The Pleasures of Hell 03.049

~~Day 70~~

~~David~~

Everyone and everything was trying to kill him, and here he was, resting on Dao's tits and imagining all the things he wanted to do to said tits.

Jes was back, and she, the Las, and Acelina all slept in the mausoleum basement. Caera had left and come back already, and lay next to David; Dao had gone with her for her first shift. Now, Laoko and Moriah were the ones missing.

Still no sign of Timaeus. The girls all said he remained upstairs at the mausoleum entrance. Maybe he didn't feel comfortable around them, yet?

A worry for another time. For just a minute, he wanted to forget all the crap happening, all the death and trouble, all the battles they'd inevitably fight. Right now, all that mattered, was boobs. He sighed into Dao's chest, shifted his head enough his face planted against her right breast, and nuzzled into the softness. Not as soft as when aroused, Dao's skin currently a dark red, but still a thousand times softer than stone floor.

Dao chirped down at him, stroked his hair and combed it with her claws, and guided his mouth down a little lower. Nipple against his mouth, she chirped again, pressed on the back of his head, and he parted his lips. She shivered, chirped quietly, and hugged him tighter.

"Dao," Caera said. "Are you trying to start something?"

She chirped and shook her head.

"Because it looks to me like you are."

Dao chirped again.

Caera sighed, sat up on her butt in the corner beside Dao, and yanked David right out of Dao's arms. Clicking up a storm, Dao pursued, sat on Caera's leg, and gave her several gentle shoves in the shoulder as Caera put David between the tiger's giant thighs.

It was way too cute the way Caera now sat, like a cat sitting on a couch human style, with legs spread. She smiled down at him, turned him to face her, and poked him in the forehead with a claw.

"What is it with you and tits?"

"I uh..." He shrugged.

Dao laughed, got between Caera's legs too, directly behind David, and pushed him toward Caera. More clicks followed, and Caera laughed.

"Never really been a fan," Caera said. "But... we got some time." Nodding, the tiger reached behind her, undid the straps of her breastplate, and set it aside. David gulped. The tiger smiled, lifted him up, sat him on her lap with his legs around her, and guided his head toward her breasts.

Who was he to argue? With her leaning back into the corner, he was free to lie across her body, and bury his face into one of her large breasts. Mouth open, he devoured her nipple, and buried it in heavy suckles.

This was the best distraction he could ask for.

Caera laughed and scratched his back. Big claws.

"That tickles," she said, grinning at him.

Dao giggled, scooted in beside the much bigger demon, and gently poked Caera's free breast.

Caera shook her head. "Not really. I don't have sensitive nipples."

The clop of hooves announced Acelina's approach. "Perhaps because you crawl on your belly all day."

"Crawl?"

David lifted his head, got ready to defend Caera, but the tiger guided his head back to her breast and buried it there. Unlike Daoka, she wasn't gentle, and he squirmed and tilted his head so he could breathe.

"Only softer, more majestic creatures like us," Acelina said, "can truly enjoy the bliss of lips caressing our breasts." She squatted down beside Caera and gestured to her. "You are a battle-hardened warrior, but any volara could easily defeat you in bed."

Caera rolled her eye, but her tail went still. She didn't like what Acelina said.

It was like that time when Caera lost her eye. In the most uncharacteristic move from Caera David could have ever expected, Caera had actually been concerned about the way losing an eye made her look. She didn't like the idea of looking ugly. So, of course, Acelina went for that weak spot and twisted.

Daoka got up, clicked at her fellow eyeless demoness, loudly at that, and folded her arms across her breasts. Whatever she said, it got a groan from Acelina, and the spire mother stood up and paced.

"I am... agitated, at the moment," she said. "Three days ago, I was once again in the embrace of a spire, with demons doting on me and kin who understood me. Now I am here, once again forced to hunt with my own claws. I... do not mean what I say, Caera."

Longest, most round-about apology David had ever heard.

Caera's tail wagged, barely, and she nodded and turned David around.

"I'm cool with some arguing," Jes said, getting up. "But let's at least argue about something good, not catty shit."

Acelina showed her shark smile for half a second and gestured to the door and spiraling stairs with a wing.

"If you think I am catty, how do you think you will fare in the Scar?"

Jes shrugged. "No idea. It's all volas, right?"

"Untold volaras and volarins, exploiting each other, twisting each other's words, insulting each other where it would hurt such creatures the most: their sex appeal."

Laughing, Jes marched up to Acelina and poked her in the breastplate. "Then I guess it's a good thing you're coming. We'll need a bitch to handle the bitches."

"And besides," David said, "we might find a spire for you yet, Acelina. Is there one you think you'd like?"

Acelina tilted her head. "What?"

"Is there a spire you'd like? I know it's hard to get information about the other provinces, but you've been around a long time. You've heard things about the other spires, right?"

"I... have."

"Then, if you could pick a spire, which one would you pick?"

Someone apparently blindsided Acelina with a snowball because she stood there, silent, head tilted. Eventually, she put her hands on her wide hips and looked down.

"I never thought about it, young soul."

"Really? Never daydreamed about it?"

"No."

His turn to tilt his head. "Really?"

"I... suppose if I could choose a spire, I would be interested in the Forgotten Place's spire."

Caera chuckled. "Of course. Queen supreme would love to have a position inside the biggest, baddest spire in Hell?"

"Of course." Acelina shrugged, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "You have seen other spire mothers. Did they have my zeal? My presence?" She stretched out her wings, enormous, long, cape-like, and ran the back of her hands down her sides. Even with the armor, her curves were absurd. "I imagine the spire in the Forgotten Place is dead, or sleeping. If it could be woken, I believe the strongest demons could be born there, and all spire mothers strive to raise the greatest demons."

"Gonna try and take over Hell," Jes said, "aren't ya?"

"I am a spire mother. It is not my place to conquer. That is the duty of lower demons, who then bestow their treasures upon me, all for the hope of a single kiss upon my breasts, and a taste of my wonderful milk."

Jes groaned. "I was sucking on your tits not even a week ago."

Acelina reached down over the much smaller woman and flicked her in one of her much smaller horns. "And you should thank me for the honor."

"Oh please."

David put up a hand. "You saved my life, Acelina. Least I can do is make sure you get the spire you want. And I mean, who knows what sort of condition the Forgotten Place's spire is in? If it's possible, yeah sure, I'll help you become a spire mother there."

Acelina froze again, folded her wings over her shoulders like a cloak, and brushed off her armor.

"Yes. Well, if that happens, then you may call us even."

Daoka chirped and crawled onto David's lap. Squish, he melted back against Caera, and Daoka smiled and pressed her breasts against him. With her on his lap, she literally buried his face in breasts, and pinned his head between Caera's. More chirps.

"Yes, I suppose," Acelina said. "If we succeed, riiva, and the boy fulfils his promise, then yes, you could visit. And I suppose the rest of you, as well."

Jes chuckled. David couldn't see, though, dying by boobage, and Jes's voice half drowned behind two heartbeats pressed to his ears by red skin.

"Acelina, you've cum your fucking brains out each time you've fucked David and us. Stop acting like you don't like it."

Ever on the warpath. David didn't need Mia to know Acelina didn't like being vulnerable, and admitting she liked something was basically admitting a vulnerability, at least to a demon, especially with someone like Acelina, and especially if it was regarding a little guy like David. Which just made it all the sweeter.

If he was someone else, he'd have teased Acelina about it. Maybe even flirted with her about it. But he wasn't that guy. He sucked at playful teasing. He sucked at playful flirting.

Daoka sat up, kissed his forehead, and chirped at him.

"No time," Moriah said.

The group looked to the stairs. The angel came down to join them, silent in her sandals, until the clop clop of hooves behind her joined in. Laoko.

"We have fed," Laoko said. "Barely."

"Slim pickings out there," Jes said, joining them. "Barely any remnants, either."

The tetrad nodded and sat on the stairway. "At least it is quiet. We will hear the rider coming, when he inevitably finds us."

"Don't remind me," David said. The girls got up, him too, and they put on their breastplates. "You know, not even three months ago, I would have said 'fuck this' to a journey to save the world, especially if some asshole in armor was chasing me like the fucking Terminator." The demons looked at each other. "Seriously, you haven't seen those movies?"

Daoka clicked at him, shook her head, and shooed him toward the staircase.

"No, we haven't," Jes said, following him.

Groaning, he adjusted his red toga, his gladiator sandals, and took a deep breath. Another day on the run. Another day, dodging the Terminator, dodging angel armies they couldn't even see, dodging demons who had unknown intentions, or that just wanted to eat him.

Another day, potentially driving his body into a fucking coma because of his powers.

Another day, with awesome ladies -- ludicrously hot ladies -- on a magical journey. Okay, maybe not magical. Really fucking scary and awful. It was Hell.

He counted the problems on his fingers, and the girls looked at him, those with eyebrows raising them. He counted the good things on his other hand and smiled. Maybe it was his stupid horny teenager brain, but the journey didn't seem all that bad with the girls along.

"Terminator is an interesting title," Laoko said. "It does fit his aura."

"About that," David said. "When we came back, you and Timaeus stuck around to fight him."

"Yes. We could not resist his aura for long. It is unending. A demon's aura crashes but does not last forever. His was a storm that tore down our defenses with time. As the minutes went by, I felt my mind get pulled into the wind of his aura, and I... regressed."

"Regressed?"

"Yes. You have seen demons who give into their most primal urges. Mindless. Addicted to violence. Blood drunk."

He winced. "Yeah." Had the girls ever done that? Probably. Caera had, when she'd been summoned in a horde.

"I felt like that," Laoko said. "Timaeus, Silvain, Cullius, we couldn't resist. As the moments went by, his presence beat us down into primitive creatures." Eyes aimed down, Laoko set two hands on her knees, rubbed at the small spikes on her kneecaps, and set two other hands on her thighs and rubbed them. It was weird, seeing a gigantic creature look distraught, especially Laoko. "I have never fought the rider before."

"Never?" Jes asked. "You've been around for a long fucking time. And a lot of demons throw themselves at him, looking to eat his heart, maybe get his power, or at least get his weapons. Head as a trophy would be nice." The gargoyle smiled and looked up. No doubt, she'd fantasized about it, too.

"I am no fool. I plan to live for a long time, and demons stronger than I have died to the rider. I have seen him, though, once, during the Spires War. He had a companion with him, then, a child of the Old Ones known as Vinicius."

David froze. "Wait, the rider and Vinicius are buddies? But, I saw Vinicius try to kill the rider."

Laoko tilted her head. "What?"

"I don't know. I just know Vinicius is helping my sister."

"That... is strange. But regardless, they used to be companions, and killed hundreds per battle, the two of them against swarms of demons lost to their auras. Some tetrads battled them, hoping to claim the kill. Some angels fought them, hoping to stop them before they perhaps united the spires; not that they ever would want to, in hindsight. And yet, those two always survived."

"Sounds like Mia's in good hands," Caera said, single eye locked on Laoko like she was afraid to look Acelina's way and give up the secret. "She'll reach the Forgotten Place way before we do, at this rate."

"Yes, perhaps. But we should make the effort regardless, correct? Let us go." Sighing, Laoko got up and started up the stairs, an invisible weight hooked to her legs, and the group followed.

David followed last. Wait, not last. He took a step, turned, and squatted in front of the Las. The little ladies had been sitting and listening, but it was clear they hadn't absorbed and internalized what any of the conversations meant.

"You girls," he said. "Be careful, okay? The rider is gonna keep following me, unless he finds some other unmarked to kill. Even then, he's gonna be a pain in our asses."

"We avoid," Lasca said. "Did last time, too. Dodged."

"Yeah, you did. But you felt his aura, right?"

Laria shivered and rubbed her arms. "Felt... deadly. Violent, and... and..."

"Kill," Laara said. "Aura felt like killing. Murder. In Laara's bones."

David sighed. So much for imps and grems being really stupid. Sure, they wouldn't have done well in school, and they had short memories, but they knew what was going on at the most essential level. They weren't children. They were demons, little ones, but still demons.

"Yeah," he said. "And that aura was enough to break four tetrads."

The little ladies trembled.

He stood up. "So stay away from him. He's pretty much the embodiment of murder."

"Murder," Latia whispered, frowning. "It's... different, than killing, right? Imps and grems kill, all the time. Kill for food. Kill to stop other demons from killing us. But murder different."

Way smarter than they seemed.

"Yeah, I agree," he said. "Murder is different. And the rider is... murder personified."

"Personified?" They asked, as a choir.

"It means to give human... stuff, to something not human. Like if I said a rock was happy I was sitting on it, that's personification."

"But rider isn't rock," Lasca said.

Good god, him giving a school lesson. He sucked at teaching.

"Exactly. But murder is kinda like a rock in this example, and the human stuff we're giving it is the rider, and..." Face, meet palms. "Never mind. But you're right. There's something weird about the rider, about his aura. It's different. Stay away from him."

Laara tugged on his arm. "But, what if everyone else is dead, and rider comes for David? Las shouldn't protect David?"

He froze and met the little lady's big eyes.

"I..." He squatted down again and took Laara's hands. "If everyone else is dead, and the rider catches up to me, just run."

Laria shook her head. "But Las can help, and--"

He slid his fingers through Laria's hair, and Laara's. Shoulder-length tendrils, black, and he combed them and got some smiles from the ladies.

"You four have been very helpful. But the rider is different. You can't kill him. I can't kill him. So if there's no other choice, just run. I'd rather you girls live than die pointlessly."

The Las traded glances.

"Like in scrying pool," Lasca said. "Like in movies? Hero tells others to run."

He half choked on a laugh. "I mean, I guess? That's not me, though. I'm not--"

The four ladies circled him and hugged him. Four sets of wings buried him, and they rubbed their faces and horns against him.

"David hero!" Lasca said. "We protect."

Oh no. "No no. I want you to run if something happens. You can't--"

"Las strong," Latia said. "Live long time, many years, longer than other imps and grems. We protect."

God help him, if the Las died on this journey, he'd break.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Back on the road, as close to a road the Grave Valley had, winding patches of dirt, sometimes black, sometimes white. Gravel, bits of blackstone and white tombstone bits, and some regular good ole brown dirt. The fog hid everything, and all that came before them was more rigid, black, dead trees, and big tombstones.

"Ahead," Laoko said, holding her wounded arm, "are the Dead Lands. Beyond them, the Amisius Forest."

Timaeus walked in front of the group. That far ahead, his body was almost a silhouette against the fog. Either he wasn't happy with Laoko, or David, or he didn't want them to see how injured he was.

"I never did learn who Amisius is," David said. He rode Caera's back and did his best to ignore the hunger. If playing the music drained a well, a single human heart only put a few buckets of water back in. He needed way more.

"I've read a few things," Caera said. "A demon who lived in the forest, and killed many demons alone, surviving alone."

"Indeed," Laoko said. "A child of the Old Ones who died in the Second War. Killed by Cain, supposedly."

Caera perked up. "You know?"

"I have lived in this province most of my life, tregeera. I know a thing or two of its history."

Caera looked up and back at David, smiling. He knew that look. Learning about history scratched an itch in her brain.

"And the Dead Lands?" David asked.

"Dead," Laoko said, shrugging. "All we will find there are remnants. Millions. There is no bailiff, but portals do not open there, either. With little reason to go there, it is unlikely we will run into other demons; they go around. But we must cross it directly if we wish to make good time."

David frowned, looking down. "That'll make getting food difficult."

"You ate recently."

"Yeah but... It's weird. Playing the music doesn't really... it's..." He threw up his hands. "I don't know. I can eat, and eat, and eat, and I never get full. At best, I just stop being hungry. But when I play the music, loudly anyway, it sucks it all right out of me."

"Then we will have trouble, because there will be no souls or demons where we cross."

He groaned and rubbed his stomach. "I'll have to take another stab at growing a forbidden tree, then, and see how it goes."

Laoko looked back at him, eyebrow raised, but didn't question.

"Perhaps," Moriah said, "you could use the horde call?"

Everyone looked her way.

"Whatcha mean?" David asked.

"Your sister used the horde call, when battling us in Death's Grip. A thousand demons flooded us. A paltry amount compared to the power of five hundred angels, but when combined with her firestorm, the results were... devastating." She looked back into the endless fog. "Can you do such a thing?"

Holy shit. Just how messed up had that battle been, to push Mia that far?

"I think so? I know the rune for it. I could play a song, using the rune as a lyric." He scratched his scalp. "But I don't think I can do anything very specific with it. It'll just summon a bunch of demons to swarm a target. Maybe if I knew more runes. Really knew them, like, touched them and knew them, I could make spire auras that did different things. All I got now, though, is the horde." Which he hadn't even considered using. "It'd hit everyone here, too, though."

"I can resist the horde call," Laoko said, "and its effect will be weak on the impas and gremlas. But the others will be lost to it."

Hissing, Jes flared her wings and glared back at David. "Don't you dare."

He put up his hands. "I won't."

"Better not."

"I won't!"

"Fucking right." She flared her wings and walked beside the tetrad.

He sighed and looked back like Moriah. "That must have sucked."

"The battle?" Moriah asked.

"I mean, yeah, the battle must have really sucked. But Mia must feel awful. You don't know her like I do, Moriah. She's so empathetic, she can't get five minutes into a sad movie before she's bursting into tears."

"She killed hundreds of angels and far more demons."

He winced. "That's why it sucks. She's probably tearing herself apart over it."

Moriah met his gaze and frowned at him, but it broke with time and she walked beside him.

"Why are you in Hell, David? If you and your sister are as empathetic as you say, why are you here?"

"Fuck me, I don't know. You know--"

"You belong in Heaven. If you'd been in Heaven, we never would have met. Shaul and Tzipporah would still be alive. I would still be in the ranks of Azoryev's army. Things... Things would be different." Her head drooped, wing too, and her arms followed.

He stared down at her from Caera's back. The fuck could he say to that? Seeing the brutal warrior mourn what she lost was bad enough, but knowing it was kinda his fault, sorta, made it rip his guts out.

"I'm sorry." It was the only thing he could say, and it was completely inadequate.

But Moriah looked up, met his eyes, and nodded.

"I believe you."

Daoka joined Moriah's other side, leaned in, and rubbed a ram horn against the taller angel's shoulder. Moriah groaned and nudged her away with her wing, but Daoka had a mission. Chirping, she came in closer, slipped an arm around Moriah's side, and half hugged her as they walked.

Jes glanced back, rolled her eyes, but snuck David a smile. Whatever Dao was doing, it probably fit under the umbrella of 'peace maker', which with Dao, included hugging.

And the Las took full advantage. Giggling up a storm, they clicked and chirped too, swarmed Moriah's legs, and walked around her in a circle. They tugged at her skimpy white silks, grinned big shark-teeth grins, touched her feathers, examined her gladiator sandals, and oohed and awed over some of her gold jewelry. Apparently, Daoka touching the angel was the signal they'd been waiting for.

"I am not some succubus to be fondled," Moriah said, and she swatted the imps and grems away with her wing. But David knew that look. Mia gave that look all the time when someone playfully teased her about something. She was enjoying it.

Daoka let her go, smiled, gestured to David, and clicked a conversation. Whatever she said, it had Moriah squirming, and she looked down and scrunched up her nose.

"How about we worry about food, riiva," Moriah said, "instead of nightly trysts of carnal indulgence?"

Jes laughed. "You're in Hell, Moriah. This isn't Heaven. You've earned our respect and trust, and that means you can spread your legs and we'll make sure you enjoy yourself." Again, she looked back over her shoulder at David and gestured his way with a wing. "We can see how much of David you can fit."

Moriah squirmed, and doubled down on frowning, as if she could punch the gargoyle -- and David -- with her glare.

"You cannot embarrass me, gorgala."

"Wasn't trying to." Though from the grin she gave David, that was a lie.

"And regardless," Moriah said, "Heaven is... nearly as sexual as Hell. As Laoko said that time in the spire, the holy cities are filled with joyous celebration at all times, day and night. It is often physical."

David titled his head. "What's Heaven like?" A dangerous question. Moriah was clearing missing it, but maybe talking about it would help? Or she'd get angry and hit him.

Moriah sighed, took a deep breath, and looked up. "Heaven is... a beautiful place. Gold cities. Beaches of gold and silver sand, with crystal water. Ever-flowing rivers. The buildings stand tall, many with no walls, only white silk drapes, and angels are often invited to come and go as they please among the abodes of souls."

Laoko looked back, looked like she was about to say something, but it faded away behind a sad smile, and she looked back to the road ahead.

"Souls," Moriah continued, "come to Heaven, are given their prime bodies, and are always overwhelmed with the bliss before them. They abandon the pain they've carried from the surface, some quickly, some slowly, and succumb to the infinite pleasures of Heaven. While we mikalim and the rapholem remain ever vigilant, there has not been a war, a true war in Heaven, since the First War. We spend much of our time with the souls, even us in Azoryev, playing games and such. And, as I'm sure you've surmised, the gabriem spend much of their time having sex with souls."

Daoka clicked up at her, head tilted.

"It has been a long time since I've touched a soul," she said. "Azoryev has been... not been the same for some time. The souls do not know, but the mikalim and rapholem have been anxious, as have the gabriem." Something shot across her eyes, and she shook her head and shut her gaze for a moment. Mental reset. "But that does not matter. The souls are well kept, and spend their nights and days socializing, or indulging interests in the sanctums, or enjoying sex with each other, or with gabriem. And sometimes mikalim and rapholem as well."

Wow. David stared at her. Tried to not stare. Kept staring. Moriah's usual angry glare was gone, and a soft smile replaced it as she again looked up, as if she could see through the fog. He was so used to her red eyes glaring daggers, framed by her tan skin and long, dark hair, but she looked genuinely happy now. It was almost unsettling.

Acelina stepped up behind her. "You said you and Shaul were close." And of course she came in like a wrecking ball.

"We were. But that is unusual for angels. We are... not usually romantic with each other."

Holy shit, that was a lot of truth to drop on them, and David did his best to hide how much he was staring. This was a woman who'd been trying to kill him not long ago, who hated his guts for killing her friends, and was now being... vulnerable?

Lasca tugged -- gently -- on the angel's wing. "Angels not like angels?"

"We like each other, little imp. But romance is difficult when both members can see what each other is missing."

Laria tugged on her toga. "Missing?"

"Yes. Missing. Angels are not humans." She gestured to the demons with her wing. "Neither are demons. We are missing something the humans are not."

"Fuck that," Jes said, turning and walking backward. "I'm complete."

"You are not. You do not have the spark of a human soul, demon. You do not have the..." The angel looked down at her hands and squeezed the air. "Whatever it is that sets humans apart, whatever it is about them that drives us to care for them, it is too strange a thing to put to words. Perhaps a gabriem could answer better than I, but surely you must all see it. Why else do you obsess over humans so?"

"Easy food," Acelina said.

But Moriah shook her head. "What value or reason do you have to create betrayers? And why is it you all obsess over sex with succubi and incubi? They are the most similar to humans, at least physically." Again she shook her head, pulled her wing in front of her, and combed its feathers. "Humans are different from us. Angels are a hollow shell, compared to human souls, and demons are no different, despite what you may think. Or have you not noticed how quickly you all congregate around this boy?" She gestured at David.

Caera looked her way, opened her mouth, but said nothing. She looked up at David, and he met her one-eyed gaze, but he didn't say anything, either. This was a weird conversation and he didn't have a clue how to navigate it.

"It is not simply because he is not quite human," Moriah said. "There is something deeply... true, about how we are all here, standing around the boy. He is mostly human, at least, and to be in the presence of a human soul is not the same as a demon or angel. They are special. Even the damned souls." On the word 'damned,' she half stopped, sighed, and pressed on. "We want to be near them."

"We get it," Jes said. Everyone stopped, an eyebrow raised, all looking at the gargoyle. "We get it. Yeah, we noticed, we all noticed. There's a reason demons are obsessed with souls, and it's not just because they're an easy meal. There's something about them, something special, something none of us can really... do. Some of us watch scrying pools, just for a glimpse of it. Some of us ignore it and do the opposite, get lost in violence."

David's eyes fell. That was what Jes was talking about, about that little gremla she'd known in the hatching pit, the one who'd let herself die when a man she'd watched in the scrying pool died.

"All we get down here are the assholes," she continued. "The fucking psychopaths and lunatics. The absolute shits, the worst humanity has to offer. But even that, sometimes, yeah, a demon will turn them into a betrayer so they can keep them around. Because there's something about humans none of us fucking understand, we just know we want it. No fucking wonder all the demons down here would love a chance to get to the surface, or to Heaven, you know?"

The gargoyle approached the angel. Similar heights, nearly seven feet, and while Moriah had the bigger wing, she only had the one. They met eye to eye, and everyone else watched like it was the inevitable collision of two stars in the sky. No one could look away.

"Daoka and I love each other, but we know there's something... not there, something you only see in scrying pools. Or maybe we're thinking about it wrong. Maybe the humans got this extra thing we don't, and they'd be better off if they didn't. I don't fucking know. All I know is, I love my girl, but I also agree with you, Moriah. Fuck me, I agree with you."

"You disagreed with me moments ago. You said you were complete."

"Yeah, well, I was angry and I like arguing with you." Jes squirmed a bit and dragged a toe claw along the dirt. It was beyond weird. "And it hurts, hearing you're not... whole, and that the weak little shits you've been hunting and eating for decades are."

Daoka hugged her love, rubbed horns with her, and gestured for Moriah.

The angel took a step back. "I... think I am okay--"

Daoka grabbed her hand and yanked her into a hug. The angel groaned and pushed, but Daoka would not be denied. Chirping and smiling, she pulled Moriah in closer, and angel and gargoyle rolled their eyes as Dao hugged them both.

"You are all children," Acelina said. "What is this ridiculous display? Enough." She pushed the trio apart, but earned the wrath of Daoka. The riiva clicked up at Acelina, but Acelina gently pushed her aside with a wing and marched ahead.

Laoko grinned. Walking with the spire mother, the ten-foot demoness on hooves stood beside the nine-foot demoness on hooves, and led on.

"Acelina is right," Moriah said. "We are not here to be friends or indulge in vices. We are on a quest to solve this mystery and save the world. Follow Timaeus's example."

The group looked ahead again to the gorujin marching on his own. The fuck was his problem? David was tempted to ask, but knowing him, it'd backfire. Where was Mia when he needed her?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"The Dead Lands," Timaeus said, and he gestured ahead with a nod and his horns.

The fog was relentless as it always was, but even though David couldn't see further than fifty, maybe a hundred meters, it was clear what they were walking into.

"Oh fuck," he said, and slid off Caera's back.

Remnants. It was nothing but remnants. He'd heard them a kilometer away, but now the group stood on the edge of an endless field of remnants, and the sound was overwhelming. Timaeus had to yell to be heard.

The remnants grew from the ground, some up to their waists, some only up to their necks. Some had one arm free, some had both. Each and every one of them was grotesque, sunken skin, patchy hair, naked, and covered in cuts that could only be caused by the tearing of fingernails on skin. They clawed at each other, tore each other apart, all trying to climb out of the ground they could not escape.

No tombstones. No mausoleums. No fences. No trees. Nothing but ground, its array of tiny black and white pebbles, the brown dirt underneath it, and remnants.

Daoka clicked and covered her ears. The Las did the same.

"We push forward," Laoko said. "We will be safe, but we will find no food. It will take four or five days to cross this land."

Timaeus looked at Laoko. If the man wanted to say something, David couldn't see, but any semblance of a smile or grin was gone. She met his gaze, the two having some kind of silent conversation, complete with Timaeus folding his arms across his chest. Even David knew what that meant. He was upset about something.

"Safe?" Lasca frowned, squatted at the edge of the field of desperate corpses, and shook her head. "Not safe for Las! Remnants can kill Las!"

"Stay with the group," Acelina said. She approached the nearest remnant, ignored the desperate cry of the woman clamoring for Acelina's legs, and crushed the remnant with a hoof.

Laoko nodded and did the same. They were more than heavy enough to let their bodyweight crush the damned into mulch with each step. Not to be deterred, nearby remnants got their hands around their ankles, but the two ladies crushed them, too. Timaeus joined them and used his tail to help, like a broom cleaning the streets. The damned were so fragile, all it took was one good solid hit from his tail to obliterate them, break necks, or collapse heads.

David didn't watch the splattering brains or the shattering skulls. He'd learned his lesson long ago.

"We have to cleave our way through this?" Jes asked.

Caera followed. With the three biggest demons in front, they created something like a trail for them to follow, a trail of blood, guts, and bone. As usual, Hell hit David with the most insane whiplash possible. This morning, he'd had his head resting on Dao and Caera's breasts. Now he watched his sandals squish out entrails.

"Get back on," Caera said. "Your skin is too soft for this."

He'd been riding her back all day, and his thighs were killing him, but she was right and remnant fingers would easily break through the skin of his shins. He climbed on, squeezed her back spikes, and did his best to ignore the dead and dying.

On his first day in Hell, the scene would have destroyed him. Now, yeah it sucked, but with a little effort, he could block out the sounds and sights. He had to. The choir was unending, death cries that permeated the fog and drowned them in the screams. And it never ended.

An hour. Two hours. Three hours. Laara squealed, and Daoka turned and cut a remnant down with her axe. Jes hissed, and Laria stabbed the remnant grabbing her tail. She slipped on the entrails, and the other Las jumped and came to her rescue. Two remnants got their hands on Caera's right arm, and she stumbled and fell onto her breastplate. She cut them apart with her claws, pulled to the side, and two more grabbed her left back leg. She crushed them with her tail.

"This isn't going to work," David yelled. The deeper they got into the field of the damned, the louder it got.

Moriah followed in back. Just as weak as David, she wasn't much better off, and she stayed in the dead center of the gore path the demons created for her.

"We have little choice, unless you think you can do something, unmarked?"

Could he do something? He reached out with his sixth sense. Like before, all he could feel was the fire sky above the fog, the ground beneath it, and the currents flowing through the land.

But there was something else. Beneath the screams and yells of the tens of thousands of the damned surrounding them, he could feel something. Each time the girls -- and Timaeus -- killed a remnant, a drop of water trickled down the layers. Minuscule, almost meaningless, but there. He plugged his ears and listened harder. Drop. Drop. Each drip landed in a river, and the river flowed down deep into Hell where it dispersed into her body.

It'd been a dry riverbed back in the Black Mausoleum section of the province, but here, it flowed.

"Hold up," he said. The group stopped. "I... I might be able to do something."

Acelina snorted. "Do what? Drop us into a canyon?"

He smiled at her. Banter. What was it about her bitch-attitude banter that made him smile?

Caera laughed, too, and gestured around with a claw. Gesture turned into attack, and she cut a couple nearby remnants down. Again, drop drop, something trickled into the flow. Here, surrounded by endless remnants, there was far more flow than back where they'd come from. It was like they'd gone from a desert to a forest.

Remnants were a forest? Pretty fucking weird way to think of it. He couldn't do anything about the remnants, not directly. But he could do something about the energy they released into the ground.

He climbed off Caera, brushed aside the gore on the ground with his sandal, and touched the blood-soaked dirt. Under the endless screaming, there was something else. An ecosystem.

He tried this once. He'd try it again.

With a deep breath, he stood up, reached out with both hands, and pulled them together toward his chest; easier to visualize what he was doing if he moved his body with the silent music. Gentle notes, harmonies, nothing extreme or loud. He didn't need to make anything explosive happen, just guide the nearby rivers to flow toward him. They weren't physical rivers. No one could see them, but they flowed in the music, in the strings permeating everything.

He lifted his hands, and grew a tree. The dark bark of a forbidden tree slowly pushed up from the ground, and its withered branches grew with it. The girls gathered around, and David did his best to hide his smile. This was easy. Okay, well, not easy, and the strings he plucked drained energy from him, but he had more than enough to guide a few rivers when he was surrounded by them.

The tree grew higher and higher, branches grew further. It was an ugly tree, withered, brittle, but all forbidden trees were. And the fruit it grew were equally ugly, fleshy things that looked more like the heart organ than any fruit from the surface. But none of that mattered. It was a forbidden tree, a big one, and in minutes, it grew a couple dozen forbidden fruit.

The girls gathered around with dropped jaws and stared. Even Moriah came closer, stood shoulder to shoulder with the others, and gawked at the large tree. Forbidden trees were always small, four or five feet tall. This one was as tall as Laoko.

"Holy shit," Jes said. "This is a lot bigger than the last one. You--"

He fell back, but Caera was already behind him. His back hit her side, and he slid down and landed on his ass. More white spots danced in his vision, only got worse when he tried to stand back up, but Daoka chirped at him and put a fruit in his hand.

"Thank you," he said. "You should all eat." He took a bite. It took minutes, sometimes hours for the energy from fruits and hearts to hit him, but it only took seconds to ease the starvation. It felt wonderful.

"You sure?" Caera asked. "You can eat a lot more than any of us."

"I'm sure. I should be able to grow more trees, as long as there's remnants around like this. The more dead remnants, the better."

"Then your sister," Moriah said, "will want for nothing in the Black Valley. The entire province is an endless swamp of remnants, most dead."

He smiled and nodded. Energy buzzed through his limbs, enough he stood up and approached his tree again. "Come on, eat."

Eat they did. Everyone took a heart, but the Las, with big eyes ridiculously wide, stared at the tree like they couldn't comprehend what they were looking at. David put a fruit in each of their hands.

"Whole fruit for each?" Lasca asked. "Lots!" The Las didn't need this much, tiny as they were. But they deserved it.

"I'll make more," he said. "We're stuck crossing this area for five days, right? Then... that's five days of easy living, because this was easy." He gestured to the tree. "Eat up. Much as you want."

The Las squealed and devoured their fruits. Jes and Dao grinned at the little ladies, smiled at David, and feasted. Laoko took two, waited for someone to say something, but when no one did, she smiled at David and ate them. Lot of smiles going around.

"So much for learning to hunt," Acelina said. She showed her big shark smile to Jes, chuckled, and devoured a fruit.

"You heard the boy," Moriah said, taking two heart fruits as well. "His powers allow him to manipulate Hell, but it is based on proximity. Is it not?"

"Yeah, it is," he said. "Once we're past this place, making trees will be tough until we find another place like this. It's like, trying to grow crops on fertile soil versus dead ground with nothing in it. Remnants are kinda like fertilizer." The demons looked at him, waiting. "Uh, it's a thing, from the surface. Never mind. It just means I won't be able to do this anywhere. But for now, we can relax."

Everyone looked back the way they'd came from, and listened. They couldn't hear much with all the dead remnants, so they squinted instead. He couldn't see any silhouettes in the fog, no man in aera armor with axes at his sides, or an army of demons charging in. Losing his goort had slowed him down.

Everyone sighed relief, and ate.

Timaeus turned and came back, legs covered in remnant blood, and a remnant hand lodged in one set of foot claws. He'd gone so far ahead, he'd almost disappeared in the fog, but he stood before them with eyebrow raised and gaze on the tree.

"You grew this?"

"I did," David said. "Eat as much as you want. As long as we're--"

Timaeus snorted, plucked a couple fruits, and left. Back at the head of the group, far enough he almost vanished from sight, he squashed a few remnants, and ate by himself.

"What's his problem?" Jes asked.

"He is no longer bailiff of the Border Stones," Laoko said. Eyes on the tree and the new fruit it grew, she squatted in front of it and lightly flicked one with a claw. "We have both lost our spire, or allegiances, our followers, and our troops. Some demons were closer to us than simple battle fodder, as well. Moriah killed Ericia, who I shared my body with frequently."

Moriah didn't so much as wince. "Sorry."

Laoko smiled. "No, you're not." She put up three hands. "It is fine. Demons do not regret dying in battle. But that does not mean I am not sad that she is gone. Timaeus also had demons close to him, and he lost them all. To you, Moriah, to the rider, and to David."

Shit, he hadn't even thought about it. Most demons were so quick to move on when their comrades died, he'd almost expected Laoko and Timaeus to not give a shit.

"Should... I talk to him?" David asked.

"What would you say to him? The many demons who served him, who shared his bed, who fought for him, are dead and gone? He knows that is the way of Hell, and he knows to not get attached. But he did." She shrugged like it wasn't a big deal, but her head sank and she rested her four arms on her two knees.

"I've been attached," Caera said. "Lost friends on the horde call Zel sent me on against Alessio. Lost friends to Cainites." She shrugged, too, but like Laoko, her head sunk. Thinking, or mourning, David couldn't tell.

What would Mia say? Apparently demons and angels were incomplete, or at least, they didn't have something humans did, but he wasn't seeing it. They cared and mourned like humans did, kinda. Then again, there was something... off, about how they mourned. Casual wasn't the right word. The deaths of their friends affected them, even if they didn't show it; he knew that from Caera. But, they were still acting differently than a human would.

And he didn't have a fucking clue about any of it. All he could do to help was grow some fruit, so he did.

Should he ask Caera about the war? About the friends she lost to Cainites? They'd gone on a big revenge journey specifically for that, and ever since then, Caera had been pretty happy. Would a human be happy with revenge? Was she actually happy?

Fucking christ, he needed Mia.

On all fours, Caera circled the tree once, apparently from curiosity from the way she looked it up and down. As much as her body had a lizard-ish shape with all the spikes and the big tail, her bone structure was more feline, and she prowled as she moved, shoulders shifting with each step, back feet stepping where her front feet stepped first. If she'd had whiskers, he'd have half expected her to rub against the tree. She did not. After circling it once, she groaned, glowered at the remnant guts on her hands, stood up on her hind legs, wiped off her palms, and ate another fruit.

He smiled. He'd ask her, about her past, about how she felt about him, about... her, in general. But fuck, when? They never got any private time, not really.

He'd figure something out.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~~Mia~~

Another day of traveling. Another day of avoiding any and all contact with demons, and killing the few they stumbled upon. Another day of looking for Noah and Azreal, and finding nothing.

They'd reach the Maze in a week, and they'd need to communicate with the other group as they crossed it. But they couldn't even find the other group, let alone work with them.

Evening twilight came, and she dug another cave for them to hide in. She did her best to keep remnant guts from getting in, and each night she made their spherical underground home, she got a bit better at it. Less energy used, and a better result, with less swamp muck getting in. The guts and gore faded after a few hours, but the more she prevented from getting in off the bat, the better.

Everyone settled down, Yosepha on Romakus's lap, Livian beside Vin, Kas beside Adron. Well, it was more like Livian beside Adron, Adron beside Kas, and Vin sitting alone. A small cave, a big guy, and he somehow got a corner all to himself.

Mia took a step toward him, on some unknown journey to maybe bond with the biggest asshole she'd ever met, but a glance Yosepha's way stopped her. The angel sat on Romakus's lap again, facing away, but Romakus wasn't tormenting her in the way the angel probably loved. Something else was on her mind, and she fiddled with a pouch around her neck.

Mia sat in front of her by Romakus's giant, clawed feet. "Yosepha," she said. "What's in the pouch? I noticed it was there after... after the Death's Grip battle. You didn't have it before."

Mia might as well have run the angel over with a truck. Yosepha pulled her knees up to her chest, hugged them like a child, and pulled the necklace and its pouch off past her frizzy black hair. If she'd had a ship anchor in the pouch, it would have been too light. She passed it to Mia.

Things inside clinked. Mia frowned down at the brown little thing, undid the black string holding the very old-fashioned pouch shut, and reached in. Something small, metal, with round edges, waited inside. She plucked one out.

"A silver coin?" Mia asked.

"Thirty pieces of silver."

Oh. Mia gulped, put the coin back inside, and stared at the innocent little pouch.

"I... I mean." She looked around, waiting for someone to say something. No one did. "Why keep this?"

"Because it is truth." Yosepha hugged her knees a little tighter. Romakus set a hand on her back, between her tiny growing wings, but he didn't squash her or play with her or bury her in his wings. A quick glance at Mia was all he gave her before his steady gaze fell back to the girl on his lap. He was being serious, which meant this was more than serious.

"It's not truth!" Mia threw the pouch down. It opened, and coins rolled free. "You're not a traitor."

Sighing, Yosepha lifted her head and met Mia's gaze. "I am not a traitor to Heaven or the Great Tower, you need not convince me of that. But I still took matters into my own hands and acted without the blessing of my friends or the consent of my superiors. What else would you call that if not traitor?"

"A hero!" Mia got up and glared down at the angel. "You knew if you told them, they might stop you from visiting Hell again, right?"

"Yes."

"So you made the right call! You did what had to be done, and... and..." This was hard. It wasn't like Mia was a soldier, had ever served a governing body, had ever done anything even remotely patriotic in her whole life. The very idea of being patriotic didn't even click in her brain. People were people, no matter where they came from.

Yosepha got up, knelt, put the coins back in the pouch, and sat on Romakus's lap once again.

"You study minds, Mia?"

"I mean, I was just a student. That was the goal, though."

"I cannot tell you what of my experience will translate to the human experience. You souls are far more nuanced, filled with a depth we angels and demons cannot hope to feel ourselves. But all gabriem know all too well the tole death takes on a soldier. Their souls come to us, and they are always one of two things: hopelessly, deeply bitter about the people and government that led to their death, or... adamant that they must get back to the field. That they cannot leave their comrades behind." She held the pouch in both hands in front of her, and slowly shifted it from palm to palm, letting the coins within clink together. Explosions in the dead silence. "So many of them want only to get back to the battle, to save their companions, to fight for their cause. They would gladly die a second time, if it meant saving a comrade's life."

Mia gulped down the urge to cry, but a few tears crawled into her eyes anyway, and she sniffed.

Yosepha smiled and put the pouch around her neck again. "I did not trust the council to see reason. I did not trust my comrades to see reason. I left them, convinced what I was doing was right for Heaven. And I still believe that. But that truth does not change that I was willing to look my comrades in the eye, and tell them nothing of my mission. It was the logical choice, but the only way to be logical in that moment, was to abandon my comrades."

"B-But... that's... that's not fair. You're doing this because you want to save them. And..." Fuck. Mia sniffed louder and wiped her eyes, doing her best to avoid rubbing muck on herself.

Yosepha took her hand and pulled her to her, so she sat on the ground beside the angel.

"You belong in Heaven."

"I..."

Yosepha hugged her. Mia froze. But she couldn't hold it back any longer, burst into tears, and buried her face inside the angel's neck.

"It is my burden to bear. Stop fretting over other people's troubles so much."

"But... But..."

This wasn't just about Yosepha. It mostly was, because Mia just couldn't help but feel for her. But damn it, she hadn't cried, properly cried in some time, and it felt good to just cry.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sleep came easier. It always came easy in Hell, a mechanical switch. Maybe that's what demons and angels were missing? Dreams? But tonight it was easier because she didn't ruminate, didn't brood, didn't think about Hannah or Galon or remnants or the angels she'd killed or anything. A good cry was liberating.

She sat with Kas and Adron, but it was Livian and Vinicius who were awake, both sitting silently, both listening for any sounds through the tiny chimney above. Maybe it was because of the relief of crying, or maybe it was because seeing Yosepha carry her burden willingly kicked Mia in her figurative ass, but Mia felt a little more bold. The angel sat beside Romakus, asleep, leaning on his side with his wing acting like a blanket, and Mia was tempted to wake her and chat more. No, let the angel sleep. Besides, she had another mission.

She met Livian's gaze, shushed her with a finger, and crawled over to Vinicius. On a quest to master psychology, she looked the four-armed dragon in the eye, walked alongside his giant leg, and sat on his lap, her legs out, her side right up against his abs.

"Vinicius," she whispered.

He tilted his head slightly. "What?"

She snuck a peek back at Livian, and shushed her again with a finger, just in case the tetrad would wake the others. But the bolstara tetrad smiled at her and gestured ahead.

"I wanted to talk to you," Mia said.

"You talk a lot."

"I do. Tool of the trade." She poked him in his chest. Sometimes, despite being around him all the time, even she forgot how massive the demon was. Twelve feet tall was not something she truly appreciated until sitting on his lap and realizing just one of his legs was bigger than her entire body, head to toe.

He rumbled, but quietly, and looked past her. Yeah, that's what she figured he'd do. Something was eating him up, and he didn't want to talk about it.

She turned, still sat on his leg but faced inward so her legs dangled between his thighs. She leaned against his giant, hard stomach, knocked on it gently with her knuckles, and smiled up at him.

"Something's bothering you."

"Nothing is bothering me."

She shook her head and knocked on his abs again. "Something is definitely bothering you."

He snorted, but didn't look her way.

She stood up, spread her legs enough to get her left foot on his right leg, right foot on his left leg, faced him head on, and leaned in and put her elbows on his chest. Stood on his legs, he was still taller than her.

"Ever since you went into the Mound and rescued James, you've been acting weird. Don't think I haven't noticed, Vin. I got you figured out." She drilled a finger into her temple. "What happened? You were pretty wounded, even more than Kas. You've eaten a lot of hearts, but we know it takes days for demons to heal from wounds." They'd done this dance a few times, now. Him getting wounded, then her watching him, worried, while he healed. At least this time, they had a lot of backup.

He ignored her.

"What happened? From what Yosepha and Romakus said, you busted in there, found the crew getting surrounded by Xela, and jumped in and helped them out."

Nothing.

"They said you took on the fight practically by yourself, that you got really... intense in the fight." She waited, analyzed, but the dragon man didn't show anything. Which was actually showing something, for Vinicius. Even with his dragon-like features, the short snout, hard, reptilian brow ridges, the man had mastered sinister, evil expressions that were subtle but deadly. But now, he had no expression, and that was weird. No expression was Kas's motif, not Vin's.

"I remember," she said, "in vivid detail, how you behaved when we first met. All stoic all the time. You've opened up some since then." Into a giant asshole. Mostly. Not always. Last time she talked to him honestly like this, she'd gotten somewhere, but something happened and now he was closed off and being a stoic asshole again. "It's not about Kas and Adron, right?" Voice low, a whisper so quiet she barely heard it over the dragon's breathing.

He snorted, spared a quick glance for the two demons, and again looked past everyone and at the wall. What did her amazing psychology skills tell her? That he wasn't upset about those two. Maybe he'd never been. Something else was bothering him, and she was determined to find out.

"Is it the sex? Or lack thereof? It's been a while. Do... you want sex with me?"

Being aggressive and direct about sex was hard. Really hard. You had to be brave and confident and a bunch of things. Even after all the things Vin, Kas, Adron, and the incubi had done to her, even after knowing all those demons craved for a chance to get inside her, even if it meant sharing the same holes, it was still scary being direct! He could say no. He could say--

"No."

"Oh." Well. Fuck. Every bit of bravery she'd summoned deflated, and she shrank and looked down. "I didn't--"

He put his two higher hands around her, lifted her, and brought her in close. Very close. She almost squeaked, gulped it down, and stared at the dragon as he nudged his snout against her sternum. If he opened his mouth, it was big enough he could bite off a whole leg.

Of course, he didn't do that, and she knew he couldn't. But he breathed, a deep sniff, slow and heavy. And unless she was going absolutely crazy, that was a look of... relief in his eyes? Not relief. Something else.

"Did you ask Kasimiro?"

"What?"

He nodded toward the sarkarin. "About the battle." He put her back down, and again she stood on his two legs. But he didn't let her go. Both titanic hands on her hips, both circling her waist entirely, he kept her close so her stomach and knees pressed to his abs.

"I... didn't. I didn't realize something happened. I mean, I know you were both hurt, and you both came out of the fight last, and..." She tilted her head. "What happened?"

He didn't answer. Instead, he looked down at her, giant tail slowly swishing on the ground beside his leg, and his claws drifted around her body. Eyes locked on hers, his fingers traced her limbs, ran under her arms, traced the naked skin her useless double-split skirt left exposed, but he did nothing sexual. It was more like exploring, like he was blind and didn't know what she looked like.

She stood on his legs, waiting, and hyperventilating a little. This was beyond weird. Her heart played double time, and she pulled her hands up to her chest. Not to cover her breasts the flimsy fabric also did a poor job hiding. But a defensive posture, because she felt intensely vulnerable. What was the ragarin doing?

"I nearly died."

She froze. "You what?"

"There were hundreds of demons in the Mound. Romakus, Julisa, Livian, they couldn't fight them all." He gestured to Kas. "And neither could he." From the way he said it, he made it sound like Kas was a stronger fighter than the tetrads. "But I could."

"I know you're strong, Vin. I mean--"

He snorted, shook his head, pulled her in close, and leaned his head down until his teeth were an inch from her ear.

"It wasn't glorious." A deadly whisper.

"What?"

He breathed in again, and not the normal breathing. It was a sniff, like the one before. He was smelling her.

"I was buried in bodies. I ripped demons apart, and their blood soaked me. I ripped hearts free from demons still living, ate them as I fought, and laughed. It felt... like home." His grip squeezed around her, and again she bit down the urge to squeak. "But it didn't last."

"What?"

"It had been so long since I've tasted a fight like that, a fight I could lose, a fight..." He brought his snout around to the other side of her head. "I should have loved it. I wandered Hell with the rider for hundreds of years looking for battles like that. Nothing gave me greater pleasure than winning such battles." He lifted her again, leaned back against the cave wall, and brought her up to his mouth. Teeth a single inch from hers, each dragon breath flooded her face.

"You," he said, "took that from me."

"What?" It was all she could say.

"Your face. Your stupid little voice. They were there." He breathed her in again, hard enough her hair pulled in toward his face. "They pulled me from the frenzy. They pulled me from the place I wanted to be. You."

She gulped. Was this the most Vin had ever spoken straight? And in any other context, it might have sounded romantic, the idea that apparently all her pestering and bothering Vin had somehow put a dent in his desire for violence. But Vin didn't look love-struck. He looked angry. Deep, under the skin, in the bones, angry.

If it wasn't for her leash, still dangling around her neck, she'd have been terrified for her life.

"I... I don't understand."

"Neither do I." His two higher hands took her shoulders, and his two lower hands took her legs. Her body disappeared inside his palms, fingers, and claws. "For thousands of years, I knew only the souls of Hell. Scum." Something else pressed on her back. His tail. Mia shivered as the titan wrapped her with his entire body. "Then... there is you."

"But, what do I--"

"This annoying, stupid little voice. And when I drowned in violence, drank of death to my fill, your stupid little voice, squeaking in my ear, ruined it." He lifted her up to his chest as he leaned back. "And when I was surrounded, death at my heels, where I should have been my happiest, I heard you. I saw you."

Oh god. She stared up at the dragon, head tilted to the side so she could look at one of his eyes; his head was too big and she too close for her to look at both.

"I didn't mean to, um, make you... not enjoy..." Not enjoy what? Drowning in gore and bloodshed? Risking his neck for the thrill of a fight? Literally putting himself in positions that nearly get him killed, like some sort of adrenaline junkie? "Why would you think about me?"

"I would have died."

"What?"

"I would have died. I wanted to stay and fight, when everyone else fled. But he"--he gestured to Kas--"insisted we run. That I run."

"But that's good, right? You get to live another day. And, um, fight another day."

He growled in her ear, leaned in closer again, and brushed the necklace with a couple teeth.

"If not for this necklace, I might eat you here and now."

Fuck. She gulped again and made herself stare into his eye.

"That's why you stayed and fought? You wanted to die, because of the leash?"

"I did not stay and fight. I left. He..." Again, Vin looked at the sleeping Kas, and glared. Voice so quiet Livian had no chance of hearing, Vin growled straight into her ear, a deep rumbling vibration that tickled along her skin. "He said..."

Nothing, apparently. Vin trailed off, set Mia on the ground beside him, and let his arms go limp. Deflated, defeated, his tail went still and his head tilted back. His horns pressed to the rock wall, and his eyes stared up at nothing.

Mia looked down at Kas. She knew why Vin was coming on this journey: the leash, and a chance at more violence, or at least those were the reasons she'd thought. But Kas and Adron were different. They were coming because they liked her and believed in what she was trying to do. They were both oddly intelligent and pragmatic, especially Adron, despite the goofy vratorin he'd pretended to be when she met him. What would Kas have to say to Vin that'd make him abandon a fight?

But from what Vin said, he'd been thinking about Mia before Kas said anything, and that was... was... She squirmed, stared up at him, and squirmed a little more. She hadn't expected him to say something like that, at all.

"I'll... Um... I'll talk to you later." The fuck else could she say? She snuck her way over to Livian, glanced back at Vin a couple times, but each time found him staring at the ceiling and nothing else. Not sleeping, taking his watch, but obviously thinking about something important to him.

Some little butterfly flapped its wings in Mia's stomach, and she forced it down. Okay, big evil dragon asshole just told her he was thinking about her, and that her face and voice -- annoying, apparently -- ruined his blood drunk violence orgy. In another circumstance, she'd have found that extremely romantic. Right now, she got the distinct impression Vin would kill her if he could; he'd said as much. Still kind of romantic? Or that butterfly in her stomach was just fear.

She sat with Livian. "Hi." Time for a topic change.

The tetrad smiled at her and scratched a horn. "Hello." Whispered voices. No need to wake the others.

"So James is a nice guy?"

Livian rolled her eyes. "I told you, yes."

"Do you... have much of a frame of reference?"

"I watched scrying pools plenty in my youth, and even now, every so often when the Damall cease moving for some time, I'll watch."

Mia nodded. "And, um... does James have..." She squirmed. Doing that a lot, tonight. "I have an aura. Does he? I keep mine under control now, but--"

"He does. It grew quite sexual, when Julisa came and flirted with him. It reminded me of that day you found me when I had--"

Mia put up a hand. No need to bring up memories of Mia wandering around the Damall cave, horny out of her mind after seeing Romakus and Yosepha together.

"Okay, so he's just like me. You think Julisa will seduce him?"

"Oh yes. Julisa takes what she wants, and from how easily the boy reacted to her advances, it won't take much. I suspect she has fucked him many times already."

Because of course the bitch wouldn't wait to get to know the man before fucking his brains out. Or, if James had a strange body like Mia, maybe he was actually fucking her brains out? Mia's body was definitely weird, and could fit some... ridiculous amount of dick inside it, more than even betrayers could, according to the demons. What if James could do the male equivalent?

It was probably more than just Julisa getting fucked by James, then. Maybe Yulia, and that tregeera Silvina, too. And maybe the boys, too? It'd be pretty hot, seeing James fuck Faust and the gang, and maybe Noah and Azreal if they were into it, and--

She rubbed her face. Just because James reacted to a girl flirting with him, probably super aggressively knowing Julisa, didn't mean he was as much of a gooner as Mia and David were.

"Next time we meet Noah and Azreal," Mia said, "we should ask for a switch up again."

"Why?"

"So we can keep each other up to date, and... and mostly because I don't trust Julisa."

Livian grinned. "Smart."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~~Day 72~~

A couple days later, Azreal found them.

"Thank god," Mia said. She hopped off Kas's back, held her egg with one arm, jogged up to the angel, and hugged him with the other.

He froze and looked down at her with a raised eyebrow. "Mia?"

"You deserve hugs." Especially after hearing Yosepha talk about her thirty silver coins. Did Noah and Azreal know about that? She squeezed him, smiled up at him, and gestured around at the smog. "How did you find us?"

"Noah and I have been looking every day for you. It was only a matter of time."

"Every day?"

He nodded. He was drenched in muck, remnant guts literally draped over his shoulders, and white wings dripping black.

"How many demons have you killed?" Yosepha asked. "Flying around like that."

"A dozen the first day. Six the next. Flying with stealth is not a skill I know, but I am learning as is needed." He grumbled. "Demons know about me. Perhaps Heaven knows about Noah and I as well now."

Yosepha nodded toward the path ahead. Not a path, just endless muck, but Yosepha knew the direction to go.

"Mia believes we should rearrange the groups again."

Azrael tilted his head. "Why?"

"Because," Mia said, shrugging, "we need to stay in sync. Though honestly, it'd be best if each group had one flying angel. Yosepha still needs a couple weeks to heal."

Yosepha sighed but nodded and gave her wings a flex. They'd grown quite a bit since Yosepha and the gang got back together again, and Mia had given Yosepha all she could eat. But even with fully tummies, demons and angels took time to heal. Every day, though, they looked bigger, as if the first few weeks were spent healing, and only now did they truly get to grow.

"We talked about it, as well," Azreal said. "We agree. Noah and I work best as a team, but we agree. Until Yosepha is healed, one of us will stay with you." From the tone, he definitely didn't agree, but was doing it anyway.

Mia nodded and almost clapped her hands together. Be stealthy, dumbass.

"Have you noticed more demon activity?" Adron asked. "Did you hear the battle cry?"

"I did," Azreal said, and he looked at his bloody knuckles. "Demons are on the move, many of them, heading toward the maze."

"An angel battalion," Yosepha said, "spoke with Vicente. He sent his demons toward the Maze, and I fear they will get there long before we do."

Azreal turned and faced back from where he'd flown in. "I suspected as much. Do you know which island sent them?"

"No. I had thought Azoryev, but I doubt they would willingly speak with demons."

"Unless the council demanded it."

Yosepha shook her head. "Do you believe the council has spoken again?"

Another sigh. "No," he said. "I do not."

"It doesn't matter," Adron said. He stepped past Azreal and pointed ahead with his tail. "We get to the Maze and sneak our way through. It's a maze, right? There aren't enough demons to make a wall from edge-to-edge of the province. There'll be gaps. We take advantage of one, and meet up on the other side."

"We should enter from similar points," Livian said. "Let us drift inward, and find a place to cross somewhere between the inner edge of Hell and the main Trench line."

Mia looked back at Vin, but the big guy said nothing. He didn't even look at Azreal. Whatever he was thinking, it kept his attention on the path ahead. Or he was just staring off into nothingness again.

Was he thinking about her again? Was that good, or bad?

"Let's do the swap," Adron said. "I'll go with Livian, and we'll send an angel back with Julisa. Kas and me work together as a team a lot, but he can stay here. We'll figure it out. Besides, Kas and me are on the same wavelength. You and Noah are, too, right? This way, if something happens, there's a better chance one group will know what the other is doing."

Azreal frowned, folded his arms across his chest, but said nothing.

"It's a good idea," Mia said. "There's always details that get lost in these telephone games." Though she didn't like the idea of Adron going.

"Very well," Azreal said. "I will speak with Noah and return." He flew behind Adron, scooped the larger man up under his arms, and flew off, all in two seconds.

Livian sighed and followed, each step making a squelch and pop sound as she planted and removed a hoof from the muck. Poor woman.

Mia stood there, finger up, mouth open. She'd almost asked if Noah could come instead. Much as she was happy for either Azreal or Noah, Noah was easier to get along with. Intense, sure, but fully capable of having a conversation. Azreal, not so much.

"Azreal," Yosepha said, "is dependable. You can rely on him, Mia. A rapholem with a goal is a foundation you can lean on."

"Plus he's hot," Romakus said. "The shoulder-length messy dark hair?" He flipped his non-existent hair over his shoulder. "That tan skin, and his amethyst eyes?" He pulled his claws along his chin. "Shaved smooth? He's a dream, girl. Snatch him up."

Yosepha rolled her eyes. Mia stared.

"How much scrying pool have you watched?" Mia asked. "And what the fuck have you been watching?"

The tetrad chuckled. Nothing quite like an asshole who finds his own jokes hilarious.

It didn't take long for Azreal to return, Julisa at his side. She didn't look happy.

"I know what this is about," she said, glowering down at Mia. "You don't want me to control James."

Mia shrugged and looked at the rest of the group. Romakus and Yosepha nodded. Vin and Kas grunted.

"You slept with him already," Azreal said. "You got your hooks into him."

"Julisa!" Mia whispered, loudly, and she stomped a foot. Squish. "You've only known him a few days!"

A few days meant nothing to Julisa, or demons. She shrugged, stomped past the group, and stood with Vin.

"You say that as if you are not also a bundle of sexuality, little girl."

Little girl? Mia scrunched up her nose and glared daggers.

"He--"

"James is fine," Azreal said. "I... do not think he is as sexual a soul as you, Mia. From what the others told me."

Oh god, they were talking about her, and sharing stories. And the Damall had juicy stories about Mia.

"That's... I mean..."

Julisa laughed and aimed her tail at Mia. "If you must know, yes, I slept with him. As did Silvina and Yulia."

"You... R-Really?"

"Oh yes. While Azreal is right, he is still male, and what male does not leap at the opportunity to sheath his cock in a beautiful woman? And that cock. The boy has an aura like yours, and can grow his length to absurd proportions." And with her typical queen-bitch evil grin, she elbowed Vin in the side with two elbows. "I am not sure who was larger."

Mia almost face-palmed, but stopped, remembering she had muck on her hands from hugging Azreal. Well, that confirmed the theory about the unmarked having weird bodies. And James was straight, apparently.

Vin didn't take the bait. He grunted and nodded forward. "Let's move."

"Agreed," Kas said, and he knelt down for Mia.

Sighing, she climbed up, squeezed his spikes and her egg, and the journey began again, with a new arrangement. Losing Adron made her sad, for several reasons. Sure, she still felt guilty about Hannah, but a part of her wanted him around because he was fun and made her laugh, or at least he used to. And she wanted to bring that demon back out again.

She liked him. She didn't like Azreal. But that was just her being silly. She just had to get to know him, that was all.

She glanced back at Vin. Of course, the big guy didn't like Azreal. He knew him, knew Noah. They'd fought in the past, and if they were all still alive, then it only made sense there was bad blood between them, probably more on Azreal's side. Vin didn't have friends. Azreal had more than friends. He had comrades, some Vin had undoubtedly killed.

The conversation with Yosepha bubbled back up in her mind, and Mia squeezed her eyes tight. Azreal and Noah must have hated Vin with the same passion Yosepha hated herself. More.

Solving that problem could come later. For now, time to learn more about Azreal. No doubt when they got to the Maze, shit would hit the fan no matter how much they planned. It was a good idea to know more about who she was traveling with.

"Kas, can you go up to Azreal?"

He tilted his head up and back, his way of letting her know he was looking at her; no eyes and all that.

"It's important," she said.

He grunted, walked without changing pace for a bit, grunted again, and walked up to Azreal. She really liked Kas, and knew there was more to him than his grumpy exterior. A stoic, deeply bitter man who had all the signs of a suffering vet. But, damn, now there were three grumpy assholes in the group. She had her work cut out for her.

"Azreal," she said. "I wanted to ask about you."

He looked at her and didn't even bother raising an eyebrow. "Why?"

Romakus was right. The man was so damn handsome. Did she just have a thing for angry, grumpy men with intense eyes? Kas didn't have eyes. Probably just the grumpy thing, then.

She looked at him in his purple gaze. How did a man who looked young and beautiful simultaneously look old and bitter?

"Why not? We're traveling together a bunch, and I didn't ask about you and Noah all that much. Tell me about yourselves. I know you, Noah, and Yosepha are all from Ravid, right?"

He kept his solid gaze on her as he walked and squinted ever so slightly. She knew that look. That was the look David gave her when she ranted about something from class, interrupting whatever he was doing.

"Did you and Yosepha meet each other?" she asked.

"In passing."

She glanced back at Yosepha, but Yosepha kept her eyes ahead on the endless smog, too, as if Azreal's response had been perfectly reasonable.

"I don't understand," Mia said. "Angels, I mean, and how your rank system works. On the surface, the military is super complicated."

He looked ahead, and his expression softened, at least a little. "It is simple for angels. We have soldiers. We have captains. And we have a general."

"That's it?"

"That's it."

"Yeesh. How do you stay organized?"

"A captain leads a battalion."

"A captain leads, what, a thousand angels?" she asked. "Just one angel?"

Mia tilted her head, waiting for the answer. This wasn't the conversation she'd been looking for, a deep dive into Azreal's mind to get a peek at how he worked. This was a conversation David would have been into, and here she was, asking for more details anyway. Her brother had rubbed off on her.

Plus, she could see his angry expression fading. He liked talking about things like this.

"Yes. Angels are efficient."

"And you and Noah?"

"Soldiers, third rank."

"Third rank?"

"Angels," he said, "when they are first formed, a born first rank. With time and battle, they grow stronger and reach second and third rank. If they are reborn, they lose one rank, a fact of learning their new body."

Oh. Being reborn wasn't as simple as getting a new body, then. That was a big sacrifice. Poor Shir.

"Each island," he continued, "has a three generals, who rule over all captains."

"A gabriem, mikalim, and rapholem?"

"Yes."

Nailed it. "Even the gabriem?"

"Yes. Gabriem specialize in treating humans, but they are members of our forces, nonetheless. Support, in both ranged combat and healing."

Galon could use healing powers, just not on himself. She shook the memory away. The conversation got Azreal talking, and that was nice.

"If you and Noah are both third rank, is becoming a captain an option?"

"It could happen, but Heaven has lost few angels since the Spires War." He paused. "The only time there is upheaval is when an angel is reborn." Why the pause?

"And... the reapers? And guardians and muses? Do they fit into the military structure?"

Azreal looked back at Yosepha, and Yosepha met his eyes without hesitation. From the rapholem's reaction, he didn't like Yosepha talking about them.

"They are not a part of our military," he said. "They are empowered to do as they wish."

"Oh. Scary," Mia said.

"Indeed."

She blinked at him. She hadn't expected him to agree with that. What kind of people were those special angels?

"Angels getting reborn. You said Shir chose to be reborn, right? I can understand that, with how wounded she was." Somehow, she didn't look back at Vin, the demon who'd ripped off Shir's wings. "Is there any other reason angels are reborn? Or new ones born?"

Azreal frowned, eyes still pointed ahead into the endless smog. Silence. Mia glanced back at Yosepha again, but she looked upset, too. Not angry at Mia, but upset. Mia had struck a nerve.

"Sorry," Mia said. "I didn't mean--"

"Some angels," Azreal said, "give up."

"Give up?"

The man grit his teeth and marched on. "Some give up. Some decide to be reborn, in hopes it will soothe their minds. Some... give up. And from their deaths, new angels are born."

"Give up? Give... Give up!? Angels are killing themselves?"

His face turned to stone. "They are."

"But... why?"

He shook his head. "I cannot explain it. Perhaps a gabriem could, but I cannot."

Yosepha sighed loud enough everyone looked her way. "My dear gabriem friend explained it well, Mia. I spoke of it to you. Angels are... missing something. We all know it. But after thousands of years. After... hundreds of thousands of years, some angels cannot take it anymore."

Azreal looked down, and his hands tightened into fists at his sides.

"In the past century, a thousand angels have committed suicide, and the number, and rate, grow."