The Infernal Serpent

The call was one he thought he would never hear again. A prayer, gentle, urgent, and full of love. He wanted to go but since the expulsion from Eden the seraphim were scouring the universe for him. It would be tricky and dangerous. Just the style for his rebellious nature. He crossed the abyss focusing on the call which made his heart sing. He may die for this transgression. They could be waiting there, all seven of them, but he did not care.



He alighted on the edge of a desert oasis. All around was hot and desolate, so unlike the Eden where he had recently stood on Earth. Though it appeared a short time for Lucifer, months had passed for the mortals.



“Eve?” He spoke quietly, eyes roving the skies and senses focusing on the horizon for any threats. He might have to flee at any given moment. No, he would not flee, not until he saw her again. That was worth death.



“My angel?” She peered from among the palms and shrubs now covered in fabrics but no less beautiful as she beckoned him to join her.



She was in hiding and Lucifer could not imagine why, maybe Adam? Or God? Lucifer stepped into the cover feeling the darkness of Chaos abate once more. All his hatred faded as she reached out and took his hand. He kissed fingers and then lips. His senses abandoned the search for threats to focus on the one thing that mattered.



“Lucifer.” She whispered his name, joy and a smile coloring her cheeks. “I have someone for you to meet.”

He followed dazed by her presence. God could strike him down here and he would gladly die for the touch of her hand on his. He saw nothing but her face as he sank to the blanket with her in the shade of a palm beside the water. She was placing something in his arms, but he was lost in her eyes, the sunlight on her dark hair. It was like everything else in creation had stopped so that he could see every detail.



He finally looked down when she sat beside him and gazed at the bundle of fabric he now held. He stared at the thing wrapped in the fabric. Was it some kind of animal he had yet to see? It felt angelic to his senses. Nothing was coming together in his mind.



“It is your son.” Her voice was warm as she laid her head against his arm. “Cain.”



“Son....” Lucifer repeated the word confused. It was not that he did not understand the word but that no human nor angel had produced something like this. Tiny versions of the parents were something in the realm of animals. Go forth and multiply God had said of all things. His eyes dropped to the bundle with sandy skin, blue eyes, and hair like a warm fire. He had a son once, created out of loneliness. But this one, unity, love, act of the love of creation. This child was created with another because of love.



He was stunned to silence even when a kiss was pressed soft to his cheek. “He is perfect, like his father.”



Lucifer cried, still the only angel which could experience tears, but these of joy unlike all the prior which sprang from pain and despair. He buried his face in the dark tress of the one thing he loved more than his pride, now there were two things he placed above himself. He looked from mother to child, both now in his arms. The darkness which had so long shrouded him faded leaving only the angel that existed at the beginning of all things.



“You are my husband.” She spoke the words quiet, but certain, against the skin of his neck. He held her tighter not knowing what to say, unable to think in the storm of feeling those words whipped up in his entire being.



“I am yours, dear Eve.” He smiled meeting her eyes. He would have kissed her, but everything suddenly felt wrong. The whole area vibrating in a tone that heralded death. He knew it. He had felt this before and as soon as his mind locked on where he had experienced it before the angel panicked.



He pushed the child into his mother's arms, pressed them to the ground under his body and wings. The power ripped into him, creation cried out with his pain as he was struck by God. In his mind... “better me than them.”. Things went black then surged white hot. The second blast of lightning and fire struck just as it had when he was thrown from Heaven. The pain pushed every thought from his mind. All of them drowned out except the one which begged his failing essence to remain between the fire and the two sheltering beneath him. Blood colored the sand and he swore she called his name in fear, but he couldn't hear.



As abruptly as it started the assault released. Lucifer dare not move for fear of another strike. He might not survive another but there was no other place he would choose to die. If his immortality was to end, then it would be here for someone worthy of his life.



“Son!” The words held such sway that even the defiance of Lucifer relented. He looked up to see God and the seraphim confronting him as he lay prone in the sand. Wings and flesh still burning from being smited by the Almighty power. “Remove yourself.”



God spoke but Lucifer would not be moved from his position as a shield. “I will not.”



The words came harsh, through gritted teeth. His corporal body was giving away to the fires as he shifted to his hands and knees. Lucifer was resolute about the high chance of death in that which he faced.



“You would risk yourself for your adulteress whore?” One of the seraphim had spoken but the voice was muddle through the fog of pain. “Relent to the will of God.”





He shoved himself to his feet as Eve protested. “They'll kill you.”



Lucifer stood proudly between his family and the highest in Heaven. They might kill him, but he would not die in submission. Even God smirked at his behavior, but that smile was cold, calculating, and callous. He would find little sympathy among these angels. 'Then I will die.' were the thoughts running through his mind as he stared them down, reluctant, impassable as a volcano boiling with rage.



"You will watch your tongue, or I will remove it." Lucifer scowled at the seraphim. He would cut out all their tongues to ensure he got the one who would speak that way of Eve. He was already healing but it was slow. He might have to fight them off, not something he relished doing alone.



"Son, you will step aside." The voice was in his mind, the voice of God. Lucifer balked against it, growling with wrath, attempting to shove the voice away. The tactic changed, the voice softened. "I will spare them."



His eyes turned to God suspicious, furious, and ready to finish the job he had begun during the rebellion. God still wore the scar on his side.



"I will spare them, if you bow to us." God spoke harsh, cold, and without love or compassion. "Supplicate and return to the fire."



Lucifer glance back at Eve cradling Caine, eyes red with tears and face caked with sand. His mind was at war. Love and hate fighting for control. His eyes dropped returning to the God. He met His eyes exposing his sheer power to his father.



"I have your word that no harm shall come to them, that they shall live full lives unmolested, free of harassment, that you will ensure yourself that any who harm them come to severe punishment." Lucifer was considering it. He was on the cusp of relenting for the love, for the life of another. The angel within him sang, brightening to blinding brilliance.



"You have my word. If you bow here and return to your chains in the fire without protest, so long as you remained chained no harm will come to them." God spoke with the Seraphim his witnesses.



Lucifer did not trust them, but words were binding. His words were binding, an oath unbreakable. His head lowered, and he stepped forward. Lucifer sank to the ground forehead pressing to the sand. It felt hot as the wrath he fought to control. He did not move, would not until he was bidden to do so.



"Take him to the fires." God's voice was already receding, but Eve's grew louder, the cry of uncontrolled despair. That is when the first kick impacted his side. He held his position, not a cry or a movement. Then a sword was plunged into his back and still he pushed down his will to fight. Even when they grabbed his wings, dragging him, Lucifer did not resist.



He could not look to see where Eve was, could not bear to see the horror and sadness that must have etched her fine features. He would go to the fires, God would keep his word, and his dear Eve and their child would stay safe... or so Lucifer believed.