by Rue Volley
Damien’s fist clenched and I reached out, placing mine on his to still the anger.
“There is so much we could do together. I was a fool, Mila. I didn’t give you what you needed. We could rule Heaven together.”
“Fuck together.” As I said the words, the blue in his eyes flashed red for a moment.
“Yes, Mila.”
“No.” I stood in front of him.
“I will win, Mila. I will take you. I will torture you until there is nothing left. Until you beg me to love you, to rebuild you.”
“Is this what you think is best?” Nerves rattled through me though I kept my voice calm.
“You will scream my name. You will want only me.”
“I’d rather have my wings stripped.” I shuddered at the pain but stood tall above him.
“About that—” He laughed and shrugged. “That’s just the consequences of doing business. You and Eryn defied me. You understand.”
Damien pushed off the desk and paced through the room. “Of course, I can let her go with you if that is what she’d like. Of course, I don’t like to speak for others, but I am thinking Mila does not want to go back with you.”
I took my place behind Gabriel, leaned down, and whispered in his ear, “Heaven was never a choice for me.” I dropped the bones Damien pulled from my shoulders into his lap.
“And now it is.” Damien pulled his shoulders back and I rolled my neck. He leaned down so he was eye level with Gabriel. “I’m banking on her to choose wisely, my friend.” He shoved Gabriel to his knees.
Standing back, Damien nodded to me, and I lifted the sword high above my head, bringing it down fiercely along Gabriel’s back. His screams thundered through Hell and scraped along the pearly gates of Heaven.
Dirty Wings
Felicia Fox
©Text Copyright 2014 Felicia Fox
Acknowledgments
To my husband for supporting me fully on this crazy literary journey, I love you.
To the amazing beta readers who took the time to “lovingly” critique for me. Thank you!
To Kristin, Lexi, Dana, Sarah and Vicki you were all so instrumental in giving me the drive and encouragement I needed to find my way through this tale. I love you!
And always, to my lovely, SJ Davis, thank you for this amazing opportunity.
Most dangerous
is that temptation that doth goad us on
to sin in loving virtue.
William Shakespeare
“I am going to be strong this time. I will not succumb. I will detach myself, and do my job, watch. You can do this Celine. This is not your first assignment and he will not be your last.” I repeat this mantra to myself over and over again. I am an Angel. Part of the Heavenly Watcher ranks. We monitor souls who are teetering on the edge of going completely black and need to be dragged off to hell by our Enforcers. I have been a Watcher for the last two thousand heavenly years and I love my calling. It gives me purpose and brings me joy.
Right now, I am trying to zone my sight in on him. Leviathan Drayce Deveaux, or Levi as he likes to be called. He is a half-breed demon who likes to test the limits of his freedom. Levi has been my charge for twenty human years which translates to two heavenly years, and it is…interesting to say the least.
I lie on my back and glance down at my arms before I cross them over my chest. I observe the difference of color between my pale ivory skin and the fluffy white of my cloud that surrounds me. It helps me to slowly trance myself on to the earthly plane. I focus on Levi. The vision of his six-foot two frame plays crisply in my mind’s eye.
Levi is in a candle-lit room, walls painted black, giving it a feel of unending stasis. He plays with his prey in this member’s only establishment. The light from the candles’ flame dances upon his hair, making it shine like obsidian. It hangs wavy to his shoulders and covers his face while he whispers in the ear of his newest conquest. He has a ball-gag in the woman’s mouth, with the leather straps pressing into her cheek. Her plump ruby colored lips pull back and her perfect teeth sink into the black ball as she sucks in a breath.
“You’re mine to do with as I please.” His voice is deep, gravely, and mesmerizing. It makes me shiver in anticipation for what he will say next. Levi glides his full sinful lips over the shell of her ear, biting and tugging at the lobe of her ear. “Nod yes.” She does, with great enthusiasm.
After a moment of looking upon her, I see her life play out in quick detail. Like watching a film in fast forward, details blur but emotions and actions clear. In just a blink of time I know the woman’s name is Bette Farnsworth. She is thirty-two years old and an only child, parents’ deceased. She lives in a large city, where she owns her own advertising company. Bette lives lavishly but gives her time and large amounts of her funds to charity. I also know that even with all her money she is still painfully lonely. Bette is a good person and would not need a Watchers constant eye. I will call in one of the Joy Bringers, to help guide Bette after her and Levi are done. No need corrupting the Joy Bringers sight.
Bette’s groaning around the ball-gag brings my full attention back to the scene. Levi is beginning his slow, sexual torment of her. Bending over Bette’s curvaceous body, he teases her with his mouth, softly biting his way down her abdomen. The candle light is gleaming over Levi’s golden tan skin and makes me salivate for a taste of him. I want to trace the lines of his lean muscular build with light sweeping grazes of my fingers. Oh sweet deity, not again!
I shut down my connection to him quickly and open my eyes to stare out into the endless, bright, misty white surroundings. What am I doing? I am lusting after my charge, that’s what. This is my dirty secret. If the Council finds out, I will be let go from my calling or worse, become the Fallen. To be Fallen is to have our grace stripped away and to be sent through the veil to live out a human existence. No hope of earning your wings back. Once they are severed they are never to be replaced. I shiver at the thought of living a short mortal life. An existence that is filled with pain and the yearning for the serenity of our heavenly home is torture. Knowing that not one of my people will remember who I am to them saddens me. I do not want to feel the loss of my grace forever. Even in death we are kept separate from our brethren, almost invisible. The Council makes sure it is enforced as well.
Our Great Deity may be a being of forgiveness, but the Council is not. They are the be-all and the end-all in decisions concerning our angel ranks. They are unforgiving in their verdicts and will strip the wings and grace from an angel without blinking an eye. Some say they are created to have no empathy. Watching the way they pass judgment, I can see how that may be true.
I sigh deeply and close my eyes. The slight breeze blows the waves of my white blonde, hip length hair around my tall and slender body. I feel weightless floating in my fluffy cloud. It tickles the exposed skin on my bare arms. Breathe deep. Exhale. Now do your job. Detach yourself.
I gasp when the vision of them enters my mind once more. Bette is writhing from Levi’s ministrations. His moves are calculated and controlled to bring the utmost pleasure with pain. I can feel the familiar tingle in the pit of my stomach. I begin to lightly stroke up and down my arms with the tips of my wings. They curl around my body, responding to the excess of stimuli. I remind myself to detach but I can’t help but want to feel. My feathers flutter excitedly all over my body and through the cool fluffiness that surrounds me. My slim figure shivers in delight. I feel my own nipples bead instantly as my temptation works Bette’s body over with his strong masculine hands.
She is pale and perspiration slick. Her body is in shackles, spread-eagled on a St. Andrews Cross. Each section of the dark wooden cross is adjustable to allow the body to stretch open wider. Her platinum blonde hair, similar to the color of mine, is tied back in a bun. Wisps of her locks stick to her face. Seeing the similarities between Bette and my own appearance make it easy to replace her with myself in this vision. Instead of her sky-blue eyes shining with unshed tears, they are the
deep emerald green of mine. The thought, has my legs slightly scissoring together, and an ache begins to throb inside of my sex.
Long red welts in patterns crisscross over her full breasts and thighs from the leather braided flogger he has in his hand. Casually, he brings the instrument down against Bette’s body making her whimper one last time. He throws the flogger to the table against the wall. Her chest rises and falls at an alarming rate but the yearning in her eyes indicates excitement.
Levi grips the chain that connects her breasts together, pulling the blushing pink nipples taut as he slams himself into her dripping wet sex. He runs his other hand over the now raised marks on Bette’s tender red flesh. The pain and pleasure makes her squirm against him. His golden tan skin glistens with a light sheen of sweat. Levi throws his head back and my breath catches as his eyes are revealed. I grasp the iridescent fabric of the gown I wear in my fists to stop me from touching myself. The smooth silk of it is a poor substitution for the flesh I wish to have my hands on. I stop listening to Levi and Bette in their throes of passion. I fear it will be too much stimulation for me to handle, and I will succumb to finding my own release.
Levi’s golden lion colored eyes turn fierce. His thrusts pound harder into her willing core. It makes my feathers tingle all the way to their pristine white tips, as his grip tightens on the chain.
I, as an angel, should abhor such sadistic acts that bring this twisted sort of pleasure to the abused. Heaven help me! Tears flow from Bette’s eyes and still I am craven for the emotions and sensations that she is enduring.
Bette finally surrenders, with his permission, to the orgasm he has been denying her over and over again. Her muscles convulse as her body processes the intensity of her long awaited climax. The woman has no fury over Levi’s treatment of her body. The weight of the world seems to lift off Bette’s shoulders as she lays limply against the cross. Her head lolls to the side and his seed drips down her thighs. She is at peace.
Maybe it is time to admit that I need a new assignment. Levi is making me question my calling. He makes me hunger for sensations I have never in my lifetime wanted or even thought of. I was assigned to be Levi’s Watcher when he came into his powers. For twenty human years I have waited patiently for the day Leviathan’s foot slips over the line he recklessly toes. He will slip. They always do. Then Levi will lose all the privilege his half-breed status gives him. He will be sent into the fiery pits to live the rest of his existence with his father Malacoda, and I will be the one to send him there. The thought of being the one to decide his fate is an extremely somber one. It is confusing to have these twisted emotions interfering with my calling.
Malacoda is a high ranking demon, for Pete’s sake. He is worshiped as the Prince of Pain and Agony, and the fiery depths of hell is his playground. Malacoda’s sustenance lay in the infliction of suffering to those evil souls sent to call hell home. Leviathan inherited that nasty little trait. He learned to satiate his hunger with his sexually deviant pleasures. Still free to roam the earth, he has no powers but for his hunger for pain. His appetite seems to be growing steadily as he ages. It worries me, but then I see the light in him. The light of his soul still shines brightly, and it gives me hope though the odds are stacked against him.
Bette has no inkling that she is feeding a half-breed demon, even though I know that he is taking nourishment from her. A tiny speck of my being is envious of Bette. Envy, is one of the big no-no’s for our kind. Then again, so is lust. I should just be a good angel and bind myself to one of my own kind; live a peaceful Watcher’s life. I throw my head back into my cloud to shake the thoughts from my mind.
I refocus my thoughts on Levi as he brings a bowl and cloth over from his side table. He stands in front of Bette and starts to softly bathe her while she is still held up on the cross. Levi does this to temper the guilt he feels from feeding. He is very vigilant in his care of the submissive woman. He does this after every encounter with his women. In this moment there is care and gratefulness coming off of him in waves that are invisible to the human eye. They wrap around her body and soul. Levi has an inner peace from feeding and the release of his sexual tension.
Levi dries the woman gently and rubs lotion onto the whipped areas of her body. He takes her off the cross and lays her on the single size bed with simple linens of white. He stands and slowly looks around. He must feel my presence. Oh no!
I open my eyes again and take in my surroundings. I need to visit Marcus. He is my mentor and friend. I will see if it is possible or wise to hand off Levi to another Watcher. He will most likely be in his cloud. I think of the male and in the blink of an eye I am standing no more than two-feet away from him. He smiles at me as he opens his quicksilver eyes. Marcus is a beautiful male but all angels are. He closes the distance between us wrapping his arms around me in a quick, friendly manner.
“Hello, Sweetling. I have missed you.” His voice is like silk, so smooth and comforting. I melt just a little against his hard muscular physique.
“I have been keeping a close watch on my charge. His hunger is…” I stop myself. I do not want him to worry. He will send for The Enforcers, and in a heartbeat they will smite Levi. “His hunger is increasing and...” I just cannot finish the thought aloud. A lie will be too obvious and it tastes horrible on my tongue.
“I see. What is it that seems to make you uncomfortable?” A tick starts at the corner of his thin lips; a tick that only appears when he is trying his hardest not to smile. While I withhold my response, his body starts shaking. The short platinum hair on his head is vibrating as he tries holding back his mirth. I can feel heat flood my face as I blush red. He knows why and is teasing me. Well, two can play that game. I won’t let him think I am a meek female.
“It is Leviathan’s use of sex and pain at the same time.” I didn’t have to wait long for his reaction. He starts laughing so hard he doubles over, wings sticking out. I smile even if I am a little embarrassed. His joy is infections. Marcus’s cloud brightens with his mood to highlight his angelic nature to an extreme, and my wings flitter in response.
“I have peeked in on him, too and wondered when you would come running to me. I knew you would want me to transfer you.” he says, through gasps of breath, as his laughter continues.
“You have been keeping tabs on me? You didn’t have faith that I could do this on my own?” Marcus’s doubt in me hurts. He makes me feel like a newling though I have been doing this job for years. “I am a Watcher, the same as you, and have seen many things. Why, of all my charges, is this one a concern to you?” My voice is shaky with suppressed emotions.
“My Sweetling,” he says it sympathetically, making me feel all the worse for it. “I was given the order to keep an eye on you with your charge. He is the son of a greater demon, and you cannot tell me he is like any of your other charges.” I open my mouth to tell him he is wrong, but he raises his hand to stop me from interrupting, “Yes, you have had to send The Enforcers after souls that have gone dark but nothing ever like this.”
I take a deep breath, knowing he is right. This was why I came to him today. I want a transfer but not from embarrassment. I fear that I will want more than just the visions of Levi. I make a decision then and there that I will do this job and I will endure the hungers that come along with it. In fact, I am going to go one step further.
“I am going to cross the veil onto the earthly plane,” I say quickly and close my eyes to mist back to my cloud.
“You most certainly are not going.” Marcus says, grabbing my arm, preventing me from leaving. I try to tug my arm away, but his grip is like steel, shackling me in place.
“I am going!” I sound like a petulant child. I know he is probably right but I need to do this now. I need to prove that I am more than capable of handling a half-breed demon. Even if this particular one tempts me on a level I have never before experienced.
“Is there something you are not telling me, Celine?” His grip loosens slightly; an edge of worry in his v
oice. Maybe even a secret or two slithers through the churning silver of his eyes.
“No, I came here to talk to you about Leviathan’s increase in hunger, and that I will be going to monitor him.” The half lie tastes bitter, and I want to spit the vile acid like liquid out of my mouth.
“Will you make yourself fully corporal to watch him?” Marcus asks me a very serious question. One that he has every right as a friend and mentor to ask.
“No! Of course not! I will just mist around him. He may feel or suspect my presence, but that should be the extent.” I would never expose myself on purpose. My wings would be too vulnerable in human state. It is forbidden as well, unless you are helping souls to cross over into heaven’s undying fields. I smile at him, wanting to let go of the hurt of Marcus keeping tabs on me.
“Please, come home the moment you feel the slightest doubt about your safety.” He pulls me in close, tightening his arms around me once again. I can feel the warmth of his body and soul wrapping around me in this extended embrace. Marcus looks deep into my eyes, and for the first time I feel a slight tension in his hold. Does he desire me, or is it just residual feelings from having watched Levi? I pull away gently from Marcus’s hold. His quicksilver eyes swirl enticingly, beckoning me to fall into him and swim in their depths.
“I will come if my life is in danger. I promise.” I say patiently, stepping away before I succumb to this confusing urge.
“Good bye, my Sweetling.” A small, sad smile plays upon his lips. I should feel some empathy for him, but the excitement of going through the veil over-shadows it. I will myself back to my cloud. I want just one more look at Levi before I go. Just one more peek from the safety of my cloud. I zone in on him immediately. My focus is razor sharp in my excitement.
I watch Levi enter his bathroom. He steps shakily into the shower turning the nozzle and letting the stream hit him. He winces, leaning his head into the steady pounding of the overhead nozzle. Water sluices off his sculpted body to whirl hypnotically around the drain. He grabs the bar of soap off the little ledge and starts scrubbing his body. Levi’s well-defined muscles are trembling while he lathers the little amber bar of soap furiously into his hands. The steam is quickly thickening in the room, slightly obscuring my view of Levi. I center my attention too hard, almost passing through the veil to see him more clearly. What I see is so achingly sad. I wish I would have given him this moment to himself. Levi’s hands are moving in a blurring speed, scrubbing his skin red in the scalding heat. His breaths are heaving, making his chest pump up and down franticly.