Azazeal conveniently appeared directly behind Lucifer in his home in the abyss, if you could call it that.
"Back for more are you? I always thought there was a bit of sadomasochist in you," Lucifer said slowly turning. But before he was completely facing him, Azazeal flew at him and pinned him to the wall with one hand tightly around his throat.
"You will stay away from her," he said carefully enunciating each word.
"Oh, but she came to me." And the grip around his throat grew tighter.
Smiling he added, "I'm truly flattered by your jealousy," though it was getting difficult to speak.
"She's mine!" Azazeal's anger was now tinged with other emotions, which was easily apparent to Lucifer.
"Of course, she is, don't be silly," and with greater effort than he expected to need he pushed Azazeal off of him.
"I need to ask you a favor."
Azazeal glared at him.
"What makes you think I would do anything but hurt you?
Cassie returned home shortly after Azazeal had left in a rage and she found Araqiel looking a little worried.
"Where's Azazeal?"
"He left."
"Where'd he go?"
"He didn't say, Casarmi."
"Not you too," she started but she could tell this wasn't the time, "What's wrong?"
"He was angry when he left. You shouldn't see Lucifer."
Surprised she blurted out, "How would any of you know who I see?"
"Sometimes I am with you," he said matter-of-factly.
"You followed me?" Her anger was now rising but she was nothing compared to Azazeal.
"Yes, today I was with you." He said in that straightforward way let her know that he could not possibly understand why she would be angry.
"I can't believe he has you follow me," she said redirecting her anger.
"I think you misunderstand," he said, which meant a lot coming from simple Araqiel, "I go with you." He said this as if the distinction was key.
"I'm sorry I'm not mad at you. I just don't understand him sometimes."
In fact, to Araqiel, spending a day with a human was one of the most natural things in existence. Azazeal hadn't really thought of it much differently when he sent Araqiel with her, which actually added to his shock at learning what she had been doing with her time.
Later that evening the mood in the church was such that everyone found reasons to leave. Despite this, neither of them mentioned the day's events. It wasn't until a few days later that Cassie said, "You had me followed."
"Yes."
"And you know I met with Lucifer."
"Yes."
"And you're not going to kill me?"
"No."
"What did you do?"
But he only grinned evilly.
Ella and Malachi were fighting over the best way to infiltrate a drug smuggling operation in South America for some angels who wanted a bit of a fight.
"Why don't they just go in guns blazing?" Ella said.
"Because everyone knows that you have to go undercover to smoke out the head of the drug cartel, haven't you seen…?
"You watch too many movies."
"You've spent too much time killing people."
At this Ella was a little hurt.
"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that."
"Well, you are not wrong."
"Look let's ask them what they think tomorrow. Now, could you help me with the math assignment?" To which she rolled her eyes.
They were both in school at Mendham now, much to their dismay, but it did give them a break from supernatural concerns. They, of course, had become friends of sorts because of their strange backgrounds.
To Cassie, they appeared like brother and sister with as much as they fought. It did concern her though that many of the angels did not appear to accept her in the way that they had accepted Thelma.
"So you're afraid that your boyfriend may have done something very bad to the Lord of Evil and you want to know what you should do about it? Well, you've come to the right place," Thelma said.
Cassie gave her a look.
"Well, it told you not to go."
"Not helping."
"I say good for him."
"I guess I don't need to worry about it but I just don't know what Azazael's thinking right now and that make me uneasy."
"Ask him."
"Right, like he's going to tell me."
Several days later, towards the end of a particularly hectic day with lots of angels coming and going, Cassie decided to try to talk to Azazeal. He'd been in a surprisingly good mood all day so now seemed to be as good a time as any.
"It is simple, you will not see him again," Azazeal told her. Which despite actually being fairly reasonable made her angry.
"You do not get to tell me who I can see."
To this he only shrugged and she stormed off.
Later, more to annoy him than for any other reason, she said to him, "You know sometimes when we make love you speak in a foreign language."
"Yes, I know," he said easily, but with a hint of surprise as if he wasn't expecting her to ask him about it now.
"What do you say?"
He opened his mouth to speak, but then sort of stopped to think to himself. Finally, he concluded, "It cannot be translated." And she rolled her eyes, because she'd heard this before, but he did not see her.
When they went to bed, she was surprised when he moved close to her and began kissing her neck. It had been longer than usual because of their little tiff but she wasn't really expecting this. She responded whole-heartedly mainly to let him know that she was still his.
In between deep kisses he whispered in her ear, "I say that I love you," and it took her a moment to catch on.
"But you say more than that," she responded huskily.
"Yes," he whispered.
"What else?" she asked playfully now.
"You have to listen more carefully," he said.
And when his eyes closed and he started speaking, her eyes glazed over and her body froze with a strange sense of pleasure that she had never felt before. She was enveloped in warmth and light. She began to realize that while she as hearing the angelic words she was feeling their meaning and her heart began to swell. She reached out to put her hands on Azazeal and as she did the force of the meaning intensified. She could feel him helpless and trembling, sending wave after wave of love and submission, offering himself to her over and over again. Her instinct was to accept him and when she did she was filled with ecstasy and contentment, while a moan tore from his lips and he sank deeper, offering more. This she could not contain and she lost consciousness.
Upon waking and remembering the feeling of last night, she shuddered to herself, but Azazael was still asleep. Her first thought was why she had been able to understand him this time, but quicker than she normally would have she remembered that Fariel had visited them yesterday and he had put his hand on her shoulder. Typically, the angels refrained from touching and it seemed unnecessary to many of them except for specific purposes. Fariel had a special talent for languages above that of most angels, so she started to think that he must have given her this ability.
She turned to Azazeal and his eyes were now open.
"What happened last night?"
"I think you know," was all he said.
And she found that she did understand and what Lucifer had said to her made sense. They were programmed with this response but obviously only He was meant to trigger it. The rest of them must have it too, but since they had existed in lower circles it did not effect them to the same extent and they did not seek it. She also knew that it was only a shadow of what existed in Heaven.
"Why did you show me?"
"You needed to understand so that you can seek out a match for Lucifer."
"What?"
He only smiled. He did not say that he showed her for himself, he could not. He found, as Lucifer had, that he could not speak of it in relation to himself. It could only exist in those moments when he abandoned himself to it.
"Where is he?"
"Oh, he's indisposed, but he'll be back."
When Lucifer had told him what he wanted the rage in Azazeal rose again. He flew at him again, but this time with a flash of a knife, he slit his throat.
"How dare you!" He hissed. He could not stand that Lucifer had seen into their lives that way.
Lucifer tried to speak, but could not, and with a pleased grin, Azazael plunged the knife into his stomach and twisted. He dragged him to the edge of a whole in the abyss. Lucifer was smiling to himself now but Azazeal could see that the pain in Lucifer's face was from much more that his blade. He pulled him up to face him and just before hurling him down he said, "You will never see her again." To which Lucifer responded, knowing that what Azazeal had said was a condition in their new agreement, rather than a pronouncement that he was about to die, "You showed me it was possible, Azazeal." And Azazael threw him down in to the nothingness.
Both had known that this was merely a ritual. They could not destroy each other. If they could have, they would have tried it already.