A Friend to the Darkness. Katherine Rathbone

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      “I, Katie Longwood, supplicant to the Luciferian Sect, do freely offer you, Lucifer, His Eternal Majesty and King of all Hell, my allegiance for all of Eternity, and gratefully accept the title of Familiar.”

      I think flames danced around us, but I couldn’t look away from Lucifer’s silver eyes. He smiled sadly at me. “It is done.” He said gently. The flames died down, and the weird buzz left my body. The pentagram was gone. Sera bandaged my hand for me, not saying a word.

      “Well, I’ve had enough of running around in my underwear for one day. Later, Katie.” Seth disappeared.

      “Yeah, we should go too.” Sebastian gave me a quick hug, and Sera smiled at me briefly and they were gone. Aaron didn’t say a word to me or look at me before he left.

      Chris smiled warmly at me. “It was lovely to meet you, Katie. The others were right. You are remarkable.” And he was gone too, leaving me alone with Lucifer.

      “Time to get you home.” His tone was neutral.

      “Can I ask you some questions, first?” I asked, abnormally quiet.

      Lucifer sighed. “Your mum will have left for work, why don’t we go to your house. More comfortable.”

      I smiled tentatively, and held out my hand. He took it, and we were in my living room. He gestured at the couch, and wandered into my room, tossing me a shirt before heading to the kitchen. I took a seat and waited for him to return, my heart pounding. He reappeared shortly with a coffee for each of us, and took a seat at the opposite end to me. With a sigh, he said, “Ask away.”

      “Have we met before?”

      He blinked, and shook his head. “You always surprise me, Katie. What do you mean by that?”

      “You know, the whole reincarnation thing. Have… have I been in Hell before?” I rushed.

      He tilted his head at me. “No. As far as I know, you are a new soul. But then again, it’s also possible that you had been in Heaven since the Fall, and God just got sick of your bullshit.” He grinned at me. I poked my tongue out. “New souls are pretty rare. And they are NEVER… like you.” He waved his hands at me.

      “The fuck does that mean?” I was indignant.

      “It’s not a bad thing. Frustrating as, well, Hell, but not a bad thing.” He gave me a slight smile. “What else do you want to know?”

      “Um, all of my questions were kinda based on you saying yes to the first one.” I admitted. He tilted his head back and studied the ceiling.

      “You’re impossible.” He muttered.

      “Why? What have I done now?”

      He looked into my eyes. “You don’t have a single question about being a Familiar?”

      “Oh. That. No, not really. I trust you guys.”

      He shook his head, glanced at his hands, then back at me. “We’re demons. Why do you think you can trust us?”

      “AH HA! You can lie!” I leapt to my feet and pointed at him triumphantly.

      “What?” He glared at me, confused.

      “You just said you’re a demon. But you’re not. You’re an archangel.”

      Lucifer look nonplussed. He tilted his head and considered what I had said. He stared off into the distance. I sat back down. This looked like it might take a while. Eventually, he met my eyes with a wondering expression. “I… I guess it’s because I believe it about myself.”

      “In a negative way?” I asked gently.

      He nodded, not quite meeting my eyes.

      “Why?”

      When he looked at me, his eyes were filled with pain. Instinctively, I scooted closer and grabbed his hand. “Lucifer…” I whispered.

      “I torture people, Katie. And you were right, what you said about reincarnation. I see the same souls making the same mistakes over and over and over. I punish them for essentially the same thing, over and over for centuries.”

      “So no one gets into Heaven, after they have been with you?” I asked curiously. That seemed like a pretty major flaw in the plan, to be honest.

      He sighed. “No, people do. Lots of people, I guess. It’s just so… demoralising, seeing the same ones keep coming back.”

      I shrugged. “People suck, man. You’ve just got to focus on all of the people who are in Heaven, who wouldn’t have been if it weren’t for you.”

      He shook his head wonderingly. “I never thought to think of it that way.”

      “As far as I’m concerned, mate, you’re the hero of the story. God is a dick, and Satan is evil, and you’re there in the middle, the only one looking out for humanity. Thank you.” I said sincerely, staring into his eyes. His eyes widened, and he caught me up in a fierce hug.

      “Oof.” I patted his back gently. He rested his chin on my shoulder. I wanted to touch his horns. I restrained myself. After a little while, I said gently, “I dunno if you heard, but earlier today I got sliced up by a couple of demons. Still a little stiff, buddy.”

      “Oh, right. Sorry, I forgot.” He drew back, looking embarrassed.

      “It’s fine.” I smiled at him, and tilted my head. “When was the last time you hugged someone?” What? What a weird thing to ask. I cringed inside.

      He looked away and said quietly, “Millennia.”

      “Wow. You’re even more of a loser than I am.” I teased. He gave me the finger. “Watch a movie with me before you go? I don’t think I can sleep yet.”

      “Sure thing. What are we going to watch?”

      “You choose.”

      He found a movie, and settled back onto the couch. I lied down, and put my head in his lap. He stiffened for a moment, then relaxed and tentatively stroked my hair. We watched the movie in companionable silence.

      Nine.

      I healed faster than I expected, and managed to hide how badly I’d been hurt from my mother. I was back to training in no time, and with a new determination. That wasn’t going to happen to me again. Things were looking up for me at school too. The guy that Carmen had scared off had decided that maybe I wasn’t so bad after all, had apologised, and started talking to me again. In fact, he invited me to a party with him. My first in a long time. With humans, anyway. The weekend before, I was nervous, and hanging out with my demon buddies.

      “You’re unusually quiet, Katie.” Sera observed.

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