Snakes Crossing

Disclaimers etc:. Brimstone is the beloved property of Ethan Reiff and Cyrus Voris.
Thanks to Tomy for sticking with me.
Finally inspired to complete this one when I heard Annie Lennox singing 'Why' at the Jubilee concert in the gardens of Buckingham Palace earlier tonight

Snakes Crossing
By elfin

Ezekiel was more than worried. It had been four weeks now. Four weeks since Quisander's terrible death. Four weeks since five demons had used one ancient incantation to bind the devil into the flesh form he took on earth and attempted to tear him apart with a second. Four weeks since Zeke had sat on the couch with the lord of the underworld in his arms and felt so thankful to be there.

Four weeks. And not a word. Not one visit from his usually exuberant boss. Not even a hint that he was still in the devil's own service.

Zeke had continued to rid the earth of the supernatural terrors that Ash's escape plan had unleashed. He had taken out one a week, and two yesterday for good measure. Somehow the job was easier to stomach now.

He only had to remember what they'd done to Quisander, or the image of Lucifer hanging by impaled hands over the vat into which his brother had been eviscerated, and suddenly he had no compassion for any of them.

They all had excuses. But those hadn't worked at the pearly gates, and they weren't going to work with Stone.

Exactly a month to the day on which nature had ripped the devil from his embrace as they sat in Zeke's apartment, he took Max out for dinner and drinks. They ended up in their usual bar, him paying with the cash he'd somehow saved over the last month by spending whatever time he had, when he wasn't out hunting demons, moping and watching public-access television.

He and Max managed to get fairly well inebriated by the time the bar closed, and wound up back in Zeke's apartment with a six pack and a bucket of chicken wings.

Together they lounged low on the old sofa, feet on the coffee table, beer and chicken on the floor between them.

"How's your friend?" Max asked suddenly, swinging Zeke's unconstrained thoughts back toward the one thing he was trying to forget.

He shrugged. "I dunno. He... left abruptly."

Even in her drunken state, she could remember the wounds and the massive loss of blood that must have resulted. "Zeke... he could be dead!"

He managed to censor his automatic reply. "He... he's fine. I'm sure. Probably sulking somewhere, feeling sorry for himself, licking his wounds. He's not supposed to be weak, vulnerable."

He took some time with the final lament, ensuring he got the pronunciation correct first time around.

When he finished, he looked at Max who was staring at him. "What?"

Her expression was one of total confusion for a moment. "Who is he?"

Zeke actually giggled. "The devil."

She clouted him on the arm. "No, really. What is he... to you?"

Ezekiel opened his mouth, and shut it again comically before eventually deciding on, "My boss."

"Your boss?"

"Yeah." He managed to look offended that she'd doubt him. "I work for him."

"I thought you were a cop."

"I am. A cop for hire. And he hired me." He was impressed with himself in his state. His answer had actually sounded valid.

"Oh." She frowned, and reached into the greasy bucket for a chicken wing.

"What?"

"Nothing. That's... nice."

Zeke shook his head, laughing drunkenly. He dropped his head against Max's shoulder, closing his eyes.

"I miss him," he heard himself murmur to her before falling into the arms of a blissful alcoholic slumber.

Max leaned her own head on to his, turning her face momentarily into his hair and breathing in the scent of apple and ash.

"I know you do, Stone."

Sighing, she rested there for a while, enjoying the unfamiliar sensation of having another human being so close to her.

She'd found herself developing certain 'feelings' for Stone, nothing intense, nothing that hurt, just some late-night wanderings of the mind and an enjoyment of his company.

His friend - the strange one that had been badly hurt somehow and then disappeared, it seemed, into thin air - was definitely more than just his boss. But how much more, she was very uncertain.

There seemed to be a delicious tension there, unspoken thoughts and sparing glances, a dangerous spark that could ignite at any moment or be quenched for good.

Not that she was jealous. In fact she was fascinated.

Some of her fantasies were of the two of them. Now and again she imagined them together, touching and kissing, one hushing the other as he penetrated slowly in pleasure and pain.

The Ezekiel Stone that was sleeping soundly against her, snoring lightly, didn't look to her at that moment like the epitome of sexual deviance. He looked cuddly. Shifting slightly, she managed to pull her arm from between them and wrap it around his shoulders. Finally comfortable, she too fell asleep.

***

Zeke threw his coat into the chair and yawned, opening the fridge and fishing a beer out from behind the junk food he loved to keep in there. Only when he had half the beer down his throat did he wonder about the yawn. He couldn't remember yawning in over 15 years. Frowning, he drank back another mouthful of beer. It tasted... different. It tasted real. He looked up and saw the devil watching him intently, a little sadly.

Despite himself, Ezekiel's face lit up in a welcoming smile.

"Hey!" The devil merely nodded at him from the windowsill. "It's been... quiet." He couldn't quite get the words out now his boss was sitting in front of him. The devil, his hands crossed in his lap, nodded slightly, but said nothing. "I've... I've missed..." he suddenly remembered his final words to Max the previous night. "I've missed your witty criticism of my work."

The devil nodded again. "Right." Then he sighed. "Ezekiel, I'm here to..." he swallowed hard, "to release you from my service."

Zeke stared, unsure that what he imagined Lucifer had just said were the actual words that had passed his lips. "What?"

"I'm releasing you, giving you the second chance I promised you. Wiping the slate clean." He smiled a little, although it didn't touch his eyes. "Don't murder anyone this time and you might get to heaven."

But Zeke wasn't that far into the conversation, he was still back at the first statement.

"There are still... over eighty damned souls left up here. Who's going to take care of them?"

It wasn't that Ezekiel really wanted to turn down the offer of a death-time, but this unexpected turn of events was too odd. The devil beckoned him over to the window with a single finger. He pointed that same finger at a man standing in the shadows below, just... waiting, leaning against the wall.

"Alexander Cassidy Cannon. Died 1990, not that long ago but he does know the ways of this modern 90s world."

Zeke found himself fascinated by his replacement. Even in the dim light he could make out the long hair tied back in a dark pony tail, a long trench coat pulled around a tall body by hands buried in deep pockets. "Why'd he end up in your clutches?"

"He killed his gay lover's wife. No remorse, no sorrow."

Zeke's eyes widened. "What did you promise him?"

"I promised him that I would leave his lover - ex-lover - alone." There was little triumph in the tone.

"Oh." Ezekiel turned from the window, leaning on the sill next to his boss. Former boss? "Why? Why free me?"

"You saved my life. Literally. I'm not sure that anyone else... would have done. Ever." There was a sadness in his voice that touched Ezekiel. "You would have been free, you all would have been free."

Zeke smiled at that. "Umm... thousands upon thousands of souls roaming the planet. Sounds like fun."

The devil shrugged, Zeke couldn't see his expression; his head was bowed slightly forward, hair curtaining his face.

"Why you did it, doesn't matter. You did. And I... can't go on like this anymore." He stepped away from the window, taking several steps into the room. "You're free, Ezekiel. You're alive, if you hadn't already noticed."

So that was it. He was... alive. Alive. He hadn't thought that this moment would ever come. He didn't know what to think, what to feel. Something wasn't right. "Why?"

The devil didn't move, didn't turn to face him. But he did raise his head. "I told you."

There was an edge now to that voice. "You gave me a reason. You didn't tell me why."

He spun. "I've given you what you wanted, what we agreed. You're alive, free, fresh start. Go. Enjoy it. Find your wife. Find some... excuse or maybe even tell her the truth. She certainly loves and misses you enough to believe in you."

He practically spat the last line, but Zeke could hear the regret now, hidden beneath the anger. He frowned, so unsure. Part of him just wanted to run away from here, leave all this behind like the nightmare that it was.

But undeniably, a part of him belonged to the devil. Even if that part was gone from him now, Lucifer's name was burned into his soul, a soul freshly returned to him by the devil, the prince of lies. "Tell me why."

"I have told you. I've done all you wanted, all you asked of me and more."

"But you have to admit this is kinda... out of character for you." He knew he was pushing. But he had to. He had to find out why before he left. Forever.

Before Ezekiel's eyes, the human illusion faded and blurred into a different illusion, into a horrific visage that Stone supposed to be Satan. Red/gold eyes burned in deep black sockets, yet there was nothing that could be reasonably called a face. Fiery fingers reached out toward him yet there were no hands from which to run.

Still, Ezekiel took a step back. He'd never had a fear of the devil on earth, had believed - since that one night together - that Lucifer would ever hurt him again.

Now, though, he was unsure.

"I was once an angel, Ezekiel." The voice was at once the familiar honeyed tones mingled with a rough hellish rasp that scraped along Zeke's nerves. "I was once all that Quisander was. Allow me my own meagre attempts at repentance."

One breath of soaring fire, and the human form of the devil was returned; dark eyes set against pale skin. He stepped forward, then stopped. "Ezekiel, please. Just... live for me."

The anger was gone.

So close... they stood together, Stone towering over his boss, yet the power of the devil so much more, so much larger.

Zeke almost reached out, his fingers going to the black hair of their own accord. The devil backed up before Ezekiel could touch him, and turned, disappearing in his usual manner. For the final time.

It was over. He was free. And again he remembered those words; "How can nothing change when everything's changed?"

As the first true, living smile brushed his lips, a thought crossed his mind. He opened his shirt front, slowly and carefully. And stroked his fingers over the bare skin. Every tattoo was gone, except for one he couldn't see, just at the back of his neck, at the base of his spine. One that hadn't been there before.

***

Alex Cannon turned the gun in his hand, smiling as the last of the tendrils of soul were taken into the ground. This wasn't so tough. He'd started with an easy one to get the hang of it. But this guy had gone down with no fight at all, almost as if he missed the damn place. He turned. The devil was standing behind him.

"Very good, Alexander, very good. I am impressed."

Alex smiled. "Onwards and upwards. Who's next?"

Lucifer frowned slightly. "You're not going to... take a break?"

"Do I need to?" The demon looked down at his own form. "I thought these bodies were just... tricks. I didn't realize I needed to look after myself!"

"You don't. You don't need food or drink. Or sleep for that matter. Just... Ezekiel used to like to treat himself to what he called the wonders of living."

Alex shrugged. "I don't see the point. Just wasting time really, yours and mine." He holstered his weapon and crossed his hands before him. "Any pointers for me?"

***

Ezekiel was drunk.

His fourth beer and the lack of any actual bloodstream for fifteen years had left him without any resistance to alcohol whatsoever. Max was beside him, laughing at his difficulty with focusing and pronunciation. Laughing at his seemingly incredible story.

"...I'm no' joking. Honest, Max."

"You've been dead."

"Yeah."

"So... who's been payin' the rent?"

"The devil."

"The devil?"

"Yeah, you know, Satan."

Max picked up her glass thoughtfully. "You're saying Satan has been paying your bills?"

"Yep." Zeke crossed his arms on the bar and dropped his head onto them, smiling at Max. "He's not's bad's people think."

"Really?" Max had already given her friend's story up as... something. Yet he certainly was getting inebriated quickly tonight, and he... he was different somehow.

Using the bar to steady her, she got to her feet and pressed her face unceremoniously into his hair. Apples. The ash scent was gone. She frowned. But he couldn't be telling the truth. It was preposterous.

"So... Stoney, if he was the devil... why'd you get so concerned that time he had those hand injuries.... How come he had those injuries in the first place?"

"S'a long story...." Stone thought back, remembered simply holding the vulnerable devil in his arms, protecting him from... from what? Unaccustomed pain?

Max saw something clear in his glazed expression. "You miss him, ay Stone? No matter what or who he was." Zeke opened his mouth to deny that. But he didn't. He simply nodded, his hair tickling his bare arms. He had thought to burn away each and every one of those tattoos one by one, however long it took, whoever he had to send back. Now they'd gone. And so had he. Zeke felt Max's hand on his arm and smiled. "You've just gotta get on with living, Stoney."

Zeke actually laughed.

Getting on with living had been starting to turn into a major problem. He had spent his first morning of freedom simply walking in the park and thanking God - and the devil - for his life.

His second morning after is miraculous rebirth had been utilised more efficiently. He had tried to get a job. His skills were 15 years out of date; he vaguely knew what the internet was but not how to use it, and anyway he couldn't work out how to turn a computer on.

Joining the force again seemed like a good idea in theory, but was actually impossible due to the background checks they would certainly do. They would find out that he was already a cop. A dead cop.

He'd returned home to find that it was no longer a problem. There was a credit card on the kitchen work surface, with a note that simply said, 'don't worry about it, allow me', and a four digit number. Stone had gone out and checked the account at the nearest hole-in-the-wall cash machine. The balance read ten thousand dollars. He withdrew fifty and asked Max out to dinner.

He'd checked it again, between the restaurant and the bar, thinking maybe his ex-boss was playing a particularly un-funny prank. The cash was still there. So he wasn't going to worry quite yet about working. Over dinner, Max had suggested he take a course in something, get some skills. Or maybe set up his own private detective agency. That sounded more like his thing.

"Would you be my personal assiss...isstent?" he asked her, humour filling his previously morose voice.

She laughed. "You couldn't afford me."

Zeke sat up and wrapped a hand around his pint glass, tipping it carefully to his mouth.

The cool liquid tasted so much better now. He looked at Max and she looked at him back.

For the thousandth time he thought about Ros. He could contact Ros. He could explain everything to her, make her listen, make her understand. His stunt with the snowglobe had already set her mind wandering, he knew. She would take him back, he was sure. She would.

So why wasn't she the first one he had gone to when he had been released? Why was he sitting here, in a sleazy bar drinking beer after beer with his landlady when he could be drowning in the love he shared with his wife. //used to share, Zeke, used to//

He finished his beer and caught the barman's attention. His previous tip had been very generous, and the barman served them both new drinks without a word.

"Why are you here with me, Zeke?" Max asked quietly. "Why haven't you found your wife again?"

He smiled sadly, and finally admitted the only truth he could see right now. "Cos that would be the end, and I don't want it to end yet."

***

Alex regarded the angry eyes of his boss with hatred and no small dose of fear.

"Don't ever think I can't simply return you to hell, Alexander." The fiery eyes bored into those of the human demon. "I am the one that can make eternity a living hell for you and for him!"

Despite his natural fear, Alex raged at the implication that his dear Ben would suffer because of him; at the mere whim of another. "You leave him alone!" He stepped forward bringing them closer, eye-level with one another. "You can't touch him. He's an angel. He's everything you'll never know."

A flick of the devil's hand sent the human form flying back against the alley wall behind him. An eye-blink later, those burning eyes were close, staring into his face. "You will respect me."

Alex flinched away from the hot breath that touched his lips. "You can't scare..."

But he was instantly wrong. What the devil became then did scare him. Very much. The human form was gone. Fire, brimstone, white hot spikes of pure agony that sliced through Alex and burnt a path along his spine. He screamed. And then it too was gone.

***

The days didn't exactly fly by. For the first month the novelty of being alive again after 15 years was enough to keep him occupied; tasting all he could remember he used to enjoy, smelling the flowers in the park and watching all the new films, marvelling at the special effects.

Now and again he found himself looking over his shoulder at the slightest sound, the tiniest movement. Whether he was wary of dead souls or watching for his former employer he didn't like to admit. But the pull, the need for a look, a touch, just a word from the devil himself was growing exponentially.

"Old habits die hard, ay Zeke?"

Ezekiel looked up from his coffee and stared at the blonde woman standing beside his table. As the electrical imperative passed from his brain to his hand to reach for his gun, Ash spoke a single word, paralysing him for long enough to allow her to slip into the seat opposite him.

"I'm not here to hurt you." She waved her hand and he could move again. He picked up his coffee. "What's the point now you're no longer a threat. You're alive, Zeke." She shook her head, expression incredulous. "He released you. You must really have made an impression."

The corners of Ezekiel's mouth turned up, but that was his only response. "I saved his immortal soul." Spoken with as much irony as he could muster.

She nodded. "Yes. You must remind me to thank you for that one day."

Another smile, this one accepting her ungiven thanks. "What do you want, Ash?"

The waitress came to take the new arrival's order, and Ash requested a coffee. It's all she'd ever seemed to drink when they were... together.

"Did you ever ask yourself... why he could always point you in the right direction, but never do the actual deed himself?"

Zeke shrugged. "He's the devil."

"And thus should have the power to put away his own children."

Slightly confused, Ezekiel shook his head. "Listen, it's nothing to do with me anymore, Ash, you're chatting up the wrong guy."

Ash chuckled lightly. The waitress put a cup of coffee in a shaky saucer onto the table in front of her. She smiled her thanks. "He didn't tell you about me, did he?"

Zeke looked away for a moment. "No."

"But you guessed. About me being the ring-leader, about... he and I."

"That part he strenuously denied."

"Then he's lying."

"He loved you."

Ash glanced up at him. "Is it even possible for him to love? Does he understand the meaning of such a word?"

Zeke raised his eyebrows. "I wouldn't know. I might doubt it. If he didn't love you..."

"We were lovers. For a very, very long time. To hold such power in my arms, to have such control over the devil himself." She looked up. "That's seduction, Zeke, that's what turns me on."

As he watched her, her eyes glowed slightly, a red haze until she blinked and it was gone.

"Why are you here, Ash?"

She sipped her coffee, making eyes at Zeke over the cup. "Could it be, Zeke, that our Devil has no power up here on earth?"

Ezekiel pursed his lips. "Why the sudden interest in our... mutual friend?"

She smiled, a little too calculating for his liking. "Like I said, I've known him a long time."

"And...."

"And nothing. I'm interested, that's all. He had you running around for him, doing his dirty work. And now he's got another lap-dog."

"Alexander. Could it be," Zeke guessed, "that you're jealous?"

He laughed. "Of what, Ezekiel?"

"Of me. Of Alexander. Of anyone who gets close to your lover?"

For another short moment her eyes flared once again. It took a few moments for her to come back to herself this time. "He was my lover. Now he's the enemy."

"He's the devil." Stone wondered if he sounded like he was trying to convince himself.

"I'm well aware, Zeke."

She finished her coffee and stood. "It was good to see you again."

Zeke nodded, still confused as to the nature of and the reason for her surprise visit. "Yeah. I think."

"Next time you see... you know who, give him my lust."

Zeke shrugged. "I've alive now, Ash. I'll never see him again."

She tilted her head, regarding him now with some interest. "That bothers you, doesn't it?"

Shaking his head, Ezekiel slipped out from the table and stood before her. "No. It doesn't. As you say, I'm alive." He walked out before she could ask anymore.

***

He sat in the dark in his apartment, waiting.

Somehow, something about the re-emergence of Ash and her questions about Lucifer had disturbed him.

He'd watched television until four a.m., all the old reruns of all the old shows he used to watch.

At four he'd switched it off and poured himself a generous bourbon. At four-thirty, there was a slight change in his perception, and when he looked up the devil was sitting opposite him.

The other could barely be seen in the blackness of the room; black shirt, black trousers, black hair pushed behind his ear on the left side, curtaining his face on the right side. Two bright gold-specked eyes watched Ezekiel from the armchair opposite.

"I asked you to live for me." Spoken quietly, in a haunted tone Stone hadn't heard before.

Zeke leaned forward. The Devil's surprise appearances had never been too much of a surprise. "Without you."

An unseen frown creased the hidden face. "Of course. You hate me, Ezekiel, I'm your ruler, your tormentor. Or at least I thought that's what had been happening. If I'm wrong..."

"Why can't I stop thinking about you?"

"I don't know." The lie was hidden in the gentle lilt of the ancient voice.

But Zeke had his audience now, he knew he must make the most of it. "You know what's happened between us in the past, you can't deny that."

Lucifer's slight patience was wearing thin, as was his control. "It was sex, Ezekiel."

Frustrated, Stone got to his feet, pacing to the kitchenette. "'How can nothing change when everything's changed?' That's what you wrote. It was bad enough after but since you released me, I can't stop thinking about you, I can't get you out of my mind and I don't know why." He didn't see the Devil's eyes lower briefly.

"What about your wife?"

Zeke turned, looking into the darkness at where he knew his benefactor was sitting. "I don't know. Part of me wants to see her again, to settle down, maybe even have a kid." He peered into the darkness. "I bet you're smiling at that." Silence. "Another part of me... isn't sure it can return to normality just like that."

Ezekiel glanced down before sliding down the side of the breakfast bar until he was sitting on the floor, legs tucked under his chin.

"Did I get too close? Is that it?" There was no answer. "I know you've been hurt before. I... really didn't want to be the one to hurt you again."

"You don't know what you're talking about." The quiet words were felt rather than heard.

Zeke smiled wearily. "Don't I? You think I don't realise your history?"

Golden eyes flashed in the darkness. "You know nothing. And why would you care? I'm the devil, Ezekiel. I'm alone. I will always be alone." There was no sorrow, no regret, just the purity of truth.

"What if you didn't have to be?"

The devil sighed, shaking his head. "There is nothing you can offer me, Ezekiel. I have so much and own so many. What do you have that I would possibly want?" If only there was conviction behind the words.

Silence stretched between them. Zeke imagined he could see those bright eyes glowing. Biting his lip in uncertainty, he stood and moved toward the armchair. The devil watched his every move carefully.

"Ezekiel...." Any other words of warning were swallowed into Zeke's kiss. The relief of actual physical contact was incredible, and Zeke leaned into it like a drowning man.

For a few seconds, the devil tasted Ezekiel, remembering how it had been between them, knowing how far he could take this, knowing he could have his detective at his beck and call. But he couldn't, and he hated that within himself. This was why he'd released Ezekiel in the first place.

Zeke's fingers were weaving into hair on the head of this human form.

If he could just believe it was the human's own choice, that this was Ezekiel's own will... but it wasn't, and to believe this would be happening without hellish intervention was to simply be fooling himself.

But he was kissing back, mapping the human mouth with his tongue, for the first time being kissed by a mortal; a living, breathing living person who knew who and what he was and still wanted him.

But that too was a lie. This was all a lie. He wanted it so much.... But to be loved was the most dangerous threat of all. And he couldn't love back. His desire was in darkness, branded on his soul in divine flames.

This was the forbidden fruit, his own apple, his own serpent. He couldn't for the punishment would be more than he could bear.

Lucifer moaned as if in pain.

In response, Ezekiel's hands roamed his face, his neck and shoulders, murmuring soft, rough words of comfort. His lips traced a path across the smooth jaw, over the neck and back, sucking on the ear lobe.

"Let go." Zeke nipped the devil's bottom lip between his teeth. "Let me catch you." Again he kissed the devil incarnate, coaxing a response.

It couldn't happen. Groaning painfully, the devil brought his hand between them and placed his palm against Ezekiel's chest. He broke the kiss reluctantly by shoving the other back fiercely. Zeke sat on the floor, breathing hard, glaring at the devil as those emerald beads glared back.

"I should have let you go, should have released you and not tried to hold on. But I couldn't." Zeke stared. The devil leaned forward and slid his fingers into the collar of Zeke's shirt. "I know now that I have to."

Without understanding, Ezekiel tilted his head, allowing the touch, welcoming it.

The devil's long fingers touched a spot on the back of Zeke's neck, and the sudden burning sensation lit up his nervous system with fireworks.

Zeke cried out in sharp surprise, trying to jerk his neck away but finding himself held impossible tight by the gentle grip around his neck.

He gasped, quit trying to fight and locked his eyes with the intensely beautiful gaze regarding him. "Don't lose me like you lost her."

Those eyes flashed, red streaks crossing the gold glitter. "Don't."

"Why? Why are you so frightened of her? What power could she possibly have over you?"

That terrible grip tightened. "Ashur is more powerful than any other."

"More..." he caught his breath as the skin at the back of his neck began to burn with real, human pain. "... powerful even than you?"

The devil flicked a smile at the man before him. "That isn't the point, is it? She's more powerful even than you."

A moment later, the heat and pain were gone and the devil stood.

Ezekiel looked up. "What happened?"

Gold stars glittered in eyes that regarded him for a final time. "Everything changed"

The devil turned and was gone.

***

Max was worried about Stone.

They had been sitting in the park for over five hours. Despite the heat of the sunshine, Zeke had his thick coat pulled around him and was picking at his sleeves. He'd barely spoken a word but Max had guessed that it was matters of the heart that had brought them out here.

"I'm getting hungry, Stone," Max griped, hoping to get some reaction from her silent companion.

She was more than surprised when he nodded. "I'll buy."

The Fleur De Lis was perhaps the most expensive restaurant Max could name.

She was amazed when Zeke agreed to take her there. They were given a bay window table on the balcony and Max began to understand that there was a line of pricing for restaurants and once you crossed the line it didn't matter what you wore to eat, you were paying to wear whatever you wanted.

Zeke let her order the most expensive bottle of wine on the menu (bar one whose price tag was four figures long) and chose for her a five course set menu that put a smile on her face.

He was alive now. He had to eat.

He just didn't feel hungry.

The growing desperate need for his ex-boss had vanished along with the tatoo that had adorned the back of his neck, and had left behind an anger that burned.

He hated the Devil for manipulating him, for controlling his emotions and desires.

Yet the knowledge remained that their night together had not been under such circumstance. Zeke had gone willingly into his arms, had welcomed their shared pleasure with his eyes open to the truth of what the devil was. Was it different now? What was it that still drew him - even in life - to his immortal enemy when his wife was within his reach?

The question of what his reach now entailed had haunted his dreams. He and Lucifer had shared something more than orgasm, more than sex. Their immortal spirits had joined as one, taking them far beyond the mortal pleasures of the flesh. Could they share anything now he was alive? Why did he still want anything from Satan? Why were these thoughts still plaguing him?

The next time the waiter approached he ordered a Scotch. A bottle of it.

***

Lucifer stood by and watched as Callie sunk the double blade deep into Alex's eyes. She sat back, straddling his shaking body and laughed as he screamed, hands flying to his face in vain. Her head thrown back, she saw him, standing against the wall. The next moment she was gone.

"I'm very disappointed, Alexander." The devil had to shout to be heard above the inhuman screeching of a soul in torture.

"Save me, save me like you did him." It was a hoarse plea, a desperate cry of help from a demon who had assumed he was under the greatest protection.

"No. It's not the same."

"Why?" One final question shouted into the land of the living before the end. It went unanswered.

The ground beneath them was opening and as the illusion of humanity was left behind, the devil accompanied his servant back to the pit.

Lucifer stretched his true form and lashed out in frustration as the heat consumed them.

The only sound that could be heard was Alex's scream as the fire within engulfed him.

TBC in 'Why?'
elfin

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