“I'm willing,” the Antichrist said.
The rest of them gave their consent as well.
“Do you vow to be loyal to me as your new god?” Lucifer asked.
“Yes,” they intoned together.
“You have to say it.” Luke waved a finger at them.
The Angels looked at each other, then made their vows in unison, “I vow to be loyal to you as my new god.”
“Wonderful!” Lucifer clapped his hands, rubbed them together briskly, and stood up. Then he went around the table, tapping each Angel on the head, “Duck, duck, duck, duck, goose!”
Azrael groaned and shook his head. His father continued to do his duck/goose routine, leaving stunned Angels in his wake, then he sat down and regarded them gravely.
“Thank you for your trust, gentlemen,” Lucifer said. “I vow to never abuse that trust. As long as you remain loyal to me, I shall remain loyal to you. Welcome to the Horde.”
“Whoa,” Ira whispered.
“I feel good!” Samuel declared, then let out a whoop. “Damn, Luke, you do have a lot of juice.”
Gaviel started crying, silent tears streaming down his cheeks.
“Darling.” Holly shook her husband's arm and nodded toward the weeping Angel.
“Oh!” Luke jumped up and went to lay his hand on Gaviel's shoulder. “It's all right, Gaviel. If you want to return to Jerry, I can withdraw—”
“No!” Gaviel jumped up and hugged Luke. “Thank you. I can't remember the last time I felt like this.” He stood back to add, “The heaviness is gone from my chest. I can feel your power but also this . . .”
“Love,” Thad said simply.
“Yes,” Gaviel whispered. Then, in a stronger voice, “You truly care about your people.”
“Of course, I do.” Lucifer squeezed Gaviel's shoulder. “You're family now.”
Gaviel sniffed, straightened his shoulders, then knelt. “You have my fealty until the end of time, Lucifer Morningstar.”
“No, no, no.” Luke helped him up. “I don't need you to kneel to me. We are in this together now, Gaviel. I support you, and you support me. That is how things are supposed to be between a god and his demigods. It's a relationship that was intended to work with human belief. A way for all of us to receive energy from them while they only had to focus on a few gods. Greater focus meant greater energy. It was never supposed to be about ruling each other. But the myths changed us, some of us more than others, and we became this divided pantheon. Jerry created ranks in the Host by distributing power unevenly, pitting you Angels against each other to vie for his favor. But I try my best to hold to the original bargain and share what I receive both freely and equally. You'll never have to fight for my favor. You have it simply because you stand with me.”
“Then I will stand with you until I can stand no longer, Lucifer.”
“That's enough for me.” Lucifer grinned and looked at the others. “And thank you all for siding with us. I know it's not a small thing to leave the Host.”
“I don't even want to return to Heaven,” Bohel said.
“You can live here,” Holly said. “Luke will build you a house in the Durbs.”
“The Durbs?”
“The Demon suburbs,” Sam said with a grin. “Ain't that fucking awesome?”
“Language, Samuel,” Lucifer chided.
“Sorry.” War lowered his gaze.
The other Avenging Angels just stared at the Devil as if they'd never seen him before while I tried to hold back my laughter. The myths say that the Morningstar was the most beautiful of God's Angels, but what they don't say is what made him so beautiful. I mean, yes, Luke's gorgeous on the outside, but so are a lot of Angels. The real beauty of the Morningstar lay in his soul. If Lucifer had won the first war, Heaven would truly be paradise.
Come to think of it, Earth may have been a better place too. Instead, Luke had been forced into the role of a villain, his goodness hobbled. But maybe that had worked out the way it was meant to. If Lucifer had ruled Heaven, he would have been consumed by his role and spent most of his time trying to help humanity. As it was, he found ways to ignore his role as Satan and focused on his family. And by family, I also mean the Demons. Well, Demons and a few Angels.
