RBVS 29

What the Seven Thunders Said

 

Chapter Nine

 

Everytime I die, it hurts a little more.

"Hi, can we talk?" I asked. "English, right?"

"Excuse me?" The man sitting beside me looked surprised that I'd even noticed him. That probably says more about my appearance than his confidence though. I tend to have that effect on men.

"I hate airplanes," I shrugged. "I was just wondering if you wanted to talk."

"Uh, yeah, sure," he smiled.

"I mean, some people do," I said lightly. "I do, but some people don't, so…"

"Yeah, I'm not going anywhere for awhile," he said and the man wasn't especially handsome or anything. Just an average guy sitting next to me on an Aeroflot jetliner. Fucking Russians.

"Cool. I'm Laz," I smiled and held out my fingers, just so he could touch me. Strange custom that and I didn't really care for it.

"I'm Dave…David…Dave…" He reddened a little as he held my fingertips briefly. "Take your pick."

"Dave then," I smiled at him. "You're married, huh?" I kind of pointed towards his ring.

"What? Oh, yeah, um, my wife is, uh…" he leaned forward and sat up, looking behind him for a second, "…back there."

"Back there?" I giggled. "In Volgograd?" which was really back there now, twenty minutes after taking off.

"Oh, no," he laughed. "She's on the plane; we couldn't get seats together."

"You should have asked, I woulda swapped with her," I chided him gently. 

"Um, well, travel kind of stresses her so…" Dave made a little face.

"Oh, so you don't mind then," I grinned and he gave me a guilty blush. "Don't worry about it then, it's cool."

"Sounds bad, huh?" He had nice eyes, sort of green and flecked with gold. I hadn't noticed them before.

"It could, but nah," I shook my head. "I understand."

"Right," Dave gave me a grateful look. "Uh, Laz? What's that short for?"

"Lazarus," I said.

"Oh," he smiled like he was waiting for the punch line.

"See?" I slipped my red leather jacket off my shoulders and turned so he could see the front of my white t-shirt.

"I Got Stoned In Jerusalem!" he read aloud, the words faded and peeling, but still legible over and around my rather obvious tits and hard, dark nipples.

"Cool, huh?" I asked. "It's my favorite t-shirt. I shoulda bought two of them, this one's getting pretty thin."

"Uh, yeah," Dave swallowed thickly, dragging his eyes off my tits reluctantly.

"My dad's a rabbi," I shrugged. "He hates it. You know, we have a thing."

That was always a pretty good excuse. Like people expected sort of strange things from ministers, and their daughters especially, and that's what a rabbi is for most Gentiles. A Jewish minister.

"Okay," Dave relaxed a little as the plane leveled off after long climb. "So, um what do you do? Are you a model or something?"

"A model?" I stared at him, pretending like I hadn't heard that one before. 

"I don't mean it like…I mean, you look…" he cleared his throat, "…never mind."

"I look like a model?" I finally giggled, just teasing him.

"You look…" Dave turned his head away, but kept his eyes on me with a happy sigh. "You look really good."

"Thanks." I combed my fingers through my long black hair, feeling just a little self-conscious. "I'm not a model though; I think they sit in first class probably."

"Oh, right," he chuckled.

"I'm a pornographer," I told him and I was just looking for excuses to make him blush.

"A what?"

"Pornographer," I smiled. "I like to write, you know, about sex."

"Oh," Dave blinked and we were quiet for a few seconds. "Is there money in that?"

"No," I laughed. "But it's fun."

"I bet, uh…So, like stories and stuff, huh?"

"Yeah stories, short stories," I nodded. "Romantic stuff sometimes, like, oh…Strangers meeting on a plane, that kind of thing."

"But with sex in it," he grinned at me. 

"Lots of sex," I agreed happily. "Raunchy sex."

"Raunchy," Dave nodded slowly. "You're playing with me now, I think."

"No!" I smiled and shook my head. "I'm serious. Don't you read porn on the internet?"

"Uh, sometimes, I guess…" he replied with a glance over his shoulder.

"Oh. You probably like the pictures, huh?" I arched my eyebrows. "That's okay, lots of guys do."

"Pictures?" Dave had gotten red again. "I…Yeah, sometimes."

"I knew it," I laughed. "I'm a people person. I like people."

"I can tell," he grinned at me.

"No, seriously. Some of my best friends were people." 

"They…were?" Dave gave me a funny look.

"Slip of the tongue," I giggled.

"Right," he nodded like he understood.

"I like observing people, talking to them and figuring them out, all that," I shrugged, getting back to the subject.

"Figuring them out, huh?" Dave narrowed his eyes a little. "So that's what you're doing right now, figuring me out?"

"Yeah. I mean, it's what everyone does," I told him. "We do it from the time we're born. It's natural."

"Yeah, I suppose so," he shrugged. "One of those things we don't think about."

"Right," I smiled at him. "You got it."

"So, um…What have you figured out about me then?" Dave wondered.

"Well, you want to fuck me," I said. "But I knew that as soon as I sat down."

"Excuse me?" Dave looked around quickly, but we weren't talking very loudly anyway.

"It's alright. You're supposed to," I said with a nonchalant shrug. "I look young, attractive, and I could even be ovulating, so maybe I have these pheromones coming out of my pores…It isn't your fault."

"Heh…" Dave kind of sighed. "Right."

"Seriously. I'd be worried if you didn't want to fuck me."

"Why?" he narrowed his pretty eyes and shifted a little in his seat.

"Well, it would mean you're either a eunuch…" I grinned at the look on his face, "…or seriously gay."

"I'm uh, no…on both counts," he reassured both of us.

"I know," I nodded and made a point of staring at the bulge in his trousers. "So how about me?"

"How about you…what?" He shifted again, squirming a bit and probably wanting to check on his wife. Like she might be sneaking up on us.

"Well, what have you figured out about me?" I turned a little towards him, bringing my left leg up so I could lay my knee on the bit of seat between us. The position spread my thighs and pulled my short skirt up nicely; red leather, like my forgotten jacket.

"I think you're a tease," Dave spoke slowly.

"A tease?" I made a little face.

"Yeah. You like to play games with people," he nodded.

"Oh, well…that's true," I giggled. "See? You're good at this."

"Hmmm, probably not," Dave chuckled, trying desperately not to drop his eyes to my skirt and failing.

"Oh, no…" I shook my head and moved my right leg slightly, spreading my thighs so he could see the black lace of my panties.

"W-What?" he swallowed hard.

"You're really good at this," I licked my lips and leaned back with my shoulders, forcing my firm breasts out a little more. "I can feel it. Can't you?"

"My wife…" Dave glanced over his shoulder and I took his attention in my hand, giving his cock a squeeze through his pants.

"Shhhh…" I shook my head. "Do you want me to suck your cock, Dave?"

"What?" He couldn't have been more than twenty-seven, I thought, and he looked so young suddenly.

"I will," I smiled, finding the outline of his penis and squeezing it between my fingers, rubbing it back and forth.

"I'm not sure I…"

"I'm going to," I promised him. "Watch me." 

"Oh God!" Dave gasped as I leaned towards him, bringing my other hand to his crotch so I could unzip his trousers.

It was bright in that airplane, mid-afternoon with the window shades open, flying above the clouds in the untarnished sun. They'd packed the plane full of passengers and flight attendants were pushing carts down the aisles, serving early dinner. The endless repetition of "Chicken or beef?" was hypnotic beneath all the other sounds. The whine of the engines, the electronic hum and mechanical creaks and groans; and three hundred people crammed like Jews on their way to Auschwitz, sitting placid and calm in their common faith that what goes up, must stay up.

I couldn't save everyone. I couldn't save anyone, not even me. I could give one guy a blowjob though and if we were really lucky, he'd cum before all the crazy shit happened. This one was gonna hurt.

"Mommy, look at that funny lady," some little girl said in Russian and her mother shushed her.

I had Dave's cock firmly in my mouth now, sucking him noisily and not caring at all. He was nice and fat, stretching my mouth wide around his warmth. I could smell a long day's travel through the humidity of southern Russia on his skin. The place had always reeked and I'd tried to avoid it, but I had to get where I was going in modest style. What can you do? Anything else would have attracted far too much unwanted attention.

I swirled my tongue over the smooth head of the man's cock, washing his precum away with my spit and swallowing around him. I worked my fingers low, down to his balls, massaging them in the close confines of his underwear. It wasn't the best blowjob I'd ever given a man, but it wasn't bad either, and the fact that a dozen men, women, and children were staring at us, was making poor Dave a little insecure.

"P-Please…Oh Jesus…" he murmured and his hands were on my head, holding me as he lifted his ass out of the thin seat beneath him.

"Excuse me…Sir! Ma'am!" One of the flight attendants had arrived, trying to interrupt us in her heavily accented English.

I sighed around that cock, moving my head up and down, taking all of the man's erection easily. He was thick, but not very long. I love cock anyway, all shapes and sizes, they're all good. Sometimes I forgot that. I'd get presumptuous or impetuous maybe. I'd forget that I'd once been a wife, once been married with a cock of my own to cook and clean for, to have children with. I couldn't even remember the man's name now, but I could remember his cock and how it had tasted of Bethany once upon a time. A place I thoroughly detested, by the way.

I reached with my other hand, pressing my fingers between my legs to touch myself. I was sprawled now, half on my seat, half on the floor, my skirt bunched up around my hips and my pert round ass in the aisle. I tugged at my panty, almost ripping it in my haste to finger myself. I'd grown wet and hot and I wished someone were there to fuck me while I sucked this guy. I needed it. Another man, or an angel or a devil, or…

"Oh!" I gasped at the sudden penetration, like having half a foot of iron shoved into my cunt. Cold steel straight from the forge.

"Lazzzzz…" Livermore's voice was a tonic to my soul, quenching an awful thirst, and I just groaned, swallowing more spit as I worked to bring the man in front of me closer to his orgasm.

He'd appeared like a ghost, ethereal and unseen, and deep inside my pussy now. The Angel of Death himself, Livermore, coming for all these people, coming for me. Cumming soon, I hoped. A good, thick orgasm to fill the emptiness inside. His cock was always hard and we fucked like we fought, with all of our heart and soul. And I felt his hands on my hips, gripping me tightly as he slammed his long prick into me over and over. 

The flight attendant was babbling about having us arrested and put on the no-fly list. Mothers were complaining and men were laughing. It was confusion and the excitement was going through the plane like a ripple on a pond, with passengers passing the news forward and back. People were having sex! Oh no! The world was going to end!

They had no fucking idea.

Somewhere, and for whatever reason, something was going wrong. A bad fuel line maybe or a loose nut on a meaningless bolt, or more probably just a spot of bad luck. There came a sudden change in the sound, in the comforting whine we'd all become so used to by then, and then a muffled bang and then a louder one. And a screech and three hundred screams, and then a ripping sound, like the sky being torn in half, and that's when Dave came for me. His cock pulsed quickly, jerking over my tongue and his hot salty spend filled me. I ate it with quick swallows, never letting him go, milking him with my mouth while he hunched over me.

Livermore slapped my ass playfully, but we'd run out of time and he was gone without even a kiss goodbye. I felt the emptiness again, like an ache frozen in time and I sighed, wondering why this bloody thing couldn't have waited five more minutes. Time was always my enemy.

The jet had started bouncing by then, up and down, and I felt weightless one second, floating up, only to be hurled painfully back down to the floor a split second later. Anyone not wearing a seatbelt was being tossed like that and things were only going to get worse. The starboard wing came off with a wild screech that cut through the screams like a razor, so that a second of utter and eerie silence followed. But only a single second and then all hell broke loose.

I struggled to sit down again, fighting the violent motion, the shuddering, shaking roller-coaster ride our journey had become. I was breathing hard and my heart was pounding. The sex had been good, even if Livermore hadn't been able to do much more than tease me with a dozen good thrusts. I got my seatbelt on and Dave stared at me, wide-eyed and frightened. His cock was flaccid now, still out of his trousers, flopping around like a funny little fish.

"I'm sorry I'm not your wife," I told him, wishing now that I'd known before taking off and could have traded seats with her. He should have seen her one more time.

"Okay," he said and perhaps he'd understood me, or maybe he was in shock, probably both, but it didn't matter anyway.

We hit the earth going very fast. Too fast, I suppose, and it was hot and then black, and then finally it was very, very cold.

 

Chapter Ten

 

"Fuck." I found myself lying on a smoldering hillside strewn with the remains of one big airplane and 312 small people.

I stood up slowly and dusted myself off, which sounds like a cliché, but the truth often does in my experience. I'd broken a lot of bones and lost a lot of blood. Probably made a little crater all my own too, but in the end, after I woke up and inventoried my fingers and toes, I was just dusting myself off and looking around. I found my jacket, only slightly worse for the wear, but my purse was nowhere to be found, naturally. At least I still had my watch, the best twelve dollars I'd ever spent.

"Timex," I smiled. "Takes a licking and keeps on ticking." 

The bitch hadn't lied anyway, but dog bones never do. My flight had landed exactly where it was supposed to, despite all expectation to the contrary. It was spread out in a smoking ruin on the hills east of P'asanauri, in the Caucasia, which had always been one the least accessible places imaginable. I had a twenty minute walk ahead of me, no more than that, and so I got to it. Helicopters would be coming soon, officials looking for answers more than survivors. I couldn't afford to give them either of those unexpected things.

It was a pain climbing in the shoes I wore, although I should have been glad I hadn't lost one or both of them in the crash. I hadn't even broken a heel, but I cursed myself for not knowing better. My toes hurt and I'd probably end up with a nice blister or two, I was sure. None of that was putting me in a very good mood. My twenty minute walk had turned into a sixty minute hike by the time I found the marker. A small pile of stones, each the size of a grown man's skull, and happily enough I found a grown man's skull buried a foot beneath them in the rocky soil.

I broke a nail digging the bastard up.

"If it's not here, I'm waking you up, Fritz," I warned the old bone and set him aside.

Another foot deeper and then another and I was getting hot and sweating like pig. My fingers were bleeding and I'd need a serious manicure later. Another foot and some scraps of paper, crumbling into worthless dust as I kept digging through them. Why hadn't I brought a fucking shovel? Always doing it the hard way, that was me. I'd always been like that though, rash and impulsive. I liked to keep them guessing and the only one who knew where I was wouldn't tell on me. Livermore was in love, at least so much as an angel could be.

"Ahhhh…" My fingers scraped wood and I nodded, catching my breath as I sat in a hole four feet deep.

A helicopter had arrived, flying around the crash site now. I could see it above the oily haze of smoke, a big ugly thing with rockets and guns on it. Russia would always be Russia, I smiled to myself. I kept digging and half an hour later I had that box sitting between my spread legs. The sun was going down and I found a sharp stone and started bashing at the crate, splintering the old grey wood easily.

Inside the smallish crate I found a German flag, one of those pretty ones all red, white, and black with the swastika in the middle. Stupid fucking Nazi's. I really hated those guys, but I loved their fashion sense. Germany was like that though and I'd always had a love-hate thing with that country. Like a woman enamored of her abusive husband, I just kept coming back for more, and if anyone asked, I always had a ready excuse…

"I fell down some stairs and landed in Germany," I laughed, standing up slowly, bruised and bleeding, covered with dirt and stretching with my prize.

I unfurled the flag into the wind and tumbling prickly out of it and into the dirt was the Crown of Thorns. It had grown stiff with 2000 years of dust, mottled brown and black; petrified it seemed to me as I let the flag go, watching it briefly flutter like a wounded bird. I picked the Crown up, turning it this way and that, and then sighed as I looked towards the east and the darkening sky. I had a long walk ahead of me, but at least I had the Crown. Now all I needed was the Whore to wear it.

 

Chapter Eleven

 

I'd made good time out of the mountains and in the morning I'd hitch a ride to Tblisi. Once there I could be home in less than a day, except I didn't really have one of those. I'd be with Uziel. She was my home. But something in the stars caught my attention and I paused my journey long enough to find out what they were trying to say.

"Talk to me," I whispered, tossing a pebble into the pond.

"Michael," the ripples said, echoing the name a half dozen times before it became too faint to hear.

"When?" I asked, tossing another smooth stone.

"Dawn," the ripples answered.

I frowned at that and looked up at the bloated moon, not quite full and stained red like a bloodshot eye. We had time. I'd left Uziel in New York to wait for me, to baby-sit a vampire, and she hadn't been too happy about that. Now I almost regretted my decision, but I'd never been much for regrets or second guessing my choices once made. I needed her there and so I'd have to deal with Michael by myself.

"Lazarus!"

He came out of the rising sun, flying at me on snowy wings with his white robes snapping in the wind and his sword held high. His long black hair whipped around his beautiful face and he wore the countenance of Virtue. His eyes were flashing with golden brilliance, blinding with the intensity of his fearless gaze. The Archangel Michael had come for war and I threw a fistful of sand at him.

"Ahhh…Trickery!" the angel snorted as the sand became a thousand crows, circling him like a black storm. "Fight me like a man!"

"I'm not a man!" I giggled, preparing another spell even as the birds clawed at his flesh and pecked at his eyes with their razor beaks.

His great wings flapped and beat the air as they fought a hundred feet above me. Michael's sword flashed like a silver mirror, hacking at the murderous flock, cutting through it so that blood and feathers rained to the ground. Crows fell quickly, but there were a thousand of them and the angel's robe was in tatters, his golden skin cut and bleeding. He killed them by the dozens, by the hundreds, and as the last bird fell, Michael stepped gracefully onto the hillside, panting as he regarded me with a slow smile.

"Where's Uziel?" the Archangel asked, knowing only that she wasn't with me.

"Free," I whispered and the ground shook as a granite fist punched through the earth, seizing Michael's body in its massive fingers.

"Witch!" Michael spat, beating the stone with the pommel of his sword and I stumbled back as the rest of the elemental climbed out of its lair.

The titan rose some seventy feet or more on stout legs and its feet moved through the dirt like it was water. Trees fell around us, crashing to the ground with deafening whumps and the thunderous snapping of thick branches. I leapt aside as a tall oak narrowly missed me and I reached for a stout branch, ripping it away from the splintered trunk.

With a blinding flash, Michael shattered the fist that held him in an explosion of rock and he fell heavily to the ground far below. The elemental roared like a volcano and drove the stump of its left wrist into the angel's prone form. The earth groaned and shook violently, knocking me to my knees. Where Michael had been, the elemental's arm disappeared up to its elbow with a thick berm of dirt and gravel grown high around it.

The giant yanked its arm free as I regained my feet, stripping away smaller branches and leaves, tearing at the bark and peeling it away from the long, gnarled branch I still held. For a few long seconds there was nothing and the elemental began to stand to its full height, the stones which made its flesh grinding and sifting rock into dust.

"Glory of God!" Michael shouted, flying from the hole and driving his sword into the elemental's chest with a ear splitting screech that made me wince.

A great rift opened where the creature had been pierced it faltered backward, flailing at the angel as Michael yanked his blade loose with a grunt. He held the sword high, prepared to strike again when the elemental caught him with its right hand, lifting the angel and throwing him to the ground. I heard Michael's bones smash on the rock and he'd made a crater a dozen feet deep. The beast dragged a gigantic foot free of the dirt, intending to stomp the angel's broken form.

But angels heal quickly; too quickly it seemed to me, as Michael must have found his feet again. He was tough, I had to give him that. I could only see his hands rising above the hole as the elemental's foot came down swiftly. Michael disappeared and fissures opened around the creature's foot as it sank into the hillside with another terrible explosion. Dust and debris flew a hundred feet into the air and rained down around me and I ducked for cover beneath a fallen tree.

I waited then, narrowing my eyes briefly before the elemental's leg was pushed upward, knocking the titan off balance as it unexpectedly tried to stand on one leg. Michael held the creature's foot, rising from the crater and driving the awkward giant backward so that it fell to the ground with a heavy crash. He leaped upon it, landing on the beast's chest, ripping into the injured stone with his fingers and tearing great chunks of granite away. The enraged elemental howled with pain, struggling to regain its senses, but it was too late.

"Victory is the Lord's!" Michael shouted, pulling free the beating heart of the beast, a gigantic ruby, rough and uncut and glowing with the fire of creation.

The angel held the pulsating stone high, glaring at me as he stood upon the broken chest of the elemental with his wings spread wide. A moment later he crushed the gem into crimson dust, throwing what little was left to his feet. He flew off the mound of rocky debris that remained of the creature, panting heavily and looking around.

"Lose something?" I asked him with a smile and Michael bared his teeth, stretching his hand towards the hole in which he'd lain.

"No," he said, catching his sword as it flew to his hand. "But you will."

Angel's aren't known for their dirty tricks, but they should be. He threw his weapon at me across the sixty-odd feet between us. The silver blade caught the sun and dazzled me with its painful brilliance. I couldn't look at it. I couldn't see anything for a second and dodged left, uttering words of power as I brought my new staff upward in a desperate arc. My staff had become many as it seemed to spin, a dozen, two dozen lengths of oak whirling in my hand to form a spinning shield and it caught the sword and deflected it away.

He'd followed it, of course, and Michael's punch landed between my breasts, driving me off my feet and through the air until my back found a thick birch tree and I gasped with pain as the air was kicked from my lungs. I shook my head to clear it. The world had gone momentarily black and I couldn't focus my eyes. But I'd held onto my staff and the archangel had stopped to pick up his sword.

"It's not nice…" I groaned, "…to hit a girl, Michael."

I thrust my staff towards him with a word and a cackling sphere of blue lightning erupted outward, streaking across the torn battlefield to strike the angel in his chest. Michael was enveloped with electricity, long, blue tendrils of it writhing across his flesh. What remained of his robe smoldered and burst into flame. His angelic wings were charred, the snow white feathers turned to smoke and ash. Michael's golden skin turned black, peeling away to reveal blistering raw flesh beneath. The angel's tortured body stiffened and he arched his back, turning his face towards heaven with a cry of agony.

I regained my footing and pushed myself away from the tree I'd lain against. The spell didn't last very long, a few seconds and then the lightning died as Michael fell to his knees, leaning on the pommel of his sword. I approached him slowly, warily as he lifted his no longer handsome face and the archangel had already begun to heal, but more slowly this time.

"Hellfire," I told him, nodding at the pain in his eyes.

"You'll be bathing in it," he growled, pushing himself up and charging at me.

My staff burst into lightning, more hellfire crackling along its length, even as Michael's sword ignited with flickering tongues of golden fire licking along the double edged blade. He swung with blinding speed and I parried his blow with one end of my staff and then turned my shoulders, trying to catch his temple with the other. Michael ducked and lunged forward, the point of his weapon barely missing my hip as I twisted away. I danced around him, swinging and stabbing, knocking away his sword and being refuted in turn by Michael's well-honed skills.

"Fuck!" I gasped as he cut me deeply on my left thigh and I stumbled backwards, feeling the fire. I could smell the stench of my own flesh burning.

"Getting a taste of God's Glory?" Michael taunted me. "Yield, Lazarus. Make it easy on yourself."

"Tastes like chicken," I breathed, limping backward and turning as the archangel circled me, waving his sword and looking for an opening.

We fought through the rocks and scrub with trees broken around us. He could kill me with that sword, of that I had little doubt, but Michael's only real purpose was to bring me before God. Dead or alive, it really didn't matter and a year ago or a thousand, I wouldn't have cared. Now I had a reason to live though and there was real irony there.

Michael's blade whistle through the air where my neck had been a second later, snapping an old pine like a matchstick and I grinned as he slapped the air with his scrawny, injured wings, pushing himself away from its fall. He flew at me with a feint towards my left shoulder and I deflected his real attack as the blade turned sharply downward intending to disembowel me. I spun quickly, striking at the back of his right knee, but Michael leapt over it and parried a second blow meant for his kidneys. Back and forth we went, both of us moving too quickly for the eye to follow as we sought advantage. 

Half an hour later and we were both getting tired. Michael's skin was new and pink, and his hair had grown back. His robes were long gone however, turned into ashes, and the angel's cock was hard with excitement. I grinned at him, flicking my eyes downward to tease his pride and Michael frowned, glancing at his swollen prick and we both knew he wanted me. The boy couldn't help it, fighting and fucking were ever the same to creatures like him.

I spit into my palm and made a fist, stealing a precious moment in his distraction, and I threw it at him. My spittle landed on Michael's face and immediately a few hundred thin, white maggots began to burrow into his flesh.

"Bitch!" he screamed, flailing at me in his fury and I barely managed to deflect his blows with my staff, but the weight of his strength drove me back. I'd been weakened by my wound and my left leg wouldn't hold me up much longer.

The worms were inside him, wriggling beneath his skin. They filled his mouth as they dug through Michael's cheeks. They covered his eyes, blinding him, angering the archangel further as his sword fell upon me in a brutal flurry. I staggered beneath the blows, scrambling in the dirt to keep my footing. My staff shattered suddenly with an explosion of lightning and thunder, knocking us both backward dozens of feet. I landed heavily on my back with my ears ringing, my skin burned and hair scorched. Michael lay some fifty feet away, his sword forgotten as he clawed at his face.

I limped towards him, staggering and off balance. My body was broken in places. My left shoulder had been dislocated and beneath it I could see a shard of bloody bone stabbing through a ragged hole in my jacket. The cut in my thigh would heal, but only slowly and I'd been losing blood. My leg felt wet and sticky with it and the wound still burned, but I forced myself to move. I had no choice if I was going to survive. The worms wouldn't last much longer and the madness Michael suffered as they ate into his brain would give me only enough time.

"Michael…" I breathed, grasping his sword and struggling to lift it with my one good arm, "…Say hi to Jesus for me…Ugh!"

I dropped the blade into his chest, using my weight to cleave the archangel's heart. The sky was ripped open then and I fell back, landing on the dirt and tumbling down the rocky slope as a shaft of golden light struck the earth like a meteor. I turned away from the blast, hiding my face and covering my ears as best I could with only one arm. There soon grew a violent tempest, the wind howled around me and gravel pelted my body for several minutes until it was ended.

All that remained of the Archangel Michael was a shadow burned into the earth.

 

Chapter Twelve

 

"What's the purpose of your visit to the United States?" the woman asked me, a black woman holding my pocket guide to Paris and looking through it.

"Armageddon," I shrugged.

"That's nice. Enjoy your stay," she said, stamping it and pushing it under the glass. "Follow the signs to customs. Next!"

I took my booklet back with a smile, flipping through the pages. She'd stamped it on page 76, spoiling a small snapshot of Charles de Gaulle with a big blue immigration stamp.

"Anything to declare?" the customs guy wondered. He sounded bored and I held up the Crown of Thorns.

"Only my hat," I said.

"Okay," he jerked his head. "Exit through the doors."

Outside, the Angelic Demon of Blood stood near a long bank of pay phones, eating a hotdog.

Uziel wore a pair of pink denim shorts, pink Skechers, a white "I Love New York" t-shirt, and a Yankee's ball cap cocked sidewise. She had a little mustard at the corners of her small mouth and a lot of men stood nearby, ignoring their wives and girlfriends and drinking Uzi in with their eyes. If she hadn't looked like she'd just walked off a junior high school playground, some of them would have tried to pick her up and perhaps someone had anyway. I couldn't be sure, but the ambulance with the flashing lights looked a little suspicious and she gave me a guilty smile.

"Laz!" she grinned at me and then frowned. "I've been waiting for an hour!"

"Sorry," I sighed, taking the girl into my arms and ignoring the looks we were getting as I shoved my tongue into her mouth.

What the assorted crowd might have thought of a beautiful, twenty-something woman molesting a beautiful, teenage girl didn't interest me at all.

"You taste like a hotdog," I giggled and Uzi held it up for me.

"Take a bite," she suggested. "It's good."

"There's only one bite left!"

"I was hungry," she shrugged. "Is that it?"

"Huh?" I let her push the last bit of hotdog into my mouth. "Umph-mmph," I nodded, handing her the Crown. "Imph nmph emph?"

"What?" she rolled her eyes. "Come on, there's a limo outside."

"A limo?" I swallowed hard and made a face.

"Yeah! You know, she's got like three of them," Uzi shook her head, putting her arm around me as we walked towards the doors. "How come you don't have any limos?"

"What would I want a limo for?" I snorted.

"It's got a bar and a little television," Uzi grinned at me. "God! It's roomy too! We could have a lot of fun in a limo, Laz."

"We can have a lot of fun in my El Dorado," I told her. "A car like that is a statement, but a limo…"

"You're such a dyke," she laughed.

"I'm just saying…"

"Shut-up."

"…I like my car."

"Wait!" she stopped me as I reached for the door handle. It was attached to a long, black limousine like everybody's seen a million times.

"What?"

"Let the guy do it!" Uzi giggled happily and the chauffer was already running around the car to get the door for us.

"Christ," I rolled my eyes.

"That's so cool!" she grinned at the young man in his grey suit and cap. "Thank you!"

"Yes ma'am," he said with a smile of his own.

I just ignored him.

Uziel poured a glass of vodka as soon as we were comfortable and I took the bottle.

"Cheers," I said, touching her glass and then taking a long, hard pull.

"I heard about Michael," she said. "Everybody's looking for us."

"Yeah," I breathed, smacking my lips and feeling the alcohol burn. "We knew they would be."

"Did you really kill him?"

"Uh-huh," I smiled at her. "It was a good fight. You shoulda been there."

"God's gonna be pissed."

"He's always pissed."

"Yeah, but…" Uziel sighed and held out her glass so I could refill it.

"One less angel dancing on the head of a pin," I told her. "God should have known better."

"He'll send someone else next time."

"Who?"

"I don't know," she shrugged. "A Virtue maybe or a Dominion. Somebody tough."

"Whoever it is," I smiled at her. "He'll have to fight both of us."

"Yeah," the Demonic Angel of Blood giggled. "Too bad for him."

"Come here…" I sighed, dropping the bottle back into its spot in the bar.

"Lucifer will be happy though" she shrugged. "He never liked Michael anyway. Not since that thing with…"

"Shhhh…" I kissed her and we'd talked too much already when all we really wanted to do was fuck.

 

Chapter Thirteen

 

"Get you're fuckin' hands off me!" I pushed the security guy, but he was three times my size and didn't notice.

"This is a restricted area," he said for the third time and he was grabbing my tit, squeezing it hard. His other hand was on my hip, turning me around.

"I'm with the band, you fuck!" I screamed at him and I really hated this shit. "Let me go!"

"Hey." My girlfriend showed up finally, pulling a black t-shirt over her small, barely there tits while she walked unevenly. We'd been partying.

"Turn around, miss…" another security guy, this one big and black was grabbing at her arm.

"Bleed for me," Uziel whispered. She liked to be grabbed even less than I did.

"What…Aghhh…" Blood started pouring out of his eyes, running through the man's fingers as he covered them. The black man stumbled backwards, into the cinderblock wall and went to his knees. 

"Jesus Christ!" The guy holding me froze, but didn't let go

"Guess again," Uzi smiled and then his eyes were bleeding as well and I stepped away quickly as the man began to thrash the air violently in his panic.

"Where the hell were you?" I asked her and Uzi shrugged.

"Buying a t-shirt," she said looking down at herself. "Cool huh?"

"Yeah," I grinned at her. "Come on, we're late."

I pushed open the metal door those two guys had been guarding and we were getting deep into the backstage labyrinth of Madison Square Garden. I'd been here before though, so it was cool. We passed a lot of people and if anyone gave us a second glance it was only cause they thought we were a couple of groupies coming around for a fuck.

I'd dressed casual, for comfort more than style, but maybe that was my style. Hard telling and I'd never been much for fashion. Give me soft pair of well worn jeans, an old silk blouse in red with three buttons missing, leaving one to cover up my braless tits, and a pair of decent snakeskin boots in red and black…Shit, I was ready for anything.

Uzi liked to show off her legs and ass, so she'd gone with a short, pink skirt that didn't cover much at all. It was sheer anyway and the girl had a black thong, so that was cool. It went good with her new t-shirt, and of course with her pale complexion and milk-white hair, black was always a good color for her. With a lot of crimson trimming, of course, like her nails and lips. Fuck. Uzi looked like the groupie from hell.

We came to another door, with two more guys and I knew one of them. His name was Edgar and he'd been working this gig for a long, fucking long time. He was old now and I almost felt sad about that. He glanced at me, doing a comic double take, and then stared and finally it clicked.

"I know you," he said and I'd almost missed his bitter London accent; it brought back fond memories.

"Hey, Edgar," I smiled at him.

We stopped in front of him and Uzi put her arm around my waist, sliding her hand into the back left pocket of my ragged jeans. It had a faded daisy stitched onto it. 

"I never forget a fuck," he said, almost laughing but not because it was funny. "That was forty years ago."

Edgar's partner, a much younger and violently virile man, narrowed his eyes and looked me up and down.

"Yeah, seems like last week," I tossed my head and threw some unkempt black hair out of the way. "Gonna let me in or do I gotta kill you?"

"You haven't changed at all," Edgar swallowed hard.

"You have backstage passes?" his partner asked, looking between us uncertainly.

"We're with the band," Uzi giggled and the young guy had no idea why the air seemed so thick with tension when everything seemed so relaxed. But he was new anyway and hadn't seen the bad old days.

"Let 'em in," Edgar said.

"They don't have passes," the boy frowned.

"They don't need any." Edgar was already pushing the door open for us.

"But we're not supposed to…"

"Shut-up," Edgar gave the guy a little shove and he wasn't taking his eyes off me. "What was your name?"

"Lazarus," I said, slipping between the two men with Uzi hanging off me like a Christmas ornament. 

"Where'd you know him from?" Uziel wondered as we walked down a carpeted hallway.

"Altamont," I said. "Hey!"

"Bloody hell." Keith was sitting sideways on a leather chair, holding a glass of something red and smoking a cigarette.

The room was crowded, full of rich and famous people. There was a buffet set up and a bar, and flash bulbs were going off every few seconds. It was noisy and chaotic, filled with smoke. The only thing missing was a teenaged girl or two getting gang-banged in the corner and that was mildly disappointing. They did have a young Japanese sushi platter though and I picked up a piece of raw fish from her thigh as we walked past. It tasted like tuna.

"Long time no see." I spit out the toothpick and bent over to give the man a kiss. "I didn't think you guys were gonna make it."

"End of the world, isn't it?" Keith grinned and his voice sounded like English gravel. "Wouldn't fuckin' miss it, love, would we?"

"Hi," Uzi smiled at him.

"Lo," he grinned. "Who's your new bird then?"

"Keith, Uzi…Uzi, this is Keith." I looked around. "Where Mick?"

"Ah, on the telly might be, hard barkin' with 'im," Keith shrugged. "Now, tell me ya bring us something sweet."

"Viagra for the soul," I stuck out my tongue and pulled a foil packet from my pants, tossing it onto Keith's chest.

"Shite!" He picked it up. "Same stuff?"

"Ten more years. What you want, right?" I shrugged. "You know what I want."

"Gonna be mad, love," Keith nodded. "Opening the second set, drop your knickers."

"What knickers?" I laughed. "We gotta go, man."

"You say, Laz." Keith's weathered face broke into a smile and I walked away.

"Hey, um…Would you sign my tits?" Uzi asked him and I had to wait until someone found a marker.

"Ready?" I asked her as Uziel skipped across the room, giving Springsteen a finger wave, but I don't think she really knew who he was.

"Yeah! Fuck!" she giggled, pulling up her t-shirt so I could admire Keith's uneven signature. "Cool, huh?"

"Awesome," I agreed with a roll of my eyes, but I couldn't blame her. Uzi loved to party.

"You think they'll really do it?" she asked me and I nodded.

"Fuck yeah." I pulled her towards the doors. "Let's go find Keri. I need a drink and then I gotta set up the spell."

"I hope this works," she sighed.

"All we have to do is start it," I told her. "Once they start fighting, nobody's going to care about us anymore."

"Lucifer might not show," Uzi frowned, and angels had a cynical streak a mile long, especially the demonic ones.

"He'll show," I reassured her. "As soon as he hears that song…Hey!"

We'd been walking down a long, wide corridor, empty and ugly with cement walls painted piss yellow and harsh fluorescent lights overhead. They'd flickered momentarily and then gone out completely and it wasn't because a five year old was playing with the light switch. She sounded more like sixteen to me, or maybe a little older.

"What are you guys doing?" she asked with a playful giggle.

"Lilith," I breathed.

"Come on out, little sister," Uziel sang softly. "Don't be shy."

"Me?" the girl asked in a pouting voice. "You know me better than that. I just want to talk to you."

"Then talk fast," I told her. "We're kind of busy tonight."

"Are you gonna be nice?" she wondered and I opened my hand, revealing a small glowing ball of iridescent light.

"You can't hide your shadow," I smiled at the Demonic Angel of Lust, one of three children sired by Satan with the Angelic Virtues.

"Daddy wants to know what you're up to, Laz." Lilith walked of the darkness and the lights above came back to life. "Wow! Don't you look…yummy!"

She pressed her body against mine, rubbing her perfect tits across my nipples while Lilith's mouth hovered over mine. I felt a deep warmth inside, lust burning in the pit of my belly and I grabbed her ass when she finally kissed me. Lilly was as bad as Uziel, worse in some ways, and while the girl couldn't possess me completely, she could be a potent distraction. I pushed her away after half a minute, so that she giggled and turned to greet Uziel.

"Hey Lilly," Uzi gave her sister a cheek.

Lilith smiled and she looked like a high school cheerleader, with thick blonde hair and bright blue eyes, a perfect face and a body to kill for. The blue and gold outfit was a nice touch too. The pleated skirt and tight knit top with "EHS" emblazoned across her tits. I'd helped a couple kids summon her from hell and sometimes I almost wished I hadn't. Lilly was her daddy's favorite little girl and Lucifer's most trusted eyes and ears. Thankfully, all she wanted to do was play with her toys, the little girls she could corrupt into sluts and whores. A little army of them after some thirty years and I was sure they'd prove useful to her father soon enough.

"Too bad about Michael," Lilith smiled at me. "He was a pretty good fuck."

"If you're into that sort of thing," I shrugged. "What do you want?"

"Daddy just…" she held up her hands, "…wants to know what you're doing."

"That's all?" I gave her a doubtful look.

"Well…"

She moved around Uziel, sliding her hands across her sister's shoulders and down to Uzi's tits. Lilith hugged her from behind, pressing her face into a cloud of milk white hair and taking a deep breath.

"…He wants you to come home, Uzi." Lilith kissed her neck. "He misses you. Everyone does. You've been gone so long."

"She's free now," I said, watching as Uzi turned her head and the two angels shared a long, deep kiss.

"Hmmm…" Uzi licked her lips and smiled.

"He'll send someone to help her pack," Lilith said, looking at me. "Daddy just won't take no for answer, Laz."

"Tell him to come himself," I shrugged. "I'll fire up the barbecue."

"Lazarus!" Lilly rolled her eyes and laughed. "You're impossible!"

"I'm a miracle." I reached my hand out and Uzi slipped away from her sister with an apologetic smile. "Uzi is staying with me. Right?"

"Yeah," Uziel looked up at me and giggled. "Besides, I don't even have a suitcase."

"See?" I jerked my head. "Go do your homework or something. We gotta go."

"Don't say I didn't warn you, Laz!" Lilith called after us and I waved at her over my shoulder as we walked away.

"He'll send someone," Uziel sighed.

"Yeah," I nodded, pulling open a doorway marked Parking-D. "He already has. Lilith was just a distraction, giving him time."

"Oh!" Uziel gasped softly. "Don't you ever get tired of being right?"

"Lazarus," a deep voice seemed to rise from the concrete beneath us and echo off the walls.

The hulking figure standing alone in the center of the empty parking lot spread his arms and then his bat-like wings. He seemed to be inviting us, but the look on his face told us a different story. He had short, curling horns and ruddy flesh covered with bristling black hair. His eyes were molten gold and his teeth jagged and dripping venom like his barbed tail as it writhed in the air behind him. He had talons instead of fingers and cloven hooves instead of feet, bent goat legs and a huge, drooling cock hanging above a tight scrotum containing balls the size of coconuts.

"Baltazar," I gave him a wry smile. "I thought I banished you."

"You did!" he gnashed his teeth when he spoke. "Five hundred years ago. They let me out early for bad behavior."

"Hi B!" Uziel wiggled her fingers. "You look a little soft. Aren't you happy to see me?"

"Heh!" His laughter sounded like two freight trains colliding. "I'll do you later, Uzi. After I put a little payback in your girlfriend's ass."

The demon reached down to grasp his prick, giving it a long tug and a squeeze to make it throb eagerly. Uziel had fucked him before, I knew that, and it made me a little jealous. There's nothing worse than running into your girlfriend's old flames.

"Oh! That's never gonna fit," I chuckled. "I have a pretty small donkey. How about if we just…arm wrestle?"

"Laz!" Uziel giggled.

Baltazar had never been much for conversation and I was surprised he'd wanted to talk as much as he did. Probably because he hadn't been expecting Uziel to be with me, that changed the equation considerably and he knew it. I was grateful for the time anyway, because casting spells takes a moment or two. The correct pattern of thought, the rhythm, has to be found, like a sequence of images more than words, emotions more than thoughts, and vice versa of course. It isn't easy and…

"Watch out!" Uziel shoved me aside.

She was already transforming into her true self as a long javelin, barbed and dripping venom embedded itself in the steel door behind us. A second later it crumbled into dust, but I didn't stick around to admire the trick. Baltazar threw another and then another, pulling the short spears out of thin air and I ducked behind one of the pillar-like stanchions that were spaced evenly throughout the empty garage. Where the hell were all the cars? The only things down there were a bunch of semi-trailers, unhitched and unmarked, and probably used to cart the stage set and lighting rigs from city to city.

Uziel flew at the demon, with all the grace and beauty you'd expect from such a creature. Her eyes had become blood, not just the color, but rather they were pools of crimson without pupils. Long, white bones had grown from her shoulders, ripping through her new t-shirt as her leathery wings unfurled like shadows. From beneath her skirt a long, serpentine tail emerged, coiling itself like a whip ready to strike and the barbed tip ran with her own potent venom, blood red and eating away at the concrete where it fell with a soft, malicious hissing sound.

She brandished her own weapons as well, twin rapiers with needle points and razor sharp blades. Uziel used them together in elaborate, hypnotic, and lethal combination. They'd been forged in the fires of creation, as all such weapons were, and the angel would have no need of them against a mortal, but against the likes of Baltazar, they burned with the fire of true purpose.

Uzi deflected the demon's missiles easily, knocking them aside as she danced on the air around him. When she attacked, I missed it completely. I must have blinked, but she'd cut Baltazar four times across his chest and belly and even before the demon's black ichor began to flow, she'd taken him again, using her blades like scalpels to cut his left arm to shreds. Baltazar's flesh was laid open to the bone in several places, large veins had been severed and tendons as well so that his arm hung from the shoulder like meat on a hook.

He roared with pain and spun wildly, dragging a massive war hammer out of the ether and swinging the weapon with his one good arm. I'd been prepared to help, to cast spells and render the demon vulnerable, but there was little need of that. Uziel was the daughter of Lucifer and that alone gave her much power over lesser demons. She tormented Baltazar, the way a cat might play with a mouse. He'd swing his hammer at where she'd been, only to have his skin and muscle peeled away like an onion someplace else.

It might have seemed particularly cruel, but there was a reason behind Uziel's intent. She didn't kill him, but weakened the demon until he fell to his knees. There was no part of Baltazar which wasn't cut and bleeding. He could no longer stand or hold his weapon. He was beaten and it had taken all of a minute, perhaps two at the most before Uziel called for me.

"Send him home, Laz," she sighed, standing a few feet away and staring at the demon without malice.

I banished him to Sheol with one of the ancient Words of Power and Baltazar was too weak to resist or he surely would have.

"You should have killed him," I said as we left the garage and Uziel gave me a curious look.

"Only mortals do that…" she said and then shrugged, "…and those who were once mortal."

"Perhaps we have a greater appreciation for life."

"But not for death," she put her arm around me, looking once more like a fifteen year old girl. "Don't you think that's strange?"

"Blame God," I looked down at her. "Nobody appreciates a secret."

"Except those who keep it," Uziel agreed with a sigh.

 

        End