Dorian's Deal - Adamo and Eva

Tatiana lay on the floor, tears running down her face distorted with grief and terror, mouth wide and neck straining with tension. Ovidia snapped her fingers, sending the terrible scene into a real-time playback. Tatiana wailed from the floor, and their father stepped into view, holding a gun that slowly seeped a trickle of smoke.

"No!" she wailed with their mother's hand over her mouth, muffling the sound. "Dorian!"

She couldn't produce any other words through the sobs and shrieks; their mother held her still and their father produced some rope which he tied around her head, and through her mouth, gagging her cries. Their parents both had gloves on, he finally noticed.

"They planned this," Dorian whispered to himself.

Tatiana lay unresisting as she was stripped bare and tied up.

"She has his name on her back," his mother said. "And a ring."

His father went briefly back to where Dorian's body must have been, and returned a moment later. "He has her face on his chest, and a ring as well. It's as we feared. You did the right thing, Karen."

"I know. It's just so hard... our own flesh and blood..."

"They were hurtling on a path to Hell. We could not turn them away... but we could stop them from building a family and taking it with them."

Their father stepped forward and raised the gun, firing once. Tatiana fell back and lay still.

"It is finished," he said.

"No, it's not," their mother said, turning to the cries of the children in the next room.

"We must leave," his father said. "He was calling the police and they will be coming to check the place out. We must be gone by then."

"Can we just leave the babies here?" his mother said.

"We must. If we are implicated, they will never let us take guardianship. For the good of their immortal souls, we must raise them better than we did their parents. They are infants, they can be turned from the path of wickedness. This will be our penance, to never allow them to step the first foot on that journey."

His mother sagged in her own grief. Then she nodded. "So be it."

They turned towards the door, and Ovidia snapped her fingers, turning the scene back into the view of a cityscape. He hadn't really noticed what was behind the glass until then; she had been keeping his focus in the room.

"An honor killing," Ovidia said after a long moment.

"Tatiana..." Dorian whispered. "But that means she is dead, too. Is she here?"

Ovidia turned her eyes up, listening to something only she could hear. "She is awakening. Will you come see her?"

"Of course," Dorian said. "You know, your language skills have greatly improved."

"Have they? You think that's English we're speaking now?"

Dorian's finger paused before his pronouncement as he considered the question. The words did not feel like what he remembered. He just knew that his intent was being expressed, and he could understand hers.

"What the hell? If not that, then...?"

"The spirit language is the oldest of all. It does not have words as you would think of them, but shapes in your mind."

Ovidia led him out of the apartment, walking like a normal person. He followed to another door, which she turned the handle and opened. They entered another bedroom, on which an indistinct figure lay.

"Dorian..." it whispered. "I have to..."

"Tatiana!" he called, trying to rush to her, but Ovidia's hand held him like a vice by the shoulder.

"Ssh. Give her a moment. She cannot hear us yet. The transition is not complete. Many ties you both had to the mortal realm, and her work as a mother she thinks is incomplete. But the medics will take the children away, and then she will have no reason to remain in that place."

"It's... still happening up there? Or wherever it is, relatively speaking."

"I have remained attached to the time stream, through the book you used to summon me. There are those who can be any place, any time, but have no way to be seen or touch anything of consequence."

"Other demons," Dorian said.

"And angels. We are competing for dominance. But come, time for those explanations with you both later. She stirs."

The figure on the bed took on a more distinctive feminine form.

"Tat!"

The figure shrieked, rolled off the bed away from him, and flailed.

"Stay away! Imposter! I watched you die! Oh gods, Dorian... Dorian my love..." she sobbed.

Ovidia held him back. "Give her a little space. This is hard for her, you know."

"I- yes. OK."

He stood with Ovidia waiting as Tatiana stumbled about blindly, then fell to the floor and lay for many minutes, beating her hands on the floor and the wall.

"...the babies... MY BABIES! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO THEM, TRAITOR!"

And in a flash, Tatiana had Ovidia up against the window, much as Dorian had in the other room.

"Peace, your children will be cared for," Ovidia said calmly, through all the shaking.

"With my parents! God, some of the most dangerous, fanatical people in the world, they killed us, their own children! And they are who are going to raise my babies!"

Tatiana shrieked as something fell past the window. "What was that!?"

"We're getting some light brimstone today," Ovidia said.

They looked closely; in the distance, another small flaming chunk fell towards the ground.

"Oh god... we're in hell aren't we? We're literally in hell," Tatiana said.

"You put the book away, did you not?" Ovidia said to Dorian. "Paid for eighteen years?"

"Yes," he said.

"Good... wonderful. Let me tell you what is going to happen. Your parents will raise them, yes, but burdened by guilt and misery. They believe they have done the right thing, but doubt will forever nag at them, leading them to let slip important facts about you. Children are insatiable learners, and very little will escape their notice, though they will not know what to do with this information at first. Then, the notice of the safe deposit box will arrive, that the next payment is due. Your parents will send your children - alone - to collect its contents rather than pay it. There they will find my book, and the mystery of it will drive them to research its origins. They will be eighteen by the time they are ready, but someday, they will summon me themselves. And you can be there with me."

"Can we see them grow up?" Tatiana said, releasing Ovidia and stepping over to embrace Dorian in a tight hug.

"Yes. My powers were limited before, but now that you're here, I have the strength to do this."

"We're making you stronger?" Dorian said. "How is that? Aren't we dead and powerless?"

"The tally of your life is made. Your souls belong to me now. At this stage of history, there are only a few independent demons or angels which have any followers at all, and this puts me well above the vast hordes that populate the firmament. I have struggled to provide you with the results you wanted on your breeding ritual. Those numbers are wildly against you, more than you knew; they will be much more your children than the others you chose to combine with. But now your son and daughter can have the opportunities you were dreaming of, being able to fully retain the physical characteristics they wish in their offspring. Being sequestered from the world at large even more than you were, they will have grown close, and the first time they summon me, I will be able to give them the lost-virginity experience they by then will crave, at the end of a tumultuous adolescence. Who they are, and what they choose, they will have to decide for themselves. I can only show them your footsteps, I cannot make them follow in them."

"We're your first... subjects or whatever?" Dorian said. "How did it take you this long?"

Ovidia nodded. "I consulted a seer once. We have gifts, you see. Currency in this place is granted by the Powers of Creation, that spawned us all. I spent all of mine on a prophecy - a glimpse at the opportunities across the mortal realm. So many of my kind chose to compete for the meager chances early in the history of your world. They believed that small investments would grow over time to become overwhelming forces of influence. Only a few were correct; the rest have diminished in wars waged by proxy, among the mortals who believed. Most have vanished and are now entirely powerless, forever damned."

"But not you," Dorian said.

"No. I let my book fall into obscurity, and I waited for the right time, the right person. For you."

"But there were others over the ages that you made bargains with. None of them are here."

"There were none alive who dared defy me such that I could take their soul immediately. Not that it would have been very good; a soul taken is far less valuable than one given freely, like yours. The others fulfilled their bargains and afterwards repented, to reclaim their souls for others such as Yahweh."

"You mean God is real?" Tatiana said.

"Not a god as you would think of it - certainly not omnipotent as you were taught. Yahweh is an angel, and a shrewd negotiator, his only real power is to bring others together. He formed a coalition whose members all joined forces to spread their summoning books far and wide, and produced what you would call the Old Testament to tie themselves together. When it became clear that the strategy was working, another group joined them with their New Testament, and formed the factions of Christianity we see today, aiding the saints and disciples. Yahweh is first among them, but none are supreme, and there are others who have done similar things such as Brahma, Allah, Krishna, Buddha, and so on. Secrecy and infighting have lost or hidden the rituals used to summon them, however, and their control of the religions they started has become weak. They no longer have direct influence, and their powers are mostly spent maintaining the spaces they have, and managing the infighting among the followers they have. They made bargains, you see, promises they now have to keep. In the early days of human existence, life was hard. Food was scarce, disease and war raged unchecked. The celestials had to expend significant power, and promise to expend significantly more, just to help their churches continue to exist. They did not anticipate how that would drain them as their domains grew, their followers increased in number, and as time marched on. Humanity is now ripe for the taking, if only we can apply ourselves wisely. And as my domain is young, it has much room to shape what it will become. It could be great and terrible, dictating the terms of all from on high, as Yahweh does... or, as I suspect you would prefer, it can be softer, more loving, more open to the whimsy and interest of the individuals within."

"Everything we were hoping to be," Tatiana said softly, hugging Dorian tight.

"So our family could be tied to you? Summon you, benefit from your power?" Dorian said.

Ovidia said, "Yes. And you can be summoned with me, will even be able to meet them, and help guide their destiny. If we work together, our people will multiply, and will be supreme among all humanity. No one will have the strength to stop our growth and prosperity. Do you know, the age of space travel is quickly approaching? If the first planet itself does not die before sustainable life among the others is achieved, our possibilities are greater than your mortal minds could ever have imagined. Our spirits can grow to match, however, here on this side. As more generations join us, I can even empower you with greater faculties."

"This is a lot to take in," Dorian said.

"What about our children now? Can we see them?" Tatiana said.

"You have had much to process already. I think you have seen enough for today. I give you my word, they are still healthy," Ovidia replied. "I can show you those moments later. But we are all here, now... and for the first time, you can touch me directly, and I can touch you. What do you say we make a deal, for your futures?"

"A deal? You already have our souls. What more could you possibly want? Our firstborn? We couldn't exactly deliver that," Tatiana scoffed.

"I hope to show you that I am the best thing for them as well. Though I have you here, and your souls empower me, I would have your active contribution. This is where the other religious figures falter. They have made agreements, very specific ones, but find that the strictures they once set are now holding them back. The people whom they recruited, so long ago, have old ideas, and see only the facade that their so-called god has provided them. As such, they cannot act in accord with the changing needs of the time. They are, literally, stuck in the past, unable to come to terms with the modern world."

"It seems to me we have almost twenty years to negotiate terms," Dorian said.

"I guess we don't have anywhere else to be, do we?" Tatiana said.

"And here, you are perfectly safe," Ovidia added.

Dorian looked at Tatiana, and she looked back. Experiencing one's own death on Earth would have taken years to process, years of nightmares and long nights, and lots of therapy, if it happened at all. But here in the succubus's realm, there were no biological components to slow their healing, to force them to relive the trauma over and over. Here they could examine what had happened, accept it, and find their peace. And where the pain had been there blossomed a deep and joyful hope.

"Turn around," Dorian said. Tatiana twirled, her hand in his. "You've still got my name tattooed on you."

"And you've still got my face on you," she replied.

"You wanted me to be a part of you forever, didn't you?" Dorian said.

His sister nodded. "Wasn't that the point for you too?"

"Yeah, and now we are together, forever."

She grinned. "We still have our family, sort of. We can watch them growing up, right?"

Ovidia nodded.

"We can't truly join them until they grow up themselves, and find the book. But when they do..." Tatiana said.

"We can show them what love means," Dorian said.

"A crucial moment that will be," Ovidia said. "You must be persuasive. As I said, I cannot force them to join this idea. Their very minds are still developing, until they reach twenty-five years of age; my influence is very short-lived."

"What do you suggest?" Dorian said.

"There's nothing any force in heaven or hell can do that can stop you from expressing whatever you wish in this place," Ovidia reminded them. "But freedom is a great gift, and I wish to extend it to you, and your children. Let me show you exactly what that means, my own special way. Start now, so that when the time comes, the force of your love will make a compelling argument for your children to leave your parents behind, and start a new life together, as you did. Be prepared to show them pleasure beyond their imagining. What I mean is, fuck each others' brains out now, as practice to make a show so engrossing they can't imagine not wanting to be just like you."

Ovidia stepped closer, stroking both of them on the back of the head and neck, and down their backs.

" 'You catch more flies with honey than vinegar'," Tatiana quoted.

"You understand," Ovidia nodded.

"You'd better learn to please me right," Tatiana giggled.

"I thought I did OK, never heard you complain," Dorian replied.

"Mm, never. But think about what our usual lovemaking looks like from outside. Ovidia?"

"Yes, you are quite rough, Dorian," the succubus said. "You may want to learn to be gentler, more passive, at least for their sake. Your possessive streak will put them off until they are ready to see it. Think about how your parents look from the outside, in comparison to a liberated adult."

"Ouch. I definitely don't want to come across like my dad."

"I have to know something," Tatiana said. "I really never meant to tell mom about us. What happened? Was that you? You can't force us to break the deal, right?"

"I cannot, nor did I wish to," Ovidia said, getting a grave look on her face. "I sense the influence of another power. Angel Moroni himself interceded, if I know him at all. Your mother made some bargain which I could not counter. Our bargain was first, and it took precedence; he could only exploit a flaw in the wording, but with his strength that was enough to defeat our efforts in the end."

"But..." Tatiana struggled for what she was trying to say.

"If I'd had the foresight to phrase it differently, then would everything have turned out better? Prophecy is a slippery thing," the succubus said. "It may be that some worse fate awaited you, had it gone another path, and the way to tell me the greatest opportunity, as I asked the seer to do, was to specifically omit this knowledge."

"It's too late to change now," Dorian said. "We'll just have to make the best of what we have."

"And there I agree whole-heartedly," Ovidia said. "Because what we have here is eighteen years with two lovely people who love each other dearly, and a succubus to guide them to heights previously unimaginable. Go ahead, reaffirm your love, and let me bless it."

"Dor..." Tatiana said, looking deep in his eyes. "Dor! Your eyes!"

"Tat, your skin's changed."

"Yours too. And you're blonde! Are we... we don't have our old bodies. Did we take on those traits we wanted for our children?"

"Oh my god, I think we did. Was this your doing?" Dorian asked Ovidia.

"After a fashion. I can control your appearance, to some degree. In my domain, my power is supreme, but all I had to do was give your souls the freedom to remake themselves. Your desires to be close to your children, and to wish for them to manifest these changes, allowed you to internalize them. I simply provided the fire, you are the ones who reforged yourselves in this image."

Dorian wrapped his hands around Tatiana's head from brows to where his pinkies from both hands met in the back, pulling her in hard for a kiss as she put both of her hands around his rapidly-growing penis. Ovidia lay sideways on the bed, a knee up in the air, one hand propping up her chin and the other on her pubic mound, stirring her own genitals. Tatiana sank to her knees and was about to start sucking her brother off when she looked over.

"What... is that?" she asked.

"I am built a bit different, as you can see," Ovidia said, gesturing to the cock that had grown out of her engorged clit. "I am man, and I am woman, and I am something more than either."

"Is that your true form? Are all succubi like that?" Dorian said, mouth agape.

"We can choose the form we grow into. Many angels have remained in their original shape, entirely sexless, and oblivious to what they are missing. A fuccubus, by necessity, will spend some of their power to take on a sex."

"A fuccubus?" Dorian said.

"A sex demon, obviously," Tatiana said.

"I prefer the female form for summoning, as it is less threatening," Ovidia nodded. "Some took on female sex, and became a succubus. Some said, male sex, and became an incubus. I said, sex? Yes, please! And this is what I am now. I find that it gives me insights into both body types."

"How did that put you on the path to incest?" Dorian said.

"Come, young ones. Why don't you pleasure me together and then let your new mommy tell you a story?"

Tatiana's nervous smile met Dorian's sarcastic grin, and they kissed just the briefest moment before diving into Ovidia's crotch, Tatiana sucking on the cock and Dorian tonguing and fingering the opening of the vulva.

"Dor, I have an idea," Tatiana said. "Why don't you give her your dick while I climb on top? We can face each other and make out while we have a three-way fuck going."

"Mmm, my two eager devil children," Ovidia purred. "We are going to have so much fun. Tat, come up here and suck both dicks until we're both wet and ready to go."

Tatiana was pretty sure that lubrication didn't work the same way here as it did on Earth, but did as she was told. Sucking two dicks became mesmerizing, and she swapped back and forth for much longer than necessary. The succubus tongued Tatiana's clit and nibbled her labia until she was soaked and filling the room with her fragrance.