25. Azazel

Chapter twenty-five

Azazel

What a Future Can Bring

I smiled down at Rai, who was sound asleep before I was able to take off both of his shoes. I removed his pants and shirt, both of which were ripped and bloody. I then took a soapy cloth and wiped most of the blood away from his cinnamon-colored skin. So beautiful—his complexion. Lastly, I covered him up and chuckled when he released a little snore. He'd fought with everything he had. Hell, he'd fought with everything I had too, draining us both of our energy. I was tired as well, but wanted to make sure they were protected, Monique and him. The barrier that was once over this place was damaged and would need proper repair and that was something I couldn't do. So, while Monique and Rai slept, I'd watch over them.

I walked out onto the balcony and looked at the sun as it began to rise over the horizon. It was quite the sight. Over the past century, I'd learned to appreciate such wonders. The Angel's Kiss that was given to me allowed me to see the glory of God's creation. The rivers, mountains, valleys, deserts, it was truly a kingdom. Were humans worthy of it? No, not in my opinion, but neither were demons who only wanted to destroy it. Perhaps, the animals who roamed this Earth, following their nature, were the only ones truly deserving of this masterpiece.

I felt a familiar presence before she spoke.

"I'm glad you survived."

I turned to see Terri Uche leaning against the railing. I smirked, as over the decades, our relationship had grown less contentious, I'd say. "Satan is dead."

She nodded. "We know, Heaven got the message."

"Did it get his soul?" I asked, an eyebrow cocked.

"It did, but from what my Champion has told me, he is imprisoned in Heaven's cell to carry out his punishment," Terri said.

"Really? I didn't think Heaven had a prison."

"For misbehaving angels, yes. Is it worse than where he was, or worse than a prison in Hell..." She shrugged. "I'll never know."

"Well, in any case, he won't be a problem for us," I said.

She smiled. "You two... you did what none of us could. I'm told you've reached the level of Divine Weapon."

I leaned against the railing and crossed my arms over my chest. "Does that surprise you?"

"Yes, it does."

"Why?" I asked. "Is it because you've been with your Champion for nearly six hundred years and have not achieved such strides?"

She snorted and looked off to the side before sighing and returning her gaze to me. "I'm not going to pretend I understand how you attained that level. Even Darius, who is also a Divine Weapon, can't explain it where I can understand. Probably because I don't have that connection with my Archangel."

I smirked. "You've never fucked?"

"I'm sure that's not all it takes," she said with a roll of her eyes.

"Have you, though?"

"No. But I still think it's more than that. And I don't think Darius and Michael would do such things," Terri said.

Oh, now I was intrigued. "Why not?"

"Archangels don't even have genitalia or any sexual desires," Terri said.

"Have you ever asked him?" I uncrossed my arms and gripped the railing as I leaned against it.

"I don't meddle that way into the personal lives of Guardians. If, by some chance, Darius and Michael have had... relations , I doubt that was the reason he became a Divine Weapon," Terri said.

I chuckled. "Well, Rai and I will be living together from now on... as lovers."

She raised both eyebrows. "Lovers?"

I nodded.

"He knows you're a demon, right?"

"He knows."

"How? Why?"

I smirked. "I thought you didn't meddle?"

She rolled her eyes. "Humor me."

"Because look at me," I motioned to my face and body and she rolled her eyes. "I'm irresistible."

She shook her head. "I'm not going to try to make sense of that. Rai has always been... different. I suppose that's why he was able to do what we couldn't."

I sighed. "The Owner of the Magic Shop said that our union was God's will."

Terri's eyes widened then. "The Owner said that?"

I nodded.

"Holy shit."

Again, I nodded, because I understood.

"Then I certainly won't be judging your relationship if it was meant to be. Do you still feel like the Angel's Kiss was a curse?"

"No. I believe I stopped feeling that way the moment you showed me the photo of that twelve-year-old boy. Seeing his picture and knowing that it was my job to protect him... knowing that someone needed me. I started to want to be what Rai needed me to be for him. I wanted to be..."

"Worthy," Terri speculated.

I nodded. "Worthy of him. Yes." I turned back around to watch more of the sun's rising. Terri stepped next to me. "I'd done so many horrible things in my many years on this Earth. How he could see past all of that, to see that I loved him, I'll never know."

"We get visions, you know."

I turned to her, frowning. "Yes, but don't those end after a year? Rai still has them."

She nodded. "I'm aware. Another thing that made him unique. We get the visions of our future Champions and the lives they've lived in order to prepare us for what's to come. We get to know our Archangels and during our training, we get to meet them. Rai, all he had was his visions of you and from what I know, he pretty much kept them to himself, only confiding to Darius about what he'd seen. But there's no telling what he saw of you. Perhaps it was enough to make him see you for more than your atrocities."

"If he saw all of that and could still say that he loved me, then maybe God gave me a gift with the Kiss of the Angel," I said, because I now knew what love felt like. To be the giver and receiver of it. No other demon would experience such bliss. I never wanted to exist without Rai... I felt content knowing that we were forever linked... as we were meant to be.

Terri patted my back. "You're really one of us now, demon."

I smirked and looked down at the city coming to life below as humans headed off to work their tedious jobs. "Well, the world is still here until we have to tackle the next crisis."

"Speaking of crises, what are you going to do about the girl?" Terri asked.

"I don't know. I'll let Rai decide."

"She'll never be able to enter the Guild."

"And she can't stay at the Magic Shop," I said.

"I'm sure you'll figure it out together."

"What about the barrier here? Can you repair it?" I asked.

"We're sending someone to restore it today, but keep in mind, it's not as powerful as the one on the Guild," she said. "It will have to have that opening for you and her."

"I know, but something is better than nothing."

"We may be able to tweak it to make it a bit more powerful, but if demons have the right spell, they may still be able to break it."

"Just do what you can," I said.

She nodded. "Take care of yourselves."

"You do the same."

She smiled, then vanished. I took one more look out at the sky, then went inside to lay in bed beside Rai, taking him into my arms.

Yes, this was the perfect existence.

***

"So, the barrier is restored?" Rai asked.

I nodded. "They took care of it while you and Monique were still sleeping."

Rai nodded. "Is this everything?" he asked me as he looked at my clothes hanging up in the closet that was once his, was now ours.

"Everything I wanted to keep. I ended my lease."

Rai half snorted, half laughed. "You were paying a lease?"

I smirked. "I'm not a demon who can use persuasion to fool a human into believing whatever I want them to," I said.

Rai sighed and nodded. "Ahhh, yes, to have that power. The Whisper."

"Yeah, I know. I wished I did."

"I just thought you'd threatened the landlord or that you owned it," Rai said with a shrug.

"I can't harm innocent humans. Over the past century, I've been a good boy, baby," I said seductively.

Rai turned to me then and gave me one of those looks of his. The kind that called to my cock and made me want to submit to him. "You better have been."

Ahhh, he was so butch. I loved it.

"I'm going to shower," Rai said.

"I'll join you."

"I won't be long."

"Oh, we can be quick," I flirted and he had that "aha" moment when he finally caught on.

"Monique is in the living room," Rai stated.

"And as long as we keep our voices down, she will never know," I said with a wide grin. I walked over to him and kissed him as I slowly backed Rai up into the bathroom. I kicked the door closed behind us.

***

"Took a long time in there," Monique teased as she opened the box of the large pizza. She sat across from Rai and me in the living room as she bit into her slice of pizza. Rai reached into the carton and pulled out two large slices of supreme pizza and placed them on his plate.

"Mind your business," Rai said with a smirk.

Monique chuckled. "Just saying." She looked at me as I lounged on the sofa next to Rai. "Are you going to eat?" she asked me.

I looked at the pizza, then leaned over, took a slice, and put it on a plate. "I don't really have to eat, but I do enjoy human food."

Monique frowned. "If you don't eat food, what do you eat?"

Rai looked at me, both eyebrows raised like he wanted to see how I'd respond to the question.

I chuckled. "Not humans if that's what you're worried about. I'm well-fed because humans kill each other on a daily basis. Food, like this, is what I suppose you could call an indulgence." I took a bite of my slice and it was very flavorful.

"Wait, what? You feed off murder?" Monique asked as she stared at me all wide-eyed.

I nodded. "It's how I'm so powerful. It's how I was created. Violence is human nature, make no mistake. There will never be world peace, because there will always be greed. Whether it's greed for power, money, another man's woman, the list goes on. Someone always wants to be in control and humans always want a leader. They even kill in the name of God, so yes, my dear... I'm well fed."

"I'm sorry I asked," Monique said with a semi-disgusted but freaked-out look.

I chuckled, then took another bite of my food.

Rai just shook his head, all of this he knew about me, and still... he loved me. I couldn't help myself, I leaned over, kissing him and he opened his mouth, letting me slip my tongue inside as we shared one hell of a passionate kiss. I pulled back and he gave me a peck before eating more of his pizza.

"So, you're like ancient old, right?" Monique asked me.

I nodded.

"Have you met Adam and Eve? Are they real?" she asked.

"I have and they are, but not in the way you were led to believe how they looked. The first human was around the same time as the woolly mammoth. They looked very much like apes and they had a lot of hair to cover their bodies. Their natural way to acclimate to their climate. Like everything else, humans evolved as the Earth warmed. The woolly mammoth turned into elephants and saber-tooth tigers are just regular tigers today," I said, then took another bite of my pizza as I was enjoying it. "Adam and Eve weren't the pretty white people you've seen in drawings. They had darker skin, thick hair, and pronounced bone structure to be able to survive. They also weren't the only ones, but they were the ones who were tested in the Garden of Eden."

"Oh my god, this is so cool. I bet you know everything about everything, don't you?" she asked.

I smirked. "You'd be right."

"Oh lord, please do not feed his ego. It's massive enough,' Rai teased.

I laughed.

"I just think you're both awesome," Monique said with a smile.

That felt good. I looked at Rai. "I'm sure you'll be hearing from Darius soon. I did speak with Terri earlier and they already knew about Satan," I said.

"Oh, really?" Rai asked.

I nodded, then proceeded to tell him what Terri had told me.

"Well, that's good. After that battle, I just had to sleep. I'm glad everything is settled and Lucifer is being punished still, that asshole," Rai said.

I laughed. "Terri did bring up a situation that we find ourselves in, though."

"Oh? What?"

I nodded at Monique. "What to do with her?"

"Me?" Monique asked as she chewed on her pizza.

Rai sighed. "Yeah, I've been thinking about that."

Monique shrugged and looked down at her plate. "I mean, you saved my life. I can't ask for more."

"But you want to," I said.

"Azazel." Rai said my name in a way that let me know he didn't approve of my approach.

"I... I don't have anywhere to go," Monique said, but still held her head down.

I looked at Rai and he was looking at her and I already knew what he was thinking. "Are you ready for that?"

He turned to me. "If you're okay with it, then I can handle anything."

"We really can't send her anywhere and I know you'll never feel at ease knowing she'd be unprotected," I said.

Rai nodded. "It wouldn't feel right to me."

I supposed not. We'd gone through so much to save her, what a waste of our efforts it would be to leave her to the wolves. I nodded and Rai smiled, then turned to Monique.

"If you want to, Monique, you can stay with us. I know we're practically strangers, but—"

"I want to," she said with a wide smile.

"Are you sure? You'll be living with a celestial being and a demon."

"And I know I'll be cared for and safe," she said.

"Wise beyond her years," I stated.

"Growing up fighting for your life will do that to you," Rai agreed. "Very well, it's settled. You can have the guest room. We'll buy you stuff to make you feel more at home. But there's going to be rules, young lady."

Monique laughed. "You can't be much older than I am."

Rai scoffed. "You don't know that. I'm immortal."

Her eyes widened. "You are?"

"Yep. I'll be this age forever."

"What age is that?" she asked.

"Twenty-four," Rai answered.

"And what about you?" she asked me. "I know you're like ten thousand years old, but at what age did you stop aging?"

"Twenty-four," I said because that's how old the human was whose body I possessed, then manipulated to look the way I wanted throughout time.

"So, you're both twenty-four forever... must be nice," Monique said.

I nodded.

She looked at me from head to toe and back up. She slouched back on the sofa. "Man, this is so wild. Will I be immortal too?"

"No," I answered. "You're a normal human, but you do have demonic essence. You've probably never been sick, have you?"

She frowned and stared hard as if she were thinking about my question, then she shook her head. "Not that I can remember, no."

"You'll age slower than humans, but you'll still age," I said. "You'll probably be entered in the Guinness Book of World Records as the oldest human by the time you do succumb to your mortality."

"Really, Azazel? She's sixteen, she doesn't want to hear about that," Rai fussed.

"No, it's okay. It's nice to know that as long as I don't die in some crazy way, I can live to be nice and rickety," Monique said.

I chuckled at that.

"What I want to do is make sure you live a good life, Monique," Rai said.

"So, you're going to let me live here and take care of me?" she asked.

"Yes. If that's what you want too." Rai smiled.

"I feel safe with both of you and you're both super cool and cute," Monique said, and blushed at the last part.

I smirked and Rai just huffed.

"Then it's settled. We'll come up with the rules later. For now... let's just chill for the day," Rai said.

"I'm down with that," Monique said and turned to me. "Hey, you said humans looked different then, way back when… so how do you look like that if that's not how humans looked?"

I chuckled and tilted my head at her with a cocked brow because she was as smart as a whip. "I manipulated my features over time to match those of humans in order to…" I let my voice trail off as I looked at Rai, who was watching me with both eyebrows raised.

"Go on," he said, smirking.

I sighed. "I've always made myself whatever form was best to seduce humans into doing what they did best."

"Killing themselves," Monique said.

I nodded. "Humans are vain and petty. So if I needed to appear attractive or weak, I did. But this vision you see before you, is my own preference. I've looked this way for five-hundred years."

"And you call humans vain when you look like that," Rai stated.

"And you love it," I teased and put my arm around Rai and he laughed. We snuggled while we ate, mainly because I wanted them to feel comfortable around me. Engaging in more human activities would go a long way in keeping them both contented. And of course, there was one activity humans enjoyed that I couldn't wait to take part in again with Rai. And by the way he kissed me earlier, we'd probably be going at it tonight.

As we three lounged on the sofa, Rai leaning on my left and Monique on my right, I realized that this was my family. A real one, not some hierarchical faction I belonged to with the Guild or with Hades. No, this was love and trust and devotion only a family could give you. This was a dream I never knew I wanted made real. This was peace.

I smiled and pulled both of them closer.

My family.