It All Started with an Apple. Subtitled: Lucifer's forbidden fruit

Chapter 22 Aelia and Lucifer

Gripping the golden post of the enormous canopy bed in Lucifer's personal chambers to keep from falling to the floor, Aelia takes a shaky breath wondering what has caused the entire room to shake like an earthquake. The last time she witnessed or for a better word experience such a frightening happening was when Lucifer was in a fit of rage. The terrible welling and shouting that followed the quake did nothing to calm her heart or ease her mind. All she can do is worry and wander what he did to Michael and Gabriel and if he was letting his horrid demons torture them as he did the damned. The thought sends a shiver down her spine and for the first time in hours she again feels nauseated that she loves and lusts for a creature so full of spite and loathing.

A sudden hissing sound brings Aelia out of her train of thought as is she was struck by a hand of an enemy. She turns swiftly towards the door frame to find she's no longer alone; her wandering and worry has come to an end. Lucifer is here and he would have the answers she so dreads to hear. She glances up into his eyes when he grows near, what she sees takes her completely off guard. Lucifer looks different as if he is a mere shell of the creature she's come to love. His usual confident almost cocky exterior seems altered somehow. He looks lost and sad as if he is about to lose his most prized possession or even his very being. Aelia wants to go to him and take him into her arms and ask what was bothering him, but she seems frozen in place as he continues to cross the short distance between them. They now stand face to face, their eyes locked in this almost Mystic like stare for what seems like a million eternities.

"Did you know that before God there was eternal darkness, an endless void of nothing. There were beings in that void and darkness God then came and he breathed life into the universe, gave birth to me and then the other angels. Through the earth he gave birth to man but in the darkness before the light there were those creatures, gin and demon races, creatures of the dark, foul- soulless beings of pure filth and evil were waiting there for vengeance. It was those creatures that first accepted me as one of them after my fall. Eventually they saw me as their God and king. When I was cast into eternal darkness with them, they were meant as punishment for me Aelia, meant to torment and torture me. Instead, they hailed me for the vow that I made to them. I promised to reap havoc on God and all of heaven for both casting me out and bringing forth the light that they were so terrified of. I vowed to destroy the entire human race that until the light was disintegrated and that they could again roam freely without fear." Lucifer whispers in a pain-stricken voice that makes Aelia's blood run cold.

"Lucifer what are you trying to say? I do not understand..." Aelia stops in mid-sentence as he comes closer, so close his breath mingles with her own. The sweet fruit scent that normally makes her passion bloom brushes her face. Lucifer reaches a handout as if he's means to caress her cheek but he stops before reaching her face. Aelia watches as he hesitates a few more lingering seconds.

Lucifer fights the urge to caress her face, knowing he must close his mind and heart to her. He must convince Aelia he does not care for her and wants her to go away. Somehow, he has to bypass their blood bond and hide his hurt inside, his pain. He cannot show her any weakness. In the distance he must let her fade away even if the truth is he wouldn't let her memory stray too far. One day she would again see him, when death came to her, he would see her again even if it were for a simple confession mingled with a final goodbye. As an Angel he had shined bright like a diamond but as a fallen Lord of lost souls he was forever cloaked in darkness and despair. Aelia was the only warmth he had in his existence. She was his pure ecstasy and letting her go was going to destroy the only inch of Angel he had left in his miserable existence. When he held her, he felt alive, he could see the light again. When he loses her, he knows he will be a dark cloud of death and destruction. He will be like Poison Ivy that chokes a tree, he will choke the very livelihood out of earth and heaven. If he cannot be free neither can the race of man nor the race of angels.