The next morning Elizabeth woke to delicate hands playing with her body coaxing her towards consciousness and then a purring rumble next to her ear let her know that Lucifer was back to his normal self. When he was sure she was awake, he took his time teasing her and laughing quietly at her when she would try to follow his hand or mouth, which he had taken away to torment her. But she didn't care. She shamelessly accepted this reward and punishment for what she had done to him last night.

Elizabeth had done all that Lucifer had asked for and more, which was exactly the right thing to do because any opportunity she had to show that she was dominant, she was expected to take. It never failed to amuse her how Lucifer's desire to obey had always worked against him in these situations, but it had been the reason why using sex to control him had been so effective. She had found that with relatively little effort and concentration she could convince his body to obey her and he would not reach his climax until she was good and ready to let him. In that way she could get all of his agitation and energy out and when he was clear headed and desperate enough to realize that the only way he was going to get what his body wanted was to submit…he did. Of course, sometimes the only way to get him to that point had been to mix pleasure and pain to the point that if she went to take a nipple in her mouth, he'd tense and stare at her wildly, not knowing if she was going to suck it gently or bite it viscously, but not willing to stop her either way.

He had not needed much persuading last night, but he had needed the physical contact and reassurance. Sex was the closest thing he had to the angelic experience.

And when Elizabeth had demanded the surrender of...everything, the everything he had asked her to require of him, he slipped easily into a state of purely angelic love, a state that he could not always get to, and gave himself to her. Elizabeth paused a moment to admire the beauty of this experience before sending the necessary waves of love, acceptance, satisfaction at his obedience which she watched send exquisite shivers of ecstasy through his being. He had started to do this only recently and it was more than the worship that he normally gave her. It felt more like a physical and spiritual openess, a surrender of the self that seemed to go naturally with the words he spoke to her.

As if on cue, when she had thought that, the praise had started, the snippets of the songs that he used to sing to the Creator, that he now sang to her. This had bothered her at first but then both she and Cassie had come to the realization that it was only pieces of the songs, only those pieces that said what they wanted to say but were…applicable to a human. Because while the divine in them allowed this experience to occur, the girls were not the divine.

It always amazed Elizabeth and Cassie how comforted their angels were by the divine experience they were able to have with them. Despite, but really because of, the depth of the surrender the boys always felt stronger, more secure, and accepted afterwards. When they discussed it with each other, the girls would laugh and chalk it up to another part of the angelic nature that was seemingly opposite to own but deep down both of them understood it, which was why they could give their angels what they needed.

When Elizabeth recovered from her pleasure-induced haze, she asked Lucifer about what had happened last night.

"They could have hurt you," he said with a cocky smile that indicated that he was still pleased with himself over this morning's romp and was not going to let this line of questioning ruin it, "Nothing in this world could hurt you enough that I could not heal you but they are different."

"But you seemed to be impervious to Lucivar's power and you read their minds so..."

He chuckled at her, "Of course, they cannot harm me but I did not read their minds. I cannot do that any more that Azazeal can. I just captured information from their memories and I could feel their strong emotions coming off of them in waves, but I cannot read thoughts, my dear."

He had almost growled when he said "strong emotions," but Elizabeth let it go and said, "You seemed to get alone well enough with Daemon."

"Ah, the wingless one! He got me talking about you. And because I was listening to your conversation with the girl too, I found that there was something he needed to hear so I told him. But by then I wanted you so much I could no longer be bothered to entertain him anymore."

After a pause and smile to herself that Lucifer was pretending that it had been the sex that he had wanted instead of the reassurance of his goddess, Elizabeth asked the question she really wanted answered, "Why were you so agitated?"

"I told you…"

"No, you didn't, tell me why."

His tone turned serious and shook in deadly anger, "Their easy rise to rage incites me, Azazeal will understand. I…I cannot deal with threats to your safety. I wasn't meant to…"

He stopped but she didn't need him to go on. She knew perfectly well that she, being what she was to him, should have been stronger than he was but even that wasn't really his concern. He could act and be genuinely possessive but when he was protective it had always been a game, an imitation of Azazeal and of human men. A good imitation but an imitation nonetheless because he had no real fear of her being harmed by anything not of heaven itself. However, when she had been threatened last night by being in the presence of such powerful and emotional beings, he had had no reference to help him deal with the situation. She now knew what had been going through his head. His mind could only comprehend destroying them as the appropriate response. The only thing that had held him back was the foresight she had had years ago to tell him never to kill. That had been the fine thread that their guests had been dangling on. She was lucky that his conflect and confusion had not caused him to behave worse than he had.

"Well," Elizabeth finally said, "I think we're going to want them to visit us again. Are you going to be able to handle that?"

"I will not refuse you, you know that," he said kindly, but there was a deviousness behind it that she wasn't quite comfortable with.

At Cassie's bidding, Azazael had watched their friends to see when they could be asked back, but the war in Kaaleer started and then they had to wait until after Jaenelle was healed from the purge to contact them again.

What did Lucifer do?

From "Paradise Lost" by John Milton (read it slowly)

"Love not the Heavenly Spirits, and how their love
Express they—by looks only, or do they mix
Irradiance, virtual or immediate touch?"
To whom the Angel, with a smile that glowed
Celestial rosy-red, Love's proper hue,
Answered:—"Let it suffice thee that thou know'st
Us happy, and without Love no happiness.
Whatever pure thou in the body enjoy'st
(And pure thou wert created) we enjoy
In eminence, and obstacle find none
Of membrane, joint, or limb, exclusive bars.
Easier than air with air, if Spirits embrace,
Total they mix, union of pure with pure
Desiring, nor restrained conveyance need
As flesh to mix with flesh, or soul with soul."

A simple interpretation of the last four lines:

If spirits (angels) embrace they mix totally like air with air, a union of pure desire with pure desire, not needing flesh to experience one another, soul mixing with soul.