by Lanie Olson
“I do.”
“And?”
We stood there in silence. Lorian stood behind me like he would Deveraux; guarding me against potential harm. I moved the sword I was holding from one to the other, impatiently.
“The answer is yes,” he finally said.
I let out my breath in a relieved sigh. I knew that if Dev wasn’t in the Below, his sacrifice for the Three Levels of Paradise would earn him favor in the Above.
“Bring me to him? Please?” I asked.
“Not yet. You see we have a problem. The Elder Devil still lusts for you. And you … you will give him your innocence eventually, Lucy. I can feel it. I need to find a way to make sure that the two of you can co-exist without this happening.”
“Co-exist? Is Deveraux an angel again?” Lorian asked in confusion.
“Hardly,” Michael replied dryly. “But he has been rewarded for his sacrifices.
“Rewarded with what then?” Lorian asked in frustration.
“Estates and everlasting life,” Deveraux responded suddenly appearing next to Michael.
“DEV!” Lorian yelled out in relief. I felt him rush out from behind me and I heard Deveraux laugh as his beloved family member picked him up and held him tightly.
“Don’t cry, Lorian. Wherever I go, my family goes, you know this,” he said to him softly.
“I just thought we lost you, Master,” he replied through sobs.
“You never will. I promise. Go get the rest of our family. I have business to attend to here. They’ve carved out a realm for us and I intend to see it well kept,” Dev said to him.
“We’ll go with you, so we can help you guys come up easier,” Dorian said, stepping forward.
I turned my face slightly and heard a multitude of angels fly over the side of the Ninth Realm. Then there was silence. I wasn’t sure what to do so I sheathed the sword I was holding.
I heard soft footsteps approach me and I felt strong hands on either side of my face.
“Watch yourself,” Michael warned. “We’ll give you time to speak but we will be watching as well.”
I felt soft lips on my forehead and I felt the strong hands move from the sides of my face to around my waist. I felt the strong body of the Elder Devil as he held me closely against him.
“Even though it wasn’t you, even though I never got to truly hold you or be with you … My feelings for you are the same. I would give up everything; favor in the eyes of the Above, being the hero of the Below, if you would be my bride Lucy. It’s not lust that I feel as Michael says, it’s different. It’s the closest I’ll ever feel to love and I don’t want this feeling to go away. Ever.”
“They’ll never allow it,” I replied softly.
“They don’t have to. We don’t need their permission. If you would but just give me a chance, I know you would feel the same way about me that I’ve always felt about you. I used to watch you fly in the skies on the nights that I would sit outside. After the first time I saw you, I would go out every night and stare at the Heavens hoping to catch a glimpse of the radiant beauty I had once seen. I’ve told you this, Lucy. I’ve told you how I always felt. Please, permit me just a chance, even if it’s a small sliver of time. I would give anything to be in your arms as your true soul mate.”
“But … I’ve never known you as anything other than being your prisoner,” I stammered. I was completely taken back by his emotion and that he wanted to be with me so desperately.
I pulled away from his body. I gently moved his hands away from my face, wrapping what was left of my wings around us. I wanted to say something to him as well, but now I would hold him the way an angel would.
“Deveraux, my enslaver … I’ve lost so much because of the deceit of your house. I lost pieces of my soul and am forever banned from the Above, even though I have never given myself to you. I have my purity but because my likeness committed those sins with you, I … I have no home. I thank you for all that you have done and I thank you for stopping the Thunderbirds and saving what was left of my family, but how can I give myself to someone who has taken so much from me?” I whispered to him.
“Lucy, I will give up everything to make amends with you. I will make a pact with your Elder Angels right now if you would but give me a chance. I hate what was done to you, but you have to believe that every step of the way I believed myself to be with you; fighting for you. I was deceived as well and I will prove myself to you,” he replied before he gently kissed my lips.
I felt my wings being pushed gently back and I heard Deveraux’s footsteps as he walked away from me. I heard him ask Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, and Uriel for their time privately and I heard them all leave.
“Any idea what he’s up to?” Hadrian asked putting an arm gently around me.
“No,” I replied pulling away uncomfortably. “I apologize, but I don’t remember anything about you other than when I was first brought into his home. Please take no offense to this.”
“I won’t, Lady Lucy. No matter what you decide, you will always be the Mistress of our house,” he replied gently.
We all sat down and waited for whatever it was that the five of them were up to. Josiah and Isaiah sat on either side of me, mending my wings.
“There’s no point, brothers. I won’t need them much longer,” I replied quietly.
“Be still and let us do our work,” Isaiah reprimanded.
I sighed and pulled my knees up, wrapping my arms around them. As the two of them worked behind me, I put my forehead against my forearms and sighed.
Days passed with no sign of the five and we all began to grow restless. I found myself starting to lose thought or hope of what they had convened over and decided to sleep for as long as I could.
But it wasn’t sleep that I wanted or needed.
It was a thought that was placed into my head by the stronger angels and all around me I heard bodies dropping against the clouds as we, the devils and the angels, were forced to sleep for the next millennium.
One the first day of the new millennium, they all reappeared and we all were awoken.
“We’ve come to an agreement,” Michael stated.
“Where’s my Master?” Hadrian asked them apprehensively.
“Right here,” Deveraux responded.
“What … happened to you? You look—” he stopped himself in shock.
Why does that scent seem so familiar? Why do I hear a beating heart?
“Take me to him,” I said, holding my hands up to anyone around me. “Please, I need to know if what I smell and hear is not an illusion.”
“It’s me,” Josiah said quietly as he took my hand and led me to the angels and Deveraux.
I leaned forward and inhaled deeply, taking in Dev’s new scent. I reached my hand out and placed it on his chest; feeling his new heart beating inside of him.
“What have you done to him?” I whispered in horror.
“What he asked for,” Gabriel said, stepping closer to me.
“He asked to be a human?” I asked incredulously.
“No. He asked that you be restored to your former self and that you be allowed to stay here. He gave up his immortality to make it so,” Michael explained. “Take your blindfold off Lucy. Your sight has been returned to you.”
I didn’t want to. I didn’t want to know what Deveraux looked like as a human because he deserved to be an Elder Devil.
“It’s okay,” he said softly, as he reached forward and undid my blindfold.
I kept my eyes down and blinked rapidly a few times. I saw the clouds underneath my bare feet and I smiled. Something so simple and so innocent made me happy.
That’s how he feels about me.
“Don’t be afraid,” Dev whispered, gently lifting my chin so that I would look at him.
At first I closed my eyes.
I didn’t know what a former devil would look like as a demon and I didn’t want to react in a negative way.
“Lucy … ” he prompted.
; I took a deep breath and lifted my eyes. He stood there with a hopeful smile on his beautifully crafted face. His eyes were no longer amethyst, but a similar ice blue color of when he possessed himself. His hair, while still white, was not as blatantly so. His body was still muscular and toned and his skin was now a slightly darker shade. He looked … human.
“You did this for me?” I asked.
“Yes. I wanted you to be able to stay where you belong. I was getting too old to rule much longer anyway and I’ve given control of my house to Hadrian. I just haven’t told him yet,” he replied with a grin.
“He has to go back to Earth soon, or he’ll die up here,” Michael warned. “Please finish your good-byes.”
I looked around my home.
The Above was the most beautiful place I had ever seen and for a short while, my new friends got to see it as well.
I had been abandoned to the Earth and none of them where told where I was even though I knew that the Elder Four could see me. I wasn’t sure what I had done to warrant the abandonment but …
“Give your post to Hadrian and say good-bye to you friends,” I said to Deveraux, placing a hand on the side of his face.
Nodding, he went and spoke to his family. I heard the angry outcry and the swearing followed by the uncontrollable sobs that wracked them all.
I walked away from the Elder Four, to Isaiah and took his hands in mine. I smiled sadly into his eyes and he knew.
Without me saying a word; he knew.
“I’m going to miss you,” he whispered, pulling me in and hugging me tightly.
“Take care of everyone. I want Josiah to be the Sovereign of the Ninth Realm. Would you see to it please?” I asked.
Isaiah nodded and a tear rolled down his face. I reached up and used my thumb to brush it aside.
“I won’t ever be far away if you need anything,” he promised me softly.
“Likewise, my friend,” I replied with a smile as I let go of his hands. I looked over at Deveraux as he held his devils closely trying to console them and back at Isaiah who nodded.
I took a deep breath and one last look around the Above, before I ran as quickly as I could past the angels, past the devils, past the grace and past the limits of immortality. With every last bit of angelic power I would ever use, I jumped as far as I could over the side of the Above.
I closed my eyes as I felt my wings being stripped from me. Pulled away like angry children who no longer wanted to share their gifts. I felt the burn of the wind whipping my hair around my face and I felt a faint heartbeat start deep inside of my chest.
I opened my eyes and smiled as the Earth, newly recycled in the millennia that we had all slept through, was fast approaching. The emerald green grasses, the deep blue oceans, the sienna colored mountains.
I was almost there and I could feel my heart fluttering.
Not because I was scared and not because I knew that death wouldn’t take me once I hit the ground.
It was because the faster I approached, the clearer Deveraux became sitting on the side of Mount Meru waiting patiently for me and the more I knew I had made the right decision. I had been found by a being that cared for me so much that he gave up an eternity to be with me.
I hit the ground with a dull thud and I heard him laugh.
“How weird did that feel?” he asked, making a face as he helped me get to my feet.
“Strange. Definitely strange,” I replied.
“I wish you would’ve told me what you were going to do you know,” he said carefully. “I don’t want you to regret this.”
I looked up at the clear blue sky above us for a moment.
“I’ll be okay. As long as I’m with you, everything will be okay. I think this is what was meant to happen,” I replied confidently.
Deveraux pulled me to him. I smiled, pushing the hair off his forehead as he leaned forward and kissed me gently on the lips. Falling; truly falling was the only way I would learn to love him.
“Let’s go find somewhere to live, huh?” he said when we pulled apart.
I nodded and slid my hand in his as we made our way down Mount Meru.
A former ruler of a Heavenly Realm and a former powerful ruler of a sect of Hellish Devils, now simply as humans.
About The Author
Lanie Olson is a strangeling that likes all things dark and macabre. She enjoys the original Twilight Zone episodes, Tod Browning’s FREAKS, and black and white horror everything.
A firm believer that not all monsters are human, she delights in bringing the things that go bump in the night to her readers with a dash of horror, a little hope, and a wicked twist.
You can keep in touch with her on Facebook.