The Virtue Of My Dark Angel, Dark Angels of the Apocalypse Book 3

Chapter Six: The Cost Of A Demon

Barbatos..

“What the Hell is this?” The girl, Bethany’s, strident voice pulled him from the deepest slumber he’d fallen into in, quite possibly, years. That had to say something in and of itself. He almost never slept that deeply. He never felt safe, or was always just too damn busy. But somehow, having Bethany in his arms just relaxed him in ways he couldn’t understand. Like they fit. Belonged. Like he was finally complete.

Angrily, he shoved the feeling away and cracked open an eye to see her half-awed, half-terrified face in front of his, taking in everything around them with wide eyes. Why did the thought of Drew make him feel so damn guilty?

Barbatos released another jaw-cracking yawn, then examined the colorful swirls of past memories, present happenings and future probabilities converging on them like the aurora borealis. It was all skewed, as if they were at its heart, twisting it to make it theirs, no longer shared by the world at large. As Barbatos gazed at it, the pictures shattered, and began to fill with Bethany’s face.

“Some say it's my one redeeming Virtue.” Barbatos joked dryly, looking away, but Bethany merely stared at him, so he sighed and squeezed her tighter, burying his face against her Mark, drawing even more from her already stressed body.

“This,” He explained softly, “is how I can choose to view the world. It’s one of the gifts I retained when I Fell from the good Graces of my Homeland. I pulled us here because we weren’t safe where we were, and I didn’t have enough strength to look out for us.” Bethany looked around, her mouth open. She blinked when she noticed all the shattered images surrounding them now portrayed her in some shape or form, then became fixated on a particular image that made her blush, and her jaw snapped shut. Barbatos rolled his eyes in that direction, already knowing what he would see, Bethany laid out, nude, flushed, beneath him, an image that made him ache with regret and desire. Regret, because the thought of Drew kept stabbing him painfully.

“I have.. So many questions..” She muttered, tearing her eyes away, and Barbatos chuckled ruefully.

“Of course you do.” He said under his breath. “They always do.”

“First, what about Ginger?” Bethany cut off his bitter grumblings, and once again Barbatos was speechless. He drew back from her enough to see her face, and she met his eyes steadily, the demand to know if her furry companion was ok plainly written all over her features.

“I.. Ginger.. I mean the dog is..” Barbatos stuttered, and Bethany raised a brow.

“Yes?” She pressured. Barbatos waved a hand.

“I show you all of this and you worry about an animal?” Barbatos was floored. Bethany looked around once more and grimaced slightly.

“Yes well, this is.. Awe-inspiring, sure. A little creepy, definitely. But it also looks like a huge burden, and a giant headache. I mean, it’s kinda giving me one already just looking at it too long, you know.. Wait, is that me from the day I met you, running off that hillside? But there’s no way you saw that from up there! I’m pretty damn sure I landed right on top of you! So you couldn’t have been..” Bethany’s confused expression met his, and then it just as abruptly cleared, replaced by anger. “But none of this matters, if we’re being honest. Because Ginger is family, and right now, I can only imagine that he is out there all alone with no one to protect him..” Bethany snapped, and Barbatos gaped. When was the last time anyone had sounded so.. Less than impressed by him? By his power?

“Do you understand you’re viewing the past, present and future all at once here?” He demanded. “Do you know how awesome of a responsibility that is?” He challenged. Bethany looked around again at the constantly shifting tide of colors and images and winced.

“It seems like it would be a terrible obligation. Imagine the weight of carrying this around all the time in your head.” Bethany frowned as she murmured the words, and Barbatos froze. Then she pegged him with a glare again, and continued. “So yes, I get what you’re trying to say, but stop trying to distract me. Ginger is out there by. Himself..” She pointed a finger off into the distance, and Barbatos blinked. He really didn’t know what to make of this human, but he really did think he might be beginning to kind of like her guts.

With a wave of a hand, the colors and images surrounding them shifted, reorienting themselves to the present Bethanies, many of which were presently scowling out at them. “Ginger is fine.” Barbatos mumbled, as the hybrid wolf-dog came into view. Beyond him lay their two bodies, though they were completely obscured by shimmering gossamer threads, like spider-webs, that encased their bodies completely and reflected back the same light that surrounded them, just a more diluted version. Opal versus the bright aurora borealis.

“Is that.. Are we alive?” Bethany stressed the last word so hard her voice squeaked, making her sound like a completely different person.

“Wha-of course we’re alive! Why else would your dog be guarding us?” Barbatos blurted, letting the image fade. Bethany shrugged a shoulder.

“I dunno. He might mourn me after I die. Or he might eat my body, if he can’t find other food. Animals are weird.” She sounded unperturbed about the beast consuming her flesh,and Barbatos’ head again went reeling.

“It wouldn’t..bother you.. If he consumed your dead body?” Barbatos questioned nearly deliriously.

“No.” She answered, unconcerned. “If I was no longer around to feed him, and he couldn’t find anything else, I’d expect him to do what he had to do.” A mischievous grin suddenly flashed across her face as she looked at him slyly. “I guess you could say I would be feeding him one last time.” She dead-panned, but Barbatos merely stared for several long seconds.

This girl.. Was half-wild herself.

An answering grin tried to race across his mouth, but he shut it down quickly. No use encouraging her into thinking they had a relationship that was anything other than him finding her useful at the time.

Something in Barbatos ached at that thought. He was becoming attached to the girl.

It’s just the bond between us forming, he told himself fiercely.

He didn’t sound convincing, even to his own mind.

Bethany..

“So what are we doing here anyway?” Bethany finally asked after watching the emotions play in the corner of Barbatos’ eyes and mouth. She had never been this close to him before, so had never gotten to see the subtle shifts and tightening of the muscles there. He now had a series of small creases between his eyes she wanted to smooth, but she didn’t think he’d appreciate the gesture. He was so goddamn withdrawn!

So, of course she chose to open her big mouth instead. Seemed like she was always causing problems, opening that mouth of hers. At least that’s what her grandmother used to say. But she couldn’t stop. It was just too ingrained. Part of who she was.

Barbatos sighed and turned her body to face away from him. Not that it stopped her from craning her neck to peer at him over her shoulder.

“I brought you here so that I could rest and recover. You needed it too, however you seem to have plenty of energy to draw on now.” He remarked dryly. Bethany shrugged. Even if she did feel bad, she wouldn’t show it. It was just how she was. Hide the pain so they didn’t know how much they hurt you..

“Well, I don’t understand. How do we ‘rest and recover’ in some weird, floaty, headache-inducing, rainbow-light place? Are we even real right now? I feel real, but I can’t be real, right? If that was my body you showed me? Am I asleep? Ooh, is it a dream?” Bethany babbled. Barbatos sighed again.

“Mentally, you’re here with me. I have the ability to see past, present and future, remember? You don’t think my body goes along for the ride, do you?” Barbatos questioned scathingly. Bethany shrugged again.

“How do I know? You’re a f*****g Demon.” She responded, and once again, Barbatos was left gaping at the sheer absurdity of the situation he found himself in. “What? You asked, I answered.” Bethany said smugly, then snapped her mouth shut before she could push things too far, as was her habit.

“You are strange, for a human.” Barbatos muttered, and Bethany tried to turn in his grip.

“What’s that supposed to mean? ‘For a human’?” Bethany demanded, but Barbatos’ fingers brushed her Mark, and she forgot her irritation as the emotion and a sudden shock ran through her straight towards her Mark like lightning to a tree.

Barbatos’ lips brushed her shoulder, and she could feel her whole body relax, as if all of her pent-up aggression was just being siphoned away.

But something else was building. As Barbatos did something that felt like he drove a spike into her shoulder, what Bethany would have compared to the taps driven into trees to collect sap for syrup, a burst of pleasure hit her core so strongly that she felt her inner muscles clench, making her gasp. This time, Barbatos didn’t even pretend to be restrained. His hand plunged within the waistband of her pants and unerringly slipped over her mons to find her clit. She jerked hard, the feeling of having his fingers there, a Demon's, making her clit feel achy, and like it had suddenly developed a pulse of its own.

He deftly rolled his calloused fingertips over her clit, and she bowed her back, hips pressing into his hand and then jerking away to chase the stimulation and avoid it as it became too much. But he didn’t stop there. Two of his fingers slipped further down, sliding along until they found their way inside her. She gasped as they slicked along her front wall and curled into it, seeking that deliciously sensitive spot that quickly had her hips bucking into his hand as he growled and ground his erection into the cleft of her ass.

She wanted more though. But Bethany, knowing herself, was certain this was as far as she’d get, this torturous feeling of being so turned on it was almost like she needed to pee, but simple fingers, simple touch, that would never be enough to bring her to orgasm. So she was prepared for the crippling disappointment, and the regret of walking around horny for hours, since her past had proven to her that either her body was just difficult, or everybody who touched her, including herself, just didn’t know what they were doing.

So when Barbatos used his thumbnail to lightly flick her clit, and she could tell it was sharp, like when he had transformed, the shock had Bethany tightening up everywhere.

So much so, that her inner muscles squeezing around Barbatos’ fingers made the sensation of touch along her front wall feel like too much abruptly. Like he was digging in. Torturing her. Attached to her somehow. And she had the image of those sharp claws digging in and..

Bethany spasmed, her hips jerking out of her control in Barbatos’ hand. He snarled against her shoulder and tightened his grip on her, though she couldn’t tell if he was trying to hold her steady or increase the stimulation.

All she knew, as her blood burst into flames and her vision whited out, was that she’d never come so hard before in her life, and she wasn’t sure if she wanted it to stop, or to keep going forever. As it was, Barbatos kept his fingers stroking into her for so long that she was soon gasping and begging for relief, gripping his arm with both hands. But once again she was confused about whether she was holding him still or trying to pull him away. Everything was a conflict in her mind. His thumb kept rubbing her clit, and she couldn’t escape the veritable assault to her senses. The sharp scrape of the nail up the side of her clit, the points of his nails rubbing into her inner walls. She could feel her body tightening almost painfully again and muffled a scream by biting her lower lip as another orgasm was wrenched from her. Barbatos groaned, an almost drunk sound that could be mistaken for a barbled purr, and Bethany felt the relief of her climax being yanked from her through the place Barbatos’ lips still touched her shoulder.

As his thumb slid along the side of her clit so his nail bumped against the base, stimulating it in a way Bethany never realized was even possible, she began to beg him “No more, please no more..” She didn’t think she had another orgasm in her, and if she did, she didn’t think she’d survive it. Barbatos made a disgruntled, grumbling growl and wrenched his mouth free of her even as his hand stilled.

“I need ore.” He panted next to her ear. The soft breaths stirred her hair. He held her even tighter to his chest. “I could devour you whole. You feel everything so strongly. Nothing has dulled you, has it? I want it all.” He ground himself against her and Bethany sucked in a sharp gasp. Before she could try to decide if she should invite Barbatos into her body, the fractured rainbow around them disappeared, and she fell with a heavy thud, back into her real body.

Where she immediately began to panic because she was wrapped up like a mummy with something thin, strong and almost sticky, like spiderwebs. She couldn’t see, she couldn’t move, and she was certain she was going to run out of air.

Barbatos..

“Let. me. OUT!” The girl thrashed in his arms, knocking hi in the nose with her head hard enough to make his eyes tear up. He growled.

“Hold still! The silks will dissolve on their own.” Barbatos admonished, trying to minimize the damage Bethany caused herself and him. Seeing as he couldn’t get her to still, he was left with very little choice but to latch back onto her Mark and flood her with calm, while draining her of her energy and consciousness. Around them, the silks slowly decayed and dissolved, falling in tattered shreds from their bodies, and as Barbatos’ vision was finally cleared, he came eye to eye with a very angry hybrid wolf-dog.

Ginger bared his fangs and released a deep, rolling growl punctuated by a sharp bark. His ears were pulled back, his muzzle wrinkled, and as Barbatos’ own teeth pulled free of Bethany’s skin, he kept his eyes trained on the animal, even as Barbatos licked her wound.

“I had to calm her, beast.” Barbatos grumbled around his own tongue, while dragging it across Bethany’s soft flesh. “I didn’t have any choice.” Ginger barked again, his front paws slamming the ground beside Bethany’s shoulder and his muzzling moving closer to Barbatos’ face. Barbatos lifted his own upper lip and released a growl in return.

“Back off, beast. She’s mine.” He snarled, then blinked. Whatever possessed him to fight over the girl like he was competing with the dog over a bone? He blamed the bond the Mark was forcing between them, he decided. There was no way he’d be so possessive over a human girl otherwise. With a grumbled complaint, he shoved himself to his feet and brushed off his clothes. His bow lay wedged half underneath Bethany, and he withdrew it, trying to ignore the helpless human girl lying there on the ground as he checked his bow over for any harm. Finding none, he dismissed the still growling dog, and began to stride away from him and his human companion. Only to muffle an angry yell with his own lips and teeth when said dog laid his teeth into Barbatos’ calf.

“What the actual-.. What is WRONG with you, beast?!” Barbatos raged. The animal worried his head back and forth, pulling Barbatos’ leg from the ground and nearly yanking him off balance.

“For Hell’s sake you God-damned nightmare of a Hellbeast, what do you want?” Barbatos yelled, but Ginger had dug in, paws firmly planted in the ground, front-end lowered for leverage, and with a few good tugs, Ginger overbalanced Barbatos and brought him to the ground. Barbatos gave an undignified yelp and landed on the ground on his back, where Ginger promptly planted his front paws on his chest, snarling in his face.

“What is wrong with you, beast?” He seethed, and Ginger eased his face closer to Barbatos’. Ginger’s eyes cut to Bethany lying a few feet away and then back to Barbatos, and the growl increased. At first Barbatos thought the animal was mad he’d harmed his pack-mate, but then a small bounce drew his attention back to the beast, and when he made eye contact with the wolf-dog, he got the message loud and clear. He was going nowhere without the girl.

“Fine. I wasn’t going to leave her anyway.” Barbatos made the excuse knowing full-well he lied. Apparently, so did the dog. The beast bounced again on his front paws, this time forcing air from Barbatos’ lungs in a huff, and his face moved to the side of Barbatos’ so he could release his deep, numbing growl right beside Barbatos’ ear. Barbatos read the threat loud and clear for what it was.

“Get off me beast.” Barbatos snapped, shoving at the dog until he was forced off Barbatos’ body. Ginger went, but his eyes remained glued to Barbatos, who rolled to his feet with a grunt, stretching freshly healed muscle tissue. “I need more practice at this.” He grumbled. He rolled his shoulders to loosen the kinks, then bent once more to grab his bow and moved over to unceremoniously toss Bethany over his shoulder. The girl grunted in her sleep, or unconscious state, as the air was driven from her lungs, which Barbatos once more ignored, merely adjusting her on his shoulder as her demanding beast watched on.

“Well, let’s go then.” Barbatos commanded the annoying creature, who rose to trot after him after Barbatos had already turned to go, as if Barbatos’ words meant nothing to him.

“Blasted beast.” Barbatos grumbled.

Behind him, the quiet displacement of leaves and brush was his only answer.