stone bender

Nathaniel looked through the small dingy window in the door.  

“Lovely, Shiv.”  The angel didn’t bother to hide an ounce of bitterness.  “This is what was so important for me to see?”  He looked over at Shiv skeptically.  “Not like you to rub it in.”

The demon did his best to hide an expectant smile, but couldn’t mask the excitement in his voice as he pointed to the girl passed out on a pallet in the gray room behind the door.  

“Look again, Nate.  Can’t you see it?  Christ, can’t you smell it in her?”  

He let that float for a second.  He could tell by the way the angel’s eyes had started to burn that he’d gotten the picture.  But because he was the type to rub it in, regardless of what Nate might have thought, he kept going.

“Can’t you smell me in her?”  He’d leaned in close, and asked it with a lover’s whisper.

Nathaniel’s reaction was priceless, and exactly the sort of thing Shiver loved about his adversary and friend.  The angel had backed away, but only slightly, his eyes flaring and teeth exposed.  If his wings had been showing, Shiv was certain they’d be flexing a little.  It made the demon smile.  It made the demon lick his lips.  It wasn’t that he wanted to antagonize Nate, but the rage pouring out of the warrior angel was exquisite.

“Damn you, spawn.”  He hissed, leaning forward as his stance widened.

Shiv smiled even wider, tilting his head.  “If you could arrange that, I’d be most grateful.”

The angel was having none of it.  He’d have reached for the pommel of his sword if it wasn’t so damned anachronistic (not to mention illegal) to be wearing one.  

“I should just kill you.” Nathaniel managed to growl through gritted teeth.

The demon nodded, not in the least concerned with the threat.  But he dropped the levity, locking serious eyes with the angel.

“And it would be very noble of you to die trying.  But it would do nothing to help this girl in her plight.” 

  He looked back at her, patently disregarding the angel as a threat.  It had long ago been established who was the stronger of the two, and time had done nothing if not tip the balance of power even more into his favor.  He let the angel calm himself before he looked back.  Nathaniel glowered at him, but seemed to have gathered his wits.

“What game are you playing, Shiver?  Why do you want me here?”

The demon nodded.  This was good.  Wether the angel chose to see it or not, this bright eyed, scheming and suspicious state was Nathaniel’s place of power.  And he needed nothing if not for this angel to be well-grounded at the moment.  Not that he would ever let on to any living creature that he needed Nathaniel.  And maybe, to be honest, need wasn’t precisely the right term.  More like very badly wanted what the angel was capable of giving.  Enough to make a deal that he would never, ever admit to making.  So Shiver gave his best dirty grin, and prepared himself to lose a bet he had no intention of winning.

“Haven’t claimed her yet, angel.  Thought I’d give you a shot at it.  You seemed kinda low the other day.  Figured this might cheer you up.  If you think you’re up for it.”

Nathaniel shook his head.  “Not yours?  You’ve impregnated her, you bastard.  She’s practically yours by default.  I bet a single sentence could claim her.”

Less than that.  But he had been very careful not to let it happen.  Especially after…  He shrugged again, letting his voice drop.  “She’s wide open, Nate.   A true believer after everything I’ve done to her.  Primed to believe anything that walks through that door.  Show yourself to her, give her what she needs, and she won’t just follow you wherever you lead.  She will never stop giving her love to you.  You have the makings of a damned miracle cult, here.  Fatima all over again.  Or who was the one with the passions?  Hell, you could end up giving rise to your own little saint.”

He loved blaspheming around his angel friend.  It pushed him.  Shiv liked to think it reminded him of all the counterfeit claims that had been made in order for that little human-angel symbiotic relationship to exist.  At least as a demon, he always knew his role was counterfeit, from inception to disillusion.  After all, he was a parasite.  He only needed one moment of agreement from his prey.  And he never had to promise an eternity of bliss to have his needs met.  Angels were so fucking complicated.  Thinking about it always filled him with mirth.

Nate was not amused.  Probably knew exactly where the demon’s mind was wandering.  Not like they’d never spoken of it.  Not like the angel had ever hidden his outraged disgust at the nature of demons, either.  It kept them on common ground, this mutual disdain.  

The angel shook his head.  “You make it sound like a walk in the park.  Again, demon.  She’s carrying.  There’s nothing ever-so-simple about that.  You’ve touched her in deeper ways than I really want to consider, and in order to fix it, I’d have to do the same.  What in god’s name makes you think I would want anything to do with that mess?”

Nate liked to blaspheme as well.  But his reasons for it were something the demon didn’t bother delving into.

Shiv smiled again.  “Oh, come on.  Not like it would be the first nephilim to grace this planet.  Not like it would even be your first, skinwalker.”

That was old history.  The kind the angels and the church had had to work very, very hard to re-write.  Much to the amusement of onlooking demons.  And not at all to Nathaniel’s amusement.  Probably not the kind of argument Shiv should have brought up, but a certain degree of permissiveness in the back of one’s mind, even if it had been consciously denied, could grease wheels unexpectedly.  Sometimes.  Although by the look on the angel’s eyes, it might not work in his case. 

Nate shook his head and answered vehemently.  “And there’s a whole bunch of damn good reasons why we stopped doing it, bottom-feeder.  The last thing I want to deal with is a child.”

Bottom-feeder. Well, he guessed had deserved that for bringing up the whole flesh-bound issue with an angel.  They were very proud of the purportedly selfless reasons why they stayed in the mire, and hated being reminded of times when they had gotten a little… selfishly carried away.  And the insult was true, anyway.  Earth-bound demons were the bottom of the demonic food chain.  But Shiv liked it that way.  He liked the dance with these delicate and delectable humans.  He didn’t really care to be in hell, constantly measuring his dick against every asshole who wanted to take a bite of him.  At least here he stood a good chance of being the one to end up with a full belly when another demon got too frisky.

He hoped the angel had enjoyed the dig.  He hoped Nate thought that he had scored a point against him, because he needed a good reason to start playing hardball without the crafty angel wondering about Nate’s insistence.  He looked away from the angel, bringing his face so close to the window that his nose nearly touched it.  Shiver was very careful not to let Nate look him in the eyes as he spoke.  There was way too much that angel could read, as unmentionable emotions threatened to break through his act.

He let his voice get very quiet.  He knew every word would be heard.  “Look at that girl, Nate.  She may not be pure, but she is innocent.  Sure, I can keep her alive on my blood, but you know what will happen if she brings the child to term, don’t you?”  He paused briefly, speaking before Nate could muster a response.  “Her flesh is too soft, Nathaniel.  Eventually, the child will chew its way out of her.  It will eat her from the inside out.” 

There was an edge of horror to his voice that surprised him.  What right had he to feel horror about the nature of his kind?  He should be applauding his own act.  He should be looking forward to that feast of pain and torment.  Shiver hoped that Nathaniel would interpret the tone as a dramatic flare.  Not good to show weakness, even in front of an enemy who had become a sort of comrade after the millennia they had shared. 

Apparently, the angel either hadn’t noticed or discredited the demon’s inconsistencies.  His eyes had narrowed as he stood next to Shiv, looking in the window as well.  His response was a pissed-off whisper, much to the demon’s relief.

“So that’s the game, eh?  Forcing me to procreate, to bring that sort of chaos into the world, in order to save her life? You know how much that would bind me to her.  Do you intend on stealing her from me after that?”  He turned to face Shiver, leaning in the way the demon had done earlier, the fire in his eyes now colored with amused self-confidence.  “Do you really think you could?”

Although he wouldn’t let it show, the truth was that Shiver wouldn’t begin to presume.  After she met that holy fucking bliss, what could he possibly have to offer that would even compare?  Sure, a demon could steal a soul that an angel had claimed, but he had taken the girl all the way down the rabbit hole, had shown her way too much of him for her to harbor any doubts about his nature, and consequently, any doubts about Nathaniel’s as well.  And the things Nate was going to do to patch up Shiv’s mistake, well, that would pretty much seal the deal with even the hardest bitten soul.

Shiver smiled as he looked back at the angel, letting him think that he’d figured out exactly what the nature of Shiv’s plans had been.  He played the best cocky and arrogant bastard that he could, answering as if he was sharing a private joke.

“Well, I did say I missed having a challenge, didn’t I?”

Nate let one of his beautiful smiles slide out as he shook his head.  “This is one game you aren’t going to win, hell-spawn.  You don’t stand a chance.”

Shiver hid the flood of relief that washed over him.  The creature had taken the bait.  Halle-fucking-lujah.  He grinned like he liked the challenge, and nodded toward the girl.  Nathaniel chuckled as he turned the knob and slid inside.  The angel was glowing, no doubt with some beneficent light, no doubt burning away the cloudy muddled high that demon blood induced.

The girl sat up and watched him slide to his knees in front of her.  By the time he had his face in her hands, tears were pouring down her face.  They were both lit golden, and he leaned in close so that they sat, foreheads touching, as her shoulders shook from the memories that were surely now coursing through her.

Shiver turned away, walking slowly, feeling complete confidence in the angel’s skills.  He was going to purify the girl.  He was going to wash away her sins, her sorrow and her shame.  He was going to help her understand how she had been tricked and coerced, and eventually by some trick that he could never, ever understand, he was going to end up slipping his angelic dick between her legs, and she was going to think of it as some sort of exquisite consecration.  But at least by the end of it she wasn’t going to be eaten alive by her own fetus. 

Shiver had yet to figure out why he even cared in the first place.  He could have just killed the girl after things had gone sideways, that would have solved the whole problem without having to turn to the enemy for help.  But something about that just didn’t sit right with him.  And he did have to admit, although he had no idea what sort of abomination Nathaniel was on his way to helping him create, its birth would most likely cause one hell of a ruckus on three distinct planes of existence.  And if there was anything Shiver was all for any longer, it was chaos.  On a large scale.

But that had not been his intention when he had walked that girl into the dingy back room of the abandoned warehouse.  He had seen her as a meal.  Not a physical meal, he had no intentions on chewing on that lovely pale skin of hers.  Much.  But lately he had found himself capable of feeding off of emotions with much more ease than he used to.  And this girl was an absolutely delectable combination of tormented feelings.

It never ceased to amaze him at the hell these creatures could put each other through with no help whatsoever from his kind.  Then again, that was probably what had attracted his kind to this plane in the first place.  That and the human capacity to feel so intensely…

Can you feel that? He had asked as he let his tail slip up her spine.  He had let her see it, had let her see his horns as well after he had given her a taste of his blood.  She had shaken. He had felt her shudder as he held her, his dick hard against her belly, that powerful tail pushing her against him.

Fucking a human was no complicated matter.  Fucking a human without killing them in the process was.  It had taken all the self control he had to keep her alive.  His blood running through her also helped.  It kept her pliant and submissive, which helped keep him from going completely feral and tearing her heart out as demons so often did while screwing.  The self-control had been well worth it.  Her feelings had been so powerful, so amazing as she squirmed against him, not fighting him, but fighting her own self.  

Feeling it.  She felt his tail, and knew exactly what it was.  She felt his tail and fought with all her might not to, and not to feel that urgent hunger welling up inside of her, and not to feel the shame that came right along with it. 

He had nurtured that shame over the previous weeks.  He had worked very diligently to reach this moment, where he was her drug and she had to see herself for the sick little junky she had become.  He made her slide down to her knees.  He made her hold his substantial dick devotionally, let her feel it, let the fear sink in with the knowledge that having all of him inside of her was going to hurt, and that having all of him inside of her was something she wanted more than air.  He laughed as her tears fell on him, commenting that she was lucky he wasn’t showing her his real size.  He didn’t mention that if he had, she would have died before he could have had much fun at all, having actually cleaved her in twain.

He fed on her torment, delighted in the bounty she provided.  The girl was a damned tidal wave of pain and guilt and shame and hunger.  Self hatred and the desire for debasement struggled with the very real fear over what he was and what he was doing to her.  What he could do to her.  He let that terror rise as well, giving her glimpses of his true essence as she groaned helplessly under his hands and mouth.

He had lost track of himself, at some point.  Lost track of time and almost everything other than fucking, feeding, and not killing.  He had found delight in the way that he could make her beg in spite of herself, in the way that she could sob and come at the same time, begging for more while moaning in agony.  Oh, it was all far too delightful.

Which brought him to the point when his dick was buried to the hilt inside of her.  She was pinned against him, on him as he stood.  Her feet couldn’t touch the ground and her thighs had lost the strength to grip his waist.  She could hardly move, but even her breath caused waves of violent sensation, and she was moaning quietly.  She begged him not to make her move, and he smiled indulgently.  And just as she relaxed and slipped that much more into him, he slid his tail down her spine again.  And let it slide further down.

She shed more tears, then, but begged him not to stop as he feigned concern.  He slid inside her ass, and she tried to accommodate until she couldn’t anymore, until she was completely defenseless against him and knew herself to be utterly powerless.  That break, that moment he had been waiting for.  After all, she had fancied herself a strong and proud young thing when he had met her.  Now she had to see herself for the soft and defenseless animal she really was.  He drove the moment home as he rubbed against that bundle of nerves deep in her ass, making her come despite herself again and again.

All that tightening, the shudders and the squeezing had done the trick on the impersonation of a human dick he wore.  He came.  And came again.  And kept at it as she sobbed and screamed for more, until his seed was running down their legs.  He had to laugh, he had to set her down and make her feel how much of him was inside of her.  He slid his tail back up her ass as he slid her fingers into herself, so that she could feel herself come, and feel his seed spill into her hand.  There was shame in that as well, yes.  And in her desire to smear it over her body.

But then there had been a moment of absolute terror.  A panic which went beyond the moment, and she had asked in a startled tone if he could get her pregnant.  This was truly the moment of his ruination.  If she had not believed that it was possible, her body would not have accepted his seed.  That was the way of things with his kind.  The female has to take in the seed, in mind as well as body. Repeatedly. All he would have had to do was to tell her that it was impossible.  It was a very simple lie for one of his kind to tell.

But her fear, her spiritual fear, that very big feeling of fear for things beyond just that moment in that room… well, he couldn’t turn his back from it.  So he made a believer out of her, convincing her, coming repeatedly into her, willing her body to find itself in the right term.  He conceived with the girl, not out of some perverse desire to kill the girl in the most excruciating way possible, not out of some deep instinctual need to spawn, and certainly not as part of some devious master plan to fuck with an angel he might have considered a friend.  It had been a mistake.  He had lost his head.  He had let his appetite, hell, he had let his dick do the thinking.

And that was why he let her live.  That was why he destroyed an eons old friendship.  Demons might not believe in atonement, guilt or penance, but they sure as hell believed in punishment.  And utter stupidity deserved punishment.  Not that he was about to admit his actions to anyone, as a show of weakness that magnificent would bring assholes crawling out of the woodwork for a piece of him.  Nor was he about to go whip himself in a closet.  Honestly, he didn’t feel that bad about it.  He doubted he fundamentally could feel that bad about it, as guilt just simply was not a demon thing.  But he did figure he deserved to forfeit this little girl.  And forfeit her in a big way.

He breathed deep as he let the warehouse door slam shut behind him and walked into one of those glorious days that had him wondering if there actually was some sort of an intelligence behind the creation of the world he walked in.  He didn’t doubt, however, that if there was a grand creator out there somewhere, that bastard had nothing to do with him.  Or that angel who was most likely blessing the brains out of that messed up girl behind him.  The girl, on the other hand, well, she was all his.  And maybe this was all His way of messing with these interloping otherworldly creatures who had come to steal away all those pretty pretty souls he had created.

Because the dirty truth of it was that neither he nor Nathaniel nor any other angel or demon had any right to claim a single soul they took.