Absolution At Dawn

by Eryn Black

  Fury and rage fueled the burning desire under his skin as his jealousy ruled his actions. With a clap of thunder the roof tiles trembled and the windows shook, and one window in particular flew open as rain began to fall. Azrael hovered outside the open window, his arms stretched out inviting the cold rain to wash over him in the hopes that it would cleanse him of the pain from her betrayal. He waited until she crossed in front of the window, her bare skin radiant in the afterglow of sex. She stood in the open window without shame of her exposed naked body just as she had so many times in his presence. Their eyes met and for a moment his anger softened, but then he appeared, the fisherman, wrapping his arms around Aurora’s waist and leaning his head down to kiss her bare shoulder.

  “Wait!” she called out to Azrael, seeing the growing danger in his eyes.

  Lightning struck down from above and with a winding motion, he threw his arms forward, sending the lightning through the window, shattering the wall of the humble dwelling and striking the man in the center of his chest, sending him to fly off his feet and across the room. The innocent fisherman hit the wall across the bedroom and remained there, his arms and legs spread out and his face frozen in an expression locked between fear and surprise. Azrael flew past Aurora, ignoring her protests and screams, reaching into the man’s chest and extracting the glowing light of his soul sealing his fate and Azrael’s doom.

  “No!” Aurora cried as she watched the spiritual form of the kind fisherman look around in his ghostly form. He saw her and smiled with an innocent trust that only helped to project the depth of Azrael’s betrayal.

  “Put him back!” Aurora demanded, but Azrael looked at her in surprise. “Put him back! You must make this right! It is not his time, if you do not do this then it is murder.”

  “Then you had best prepare yourself, as you are the cause of his demise,” he spat back at her, his jealousy had possessed him, consumed all the goodness and nobility that had once filled him leaving him an empty monster of death.

  Azrael reached out to the man’s hand, looking into his oblivious face and assured him not to fear and guided him toward the light that shone down through the rain, inviting him with a warm welcoming glow. Azrael looked back at Aurora with one final condemning glare before he turned back to the light ready to escort his former rival on, but when he tried to enter the light he was burned, scalded. The searing pain of burning flesh sent Azrael to fall back from the light, he looked down at the smoldering mark on his arm and watched it heal, the skin repairing itself until the angry burned markings vanished. He stood up and walked again to the light, this time with added determination and forcefulness that brought him past the perimeter and into the center of the celestial light, but rather than being filled with the warm inviting love of the light he felt as though his entire body was combusting from the inside out, like a ball of fire that exploded from the center of his heart leaving only dead ashes behind and threatening to incinerate his entire body and soul.

  “Stop,” Aurora pleaded, reaching into the light, her perfect skin unharmed by the light, invoking her angelic peace. “Please, stop,” she fired up into the light, begging for compassion.

  Azrael flailed about in pain as his skin began to bubble and burst, releasing flames from inside his body as he continued to implode. She wrapped her arms under his, pulling him with all her might from the center of the light immune to the flames consuming him. Aurora pushed her feet off of the floor, propelling them into the air and out of the light. They landed hard on the floor and Azrael rolled over onto one side, fragile and weak, smoke lifting up from the open wounds that quickly began to heal, but only skin deep. He lay in agony as he felt his body change, rather than healing to his natural self, he felt a twisting pain from the cavity where his heart had been that stretched out through his body, running through his veins like an acid flushing out his blood. He cried out in pain, rolling over, arching his back and throwing his head back as his jaw cracked and stretched, his teeth shattered in his mouth as new teeth grew in their place. Fangs extended down from the upper ridge of his jaw, sharp, deadly fangs that resembled the frightful jaws of a leviathan.

  And then, just as quickly as the torment and pain had come over him, the heavenly light faded and Azrael was left lying there on the floor transformed into his curse. Aurora lay on the floor beside him, reaching out to touch the side of his face, Azrael tuned away from her, he didn’t need any explanation of what had come over him. He was a fallen angel, stripped of all that is good, his new form had clawed its way out of him like a monster emerging from a cocoon.

  “Azrael,” she said his name with such sweet loving concern that it nearly made him cry and when she cupped the side of his face he caught her scent, familiar, but so much more potent.

  “Go away.” His voice was too weak to speak in anything stronger than a whisper, which she ignored, so he pushed himself across the floor, separating them with what he hoped would be a safe distance. He could smell the blood flowing in her veins and when he looked at her the flowing pattern glowed through her skin. There was a frightening, all-consuming hunger that was coming over him that made him fear for her safety.

  “Go away! Please!” he begged her, but she only sat up and looked at him with concern in her eyes. “Please! I don’t want to hurt you.”

  She tried to reach out to him and Azrael was tempted to take a hold of her hand, to pull her close to drink from her tempting veins. There was a hunger in him that over-shadowed all thought and understanding, and he feared what he might do to her. Pushing her hands away Azrael lifted off the ground, his angel wings emerged from his back and stretched out into a wide wingspan. Shards of sunlight cut through the rain shining through the broken wall and illuminated the feathers revealing a new darker hue that resembled something similar to a bat. He looked over his shoulders, as though he were looking at someone else’s body, but knew that they were his wings. Aurora looked up at him with open-mouthed surprise and her eyes glazed over with fear when blood washed over the whites of his eyes and his mouth salivated at the smell of her. He couldn’t stay, he couldn’t risk her safety. Azrael’s wings lifted him out of the house through the crumbling wall away from the fading sunlight and toward the approaching night.

  Present day

  Azrael’s New Orleans Apartment.

  “What are we doing?” Azrael asked, lying on the bed with one arm under his head and the other wrapped around a very sated Aurora.

  “Pardon?” She turned her head toward him, but at her current angle could not meet him eye to eye.

  “This?” He motioned with his head at the rumpled bed and their entwined naked bodies. “Us? What are we doing? In every scenario I play out in my head, things do not end well for us.”

  Silence.

  The pillows had been pulled back up onto the bed raising his head and shoulders to a comfortable incline and served well for Aurora who lay with her head on his chest. The silk fitted sheet was pulled free from one corner and the rest of the bedding was sort of draped over their bodies, like a discarded garment that conveniently covered their naked bodies. Aurora turned slightly more onto her side, rolling into him and sliding one leg up his, resting her knee on his thigh, she gently kissed a line that ran over his torso, helping to define his tight and muscular shape.

  “If you were a mortal I would assume that blood flow was being restored to your brain, but…” She tipped her head down, keeping her eyes locked on his while she slowly extended her tongue and lowered it over his abdomen, mapping out the topography of his abs in one long lick. “…I can assure you that this is not the time to overthink any of this.”

  Azrael held her by the shoulders and held her in place as they both sat up. Flustered and confused he looked at her with exasperation, rolling his eyes to indicate the current location.

  “It would be difficult for me to not overthink the ramifications of our actions.”

  “You forget that I was coerced.” She leaned out of his reach, her posture cold and stiff
, barring him from touching her with a stern glare.

  “Yes, but your enjoyment was never guaranteed.” He could see from her narrow-eyed expression that he had struck a nerve. It made him smile to see that she still scrunched her nose up when she had been caught in a lie.

  In a playful act, he reached over and brushed the index finger of one hand down the ridge of her nose, gliding over the delicate contours that shaped her perfect profile. Aurora relaxed under the playful touch and her expression softened slightly. He ended the motion taping the end of her nose with the back of this thumb simulating a playful kiss. A smile crept across her face, lifting the corners of her mouth up, but never reaching her eyes.

  “Perhaps,” she finally said surrendering her stubbornness and he rewarded her with a kiss.

  Crushing his lips against hers, he reached one hand around to her back, spreading his fingers wide, securing his hand at the center of her lower back. It felt so natural to take possession of her and he did not hesitate to pull her across the bed, closer to him, pressing her up against him, crushing her bare breasts against his chest, he could feel an impression left by her erect nipples against his skin and the soft billowing sensation of her breasts cushioning him. Aurora broke the seal of their kiss, leaning her head to the side and leaving a series of kisses down the side of his neck and slowly licking the crevice above his collarbone. Her kisses were a sensual gift to his dead soul that for only a moment brought him back to life. There was magic in her lips that he had never felt from his many victims and partners over the last four hundred years.

  “I would be wise to fear you,” he confessed, rearing his head back as her lips continued their journey around, kissing him under his chin and to the other side, “and the threat you behold.”

  She broke the trail of kisses, but not the spell, lifting her head up and looking him in the eyes.

  “Threat?” she asked with an overemphasized innocence in her expression.

  “Yes, threat.” He wrapped both arms around her, hugging her to him and rolling them over so he could lie over her, his legs spread over her with his knees pressed into the mattress at her hips and his arms bent, resting on his elbows placing his hands on either side of her face. “You disarm me, I am humbled by the power you have over me centuries later.”

  She looked up into his eyes with bewilderment, trying to run what he’d said through her mind, fighting to understand him and struggling to trust the romantic intent behind his words. For centuries she had depended on the truth that he was not to be trusted after his banishment and now she was doubting that, and whether it had been beneficial for her to be warned off from him at all. He had blood on his hands and had been banished with an eternal curse for a crime she had witnessed, yet there was something in him that still reflected the angel she had once known and loved.

  “Do you intend to declare that you have existed in eternal fidelity all these years?” it was a cheeky response that eased some of the lingering tension which had yet to escape them. “Or do you simply wish to mark our eternal faces with the heavy weight of age?”

  They shared a snicker at her response before she took her moment, catching him by surprise. Aurora locked her legs behind his back and threw her body into him, rolling them over until she was looking down into his surprised face. Her hair fell around their faces like a fiery cage, locking out the outside world and leaving them alone, in peace. She bent her lower back, rolling her hips forward and stroking his erection with her well-loved sex and her lips spread hugging him in a kiss that ran the length of his member. The slow glide up from base to tip was an agonizing splendor that left him rendered speechless.

  “I am sorry that I was not faithful to you,” she told him, leaning down to kiss him tenderly. “I was not created for the kind of love that I felt for you and I didn’t understand the pain that could follow from my actions.”

  It was an apology that he had never expected and did not know how to respond to. He reached up to hold her arms and keep her still while he tried to collect his thoughts.

  “For centuries I have been torn down by the crime I had committed, never wanting to ask for forgiveness as I knew I was undeserving of it… and of you. I know I was wrong, and I would give anything to give that man back his life, to play out that night again with the rational thought that my jealousy had chased away. This is my penance and I accept that, no, I welcome it because it is what I deserve.” Aurora kissed him again on the lips and his hands fell away, inviting her to come closer to him.

  Strategically she lined herself up to him, Azrael lay there unable to resist the sexual power she had over him and when she impaled herself on his strong, hard shaft he gave out a moan that sang out from deep inside his dead soul. The sensation of her eager, wet entrance was the closest thing he had known to paradise, he had already known the joy of entering Aurora’s sweet body, but this was different, this was something he had not felt in centuries. For centuries he had longed to experience what it felt like to be with her again, to once again understand what it truly meant to be home. Love may have not been the siren call for her, compelling her to bring him in, but she held his dead heart in her hands, his happiness, his hopes and fears were in her hands, with Aurora he was disarmed and incapable of protecting himself from her.

  Aurora conducted the pace, taking command of their pleasure, she reached back, over her rear and between their legs to take a firm grasp of his swollen testicles. A fearful shudder rang through him as he suddenly felt his world suspended on the cusp of a radiant explosion. She rolled her hips, gliding herself over him, feeding him into her and then pulling herself nearly free only to fall back down on him again and just when he thought he couldn’t take anymore she released her hold on him, Azrael’s body exploded like a star bursting into a brilliant supernova blast. The world fell away and he reached up to wrap her in his arms, holding her close

  The Witching Hour had passed casting the room in complete darkness while the moon had escaped from the sky leaving the lovers to lay curled up in the afterglow of very satisfying sex. Now the hours had passed and Azrael sat in front of the open French doors that led to a small balcony, with a northeastern view where the black of night had begun to retreat to the west and a ribbon of turquoise traced the rooftops in the distance. He relaxed in his chair, covered in tapestry with a low back that curved just below his shoulders, leaving his head the room to lean back as he listened to the Neil Diamond sentimental classic September Morn. The harmonious rumble of the singer’s voice floated over the low notes with a deep longing for love long gone by and the pain of time lost, it sang to his torment and left a pain in his chest that he had not felt in centuries.

  One leg was crossed over the other with his ankle resting on the knee beneath it. A highball glass balanced on his knee with the rim of the glass caged by the loose grasp of his fingertips. He kicked his knee up slightly in rhythm to the music, sloshing the deep red blood up the side of the glass, it was thick and moved around in the glass like one mass rather than a rippling swirl one would see in brandy or wine. When he first climbed out of bed he felt uncomfortable and displaced, which left him to assume some nourishment would settle him, but floating in the bottom of the glass untouched, the blood had cooled to an unappetizing temperature and would need to be poured down the sink.

  Azrael closed his eyes, letting the soft gentle hum of Aurora’s deep sleep help to relax him while the song played on, taking a moment to try and fight off the tormenting thoughts, fears and realizations that had fallen over him a few hours earlier. For the past four hundred years his existence had been simple leaving him with no responsibilities beyond satisfying his own needs, as one created to serve others it had been a novelty at first, but quickly that faded and soon he discovered the isolation that came with such an existence and the tasteless life with no substance or meaning. He wanted more but knew that he was undeserving of anything and had begun to create a life for himself with sex and sin, embracing the darker intent of his damnation. Now, here h
e was in his favorite home with the only one he had ever loved, yet a growing warmth inside was distracting him like an obnoxious itch or irritation that he couldn’t shake.

  He set the glass on a small table to his right and placed both feet on the ground, side-by-side, and paused.

  “Your taste in music has changed,” she said with a sigh, there was a heavy, groggy sound to her voice that only added to her sex appeal, but despite his interests rising from a natural reaction to her closeness, Azrael was not in the mood.

  “Not only in my music I suppose,” he said with critical reflection of the conquests since he had last been with her. Azrael made no secret that he saw her to be a beam of inspirational light when compared to any other female and saw no need in that moment to explain his answer.

  He felt her warm hand rest on his shoulder and the soft touch of her breasts pressing against the back of his head. He wanted to turn around and take her in his arms, but he was plagued with his thoughts at the moment and knew that such a maneuver would be futile in his present state. She slid both hands over his shoulders and down his bare chest until her fingers met, it was such a natural move that he almost muttered to himself to wake up, but in truth he was living the dream. She leaned her head down and kissed the sensitive spot behind his ear and he felt bolts of arousing electricity shoot down to his toes. Azrael turned in his chair, reached around her, and pulled Aurora over the side of the arm and cradled her on his lap. She giggled with girlish delight, kicking her feet out and looked up into his face with a smile that brightened his heart.

  His heart?