Vengeance Is Mine

A To Tempt the Devil Sequel

by Wesa

Series: Brimstone

AU: TTD

Disclaimers: Brimstone characters belong to Ethan Reiff and Cyrus Voris, Warner Brothers, and now I guess to SciFi. Cassie and Lindor belong to me (Sorry, Luke). Israfel belongs only to himself and to God.

Guest appearances by Joe Dawson and Adam Pierson of Highlander: the Series; they belong to Rysher/Panzer-Davis.

Rating: PG-13 for suggested violence.

A brief note from the author follows the story.

By Wesa.

Cassie sat demurely next to Adam on a barstool at Joe's Bar in Seacouver. She knew his true name now, but agreeably played dumb about it. Joe, after the first moment of shock at her return, had managed to accept that her death had been merely physical. He had more difficulty with the concept that Cassie's spirit was actually Lilith, one of the first-created angels, and had fallen with Satan, whom she insisted on calling Sammael. "It's like calling you Bartender, or Watcher," she explained. "It's a job, not a name."

"Does he mind?" Adam asked.

"Oh, hell no," she laughed. "I called him Luke for most of the last year. When he's playing human, he sometimes has need of a human name. I almost giggled myself sick the first time he used Luke Morningstar. He has as many aliases as you do, Adam."

Adam looked at her in alarm as she picked up a pretzel and munched it. "I think I'm just as glad you didn't introduce us," he decided.

"What for? He knows who you are. Of course, when I was alive, I didn't remember you."

"Remember?" Joe repeated. "You knew him?"

Cassie smiled and nodded, looking at Adam from the corners of her eyes. "I didn't always look like Cassie, you know," she told him, "and you were attractive, for a human; very tall for your time, and stronger than most." Her features shifted, became finer and more delicate. Her eyes changed to a deep brown and her skin darkened. Her whole body seemed to become more petite.

Adam stared. "Zahriel?" he asked.

"You do remember," she murmured, pleased. Even her voice had changed, and her English was now accented with a musical lilt.

"How could I forget?" he asked. "After they stoned you, they stoned me."

**********

Ash was certain that the Devil knew she was following them, though he could not know of her plan. She didn't understand why he didn't tell Zeke and set him after her. And what was going on between them? They almost seemed to be ... socializing. Why would the Devil treat Zeke so humanely? Why would Zeke want to keep company with that monster?

Maybe he was concerned about the baby. What was his name? Lindor. As Ash followed, Zeke had more than once spoken to the Devil with an expression of concern on his face, then bent his lanky body almost double to peer into the carriage.

Although his enormous strength would certainly have been able to pull the carriage up the stairs, when they reached Zeke's hotel, Luke elected to carry Lindor inside. He gently folded his son's wings close to his back and wrapped him in a blanket, softly admonishing the little angel to keep his brightness toned down.

Zeke reached out a finger, which Lindor promptly grabbed. Zeke smiled as he stroked the round cheek. "You know, he doesn't really look like either of you," he said. "Well, maybe he has Cassie's eyes."

"Come, Detective, surely you don't think this is my true appearance?" Luke chided him.

"So you have wings?"

"They're too ostentatious for incognito visits to Earth," Luke said, "but yes, I have wings. So does Cassie. Quite naturally, Lindor does as well."

"A baby!" Max, the manager, cried from behind the desk. She jumped up and hurried to approach them. "Oh, what a darling!" she cooed.

Zeke was faintly alarmed at this gooey streak in the otherwise practical Max. Luke appeared amused, and allowed Max to hold his son.

"Just look at that red hair!" she exclaimed. "And those blue eyes! Kid, you're gonna be a lady-killer when you grow up."

Lindor gazed up at her, wide-eyed. This was his first contact with a living human, and he quite evidently wasn't sure how to react. After a few moments he smiled shyly.

Max laughed gleefully. "Look at that," she told Zeke. "He's flirtin' already. You're gonna have to watch him when he gets older," she said to Luke.

"I have to now," Luke replied. "Women keep stealing him." He didn't explain that until Max, all the women had been angels.

Max grinned and let Luke take Lindor from her arms. Neither noticed the baby's sudden nervousness. Just as the transfer was complete, Lindor burst from his swaddling blanket, fluttering his wings and heading for the corner of the ceiling, out of reach from the floor.

Zeke cursed. Max gaped. Luke sighed. Fortunately no one else was in the lobby, although Ash peered in from the street.

Unable to coax his son back down, Luke was eventually forced to spread his own wings to go up and get him, wrapping him in the blanket once more and murmuring soothingly to him.

Max was still staring at the baby, but now she included Luke in her astonishment. "Are - are you an angel?" she asked huskily.

"I'm the Devil, my dear," Luke told her, "and you must forget all about this incident." He touched her forehead with the tip of his forefinger.

Max blinked and grinned at her tenant. "So Zeke, when are you going to find a nice girl and have a passel of kids?" she asked, her indomitable self once more, completely ignorant of what she had just witnessed.

Lindor struggled in his father's arms, whimpering softly. Zeke watched him for a moment, frowning. "I think he's afraid of something," he told Luke.

"Probably of having two men looking after him," Max suggested with a grin.

As she spoke, something fast moved between them.

Luke's eyes flashed with anger as he realized that Lindor had been snatched from his arms. "Ashur Badaktu!" he roared, his fury shaking the building.

**********

Far to the north, in Seacouver, Cassie started and looked around sharply. "I have to go," she told Joe, absently ignoring his protests. Preoccupied, she didn't even answer his questions, but spread her wings and launched herself up and southward, vanishing in a flash of light before she reached the south wall.

**********

His brother Israfel appeared before Luke as he started after the ringleader of the fugitives. "Sammael," he warned, "Father's restriction holds. You must not interfere."

"She took my son!" Luke protested.

Cassie arrived, folding her wings quickly and going to Luke's side. "What's happened?" she demanded. "Where's Lindor?"

"Ash has him," Luke told her tightly, "and I'm not being allowed to go after him myself."

Cassie stared at Israfel. "You can't do this," she said disbelievingly. "You can't let that - that woman harm our son. Please!" she begged.

Zeke stepped forward, leaving Max gaping once again behind him. "Just tell me where to find her," he said angrily. "I'll get her this time."

Author's note: Israfel is, according to Arabic folklore, an angel who looks down into Hell 3 times a day and 3 times a night, and is so convulsed with grief that his tears would inundate the Earth if Allah did not stop their flow. For 3 years he served as companion to Mohammed, and initiated him as a prophet, before Gabriel came and took over. Poe described him as 'the angel Israfel, whose heartstrings are a lute, and who has the sweetest voice of all God's creatures.' Poe gave credit to the Koran, but other sources say there is nothing of the kind in that Holy Book. Israfel is one of the 4 angels who, according to the Koran, are destined to be destroyed in a universal conflagration at the sounding of the third and final trumpet. Fortunately, however, there is a strong expectation that Allah will revive all four.

I'm glad. I like Israfel.