Cassie let it go that night but a few days later, after stewing on it, she brought it up again.

"So you were just going to spring immortality on me?"

"We talked about this?" he said.

"No, I found out about it but we didn't talk about it."

"And why wouldn't I give this to you?"

"That's not the point. I want to be a part of the decision, is that too much to ask?"

"You make it sound like a bad thing."

"How do I know it's not if you won't tell me what's involved? You're right, Azazeal, I never want to leave you but don't push me away by being so…so arrogant."

Cassie had been getting ready for bed and Azazeal had been watching her from the chair next to the bed. He got up and when to stand in front of her, "So, do you want to become immortal?" he said but a little smile touched the corner of his lips and despite the fact that he hadn't meant for it to be condescending, Cassie took it that way.

"I don't believe you," she said, irritated at what she saw.

"What?"

"I'm having a serious conversation with you but apparently your not doing the same thing. Fine, I'm tired anyway."

Azazeal knew what she wanted but was not prepared to give it to her. Not out of arrogance, as she thought, but out of fear. He loved her more than anything he could think of but his pride had built itself up again since he'd begged her to let him stay with her. Deep down he didn't feel any different than he had when the pain Lucifer had inflicted had made him completely honest with her, however he had become too protective of his feelings over the years to allow himself to remain that way, even for her.

Lucifer had been right about him, he was too human for his own good. His naturally magnetic personality and self-confidence had morphed into arrogance and manipulation when God had abandoned him. He had felt and acted strongly and innocently at first, because he had been given more humanity than most angels, but when he got hurt his pain was greater, so he rushed to protect himself like the rest of us. He'd developed control to make sure he never had to feel that way again and drowned himself in human pleasures to distract himself.

The problem was that while Cassie, like a lot of women, enjoyed a confident man it wasn't the confidence that was going to keep her (partly because he almost always over did it). She'd seen the man underneath all this and that was who she wanted to be with and who she wanted to ask her to be with him forever. Of course, the irony was the he actually understood this better than she did, with her being as young as she was. She was reacting instinctively to his emotional shield but wasn't able to say what she really wanted.

"Elizabeth… naneel," Lucifer whispered to her to try to wake her up. It was early so she grumbled, turned over, and intertwined herself with him. He wanted to talk to her but she felt so good against him that he let her stay there. She woke later and said, "Good morning, Sunshine!" to him because he was awake playing with her hair.

Smiling he said, "And what would please you most this morning, my dear?" A question he often asked just to hear the random things she would come up with this early in the morning.

"Mmmmm," she said stretching, "A quiet field of tall green grass….and coffee."

He laughed and moved to get up but she made a noise in protest and held on to him.

"Am I your prisoner?"

"Yes," she said snuggling even closer.

"Good! I want to stay with you today."

"Let's go do outrageous things," she said, excited. She knew he'd felt neglected recently and that she owed him. He didn't need to tell her.

It was quickly decided that since it was Saturday and Malachi and Ella there for the weekend that the both of them and Luke could get away for the day and Sara would stay at home.

Luke was just old enough that he could spend the day out with them and not get too tired. Elizabeth was in rare form and came up with some great things to do and see that were still beyond Luke young imagination. For Luke, this day became the first time he could remember feeling how happy his mother and father were together. Even as young as we was, he already knew how in love they were and he'd already seen how his strong and unruly father melted for his mother, but that day they showed their joy at being together and with him.

Azazeal was quiet, thinking, over the course of the next few days. Good, Cassie thought to herself, let him think. They stayed around the house and generally avoided any meaningful conversation. It was like it was when Cassie first came to live with him and Malachi and he was hiding his plan from her. She wondered to herself if they would just constantly repeat this pattern of closeness and then distance depending on how he much he wanted to share with her. Was it her again, she thought, not doing something he needed like when she'd not let him feel her love for him? But then she discarded that idea because if he needed something, he would just have to tell her. She was disappointed now mostly because she had, at least partially, realized that it wasn't that he didn't understand what she was saying, but that he was hiding behind his stubbornness. She also thought to herself how stupidly like a man all this was but that it was exaggerated by the fact that he was a fallen angel and she was so in love with him.

As she was thinking these things, Azazeal walked up to her as she was sitting on the porch, enjoying the air outside and she looked up at him.

"I love you, you know that," he said.

She smiled kindly at him but did not speak. He leaned down to kiss her and he was captivated for a few moments because she made sure he could feel that she loved him. He was grateful for it but it struck him hard and made him feel sad that he could not give her want she wanted right now. He wanted to pick her up and take her to bed because that was were he expressed himself best, but he knew that even if it worked this time it wasn't enough. He left her then, to her surprise, and left her wonder what he was thinking.

He was still irrationally afraid that she would leave him and could not help thinking that the moment he allow himself to be weak, she'd hurt him. What she would possibly do or why she would possibly do this didn't matter. He wanted to cry but then laughed at himself for this urge. He could cry, and often did but right now he could not express, to her in words or actions or any anyway that caused him to feel, that he truly loved her with all his heart.

A few days later, while Elizabeth was fixing lunch for Luke and Sara, Lucifer burst in and abruptly asked Sara to look after Luke. He then took Elizabeth by the hand and they were immediately some place unfamiliar to her. It was an empty field of green grass that could have been anywhere. He was agitated but she saw him pushed that away as he held her close and kissed her. She tried to pull away, to ask him what was going on but she found that she couldn't. He was using his seductive power against her in a way that wasn't like him. She was soon lost in his feverish kisses and heard him whisper roughly, "I want to live in chains for you." She saw a flash of him lying naked on their bed, peacefully asleep on his stomach…only his wrists had metal bands around them which were connected to long chains attached to the headboard. The image opened his eyes and looked at her in lazy contentment and then she saw that his back was striped with viscous lash marks. The image was gone and in between more kisses he continued fervently, images flashing in her mind, "I want to exist in a constant state of desire for you…. I want to be your plaything….. I want to tremble at your touch…. I want to hear only your voice….I want you to mark me so that everyone knows who I belong to……I want to suffer for your pleasure…. I want to feel the force of your will overpower me…. I want know only obedience….I want to act only in your name….I want to spend eternity as your slave."

Even in her haze, it began to dawn on her that he must have done something very bad again, probably one of the things she'd expressly told him not to do. How he could go so quickly from nearly perfect to doing something of this magnitude was beyond her. Even though she knew her total control only really existed in their intimate moments together, she still expected him to show some restraint when he was on his own and for the most part he had since the genocide. But now that he had failed her again, she knew he was desperate to make himself pleasing to her again. Part of her appreciated what he was trying to do. He was afraid of how angry she would be and this was a kind of apology as well as an offer. She had come to understand that he longed to make her control complete because for him being with her had become a constant struggle between his twisted evil side and the side of him that only wanted to be a servant again. He knew but had never completely comprehended why it was so important to her that he was free, but she didn't really expect him to. For him this made sense, it was the ultimate expression of his love for her. It was the free will that had been forced upon him when he'd fallen that confused him, not his desire to surrender his will to her completely. But she knew that if she let him do this, she would lose some of the things she loved about him, so she wasn't about to give in.

"No," she yelled, finding the strength to pushed him away, "I will not take any more responsibility for you. It shouldn't be necessary and you know I'm not strong enough."

"You're stronger than you think," he said before she could continue.

Ignoring him she continued, "And what about me, what about your son?"

He looked pained and confused at this reminder.

"If you want to be with us, you will learn to take responsibility for your actions, you will learn some self-control. You don't need to be perfect but you must decide for yourself."

At these words, he gave her strange look that she could not interpret.

"I need you," she said starting to cry, "Please try."

Before she could say that they should go home to talk about this, he was gone.

Elizabeth called to him and she could feel him reach out and touch her mind but he would not come to her. Finally, she called one of her guardians who looked at her strangely when she asked him to take her home, but took her hand and brought her back.