Of Light And Shadows

Jia woke with a start as the image of Satan sliding a knife into Lucifer’s heart lit up behind her eyelids, trapping a scream in her lungs.

She sat up and sucked in a deep breath as she tried to get her bearings, relaxing when she realised she was safe in the Infirmary.

Her entire body ached, telling her she’d been asleep in the chair for a long time. Lucifer was still laid on the hospital bed with his eyes closed, but his bruises had faded somewhat and his hand was warmer in hers than it had been.

She watched his chest, almost crying when she saw the faint rise and fall of his breathing.

“Thank God,” she whispered to herself, pressing her free hand to her face as relief washed over her.

“What did God do that’s so great?”

His voice was raspy as it whispered from his lips, but Lucifer opened the eye that wasn’t covered and he smiled at her. She’d never seen a more wonderful sight than that.

“Louie!” She couldn’t help it. She leaned over and hugged him.

“Careful, I’m still tender.” Despite his answer, his one bandage free arm came around her gently until she sat back.

“You got stabbed in the heart.” Her voice cracked. “He stood on your head.”

“I know. I’ll be alright. Did he hurt anybody else?”

“No, but he told me he’d see me again soon.”

“I was afraid of that.”

“Why?” He took a breath that looked painful and closed the eye not covered by a bandage.

“My father has a fascination with having things nobody else has. He likes oddities, rare items and creatures that he can collect and keep for himself. You happen to be the rarest of all because you’re a cross between an Angel and a Demon.”

“He touched my face with your blood on his hands.” She shivered. “He kissed me before he left.” She felt Lucifer’s hand clench around hers. “Be careful, your fingers are broken,” she warned.

“I don’t care about my fingers.” He sounded angry, though it was a mere shade of what he was capable of when healthy. “Right now I want to tear Satan’s head from his body.”

“You’re not in a fit state to tear anything from anyone,” she replied. “You died. He’s gone now so you don’t have to worry about me.”

“He wants you for his collection. He’s going to come back and try to take you.” His words made her mouth dry up.

“I don’t want to be taken. Why would he want me? Aside from my blood I’m not useful at all. There’s nothing I could give him that would be of any good to him.”

She was aware that she was beginning to babble as fear dug its claws into her, the words tripping over themselves as they tumbled from her lips.

“Yes there is.”

“Like what?” Lucifer’s expression was grave.

“The same thing your mother gave Abaddon.”

“More power?”

“A child.” She fought the urge to be sick.

“Please don’t let him take me,” she whimpered.

“I don’t intend to. He likes to humiliate me so I have no doubt he’ll wait for me to heal before he returns here. He doesn’t enjoy kicking me around if I’m already half dead.”

"That's horrible," Jia balked. Lucifer sighed faintly, careful not to stretch his bruised lungs.

“I think we’ll have a few weeks before he makes another appearance. Maybe months if we’re lucky.”

“How is anybody going to stop him taking me if nobody can disobey him?”

“I can disobey him.”

“But you won’t.” She didn’t say it in an accusatory way but it seemed to hurt him all the same. He turned his face away and she saw a muscle in his jaw tick.

“You sound like Mammon.”

“Sorry.”

“The only reason I don’t disobey is because it keeps his rage focussed on me. If I start to defy him he’ll hurt me by hurting those I love. The problem I have now is that he plans to snatch you whether I obey him or not.”

“How do you know he plans to take me? You seem so sure.”

“I’ve been around him long enough to know. The one thing Satan has been searching for is somebody capable of expanding the Ruling Caste and the First Sphere. The more people to obey him, the more control he has.”

“The Ruling Caste is you, Satan and your brothers, right? And the First Sphere is the rest of the Seven Devils?” He nodded. “Weren’t all of you created when Satan was an Angel?”

“Yes. He’s been searching for someone as powerful as my mother since the Uprising but he never found anybody he felt was suitable.”

“Couldn’t he have taken Lauviah for himself?”

“He sees your mother as tainted. She might be part of the Seraphim and that does make her powerful, but in Satan’s eyes she’s been defiled by a lesser creature. He has too much pride to use her.

“He can’t get his hands on any of the other Angels because he can no longer access the Angelic Realm so for millennia he’s been stuck with the sons he has.” Lucifer’s good eye grew troubled. “Now he knows you exist and you share Lauvi’s Angelic blood. He’ll want to use you to extend his control.”

“By kidnapping me and forcing me to have his child?” She balked. “That sounds ridiculous. It sounds like something out of a bad movie.”

“We’re not in the human world now, Jia. He doesn’t care how it sounds as long as it gives him what he wants. Another child born of his blood and that of an Angel, even a half-Angel, would be as powerful as my brothers, perhaps even as powerful as me.”

“I don’t understand. Why does he need another child?”

“To replace me.” Jia felt ice pool in her stomach.

"Replace you? Is something going to happen to you?”

“As soon as he has his newest child he’ll kill me for good. That way all of his sons are bound to his orders for eternity. No more wild card.”

“Is he able to kill you permanently?”

“He’s the only one who can.” Lucifer’s good eye rose to look at her face. “But I’m also the only one who could permanently kill him.”

“Why are you different to your brothers? They can’t even defy him so I doubt they could kill him.”

“In the Angelic Realm Satan and I were the same rank. Michael and his first born child were the same too. I was set to surpass Satan but because he was my father and I was naive, I refused. I would have grown stronger than him if I hadn’t been wrapped up in our familial bond.

"When the Uprising started Michael’s eldest was killed and I was cast out with the same powers I possessed as an Angel because I followed my father.”

“You can command the other Demons like he does?”

“Yes. For all intents and purposes, Satan and I are equal. I was just blinded by the fact that he’s my father. Now I choose to obey because there’s no telling who would win if we went against each other. If I lost there’d be nobody to stop him becoming a complete tyrant.”

“But if you won the whole realm would be safer.”

“I know.” He frowned. “But if he managed to replace me the one to take my place would be exactly like him and your life would be hell. I never intended to fight my father because it was too great a risk, but now I have no choice.”

“You’re going to disobey him?”

“Yes. If he wants you he’ll have to destroy me first.” Lucifer reached up and unfastened the bandages around his head, blinking a few times against the light. The blood vessels in his eye had repaired themselves and his bruising had faded to a shade of pale lavender.

“You look so much better already.”

“I heal quickly.”

“How’s your chest?”

“Sore.” His voice sounded less raspy, his breaths less ragged. Jia leaned forwards to rest her forehead gently against his hand where it rested in hers, closing her eyes against the hot tears that pricked at them.

“I was so afraid, Louie. He hurt you so much.” Her voice cracked and she felt his other hand move to rest on the back of her head.

“Can you help me sit up?” he asked after a moment. She nodded and took his arm to help, moving the pillows to prop him up comfortably. “Thank you.”

“Don’t mention it,” she mumbled, wiping her eyes. “There’s not much else I can do for you right now.”

“Your company is more than enough.” He smiled and she saw that the split in his lip was healed and the gash in his eyebrow had closed over.

“Mammon told me to stay away and I didn’t.”

“I didn’t think you would,” Lucifer answered. “I know you too well to believe you’d listen to us.”

“If I hadn’t gone there Satan would never have met me. He might not have hurt you as much if I were somewhere else.”

“He knew about you already, Jia. He would have gone looking for you regardless. At least in that room you weren’t alone when he found you.”

“Why didn’t he take me? None of the others could have stopped him.”

“He likes to play games.” Lucifer rolled his neck to ease an ache. “He’s under the impression, especially after the punishment, that I’m too afraid to defy him. Because of that he’s going to take some time to enjoy himself while he messes with us. He’ll be planning his next move right now.”

“And are you too afraid to defy him?”

“No. I’m just smart enough to know when my actions will hurt somebody that doesn’t deserve it.”

“So the beatings you take, you could stop all of them if you felt like it?”

“Yes. At the very least I could give as good as I got. But he’d redirect his rage to my brothers instead, and they can’t defend themselves against him.”

“Doesn’t it sting to let somebody hurt you that way when you know you could fight?”

“Of course it does.” A muscle in his jaw ticked again as he frowned. “It’s humiliating to bow and scrape to somebody that should be my equal, especially in front of those I’m supposed to lead. But I’d rather be humiliated every day for the rest of my existence than have him hurt anyone I care about.”

“I wish I was strong enough to defend myself.” Jia swallowed against the lump in her throat. “For somebody that’s half Demon and half Angel I’m ridiculously weak.”

“Not true. You just don’t know what you can do yet. You can’t expect to tap into your potential if you don’t know what you’re capable of. It’s like expecting to swim without ever learning how.” She saw that glint in his eyes that said he was hatching a plan. “So I’m going to teach you.”