When Daemon next saw Azazeal and Lucifer, the only thing keeping him from attacking them was, of course, Jaenelle. She had assured him up and down that the game and the bet would go no further, but that didn't stop the first thing out of his mouth from being, "If you so much as touch her…"
"Oh, please," Lucifer rolled his eyes, "Neither one of us has touched another women in quite sometime and I'm liable to get my ass kicked out of bed (and believe me it's not worth it), so no one's going to put the moves on Jaenelle."
Lucifer said this with his familiar mix of admonishment and amusement at the same time as being absolutely serious that he did not want to loose his spot in bed. Azazeal couldn't help nodding in agreement with a cautious smile at Daemon.
"I apologize, Daemon, and I don't do that often," Azazeal said with his own style of unflappable arrogance and a bit of angelic manipulation behind it, "And I won't touch Jaenelle either. It was just a game, like yours."
Daemon glanced at Lucivar, who was ready for battle if that's what Daemon wanted but the two of them just couldn't keep their rage hot enough. With only a small amount of regret and secret wonder that they could so easily be disarmed, Daemon and Lucivar accepted a truce.
"Well, now that that's settled," Lucivar said, "Jaenelle wanted us to ask you if you thought your window worked both ways. She wants all of you to visit."
Azazeal and Lucifer smirked at one another.
"As it so happens," Azazeal said smoothly, "Lucifer and I have made a few small forays to test the waters so to speak. I didn't think it was possible but Lucifer reminded me that he had never tried before, only lesser angels, so as it turns out that, yes, we can visit.
Later that day Lucifer, at Azazeal's curious urging, told the brief story of the only time he'd gotten kicked out of bed. Azazeal never had that problem, always being able to charm Cassie into letting her ire go, but he wanted to know what it might be like if he was not successful. Of course, he should have been prepared for Lucifer's story to be a confidence shaker.
Lucifer couldn't remember exactly what he'd done, well, he could but he wasn't going to tell them, but because of it Elizabeth looked at him with deep disappointment and told him that she would prefer if he slept in the guest room. He had frowned unhappily and repentantly but she did not budge. She went off to bed and he laid down fully clothed on the guest room bed and stared at the ceiling. A half an hour later, he got up and laid down against her bedroom door, where she found him in the middle of the night, curled up in a miserable, half dosing ball.
The bright side was that she had picked him up and took him to her bed, letting him snuggle against her. However, he did not tell them that when she had opened the door to check on him that night and nearly stumbled over him, he had launched into a repetition of the words he had only previously uttered to express surrender when she had needed to use pain to control him. Being away from her had hurt enough that he saw it as a punishment instead of what she had intended it to be, merely a chance for them to cool off.
Jaenelle was supremely excited to hear that her earthly friends would be visiting and spent a considerable amount of time over the next few visits assisting Azazeal and Lucifer in generating the appropriate illusions for themselves and their Ladies.
Their story was going to be that they were old friends from Terreille from some obscure town that no one would have heard of. They would probably not meet many people other than the Coven but if they did they need to have a cover. The plan was initially not to tell the Coven exactly what they were and decide later when to fill them in.
Their appearances would be fine but the Ladies could not appear laden or of weak power and the angels could not go traipsing around with their bright white power that felt stronger than the Black. As it was well known that only Lucivar and Daemon held the Ebon-Gray and Black, Azazeal and Lucifer developed the illusion of being Red and Gray jeweled Warlord Princes and created mental barriers that would give off the appropriate feel. Azazeal veiled Cassie in an illusion of being a Gray jeweled Queen and Lucifer made Elizabeth into a Sapphire jeweled Queen. He wasn't amused by her choice of power level so he also made her a Black Widow to satisfy himself. They created fake jewels to wear and were all coached and quizzed by Jaenelle and the Warlord Princes so that they would have enough information to keep up the ruse.
Jaenelle, as is her way, managed to convince them all to stay for a whole week, unless problems arose, and made the Hall and the also visiting Coven ready for their arrival.
After Azazeal and Cassie left the necessary instructions for the angels in their absence and Lucifer was reminded several, several times not to make any references to pleasure slaves, the window was created and they all went through.
Jaenelle had them slip in somewhere where no one would see them and then they hired a carriage to take them to the Hall. Cassie and Elizabeth were plastered to the windows looking at the landscape and the people and murmuring comments to each other, while Azazeal and Lucifer looked unimpressed (of course, they'd seen this all before from a distance). The girls were very impressed by the Hall and the grounds and could only compare it to something out of 19th century England.
When they entered the Hall, Beale was waiting for them as if he had known the precise moment that they would arrive.
"Oh, Beale," Jaenelle said bursting with excitement, "these are the friends I told you about. Would you be so kind as to show them to their rooms?"
"Of course, my Lady, and you'll be pleased to hear that Mrs. Beale is cooking up something special for dinner this evening."
"I'm sure she is," Daemon chuckled and smiled at Jaenelle.
After the guests were settled and they had arraigned themselves for their stay, they came down to the drawing room to meet the waiting Coven. Everyone was there including Khary, Gabrielle, Aaron, Karla, Kalush, Chaosti, and Morghann.
Upon entering the room, Azazeal scanned the room of friendly and curious faces and saw an audience and a source of information (he loved information). People whose ear he could bend and people who could answer the questions he still had about this strange world. He took Cassie's arm, who was smiling good-naturedly, and lead her right up to Daemon and Janelle to be introduced around the room.
Lucifer, on the other hand, tensed noticeably and narrowed his eyes, upon been confronted with so many people who, in his mind, could hurt Elizabeth. Lucivar had been prepared for this and was waiting near the door.
"No one will try to harm her here, Lucifer."
Lucifer turned his head towards Lucivar and gave him a sly grin before Elizabeth pulled him into the room, and Lucivar was forced to trust that she had him under control.
And so the introductions began with Daemon watching carefully to ensure that no one noticedthe disguises until they were ready to reveal the truth about their guests. Fortunately, Azazeal's arrogance served him well and Lucifer's slight glower was chalked up to the standard Warlord Prince overprotectiveness.
"So how are you liking Kaeleer so far?" Aaron asked after the brief introductions were over.
"Oh it's lovely," Cassie answered for them all.
"We hope to see much more during our stay here and meet some kindred if we're lucky," Elizabeth added.
"I'd be happy to take you around," Khary said pleasantly.
"I'll bet you would," Lucifer grumbled in a low voice but clearly enough that everyone heard and everyone who knew him tensed.
"Oh, you'd make a good bed warmer with your hot temper, I'll bet," Karla said quietly looking up at him from her rickety wheel chair next to him.
"I'm the best bed warmer in existence, honey, and if my leash weren't so short maybe I'd…"
"Lucifer!" Elizabeth interjected beside him, as she could not be certain if he was going to say something naughty or issue a threat.
"Maybe next time, dear," she said to him with feigned disappointment.
"Just ignore him, he gets more excited around new people than a kindred puppy."
"I can see that! Kiss, Kiss" Karla said with an appreciative smile as she rolled off, knowing she'd found someone with her kind of sense of humor.
Later on, after dinner, Lucifer was getting bored, well not really, but he was not used to having to act "proper" for such a long period of time. In addition, although it had amused him for quite a while to hover over Elizabeth like a watchful protector, he wanted to be alone with her and close to her. To him close to her meant stipping them both naked, it meant burying his face in her hair, it meant letting his hands and mouth wander over her body in luxurious slowness, it meant enfolding her in his arms and sealing her against him as he listened to her breathe and felt her heart beat.
"Elizabeth," Lucifer murmured in her ear and nuzzled at her neck.
"Just a little while longer, love," she whispered back and kept on listening to the conversation, but he was not to be put off. The other Warlord Princes were smirking to each other around the room because type of a display of affection was generally not shown in front of people you've just met. Even Daemon and Jaenelle kept things between them private, except when Jaenelle's…"pleasure" couldn't be contained by Daemons shields.
"Naneel, I can heal her," Lucifer whispered still at her neck, hoping to get her attention with this proposition.
"Who Karla?"
"Mmhhmm," he rumbled.
"I'll have to check with Jaenelle on that, but I think it would be a nice thing to do."
"Then can we go to bed?"
Elizabeth laughed quietly, "Alright!" Elizabeth slipped away from him and glided over Jaenelle, but by the time she reached her, she saw that Lucifer was already in front of Karla. He leaned over and put his hands on her shoulders and closed his eyes for a second, just one second, and said, "There you are, deary, good as new," as Karla stared at him in confusion.
"Ah, Jaenelle?" Elizabeth said and she and Daemon looked over to her.
"Lucifer just…he, well, he just healed Karla…"
"He, what?" Daemon shouted in a whisper.
They looked and Lucifer was sauntering over to them from Karla's direction and Karla was watching him as he went, but didn't seem to realize what had just happened to her.
"I told you no," Elizabeth said.
"You said alright," he retorted, "Now let's…"
"You really healed her?" Jaenelle asked with bright eyes.
"Yes, indeed I did, and I want…"
Jaenelle launched herself at him in a big bear-hug, "Thank you!" she said, "and don't worry, I'll tell her I've thought of something new to try or maybe to a series of healings and I'll figure it out, but thank you so much."
"Excellent!" Lucifer declared and grabbed Elizabeth by the hand, who allowed herself to be taken to their bedroom, where no one had any doubt of what would occur.