And Once More Saw The Stars

by Rae Magdon

  “Look at how eager she is,” a voice from beside her purred, sounding far too close. “You covered her, and she’s still squirming, begging to be fucked.” Eva looked up, her chest rising and falling with each struggling breath as she watched the demon with the whip step forward. Her inner walls jerked in response to Calcabrina’s words, searching for Lilith’s cock, and she was suddenly hyperaware of the wetness covering her stomach and breasts.

  “Are you sure you won’t share, First One?” the demon asked, reaching out with her free hand. “I’m sure I could make her -”

  Before Eva could even flinch away in disgust, Lilith’s body surged forward, blocking her from view. She pulled her upper lip back and snarled, her eyes glowing so brightly that Calcabrina had to shield her face. “Don’t. Touch. Her.”

  Calcabrina jerked back with a hiss, recoiling at the sheer force of Lilith’s words. She tightened her grip on the handle of her whip, but she took another reluctant step away, retreating towards the circle. Eva’s frantic heartbeat began to slow down, and she felt Lilith’s presence wash over her again, demanding obedience. She shivered as Lilith’s palm ran down the front of her body, through the wetness clinging to her skin, and cupped firmly between her legs.

  “This is to prove a point,” Lilith growled. Eva shuddered as she felt Lilith line up the head of her cock, brushing it over her entrance. “I’m the only one who gets to fuck her. The only one who comes inside of her.” Eva only saw a brief glimpse of the frustrated, slightly wary expression on Calcabrina’s face before Lilith caught her wrists, pinning them over her head and sinking back inside of her with a brutal thrust. The sudden fullness burned, but she rocked her hips forward, screaming as she stretched to take the wide base. “And the only one who makes her come. She even does it on command.”

  Eva pushed into Lilith’s thrusts, crying out each time the shaft split her open and struggling helplessly against the weight pinning her down. Lilith’s feeding had drawn her so close that it was almost painful, and somehow, the knowledge that Calcabrina wanted her but couldn’t have her pulled at the darkest parts of her mind. Every muscle in her body tensed, quivering as she waited for the sweet words of release. Without Lilith’s command, any pleasure she took would be meaningless.

  “Come.”

  That was all it took. Lilith’s hunger clawed at her heart, threatening to devour her whole, and Eva threw her head back. A howl tore from her throat, and the pressure that had built and built within her finally released. She writhed beneath the hard surface of Lilith’s body, and a surge of heat rushed from between her legs, spilling out around the shaft splitting her open and covering both of their thighs.

  Lilith’s cock rippled inside of her, and a harsh stream gushed from the twitching head, pumping her full of thick, burning fluid. Her muscles fluttered and squeezed, pulling Lilith’s release deeper. Each splash of warmth sent her spiraling into another round of contractions, and she tilted her hips higher as Lilith kept thrusting through the last few spurts, desperate to take everything she had.

  Canto XIX:

  Not yet he finished rendering such opinion,

  When I beheld them come with outstretched wings,

  Not far remote, with will to seize upon us.

  A loud, slow clapping interrupted the last of their aftershocks. Eva did not notice at first, whimpering as Lilith pulled out of her, but eventually, an awareness of her surroundings returned. She blinked the red haze from her eyes and looked up, suddenly embarrassed by her nakedness and shivering as she covered her breasts. Malacoda was standing before them, flat lips pulled in an unpleasant smirk. “A good show, First One,” he said, stopping his mocking applause in order to take back his scythe from the demon next to him. “Very entertaining. Much better than torturing the sinners.”

  Lilith narrowed her eyes and reached for her pants. Somehow, she managed to make the motion of pulling them up look dignified, but Eva noticed the way her hands shook. “I didn’t do it for your entertainment.” She gestured carelessly at Eva’s ruined clothes. “Get dressed,” she ordered, casting a brief glance down. Her eyes were back to their normal color, and when Eva looked into them, she saw something there that she had not been expecting. Lilith was terrified.

  She climbed to her feet and managed to put on the ripped, dusty pair of pants she had discarded, but her shirt was ruined beyond repair. Lilith had destroyed what was left of it before her second orgasm. Trying not to think about everyone that was watching her, she kept her eyes focused squarely on the ground as she used the torn fabric to clean herself as best she could and pulled her last fresh shirt from the pack. Her legs shook, and her motions were stilted as she worked her arms through the sleeves.

  “You’ve had your fun, Malacoda,” Lilith said. She stared at the wall of demons, pointing at Lady Godiva and Grace O’Malley. The pirate was still pressed to the ground in front of the Malebranche, and Calcabrina had returned to her place behind Lady Godiva. “Now, let them go.”

  “Why should I?” Malacoda grunted. “You only claimed the human. These two don’t belong to you.”

  “I’ll belong to her! I don’t care if I have to fuck her or not,” Grace volunteered, sputtering a few seconds later when a hoof forced her head back into the dirt. “Hey, careful!”

  Barbariccia growled, giving her a prod between the shoulder blades with his tridents. “Shut up! Meat doesn’t speak.”

  “I’m not meat!” Grace insisted, her cheek still squished against the ground. “I belong to the - whatever the hell you called her… First One! Right.” Although she could not move, her eyes darted toward Lady Godiva. “So does she. We all do. Let us go.”

  Malacoda looked down at Grace and shook his head, obviously not believing her. “What use would the First One have for something so annoying?”

  Grace rolled her eyes. “What do you think?”

  Calcabrina stared thoughtfully at Lady Godiva for a moment. “If they belong to the First One, make her prove it.” She licked her lips and reached out a claw before she remembered what had happened last time and withdrew her hand. “I wouldn’t mind watching her break the pale one… I want to see how she avoids getting burned.”

  Lilith’s claws extended, and the muscles in her shoulders bunched. “Let them go and I’ll show you,” she offered. Eva’s heartbeat sped up when Lilith crossed in front of her. To the demons, it would look like she was stepping forward, but Eva knew better. Lilith was preparing to shield her. Her fingers curled, and she glanced longingly at the broken halves of her staff resting at Malacoda’s hooves.

  More smoke poured from his nostrils as he spat onto the ground. “Fine.” His expression made it perfectly clear that he did not believe a word Lilith was saying. “Show us. Start with the pale one.” At his nod, Calcabrina gave Lady Godiva a nudge with the handle of her whip, sending her stumbling to her feet.

  “What about me?” Grace said, staring up at Barbariccia.

  The demon snorted. “It’s not your turn yet.” He pulled his trident a few inches back, brandishing its points at her.

  Suddenly, Grace’s hands shot out, gripping the prongs in her hands. Barbariccia’s eyes widened in surprise, but he did not react in time. Grace pulled as hard as she could, yanking the weapon from his hands. The force took Barbariccia by surprise, and he fell forward with a shout, tripping over the pirate’s legs. She kicked, dislodging the hooks from around her ankles. “Run!”

  Before Eva could react, she felt herself being dragged forward. Lilith’s claws gripped her sleeve, forcing her into a run, but she resisted. “We have to go back,” she shouted, trying to pull away, but Lilith refused to let go.

  “The Malebranche can’t leave the fifth ditch. She’s giving us a chance -”

  “We can’t leave her!” Eva yanked her sleeve free so that she could turn back, but she immediately wished she hadn’t. Calcabrina was closing in on them, the lash of her whip uncoiled
as she pulled it back to strike. Lilith tried to catch some of the blow, but she was not quick enough. It came down across her arm as she raised it to protect her face, ripping the fabric and slicing her skin. She screamed, and Lilith lunged forward, tackling Calcabrina to the ground. The whip fell from her hand as Lilith’s teeth ripped into her throat with a gush of blood.

  Wincing with pain, Eva ignored the crimson stain blossoming along her sleeve and scrambled to pick up the whip. She held it uncertainly at first, but tightened her grip on the handle when she saw Grace backing towards her with the trident in her hands. The Malebranche had almost circled her, and in the middle of the bridge, she had no way of protecting her back.

  “Please tell me you know how to use that thing!” Lilith yelled, breaking out in a sprint toward her as the rest of the demons followed. A few launched themselves into the air, beating their wings in an effort to catch her.

  Eva blinked away tears as she lifted her injured arm above her head and pulling the whip back. “No idea.”

  “Well, shit,” Grace said, pressing against her back. “It can’t be that hard. Figure it out before I get skewered.” She jabbed with the trident as though it was a living extension of her arm, spearing one of the Malebranche through the middle. Black blood spilled around the prongs as she ducked beneath a hook. “Come on. Just… hit them with it or something!”

  One of the horned demons lunged at her, and Eva lashed out with the whip, surprised by the cracking sound as it cut through the air. It landed across the demon’s chest, almost a foot below where she had been aiming, but it was enough to stop his claws from reaching her. He pulled back, roaring in pain, and lunged again. This time, she did not miss. The lash sliced his face, sending black blood running into his eyes and making him stagger back.

  Another demon took his place almost immediately, trying to catch his hook around her legs. It circled the back of her knees, but before he could pull and send her flying backwards, pale hands covered his face from behind, making him shriek with unholy agony. He dropped the hook onto the ground, clawing desperately at his own face.

  The hands pulled away, leaving his skin raw and sizzling like cooked meat, and Lady Godiva stepped out from behind him. She did not bother picking up the hook he had dropped.

  Eva gasped. “You can burn all of them?”

  Lady Godiva did not answer. Instead, she cried out, “Behind you!” Eva turned just in time to see Malacoda raise his scythe, preparing to bring it down on her head.

  The barbed prongs of Grace O’Malley’s trident lashed out, catching the wicked blade in midair with a clash of sparks. Malacoda growled in annoyance, trying to free his weapon. It came loose with a clang, and he brought it down again in a wide sweep, aiming directly for Grace. She tried to lift the handle of her trident and block the blow, but the blade caught her stomach, slicing across her abdomen.

  Grace collapsed to her knees, dropping the trident onto the ground. Her face was a mask of pain, and she clutched at her stomach with both arms. In just a few heartbeats, her shirt and hands were bathed in crimson. Malacoda raised his scythe again, but before he could strike a killing blow, another body blocked his path. “Leave her,” Lilith snarled, blood dripping around her mouth.

  Malacoda laughed, shifting his scythe to one hand. “And you’re going to make me?”

  “If I have to. This is your last chance. Let us go, and you won’t have to spend the next century piecing yourself back together.”

  The rest of the Malebranche stopped fighting and formed a circle around them. Lady Godiva tried to move towards Grace, who was still sprawled on the ground, but Eva grabbed her arm and held her back. If either of them tried to go to her, the demons would stop them.

  With barely a ripple of warning in her muscles, Lilith launched herself at Malacoda, dodging the blade of his scythe as she swiped at his face with her claws. She missed, but only just. “All this for your soul?” Malacoda growled, adjusting his grip on his scythe to make it shorter. “You’re walking to your own death, First One!”

  “Does it matter?” she taunted, moving closer every time he backed away to swing his blade. “Your face is already ruined.” She ducked low and rushed, sending one of his hooves sliding back over the rock as her shoulder collided with his midsection. The blow stunned him long enough for Lilith to grip the handle of his scythe.

  “You’re not going to die in the Ninth Circle, First One!” Malacoda roared, spit flying from his mouth as they grappled over the weapon. “I’m going to kill you myself!”

  Lilith grunted, shaking with exertion as she tried to keep her grip. Malacoda was much stronger than she was, and the muscles in his arms bulged as he tried to force her back. “This is about your dick, isn’t it?” she said, bringing her knee up sharply between the demon’s legs. Malacoda howled with pain, bending over and loosening his grip just enough for Lilith to yank the scythe into her hands. “Don’t be jealous. It doesn’t suit you.”

  “Kill them!” Malacoda barked, his low, rumbling voice cracking through the words. The circle of demons began to close in, hooks and tridents raised.

  “Come on,” Lady Godiva said, hurrying forward to Grace. “We have to help her!”

  Eva bent down, sliding one of the pirate’s arms over her shoulder as Lady Godiva took the other. Together, the two of them hauled her onto her feet. Grace blinked, her eyes clouded with pain, but with their help, she managed to stay upright. “What are you waiting for?” she gasped, struggling to breathe. “Start running!”

  The three of them staggered along the bridge, moving as fast as they could. The Malebranche tried to chase them, unfurling their wings and striking out with their hooks, but Lilith kept them back with the blade of the scythe. “Hurry!” she yelled as Malacoda straightened his back, running towards them at a sprint. “There’s the sixth ditch!”

  Eva glanced ahead, and immediately regretted it. Bubbling black sludge boiled up on either side of the bridge, and bodies floated in the foul-smelling mess, but the slope of the ditch was rising to another peak. With a burst of speed, she and Lady Godiva hauled Grace forward, clambering past the rocky divide and sliding over the edge of the bridge in cloud of dust. Lilith swooped after them, unfurling her wings and swooping down into the ditch at their heels.

  The Malebranche shrieked, battering their weapons against the ground. A few tried to take off into the air, but an invisible force kept them pinned back, preventing them from following. “If I wasn’t dying, this would be funny,” Grace O’Malley rasped as she stared up at the furious pack of demons.

  “You’re not dying,” Lilith said. For once, Eva heard sympathy in her voice. “You’re in Sheol. Where else would you go if you died here?”

  “Not Heaven, that’s for sure.” Grace stared down at her stomach and made a disgusted face. Blood still poured sluggishly from the open wound, and her stained shirt clung to her skin. “Fuck. This is bad.”

  Lady Godiva dropped to her knees, curling up beside Grace and smoothing her red curls away from her damp forehead. “Stop talking and hold still,” she ordered, letting her hand run over the pirate’s pale, freckled cheek. “You don’t want to lose any more blood.”

  “I have some bandages in my pack.” Eva reached over her shoulder before she realized that she had left it behind with her broken staff. “Or… I had some,” she finished softly.

  To her surprise, Lilith began shifting, moaning as her wings retracted and her horns sank back into her head. She shrugged out of her shirt, leaving herself naked from the waist up. “Here,” she said, tossing it on Grace’s lap. “Use this.”

  Grace blinked slowly, as if her eyes were having trouble focusing. “Don’t want it this time,” she muttered. Lady Godiva grabbed the shirt and held it to her stomach, trying to staunch the flow of blood. “It’s got holes in it.”

  “So do you,” Lilith pointed out. She paused for a moment, staring thoughtfully at the pi
rate. “Thank you for protecting her.” Grace tried to respond, but all that came out was a low groan. She slumped against Lady Godiva’s side and shuddered as her eyes closed.

  Canto XX:

  So, piercing through the dense and darksome air,

  More and more near approaching tow’rd the verge,

  My error fled, and fear came over me;

  “We can’t wait for her,” Lilith murmured, speaking the truth that all three of them had avoided for the past several minutes. Lady Godiva still had one arm wrapped protectively around Grace O’Malley’s shoulder. She had managed to stop the flow of blood with Lilith’s shirt, but the pirate’s eyes remained closed.

  Eva raised her hand and rubbed her forehead. “We can’t just leave her, either. She saved my life.”

  “She knew Malacoda couldn’t kill her,” Lady Godiva said. She looked down at Grace with worried eyes, touching one of her cheeks. Lilith frowned when she noticed that the color of Grace’s skin was unnaturally pale beneath her freckles. “But if he had gotten to you, Eva…”

  Lilith averted her eyes, not wanting to think about that possibility. It was bad enough that Grace was hurt. She folded her arms tightly beneath her breasts as she looked away. “We don’t have a choice. We have to split up.” The three of them looked at each other, then back at Grace. Her chest rose and fell with slow, shallow breaths. The rest of her body was perfectly still.

  “Are you sure?” Eva asked.

  “She would have bled out and died several minutes ago if she wasn’t already in Sheol. It takes a while for souls to put themselves back together here.” She gave Eva a guilty look. “I’m sorry, but unless you want to wait for a hundred years or so, we need to keep going.”