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"Chloe, we had a deal," came the booming voice of God beneath the water where Chloe had hidden herself away to recharge.
She was exhausted- both emotionally and physically. She could feel changes happening within her, and the frustration from trying to comprehend these changes left her mindlessly weak.
She hummed in approbation, lacking energy to respond or present herself studiously to the one that imprisoned her to the very water they loitered in.
"You had a chance to end your chosen destiny and be free of the curse that plagues you." He walked about the lake bed languidly with his hands clasped behind his back while she rested on a flat rock. He stopped to look her in the eyes. "I'll give you one more chance."
His words lingered in the deep between them for a stretch. When she didn't immediately respond, God was angry.
"Does your freedom no longer sound sweet to you? And if not, might you need something else to motivate you?" He stared at her intently, studying her new demeanor. She cared and heard his words, but the exhaustion of the last day hung around her shoulders heavily.
"He doesn't seem as bad as you say he is," Chloe countered. "I don't think I can do it. I don't think I can hurt him." Not like you have , she thought.
She crossed her arms and slouched sloppily, tail flicking in the current.
God gave a soft and dangerous smile. "No, not like I have- you're right." He turned to her fully and pointed toward her. "You can do far worse."
"I won't-" she started but was quickly silenced by his power. She wanted to speak, but she couldn't open her mouth to argue with him further. This must be how others felt when she commanded their minds as well.
His face turned serious. "Your daughter."
The pressure behind Chloe’s eyes threatened to pop blood vessels there. She stared at him with nostalgia and renewed hope.
She kept silent by choice now, giving him the opportunity to elaborate. She wanted- needed- to listen.
“I can help you see her again as a revision to our original deal. I just need you to do this for me, and I can reunite you with Trixie.” He watched the siren as she bowed her head, studying her hands and rubbing the scales where her upper thighs would be. After a moment, she looked off in the distance from one side of the lake to the other, then finally back to him with quiet determination. “So, will you help me, my child?”
The siren began to resurface within Chloe, and she easily stepped aside to let the monster cloud her mind.
“Yes,” she said with a snarl and glint of blue Hellfire in her eyes.
God nodded with a small, pleased smile. “Very well. The new terms are set.” And with that, he was gone.
As was the siren.
Chloe shuddered as she hugged herself in the loneliness she was left with.
“See Trixie again,” she breathed, staring off beyond the lake’s floor. A shiny minnow swam by with a scurry in its tail. She looked up to the surface toward the bright sky. “But Lucifer-”
Simply an obstacle to be conquered , echoed the siren.
“He’s.. he’s different though,” she said to herself.
He’s nothing more than another man who’s here for their trophy, the voice within challenged.
“He makes me stronger, and he makes me want to be-” but Chloe stopped mid-sentence as her eyebrows furrowed and dawning realization hit her. “He makes the siren weak,” she said as a half-question. “Maybe he-”
No, only God can help you break away from this curse! screamed the beast.
Remember Trixie.. it coerced.
The exhaustion Chloe felt was overwhelming along with the mixed emotions of the new deal. She couldn't keep fighting to slay the beast within her while struggling to understand the Devil's impact, the brewing interest she felt toward Lucifer and the heartsick longing to see Trixie again. Instead, she withdrew and disassociated, leaving room for the siren and the ill-intentioned side of her to take control again.
With renewed motivation, the siren swam to the surface and toward the beach where she'd left Lucifer earlier. To her dismay, he was dressing in the tattered suit he'd arrived in.
"Are you leaving?" She called to him, and he looked over his shoulder with a shrug.
"I need to speak with my mother. And maybe find another suit that doesn't scream 'homeless magician with a wanking problem.'" Lucifer gave her a boyish grin and buttoned the ripped trousers. "I could really use a rinse, too. One that doesn't come with another pound of sand up the arse, despite all effort." He looked around and sighed then slipped on his loafers.
Panic started to rise in Chloe. She couldn't allow him to leave when she had renewed motive to destroy him.
"What about the blade? You never retrieved it after-" she stopped short of saying the words. What happened last night wasn't a normal fuck for her- or the beast within- so she wasn't sure what to call it. They'd connected physically and emotionally in ways she hadn't connected with anyone in forever. So, with Trixie on her mind she needed to keep him here and finish the job; on the other hand, she longed for whatever was blooming between them, wholeheartedly and genuinely.
Lucifer sighed heavily and turned to face her. "It's complicated," he said, shrugging. "We need another way," he explained simply while pocketing a hand and throwing the other up in nonchalance.
Impulsively, Chloe began a harmony. She knew she needed to make it more potent than previously, so she brought a memory of her daughter into focus as she sang words foreign to the Devil.
His pupils dilated, and he jerked his head trying not to fall under her spell. "What-" he said with a breath. "Why are.." His words trailed off as her mind control compelled him to take a step toward her.
But it was wrong.
It all felt so wrong.
Trixie.
Lucifer.
Trixie, Lucifer, God?
What. The. Fuck.
Confusion and the crumbs of ethos from her pure human self made her halt. Her shoulders hung in defeat as a tendril of damp, wavy hair fell in front of her face. She was ashamed as her voice faded out, and she watched as he shook off her trance.
Lucifer stared at her with hurt in his eyes.
A long while passed before he swallowed hard and finally addressed her.
"Chloe," a wavering of despair and fury in his deep voice, "I- I thought we understood each other?"
"It's complicated." Her voice was small as she mimicked his excuse. She could feel the daggers of disappointment, and she shuddered with a sudden chill.
"Compli- OH! Yes, because forcing yourself on someone is ' complicated!' " He snarled and slapped his palms on his thighs with a brutal sneer. "If you had asked nicely to control me, I would have said yes! I love a little role play and domination, you know, but the mind fuck you perpetually try to deliver is a no-go."
She suddenly felt shameful. "I-"
He cut her off. "Do you know that I would have willingly gotten in the water with you again?"
"You would have?"
"If you asked me to devote myself to your word, your body, so that you might make me your submissive, I would have happily consented. You wouldn’t have been the first partner to know my safe word, and you surely won’t be the last. Especially now.” His eyes darkened as he toyed with the buttons on his shirt again in a distressed manner. “You’ve broken my trust.”
Chloe swallowed hard around the embarrassment stuck in her throat. Her eyes burned with unshed emotions of greed and humiliation. She searched for another excuse in an attempt to dispel the chagrin, but nothing felt like enough to fix what she repeatedly broke.