The Flaw In The Plan

Chapter One

Lucifer was tired of Michael and his angels constantly battling him. For a long time, Lucifer had tried to convince his brother to join him, but Michael had always been a goody two shoes, and even in the beginning Lucifer hadn't really expected him to switch sides. Now, they were locked in mortal combat.

"I'm liking the whole dragon look, Lucy," Michael teased. As it was written, Lucifer had taken the form of a dragon in order to protect himself during their apocalyptic battle. "I've always known you were nothing more than a deceptive snake."

"Ah, but can you do this?" Lucifer hissed as a cloud of fire spurted from his mouth, singeing Michael's pure white wings. For a second, his glowing wings turned black around the edges, but then they absorbed the energy of the attack and began to glow even brighter than they had before.

"Nice try brother, but God will prevail, and you and your angels of darkness will lose," Michael announced. With those words, he lifted his sword above his head and brought it crashing down upon the dragon in front of him, leaving a huge gash in Lucifer's side. Blood red scales clattered to the floor, having been knocked off by the force of the blow. With his enemy lying on the ground, Michael took the opportunity and literally kicked Lucifer out of heaven and down to the Earth.
_________________________________________

Lucifer had always enjoyed the company of humans. Sure some of them were on the wrong side, but even those who claimed to love God still sinned constantly. Their unholy nature strengthed Lucifer when he was around them. He could feed off of their energy and in turn provide them with opportunities for worldly success. He had made many friends that way. It was easy enough for him: all he had to do was talk to a guy in a bar for a while and make a connection with him, then send along a beautiful blonde for the man to fall in lust with. He could then scavange off of their sin. Satan had found that he made an excellent wingman.

Today he was especially thankful to have humans near him. Healing his own wounds always took a lot of energy. Looking down at the slice in his side, Lucifer knew that this would take much more energy than he had needed in a long time.

The wound had shrunk proportionately when Lucifer transformed from a dragon into a human, but it was still 10 inches long, and deep enough that any human doctor would have used stitches to close it up. Luckily, the devil wouldn't have to be inconvenienced by normal medicine. He would use his own power to heal himself "magically". He had always found it interesting that when Jesus healed people it was a miracle, but when he did it, it was magic and was frowned upon. Regardless of the name that heaven gave it, Lucifer was glad he had the ability to perform supernatural feats. It made his life so much easier.

He stretched out his hand above the wound. The flesh came together for a second, and then fell open again.

"Shit," he whispered to himself.

His magic had failed. When done correctly, the wound would seal itself, barely leaving a scar. The fact that it didn't meant that Lucifer would have to steal energy from humans while bleeding out. He was immortal, so it didn't matter how much blood he lost, but it was much harder to make friends while dripping blood.

For the first time, he looked around his surroundings. He was in a forest, leaning against a pine tree. He pulled out his pocket knife and opened it to the smallest blade. He turned around and lightly scored the tree, then leaned his head forward and sniffed the mark he had made. He couldn't decide if the scent was vanilla or root beer. Every tree smelled slightly different, but they were all in that range. It was one of his hobbies to smell a tree every time he was on the Earth, as a way of familiarizing himself with his domain. Humans had a tendency to forget that Satan was the prince of the earth, and very few knew how frequently he walked its surface. Occasionally on his walks he would start wars or cause natural disasters, but for the most part he simply walked and witnessed the beauty of nature along with the humans who controlled it.

Over time Lucifer had become friends with a few humans, and although he had never had romantic feelings for any of them, many humans had fallen in love with him. And for good reason. For starters, he was strikingly handsome. He had messy dark hair that always went straight up, but was short enough that it created a well thought out look, and a short beard that did little to hide his strong jaw bone. His smile was disarming, so pure and radiant that it was breathtaking. The only part of him that showed the madness within was his eyes. They were a kaleidoscope of colors, so that from far away they appeared green, but a closer look revealed flecks of gold and brown swimming in a bluish-green that brought images of Caribbean waters to mind. They were the sort of eyes that hid secrets and passion, and perhaps it was for his eyes more than anything that he was called the beast. They were the eyes of an animal - a wolf.

Lucifer got up from the ground and started walking uphill. He grunted as he climbed the steep hill, and he felt his muscles strain with each step. His body was weak. When he reached the summit, Lucifer saw a river running through a valley below him, but that wasn't what interested him. No, his eyes focused on the city instead. He could feel the energy buzzing around inside the buildings, begging him to come closer. He closed his eyes, and when he opened them again he was standing on the main street of the city he had seen. The sensation of so many people around him when he was this fatigued overwhelmed him. He looked around and saw a sign reading "McLeary's Bar and Pub". He hurried over to it and stepped inside, allowing the familiar bar smell to wash over him. Here it would be easy to find someone to tempt into either intoxication or promiscuity.

Lucifer scanned the room, and decided his best bet was the pretty brunette sitting alone on a stoll towards the center of the bar. He walked up to her and flashed his brilliant smile at her, then said, "Mind if I join you?"

She looked him over and then said, "Please do. So, you come here often?"

"Oh come on, can you be any less creative? For god's sake, I invented that line," Lucifer said with a laugh.

"I doubt it, unless you're a few hundred years old. I'm pretty sure that even the ancient Greeks used it," the girl said.

"What can I say? I look good for my age."

"Yeah you do. You know where you'd look even better? My apartment."

Lucifer had thought this through. As the king of temptation, anyone he flirted with made an attempt to take him home. But with his side actively bleeding, Lucifer wanted his shirt to stay on.

"I have a better idea," he said with a wink. He leaned in and kissed her. At first she was surprised, but Lucifer's charm quickly came over her and she started kissing him back. She leaned into him, and Lucifer could feel himself gain power. The more passionate the kiss became, the more powerful Lucifer felt. He could feel the electricity coursing from her into him, and he focused it on his wound. He put her hand on his side, right on top of the cut, and he used her energy to heal himself. Within seconds, he was completely healed. However, he was draining the girl too quickly. He could feel her grow weaker with every second. He pulled away, ending the kiss abruptly. They opened their eyes and he could see the hunger that remained in her eyes. It was an unfortunate side effect of kissing the devil. Once you had kissed him, no other lover would be quite as satisfying. He wakened a deep lust in all of his victims.

But no matter. He was healed and now the girl was inconsequential. He got up and left the bar without a word, full of energy and ready to plan his next attack on heaven.