When the picnic was over, the angelic grooms returned at someone's call to re-tack the horses for the ride home. It was a more leisurely ride home with many groups breaking off to wander the grounds or the house at will for the remainder of the day. After dinner, they call gathered again in the living room.
Lucifer was devilishly intent on flirting with all of the women but was slightly annoyed that none of the males objected…nor did the women shy from his advances. It was much too well known at this point that he would never touch another woman much less let her touch him, so while his witty sexual innuendos served to make the evening merry, no one but Elizabeth was effected.
This, of course, was victory enough for him because he was still playfully tormenting her for her triumph this morning regarding his clothes and he knew a thing or two about revenge. But truly, he loved Elizabeth's jealousy, the part of her that sought to possess him even as she blushed at his devotion. He loved her fiery temper too, the one that lashed out despite her generally patient attitude and had made her strong enough to choose to tame him rather than give up on him. And he had learned to love her reluctance too, because it was that much sweeter when he laid all that he was out before her and she let it go for him, she overcame the fact that she felt she didn't deserve this and she embraced what was hers. He now understood the risk he had taken, though there was a large part of him that said he wouldn't have chosen her if she wasn't worthy, and he had learned from Daemon and Lucivar what Elizabeth could have become if she hadn't been strong enough. She could have used him for her own selfish purposes, she could have become corrupted and evil, she could have been cruel to him and told him that was what it took to please her. She had tried to tell him this but he'd been to involved in their new relationship to comprehend its importance.
"Marian, Maid Marian," Lucifer said, refocusing his attention on the shyest of the ladies and planting himself next to her on the couch, "Tell me you haven't wondered what feathered wings would feel like against yours, hm?"
"Come to bed, dear," Elizabeth said with a smile in her voice, finally having had enough of his antics.
"It's early yet, honey, and it's just so diverting here with our lovely guests," he said smoothly and Lucivar rolled his eyes at Azazeal who laughed silently.
"Nis Hoath, Lucifer," Elizabeth said gently and quite unexpectedly, well, very unexpectedly to Lucifer and to Azazeal. The words didn't really need translation as Lucifer's body noticeable softened and he turned to her with expectant eyes. Azazeal looked at her too because he hadn't heard those words uttered in a very long time and he didn't know what could have prompted her to say them. Come worship, she had said, as easily as she had said come to bed and you didn't just say that kind of thing to an angelic lover casually.
Lucifer rose and half float over to her and then she smiled at everyone and lead him to bed.
By the time they got to the bed room the desire that he had been stoking in her all day had brought back the cocky lover that was going to make her beg for it. He stood there with a smirk on his face and waited for her to undress him like he knew she'd been fanaticizing about all day. She obliged him and was quickly distracted by his beautiful body, using her hands and mouth to explore his chest and wander over the rest of him. He let her carry on for a while before he reached his head down to take her mouth and then began to undress her, as she had clearly forgotten about this little necessity.
"They don't really… you know…worship me do they?" Elizabeth asked after she was relieved of her clothing. She was still concerned about his comment about the other angels worshiping her.
He laughed and continued to kiss her neck for a bit before murmuring, "Not like I do, no."
"Then how…?" Elizabeth started.
"They have their purpose, like the rest, I told you. You brought this corporeal manifestation upon yourself," he replied with a smirk.
He was right, she was really all her fault. He had set her up as the center of their attention based on information that she had provided and then to make herself feel better she had encouraged them to act in this world.
When she had tried to explain marriage again to Lucifer at Daemon's suggestion, she had gone through all of the old explanations one by one and received the same uncomprehending look and mocking comments from Lucifer as before.
Finally she had said, "It's like you wanting everyone to know you served me, Lucifer, you hated it when I hid your devotion."
"Yes, but they knew even though you did not," he said reasonably.
"Well, the marriage ceremony is just an extension of acknowledgment that you wanted. A chance for friends and family to take some time out of their busy lives to bear witness to the love between us just for a few hours."
And that he had understood. He considered her intentsely for a moment and then said, "Yes, mortals would need that, wouldn't they, interesting."
She rolled her eyes and thus had began the preparations for the event that he had so vehemently opposed for so long. She should have known that his easy acquiesce would bring other things with it.
When he had told her about the angels that now surrounded her always, she had been typically confused but the introductions clarified things. She had known about the angels that rotated between guarding her and her houses. She had also known, of course about her assistant that came and went and kept all things anglic in order. But it was the new group that she didn't understand the need for.
"So I've got my assistants and my guardians," she said, "but what are the others for, exactly?"
Lucifer seemed pleased with this question.
"They were angels of the Presence, they…well, they were there to bear witness to Him, to His love and His power. There were those of us whose primary function was to experience Him or to serve Him, or both, and they…," here he paused and thought for a moment, "they watched in Heaven, like Azazeal and his angels watched here on earth. Someone has to bear witness and you humans can only do it for a short time before you get distracted by you own lives."
"And so now," Elizabeth started slowly, already knowing where this was going, "they bear witness to…"
"Our love," he said proudly. Needless to say, Elizabeth took a few days to digest this. It may have been easier for her if he had told her that he had actually invited them rather than ordering them, but who knows.
Eventually, she called them all to her, which really meant asking them to make themselves visible to her, and she could tell immediately by their expressions that they were happy to be with here, happy to have something indescribable to observe.
"You are all happy?" She asked anyway.
"Yes," was the resounding reply.
"I know you are all, well, you are with me," she said using their own terminology for their fuction, "but I was wondering…if you… would any of you mind if I asked you to go away from me…" When the words came out of her mouth she thought they were horribly wrong but the angels merely looked curiously at her.
"What I mean is, what if I saw a human I thought needed looking after for a day or something that needed to be done, would you mind leaving me to do as I would ask?"
They considered this for a moment.
"Do you mean like the messengers?" One asked.
"Or like the guardians?" Another asked.
"Or like the watchers?" Yet another chipped in.
"Yes, yes," she said excitedly, "Like that, for a specific purpose and then you return to me."
Again they thought to themselves.
"Yes, we could do that, this is a new place with new rules, we can do this for you."
Elizabeth never imaged that they would take such initiative in doing things for her but they had been building up their confidence on little jobs for her for a while now and as long as a few of them remained to watch her, they did not object to jaunts away from her.
Elizabeth shuddered and was pulled back from this reverie into the arms of a lover determined to give her the benefit of all of his bedroom skills. Then suddenly they were on the soft grass at the edge of a cliff over looking the sea and it was sunrise. She no longer bothered to ask where or when they were when he did this because she enjoyed making love to him outside so much she thought it would be silly to question it. He pulled her down to the strangely warm ground with him and he continued his attentions diligently. When he finally slid into her, she gave a throaty moan and then he whispered to her softly, "Say it again," as he rocked his body against hers.
She opened her eyes to his adoring ones and uttered the words that she knew he wanted to hear. Nis Hoath, she said followed by a loving mental pronunciation of his secret name. The words washed over his mind with luxurious sweetness. She'd never asked him for this before, for many, many other things but never directly for that which he was best at, for that which encompassed everthing else he offered.
The next morning Lucifer followed Elizabeth around beaming like Araquel at his most innocently devoted, which on Lucifer was more impressive because he was not as simple as Araquel, but a supremely intelligent being that offered it all to his lover.
Elizabeth let Cassie and the others believe that Lucifer was just being his silly self but the truth was that he had not qualified his worship last night. Everything had been all praise, all glory, etc. and she felt strangely fine with that because his joy had been unmistakable. It wasn't until a few days later that Lucifer informed her that he had felt the full divine presence inside her and he had responded accordingly. She had nodded and was not capable of anything less mysterious, leaving him to wonder how much of the experience she had understood.
She had hoped that it had just been the exhibitionist in Lucifer, the part of him that adored showing everyone how much he loved Elizabeth, that had gotten off on having all of those angels watching them, but since they had been there for months now, she knew that was foolish.
She had done it, she had said those words as if she deserved it and she didn't know what gave her the right or even the idea to do that.