The Angels' Pride

by Steven Lindsay

There was a whirring noise followed by the sound of sucking water. Several of the shiny tubes spaced evenly around the room had turned black as water was slowly sucked out of the pool. The empty tubes interspacing them turned red as red water started flowing out into the pool. At least he hoped it was water, it bore a strikingly disturbing resemblance to blood. As red patches started to bloom on the surface of the pool, he couldn’t help but think this wasn’t real.

  He turned back to the screen which was now flashing submerge yourself. He looked back at the black water surrounding him with the streaks of red near the edges. The last thing he wanted to do was submerge himself. There was a faint buzzing noise, then the next thing he knew he was collared by cold metal, with an air-tube running its way into his mouth. The he was pushed under the water.

  He struggled in vain, whatever was holding him down was stronger the he was. His struggles only resulted in him swallowing lots of water before he remembered to use his air tube. Slowly his heart rate calmed as he focussed on breathing through the tube. Despite its relatively small size, it was like breathing normally. There wasn’t much else for him to focus on, all he could see was darkness.

  There were strange tingling sensations all over his body, not dissimilar to pins and needles. Time seemed to stop, he had lost most of his senses, only the subtle tastes of herbs coming through the tube and the feeling of warm water on his skin reminded him he was still in existence. He just floated until he drifted off.

  He woke up as someone was fishing him out of the water. He shut his eyes against the light it was far too bright, he tried to cover his ears the sound of footsteps was even too loud. How long had he been desensitized? He just lolled against the step as the person hauled him out. He felt so unbelievably weak.

  He was left lying on the floor, it seemed so cold after the bath, but it was strangely pleasant having something solid against him.

  Then the next thing he knew someone had stabbed him in the bottom with a needle then were giving it a brief rub. He tried to roll over, all he managed was to turn his neck. Kneeling over him holding her syringes was the strangest woman he had ever seen. Dark forest green hair, even her eyebrows, and eyelashes were the same green, with eyes and lips also the same colour. A faint light green leaf had been tattooed next to her eye. She picked up another syringe, pursing her lips as she drew out the drugs from the bottle. This time, she gently injected it into his arm. He felt a strange electric feeling flowing through his arm, fading the longer time passed.

  “How does he fare?” came a male voice. Deep, sensual and cultured. Even in his current state it did wonders for his libido.

  “Better than most, his vital signs are strong, and he is responding to the treatment very well. The virus is already diminishing, and his genes are more active than I would have anticipated. Perhaps we have one of the ones she is looking for. Too soon to tell yet.”

  “Better to be sure, he could yet perish.”

  She stood up and left, her high-heels clicking on the tiles. There were other footsteps as the man walked towards him. There was a gentle brush of his hair before the man gently tilted his head with his hand. Except Kyle wasn’t sure if he was a man.

  Electric eyes, he had electric eyes. His irises were literally blue electricity, they were stunning and terrifying. Those blue eyes were set in the most perfect man he had ever seen. He looked Latino, beautiful coffee skin, straight black hair that hung down to his cheeks, black stubble lightly covered his perfectly angled face.

  He picked Kyle up with ease, carrying him back to his room. He was strong, so he must be muscular, and he reckoned that the guy was quite tall. Could he be any sexier? Then he remembered that voice. He felt sure he would let this man do just about anything to him, and he would be completely willing.

  Before long, too short a time, the man laid him down on his bed. He quickly and efficiently dressed Kyle and tucked him into the bed. He disappeared, and the sound of buttons being pressed and whirring occurred. Then he reappeared with a glass of water. “Here you’ll need this when you wake up, you’ll wake up really dehydrated.”

  Then he left, the door sliding shut behind him, leaving Kyle with his image dancing across his eyes. What he wouldn’t do to be with a man like that.

  Chapter 16

  She opened her eyes into thin slits, why was she naked on the floor? She couldn’t even remember what she had been doing beforehand. She could only remember snippets of her entire life. It would take some time for them all to realign enough for them to make sense. Which meant she had been unconscious for quite some time, but why and what had woken her?

  She opened her eyes wider as she awakened all her other senses. She could hear gentle breathing, she smelled a great deal of decay, the room was dark, but she sensed others nearby. A quick if haphazard probe identified her family. She must have been out for quite some time for her magic to be so heavy-handed and incompetent. How embarrassing, she was the Goddess of Magic, well she used to be.

  What was she now, she had passed on the privilege and duties as Queen of Heaven onto Hera when Egypt had been swallowed by the Roman Empire. Her own Empire had become nothing more than a province in an Empire that dominated that side of the world. But still she had survived with cults throughout the Empire. Until the conversion and the War started.

  So much had been lost, her followers, her people, her nation, her pantheon, her freedom, her son. Now she was trapped in the Underworld, in the empty realms of Duat and Aaru. Oh, they had once been busy, the scales that weighed the heart had been forever swinging back and forth determining people’s fate while those waiting watched in apprehension.

  Then the numbers had started to decrease more and more, the halls falling emptier and the six of them growing bored and weak. They were all that was left of a once great pantheon, they had been one of the oldest surviving. Then people had ceased to come at all as Islam and Christianity spread their vile clutches up and down the Nile. Trapped in the Underworld, they could do nothing to protect their beloved Egypt.

  Time had passed, and they had sat still on their thrones as the centuries rolled by. They had all Desiccated she realised with horror, she hadn’t thought it possible for a God to become Desiccated. The other Divine sure but the Gods were the essences of life and vitality. Then again she supposed it was only logical when trapped for centuries in an empty realm of the dead. They had been dead in all but their immortality as even the strongest of spirits had faded back into the Lifestream.

  She stirred more, flicking her wings as she became aware of their presence, using her now functioning legs and arms to push herself up into first kneeling then standing. She stared in disgust as dust poured off of her as she moved, her wings were filthy, a disgrace. She was covered in layers of dust, and her wings were literally caked in it. She realised that her wrap had rotted away long ago. She looked at her family in disgust, they all sat slouched on their thrones or the steps, barely moving. But their features were healthy beneath their layers of dust.

  What had given them back their vitality? What had woken her from her slumbers? She had been asleep and Desiccated so long she had ceased to dream. What could wake anyone from that kind of slumber?

  Looking around she realised the hall was completely dark. The hall had never been dark, Ra’s own essence had given it light even after he had returned to the Lifestream. They would not have faded, not even in a million years. Something had overpowered them. What could overpower the power of the sun, the power of a Primordial Sun God? Only another Primordial and it would have to be a Primordial of Night or Darkness.

  But surely there weren’t any Primordials left? Wouldn’t they have overthrown the Angels? Gaia, she knew slumbered deep within herself, but she couldn’t think of any others that still existed.

  She flicked her magic at all the lights, making them blaze into life as she reactivated Ra’s essence. So they hadn’t been destroyed merely suppressed. No Primordial had been through here, but their powers had been. Which meant they had to
be in one of the Underworlds.

  She cast a glance back at her family, her pantheon, they were all that was left to her in the world. She was awake and yet they still slumbered, why? Her husband Osiris was slouched on his throne, his bandages all but rotted off, but there was little trace of his once corpse-like appearance. He looked nearly healed apart from the hairline scars running around his neck and limbs. Was he no longer the God of the Dead? Only Gaia had that kind of power, but surely her power would have no effect on Ra’s lights.

  Slouched on the steps before her throne was her sister Nephthys, her arms and wings clutched protectively around her son Anubis. His jackal ears twitched ever so slightly, drawing her attention to the fact he was far more jackal than she remembered. Before he had merely had the head of a jackal but now most of his torso looked jackal. On the other side of the steps slouched ibis-headed Thoth and his wife Ma’at, her now white and black wings half wrapped around them both. Both looked far more birdlike than she remembered. She was a little surprised to see that Ma’at’s feather had survived, or had it been revitalised as well?

  She thought about waking them but decided against it, better to leave them. If she only had bad news, it would break their hearts. She couldn’t do that to them. She used her magic to clean herself, it took longer than it should have. Her magic still wasn’t back to normal. That would never do.

  The hall shook as she grasped her magic, sending it shooting outwards in every direction. She felt the resonating answers of her husband’s realm, well she had lived here long enough for it to be hers. Besides he was still slumbering, she had woken for a reason while the others had not. She felt sure that it was because she was more powerful.

  It all came rushing back towards her, swirling around her mimicking the natural patterns of the world above. One should not forget that the Underworld and Heaven are but reflections of the Surface and are often bound by the same rhythms. That was something very few Gods had understood, it was one of the reasons that she had always been respected, even after Egypt had been absorbed into the Roman Empire.

  For the Underworld to be so active meant that the Surface was once again stirring, and she knew just who to visit to find out about the Surface. Hecate was like herself, very aware of the nature of the Underworld but she was also able to see up to the Surface. Plus it would do well to mix her powers with another Mother Goddess. It was time to get back to her roots.

  She was a Mother Goddess, a Goddess of fertility, childbirth, protection, power and magic. But she was also the first child of Nut and Geb and was the strongest of her kin, now that most of them had faded or died she was the most powerful. And she would do whatever she had to, to break the Curse trapping them all in the Underworld.

  Mortals would once again whisper her name in reverence, and the Angels would whisper it in fear. Yes, it was time the world remembered and that the Angels were made to pay.

  Isis was not the only Goddess to be awakened from her Desiccated slumber by the lingering darkness. In all the remaining Realms of the Underworld Gods and Goddesses had been revitalised and awoken by the passing of Nyx’s night.

  Hel sat alone on her throne, the very last of her family and pantheon. Not that she really cared, they had cast her into the Underworld seeking to get rid of her. They had not anticipated on her carving out her own realm. She had not fallen into the squalor of the Egyptian Pantheon, but her cold realm was thick with ice.

  Erishkigal also sat alone in her decrepit realm Irkalla. She had been slumbering for so long even her throne had decayed. Mesopotamia had fallen long ago, and her brethren had all been killed in Heaven. She had been forced to live down here by them, it was ironic that it was her salvation. But her realm was in a terrible state, not a single spirit lingered. Everything that was not stone had rotten away. Well, it could certainly do with some renovations to make it suit her but she intended to fill the halls once again with the spirits of the dead, and she knew hundreds of ways to get the living there.

  Far away in forgotten Mictlan sat Mictlantecuhtli and his still slumbering wife, Mictecacihuatl. They were but skeletons, wearing crumbling headdresses. They too were alone, the last of their kind, nearly completely forgotten by Humanity and Daemons alike. Mesoamerica had been scoured clean by the Christian conquerors and the Angels in their wake. Almost all the native Daemon races had been eradicated.

  Circling further around the Underworld was the realm of Yomi or Yin Jian depending on who was talking about it. Within lay the Goddess Izanami-no-Mikoto, before the darkness she had been just another rotting corpse, no more significant than that of a Human or Daemon. She had died in childbirth, a bizarre occurrence for a Goddess, and her spirit had fled to the Underworld where the only form it could inhabit had been a corpse. In the rotting land, there had been no escape, her spirit unable to heal the rotting flesh now housing her. Even her husband had not tried to heal her, he had taken one look at her form then fled and blocked the passage back up to the Surface.

  She had found a small sense of justice that he and all their brethren had been destroyed by the Angels while she remained alive, such as it was.

  But now she no longer inhabited a rotting corpse, now she was once again a full bodied Goddess, her skin golden and flawless, sensitive to the touch and robust to the scrutiny. She didn’t understand it, but somehow she was whole again, she just wished she knew who to thank.

  The last remaining Underworld Realm was Naraka ruled by Yama, the God and judge of the dead. While the other realms had been holding places for the spirits to slowly fade away into the Lifestream Naraka was an active realm, meant for only temporary holding. There was a set ordeal, unlike the ongoing torment of other realms, before the spirit was allowed to reincarnate. Of all the ancient realms it was the only active one, and while it had nowhere near the traffic of Hell, it was a very busy realm. As such there was no hint of ruin or Desiccation.

  Yama was the only God outside of the Greek pantheon that knew what had happened. He had witnessed and embraced the darkness as it had flooded through his realm. Many of the spirits had been washed away, but he recognised the power of a Mother Goddess, those spirits had been returned to the Lifestream to be reborn.

  He was curious as to who but he knew his patience would be rewarded with that knowledge. She would eventually make her presence felt more, and she would come here at some point. It was after all the only active non-Angel Underworld.

  The thirst was insane, he felt like he was drowning in sand as he desperately reached for the glass of water sitting on his bed stand. It felt ridiculously amazing to drink it. But it was gone all too soon, and he desperately needed more. On trembling legs he staggered his way into the little kitchenette. There it was the sparkling chrome tap, giving forth beautiful life giving water. He could only wait for it to be half full before he was guzzling the water down.

  He still felt so parched, it was insane, his legs and arms were trembling so much he felt like he was in an earthquake. Why was he so thirsty? How could he have been so dehydrated? He decided he didn’t care, the need was driving, he thrust his mouth under the tap and held it there for a very long time gulping down as much water as he could

  He kept going until a strong hand on his shoulder pulled him back.

  “You’ll make yourself sick if you keep this up.”

  Kyle stilled instantly at the deeply cultured voice. He knew instantly who it was.

  “Your blood has been cleansed but in the process you have lost not only a lot of fluids but a lot of nutrients as well. You must eat to build back up your strength.”

  “I’m not going through all that again am I?”

  His silence was answer enough. He turned around to meet that unsettling gaze, he couldn’t turn away. All else faded as he focused on those eyes, in that face, he wanted to kiss those lips, to run his hands through that gorgeous black hair. It felt so wonderful running through his hands. That black stubble felt nice under his hands and against his chin. Those lips were soft but turned contr
olling, his tongue was suddenly in his mouth, and he was surrendering to him.

  Alejandro smiled as Kyle surrendered to his powers. He might be starting to gain his own Human powers, but he had no defence against the powers of a fully-fledged Incubus. And he had been around long enough to be in complete control of his powers.

  It was funny to watch such shy and controlled Humans turn into writhing animals with just a brush of the Lilin magic. It’s what made them the best lovers.

  But that was a side note, the only reason he was even using his powers was to distract Kyle enough to lead him back to the awakening chambers. He wouldn’t willingly go otherwise. The fact Kyle possibly held huge potential was just an added benefit, why not lay the groundwork now.

  Kyle was putty in his hands as Alejandro led him back along the corridors and into the pool. Taking his clothes off and convincing him into the pool was easy, he wanted to be naked with him, and he held the fantasy of pool sex.

  As soon as Kyle’s skin touched the water the spell was broken, but he continued into it, red drifting off his skin, staining the water. This time, however, the tubes started whirring long before the pool was anywhere near completely red. Green fluids started pouring into the pool, as well as some purple and some clear but sparkly fluid. They all lazily started to mix and spread throughout the pool, even as the red drifting off of him was still reaching towards it.

  Kyle looked around in confusion feeling as though he had just woken from a dream. He was in the empty pool room, treading water as a similar situation to the last time replayed itself. He wasn’t doing this again, last time had been bad enough, this time, the machine wasn’t going to get him.

  A few quick strokes and he was near the pool edge, he could feel the steps beneath his feet and was starting to climb out when the piping went berserk. Coloured water blasted him backwards into the pool, then a deluge of water rained down from the ceiling pushing him under the water. He was struggling to swim in the onslaught as it pushed him down deeper into the pool. His vision was obscured by the swirls and clouds of red water still coming off of him.