Sin of the Saints (Between Delusion and Sobriety Duet #2)

Chapter 10

Chapter Ten

Bellcolor

“ D on’t toy with me, Lilith,” Libretto growls, clinging to my body and using his knees to spread my legs. I cling to the back of the chair, my wings ache but I don’t dare open my mouth. I want to look away, but Libretto grips my face and forces me to look into his eyes. His grip is firm, threatening, painful. His other hand moves up my thighs and I choke as it finds the pulsing core between my legs. Damn it, it hasn’t stopped pulsing since I drained Evan’s last drop of blood, the last of the angels sent to protect the lands of Adam from me.

“You’re so wet, Lilith… always so needy, ready for me.” His breath turns my stomach and I contort my face at his unbearable smell.

“I-I… want… to taste… you,” I manage to say the words even as the bitter taste they leave in me slices at my throat.

Libretto’s eyes look down, to the glass I’m holding. His hand releases my cheeks and lifts the glass to my mouth. He tilts it and my mouth is filled with a liquid that reeks of death. My body convulses in the darkness that grips me, and I struggle to keep the fluid in the hollow of my mouth.

I’m free of his grip, placing the glass on the table and bringing my mouth to him. His other hand wanders between my legs. My cunt is swollen and pulsing, and I want to scream. It’s an indescribable sin, but this is life or death for me. It’s so easy to judge a person’s actions when you haven’t tasted the bitter flavor of Hell. The moment I decided to survive, I knew I’d have to do anything to achieve my goal. Even at the cost of a loathsome crime.

He invades my mouth and we share his blood. Flashes of memory echo through the fog that envelops me. His grunt awakens all my anxieties, my whine excites all the damned demons of the underworld. The ones who live in me, and the ones I created with my own flesh and blood.

“Lilith,” he makes a low humming sound that turns my stomach. “I love you, my dear mother.”

I shut my eyes and let the tears flow, as memories flood my mind.

“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep 1 .”

“Don’t turn your back on me, Lilith!” He shouts at her. He thinks He can command me, Lilith thinks.

“It’s not like I have anywhere else to go!” She runs to get away from Him, as far as she can, just to drain away even a few of the thoughts running through her mind.

He grabs her arm to stop her, and when she lets out a wail of protest He shoves Himself backwards.

“Look at me, Lilith. Please, don’t leave me,” He pleads.

Lilith’s shoulders slump in submission as she looks at Him. His aura is pure, clean white. He is her entire world, but He is not enough for her.

“I’ll give you anything your heart desires, just please don’t condemn me to loneliness. I won’t be able to bear it. Not again.”

“And that’s what I’m here for, isn’t it? To entertain you, to break up the desolation you lived in until my creation? Honestly, you’re omnipotent, just create another one like me. Better than me.”

“There will never be another like you, Lilith.” His voice softens. “Isn’t it enough that I created a counterpart for you?”

Lilith frowns. He’s a counterpart to nothing. He’s as empty on the inside as he is on the outside , she thinks.

Lilith supposedly had everything she wanted and needed, but something was missing anyway, something she couldn’t point to. From the day He created her, everything He revealed to her was everything she knew. But something in her wanted more. Something primal and ancient, that had started as a spark she’d guarded jealously as it continued to heat up.

“Tell me, beloved, I shall create for you anything your heart desires.” He gently caresses her face.

Now she dares to want more. Her muscles soften at His touch and she finds the courage to speak what her heart longs for more than anything. “I want to be your equal. I want to create.”

He draws back His hand, wrath igniting in Him and making the green field tremble.

A flock of birds flee for their lives as a black lump drowns out the sunlight.

“Is there not one thing I have done for you that satisfies you? Damned! Damned you are forever!” He roars with such force that everything around them roils and rumbles. The chaos spreads and feeds off His pain, making its way to her, and Lilith runs as hysteria wells up within her. I must flee, flee and never look back , that’s all she can think.

“I cast you out, damned one!” He shouts as she flees, an abyss opening beneath her and she plummets down, down, down, for what feels like an eternity, until He disappears from view.

“What have I done?” Lilith covers her mouth with her hands and looks around, but there’s nothing.

She’s alone. Outcast. Damned.

“Who’s there?” a dark voice intrudes into her loneliness. Are there other creatures in this world besides the vacuous and empty Adam?

“Lilith. I’m Lilith,” she answers hesitantly.

The winged being appears out of the heavy black mist, and her eyes widen in terror. Long bright hair, impressive white wings, a firm and muscled body that radiates an aura so black and dark that she fears she might be swallowed up by it.

“Indeed,” his smile is dark, but hypnotizing as well. “You are she.”

“You know me?” She’d never seen other creatures where she came from, certainly none who look like him.

“I do, and I’d like to know,” he answers, looking up.

Know? She thinks, and her curiosity is roused. “Are there more like you, like me?”

“No, Lilith, there’s just one of you. And now there’s just one of me too.” He focuses on something in the heavens, which seem so far from this place.

She has no idea what he means. “Who are you?”

“I am Hillel.” He continues looking upwards, and she wonders if he misses the High Place as well, from which she had just fallen. I will never miss it, she thinks in her heart.

Lilith approaches him hesitantly, and when he seems unthreatened by her proximity she places her hand on his chest. He turns his sharp gaze to her.

“Did He cast you out as well?” she dares to ask. He doesn’t answer, but Lilith notices the muscles in his jaw tightening as he grinds his teeth. “Then we must seek vengeance upon him together.” Lilith smiles.

“Together,” he repeats the word in awe. He caresses her cheek, his other hand in her hair. “Oh, Lilith. It feels like I’ve waited an eternity. But now I know you were made for me.”

“For you?” she wrinkles her brow.

“Yes, though I walk throughthe valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for thou art with me 2 .”

“Let me taste you,” my voice cracks under the assault of Libretto’s fingers between my legs. If I can just reach his vein, I can drain him of his blood and banish him from the realm of Man. If…

At once he yanks himself away from me and slaps me with shocking strength. The bell rings savagely and I wail in pain. My vision goes blurry for a moment, and when it returns he slaps me again. Another ring. I whine and Libretto growls. The damned bell just stokes his fury.

“Ashmedai,” I call his name and he tenses. His eyes are heaving, savage flames.

“I’ve bled enough for you! Now it’s your turn to bleed for me!” He roars, and his hands reach for the zipper of his pants.

I panic, but Lilith’s voice guides me from within, promising that I’ll be alright. With her guidance I raise my hands and fierce winds rise up around me, cleansing and thickening until I find myself behind a protective wall.

Libretto throws a punch at me and I shut my eyes, waiting for the pain to come. When it doesn’t come, and a terrible roar bursts from his throat, I open my eyes to discover that he can’t touch me.

“How did you do this, Lilith? How did you manipulate Him into giving you his power?” He points at me, and I’m paralyzed with terror where I sit.

“Stand up, run!” Lilith calls to me, but I’m frozen in this chair. My body won’t respond to Lilith’s commands.

“I-I don’t know…” I answer honestly. Neither I nor Lilith know. This is the first incarnation where she’s held divine powers. What does He want from me? My head is awhirl with thoughts.

“Don’t play your tricks on me, or I’ll make you regret it!” He swings his fist in the air, and when he can’t harm me he hurls the table, the jug and the glasses beside it into the far side of the room.

“There’s nothing you can do to hurt me, Ashmedai.” I grin at him arrogantly. Though it’s too soon to gloat, I enjoy seeing his furious expression. It’s my private revenge after everything he did to her, incarnation after incarnation.

“Is that so?” He seems overly pleased. “You’ve lived so long on your own, Lilith, that you’ve forgotten you’re connected to a demoness who, unlike you, has ties of friendship.”

I tense up. He walks to his nightstand, by his bed, and barks an order into the phone. I don’t dare lower my hand, removing the force field I’ve created in front of me. When the door opens and my father walks into the bedroom, my hand begins to tremble.

“Bellcolor,” he says, his gaze downcast.

My nostrils flare. “Would you harm a Council member just to make a point? Because I won’t give myself to you, lowest of the low. Not at any price.”

“That is heresy, Bellcolor, mind your language in the presence of the Head of the Council.” My father’s words hurt me like a dagger stabbed right into my heart.

Dad, help me, I plead with him in my mind, but he shakes his head. I thought he was on my side. His betrayal causes bile to rise in my throat, and I feel the torturous pressure in my stomach as my tears refuse to fall.

“Simpleton!” I shout at him. I stand up, bend down to the puddle of blood spreading on the floor, and before Libretto can protest I slip his blood into my father’s mouth. “There’s the truth you refuse to accept!” His eyes widen and he gasps in terror. “So I’ll ask you again, will you continue to serve him even now that you know the truth?” I narrow my eyes and await his answer.

“Of course, Bellcolor,” he sighs. “I will do anything for the father of the Council, my father.”

“Traitor!” I scream, shifting around him and running out of the room.

I hear loud commands behind me, rapid footsteps that shake the entire castle, but I don’t stop. I have to get as far from here as I can. The panic overtakes me and dissolves the force field around me. I can’t use my demonic powers, and though my divine abilities are still with me, the emotional maelstrom within me renders me unable to control them.

Frightened, I look over my shoulder to make sure no one’s chasing me, and when I look forward again I slam into someone who appears to be the Angel of Death himself. Darkness overwhelms me, I try to scream but someone stifles my mouth.

God, what is this Hell?