The Devils Due

Chapter Three All Aboard

Her mind raced looking for any reason, good or bad as to why this soul was in front of her here.
"Margaret?" Jacob's tenor voice had sounded as confused as Maura felt.
"Marg... Oh right, that was your last name wasn't?" Lu questioned
All Maura could do was stare at her soulmate and nod at Lu's inquiry.
"Margaret what are you doing here?" Jacob asked, getting up from his seat.
His movement jump started Maura's mind. Ignoring her soulmate, she turned to her boss wide eyed and mouth open in question.
"He fucked up and they sent him down until his next incarnation's life is ready to start." Lu explained answering her unspoken question. Leaning back in his chair with a sigh, "What should we do with him?"
"I...I...err," she looked back and forth between her soulmate and her boss, mouth going up and down as if trying to speak but nothing came out.
" He's your soulmate, so I figured I'd let you be part of that decision," Lu announced awkwardly.
She nodded. "What did he do?"
"Got in a fight with another soul and nearly obliterated it."
Maura's jaw dropped again but this time in anger, "You did what?" she seethed, shooting daggers at her soulmate with her eyes. Jacob had been so sweet, never raised a hand to anyone or anything in his entire life. He was the exact opposite of violent in his past life, he had always bent over backwards to make everyone feel included and loved.
"Maggs, let me explain," Jacob started to hold up his hand, and stopped, reading her expression as if her face were a book.
"Oh, this should be good." She deadpanned and crossed her arms over her chest, waiting for his story.
"The guy had it coming. He told me I hadn't seen you in heaven yet because you went to hell for being such a witch." He looked her up and down, " I guess he was half right."
That last remark stung a little but she shook it off, "You have never been violent before, why didn't you just ignore it like you always did when you were alive?" Their neighbors had always said things along the lines of 'she's so weird' or 'that woman is evil." Sure she kept some of her demon ways about her for the 60 years she was on earth, but most, she put aside to fit social norms. The only thing she refused to drop was the fact that she wasn't any less just because she had been born a woman. And for the most part Jacob had been on board with it, unless they had a work thing they had to go to.
Jacob sighed and shoved his hands into his pants pockets, "I don't know what came over me, but by the time the angels pulled me off of him, I had nearly killed him."
Obliterating a soul was no easy task. There was a lot of anger and hate that was always involved in such a thing. Not to mention the violence!
Looking at Lucifer, she had her answer, as much as she hated it. But before she could give him her response he spoke, "Maur, I know what I should do, we both do." He let out a long, loud breath and continued, " but this is your soulmate, you get the final say."
She thought about it. She could save him from ten human years of pain and suffering for his sins. Or she could hide him where no one would think to look. She blinked rapidly before she sat down in the other chair next to her still standing soulmate. "Jake, I need you to go wait in the other room while we discuss our options here," She pointed back and forth between Lu and herself.
The blue eyes she had chosen for her soulmate to always have, met hers in an all knowing way, he stayed silent but nodded and left the room shutting the door behind him as quietly as possible.
"Well?" Lu prompted leaning back, crossing his arms, and waiting.
"You and I both know what we have to do." She sighed, rubbing her face, something she rarely did. "Honoring the rules is what keeps us in our job positions. And we can't ignore that. Even if he is my soulmate." She looked directly into the amber eyes, pleading for him to make the right decision.
"But seeing as he is a high ranking demon's soulmate, I'm sure we can bend the rules a little." He was offering her an out, telling her in so many words that if she decided that she was going to take him back to her apartment and hide him, he was going to look the other way.
She knew why he was doing this, he had created a love triangle between the three of them many life times ago. She had always said no, it wasn't fair for either of them for her to give in, as much as she wanted to sometimes on those lonely nights. Her heart would never be in the relationship the way his would have. Out of everyone, you would think that Lucifer would have a one true love, a soulmate. But that was one of many punishments God had bestowed upon him, after his rebellion, he had obliterated them. He was to forever be lonely. She felt bad for him, really she did but she wasn't the one to start the damned rebellion, or even be part of the fight. She was created to keep the fallen angels in check, and as a reward she was one of six demons to have a soulmate. Maybe that was the way she was...mean spirited.
"If it was anyone else?" Maura found herself asking the demon in front of her.
He blinked then furrowed his brows in question.
"If this was anyone else's soulmate, would you have them here to help you make that decision?" she asked.
"Of course," he answered, looking hurt.
"So you giving me the option of hiding him for a decade has nothing to do with your feelings for me?" She asked, raising her eyebrows in mock surprise.
Lu's face dropped, it had an unreadable expression on it. Then it went hard. "If you really think that of me, maybe I should leave you out of this decision and just send him to the fifth." He said, his voice an even mixture of hurt and anger. "I am including you in this decision as a courtesy." The more he spoke, the more authority was put into his voice. His eyes went sad and seemed to gloss over before he said, "If God had given me the choice to have had my soulmate matched to someone else, or to have them obliterated, I would have chosen to have them match with someone else. Knowing that they were safe and happy with someone else, rather than to be nonexistent, is something I could only wish was given to me. Which is why I gave you that option today, to give you that opportunity that I never got." His voice was choked by the time he had reached the end of the last sentence. He looked at her, no, looked wasn't the right word, she decided, he was pleading with his eyes, he was begging her for something and she didn't know what.
Maura, for her part, couldn't help but feel dirty for some reason. She knew of everyone's story, it was part of the knowledge she was given when she had been created. She just never thought of Lu like that. She never knew how anyone had felt about losing their soulmates. She had never wanted to think about that. Whenever she said goodbye to hers, it was never actually goodbye, it was more of a see you later kind of thing. "I'm sorry Lu," she sighed, "I didn't think about it like that."
He nodded looking down at his desk. "I'm sorry my feelings for you, made you think so ill of me." He looked up, determination in his eyes now, "My decision has been made." He stood, leaning against his desk with both of his hands on the wood. "He will go with you to planet, I'll give both of you new ID's and set everything else up. It is usually demons I have to suspend." He nodded, then, with a weary smile and a joke in his eye, he asked, "Now to make you both the same gender or opposite?" He scratched his chin.
"Oh geeze, Lu, don't do this," she knew what he was thinking.
"Oh come on, you loved being a man last time your soulmate was a woman," he laughed.
"That was then, this is now," she announced.
"Oh come on, you're no fun anymore!" Lu laughed, "Alright, man and woman, now go get your soulmate ready for transit." His eyes still said something she had never seen in them before. After centuries of being friends, he still surprised her every so often. With a final glance at him, she nodded and left. Upon seeing her soulmate, she offered her hand and nearly dragged him out of the office, and to her apartment.