Loved by Heaven Fouled by Hell Pt. 10

The angel Hael was deeply worried about Lucretia's slipping judgment. He was not offended by her choice of the Andraelphus over him--after all, he knew that this was more than a matter of sexual prowess--as much as her leniency with the creature, the removal of his bonds.

Andrealphus made good use of his time in the long hours when Lucretia was away. He would search the house, moving around furniture, checking for hidden drawers, looking for anything he could obviously use against her.

Hael was certain he was looking for Eli's grimoire, for some means to break the binding spell that contained them here. Thankfully, he had foreseen this and had hidden the tome in one of his stacks around him, in plain sight.

His days would be filled with the frantic sounds of the demon going through the rooms and his nights with Lucretia's screams, pleading with her inhuman lover for more through her tears and her orgasms.

Lucretia had come to him one night, poor, misused little Lucretia, inside the library, her naked body covered in the demon's juices and decorated with patches of red where Andrealphus had slapped and sucked and nibbled her raw. She looked beautiful to him, even then, in that vulnerable, panting state.

She crawled to him and cried, pleading to be released, to be freed from this torment, but Hael knew she did not mean it. He knew she loved this mistreatment, this mix of pain and pleasure, and even if she found it in her heart to release the demon that very night, she would look through Hell for him the next minute.

He had cupped her face in his hands then and kissed her deeply, easing her mind. He tried to tell her about the danger, but she simply stumbled out in a daze and slept.

It was in the afternoon of the seventh day when Andrealphus burst through the library door.

"Where is it?"

"What are you referring to?"

"The book! The book! The bloody bastard book! The one that holds the spell that will release us!"

"That will release you, you mean."

"And you by extension! Do you know where it is?"

"Are you intending to hurt the woman when you are freed?"

"Hurt her? Hurt is too mild a word. I intend to torment her, I intend to destroy her! I have such a store of wonderful, red delights at hand for her, the likes of which not even Hell has ever seen!"

"Then I will not aid you."

The demon's face twisted with rage; his eyes turned into two burning coals, so seething with hate that they could bore holes through steel.

"Give me the book, or I will destroy you."

"No. I will not allow you to exile this woman into perdition before she can repent."

"She is a black-hearted whore! A sorcerer's daughter!"

"She is a living being. And I was created to protect living beings."

The demon was upon him before the angel had even time to prepare himself. His enemy shifted his form in midair, turning himself into a catlike creature armed with barbed, wicked claws. He stepped away and saw it crumple down the stacks of books. Andrealphus jumped up at him the next instant, his claws ripping at Hael's robes and the flesh underneath.

The angel struck at his monstrous enemy and beat his wings, when the tug of the chain pulled him down. The weeks of wearing the thing had made him grow so accustomed to his bonds that he had completely forgotten about them. Without missing a beat, the demon grabbed the chain, his skin sizzling on contact, and tugged down with all his might, making the angel crash across the shelves, smashing through wood and throwing up a cloud of dust.

He tugged again, snarling at his opponent, when he felt him pull back, and the two creatures locked in a tug of war, as his and the demon's muscles screamed at the touch of the iron that poisoned and burned them. With one final tug, the angel won the competition and dragged his enemy across the floor, then flew at him, tackling the creature. They exchanged strikes with claw, wing, and fang. They rolled on the floor, their blood staining the old paper and the marble.

Hael was holding his enemy by the throat, choking Andrealphus with his iron chain, even while he kept changing his form, trying to slip away from its terrible touch to no avail. In desperation, the demon changed his form to that of a large scorpion and struck the angel on his throat and sides repeatedly, again and again, until his heavenly enemy released his grip, paralyzed by the pain. Andrealphus got up, changing to a human form, his body burned and bruised.

"You put up a good fight. For a servant of Heaven, that is." He spat at his enemy and looked through the stack of books, tossing aside the old tomes until he found the grimoire. He laughed uproariously at his good fortune.

"You better run when I'm done with this. Because if you are still here, I will first kill her in front of your very eyes. Then I'll make sure you're a long time dying."

***

Lucretia felt something was amiss the minute she walked through the door. There was the smell of sulfur in the air, mixed with blood.

She ran toward the source of the cacophony, when she heard the demon's voice booming across the house, each word spoken loudly, like the terrible toll of a funeral bell.

"Fhtagn! Lui' Vur!"

Her heart jumped. She knew the words. The words she had spoken to bind the creature! She let out a scream at the sound of them and headed for the library.

"No'moth garah!"

She could feel the spell unraveling all around her, the strands of magic she had woven slowly breaking, one after the other like the chords of a high-strung piano. She could already see, in her mind's eye, the terrible fate that waited her in the hands of her former captive. But there was still time. She was almost at the library door. All she had to do was speak a word and he--

"Soon-Kia!"

"Suruk!" she screamed, a second too late. The spell dissipated all around her. The words no longer had power over her captive. She saw Andraelphus turn to her, his form that of some vaguely humanoid horror, his shape a thing full of mouths and strange appendages that walked toward her. The angel Hael lay on his feet, bleeding profusely.

She shut the door and turned to run, but the wood exploded outward as the creature crashed through it.

"Come here, whore! Your master's finally free to fuck you like you deserve!" He bounded behind her, not bothering to run. She stumbled and fell on the rug and crawled, crying, away from him. She saw him come closer, looming over her.

"First, I will strip the flesh of your--gak!" His threat was cut short when the iron chain wrapped round his neck, burning him, still burning.

Hael screamed at her as he pushed against the demon's back with enough force to break his neck. "Run, Lucretia!"

And Lucretia, who had never known a creature who thought her life was worth preserving, ran back toward the library, even though she heard the screams rise, an inhuman roar, and an all-too-human cry of pain behind her. Frantically, she searched for the grimoire and leafed through its pages for some way out, some means to send the demon back to its place of origin, when suddenly the screams died away.

Slowly, she walked back to the corridor and saw Andrealphus, battered and bloodied, the chain still around his neck, stepping on the angel's head on the rug, ripping at his wings. Hael convulsed and let out one last scream when his wings were torn from him and cast aside. The demon's vertical mouth said:

"Your turn, whore."

She uttered the words before she could even register them. Lucretia watched, as the demon was suddenly sucked into...some sort of void, his form collapsing into a point and falling back into the pit that had spawned him.

The angel lay on the floor, deathly still.

***

A lot of things were said about the events that preceded Lucretia Mandrake's resignation from the board of directors and her sudden auctioning of the Mandrake Estate.

Some say she grew weary of the burdens of power, others that she gave it all up for the sake of some illegitimate child, or maybe for its father who wished for a simpler life.

They were partially correct because the angel Hael survived the battle, despite his wounds. They were severe, but they healed thanks to her care and his inhuman resilience.

Lucretia stood by his side the entire time, looking over his sleeping form. One night she was woken from her sleep by his soft touch on her shoulder. She opened her eyes and saw those great black orbs he had for eyes, stained with silver, gazing at her with genuine concern.

"I thought you were dead."

"I thought so too," he replied.

She leaned in and kissed him deeply, their tongues entwined, pulling her close to his body. His skin was soft under her hands, and she ripped off her clothes, stripping before him. She saw him smile when she bared her breasts and body and moaned with delight as he traced the outline of her breasts and gently caressed her nipples. She ground her bare sex on his shaft, climaxing again and again over him while she kissed him, a clean sensation, free of shame or disgust.

She let him enter her, and for the first time in her life, she rode him without any malice, enjoying him inside her while he moved his waist in synch, filling her up and making her go crazy as she spilled her fluids over him.

He sat up and kissed her neck, her breasts, and her lips. He cupped her buttocks, moving her waist on him again and again. She came once, twice, three times, letting him make love to her, smiling with glee, reveling in Lucretia's own bliss.

She clawed down his back and came with him one final time, enjoying him inside her. They lay together and kissed, and they both cried and laughed for a while.

"Will you go back?"

"I can't. I no longer have my wings. And even if I did...I've been tainted by my material form. There is no way I would be allowed in the Silver City."

"What do we do now?"

"The best we can out of this situation."

"Am I still damned?"

"That's not for me to say. But if you still feel damned, then you have a whole life ahead of you, to make amends."

"How long will that be?"

"I couldn't possibly tell. But I will be with you the whole way."

He held her in his arms, and she slept soundly for the first time in her life.