Of Gods and Vampires

Gabriel laid Alicia's body on the floor and collapsed to his knees, he shook and screamed as his back tore open and twenty foot leathery black wings shot out from his shoulders. Gabriel let his forehead rest on the ground as the wings opened and stretched, blood dripping from them as power coursed through him like a drug. It was over. He knew he was no longer Gabriel the vampire, he was now Gabriel the demi-god again.

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Eve opened her eyes and shifted against the bonds strapping her to the alter again. It was no use, they were still just as tight as they had ever been and the shifting around only reopened her wound on the dagger protruding from her shoulder. Dusk was settling in her world, a new moon would rise black as pitch tonight. Eve sighed and watched Joven wandering around lighting candles and settle herbs to light around the alter. New moons were always times of high power and potent, the veils between worlds thinned and power seeped through during these lunar phases. Full moons were the exact opposite, strengthening the bonds between worlds to unbreakable but releasing energies for an entirely different set of beings just the same. Eve resigned herself to dying in this place this night and only waited to see what the method was to be.

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Gabriel's wings ached and did not allow him to fly as effortlessly as he remembered, his flight was jerky and uncoordinated as he had too long lived without. He still moved faster across the night sky than he would have on foot, crossing to the outskirts of New Orleans and the place his demon assimilated memories told him that the sacrificial alter should still stand. Time was running out as night crept over the horizon.

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Joven torn the dagger out of Eve's arm with savage pleasure. Eve felt herself dry heave as a new wave of pain ripped through her body. She was too weak right now to fight him, the wound allowing her strength to slowly seep away as her body tried over and over to repair the damage it had suffered. The waste of energy was inevitable and left Eve as weak as a kitten and at the mercy of the demon.

"Such a beauty in your pain, quite exquisite how you bear your suffering. Were you human you'd be the ideal familiar for someone like me." Joven purred and stroked her throat lightly before he grasped it in his hands.

Eve choked and gasped for air, her throat was being crushed in the demon's hands and her lungs burned for air, her world swam until he dropped her upon the alter, her bonds removed. She coughed and curled into herself, wishing that a fetal position would grant her some safety while knowing it would not. Joven crouched beside her and rolled her onto her back, he used the dagger to slice the clothing from her body, leaving Eve exposed on the alter.

"Mores the pity." Joven tsked softly. "Such a lush package and never sampled."

The demon stripped down to nothing, the façade of a human male still in place as he stretched out on top of Eve. Eve gasped, her eyes went wide and she immediately went for his eyes with her fingernails, this was not going to happen to her. Joven laughed and grabbed her wrists holding them over her head as he forced her thighs apart with one thigh.

"Such a hellion you are Eve. But I'm not sorry to say that this is going to happen regardless of how you struggle. I won't have to hurt you as much if you just accept it and behave yourself."

Eve felt tears leaking out from her eyes as she silently denied this was happening. She sucked in a breath of tepid, incense laced air and brought her knee up into the demon's groin as hard as she could. The demon barked in pain and hissed from between his teeth.

"Fine bitch, we'll do this MY way!." Joven dropped his façade and brought his face down to Eve's taking in her horror.

The demon was hideous. This red tinged skin was blackened by burns and kriss crossed with a patchwork of scars and deformities. A long thick tail whipped in the air behind him, bighorn sheep like horns curled around his skull, black and oily looking, his eyes were yellow and shot with bloody goat-like irises, and his teeth were jagged knives in a mouth smelling of fetid meat and bacteria. His hands were claw like appendages ending in knife like black nails. Joven used a black nail to score her wound again sending lancing pain through Eve until she was shaking and trying not to pass out. Eve closed out the realization that the demon was aroused further by her pain and horror and that he was still planning to use his engorged phallus to break her will and possibly her mind.

Eve thrashed and struggled to no avail beneath the demon's weight. She felt the hard push of his cock against her thigh as he slid up between her thighs set on raping her. Eve stilled suddenly. She was still a vampire and sex was still a double edged sword in her world. She felt herself heave again as she struggled with the bitter realization that she could win still but it would require her to degrade herself in a way she never thought possible. Eve resigned herself to the truth. Her thighs parted and the demon slid between them up to her sex, he released her arms as she ceased struggling beneath him.

"A wise move Eve." Joven purred and wrenched her thighs apart as wide as they'd go.

Gabriel hit the demon with enough force to tear him off of Eve's body and toss both him and the demon off the alter and onto the ground. The demon rounded on Gabriel as the hit the ground and ripped its nails through Gabriel's side scouring a deep wound. Gabriel tossed the demon off and turned to face the vile creature.

"The demi-god shows himself at last, its good to see you doing so well Gabriel." Joven purred.

"I wish I could say the same." Gabriel spit blood.

Eve watched in mute horror her eyes fixed on the leathery black wings thrusting out from Gabriel's back. Joven seemed to be enjoying the look of confused horror on Eve's face. Gabriel refused to turn and meet Eve's eyes, he kept his back to her and his body between Joven and her prone form on the alter. Joven rushed Gabriel and grasped one of the leathery wings, tearing through the skin and ripping holes in the wing. Gabriel rounded on the demon and brought his knee into its torso feeling the satisfying crunch of bones giving way. Joven turned and wrapped his arms around Gabriel's neck, twisting his long tail around the demi-god's middle to hold him prone.

"Still not strong enough to pick a fight with a real demon, Gabriel." Joven laughed. "I wonder if age will have improved the taste of your flesh."

"No!" Eve leapt onto Joven's back and latched on like a parasite, she wrapped her arms around his neck and hooked her legs around his waist.

Joven laughed and released Gabriel, leaving the demi-god half unconscious on the ground. "And what do you expect to do to me Eve? Perhaps I'll spare his life if you finish what we started."

"I plan on finishing it." Eve hissed.

Eve bit the demon fast, burying her fangs into his jugular from behind. The demon screamed and flicked his tail back, burying the blade end into Eve's back as he shook to try to remove her from his back. Eve removed herself from the pain of the demon's tail flailing her back into bloody shreds and closed her eyes to pull on his neck. A heady rush of blood was sucked into Eve's throat sending a wave of power and pleasure into her body, she pulled harder shutting out the world but for the taste of the demon's blood running down her throat.

Gabriel looked on the scene with pure horror, watching but not interfering as Eve began to drain one of the most powerful demons in Hell dry. The demon thrashed and slammed Eve back against the alter trying to break her body and the hold she had on him but Eve continued to pull on his artery without feeling the pain inflicted on her body.

"Stop it you bitch, what are you doing?" Joven thrashed and whipped his tail around again bringing off another chunk of Eve's flesh, his nails scouring her legs and arms as he tried to make her release him. "You will gain nothing, I'll take you with me!"

Eve pulled harder, sucking down another pint of blood. I may not gain anything, she thought, but I'll kill you. The power was so intense Eve felt like she was on fire inside, her body melting down and breaking down inside but she still sucked on the demon's vein dropping her guard and seeking to drain everything from him. Eve felt the demon drop to his knees as the blood loss began to take its toll, she pulled and wrenched his neck as she felt him go down. The last pull she took from the demon tasted of death, a horrible bitter taste that lingered as the demon dropped from her grasp turning to ash on the ground. Eve was shaking as the life force of the demon flowed through her making her body feel like it was dying as well, pain lanced through her unlike any she had ever felt.

"Gabriel, help me." She whispered softly and collapsed to the ground.

Gabriel gathered Eve's limp, bleeding form and pierced the veil between worlds to take her home to die. Eve was dying again, she had taken far too much of the demon inside of her and taken its death as well as its life, without pulling back in time she was now slowly deteriorating as well. Gabriel took to the sky and flew slowly back to the house of Black, he landed on the bank of the lake and laid Eve down to look out over the water.

Eve's eyes opened slowly and she let out a hiss of pain, her back looked like ground meat and her insides ached like they were rotting. She reached out and ran her fingers over the leathery skin of Gabriel's wing and smiled with effort.

"You never told me." She looked at him.

"I couldn't Eve." Gabriel sighed. "After the falling out between the four demi-gods we were hunted as we are never so strong as when we are together. I'm the only one left alive because I hid where they wouldn't look."

"As a vampire, one of your own children." Eve mused.

Gabriel nodded. "I helped found the Covens and set the vampires to their mission, I tried to atone for what I'd done even though I knew it wouldn't change anything."

Eve smiled and ran her fingers along Gabriel's arm. "You're a good man. Demi-god, vampire, or human, you always have been."

Gabriel looked at the dying vampire at his side and silently raged against the mistakes of his life pre and post demi-god. He'd have given anything to return to being a simple angel, take back the oath he swore with three close friends, take back the greed that sent him to the battlefield that day. Take it all back.

"Gabriel, as cliché as it is, I'm quite cold." Eve sighed and looked into the black sky.

Gabriel gathered Eve into his arms settling her in his lap as he brought his wings around to fold lightly around her. Eve laid her cheek against his chest and bit back a wave of nausea and choked on her own blood welling in her throat. She listened to his heart beating so slowly, having been stopped once they never played the same rapid tattoo again but this sedate toll for the rest of time. She sighed and looked up at Gabriel who sat watching her die, she smiled as brightly as she could and stroked his cheek with her fingers.

"I love you Gabriel."

Gabriel choked on a profound wave of grief. "Eve, you can't die like this."

"I am." She grinned.

Eve lifted her head and kissed him softly, wrapping her arms around his neck. I always have, she atoned in her mind, and I always will. Eve felt Gabriel gingerly wrap his arms around her shredded back and hold her against his body as his wings withdrew from around her. Eve knew she was crying and dug her fingernails into his scalp as she slid her tongue into his mouth, tasting what she had spent years avoiding. Eve rued pushing him away only days before and moaned when he stroked her mouth with his tongue as his fingers slipped into her hair.

Gabriel pulled away from her and cupped her face in his hands. "Eve you are hurt far to badly for this to go any farther."

Eve gripped his hand and held it against her cheek. "Gabriel, will you deny me the last request I will ever make?"

Eve sealed his lips with hers again and slipped her tongue past his lips, she pressed her body against him until Gabriel softened his resistance and pulled her tight against him. Eve gasped and tilted her head back as he trained his lips down her throat and lightly bit her throat, playing with the scar on her throat. Eve ran her fingers along the ridge of his shoulders and along the muscles of the base of his wings. She ran her hands down until she slipped them under the waist of his pants and pushed them down off his hips, helping him to remove them.

Eve wrapped her legs around Gabriel's waist, pressing against him with her groin while he stroked her sides and thumbed her nipples. Eve hissed softly as he covered one of her breasts with his mouth and raked his fangs over her skin. Eve kissed his shoulders and bit him softly, licking the blood from his wound. Gabriel's blood was sweet like fine chocolate and laced with his own underlying power, a potent mix of pleasures. Gabriel bit her breast and again sampled the potency of her blood, it was the same heady mix of power and seduction but laced with the bitter tang of death.

Eve arched her back and slid down onto Gabriel's engorged cock, her breath catching in her throat as her body adjusted to the thick length of him. Eve rested her forehead on his shoulder and bucked in his lap, feeling the friction of him sliding inside of her. Gabriel thrust up into Eve and caught her whimper in his mouth as he slid his tongue into her mouth and rocked her hips in his lap. She was tight and every shift of her body and thrust of his hips was blissful torture, her muscles gripped his length and rolled over him. He thrust up into her, pushing his tongue into her mouth and running it along hers as she writhed in his lap.

Gabriel lifted her and stood slowly, supporting her weight as he walked into the lake. The cool water lapped around their intertwined bodies as they sank into the lake. Gabriel held her hips and rocked her body back and forth on his cock, pursuing a slow steady rhythm between their bodies, pushing up off the bottom of the lake and bending her body backward likely to deepen each thrust. Eve ran her legs along his back and down his legs, arching her back into each of his slow thrusts as a feeling of lethargy began to tug at her body. She laid her head against his shoulder and nibbled his neck lightly, she felt a slow coil of tension building in her abdomen as he moved inside her body.

Eve cried out as she began to climax, her body bucked hard against Gabriel and her body was swept with convulsions of pleasure. Gabriel's body bucked upward and he released himself into Eve's body, riding her orgasm out as her body milked his release from him. Eve's head fell back and she felt darkness creeping in on her vision, her carefully constructed barriers crumbled and she lost control of her body's responses. Gabriel cried out as Eve pulled on him, he felt her body suck a wave of life force off him and gasped in pain. Eve was dimly aware of her body's instinct to survive kicking in and the draw of power it had pulled in from Gabriel, she whimpered dully and tried to stop but could not force herself to quit.

Eve pulled on Gabriel again, a deep wrenching pull that left him breathless and gasping, he felt his life draining away and didn't fight it off. Gabriel stroked her hair and rested his forehead on her chest, he let her pull again, feeling his body weaken as she drained him. Eve felt strength returning to her body and her back and shoulder sealing up as her body healed itself, she pulled harder even as she tried to stop herself. Gabriel's grip on her body slackened and he staggered back to the shore, dragging them both to the bank before collapsing. Eve was panting as she looked over at him, she pushed against her warring instinct to pull even as another drag of life force was yanked from Gabriel's body.

"Gabriel, please stop me." Eve whispered hoarsely.

Gabriel smiled and closed his eyes, feeling the final hard tug that yanked his life force from him and into Eve. Eve opened her eyes and watched as Gabriel's wings turned dark and wilted, falling away from his body in tatters that blew away. Her body was whole again and she knelt next to Gabriel and touched his cheek finding it cool and clammy. Eve wept over him, suddenly feeling her stomach clench in pain.

Eve screamed as she felt her back split open like a chrysalis, she fell forward onto her elbows as bones shot up from her shoulders into the air, four thirty foot long boney growths reached for the sky above. The bones flexed and grew joints and cartilage and tendons along the length, muscle tissue slowly creeping along the bones and filling out the form. Eve was crying in earnest when her skin sealed over the wounds on her back and grew up to cover the four bone appendages. The air hummed around her and her skin glowed softly as the bony appendages began to sprout long shocks of quills, filling them out to look like an impressionists vision of wings sculpted with wires. The quills bristled and flexed growing long and thick on her boney wings. Eve nearly blacked out when raw pain tore through her as the quills burst open into tufts of black and grey feathers.

Eve looked over her shoulder and saw her wings sat like a dragonflies or butterflies, in tandem, placed so that they could work independently or together. Eve whimpered softly and looked down at Gabriel, his body was still beneath her. She felt the tears running down her cheeks. Eve stilled suddenly as she smelled brimstone and charred flesh. She jerked her head up and looked to where another demon stood before her, the rift between worlds sealing behind him.

Eve stood and faced the demon. "What in all of Hell do you want?" She hissed through her fangs.

"I only came to see first hand the culmination of so much work and struggle on all of our part." The demon smiled in his human façade. "So what does it feel like to be a God Eve?"

"I am no God," She spat. "There is only one God and he hates you and all of your kind."

"So naïve." The demon turned to leave then glanced over his shoulder. "But only a God can strip a demi-god of his power and leave him alive Eve." And the demon vanished into the shadow realm.

Eve blinked after him then looked down at Gabriel. His chest was rising with shallow breaths. Eve gasped and fell to her knees next to him, pulling him into her lap. She wrapped her wings around them both and prayed for him to be ok. Her body felt warm and it radiated its power into Gabriel as he slowly struggled back to this world.

"Eve?" His hoarse whisper was the sweetest sound she had ever heard.

"I'm here." Eve hugged him to herself.

"I'm alive?" He looked puzzled. "But I'm not a demi-god anymore, I feel like a vampire again."

Eve looked at his fangs under his lips and nodded. "You are. Somehow I must have killed the demi-god in you but left the vampire alive although that makes no sense."

Gabriel stroked the soft feathers cocooning them and smiled. "Only time will tell what you can do Eve, great things I suspect."