Blood & Carrots - Celestial Ep. 06

"How... do you know of my prayers? And, that is personal between me and Lorelai!" I growled and tried to take a step back, but my body wouldn't comply with my desires as the goat kept his palm against my chest, circling it as he hummed.

"I could just tell when we shared grips, felt you pulling your will away and now... well, you've learned a valuable thing about your ability, haven't you? Can't keep your willpower at full doing this little trick of yours."

"Noted... now get your paws off me." I snarled as my ears folded, feeling the Incubus rubbing and circling his hand against my chest a little more intently.

"Why? I can sense you're no stranger to laying with other males, Ryder." Val cooed as he dug his nails into my flesh.

"I lay with those I care about, not random demons!" I barked out and pushed my will out as hard as I could with the words, but it didn't seem to mean anything in this moment.

The incubus showed me a knowing grin and took a step back, his eyes now red as he pulled his hand away at last. "So, you care about her in earnest? I've never seen my lady take to someone... and a celestial at that..."

"How about we talk outside of my mindscape, demon." I barked and folded my arms, still glaring daggers at the goat.

"A show of goodwill is it? Very well, I will acquiesce to that." Val snapped his fingers and everything bled away.

I gave a huff, realizing I was back in reality, unfocused and shaking his hand. The goat quirked a brow as he spoke out, "Ryder, can you either focus those prayers again or release me now, it is starting to burn rather painfully."

With a growl, I release my grip from his, taking a step back from the incubus. Lorelai lifted her ears and looked over her shoulder at the goat. "Enjoy your chat in dreamland? I do hope you didn't pry into my affairs too deeply, brother."

"I tried but he wouldn't give me the details." The goat pouted as he took a seat and grabbed up a roll for himself.

Lorelai gave a nod towards me. "Good dog, I would have been quite upset with you had you spoken of our intimate time together."

"I'd never disrespect you like that, Lorelai." I gave a nod before taking my own seat again. As I saw Val nibbling on the roll he collected, I put it together as to why the servants were trained in cooking despite having a master that was a vampire. "So you have to eat?"

The goat gave me a smug grin. "I can completely sustain myself from feeding upon others, but food helps fill some of the gaps."

"He does not kill, Ryder. I have a no-killing policy in this home unless the one being fed upon is already too far gone, then it is a showing of mercy, not an execution." Lorelai finished her glass them gave me a smug smile as she passed it back to me.

"Haven't you had enough yet?" I gave her a smile and felt my tension ease to know the incubus wasn't off murdering people in their sleep, humming as I produced my small dagger and with a quick motion, was already refilling her wine glass.

In truth, I could channel my powers to dull the pain of small-scale injuries like this, it was a shame I couldn't do it with more heavy ones though. Val watched me with interest as I filled her glass with my blood until it was about a third full, then willed the injury closed.

"Last one, I promise, you're just so addicting in a lot of ways, my angel-fox." Lorelai gave me another grin and collected the glass when I presented it to her, taking a sip and humming happily.

"So what are you getting out of this, Ryder?" Val finally spoke up while grinning at the two of us.

"Her love," I spoke out in a concise tone, warranting a laugh from the ewe as I grinned at her.

The incubus showed me an amused grin and shook his head. "I supped a little of your energy when we were... chatting earlier. I can attest that the divinity in you is quite delicious, but are you alright just being fed upon like that?"

"Rest assured brother, Ryder is more than just a meal to me. Had I not harbored some feelings for him, it would have remained just feeding." I felt my cheeks grow warm and couldn't help but smile as the sheep point-blank said she had feelings for me.

He cleared his throat and met my eyes with a surprisingly hard focus. "Ryder... I do have to make the cursory threat to you, though I can already sense your intents are benign. Do not hurt my lady or there will be severe repercussions."

"Do not speak of me as if I am not present, brother. I am the matriarch of this house and you will afford me the respect I am due when in my presence!" Lorelai fired back at Val, then gave him a grin. "Though your chivalry is appreciated."

"Wait, you said you fed upon me earlier when you were in my head?" I felt myself growling again as the incubus gave me another amused smile.

"Just a little sip, it happens when I pop into other's dreams like it or not." Val shrugged and gave a nod as another servant came in. At first, I thought it was Jeremy again, but then I realized it must have been his sister, given the very faint difference in her scent and figure.

The young mouse gave me a polite nod as she placed out a large platter of various cooked food items. The spread of food was small but then again they were only feeding two, and one of those really only had to graze.

"Don't mind it much, Ryder, it's not like I plunged fangs into you and guzzled blood. I'd akin it more as taking a little sip from your finger."

"Apologize," Lorelai spoke out sternly as she cut her soft brown eyes to the goat.

"My lady, it was not intentional and-"

"It was, your touch does not initiate it without your will coming forth. I'll humor your curiosity only so long. I'll not ask again, brother." Lorelai clicked her tongue, her eyes slowly turning to red as she sat her glass down upon the table.

Val made a point of standing from his chair, tucking one arm, and giving me a full bow. "You have my apologies, Ryder. I let my curiosity get the better of me and disrespected you, showing poor form as well as sullying my lady's name."

Jennifer lifted her ears at the display, her cheeks darkening before she quickly retreated from the room. I frowned and rubbed the back of my head. "It's uh... it's fine, really."

Lorelai gave the goat a nod, her eyes shifting back to normal as she collected her wine glass. "Ryder, the sun will be upon us within a few hours, will you return to your own home, or will you be staying in my chambers for the day?"

My ears perked at the offer and I swallowed hard. The thought of sleeping with her thrilled me and the citadel was constantly bathed in light, it wasn't as if sleeping during the day would be a hindrance for me. I felt my tail wagging as I responded eagerly, "I'd love to."

Val chuckled at the display and ran his fingertips through his hair. "I'm so happy you found a friend, my lady."

"Speaking of which. Let us keep this between ourselves, brother. Though I think your brother Elias would understand, I've little energy right now to explain things to your sister, she is still young and would find the concept of-"

"I understand my lady. Had I not been inside his heart, I would still hold reservations, but having experienced just how much he loves you, I'll not question it."

"What?!" I barked out and showed my teeth with a growl. "Don't just dig into my feelings and profess my love for me!"

"I jested, Ryder." The goat showed me a knowing smile as I grunted and jerked my gaze away, feeling my cheeks warm.

Lorelai showed me an indiscernible smile, her ears lifting slightly before she laid her empty glass on the table. "Ryder, I realize you are not here on business and this is a pleasure visit, but do you have any questions for me or my brother about things?"

I thought about it and then gave a nod as I asked my first question, "Well, the first and most obvious one, what is a demon doing with a family of vampires?"

Val tilted his head as if waiting to see if she would answer, sure enough, the sheep spoke up, "I found him and his brother Elias a few decades past, they each already shared a bond together. They were trying to control their powers, do some good with them instead of harm."

"Do some good?" I cocked a brow curiously as I looked at the incubus.

Val gave me a sad smile. "I and my brother trained in medical techniques even though we ourselves have very resilient bodies. We would travel and aid mundane where we could, be that villages suffering from sickness, or battlefields of wounded."

"I get that but how do your powers come into play?"

"You've experienced the euphoria of being embraced, Ryder. It deadens the senses, why... did you even feel any pain as my lady fed upon you?"

I rubbed my chin as I processed the words. They were using their abilities as a sort of anesthetic as it were. "That would indeed be beneficial during treatments."

"Or the dying," Lorelai fired back pointedly. I frowned at her words but then Val spoke up.

Val clicked his tongue as he collected his glass of wine before calling out, "I personally would rather go being in euphoria from being fed upon by Elias, or in a blissful dreamy state of sex, as opposed to laying upon the earth bleeding to death in mind-shattering agony."

"A mercy killing as it were." I frowned again.

"It is the only kind I allow in this house of mine, Ryder. Baring our enemies, of course, if someone attacks me or my family, they will be ended." Lorelai gave me a strong nod.

"For what it's worth, celestial. I and my brother would always attempt to offer those we took last rights if they were in any condition to pray, though I doubt the gods would hear our own attempts for them."

"The gods never truly turn their backs to anyone, Val." I grew solemn at the notion of it, wondering how many potential recruits may have come from their own interventions.

"Regardless, we deviated from the initial question. Our kind welcomes all into our family that may find solace with us. Many do not fit into the mold that the mundane expect and sometimes that includes other mundane. It is not uncommon for some to enter into our homes as mere servants, only to request to be embraced as one of us."

"Is that the same with demons?" I quirk a brow curiously.

Val answered the question for me, "Demons are welcome, thankfully, however, like your kind, Ryder, we are not turned, we are born. I do not know the finer details, so I do not know if we are born of the souls of mundane as your lot are, or if we are just demonic souls from the start."

"How do you not know anything of your kind? No offense, I just find it perplexing you know none of the finer details, are you not a denizen of one of the nine hells? Can you not recall your time-"

Lorelai gently rested her hand upon my arm as I focused so it wouldn't burn to touch me. "Calm yourself, Ryder. I can see these questions are of great interest to you, but Val cannot tell you anything of the layers of hell any more than I could. When demons are brought into the mundane realm it is only one of two ways normally. They are thrust into it upon reaching maturity with no knowledge of their former upbringing shy of what they are, or they are summoned by a powerful mage."

"So you just... woke up one day?" I cocked a brow at the goat before me.

"That's right. I just was here, I had basic education like speaking and the general knowledge of what I was, but I couldn't tell you anything short of that. I didn't even know how to read or write the languages of the region I was in."

"I suppose that's somewhat similar to how we work." I nodded in understanding.

"Oh?" Lorelai cocked a brow curiously, I could see the look in her eyes, she was keenly interested in learning about my kind. I couldn't say if it was due to her interest in me, or just given our long history as enemies. Then again she was quite an old vampire and as she said prior, new things were rare for her, I assumed that included knowledge.

I'm sure several of my superiors would wish to reprimand or discipline me for rambling on about such things, but it wasn't as if I were giving them some horrible secret that would put the entirety of the citadel at risk.

"We are uplifted from fallen mundane, we don't retain any of our knowledge from our former lives. Usually, we will get glimpses of our final moments if they were particularly heroic or pivotal, others do not if the final moments did not mean anything."

"And what was your final moments, celestial?" Val cocked a brow as he asked, Lorelai looking curiously upon me as well.

"I do not know. It could be I was just very pious as a mundane, it could be the gods or Seraph do not see fit for me to know. Regardless I have no knowledge of my former life."

"The Seraph?" Lorelai gave me another curious look and I frowned, realizing I had casually brought up one of our most closely guarded subjects. The sheep seemed to give me a knowing look and shook her head. "Perhaps you can explain another time, let us deviate to another topic."

I spent a few hours talking with Lorelai and Val. We spoke of several things, but I mostly was just content to be with her, be in her presence, and enjoy time with her family. We retired to her chambers once the sun rose and the ewe happily made love with me throughout the morning.

Eventually, we collapsed into a deep slumber, tangled in one another's arms, holding each other possessively well into the evening hours.

The underworld consists of nine levels or layers as it were. Contrary to popular belief, the underworld is not just a place for the damned souls of the mundane. In fact, only the two deepest levels are used to house the vilest souls, most are simply returned to the cycle or put to rest.

The majority of the underworld is simply the home of demons and their society. Similar to several mundane ideologies, demon society has a caste system, with more powerful aristocrats populating the deeper levels.

"You son of a bitch!" I roared out as my fist slammed right into the ram's jaw with all my might, the archangel pivoting and hitting to the floor. Rachel gave a shocked bark at my action and Toroah simply frowned.

"So, you think striking a superior will go without consequences, Knight?" Hagen clenched his bloody teeth as he found his feet, hand already on the large curved blade at his side.

"To hell with protocol and to hell with you!" I snarled and drew my own sword, shifting into a stance. "I'll send you back to the gods, they can sort out what your problem is!"

"Try it little fox!" Hagen drew his own sword as holy silver slammed together, divine sparks flying in all directions. In truth I was surprised I was keeping up with him at all, to say nothing of driving him back.

Hagen snarled and parried a strike, lunging in with his forehead. I met his headbutt with my own, growling between his horns and showing my sharp teeth as our eyes met, both our swords grinding upon one another as I spat out into his face, "Return them, or I'll cut yours off myself!"

"She'll earn them back or not at all, and nothing you can do will stop that, dog!" Hagen spat the words back, giving me a contemptuous smirk.

"Ryder, please!" Rachel called out to me but I simply growled and reared my head back, slamming it into the ram's nose with a loud crunch of cartilage breaking. Hagen staggered back as I drove a boot into his knee, hearing the popping break of bone and sinew before another boot sent him to the floor on his back.

Hagen showed his teeth in a furious scowl as the blade of my longsword pushed to his throat. "I mean it! Return them or I'll kill you, kid!" His eyes narrowed in a cold fury at my insult but I just dug the tip into his throat, divine blood starting to bead up around the silver.

"You've made your point, stand down, Knight." Toroah finally spoke out as he strode towards me and Hagen.

"I'll make my point through his fucking gullet!" I barked out, then gave a sharp yip as Toroah grabbed my arm, squeezing it with surprising strength.

"Stand down, now!" The rabbit hissed the orders and I felt his will overwhelm me in compulsion. I snarled and jerked from his grip, withdrawing my sword, swinging the blade to dislodge the blood before sliding it back into its scabbard.

"I'll have your rank and wings for this, Knight." Hagen sneered as he slowly stood, rubbing his throat that was already healed, the knee starting to reform no doubt.

"Silence, you'll have none of that because you instigated this altercation, Hagen." Toroah stepped back and looked us all over before shifting his hands to his hips. "Rachel, go ahead and say something."

"Ryder, these were terms I agreed to, I told you that," She sighed as she pushed a hand to my chest in an attempt to calm me.

I stared hard at her back, seeing it devoid of any sort of wings and showed my teeth in another snarl as I looked back at the ram who had regained his stoic composure. "Terms that were childish and-"

"Enough!" Toroah spat out in the closest I'd ever heard him come to anger.

"Need I remind you, technically you do not outrank-"

"Need I remind you I technically do! Now shut your maw before I let Ryder finish what he started!" Toroah fired back at the other archangel and I gave him a smug grin.

"Ryder, regardless of the pretense, Rachel accepted the terms. If she wishes to be Hagen's first, this was her ordeal, she must go without her wings until he deems her worthy. It is a verbal contract and one that cannot be broken. If you strike him down you simply leave her in that state," Toroah snarled the words at me with heat in his voice.

"It will be fine, I promise you." Rachel pushed her hand to my cheek, guiding me to look back upon her, the golden flecks in her eyes, showing she was slightly gauging my words.

"So be it, I love you wings or not," I spoke out and pushed my forehead to her own.

"Toroah, how did your first gain enough power to best an archangel?" Hagen hissed out the words and my ears lifted, looking back towards the two of them.

"Ryder, would you like to field that question?" Toroah spoke out in a smug tone, poking his nose up slightly.

I rested my hand on the hilt of my sword, a cocky grin showing as I strutted over to the ram, my tail wagging. "Oh gladly, you see... sir. I train diligently with one of the greatest warriors in our military. Your rank affords you vast power, but that won't account for elbow grease and training. While you sit around feeling accomplished and barking orders-"

Moving right into his face, I had to raise onto my toes to meet his eyes as I finished the words, "-I get shit done." I kept my blazing blue eyes focused on his as we locked into another silent duel, then gave a snort through my nose as he broke eye contact first.

"Report to my office in one hour for your first assignment." Hagen spat the orders out as he turned and stormed away.

"Sir!" Rachel offered him a salute, then frown at me and Toroah. "It will be fine, it's not like I flew around all over the citadel anyway."

I gave a furious growl in response to her words. "He does this as a retort against you and me! A childish-"

"Do you think me slow in the head, Ryder? I know clearly what he does and I accept it, as it is my desire to rise in rank, to be worthy of you and protect you as you protect me!"

"If any is unworthy it is me, Rachel! I do not deserve either of you..." I frowned and shook my head. "It's my fault he's subjecting you to this, and there's nothing I can do about it."

"Adversity builds character, Ryder. I am confident Rachel will rise to the challenge, why perhaps she will even surpass you." Toroah gave the vixen a gentle smile.

"Your words are too kind, High Commander. Thank you for your support and confidence in my abilities." She gave him a salute then huffed out. "I should go adorn my gear, the commander will expect me to arrive in proper dress."