure, showing her how to tear at his control. He would obey her as she moved his body this way and that to allow her fingers to travel innocently over every…single…inch of his flesh. And he would let her sheath him when she was ready, instead of doing it for her, let her set the pace and take them both to the ecstasy that awaited them.
And she would know that he did this not for his own gratification, though he was sure it would be pleasurable, but out of love and out of trust. Because it was one thing to give pleasure and another to take pleasure…and yet another thing all together to accept pleasure and surrender yourself to it in a way that honored the lover who gave it.
"He's got a mouth on him doesn't he!" Lucivar finally said with a laugh to Azazeal after Lucifer and Elizabeth disappeared.
"Yes, he does." Azazeal responded ruefully.
"I will not harm your Queen." Lucivar said gruffly but honestly, taking Azazeal's manner as worry that the more powerful Lucifer was gone and that Cassie was now more at risk.
Azazeal caught the reason behind Lucivar's statement but only smiled and said, "Thank you!"
"So, you have never been to our world?" Lucivar asked figuring that he should now pass the time getting information since clearly Jaenelle had no intention of leaving.
"No, we could only watch from the edges of the abyss. But it gave us something to do while we weren't causing trouble here. I was particularly fascinated and I spent a lot of time learning about your different cultures and the interaction between males and females."
"Do you know where the jewels come from?" Lucivar asked suddenly.
"No, I didn't notice your world until much later."
After a break in conversation, during which Lucivar had again been watching Daemon pace and had been listening in on Cassie and Jaenelle's conversation, Lucivar said, "Cassie is your Queen and your wife, but I heard her say that you command the other angels."
"The society in this world is different, but I suppose in the way you understand things she is my Queen. And I…I must serve her in my way, but while the fallen do obey her, I am their leader."
Azazeal was not like Lucifer in his willingness to discuss his relationship with the mortal woman who fulfilled his needs as an angel. He preferred to keep his love and passion for her to himself even though when these people had gone he would also indulge the urge to feel the comforting presence of the divine in her and respond with the same fervent worship and Lucifer was no doubt in the grip of at this very moment.
"You can manipulate this world?"
"Angels have similar powers to your own. We can move objects, send blasts of physic power, sense some thoughts and feelings, and we have knowledge of hidden things, but our real power lies in the talents we were given for our particular purpose. I have…I suppose charisma is the best way to describe it, and I have talents similar to yours as a skilled warrior. Lucifer can manipulate creation because he was one of the Creator's instruments."
"What can he do?"
Azazeal smiled and knew that there was no way to explain exactly what Lucifer was capable of, which is what Lucivar would want to know, but he thought of an example that would help to illustrate his power.
"Did you see the star-shaped jewel necklace that Elizabeth was wearing?"
Lucivar nodded.
"Lucifer made that diamond, he created the raw, uncut stone out of its base elements. He made a perfect diamond that would probably never exist in the natural course of creation and gave it to the jeweler to cut and set."
Lucivar tried not to look impressed and then asked with a challenge gleam in his eyes, "Do you want a chance to take on a real Eyrien warrior?"
Azazeal smiled arrogantly and gracefully rose slipping off his coat and placing it neatly over the back of the couch. Lucivar rose with his own arrogant smile and soon Cassie, Jaenelle, and Daemon were all comparing the similarity of their arrogance and collectively hoping that they didn't damage anything in their tussle. But it didn't take long for the ladies to realize that the boys were more interested in measuring their skills than in hurting one another, and so they proceeded to ignore them and continue their conversation while Daemon settled on a couch again to watch the show.