by Rex Jameson
***
Lucifer punched his scarlet wings into the banks of the Tennessee River and checked his grip on Azazel. Behind him, Sariel’s purple wings hammered into the limestone bottom as they both moved quickly east and then south to the Savannah and St. John. In Winter, the rivers were deserted—the perfect travel routes for unidentified flying objects.
Azazel didn’t look well at all.
“Hang in there, buddy,” Lucifer said over the raging winds that were whipping around them, preventing any real communication with Sariel just dozens of feet away.
“I’m hanging as limp as I can,” Azazel joked in his ear.
“You sure you don’t want to die here?”
“I don’t want to die at all.”
“Maybe you could choose to come back to Chaos with your brother,” Lucifer said as his wings propelled him over misty, aromatic Florida swampland.
“If Jalak had such a choice, wouldn’t we have seen him already?”
“I reckon so,” Lucifer nodded.
“I trust Jehovah about as much as I trust a goblin.”
They didn’t talk more after that because Azazel passed out. Lucifer slowed down to allow Sariel to catch up and waved to indicate for them to descend to ground level. He wanted to talk.
“What’s up?” Sariel asked.
“How are we going to do this?”
“I’ll handle the control tower, you get Azazel into the shuttle. I’ll join you after I’ve checked over the systems and started the launch sequence.”
“You know how to initiate all the sequences?”
“NASA women can get pretty lonely. I’ve had several girlfriends show me the facility. I’ve even had sex on all of the control panels.”
“You’re incorrigible,” Lucifer said.
“That hurts, brother. Don’t you know that I’m extremely embarrassed of my sexual exploits? Did I tell you the one about the woman with the three nipples?”
“God, please not that again.”
“That was one of the NASA chicks. Every control panel.”
“Please, just stop.”
“How is Azazel holding up?”
“He passed out again. Do you think we can get him back to Chaos in time for a healer to see him?”
“No idea. At school, I focused more on how to kill other immortals rather than how to go about saving them. Healing is completely out of my area.”
Lucifer hoisted the dozing demon back over his shoulder. “Cape Canaveral is just a few miles away.”
“Yeah,” Sariel said.
“You ready?”
“I was born for shuttle heists, man.”
Lucifer shook his head and leapt into the air. His wings tore into the earth and lifted him about twenty feet. Ahead of him, he could see the top of the tower that was attached to their ticket back home.
