The two skeletons on watch must have tied his father to the bed. On the other hand... waking up with two piles of bones talking next to him was not something that would improve a human's mental health.

-Good evening, my King, good evening my Queen.

-Lisa! Lisa, you have to save me! Get me out of here! Please, I beg of you!

His daughter looked at him, furious. Yet she put herself in his place. After a stint in Lucifer's hands, he found himself facing another demon who looked strangely like him. But this one was quite hostile to him.

-I... she began, before being cut off by her husband.

-You who sold the life, soul and body of your daughter to the vilest being of my dimension, you have no right to make demands.

This stopped his father in his tracks, whose wide blue eyes looked gigantic in his emaciated face. He could not take his eyes off the demon king, who grabbed a chair and sat astride it. Satan stretched out his hand in the direction of Lisa, while covering her with a look full of softness. She smiled at him, while slipping her fingers between his, warm, reassuring.

-Your daughter is Queen, he declared. My wife.

He kissed her hand gently.

-Nevertheless, your action still puts her life in danger. How can a father throw his offspring to a famous stranger, a demon no less?

-I... I didn't think...

Ah, the good excuse! If a look could have killed, Lisa would have struck him on the spot.

-As I suspected, you are disappointing, Jacque Peronne, said Satan of a horribly calm voice. Oh well. Can you tell me what my brother did to you, during these last few days? Which could justify that you sell my wife a second time, of course?

As he suddenly seemed unable to speak, with tears in his eyes and his mouth open and trembling, one of the servants spoke up:

My king, said the white-boned maid, whose eyebrow was encrusted with small sapphires. Your wife's father has multiple signs of torture under his clothes, as well as magical markers of temporary death with instant healing.

She didn't understand everything, but Lisa didn't like it.

-He left you at death's door before he healed you, didn't he? That's typical of my brother. And yet you were willing to sell your daughter... Do you know what he would have done to her?

-I... couldn't... think... anymore... he stammered, ashamed.

Lisa felt, in addition to her own, her husband's anger take a more unpleasant turn. Still sitting, his big horns seeming to dominate everybody, he assailed the horrible reality to his father.

-She would have been raped, flayed alive, tortured, suffered a thousand and one torments far worse than anything you could have. My brother hates humans, and humans are his favorite food. He would have devoured her soul before using her empty shell as an object. Do I make myself clear?

An icy shiver went up the spine of the high school girl. She, in any case, had understood well.

-Your faults do not date back to this week, continued the demon. You abandoned your daughter for a Satanist cult! To worship me, while I'm beating the crap out of people like you, and you'll never be able to summon me because of your magical amoeba power!

-I... I... Lisa... I... I'm sorry...

-You can be.

His father found nothing to say. At that moment, he was miserable. With a heavy heart, his daughter leaned into Satan's ear.

-Calm down, she whispered. This is a problem between him and me.

-You are my wife. What hurts you concerns me.

This went straight to his heart, in these particular events. Kissing his temple, she soothed him.

-My mother would not have wanted all of this, even though she could not envision this situation. My father is not doing well, we have to take care of him.

He gazed at her for a moment, a hard crease to his mouth. Then, finally, he sighed, running a hand through her ebony hair.

-As you wish. You there... Do you even have an idea where Lucifer might be?

No, he didn't know it or his next move. It was hardly surprising. Finally, they let him rest, once magically asleep. Satan wondered if he would have to erase these last days from his memory. Lisa objected. Her mother wouldn't have wanted all of this, but she wouldn't allow him to forget all the evil he had done to her.

-Yet, she said as she went into the dining room with him, if it weren't for all this, I never would have met you.

As earlier, Satan's brain system crashed, as he watched his wife walk away, a thoughtful smile on his lips. He opened his mouth to speak to her, before changing his mind. His heart was beating a little too fast. He put his hand to his chest and caught his breath. His wife was winning the game, without even realizing it.

A little later in the evening, exhausted, Lisa confessed to him that she didn't feel like making love. He laughed as he kissed her tenderly on the forehead, while holding her tightly to him. They didn't need sex to be good together. And that night, he simply held her in his arms, savoring the touch of her warm little body against his.

Never, neither with a human nor with a demoness, had he shared a bed with someone without associated sexual activity. And yet, for the past week, he had enjoyed holding her right up against him, all night long.

Even if he particularly appreciated their sexual intimacy.

But this... Could he call this "happiness"?

Yes, in this moment, his wife asleep against him, that's what he felt.

Happiness.

*

That day, Friday, Satan had the opportunity to accompany her to class. Hand in hand, they walked to the school, where Miriam was already waiting for them. It was nice. For the first time since she had known Satan, she was not embarrassed by the looks on their faces. She was his wife, even if no one knew it, and she liked that.

-When are you going to give me back my soul? she asked in the courtyard, waiting for the bell to ring announcing the arrival of the teachers.

-When you are safe.

Meaning: when the Lucifer case is settled.

-How come I didn't notice? When you took it from me?

He smiled as he stroked her hair.

-I did a little magic manipulation to keep you connected to your soul. Don't worry about it. Even if it's not in you, you are connected to it.

-I trust you.

It made him happier than he thought it would. Yet, the truth was there: it made him devilishly happy, if he dared to say so!

All smiles, he was going to kiss her when he caught Florian's eye. Livid, the young man opened his shirt... On a belt of explosives of demonic construction.

With a resounding curse, Satan grabbed his wife by the arm, pulling her into his arms as he turned his back to the blast. The second one in a week! The blast threw him to his knees, yet he did not let go of Lisa, who screamed at him. The air burned by the charge charred his back, so deeply that he returned to his original form with a cry of pain. His horns scorched, the ground shattered around him, propelled away. Clinging to his wife, he found this moment, though temporally short, horribly long. He thought only of Lisa, for whom he was the only bulwark. He could not deploy his magic, at the risk of letting her go, he could do nothing but absorb the explosion.

Suddenly, everything fell apart.

Short of breath, his eardrums whistling, he raised his head with difficulty.

There was no need to fool oneself: all the protections he had put up around and in the school had just been destroyed, as had the courtyard, as had the students around them. It was a bloodbath. Damn it... Lisa wasn't supposed to see this!

-Satan, I...

-Sorry, my love, he said, kissing her on the forehead.

Immediately, she fell asleep, her eyelids closing over her beautiful eyes, her face tense with anxiety suddenly relaxing. It took her less than thirty seconds to erect a tiny protective bubble around her. She was safe. Given the size of the explosion, Lilith would arrive quickly to find her.

Straightening up, Satan had just enough time to spot Miriam, passed out against a wall, but intact. Solid, the angels.

-Where are you? the demon whispered as he spun around, all his senses alert. Where are you, brother?

The answer came unexpectedly, in his burned back. A folded harpoon pierced him through and through, only to unfold and plant its arms in his chest. Shit.

The chain connected to the harpoon was pulled, dragging it back with colossal force. The cowardly technique! Drunk with rage, he planted his feet in the ground, creating an even more painful tension. He couldn't let it happen! He would not...

An electric shock ran through the chain and the weapon. He could have easily resisted it if it had run across his skin. But an internal electrocution... His nervous system took a slap. Such a slap that his mind suddenly slipped into darkness.

His last vision was of his wife, sound asleep.