by Holly Hunt
"Why the hell are you pissed, Aza?"
He glared at me. "Gee, Asp," he said sarcastically. "Five thousand years of peace without you, then you turn up? You'd cause anyone to drink."
I glared at my twin brother, then stuck my tongue out at him. "As if you did me any better in Heaven. I started drinking when I was fifteen because of you!"
Azazel laughed, leaning on my shoulder. "And now you're a ghost, and I'm a Demon, and Heaven doesn't want either of us."
He sniffed and collapsed. I caught him and laid him on the ground, taking the bottle of absinthe from him before he could spill it. I absently took a drink and smiled.
"He still has the best taste in alcohol."
Beelzebub kneeled beside Jayce, smoothing her hair back from her face. He was frowning slightly, his head tilted to the side as I made sure my idiot twin could breathe, then I stepped up to Beelzebub.
"Jayce. I never realized before, but she looks like…" Beelzebub whispered, smoothing back her blood-matted hair. He turned to me. "What happened, Aspen, when we left Heaven?"
I frowned, putting a hand on his shoulder. "Azrael, the King of Limbo, he told me God put the put the women in solitary confinement. Lucifer burst in, trying to save the women, and instead only managed to completely screw up. He told God that it wasn't our fault we were created as we were, the forerunners to the human race, the experiment to see if we could be created to reproduce on our own, and God bound him to Hell."
"And our wives, sisters, mothers?" Beelzebub asked, and I heard him swallow thickly.
"As far as I know, they're being treated to Seventh Heaven, still servicing her for Her experiments." I sighed, watching Jayce sleeping on the throne. "And I am so pissed that I can't do anything about it."
Jayce rolled her head toward Beelzebub and relaxed. I hadn't realized she wasn't truly asleep—a deep, comfortable sleep—until then. I was happy that the Devil liked his throne big enough to sleep on, even if it didn't get used very often. Jayce distracted my thinking when she curled up on her side and hissed in pain, opening her eyes.
"Jayce?" I asked quietly, and she frowned at me, ignoring the red-skinned Beelzebub shrinking back from her. "What's wrong?"
She frowned harder, curling up against the back of the seat. "I don't... know you, do I?"
I smiled at her as Beelzebub stood and stepped back a bit, allowing me to crouch in front of the chair, my head at the same height as hers. "You do know me, Jayce. Quite well, I would think."
She frowned and narrowed her eyes, thinking. She obviously recognized my voice. "A...Aspen? You've changed a lot since I saw you last."
I laughed. "That's right, Jayce. You're safe here with Bee and Levi and everyone."
She relaxed a little, then looked at Beelzebub standing behind me. She sat up and wrapped her arms around her knees, resting her chin on her hands. She flushed slightly and inhaled sharply, but I could do nothing for her pain. I was sure the Demons could do even less than me. Only Lucifer would be able to help her with her injuries.
"Jayce, meet Beelzebub, my great-uncle. He's Leviathan's brother-in-law." I smiled at her, and Beelzebub stepped forward slightly, as though afraid of scaring her away.
"H—hi," she said carefully, and held out her hand.
He shook it, smiling shyly, and I laughed. Beelzebub was such a pussy when it came to women!
I heard something fwoop overhead and looked up. Lucifer had emerged from the Portal and was heading towards us, a purple-skinned shape in his arms. As he landed, a little haphazardly, I noticed that the purple-skinned
shape was Clarissa, covered in bruises.
"Clarissa!" I hissed, helping Jayce stand up so Lucifer could place Clarissa on the throne instead.
Clarissa was unconscious, her hands hooked into Lucifer's shirt, and she didn't want to let him go. Instead of disentangling her fingers, Lucifer sat on the throne and held her close to his chest, resting his head against the top of hers.
"Hey, boss," Beelzebub crowed as the Demons started to gather around him. "Is this your missus?"
He nodded, his arms around her torso. She snuggled in closer to him, murmuring his name. The Demons couldn't see her face, just her brown hair and her bruised skin, but I'm sure we all knew she was smiling slightly in her sleep.
"Yes," he said quietly. "This is Clarissa."
Lucifer looked out among the crowd of Demons, halfsmiling with a look of pride on his face. He saw Jayce standing next to me and frowned at her, then winked.
A second later, Jayce was wearing her favorite clothes—a pair of skinny blue jeans and a white blouse, the top buttons undone to show off her chest just the way she liked it, black stilettos on her feet. Her bruises faded, and I could see some of her wounds were healing.
Lucifer looked to Clarissa and winked again. A blue blouse covered her chest, a long black skirt wrapped her legs to the knee, and long black boots hid her legs from the thigh down.
"What happened to them, boss?" Beelzebub asked as Clarissa shifted in Lucifer's lap, rubbing at her eyes.
"She and Jayce were caught by the Hellraisers I didn't find before. As far as I can tell, they've been tortured." His voice shook on the last word, though with rage, guilt or sorrow, I couldn't tell.
He hugged Clarissa as she turned to look at the Demons around her, sitting up in his lap with her arms around his chest. She shrank into Lucifer, rubbing at her eyes again, then turned back to bury her face in his neck.
"Must be asleep or something," she murmured, making Lucifer laugh.
"Clarissa, say hi to all the male members of the Grigori."
She turned back to look at us all, and her gaze locked with mine.
"Hey, Clarissa," I laughed, and she smiled.
"Aspen. It's good to see you alive, even if it's not in your usual shape."
I laughed as she frowned. "Well, more or less, though this is my usual shape," I said, then pointed to my neck where I was sure there was still pale blood sitting. "It's great to see that Lucifer made good his promise to save you."
"Did you really ever doubt him?" she asked scornfully.
"For a few seconds I doubted his sanity," I replied, and waved it off. "But that's done for now. You have to meet the rest of the family that Lucifer babysits."
"Hey!" half of the crowd called in outrage.
My intoxicated twin lifted his hand to his mouth and a bottle of tequila appeared in it. He downed a quarter of the bottle and gave Clarissa the thumbs up. I rolled my eyes and looked to Lucifer.
"Do you want to do the introductions, or will I?"
"You can do it," he said, wrapping his arms around Clarissa's waist. Jayce stepped up beside them, half-hiding behind the large stone throne.
I turned to the Demons, clapping my hands. "All right, you lot. Into line for introductions to the Queen," I said in a pompous voice, making the Demons, Jayce and Clarissa laugh as the red-skinned boys jumped into line.
"Okay," I said, reading from an invisible scroll that faded into life in my hands. I glanced at Lucifer, and he grinned at me. Apparently, he was working very hard on getting me to like him. "First up we have my twin brother, Azazel."
My drunkard brother lifted his bottle of tequila and took another slug of it before giving the women the thumbs up again. I adjusted imaginary reading glasses on my nose like a pompous courtier from the medieval age and continued.
"He's the husband of Lora, who is the sister of Sera, and, by default, Lucifer's extended family twice."
Beelzebub stepped over my brother, taking the bottle from him. Azazel made an outraged noise and staggered to his feet, lurching forward and falling on his face as the
Demons laughed.
"And this is Beelzebub, Leviathan's brother-in-law and my great-uncle."
Beelzebub smiled and kissed Clarissa's hand, then Jayce's. Jayce smiled shyly, flushing, and I rolled my eyes. What a charmer...
"Bee is Lucifer's second-in-command. His first wife, Tara, was an Angel of the Seraphim. And here we h
ave Leviathan, whom you two have met," I reminded them.
"A pleasure to see you again, Clarissa," he said, shaking Clarissa's hand lightly. "If you need anything, feel free to ask. That goes for you as well, Jayce," he added to the hiding woman, who nodded.
"Thank you, Levi," Carissa answered for them both.
Leviathan bowed and backed away.
I worked my way down the list until I reached the end. Each of the Demons made some passing reference to how they were related to me, and even I began to see the intense network that the Demons made as one big family. I was starting to see the connections that had made God feel so threatened by us all.
"You have a very large family," Clarissa said to Lucifer, perched on one of his legs and leaning back against him. He had his arms wrapped around her, and they were smiling more widely than I had ever seen them before.
He laughed. "Only half of them are related. The others owed me favors at the Fall, and still others follow me out of fear."
The Demons laughed, and I couldn't help but chuckle. "Then there are some that follow him for two or three of those reasons."
"Why have you joined him, Aspen?" Clarissa asked me, smiling. "Surely you don't owe Lucifer anything, and you're not afraid of him."
"On the contrary," I admitted. "Even when we were Above, I was terrified of him. He was one of the highest ranking Angels in Heaven, after all, and he had God's right ear for the whispering. One wrong action, and he could have had me destroyed in a second."
Clarissa laughed. "And now?"
I grinned at her. "And now he's King of Party Central.
He could kill me himself now, without all that paperwork getting in the way."
Clarissa laughed.
"Besides, I owe him a couple of times."
Lucifer laughed, smiling at me. "Aspen, I've used up all your favors now. I got you killed, remember?" He paused. "Speaking of which, aren't you supposed to go back Above or something now?"
"Well, God gave me that option while I was in Limbo waiting for someone to help me out." I grinned, and I felt something itch between my shoulders. I kneeled down in front of Lucifer and grinned up at them. "As long as you want me, Lucifer, I am here to serve and protect your girl."
I caught sight of my skin and was mystified to find that it had turned the color of fresh blood, a shade or three darker than Lucifer's own. The Demons laughed harder and my sons Jaquie and Ramon pulled me to my feet, clapping me on the shoulder.
"Welcome back to the family, Aspen," Clarissa said with a grin, and I leaped forward to hug her.
Twenty One
Lucifer Morningstar
I laughed at Clarissa's declaration, and nodded to Aspen as he hugged Clarissa, standing in front of me. I wasn't worried about Aspen and wayward thoughts—that'd just be a silly thing to worry about when Clarissa could stop him doing anything she didn't like—instead watching him with a half-grin. If there was one thing in this—or any—world that I would do, it would be to give Clarissa whatever she wanted, and I think that at that moment, she wanted Aspen to be there for her. After all, the stupid cat had been killed protecting her.
"Welcome back, Aspen," I smirked, waving my hand as Clarissa sat back down on my lap. "Are you sure you know what you're doing with those wings?"
"Just because I was a cat for a few thousand years, doesn't mean that I've forgotten how to fly. Unfortunately," he added weakly. He didn't look happy to be reminded of the wings' function.
I laughed and lifted Clarissa up. She went with me, standing up and looking curiously at me. I smiled, bending down to kiss her scarred cheek—despite the added potency of my magic in Hell, I hadn't been able to completely heal the burn, though the bruises were looking better already.
"Where're you going?" she asked me quietly as I wrapped my arms around her waist, resting my chin on the top of her head.
"We're going for a tour, then I have to go." I smiled at her and kissed the top of her head as the Demons made retching noises.
"Please, Luce," Levi complained. "You'll make us jealous."
"Really?" I asked, lifting an eyebrow and turning Clarissa around.
She smirked up at me, as though she'd read my mind, and pulled me down to kiss her. I heard the Demons gag and run off as Jayce and Beelzebub laughed. I wrapped my arms around her waist, lifting her up so she was more my height, and opened my mouth to her. I could tell that she was enjoying teasing the Demons, as she hiked up her skirt and broke the kiss, hooking her booted feet around my waist.
She used them to pull herself up along my body. I was looking up at her for once, angling my head back as her tongue invaded my mouth. I staggered backwards as she became more enthusiastic, my heels hitting the base of the throne. Clarissa made a small squealing noise as I fell into my seat, not moving her legs from around my waist.
"Are they gone?" she whispered against my lips, opening her big blue eyes, so like my own, and smiling at me.
I looked behind her, simply changing the focus of my eyes. Jayce and Beelzebub were wandering down the hill, Jayce talking animatedly at Bee, glancing back at us and smiling. I could hear Bee telling her some past memory or something, mentioning me a couple of times.
"They're gone."
She smiled, pulling back and changing her position so that she was straddling my thighs rather than wrapping her legs around my waist.
"Thank you, Luce," she whispered, leaning back and taking my hands in hers.
I shifted, uncomfortable, as my wings appeared on my back, squashed against the chair. I pulled my shirt off over my head and dropped it on the floor. Clarissa moved backward a bit so I could lean forward and relieve the pressure on my wings.
I folded one around us, using it to gently pull her closer to me. Noting the relief on my back that gave me, I wrapped the other one around us as well, giving us the illusion of privacy, and shuffling back again. I rested my tail down between her leg and the chair's arm, gently rubbing it up and down the leather of her boot, wary of cutting her.
Clarissa smiled at me, lifting my right hand to lay it against her burned cheek. She relaxed against it, closing her eyes, and I was troubled by the differences in the color of our skin. Her white skin looked pale, like death, against mine, while my hand looked like blood spilled on snow. My claws were yellow, and I bit my lip, gently pulling my hand from her face. The burn looked the slightest bit better, but my magic was no longer doing anything for it.
Clarissa opened her eyes and looked at me, pain and sadness in her eyes. "I'm sorry, Luce," she whispered, and moved to get off me.
"No," I whispered, gently grabbing her hands. I had to be careful not to pierce her skin with my claws, but that was second nature after our year of association. "No, it's not you, love. It will never be you."
"Then what?" she asked, settling back down. Her left hand went to her cheek, and I pulled her hand away, kissing the burn. It was warmer than the rest of her.
I tucked a lock of hair behind her ear, resting my hand on the side of her head again. "Nothing, love. I'm just glad you're okay."
She bit her lip, looking away from me, and I became concerned. I tried to turn her head back towards me, so she would look at me, but she refused to move.
"Clarissa? What's wrong? Did I say something, or—"
She pressed a finger to my lips, turning back to look at me. I was worried. There was something broken in her eyes. Something that wasn't my strong, capable Clarissa, able to fight off sadists and rapists without worry—
Oh, God, no!
"Issa," I whispered, holding her head between my hands and sitting up straighter so I was looking her in the eye. "Did one of those men touch you?"
She glared at me, tears in her eyes. "I was covered in bruises, cuts and burns when you found me, Lucifer. What do you think?" she snapped.
Subtlety wasn't going to cut it here. I would have to be blunt and hope she didn't tear her way out of the thin
membrane enclosing us.
"Did they rape you, Clar
issa?"
She backed down, a tear falling from her eye. I could see her physically shrinking away from me, wrapping her arms around herself and closing her eyes.
"Issa," I said, reaching out for her. I felt helpless. I'd never been confronted so directly, so closely, with the results of human idiocy before. And now Clarissa was suffering because of those fucking humans.
I'm going to slaughter them like the animals they are. "Please, Issa, talk to me."
Clarissa shook her head, looking me in the eye. I wiped a tear from her face as it fell down her cheek. The next thing I knew, her lips were on mine, pressing me back into my throne. The pressure made my wing-joints ache and I pushed her back enough to relieve the pain, kissing her.
