A/N: Asherah does not take rejection well, her temper gets the best of her and she mops the floor with our favorite devil. Warning, there are some violent moments in this chapter. In regards to Lucifer's B.C.E. look, I was influenced by the appearance of King Cenred as played by Tom Ellis in Merlin. The long flowing locks, close cropped beard and mustache are exactly what I pictured Lucifer in his angelic form to look like-at that time. I hope you are beginning to get your toes wet into this story. Please let me know what you think.
Prequel Chapter 3: A Tear for the Devil
The once goddess of nurturing had become consumed with madness and twisted with hate. Asherah knew exactly how she would extract the maximum revenge from Yahweh: through an intrigue involving His precious son—Lucifer.
What had started out as a plot to incite the wrath of her ex-husband by creating a perverse cult involving ritualistic prostitution, where she would persuade Lucifer to be her consort and co-deity, ended on a much darker ominous note.
Since Asherah and Lucifer had experienced the same fate at the hands of their Father, when he cast them out of heaven and caused them each to suffer devastating falls from grace, she reasoned that God's favorite son would be more than happy to stick it to his old man. And, that the devil he'd become would revel in the debauchery of the cult.
The goddess had sent for Lucifer to join her at the ancient temple of Babylon. She had no idea that her original invitation had been intercepted by her ex-husband; whose developing plan for his two most loved and troublesome creations was still in the works.
Her initial pretense for their meeting was to entice Lucifer with an opportunity that she was sure he was made for. At the same time, subconsciously, she had fantasized about acting on her hidden past desires of seducing the angel.
Unaware of the plot set afoot, Lucifer, who was then going by the name Ba'al in the bible, turned up at the temple at the appointed time.
The first thing Asherah had noticed about him, was his intoxicating scent. He smelled of the forest floor, like he had recently enjoyed a romp under evergreen trees. He wore a short royal purple tunic that fell to just above his knees, with a thin rope for a belt—and nothing else. Lucifer's shoulder length, wavy, pitch black locks, fell freely around his face, a short beard outlined his jaw and a thin mustache emphasized the curves of his lips. His glorious white wings, shimmered in the bright noonday light, their downy soft feathers rippling as if animated by an invisible breeze.
Lucifer paced impatiently at the temple entrance; his wings almost dragging on the stone floor behind him. Feeling the hairs on the back of his neck tingle, there was something in the air that made the devil wary.
At first glance he was the very image of a beautiful heavenly angel, but on closer inspection, the glint in his eyes had a feral quality—there was nothing tame about him. He exuded carnality as befits the king of hell.
The goddess marveled at this most beautiful angelic creature standing before her with his wings fully unfurled—he took her breath away. Ever since Asherah had first laid eyes on him, she had harbored a secret lust for the fallen angel.
Asherah looked every bit the goddess that she was. A statuesque beauty with curves in all of the right places, she was drop-dead gorgeous. Her curling raven black hair which fell in waves down to the small of her back, contrasted with her porcelain complexioned face. The family resemblance between her and Lucifer and their creator was remarkable. Father and son both had deep brown, expressive eyes, fringed with long lashes that were capable of showing warmth or wrath in an instant. Asherah's eyes were lined with the same long black lashes as Lucifer and her ex-husband, but her eyes were a dreamy blue-green-gray; the color of the sea.
She shared the family nose, only hers was a more petite version and while her mouth also looked like theirs, her lips were fuller and more luscious. Asherah and Lucifer look so alike in so many ways that they could easily pass for fraternal twins.
On that day, the goddess was garbed in a very simple antique gown made from an ultra-fine white gold metallic threaded cloth that clung to every curve of her body in the most alluring way. With every move she made, the dress scintillated almost magically. It would seem that she was living up to her goddess reputation: she was sensuality and sex personified.
Standing by an ancient sacrificial altar within the temple, the imposing angel regards Asherah with suspicion, "why am I here with you: what do you want of me?" Sniffing the strong scent of Frankincense and Myrrh that permeates from the temple walls, he wrinkles up his nose and sneezes, "ugh, the scent of sacrifice—this place makes my skin crawl!"
On the other hand, Lucifer can't help taking in the beautiful and enthralling woman standing in the daylight deprived sacrificial chamber of the old temple. He wonders not so innocently, what it would be like to have sex with a goddess. Blinking away, the orgiastic images from his mind, he turns his undivided attention to Asherah.
Eating him with her eyes, Asherah slyly replies, "Samael, I summoned you here today because I have a proposal for you."
"A proposal for me?" he smiles mischievously, "and what kind of a proposal would that be?" His smile quickly fading as he begins to feel slightly uneasy, Lucifer asks, "Does this have anything to do with you and my Father and the messy ending of your marriage? Because, I'm not exactly in the best of His graces to speak to Him about it right now."
"No Samael, I'm not going to ask you to speak to your Father on my behalf," Asherah persists while stealing closer and still closer to him. "What I want to propose to you is an honor. I want you to be my consort in this cult I'm about to found that glorifies ritualistic prostitution and sex. Smiling ever so fetchingly, she continues, "I believe that you would be the perfect co-deity for it." Her voice sounds as sweet as honey as she tries to reel him in.
"As tempting as your offer seems," Asherah, "I'm not sure if it's something I'd really want to do. Father does keep me quite busy down in hell you know. On the other hand, I could certainly go for the wanton sex part, but not for the deity part. I really have no desire to be worshiped."
"Then leave the worship part up to me and become my consort," Asherah whispers urgently as she plies herself to him. Tiny sparks of electricity emit from her like an exquisite force field, causing Lucifer to gasp sharply as their bodies meet.
Stiffening under her touch, Lucifer feels a bit light headed and he's also feeling a slow warmth building in his groin. Fighting to keep self-control, he holds his arms tightly at his sides as he senses that things are about to go south with his former step-mother.
Lucifer has driven Asherah to distraction and she can take no more; she pushes him up against a large stone column and kisses him passionately. When she realizes that he is not returning the kiss, she looks up into his sullen face and asks—why?
"Because you belong to my Father and I won't go there." Lucifer answers curtly, all the while trying to squelch the growing stirrings of his arousal.
"But your Father and I are no longer married," she implores breathlessly.
He sighs, "you will always be my father's wife to me. Besides, you are more like my sister than a step-mother, after all, we were both created by Father." Lucifer feared incurring more of his Father's wrath if he should give in to her temptation. Choosing to avoid any further discord with God, he tries to free himself of her.
Asherah stops her seducement dead in its tracks; taken aback by his unexpected rejection of her advances, she glares at the angel incredulously and screams: "Are you saying no to me?"
Lucifer wonders what Asherah's real reasons were for bringing him here to this creepy old temple in the first place. Appearing somewhat confounded, the angel focuses his soft brown eyes down on the time-worn sandstone pavers of the temple floor. Averting his face from her scowl, he winces, "it would seem that I am."
Asherah doesn't answer him—the goddess is seething with rage. She slaps him across the face as hard as she can and screams, "insolent angel: how dare you!" Fuming, she spins away from Lucifer and turns her back to him. While trying to compose herself, she quickly reassesses her plan and makes a fateful and ultimately irreversible decision.
Meanwhile, Lucifer, who had been knocked all the way back to the temple wall from the force of Asherah's blow, rubbed the painful red welts on his face. He couldn't help feeling indignant; is this why Asherah had summoned him here—to jump his bones? His expression darkens and his eyes opaque with fury, glint of fire.
Not in the least bit intimidated by Lucifer's angry devil eyes, Asherah abruptly morphs into a huge black serpent that swiftly slithers its way up the angel's body; biting him repeatedly. Asherah had launched her attack on him so quickly that Lucifer hadn't had the time to even attempt to defend himself. Transforming back into the goddess, she steps away and watches her stepson collapse into a heap onto the ground as the venom begins to take effect.
Lucifer doesn't know what hit him. His eyes grow wide with fear, as he starts to feel the venom numbing his arms and legs. "Asherah," he pleads, "what are you doing to me?" He tries to get up, but can't, his limbs feel so heavy; they've moored him to the temple floor. As the numbness begins to settle in, his body convulses and goes limp, and his breaths come in short shallow rasps. Even his eyelids grow heavy—too heavy to stay awake, Lucifer begins to drift off.
Asherah is furious with Lucifer, he had driven her to distraction and then he had the nerve to turn her down? No one had ever turned her down. "Damn you—son! I will have my way with you!" She growls. Using her super goddess strength, she picks up the limp form of Lucifer by the neck and throws him like a doll across the temple chamber onto the sacrificial altar.
Slammed down on the slab of the ancient stone altar, stained through the centuries from the dried blood of animal and rumored human sacrifices committed there, Lucifer feels the cold hard stone crash against his spine. As the paralyzing effects of the venom really begin to take hold, his head flops over to one side, his red eyes, unfocused, flicker aimlessly as he starts to slip into unconsciousness.
"Oh no you don't!" Asherah shrieks as she tethers Lucifer's wrists to the altar's restraints: she slaps him awake. Standing at the altar between his legs, she rips his tunic all the way down the front exposing his fair skinned sinewy body. A smug smile lights up the goddess's face as she notes Lucifer's very apparent erection. Giddy with prurient anticipation, she climbs up on top of him and shoves him into her.
Barely able to speak, Lucifer cries almost inaudibly, "No—Asherah, please stop…no, please—don't!" In total desperation, Lucifer silently prays to his Father to make her stop this assault upon him. Waiting for a reply of any kind, or a sign: none appear. As bitter resignation takes hold, Lucifer realizes that his father has turned his back on him.
Had God chosen to abandon his son to the wiles of Asherah?
"Praying to your Father is a waste of time," Asherah sneers, "he forsook us both ages ago. I for one can't think of a better way to extract revenge on the bastard, than to ravish his favorite son. I hadn't thought about it before you insulted me by refusing my advances. But it all makes so much more sense now; this will be infinitely more satisfying—for me anyway." Laughing at Lucifer who is pinned beneath her, she begins her assault by gyrating with wild abandon on top of him.
Scared out of his wits, Lucifer realizes that he has lost control to a completely deranged divine being—a goddess no less. At the same time, he is so enthralled by her and so aroused by her, that he's about to explode.
Meanwhile from heaven above, Yahweh watched his plan derail. He had heard the desperate cries of help from his son but He could not stop Asherah. The best he could do at this point was to temporarily dull the effects of the assault. With the merest snap of His fingers, God watched as Lucifer immediately fell into a semiconscious state where he was only somewhat awake and able to understand what was happening to him.
Momentarily realizing that Lucifer was only partially conscious, Asherah continued on—hardly skipping a beat. Within minutes, Asherah and Lucifer are both moaning and panting like animals, as she begins to forcefully grind him into the altar. Lucifer's body takes over and responds: betraying its semiconscious host, Lucifer shudders as he and Asherah come in quakes of passion.
His Father wasn't done interfering yet. As his son releases his final shudder and comes deep inside of the goddess, Yahweh plants the brief vision into Lucifer's unconscious mind that he had already planned to. Closing his eyes briefly, God allows the vision to play itself across Lucifer's mind's eye. A short flash of heaven appears before him. Lucifer is in heaven…really back in heaven. He can hear the sweet sounds of the angels singing…he smells the lush flowering blooms of the garden…and…he revels in the peace and serenity that fills him…
After a few seconds, his Father blinks his eyes open; "it is done, the vision has been planted." He whispers.
Still semiconscious, Lucifer thought he was dreaming within a dream: Heaven? But as soon as he is able perceive it, the vision disappears as suddenly as it appeared. The peaceful expression on his face and the exceptionally broad smile that had spread across it, faded quickly along with his momentary reverie of heaven. As the reality of what had just been done to him begins to come back in bits and pieces, his expression turns from joy to agony
Unable to fully fathom it all, he allows the tendrils of dark fog that were at the periphery of his consciousness to engulf him. Completely paralyzed from the venom, the angel cannot move or speak. Lying perfectly still on the altar, he is not even able to open his eyes. The only movement coming from him was that of a lone tear running down his cheek.
Asherah, exhilarated, looks down upon her conquest to find him passed out and powerless beneath her. She had vanquished him. The goddess hadn't planned on decimating her poor stepson—but an empty victory, is nonetheless—still a victory.
A few hours later, when the venom should have begun to wear off, Asherah removed the restraints from Lucifer's raw bloodied wrists and tried to revive him, but the devil was still unresponsive. His body was completely limp and he was barely breathing.
The Goddess became concerned, she had meant to have her way with him, which is what she suspected he might have begrudgingly, wanted all along, but she certainly hadn't intended to kill him. Cradling his head in her arms, caressing his pale, fine featured face; he seemed so innocent. Asherah, softening her gaze, felt some long repressed feelings welling up inside her. Familiar emotions from back when she had been a caring and loving stepmother to the angels. Her heart clenched as she could feel the life fading from him; he was dying in her arms.
He had been over-dosed with venom from too many snake bites. Instead of temporarily paralyzing him, the amount of venom in his system had become lethal. Lucifer's body began to convulse, his breath constricted into short hard gasps: death was immanent, he was in its final throes.
In a moment of compassion, Asherah couldn't watch him die. She placed her hands, palm side down a few inches over his heart. Taking in a long and deep breath, she slowly let it escape while she closed her eyes. A warm glow emanated from her hands and melted into Lucifer's chest. The glow persisted for a few minutes until the angel sat straight up, while gulping for air. Searching her face for an answer, he asked, "what just happened?"
Looking a bit disquieted, the goddess answered, "Nothing happened, you just needed a little help coming out of the venom induced paralysis."
Still feeling quite weak and confused, Lucifer's head was spinning; images of Asherah's assault were coming back to him, along with the images of heaven that his Father had planted in his mind. He could make no sense out of any of it.
Lucifer thought he'd felt the touch of his Father, but why had He allowed Asherah to violate him. Had Asherah actually healed him from his bad reaction to the venomous paralysis that nearly killed him? Lucifer wondered, what was real and what was imagined?
A rush of adrenaline coursing through his resuscitated body roused Lucifer to push himself off of the alter. Still feeling a bit unsteady on his feet, he steadies himself with one hand on the altar before attempting to lurch away. Luckily, a column was close enough to cling to. His intention was to get as far away as possible from Asherah and the temple.
Lucifer, "are you alright?" the goddess inquired with genuine concern.
Holding on to the column for support, he seemed to be trying to steady himself, "I'm fine, I just have to get out of this death trap and away from you…"
Satisfied that he would be OK, Asherah poses the question: "well, son, do you want to be my consort in this cult or not?"
"Do I really have a choice?" He says despondently.
"Probably not," the goddess counters. She wasn't sorry that she'd brought the arrogant angel to his knees and that she'd nearly killed him in the process, as long as he wasn't dead; he was just collateral damage...
"I will agree to your offer only under these conditions: that you never touch me again—never. And, you can have all of the worship… Are my terms acceptable…Mother?"
The goddess merely smiled back at the broken and bruised divine being before her: "so be it," she said triumphantly, and The Cult of the Great Whore of Babylon began its' five hundred year run.
Grasping his ripped tunic with both hands, Lucifer staggers out of the temple where he unfurls his wings and makes his escape back to hell.
God was not amused with what had gone on in the temple of Babylon that day. His son had been violated on that sacrificial altar in the name of vengeance, in the war between him and his former bride. He had watched from above as his plan for his son and former wife went completely haywire—it was not supposed to have happened like it had. Nevertheless, parts of the plan were still salvaged and put into effect.
God had thought that Lucifer would have succumbed to Asherah's charms—who could resist them? After all, He should know, since he made her that way. But Lucifer avoided kissing Asherah, which did not allow for his enchantment of her to take place. Asherah, who had never been turned down by anyone before, flew into a rage and decided that she would take what she wanted by force and get back at her ex-husband at the same time. Lucifer's attempt to resist Asherah's temptation because he did not want to anger his father more than he had already; had not gone un-noticed.
Yahweh, virtually trembling with wrath, wanted nothing more than to strangle Asherah for what she had done to his son. He knew that he could not bring Himself to kill her, but she was driving him to a final solution—one way or another.
The Almighty sat back on His throne, replaying the incident in His mind over and over again. His son's desperate prayers and cries for help still ringing in his hears. He wished he could stop what he'd previously set into motion, but it was already too late for that. He would have to let it play out -at Lucifer's expense. Yahweh's great heart cracked with pain inside his chest; he fought the urge to comfort and hold his son, but it was not yet time for that.
Asherah had won this round, she'd succeeded in cutting her ex-husband to the quick by destroying his son. Now with the emergence of her cult, her status as a deity to be revered and worshiped had been returned to her—God be damned if He didn't like it!
Devil Bedeviled
The underworld was even darker that night than normal as the king of hell had silently retired to his bed. The fires of the chamber of torture and punishment had burned down to embers and no longer bellowed flames. Maze and the devil's demon minions had all been anxiously awaiting his return to begin to churn up the instruments of torture once again.
The demoness narrowed her eyes as she watched him stagger to his room. The devil's anguish was clearly palpable to all his subjects, even the demons recognized a deep hurt resonating from the depths of his black eyes.
Her face twisting in scorn, his second in command, wondered what foul deed had befallen her master while he had been at the temple that day. Maze had never seen him like this before, the devil she knew was always so confident, fearless and powerful; yet, he'd returned from his visit to earth visibly diminished—his great spirit seemed broken. But, by what—or by whom?
Later that night, Maze perched herself at the foot of his bed to guard her lord from whatever had happened to him that day. She studied her master as he laid splayed out on his bed, still garbed in his ripped tunic. She noticed snake bites all over his legs and chest; venom mixed with blood still oozed from them. Examining the bloody ligature marks on his wrists, the demon deduced that he'd been restrained. Even more troubling was the condition of his genitals, which were bruised and quite raw. One side of his face sported a split lip, bruised cheekbone and a very swollen over black eye. Dark bruises were forming at the bottom of his rib cage and on his back.
Thinking that perhaps he'd engaged in some rough sex that got out of hand, the demon mused, "hmm too bad I wasn't there to make a threesome…"
In a state between sleep and semi consciousness, Lucifer was restless and breathing in fits and starts. He kept whispering, "no, no please, no Asherah, please don't. No! Father, Why? Why did you let her do this to me? Please make her stop…oh please!"
Cocking her head while furrowing her brow, the demon could not understand the emotions Lucifer was going through. What she did know, however, was that something happened to him; something that had hurt him to his very core.
Silently, the demon crawled into bed beside her master; he rolled over instinctively to her and curled his long limbs around her body, making himself seem small. With his head next to hers, she studied his face: it was pained, long black lashes clamped his eyes shut, his mouth formed words that didn't materialize and his body trembled violently.
Maze had found that even the lightest graze of her fingertips on his bloodied and bruised body, made him flinch and turn away. Lucifer, who was now decidedly cold to the touch, caused the demon concern since heat normally emanated from him. Blankets were never necessary in hell, it was always so hot; Lucifer and Maze usually reveled in the heat. Maze covered her lord with a black robe that reeked of the odor of brimstone to quell the shivering. The dormant devil wrapped himself into the garment, breathing in deeply the scent of hell from his robe, calm settled over him as he fell into a fitful slumber. Now under the protective gaze of the demon sentinel, the devil finally seemed to have found peace for the rest of the night.
The next day, Lucifer seemed unaffected; whatever happened to him the day before, he had managed to push it so far down into himself that he thought he'd pushed it away. It was business as usual in hell, torture and punishment was a never ending job.
Lucifer threw himself into his devilish purpose.