Samael clenched me possessively.  More inappropriate friction resulted. “Aaah?”  My face turned red.  He bit his lips, aroused.  A groan escaped his mouth.“OUT, GOAT!” he roared. I cried out softly.  “Sam, aren't angels supposed to be- um- unequipped?  Then- then why...”He looked down, eyes glazed over in lust.  “Anything but,” he whispered.Beelzebub stepped in.  “Son of a Gorgon, what is the matter with you?-”  He stopped dead in his tracks, seeing me.  Sam hid me under his cloak, like a brother hiding a cereal box toy from his twin.“Go away, Bub.  I'm busy.”The executive's face grew grim.  “She's stacked.  I'll give you that.”“It's your mangy hide that's to blame!” Samael glared daggers at Puck, deaf to Beelzebub's judgment. &ld

I witnessed his daily torture.  Each morning, Samael fell.  His shrieks heralded the rising sun. His plea echoed through the centuries: “Don't make me face this alone.” His beloved brother crushed him.  Samael bit his heel like a beast.  Michael ripped his glory from him:  “Burn,” Michael cursed his twin.  Stripped of his thorny crown, Samael fell to the howling sea.  The blackness crushed him to it.  The dark mother swallowed all, trying to erase his abortion from existence.  But he held fast to his hideousness, made weapons from his pain.  They sprouted from his rage, pinning the abyss to his bones.  He roared “I AM.”  The first claim of being. The blackness bowed before him.  It recognized its master, the Lightbringer whose shadow it sprang from.  He moved inside me like the Holy Ghost. “Do you remember how we fell?”  Samael took Go

I thought I'd woke from a fever dream.  I was back in my room alone, with the sun just creeping past the sill.  I nearly danced out of bed, praising the morning for saving me.“What the hell kind of dream was that?” I shuddered.  One in which I'd been the reincarnation of Eve, marched like a happy idiot into Hell, and, oh yeah, hooked up with the Reaper.“What the...?”  A white scar shone on my breast, under the dark lace of my nightgown.  I fell to my knees and gagged.“No,” I whispered.  My eyes were catacombs.  “No way in hell did I do that!”I frantically scanned my room. There was a rose at the head of my bed, stem charred as if it'd been roasted.  It sat like a wicked promise.Revulsion seized me and I ran for the bathroom.  I hurled til there was nothing but bile. I didn't leave my room for days.  I slept until I c

“Different?” he asked, voice strained.I closed my eyes, running my tongue up his thumb, sucking.  I nipped the top.  He groaned.“Pyrrhic, you said?” I asked ruefully, dragging my lips up his index finger. “You're teasing me.”“Genius.  Your turn-ons are weird.”“Damn your feminine wiles.”“You really like damning things, don't you?”He pulled me down into the snow with him, wrapping his wings around us so I might as well have been on a feather bed in a parka. Schubert's quartet peaked.  He spooned me against his chest, arms wrapped round me like a mummy.  Samael lay like a corpse for a moment, apparently getting in the zone.  I grimaced as he stiffened.  He laughed roughly at my unease.“That's just wrong,” I informed him.“Angel lust-”“Don

“You look like a rabbit when you sleep.  Your nostrils flare out and you sniff things.  Occasionally, you squeak.”  The Angel of Death sat next to me, peering at me curiously.  I shook in trepidation, draped in his robe at the corner of his bed. I hadn't managed to string a word together for over an hour.  He'd hand-fed me toast and counseled me through hell and high water.  One moment I raged, the next I wept like a banshee.  Now, I was silent, manically pulling down from the pillow case. “I watched you all night, you know.  When you cried out, I sang to you, and you drifted back to sleep.  What is it, to ride dreams, I wonder?  Your little body, so warm.  That it could contain such wonders.”  He ran his fingers through my hair, braiding it meticulously.  He drew a red ribbon from the air and fixed it at the end.  Sam slid his arms over my shoulders, resting his h