"She humiliated you in front of your own warriors," Lucifer caressed his cheek. "You lost your village because of her. What do you wish to do about it?"
"I shall go back into Assur," Jamin said, "to blast down its walls and kill her."
Lucifer pressed into his back, his torso aligned with his. His white wings curled forward, enclosing the table in their spread.
"Why wait when she lies beneath you now?"
It was no longer a stranger who lay upon the table in front of him, but Pareesa, her shawl belted high around her waist like a man's kilt. It had fallen open to display the soft, furry folds between her legs.
"Take her," Lucifer's voice tickled his ear. "Take back from her what she took from you."
His cock grew hard as images flooded into his mind. Sinking his cock into her softness. Fucking her until the life fled from her body.
"She is just a little girl," Jamin groaned.
Hope, anger, envy, and hunger trembled through his body like the cord-string of a bow, unable to control the maelstrom of emotions that Lucifer had released.
"Look again, little chieftain," Lucifer said. "While you were away, your nemesis has grown up."
The same woman fought beneath him, kicking, crying, trying to escape, but her features had grown older. She wore a five-fringed kilt, and around her neck sat his father's golden torque.
Hatred burned through Jamin's body like fire.
"That's my torque!" He clutched at her throat and tried to twist it off, but his hands came up empty.
Lucifer's voice filled with power. He could feel the shade which inhabited Lucifer feed upon his anger.
"It is time to remind her of the only thing a woman is good for," Lucifer said.
He reached around and undid the front of Jamin's pants. Jamin was transported back to the moment when Pareesa had shot him.
“Bitch!!!” He yanked his spear out of the ground and swung it up to thwack her off the side of her head, ignoring the stab of pain which streaked up his other arm. He'd survived worse wounds than the insignificant toy sticks!
Lucifer caressed his manhood. Jamin gasped, but he was not here, but there; back in the moment in Assur. Lucifer ran his hands along the shaft until it throbbed beneath his hands like a hungry animal. He shoved Jamin towards his quarry, laid out upon the table like a feast.
“Heart!" Pareesa grabbed a third arrow and drew her bow, aiming straight for his heart. Her eyes took on an icy stare that was familiar.
"Impale her, my sweet prince," Lucifer kissed his ear. "Impale her with your spear."
He grabbed the woman's legs and yanked her towards them, spread-eagle, and pushed Jamin's rump until his cock sat between the folds of her feminine mysteries.
Pareesa wrinkled her nose and pantomimed his words, rolling her eyes and crossing them as she mocked him.
Laughter from the other women.
Laughter from the villagers as she had pranced into the square, carrying four ducks, and presented them to his father.
His father had hugged her, and then nearly broken his arm when he'd told him to go inside the house!
Jamin rammed his cock into the woman's cunt. His eyeballs rolled upwards as a sensation more powerful than any he had ever felt turned his knees weak and rippled powerful currents throughout his body.
Lucifer groaned behind him. He ground his pelvis into Jamin's back, aiding his thrusts with swoops of his powerful white wings, feeding his hatred with the images he projected into his mind.
"Teach her. Teach her that she cannot do this to you again."
Jamin clenched his hands around her neck until her eyes bulged and her lips began to turn blue. He felt Lucifer's cock slip between the crack of his ass, but it felt so heady that he wanted it in this moment. Oh, gods, he wanted this feeling of power to never end!
Lucifer spit onto his hand and slid the spittle between his cheeks. Jamin trembled as he thrust into the little bitch, his cock lubricated with her juices and her blood. His balls clenched as Lucifer squeezed the base of his cock, prolonging the sensation of sitting on the edge. He was so close his eyes rolled back into his head, the most overwhelming sex he'd ever felt.
"Focus on your anger, little chieftain," Lucifer's voice cracked with hunger. "And do not be afraid of what you see."
Lucifer bit into the back of Jamin's shoulder like a stallion mounting a mare. Jamin trembled like a virgin. The warriors always had joked about what it meant to be a kadesh, a man who lay down with other men, but they had never told him what it would feel like to want it.
"Do it," Jamin whispered.
Lucifer's cock slid into his tiny sphincter. Jamin cried out. It hurt! It hurt! Lucifer gripped him tighter, blocking his escape as he bit down upon his shoulder and buried his cock up to its hilt. A curious ripple of sensation, like the pleasure one experienced when taking a dump, only deeper, dampened the pain with pleasure.
"We shall take her together," Lucifer said.
Lucifer rammed his pelvis so that he rammed him into the woman who was now unconscious upon the table, again and again, clawing at him like that lion he had just killed until his flesh bled, but he could not stop the images which played upon his mind. It was no longer his anger he saw, but Moloch's, and he knew his name, and he saw him as he had been before the goddess had stripped him of his body.
Lucifer roared an inhuman, animalistic roar. He pounded his wings and the air flew around them like a storm. The sparks from the fireplace filled the air, but he was not burned by it. The fire was drawn to them, eager to consume whatever lay in its path, for fire was Moloch's natural element. Jamin could see the power. He could taste it. He could feel it. And he wondered … what would it be like wield such power for himself?
Lucifer showed him what he wanted to see.
Entire worlds sprang from the primordial goo with a twist of his hand, endless stars and the universes which birthed them, planets, oceans, animals and people. He showed him what it felt like to create two species and pit them against one another just to see which one would be the victor. He showed him species he'd shaped exclusively to hunt, for the hunt amused him, and others he'd shaped as prey. Entire universes grew, but he hungered for more until the building blocks had been consumed. He ate the galaxies. He ate the stars. He ate the planets. And he ate the creatures he had created to give him an endless supply of food.
A low shudder rumbled in Jamin's loins. It rippled through his body, ultimate power, and he did not shrink from it, but stared into the fire unflinchingly as Lucifer found his release.
Lucifer collapsed on top of him. Jamin realized he was no longer fucking the woman on the table, but some time ago they had moved away from that one to fuck the other twelve. All thirteen of them lay unconscious, and some appeared as if they might not be breathing.
Jamin wept, for the withdrawal of power made him feel like an empty shell. Lucifer caught his breath, his expression tender as he withdrew his cock, dripping with spent seed.
“My dear sweet prodigy,” Lucifer crooned, gentle now as he caressed the claw-marks on his gouged abdomen. “You are everything I have ever searched for in a mate."
He led him over to a bed which had been set up in the corner and lay him down into the softness of his snow white wings.
"This vessel requires sleep," Lucifer said. "But come morning, we shall go back to your village and take what is rightfully yours. Would that please you, my dear sweet boy?”
“Yes,” Jamin sobbed.
"Sleep, then," Lucifer said.
And it was so, for Jamin had neither the strength nor anger to fight the command which took hold of his mind.
* * * * *
The Amorites carried him across the desert, wracked with fever from the infection caused by Aturdokht's arrow. He pleaded with the goddess of his mother to take him, and give to Shahla back her baby, for he was sorry, and he wanted to make amends.
'Jamin.'
He nestled closer into the warm flesh and soft, white wings which surround
ed him. He felt so weak, he could hardly move.
Cold, blue lips touched his, returning to him his former strength. As they did, he remembered the promise he had made to Ki in the desert.
'Circumspector...'
Jamin opened his eyes and gazed upon the sleeping Angelic who lay completely vulnerable in his arms. He was still naked, although at some point Moloch must have healed the gouge marks he'd inflicted. His knife had been cast off someplace within the room. He shifted, trying to escape Lucifer's grasp so he could find it.
'Chol beag,' Lucifer whispered. In sleep, his features were not ruthless like the creature who had led him into the fire, but tender, almost feminine in its beauty, the face of a boy whose features had been squared off by manhood. He cradled Jamin in his arms like he was a precious lover and tucked him further into the warmth of his wings.
Jamin spotted the knife. He reached for it, his hand patting along the floor until at last he felt the familiar hilt slide into his hand.
Lucifer opened his eerie silver eyes.
Jamin froze, praying Lucifer would not intuit what he was about to do. If he was to kill him, he wanted to kill him in his sleep, so quick that Moloch wouldn't realize it until it was over.
"It is you," Lucifer's voice filled with awe. "The man within my dreams."
Jamin's hand trembled. This was not, he understood, the version of Lucifer who had fucked him until he'd bled. This was the vessel. The one Ki wished him to free before Moloch could finish consuming his spirit, for a dead spirit could be reborn, but a consumed one? Jamin had seen in his vision what Moloch did to those he begat for food.
Lucifer touched his face as though he was the most beautiful person in the world. He spoke in Galactic Standard, not Ubaid as the Devourer of Children had done, but Jamin had learned enough that he could just, barely understand the words.
"Each night I have dreamed of you," Lucifer said. "I dreamed I fell, but then you caught me and I was not frightened anymore."
Jamin stared into those beautiful silver eyes.
A beautiful, silver star, imprisoned and betrayed…
A silver star, surrounded by fire which threatened to consume it…
Morning star…
A small, white feather caressed his cheek. He looked into the treasure box, into which he'd placed his wish…
"I promised I would not hurt you while you were weak," Jamin said. His hand trembled with the knife. "I cannot do it. I have committed so much evil that I find I no longer possess the stomach for it."
Lucifer tilted his head forward and hesitantly kissed him.
Jamin felt the image project into his mind, but it was not a violation, but a question.
'Can you see me? Can you look into my eyes and see my soul?'
Jamin trembled, and then he kissed him back.
"Yes," he said. "I can see you are a different man."
The song he had heard in the desert grew louder, but it was not the goddess who made his heart sing this time, but Lucifer. The real Lucifer. The shattered remnant of Ki's twice-devoured son.
This time, it was he who made love to Lucifer, gentle as he caressed him up to an orgasm. Lucifer arched his back and cried out as Jamin helped him find release, and as he did, he felt the soft, white light of his soul reach out and cradle him, wishing to make him his. As their spirits intertwined, Jamin saw it. He saw what Moloch had done to his offspring and was repulsed by it. If that was the cost of power, he rejected it. He would not let Moloch do that to Lucifer again.
Sweaty and spent, he collapsed onto Lucifer's beautiful, flawless flesh. Tears welled in Lucifer's silver eyes and slid down his cheeks like a cleansing rain.
"If this is a dream," Lucifer said, "then please, never let me wake again."
He enveloped them both into the shelter of his wings and fluffed his feathers until they were both warm. It was now dark outside, and they had many hours until the dawn.
"Sleep," Jamin whispered to him. "Sleep, and I will bide my time until the next time you awaken."
He curled up in Lucifer's arms and stared into the darkness. What should he do? Kill him now, when the man had found a little peace? No. He could not do it. He'd been given a mission and twice he had failed. If he could not put the man out of his misery, then he had to protect him … but how? How could you protect someone from a mind-reading demon who could seize possession of your body?
Jamin drifted off to sleep.
Cold, blue lips touched his.
'Oblitus…'
In his dreams, he tucked the memory of what had just happened into the treasure box and shut the lid, just like his mother had trained him to do since birth.
~ * ~ * ~
Chapter 92
February: 3,389 BC
Earth: Village of Assur
Mikhail
He sat across the chessboard from the small, dark-winged Angelic. Beside them a timer counted out the seconds until the boy had to make his move. The boy did not speak, but then he never did.
"Tá sé do bhogadh, Gabriel," Mikhail said. He pointed to the timer. "Tá tú beagnach as am."
Those sullen blue eyes were angry because he did not yet understand the game. With a chubby little hand, he picked up his black bishop and made an L-shaped move across the chess board to capture Mikhail's white queen.
"Mo banríon!" Mikhail pointed to the black bishop. "Ní sin an tslí go bhfuil píosa fichille ceaptha a bhogadh."
He stared at the timer ticking at the side of the chessboard, counting out the seconds until he could crush his opponent. The boy's lower lip quivered as he projected an image of him being -mean- directly into his mind. With a chubby arm, the boy stood up and swept the chess pieces onto the floor.
The whistle of an impulse engine as it shifted from forward-thrusters to VTOL cut into his subconscious.
There was a knock upon the door.
"Mikhail!" Mama called, her voice filled with terror. "Tá muid faoi ionsaí! Tóg Gabriel agus é a fháil amach anseo!"
The door crashed open.
Mama screamed...
Mikhail woke up from a dead sleep. Those were Alliance impulse engines! He rolled out of bed. A lifetime of training caused him to grab his boots, his pulse rifle and his sword as he headed for the door.
"Needa!" he shouted at the top of his lungs. "We've got to go!"
He burst into her bedroom and dragged her out of her bed, not even pausing to wrap her up in her shawl-dress, but picked her up and carried her, naked beneath her blanket as he bolted towards the stairs. The walls of Immanu's house shuddered as the ships flew overhead. Needa shouted and hit at him, thinking he was an assailant. He leaped down the stairwell, wings flared instead of taking the steps, and thumped down onto the floor, dropping his mother-in-law into a heap.
"Get out of here!" He shoved her towards the front door. "Now!"
He heard the hum of a pulse cannon charging as it prepared to fire. Needa yanked the door open.
"Mama!"
He leaped towards her and tackled her out the door, flapping his wings as hard as he could to get some distance between him and the house. Blue-white light from a pulse-cannon shot through the sky and vaporized what used to be Immanu’s home. The shockwave from the explosion knocked him out of the air. Instinctively, he covered Ninsianna’s mother with his wings to shield her from the flaming debris.
They both lay there, staring at the sky.
“My gods….” Needa whispered, too shocked to move. The spacecraft maneuvered to the next house and begin to surgically take out similar targets all over the village. “You spoke of it … but….”
Mikhail patted out a small fire which had taken spark on some of his feathers, and then grabbed his pulse rifle, the one he'd been saving for a rainy day. He took aim at the small, civilian Alliance transport vessel nicknamed a ‘devil cruiser’ because of the single pulse cannon included in its design, and aimed for a spot he knew such ships were vulnerable. Devil cruisers were not gunships per se. They were not hardened targ
ets. Wealthy merchants used them to fight their way out of a tense situation if they got jumped by pirates.
Clicking a prayer for clear headedness and true aim, he waited until the devil cruiser banked towards his position, exposing the underbelly. He took aim at a spot immediately before one of the engines where he knew a stream of plasma ran just under the hull, and fired. The pulse rifle’s blast was moderate, just barely punching through the metal plating and whatever lay underneath it, but the punctured stream of plasma feeding the engines was enough to knock that engine out of commission.
The ship began to spin out of control. An explosion rocked the wounded engine as the pilot shut the engine down and used the second engine to limp out of there. In space, the devil cruiser would have been able to keep maneuvering on just one engine, but in the gravity of a planet as large as Earth, it was all it could do to remain airborne. Lucifer would not risk his own personal devil cruiser to cover a Sata’an invasion. That vessel was done fighting for the day.
Needa stared at the modern weapon she had watched her son-in-law carry for a year without using with an awestruck expression while he checked the power charge. There was, he prayed, enough for one or two more shots. He took aim at a second, smaller Sata’an ship armed with a rail gun and fired for a spot he knew that class of ships was vulnerable.
That ship, as the first one, could not maneuver effectively within a planet's atmosphere on only one engine. Sata’an protocol was to abandon the ground troops to fight to the death or win rather than allow a key asset to fall into enemy hands. The second ship moved away from the village, also done for the day.
Needa gave an ululating war whoop.
“Don’t cheer yet!” Mikhail shouted. “Get to the Chief and tell him to start the notification tree! This is just shock and awe! The real threat comes just before the dawn! Siamek knows what to do!”
Needa nodded. She hurried up towards the central square, wearing nothing but her blanket clutched precariously to her torso. Mikhail found his combat boots and paused long enough to yank them on before leaping into the air. Just outside the village flew a third, much larger Sata'anic vessel which flew a formation he recognized as providing air support to whoever was about to raid their village.
Sword of the Gods: Agents of Ki (Sword of the Gods Saga) Page 92