by Marata Eros
Braedan shifted his eyes and the light bled to the marble. The dazzling display was lost to the indifferent audience of marble. Braedan put his back to the tall windows where the sunlight streamed in. He finally answered the question, “I do not know. But it is an interesting thought. Let us explore the facts as we know them.”
Nolen nodded, his pacing momentarily discontinued. He folded his arms across a muscled chest, his horn and dagger swinging at his hips with the movement. Nolen watched his leader, deep in thought with planning their strategy and did not gaze upon his eyes a second time. They had been vested directly by Him. And those eyes held every color, and could pierce and enemy, forcing truth from them, and agony to lies. In darkness they appeared silver, in sunlight they were as if a prism lay shattered. The broken slivers of sparkling rainbow were a weapon which could cut and bleed. Even the purely angelic were not safe. It was the human equivalent of gazing upon the sun.
“First,” Braedan's eyes flicked to his right hand angel, then away, “he is both demon and angel warrior.” Nolen's eyes widened at his suspicions confirmed, and it was worth round eyes like saucers. “Second, he has a female of angelic blood. Third, and this is most critical- that he could find her, a proverbial needle in the haystack, smacks of the gift of discernment.”
Nolen sucked in a breath. “We know from which line he hails.”
Braedan nodded. “Yes.” Their eyes met for a heartbeat then Braedan broke contact. “We will proceed, but with caution.”
“For he might be the One.”
Braedan sighed, daring to hope even further. “He might be the savior of the warriors of heaven.”
Nolen stepped forward, not bothering to shield his eyes. “He could locate our females. The Walkers.”
Braedan nodded again, clapping his hands on his brother in arm's shoulders. “Yes.”
“Let us embrace hope then.”
Braedan inclined his head. “Let us leave doubt to below.”
They moved through the archway together, their wings mingling at the tips, one ebony and one a deep cream. Their dual purpose set.
Purity.
*
Brolach
The fine hairs on the nape of his neck began to lift, biting through the desire to bed the female he held fast in his arms. Brolach's tattooed mark of healing was upon her body and warmed his palm. There was no way to deny what he had done.
Ruby made small protesting noises as his lips lifted from hers, trying to sink back into his mouth but he held her away from him.
“Please,” Ruby said and Brolach caught her eyes with his own.
“Listen,” he said, the heat of his expression fading to wariness.
Ruby looked around, seeing nothing, she made a face at him but Brolach didn't relinquish his tense and vigilant posture.
“I don't hear anything. We're safe,” she said, because Ruby did feel safe with Brolach. He was a demon. Or an angel... it didn't matter. He'd saved her and Ruby didn't think he'd hand her over to her father. No matter what. And hadn't that been who she'd spent the last two years of her life running from? What he was didn't seem as important as who he was to Ruby.
Brolach gave a soft hiss and Ruby watched horns grow from nubs to five inch long, slightly curved protrusions of black. If it hadn't been for the streetlight, they would have been too shadowed for her to notice. She whipped around, her back against Brolach's chest and there... there was Damon and the same minions they'd just fought only hours before.
“How did they find us?” she asked in a wounded whisper.
“How did they find us?” parroted Damon as he approached. “Pathetic, Daughter. That a child of my loins would go unnoticed just miles away. Besides, I've had my
petite tête-à-tête with Lucas... and he has shown me how to look for you with greater accuracy.”
Brolach moved to put Ruby behind himself and she resisted. “No, let me help you.” But Brolach shook his head even as her father smirked in self-satisfaction.
“You are female, to be bred and taken by all. You are not a warrior Ruby,” Damon announced, his voice a grating chastisement on her nerves.
Brolach's eyes narrowed, scanning the six other minions who accompanied Damon. Damon he could easily dispatch with horns, vapor and talons. It was the other six who would possibly tip the scales in their favor.
“Ruby,” Brolach said beside her ear. “Do as I say, flame of my....”
“Don't listen to that Ruby. He is demon, he lies. Come with me,” Damon stuck his hand out toward her, his eyes burning to a low ember inside his skull. Ruby saw only dim-burning blue flame where his eyes should have been.
“And what are you?” she asked, clinging harder to Brolach, peeking out at her father from Brolach's broad chest. “A liar and a murderer. I think not! You, you... cock suck!” she shrieked at him, hot tears running down a face Brolach had just caressed.
“You have your answer, Damon.” He kept Ruby close, just in case her emotions ruled and she thought to go near him.
Damon dropped his hand and stared at Brolach, his scathing gaze moving away from Ruby's righteous anger. “You will be taken alive. Lucas has much to discuss with you.”
I am certain he is right, Brolach thought. But that meeting would never take place. Brolach knew he would live long while tortured. Perhaps the Dark King would mete it himself.
“Ruby,” Brolach said against her ear. “Run!”
“No Brolach,” she whispered, so tired of running her bones ached with the very idea of it.
“I will find you,” he promised and Ruby, her soul shattered by hope stolen, spun. She began to run in the opposite direction. The wind and cool night air laid hold to her meager wardrobe, her fear fueled her flight, her sadness staggered her. Ruby ran.
Brolach watched the devil's minion flock to chase the demon female and he crouched to spring at them.
When the air shimmered above Brolach he felt it like a molten caress of heat and light and instinctively threw his hands above his head. But instead of a fiery surprise, Brolach tried to make his mind believe what his eyes told him.
Angels, as big as he, appeared above him, their wings over six feet in width as they hovered, the dark throng moving underfoot. Brolach was amazed by how their wings almost touched the other, they moved in harmony like one body.
Brolach looked away, his eyes moving to where Ruby had been and caught a pale glimpse of hair in flight, a wayward flag of platinum as she sprinted away.
He must kill those in pursuit.
Brolach had put away the wings of his angelic roots when he and Ruby were entangled in their passion but now in a painful burst of instant unfurling, they burst from his back. As the first minion dove at him, he swept the male with a feathered and muscled wing, the demon sailing into a nearby wall, driven into it with what could be a tender rescuer, but was now brutal in battle. But war was always savage and Brolach employed that now.
Brolach scooped and drove two others into the wall, his eyes on the battle before him, not the one above. If the angel warriors meant to kill him, then they would have already struck. They were the primary enemies of below, of course. But at this time, they seemed intent on other matters.
It was only when Ruby screamed that Brolach broke from the third minion, jerking his battle horns out of the sternum of the one and goring the second before the male could pick himself off the ground. Brolach stood and turned, black demon's blood dripping from his horns and soaking the top of his head. It began to run dangerously close to his eyes and he jerked his head to the side and the blood flew, splattering the ground at his feet. Brolach swept his wings aside and without a conscious thought, the wings expanded fully, swinging wide. Brolach took a running leap, the wings carrying him low and steady across a street that was dead but for the demon war which waged below.
“Brolach!” Ruby gave a panicked scream into the still air and he saw where she was. She'd almost been free from harm. Brolach's strong wings were new and they felt like an ill-used t
ool. He made a crash landing, jerking the wings close to his body as he made an expert roll and charge, bounding up to a walking stride.
Then he ran to Ruby.
Two demon minions were seated on Ruby, one on each arm and Brolach wailed a guttural warning from deep in his gut and they flinched in pain at a warrior of Hades lashing them with his burning reprimand.
They would not have her.
Then there were two beside Brolach. He had time to register their presence but not nearly enough to respond. His vision had narrowed to the female in front of him.
Blood of his blood.
“Halo!” bellowed the angel with wings that glowed like milk in the night. Brolach wasted a glance on him as a searing pain, a circle of fire, erupted from his head and Brolach plunged to his knees. The agony making him immobile for dire seconds he could have been at Ruby's side.
Critical seconds while Ruby screamed in the background and his own blood ran into his eyes.
What new curse was this? Brolach wondered, staggering to his feet and swiping the burning of his blood from his vision.
He stopped in his tracks, frozen, as the pair of angels stood before the dark minion. The one with wings as black as Brolach's own grabbed something that floated, as if on invisible strings, just a few inches above the crown of his head.
It was an iridescent disc. It was opaque but when the warrior's fingers touched the surface, it grew solid. With an expert toss he threw it at the minion on the right, and the other warrior tossed one a breath later, though colored differently it didn't seem to matter for the result.
In the midst of Ruby's hiccuping sobs, their howls drowned out the sound of her fear, the discs embedded in their red flesh.
The halos did not remain stationary but continued to bore, reaching for the other side of the demons' bodies through the torso they'd plunged into. They let go of Ruby, rolling away from her, trying to tear the offensive halos out of their bodies and wailing as the discs of light shredded their hands to ribbons from barbs sprung all around the perimeters.
Ruby came running for Brolach and he rushed to meet her as Damon blindsided them all. He used the minion to distract them and had waited for the perfect opening.
“No!” Brolach bellowed into the air as Damon tackled Ruby, wrapping her up in his arms. They rolled together and when they came to a stop he locked gazes with Brolach. Ruby's eyes pegged on him with an intensity that burned him where he stood.
“Oh yes, fire traitor,” Damon said in the quiet voice of the triumphant. Fire burst around them in a circle, Ruby struggling against her father.
“Nolen,” the angel with pale wings commanded.
“My captain,” Nolen replied as Brolach moved to the fire.
“Use the gilded horn.”
Brolach moved to the circle of fire, his eyes shifting to Ruby's. “Help me, Brolach...” she whimpered, hope and fear equal in that beseeching gaze.
“I shall, I promise it,” Brolach said, easily stepping into the fire to wrest Ruby from her debauched father.
When the horn sounded it caused a ringing agony inside Brolach's head, but he watched blood burst from the eardrums of Ruby's father, his screams as heinous as the gore that leaked from the holes in his skull.
But they were too late, as the agony of the trumpet from heaven sounded, a pop of reverse air pressure sounded in the well of musical sound and Brolach had time to watch Damon's arms convulse around Ruby and her eyes grew big inside her face in understanding as her form shimmered before him, no longer solid. They reached for each other, her fingers fading in and out as his passed through the mist of where hers had been.
Then she was gone, his Ruby taken.
The jewel of the soul he'd discovered he had.
Brolach collapsed to his knees, his head on fire, ears thudding in a dull aching pain.
He did not hear the horn when it stopped. Nor did he feel the hand fall to his shoulder in reassurance.
It was just weight. And it was not weightier than that of his leaden heart.
4
Lucas
Lucas could feel his own heat spiral from his mouth when his lips twitched into a delighted smile, his cock giving a happy nod at the sight of Damon and his demonspawn daughter half-breed. Oh happy day, Lucas thought, I will taste of a part-blood, always a delicacy.
She fought Damon, that she did. Delicately constructed wrists turning inside a grip he could not maintain. Lucas frowned, she was clever at escape, she would need special bindings. That could be done easily; Lucas was very much into a little tie me down.
Or a lot, as the case may be.
Lucas allowed his eyes to roam over the newest member of the female breeders he would keep within his dark harem. If he were not looking for it, he would not have known that she was demon at all. The telltale pink in her fair skin could be attributed to the ruddy complexion so many fair-haired humans had. However, once exposed to the Halls of Hades, that same skin began a slow smolder, the skin deepening to a pale red. Her eyes were as wide as a colt preparing to bolt, showing too much white as she tore herself away from her biological father.
Lucas' eyes narrowed. He would not tolerate inbreeding. Though it was technically Damon's right to breed his own daughter, that would not be allowed in this case. She was too mixed, too diverse to be wasted on a part- demon lackey. Though Damon was at the top of that particular heap, as the humans were so quick to put it, it was a heap that Lucas wiped his feet upon.
Ruby sprinted back the way they had come, racing through the tunnel- like maze with an unerring accuracy.
Lucas' eyes became slits in his head, low embers of blue flame the only visible light from his face, so dark was the red of his flesh. He recognized she should not know her way out of the entrance to Hades.
There could be only one reason for that.
The breeder was more than she seemed. His smile matched his joy. It would be truly sublime to degrade the angelic. He felt the barbs of his war phallus sprout. It perturbed Lucas greatly that those would recede during a fucking with the demonic female. It was as though, her very essence quenched the battle lust just long enough that his tail spikes would retract. It would be so wonderful if he could but let them stay and cause the kind of real damage he so wished to.
If the female were not so demon in her veins, that might be possible. At the very least, if she were a virgin, then the spike could be employed to tear out that which protected her innocence.
His excellent vision sought Ruby as her pale hair ran in streamers behind her, Damon gaining two steps for her one.
Lucas crouched, talons, horns and tail engaged for a race after just one instead of many.
Steam unfurled as his feet left the ground and he hopped at six foot intervals. The stones hissed as he landed then hopped again, his tail whipping like a lash behind him, lending balance as he moved. Lucas was almost leisurely in his pursuit, the walls glowed from the heat of the stone, casting a strange light like fire burned down to embers as he watched Ruby latch onto the handle to the outside.
It was made of angelic halos, trophies of the victories his kind had managed over those from above. The razor's edge of the halos were fully sprung for they had been taken in battle, engaged inside the demonic flesh they'd been flung into. After slaying the angel who the halo was a part of, that barbed form remained. Let it be a reminder for every demon who passed this way; taste the bite of those from above. The perimeter of the half circle which lay outside of the hand-forged door of iron was like piercing nettles to those of demon blood. Whenever they transgressed the entrance from Hades to the earthen realm, they would be reminded that their sworn enemies from above roamed the same plane as they, and hunted for the same prey.
Those from above, as well as those from below, did not possess enough females for true procreation. It was only now, that numbers grew so scarce that the rogue demon or angel, who eschewed their lineage and bred with humans, had laid their seed high and wide in the human realm. It was this illicit s
pawn of the groups that allowed a chance to repopulate both realms, below and above.
It was a race to grow enough numbers of warriors from below to finally defeat those from above. An age old equation in need of solving, in Lucas' opinion. The likelihood of a part-blood demon female roaming the earth who also possessed angelic blood was so rare that Lucas had never encountered one. In fact, as long lived as full-blood demons were, in his three century lifespan, he had not heard of it.
Yet, here she was. The proof was in her flesh as Lucas hopped a last time, twenty paces from where Ruby stood and watched her hand reach for the twin halos, half moons which were welded midway into the door, perfectly intersecting each other in a loose X formation.
Lucas waited for her untried blood to coat that knifed edge. He licked his lips as Damon halted as well, his chest heaving with exertion, though Ruby's did not.
Lucas had received the report, she was a dancer at Fred's human club of decadence (though well outfitted with choice demon minions). Apparently, that made her in excellent shape as she flashed her deep wet sex and upturned pink nipples at the demons who so often flocked to such places.
“There is no escape female,” Lucas said in a mild voice and hissed when she flipped him off. It was not a hand gesture the demons used.
It simply took too much time. If a demon wished to fight with another, they simply did. If they wished a duel to the death, the tail tip would be taken from their adversary as the trophy it was, then hung from a spiked nail in the wall of their quarters to remember the victory.
However, Lucas had been in the world of humans enough to correctly interpret the insulting dismissal.
He strode closer to Ruby at the door, casually backhanding Damon so that he fell back against the heated wall, his chest a disaster of blood from the talons that had just shredded his skin.