The Damned Saint Excerpt and New Cover Reveal

The Damned Saint Excerpt:

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Vapula made sure she made it out of hell, he watched Sophia leave, give up power, when she could have stated anything and took power. But he knows all too well, power corrupts. He turned when he felt a certain grace. One he hadn’t felt since he burned down Alexandria. “Raziel,” he greeted looking at the Cherubim next to him. Well, the angel’s human form, not his true form, which would be something as Raziel never liked his true form when he was in heaven. Vapula sometimes misses his true form from his days in heaven, he lost the ox and eagle heads, and his human and lion heads combined, and he was basically a man and lion hybrid with Griffin wings. He much preferred his human form and give the choice would never be out of it.

Raziel gave a smile, a true one, like he forgot he was mad at Vapula. “Darling! Long time no see, heard you were in hell the last decade. What for?” Raziel wasn’t about to state he was worried that Vapula had a mate down there. That he had a new lover. Raziel winced at his slight overreaction to Alexandria. He knew any action Vapula took against knowledge was something he didn’t take lightly.

“Harahel, damned a sainted soul,” Vapula drawled.

Raziel stumbled back in shock, “HE DID WHAT?! NO WAY!”

“Queen Sophia jumped in front of a heavenly blade to save me. She killed him too, used a blessed blade to a critical spot on his neck. Principalities, always so quick to smite.”

Raziel could only blink at him as he processed that a Principality damned a sainted soul. “Does that mean we have a new Queen of Hell?” He knew exactly what type of beings a sainted soul could become when broken, they just were normally broken by humanity and not Hell. He couldn’t imagine one broken by Hell.

“No. Barbosa couldn’t break her. Hell, none of the legions could. Lucifer couldn’t just release her soul because of the damnation set upon it. So…” Vapula shrugged, “we called Michael, and there was a council and it was decided upon that she will be a mortal immortal with conditions.”

Raziel didn’t really know what to think about it, and so decided not to think about it at all. Let Vapula worry, he is good at it. “Wanna go to Africa with me? I wanna study their tattoo methods.”

“Does that word exist yet?” Vapula asked as he straightened his suit and looked at Raziel like he longed to burn the jeans and tee he was wearing and put him in a suit.

Raziel just shrugged and gave him a shit eating grin, “You and I know it, so that is enough.”
“Yes, but we are beings of knowledge.”

Raziel just shrugged again, “I am sure there is some ‘evil’, you can do in Africa. I mean you did invent Polytheism. Come with me, Darling?”

Vapula pretended to be put out, “fine, honey, let’s go research these tribal markings. Perhaps I can learn their music, get some of their writings.” Vapula was half way happy that Raziel was going to forget their five-century long fight. And with a blink both beings were gone.

Mistakes, Love, Life Short Story Repost

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            I look down and see myself.  I am dying.  I know I am.  The doctors are trying to save me.  But I know they will not be able to, and that makes my soul grieve.  Not for me but for him.  My baby.  The only thing that made me clean up my life.  And for my soul mate, our son and her were the only reason I knew I had succeeded in staying clean.  So if I cleaned up, why am I laying dying on a table at the age of 32?  Well follow me as my life flashes through my life, and the answer will show itself.  My mistakes, my hopes, my dreams, and my losses brought me here and the journey was a wild ride.  Let’s start at the beginning.

            I was born on a very cold summer day.  It was raining, and I was brought home to a very cold house.  My mother didn’t really want a baby, but she wanted my father.  He wanted a child.  But he worked all the time, so I was left alone with my mother.  She ignored me.  So I went and learned things out on streets.  I only went to school because the city made me go.   I was smart, but I didn’t really want to be in school.  I was bored.  I couldn’t sit still.  I was running already with a bad crowd.  By the time I was in my early teens I was having sex, doing drugs, drinking, and doing a whole lot of things that I shouldn’t have been doing.  My father passed away when I was fourteen.  I ran from home.  I was not going to be stuck with my mother.  I ran to New York.

            Within weeks, I knew I had to do something, shoplifting and steeling was only getting me so far.  I was still on drugs, my drug of choice being cocaine, and it was expensive.   I met a woman one night she told me that as a teen I could make a lot of money as a hooker.  So I let her show me the ropes.  Soon I had my own apartment; I was making enough money to keep up bills, and to keep up my drug habit.  I met a man who ended up becoming my pimp.  But I thought he really cared for me.  I did what he said, gave him most of my money, and let him feed me even stronger drugs. 

            By the time I was twenty I had been working on the streets for six years and only the Goddess knows how I didn’t catch something.  But I wasn’t going to give it up.  It was party all night and sleep all day.  The fun seemed to never end.  The only part I didn’t like was the sex.  I never really felt attracted to men, and here I was sleeping with at least one man a night.  A lot of the time it would be more like three on a weekend night.  On the slow nights I would go down and strip at a strip club, where I would be able to meet more potential ‘clients’.  So I kept up this life, until one fateful night.

            I was at this huge house party, some of the other girls and I were ‘rented’ for the night by this frat house.  I was watching the party.  I looked and saw the girl who was everywhere never wanting to be alone.  I saw the girl who drank until she was numb.  I saw the drugs, which for so long had been my protection from the nature of the world I chose.    I knew that at the age of twenty three that the party was over.  But how did I live a life sober, away from the drugs.  I never graduated high school.  I had no skills.  How was I going to have a decent job?  I sighed and took a line of blow, and went to the room with another strange man, knowing that I had to break this circle.

            I woke up one morning, looked at the pile of money in my dresser.  I dumped it out and counted it.  Ten thousand dollars.  I had ten thousand dollars to start and new life.  I packed nothing; I grabbed some of my nicer clothes and grabbed a cab to the airport.  I bought a plane ticket on the first flight out.  I needed a new life.  A clean life.  I found a rehab center, and checked in under my real name.  I name I hadn’t used since I left my father’s funeral.  Within in two weeks there I found out I was pregnant and I knew I wouldn’t be able to give a name to the father.  I felt as if I already let down the unborn baby.  But I knew with a new life, I would really make an effort to keep clean.  And I was excited.  For once I had a real chance at a real life.

            After my six weeks at rehab the set me up in a halfway house, which helped me find a job, get my GED and really start a life.  By the time I was six months pregnant I had gotten my own place, and was taking night classes.  And for once I was happy, without the drugs, without the numbing effect the drugs gave me.  I didn’t need that party anymore.  That party ended and the silence no longer scared me.  It no longer spoke a truth I couldn’t hear.  I for once could look at myself and love myself.  I was going to be a mom, a better mom then I had.  I was going tell my baby the wrongs I did.  I was going to support my baby no matter what.  I was going to have a real life.

            My baby was born on a cold summer day, just like I was, on my twenty fourth birthday.  I was happy.  I got my birthday gift.  My gift from the Goddess.  I had found a faith that accepted me.  I had a good friend that helped me find myself, to discover who I really was, where I was meant to be.  And I was happy.  I started a new healthy relationship, with someone I never thought I would, with a woman, who was a doctor.  She knew my past; she knew everything and still loved me, she was my saving grace, my Krista.  And my baby, she loved him as much as I did, whom I named after her, I named him Chris.  Not Christopher.  Just Chris.  And we were a family. 

            My days went by quickly.  But they were good, I watched our son grow up, and I fell more in love with the woman who was there for me through all my choices I have made once I choose a new life.  I had just graduated with a degree in psychology and I wanted to help out as a therapist at the rehab center.  My own had helped me, and I wanted to help others.  We had planned a family vacation; we needed one after all the legal paperwork we had just done to make sure if anything happened to me, then Krista would get Chris.  I had to stay late at the rehab center, as I was an intern, and was going to meet them at them at the campground we had chosen.

            I had come home first to drop off some work stuff; and when I turned on the light there was a man with a gun pointed at me.  My past had found me.  I knew that one day he would find me.  I had made him a lot of money.   “How did you find me, Louis?”  I asked trying not to show my fear.

            “My darling, Darla, you didn’t think I wouldn’t find you?”  Louis asked in a voice so cold.

            “My name is not Darla, it is Rachel.  I have a new life.  You are not welcomed here.  Leave.”

            “Yes I see, a lovely woman, and a handsome son.  Will they really mourn the loss of a former slut?”  He asked in a sneer.

            “She knows my past.  She loves me no matter what.  Do you want money?”

            “No.”  Is all he said then he pointed the gun back at me and pulled the trigger.  “You took Darla’s life, so I will take yours.”  He stated as he walked through my blood.

            “Darla was never alive…”  I stated, but I knew I was going to die.  I don’t know who called the paramedics or the cops, but someone did.  I was aware of how they loaded my body, my soul crying, and I was begging the Goddess to let me live.  I wasn’t ready.

            “I don’t think she will make it…”  I heard someone say.

            “NOOOOO!!!!!”  I heard Krista cry out.  She was holding Chris, he was crying into her shoulder.

            I looked at them, wanting to tell them not to cry.  I was fighting.  I would fight as long as the Goddess let me.  I wanted to keep my focus on them, but soon I was in a room at the local hospital.  The doctors trying to do everything they could.  Tears in their eyes.  All friends wanting to save my life.   And again I begged the Goddess to let me stay with them.  To let me have this chance at peace on Earth.  I knew it might not happen but it didn’t stop me from fighting.

            “They got him.  He tried to board a plane.  He went down shooting.  He is dead.”  Someone yelled into the room.  “The man who tried to kill Rachel is dead.  How is she?”

            “Not good, but thank God for small favors.  The piece of scum should burn in hell.”  One of the doctors stated, his eyes never leaving my open wounds.  “My Lord please, Jesus please, Krista and Rachel deserve a chance.  They have been through so much in life.  They were happy.  Please Lord please let me save her.  My sister needs her.”  My brother-in-law, James, was working on me.  I knew it was against the rules, but I had to smile.  It made me fight harder. 

            I don’t know how long I fought, but I heard them close me up, I heard them saying that if I lived through the night it would be a good sign, but it was in heaven’s hands.  I heard James, tell Krista that I was a fighter.  That there was a good chance.  I heard Krista talk to him in a bunch of clinical terms.  Mostly she was afraid to say my name, because she knew my chances were less than one percent. 

            But I fought.  I counted their breaths as I fought.  As a begged, as I cried for my chance at a normal life not to be taken from me this early, I didn’t want Krista and Chris to feel this grief.  I knew what grief could do.  I didn’t want to think of the pain, but I knew that if I focused on the pain then I might get a chance.  Soon the cold I was feeling was going away.  I didn’t know why.  I thought the Goddess was taking me, and I was crying out, begging to say.  Then I felt a flash of pain and I screamed out.  I screamed out!  It woke Krista.

            “Rach, honey, can you hear me?” 

            I opened my eyes and smiled, through all the pain I smiled.  The Goddess wasn’t taking me; she was going to give me my wish.  “I love you.”

            “I love you.”  She stated bending down and giving me a kiss, the sweetest thing in the world was her kiss. 

I smiled and looked into her eyes and I knew that I was really going to get my chance.  I was really going to have a life to lead.  No matter the cost, no matter the pain, I knew life with my Krista and Chris would be worth it.  No matter the past, that no longer mattered, no matter the future, which was to worry about tomorrow, all that mattered at that moment was I was loved.  All that mattered was I was alive.  Nothing but the present mattered.  And I was going to seize the day, and fill it with nothing but love.  Every day for the rest of my life, I would work to stomp out hate, and replace it with love.  “I love you.”  I stated one more time and then I just held on to her as I thanked the Goddess for love, and prayed that everyone in the world was loved.  I closed my eyes, letting my body rest, knowing that our love was why I was alive.  I was alive because of love, and I smiled.

The Damned Saint Excerpt

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Yes, I am editing, not working on anything else, just The Damned Saint, then I will finish Praying and Insomnia Cafe, Promise.... And Elemental Mazes. I swear!

Thoughts of this scene? Feedback feeds my soul!

Mind Typos, I am on my phone and auto correct hates me.

Excerpt:

Raziel walked into the bakery that had opened up not far from his tattoo parlor. He stopped when he saw Sophia, for as close as she was to his husband, he had barley talked to her in the thousand plus years of knowing of her. But he had to smile as she was singing to Botis, who was wearing a lovely purple pink sundress and a Raspberry beret. The song she was singing was a cover of Raspberry Beret, the singer, he thought, had the name Dick, he wasn't sure though. Sophia was dancing and singing to the blushing Duke of Hell.

The popular part was finishing when Sophia changed the words "If it was warmer she wouldn't be wearing much more, that I would guarantee. Oh, Earth, I love her." She then grabbed the Duke of Hell and kissed her with all the pureness of her sainted soul. Even after 1455 years together, the love was still as blinding as ever, much like his love for Vapula, and he realized exactly why he never lost faith. It was because of scenes like this across the world, through the times, stories of love long since lost to the rotations of the sun.

Short story Idea: Feedback Request

So, I have a short story idea, here is the opening. Thoughts?

There is a time where all must die. All must be reborn and start anew. However, I never imagined I would see this ending.  I stand here choking on ash, I watch helplessly as the great tree Yggdrasil burns; and I remember what lead to me lighting the fire of rebirth.

NaNoWriMo 2019 Excerpt

The Damned Saint
Excerpt
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Raziel hoped it never came to it, it would tear at Vapula’s soul way too much, but sitting here while Vapula is being healed, he knew he would rage a war on Hell for him. He would FALL for him. Because even the purest of Angels couldn’t go through Hell, or what he has been through on Earth, and come out anything but burnt. 

Even the sainted soul that had been damned had become burnt by Hell and Humanity, she was darker, more closed off, colder (but towards Vapula and Botis, and wasn’t that a weird relationship? 

He had remembered when Vapula stated he had married them back in the seventh century after the birth of Jesus), and bore the mark of the Damned. No, not Cain’s Mark, but something other, something that put her on both Hell’s and Heaven’s do not touch list. 

She wasn’t Angelic, she wasn’t Demonic, she truly was of Earth and both. She went to Hell pure and came back a little less than what she was before. Oh, she still was a Saint, the fact she just spent three hours using potions and spells of Earth to heal Vapula after he got into a fight with an angel for Raziel proved that, but… 

She was a Fallen Saint, A Lapsed Saint. Much like Vapula was a Fallen Angel and Raziel was A Lapsed Angel. She was somewhere in the middle. And the middle was perfectly imperfect.

NaNoWriMo 2019 Except

The Damned Saint
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Excerpt:

Vapula was furious. How could SHE do this? This wasn’t even Hell, and they were responsible for a lot. He pulled away from Raziel. “Leave me be!”

“I can’t, not when it hurts your soul.” He whispered as he tried to pull him close.

Vapula pushed him away. “How can you say I have a soul? You have watched my soul die! How can you think I still have one? How do you think I care about anything? I FELL!”

Raziel grabbed his arms and stared him in the eyes, “I don’t know why you fell, you won’t fucking tell me. But I do know this, Vapula, you still have your soul, your grace, if you didn’t you wouldn’t be so pissed at this!” He looked down at him and Raziel knew one could see the Holy Fire in his eyes, but he didn’t care, he didn’t care what humans saw right now. All he cared about was the man in front of him. “And I know this, I still love you.” He kissed him then, for the first time since right before the Fall he pulled him close and claimed his mouth.

Vapula wanted to fight, but he couldn’t deny he still loved this angel, couldn’t deny the love he felt from the angel, and instead reached his own hands to grip Raziel’s hips. When Raziel finally pulled back and both of their eyes were glazed with love, Vapula took a moment to take a deep breath. “I love you. I have never stopped.”

Raziel nodded, “Now there is just the details of our wedding!” He let go and clapped his hands. “Now let’s get to healing.”

Vapula sputtered for a moment at the word wedding. But after a few blinks of his eyes, he cleared his throat. “Archangel Raphael is in the north, so we can take the east and south. I say we kill the rats.”

Raziel smirked at his Fallen, “sounds like a plan, Darling. Let’s get to work. Sooner this dark period is over the sooner I can stick my ring on your finger.” With a whoosh before Vapula could answer Raziel was gone.

The Damned Saint NaNoWriMo2019

The Damned Saint

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Excerpt:

Prolouge:

A demon, with burnt blonde hair and midnight blue eyes, stood looking at the ark. He stood in what would one day be called a suit. He was a being of knowledge and that allowed him foresight. A lot of it. And he adored his suits already. The midnight green shirt barely added any color to the black as a starless space suit. The tie held a silver pin, of his broken symbol. He tilted his head, how anybody thought God was all good had to be smoking better shit than he could get ahold of in Hell. He turned when felt an angelic grace he hadn’t felt since before the fall. Since The first thing at God opening Hell and this demon felt a burning. He smelt acid. Sulphur. Him and the others had crashed into the Sulphur pits created for hell. He crashed into a Sulphur pit at terminal velocity. And burned. Not since he had stood in front of this angel and told him he wasn’t fighting the war. Not since the very moment his existence became literally Hell, both on Earth and below. “Raziel,” he drawled out, the name tasting bittersweet on his tongue. “Come to finally smite me?”

     Raziel came to his side, letting his fingers brush against Vapula’s. One would think he was another demon, but this being was all angel. Even if he didn’t look it. He was thin, tall, and walked with a swagger. He wore skin tight torn black jeans, leather boots, a black tee, and a black leather jacket. He held a smirk on his lips, his hair was long and dark brown, with a nice tight beard to match. His eyes at first glance was nothing to exciting, brown. But when one looked it was like honey coffee. The deepest of browns. Coffee that had honey and chocolate mixed into it, with a bit of cream to lighten the deep strong richness of the black. “Nah, Vapula, decided heaven is a bag full of dicks. I just haven’t done anything Fall worthy. And I am supposed to oversee putting up the promise not to do this shite again.”

     Vapula should have guessed the man would choose what would become a Scottish accent He flicked his eyes towards Raziel but still looked out at the ark and Noah. “That used to be enough in the old days,” Vaupla responded, but didn’t move as he watched the children. “Is it rude of me to call our creator a monstrous bitch? And what are you putting up?”

     “And you wonder why you fell.” Raziel smirked, “My colors. She is calling it a Rainbow.”

     “I don’t wonder about anything, I know exactly why I fell, Raziel. I was born in holy water but forged in the fires of hell.  A rainbow? Really? Is that the color you finally decided on?”

     “You very well know I couldn’t choose one.” He clapped his hands to show a mini rainbow. “One day it will symbolize more than this promise not to drown anybody again. One day it will be a sign of solidarity. It will be a sign of love and pride. I may dress in black, but I adore the colors, they make up life. The virtues, and the sins.” He sent the rainbow back into non-existence and turned to Vaupla. “And why did you fall?” Nobody ever answered him, Heaven kept no record, and even the being of secrets he was, he didn’t know why this being of knowledge, his best friend, his everything, had fallen.

     “Ask another time, Darling,” Vapula drawled and turned away. “Now, I got work to do, and don’t you have some humans to drown?” With that Vapula sunk into the ground as the memories of their friendship and more assaulted him.  Especially, when it wasn’t something, he couldn’t have any longer. All because he had stabbed Michael to save Samuel.

Monster University Day 4: Raven

Raven

A Monster University Story

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                “Demons aren’t supposed to feel the virtues.  We can feel the Deadly Sins. My favorite has been lust. Sex is something in of itself. When I was warned to stay away from the Angel, of course I didn’t. I started going to the bar and talking with her. Flirting with her. When she moved and became a cadet at the police academy, I would make sure to run into her when she came to work random shifts at the bar. Or even when she came to the diner or bar to talk to Morgan and Jo. When I first realized my lust had skidded into the unmentionable virtue and I was going into a downward spiral of appreciation and… affection, I started to sleep with anybody and everybody. I was running from the feelings, of course, I am a Demon! I don’t… love… I went home with a different mortal each night, had se, made a deal, and then did t again to keep my thoughts off the Angel. And I did this until it didn’t work, and I started calling her name no matter the body I was with at the time. So, I started causing battles with her instead… Sometimes fighting could be just as good as sex…”

                Raven sat upon the bar stool at Jo’s, he had no real idea why he was here. I stopped picking up random mortals, the high just wasn’t there anymore. The Angel had destroyed him. He went from the model Demon to… to this excuse for an immortal Earl of Hell.  If his minions saw him now, they would revolt, rebel, they would re-something anyways. The Angel. That was why he sat at the bar with a beer and was depressed.  He sat watching her bring out her wings, it was past closing time and no mortals were in the bar. They were almost all gold, meaning she still tried to be a good little Angel. Sinning only when needed, a lie here, a lie there, about her past. Or stealing to live. There are grey’s too. Her sins she had chosen. Cursing is what she told Jo, but Raven wondered if any of them were lust. If she had given into any of the Deadly Sins. He got up and made his way towards the girls. Drunk enough now to be stupid enough to ask the question.  Frank and Lucas grabbed his arm. “Let me go.” He slurred out as he tried to continue that way. He had to ask HIS Angel a question.

                “You are drunk,” Lucas drawled. “Sit down.”

                “I gotta ask the angel a question!”

                “Why?” Frank didn’t really care, he was just trying to delay him from going over there and embarrassing himself. Anybody with even a half of brain can figure out the Demon fell once more, this time for a Fallen Angel that had the power to say no to Satan.

                “Because she makes me a worse demon than the one in the book she has fallen in love with!”

                “Which one is that?” Lucas sat back with his hands behind his head and smirked.

                “That one! Where the angel, who really revels in the deadly sins, and the demon hid the fact that he reveled in the virtues.  The pair she calls the ineffable husbands! That demon is a disgrace to demons!  Cares about kids, kind regards of what he says, in love with a blood sinning angel! And I gotta ask MY Angel a question! While I am drunk! Or I won’t be able to ask her!”

                Lucas let go, “well, go on, I am curious what question could make a demon nervous!” He laughed as he drained the rest of his beer.

                Frank looked like he wanted to protest, but he let Raven go; it would at least give them some entertainment while his mother and Bo were out spoiling his daughter.

                Raven stumbled over there. “Angel! Angel!”

                Alyssa looked at Raven and tilted her head. “What is it, Raum?” She still insisted on calling him by his real name.

                He smirked, “You want to keep calling me by my name, perhaps I should call you by yours, after all your signal is still branded upon the back of your neck.”

                “What is it you want, Raum?” Alyssa sighed, it wasn’t like anybody couldn’t look up who she was, it was obvious after all, her signal, as she kept her hair short.

                “Well, Anael, I was wondering, if any of your grey feathers are because you have had sex?”

                Alyssa spit out her drink. “What? No! And the feathers would be a deep rich royal blue if I gave into lust. Even if there is love behind it.

               

                Alyssa was growing flustered at the questions. She knew he was just picking another fight, and she didn’t feel like fixing up the bar, again. “Leave me alone, Raum.”

                Raven sneered and then jumped. “Come one, Anael, you think you are so much better than me! We are both FALLEN! We are both the same!” He threw here against the wall, it buckled under the force and broke the frames that were upon it.

                “WE ARE NOT THE SAME!” Alyssa screamed as she used her wings to push herself from the wall and push him back. Before she took to the air and used gravity to come down upon him with her full strength, pushing him through the floor.

                The fight was destroying the bar, Jo was a bit peeved, but it wasn’t anything that hadn’t happened before. Raven moved and finally got an amulet around her neck.  And with that it gave him the boost he needed, along with his connection to hell, to get her on the ground.

                “It is the eleventh hour, what will you do dear Angel?” Raven smirked as he held her throat in his fist.

                “Let me go, Raum!” She struggled to be let go. “Where did you get this amulet?”

                “At my eleventh hour, I had implemented plans A thru Z on how to get over you, I had gone into apocalypse mode and put all my avoidance skills to the test. But I can’t get you out of my mind or heart. If I can’t have you in a romantic way, I will have you thinking I am the enemy. After all, fighting can be as good as sex, when one wins dominance.”

                Alyssa used what strength she had, though it was being contained by the blood stone forged in hell, a blood stone that was once the soul of an angel made diamond, corrupted by hell, around her neck.  It was just enough to push him back, and his back hit window busting it, but not going through it.

                “If you want me come,” Alyssa panted out, it had been three hours of none stop battling and it was now the Devil’s hour. “Come and get me.” She stood but swayed.

                Raven paused and smirked, he rubbed the sweat and blood from his face and kept his hand upon his chin as if in thought. “Want you in what way, Angel? Don’t get me wrong, both involve ropes, but it is an important distinction to make before we proceed.”

                Alyssa blinked, “what on this forsaken Earth do you mean?”

                “Think about it a moment Angel, what else could I do while I had you tied down?”

                Alyssa’s eyes went wide, and she sputtered. ‘You think I mean sex?” She dropped the pool cue she had been using. “I can’t have sex! I am an Angel! It would mean giving in to the Deadly Sins!”

                Raven moved closer, “you are a Fallen, Angel. That means you can give into any sin you want. Including the Deadlies. I think you would look perfect with Royal Blue Wings. Only sin a deadly can’t over take is murder. A few black with the Royal Blues, maybe some Violet for that Pride of yours.” He was right up close to her, his own pool cue, long forgotten. “Come on Angel, join me in the Sins.” He unleashed his own wings.

                Alyssa gasped, she saw the Wrath Red, Lust Royal Blue, Sloth Sky Blue, Gluttony Orange, Greed Yellow, and Envious Green.  Al of them mixed black. It made her swallow. They were gorgeous.  She backed up and her back hit the wall.

                Raven smirked as he sauntered towards her and pined her between his arms. “See what they could become? Come join me, Angel.” He brushed his lips against her skin.  “You are a Fallen. You can do what you want. You are a free agent. You aren’t even bound by Hell, not like I am. So, join me, join our own side.” He smirked, he could quote her favorite book. “You ruined me you know.” He placed one hand on her hip. “I can’t even be a good demon. I am stuck in this look of that unmentionable virtue, a downward spiral of admiration and affection.”  He kissed her neck again. “Join me…” He kissed up her neck until his lips hovered over hers. “Join me in our second fall.”

                “Raum…”  Alyssa bit her lip. He was tempting her, so tempting to let him lead her down that rabbit hole.  “I… I was…” Alyssa swallowed, “I was always the purist of Angels. I fell for my love of humanity. I fell to save a human, because I loved them. I love these damned broken souls. If I give in, them that angel I was is truly gone. And never coming back.”

                “That is a good thing!” Raven placed his other hand on her hip and pulled her towards him.  “Do you want to be that angel that followed orders like a good little girl? Do you want to be the angel that stood by and watched as the beings you love were hurt, killed, tortured, or destroyed? Do you want to be her? Because I didn’t like her! I didn’t love her! I fell for the angel that is becoming a cop. I love the angel that is secretly getting justice and vengeance for those who hurt kids! The spells and the curses and leading our monster family towards them! I never in all the eons I have been alive, as an angel, or as the human that got tricked into making a deal with the devil, or as a demon, ever let myself feel the virtues. Then you skid into my life and destroy me! Not because you are an angel, not because you are GOOD,” he spat the word. “But because you have a set of standards, of rules, you live by! You FELL, because you couldn’t do it any longer. When I was an angel I fell because I didn’t want to choose a side! I became human because I didn’t choose a side, reborn loads of times, before I made a deal with Lucifer, and gave him my soul. I became a demon and remembered everything. You stand for something, I fell for anything because I didn’t. That is why when I fell the second time it was without noticing! It was without resistance! I fell Angel, and it is for who you are now, not who you were then, for this woman standing in front of me right now! With her anything but white wings! With wings that will go from this gold to a deep rich blue, to a deep rich black as you embrace the Fallen Angel of Justice and Vengeance you are! Don’t be afraid to embrace the change… because you are leaving the shallow end, you are leaving the sand, join me! Join me in the ocean of desire, join me on the mountain top of love. Join me Angel in this fall!” He then kissed her with all the lust, want, affection, appreciation, desire, and love he felt for her. When his lungs screamed for the air, he didn’t really need he pulled back. “Join me, Angel. My Earth Angel, join me.”

                Alyssa swallowed, she looked up into his eyes, through her lashes, her hands had found their way into his hair during the kiss. She took a breath. She never felt anything like she was feeling now. “Show me.” She straightened and with more confidence stated. “Show me how to Fall.” She stated as she pulled his head back down so she could run her lips over his, whispering, “show me how, Raum.”

                Raven pulled her closer and kissed her again and he flapped his wings and used his abilities to disappear from the bar, he felt her powers repair it.  He internally chuckled, his Angel would always have the streak of having to do what was right. And he would never change her core being, he just wanted to bring out who she truly was, and that was HIS Angel.

                He fell the first time because he was a coward who didn’t want to fight. As a human he made a deal he never should have, and had always regretted, especially after getting his memories back.  He no longer regrets it, for as a Demon he finally found his completion, in a Fallen Angel who, was just enough of a saint to hide among the humanity she fell to protect. No, he would never regret his choices, because this second fall, was worth every pain and moment of hell he had ever gone through. For he fell to meet his Angel.

               

               

               

Monster Univeristy Day 3: Drake and The Brides

Drake and The Brides
Monster University
All Rights Reserved

            “I remember the day I was cursed, or should I say the day I realized I was cursed. It was in my blood. My grandfather had evolved into an Incubus. And as soon as I choose my mates, I will as well. Of course, my grandfather was unaware of my existence. The key word is was, much like I was unaware of his. Now he barges into my life, and he expected me to give up the guilt, to embrace this curse, to give up my last bit of humanity.  He wanted me to accept the power of the family blood stone. I looked at the scepter he had handed me, I had listened to my grandfather go on and on and on and on about our family destiny.
            I had to stop and think. Was I ever really human? I mean, at one point I had my brides, and I was the basis for Stroker’s blood book.
            Then my grandfather says it is a curse, a curse given to me by Van Helsing. He then comes and gives me the cure.
            I felt the power, I feel my power unleashed, the curse breaking. Now I look at the blood stone daily and now I feed it. And I remember why I was once feared. Now if I only had my brides…”
            Drake smirked as he left the dorm building, since his grandfather cured him, he had become himself once more. Blood thirsty, powerful, a true Dracul! But he still felt empty. Always empty. Ever since Van Helsing, that bastard, killed his brides. Making a vampire, an eternal friend or slave, was easy. But a bride? A bride had a special place in a vampire’s slash budding Incubus’ heart and undead soul.
            Of course, before he gained his first brides, he was a war hungry monster, he used that to fill the void he felt in his cursed soul. The blood, never satisfying fully, but keeping him sane. Maybe he should join the military again. War and world travel… Now that sounds like his type of life. It wouldn’t be the first time he joined the military and jumped head first into a war. He even was ‘killed’ in action during World War II.
            He was thinking and walking back to his apartment when he bumped into someone. “Oh! Excuse me.” He stated in his ‘I am so charming, follow me to your death’ voice. He looked at who he bumped into, it was a short woman, finely developed, and with long mahogany hair up in a tight bun. Her eyes were weird mix of dark brown and red, the color of chocolate mixed with blood.
            “No! I am sorry! I wasn’t paying attention.” She smiled as she held up a book to show him, she was reading. “I have a paper to do for my Romantic Classics class.”
            Drake looked at the book and laughed. “Romantic? Dracula?”
            The woman blushed. “Dracula is romantic. Look at what he would do for Mina. He had to truly love her to go through all that and then to die.”
            Drake internally winced. Mina and Lucy, his lovely brides, they were each other’s sister in all but blood and, more importantly, the first loves of his existence. Only loves, he never looked for new brides, just one-night stands with people on their last night of their lives. He kept praying for their rebirth. “I will give you he did adore Mina and Lucy.” He answered her, Van Helsing couldn’t kill him; so, he cursed him. And Van Helsing had killed Lucy and Mina. “And Van Helsing was the true monster of that book.”
            She smiled. “My name is Florence. My friend, Lenore, and I believe the same! We are both doing a paper on it. She is like my sister in but blood, we always connected.” She was excited to meet someone who thought the same as she and her friend.
            “Drake. Well, I happen to have a degree in English Lit, want me to help you and your friend?” Something about this pretty girl drew him in like a moth to a flame. Perhaps she would make a fine first bride. He did truly need brides. And nothing said he had to love them, be faithful to them. Just he would need their blood and energy, and well them to give him sex when he couldn’t find a willing victim.
            Florence beamed at him. “That would be amazing!” She stated. “Are you busy now? I am on my way to meet Lenore!”
            Drake smiled. He had been on his way to pay Tony for his work in the dorm, but eh, Tony can wait. “I was just out walking. I would be happy to help the two of you!” He smiled and took her arm into his. “So, Florence, what is your major?”
            “Pre-law. I want to be a lawyer.” Florence went on to babble her many reasons why. Drake oh’d and ah’d in the right places. The more she spoke though the more she was reminding him of Mina. There was a simple way to see if they were in fact reborn. A potion. And he just so happened to have some.
            Finally, they got back to the dorms, and Drake gave a smirk and nod to Tony who was just leaving. Tony lifted an eyebrow, but Drake shook his head slightly. They made the way to the dorm room Florence and Lenore were sharing. “Flo!” Lenore greeted when the door opened. “Who is this?”
            “This is Drake! He has a degree in English Lit and offered to help us with our papers on how Van Helsing is the bad guy and Dracula was the hero, who tragically died when Van Helsing killed his true loves.”
            Lenore tilted her head her blonde hair fell in her face. “Sure! I can use all the help I can get!” She laughed, as she pulled out the book.
            Drake spent the next few hours going over the lies within the book. “Come on! Mina would have wasted away and become a shell of herself! She was what they called a New Woman! Lucy boarded it, but she would go back into her shell when she was mortal. When she was a vampire, she shined. She became the woman she should have been and not the shell of a living creature she was as a human.” Drake explained. “Being a vampire liberated her from becoming nothing but a piece of arm candy. As one of Dracula’s Brides she became a Queen! Her and Mina were unstoppable, they had a thirst for life that made Vlad very much proud they were part of the Dracul clan!” Drake started talking with his hands and stood up and paced as he continued his rant. “And Van Helsing was a monster! He wanted them to be weak unthinking mortals! He hated Dracula for the sole purpose that he made both Lucy and Mina his brides. Van Helsing was a monster, from abusing his own child to someone who hunted down those who were different than what was ‘normal’ at the time. He once killed a young man just because he didn’t prefer the company of women!”
            Florence and Lenore were writing this all down. They fully agreed and they got into the conversation tearing the book apart. Lenore taking the side of Lucy, reminding Drake of Lucy. “I can see why when mortal Lucy would fall back to those standards, even if she had free thinking ideas, she hides them. She tries to be what her mother wants. I get that. I mean my parents pay for this,” she waves her hand around. “So, my major is what they want it to be. They expect me to find a politics driven man and marry him. So, I get it. I really do. But where as I don’t have an out, Dracula gave Lucy the out she needed and wanted. I think that is why she was able to be changed to begin with, why Mina was able to be changed, it is because they wanted that freedom. It wasn’t that they were tying themselves to Dracula, he truly loved them, he was as tied to them as they were him.” She sighed. “Wouldn’t it have been amazing to be Lucy and Mina? They had a god love them, kill for them, adore them, give them freedom.”
            Florence nodded, “I agree. I don’t see how Mina ever agreed to marry someone else. She could have been a woman of power. She was smart and under that needy and submissive mask was a woman who knew herself and what she wanted. That is why when we see Vampire Mina, it shows her true self the one hidden under her brainwashing that she be the perfect Victorian wife.  Mina was judgmental towards her friend, Lucy, outwardly, but internally, I know she admired her.”
            Drake nodded, “After Mina became a vampire, we can see that, Lucy and here were much alike, sisters. Being mortal changed the girls to standards that were biased, sexist, and frankly disgusting. Dracula made them Queens. To rule AT his side, not behind him, not be submissive to him. For he couldn’t truly exist without them, and they couldn’t truly live without him.” He looked at the time. “Well, look at the time Darlings! I have got to get going. How about you both come over to my place, a friend of mine is always throwing parties. We can talk about some more classics, and tear into them and their disgusting views on women.” He smiled as he held out a paper with his address.
            Both girls smiled and nodded, both hugging him as he walked out of the dorm. As he walked back to his apartment, he was sure his brides had been reborn. And once it was proven, he would change them once more. And may whatever power out there have mercy on the soul of anybody who thought to take them from him again, because he wouldn’t have any.
            Three days later both Florence and Lenore found themselves in a study. Their eyes were wide as they took in the ancient books, trinkets, and everything else under the sun. Many hundreds of years old.  “I see you both seem enamored by my collection.” Drake drawled as he walked into the room. He was wearing a red silk shirt and black pants. He had always favored reds and blacks. Only this time while meeting them he has left his fangs elongated. For tonight he would either have his brides or he would have a feast. For tonight's party had a dozen girls only, the reason being if he made his brides the girls would become their dinner in three days. And he would have to feed them nutrients and potions to prevent their turning as his brides feed upon them. But first they had to drink the potion. If his brides they would regain all their memories. If not, nothing would happen, but as he drained them the blood would be a little sweeter.
          “It is an amazing collection. I could spend an eternity reading these books.” Florence stated as she placed a book back on the desk.
          Lenore smiled, “it is amazing. You must be so well traveled. I wish I could spend a lifetime traveling.”
          Drake smiled showing his fangs, he handed them both a glass of wine containing the potion.  “Then you both shall, get your dreams one day.”
          The girls took the wine and both to nice healthy drinks, after all college students drink quick and fast anything given to them. It is why the Monster Clan has almost always chosen college towns to temporarily settle in. He watched them both. He wasn’t sure if he was praying or begging whoever’s was in charge of the fates, but he was doing something, hoping they were his brides reincarnated.
         At first it looked like nothing happened. Drake's non-beating heart started to drop, when he looked up at two gasps and the dropping and shattering of the two wine glasses. He looked at their blown eyes and held the breathe he didn’t need. And waited.
          Lenore, no she was Lucy, looked at Mina. “Mina?” She whispered, afraid she had lost her mind to their obsession with Dracula.
          Florence, no Mina, looked at her and smiled. It all made sense. Their obsession. The way they just knew Van Helsing was the bad guy. “Lucy, it all makes so much sense. We are alive again.” They smiled and both turned to Drake.
         “My Brides?”
         “Husband,” they stated with love and affection. “Change us back to what we were born to be.” They both demanded of him as they dropped their dresses to the floor. “Claim us once more.”
          “With pleasure.” Drake purred as he pulled them to him. “My precious, beautiful, gorgeous, perfect, Brides.”
         Four days later Drake had a smirk on his face as he called a number. “Hey, Tony, bulk discount? I got 12 some of which Gus may like.”
         Tony sighed at his desk. “Make sure you and those brides of yours don’t hunt to much in tton.”
         “Never, Tones, Never. After all, we like it here!” Hanging up leaving the sound of three people laughing in Tony's ears. It was the start of a glorious new chapter. And best of all, not fucking Van Helsing to try and end it all! He looked to his brides and raised the wine glass of blood. “To new beginnings and second chances.”
         “To Dracula and his Brides!” Mina and Lucy laughed, as they drained their goblets of blood. “May our reign never be disrupted again!”
          Drake laughed as he drained his goblet , “Long Live The Dracul Clan!”

Monster University Day 2: Draco and Flora

Draco & Flora

A Monster University Story

All Rights Reserved

            ‘Walking into Griffin sleeping with that woman hurt me. I may have been a bit rash in my curse. However, I didn’t anticipate it curing myself as well. The last hundred plus years we have been living in this cycle of living for twenty years and then reborn and murdered. But for some reason I can never forgive him. He tells me every time he was being disowned to marry me. That he was drunk and thought it was me. So why do I always use him? Abuse him? Curse him? Never forgive him? Why never forgive him and free us both? Why can’t we stop this cycle of reincarnation and murder? He spends the first five years of my new life as a damn ugly bird and I am spoiled and loved. And then as I continue to grow up he lives his life. But he always lives with the fact I cursed him and he killed me. Maybe this time will be different… Then again most likely not. How is it we can’t walk away from each other? After all we are soulless monsters, and how can someone without a soul love?’

            “Flora…” The name fell off Draco’s lips in a sigh. It was 2021 and he had the next thirteen years to live his life, then two years to win the woman who cursed him. Why did he still love her so? He found her diary this time. He always thought that she got her memories when he told her. But this diary he found in her old things, that Bo had collected for him, proved she always knew. Always. He felt a fury boil in his blood. He took a deep breath. She was six. She was six. He had to keep telling himself. And he may be a monster but he didn’t hurt kids. Even a witch. He took another breath. Nothing he could do. He sighed. They were still in Grand Rapids Prairie, Bo and Beth had adopted a pair of twins four years ago. Frank and Lucas still were connected at the hip as they raised Frank’s daughter Sophie, who was now five, oddly enough she had been born of werewolf so Lucas had taken her in as pack heiress. Sam, even had a gal now. SAM! A brain eating zombie! Maybe it was time to move on. Take the fact he would be a bird for five years then he could live his life for fifteen years. It was time to move on once and for all. He felt a flash of cold as he thought those words.

            Flora looked up from the book her new parents had given her. A shiver went down her back. What was that? Did it have something to do with Draco? He would be human once more. She frowned. She moved over to the phone and rank Bo’s number. “Bo?”

            “Flora. Are you going to drop this con you don’t remember from the moment you turn five?” Bo drawled over the phone.

            Flora sighed. “I felt something. Draco, he is… He is still among us, yes?”

            Bo sighed. “Yes, Flora. He just had me set him up as a student, he is going to finish his degree and do something for these fifteen years. I think you felt his final acceptance of your curse.”

            “He is moving on?” Something in her voice broke.

            “I believe so. He is actually dating.”

            Flora slammed down the phone. “Screw this.” She moved quickly to her room. “A quick potion and I will be aged to twenty. I will confront him. He wasn’t ever supposed to give into his punishment! He wasn’t supposed to move on! He is mine!” She screamed as she gathered everything and with a quick slit of the throats of her ‘parents’ she disappeared.

            Draco was actually trying to pay attention in his class, but was just so bored. He was three hundred thirty five years old. He was friends with Vincent Van Gogh! He partied with some of the best musicians. He was a hit Musician! He sighed, he missed the eighties and classic rock, and for sure being able to tour with a band. Hell, he missed the swinging twenties! He missed the hippies, the rebels! He let out a loud sigh; he just missed the past period. But he was moving on, he had to for his own sanity. He couldn’t love Flora anymore. It was toxic. He couldn’t hold on to the only one he ever loved. He may have had his fair share of sex, but only Flora ever held his heart. Even a soulless being like him could feel love. After all he was once a mortal with a soul. He sighed again.

            A girl next to him smiled. “You seemed bored.”

            “have done all this before.” He waved his hand toward the professor. “The class just didn’t’ transfer.” Draco smoothly lied. He looked at her. The opposite of Flora, Tall, blonde, blue-eyed. “Draco.” He held out a hand.

            She smiled and took his hand. “Jane.”

            “Pleased to meet you, Jane. Want to go and get a coffee?” He gave her a charming smile.

            Later that night Draco stood outside on the deck, smoking a cigarette, looking out into the dark, focusing on nothing. Jane was naked and sprawled out in his bed. He took another drag when he heard her voice.

            “Well, Griffin, at least your taste hasn’t approved.” She drawled.

            “Flora.” He flicked his cigarette away.

            “Not shocked?” She frowned.

            “You messed up. I got one of your dairies. You remember and can age yourself, it seems.”

            Flora smiled. “I felt you accept the curse. I felt you give up.”

            “You don’t love me, Flora.” He offered her a smoke.

            She took the cigarette. “I do. I loved you so much as to give up my soul to curse you!” She lite the smoke and conjured a seat. “I do still love you.”

            “Then why this/” Draco asked as he knelt in front of her. “Why do this to both of us? We are monsters, yes, no denying that fact, but we were once mortal, we do love. What is in the remnants of our souls, those pieces of soul still inside of us, they allow us to love. We could be together Flora. Forever. All you have to do is cancel the curse.”

            Flora broke down. “Then you would become mortal again!” She cried out.

            Draco took her hands. “There are many ways to stop that. You are the strongest witch I know. There is a way to modify the curse so I ain’t a damn bird for five years.”

            Flora looked at him. “I don’t know, Griffin. I barely know what I did to curse us to begin with all those centuries ago.”

            Draco looked at her. “How about this? You remove the curse and then curse me with immortality?”

            Flora frowned and winkled her nose. “That could work, but the timing would have to be perfect and we would need a blood sacrifice.”

            Draco looked into his bedroom where his naked conquest laid. “What about her?” He nodded his head toward Jane.

            Flora sneered towards the naked blonde. ‘She will work as the catalyst to release you from your curse. We need another to curse you again.”

            Draco nodded. “Give me two hours; there is Jo’s bar she can help get another sacrifice. I work there as a bartender to give the illusion of being a poor college kid. And the free whiskey is always good.”

            Flora rolled her eyes. “You always did like your drink, Griffin.”

            “Draco. I have to go by Draco, for now.”

            “Fine. I will try and remember. Now go get me a blood sacrifice.” She took his head in her hands and kissed him for the first time since she cursed him over three centuries prior.

            Draco broke the kiss. He went and moved into the room, and put on a shirt, pants, and shoes, he kissed her head and left.

            Flora sneered at the naked woman. “That bed will have to be burnt with the slut.” She sneered at the body, using a spell to keep the woman asleep.

            Draco got to the bar. “Jo, there any expendables around?”

            Jo raised an eyebrow but tilted her head toward a group of drunken sorority girls. Draco nodded his thanks and slide over to them with a few pitchers of beer.

            An hour later he had two girls on his arms and headed back toward his apartment. The curse would soon be over, and he would finally have Flora back in his heart.

            Flora had the alter set up with the black and red candles, the woman was naked and awake, trying to get free. He walked in then; Flora rolled her eyes as she knocked the two sluts out with a spell. “Two?”

            “Eh, can’t say no to twins.” He smirked.

            Flora hit him over the head with a piece of parchment. “Clean off. It is time to do this. Lay under the alter after you tie the other two up.”

            “Yes Mistress!” Draco mock saluted. He striped the women and tied them down and then laid under the alter.

            Flora moved over to them and started to chant, a reversal spell, as she cut the throat of Jane. The blood ran down the alter, mixing with the spices and herbs she had laid out with the candles, mixing with the wax, and ran down and over Draco, as the blood washed away the curse he became visible once more. He gasped as he felt the curse lift, as heat spread through his body. He felt his mortal heart start beating once more! He gasped and gulped the air into his now living lungs.

            Flora saw this and changed her chant into a new curse, and slit the throats of the twins, allowing their life blood to flow and run down over Draco and into his mouth, giving to him the magic and life of their souls.

            Draco had no choice but to swallow the blood, to accept their life force, to accept the curse given to him, he felt as the curse changed, as his heart slowed once more, as his soul once more became tattered remains of a mortal soul. But as he flicked between visibility and invisibility he felt the ability to control this curse. Allowing him to never be a bird again. Allow him, most important of all, to be immortal. He laid there as the blood soaked into his very being, he allowed it to disappear into his body.

            He only stood once he felt no more blood. He smirked and grabbed Flora to him and kissed her hard. “Marry me, my flower.” He demanded.

            “Of course, my Griffin.” She kissed him and dragged him into the guest bedroom.

            The next morning Draco stood on the deck in a robe, smoking a cigarette, calling Tony as Flora took the master bedroom’s bed and burned it out back. He smiled as he rolled her eyes at her obvious glee to cast the bodies and bed on fire. But he was happy.

            Extremely happy. Today started a new chapter in his undead life. The best chapters he had a feeling. He reached up and wiped a drop of blood off his cheek, he sucked it off his finger. He smirked, yes, a new undead life, with the love of his life…