Chapter 11 – Ithuriel
The Malebolge: The Trench of Panderers and Seducers
W e begin walking the trench and it’s not long until we start encountering sinners. While the souls in Hell are most often disembodied and insentient, these were given an echo of their former lives’ bodies and awareness in order to fully experience the fate they were doomed to. The Trench of Panderers and Seducers hosts those who exploit others’ emotions and desires to fulfill their own selfish wishes.
Though the trench is wide, the jagged stone walls towering above us on each side give a sense of entrapment. The dull orange sky barely illuminates the cracked, barren ground, but it’s enough to see the trails of blood and grime, the leavings of the endless columns of sinners marching up and down the trench to the beat of their demonic overlords’ whips.
The tortured are exhausted, their faces contorted with their eternal suffering, their backs exposed and streaked with open wounds from the repeated lashings. The demonic figures lining the sides of the trenches, long, barbed whips in hand, cackle with glee each time a sinner stumbles.
What Sariel said holds true; the demons avert their eyes as we pass them, though I can feel their hateful gazes heating my back when we do. When a particularly sadistic demon licks his lips and tugs on his exposed crotch, leering at Jessica, I pull out my greatsword. I swing my weapon, ready to decapitate the offending pile of excrement when Sariel’s body suddenly appears between us. There is a shriek as the Fallen tears the demon’s naked member from his body, discarding it on the dirt, and I jump back. Sariel grabs the creature by his hair, pulling his head back and leaning down to say something directly in the demon’s ear. The hellion’s blotchy red face pales as the blood drains from it at Sariel’s quiet words.
“Understood?” Sariel’s murmur is heard over the demon’s sobs. Cupping himself, trying to staunch the flow of blood, the creature merely trembles in shock. “I asked you a question,” the Fallen says, each new word sharper than the previous. Finally, the demon begins nodding frantically and Sariel releases him.
Pulling a canteen out of the ether, he pours water over his hands as he walks toward where the Nephilim and I wait at a safe distance. When he looks up from his task and sees our slack-jawed expressions, he tilts his head and laughs.
Jessica bites her lip. “What did you say to him?”
“Just the truth,” he replies breezily.
“And what is the truth?” I ask.
The Fallen’s lips curl into an arrogant smirk. “That the angel and Nephilim are off limits. That they’re mine.”
Heat spreads from my chest to my face at his words and Jessica gulps. But despite having the sense that Sariel is expecting it, I don’t argue.
∞∞∞
It takes hours to reach the end of the first trench. The sharp cracks of whips mingling with the anguished cries of the punished grow quieter as we put distance between us and the endlessly marching deceased being hurt and controlled in death as they hurt and controlled others in life.
“I’m sorry guys, but I’m starving and my feet are killing me,” the mortal says, pouting up at us. Sometimes I forget we’re with someone who has human needs, and then her stomach rumbles or she has to take a bathroom break.
I tilt my head in acknowledgment. “Of course. We will take a break.”
Sariel snorts and I raise my eyebrow in question. “Do you have to be so damn pretentious all the time?” he asks.
I bristle just as Jess steps between us, placing one hand on each of our chests. “As much as I’d love seeing you guys wrestle again, it would delay me getting my break and I can’t have that.”
Sariel grins like a shark while I flush at her insinuation and look away under the guise of looking for a secluded area to rest. I spot an outcropping of rocks in the near distance and point to it. “That looks like a defensible position,” I say.
“That looks like a defensible position,” Sariel repeats in a high-pitched, mocking tone.
“Hey!” the mortal yells, slapping the Fallen’s shoulder. “We’re behaving so Jess can eat.”
“I have something Jess can wrap her lips around,” he replies, nudging her with his elbow.
A blushing Jessica mutters, “You’re incorrigible,” before stomping off toward the rocks, the two of us following with a respectable distance between us.
An hour later, we’re sitting around a fire and the well-fed Nephilim laughs at the Fallen’s immature snips. It’s still difficult to reconcile addressing Sariel that way – as a Fallen – even if it is just in my head. Seeing him now, spending so much time in his presence again, reminds me so much of our youth. I watch the way the fire sparkles in Jess’ light-blue eyes, the way it gilds the contours of Sar’s face. Lost in my mind, I pay little attention to their words until I notice the mortal squirming and blushing.
“Really?” Sariel sneers. “Not one of your limp-dicked little human boyfriends made you come?”
My ears burn. “This is not an appropriate conversation to have,” I interject.
Sariel waves his hand dismissively. “Oh, shut it, holy. Go clutch your pearls somewhere else if it bothers you. What bothers me is that no one showed this magnificent creature the pleasure she deserves.”
I sputter but don’t leave. Do some men not ensure their partners are content during procreation?
Blushing furiously at what is likely a curious expression on my face, Jessica shrugs before answering, “I haven’t had the best taste in men, that’s for sure. They all talk a big game, but when it comes down to it, they have one move.” She pumps her hand in a gesture that confuses me but makes the Fallen laugh.
Sariel slaps the palms of his hands on his thighs. “Welp,” he says. “We can’t be having that.” Standing up, he walks up to where Jessica is sitting and sits behind her. As she looks over her shoulder at him with her mouth open, he scoots closer until the inside of his legs frame the outside of hers.
“W–what are you doing?” she stutters.
“Making sure you can’t say no guy has made you come again,” he speaks into her neck. The Nephilim arches her head to the side in apparent reflex. Once Sariel’s hands snake to her front to cup her breasts, I shoot to my feet.
“You should not be doing that!” I exclaim.
Sariel looks at me, his black eyes alive in the firelight. “Why not?” he challenges.
“I will not allow you to hurt her,” I hiss. Jessica bites her lip with uncertainty.
The Fallen chuckles. “I’m going to do the opposite of hurting her.” With those words, he turns his attention back on the girl, nuzzling the side of her neck with his nose as his hands knead on the soft flesh of her chest. “I’m going to show her how good a male can make her feel if he wants to.”
A soft moan escapes the Nephilim’s lips and she leans back onto her seducer. My hands clench into fists at my side and I tremble with uncertainty. Do I physically interject or leave them to it?
I already intervened once. And we know how that ended.
“Itha,” Sariel calls out. “Stop hovering,” he says, one hand moving up to the girl’s neck, the other sliding down toward her core. I stare, unmoving. “Ithuriel,” he calls for me again and we lock eyes. “Sit,” he says with finality. And I do.
Father help me, what am I doing?
“That’s it,” the Fallen whispers, now tugging on the laces of Jessica’s leather trousers. “We’re just going to make our little mortal feel good.”
Why is he using ‘we’?
Once he creates enough room to maneuver, his hand travels inside her bottoms. The front of her leathers bulges with his intrusion and she gasps.
“Sorry, poppet,” he murmurs into her hair. “My hand’s gonna warm up real fast though, don’t worry.”
I’m mesmerized by the movements of his hand in such a forbidden area. Does she like that? Her head is resting on Sariel’s shoulder and she’s panting, alternatively biting and licking her lips. I was so enraptured by his right hand, that I didn’t notice the left one loosening her top and snaking underneath to caress her naked skin.
“I’m going to put my hand into her panties now, Itha,” Sariel says to me.
“Why are you telling me that?” I breathe, my mind buzzing from the tension in the air.
Sariel chuckles. “Because, we’re both pleasuring our little poppet here, Itha. Look at how much she’s enjoying you looking.”
Jessica flushes as my eyes dart to hers but then nods tentatively. I gulp.
“She’s so soft here,” the Fallen whispers, drawing my attention back to the front of her bottoms. “I’m going to open her pussy lips now.” I stop breathing at his crude words. Why am I listening to this? Why am I watching? “Fuck, she’s drenched for us, buddy,” Sariel continues. “Is this all for us, honey?” he asks the trembling mortal.
“Yeah,” she replies on an exhale.
Sariel growls gently. “That’s our good little girl.”
Something twists in my stomach at his words and Jessica moans. Does she like him calling her a little girl? Does she like him praising her?
“I’m rubbing circles over her clit with the tip of my finger now,” he narrates his actions. Jess’s legs begin to shake and twitch and her eyes roll back.
“Is it hurting her?” I ask, worried.
“N–no!” she moans. “It feels so good, Itha.”
The black-haired devil grins at her words, at her defense of his actions. My body is growing uncomfortably hot and pinpricks tingle over the expanse of my skin.
Jessica’s body convulses and I start, but Sariel explains before I can get up to intervene. “I pinched her nipple.”
“And…” I clear my throat. “And that is a good thing?”
He huffs at my ignorance, not insultingly, but still with some obvious superiority. “It’s very good, Starlight.”
I gasp at the nickname he gave me on a night long, long ago, as we were sitting on the banks of Lacus Larius, or Lake Como as it is known today. He said I reflect off the water’s surface just like the stars above us.
“I’m gonna put a finger inside her now and find the right spot…” Sariel’s words cut through the warmth in my chest at old memories.
Jessica’s hands grab onto the Fallen’s thighs as he does what he threatened to do. “Oh my god, Sariel,” she moans, making him laugh softly.
“Tell Itha how it feels, poppet,” he commands.
When her beautiful blue eyes open and lock with mine, something stirs below my waist. “It feels amazing,” she breathes. “Nothing ever felt this good.”
As my mouth opens and closes with no words coming out, Sariel laughs and his movements in her trousers pick up speed and force. “I’m pumping two fingers into her tight tunnel now and rubbing her hot little clit with my thumb. She’s gonna come pretty fast like this. Aren’t you, poppet?”
Jessica’s only answer is a high-pitched moan as her head thrashes from side to side on Sariel’s chest. I’m so engrossed with the sight that I don’t notice Sariel’s attention is on me until he speaks. “Look, honey. We gave the angel his first woody.”
They’re both now looking below my waist and I feel the urge to cover my crotch with my hands despite my confusion. What are they talking about? But at that moment Jessica tenses and screams, “Oh, fuck, Itha! I’m coming!”
Sariel laughs darkly with glee as the mortal girl in his arms shivers with her climax, my name on her lips, and her eyes fixed on my crotch.
Once she stills, I look down at my lap and notice the large bulge at the front of my pelvis. My heart picks up speed until it feels as if it will grow its own wings and fly out of my chest.
I have an erection.
Their lascivious show aroused me.
How could I have allowed this?