Lucivar woke early the next morning, as was his custom, and watched Marian sleep for a moment before rising. She would be up soon, he was certain, because you couldn't keep a hearth witch from puttering about the house, even when the house wasn't her own, but for now she still slept. She, in her female wisdom, had gotten quite a rise out of him last night, her innocent little hand trailing from his shoulder down and down…she'd known she wouldn't have to get far before he took over. They had fallen asleep exhausted, which was just as well because the bed was not designed to deal with two winged bodies and would have been too uncomfortable otherwise.
Lucivar put on his leather pants and walked into the front room down the short central hallway. He spared a warm glance for the tangle of limbs and feathers that was Lucifer and Elizabeth. The angel opened a lazy eye and then closed it again once he saw who it was. Lucivar then made his way quietly through the kitchen and out into the back yard, where he began his morning exercises.
Azazeal was up already too and heard Lucivar's exit into the back yard. He would join him shortly but he too took a moment to watch his sleeping lady. Last night he had told her about his fear that Lucifer may have his revenge on Daemon once the delicious delirium of Elizabeth's approval wore off.
"Daemon has lashed out at her twice now and he threatened to destroy Lucifer's shield around her in his anger over my little lie, but worse than that, he insulted their relationship."
"How did he manage that?" Cassie had asked.
"When you disappeared, Daemon was angry and Lucifer, you know how he is, admonished him to let the ladies have their fun. Daemon suggested that Lucifer only felt that way because he is submissive."
"Well, he is, so how is than an insult."
Azazeal blinked and regarded her seriously, "When one of the fallen chooses to serve again, we do not chose it lightly. We would not expect Daemon to understand but we would expect him to refrain from mocking it."
Cassie raised an eyebrow in question. He was clearly serious about this subject matter but she still didn't understand his point.
"Each angel serves as he or she was created to and for Lucifer it is by submission but just like the rest of us…" he paused here and when he continued he wasn't only talking about Lucifer anymore, "each time we obey, each time we worship…we are choosing you again and again and…we have free will, Cassie…"
She stopped him with a kiss and he let the rest go unspoken. When she pulled back and he moved to kiss her neck she said, "While we are exiled here, I would like you to keep us all occupied and entertained. We will work out a way to deal with Lucifer along the way." She didn't need an affirmative response from him as the way he continued to arouse her body was response enough.
"You've always been my clever angel!" she breathed in his ear. His breath caught in his chest and he shuddered, his mouth faltering on her neck, but he didn't give in. He wanted to, oh how he wanted to, every time she called him an angel he could have lost himself in adoration of her but his damnable control always won out. One of these days he let himself give in, he'd seen the easy way Lucifer and others let themselves be swayed by a word, just one word, and he knew the exquisite joy it would bring, but it was too much for him yet.
Azazeal brought himself out of his reverie and slid out of bed. Then dressing himself, he joined Lucivar in the back yard. He sat on one of the patio chairs and watched Lucivar perform his exercises.
Jaenelle woke in flames. Hands were everywhere and a hungry mouth pulled at her. She moaned and stretched and finally opened her eyes. When Daemon raised his head to look at her, she saw that he still blazed with sexual need but the fact that he had not restrained her pleasure-induced movement was a good sign. He took her then, slowly and easily, and when she next woke she realized that she was starving. Her stomach growled and Daemon regarding it curiously for a second before glancing at the bedroom door and then back at her a few times. It was amusing how apparent all of his thoughts were when he was in this simple, instinctual mode. If this had been a house he was familiar with, he might have left her here and brought food to her, but in this unfamiliar place…she could disappear.
"I'm hungry, my love," she said quietly and waited for this to do its work on him.
He rose still naked and taking her hand, led her rather circuitously to the kitchen and placed her on one of the stools. He might have been a good cook, if he'd ever had the opportunity, but being raised at Court, he didn't even have the basic cooking skills that Lucivar had. Well, he was smart enough to have figured it out but now was not the time for experimentation. Jaenelle watched as he mercilessly ravaged the kitchen and put together a random selection of ready to eat food for the both of them to pick at.
Jaenelle eat greedily and this pleased him, but he ate more sparingly. Then, of course, it was back to the bedroom were he made up for the unfortunate period of time in the kitchen when they had not been pressed body to body.
Lucifer had shortly joined Azazeal and Lucivar in the back yard, when he had heard Marian rise and claim the first shower of the day. Soon after, the boys were treated to lovely smells coming from the kitchen as eggs, bacon, pancakes and other breakfast delights were being prepared.
Lucifer grinned widely at the happy looks on Azazeal and Lucivar's faces.
"It's Sunday," he said as if this explained it all and to him it did, because every Sunday morning Elizabeth prepared a particularly lavish breakfast, as he had learned the very first morning he had woken in her bed.
After waiting the appropriate amount of time for the ladies to set the table ready for the meal, the men appeared precisely on schedule to sit down and enjoy breakfast with their self-satisfied mates.
When breakfast was over, the dishes cleared, and everyone had made themselves ready for the day, Azazeal took over. The spells that Jaenelle had created to hide Luciver and Marian's gold eyes and wings had worn off, but Azazeal was capable of his own style of illusion that simply made people not notice these differences. As so it was that they embarked on a tour of California which started with the beach and ended with a walk down Sunset Boulevard in the evening, but was punctuated by a visit to the Sierra Nevada Mountains where Lucivar and Marian had soared in giggly excitement over snow covered peaks and through rocky gorges sometimes with Azazeal and Lucifer in tow despite the screaming and laughing protests of Cassie and Elizabeth.
They returned home suitably distracted and tired and with Cassie glowing with pride over Azazeal's mastery of this day.
The next morning Jaenelle found Daemon no less hungry but more like himself and by mid-afternoon the rut was over. He questioned her shyly but she assured him that he had been a perfect, if wild, gentleman and he was soon satisfied that she was okay and let her contact Lucivar.
All of sudden Lucivar stopped stock-still and listened. Everyone turned to watch him and waited for him to speak.
"Jaenelle says that is it over, but that she thinks just the men should come first to test Daemon's reaction."
Azazeal regarded him thoughtfully and would have suggested giving them a bit more time but he could see how eager Lucivar was to check on Jaenelle.
"Alright then, if you ladies will excuse us," he inclined his head to Marian and Cassie who both smiled and putting a hand on Lucivar's arm, they disappeared along with Lucifer.
When the three males suddenly appeared in the Church, Daemon did indeed tense and narrow his eyes, but he had been expecting them, he reminded himself, and found it easier then he had thought it would be to calm down.
Lucivar went immediately to Jaenelle who was standing next to him and it stung Daemon a bit but he knew that he would have done the same thing if it had been Marian. Azazeal sauntered over to him and clapped him on the shoulder with a strange smile but before he could say anything Lucivar had turned to him.
"How did it go?" he asked quietly because Jaenelle was only a little ways off speaking to Lucifer.
"Well enough I guess, she wasn't hurt and seemed almost insulted that I thought she would be."
"Marian was the same way the first time. I think it's a pride thing," Lucivar smiled.
Jaenelle moved to join them and Lucivar stepped back to give her room, but Lucifer only met Daemon's eyes coldly and walked away.
"Lucifer…" Daemon started and was about to follow him, when Lucivar grabbed his arm.
"Don't."
Jaenelle looked at Lucivar questioningly, but it was Azazeal that answered diplomatically, "Daemon attacked Elizabeth before Lucifer brought you both here…"
"Is she okay?" Jaenelle asked huskily, ready for the worst, ready to put her healing skills to work if they would do any good at all. She now remembered the quick blast of power that Daemon had unleashed before she had found herself here.
"It was blocked," Lucivar said simply and Azazeal knew, because they hadn't told him, that Lucivar didn't know that it was Elizabeth herself who had blocked the attack.
"It's more than that, I'm afraid," Azazeal added, "He would have forgiven you, but you had ridiculed his obedience to Elizabeth and it is that which saved you and a lot of other people's lives. If anything is sacred to a fallen angel it is his relationship to his lover."
"But even he makes fun of it," Lucivar said reasonably.
"No," Azazeal said, "That is just his way of declaring it to the world. Do not mistake his humorous remarks about being a sexual plaything for the real truth. He is a devoted angel and everything he gives to her, he gives just as reverently as I do." Azazeal finished with a glance at Cassie who almost colored.
Daemon just stood there unable to speak. How ironic it was that now, after having felt Lucifer's awesome power as he had controlled his rut instinct, Daemon understood why Lucifer needed Elizabeth, why he needed to be willing to give all of his power over to another's control for the sake of his own sanity!
"What does Elizabeth think?" Jaenelle asked and Azazeal smiled, impressed by her quick assessment.
"She does not know about the insult. She will understand Lucifer's anger though she will not share it. However, if I know her, she will not make him forgive Daemon. They must come to their own resolution."
Jaenelle considered this as Lucifer watched them expressionlessly from the far side of the Church.
At Cassie's bidding, though she had not expected him to listen to her, Lucifer asked Elizabeth to bring Marian to the Church. Thus, everyone was reunited again and Lucivar could not help but launch into an animated recounting of their flight over the Sierra Nevada's with Marian adding helpful details. Soon everyone, well almost everyone, was at ease though Daemon was clearly avoiding Elizabeth and Lucifer was clearly letting it be known that this was expected.
Eventually, Elizabeth went to Cassie and Azazeal for an explanation, which she pondered and then nodded.
"I knew it was more than just the attack," she said and then she returned to Lucifer's side.
To everyone's surprise, and mostly Azazeal's, Elizabeth got Daemon's attention and then turned back to Lucifer whose face was still grim.
"Azazeal tells me Daemon mocked your relationship to me," she said just loud enough for everyone to hear.
"Yes," Lucifer replied simply.
"Would you kill him and take your revenge?" she asked.
Lucifer looked at her uncertainly but then replied wickedly, "Well, maybe I would let him die eventually, but revenge, yes, I would take it, quite a bit of it actually."
Elizabeth laughed softly and glanced at Daemon, "And if you had to choose right now between the satisfaction of revenge and submission to me, which would you choose?"
Lucifer just looked at her and then replied, "You know what I would choose and why."
"But does Daemon know?"
"Yes," Daemon interjected, "I know what you mean to him."
Lucifer whirled around to face him, "You know nothing!"
"I understand, Lucifer. I felt the extent of your power and…"
"I could have crushed you even as you railed against me with your pathetic little rage…You think you know rage!" Lucifer roared, "You think you know fury and uncontrollable violence!"
"Lucifer," Elizabeth said softly behind him and his infuriated expression and his entire body softened as it had on the day they had first met their new friends, "I think he understands now what he did not then."
Lucifer studied Daemon's pained face and saw that she was right. He then turned and regarded Elizabeth thoughtfully, his anger subsiding. He leaned down to kiss her gently and then placed himself at her side in that naturally deferential way that always made Cassie shake her head.
Elizabeth had chosen to make them deal with their little misunderstanding before it got too heated and she managed to avoid any violence between them. Azazeal was quite impressed. Hopefully they could all get along now, but getting their visitors home was the first thing Azazeal wanted to do, because he still had a reward to claim for his part in the management of this situation.