In truth, Azazeal knew exactly what he was saying in those moments and took a kind of smug satisfaction in how inappropriate the words were. Besides it felt good and he was never one to deny himself pleasure. The fact that he felt this way did not cheapen the fact that sometimes when they were joined together and always in those moments, he worshipped her. For it had been having so much power without being tempered by surrender that had twisted him.
"Casarmi," Lumiel said, "you wanted to see me." He was a tall, thin man of a youngish but nondescript age. He wore a very fine suite and carried an official looking brief case.
"Call me Cassie," she said and he nodded, but she knew he would not. Azazeal had told her before that it was a title of rank, with a shrug that had said, "Why wouldn't he call you that?"
"Come sit with me," and she lead him to one of the sets of comfortable chairs that now occupied the front of the church. He waited for her to sit and then settled himself. He was a stickler for a protocol the Cassie never quite understood which entailed much more that how to refer to her.
"I am now in a position where I can make some changes."
"Yes, Haniel told me but you can't just use your influence to make changes just for yourself or us."
"Why not?" He said reasonably. Usually he was the most logical being she'd ever met but this did not make sense to her.
"Azazeal tell him," she raised her voice so he could hear her from the couch were he was reading the newspaper.
"Oh, I think you'll do a fine job telling him yourself," he said without looking up.
She turned back to Lumiel, "What if I wanted to make stealing legal?"
"Do not be ridiculous," he laughed, "I forget, you take things so literally. The silly human rules that don't mean anything are those that I refer to."
"Oh, well regardless, you can just change things that many people agreed upon."
"Some things are just incorrect."
She smiled at him, "Thank you for explaining to me, but I think everything's fine the way it is."
"Azazeal?" he asked. An annoyed look crossed Cassie's face.
"Ah, I don't want to get into trouble with, Casarmi, my friend," he looked up from his paper and with a grin, knowing that calling her by that name would annoy her further. She couldn't tell if he was not interested or if he would talk to Lumiel later but it didn't much matter. Azazeal did what he pleased.
When Ella finally decided to take Cassie up on her offer, the only person she found in the church was Malachi.
"Can I help you?" Malachi asked lifting his head and wondering why this person was here.
"Is Cassie here?" she asked without taking much notice of him.
"No, she's not. Do you need something?" he asked, becoming a little irritated.
"Tell her that Ella was here," and she turned to go.
"You're Ella?," he said with amused surprise, "You don't look so dangerous!"
Turning slowly and looking at him with recognition, she said, "And you must be Malachi."
He just grinned at her.
"You're not going to try to kill me right now, are you, 'cause I'm very busy, and I just don't have time for that kind of distraction."
Even though she had no intention of trying to kill him and she as pretty sure he knew that, she said, "Well, we could schedule a time later this week, would that work for you?"
"I'll have to check my calendar and get back to you, honey."
Ella sauntered over to him, "You just let me know when's a good time for you."
As they stared each other down, Cassie walked in from some errands, "Quit it, both of you," she said. But they didn't stop.
"Ella, come help me with these and we'll talk, huh?" Cassie said as she walked by them with her bags.
"Cassie, he certainly takes after his father."
"Yes, he does, but really Ella, he's not evil."
"I never said he was evil, but that he would bring it"
"Well, he hasn't done that either. Stick around today and see what we're doing here."
"Oh, alright," Ella responded.
What Cassie didn't know was that Raphael was the true reason Ella was here and that their new lives were by no means safe.
"Are you paying any attention at all?" Azazeal yelled, and upon turning and seeing that they weren't, sent an unlit candle flying across the room in their general direction. At this, both burst into laughter simultaneously. "What is with those two?" he thought to himself.
He'd been trying to teach Cassie and Malachi how to create a shield block physical and spiritual threats, but unfortunately for him, this reminded Cassie of the "Cosmic Condom" which was how Thelma had referred to the hexagram Ella had drawn for Cassie against Azazeal. Cassie had been whispering this to Malachi, who now knew Thelma and her personality, and both found this much more funny than was necessary.
"Fine," Azazeal added after they continued their laughter, "you can both figure it out for yourselves," he said as he walked out. He had not heard their conversation, but would not have been amused if he had.
"Azazeal!" Cassie called after him but he did not stop. He'd be fine, he just worried about them.
"Well, now that were alone," Cassie started, "I wanted to ask you what you thought about going to Mendham and be around normal kids."
"I'm not a kid."
"No, but I think it would be good for you to be around normal people for a change."
"But…"
"We could figure something out with the angels. Just think about it. I'll talk to your father."
"Great," he said with a large amount of sarcasm.
"Cassie, do you always have to do exactly what you shouldn't do?" Thelma asked, shaking her head.
"Um, I guess so," she responded as she continued to get ready to meet Lucifer.
"I haven't even met him and he scares the crap out of me."
"He's not as scary as you might think."
"Okay, but after what he did to Azazael, whose strangely become the good guy, I can't believe that you would see him."
"He's not going to leave me alone and I think those two should be kept apart right now."
"Let them deal with that. Cassie he's dangerous. Didn't you learn anything from Azazeal manipulating you?"
"Guess not," she smiled, grabbed her bag, "Bye."
Cassie had insisted on meeting him in a public place, like that would help, and settled on the park they used to sit it with Malachi when he as a baby. He was already sitting on their bench when she arrived, so she sat down next to him.
"Good morning," he said as pleasant as ever.
"So, what is it that I could possibly do for you?"
"What no pleasantries? How's everything?"
"Just fine. Could you just tell me what you want?"
He chucked, "Don't be in such a hurry."
She sat back and turned her attention to the children playing near them.
"Don't be afraid either. You can call him, or any of them, to you in an instant."
She glanced at him.
"But you don't know how," he realized, "You really should make more of an effort," he scolded.
She smiled, remembering how Azazeal had tried to teach her many things but she would always end up learning them more or less on her own once she was told that something was possible.
"Have you noticed how different he and I are from the rest?" he said, being rather dismissive of the other angels.
"No, not particularly."
"Yes, you have, now he and I are the leaders, of course, and the are most similar. This is not an accident. We were the closest Him of those that fell. He is different from me in that he is Cherubim while I am Seraphim and he was given more humanity because he was sent to watch, but we are still very similar. I, obviously, am more powerful," he said haughtily.
Cassie shook once with a giggle and then stifled it with a smile. He of course saw this but was amused by her reaction.
"Malachi is right that I need to exert power and control to a great degree, but the finer points of what I need, I think you will understand better."
"The finer points?"
"You really just refuse to get this don't you?" he shook his head but was, again, more amused than irritated.
After a pause, he started to speak and then stopped, laughing at himself. He looked at her with gentle eyes and said, "I thought I could but I can't," and he reached out to touch her, but she leaped up. As she walked off he called to her, "You should really ask him what he says to you."
As she left, he thought, "How she loves him! That is encouraging!"
Before Cassie had left the park, Araqiel was reporting to Azazeal.
"LUCIFER!" he yelled, and for the first time in a long time, Araqiel was terrified of Azazeal.
"I could not get close enough to hear what was said, but they only sat and talked until she jumped up and left."
Fury flamed in Azazeal's eyes and before Araqiel could add anything further, he was gone.