She sits quietly in the dark. Her anger is a palpable rage that seethes across the room becoming a great tidal wave that crashes against the locked door. Her eyes focus unseeing on the wall before her but her senses stretch beyond the door and feel all of those walking around the house.

She unfurls her legs and stands throwing herself against the door fruitlessly once again releasing a howl of inhuman rage and unknown horror that echoes through the underground chambers. She hates them all, they keep her confined, they deny her the freedom she longs for and separate her from the one person she wants so desperately to be with.

Gabriel. He's up there somewhere. She can feel him. She can hear him breath even through the steel and concrete of all the levels of her prison. She can smell his skin, taste him still on her lips, and with every second of every day she longs for him. They cannot keep her here forever. She will not rest until she is free.

------------------------------------------------

"What are we going to do with her?" Icarus looked around the table at his fellow elder vampires. "It's been almost a year since she drained the demon and Gabriel. Our prison will only suffice for so long."

"Our solution seems to be working so far, why should we change our stand at all on her?" Malfus folded his hands before him.

"How long do you expect it to hold? Even without feeding her strength grows, slowly, but it grows. You know as well as I that she will gain enough power to tear through that cell and this house like butter and free herself." Icarus looked around the table.

"Gabriel needs to be moved to another holding facility. Holding him here is unwise, as he is no longer anything but a mere vampire we can contain him more thoroughly than we can hope to contain her. She will get loose, it's only a matter of time."

------------------------------------------------

Gabriel groaned as he was shifted roughly. The hood over his head made it impossible to see where they were taking him. He felt like the inside of his head would explode as the side effects of the constant drugging took it's toll. He groaned and slumped against the hard wall of the vehicle he had been placed into. He felt the needle puncture his neck and remembered no more.

------------------------------------------------

Eve raised her head and scented the air. He was being moved. She screamed and threw herself against the ceiling, mortar cracked and stone creaked and crumbled releasing a powder of dust and debris but her cell remained in tact. She battered herself against the walls and ceiling until she could no longer hear Gabriel being shuffled through the house. She heard the doors of the vehicle slam and it sped away.

Eve sank down on the floor next to her pallet and groaned softly, she rocked back and forth in anger. She felt her insides clench as rage filled her so completely she couldn't think straight. She wanted her freedom, she wanted out of this cell, and she wanted him back. There was little hope that she could break out now, she loathed them all and silently cursed them all.

"Such a sad sight." The high demon slid through the worlds effortlessly. "To have seen you so mighty the night you were reborn and now to see you so low."

"You would be wise to leave demon, I have no time for you and my hunger is great." Eve whispered softly.

"So battered you look, sitting there dirty, unkept, with your wings folded denied the sky." The demon smelled of brimstone and blood. "What I wonder, would you do for your freedom?"

Eve looked at the demon finally and pulled her lips back from her extraordinarily long sharp fangs. "What indeed."

------------------------------------------------

Eve cast aside yet another drained demon. The lesser demons provided a slow, steady increase in her power and energy as she drained them dry. She snarled softly and sank her fangs into the next demon in line, drawing his blood out as fast as she could swallow. Time was on her side, she fed insatiably on the inexhaustible supply of victims sent to her.

------------------------------------------------

Eve felt feral. She was consumed by the power of the demons she had drained and she was overwhelmed by her own hatred of all of those responsible for her confinement. She closed her eyes and pulled slowly on her energy reserves, the power flowed into her center and focused.

The demon blood screamed in her veins accelerating to a fevered pitch and she let loose a roar of fury leaping into the air. She crashed through the concrete, steel, and mortar smashing her way through all of the walls of her prison and into the main foyer of the house of Black.

She stretched her four wings to their full length of a little over thirty feet shaking the dust and debris from them as she looked around the foyer at the vampires cowering in fear. Eve opened her wings and hissed at the elder vampires standing at the bottom of the stairs. She met their unwavering stares with her own challenge.

"Eve of the house of Black." Icarus growled at her. "Know your place, you are a vampire in the house of Black and sworn to protect, uphold, and adhere to the faith sworn down by the demi-gods themselves."

"The demi-gods are DEAD." Eve spat. "I took the power of the last, and I alone have excelled beyond the vampire race. I offered you total loyalty and my unwavering service since the day I died. And HOW do you reward me? Me, who was dragged into the shadow realms between worlds and nearly killed by a higher demon?"

"And what of it Eve?" Icarus smirked. "What do you think we owe you, you'd STILL be dead if we hadn't sent Gabriel to drain you dry!"

"Gabriel." Eve hissed. She darted across the room and slammed Icarus against the wall, her hand around his throat. "Where is Gabriel?"

Icarus smirked. "Somewhere you will never find him."

Eve tore out Icarus' throat and drained the elder vampires' blood dry. She raged through the house of Black killing or maiming every vampire she came across. As the first rays of sun crossed the lawns of the house of Black they found buckets of blood splashed across the foyers, walls, lawns, and rooms.

Eve sat atop the roof of the tower in the west corner of the mansion, her wings folded around her blood splattered body, her back turned on the sun and it's warmth.

Eve stared at the lake behind the mansion and let her mind wander back to the night that changed her life. Eve was tired her body was trembling on its way down from a euphoric high of power and rage.

She stood slowly and leapt down to the ground; she walked into the house and made her way upstairs to her old bedroom. She stretched out on her bed and closed her eyes trying to block her thoughts and the repercussions of what she had done. She felt the weight on the bed, felt the slide of a hand running up her thigh and along her hip and she shuddered deep inside.

"So beautiful." The high demon purred against the back of her neck. "Covered in blood, reeking of death, and racked with guilt."

"Go away." Eve sighed.

"You have no right and no authority to order me to do anything my pet." The demon grinned and bit the back of her neck. "You belong to me now and I tend to take full advantage of that, in all aspects. Get some rest, I will return for you tonight."

Eve sighed and squeezed her eyes tight. What have I done, Gabriel where are you now?

------------------------------------------------

Gabriel sighed leaning against the cool walls of his prison. His fangs ached dully with the inevitable need to feed. He lifted his arm and turned his wrist upward. He closed his eyes and sank his fangs into his vein, feeding on his own blood for several minutes until he passed out from the pull of his own blood flowing backward in his veins.

------------------------------------------------

"Wake up Eve." The demon ran his long fingers through her hair. "We have much to do this night."

Eve sighed and got up from her bed; dried blood flaked off her skin and clothes. She glared at the demon but offered no resistance. Her skin crawled as he pulled her into his embrace and slid his long spaded tail around her waist tightening it until she flinched.

He slid the end of his tail between her thighs and stroked along her crotch. With a flick of his wrist he cut a whole through dimensions and pulled Eve into the demon world.

Even the shadow realms had not prepared her for the true horror of the demon realm. The smell of rotting flesh, death, and blood was choking. Half eaten corpses of humans, vampires, and demons alike lay strewn across rocks and piked up on inverted crosses.

The sky was blood red scoured with dark menacing clouds that spouted lighting that carried the scent of brimstone. Every outcropping and edifice oozed oily black liquid that bubbled and popped like hot tar. In the far distance a towering spire shot straight up to unimaginable heights, piercing the black clouds and casting a terrible shadow over the landscape.

"Welcome home my goddess." The demon purred. "You can only keep what you kill here, and today you kill in my name, Baal demon king."

"You overestimate yourself." Eve hissed.

"No Eve, eventually you will come to realize that all the Gods of heaven and all the Gods of hell are constantly at war. That the demon kings and the sovereign angels make their plays to seize and maintain power."

"There is only one God and he condemns us both."

"Still so naïve. Come we have work to do."

Baal tugged Eve roughly and dragged her away from the spire that cut the landscape. He pulled her down a hillside and into a ragged gulley that cut it's way down and widened as it went deeper. She stumbled and hissed flexing her great wings in agitation as he dragged her down into the earth.

If even possible the stench grew worse, becoming so thick it made her lungs burn and feel like they would turn inside out in an effort to force out the smell. Eve glared at the wide scarred back of the demon dragging her into the depths of hell and she cursed him with her every breath.

The blackness engulfed her slowly until she saw nothing and only felt the menacing grip on the demon on her wrist and the jagged rock of the earth under her feet. She stumbled and finally fell to her knees feeling her arm wrenched in its socket as Baal yanked her forward. He cursed in a foul torrent of demon speak and wheeled on her, grabbing her by her hair and yanking her to her feet with a violent jerk.

"You test my patience Eve!" He roared.

"I can't see you bastard, what do you expect me to do wait until I fall into a pit!"

"Worthless spawn of a vampire." Baal cursed. He yanked her onto her feet and tugged her tight against his chest. "I warn you, take not more than a mouthful."

Baal opened his neck with one of his dark talons letting his blood trickle down his throat. Eve moaned as the smell of fresh demon blood entered her nostrils, she wrapped her arms around his neck and licked the blood from his neck. The salty power filled tang of the blood gave her a heady rush of power and an instant shock of adrenaline and desire down her spine.

Her fangs ached and her instincts screamed for a kill but suicide was not her wish for the day. She sucked at the cut on his neck drawing the blood into her mouth in a greedy gulping mouthful. Baal shoved her backward as he covered his wound waiting for it to heal.

Eve's eyes adjusted almost instantly, the world became sharp, filled with obscene color. The outline of the demon before her pulsed with a dark outline radiating power and terror. She could see ever detail with stunning clarity and precision, she found she could focus on items far away and bring them forward and draw out every detail.

She grinned, her long fangs slid out past her lips and she savored their sharpness on her skin. Baal grasped her arm and dragged her to her feet, continuing to drag her into the bowels of hell.

Baal stopped behind a large rock outcropping. Light spilled from around the corner of the outcropping and the sound of loud breathing could be heard clearly. Eve stepped toward the light and was snatched back almost instantly by Baal.

"Fool." He hissed. "Wake him and you will have no chance at all."

She looked at the demon. "You're afraid."

Baal smirked. "Even in hell there is always something bigger and badder than oneself Eve." He grinned. "And by plot or might a demon may move up in the world, as it is."

"I see." Eve narrowed her eyes at the demon. "And I'm guessing this would fall under the plotting category."

"But of course." Baal released her arm. "You will wound the beast, drain him to the brink of death, and I will finish him off and gain his power and place in the underworld."

"Easier said than done I imagine."

Eve crept to the edge of the stone outcropping and slowly peered around into the chamber beyond. She almost instantly wished she had not. The demon appeared to be a morbid mixture of reptile and some human. The proportion of him was unlike anything she'd seen, stretched out on his back he had to have measured forty or fifty feet from head to toe.

His body was corded in gargantuan muscle, his long serpentine tail ended in a series of sharp spines much like an ancient stegosaurus, he had long horns that protruded from his head and curved backward like an impalas', and a long forked tail and snakelike face finished off the ensemble. The demon slept on a pile of bones and half devoured corpses.

Eve slipped around the corner of the rock outcropping and made her way quietly toward the sleeping demon. The feathers on her wings bristled and shook slightly as she crept toward the demon trying to formulate some plan of attack she felt might succeed against such a large quarry.

She paused and crouched down behind a stalagmite, hiding as best as she could with the towering wings she carried behind her. There was always a rush of adrenaline before a fight and this was no different, if she was to have a hope of winning she needed surprise on her side, but even with it she could expect nothing less than a hard fight on her hands.

She examined the layout of the cave with a critical eye and slowly stepped out and proceeded to the base of the pile of bodies the demon slept upon. She stood to her full height slowly and stretched her wings out behind her preparing to leap for his throat.

There was a loud crash from behind her just as she leapt into the air for the sleeping demon. At once the demon came awake and focused on Eve's form coming toward her. Eve hissed as she came up against the opened palm of the demon who snatched her from the air like a toy and slammed her into the side of the cave wall.

He ground her into the limestone as she spat blood and dug at his wrist with her claws and bit his hand with her fangs. The demon tossed her across the cave like a rag doll and followed her flying body with a hard flick of his tail which crashed into her side opening a series of horrid gashes.

Eve flipped wide off the wall and spread her wings launching herself at the demon at a high rate of speed. She made a tight fast turn around his grasping claws and latched herself onto his back wrapping her arms around his neck as she dug her fangs into his shoulder then again into his neck seeking a vein.

The demon swung his tail around and knocked her off his back flinging her into a wall of rock and pinning her down with his spiked tail. The spines of his tail pierced through her thigh shattering the bone and releasing a stream of blood. Eve screamed and bringing her fist down on the bone spike breaking it off inside her thigh. She twisted free of the wall and flung herself again at the demon wrapping herself around his thigh.

Eve buried her fangs into the main artery in the demons inner thigh and pulled hard sucking a huge mouth full of blood into her system. The very strength of the demons power and the potency of his blood made her almost instantly heady and she tugged again even as the demon scored her with his tail and his claws trying to pry her off of his thigh.

Eve sucked harder feeling the demon start to shake as his power was drained and he lost control of his own body. She sucked hard gulping down mouthfuls of blood as quickly as possible. She felt the demon go down to his knees hard and the fight go out of him as she pulled more blood out of his veins.

"Enough." Baal bellowed and yanked her off the demon's thigh.

Eve hissed and glared at Baal, her lips stained with blood and her fangs dripping.

Baal took the larger demon by the neck and tore out its throat, taking the final draw of life out of him and sucking out his last drop of blood. He roared as he dropped the dead demon and took on the raw ripple of his power and his status in Hell.

Eve could feel her body beginning to heal itself with the help of the blood she had consumed even as Baal's form grew and changed with the power he had consumed. His humanoid body grew in size and muscle and his horns lengthened and thickened on his head.

Baal snatched Eve up hard against his chest and wrapped his tail around her waist several times before dipping the spaded end of his tail between her legs. Baal split the realms and dragged her through, they were back in her bedroom in the house of Black and evening covered the earth. Baal spun Eve around in his arms and grinned viciously down at her.

"Very helpful." He smiled. "Having a God as my own private pet."

"I may owe you Baal, I may be under contract with you for the time, but I will never be anyone's pet." Eve spat.

Baal threw Eve onto the bed and stretched himself on top of her. Eve hissed and reached for his eyes with her fingers. Baal easily avoided her fingers and pinned her to the mattress with his considerably larger size.

His long tail whipped around and made a cut on his side, drawing a ribbon of blood onto the spaded end of his tail. He brought the end of his tail around and let the drops of blood fall into Eve's mouth carrying with them lust and power.

There was an instant spike of lust within Eve as the blood passed her lips. The fight went out of her body replaced with a quickening of her pulse and moistening between her legs. The demon's blood was an untold aphrodisiac when he exerted his will over it.

Baal released her wrists and covered her neck with his lips and bit her throat gently at first and then with a harder almost malicious intent. Eve bit the demon back without breaking his skin, thoughts of fighting had fled to the farthest reaches of her mind and the intoxicating desire took over.

She felt the demon's spaded tail slide up her thigh cutting off her pants with it's sharp edge. A violent downward jerk on her top eliminated it from her body and Eve found herself lying naked underneath the demon.

Baal dug his claws into her stomach, opening lacerations which were only deep enough to cause excruciating pain. Eve screamed and thrashed going for the demon's throat again. His tail whipped around and wrapped around her neck and snapped her back down to the bed pulling back against her windpipe until she stopped fighting.

He sank his fangs into her shoulders leaving deep punctures along her shoulder blades and watching the blood flow from her body. He lapped at the blood slowly like a connoisseur tasting a fine wine or delicate gourmet food. He sampled her pain and her torment, delighted in her lust coupled with the anger and impotent rage.

When Baal released the chokehold he had on her neck Eve flew at him like a wounded animal. The demon received her with open arms and even as her fangs punctured his neck he sunk his own fangs into her throat. They tore at each other in a twisted macabre dance of pain, anger and lust. When she pulled on his neck he pulled on hers, the blood being exchanged from one to the other in the same instant.
Baal dug his nails into her sides, dragging them down until he had a firm grip on her hips. He pulled her down onto his engorged cock, thrusting himself hard into her as he took another drag of her blood. She screamed and ripped her fangs from his neck lashing out at his face with her nails before she went for his throat again.

Baal sunk his fangs into the other side of her neck as she bit into him again. He rolled her over forcing her down into the mattress and dug his nails into her thighs as he drove down into her. Every angry gasp and violent pull on his neck just made him even more intent on finishing what he started.

He pulled himself slowly out of her tight body and thrust down hard again pinning her down, forcing her thighs as wide apart as he could. Eve sucked blood into her mouth but found her resistance fading with the drags of blood and the potent lust from the demon.

Baal pulled back from Eve's fangs and pinned her down the mattress. His engorged cock flexed inside her tight body and he began to thrust in short hard bursts while he watched her wounds heal over. Her wings were splayed out across the bed and she looked like the perfect picture of a fallen angel, full of impotent rage and lust.

When he released his hold on her this time she came at him without the violent desire to kill, she wrapped herself around him with pure lust and bit him several times on the chest licking the blood from his wounds. He scratched at her sides and bit her shoulders savoring every taste of blood and flesh. He could feel her insides tightening around him as she grew excited and felt the growing wetness as he moved inside of her.

Eve moaned her fangs dripping with blood and her head falling back as the demon shifted inside her. He rolled her over slowing until she was on top of him. She felt herself slide down until the demon was hilt deep in her body, Baal whipped his long tail around and stroked her ass with it slowly.

The shape of the spaded end of his tail slowly changed it's sharp edges dulled and it took on the shape of another hardened cock. The demon used his tail to enter Eve's ass and began to thrust it with the same rhythm he had established with his cock. She let out a cry that was more animal than it could ever be called human her hips bucked with violent vigor as she focused on her pleasure.

Baal's fangs sank into her and pushed her head against his neck so she could bite him in return. Eve bit him hard feeling her bloodlust spike with her physical desire, she felt herself climax her legs locked around his hips and her fangs tugged violently as her muscles convulsed. Baal dragged blood out of her and released himself inside her body; he pumped his cock in her shuddering cunt as he continued to move in her ass with his tail.

The exchange of blood and life force evened out and as the demon felt her orgasm passing he pulled her off his neck and released her throat. She was covered in sweat and blood, shaking from top to bottom in the throws of her orgasm. He let her fall back on the mattress and stood smiling.

"The best pet a demon could have." Baal split the realms and disappeared.

------------------------------------------------

Eve woke slowly fighting groggily against it. Fully awake she laid there taking count of the aches of her muscles, the stickiness between her thighs and the throb of her blood in her veins. She made her way to the shower and laid her head against the tile as the hot water sluiced down her body.

The water ran red as she washed the blood from her body wishing that her sin could wash off as easily. After her shower she sat on the veranda and soaked up the sunlight hating herself in silence for everything she had done. She stood and leapt lightly into the sky opening her wings.

Eve knelt slowly before the altar in the cathedral of the huge church. She looked up at the stained glass and the depiction of Christ's crucifixion and she hated herself for what she was. I consort with demons and I allow myself to be used like a pawn I deserve to die.

Her fingers clenched around the hit of the dagger that had almost ended her life in the shadow realms, surely it would still work. What hope was left for her now, a demon's whore without the strength to even protect herself.

In this day of cell phone picture messaging, digital cameras and computer networking that the priest standing in the back of the church would have a cell phone on hand to record the appearance of an angel in his church.

A beautiful tormented angel kneeling before God in his place of worship asking for forgiveness for some failing in her character. This angel was more beautiful and tragic then the priest could have ever envisioned and more human than he would have thought.

Eve felt the haunting call of a memory a faint recollection of something long forgotten, a memory of a time and place. She closed her eyes and felt warmth and peace flood into her mind and the words tumbled out from between her lips without meaning to her ears. Some scholar or another would identify it later as ancient Aramaic and roughly translate it as such.

"I have failed in every way that I know possible. My body is impure and my heart and mind are torn lost in this maze of hatred and lies. I beseech you to end this torment and allow me to pass safely into a place without such pain and suffering. Let me die and redeem me in that death."

Eve plunged the dagger into her heart and felt the blood flowing out over her hands in a hot rush of escaping life. Let it be over she begged quietly.

------------------------------------------------

Baal split the realms with a roar of anger and snatched up the bleeding woman dragging her body back through the realms. He turned in his rage and stormed to the only place there was to take her.

The mighty spire was close enough he could reach it with a single hop through the fabric of space. Cerberus stood before him vicious and angry snarling as he stood imposingly between Baal and the door of the spire.

"Tell him I bring Eve and she is in need of him." Baal roared at the beast.

The doors to the spire swung open and Baal strode forward carrying the mortally wounded Eve. He was ushered to the highest chamber of the tower a journey that took only a second for the demon king.

"Leave her and wait downstairs Baal."

"As you wish Lord Lucifer." Baal retreated instantly.

Lucifer looked over the wounded God for a moment before he moved and yanked the blade from her heart. Wicked thing this dagger and wickeder still was the wound gaping in Eve's chest.

He used the dagger to open his wrist and let his blood flow over the wound closing it instantly and multiplying to replace her lost blood. She would live but not without consequences. He stood and watched her wings wither and retreat into her back.

------------------------------------------------

Eve groaned. Death shouldn't hurt this much. And she thought it shouldn't come with silk sheets. Eve sighed and opened her eyes and looked around the opulent chamber. The bed was an ancient four posted wood canopy bed covered in black and red silk.

The canopy was black silk and red curtains closed around the two long sides of the bed while opposing black curtains sealed off the head and foot of the bed. Eve stood and let the sheets slide off her nude body as she stepped out of the curtained bed and surveyed the chamber. The ceiling was high and looked to be more of a natural obsidian or dark rock formation giving the chamber an earthy base.

Stalactites hung from that ceiling each with soft lights that gently illuminated the room below. All of the furniture was antique made of a rich honey shaded wood. There was a small desk, a dressing table, a tall armoire, the bed and a side table.

Eve stood for a moment before the cold chilling shock set into her. She reached back and felt her shoulders and they were bare. She stumbled over to the armoire and looked in the mirror which confirmed her wings were gone. Her back was smooth and her skin was unbroken but her wings were simply gone.

Eve stared in the mirror allowing the horror and shock to sink in for several minutes. She didn't hear the door behind her open and didn't register another presence in the room until he spoke several minutes later.

"The price we pay." Lucifer whispered. "They aren't gone really just retreated until you have the control to bring them back."

Eve turned slowly. "Who are you?"

"My name," he smiled. "Is Lucifer."

Eve stumbled. "Satan?" She whispered.

He laughed and it was a full rich sound musical and ancient. "I recall that name though it has been many years since one has so boldly uttered it to my face." He smirked.

Lucifer was quite handsome Eve reflected. He was darkly beautiful his hair a rich blue black and his skin a tone between warm honey and olive. He was tall and powerfully built and at least for the moment wholly human in appearance.

There was an unmistakable aura of power around him and for the first time in quite awhile Eve could see the throbbing aura of the demon reflected around him. It was brilliant gold mixed with silver and shot with blue and red. It was the singularly most amazing aura she had seen on a demon to date.

Lucifer too took in the woman standing before him. She was quite fantastic but he had always known she would be. Her skin bore the scars of her death and her battles with the demons she had killed and it only enhanced her valkyrie beauty.

Her skin was bronzed by sun and life itself and her hair was a almost a match for his own, black and straight it ran down her back like water. Her eyes were clear icy blue like peering into the heart of a glacier fringed with incredible black lashes and slanted ever so slightly at the corners.

Eve finally took stock of her nudity and stepped over to pull the sheet from the bed and wrap it around her torso.

"Modesty does not become you Eve." Lucifer smirked. "With the smell of Baal still clinging to your skin your modesty is quite wasted, however I will have clothing brought to you and you can come down and join me for some conversation."

Eve felt the blush crawl into her skin and the shame his words brought back to her. She pulled down the sheet and looked at the hideous scar on her chest where the dagger had torn through nearly to her heart. Couldn't even get that right. A lesser demon crawled in and laid a pile of clothing on the chair next to the armoire and retreated silently.

------------------------------------------------

As he'd known she was a vision in the subtle silk. It nicely accentuated her curves and the knee length tapered skirt showed off her lovely legs. The silk was very subtle and shifted to fit the mood of it's wearer so as Eve walked down the staircase the silk was a deep rich black reflecting her bleak mood. Her back was left bare and her the bodice scooped low to display just enough of her breasts to be provocative without being slutty.

"Have a seat Eve." Lucifer indicated a chair across from him.

She sat quietly and kept her eyes downcast for the moment wondering exactly how much of the human wisdom on Lucifer was true and how much was myth. He was the king of lies, the Prince of the underworld, or was he?

"You are strong but you are flawed in your beliefs and it holds you back." Lucifer paused. "Allow me to tell you a story and you may take from it what you desire."

"For all of humanity's recorded history there have been Gods and demons. All races, all cultures have had them. And they have all existed." He smiled at her scoffing choke.

"They have. Ra god of the sun was Ra angelic sovereign. Aries god of war was the demon Aries a king of this world. Allah, Buda, Thor, Jah, Altjira, Tlaloc, Diwas, Belenus, Shangdi, Tuoni, Shiva, Pacha Kamaq. Honestly I could list them for years and never get them all demons and gods alike and they all existed some of them still do. Humans believe what they wish to and Gods and demons allow them to why entice them with the truth?

"But there are two sides to each coin not so much good and evil although we do have our tendencies to lean to one set of behavior or another. It's more about stability and the force with which we rule. "God" as you would believe him is a patron deity in heaven who is still living at the moment but he loses his power because he relies on love to keep his subjects loyal.

"I indeed was one of his most loyal followers but I chose to leave him, I left because his love was not true and he placed another above us all. But that is neither here nor there and not worth remising about. The fact remains that the power plays in heaven are grander and that they are so absorbed with their own power struggles and their pursuit of this love that they rarely intervene in the world of humans.

"Then there are demons and this realm. I control them all. Unquestioningly. Unlike the gods of heaven I rule with will and force and strength no others here have the power to take my seat from me so I command a certain amount of control of the grand scheme of things. Even Baal bows to my command although not often willingly. He greatly overestimates his strength in thinking that he could keep you as a pet however."

Lucifer smiled and produced a cup of coffee from nowhere which he sipped slowly. Eve looked at him like he had just told her that the end of the world would be brought about by the Care Bears or the Smurfs. It was just too weird for her human belief system to incorporate.

"So where do I fit in in all of this?" Eve looked at him.

"Where do you want to?" Lucifer stirred his coffee. "There was no coincidence in your birth Eve and while the extent of that is not something I choose to share at this point you have control of where you will go. Do you wish to simply live or do you wish to rule? That is a choice only you can make. For now you will need to remain here and recuperate."

"I should have died, you should have let me."

"No." Lucifer set down his cup. "What you did was foolish. The Blade of Destiny is not something to take such foolish risks with and you are lucky I could still save you. That blade has one purpose in this world. Joven was foolish to steal it when he did and you were foolish to use it on yourself. Your wings while they have retreated for now could have been lost forever had you left that blade in much longer."

"They aren't gone?" Eve self consciously touched her back.

"No they are still there, just retreated and they will be changed from now on. They will be stronger, changed if they return but not gone. For now you need to rest and try to relax. Baal will not bother you further unless you wish to see him."

"Thank you."

"Go back to the chamber upstairs I will send you someone to eat."

------------------------------------------------

Lucifer stepped through the realms and wrapped his arm around Gabriel's neck. He pulled the former demi-god's head back and pried Gabriel's mouth open. Lucifer carefully opened a vein and allowed a trickle of blood to run into Gabriel's mouth. It took a few minutes for Gabriel to come around.

"Welcome back." Lucifer smiled and released Gabriel's neck.

Lucifer squatted across from Gabriel and looked over the once great demi-god. Gabriel was light to Lucifer's dark. Where Lucifer's hair was blue black, Gabriel's was icy white. Where Lucifer's eyes were a warm rich chocolaty espresso color Gabriel's eyes were icy white blue.

Lucifer's skin was between honey and olive and Gabriel's was pale flesh colored without tan or blemish. Opposing sides of a coin; light to dark. Gabriel looked at Lucifer.

"It's been awhile Lucifer." Gabriel stared across the room at Lucifer.

"That it has been Gabriel. Rather sad state that I now find you in half dead and devoid of power." Lucifer licked the blood from his fingers.

"Perhaps but I still have no regrets." Gabriel smirked. "Can you say the same brother?"

Lucifer laughed. "You never have understood have you Gabriel? I have no regrets and the hatred you have against me is largely misplaced."

"You made your choices Lucifer and I've made mine. Had it not been for your scheming I would still be in Heaven faithfully serving."

"Would you now?" Lucifer stood and circled Gabriel. "To serve for his love? That pathetic thing he tosses at you until you love him in return and then he takes away as soon as something better comes along? Something flesh and blood something warm and willing in a very carnal way? Please. I gladly take my place since my "fall" and I regret none of the choices that placed me where I am today."

"As you wish brother." Gabriel smirked.

"Your Eve on the other hand may have me rethinking my stance."

Gabriel was at Lucifer's throat in an instant. Lucifer easily overpowered the weakened vampire and tossed him to the ground pinning him down with a knee.

"Ahh brother you are so predictable." Lucifer hissed and extended his fangs. "If I wanted it I could rape your Eve repeatedly for weeks until she begged me to kill her and then not to stop. But I don't have to savor her flesh as Baal has already tasted her pleasures, quite a nice pet she makes for a demon."

"Liar!" Gabriel roared and struggled.

"I am, but not now. Baal drugged her with his blood, got her drunk on lust and fucked her until she came beneath him." Lucifer smirked and released his brother. "And she turned the Blade of Destiny on herself in her shame."

Gabriel stilled instantly.

"Yes brother," Lucifer stepped away. "She plunged it nearly into her heart and yet she lives if not for the sacrament of my blood she would be in the land of the dead even now. So quit your fucking thrashing and listen for once. I have a proposition for you."

------------------------------------------------

"Eve." Lucifer smiled. "What can I do for you?"

"Why did you save me? Why didn't you just leave me to die?"

"It was not your time Eve." Lucifer laid the Blade of Destiny down on the table before him. "Why did you turn the Blade on yourself?"

"I deserve to die." Eve hissed. "I am a worthless whore unfit to be called vampire, human, God or demon."

"That is hardly true." Lucifer steepled his fingers. "No God can reign in heaven without knowing hell, no demon king could ever rule in hell without understanding heaven. It's well known that my life began in heaven as an angel among the Gods themselves and I chose my path and to leave that place.

"Unlike heaven hell is ruled by strength and held by power. Heave relies on games playing their pawns off each other in the never ending quest to be the most loved, the favorite in the eyes of one God or another. Here we rely simply on our own strength and intelligence none here had what it takes to remove me from my position so here I remain for now."

"That seems a very narrow view of things." Eve smirked.

"Only has narrow as the reality of things. God played us all off of each other for as long as there was history, all the Gods did and still do. At any given time heaven is divided under the command of several ruling Gods and the angels who serve them. They war with each other, switch sides, curry favor, plot, overthrow and kill each other to be the most favored and remain in power.

"Unfortunately the power plays in heaven have overridden their goal of creating and nurturing earth and things have stagnated." Lucifer paused and turned the Blade over with his fingers. "Hell still works with precision we plot and destroy, kill and maintain our end but heaven has fallen behind and the veil between the worlds has grown thin.

"The current state of things threatens the very fabric of all the worlds. It's become necessary to put into motion many plots to try to restore the balance but nothing can be done without great pain and sacrifice."
Eve snorted rudely.

Lucifer chuckled. "Why else would I have my own brother possessed so that he could lead astray three other angels and create the demi-gods?" Lucifer watched her face. "Why else would I sacrifice him on the alter of betrayal allowing him to be led astray if not for another purpose? Why else would I put Gabriel through this?"

"Gabriel?" Eve whispered.

"Yes Gabriel. My only brother. I tricked him into a position to send a demon to posses him and lead the other three astray. Tricked them into consuming Garo a demon king. Had the demon use Gabriel to fornicate with human woman and spread his seed to begin the vampire race with his brethren and then left him with his guilt to form purpose for them. Unpossessed Gabriel did great things and formed the vampire houses. So I freed him from the bondage they put him in and brought him here."

"Gabriel is here?" Eve looked at Lucifer then turned as the door opened.

"I am." Gabriel strode into the room.

Eve ran for him only to be brushed aside by Gabriel. Eve's pain filled eyes followed Gabriel as he went to stand behind his brother.

"And I know what has occurred in my absence." Gabriel looked at Eve with condemnation in his eyes.

"Gabriel I..."

"Don't bother." Gabriel shook his head.

"Touching." Lucifer smiled. "Things are almost back to where they must be. Gabriel I promised to restore what I stole from you with my schemes."

"Yes you did." Gabriel stood quietly as Lucifer got to his feet.

"So be it." Lucifer smiled.

Lucifer grasped Gabriel by the hair and tore his head to one side. Eve saw the longest fangs she had ever seen push forward from Lucifer's mouth and without another thought he sank them into Gabriel's neck. Lucifer drank deeply of his brothers' blood sucking in down in fast greedy gulps.

Gabriel's eyes fluttered closed and his body went loose he slumped as he lost consciousness and was supported only by Lucifer's arms around him. Lucifer pulled the life out of Gabriel and dropped him.

"No." Eve whispered. "No! What have you done?"

Lucifer turned and looked at Eve and spat at her. He stepped away from his brother and wiped the blood from his mouth. Eve stared with horror and pain at the body laying on the floor.

Gabriel's body shifted very slightly. Then there was a great gasp and he bolted up from the floor clutching his neck. It was a horrible macabre dance as he twisted in pain and torn his shirt from his back.

The skin on his back twisted and peeled off, it split down the shoulder blades and broke open. It was like watching a horrible bug molting as Gabriel's skin blistered then cracked and the flesh tore from bone along his spine.

The first protrusions to emerge were the long bony appendages, six that pushed out like great antenna sticking up through the holes in what had been Gabriel's back. The grew and pushed apart until they had fully split the body in half and out of that ragged piece of flesh stood the true Gabriel.

He was covered in blood which began to absorb into his pearlescent skin. The six protrusions on his back sprouted their shafts and then burst forth with pearly white-blue feathers which thickened, lengthened and filled out the wings that sat perfectly one over the other to work together as a single unit. Gabriel flexed those great wings and beat them once with great force as he stood there returned to his angelic perfection.

"As I promised brother." Lucifer smiled.

"As did I." Gabriel nodded and tore a rift in the universe and vanished.

"Gabriel." Eve whispered.

"He's gone Eve. He has a God to love and his honor restored he has no use of you." Lucifer saw her alone with her torment. He picked up the Blade of Destiny and left.

------------------------------------------------

Baal picked Eve up carefully and took her back to her room after she had cried herself to sleep. He deposited her on her bed and turned slowly to leave.

"Baal." Eve whispered.

"Yes?" Baal looked at Eve.

"What is happening?" She looked at him.

Baal slipped out of his demon form and slid easily into a human guise complete with clothes for once. "It's complicated."

"It was you wasn't it? In Gabriel?"

Baal nodded. "I possessed the angel Gabriel at Lucifer's request. That is why Gabriel hates me so much."

"I don't understand."

"You aren't meant to understand it all. Do what is in your best interest and fulfill your own potential."

Eve looked at him. "Was fucking me part of the deal?"

"Sometimes ones work has it's perks." Baal smiled.

"I need to get out of here."

"There is only one way to do that." Baal sighed. "Only the Blade of Destiny can cut through the realms like a demon does, it's imbued with the soul of a former demon king. The problem is the blade rejected you once already it nearly killed you.

"The Blade is said to only have on true master who it waits for and will only acknowledge that one. It's deadly enough without belonging to someone but when it acknowledges it's true owner then it will bond with that one and all it's powers become that person's. And Destiny calls to Time. To be the master of both is something that the universe waits for and cringes from."

"What does that mean?" Eve stood and pulled on her clothes.

"That I don't have the answer to. I do know that the Blade of Destiny will consider each man, woman, demon and God based on who they are when they pick it up. If you are no longer the same woman you were the last time you picked it up it may reconsider you."

"And what do you want out of all this Baal?" Eve looked at the demon.

"The right to continue to live as I know how if the veil between the worlds fails then heaven, hell and earth will be at full out war."

"Fair enough."

------------------------------------------------

Eve looked down at the Blade of Destiny. She considered the dagger carefully and smiled. What more would it take she questioned silently. What would you ask of me in order to make me worthy for you? If I offered you a lifetime of service would you take me?

Eve reached out and wrapped her fingers around the Blade. The metal was cool and smooth in her hand comforting instead of horrifying. The Blade glowed briefly and melted slowly vanishing into her skin.

Eve blinked and stared at her now empty hand. She curled her fingers and felt her nails dig into her palm. She turned and faced the wall of the chamber. Eve smiled and closed her eyes.

"Come forth." She whispered.

The Blade of Destiny appeared in a flash of red light in her hand and her wings burst forth from her back. The wings were changed layered one atop the other instead of in tandem with the top set of wings being jet blue-black and the under pair of wings were crystalline white. Eve smirked and flicked her wrist across the space in front of her tearing a hole straight into heaven.

"Time to play." Eve grinned.