The ruse all started to come to pieces after Elizabeth and Lucifer left the group for the evening and strangely it was Cassie that made the first mistake. She and Azazeal were talking with Jaenelle, Daemon, Aaron and Chosti when Aaron made a reference to the former Terrellian practice of keeping pleasure slaves. Cassie smiled and let out a small snort of laughter. You can't really blame her. She was no longer a young woman in years, but with Lucifer's playfulness about the term and her own benign thoughts about what she might want to do with an Azazeal solely focused on her pleasure… She wasn't thinking about the idea of a pleasure slave in the same way that Aaron had meant it. She didn't know the things that had been done to those males for the sake of pleasure.
Daemon had hoped in that instant, when his automatic rage quieted down, that no one would notice her slip, but it was not to be. Aaron and Chosti glared at her openly and Jaenelle changed the subject, but Cassie's apologetic look did nothing to ease their anger. Luckily, the boys obeyed Jaenelle's unspoken request to stand down by her own indifference to the event.
"That did not go well," Daemon said to Jaenelle in the privacy of their room later that night.
"Well, there were bound to be little problems like that."
"Little problems! I had to keep myself from lashing out so I can't image what the boys are thinking. You have to speak to them. Tell them the truth."
"I think about it," she responded thoughtfully.
"Think about it?" Daemon roared, but Jaenelle gave him a look that quelled any further argument and he stormed off to his Consort's suite in annoyance.
"You certainly looked like you had a good time tonight," Cassie said to Azazeal who, until her unfortunate slip, had woven quite a history for them as well as for Lucifer and Elizabeth as well. He had told the truth so far as he could and had intertwined the rest into what he understood from their world.
"Yes, you know I love an audience."
"Mmm," she said pressing against him, "If only you could have kept me for messing everything up."
"Oh, I have a trick or two up my sleeve that I could pull out to fix that if it's really necessary. We'll see how tomorrow goes."
The next morning for breakfast Mrs. Beale had created a breakfast spread worthy of the best houses in any realm. Jaenelle and Daemon conspiratorially whispered to each other that they should have guests much, much more often. The Coven and the other guests arrived at their leisure and they began to talk about what they wanted to do that day.
The last to arrive were Azazeal, Lucifer, Cassie and Elizabeth, but the problem was Lucifer. Elizabeth went with Cassie to talk to Jaenelle about Cassie's slip last night while Lucifer when off to make a plate of food. Neither of them thought anything of his mood, but the boyos immediately noticed his benevolent smile and completely un-Warlord Prince like demeanor this morning, even though his disguise was in place. It might not have been an issue if he hadn't been so protective and pushy last night. Interestingly, what they should have been impressed with, and Lucivar was, was that he took it upon himself to make an overly large plate of food for Elizabeth, however he did make an unreasonably small one for himself for being a Warlord Prince who hadn't eaten since last night. He'd never quite caught on to the changing portion sizes that varied from meal to meal in our world either since he eat mostly for the pleasure of it rather than real hunger.
Daemon watched the boyos take this change in and glance at each other to confirm their suspicion that something was wrong. He would have to talk to Jaenelle about this. This ruse was not holding up.
Most of the rest of the day was relatively uneventful. Jaenelle took them into town without the rest of the Coven (she thought that they would start small and work their way up to the dragons and unicorns). At the end of the day, everyone took a relaxing walk in the garden, breaking away in twos or threes to wander as their fancy took them.
Uneventful, that was, until Chosti and Khary walked around a bush and saw Lucifer prostrated in front of Elizabeth.
Elizabeth and Lucifer had paired off, of course, and were walking quietly hand in hand, when he stopped her and turned to face her. She knew right away what he intended to do and despite the inconvenience of it, there was nothing she could do to stop it that wouldn't have repercussions later.
Lucifer knelt and looked up at her in love and happiness. About a minute later, he bowed down further so that his forehead almost touched the ground.
Elizabeth would have preferred that this did not happen, but such was his nature. She hadn't done anything last night or today that she could point to as being the cause of this. In fact, last night they had settled for a few gentle kisses and Elizabeth stroking his back until she fell asleep. But she knew, really, deep down that while most of the time the physical was enough for him (and he was fascinated with the physical and by their sexual activities that sometimes stood for something else, not to mention the angelic experiences that it could cause), he would always crave a certain subservience that she did not understand. She could handle the management of his activities and she could handle using him and his power, always directing him towards the good, but it was the simple and tender submission for no reason other than love that was the most difficult to endure.
Despite this, Elizabeth just stood there and accepted it, letting herself think about how pleased she was that he was happy. Chosti and Khary on the other hand were furious.
"Hey," Khary yelled, not knowing what else to say.
"What are you doing to him?" Chosti demanded.
Before Elizabeth could to anything, Lucifer leaped up with frightening ease and grace, placing himself in front of her so that she could not see anything.
"Don't hurt them," she murmured, but that didn't mean he couldn't scare the crap out of them.
Lucifer stood there glaring at them in righteous fury and let his psychic disguise slowly melt away so that he could enjoy their slow realization of what he was. He let his power surround them and toy with their barriers as a half crazed grin developed on his face. How dare they interrupt them? How dare they direct such feelings of rage at Elizabeth?
Just then Daemon and Jaenelle came hurrying into the clearing because Daemon had felt the boys anger and then terror though the ring of honor he had started wearing again.
"Lucifer," Daemon said and was surprised when he actually turned towards him to listen, "Whatever happened it was a misunderstanding."
Lucifer turned back towards the boys and inspected them.
"They seem quite certain that she deserves their contempt," he replied more reasonably that anyone had expected.
"What happened?" Jaenelle asked them.
"She had him on his knees, my Lady," Chosti answered, "and with the other Queen's amusement at the mention of pleasure slaves, I suspect…"
Lucifer was laughing at this point and let Elizabeth slip next to him, although he kept her safely tucked under one arm.
"I know my place is all, young man. Daemon, will you explain?"
"I will," he agreed and was delighted to see Lucifer lead Elizabeth off and let he and Jaenelle handle the explanations.
Chosti and Khary stared confused and Jaenelle who, upon looking and Daemon for help, received an I-told-you-so look. She took a deep breath and said, "Let's gather up the rest of the Coven because I only want to have to explain this once."
Small addition to the last chapter. The second block is a very short story of when Lucifer got kicked out of bed.