Everyone stood in a loose circle around Daemon and what was left of Azazeal and stared in amazement. All except Cassie who was near to tears and Lucifer who appeared to be annoyed.

"What did you do?" Jaenelle asked Daemon, who wasn't sure who he should be more afraid of, Jaenelle or Lucifer. How was he going to explain that Azazeal had taunted him into unleashing a killing blast of Black power after they had begun with a few controlled experiments which had apparently been amusing to Azazeal?

Before he could answer, you could feel rather than hear laugher in the room as Azazeal reconstituted his physical form before their eyes. Cassie ran to him and nearly knocked him over as she crashed into him with a hug. He kissed the top of her head and smiled arrogantly at Daemon.

"What? You though you'd destroyed me?"

"Well, I…"

"Don't you ever do that again!" Cassie shouted at Azazeal, who looked down at a women clearly not interested in the games the boys were playing. He put on his best apologetic face and she forgave him without another word.

"So," Jaenelle begin, "I assume this is all in an attempt to determine if you could kill each other."

"Lucivar's orders," Daemon said hoping she might possibly blame Lucivar instead, "He said that Azazeal had told him that it was unlikely that we could hurt each other because we come from different worlds, so…"

"You actually told them that, Az?" Lucifer laughed as if this was a hilarious joke.

Azazeal shrugged and smiled slyly at Daemon, "It's not true but it was easier to have you believe it. The truth is that, like you, we are only concerned with the safety of the women. I didn't want our power to get in the way of that understanding."

"So you could…"

"Well, we can't enter your world…," Azazeal said.

"But if there's a way to hurt you I can find it," Lucifer finished with a challenging smile.

As the knowledge of this lie and the danger he and Jaenelle were now in sank in, Daemon's rage urged him to violence again.

Turning to Lucifer, he growled, "And what would happen to your pretty little shield around Elizabeth if I unleash against it. How many blasts before it dissipates like Azazeal and she's open for the kill?"

Lucifer's eyes went cold and in a quietly evil voice he said, "Do you remember the Twisted Kingdom, Daemon?"

Despite his rage, Daemon shuddered at the thought of all of those years he'd spent in the state of pain and madness that the Blood called the Twisted Kingdom while he had believed the lie that he had raped and killed Jaenelle.

Jaenelle saw him shudder and moved towards Elizabeth to hopefully stop this confrontation as Lucifer continued.

"That experience is an insult to what I would feel if…Do not threaten it," Lucifer finished softly and he actually took a step back from Daemon and let the challenge leave his expression. Daemon watched him carefully for a moment before forcing his anger to cool and accepting the truce.

Jaenelle whispered to Elizabeth who she was now next to, "Thank you!"

"Oh, I didn't do anything. He did that himself," Elizabeth finished surprised.

"Children!!" Lucifer said all of a sudden in mock exasperation to Saetan as he pulled him away from the tense and shocked group to have a private conversation.

"Yes, they do get themselves into trouble don't they?" Saetan replied, amused that being over 50,000 years old qualified him to not be considered a child by a being so much older then himself.

"Will Azazeal be okay?" Saetan continued.

"He's fine, not a scratch on him, but that won't stop Cassie from carefully inspecting every inch of her territory later tonight."

"Is she a healer?"

"No, you can't heal an angel," Lucifer said, "but that's not the point, now is it? Getting him naked is the point and the excuse is, well, flimsy at best but those are always the best excuses for something of that sort, don't you think?"

"I suppose," Saetan laughed at the idea of creating thinly veiled excuses to get a lover naked and that this would add to the excitement of the whole affair.

"So, are you going to tell me why you haven't yet bothered to mention the little fact that in your world you are called the High Lord of Hell and the Prince of the Darkness?" Lucifer said smoothly changing the subject.

"I didn't think you'd be interested."

"Oh, I'm interested."

"I am the most powerful Warlord Prince in the history of the Blood, well I was until Daemon came into his power. I was chosen to rule the realm of the demon-dead who are those whose psychic strength is too great at their death for them to dissipate into the darkness. So they come to Hell to use up the rest of their strength and life."

"Not like my Hell at all," Lucifer replied, "but to be honest, the Hell the mortals believe in doesn't exist either. The abyss is my Hell, not theirs. Those who cannot return to the Creator will find their own Hell to exist in when Creation ends."

"How is that you know what you know about people?" Saetan asked a bit hesitantly after a short pause in conversaion.

"Ah, the all important question. Just as you can sense people's emotions, I can sense things that emanate from people's souls. I don't read minds, but important things about an individual are written on their souls for me to read."

"And you feel that you should offer advise to people based on this information?" Saetan asked, knowing that Lucifer had made pronouncements to both Daemon and Jaenelle though he didn't know the details.

"I get bored," Lucifer shrugged and then smiled mischievously before leaving Saetan to himself.

Lucifer, after having said whatever it was that he had wanted to say to everyone, slipped up behind Elizabeth when she was alone for a moment, putting his arms around her waist and burying his face in the hair over her right shoulder. Then, since he was done with everyone and wanted to go home, he nudged the hair away from her neck and began kissing it, which was, of course, followed by pressing his hips forward so that she could feel his hardness against her.

Elizabeth laughed quietly and he whispered, "I've been good, hmm? There are things I want to do to you."

"I'm sure there are," she replied, still smiling to herself.

It always surprised her that for a being that spent so much of his time either confused by or ignoring decisions that he should make for himself, he always…ALWAYS knew what he wanted in bed. But then again there were other contradictions in him too. For instance, while he was not naturally geared towards protecting her, he had from the beginning fiercely protected her home in California. He had set up a crew of sentry angels, who still reported to him, and they watched the house, stopping and announcing any angels that wanted to see Elizabeth or Lucifer and invisibly stalking any humans that came near. Cassie and Azazeal were the only ones who had general visiting rights but it was clear that they were only to be used sparingly. Only their two sons, Luke and Bryan, were able to enter at any time. Why this was so, Elizabeth didn't really know but apparently her home was more than just a house to him. It was a place that merited his guardianship but he would not explain why to her. Perhaps because he didn't want to embarrass her. There were still a couple of things that she was not completely at ease with and it hurt him when she rejected his devotion even in the smallest way and even if it was out of human modesty.

Then Elizabeth pulled away from him, which he only allowed because he knew she was going to say goodbye to their friends, and hugged Cassie and Jaenelle, while giving a nod and a smile to Daemon and Saetan before returning to Lucifer to be whisked home.

After Elizabeth and Lucifer left, Cassie would not let Jaenelle go without promises from her that next time they would bring Lucivar and next time…they would go outside and show them the world.

"My dear, how do you propose that we hide their gold eyes and Lucivar's wings?" Azazeal asked, always practical.

"Well, I don't know, but…"

"Don't worry about that," Jaenelle interjected, "I can create illusion spells that will cover them up. I'll be sure to bring what I need next time."

"Excellent," Cassie exclaimed, excited at the prospect and they said their goodbyes.

Azazeal, of course had no idea why Lucivar was being specially requested for the next visit but he would find out soon enough. But not before Cassie performed the delightfully thorough examination of his body that Lucifer had predicted to Saetan, which he returned rather more slowly and sensuously than Cassie had been prepared for, but then again Azazeal had never been one to rush pleasure.

For the next visit, as promised, Jaenelle and Daemon brought Lucivar, who was already well aware of his instructions to explain the fine art fussing over females to Azazeal and Lucifer. While Jaenelle and Daemon worked on the spells that would hide the boy's golden eyes and Lucivar's wings, Lucivar jumped right into his lesson.

Azazeal as it turned out didn't need much instruction. He was sly about it but he monitored everything that went on in Cassie's life. He ensured that she was well at all times and if, when going out alone, she refused an escort, he had her followed. The fact that she didn't know about these things was evidence that he, in his own way, respected her independance but he could not do otherwise than be the protective angel that he was. She would have understood…had she known.

Lucifer, on the other hand, received a blistering scolding from Lucivar when he found out that he did not make sure that Elizabeth ate, did not make sure that she slept, did not make sure she was warm enough, did not make sure she didn't overwork herself, did not keep track of her moontimes, let her gallivant about on her own…the list was extensive, but in his defense, Lucifer had just recently realized that these things were important. Well, he knew, he just never really cared and Elizabeth seemed to do just fine without his…

"What kind of husband are you?" Lucivar had roared once he had heard Lucifer's attempt at an excuse for his negligence. In truth, the women of our world are not the same as the women of Lucivar's world, but the underlying message was clear: If you're not paying attention to these kinds of things, you're not doing your job. But Lucivar didn't know that if Elizabeth wanted, Lucifer could become an extension of her will and then all of these needs would be open to him and he would naturally fulfill them at her merest thought…but she wouldn't let him. Without that connection, he was locked out of her mind and only had his meager understanding of the tiny details of the human world to rely on. He was made for grand undertakings that were beyond human comprehension and while he was generally satisfied with performing the relatively easy tasks that Elizabeth asked of him, he was not at the point that he could be counted on to anticipate her human needs.

"I don't know," was Lucifer's response at which point he wandered off thoughtfully and only returned quietly to Elizabeth's side once everyone was ready to venture outside.