Angelic: Cleanse (Park Chanyeol/Reader)
Her
Biting back the smirk upon my lips, I turned to kiss Junmyeon with everything I had. Hands curling into his dark hair, I moaned into his mouth, rushes of his power traversing through my body, directly mirroring the ardour with which he was kissing me. The light of the Archangel embedding its roots into my soul, enveloping it in a cocoon of warmth and safety.
I welcomed it, as I welcomed Junmyeon into my body, legs tightening around his hips while he slowly began to push into me. Agonisingly slow, opening me up to him. Sliding so gloriously thick into my hungry walls. Letting out a gasp at the feel of him sinking into me, I fell into him, my breasts flush against his strong chest.
He felt solid, pulsating with need within me and I shuddered against him, just barely haven taken in his tip.
"Baby," he moaned, sounding so ruined already that it almost broke my heart. Gentle hands cradled my hips, holding me close.
"Jun..." I sighed, eyes falling shut and an euphoric smile playing on my lips.
Inch by glorious inch, he slid into me, my walls immediately wrapping so snug around his every ridge and vein. A pleasurable, glowing sense of gratification building within me the deeper he sank.
I had read that the deflowering of a female usually came with pain, but with Junmyeon, there was none.
And neither was there any fear in my heart. I wanted him in me. He belonged there.
And I wanted Chanyeol to watch.
It gave me a vindictive sense of joy, when I opened my eyes and looked over Junmyeon's shoulder to see pain glowing crimson in the demon's eyes.
I knew that only I could see him watching us, since he had infiltrated my soul. I knew that he was invisible to my brothers.
And that gave me an immense amount of satisfaction, knowing that the demon was going through hell, seeing me being taken by my brother.
Not him...
It was Junmyeon's strained groan against my jaw that pulled my attention back to him. Hands gripping bruisingly into my hips, he was holding me, having pushed halfway into me.
His tip was nudging against my barrier. The one he had to breach before we truly became one.
"I'm so sorry, princess. This will hurt..."
"No, it won't," came Yixing's velvety voice in my ear, his chest against my back. His rigid length resting flush and warm between the cheeks of my bottom. "Let me take the pain away..."
Before I could ask what he meant, I felt Yixing's hand curve its way around my body, going down to where Junmyeon and I were connected. My breath hitched when he began to stroke me, anointing his fingers in my arousal, fingertips rubbing wet and warm directly into my bundle of nerves.
A long moan fell from me, as I realized that Yixing was using his own healing powers, sending them in waves through my entire being. Erasing the pain of what was to come...
When Junmyeon finally, finally pierced through my barrier, spearing me to the hilt upon his cock, I let out a sound so sinful, it sounded unrecognizable to my own ears.
Heat and warmth of my brothers flooded me, and I trembled between them, thrumming with pure pleasure. A tear fell from the corner of my eye.
It felt so full. Like an aching emptiness inside me had been filled after centuries. Like I had suddenly been completed.
And a glance at Junmyeon's face told me that he was feeling it too.
"My goddess," he breathed, never leaving my depths as he made me lie back upon his pillows, a dismissive hand gesturing for Yixing to step aside for the moment. Await your turn, she's mine for now.
Gently, he withdrew from me, until only his tip remained, before slowly sliding back into me.
Just that single movement left me trembling, fingers curling into the sheets beneath me.
"Look down. Look at us becoming one at last," he groaned, starting to roll his hips into mine in deep, agonizingly deep thrusts, finding a delectable rhythm of push and pull.
I complied, obediently heeding his command, the sight of his thick, reddened and veined cock glistening with my slick as it glided into my swollen pink walls drawing a moan from my throat.
"We were always meant to become one," I moaned, head falling back, fresh beams of starlight glowing behind my closed lids. "I was created for you. To become yours..."
"Yes, yes you were, my sweet," he sighed heavily into the curve of my neck, the warm weight of his body falling upon mine, keeping my legs spread wide for him.
Junmyeon began to plunge into me, deep enough to send the muscles in my thighs quivering around his hips, his strength beginning to flow again into me.
My toes curled, head lolling back and my mouth hung agape, lewd moans bubbling forth from deep within my throat as ecstasy coiled hot within my core. I felt like I was floating upon a cloud, my body taking on a mind of its own. Opening up to him in every single way possible, wanting to bathe in his light. And in the pleasure he was making me feel.
"Yes, yes! Ohhh..." I moaned, hands running up the rippling muscles of his back to find the scars on his shoulder blades.
Beneath my caressing fingertips, I felt his wings begin to unfurl. Pure ivory tufts, their wingspan double than that of my own, strong enough to crush me if he wanted.
But he didn't.
He was drunk on the pleasure he was deriving from my pliant body, his thrusts beginning to come harder, more insistently now, sending my body rocking up and down from the rhythmic rolls of his hips.
Seeing him lost in ecstasy only served to heighten my own. And I found myself speaking words I had never imagined I'd ever be speaking.
"Tell me, Myeonnie," I moaned, threading my fingers into his hair. "How do I feel? Do I feel like you had imagined every time you touched yourself?"
He groaned desperately into my neck at my words, his thrusts losing their mellowness steadily. Turning sharp. Brutal. Leaving me keening violently with pleasure underneath him.
"I want to worship you and only you until the end of my eternity. I want to build you a temple and offer supplications at your altar, everyday..." he said, painting my breasts with a smattering of angry bruises left behind by his full, fevered lips.
A flush bloomed in my cheeks at his words and I turned my head to the side to glance at Yixing. The sight I was met with made my mouth water.
Sitting down on the couch with his legs spread wide, Yixing was stroking his cock in time with Junmyeon's thrusts into me.
I bit down on my lip when my eyes fell upon his face. Eyes darkened completely with lust, he was watching us with nothing but hunger and need written upon his face.
Reaching out with a trembling hand, I beckoned him to me, my other arm wrapped around Junmyeon's neck. Trying to ground myself in the wake of his now maddened thrusts.
I knew that Yixing wanted to be inside me so desperately, but it was a testament to his self control that he managed to remain seated right where he was, giving his head a slight shake.
He knew that he couldn't dare to interrupt his older brother while he was...
"Oh, fuck, Junmyeon..." I gasped, my legs tightening around his hips, using the leverage to pull him deeper into me. "I'm... I..."
"I know. I feel you..." he let out a shuddering gasp, his breath warm against my cheek, hips colliding relentlessly into mine. "Come all over me. Drench me, baby."
At his words, the building tidal wave of ecstasy swelled monstrously, frighteningly within me.
And then with a violent snap, it burst forth, drawing out an agonized cry from me.
Muscles spasming violently around his cock, I soaked him in my release, the wet sounds of him still sliding in and out, in and out of me making me blush, even in the throes of pleasure.
Above me, Junmyeon was biting down hard on his lip, his expression pained, using every bit of his iron-clad restraint to keep himself from letting go just yet.
The pleasure swept through my body in waves. In violent tides that grew gentler eventually, leaving me whimpering kittenishly, my chest heaving.
I felt winded, weakened even further, lying limp and spent beneath him, thighs trembling but spread wide open in his grasp.
In one swift, fluid motion, Junmyeon lifted me up, using barely any effort, to perch me upon his lap. The new position made him slide even further into me and I moaned weakly, falling forward over his shoulder.
"Jun, oh God, you feel so..." I choked on my words, because it was difficult to formulate a coherent sentence in my mind that was swimming with pleasure. My cunt tingled from overstimulation, just barely having recovered from the feel of his cock.
Hands on my hips, he was guiding me, making me rise and fall upon him. Impaling me upon his cock with hardly any effort.
This display of his strength made me shiver, the arch of my back growing taut as fresh pleasure began to bloom between my legs. My head fell back and I dug my nails into the roots of his wings, allowing him to use my body the way he wanted.
"Tell me," he groaned, burying his face into the softness of my breasts. "Tell me how I make you feel, babygirl."
"You feel like paradise..." I moaned, eyes rolling back into my head, my fingers threading into the silk of his hair. "You feel like... home."
He was touching places within me that I had never known to exist, that sweet and warm push and pull of him sending me spiralling into a pleasant delirium.
Eyes glazing over, I felt another sharp snap within my very being, before I was being abruptly flung off the edge once more.
But this time, something strange began to happen.
With every shudder of my body, I saw a glow burst before my closed eyes. So lost was I in my own pleasurable glow, that I barely heard Junmyeon's groan as he flooded my womb with his seed.
I whimpered, pressing my lips to his temple, at the sensation of his warm seed filling me up. The purest form of his light settling into my core.
He spilled within me, in seemingly endless spurts, the heat of him spreading through my body. Seeping into my bones.
Ensconcing me in a bubble of safety, the way he had done since the very first day of my life. My body welcomed it gratefully, a sigh of satisfaction leaving my lips.
And when I finally came down from my high and opened my eyes, I saw that I was glowing.
From every inch of my naked flesh, silvery-gold wisps of light were emanating. Swirling around in the air in an enticing dance of light.
Amazed at the sight, I raised my hands from where they were resting on Junymeon's chest and brought them closer to my face. Eyes examining them intently.
The wispy swirls of gold and silver mist glowed. Nebulous and ephemeral. Seeping out lazily through every single inch of my flesh.
"What is this, Jun?" I asked, my voice as weakened as I was. "What is happening to me?"
Junmyeon slowly slid out of me, his softened and soaked cock nestled comfortably against my folds.
"We're untangling your soul from his, princess," he murmured, lips warm against my cheek. "You see these starlit wisps? Silvery and golden? That is your soul."
I was dumbstruck, mesmerised by the curling and twisting rays of pure starlight that were flowing across my body.
A smile found its way to my lips when I felt Yixing's hands on my hips, gently raising me up to my knees, before setting me down on his lap. With careful hands, he guided me onto his lap, my thighs resting on either side of him as I straddled him.
He looked at me, eyes alight with love and lust. His hands slowly swept up my waist to palm at my breasts. Kneading the supple flesh into his palms, he began to suckle at my nipples.
Eyes glazing over with want, I allowed him to do as he pleased, grinding shamelessly down upon his cock while he devoured my breasts.
Hands on my hips, he mirrored my movements, drenching his painfully hard length in my dripping arousal, coupled with Junmyeon's seed.
"Do you want me, baby?" he asked me, sweeping my hair away from my face, lustful eyes admiring how my taut nipples glistened with his saliva.
Hands weaving into his hair, I leaned down to kiss him, moaning at the sweet, indulgent strokes of his tongue against mine.
"Please, Xing..." I pleaded between fevered, hungered kisses. "I need you. Inside me."
Feeling him nod against my forehead, I rose up on my knees above him, giving him the space to align himself with me.
With an almost drunken gaze, I watched him grasp the base of his cock, running his fist over the glistening and reddened flesh a few times before bringing the head to rest firm against my aching cunt.
I glanced up, at his face, struck momentarily by the amount of love and want I could see on his beautiful face.
But then, Yixing brought his hands to my hips and began to lower me upon his cock.
Instantaneously, my eyes rolled back into my head, a new wave of ecstasy breaking down upon me while he sheathed himself so painfully deep within me.
"Yixing..." I moaned, falling forwards, against his chest, my wings spreading open behind me. The strength of his arms immediately took hold of my waist, cradling me against him while he rested, thick and unyielding, so snug within my walls.
Pure instinct took hold of my mind, and wrapping my own arms around his neck, I used the leverage of my knees pressing into the mattress to begin rising and falling upon his cock.
The distant sound of Yixing's moan against my neck made my lips twitch with a smile, the dig of his fingers on my hips telling me that I was doing something right.
But I was far too absorbed in the pursuit of my own ecstasy, my body taking on a mind of its own, hips bucking and grinding against his. Forcing him to plunge deeper into me every time.
Every inch of my flesh was aglow, wisps of my soul shimmering brighter as I climbed my peak, the obscenely wet sounds of our bodies colliding giving me a savage sense of satisfaction.
I was drenched between my legs, my arousal coupled with Junmyeon's seed leaking warmly from my cunt every time Yixing slid home. Leaving me quaking with the rushes of power and pleasure running wild through my veins.
Yixing was occupied with painting my neck and my breasts in a flurry of bruises left behind by his hungry lips, adding more to the mosaic Junmyeon had left behind.
At the very thought of him, I felt a warm hand gently thread into the roots of my hair, turning my face so that I was meeting his lips. I sighed heavily into the plushness of Junmyeon's lips, shuddering weakly against Yixing's chest at the surge of euphoria my Archangel sent through me.
"My starlight," he whispered between kisses. "My moonbeam. You are glorious."
I moaned into his mouth, our mouths moving ravenously, tongues gliding hot against each other.
The passion in his kiss brought tears to my eyes. Somehow, it felt like he was kissing me goodbye.
"Promise me," he breathed, when he withdrew. "Promise me you won't forget about us when I draw him out of you."
Eyes glazing over from the pleasure, I looked at him, then at Yixing.
"I promise," I murmured. "I won't."
For barely a moment, Junmyeon looked at Yixing, then nodded.
With a hand pressed firm against the small of my back, making sure that he never left my depths, Yixing skilfully manoeuvred our bodies to lay me down on my back.
I bit down on my lip when he forced my legs apart within his grasp, beginning an achingly slow rhythm with slow, sensual thrusts.
My head fell back onto the pillows, tears starting to spill from my closed eyes at how incredible it felt. The constant rub of his thick cock against my swollen and sensitive walls made pleasure flow through my every nerve.
"Yixing..." I moaned, hands running up his back, to find purchase upon his wide shoulders. "Please..."
"You're so beautiful like this, princess," he groaned, and I found myself whimpering at his praise, a warm flush colouring my cheeks.
He ran a gentle hand through my hair, before gathering the locks at the nape of my neck and giving them a tug. Tilting my head back, making my back arch painfully.
"Let us purify your soul while we adulterate your body," Junmyeon breathed into my ear as he knelt near my head. With tender hands, he made me relinquish the grasp I had on Yixing's shoulders, pinning my wrists down upon the bed on either side of my head. "Be a good girl for us and keep those legs wide open."
Obediently, I spread my legs apart, so far that the muscles in my thighs twitched from the stretch.
Pleased, Yixing buried his face into the swell of my breasts, his body fusing entirely into mine, the weight of him upon me keeping me restrained beneath him.
And then, he began to fuck into me with sharp, precise snaps of his hips.
"Oh, ohhhh..." I moaned, wishing, fervently in the midst of this mind-numbing ecstasy, that Chanyeol could see me like this.
Completely immobilized by the hold my brothers had over my body, I could do nothing but keep my legs spread open to receive Yixing's painfully deep thrusts.
My arms struggled for a few moments within Junmyeon's iron grasp, for I yearned to touch both of my brothers, my fingers itching for the contact.
But within minutes of Yixing's delicious assault on my body, my struggles quelled and my limbs went lax. Mouth hanging open, my eyes rolled back into my head and I was aware of nothing but the slickness of my arousal and Junmyeon's leftover seed leaking still between my legs, while the remainder of my body was covered in a sheen of sweat and saliva.
I felt so filthy and debauched and I revelled in it.
It felt good. It felt so fucking good.
It was Junmyeon's breath against my ear that drew me out of the pleasurable cloud I was floating upon.
"It is time, princess."
My eyes fluttered open to glance at Junmyeon's adoring face while he hovered above me, then to dart toward the window behind him.
I felt my heart stutter.
Chanyeol had drifted closer to the window, a hand pressed firm against the glass of the pane. The demon watched with hungry yet pained eyes at how effortlessly my brothers unravelled me.
His eyes glowed crimson, and I felt myself shiver at the intensity of his gaze.
I knew that he could see everything: the way my cunt drenched Yixing's cock, making it glisten obscenely as it slid in and out of me. Or the way my breasts were bouncing in time with his thrusts, painted rosy with the bruises he and Junmyeon had left behind.
I bit down on my lip when his eyes found mine, and I let out a moan so loud that it made his eyes widen. Yixing was artfully curving his hips into mine, his shaft rubbing into my most sensitive spot with every plunge.
My back arched painfully as I steadily climbed up the peak to my ultimate finish, my eyes refusing to leave Chanyeol's.
Even though it was Yixing who was plunging into my depths, somehow the eye-contact I had with the demon in the window felt more intimate.
Let him watch, a vindictive voice in my head spoke. Let him see what he can never have.
A soft smile found its way to my lips and I relinquished whatever hold I had on reality, my mind completely overriden by delirious ecstasy.
My eyes rolled back into my head and all I could see was white, bleeding into an impenetrable darkness.
"That's it, moonbeam," came Junmyeon's voice in the distance, even though he was whispering against my cheek. "Let it all out. Let us take him away from you..."
"Yes..." I moaned, my nails digging into Yixing's shoulders while I teetered precariously on the edge. "Take him out of me..."
It all happened so fast then.
One of Junmyeon's hands came to cup my cheek, pulling me to meet his lips, while his other hand rested upon my left breast, directly above my racing heart. While his tongue swept against mine and Yixing continued to make quick work of my gushing cunt, Junmyeon's fingers delved into the silvery golden wisps of my soul.
Trying to find the blackened, infernal taint of the devil.
When his fingers closed around it, I let out a broken moan into his mouth.
And just as Yixing's last, pounding thrusts sent me flying off the precipice, Junmyeon began to pull Chanyeol's soul out of mine.
All I could feel was pain and pleasure.
All I could see was light being engulfed into a realm of darkness.
In the distance, I could hear an agonized, blood-curdling scream which I recognized as my own, coupled with someone else's voice...
Who's voice was that?
And then, suddenly, all I knew was oblivion.
___________________
Him
Chanyeol could feel his blood roiling through his head, his heart thundering away inside his chest.
Inside the confines of his pants, his cock had grown heavy and painfully hard.
The sight before him was going to be the death of him.
Seeing her, his sweet and innocent angel being ravished so mercilessly by her own brothers, it drove him mad in the most delicious way possible.
"Fuck..." he muttered, the sight of her tight, swollen cunt being filled by Yixing's cock making him weak in the knees. He knew that he could fill her up a thousand times better than the insipid angel.
He could smell her in the air, so thick that he could almost taste her. She was mouth watering.
And the sounds that fell from her lips was the most marvelous music to his ears.
Chanyeol could feel his heart tear with the frightening intensity of his desire. He wanted her upon his bed. He wanted to be the one who knelt between her legs, plunging into her so deep that he etched himself inside her silken walls. He wanted to hear her call out his name in that breathlessly innocent, yet sinful voice. He wanted to see her reddened, well-stretched walls stained pearly with his seed, even more leaking out of her, down her creamy thighs.
This is all that he had wanted, until her foolish brothers decided to get in the way and robbed him of his yearning to be the one to deflower her.
He was filled with a murderous rage, seeing the way the two angels touched her wanton body.
Junmyeon's hands clasping at her delicate wrists, his lips upon hers, locked in a kiss so deep that it made Chanyeol's heart ache.
Yixing's mouth relentlessly making bruises bloom into the supple flesh of her breasts, one of his hands stroking slick circles into the bundle of nerves within her folds in time with his thrusts.
Trapped between them, she writhed and trembled, drenched between her legs and shimmering bright like a supernova from the light of her soul.
She was a goddess.
When her eyes met his, Chanyeol felt a jolt of thrill run through him. Mesmerized by the glow in her doe-eyes, the demon was unable to look away from her.
She was glorious, especially in the throes of pleasure.
She was divinity personified.
Never in his entire existence had a woman affected him this absolutely. And yet, here she was, the subject of his dreams, in the arms of someone else.
Unable to break away from her eyes, Chanyeol felt himself falling into an abyss. And abyss of an emotion so foreign that it shook him to the core.
It was... He was...
"Falling in love, son?" came a snide voice beside him and he whipped around to see his father, Satan, standing there.
"Jiyong," Chanyeol spat, every single emotion in his heart evaporating, to be replaced by hatred. And fear.
His father ignored him, eyes glued to the scene unfolding before him inside the bedroom.
"Seven hells, she's exquisite," Jiyong sighed wistfully.
"She's mine," Chanyeol said, barely keeping the anger in his tone hidden.
"Not for long," Jiyong sang happily. "Oh look, little Junmyeonnie has found the taint you left in her soul!"
Horrified, Chanyeol turned to see that his father was, for once, speaking the truth. Junmyeon had indeed found the darkened, tainted wisp that he had left embedded in her soul when he had first kissed her.
Seizing the opportunity of having him distracted, Jiyong grasped Chanyeol by the neck and forcefully wrenched him away from the window, tossing him effortlessly to the ground.
Landing with a force that knocked out the air from his lungs and almost shattered his spine, Chanyeol looked up at his father standing over him.
"F-father..." he huffed. "What are you-"
"I'm sorry, son," Jiyong said, in a mocking tone that indicated his utter lack of remorse. "You've had your time to play with her. She's mine now."
Chanyeol looked up at his father in disbelief. "No, no she's-"
The demon was unable to complete his sentence, because a sudden, immense tidal wave of pain came over him, forcing a hoarse scream to leave from deep within his chest.
Chanyeol could see nothing but bright light before his eyes, as he writhed on the ground in blinding pain.
"I... I..." he gasped.
"Don't you see?" Jiyong sneered from somewhere above him. "The angels are pulling you out of her. You will feel her pain because your souls had almost melded together. Almost."
With that, Jiyong brought his foot down, hard, upon Chanyeol's chest, the blow easily shattering several of his ribs.
Unable to breathe from the pain and unable to scream, Chanyeol curled into a fetal position, shuddering as blood filled his mouth.
He spat it out.
Jiyong knelt down beside him, reaching out to tenderly wipe the blood from the corner of his mouth with a crimson silk handkerchief. The gesture made Chanyeol recoil in the midst of his torment, reminding him of the time Jiyong had similarly knelt over Yifan, stroking his hair after torturing him.
"Don't worry, boy. She won't even remember having ever met you after they're done drawing your soul from hers," he said, gently, almost lovingly stroking his son's face. "And I promise, I'll keep her like a queen in Hell. If you behave, maybe I'll let you watch me take her."
"You... you're a psychopath..." Chanyeol panted.
Jiyong hummed, unaffected, before rising to his feet and snapping his fingers. "I grow tired of our conversation, boy."
Out of nowhere, three tall figures materialized on either side of him.
One of them, Chanyeol recognized as Seunghyun, his uncle. The keeper of the prisons of Hell. The other two were his sons. Chanyeol's cousins.
"Youngho. Yoonoh. I shall require you to take your beloved brother to the dungeons of my castle. Give him the cell next to Yifan?" Jiyong commanded in a sing-song voice, a wide smile playing on his lips.
"Of course, Uncle," the two young demons responded in unison, moving in tandem to grab Chanyeol by his arms roughly, making him wince in pain.
He spat out the bitter blood that had accumulated in his mouth at Jiyong's feet. "You will pay for this," he breathed angrily.
Jiyong's smile widened and he glanced at Seunghyun, who chuckled.
"You see, brother?" Jiyong told him. "He's adorable when he threatens me."
At this, Seunghyun began to laugh loudly.
"Anyway," Jiyong sighed dramatically, drawing out a jewelled dagger from his pocket. "Let's go. I have an angel to claim."
Before Chanyeol could even open his mouth to respond, Yoonoh and Youngho were pulling him through a portal of black smoke they had conjured out of nowhere, taking him straight to Hell.
143 notes
·
View notes
Dark Angels: Creation - Reunification, Part 1B
Sin: *As I sit straddled on my board, legs dangling down into the ocean, I look west to the setting sun. The sky is painted in shades of red, casting the water in black shadows. It’s beginning to calm now, the big waves I’d surfed earlier tapering down to small swells but I cannot escape the sense of foreboding that weighs on me.* Something is happening,* I murmur to myself.* Something has unbalanced the worlds.
*With a sigh, I paddle back to the private beach that lay in front of my home. As I approach the sand four dark clad figures materialize on my lanai. I recognize them easily even from a distance. Adrian’s tall, golden, patrician visage was a foil for the ebony-haired diminutive Bryn’s. Sean and Zav stood side by side, a well-matched fighting pair physically, but Sean’s clean-cut sandy blonde hair contrasted sharply with Zav’s darker, scruffy appearance. All had once been my former lieutenants and are still friends but it is unlike them to all make an appearance at once. I cannot help but wonder what occasions this communal visit.*
*Once out of the water, I dematerialize the board and send it back to its storage place. With another thought, I cleanse myself of salt and rid myself of the board shorts I’d worn to surf in favor of black leather trousers, and a black tee-shirt and push my long black hair off of my face. As I step onto the lanai all four of them assume the formal stance they’d so often taken when I was their leader, black booted feet apart, arms crossed in front of the body with hands clasped and head bowed. It appears this is an official delegation rather than a social visit.*
Much as I would like to assume my old friends have come to share a glass of wine with me this evening, something tells me this is not the case. * Head inclining as I address Sean, the reaper who had always been my right hand when I ruled the corps,* Sean, to what do I owe this honor?
Sean: When we’d formed on the deck I hadn’t been surprised to see Sin a distant figure in the water. For a guy whose human life had been lived in arid climates and desert sands, he sure loved the water. I’d ribbed him about it once and he’d only cryptically said ‘it brings quiet to chaos, and creates chaos out of quiet. Much like my own existence.’ Leave it to him to go existential when a simple ‘I like to swim’ would have been enough. Well, I thought, I hope he’s had enough time for quiet because chaos is about to rear its head. I raise my eyes to meet his, aware that the others had done the same in unison with me and step forward.*
“We had a visitor. No,” shaking my head briefly, “that’s not accurate. We had a request for a meeting from an old friend of yours. Freya. We’ve just come from her.”
Sin: *The formal military behavior, the tense muscles and tight faces do not bode well for the subject of this meeting they had just come from.*
Freya?
*My head tilts to the side quizzically as my brow furrows. The goddess and I had once been lovers before our relationship had mellowed into deep friendship*
If she needed something, why did she not come directly to me?
Sean: My eyes stay locked on his, but I can feel my comrades at my back. Mentally they’ve remained as silent as they have verbally, just as they used to in the old days when we were making a report, but I can feel them. Empathy flows both ways with my gift. Just as I can use it outwardly to calm and heal, I can use it to sense the emotions of others. Yeah, we can talk telepathically, but sometimes it’s not needed. Sometimes, like now, we’re past words. The connection between us is rock-solid, the commitment to what we’ve come to do and our loyalty to the reaper in front of us stamped indelibly on our souls, even if they are currently owned by one who’s proven himself to be the enemy. With a breath, I close my eyes briefly and open the emotional pathways to include Sin, so he can feel just how serious this is and how solidly we will support him.
“Because this isn’t just about Freya, or Valhalla, or any one of the other worlds or dimensions. It’s about all of them. The Horseman has gone too far, Sin. He’s attempting to form alliances with darker sides of all the realms. He’s directing souls to the underworlds that are supposed to be destined for rebirth, letting ones that should die and go to their final torment live so they can cause the death of innocents whom He can direct there instead. He is stealing their existing lives and all the ones they /should/ be destined to live. And He’s doing it in exchange for power.”
Bryn: And there’s more.
<I step forward beside Sean as I speak. It’s a breach of procedure for me to interrupt, I know, but I saw this part first hand>
The Horseman of Death has negotiated with Lucifer –with your enemy—to allow the demons to attack any reaper they come into contact with. I was waylaid hours ago when I made a drop off and had to fight my way out. By Belial, the fallen, no less. He told me himself that permission to take any of us to torture had been given in exchange for a percentage of the souls we drop off. If they can take us, our souls are forfeit to Lucifer. We mean NOTHING to The Horseman. After all, <my lip curls in a snarl, blue eyes flashing angrily> he’ll just make more of us.
Sin: *My eyebrow shot up as Bryn broke protocol, but as she spoke I understood her urgency. The Fates had made me aware of the misdirection of souls with the last mission they had requested I accept, and that in and of itself I could have continued addressing on a situational basis as I had the last time. If necessary I could have asked this group to assist me by covering for Sean as he aided the endeavor, but this last, this endangering of the reaper corps could not be addressed in such a way. Bryn bows her head, dark hair falling forward as she steps back, and resumes her place behind Sean. I nod to her, mentally thanking her for her report.*
Sean: “It’s true Mo Chapeton,” I meet his dark eyes with my crystal blue ones, “He’s declared open season on us in return for the power he’ll gain. And that’s only in one dark realm. He’s been in touch with others, too, but The Horseman misjudged the relationships between the gods in Valhalla. Hel went straight to Freya with it. She did some investigating before she asked for a meeting. None but Lucifer has taken Him up on it –yet. She thinks they’re waiting to see what happens next.” Looking at him pointedly, “What actions YOU take, because, I gotta’ tell you, boss, they all respect the fuck outta you and none of them want to be on the pointy end of your sword. Of all of them, only Lucifer hates you enough to take you on.” Shaking my head, “I … none of us, will send names to the reapers under our command without alerting them to the risk. It’s going to keep some of them from being able to do the job. And,” face setting grimly, “some of them will turn on us and rat us out to The Horseman. You recruited souls who have a code of honor close to your own and we’ve developed it in the newbee’s where we could. He recruited…other. It’s going to create chaos, and not the kind we can keep confined to the afterlives.”
Sin: *my brow furrows, eyes narrow at Sean’s words. Ferrying souls after the death of their physical body requires both compassion and innate ethical standards. I had taken care to recruit only those who understood and honored the import of conveying souls to their designated fates and brought Sean in to make sure our corps did not become hardened to the task. I look at all of them now. As my former first lieutenant Sean should have come to me, but any of those before me now would have been welcomed and heard. There is an uncomfortable shifting of heads among them as they glance at one another briefly, but they settle again in the formal stance and look down. Pointedly I look at Sean*
What do you mean by “other”?
Sean: Unconsciously I square my shoulders a little more and lift my chin, jaw set. My hands, still clasped in front of me, clench tighter. He wasn’t going to like this. And he wasn’t going to like that we’d kept it from him.
“The Horseman has never had the standards you did for reapers. In the beginning it was manageable. Many didn’t understand what they’d signed up for, didn’t have the skills. They lacked a moral compass in life and they sure didn’t find it in death. Compassion was an alien word to them and as for fighting skills…Let’s just say the four of us conducted boot camp. We taught them what we could and we rode ‘em hard. Even though their souls should have had a few more lifetimes to mature, they shaped up and are reliable and loyal to us. But a couple of hundred years ago that changed. He started sending us reapers who had condemned souls. Psychos, murderers, child molesters, rapists… souls that should have been taken to the dark gods for disposition. Instead he made them one of us. *focusing on Sin’s eyes grimly* And they all have one other thing in common. They can fight.”
Sin: *A coldness grows in me as the picture becomes clearer. For what purpose The Horseman has established this fifth column in the reaper corps I am unsure, but it endangers the souls the Fates entrust us with and more, it endangers those I care about, those I consider my family. Glaring at them all…*
And you are telling me this only now? You should have come to me immediately!
Sean: “You weren’t ready!”
It shot out of my mouth like a bullet as I glared back at him. The formal report stance fell away, hands dropping to my sides, shoulders loosening. This wasn’t lieutenant to captain anymore. This was personal. This was brother to brother.
“You were out. Leaving us ripped you up, we know that, but staying was slowly destroying you and we knew that too. I did what I could, channeled away the coldness, projected the same warmth you want for all of us into you, but it wasn’t enough and we didn’t know what else we could do. Thank the gods that you had the vision to demand the things you did before becoming Death’s First. The open link between you was wrecking you. Keeping your soul instead of letting Him indenture it was all that kept your humanity alive and let you make the final break. Holding power equal to His kept Him away from you when you found a way to break the link between you. Without that not only would we be screwed, most of the plains we go to would be as well. Because we’d have no one to turn to now, when we need you most. And we do need you.”
Stepping closer to him, laying my hand on his shoulder as I meet his eyes searchingly.
“We need you to take Him down. We need you to lead.”
Zav: *I’d stayed quiet until now, as had Adrian. Neither of us are as verbal as Sean or even Bryn but I reach to them telepathically* ‘Now is the time.’ *We kneel as one and clap our fists to our chests, our gazes fixed on Sin as we declare our fealty to him in one voice*
We are yours. Command us.
Sean: I’d heard Zav’s mental prompt and I can feel my friends, my comrades at my back. I don’t doubt their faces are stoic, but their emotions aren’t. Through the maelstrom I can feel loyalty, determination, anger, concern, love, and dread over what must come next, but dominating it all was a deep abiding trust in the being in front of us. My eyes never leave Sin’s as I let my hand fall from his shoulder and step back. Dropping to one knee, hand clenched in salute across my chest I lift my chin to look up at him.
“We are yours, though it may cost us our souls. Lead us.”
TBC
0 notes