章節 7: A Beautiful, Soaked Mess
[🎶 Set Fire To the Rain – Adele.]
"STUPID EARTH WEATHER!" LILITH MURMURED in her sleep. Rafel watched her lips curl in mild annoyance as she turned this way and that on the bed beside him. He smiled. She was completely naked in his bed, and when she stirred, the pillows of her breasts that had once cushioned his head at the start of night caught on the wan lighting of his bedchamber.
Such delightful boobs!
One thing no one knew about The Fallen was that as beautiful and powerful as they were, they were also quite mundane. Asleep right now, Lilith seemed almost too human for a Hell Titan. The ethereal lavendar glow that normally shimmered over her skin was invisible to his eyes.
[Ding! Gift received!] The telltale ping resounded in Rafel's head.
[One Divine Amulet from Hell Principality, useful only in extreme cases of injury or certain death.]
He didn't need to ask his system to whom the gift came from. She lay right beside him, nude in creamy wonder underneath his crimson sheets. Aunt Lilith always gifted him whenever they fucked. Rafel felt the ease and satiation he normally felt in his loins following a good intense session was gift enough.
But Lilith still gave. Always.
It was not that she regarded Rafel as a gigolo but more like a token to a Hell Lord who was well below her [S-rank.]
Rafel didn't mind. He didn't mind one bit. Fucking a Hell Principality was on many a demon's bucket list. He got such a sensual deity, who mortals practically worshipped, for free in his bed.
Lightning crashed repeatedly outside, and for few moments the bedroom was brightened in yellow glow, drawing Rafel's mind to the reason why Lilith felt so uncomfortable in her sleep.
It was raining.
A storm more like.
It had started towards the end of their fifth bout or so—as Rafel was hammering down Lilith who had been face down on his large bed, flat on her belly, with legs crossed at her ankles as he pounded from above. From the smothering cold gale that had threatened to rip his dark drapes right off, Rafel knew it was going to be one hell of a hail.
"You fuck like a Titan," he remembered Lilith whispering just as the first discs of icy rain pelleted the Manor.
With her long goth nails balanced over the plunging V of his cum gutters, Lilith had fallen asleep. Rafel couldn't. He had being awake for hours now, listening to the biting sounds of rain and sweet breaks of thunder. It had to be about five o'clock in the morning now, but the usual blue skylights before dawn was exchanged for the gray terror of the rolling storm.
Sighing blissfully, Rafel rose from the bed, not bothering with a shirt as he padded out the room. He turned one final glance to the six feet, inked goddess amidst his sheets with a proud smile.
Lilith looked perfect. Her raven hair ended in thick locs, cascading down the green-black tattoo of her Dragon Symbiote on her back. It was no tattoo though. The beautiful swirl of dark ink was an alive, breathing creature who could shift positions on her body as it wished.
One night, it could be her thigh. Another, her wide hips.
Rafel almost didn't want to leave.
But he was thirsty.
In the shiny corner of his home bar, Rafel did forego the small bottles of blood in preference of the larger caps of the famed Eldorian wine. He poured into a glass tumbler, taking the drink with him toward the sound of melodic singing he could hear wisping around from the pool house.
"Oh, my beautiful slave." Rafel grinned to himself. The scratches from Lilith's nails on his broad back, love nicks, shined in the light as he moved.
Rafel came upon the pool house, which extended via a low blue roof from the Manor's Landing, in short moments. And sure enough, he found Aya Naamah, in the midst of the blue waters, her light skin fading and playing with candlelight, her lips moving in a melody that could throw sea captains off the decks of their ship.
She had a siren's voice.
The song she sang was a folk tale, known to all in Hell. The lore of Orpheus and Eurydice.
Rafel watched her swim in the pool for a while, listening to her words of tragic love as the rain drummed in staccato outside. He took sips of his wine. And when he was done, he calmly settled himself on the grand piano which was five feet in front of the pool.
Aya's serenading voice took Rafel back years past, to his beginning fights at the arena. As his fingers nimbly keyed out the blessed chords to her music, flashes of him sweeping through dirt and blood in the Colosseum danced before his eyes. Though it was the rim of his wine cup he should see, Rafel instead beheld the flying heads, the final wails, the skinned faces, the breaking limbs, the burning running gladiators, the roaring crowd, the delight of Hel.
He should feel sorry. He wasn't.
Their music ended with an amazing flourish and Rafel let the piano ring out in length as Aya lowered her operatic voice. When the song came to its conclusion, the both of them heard clapping coming from the side.
Rafel and Aya turned to find Corazón in the shadows. She leaned against the doorpost, smiling and cheering at the Earl's rendition.
"You are a man of many talents, Your Grace!" Cora remarked, starting for the grand piano. "You fight. You fuck. You play music?"
"Hey! Shouldn't you be in bed?" Rafel abruptly stood up, letting the lid fall on the piano.
He didn't fail to notice Corazón had on a pair of shorts instead of pajamas. Her long legs were for ages.
"It's already mornin', Your Grace. The storm today is unforgiving, and the rain deceives the eye. My alarm went off three minutes ago. I was about to hop in the shower when I heard such beautiful music. I must say, Your Grace, you and Mistress Naamah are quite the duet. I should host a small party at Emberfall soon. The Queen would drop her panties if she heard you play." Cora said to Rafel.
She noticed his withdrawal at her mention of him playing publicly, but he said nothing to stop her.
Corazón was still smiling. She stood now a feet away from Rafel.
A splash sounded as Aya swam for the edge of the pool. She began talking as she slithered in the water.
"Ah yes! I heard Feyfolk are suckers for good music. Especially folk songs. Something to do with their wild nature I guess. But you have only seen Lord Master play the piano..." Aya fluidly stepped out from waves of water. She was gloriously stark naked as she drew up to the ledge. "...wait till you see him sing."
Corazón did admire the Succubus' soft curves for a second before she turned her blue eyes to Rafel.
"Really, Your Grace! You sing too?! I would love to hear you sing with your deep voice. Will you sing for us? Please sing for us. It may not be today. But any other day."
Rafel's jaw was tight and he shot Aya a look. She promptly lowered her gaze, giggling to herself when he wasn't looking, as she drew on a colorful cashmere robe. The smouldering pits in Rafel's amber eyes said it would be a cold day in Hel before he sang—for anyone.
And Hell didn't have cold days. Except when Lucifer or Moloch decided they wanted an experience of earthly weather. And even then, the cold was never just cold. It was icy and biting, rattling many demons teeth and flaking their bat wings stiff.
"Here! Refill my cup!" Rafel held out his cup to Aya, growling.
The Succubus collected it with a waist dip and Rafel felt the urge to order her to walk naked to get it.
Aya was walking out in company of Corazón when a proficient loud banging caused them to freeze by the glass sliding doors that led out of the pool house. They both stopped in their strides, sexy hips pausing in their sashaying. With round eyes, each woman turned to Rafel.
"Expecting company, Your Grace?" Cora asked.
"No." Rafel shook his head. He pushed one hand into the pocket of his dark jeans.
"Her Eminence?" Cora asked again, meaning the goddess sleeping upstairs, Lilith.
"No."
Immediately, at Rafel's response in the negative, Corazón began chanting. She pulled on mana from her surrounding, calling dark magic to her.
"Lightning and Frost, To heed my call you must!
Thunder and Blizzard, Hear thee summons of a wizard!
To churn as a demon's frightly face, To burn as a Titan's dark grace!"
The air in the room spiked with a charge of magic that raised up the silvery hair on Cora's head. The blue in her eyes glowed until it shined out brightly from their sockets. Electricity hummed over her skin and it looked like her sleeping shorts was on fire.
Blue fire.
This new breeze blew out all the candles in the pool house for a second. And fresh fire blazed in Cora's open palms. Blue and raging, same as her eyes. Only then, did the candles reignite, as if by some invisible hand.
Rafel stood, with his hands still in his pockets, impressed.
The banging on the Manor's doors had not dwindled in fervor. The storm made the sounds harsher. The knocks were insistent and impatient. Whoever was behind the doors were either running from trouble. Or seeking one.
"Your Grace, I humbly ask that you remain here while I go find out who this intruder is. We've had the bloodsucking thief just a day past. Perhaps, this trespasser is like he. Strong, but stupid. The wards set up around the Manor are terrible towards any threat. Whomever is out there is not human."
While Corazón was yet speaking, Rafel bounded past her, already through the sliding door of the pool house. With balls of flame in both open palms, Cora rushed out with him into the expansive foyer, calling with worry.
"My Lord Grace! You should stay back for pro—"
But Rafel had already grabbed the ornate gold handles of the Manor's double doors, pulling in with no hesitation.
Rafel was no chicken. Pussy neither. He wasn't about to be one now.
A great cold and rushing gale swept in as the doors flew open and lightning flashed terribly in the black skies. The entire world was hallowed in eerie purple for a split second. And then darkness swiftly fell again. The following thunder made the doors rattle in Rafel's hands.
There's no one here.
Rafel stared out mutely across into the rain slashing beyond.
He was tall. So he didn't see the figure crumpled at his feet, shrouded in mystery and an oversized coat.
Not until Aya pointed down.
"Lord Master? There!"
When Rafel followed the path of her stretched hand pointing below, the redhaired Earl found the most delicate bundle of clothes staining the alabaster of his concrete steps with muddy water.
He let go of the door handles, regarding the bundle with narrowed yellow eyes.
He had no idea if it was male or female. For that's how he deigned to address this bundle. As 'it'. For a human could not break through his wards, he thought. This entity smelled like grass and embers, and had certainly walked a great mile in the rain. It's clothes were sodden stuck to its lean figure. It was wet to the bone.
The rain outside was furious. Flogging even.
Rafel didn't think a less determined soul could survive an hour of the storm.
If the beating rain didn't drive it to Charon's boat, the whipping cold surely would.
"Hey! You!" Rafel gave the bundle a small shove with his feet.
It whimpered at the contact. And the freezing touch on contact with his toes made Rafel wonder how this person had survived hours in the rain.
Slowly, the bundle of dirt and sludge lifted from its crouch by the Manor's steps. First thing Rafel noticed in it's rising was the pear-shaped mounds on its chest, peaked by tips the rainwater had glued to its slumping frame.
The next and most revealing, was the eyes.
Green as Gaia's fucking arse.
Greener than the sea floor.
Green like forever.
Rafel blanched.
'It' was a she. A smashing fraulein, by the looks of it.
It was a beautiful, soaked mess.
"Help, please. Help me, Apollyon." She croaked.
And then she slumped forward again on the steps. This time, she went still.
She had fainted.
It was the Apollyon bit in her sentence that got Rafel. This rain-soaked Belle, who Rafel hadn't stopped believing was a monster had called him by his Hel Rank. The young woman knew him not as Earl, but as Hell Lord.
"Get her in. Clean her up. Give her some bone broth. Let her sleep. And when she's awake, bring her to me!" Rafel commanded to Corazón.
The blue spurts of fire winked out from Cora's hands as she swiftly bowed to Rafel.
"Yes, Your Grace."
Aya Naamah was the one who gently keeled over and lifted up the small bundle of female to her shoulders. She wielded the girl like a blanket above her, noting how frail she was. Whatever the young woman was running from, it was a big one—to make her risk death in this cold.
Aya turned and started across the resplendent foyer to the stairwell beyond. She left Cora to close the doors and follow after her since Lord Master was already turned and walking quietly for his piano again.
Soon enough, sweet harpsichords echoed into the Manor from his music.
Corazón paused by the open door, looking over the Earl who had his head bent, fingers pushing at keys his eyes didn't look down at.
Rafel stared into the rainy night.
But from his rigid poise, Cora knew not to ask any questions. However, as she climbed up the grand staircase after Aya, she was certain of one thing—that the girl who had showed up this stormy night was not human. Because if she was, then she'd be in a heap of ash by the Manor's wrought-iron gates, killed by the dark wards on Emberfall.
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