Wrath James White presents Poisoning Eros I & II (30 page)

“I know you,” Gloria whispered, stepping closer to
the demon/angel, bringing her hand up until it touched his chin.
“Is it you?”

He nodded slightly.

“Can you talk?”

He shook his head.
No.

Gloria longed to hear his angelic voice, the
enigmatic voice of her former tormentor. His hideous appearance
could hide many things, but not his original nature. She remembered
how radiant he had looked when he’d first shrugged off his infernal
flesh and had reassumed his angelic form. It had obviously been a
mistake, one he had been paying for ever since.

“Cut him down!” she yelled. “Gently.”

Half a dozen arms carefully supported the mutilated
seraphim as they cut him down and lay him on the ground. Gloria
knelt beside him. “We’ll take care of you,” she said, taking his
clawed hand in hers. She owed him that much. He had saved her life
once, had sacrificed himself so that she might experience some
happiness. And this had been his reward: eternal torture and
damnation. That was about to end. Gloria would see to that.

Gloria stood over the angel/demon and stared down at
him. “Is he okay?” she asked no one in particular.

The woman beside her shook her head. “I have no
idea. There’s no way to—”

Gloria backhanded the woman, sending her flying off
her feet, sending her smashing into the wall several feet away.
“Remember who you are addressing!” she snapped, whirling to face
the group one at a time. “I am your god! Would you prefer Satan to
me? Would you prefer the torments of hell to my love? Then address
me as you would him!”

The group muttered apologies, and the woman Gloria
had attacked slowly climbed to her feet, wiping the blood from her
face and neck. “I’m sorry, Goddess. No disrespect intended.”

“And the angel?” Gloria asked again. “What can be
done for him?”

Everyone looked at Gloria but no one spoke. She’d
felt it was necessary to keep this group submissive, but now she
wondered if that had been a mistake. None of her followers acted as
if they would betray her. She wondered if spending time in hell had
made her paranoid.

“Someone answer,” she said. Still no one did. “You
may answer!”

“Well,” and this voice belonged to the same woman
Gloria had struck. Gloria was beginning to gain respect for this
woman. She had a set of stones on her. “It’s not like there’s an
infirmary here. Is there really any way of knowing? I mean, the
other demons don’t die … why would he?”

“Because he’s not a demon, not anymore.” Gloria
said. “He’s an angel, was an angel … a fallen angel who became a
demon. And then was redeemed … and so they did this to him, as
punishment. He apparently became a pet project,” she continued,
stroking his battered wing. “They’ve fucked him up pretty badly … I
don’t know if he’ll be able to recover. But I owe him. Help
him.”

Things had never been the same for her angel/demon,
the one who had spent what had felt like an eternity torturing her,
raping her, shredding the skin from her body over and over and
over. Yet he had shown remorse, had set her free. Had tried to
redeem himself from the pain he had inflicted, knowing that if he
failed, he would be punished. And he had failed. Heaven still had
not accepted him, and hell wanted him to pay.

“We’ll do the best we can, Goddess,” another
follower said, stepping up from the shadows. “We can stay with him.
Try to, I don’t know, nurse him back to health or something.”

“Fine,” Gloria said, nodding. “For now, the Lake of
Fire will be our home base, until we can figure out better
communications in this place. If you have any news you need to
report, get to the lake. If I’m not there, someone will always be
able to find me.”

“Yes, Goddess.”

The group dispersed, some carrying her angel/demon
to the shores, others … she didn’t know where the others were
going. She’d never asked, nor had she given directions. But they
set out purposefully, as if on a mission, and she felt that if she
asked, she would appear weak. How could she
not
know where
they were going, what they were doing? To ask would be ridiculous.
Still, this was unacceptable, this not knowing. Something she would
have to fix.

She moved through the tunnels, watching the
continuing slaughter, the onslaught of her people reducing hell to
scores of helpless demonic creatures.

“Vlad!” she yelled. If he was still loyal, he would
hear her. He would come. He was never far from her. Not unless he
was with the Masters.

Vlad appeared seconds later, and to her surprise
fell to his knees before her.

“Goddess,” he said. He stood up and grinned. “Have
to make it look good for the others, now don’t I?”

“Take me to the Masters,” she said, shaking her head
at his impudence. She
was
a goddess now. He should know
better than to display such arrogance and sarcasm.

“That’s … not such a good idea.”

“I didn’t ask for your opinion. I gave you a
command.”

“Look, lover. Things really aren’t all that
different. I don’t buy into your line of bullshit.” He crossed his
arms over his chest, his elbows resting on his massive gut. “You
may be
their
goddess, but you’re my bitch.”

Gloria backhanded Vlad and he went flying off his
feet, smashing headfirst into the wall. “You got the better of me
once, you fucking troll. Never again. I’ll have my people on you
faster than you could possibly imagine.”

The corridor seemed to breathe on its own with the
volume of humans spilling through the caverns. “I only have to say
the word and they’ll have you in a thousand pieces, scattered all
through hell.”

Vlad struggled to his feet and wiped the blood off
the gaping wound on his crushed cheekbone. “Fine,” he said, pig
eyes staring hard. “But you have to listen to me. It’s too soon to
go after the Masters.”

“Why?”

“You need a game plan.”

“And you have one.” Of course he would, she thought.
One where he would undoubtedly set her up, sacrifice her to the
Masters.

“You can’t face them alone.”

Gloria raised her arm, swept it across the cavern.
“Does this look like I’d be alone?”

Vlad shook his head, and then winced. “Them?!
They’re no match for the Masters! Even in mass numbers they
couldn’t win. The Masters aren’t ordinary demons, Gloria. They’re
gods.”

“And I’m a goddess.”

“These humans made you a goddess. The Masters have
always been as they are. One goddess fighting a dozen gods? Do you
really like those odds?”

“I don’t believe the Masters will fare any better
than the rest of these demons. Their might is in their cunning and
their seductiveness. They aren’t fighters.”

“Yes, and neither are you. You are as they are and
they’ve been at it far longer. Do you really want to bring all
these humans to meet the Masters? How long do you think it would be
before they wooed all your precious followers away from you? They
have been at this game for untold eons. You’re new to this. You
aren’t even very good at it yet. “

“But I have something they don’t. I represent
change. They’ve been running hell for untold eons, as you say. It’s
going to be hard for them to convince anyone that things would be
better staying as they are then with me in control, not after what
my fellow humans have seen and experienced here.”

Vlad looked her up and down.

“But they are not ‘your fellow humans.’ Not anymore.
You’re not human anymore, Gloria. You are just like the Masters
now, a god as you have anointed yourself. How are you going to
convince your humans that you are any different from the Masters?
And what makes you think you would be, with the reins of hell in
your hands? The power of billions of souls? Power corrupts and
ultimate power corrupts ultimately. As you said, you’re a god
now.”

Vlad was once again smiling that cocky vulture’s
grin that made her feel like she was something on the menu.

Gloria paused. What would she do with that much
power? What would she become? What had she already become?

“And what are you, Vlad? Are you a god?”

“I was created, same as you. Don’t you see? They can
take that away.”

“Then why haven’t they?”

Vlad opened his mouth but shut it quickly. He cocked
his head, as if considering her question.

“What I think,” Gloria said, “is that
they
think all of these souls were brought to hell by me to satisfy
their request. I also think they can’t undo what they’ve done to
me. They just figure they can keep me under control.”

“Or take the humans from you regardless of whether
you intended them to or not.

Like I told you, they are the master seducers, the
master planners, the master schemers and manipulators. They are
always ten steps ahead.”

“Either way, Vlad,” she said, stepping closer to
him. “I really need to see those

fuckers again. If I’m wrong … well, it’s better to
find out, now isn’t it? I’d hate to have false hope.” She smirked
at him. She was ready for this.

A young girl staggered forward. She was no more than
a teenager, with her face torn away, clawed down to the ectoplasmic
bone, slowly regenerating, her vagina a ragged bloody hole that
looked as if it had been cored out with a knife. “Goddess,” she
said, collapsing to her knees, “we have found the Masters.”

A chill raced up Gloria’s spine.

“Bring everyone.”

The other humans looked around, uncertain.

“Everyone?”

“I want every soul in hell here now! Send the word.
Bring them all!”

Vlad was still smiling, Gloria tried her best to
ignore him but she would have much rather smashed every tooth in
his face. Then she noticed something she hadn’t before. Vlad was
sweating. This was more than his usual unctuousness. Beads of
perspiration were rolling down his forehead.

The heat in the caverns had increased dramatically
by legions of damned souls. But the increased heat and humidity was
nothing for a demon, certainly nothing for a Master. Either Vlad
had not been made as she had been or he was nervous, more than
nervous, terrified.

The girl kneeling at Gloria’s feet pointed the way
and Gloria began to remember as they walked. It was all beginning
to look familiar. The millions of feet behind her sounded like
thunder as they marched through hell toward the Masters’ lair. They
rounded a corner and Gloria stopped dead in her tracks. Behind her,
her millions upon millions of marching feet came to an abrupt
halt.

“Gloria. My sweet, Gloria.”

That voice was like warm butter and honey and syrup
and it made Gloria’s legs weak. “Madria.”

The demoness stood alone in the corridor. Her arms,
all six of them, were spread in welcome. Her midnight skin made her
almost invisible in the darkness of the tunnel. The only thing
Gloria could see clearly was that smile, every bit a predatory as
Vlad’s but sensual in a way that Vlad’s could never be. Those
obsidian eyes reflected the little light in the tunnel and swirled
it across the surface of her retinas in that hypnotic kaleidoscope
of colors.

She came to Gloria and Gloria embraced her. They
kissed and Madria’s twin tongues slid into Gloria’s mouth, licking
her lips and tongue and then slipping out of her mouth and down her
body, over her nipples and between her thighs. Gloria moaned and
nearly swooned. Those smooth slippery hands overwhelmed her with
sensations of pleasure. Madria’s skin was somehow cool despite the
unfathomable heat of inferno. Her skin felt luxuriously soothing
against Gloria’s. Soon Gloria felt herself being carried away,
losing herself in the demoness’s embrace. Madria’s penis was slowly
pushing its way inside her, and Gloria wanted to feel it so badly,
wanted the beautiful demon to make love to her right there on the
floor. She reached up and grabbed Madria’s enormous breasts. The
nipples were as erect as the penis pressing against Gloria’s labia
and they were already dripping with sweet, creamy milk. Gloria
remembered how that milk had tasted, how gloriously intoxicating.
She wanted to suck them, drain them dry, while Madria’s hands and
tongues and beautiful throbbing hard cock brought her to orgasm
after orgasm. Then she heard the grumblings of the humans behind
her.

Vlad had been right, the Masters could turn this all
around in an instance and wrestle control of these souls away from
her unless she could show them she was not like the other demons.
Gloria backed away from that soft silken embrace before Madria
could penetrate her and held the beautiful ebon demon at arm’s
length.

“Madria, take us to the Masters.”

“Us?” Madria asked. “Are you with them?” she asked,
looking beyond Gloria at the battered and bleeding souls in varying
states of regeneration, amassed behind her. Madria laughed. “Or are
you with us?”

She embraced Gloria again, this time quickly running
her six hands over Gloria’s face, throat, breasts, and up between
her thighs.

Gloria shoved her away again with all her mental and
emotional might. “No! Take us to them now! Or I’ll have them tear
you apart.”

“Still choosing everyone else over me, Mother?”

“What did you just say?”

“You heard me, Mother. Don’t you recognize your own
flesh and blood?” Madria asked, stepping back so that Gloria could
get a better look at her. “Although truthfully, none of my flesh or
my blood is what it once was. I doubt we share a single cell in
common any longer.”

“Angela?”

“Oh, not anymore. Not for a very long time and not
ever again. But yes, that’s who I was. Now, I am Madria, your
lover, a Master of the inferno.”

“You’re a pawn, same as always, Angela. And I have
no more time to waste on you and your games. Take me to the Masters
or I will order my people to rip you apart.”

“But don’t you want to fuck me again?” She began to
laugh and Gloria smacked her to the floor. Madria rose quickly and
charged, and Gloria merely stepped aside and let the humans engulf
her, sucking her into their midst and dragging her back into the
tunnels, where more and more humans stretched for hundreds of miles
through the caverns. Madria struggled and fought, but the farther
back into the tunnels she was dragged the weaker she became as the
humans dismembered her bit by bit as they passed her along. Her
screams were terrible and seemed to go on without end.