I Love Luci

Chapter 6: Cat's Paw

He watched the ancient goddess pace the room like an agitated house cat, but he didn't say a word. It was not such an odd comparison, given the lazy felines strewn across every inch of the Temple of Bast. He didn't bother with the Old Ones, generally. While there wasn't necessarily a war akin to the Old and New gods in the Gaiman-verse (yes, of COURSE he'd read Gaiman; deities tended to assume an expected form if they interacted in the world. So, naturally, with one of the man's claims to fame being a couple interesting interpretations of him in comic and on the small screen, thus influencing his form, it was only apropos that he'd read the man's work) but it just wasn't often that people who summoned him were also summoning any of the ancients. And he found humans far more entertaining than his own kind, anyways.

"Nemesis warned you," the statuesque woman said, turning her head to examine him. Her feral green eyes were on him as though he had had the poor taste to bring his hellhounds along with him. "And not only did you ignore that, but you stole her away on a night when she was clearly Herne's."

"I deny none of it, Bast. What I don't understand is your stake in this. As you said, she belongs to Herne. Why do you even CARE?"

The raven haired beauty narrowed those jeweled eyes upon his and he saw the pupil alter, become slitted. In her lovely sienna complexion they looked more than just a little out of place. He could have sworn the temperature dropped and the sky overhead filled with clouds. "I have plans for her."

Lucifer arched his brow inquiringly. "You don't play the substitute deity, Bast. I know you haven't asked Herne or even Brigid for their leave to play with one of their Priestesses. So please, tell me another half-truth and expect me to buy it..."

He swore he heard her hiss, but instead of answering, she walked to an overstuffed chaise lounge and settled upon it, her right arm on the rest of the chaise, her long, lovely legs on the cushions to her left. She hadn't bothered with any clothing on her body save an elegant golden collar. Not the massive Egyptian neck ornaments as seen on statues of the goddess herself in cat form... no, a simple housecat's collar, made of a thin band of gold. Her body was lithe and supple, with full hips; sizable, yet firm breasts, and lips that drew his eyes repeatedly, imaging kissing them or seeing him stretched around his cock.

"You'd chance enmity with Herne and Brigid for her?" He asked nonchalantly, well aware of the answer. "I know she is a 'cat person' but so is every other suburban housewife."

"That's a gross miscalculation and mildly sexist, Morningstar."

"You're deflecting, Bast."

"And you're a snake."

He nodded without offense. "And so is Set. Now answer me."

"I was asked to guard her. And I have ever since she was three years old." Bast said, almost defiantly. "By more than one of her familiars." She looked a little chagrined and added: "She speaks to me. Granted, I didn't choose her before she was claimed by any of the others. And I could have."

"Why didn't you, then?"

"When she was looking... she wasn't ready for me. She was broken and hurt, but... she was not ready for what I ask of my followers. So, I left her alone." Bast frowned at her long, sharp red lacquered nails critically, looking otherwise disinterested. There was something off by this show of boredom, and he then asked: "Such interest in a woman who's beloved of her cats... granted, I imagine most THREE YEAR OLDS aren't so much. Her cat said 'Bast, protect my human'? When she was little more than a toddler?"

He watched her very closely, his whole being focused on catching a lie if one was told. But Bast looked uncomfortable and finally sighed. "No. It was her sister."

"The younger one? I thought she was Catholic."

"Not that one." Lucifer frowned, trying to piece together what he knew of watching Gwendolyn nearly half a year now and what the goddess was saying, but he was coming up with noting but confusion.

"There were three." Bast said quietly. "The little soul was only days old. Gwen was three, and it would be her another three and a half years before she would have another living sister. But when the middle one passed through, all the death entities saw her. She didn't have much in the way of desires, wants or regrets. She was days old but an old enough of a soul to recognize the pain of her departure for those left behind. She asked for nothing... she just wanted her family watched over. Anubis watches the parents and youngest sister. I watch both sisters. Anubis already had eyes on the men the girls married, so I just... co-opped them as family later."

"So... your plans for Gwendolyn then—"

"And Evangeline. She appeared when they were very young."

Lucifer frowned and it was that information that made him move to sit down on one of the marble temple benches... the growl made him pause, look down where he had been about to sit and saw a chubby long haired flat faced orange ball of fur. "Sorry," he muttered to the cat and picked it up, sat down and began to pet it in his lap dumbly.

"You look ill, Lucifer," Bast remarked.

"I am trying to figure out how one random solitary witch has the attention of so many of us. And that you say Evangeline wasn't always there lends more to genuine mental trauma issues and not her being an actual Gemini, twin-souled."

"Does it?" Bast asked, amused. "How many have you known? Of either sort?"

Lucifer rolled his eyes. "A few of the former, unfortunately. I get the most interesting 'fans'."

"Psychotics," Bast said with a curl of the lip. "Murderers and madmen."

"Many, yes." Lucifer shrugged one shoulder. "Amusing that they somehow think appealing to my vanity will save them from being punished for their misdeeds."

"Suffice to say I doubt there will ever be a single soul in that body. Yes, there has been trauma and not only in this life. Some parts of her retain memories of vessels before this one. Past incarnations. And not just for Gwen... Evangeline has them also, and they differ."

"Curious," Lucifer said under his breath, continuing to lavish affection on the fat orange tabby in his lap. "But truly irrelevant, in the end, I suppose. Why did you ask to see me save to chastise me for my foolishness?"

"It's already whispered among the ancients she has done the impossible and tamed the Morningstar. I wanted to see the truth of it. And her claws are deep in you." Bast smiled almost sinisterly. "I always knew those girls would do me proud."

"I am hardly tamed, Bast," he growled.

"To paraphrase a certain Englishman, I do think the angel doth protest too much." She gave him a slow, Cheshire Cat smile, flashing the delicate feline fangs behind her ruby lips. She tilted her head. "Shall we see just how tame you are?" She pursed her lips in an almost empathetic pout and looked pitying.

"Sure," he responded boldly but a small pool of worry had settled inside of him. Had she changed him? Declawed him like a cat?

"You know what today is, don't you?" Bast asked nonchalantly.

"Of course," he responded. "Wednesday." Her sudden, full throated laugh made him feel less certain of his victory in this test.

"No, no, you are utterly correct. It's Wednesday. Woden's day. Yes. That is exactly it. And if you're certain it's only Wednesday, let me give you this advice; don't watch our girl today, of all days." And without another word, her form shrunk down, shifting and changing as it did to instead leave the form of a black domestic short haired house cat, wearing a delicate golden collar about her neck lounging in her place.

She blinked her emerald eyes at him then hopped down from the fainting couch and padded away into the crowd of cats, swishing her tail behind her.

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

"This is a bad idea," the voice came from behind him as he settled into the middle plane to find out what the hell it was Bast didn't want him to see.

He sighed and rolled his eyes heavenward in annoyance. "Why do you even care, Gabriel?"

"I'm always going to care about you, little brother." Lucifer turned and looked at his brother, as fair haired as he himself was. Gabriel looked the part of the traditional angel; the perfect wavy golden hair, stern blue eyed gaze, currently looking nothing so much as a California surfer as anything else, even down to the pale khaki cargo shorts and white sleeveless t-shirt. "You know you're being toyed with, don't you?" Gabriel sighed and leaned back against the nearest wall and folded his arms over his chest. "If you want to know why you should leave her alone today, I'll tell you."

"Do tell. And since when are you spying on me?"

"Ever since your demons became restless with your frequent absences." Gabriel said seriously. "And you should avoid that girl today because the DATE is the first of May."

"Beltane," Lucifer said, suddenly understanding.

"Beltane," Gabriel echoed affirmatively. "And correct me if I am wrong, but she's a sex magick practitioner, isn't she?"

Lucifer nodded, his mouth suddenly dry as images of Gwendolyn nude before her little bedroom altar made him instantly hard. He wanted to take her on the altar of her bed with a sudden hunger that was almost overwhelming. He CRAVED her, plain and simple.

"Herne will tolerate her nights with you only insofar as they do not bother him. If you interfere with his Priestess on Beltane..."

"It could be war," Lucifer conceded. "But... I can watch and not interfere any day I wish."

Gabriel sighed and dropped his face into his open palm. "Lu, come ON! She is just a girl."

"No," Lucifer correct firmly. "She is a woman and a fucking remarkable one."

"She is human."

"Is she really?" It sounded more doubtful than genuinely inquiring. "If she were 'just' anything, I am sure I'd be over her by now." Lucifer turned back toward her home and didn't say another word to his brother as he folded space just enough to be able to step through and into her bedroom, careful to be invisible to anyone in the room.

And found her under her husband's hands and mouth in the middle of her bed, spread on top of the sheets her hands clutching the pillow underneath her head as she came, passionately vocal until the last gasp. Candles were lit on her altar and she was clad in the same diaphanous wisp of fabric that he'd seen her in before when she was acting as a Priestess for Herne. The room smelled of smoke, incense, roses and sex.

But he couldn't tear his eyes away as this seemingly normal man coaxed her body to orgasm after orgasm, working her firmly and insistently using only his mouth and hands with all the familiarity only a spouse can display.

The momentary stab of jealousy startled him. This human knew her body in a way he never could... it had been a study of years and intimacy that he couldn't hope to match in mere months.

It took him a moment to realize the two living, breathing, gloriously hedonistic couple on the bed weren't the only ones present, though they were the only flesh and blood humans in the room. She had cast a circle for the holiday and the spirits that she had called to her were either merely witnessing the acts of love on the bed or were actively participating in some way...

His eyes met Herne's from across the room and the silent brow arched in his direction was both accusing and amused simultaneously. The Horned god wasn't merely watching his Priestess as her spouse knelt between her parted moist thighs and, hooking his firearms behind her knees, dragged her across the bed to him, settling his body at the entrance of hers... no, Herne knelt beside her fluffy makeshift bed/altar, and occasionally flicked one of her nipples or touched her heated flesh, his body not quite solid to her, and Lucifer could see her almost glow with Herne's energy flowing into her body at his touches.

*Is she aware you're playing with her?* Lucifer asked Herne, silently.

Herne regarded her face, her eyes pleading and dark with passion as she looked up at her partner. *I don't think she does on a conscious level. She still regards her spell work as purely representational... if she feels my touch, she acknowledges it is because she called to me, asked me to be apart of her worship, but assumes it's a trick of her mind. She doesn't yet understand that we are physically here, able to affect her. But on Beltane, I think she begins to understand, some.*

Another horned deity settled in beside her, laying on his side while he stroked his own cock, which rose from a furred base, between a pair of goat legs. The old god winked at him with a grin and reached between her damp thighs just as her spouse's cock thrust into her, rubbing her clit. Her hips bucked and her spine bowed as she climaxed suddenly, clutching her husband with her arms, legs, and spasming cunt, looking more than a little startled at the sudden response of her body.

*Pan!* it was an exasperated mental sigh from the red haired goddess who was caressing the shoulders of the man making love to Gwen with a pale, almost ghostly hand, being only partially present on this plane at the moment. The mortal didn't even seem to notice the touch, but the flash of heat in his gaze as he grasped the woman beneath him, bending her nearly in half so that he could reach her depths as he thrust into her displayed clearly he was not unaffected by it. *Bad form making her cum like that when you KNOW she is trying to hold it off...*

Pan's grin widened and he quickened his pace rubbing the woman's clit. A gorgeous blonde fingered her own clit from where she lounged, half nude and smiled indulgently at the satyr. *I never understood her need to control her orgasm,* Aphrodite added, looking befuddled. *She gets more intense orgasms when she lets them just happen and build in strength.*

*What, you not understand restraint in sex, Mother? Perish the thought!* The winged god that rolled his eyes in the direction of the Greek goddess could well have been one of his brothers, Lucifer noted. Eros and Dionysus were sharing a bottle of wine and the latter god seemed to be writing a review of the sex in front of him as if it was high theater and himself the only critic in the room.

*This is an august assemblage,* Lucifer remarked. *I mean, I get being excited to be worshipped so... formally,* he gestured to the candles, burning incense and finally the couple moaning on the bed. But, he stopped cold and every spirit, avatar and deity fell silent. Her eyes were on him, as if she was able to pierce the veil around him that had been keeping him out of sight. But she saw him. He knew she did. And he saw her eyes shift color and darken a bit and he knew for a split second she had switched personalities. Then that color shifted back and it was Gwendolyn once more, her eyes full of pleasure but awareness also.

Even as she came, all but clawing her lover's shoulders and forearms with her long nails, she was looking directly into his eyes as her orgasm poured over her and she offered up her body, her energy, her very soul to the man between her legs but her gaze held him transfixed through every second of it.

He wanted nothing so much as to become real to them both and take her ass as her mate pounded into her saturated cunt... it was all he could do to remind himself how massively dangerous such a thing could be, especially with the amount of power in this room, at this moment.

He should be puzzling over how she had the attention of so many old ones. He should be wondering what it was about her that made her so damn attractive to such powerful creatures. But all he could do was watch her.

It was Eros who finally answered at least part of his question. *She is both a beacon of energy and light as well as an endless void of hunger and need. It's... amazingly rare to find a creature like her that worships us. Most other humans that have needs like hers just assert them anywhere, on unsuspecting masses. The overly stimulated and demanding child who drains the energy in the room just by entering it, for example. I honestly think Chuck E. Cheese is a Hell nexus for little energy leeches like that... but I digress. The stunningly DULL old lady who needs help that leaves the helper feeling more exhausted than she is. Retail supervisors. They all tend to be among the Abrahamic followers. That she came to us, and offers her body and spirit up to us and her lover before she sips from her prey... that's beyond rare.* The winged man looked down on the woman still writhing and orgasming on the bed, though clearly her lover had spent inside her, as he was panting over her, holding himself up on shaking arms, watching her face as intently as any god in the room, taking in the expression as each subsequent orgasm tore through her. Lucifer could all but SEE her body drinking in the man's energy as sure as she was milking every last drop of semen from his cock. The remarkable thing was that no matter how deeply she seemed to draw on his aura and spirit, he never seemed affected. He merely kissed her softly and gave to her with complete trust.

"Happy Beltane, beloved," he whispered into her ear as he withdrew from her. She smiled with soft satisfaction and murmured something in response, but once he curled around her body, she was softly dozing in a matter of moments, in complete almost childlike trust, as though she had never noticed anything odd in her bedchamber mere moments before.

*Falling asleep before releasing the circle?* Aphrodite sniffed. *How rude.*

The red haired woman that had been beside the husband most of the time now raised her pale green eyes to Lucifer's and spoke aloud, as neither human were even close to acknowledging them. "Lucifer. I didn't expect your appearance today."

"Apologies, Brigid. I was... merely checking in on her. I'd forgotten the date." All technically true, he thought to himself.

"No, I am glad you arrived. You needed to see this, to be made to understand. Her marriage was arranged by several of us, Morningstar. Get no ideas in your head about being her only love. She belongs to many. But her heart... her heart is a prize only she can give and once she does, it's forever. And she chose him. He was made to survive and flourish despite her needs. Do not imagine you've the strength to keep her. None of us truly do, no matter how omnipotent we think we are."

Lucifer didn't care for the reminder, nor how she chose to frame it. But he couldn't deny the honesty radiating from her. "I understand."

"Do you?" Herne looked doubtful as he rose and settled beside the sleeping couple on the bed, his hand gently caressing Gwen's thigh as he watched her sleep. "I wonder, sometimes, Morningstar. But even gods cannot force a soul to obey. You can't make her love you."

"I didn't plan on it." Lucifer said bitterly, loathing this feeling like he was being interrogated by the woman's parents than by other gods. "I have forced nothing upon her. She is a smart woman who can hold her own."

She shifted a little in her sleep and he saw her lips curve in a sleepy, satisfied smile and he was almost certain she whispered his name. Did she dream of him? As badly as he wanted to look into her thoughts to answer that, he refrained. Instead, he treasured that little whimper and smile and, being not among the fertility deities she summoned and thus, not all bound to stay until she released him, he folded space time once more and disappeared from the cramped bedroom, but unable to make the last hour disappear from his thoughts.