"If you've got something to say, why can't you say it to me?" Thomas demanded accusingly of the empty spot on the pueblo's rooftop. The very spot where he knew the devil himself had been perched less than ten minutes ago.

Katherine had been so badly shaken when she'd told him. 'I saw the devil tonight,' she had said, looking as though her blood had stopped dead in her veins.

Thomas was angry. And he felt helpless. His gentle features lit by the small fires around the reservation were distorted with frustration as he stood by Katherine's side, imploring the devil to show himself. To talk to him! The other angels had. Why not Lucifer?

Thomas turned to the frightened young woman by his side. "I had a voice once, Katherine." He sighed, recalling that day when he had been about to become a priest. "For as long as I can remember, I had a voice. It called me to my God. It called me to church. And on the day when I needed that voice the most, it left me."

Understanding slowly dawned on Katherine. An inkling of how this man she'd only known for a couple of days had come to be involved in this angelic war. It was no coincidence. Unlike her own involvement. She shuddered, feeling the need to run far, far away. But she wouldn't. Mary needed her. And both Mary and herself needed Thomas. As much as she wanted to help him, she had no illusions that there was anything she could really do. But one thing she could and would do was to stand by him. No, she wouldn't run.

Thomas drew her close, assuring her that he would not let any harm come to Mary. She knew that. Hard as she found it to trust anyone, she did know that Thomas Dagget was the one man in this world she could trust.

"Why don't you go back inside, Katherine," he suggested, stroking her cheek. "I'm going to stay out here for a while. Maybe he'll come back."

She agreed hesitantly, unsure of how much danger Lucifer might pose to Thomas. But deep down, she knew that as frightening as the thought was, the devil himself was their only potential ally in this. "Alright." She left, casting back a careful glance before entering the pueblo where Mary's sing was being held. She hoped that perhaps there were some good news about her darling girl at least.

Almost the instant Katherine was out of sight, Thomas felt another presence. Everything around him reacted to it; the night breeze grew a little stronger, the moon grew a little dimmer and a cloud of dust whirled up a few feet away from Thomas, almost as if it was fleeing.

"Little Tommy Dagget..."

Thomas closed his eyes and grit his teeth. The voice he heard... the breath he felt against the nape of his neck... were teasing. And so unnaturally hot. And that voice continued to speak in a humorous and melodic way.

"You called. And I came back. Just for you, little Tommy Dagget."

Shaping words with his lips - words which never became sounds - Thomas tried to respond. But he couldn't. So he nodded instead.

"Speechless?"

Shuddering at the hiss inherent in that voice, Thomas finally turned around, slowly.

He wasn't sure what to expect. How would that very first angel, who was no longer welcome in heaven, look? Human and gentle like Simon? Or cold and deathly like Gabriel?

He hadn't expected him to be a frightening, dangerous mix of both.
Likely, he should have. After all what was hell but the accumulation of man's fears, desires and sins? And the tall, dark creature standing in front of him now was the perfect personification of them all.

"Talk to me, Tommy," Lucifer said, his voice so deceptively gentle that it made Thomas' skin crawl.

"What do you want from us? From Katherine and me?" Thomas finally managed.

"What do I want?" Lucifer snarled, his mood apparently switching in the blink of an eye. "I just want the war in heaven to end. War is supposed to be my domain. And I do hate it when others try and take what is mine." He circled Thomas, his large, dark-rimmed eyes roaming over the human as if he was assessing whether or not to buy this new toy.

Thomas was quite aware that there was more than one meaning to what Lucifer was saying, but the implication was simply too terrifying to acknowledge. "I don't believe you're here to help us. Why would you?"

"Us!" Lucifer spat the word out as if it had a bad taste. "No, Tommy, I'm not here to help that bitch of yours or sweet little Mary either. And while I am very tempted..." He walked past Thomas and stopped right behind him, turning on his heels and whispering very, very closely to his ear. "I'm not even here to help you!"

Thomas hissed, feeling as though the breath of death was entering his body.

"I'm here to help myself. Quite selfishly. I'm here to get what is mine. To feed my greedy desires. That is - according to you talking monkeys - what hell is all about, isn't it?"

Having continued circling his prey, Lucifer was once more in front of Thomas. "Isn't it?" he repeated harshly, leaning in close enough for Thomas to feel his breath against his own lips.

"How should I know?" Thomas asked more boldly than he felt, even while his lips trembled from the barely avoided touch. "It's your domain."

Laughing low in his throat, Lucifer approached Thomas, choosing to ignore the fact that the human retreated at an equal pace. "I knew there was a reason why I like you, little Tommy Dagget." He smiled deviously. "Aside from the obvious."

Doing his best to ignore the ravenous look assessing him and the ever decreasing distance between himself and the devil, Thomas continued to retreat. "What is it I'm supposed to do? About Gabriel?"

Sighing and shrugging in an impersonation of human frustration, Lucifer said, "There'll be time for that later, Tommy. Much later."

"No, I..."

"He's not here yet, Tommy. And he won't be until tomorrow night."

Thomas had walked backwards as far as he could, having covered most of the top of the butte and coming dangerously close to the edge of the cliff. A few more steps was all he had left. "Just tell me, dammit!" he said sharply, turning his head briefly to make sure he wasn't closer than he thought.

Lucifer smiled. "I will. When it's time for you to know, I will tell you."

Thomas grew angry. "It's time now!"

"No, it isn't. This is my time with you." Lucifer covered the brief distance between them, causing Thomas to take a quick step back. A gut reaction - one step too far.

During the split-second when Thomas realized he was about to fall with no way to change fate, he saw Lucifer raising his arms, the dark sleeves of his long coat extending and turning gray and frazzled in the moonlight before closing around him and lifting him the moment his feet lost the ground beneath them.

Then, an instant later, Thomas found himself flat on his back in the red sand, a safe distance from the precipice and staring up at the most frightening sight he had endured yet, even though it lasted for mere seconds.

The gray wings folded in and turned back into arms in coat sleeves as if nothing had happened. Against the back lighting of the moon, their outline - frayed and feathery - was more frightening even than a bloody sword held high above Lucifer's head could have been.

"Goddammit!" Thomas exclaimed, gasping for breath.

Lucifer shrugged into his coat as if nothing had happened. "You never used to talk like that, Tommy. Not in the days when you were welcome in his church... But then... we were all different once." He sighed melodramatically. "Back when he loved us."

Picking up on a certain bitterness in Lucifer's voice, Thomas hoped that he might be distracted enough to ignore him inching further away, his hands scraping over the sand as he crawled backwards like a crab. He felt himself drawing blood on the soft skin of his palm.

"Where do you think you're going, human?" Lucifer asked, causing Thomas to gasp in shock when the dark angel flung himself to the ground, crouching over him.

"What do you want from me?"

Lucifer chuckled, his breath tickling the fresh cut on Thomas' forehead - the one he'd gotten earlier, fighting with Gabriel. "I don't make gifts, Tommy. And you want to be rid of Gabriel even more than I do." His tongue snaked out, lapping at Thomas' head wound. "Almost as sweet as the blood of an angel..." he growled appreciatively.

Thomas shuddered, telling himself that it was fear and fear alone that caused him to react this way. "What a lovely angel you'll make, Tommy. Later on. Now... what sacrifice can you offer me?"

"What?" Thomas shrieked, bending his head back just in time to avoid Lucifer's mouth closing on his. "What do you mean, I'll make a lovely angel?'" he said, raising his face back up the moment Lucifer withdrew with a displeased scowl.

"Trust a talking monkey to pick the insignificant part out of what I just said to you."

"Dammit, tell me!"

"No." Lucifer effortlessly pinned Thomas to the ground, spread his arms to his sides and covered him with the entire length of his body. "We have more important things to discuss." He slid over him like a blanket. A blanket made of snakes.

Thomas turned his head sideways, unable to face the personification of evil as it leered at him, bent - it appeared - on kissing him. He wasn't sure what sickened him more - the devil forcing himself on him or... he didn't even dare think out that thought.

"You are not that pure, Tommy. Not that sweet and innocent. Don't pretend to be with me. Remember... I've known you all your life and long before." Lucifer's hands fixed Thomas to the ground like steel clamps, hurting him, while his mouth sought out the vulnerable side of the human's neck, kissing it lightly before licking at it and eventually biting down hard on the smooth skin.

Thomas yelped in pain, struggling against the powerful hands holding him down, and the solid body pressing him into the sand. "Get off me!" he said harshly, not caring about the consequences.

"You really want me to?" Lucifer snarled even while he was smiling. "Tommy... my sweet Tommy... you forget who you're talking to." He soothed the bite mark on the human's neck with his tongue which - Thomas convinced himself in his panic - felt as though the tip was forked.

So he was to pay for the devil's help. With his body. It occurred to him that this should seem preferable to paying with his soul, but somehow, Thomas found that hard to remember when he felt a hand reach between their bodies and move down to his groin.

Fingers of ice made their way into his pants, touching a part of the human's body which, despite Thomas' desperate wish that it wouldn't, had turned hot and solid in anticipation of the contact. For a moment, Thomas wondered why the fingers were so cold. He would have expected a touch of fire. And in an instant, complying with his thoughts, that was what he felt.

"Oh god!" he exclaimed, writhing in agony. Not all of his agony was pain. Some of it, the part for which Thomas hated himself, was a pleasure unlike anything he'd ever felt in his life.

"Shhhh!" Lucifer hissed. "This is not the time for him!"

Thomas shuddered when the fiery touch moved over his flesh, drawing a trail of flames on his skin. He tried to close his eyes so he would at least not need to watch the devil's face as he violated him.

"Look at me!" Lucifer demanded, using his free hand to lift Thomas' head towards his face.

Staring into the face of evil - and having to remind himself that those gleaming eyes did in fact represent the essence of all evil - Thomas saw himself reflected in the large, dilated pupils. And he didn't like what he saw, because instead of the fear he felt deep down in the pit of his stomach, he saw lust. He saw himself the way the devil saw him - wanton and willingly at his mercy. It had to be a trick!

"NO!!!" he screamed, only to find himself silenced with a crushing kiss and that infinitely horrifying tongue as it plundered his mouth. He had not been wrong about it before!

The kiss went on until Thomas had neither enough strength nor courage left to fight the devil. Deep down in his heart, the terrifying feeling nagged at him that maybe he wasn't as afraid as he thought. Worse... that maybe he was even aroused.

"Stop agonizing, Tommy," Lucifer whispered against the human's parted lips. "I know all your thoughts anyway."

Squeezing his eyes shut in shame, Thomas turned his face sideways, away from his assailant. Perhaps if he didn't look at him... didn't see the fire in those deadly eyes and the lushness of that mouth... perhaps he could keep from...

"Mmm... Tommy..." the smooth voice continued to taunt him. He couldn't escape the shudders it sent over his skin. "I've wanted you since you were a little boy."

Horrified, Thomas bit his lip.

"But there's so much more to you now. So much more!" Lucifer murmured into the reluctant human's ear. "Stop fighting me. I could crush you as easily as a crystal glass, but I won't. I have no desire to hurt you, little Tommy Dagget."

When those icy and yet scorching fingers began to stroke him harder, Thomas whimpered in a mix of pain and pleasure. It felt so damn good, but he didn't want it to. He wanted to hate it, despise it. He wanted it to end.

"Soon..." the smooth voice teased even as the torturous hand did nothing to bring Thomas closer to climax. "But first..."

Thomas didn't know what was happening. He never even noticed any movement or change in the other's position until he felt the devil's mouth on him, engulfing him in a wet inferno. He gasped involuntarily, wishing he could take the sound back somehow. Why was his own body betraying him so?

Looking down reluctantly, Thomas watched as Lucifer drew him deep into his throat, the gray eyes darkening with desire. When he felt that split tongue teasing and encircling him, Thomas threw his head back, jerking under the hands which held him pressed hard to the sandy ground.

Apparently encouraged by the human's reaction, Lucifer began to lick him faster, sliding his hands underneath Thomas' shirt where they moved up the smooth, damp skin, its warm bronze tone disguised by the night's shadows and the cold silver shimmer of the moon.

Dizzy with guilt and need, Thomas writhed against his tormentor, feeling the sharp, pointed nails digging into his sides and not caring, just so long as this would end soon.

When it did, Thomas arched off the ground with the force of his orgasm, the clawing hands barely managing to restrain him. His seed spilling from him into the devil's mouth felt like lava as it poured down into the soul-less darkness of the other's being.

When Lucifer's gaze next met the warm brown eyes of his human 'sacrifice', they almost bore a trace of humanity of their own. A certain longing as well as a knowledge of impending loss. "Thank you," he whispered, the same longing unmasked in his voice as well.

Thomas lay back, supporting himself on his elbows and panting hard. He was puzzled by the expression on Lucifer's handsome, chiseled face. So much so that the normality of a 'thank you' was almost a comfort.

He watched as the devil used his index finger to pick up a stray drop of pearly seed in the corner of his lush mouth and, after inspecting it with curiosity, sucked his finger between his lips with an almost reverent expression. Gulping, Thomas fought to remind himself who this creature was.

Leaning down until his lips nearly touched Thomas', Lucifer said softly, "Goodnight, little Tommy Dagget. Until tomorrow."

And a moment later, Thomas watched Lucifer rise up off his body and turn away to walk for a few steps before virtually "dissolving" into a murder of crows and being swallowed up by the darkness.

Thomas lay very still for a long time. This had been his payment for the devil's help? To allow to be given pleasure in return for a little girl's life? There was nothing simple or logical in the world anymore, Thomas thought with his arms stretched to his sides, almost like a snow angel. Everything he'd learned once in seminary school was only such a tiny part of what there was to know.

Would he ever truly understand his own purpose in this world, if even the devil's own motives were such a mystery?