I think I said more inside my head, but it didn't get past my lips as the room got spinny and went dark.

Chapter Four.

I smelled toast.

In and out of consciousness, I drifted, my mind spinning its own reality in my drug induced slumber. Vaguely aware I lay on a couch that wasn't my own, I preferred to believe myself in more pleasant circ.u.mstances, on the plush leather sofa at Adam's place. Nevermind that I had no business being there, my mind spun a coc.o.o.n of false comfort leaving me feeling safe and very, very sleepy.

Another waft of toast reached my nose. Was Adam making me toast?

"Hey, are you awake yet?"

I felt a touch at my hair, and I leaned into it, so sleepy.

"I thought you could use something to eat. Can you eat something for me, baby?"

So sleepy... the drugs left my head all fuzzy. And pliable. I believed what I wanted to, reaching up to capture Adam's hand, pressing a small kiss to his palm without opening my eyes. "Not hungry... sleepy," I nuzzled his hand.

"I can see that," he chuckled, and I felt the touch on my hair again. "I'll leave you to it then, I can always make you something else when you're feeling better. The important thing is we're together now, and we'll never be apart again."

The words were soft and comforting, and what I wanted more than any food was to feel Adam's arms around me again. "Missed you." Leaning up, I caught his neck in a light kiss.

"G.o.d, I missed you so much, Mercy." He crushed me to his chest, arms tightening around me and I felt his lips raining kisses down the side of my face. "I'll never let you go again, I'm going to fix everything."

"Sounds good to me." I didn't know what I'd done to bring him back, but I wasn't going to let Adam go ever again if I had anything to say about it. My head turned, lips seeking his and I felt the urgency of his kiss. It felt... different somehow.

"You're mine forever now. You'll see... I'll make you love me the way I love you."

Through the fog I realized dimly that his voice sounded strange. I felt strange, floaty. Blinking at the bright light as I opened my eyes, I expected to see Adam holding me close, instead I saw an entirely different man. "Ben?" I choked, pushing weakly at his shoulders. "What are you...?" Christ, had I just been kissing him?

My head swam at the movement, and I fought to remain conscious. The adrenaline coursing through my veins helped shake off the worst of the exhaustion, but I still had trouble sorting through what I'd thought was happening with what actually was.

"I'm loving you," he smiled, "the way you deserve to be loved." Ben's hand dipped lower, skimming over the flare of my hip and I shoved at his arm weakly, scooting away from him as best I could.

"Ben, stop it! I didn't know it was you, I thought you were Adam. Let go of me!"

"Don't say his name," Ben growled in uncharacteristic anger. No, not uncharacteristic anymore, not since he'd been tainted by his stay in Midian. "That b.a.s.t.a.r.d doesn't deserve you. I'm the one who really loves you, and I know I can make you love me again."

My fingernails dug deep into his wandering hands, desperate to make him stop. With my superior strength, I should have been able to toss him across the room, but whatever he'd dosed me with made me weak as a newborn baby. Oh G.o.d... "The baby... What did you give me?"

"Shhh, don't worry, the baby's perfectly fine, I'd never hurt our baby." His hand cupped protectively over my abdomen and I looked for any sign of sanity in his face.

"Ben..." I began, slowly and carefully. "This isn't your baby. You know that." How did he even know I was pregnant? It was too early for me to show.

"Not yet, but it will be." He gave me that smile I loved so much... the one that used to get me every time just made me feel sick.

"You're not making any sense. Try and listen to what you sound like. This isn't your child, and it never will be, no matter what you think you can convince me of. Now let me go, before you do something we're both gonna regret." I tried to put an edge to my voice despite the weakness sapping my vitality, but it was all a bluff. I was too muddled to sc.r.a.pe a thimbleful of Grace together.

"No, no you don't get it, of course you don't." His smile didn't falter. "This is so simple, I don't know why I never saw it before. This is the perfect way for Azazael to be reborn, through your baby, and then you and I will raise him together. It'll be everything we ever wanted."

"Azazael." My eyes narrowed to slits. Was he still pulling Ben's strings? "Oh, Ben... what has he been telling you? This is crazy talk! It'll never work."

"See, that's why I had to get you here where I could make you see, make you understand we belong together," he said, his eyes blazing with fervor.

h.e.l.lo broken record... I had to think hard and fast about how to get out of it without hurting him, because I didn't blame Ben for how far he'd fallen. If anything it was my fault he'd gotten mixed up with Azazael in the first place. I tried softening my voice, wishing I could concentrate enough to send him some soothing Grace, but all I got for my trouble was a dull, throbbing headache. "Let's talk about this, okay? Can you maybe let me up? This is all happening so fast I can hardly think. Where are we?" I didn't recognize the living room we were in, and it didn't have a motel room style to it either. The room was furnished with 80's castoffs, and it had the feel of somewhere that didn't see regular use.

"Someplace safe."

Safe. Did that mean remote? Just how long had I been unconscious? Where the h.e.l.l was I? The only thing I could take solace in was the fact that Ben was clearly more concerned with getting me alone than hurting me, so I wasn't in immediate danger. Which meant it was up to me to make him see reason and let me go.

Somehow.

Time was on my side though. If I waited long enough, the effects of whatever he'd dosed me with was bound to wear off, and my strength would return. Searching for something else to say, my eyes lit on the food he'd prepared on the coffee table. Toast and eggs... so I hadn't been completely delusional.

"You cooked for me?"

"I told you, I only want to take care of you, Mercy."

"Yeah, I remember." I smiled in acknowledgement. "Are the eggs gonna be crunchy though? Any sh.e.l.ls in there?" He seemed to be relaxing a bit; I was on the right track. If I could just get him off me and maybe slip off to the bathroom...

"Hey, give me a little credit. How about you quit your belly aching and give them a shot before you criticize?"

He sounded like the old Ben, and that almost made it worse. "It's kinda hard to eat with you half on top of me." I gave him a pointed look.

"You used to like me being this close to you."

That was before you turned into a nutbar... "Ben, I'm pretty uncomfortable. Do you think you could maybe let me up? Then I can eat and we can talk."

Ben's eyes narrowed suspiciously, and he pulled a pair of handcuffs from somewhere, slapping them around my wrists before I realized what was happening. "Okay, let's talk."

I stared at the metal cuffs stupidly, my drugged brain having trouble processing the fast motion for long seconds. "You cuffed me."

Ben shrugged, scooting off me to sit at the opposite end of the couch. "The coffee's decaf, so it's safe for the baby. I made it just how you like it."

Did he expect me to thank him? "Yeah... but you cuffed me." I waggled my fingers at him.

"You can still eat. Go ahead, before the eggs get too cold. We don't have a microwave here."

Dutifully, I picked up a piece of toast and munched on it, more because I figured a little food might help me recover from the effects of the drugs than out of any real hunger. At least my hands were cuffed together instead of to anything else, so that left me mobile. Could I fly with my hands cuffed together if I needed a quick getaway? I wasn't sure my muscles would let me move in the right way.

"I will," Ben muttered, his head canted towards the kitchen.

"You will what?"

"What? Oh, nothing. It's too soon to think about that, we have to get you on board with our new life first."

I didn't like the sound of that...

"Ben, you know you can't keep me here indefinitely, right? Eventually I'll break free, and if I don't, someone will come looking for me. What do you think Adam will do when he finds out you've taken me like this?"

"Can't you see what I'm trying to build for us here?" he replied, a trace of irritation in his voice. "We have a chance at a real family, the three of us. We can be happy together, Mercy, you'll see."

"No, Ben. I'm sorry, but I told you, Adam's the one for me. That's not gonna change just because you blew a mental gasket. Take a look in the mirror, Ben. Drugging and kidnapping me? What kind of love is that?"

"More love that that b.a.s.t.a.r.d has ever shown you. Where is he, Mercy? Go ahead, say his name, I dare you to. You and I both know he won't come because he doesn't give a d.a.m.n about you, not like I do."

The worst thing was in a way Ben was right. I knew Adam loved me, but I also knew he wouldn't come, even if I screamed his name at the top of my lungs. But just to put the fear into his eyes, I opened up my mouth and yelled, "Adamiel!" for all I was worth.

Ben didn't so much as blink. "He won't come. The sooner you realize that, the sooner we can start to build our lives together."

"Oh, for crying out loud..." I lost my last ounce of patience. "Why can't you get it through your thick skull that I love him and he loves me? I might be mad as h.e.l.l at Adam right now, but that's what love is. It doesn't disappear at the first sign of trouble. You can drug me and kidnap me and drag me down whatever debauched fantasy Azazael is spinning in your broken, screwed up mind, but it's not gonna show me that Adam's any less deserving of my love. It shows me what you've become."

Instead of growing angry, Ben shook his head. "He said you would resist." Rising from the couch, he went to the breakfast bar, his body obscuring my view of what he was doing. "I told him I could get you to see things our way, but he had you pegged alright. It's a good thing I like to plan for contingencies." Circling around the couch, he held his hands in such a way I couldn't see what plan he had in mind, but I could tell from the look on his face, it didn't bode well for me.

My head spun as I tried to stand and lost my balance, falling back against the couch. The h.e.l.l with calling for Adamiel, I opened my mouth to scream for the backup he left in his absence. "Rem..." I never got the rest of his name out as Ben forced my jaw shut and slapped a wide strip of duct tape across my mouth.

"Ah, ah, ah, none of that," he chided lightly. "I think for now, we'll have to keep doing this the hard way." Gathering me up into his arms, Ben carried me into a bedroom, depositing me lightly on top of the bed. I heard a jingle of keys, and for a brief, shining moment, I thought maybe he'd free my wrists, but Ben quickly brought my arms up over my head and refastened the cuffs with my wrists trapped by the bra.s.s headboard.

I screamed against the tape, doing little more than making it harder for me to breathe and I started to really panic that I might pa.s.s out again. It wasn't funny anymore, G.o.d only knew what he had in mind for the hard way. With my hands in that position, I couldn't easily produce my sword, and I couldn't call for help either. Forcing myself to calm down, I focused on gathering my Grace around me while he did something outside my visual range.

"Here we go. I think you just need another dose of my little love potion, and then we'll try this again." Ben appeared, syringe in hand, and my eyes bulged at the sight of the needle as he sat beside me on the bed. I couldn't let him keep doping me, but I either couldn't focus, or couldn't figure out how to blast him with my hands chained in the wrong direction. "Shh, relax, Mercy." He stroked the side of my face with the back of his fingers, the needle only inches from my face. "I'll keep you company while you sleep."

My mind scrambled for anything I could possibly use to defend myself, and in a desperate attempt at self preservation, I threw everything I had at him.

Ben froze in place, the syringe pressing against my inner arm.

With a mewling cry of relief, I squirmed to inch away from the needle, tears gathering at the corners of my eyes as I stared at the fat drop of liquid that gathered at the tip. So close! Only, how the h.e.l.l was I supposed to get free?

With a bit more struggling on the bed, I brought my leg up enough to give Ben a shove with my foot, sending him toppling off balance onto the floor. Hopefully he hadn't fallen on the syringe, but at that point, it was either him or me. No amount of wriggling brought my mouth close enough to my hands to pull the tape from my face to call for help. I pulled until my wrists grew chafed and sore, but the cuffs didn't budge.

I heard a groan from the floor and in a panic, I froze Ben again, half expecting it not to work, but he fell silent.

Now what?

How long could I keep it up? Freezing Ben every few minutes... would my energy run out before the drugs wore off enough to break free? Or was I kidding myself in the first place? Was I even strong enough to break myself free at my full strength?

"Fancy a bit of help?" The mild question brought my head up, wondering if I was hearing things. In the doorway stood a well dressed man in an exquisitely tailored suit, diamonds winking from his cuffs and the pin in his scarlet tie. His blonde hair was slicked back from a perfect brow, and the smooth curve of his lips framed gleaming white teeth. Almost too pretty to be real, he looked like James Bond and some kind of gangster wrapped all in one. His bright blue eyes and golden nimbus marked him as an angel, though I had no idea which one.

Nodding vehemently, I made an mmph sound.

"I could help, you know, but I'm not certain you'd accept it if you knew where it came from," he considered aloud, not moving a muscle in my direction.

Who the h.e.l.l was this guy?

"Oh sorry, I should introduce myself." He sketched a half bow, as if reading my mind. "Lucifer, Prince of the Fallen, at your service."

Chapter Five.

Even without the duct tape across my mouth I would have been speechless at the introduction. Lucifer? The actual devil himself? Was he for real? What the h.e.l.l was he doing there in the bedroom? Was he in cahoots with Ben? Those and a zillion other questions sped through my mind, but all I could manage was another mmph.

"That won't do at all, will it?" He pushed away from the door, crossing to the bed. "Let's remove this offending impediment, shall we?" With a charming smile, he reached down and slowly peeled the sticky tape from my mouth. It hurt like a sonofab.i.t.c.h, but I was glad he hadn't ripped it off fast or my lips might have come with it. "Now then... how may I be of a.s.sistance?"

Mashing my lips together against the sting, I took a couple of deep breaths before I answered. "You're really Lucifer? As in Satan, Beelzebub, the devil and all that stuff?"

"A rose by any other name..." he chuckled. "I trust you, of all people, know not to judge a book by its cover."

What the h.e.l.l was that supposed to mean? If I judged him by his appearance, he seemed like a suave, good looking guy about to leap to my rescue. Did he mean he had some ulterior motive? A guy like him most definitely would. Or was he talking about bad press?

"Nice to meet you." My manners a.s.serted themselves as I floundered under the implications of such a meeting. "I... um, don't suppose you'd consider letting me out of these, would you?"

"I'd be very happy to, Mercy." His smile flashed wider, and with the barest wave of his hand the cuffs popped open. I s.n.a.t.c.hed my arms down, rubbing my aching wrists tenderly.

"Thanks." I scooted off the bed, feeling better with it standing between us. "How did you know my name?"

"I like to keep tabs on the movers and shakers up here from time to time. You, my dear, are definitely a shaker," he chuckled.

"How did you know I was here in the first place? Or is that why you came?" My eyes narrowed suspiciously. "Are you playing good cop/bad cop with Azazael or something?"

"Actually, Azazael and I are on opposite sides for this one. So, for the time being, that places me firmly in your corner."

"For the time being..." I didn't like the sound of that. Everybody who'd ever seen a horror movie from the seventies knew the devil wanted nothing more than to escape his imprisonment in h.e.l.l and take over the world.

"Oh, I make no promises for the future," he smiled again. "But for now, I came to make sure Azazael didn't get what he wanted, namely a foothold on this plane."

"Why would you care what Azazael does?"

"In general I don't, but his current scheme to be reborn through you happens to interfere with some of my more... long term plans. So here I am." He spread his hands wide.

"Well, um... thank you," I replied, still not very sure I could take him at his word. "I can just mosey on out of here then and you won't stop me?" I took a step towards the door, never taking my eyes off of him.

"Of course. Or I could give you a ride if you prefer." Ben groaned, shifting positions on the ground and Lucifer delivered a swift kick to his head, silencing him as he slumped over again. "I have to say, I rather like playing the hero, it's refreshing."

"Hey, don't... don't do that to him, he can't help it if he's gone kazoo." Torn between leaving and making sure he didn't do worse to Ben, I hovered by the door.

"An interesting perspective, given his treatment of you." He raised a single brow. "What would you have me do to him?"

"Nothing, don't do anything at all to him." My hands came up in a supplicating gesture. "Like I said, it's not his fault Azazael did that to him." Speaking of which... I meant to take a look around and see if I could find the pink plastic jewelry box we'd trapped Azazael in while I had the chance.