Angel, Angel Burning Bright

Stunned Bida stood stock still staring after Pharamoros. Gradually she became aware of many radiant eyes on her and color quickly rose to her cheeks. Samael appeared beside her.

With wavering words Bida looked at him then the mossy forest floor. "I, I didn't mean to kiss him, my beloved." Tears dropped from her chin watering the carpet beneath her feet. Samael gently cupped her chin in his fingers, raising her face to look at him. Bida's eyes were tightly clenched to try to staunch the flow of tears and to avoid the look of reproach she knew Samael had to be wearing. Without any words Samael kissed her eyes then her nose before softly kissing her mouth. Tears flowing harder than ever Bida opened her eyes to look at Samael.

"Dearest, I have no reproach for you other than that which Pharamoros already so kindly pointed out. If you do not wish to be kissed or ravaged do not touch anyone's wings with out explicit permission and my presence. We are, as you know, a very carnal creature and your touch simply electrifies us. So darling do you wish to stay or would you like to be escorted home so that you tempt none of my brethren with your gentle touches and ethereal beauty?" Samael looked at her searching her face for an answer. Throwing back his head he let out a throaty laugh that sent chills down her spine. "Very well my innocent love." He drawled as he stared at her saucer like eyes, "I will walk you back and have my brothers leave, I can always talk to them later my darling."

Smiling weakly, Bida took his hand and looked at the forest floor as they made their way back to their home. Stumbling over a tangle of fallen branches Bida tried to throw her hands out to break her fall, but it felt as if they were bound behind her. "Samael." she cried out as her head whipped around frantically straining against her unseen bonds.

Slowly her eyes adjusted to the billowing clouds of thick smoke in front of her eyes. 'The forest is on fire and I am trapped' she thought desperately before her vision swam and then sharpened. Through the cloying smoke she could just see the outlines of the steeple and bell tower. Spasms of pain ran through her body as she looked towards the crowd. Able to only see their outlines and no longer able to hear their whispers over the thrum of blood in her ears, she closed her eyes and prayed that Samael would save her but dreading seeing him and explaining how their son, their beautiful angelic son, had been sacrificed by Veran for the bloodlust of the people.

She closed her eyes and as the spasms of pain wrenched consciousness from her grasp Samael's name fell from her lips in a reverent plea.

She could hear the little cries that sounded like a kitten mewling and opened her eyes wearily before a smile broke through and lit her features with an indescribable beauty.

"Is...is it done? Is he healthy?" her voice was barely a whisper.

Samael turned to look at her as her head hit the pillows behind her. "Pharamoros! What is wrong with her? Tell me she is fine!"

Gravely Pharamoros looked first at the pale crumble of a woman who was barely more than a child on the bed and then at his brother, whose face was the very essence of beauty, love and concern, before he turned his attention to the tiny child that Pharamoros' wife was holding with a look of deep longing. Clapping his brother's shoulder he broke into a beatific smile, "Samael, always so serious, your son is a fine healthy boy and your wife did amazingly well considering the strain of labor on a woman especially one as petite as Bida. She will be fine, but to be safe I will prepare an herbal elixir that should restore her completely. Now if you ask Clarabelle nicely you might be able to wrench your son from my wife." Laughter danced in Pharamoros' eyes as he looked pointedly at his wife.

Samael stepped closer to Clarabelle as if afraid that without his presence at her side Bida may disappear from the bed she lay in. Looking down at the child he held, he found himself memorizing the thick shock of dark hair that topped his tiny head and the soft creamy gold of the baby's skin. "Pharamoros? Isn't a child usually red and wrinkled?" He asked softly as he stared at his son's now opened shockingly green eyes.

"Human children, yes Samael, but remember that your son is not a normal human. He has our blood in his veins." Pharamoros said softly as he ground something he had taken from his pouch that looked like a pearl to a fine powder. "Clara, dearest, could you please take the bronze cauldron, fill it with spring water to the first line in it, and then place it over the fire to boil."

Smiling Clarabelle, slipped out of the room kissing the baby's forehead as she did. This perfect merging of human and angel that he held in his arms captivated Samael. Suddenly the infant opened his mouth and wailed loudly, startled Samael looked helplessly at Pharamoros. "Brother, what do I do? Did I break him somehow? Can I help him? Brother!"

Laughing Pharamoros looked up and chided his brother softly. "Samael, poor brother. You have done nothing to him and you cannot do anything to help him. He is hungry. He wants nothing more than his mother's milk. Bida, dear are you up for nursing your son? "

Wearily she opened her eyes, nodded, and held out her arms for her son. As soon as her child was placed in her arms his wailing stopped and became a happy cooing. She raised her dress so that he could latch on and lay back as he sucked noisily.

Samael watched silently in love with both his wife and his son. Pharamoros looked up and smiled at the awed look on his brother's face.

"Brother," Pharamoros' quiet voice broke Samael's reverie, "Do you think perhaps we should call a council of our brethren tonight to bless and name your child? You know as do I and as do all of us that the times that lay in front of us are dangerous and something must be done to protect this innocent one. You know also the wrath that awaits us from the women folk if we do not take precautions with your babe."

Pharamoros looked up at Samael as he crushed silver to fine dust and raised an eyebrow. Nodding, Samael turned to go to the grove behind their cottage. Shaking his head Pharamoros made Samael pause. "You stay here with your wife and child, I will go once finish the ingredients for the elixir. "

Quietly, Pharamoros gathered up the items he had powdered and cut and went to the fire and carefully added and stirred as Samael bent to kiss Bida's forehead.

"Samael," Pharamoros called out," I am going to go summon our brothers." and with that he disappeared out the backdoor. So caught up in their respective worlds neither noticed the sallow skinned man that was looking through the small bedroom window or when he slinked away towards the village.

"Father Veran,", the sallow skinned man simpered, "It is done, she has delivered her child and I have discovered the true nature of her, ahh, husband." A self-satisfied smile played at his mouth as he dreamt of the rewards the Father had promised him for this tidbit of information.

Bida drifted off into an exhausted sleep as Samael slipped their son from her arms and handed him to Clarabelle. "Where are you going to put him? May I stay here with my wife or should I go to the clearing? Isn't he the most beautiful child? " Samael's questions ran together as he tried to voice every thought he was having at once.

Smiling and laughing softly Clarabelle swaddled the child carefully before laying him the basket next to where his mother lay. "Now Samael, he is going to be perfectly fine laying here near his mother. He is a very beautiful child a perfect balance between you and Bida, and seen as how Bida is half asleep and listening to us why don't you ask her yourself if she would like you to stay with her or find out what that imp of a husband of mine is doing with your brothers out there in those woods."

Startled Samael, looked at Bida to just to see her with looking at him with amusement and love in her eyes and a half smile playing on her lips. "Go my darling and after I have rested a few days perhaps Clarabelle would be sweet enough to watch our son so that you may take me to bathe in the icy waters at the source pool so that I may be reinvigorated."

Slowly Samael leant down to kiss her forehead and smooth her hair back from her face. "You never cease to amaze me darling. I will go and hurry back, and I am sure that Clarabelle would love to watch our son, she is so captivated with him it is hard to convince her to let anyone else near him."

Bida watched Samael walk out and down the path to the woods until she could no longer make him out against the shadows of the trees, before she closed her eyes and sank into a dreamless sleep.

The darkness swirled and churned in front of her, flashes of red dancing before her eyes and twisting and turning up as far as she could see. Her arms felt leaden as she tried to raise one to wipe the stinging sweat from her brow and her feet ache a dull throbbing pain that shot white hot flashes of pain up her legs as she shifted her weight. Slowly she realized she was being held immobile. Panic swelled in her breast, before her thoughts collected and she remembered she where she was. Wearily she closed her eyes and prayed to God in heaven to end her misery before condemning God and renouncing him for allowing it all to happen. She closed her eyes and could hear her child cry for her, cry out for protection, cry out for food, and slowly the cries grew weaker in her ears and the roaring anger and pain raged in her ears as the pain once again overcame her and she fell far from reassuring memories into her own private hell.

As Samael carried her towards the Source pool, Bida protested and fretted. "But my darling he is still so small, I shouldn't be leaving him. Please put me down or take me home to my son. Please? Something bad is going to happen if I am not with Samael I know it. Please?" Wringing her hands she gazed up into Samael's warm reassuring eyes.

"Darling, Moros says that a swim in the Source pool under my careful eye will help you recover more quickly, and both he and Clara adore our son and will care for him as if he were there own. Calm yourself my darling, you need to take a moment for yourself before you become so lost in being a mother that you forget you are a woman and wife as well. Now do not protest or argue against your doctor or me any more. Pharamoros ordered you to bath in the Source pool and I will make sure that you do so." Smiling he grazed her forehead with his lips in the gingerest of kisses.

Sighing with resignation, Bida went limp in his arms. "Fine then, but I will make myself as heavy as I can so that you are burdened in this foolishness. I swear all I want is to be with my child. I don't understand why you and Moros are being so damned stubborn about all of this." Her lush bottom lip quivered as she pouted at her angel.

Throwing his head back Samael roared with laughter that rumbled through his chest and vibrated through Bida.

Incised, Bida glared daggers at him. "I fail to see what is so damn amusing." she hissed as she once again started to struggle in his arms.

Smoothing her flaming hair off of her forehead and gently stroking the line that had formed between her eyebrows Samael covered her mouth deftly with his as he continued up the path. Breaking the kiss a moment later, Samael chuckled at the bewildered look on his wife's face. "Ahh my darling", he sighed, " It is just that you are so beautiful when you are angry, and so beautiful when you smile, and so beautiful when you are flushed from our passion, and so beautiful when you sleep. My darling in all my time and in all of Earth I have never seen a creature more beautiful than you. Not the fabled Unicorns that have faded into mythos, not the fiery phoenix. Only our son rivals you, my darling, though I love him, I still think you are the most beautiful thing God ever created. For what parent doesn't love their child and think him the most beautiful thing in Creation? But my darling, I thought that of you long before our child and I still think it. As amazing as our son is you are a thousand times more radiant. Even the morning star, the brightest of all lights of heaven and even the glory of my Forsaken Father the Lord or the burning beauty of Lucifer most beautiful angel there ever was, all of them, pale and are shamed by the beauty and radiance of you. The Virgin Mother is nothing compared to you and the Christ child is but a common infant compared to our son."

As Samael quicken his pace towards the pool that was now in sight, his hands began to loosen the ties on the front of her dress and he started kissing her now bared shoulders. Bida heard the rushing of her heart in her ears as Samael's touch made her blood run with fire.

It burned so beautifully. Her skin blistering where his hands touched her. Rapture overtaking her senses as she cried out his name into the darkness that undulated in her vision. Sweat and blood ran in rivulets leaving shining paths of bruised skin. Cutting through the soot that anointed her brow, it stung her eyes and brought her out of her rapturous illusion and back to the harsh reality of all consuming flames. As the blisters cracked and ran down her body, she bite through her tongue tasting the coppery fluid in the effort to not satisfy the black hearts of the people watching this gruesome spectacle. As a scream rose and died in her throat with out being released consciousness slipped from her body.

The sound of the water and Samael laughter drowned out any warning that someone was coming that they might have heard. Bida brought her mouth to Samael's yet a gain feeling completely safe in his arms and felt their souls touch again and she let herself drown in pure bliss. The water was so cold it was positively invigorating and Bida loved the feeling of weightlessness she had in his arms supported by the water's current.

Giggling coyly at Samael, Bida swam to the edge of the water and beckoned Samael with a smoldering gaze. As soon as his arms were around her and his mouth was devouring hers, the heard the sound of horse hoofs beating the ground in a staccato march. Samael rose above her, still knee deep in the water. His frame tensed with wariness and he pulled Bida to her feet and held her behind him tightly.

Father Veran's voice was heard ringing out in half forgotten ancient Latin, calling on God to help him defeat the demon he knew lay in wait and to help him save the innocent from the 'dragon of lust that had inflamed her'. As anger raged in Samael, he struggled with telling Bida to flee and standing his ground and protecting his wife.

Suddenly a blinding radiance came from the opening of the pass as Veran and his 'priests' came into view followed unknown to them by the mighty angel Gabriel. Cursing, Samael was frozen where he stood.

Bida's eyes widened in surprise at the sight of the glorious seraphim and though she saw his mouth move she could hear no sounds. As she looked around she realized that everything was moving so slowly that it seemed as if all sound had been sucked from the air and that everyone except Samael, the seraphim and herself were frozen.

Curiously detached she watched the seraphim shake his head at whatever Samael was yelling to him. She marveled at this giant angel's beauty and watched as Samael grew in height and unfurled his wings and glowed with a red tinged golden light. It seemed as if the two were glowing with an ever increasing brilliance, locked in a battle of the wills, when the Seraphim raised a blazing sword above his head and the pointed it towards Bida. Samael went rigid to Bida's touch and though he snarled he dropped to his knees before the Seraphim and sound returned to Bida's world at the same time movement did.

Veran ordered the men with him forward to take her from Samael. Protesting Bida tried to move but the Seraphim just sadly shook his head and looked at her.

"Look! See God knows we do right! WE will take this poor deluded woman and purify her and cleanse her soul. WE will save her so that she may join Our Heavenly Father for eternity once she leaves this mortal coil. Do you see that God holds this demon, this dragon at bay so that we may do his will?" Veran worked himself into fervor as the men pulled Bida nude from next to Samael.

A guttural wounded cry tore through the air as Veran parted the robes he wore and ordered the men holding Bida to hold her down. The seraphim just watched with a stony face as the man of God slapped Bida's face while he positioned himself between her thighs. As Veran viciously rammed into Bida, tears ran down Bida's and Samael's faces but the seraphim only watched in silence. Rutting hard on the dirt Bida screwed her eyes shut as Veran bit at her breast suckling on the rich milk that ran from it. Tears streaming down Samael's face he tried to turn his head away from the sight of his beloved being desecrated in such a way only to discover his head was held immobile by the same force that kept him from tearing these men limb from limb. Forced to watch as the priest slammed into his wife and groaned as he released his seed in her, Samael's visage lost any angelic semblance and looked truly terrifyingly demonic.

Bida screamed and fought against her captors. Biting down hard on Veran's nose Bida tasted the liquid bitter copper of the priest's blood. Cursing Veran hit her across her face hard causing her head to snap back and hit the hard ground. Blackness seeped in as the blinding white faded and unconsciousness blissfully took her in its loving embrace.

Consciousness tugged at Bida's consciousness but sick to her stomach Bida refused to wake to the terror of her situation. Vaguely she felt bonds holding her down cutting raw tracks around her wrist, waist, neck, and legs. She felt herself letting go and floating up, until she thought she saw shapes moving below her closer to the flames that surrounded her. Terrified she willed herself deeper into her memories.

As glowing pain radiated through her body starting from her left breast and never ending, Bida spat a curse at Veran.

"Tut tut dearest, just tell me where the demon spawn is. Or do you like my newest toy? We in the Church call this little device the spider. " Veran's voice was oily as he flexed his hand in front of her face while his other hand slipped between Bida's bloodied and spread thighs to cruelly twist the most sensitive part of her body. "Tell me you bitch and I won't have the guards beat you after I finish having my way with you today and I swear we will be kind when you burn. I will have your neck broken first."

"Abomination, Satan's servant, I damn you." Bida growled through clenched teeth. "To Hell with you."

"Such a spirit! It shall be a joy to break it by spilling that bastard child of yours' blood before your eyes. But first let me take you once more before I ruin you with my other new toy. " He smiled serenely at Bida while holding up a gleaming spiked phallus.

Savagely he bit hard on her shredded breast while he rammed the length of himself in her bruised and abused womanhood.

"I think I will take you as you watch the spawn you created's throat slit slowly so that it's blood pours out while it lives." Veran whispered in her ear as if it were the sweetest thing in the world a man could say to a woman.

Bida hit Veran's face with her head as hard as she could, causing stars to dance in her eyes and spat in his eyes.

"You stupid bitch! You filthy whore, is only a demon's touch good enough for you? I loved you, you fickle bitch. I would have had you and kept you well but you had eyes only for that dead demon. Now I will show you. I loved you." A strangled cry tore from Veran's throat as he slapped at Bida and clung to her at the same time. Tears ran down his face as he stroked her hair and gently kissed her torn flesh. "I am sorry my love." He whispered before he disentangled himself from her and left her suspended in the room alone.