I Love Luci

Chapter Four: Fuck you, Charlie Daniels

"Sir? You seem distracted," Lucifer glanced at Asmodeus without really seeing him. Which suited the situation; Lucifer, himself was shielding his visage from mortal view.

"What do you mean?"

"You're spending the better part of your days watching that woman." Asmodeus said.

"And?" Lucifer cast his general a side long look. "If you have something to say, Asmodeus, say it."

"Fine." The demon said tightly. "You spend more time focused on this one little witch than you do attending to your duties below. I understand the allure. But... how long can this go on? Honor your compact—it is understood that if you want to use her to temper your urges. She is a vivacious, cock-hardening little—"

"Asmodeus?" It was said very, very quietly. So soft that Asmodeus immediately paused, and waited whatever else he had to say, unsettled by the tone, devoid of any real emotion.

"Sir?"

"Do you enjoy your existence?"

"Um..." there was an audible sound of swallowing. "Yes, Sir."

Whatever else he expected, it wasn't the angel's next words. "I do not. Seldom do I find something—anything— that truly interests me. And if I do, it passes like a summer squall. She interests me. And I don't foresee this one merely passing."

Asmodeus looked stunned. "So... pull a Hades and just take her."

"She has a family."

"Since when do you care about such things?"

Lucifer didn't respond but continued: "She belongs to Herne. I saw her face when she looked at him... she will remain sworn to him. And... he entrusted her to me."

"He followed the Laws and yielded to you one night a month. Even if she did need your intervention in interim, you cannot within your current contract. So why do you insist on torturing yourself every other day of the month?"

"I want to understand her," Lucifer said quietly.

"Which of 'her' do you mean, Morningstar?" Asked a husky, cool voice that frankly, he was stunned to hear. He focused in on the woman to whom it belonged. She was sitting at a tiny tea table outside the coffee shop where the angel and demon spoke, watching Gwen and her daughter talk and sip iced coffee inside.

The goddess was tall and slender with her dark hair pulled back in a severe ponytail. She crossed her legs and motioned to the chair across from her. "Long time, Lucifer," the woman said and gave a nod of greeting to Asmodeus.

"Nemesis," Asmodeus acknowledged. "What do you mean?"

"That girl is... a Gemini."

"I care about her astrological designation, why?" Asmodeus growled, but Lucifer looked confused.

"Not THAT sort," the Greek deity snapped. "She used to be mine. That is... Evangeline used to be mine. Until Herne seduced Gwen. Well, Herne and Brigid, but Lady B. looks the other way on how the chit worships. Personally, I think she needs to get in on that, rather than ignore it. Evvy is just as talented with a pussy as she is with dick. But understand this... Evangeline was mine. Gwen never was."

"How the hell is THAT?" Asmodeus demanded. "No matter what NAME she answers to, she cannot be only half-sworn!"

"No... no that is exactly right. But swearing to a god... it's not bone-deep... it's soul-deep," Lucifer said softly. "What you're saying... this schism isn't mental?"

"That is exactly what I am saying." Nemesis put her feet up in the chair she had pushed out for him since it appeared the Prince of Hell now wanted to pace.

"But... *Is* it possible to have them both; Gwen and Evangeline? Does she serve Herne and Brigid as a pair or does one half serve each?" Lucifer asked with genuine curiosity.

Nemesis looked disgusted. "Why would you want both? Ev is the strength, the brain. She once held justice above all things. Now... now she paints. Writes. SCRAPBOOKS!" She made a nauseated face and gagged a little. "And sex seems to be more important to her than working on justice. Have you not SEEN the United States right now! I couldn't USE my best Handmaiden. But what is she doing? Arts, crafts and fucking."

"Sex more important than justice?" Asmodeus grinned. "Nevermind, Lu. I take back all my complaints!"

"Fuck you, Mo," Lucifer said under his breath but winked at his old friend.

"Is your little witch free for a fucking tonight, then? Because I certainly wouldn't mind a dip into her... gek." It happened before Lucifer even processed the thought. He saw red, whirled on his millennia-old friend, and lifted him by his throat, unleashing his true form, dark wings wide and unfolded. "She. Is. Mine," he snarled.

Asmodeus's eyes were bulging a bit and Lucifer brought his face close to his old friend's and there was a red fire in his own eyes that was terrifying, even for a demon prince. "Tell me you understand, Mo," He said in that same deadly calm voice.

"She is yours, Sir. I apologize." Lucifer released the ancient demon and looked at Nemesis who was smirking knowingly.

Lucifer looked down at the Goddess of Retribution. "Gwen is just important to me as Evangeline."

"Then you're a fool because she is never leaving Herne."

"I didn't ask her to."

Nemesis shrugged. "Good luck." She stood and almost looked pitying. Then she paused and asked: "Has she tasted your power?"

"You mean..." Lucifer felt a block of ice in his chest. "Did I let her feed from me? Energetically?"

"Yes."

"Twice."

Nemesis shook her head, and looked pityingly at Asmodeus as if Lucifer wasn't standing right there. "I'm sorry." To Lucifer she said: "Take care with that. Leave your shields up, lest you forge something that cannot be broken..."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It wasn't common knowledge that all things dream. All things slumber, even sharks, though it was arguable if "sleep swimming" counted as actual rest. And when the Prince of Hell allowed his mind to shut off for a time, he felt himself drifting toward something, as if being drawn in. It was absolutely irresistible and dragged him from his bed, from his body.

"I-I'm confused." Gwen's voice made his eyes snap open. "Didn't we just..."

He didn't know how he knew it was Gwen; he just did. He was lying in the astral plane, in some fantasy garden in full bloom; ripe and festooned with lush, colorful flowers across a wide verdant field.

She was sitting on the banks of a tiny stream that ran through the wild earth, her bare feet in the water. She looked torn between horror and confusion.

He stood up and gave his head a testing shake, as if to clear it. She was wearing a tiny white shift that just brushed her upper thighs and her hair was the red of a magnificent sunset, full of loose curls and wild flowers. She looked... so innocent and enchanting. Yet, for all of that, the shift had slipped down one shoulder and he could just barely make out the soft color change where the fabric rested on the crest of her right breast, a breath away from baring the areola and nipple to his eyes.

He had never transported to the astral realm without consciously willing it. He had no idea what had happened.

But... he felt her. And it was like her very spirit had dragged him through the shadows of sleep and into this realm, commanding he find her.

She delicately pulled her toes out of the water and stood, approaching him slowly, almost cautiously. "Lucifer?"

"I didn't do this," he said simply, raising and absently brushing off the nonexistent dirt or grass that might have clung to him were he Earthside.

"Then who did?" She asked, with a cute tilt of her head, like a confused kitten.

"You did."

Her eyes... he'd always thought of them as green, but he realized something... Evangeline's eyes were dark, stormy grey-green, but Gwen's eyes were so much brighter, closer to blue-green with the outer edge remaining more dark blue than anything else. Gwen's eyes were guileless, wide, open, void of walls and boundaries yet warm and inviting. Evangeline's were a cold, forbidding glacier wall, daring the foolish to enter.

Just now, though, she looked small and vulnerable.

"How much do you remember about last night?" He asked her, watching her eyes and her expression closely.

"It's... fuzzy. Like a half forgotten dream. I have to fight to remember the details. But I woke knowing I'd been with you." A charming blush flushed her cheeks and he tried to ignore that he instantly became hard seeing it.

"I saw the Goddess Nemesis today," he told her. Shock, some small amount of horror, and disbelief stole across her features.

"I haven't followed her since I was... much younger."

"She says you never did... Evangeline did." Her face paled noticeably and she looked shaky. "Sit." He ordered her gently, seeing the clash of emotions in her eyes, the rapid change of color as if her mind couldn't decide whom to allow charge of the vessel wherein both personalities currently resided.

"No one speaks of her the way you do," Gwen said softly, as she sank down into the soft grass almost gratefully. "I mean... those that even know I'm like this. We all just pretend... pretend it isn't real."

"And so you fight internally all the time," he said reasonably sitting down opposite her, but taking care to not touch her. "Always vying for control. And you often lose memory because she is so strongly in control. If you'd but work with her... you might find those times when you aren't in control are no longer vast pockets of darkness in your mind."

"She's a bitch." Gwen sounded almost crushed, tiny.

"She is very like you, actually. And if she is a bitch, it isn't without purpose. She has to be, to protect you both." Lucifer said easily. "But she drank deeply last night. And you tasted me a month past. Nemesis warned me against allowing you to..." He searched for an appropriate word.

"Feed," she provided almost painfully, practically wincing at the word.

"Fine. Yes, 'feed'... she warned me it could create a bond. Tell me, what were you thinking before you drifted to sleep?"

*That I wanted to remember last night... that I wanted to know why my body wouldn't stop being wet all day today...* her thoughts caressed his, like a cool, soft breeze, and while they made him even harder than he already was, he kept his expression politely inquisitive, curious if she had the bravery to speak the desires aloud.

"Just... I just wanted... I mean..." she bit her lower lip charmingly, he waited until she lifted her eyes back to his and met his gaze.

"Tell me."

Her blue-green eyes were watery, and she trembled in the most enticing way. He would have been bothered by how this affected him emotionally if his cock wasn't raging at the sheer innocent beauty of her. She was the sort of woman he'd love to break, and it could be so easy... save that he now understood the lengths he would have to go to in achieving it, with Evangeline like a fearless warden in her body, ready to take Gwen out of any situation that endangered her body or her mind, and he knew *she* would not be so easily bent.

"I fell asleep trying to remember last night," she finally said.

"Do you truly want to know?" He asked. "I will tell you, if you do. But I suspect it will not appeal to you so much as it did to her. You're more heterosexual, aren't you?"

She looked truly surprised. "Not at all. I mean, I adore men—"

"You adore being penetrated... in all senses of the word." He wasn't about to let her dissemble. That lovely blush deepened and she gave a small nod.

"But I love cuddling up with the softness of a woman's body too."

"'Cuddling up'... not fucking." He noted. "She longed to fuck another woman. Do you have that desire, little one?"

The rapid flashes of heated desire through her mind was like the flickering of an old movie across a screen, full of half-imagined delights and deep, untended sexual needs. She had a desire much like what happened the night before... but she wanted to be the one on the bottom. Interesting... But most of her desires in regards to other women tended to include a man... even if she was pleasuring a woman, she liked best performing for her male partner, knowing she was driving him to the brink by her actions with another woman. Less so did the actual actions stimulate her as they did her counterpart.

"I like to make love with women... but you're not wrong to say my preference is men..." she admitted. "But I am so used to saying I am bi or pan because... I know that is what She wants. She likes men, also... but..."

"She wants to be in control. If anyone. Regardless of gender."

"Yes. And in case you aren't aware, my life is fairly rife with alpha males. Not many that want to cede control to her... me... us." She looked a little annoyed at trying to find the proper pronouns to describe her... situation.

"But control is not what drives your lust," he observed. "You like being made to feel... vulnerable."

"I cannot help feeling vulnerable at times!" She admitted with a frustrated wave of her hand. "I am so frequently not in control of myself!"

And he saw it then... the cords and bindings that kept the two women bound together yet never allowing them to be in accordance. "Control. You fear the loss of it even as you feel you have none and she would do anything never to lose it."

"She would hurt someone to maintain it... I never could." It was a soft omission, but also an agreement with his statement.

She took a breath and almost visually shook herself. "But you said you spoke to Nemesis. Is she angry... that we left?" Before he could answer, words fell from her lips in an unstoppable flood. "It's just... when we were with her, what we were called on to do... people got hurt. Usually just emotionally but, still... I hated it. Even if they deserved whatever punishment she decided to mete out, seeing people so broken..." she seemed to implore him to understand.

He couldn't help but smile at her soft heart, but it was a sad smile. "We aren't so different, the Goddess of Retribution and I. Colleagues, one might say. Only she deals with the judgement of the living. One usually has to die before they get sent endure to my tender mercies."

"But you do not ask me to assist you with that... she did."

"Evangeline was her handmaiden. It was her duty."

"But not MINE!" She said fiercely. "*I* was not! Don't mistake me, there were some horrible people that deserved every last, single, solitary bit of her vengeance... but I never agreed to be the bearer of it." He gave a small nod and she asked almost tentatively, "Do you like... being you? Doing what you do?"

"No, not really," he should have been surprised at the blunt honestly... this was usually a question he avoided or at least carefully answered in such a way that it was no lie, but nor was it a positive affirmation. "But it was my punishment."

"Is it true you loathed humanity so much you would not serve?" He gave her a long look, and she lowered her lashes. "I'm sorry, was that impertinent?"

"Terribly." But he smiled and then looked off in the distance. "But the answer isn't a simple yes or no. I thought we were being replaced, much like an older sibling sometimes feels when their parents bring home the new baby. But unlike when that happens, my Father didn't discuss it with me, explain I wasn't being discarded and assure I would grow to love the new baby... he just shut me out. And the new baby got told that the older sibling is a monster that wants nothing but pain and suffering for everyone..."

"I'm so sorry."

He blinked and was momentarily stunned to find her words actually did make him feel... something. He wasn't sure if "better" was the word, but her genuine sorrow and empathetic nature did not fail to reach him. "It wasn't your fault," he said simply.

"Perhaps not directly, but... as a member of the human race... truly. I am sorry. No one should be cast out of their family forever for simply voicing a concern." She hesitated and then said. "And all the rest? Being evil and 'the adversary' and all that? All lies?"

"I was an unruly teenager." He said with a smirk. "I have done things you would consider evil. But... it gets old, after a time. There's no joy to be had in villainy."

"So... you're NOT going to corrupt my soul? Or do I need to best you in a fiddle contest?" It was said jokingly, but he heard the genuine fear underneath the playful tone.

"First off, fuck Charlie Daniels... I spend my time with quality musicians, like Alice Cooper, Marilyn Manson and Sting!"

"Sting?" Her brow arched and she smirked.

"What, you thought he actually manages to fuck for days on end because of Tantra? Psh. That was ALL me!" He winked at her but then sobered and answered her initial question: "Oh do not misunderstand me, sweet girl, I ABSOLUTELY plan on corrupting you. But not because it's evil." He reached over to that one strap on her pretty, almost virginal little shift, and it slipped completely off her shoulder, exposing one soft, round breast to his gaze. He was careful to touch only the cloth and not her. "I intend to corrupt you because it's fun... and I can already see that you love it." He watched the delicate nipple harden at his words and saw the blush that enticed him so creep over the neck and into the face of the pretty little witch beside him.

"I thought you couldn't..." she gasped softly.

"I can do nothing that you don't permit," he said softly. "But if you ask... if you give me permission... I can do whatever you like." He saw the conflict on her face, in her furrowed brow. He reached out to that turgid little peak, but stopped millimeters from touching. "Do you want me to stop?"

Her voice was a hoarse reply, as if she was restraining herself by attempting to sound reasonable. "I should," she said softly, and her tongue wet her lips. It was enough to make him want to crush her to him, but he stayed as he was.

"Say the word and I'll bother you no further."

"I... I... " she trembled again, and damned if he didn't find it so incredibly alluring! "No," she finally said, raising her eyes to him, a fantastic mix of blue, green, hesitation and lust. "I don't want you to stop. Please..." He reached out and drew soft circles around her nipple with only his fingertip.

"Then you must tell me what you do want. EXACTLY what you want."

Her cheeks flamed crimson and she said, "I want you to touch me."

"I am," he told, continuging the light caress over the creamy curves. She looked adorably annoyed.

"Not like this... you know what I mean."

"I may," he said with a rakish grin. "But that doesn't change the rules. Tell me what you want."

"I want your hands and your mouth on me." He took her hand in his and teasingly licked the delicate flesh on the inside of her wrist.

"Like this?"

"No! I mean... yes but..." he stroked his tongue over her pulse again and her eyes almost fell completely closed for a moment. He could almost hear her heart beat increase.

He was tempted to peek into her thoughts and see what delights lurked behind the innocent facade. But he didn't want to know, this time... he was enjoying the game too much.

"I want... I want to feel your body against mine... intimately..." her voice trembled again as she whispered her desire to him. He drew her closer and moved her body so she was straddling him, her most intimate parts rubbing against the very demanding evidence of his own desires through his garments, and he realized at once she was totally nude under that tiny wisp of diaphanous cloth; nude and already dripping.

He restrained a low growl and informed her. "I believe I am now... touching you with my body in the most intimate way I can."

She let out a small frustrated whimper but her hips rocked against his, and her soft pink lips parted in a wet O of pleasure as she did so. "No! No, I mean..." he pressed himself against her in a slow, languid roll of his hips.

"Tell me," he whispered into her ear.