That night Jaenelle held a strange kind of Court, with Daemon, Lucivar, Azazeal, Lucifer, and their Ladies, and explained the problem. Azazeal immediately, and a little excitedly, detailed his quickly formed plan for how the angels could effect change. Unexpectedly, Lucifer added that there may be some males as well that needed an attitude adjustment and this was swiftly added in to Azazeal's plan. They all retired aware of their roles and determined to fulfill them.
The next morning the group went to the edge of the town they were going to start in and readied themselves to proceed. The plan was that Lucifer would start by coaxing the population into reveling the cruel thoughts they were looking for and then Daemon and Azazeal would swoop in and analyze what kind of action would need to be taken to banish those thoughts and ideas. This would take a quite a few days to accomplish across the whole realm and today was going to be a day of trial and error.
Before they were sent off, Azazeal made a point of speaking to Lucivar who was left with the critical task of ensuring Cassie and Elizabeth's safety while the angel's were busy.
"Just to be clear," he said smoothly to Lucivar, "if any harms comes to Cassie…"
"Yes, I know, a horrible death."
"Don't joke with me," Azazeal said seriously, "Or I may be forced to point out that you may actually end up preferring Lucifer's insanity over Elizabeth's loss to my rage. No one knows for sure what he would do…but me…I have very specific ideas about how I would express my disappointment." He ended casually and strode back to Cassie. His nonchalance made his statement extremely terrifying and made Lucivar shudder with the thought of how much he could be like Daemon.
Cassie had made sure to explain to Jaenelle that after this day's work, Lucifer and Azazeal would probably be acting strangely, with Lucifer likely to go kneeling again and Azazeal…well he tended to get amorous like Lucifer often did or need to be distracted from wanting another task. She told her that they would need some time alone when they were done, at which Jaenelle smirked, and Cassie added that while the angels actually needed no reward, Elizabeth and herself had long ago realized that they themselves could not help but want to show their appreciation.
"So, are you ready to help Jaenelle and Daemon out?" Jaenelle heard Elizabeth ask Lucifer, who in a drastic change from last night had been mischievous all morning, trying to steal fresh nut cakes from Mrs. Beale at the same time as convincing her that she was an underappreciated woman who deserved…things that Daemon would not repeat to Jaenelle despite her earnest protests that she would not be shocked. Mr. Beale, however, was made well aware of what Mrs. Beale now desired and seemed disturbingly impatient to obliged her, practically shoving them all out the door once breakfast was over.
"Perhaps," Lucifer rumbled back to Elizabeth's question, "What do you offer?"
At this Jaenelle became a bit concerned, but Elizabeth smiled and whispered something in his ear.
"And if I refuse?" he asked as if this were a negotiation.
Elizabeth again said something to him quietly, to which he responded, "Mmm, decisions, decisions, I'll have to get back to you on that."
"Well, my love, if you are particularly good, I'll let you pick," she said with a wicked smile and was graced with a naughty grin from Lucifer. She, of course, knew that he would not be in the mood for either one, but the bargaining was always fun.
"In that case…" he said and Elizabeth held out a hand to him, palm up, which he looked at with solemn consideration before reaching out to put his hand in hers. The loving smile that broke across his face then, was like nothing Jaenelle or Daemon had ever seen before. Cassie would have recognized it as the complete surrender of his will to her and would have explained it to them, but she was distracted by the expectant look in Azazeal's eyes, who was so ready to act on her behalf.
Elizabeth spoke to Lucifer in angelic and he let go of her hand to raise both arms to the air and close his eyes in concentration. He lifted off of the ground, rising a few feet in the air, his arms still wide as if embracing the sky.
Azazeal was looking towards the town now and then with a quick glance at Daemon, began strolling towards it, making Daemon hurry to catch him.
They finished their work in two towns before calling an end to the day. True to her description, Lucifer and Azazeal were not their typical selves, being entirely focused on their Ladies, as if no one else existed.
Elizabeth took Lucifer's hand when he returned to the ground again and he looked at it curiously for a second before raising her hand to his lips, as if remembering that this was an appropriate response. She reached up a kiss him full on the mouth, sending a shudder through him, and when she pulled away, he tried to follow her and press close again, without thought that they had an audience, but she held him back.
She then walked with him over to Jaenelle and Lucivar and said, "I'm going to take him back to the house."
Jaenelle nodded and then with out comment Lucifer took off his coat and put it around Elizabeth with a satisfied smile. Elizabeth shrugged and commented to the confused Lucivar, "I'm a bit cold and he knows that because, well…I'll explain later." And with that she looped her arm in his and they disappeared.
Azazeal returned with Daemon not to long afterward though Daemon was clearly an afterthought as Azazeal strode over the Cassie with a priceless look of eagerness on his face. She pulled him into her arms and they disappeared without further conversation.
"Well, I guess we'll discuss our successes and failures later," Jaenelle commented with a frown.
"I have a few things to share with you," Daemon crooned.
"Do you?" Jaenelle tried to ask innocently.
"Mmm, but I think they would best be shared in private, my Lady," he said pulling her towards the nearest place they could catch the winds while Lucivar scowled and went to go find Marion.
It had been a long time since the last time Elizabeth had asked Lucifer to place himself in her hands as her tool, but he had done it with the same willingness that he always had. Now she was left with the opportunity to indulge in love making with angel so entirely focused on her and so open to her spiritually and physically that he would treat the experience as a wondrous gift. Each thing she did was an offering of love and of herself and he understood it in a way that only an angel could. Not even she could fully comprehend what he felt, though she saw the adoration clearly in his eyes and knew the difference between when he gave and when he accepted. And when he did open himself in response, she did not hesitate to accept all that he offered, to posses it and acknowledge it as hers, because it was in those moments that she earned the right to ask him to stand on his own two feet, apart from her constant control, and trust in her to guide him.
When the got back to their room, Azazeal regarded Cassie with childlike wonder as she softly kissed his lips and slid off his coat. She smiled at him lovingly and began to work at the buttons of his shirt. As she pulled off his shirt, he was still watching her closely, seemingly unfamiliar with this process, and when she turned back to him after tossing his shirt on the nearest chair, his wings had sprouted behind him. She had barely allowed herself to wish for them, but he was apparently too in tune to her to let even that small request go unfulfilled. Elizabeth had warned her that Azazeal might be different after the first time he had trusted her enough to allow their souls to touch briefly a few days earlier, but it had not shown up until now.
"You're so beautiful," she said and he smiled a little wider, puffing out his chest and rustling his wings proudly behind him, but he did not speak.
He continued to watch her as she helped him out of the rest of his clothing and then started on her own. When she was completely naked, his look of innocent delight only deepened, as if being here with her in this state of nakedness was pleasure enough. Elizabeth had told her about this, about how, after being their angel, after obeying and using their power to its fullest extent, they sometimes moved beyond the desire of the body to touch and be touched, and beyond the ability to express their love on the physical plane.
She touched him, put her hand on his chest, and this time the physical barrier between their spirits melted away easily as if she had asked it of him. His mouth opened slightly and his expression filled with aching love which grew more keen as she moved her fingertips over him. He trembled slightly but stepped forward into her hand to encourage her. Though she knew what was happening, she felt only a strange form of physical sensation but his spirit was capable of experiencing her soul and feeling her love on a completely different level.
Just as the girls did not understand how each touch communicated something to their lovers (and the boys did not want to tell them for fear they would become self-conscious), they also did not understand how strange but exquisite it was to have a personal goddess that was yours alone, not shared, and who took it upon herself to reward her devoted angel with the mysterious and personal sensation of touch. To have a lover who had also always reached out to him so freely with another gift, her naive soul always in her fingertips and on her lips, just below the surface, inviting him experience her, if he would open himself to it.
Cassie led him to the bed and he laid himself down for her, still watching her intently. She moved over him, kissing him again gently as she slid him inside her. At this he moaned, pressing his hips upward towards her, but though he would have grabbed onto her under normal circumstances, his arms remained by his sides, ignorant of what to do. Azazeal's awe filled face made it unquestionably clear that whatever he was experiencing, he had never felt before. She felt shy for a moment and not quite qualified to guide him through this experience, but Elizabeth had told her that she simply could not get it wrong. Anything she did was the right as long as she as was filled with love. Negative emotions however had no place in this act and would inflict agony in directly opposite proportion to the pleasure he was now experiencing. So Cassie smiled to herself and experimented, making sure to keep love in her thoughts, which wasn't hard since she was so pleased with him anyway.
Azazeal awoke later and watched Cassie sleeping quietly for a movement before considering how in love he was and how good that felt. He wondered if Lucifer felt this way, so completely possessed and giddy with the sense of purpose and duty it generated, but then he knew that it was foolish to think that he did not.
Azazeal had seen Lucifer approach Elizabeth as a submissive wolf, whining over her anger and seeking forgiveness through submission for something he had not done. The form of an animal with its limited methods of communication had exaggerated Lucifer's response, making it more dramatic than it would have appeared in human form, but Azazeal had understood. He always had, though he had not yet been as willing to display his concern, to offer himself to assuage Cassie's unhappiness, to trust her to take the offer and allow him to please her. Nothing could be much worse than making that trusting offer and being refused, even if it was only out of the human's inability to articulate what would please them. Being aware of her displeasure or discontent and essentially being told that he was not worthy of fixing it…that would be torture indeed, especially to Azazeal to whom it was so important to be useful and worthy.
Cassie had experienced his agitation over things that had bothered her and had learned to read the signs in him, mostly arrogance and pushiness, that indicated that he knew there was something he should be doing to help. She had even explained to Jaenelle the precise reason behind Lucifer's display, having learned this truth by interacting with him. But now with his recent ability to trust her in the way Lucifer had urged him to, the knowledge had come to both of them that he would now react the same way regardless of the consequences. The momentary pain that might come from her confusion or hesitation was nothing compared to the pleasure that came from fulfilling his duty to her. And she would learn, as Elizabeth had in simply asking Lucifer the wolf to sit still, to request anything, anything at all, rather than worry over the perfect solution, because waiting was their duty as well.
Azazeal snuggled himself up to her, still pleased with himself with his success in their mission, no longer ashamed of his need for her, and completely unaware of the quiet amusement this would generated in her tomorrow, which he would ignore in Lucifer-esque confidence that it was irrelevant.