by Darcy Town
Paimon smiled. “I killed a lot of people in my search for it, and I cut a lot of fingers off myself, in your honor of course. It took me a good couple of decades to get it back.” Paimon touched the metal. “But that won’t be a problem anymore because I upgraded the band with a tracking device. No more lost ring, no more lost Furcas. I probably can even find you in Hell.”
Furcas made a face. “The ring has a tracking device in it? You are a paranoid creep.”
“Yes, I am.” Paimon grinned and pulled out a matching band. “I know I’m not supposed to wear this yet, but mine has one too.” He handed the ring to Furcas. “If you would do me the honor.”
Furcas kissed Paimon and bit his lip as he slipped the ring onto Paimon’s left hand ring finger. Both Archangels stared at their hands. Furcas frowned. “My ring reacts to yours like a magnet.”
“Yes, you’ll feel a tug whatever direction I’m in.” Paimon circled to show the effect. “Neat huh?”
Furcas smiled. “You can’t run away again.”
Paimon ran his fingers through his hair. “Not successfully, I can’t even take it off to try.”
“How did you do that?”
“Same way the bracelet works. I got Titan to modify both. Cut the finger off, the ring grows back on the new finger. That part I thought of. We’ll never be lost to each other again.”
Furcas looked over his shoulder, frowned, and wrapped his arms around Paimon. “We’re about to get mauled.”
“Right.” Paimon threw out his arms and the area around them exploded. Wailers between them and Earth slammed into the shield and dissolved into motes of light. Paimon bit Furcas’ cheek. “Happy?”
“You cannot imagine.” Furcas wiped tears out of his eyes. “Why wait so long?”
“I was terrified you would say no actually.” Paimon unsnapped his bracelet. “I don’t think we don’t need this anymore.”
Furcas nodded. “May I have it?”
“Of course.” Paimon handed him both ends.
Furcas focused on the bracelet, each end grew a sapphire disk, hair thin, dark and razor-sharp. He twisted the chain, slicing the air on either side. He gazed over at his jeweled angels; they took the hint and made similar weapons. Furcas smiled at Paimon. “Now, back to work?”
Paimon nodded. “Indeed, we are guilty of dereliction of duty.” He scanned the skies. “Now where is that shark-toothed bitch? I want to bring Bean her head.”
***
Bean flew through irregular light and shifting winds. The sunshade was in place above the red shield, so she could no longer depend on the stars for direction. Explosions lit up the sky. Bean looked up and smiled, recognizing Paimon’s handiwork. “You guys get all the fucking fun.”
The sky went dark as Ra and Ifrit regrouped their energy. Bean looked down towards the forest; shadows were dark as a night with no moon. She swept her gaze back and forth. Bean detected movement and hovered in place, but it was only a deer. She sighed; her breath misted in the frigid air.
A hand went over her mouth, a fist to her temple. A body drove Bean into the ground, crashing through branches on the way down. She hit the earth and the wind was knocked out of her. Dazed, her vision blurred. Explosions colored the sky green. Bean pressed herself up and held her bleeding head; one of her wings was broken and cocked at an angle. She was not afraid, only surprised. “What just—”
Jegudiel grabbed her wings, breaking another while flipping her onto her back. Bean cried out, the pain like nothing she had experienced before. Ra lit up the sky and Bean saw his face clearly, dark eyes, fangs out. There was none of the Jegudiel she knew in his expression. Terror-stricken, she parted her lips to whistle for Helion.
Jegudiel dropped on her, cutting her whistle off with a kiss. He pulled back and punched her in the throat. He covered her mouth with one hand. “Hello, Bean darling.”
Bean struggled against him, but he was strong, stronger than she’d ever seen him before. Jegudiel was wreathed in black shadows. None of his gold light remained, none of his love. He leered at her, the look in his eyes made her heart pound in terror.
Jegudiel touched his nose to hers. “I see you have already partially undressed.” He caressed her arms with his free hand. “Are you out looking to fuck something, slut, or did you just get done whoring yourself around?” He lifted his hand slightly so that she could answer. “Try and scream again and I will rip your throat out.”
Bean trembled underneath him. “No, I haven’t done that with anyone, Jegudiel. I don’t want that, I don’t want to be that way! I told you this. I love you.”
“Ah, no one in Eden wants to touch you.” He smiled. “So you have to come abroad, perhaps to fuck the animals?”
Bean shook her head frantically. “I was looking for you!”
“Me?” Jegudiel grinned. “To try and persuade me again?” He licked his teeth. “I do not need persuading.” He pressed his body to hers rubbing up against her. “I have decided on you.”
Bean went rigid. “What?”
Jegudiel grabbed her wrists, pinning them above her head. “Why have you made yourself so ugly? I was expecting you soft and sweet.” He looked at her wounds and hair. “You have done my work for me.” He dug a finger into her cheek, gouging the flesh. “Though I suppose I can always add.”
Bean blinked against the pain. She pushed against him. “Jegudiel, stop! You’re hurting me!”
Jegudiel licked the blood from her face. “Am I?”
“Yes.” Bean shook as Jegudiel grinned at her response. She panted in fear. “Jegudiel, please just think for a minute, please.”
Jegudiel inhaled, taking in her fear. “I have done plenty of thinking.” He pressed his thumbs into her muscles, pressing into the bone. He watched her flinch and smiled.
“Stop!” Bean kneed him in the chest. His ribs broke on impact, a wet crunch.
Jegudiel hissed and punched her in the face. “What? Changed your mind?” He punched her in the stomach, enjoying the sensation. “You don’t get to, Bean! You don’t get to try to assault someone, to try and seduce them, and then stop in the middle.”
“I said I was sorry for that! I realized I was wrong!”
Jegudiel bit part of her ear off, savoring her muffled screams. “The only one that gets to change their mind is me, Bean. Because I am in control now, not you. I get to say what I do to you.”
Jegudiel ripped off the remainder of her shirt, groped and scratched at her chest. “You are mine now, my object.” He bit her cheek open and trailed bloody kisses to her neck. “I realized that you need an education. Your behavior spoke volumes about your lack of experience and your lack of empathy. You are like an animal in heat, with no understanding. So I will graciously give it to you, I will show you what it’s like, Bean.” He kicked off his pants. “I will be your first, and you’ll remember me when you’re with all the others.”
“Jegudiel, don’t!” Bean pushed at his hands. “Please!”
Jegudiel pulled her shorts off and looked her over. He watched her struggle. “Bean, don’t you want this anymore?”
“No—”
“Good.” He cut her off with another biting kiss. He ran his hands across her body. “I felt as you did now.” He reveled in the fear in her eyes. “Afraid, no one to help you, violated.” He bit on a breast, drawing blood. “But you haven’t been violated yet.” He slipped his hand down between her legs.
“Yoshi!” Tears poured down her face. “Please don’t do this to me.”
“I begged too, Bean. That didn’t stop you did it?” He looked for the realization there. “Yes, you remember what you did. You didn’t stop when I asked. So why should I? Please, Bean. Tell me. Why should I be any different than you were? Why should I be any better than you?”
“I was in the wrong! I’m sorry!”
Jegudiel smiled. “Aw, another apology. Too late though. You already proved just how little you valued us, me, and yourself. I’m afraid I’ve become like you now.”
�
�I didn’t know better! I didn’t know how you felt! Please, Jegudiel. I was just a child! You’re not!”
He nodded. “That’s why I am going to do this, Bean. So that you’ll know. This is for your own good. You’ll understand what you did and perhaps, maybe I’ll understand you just a bit better. I will be getting to know you intimately after all.”
Bean pleaded with him, “Yoshi, please, you’re just sick. You’re not yourself right now; you don’t really want to do this. We can talk; we can get you all better so that you’re not sick anymore.”
Jegudiel sneered. “Sick? No, I was sick. I was weak, but I’m strong now.” He pressed her legs open and moved in between them. “I am much stronger than you. How about I show you how much?”
Helion landed in the clearing behind Jegudiel. He grabbed Jegudiel’s hair and wrenched his head back. He clapped a hand over Jegudiel’s mouth. “Bean, leave now.”
Bean scrambled to her feet and grabbed at her clothing. “I did not have time to whistle. He surprised me.”
Jegudiel kicked at Helion, scratched his skin. Helion ignored him. “I know, Bean. It is okay. Go and run back to the city now. Do not stop for anything.”
Bean gaped at Jegudiel as he continued to struggle. “What are you going to do with him?”
“That is between him and me. Do not, under any circumstance, share this story with your parents if you want him to live. I leave that choice with you, but they will not spare him if they learn of this attempt.”
“I won’t say anything!” Bean looked at Jegudiel. “I know you’re just sick, Jegudiel. I know this isn’t you.” She turned and took to the air.
Helion threw Jegudiel into the ground and sat on his stomach. “You!” He slapped Jegudiel. “Need to wake up.”
Jegudiel bared his teeth. “You interrupted me, Helion! That is not right! I was to consummate our relationship. She wanted it, Helion.” He shoved at Helion, but could not budge him. “Move and let me have her!”
Helion leaned over Jegudiel. “You are not going anywhere, Jegudiel, until you return to yourself.”
“I am fine! Get off of me!” Jegudiel stared at Bean’s retreating form. “Bean! Bean, come back! Helion is hurting me, Bean! Bean, help me!” Bean faltered in the air.
Helion put both hands around Jegudiel’s throat. “Bean, keep going!” She flew on. Helion squeezed his neck. “You are not yourself.”
“I do not want to return to myself.” Jegudiel hissed. “I am stronger this way, better!”
“Listen to yourself! You tried to rape her! That’s what you want to be?”
“So? She tried to do the same with me. I was just giving her back what she gave to me.” Jegudiel snapped his teeth at Helion. “She’s nothing but garbage anyways, and she loves me, Helion. That means I am no better!” He burst into tears. “She doesn’t mean anything to me! I don’t mean anything to her! We deserve this.”
“Is that what you tell yourself to justify your behavior? That she deserves it?”
“She does! Why else did she come to me?”
“She was trying to save you because, if you have not noticed, the attack has started!”
Jegudiel ignored him, his thoughts fixated on her. “Prancing around, trying to seduce others. Did you see her clothes? She wanted me to desire her and she has wanted me to desire her as long as she has known me. Now when I act on that, she recoils? I think not, she is playing another game.”
Helion ground his teeth. “Jegudiel, I do not have much patience on this topic. Having my sister’s memories your language is very similar to Uriel’s. It brings about a particular violence to my thoughts.”
Jegudiel gaped. “No, no that situation was different.”
“How?”
“Belial was innocent; she and Andy were in love. Uriel was an interloper, a thief, stealing her from him. Bean has already given herself to me. I cannot steal what is mine.”
“Bean is innocent and inexperienced.”
Jegudiel sneered. “Hardly. She tried to rape me first! Did she tell you that? The only reason she failed is because her fathers prevented it. She deserves to know what it felt like to be afraid.” Jegudiel sobbed. “She needs to know what I felt! What she caused me to feel!”
Helion put a knee to Jegudiel’s throat to free his hands. He pinned Jegudiel’s wrists to the ground. “She frightened you and so you retreated. You built walls and defenses, you are upset by her.” Helion caught his gaze. “But she is different now so you can come out from behind this miasma.”
“No!” Jegudiel sucked in air and denied it. “No! I am not afraid anymore! I am stronger than she is! I am in control! I am the strong one now! I say how things will go; I will do what I want.”
“So you hurt her, Jegudiel? She hurt herself after you left because of what you said!”
“Good! My words were meant to hurt her! I hope she never forgets them!”
Helion lifted Jegudiel up and slammed his head to the ground. “Listen to your words! This is not the Jegudiel I have known! You are kind. You champion the weak and innocent. You do not take advantage of them!”
“And what did that get me? I was kind to her and she attacked me! She hurt me!”
“When she spoke with you before you left, was she trying to hurt you?”
“Yes she was—”
Helion snarled. “You are honest with me while we talk! Was she trying to hurt you, Jegudiel?”
Jegudiel sputtered and his eyes returned to blue. “She was trying to apologize to me.”
“Tell me why.”
“She was embarrassed by her actions, afraid that I would not forgive her. She had changed from her talk with her parents.”
“So what did you do?”
“I saw that fear and vulnerability and it made me feel good, so I pushed, I made it worse.” Jegudiel closed his eyes, his soul entangled in shame. “I felt satisfied when I hurt her, and I wanted to harm her more and more as my desires and thoughts turned to sadism. I—I kissed her; I would have fucked her there and then made her feel worse for it, but I—” Jegudiel gagged and could not continue.
“What, Jegudiel? What stopped you?”
“I was sickened. I ran to get away.” Jegudiel snarled, his eyes wild and black once more. “She made me feel ill, that I could want something as depraved as she is! She is vile and disgusting!”
“You are disgusting and vile!” Helion slapped Jegudiel across the face. “She made you feel nothing; you made yourself ill with your horrid actions. You disgusted yourself! Your feelings of rage are for you alone! You are deranged.”
“I am free!”
“Free?”
“Free from being vulnerable to her or any other woman. I am going to go my own way. I’ll never be stupid enough to love anyone again!”
“Then you did love her.”
Jegudiel glared at him. “In the past when I was weak. I do not love her anymore.”
“If you do not, why just not leave her alone entirely? Ignore her. Why do you seek to harm her still?” Helion shook him.
“So that she won’t do that with anyone else.”
“Try to assault them? No, she won’t and you can see that clearly. She is repentant.”
“I don’t want her to be with anyone, at all, ever.” Jegudiel fought against telling Helion the truth, but he could not tell a lie. “I want her to remain mine. I will not be with her, but I want her with no others. I want her to be alone, unhappy as I am.”
Helion’s eyes grew dark. “You seek to damage her as much as Belial was so that the thought of sex and of love repels her.”
Jegudiel bit his tongue, but he couldn’t hold it back. “Yes. She ruined love for me. I seek to ruin it for her. We can be ruined together.”
Helion slammed Jegudiel’s head into the ground. “Jegudiel, I am struggling. Please help me.”
“Struggling?”
“I am trying to save you, for yourself, but also so that Paimon and Furcas do not kill you. But, now I find myself wanting to harm
you a great deal.” He trembled. “I am not the one that should be doing this, but no one else is here. So please, do not make me do something I will regret.”
“Helion, I cannot be any other way than I am now.” Jegudiel grabbed at him. “She betrayed my trust and my feelings and so it is only right that she is betrayed as well. We suffer together, as lovers should.”
Helion’s eyes blazed blue. “You are not lovers! And even if you were, lovers support each other in the bad times. They raise each other up! You do not bring each other down!”
“I didn’t bring her down!” Jegudiel went red in the face. “She was already down in the mire since birth! All I have done is join her there. I have sunk down into her mess because she cannot be anything but disgusting! So I am now equal to her! Shouldn’t that be what partners are? Equals?”
“If she was down in the mire why did you not try and lift her up?”
“That is impossible!”
“What happened to love triumphs over all adversity? Why are you able to see this clearly with others but you are so easily hurt and broken by hardship when it is your own?”
Jegudiel blinked. “I was not prepared for it. Helion, I should have fallen in love with a good woman. I am the Archangel of Love. My love should have been pure and the one I love should have been pure. Bean is the last person that I should be with. Her desires and will…they are the opposite of mine. She is everything that I despise about relationships that are made from sex and lust only. This, her, it ruins it. How can I rule over the ward of love if I cannot have a love that is good? And that I desire her,” Jegudiel wailed. “Means that I am not worthy of being the Archangel of Love and so I have cast off that mantle.”
Helion snarled. “The Archangel of Love should have the hardest trials in the matter! You are to be a beacon of what can be overcome by love! You are supposed to be an example to others, not a fucking warning!” Helion shook him. “If you of all people cannot do this, what fucking chance do the rest of us have at happiness?”
Jegudiel sobbed. “She’s not right for me, Helion!”
“And you’re not right for anyone! Sounds like a fucking perfect match!” Helion lifted him off the ground. “Do you love her still?”