Chapter 48 – Vale
ANGELS AND DEMONS
VALE
The library is lit up in golden light when I step in, but darkness pulses around the edges of my vision like smoke like a dark vignette. I watch the demon in front of me carefully. He seems to be going over something in his head, as if he’s thinking of the best way to show me who he is.
“Who are you?” I ask. That makes him focus on me, and the darkness becomes absolutely complete around us. The library disappears.
He smiles at me with excitement, one eyebrow cocked up. “I am Asmodeus, a king of demons, the manifestation of lust. Have you heard of me?” The question barrels through my brain, lighting up memories I’d long tried to forget.
My father had told me about him, how he corrupted everything he touched with sin. And there were stories about how he could take your will, break you, and you wouldn’t even realize he’d damned you. Then I remember my father’s words, “Women are his children, his corrupters in this world.”
“You can call me Oz, the great and powerful,” Asmodeus says, then chuckles. It grates over my nerves as his body starts to change, melting into another form.
Light floods my vision, blinding me once more. When my vision clears, he’s flashing in and out of existence, warping the world around him, like he doesn’t belong on this plane, in this dimension. This world struggles to contain him as if he shouldn’t exist.
I stare up at him in awe. He takes my breath away with his beauty. He’s so tall he towers above me like a giant. He has dark horns that wrap around his skull, then curl up, holding a golden, pulsating halo in place. It reminds me of the solar crown of Horus.
Great black wings sling out with a snap behind his back.
Unlike Oliver’s, his are feathered like a bird.
They’re large, lush, muscular wings, powerful enough to create the winds that shape the world.
He seems too large for this room, and his essence presses against me, dwarfing me, making me feel small and fragile.
I feel my own mortality when I look at him.
His skin is so dark the light disappears against it. It doesn’t shine with life or reflect his halo; it’s devoid of all light. His hair is long and curls down his back in beautiful ebony ringlets. Some cascade over his shoulders onto his large, defined chest.
That chest is as wide as two men, and his nipples are pierced by silver barbells that shine, catching the golden light from above his head. Oliver looks so much like him in his demon form I’m surprised he doesn’t have a crown of horns just like his grandfather.
My eyes travel down the length of his chest, down over his muscular abdomen. His hips have that defined V that leads my eyes down even farther, and I take in the largest cock I’ve ever seen. It hangs long and heavy between his legs. It’s at least a foot long though he isn’t aroused.
That intimidating cock is studded by the same silver barbells that are in his nipples. So many run down his length that I’m fascinated and horrified all at the same time. He could kill someone with that cock, but I knew they’d die willingly in his embrace.
“That must’ve hurt,” I say as I feel Oliver’s touch against my shoulder, pulling at me, trying to get me to turn away from the beautiful demon in front of me. However, I can’t look away. This is some great truth I must figure out on my own.
Oz chuckles. “Don’t be jealous, Ash. She’s only curious, aren’t you, pretty girl.”
“Yes,” I say, stepping closer to the mighty being, drawn in by his familiar power.
Oliver tries to stop me again, but I jerk away. Oz holds his massive hand out as I inch my way forward in awe. He’s painfully beautiful, much like Oliver. I imagine at any moment my eyes will bleed because I shouldn’t be seeing this.
“Do you want to touch it?” Oz asks, and I smile up at him, taking in those molten gold, pulsating eyes. They glow powerfully, just like the halo on his head.
“Yes,” I answer as my body shivers. His power radiates across my skin.
It feels electrical and alive, taking my will but also giving me something in return, something that wasn’t there before.
I want to succumb. I moan in pleasure as it spills through me, into me, bliss coursing through my entire being.
Oz isn’t evil, this power of his, it’s good.
“Vale!” Oliver growls at my back. “Stop!”
I feel Amodeus’s massive hands around my waist, and I’m like a doll in his hands as he lifts me higher. I hold my arms up, reaching for the halo that glows and pulsates almost like the energy that burns inside me. It feels so familiar. I recognize that power. I hunger for it. I need it.
The moment I make contact I’m filled to the brim with so much purely happy, beautiful energy that it bursts from my fingertips even as it sinks deeper, making a home inside my chest. It burrows inside me, finding a place to exist where it hadn’t before.
I can’t stop the pleasurable moan that escapes my lips as the tingling heat fills each molecule. I’m enchanted by all that power, in awe of it. I want to devour that halo. I want to bathe in its light for all time. It courses through me, changing me.
Asmodeus lowers me a bit, then kisses my forehead like I’m a child, his wild essence curling around me.
That’s when I realize he doesn’t just look like Oliver, he feels like him.
“You really are his grandfather. You feel like him.” I had always felt that energy close to the surface, that awareness of him that I didn’t have the words for, it was the halo, and somehow it was inside Oliver.
I press my palm to his heart as I struggle to look into his eyes without crying.
“Your energy, it feels similar to Oliver, stronger, but it’s also similar to my own when I . . . ” I’m embarrassed to say what happens when I have an orgasm. I shouldn’t be telling him this. It’s private. But I feel the need to tell him everything, this being would understand.
The king of demons nods his head. He leans closer, next to my ear as if to tell me a secret. “I gave him part of myself before he was born. He was dying, and I couldn’t bear it. You feel the part of me that’s still inside him.”
I turn so our eyes meet. I’m overcome by how grateful I am for him saving Oliver. I lean in and press my lips against his. I moan as pleasure fills me. Oz pulls back, and the look in his eyes is anything but innocent. He smiles, exposing his sharp fangs, making me shiver in his hold.
I feel like I’m floating on a cloud as we study each other.
He seems equally as fascinated as I am. Every single touch makes my body sing.
That’s why my mind couldn’t cope with seeing him as a human, he isn’t one, and he shouldn’t hide himself.
The world should know this secret, they should know him. He’s magnificent.
“Don’t fall in love with me, Vale. I’ll never be yours,” he says, his warning gruff and affected. Is he as affected as I am? “I belong to another, and so do you.” His words make me laugh.
I lean forward and whisper into his ear. “I feel you inside me, growing. Don’t play games with me. I can’t help my attraction to you because you’re part of him and now you’re a part of me too. Is it the halo? What will it do to me?”
Asmodeus smiles brightly. “Just a little piece of my power. I gave you what you needed to live, sweetheart. You’ll see when the flames engulf you.
You’ll need my power, the echo of it will draw you back to this world.
Don’t you want to live forever? To never be separated from him. He can’t lose you, Vale.”
I grab his face in my hands. “You made me an immortal?”
He shakes his head. “I wish I had that kind of power. No, this changes you enough, just enough so your own power can be set free. You’ll see.”
“I don’t have any power.”
“That’s not true, Vale. You must allow it to manifest inside you. That energy he brings out in you is something unique. When the time comes, don’t be afraid of it.”
“What am I?”
He shakes his head again. “It’s not my place to tell you, but soon you’ll understand.”
“Should I say thank you? I don’t know if it’s a gift or a curse you’ve bestowed upon me. Everything comes out eventually. Do you know he wouldn’t let himself love me at first? He tried to put space between us, but eventually he fell. Tell me, will you fall?”
“I already fell, but she’s napping. Immortals can’t fight their fate.
We all have a purpose. He was made to love you, just as you were made to love him.
Just as I have love for you and you have for me.
” He’s strangely right. I feel a strong bond with Oz, and yeah, it feels a lot like love.
Maybe things are meant to be, and loving Oz is just part of it.
“What’s your purpose in this world, Oz?”
Asmodeus taps my nose as if I’m a child. His eyes glow with amusement. “My maker would not like it if I told you. There are rules. But I can tell you this, I was made to love humanity.”
“You’re an angel then.”
He’s surprised I figured him out. But it’s pretty obvious he’s an angel.
He’s got a huge halo above his fucking head, for one.
But it’s not the halo or the great wings at his back.
Oz is not any of those things, not exactly.
It’s his energy, it’s not evil at all, even if Oliver called him a demon.
It’s purely good. There’s nothing bad about the light that comes from him, no darkness to mar that perfection. Is this what it’s like to witness God?
“I am celestial, but mortals call me a demon. I’ve had a long time to make peace with that fact. You’re a smart girl. I think you’ll be good for Ash.”
“I’ll protect him with my life,” I promise, and it’s almost like my words come out as a threat. I’m drawing a line in the sand. If he ever tries to hurt Oliver, I’ll destroy him. It’s not that I believe he would, but I feel suddenly protective of what belongs to me.