A Dark Grace by Misty Cogburn (ink ebook reader .txt) 📕

The other allowed the time it took Luca to gather his senses, staring down patiently at his son, as Luca formed his reply. "Father, I want to keep the Angel," Luca's words came out slurred when finally spoken.

Still light headed, Luca warred within himself to gain his composure. With a steady voice, he finished his train of thought. "Yet, there is no nourishment for the Angel in Hell," Luca explained, glancing unsurely up at his Sire.

There was a brief flicker of mirth that went through his father's eyes at Luca's unasked question, and the surprise of seeing it silenced Luca's next inquiry.

"There is only one way an angel will survive in Hell," his Sire stated, answering the question fully as he uncrossed his legs to tap the front of Luca's silks, above his heir's groin with a single foot. With a soft tone, he finished his reply, "… you will have to satisfy your Angel's hunger for love with a more physical means."

Completely ignoring the visionary onslaught his father had plighted him with, Luca rushed to argue. "Father, the Angel's Holy Power will-…"

"It's Holy Power will drain the longer the Angel is here in Hell," his father finished for Luca with a bland assertion. Luca stilled under the cut gaze of his Sire's eyes, looking like a punished child with widened eyes.

His Sire's eyes softened at his expression for only a moment, before the Morning Star's attention was caught elsewhere. With eyes that looked past Luca, the Prince of Hell thoughtfully thumbed at his lower lip, his head tilting from the hand that grasped at his chin. "However," the Fallen stressed the word, "… if the Angel was Sealed by another, its body is likely overflowing with Angelic Power," his sire theorized.

"The reason Angels are kept from physical satisfaction between one another is because a sudden increase of Spiritual Power will tear apart an Angel's body and soul." Anxiously, Luca's back went ridged at his Sire's words, "How do I drain the excessive power?" he asked.

His Sire let out a tired sigh. Then, with a cool touch, his father took Luca's wounded hand into his own. Just before an orb of green light enveloped both of their hands, radiating with the Fallen's powers. Before his eyes, Luca watched as the grotesque burns disappeared from his hand under his Sire's healing touch.

When the burns had completely disappeared, his Sire closed his eyes, bringing Luca's hand to his lips to lightly brush a faint kiss upon Luca's knuckles. Though rare, it wasn't the first time his Sire had treated Luca with such tender care, yet he patiently awaited his Sire's answer.

"The pain you feel when you touch the skin of the Angel," His Sire motioned, taking Luca's now healed hand between both of his own, "…is the Angel's Angelic Power seeping out to push you away," he responded.

Almost immediately after wording his reply, his Sire fell asleep where he sat. Luca warred with himself once again, having so many questions, yet knowing his Sire needed his rest. Deciding to leave things as they were, Luca gently took his hand from his Sire's own, and laid his father back to lie properly upon the bed.

A break from the madness should do his Sire well. Too often those of the Fallen went mad from their lack of rest. The bed itself, had been a gift from Luca to help his Sire avoid the madness that plagued so many of the Fallen.

He glanced back only once as he made his way from his Sire's bedchambers, noting the child-like innocence that sleep gave his father's face. The Morning Star was such an odd character, in all his years Luca had never met another like his Sire.

Even with the strange rift between the two of them, he cared endlessly for the slumbering being. As he left his Sire's room, Luca made sure to whisper his thanks towards his Sire. Knowing, even in sleep, the Fallen could hear his words.

~*~*~*~

"So spake th' Apostate Angel, though in pain,

Vaunting aloud, but rackt with deep despare:

And him thus answer'd soon his bold Compeer."

–John Milton's Paradise Lost (Book One: 125-127).

~*~*~*~

Leaving his Sire to his slumber, Luca had meant to go to his father's library to research more on Angels. Yet, as he crossed the stone floor outside his Sire's hall, a surge of Angelic Power pulsated throughout the wing of the palace with enough force to vibrate its very foundation.

Dreading what his father had speculated may in fact be correct, Luca rushed back to his room. Where there upon he found the Angel still unconscious on his bed, it lay on its stomach with its wings spread outwards, its muscles of its thighs and back visibly rippling from the pain that was ravishing its form.

Its top half was shirtless and bare, save all but for the gauze wrapped around the Angel's middle tasked to protect the frayed skin of the burned seal on the being's back. On its hips, a sheet of black silks hung low, contrasting beautifully against the Angels' white skin, yet keeping the Angel's more intimate regions from his view.

Now clean from the volcanic soot, the Angel's white skin and wings seemed to glow majestically in the dark lit room of Luca's chambers. Yet, as his father had predicted, the power coming from the Angel seemed too much from the frail being.

Rushing to the figure's side, Luca attempted to console the creature by smoothing back the Angel's gold hair. Yet, Luca was physically thrown back by the wave of Angelic power that flew from the unconscious beings body.

Luca hissed lowly as his skin burned away along his arms. However, Angel's own cries seemed to be in even greater pain from the explosion. Risking to touch the Angel again, Luca was shocked when nothing happened.

Not knowing how long this interval may last, Luca turned the creature over onto its back, careful of its wings and many wounds. Aptly, with both skill and experience, Luca tied both of the being's wrists to the headboard of his bed.

Then, gently cupping the Angel's face he kissed its soft lips, forcing open its mouth, he twined his tongue with the Angel's unresponsive one.

A startled pain filled moan cried into his mouth, and looking down Luca saw the Angel's eyes blink and then open. The Angel looked both dazed and confused.

The clear pools of its blue eyes and the slow steady lick of its pink tongue tracing its lower lip made Luca swell with desire. He was in silent awe of the small figure. Yet, when the Angel's gaze met Luca's, finally aware of its surroundings, the small creature's face drained with fear.

Bewildered it cried out at the sight of a Demon on top of its person. Suddenly struggling to loosen its bound wrists from their bindings. Ignoring the Angel's incomprehensible babble, Luca silenced the Angel with another painful kiss, attempting to make as much contact with the Angel's skin as possible.

Trailing his hands over the Angel's delicate body, Luca winced as the brief interlude of the Angel's powers creased and the burning pain of their clashing auras steadily grew sharper. Though the pain was bearable to him, beneath him the Angel cried out.

Now conscious of its own pain and the strange state of its body, Luca could see the fear in its eyes growing as the Angel's struggles against his hold increased. What had started as a slow, yet bearable, dull ache of pain quickly raged into an overwhelming wave of agony between the two Immortals.

All around them the room pulsed with Holy power as the Angel screamed in pain. Holding his breath through the worst of it, Luca tried to internalize his agony as his skin blistered from the touch of the Angel's skin.

When the sudden pulsation came to an end, Luca breathed a sigh of relief. With his forehead resting against the Angel's own he forced the small creature's eyes to meet his own. Waiting, until the being could focus, he Angel.

"It's my intention to help you," he whispered against the Angel's lips, even as yet another burning pulsation of Angelic power ripped its way from the Angel's body, to resonating through both Luca and the room.

"Ah-.. God it hurts," the Angel screamed, thrashing wildly.

"I can help you," Luca tried to explain, roughly pinning down the creature, yet the Angel was deaf to his words. Whimpering, the creature cried out, obviously in pain from Luca's touch, "Please God, please- Help-!" it prayed.

Easing his grip, careful of the Angel's frail form and state of mind, Luca tried to quell the Angel's struggles by speaking in a soothing voice. "You were sealed by another Angel," Luca attempted to explain.

"As of right now, you have too much Angelic Power inside your body," hoping that the Angel could hear him over its own ear cringing wails. Feeling the need to rationalize with the Angel, Luca continued, "The more I touch you, the more energy your body will release from the clashing of our Spiritual forms."

The Angel's face was a blotchy red streaming with tears and snot alike, and with a dejected realization, Luca understood nothing he had said had gotten through to the Angel. Other than its wailing prayers, the Angel only begged Luca for its freedom.

Clearly, the Angel understood enough of the situation to grasp that Luca's touch was the sharpened edge of its pain. Yet, even Luca had begun to wonder if his touch was truly helping the Angel.

As another wave of pain hit its body, Luca worriedly watched the Angel's eyes roll back and its body begin to shake violently. His heart clenching from the being's pain, Luca held the Angel tightly against him, holding it through the worst of the pain while whispering comforting words.

When the agonizing wave finally creased its onslaught, Luca attempted to focus the Angel's attentions. In a different approach, he asked the Angel, his voice both breathy and pained "What is your name?"

The Angel's pinched gaze opened, seemingly shocked by Luca's question. In an almost inaudibly soft voice, the creature stuttered out "A-Aries".

The answer escaping the being's lips just moments before another wave of pain hit the pair. At the agonizing pulsation, Angel's eyes shut tightly as more sobs escaped the being's throat. "The Ram?" Luca groaned low, his face pressed into the crook of the Angel's neck, as his jaw clenched. Even despite his pain, Luca found he could not help but scoff at the strange creature beneath him.

"Aries," he addressed with a strange familiarity, "… this will hurt," he apologized unsympathetically, before cupping Aries' face to lick along the long pointed shell of the Angel's delicate ear. Surprised to find, yet another similarity between the Angel's form and his own in the shape of the Angel's ear.

From there he kissed down the jaw line of the Angel's face, all the while running his hands over the Angel's body to prolong their contact. Knowing both the touch of his hands and tongue was like fire caressing the Angel's flesh, just as the Angels flesh burned away at his own skin.

Beneath him, Aries' small body trembled, his eyes flashing wildly at the pain. Yet, the longer Luca touched