After their little "nap," Lucifer and Elizabeth went back to the church, with Lucifer now no longer interested in being anywhere but next to her until she asked him to go check on Luke. He had kissed her all too deeply before he left and she wondered how long it would be before he didn't bother to hide this devotion to her from anyone anymore.
"Where have you both been?" Cassie had asked when she saw that they were back.
"We just needed a break from all of the activity," Elizabeth had said, but Cassie knew that something different had happened by the lack of a saucy remark from Lucifer. After Elizabeth had sent him off she said, "Is that cat going to follow you around everywhere?"
"I think so. Azazeal swears he's a normal cat but he's too smart and far too attached to me already. But he just so cute."
Elizabeth laughed and gave him a rub behind the ears.
"Can I tell you something?"
"Sure."
"Well, you have a basic idea that Lucifer goes from relatively manageable to completely crazy. And he's figured out and pretty much told me exactly how to control it on a case by case basis but…I'm not really comfortable with the ultimate solution."
"And what is that?"
"He says that he has the ability to give up the evil entirely, but if he did, it would be by putting me completely in charge of him…forever."
"How do you mean completely?"
"I mean completely," Elizabeth responded with a frustrated gesture, "He wouldn't do anything that I didn't tell him to, he'd be literally perfect, but the problem is he wouldn't be himself and he'd be boring, you know compared to himself."
"So what! Him being himself isn't exactly…" then seeing the look on Elizabeth's face, "Sorry!"
"As horrible as he is sometimes, to me he's always, well almost always, great…and I mean GREAT. And am not really concerned about his effect on humans because there's evil here without him and he's not nearly as bad as he was, so I don't feel compelled. I really just want to leave him as he is…Is that wrong?"
"This has got to be the strangest thing I've ever heard. The devil, who haunts everyone's nightmares, wants to put you in charge for the good of mankind, and you're not interested. That's epic!" And after a chuckle she added more seriously, "But I think that if you two can work it out it's not wrong. If there's one thing I've learned from these angels, and Azazeal in particular, it's that they probably deserve our pity more than our fear or anger. In fact, Azazeal hinted to me the other day that evil entered the world by means of some sort of accident and that amuses him to no end, though he won't tell me who was responsible. That seems to go along with everything else I know about them and their world."
"Thank you!" Elizabeth said after a moment and hugged her.
Lucifer came back to Elizabeth and Cassie with a smirk. Both girls looked at him and waited for an explanation.
"Luke is…well, occupied," he said, letting the smirk grow, "but what it truly spectacular is that your innocent little Sara has quite a devoted following now. I'm impressed, but she's still disappointingly vanilla, but don't worry, I'll dirty that up soon enough."
"What are you going on about?" Cassie exclaimed, alarmed.
"You don't know? She has at least six different lovers, all angels, and I'm betting there are more who she has tested the waters with. I was about to congratulate you on your training plan but I see I was wrong."
"How do you always know this kind of thing? Of course, what's worse is that I actually believe you." She added the last under her breath.
"I pay attention. And besides, I walked in on her and ah…I don't know…someone, while I was looking for my similarly occupied son. And it wasn't Araqiel."
"Oh God!" Cassie said.
"I don't see the problem," Lucifer said.
Both girls responded simultaneously, "Azazeal!"
"He doesn't know?" he said, excited at the prospect.
"Well, he said she could come to me for advice, but I purposely didn't let him know about Araqiel. And don't think he wants to know that she's got all these angels as lovers."
"Oh, I think I want to tell him," Lucifer said delighted, but Elizabeth grabbed his arm before he get away.
"I think that we're just going to have to break it to him, Cassie," Elizabeth said, "It will be worse if he finds out later."
Luke and Sara ran into each other, literally, trying to sneak back into the main room as if they hadn't escaped to a back room for an hour or so for separate early afternoon rendezvous.
"Ha, I caught you," Luke said as Sara rammed into him in the hallway.
Sara frowned at him, "Let me go!"
"What have you been up to?" He asked, letting her go and seeing the guilty look on her face.
She just gave him a quick "you know very well what I've been up to" smile.
Then from behind him, not one, but two female angels emerged from the room he must have come from and walked by smiling at him.
"Incredible," Sara said, exasperated, when they'd gone, "Is this some sort of race?"
"Only if you feel the need to keep up, my dear," he said with a smile and a shrug.
The finding her sassy side she said, "Well, you just let me know when you're ready for something a little less…safe," and she walked off as seductively as she could manage, which was far more effective than she realized.
Despite the use of the word "we," Cassie was actually delegated the task of updating Azazeal on Sara's progress in the area of sex. Naturally, she decided that the best way to tell him was after everyone was gone and…while they were naked. That way he couldn't get very far very fast, she figured.
That night she slipped in to bed in a little silk nightie that almost never stayed on the whole night. He was tired, she could tell, and he was lying flat on his back with his eyes already closed, but it only took a hand on his chest and a peck on the lips for his interest to be captured.
Before she knew it she'd forgotten all about Sara, her body alive with the feel of his hands and lips and body. Finally, she reached her climax, letting the pleasure fill her and then recede slowly, leaving her weak. She was unhappy with herself for getting distracted but maybe it was for the best. Now she could concentrate.
She had her eyes closed but she knew he was lying next to her propped up on an elbow, watching her as she lie on her back. She let a sexy smile break across her lips before she opened her eyes and said, "I have something to tell you that you're not going to like."
"Really?" he said amused because it couldn't be something serious if she was bringing it up now.
"Yes! And do you know what you're going to do about it?" She said lifting up and pushing him on his back, basically reversing their prior position.
"Not yet," he responded.
"Absolutely nothing," she smiled and put her hand on his chest, her face hovering over him.
"Interesting," he said as he lifted up and tried to catch her mouth but she playfully pushed him back down.
"Sara has developed a taste for several angel lovers and she's very happy with this arraignment so far. And I think she's made some excellent choices, if I do say so myself," Cassie announced, thinking the best way to do this was to be as blunt as possible and follow through on her assertion that he would do nothing.
Azazeal's face grew dark and his eyes turned distant, but Cassie ignored him. She moved to tease his mouth with her own and slipped her hand down his body, stopping just below the belly button.
"I tell you this," she continued as if his expression had not changed, "so that you won't be shocked if you see her one them." She couldn't see his face as she toyed with his mouth in between words but she didn't feel any resistance. She left his mouth to take up a nipple, not bothering check on his attitude, and was rewarded with a pleasant moan and a slight tensing of his body.
"Who exactly has she chosen?" he managed to breath.
Cassie smiled to herself that he couldn't just let it go and casually repositioned herself over him, making sure that all of the appropriate body parts were brushing against him.
"Let me see," she said thinking for a second and then gave him a list of names. He bristled at a few but she chose these times to shift a little and remind him of her body.
"I should kill them," he said suddenly, but more in irritation than in anger.
"Are they not good enough for her? Would human boys be better?"
He looked at her helplessly, "I want her to be happy…" and then his expression changed to the amusement that was hiding underneath, "but Araqiel?"
"Hey, he has qualities that you don't see."
"Does he now?" he said kissing her.
"Yes, but his qualities aren't as interesting as mine," she whispered as she pushed her hips down. She heard him exhale and felt his hips uncontrollably press towards her as he went into her. She had thought she would need to defend Sara and Araqiel further, but she could tell that Azazeal just didn't care any more.
"Do you agree to do nothing?" she asked.
He smiled in agreement and then hungrily kissed her and flipped her over. Unfortunately, for him, her feisty mood meant that he spent a considerable amount of time in tortuous anticipation of his reward for acquiescing, but then again, maybe that was just what he needed to ensure that he kept his word.
"I still can't believe her audacity," Azazeal said later.
"Yeah, I wonder where it comes from."
"I can't imagine."
"You're just jealous because you think they will like her more than they like you," Cassie teased.
"So I hear you uncovered Sara's little secret." Azazeal said to Lucifer, evenly, a couple of days later.
"Come on, where's the fury, where's the vengeance?" Lucifer said encouragingly.
Glancing down and then back at Lucifer, he said, "Cassie made a convincing case for letting it go."
"I'll bet she did," he said knowing exactly what he meant.
"I have no defense against her," Azazeal said, his face as close to a blush as it would ever get.
"Welcome to the club."
"I just never thought I would allow myself to be so easily manipulated by a woman."
"They're intoxicating aren't they," Lucifer said appreciatively, "And I, for one, plan on giving in every single time."
"Does Elizabeth know what a push-over you are?" Azazeal said teasingly.
"Oh, she's quite aware of how to manage me and is agonizingly good at it."
Azazeal laughed at him, "You know I always suspected the behind all the maliciousness and the ranting, that you were still in there somewhere. Your unfailing devotion had always been exceedingly irritating, but it turned out to be better than what we had had to live with until she wrapped you around her little finger."
"And you were always such an overly confident know-it-all, but I see that hasn't changed," Lucifer quipped but with an affable smile.