Fallen Angel

 The palace laid in ruin, hidden within the sands of the desert. Great statues, once invading the landscape, now sat toppled and forgotten. At a glance, I could that once there had been fountains of wine, the smells of sex, and the sounds of laughter spilling from the alabaster halls. Now nothing remained but dust.

Wind whipped about the land, coating the marble floors in inches of sand. I stepped inside the ancient building, watching the golden granules fly in from the collapsed ceiling. Serpents coiled themselves against the walls, entangled together. Their eyes watched me, yet none raised their heads.

A corridor howled with the wind as I stopped to look down it. Once it had lead to lush gardens, where a great pool had waited. There had been trees and fruit and dancing. The instruments and plants had all turned to dust, leaving a  few rock remnants behind ooff where the garden wall had been.

I stared in quiet wonder that such a place had been forgotten, left to rot in the burning sun. Mosaics covered the walls, now nothing but beige tiles, their paint long gone. Mirrors lined the walls of halls designed for dancing and other debauchery. Nothing remained, not even whispers of the love or suffering endured here.

Yet the earth trembled beneath me, shaking sand from the walls and pillars. I turned in the great room, watching the dust shimmer in the cracks of sunlight. The vibrations carried up my legs as something beneath the stone shuddered and struggled. 

I knelt, touching the sand-covered stone beneath me, feeling the trembling. My eyes cast around the room, seeking a way downward. Several hallways were open, yet one path was dark, with no hint of lingering sun.

As I rose, the earth quaked. A gasp escaped my lips as I consciously gazed upwards, wondering if the captor was a real as the captured. 

My fingers touched the wall as I stepped into the narrow pathway that led to a wide staircase, wider than humans needed. The steps were dark. I paused to strike a torch before wandering further down. There were no spiders, nothing that clung to the walls. But as I took each step, the hissing of snakes filled the air as they moved away from my feet.

The snakes grew larger as I descended, moving from thin barred snakes to thick black creatures whose scales shone like crow feathers in the torchlight. Their eyes blinked as I neared an opening into an impossibly large space.

Along the walls of the great room, giant serpents coiled around carved trees, their ruby apples gleaming in the dark. I paused to watch the one nearest, whose body undulated seductively. Despite myself, I stepped forward. The earth trembled around me, forcing me to stop, as the sound of metal grating filled the darkness.

The firelight got swallowed by a whoosh of air that came from the center of the room. Darkness consumed me. I stood, caught unaware of the world around me, my own unnatural eyes trying to find a hint of what was happening.

Strange sounds of wings pushing the air around made me step back. Swallowing back the feeling of fear, I moved forward, towards the noise of chains and wings. A growling groan touched the air and I took another step forward before brilliant light suddenly burst forward. 

The power of it pushed me backward, my hand going up to project my eyes. I caught a glimpse of feathers and skin, of a body writhing in bindings before the light disappeared. Gasping from falling to the stone ground, I crawled forward, patting the sand ahead of me.

Long fangs sunk into my wrist after the briefest hiss. The snake heeld firm as I cried out, holding perfectly still as burning pain ran up my arm. “Fuck,” I growled and grabbed the head of the snake, forcing the jaw wider before pulling its teeth out of me. Its thick, powerful body thrashed in my grip and I tossed it away from me, hearing the cacophony of hissing as it landed amongst its kin.

“Shit,” I groaned and knelt, holding the wound as I regretted how far I was from any healer or salve. The stink of astringent oil filled the air as I pulled the small vial from my pocket and smeared the oil over my hand. A new burning filled my veins and I gave a painful grunt. It spread up my arm steadily, throbbing, the salve seeming to slow it down but do nothing more. 

My lips pursed in pain as I pulled a rag from the pocket and poorly wrapped the wound in the dark. A snake brushed against my foot, sliding over my skin slowly. Every muscle in my body froze as I waited for it to slink away. Long moments passed before I finally shifted, sliding away from it. 

Come closer…

The powerful voice crawled over my skin and nestled into my mind. I stared ahead where the light had come from, only to gasp as the dazzling illumination erupted again. His face was perfect and divine, as though beauty had been carved and breathed life into. Great chains hung over his sculpted body, binding him down against the floor. 

My wounded hand rose to shield my eyes again, the light emanating from his own eyes too powerful to contend with. It pushed back against me, making me slide backward in the sand inch by inch. His head turned towards me, a deep groan of suffering escaping him.

Without thinking, I moved forward, running through the serpents that coiled across the floor to the edge of the pit where the angel rested. “I’m sorry,” I said without thinking. The guilt of making him wait centuries for freedom settled in my bones as I stared down at his glory, the light blinking out again as his eyes slid closed. 

My fingers fumbled in the dark, left hand numb from the venom. The chain was bitterly cold, stinging the skin as I felt along it to the base of it. The latch was large, easy to remove if one could reach it. Its own torment for anyone trapped within it, an easy escape just out of reach. 

I grimaced and unlatched it, letting the chain fall loose to the ground. It thudded and slid down into the basin with the angel. The chains rattled as he pressed up against his bondage, eyes filling the world with light again. Along his body snakes laid, coiling against and around him,  embracing the angel as a lover would. 

My bleeding hand became slick as I unlatched the next one, and then another, freeing the angel’s legs and thighs. Then his hands were freed and he cried out, a scream of malevolence filled the great burial chamber around us.

“Please,” he finally said, with just his arms and throat remaining in bondage. “Please, child, release me.”

His voice was haunting and booming, a voice that had once commanded the attention of a god. It made me pause, to look at his perfection and wonder what kind of creature could bind such a creation in darkness. My fingers released his wrists and arms, then finally, came to the collar.

A snake coiled up my arm as I pulled the final hook free and the angel collapsed, eyes closing and leaving us all in the dark. I heard the hiss as the snake slid against my shoulder and teased my ear. Kneeling in the dark, I felt suddenly alone, save the cold serpents that began to climb up my body.

Light shuddered to life on every wall of the prison, flambeaus breaking out in flames suddenly, snapping and cracking from eons of dust. The snakes fled, seeking small dark spaces in the suddenly alive trees that were stone but moments ago. 

I turned my head to look at the newly awoken underground forest and then slowly looked down to the pit where the angel had been. It glistened with water, small plants and flowers blossoming to life on its edge. The azure water shimmered, invitingly. 

“Azazel?” I finally asked the air, looking around me as the last snake slipped off of my body. Pain seared my shoulder and I gasped before pushing myself up to standing. Soft music played from nowhere, the smell of food wafted from above, and warmth started to seep into my skin nothing like the heat of the desert.

“Thank you,” his booming voice tried to whisper to my back. Before I could turn, his arm held an apple before me. The strong, large hand was beautiful, unmarred by the ages. I caressed the thumb, fingers feeling the snakeskin texture that was nearly hidden to human eyes. “I am grateful to you,” he whispered against my ear, expansive chest supporting my back. “What may I give you in gratitude, child?”

I let my hand slide up to the apple. He released it as I turned, biting the fruit as I looked up into his chiseled face. We watched each other, the inhuman being whose eyes were afire gazing at me as I tasted the forbidden fruit. 

His brows knit together before he took my hand, blood staining his perfect hands. “I see my kin have wounded you.”

“Fair price,” I replied. “I should go. I’ll need a healer and my work here is--”

“I could heal you, child.”

I glanced at his face and at the wings that hung behind him. As with his glamorized human skin, the feathers disappeared into something batlike and sinister. “Can you?” I asked, a hint of disbelief in my tone.

He smirked and brushed my cheek. “In so many ways. Will you let me show you?”

I bit my bottom lip then nodded. 

He grinned, the hint of vampiric teeth glinting in the low light. Plush lips kissed my wound, tongue tasting the blood. Heat filled me, bringing a flush to my cheeks as I watched his lips on my skin. The pain in my shoulder slowly ebbed away until longing lived in its place.  I sucked in a breath, trying to pull myself back from the brink of yearning.

Fingers closed on my shoulders and turned me so that I face a grand mirror beautifully built into the wall, showing my dusty and overly dressed form against the perfection f the angel. From a table that had not been there before, he retrieved a small ornamental dagger. It slid along my hand, down my wrist, to the edge of my sleeve. 

A tiny gasp escaped my lips as he slid the dagger along my jaw, then down my throat to where the collar rested. No words escaped him as he took hold of the fabric and slipped the knife inside before sliding its blade through the fabric like butter. I felt my body tense and my thighs moisten as the shirt fell from my skin, disappearing into the sand around us. 

The blade slipped over my chest, drawing a long red line down my skin to my navel. His eyes ate my nakedness, devouring me as I stood still for his teachings. The dagger’s tip pressed below the hem of the pants and pulled outward, instantly cutting it. He knelt, pulling the blade down to my ankle, before letting the tip slide over my bare skin to my middle, brushing over the skin just enough to cause me to jump and gasp before sliding into the other leg of the pants and pulling it down.

Fabric spilled off of me as water and was gone forever. The angel knelt before me, eyes watching my skin as I shivered where the knife played, leaving small cuts on the way back up to my center. 

The flat side was pressed against the folds of skin, causing a moan to slip out of me before he stood, tongue tasting the blade. His eyes studied mine, judgemental silence and lust stirring between us. 

His hands pulled rich fabric from the air, the dagger returning to its table without being seen. The transparent ruby cloth was pulled around my naked body, hiding it and yet revealing it. Gold pins were clipped here and there, draping the fabric in revealing waves so that when he turned me, my back was nearly naked.

Gold chain was placed around my throat and let to move down my back and around my hips where it dangled in front with pearls and rubies. Gently he pulled the fabric aside and cupped my breasts before his fingers pinched one and slid long gold adornment into the skin.

I cried out, aroused and in pain, as his mouth closed around the new piercing. Lust consumed the pain and the pain slipped away. That knowing smirk returned to his face as he let my nipple fall from his mouth, a new ruby gem dangling from the piercing that matched the fabric perfectly.

Despite myself, I winced as he pinched the other nipple. Another cry slipped out as the needle pushed inside, sharp tip moving through flesh. I gasped and put my hands to his shoulders as he took it deep in his mouth, healing with each lick. Slowly he pulled back, then stepped away, admiring the gems that danced from each of my breasts. 

My eyes glanced at the mirror, moving one hand to touch the nipples and their new adornments. They were sensitive and I moaned at my own touch. He smiled, connecting two long gold chains to the collar and connecting each to the rings at my breasts. With a slight tug on each chain, he pulled an audible gasp from me and deepened my need. 

The long red fabric was returned, the gold jewelry glinting below it. His strong hand took hold of my head, tilting me upwards to look at him, fingers pulling my hair until my neck was bent as he wanted. The wicked smile returned as he took a thin ornamental brush and painted the skin around my eyes, lining it in beautiful black. 

Red paint was smeared on my lips, expertly applied. He smiled, then released me. I lowered my gaze, looking back to the mirror. Fingers pulled at the braid that I kept my hair in, letting the long waves fall loose around my shoulders. His fingers rested on my shoulder as he looked at our image in the mirror. 

My eyes wandered over us, his angelic perfection against my seductive beauty. Gold dangled from my ears, my neck, and my nipples, shimmering in the low light. His hands slid down my shoulders to my breasts, feeling them through the fabric for drifting lower. One hand closed over my mound, grabbing hard and sending electricity through me. 

“Beautiful,” he whispered. Fingers touched two dots of scented oil to the base of my hair before he stepped back. “Dance for me, child. Show me your lust.”

I smirked this time and began to sway my hips to the music that came from nowhere. I watched myself dancing for him in the mirror, bending over and standing to show off every bit of chin and gold, to tease my body before him. His eyes followed my every move, lust glinting from them with hunger.

My body pressed against him, writhing and grinding before slipping away. I ran my hands over his chest and thighs, feeling his hands wrap around my hips as he pressed against my abdomen with his need. 

“Turn around,” he commanded. I took my time, moving slow and sensually until I could see myself before him again, his wicked eyes boring into me. A powerful hand slid up my back, snaking its way to my hair until he wrapped his hand in it and pushed my head down, bending me over. 

He moved, one sudden thrust that pushed deep inside of me, burning pleasure tearing me apart. Powerful thrusts met my hips, each both painful and filled with hunger. I cried out, shuddering with each time he thundered into me. 

The hand pulled up, wrenching my neck so that he pulled me back against him. “Watch,” he commanded, keeping my head tilted and body against him so that I could see the angel push inside of me. The look of ecstasy on his face made me shudder and the hunger in his eyes filled me with need.

“Touch yourself.”

My hands slid over my shoulders to my breasts, pinching the sensitive nipples, as I watched him watching me, his length pounding into me steadily. “Harder,” he snarled. I pinched the skin harder, crying out at my own cruelty before I slid down to touch the new piercings. “Pull them.” Another cry slipped past my lips as I tugged, sending jolts of pleasure through my body.

His other powerful hand grabbed my hip, letting him slam further into me, generating a sound of delight with each stroke. My hand slipped from my breast and slid further down my body,  retracing the path of his dagger until I slipped fingers against the wet skin. 

“Rub yourself,” he moaned against my neck. “Release yourself.” 

I let my fingers swirl in slow circles, heightening my cries of pleasure to higher whimpers. My hips pushed back against him and bucked on my fingers as I sped up, going faster and harder to match his hips thrusting into me. 

A scream ripped out of me as I  felt my body shudder and jerk with the release. My breath panted as he sped up, pounding into me with ungodly speed and power until I whimpered and cried out, pulling a second release from me so soon. Heat flooded my opening as he filled me. Yet his thrusts never paused, slamming his hips into me again and again.

“Stop, please, it’s…. Too much.” I whimpered, my body shuddering from its need to rest.

The angel slowed, letting me shiver on his length before slowly pulling out, covered in my wetness. His smile didn’t falter as he took my hand and lead me to the pool of water, once his pit of despair. 

We walked inside and he laid against the gentle slope, dark hair getting wet. I laid against his chest, listening to his lack of heart and the strange music. Moments passed as I gathered my breath. My head lifted, looking at his perfect face.

“Yes, my child?” his beautiful voice caressed my mind.

“I heard you could mate with humans,” I smirked, letting my hand wander down his chest into the water below. 

He smirked and pulled me atop him. “As you wish.”