Page 21 of The Devil You Know

I slapped him across the face.

“Don’t you dare! No falling! Not for me! Not for anyone!” Somehow, me shaking him ended with us both kneeling and Michael pulling me into an embrace. “...only for yourself. Only If you need it,” I whispered quietly.

“Then I suppose you will have to stay around to keep me from doing stupid things?” Michael asked with a lopsided smile.

“That’s a bad deal. No one can actually stop your crazy ideas.” I took a deep breath and pulled a happy Bane into the cuddle pile with us. “But I will be right next to you doing those stupid things with you.”

That’s a promise.

“Why did you change your mind?” Raphael asked me later.

“I could take being separated from Michael... But I could never make Bane an orphan! He needs his two daddies. Don’t you, don’t you foxy? Who’s a little beautiful fox? Yes, you! You are!” I practiced baby-speaking to Bane until Raphael threw his hands up and left.

Later on, I had a much more honest conversation with Abaddon.

“I always wanted to come first, you know? Words like love sound so empty if you don’t mean them with your whole soul. If you can’t dedicate everything to the person you promise your life to.”

“How greedy,” Abaddon said, amused.

“I’m not going to lie and say I don’t want the very fibers of his being to myself. And even back then, at the beginning, I think I started resenting God exactly because I realized Michael would never be fully mine. And I don’t share.”

“So, Michael exchanged his obsession with God for an obsession with you.”

“Yes,” I smiled wide, a bit of a fang showing. “And I am obsessed right back. Isn’t it wonderful?”

I ignored Abaddon shaking his head, too busy plotting what kind of grand gesture I could do. After all, I couldn’t let Michael upstage me.

Everything is fair in love and war, I thought. We have already tried war, so now it’s the time to see who wins in the field of love.

Chapter 9

My first plan failed spectacularly.

“Do you like it?” Michael asked shyly as he presented a house in the Human Realm to me.

That bastard just bought an already built house! That was cheating! I was still consulting the plans to build a new home for us with an architect. Ugh, he upstaged me again with another grand gesture! It was 3:0 now and I couldn’t let that stand. Unfortunately, I also couldn’t stand upsetting Michael, so I squeezed his hand and said,

“It’s lovely, darling. Why don’t you show me what it looks like inside?”

It really wasn’t a bad home, even if I preferred the flexibility of a new build, as it would allow us to create a perfect homestead. Oh well, we had all eternity and thus many houses to go through. Or I could build a second house in a different part of the world, as we weren’t exactly tied to any place. Hmm, that actually gave me an idea...

I stayed long enough for us to christen every surface in our new home but excused myself after that. I had a plan to put into motion. A few weeks later, I was ready to dazzle Michael with my thoughtfulness. I teleported right onto the sofa in our home, startling the angel, while Bane only opened one eye and then went back to sleep.

“Babe! I hope you are free now. I have something to show you,” I beamed.

“It’s not a phone, is it? Getting a device with which you could inform me when you are gone for a long time would be too lucky for me.” Michael glared at me.

“Hey, I said I would be back in a while! Three weeks is a while!”

“Lucifer, I swear to the stars, I will end you if you won’t find a way of informing me when you will be gone for longer than a week. I want weekly updates. Capiche?”

“Yeah, fine, fine, I will think of something. But can we go now? Pretty please? Let me show you my surprise!”

With a sigh, Michael moved Bane off his lap and took my proffered hand. I wrapped my power around both of us. Long range teleporting wasn’t easy, especially with another being in tow, but I spent at least a week of my absence to connect the new location to the wards of our home and, while it took a lot of energy from both of us, we successfully landed where we should.

Eyes blinking in the sudden sun, Michael looked around the beach we were on.

“How do you like your gift?” I asked, practically bouncing in my excitement at finally settling the score and showing the angel I could be a good provider of grand gestures as well.

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