“I'll take a double shot of Dark Chocolate Mint drizzled in fudge and the leggy blonde in the back.”
I kicked Samael in the heel. He caught my foot between his shoes. Slick as snake oil, he grinned at the cashier. A pimply twenty-something, she stared at Samael dreamily, then rang up the order wrong.
“Whatever you want, sir,” she said breathily. “I'll give you whatever you need.”
Samael stroked my hair idly, and I felt evermore like his illegally purchased lap dog. “What do you want, maggot?” He leaned over, whispering into my ear. “Something that melts on your tongue?”
I retched.
He shrugged, withdrawing to the waiting line. His hand lingered at the small of my back.
I grimaced, turning to meet the cashier. Samael's spell over her ceased. She plastered me with a bovine stare. “Your
“Aaagh! Why are immortals so frigging complicated?”“Would you rather we fit neatly into little mortal boxes?” He spoke in a falsetto: “Hello, boys and girls! My name's Satan! I'm the Prince of Darkness and Evil Incarnate. That nice old man over there with a white beard is God. He's your Father, and if you don't believe in him, you'll burn in Hell forever. I'll torture you and roast you up good until your flesh melts on my teeth. Doesn't that sound wonderful? And look over there, at that dead man on a cross- it's Jesus. His Father killed him so he could die for your sins.”“What's a sin, Jimmy? Why, you're all born filthy little brats with Sin inside of you like an STD, passed on through sex from the Original Stinking Sin. And no matter how much you bathe, that Sin never goes away, not until you accept Jesus into your hearts. Come, children, kne
Eva and I were sprawled across the couch, eyes glued to the television. A heart-wrenching Lifetime movie was playing. I dug my fingers into the cushion.“Oh no,” I whispered.“Por Dios, no!”“She's pregnant, Eva. They've already dragged her through child abuse, an alcoholic father, and depression. These screenwriters are sadists.” We munched on popcorn for comfort.“Look,” Eva whispered. “She's getting her papa's gun.”“No!” I yelled. “Don't do it, Amanda! Think of your child! You and Jimmy still have a future together.”My brother called from the basement. “Shannon, are you watching Lifetime?” He raced upstairs, planting himself on the floor. “Hey,” he said, winking at Eva. She scoffed. Mo shrugged. He turne
We'd crossed the Border hours ago. Samael carried me in his arms like I was a child, following the mongrel's scent. The trail of bloody paw prints grew fainter as the moon rose high. He paused every now and then to look at me fondly.“Remind me why you're dragging me along?”“Because,” Samael said quietly, “otherwise you're a demon chew toy.” He sailed through the woods without touching the ground.“Aren't I already?”“No. More a feral lapdog.” He leapt into a clearing, wings outstretched to buffer his fall. I got a mouthful of feathers.“Umf.”“Yes, nice scenery.”The morning star twinkled above. A stone pedestal stood under an oak whose roots grew in tangles around it. The tracks came to an end. The corpse of a girl lay atop the stone. Her blood dripped down the its cracks.
Samael spent the next hour stalking the perimeter, weaving black spells. He examined the corpse, murmuring darkly to himself while Puck took notes. Strange symbols had been written in nephelim blood on the tree.“I tracked him far as the West Wind. There was nary a trace of the creepsing angel, Thane of Flies,” the satyr growled, driving his hoof into the ground. He scribbled notes on the page. “Bloody rotten bats! A pox upon the mongrels!”They plotted the fallen angel's demise while I sipped my tea. My watch read nine P.M.. Samael had assured me my family would take no notice of my disappearance, thanks to his “mind-editing” capabilities. I hoped I didn't return to a house filled with human goo.Samael approached, smiling crookedly. “How would you like to deliver the death blow, maggot?”I cocked my brow. “What? You want me to
Rotting organs spewed across the altar as Jakkon roared. He speared his claws into Samael's forearm. He wrenched his head free from Samael's grip, rolling forwards and driving his feet straight into Samael's jaw. Samael cursed. He grabbed Jakkon's wings and snapped them. It was almost ritualistic as they dealt each blow. Trading kicks that would knock a whale dead. Exchanging a slicing punch for a stranglehold that left brains drooling from the nostril.Jakkon tore Samael's guts from his chest. They fell in a pile to the ground and writhed like snakes, then launched themselves at the Watcher. Intestines bound his limbs. Samael bent Jakkon like a toothpick, snapping him in two. But that was not his end. I watched in horror as his flesh rebinded itself, indestructible. Their roars made it clear that, though immortal, they were friends with pain just the same.“Samael,” Jakko
“You're as brutal as him. You dismembered him!” I shuddered. Samael's lip curled at my reaction. “He was an angel, Samael. How far away are you from becoming like Jakkon?”Samael laughed softly. “I don't look in mirrors, mortal.” He reached into his robe, withdrawing the glowing soul. He clutched it between us. “This is what I work for. It is who I am.” He held it close to my ear.Hearing a faint heartbeat, I gasped.“My work is harsh. But it is beautiful.”“She's alive?” I asked. “But how?”“Noor is an archangel's daughter. Immortals, even half-breeds, are incredibly hard to kill. She could be of great use to us.” He knelt beside Noor, then gingerly lifted her head. He propped her body up on the altar, studying the wounds t
Frighteningly enough, Damien's was becoming a second home for me.“The regular?” Signor da Silva asked, winking. He poured me a foaming mug of root beer.“Thanks,” I said, trying to pay him. For the umpteenth time, he refused, smiling indulgently.“Now now, it's costing enough to be in Samael's company. Best keep what change you have.”“Shannon is an expensive girl,” Samael noted, ducking behind the bar. He grabbed the vodka off the shelf and downed it in one gulp.“How is the Reaper holding up?” Damien asked, ignoring the liquor theft.Samael groaned, slumped into a worn chair. “Not rosy. Metatron's on my ass to do tax returns on lost souls. There's a cholera outbreak, again. And, according to my schedule,” he muttered, whipping out a worn agenda, “some idiot is going to set off a bomb at a Ru
She sunk. “Rote reconnaissance. I was patrolling the edge of Dudael, just a routine check. I wasn't to stray beyond the border.” She shivered. Damien draped a woolen blanket around her. She pulled it close, face long. “But I heard a- a rip: like a tear in the Border. As if someone had crossed. Impossible, I thought- I was the only one that far in, past the gates. Even Uriel rarely visits that path. I was on the edge of the root network of spells that binds the lesser watchers. The enchantments there grow thick as trees, so dark they block all light. I was alone.”“And you pursued it?”Her head hung low. “Yes,” she whispered. “I disobeyed Zadkiel's orders. I thought it was just a fluctuation. The network is so weak, and my father is constantly developing repairs. I'd learned his craft, and I thought, w
I surfaced from his memories, finding his head in my lap. He clutched at my back like Jacob's wrestling angel. “You were so- so young.” I said. He hadn't been more than eighteen in his memories. “Yes,” he said quietly. “I stole you. I thought you were mine. It is how I understood things, as toy soldiers and spoils of war. It was not until I saw my brothers die for me that I realized the gravity of what I had done. I thought I was liberating us, that I would challenge our Father and demand our freedom.” “He would not let us step a foot past the Abyss, told us that it was the end. But I hungered for knowledge, and I sought more, made a pact with it. The void showed me what was Beyond, for a price. Now, in a sense, I am it. It drove me mad, or perhaps made me insane. Just like our Father was. He thought Himself the only one. He could not bear to know there were oth
I have loved you since conception, through the banks of time and across the waters of life.When I first saw you, Eve, you were golden. Father shepherded the twins proudly in to the court room, first-formed of humankind, made in the image of God. My brothers and I sang, welcoming you into the world. Adam gazed vacantly up at the Father, empty-headed and waiting to be crowned with His glorious Light. You were created to be his vessel as well, but your eyes stayed closed, refusing to open, and you drew soft, cool breaths, as if waiting for the moon to rise. It was not until I held you that you opened them. I still can not fathom that moment: their blue waters met my depths.My heart stopped, and I refused to part from you. God laughed and said I had the makings of a man in me. I did not know what I felt. I just stared into the question of your lips and waited, knowing in time, we would be.I held you at your christening and lowered y
“You look like a rabbit when you sleep. Your nostrils flare out and you sniff things. Occasionally, you squeak.” The Angel of Death sat next to me, peering at me curiously. I shook in trepidation, draped in his robe at the corner of his bed.I hadn't managed to string a word together for over an hour. He'd hand-fed me toast and counseled me through hell and high water. One moment I raged, the next I wept like a banshee. Now, I was silent, manically pulling down from the pillow case.“I watched you all night, you know. When you cried out, I sang to you, and you drifted back to sleep. What is it, to ride dreams, I wonder? Your little body, so warm. That it could contain such wonders.” He ran his fingers through my hair, braiding it meticulously. He drew a red ribbon from the air and fixed it at the end. Sam slid his arms over my shoulders, resting his h
It was then I remembered my nightmares. What drove me from my bed and sleep. I sunk into the night with him, to the depths of Samael's mind.Long ago, it happened. A reflection in the hourglass, the lip where sand siphons into the void.He gave me the heart from his breast. His ribs grew into the Tree. It throbbed in his hand like a secret. I took it, terrified.“It is yours,” he whispered. Tears softened his stony eyes. “It always has been. Take it. It will set you free.”“But I don’t want it! All I want is to be with you-”“Eve!” he cried, clasping his hands around mine. They trembled, and that scared me more than the gaping wound on his chest. He had never been afraid. “Please. If you do not, you will die.”“But this is our home-”“You do not belong here.” He p
“Different?” he asked, voice strained.I closed my eyes, running my tongue up his thumb, sucking. I nipped the top. He groaned.“Pyrrhic, you said?” I asked ruefully, dragging my lips up his index finger.“You're teasing me.”“Genius. Your turn-ons are weird.”“Damn your feminine wiles.”“You really like damning things, don't you?”He pulled me down into the snow with him, wrapping his wings around us so I might as well have been on a feather bed in a parka.Schubert's quartet peaked. He spooned me against his chest, arms wrapped round me like a mummy. Samael lay like a corpse for a moment, apparently getting in the zone. I grimaced as he stiffened. He laughed roughly at my unease.“That's just wrong,” I informed him.“Angel lust-”“Don
I crept onwards to the mansion, amazed I hadn't been caught. Then I remembered this was probably like a lobster trap. It looked like a house on the outside, but inside was a cage fitted just for me. And it wasn't like Sam- Sauron needed guards. Only Pallor would have been idiot enough to cross him, provided he was bribed by literature.Yards from the mansion, I questioned why I was here. Skeletons held a ball in the attic. The mansion's stone face was mortared with graves. I stood a yard from the entrance, an intimidating sweeping thing with a portico that bested the White House. Devils and fantastical beasts were carved into its wooden pillars. Wolves swallowed the crenelate. It was like a pipe dream from Hell.The door knocker yawned. It was a brass lion. Lionheart. Again.“Ah, a midnight snack. My master must have had surplus-”I whip
I thought I'd woke from a fever dream. I was back in my room alone, with the sun just creeping past the sill. I nearly danced out of bed, praising the morning for saving me.“What the hell kind of dream was that?” I shuddered. One in which I'd been the reincarnation of Eve, marched like a happy idiot into Hell, and, oh yeah, hooked up with the Reaper.“What the...?” A white scar shone on my breast, under the dark lace of my nightgown. I fell to my knees and gagged.“No,” I whispered. My eyes were catacombs. “No way in hell did I do that!”I frantically scanned my room. There was a rose at the head of my bed, stem charred as if it'd been roasted. It sat like a wicked promise.Revulsion seized me and I ran for the bathroom. I hurled til there was nothing but bile.I didn't leave my room for days. I slept until I c
I slept for a very long time.By the time I awoke, he was bones. They were strewn across the bed. The sunlight had eaten everything. I held his skull in my hands. It looked forlornly at me.“Samael?” I whispered.I'm here.He smiled. Just like he always had.Tears stung my eyes. I could barely form thoughts past my panic. I was angry at him. Sad. “What kind of game are you playing?”It will be alright. Just hold me.“Samael. What- What do I do?”Bring my remains to the river. Anoint me with the waters of life.I gathered his bones in the black sheets, now a shroud. I carried his remains like Ezekiel, knowing the marrow hid life. His room was vast, endless. I would call it a tower if it had any humanity in it. Instead, it was a living thing. At its cente
I witnessed his daily torture. Each morning, Samael fell. His shrieks heralded the rising sun. His plea echoed through the centuries: “Don't make me face this alone.” His beloved brother crushed him. Samael bit his heel like a beast. Michael ripped his glory from him: “Burn,” Michael cursed his twin. Stripped of his thorny crown, Samael fell to the howling sea. The blackness crushed him to it. The dark mother swallowed all, trying to erase his abortion from existence. But he held fast to his hideousness, made weapons from his pain. They sprouted from his rage, pinning the abyss to his bones. He roared “I AM.” The first claim of being. The blackness bowed before him. It recognized its master, the Lightbringer whose shadow it sprang from. He moved inside me like the Holy Ghost. “Do you remember how we fell?” Samael took Go