She threw her arms around me and pulled me close, kissing my cheek and neck repeatedly.
“I knew you would come home, my love,” she whispered to me, before pulling away and gesturing for me to stand.
“My sweet child, I must ask you to forgive me,” she said, and the words didn’t seem right coming from her. “I swore I would never lie to you, and yet in a sense I have been lying since I found you.”
I had to swallow repeatedly before my throat would stop cutting off my attempts to talk.
“What do you mean?” I managed at last, and she gestured to herself.
“You must know what I am now, if you are here. Does this truly look like the appearance of an angel?”
I had to admit, it really didn’t.
“No mother, I guess not.”
“Before we do anything else, I must correct that. Bear with me a moment, my dearest.”
She walked back up the steps and turned back to me, sliding her fingers under her blindfold and slowly pushing it over her head.
As the black satin covering fell to the floor, her dress started dissipating, rising in a plume of black mist that obscured my view of Celeste.
The stench of burning sulphur grew stronger, and from the mist rose a woman that was at once the same and startlingly different. Her facial features and body shape hadn’t changed at all, but how she looked...that was a drastic change.
Before me stood a naked, pale-skinned woman, her dark hair lank and lifeless. A collar of black iron was clamped around her neck, ringed with small sharpened studs both inside and out, the inner ones puncturing her neck in several places. Layered black iron guards covered her narrow shoulders, hooked directly into her skin, and a pair of layered iron greaves were hooked into the meat of her thighs. Dark, viscous blood ran down her body in thin rivulets, oozing from every wound. From her back sprouted a pair of immense wings, comprised of flame and wreathed in smoke, and her eyes...
Dear God, her eyes. Her eyes were simply twin pools of roiling flame, like staring into the depths of a volcano.
Something - I can only describe it as a ‘genetic instinct’ - compelled me to kneel again, and I wept with joy at the sight of her. I had no control over this - it simply happened, same as the whispered “glorious...” that escaped my lips.
That’s what I told myself, anyway.
She lowered herself to the ground once more, her blazing wings folding flat against her back. Her blood dripped on the stones as she walked down the stairs once again, the wisps of smoke rising from the stonework suggesting that her blood did unpleasant things to anything it touched.
“You never have to bow to me, my child,” she told me, the whispers that echoed her words stronger now than ever before. “You are not here to be my servant. You are here as my child and heir, not some minion to be commanded. Not like these worthless dregs.” She gestured to the gathered ferals, and offered a hand to help me rise.
I hesitated for a moment before taking her hand, trying to ignore the sensation of her hot, slick blood as she pulled me upright.
“Now my love, we must talk,” she told me, stepping onto the floor beside me. “Soon, you shall take my gift, as I promised you, but before I can give of myself, you must give yourself to me.”
I blinked at her nervously. I really hoped she didn’t mean what I thought she meant.
“Wh-what do you mean?” I stammered a second time, and she rested a hand on my chest.
Even through my shirt, I could feel the searing heat of her skin.
“You know what I mean, my sweet. I said you would need no other. Also, after what happened the last time you came to me, I rather think I deserve some show of loyalty, don’t you?”
I swallowed hard again, and nodded silently.
She shifted her hand across my chest and up onto my shoulder, and as she did my shirt began to flake away like dried leaves.
“You are afraid. Don’t be. I am not here to cause you harm, my love, you must know this. I just want what’s best for you.”
She raised both hands to my face, moving closer to me, and I could feel everything I wore falling away in pieces. It wasn’t long until I was naked before her, and I could feel the heat emanating from her across my entire body.
I felt sick to my stomach, horrified by what she wanted, stricken with terror at being in this situation, and yet I could do nothing to stop it.
“Show me where your heart belongs, my sweet,” she said in a hurried, lust-filled whisper. “Give yourself to me, and prove that I am the only one for you.”
She kissed me before I could answer, a rough, hungry, passionate kiss that burned worse than ever. I tried to fight, tried to get away, but her strength was too much. There was no escaping her grip, even with her blood-slicked hands, and she was unrelenting.
As she kissed me, she curled a leg around my waist, moving her hands down to my sides. She buried her teeth in my shoulder and pulled hard, pulling me against her, into her, before finally pushing me to the floor.
I wish I could make you believe that I didn’t want this. I had only just forged a stronger relationship with Lorelei, who I loved more every day, but Celeste was quite literally impossible to resist. Her strength defied description, and sadly this instance was not the only time that she...had me. That happened at least half a dozen times before the others finally came to help me end her, and the first few times I tried to resist. When it became clear that she would just have me anyway, I stopped fighting it. There wasn’t anything I could do to stop her without the weapon, after all.
I have no idea how long that...incident lasted. All I know is that eventually I realised I was lying on the cathedral floor, naked and curled into the foetal position. I felt as if my entire body had been thoroughly beaten, the bite wounds on my shoulder burned and I felt drained of all energy.
A gentle tap on my arm made me flinch, the heat against my back telling me Celeste had returned from wherever she had gone.
“Come on, my child,” she said to me softly. “It is time to receive the gift I promised you.”
I slowly uncurled myself, forcing myself to stand in front of her. Despite the many times I’d been naked before - with Corvina, and later Lorelei - being naked around Celeste made me feel ashamed, embarrassed and vulnerable.
“My sweet, you’re trembling,” she pointed out, and I couldn’t tell if it was true or not. “Are you still so afraid?”
“I am,” I muttered, scarcely able to speak up. I hate to admit it, but I was truly afraid, and in that moment I hated George for sending me to that hell.
Celeste stroked my cheek tenderly, her slightest touch making me cringe.
“Do not fear, my cherished one,” she said. “There is nothing to fear from me. Not now. Not ever.”
“Will...will this hurt?”
She looked at me with those blazing eyes, and gave me a smile that seemed tinged with genuine sadness.
“It will be a greater agony than you have ever known, my beloved, and for that I apologise. But trust me when I say the trade-off will make the torture worthwhile.”
She sliced into her wrist using her own thumbnail, showing no sign of pain or discomfort, and pulled to open a long wound that bled freely.
“Here. Drink from me, and finally take the place you deserve at my side. Remember what I told you: relish the suffering, my dearest.”
My hands trembled visibly as I took hold of her arm - and at least I knew that much was true - and after a moment of fresh hesitation I placed my mouth over the wound and began to feed.
Her blood tasted vile - a mixture of smoke, ash and dead flesh, and it was as thick as it looked. It was like trying to drink tar, and it was a chore just to keep it down.
And dear God, how it burned.
I continued to drink until Celeste pulled her arm away, and it didn’t take long for the liquid to start its work.
When I was first turned, it felt like a stinging fire crawling through my veins. But this...this was like every nerve ending in my body sud
denly got dipped molten rock all at once, a flaming, boiling agony that coursed through my blood, my skin, every inch of my body. Every single cell of my body felt like it was going to immolate itself, and I screamed with the unending agony.
But it didn’t stop there. There were the memories too, the thousands of years of her life - the ruin she had wrought, the deaths she had caused, the storm of destruction she left in her wake so many times.
And beyond that...things no waking, conscious mind should ever see. The black iron spires of the cities of Hell, the fields of tortured, writhing, tormented souls.
All of this tore through my mind like a barbed blade, leaving my psyche as raw as my body felt.
Finally, blessedly, the agony passed, and I collapsed from physical and mental exhaustion.
Nothing felt right anymore. Her blood felt...wrong. My veins continued to feel hot even after the burning stopped, and my mind was a jumble of horrific images that I couldn’t get out of my head.
It was no wonder then, that once again I passed out, taking solace in the darkness.
I slowly opened my eyes, my head filled with a severe, stabbing pain. Celeste’s memories burned in my mind, just as her blood still burned in my veins. My skin felt hot and uncomfortable, and every muscle in my body ached.
Slowly, and with considerable effort, I managed to push myself to my feet, wobbling slightly as I finally stood.
A pair of pale hands caught me before I fell, the stench of sulphur filling the air.
“Hello, mother,” I rasped, my throat still feeling burned and raw from the taste of her blood.
“Hello, my precious,” she crooned, stroking my hair. “How are you feeling?”
How did I feel? Empty. Hollow. Dead inside, as if everything decent about me had been scooped out and thrown away. I wondered if this was how Celeste felt, and that in turn made me think - if she did feel that way, perhaps her affection for me was her only solace from the darkness.
In some twisted way, I actually felt a little bit sorry for her.
“Sore,” I finally told her, allowing her to take my weight as I found it too hard to stand. It wasn’t a struggle for her.
She gave a small chuckle, an oddly musical sound echoed by the whispers of her voice.
“I think that’s quite an understatement, and you are clearly fatigued. Come, my sweet, I’ve been saving this morsel for you.”
She gestured to the young woman, tied to the altar by dark bonds, and began to lead me to her.
“Can I...get dressed first?” I asked, and Celeste looked at me with an offended expression. Only then did I notice the fresh blood around her mouth and still glistening on her teeth. She’d fed, and recently.
“I stop lying to you, and you want to start lying to me?”
I could tell by her tone that she was hurt by the implication, and if I was to keep this charade going then I had to keep her placated.
“S-sorry,” I muttered to her. “I...I’m not thinking straight right now.”
“I know, my sweet, I know,” she said softly, stopping before the weeping young woman. “I’ve kept this one here for just this moment, showing her all the horrors I could. We are predators, my love, and nothing tastes so sweet as a prey that is afraid.”
She vanished momentarily and appeared beside the sobbing, terrified young woman, who tried to huddle closer to the altar as she felt Celeste’s presence.
“Can you smell it, my dearest? The terror that grips her, that sings through her blood, calling to you, begging you to feed. Can you hear the song?”
It unnerved me that I actually could. I smelled the fear rising from her, and the ‘song’ Celeste spoke of was a variety of sounds - the rapid heartbeat and quickened breathing, the sound of her muted, weakened sobs.
I heard, I smelled, and God help me, I hungered.
I kneeled in front of the girl, trying my best not to enjoy the experience, but too much of it was instinctive. Whatever I was, whatever she’d made me, I craved the fear of other creatures.
“P-please,” she sobbed quietly to me, “d-don’t do...this, please just...let me go...”
“Shh,” Celeste whispered, stroking a finger down the girl’s cheek. “It will all be over soon, child.”
“P-please, don’t...don’t let him-”
“What? Rape you?” Celeste scoffed. “My dear child, that won’t happen. No-one else is worthy of him, only me. You are just food, my dear.”
She vanished again and reappeared by my side once more.
“End her, my love. Take your due.”
I didn’t need to be told twice - at Celeste’s command I lunged forwards, gripping the woman’s neck and sinking my teeth into her.
She whimpered quietly as I drank, and I moved my grip to the side of her head, my hand fisting in her hair as I pulled her head to one side. Her neck tensed at the motion, and I bit deeper, savouring the sudden surge of blood that filled my mouth.
I drank until I’d recovered from my ordeal. Then, I drank to sate my inherent thirst.
After that, I drank because I could. I drank, and drank deeply, the adrenaline-rich blood almost toxic in its addictiveness.
“That’s it, my child,” Celeste whispered in my ear, “don’t stop. Take it all.”
And that is precisely what I did. The woman’s breathing became shallow, ragged and laboured as I drank, until finally she gave one weak final gasp and her body went slack.
I let go of the body, and only the bonds to the altar kept it upright. Celeste dismissed them with a wave of her hand, and the body finally hit the floor.
I pushed myself back, sitting on the stone floor with my knees up by my chest, my head buried in my hands as the enormity of what I had just done hit me.
I had bled a mortal dry, breaking one of the most sacred laws of The Order - we never feed without permission, and never, ever take more than the mortal can recover.
I sat there in numb silence, trembling with the surge of memories and the come-down from the adrenaline I’d swallowed.
“Well done, darling,” Celeste said, stroking the back of my neck. “That was the first time you’d bled a person dry, wasn’t it?”
I couldn’t find the ability to speak, so I nodded dumbly.
“I almost envy you that. The first time is always the most...powerful. But this is what we are, my love - creatures of bloodshed and fear, predators of the mortal kind, beasts rendered in human form. This is the legacy I wanted to create, not the thin-blooded, weak-willed peons you surrounded yourself with. Not that it matters now,” she added with another of her wicked grins, “because I have you. Together, we’ll create the breed I intended, and humanity will serve us or be put to the sword.”
She sounded so happy about that, so glad to slaughter millions and turn countless others into her ideal vampires.
Meanwhile, I was too empty to feel much of anything.
I looked at her, and although I couldn’t read any expression in those flame-filled orbs that were her eyes, there was a peculiar expression on her face.
“What is it?” I asked, my voice sounding rough and alien to me.
Her smile turned sultry, and my stomach turned.
“Seeing you drain her was really quite arousing.” She left the comment hanging, and I was appalled at where the conversation was about to lead.
“I’m glad you enjoyed it, mother,” I told her bitterly, turning away from her. I couldn’t bear to look at that expression.
“Don’t be so coy, my love!” She turned my head back to face her with a finger under my chin. “You gave yourself to me once, I know where you stand.”
“You damn near killed me then, as well.”
“I rather think that’s half the fun, don’t you?” I fought the urge to vomit at her suggestive comments, her twisted smile.
In the silence that reigned, she pulled me close and kissed me again, although this time the vile taste was at least tempered by the blood still smeared around her mouth.
“I’m go
ing to have you anyway, my sweet,” she whispered breathlessly to me, “so why fight it?”
And so once again, I endured her...passion, attempting to lose myself in other memories, any memories that would allow me to escape the present.
It didn’t work.
CHAPTER 13
The price of deception
Celeste prodded me into wakefulness, and I forced my eyes open. It was beginning to seem like my own body didn’t want to face whatever she had in store for me.
“Come along, dearest,” she called in a sing-song tone, and I struggled to my feet, terrified of what my mother was planning this time.
I rolled my shoulders, wincing in pain at the wounds Celeste had inflicted on me, and frowned at the angel.
“What is it?” I asked abruptly, quickly altering my tone so that I didn’t give her cause to suspect me. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing, my precious one,” she said softly, linking her arm with mine and leading me towards the cathedral doors. “I simply wanted us to talk.”
That was novel. She hadn’t wanted to talk much since I arrived, instead spending her time tormenting me.
“What about?” I asked her, and she giggled. For once, the sound wasn’t tainted by anything - it was a sound born of genuine humour, and to my shame I found it quite a pleasant sound. At least it made a change from her usual sinister laughter.
“What? Don’t people in your little castle talk to each other simply for the sake of it?” She laughed again, and squeezed my arm affectionately. “I simply wanted us to talk, as mother and son.”
I suppressed yet another disgusted shudder.
“Most mothers don’t have sex with their children, you know.”
Celeste merely clicked her tongue as she led me out into the night.
“Again, you apply petty mortal morality to immortal situations,” she told me in a serious tone. “Sex between family members has existed since humans first learned which parts go where. Our kind has practiced it for centuries, and really, is it so wrong? Almost nothing compares to the bond of love between family members. It is perhaps the purest love of all. What better environment for the most powerful act of love?”
Of Angel's Blood (Chronicles of The Order Book 2) Page 18