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 to himself and to God.

Rating: PG-13 for suggested violence.

Notes: It is suggested in Brimstone that Ashur Badaktu was a priestess of the snake goddess of her culture, and though her culture is never defined, it is also strongly suggested that her people were pushed from their land by the coming of people who worshiped Yahweh. I suspect that she was a Canaanite. I do not know if these people had a snake goddess, but such goddesses were common in earliest history. The snake was connected to goddesses for thousands of years, the embodiment of the magical powers (traditionally belonging to women) of psychic vision and oracular divination. The snake represented the wisdom of the goddess and was associated with life, death and regeneration. The priestesses used the venom of the snakes to attain trance states, in which they solved problems that were brought to them.

Pentecostal churches took up snakehandling as a test of faith in the early 20^th century. The practice is derived from Mark 16 ("In my name they shall take up serpents.") and Luke 10 ("I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions.") Recently a man from Georgia was the 74th confirmed fatality attributed to the practice. The snakehandling ceremonies are legal only in Georgia and West Virginia.

By Wesa.

Ashur Badaktu placed Lindor on the altar of the church and went to release the snakes, turning sharply when the infant angel fluttered free from his blanket and flew up to the highest corner of the sanctuary. He showed no fear of the snakes, but he was definitely afraid of Ash. He flitted from corner to corner of the sanctuary to remain out of her reach. He paused once to cling to the figure on the crucifix, but when he realized it was only a statue of his Uncle Yeshua, he wailed in terror.

**********

Cassie, Luke, and Israfel all looked up when they heard the cry, and Luke and Cassie raised their wings to go to their son.

"You must not!" Israfel cried. "Don't you understand what Father will do to you if you use your powers to interfere on the earthly plane?" He blocked Luke's way. "I don't want you to be destroyed, Sammael!"

Cassie ignored him, managing to slip past with Zeke and Max in hot pursuit. "Don't you understand what she will do to my son?" Luke exclaimed. He rammed his shoulder into his brother's chest, knocking Israfel off balance, and followed Cassie, grabbing up Zeke as he passed the running humans.

"What the -?" Zeke protested, surprised by the lift. Behind and below them, Max protested being left behind as she struggled to keep up.

"I need you," Luke told him. "Lindor needs you."

Israfel followed, pausing when Max yelled at him, "Hey! You! Angel guy!" He looked at her and made a decision he hoped he wouldn't regret later, swooping down to catch her around the waist and carry her away after their friends. "Wow, this is so sudden," Max quipped, more to have something to say than for any other reason. Israfel looked at her oddly, and would have laughed if he weren't so worried about his brother, sister, and nephew.

**********

Ash began to chant, and the breath from her mouth formed misty ropes that reached for the terrified little angel, binding him and drawing him back down to the altar. She stood over him, still chanting, a ceremonial knife in her hands. Rattlesnakes, cobras, and coral snakes slithered around her ankles and over the altar, not ignored, but unfeared. Ash kissed the knife and raised it over Lindor just as Cassie swooped in.

Seeing her son about to become a sacrifice to the snake goddess, Cassie screamed, shattering windows and setting off car alarms for miles. This couldn't be true. She couldn't believe that God would allow it to happen. "No," she pleaded. "Please. You think you suffered before? Don't you realize who that child is? He's God's first grandchild."

"It's you who doesn't understand," Ash challenged. "I don't worship your god. I am the high priestess of Asherah, goddess of wisdom, and I have never had the opportunity to perform such a sacrifice in her honor, not even when I gave her my own daughter."

Cassie gasped at the fanatical fervor that would allow the woman to do such a thing. No doubt was left in her mind: Ash was insane. "Even Asherah," she said softly, "does obeisance to God. Give me back my son, and I will intercede on your behalf."

"You still don't understand, do you, you stupid bitch?" Ash countered. "You have everything that was taken from me. You have your child, your god, your freedom, and even your mate! He promised I would rule at his side. He used me, and when he tired of me he threw me to his minions. Now you are Queen of Hell instead. Well, soon you won't have everything anymore."

Cassie had no answer that would pacify Ash, but she could feel Luke approaching. He would save their son, if she could just keep Ash distracted a bit longer. "If you sacrifice my son, Asherah will reject your offering," Cassie warned. "You've chosen your sacrifice for the sake of vengeance. It is no sacrifice for you to offer her Lindor's life." Mentally she prayed for Luke to arrive soon.

As if in answer to her prayer, Luke swooped in, depositing Zeke just inside the door and snatching Lindor from the altar before Ash even became aware of his arrival. He landed beside Cassie and laid their son in her arms. He paused only to caress his son's head and his wife's cheek, then turned to face Ash, placing himself between his family and the threat to them, spreading his wings protectively. As he did, Israfel and Max arrived, joining Luke and Cassie in protecting Lindor.

"Ashur Badaktu," Luke warned her in a low, intense voice, "if you harm my son, every angel in Heaven and every demon in Hell will be after you. And you had better hope the demons catch you first." The tightly controlled intensity of his announcement was far more threatening than if he had yelled.

"Damn straight," Max agreed.

"Not to mention me," Zeke added from behind Ash, his gun already leveled. Ash whirled, startled, and Zeke fired twice.

Max stared, mouth hanging open, as Ash was sucked screaming back to Hell. "Boy, Zeke," she said when the screaming was over, "remind me not to piss you off."

As Zeke hissed and clamped a hand to his left collarbone where the tattoo of Ash's name burned away, Israfel told Max softly, "He's not the one you should worry about."

Max looked from Israfel to Luke and Cassie, where they stood completely absorbed in soothing their son. She was about to ask Israfel what he meant, when something crawled past her ankle and she looked down. "Snakes!" she screamed, and practically climbed a rather bemused Israfel.

**********

"'This time?' Whaddaya mean, you're going to let me remember 'this time?'" Max protested as they entered Zeke's favorite diner for ice cream.

"My treat," Zeke told them. "What?" he responded to the look that Luke gave him. "It's after midnight. I should have the money."

Max ordered cherry ice cream, Zeke got fudge ripple, and Israfel decided to try pistachio. Luke and Cassie shared a banana split, and everyone laughed at the faces Lindor made when Cassie gave him tiny tastes of the different flavors.

Cassie and Luke both tried unsuccessfully to smother their smiles at the fascination Max and Israfel held for each other. They managed to hold onto themselves when the angel offered the hotel manager a taste of the pistachio, but when Max held up a spoonful of the pink confection and offered him a taste of her cherry, they both gave up and laughed aloud, holding onto each other for support.

A little while later, Israfel shrugged off Luke's thanks for his assistance. "Lindor is my only nephew," he said, "and I had to make sure you didn't disobey Father." He blinked back tears.

"Yeah, what's the deal with that?" Max wondered. "I mean, angels have a sex life? Who knew?"

Cassie grinned at her. "Why don't you tell her about us, Israfel? Luke, it's been a big day for Lindor, and he's gained about ten pounds in the last five minutes. I think a nap is indicated. Let's go home."

Zeke watched the two couples move away in opposite directions, Luke and Cassie pushing Lindor's pram up the sidewalk while Max and Israfel went for a walk in the nearby park. He suddenly felt very lonely.

He got up to pay for the ice cream, and inside his wallet he found a note: "I owe you," it read. "Turn around."

Zeke looked at the note a moment, then turned, looking around curiously just as the woman coming through the door looked up. Their eyes met. "Ros," he breathed.

"Zeke?" she cried out. "My god, Zeke!"

They fell sobbing and laughing into each other's arms.

One waitress spoke to the other. "I do like happy endings," she said.