Genesis [malexmale]

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Eighteen

Lucifer had fallen in love.

And he didn't even know it quite yet.

It was amusing, oddly endearing, to watch Delilah interact with him, teaching him the ways of not only her people, but of others. She had a much easier time opening Lucifer up to the variety of cultures that existed beyond his own, and convincing him that what he saw as sin... really wasn't a sin at all.

Indulging in life's pleasures was not a sin. Abusing life's pleasures on the other hand... However, Delilah was careful not to open any doors to negativity where he was concerned. She opened him to a world of possibilities, of love and adventure. She was the perfect addition, an unexpected one, but a welcome one nonetheless and she was more than willing to accompany us as we made our way from the small outpost village to the next leg of our adventure...

"Wait," Lucifer said slowly, a scowl creasing his brow and making Delilah laugh, "I do not understand. Do it again." She flared out a deck of cards and Lucifer studied the knotwork across their backs before he pointed to one. With her eyes closed, Delilah flipped the card up and out to reveal the insignia on the other side, a cross symbol with rings around the center. She turned it to show me, then tucked it back into the deck. She shuffled the deck rapidly, making Lucifer's eyes go on a crazy adventure trying to keep track of his card, but eventually he lost sight and squinted now.

She stopped shuffling abruptly, then waved her hand up and reached toward Lucifer's coat, plucking a card from the collar and showing it to him with a smile.

"This your card?" She asked. His eyes widened.

"Amazing! What sort of spell do you use?" He asked in fascination, taking the deck to study the patterns upon them. Delilah smiled.

"No spell, sugar. It's simply an illusion. I'd show you how to do it, but then I wouldn't be special anymore," she said. Lucifer frowned at her.

"Preposterous. I find you very special even without your witchcraft."

"Not witchcraft, sugar. Illusions. Witchcraft would imply magic."

"Why do you call me that?"

"Sugar?"

"Yes."

"Because you remind me of sugar. You're coarse, yet sweet." Delilah's smile became sly as she averted her eyes and Lucifer blushed pink. He cleared his throat and tugged at the collar of his coat awkwardly as he handed Delilah her cards back. She shuffled them up and tucked them into her satchel before she glanced at me.

"So, I have learned very much of Lucifer. Yet, I know not your real name. Surely it's not really St. John, is it?"

"Tis," I confirmed, making her arch a brow and Lucifer looked at me curiously, "It is the name I prefer currently. And there is not much for me to tell you aside from the fact that I am male. I enjoy fruit and walking and stars. Nothing more, nothing less." Delilah studied me for a while, then sighed.

"A mysterious man, aye? I suppose to each his own."

We continued on for several hours. We paused for rest, making a small camp in the woods with kindling and fallen branches, laid in a triangle around the fire. The sound of the fire crackling, the flames whispering as they danced in the icy cold breeze that curled in. The sound of insects had died down since the cold had come in, so it was an eerie silence, but for the occasional coo of an owl up in the trees.

I stared up through the towering trees, catching glimpses of a sky lit up with millions of shimmering stars, winking and waving at me. I lifted my arm slowly toward the sky, feeling oddly comforted that I could at least grasp them, and it looked as if I truly held them in my palm from this angle. I smiled briefly.