The Last Exorcist

Author’s Notes

This will (probably) be a 2-3 part series.

Enjoy this first part and Happy Halloween. As always, thanks for reading 🙂

***

Belial watched a young woman come through the make-shift door as he sat perched high above on a smashed roof of the ruined building. It had been converted into what now passed for a dingy bar and its patrons sat hunched, mostly in silence, as they nursed their precious alcohol to dull the pain.

“Lexa,” he murmured, leaning down a bit more for a better look below, careful to stay in the shadows and not reveal himself.

From beyond the twinkle of the haphazardly strung Christmas lights, he saw that she was dirty, bloodied and fresh from a fight. The faint scent of blood on her — demon blood–wafted up, even this far above. It didn’t surprise him; she was the last of her kind in this dying world, human world.

“They’re all cleared out.” Belial heard Lexa say tiredly to a grizzled man at the make-shift bar. It was just a long plank of dirty metal held up with the charred remains broken cinder blocks. “My payment?”

The old man looked at her for a moment. His mocking laugh started low and rang louder.

“She wants her payment!”

The other men around her joined in, and crazy-eyed, doddering old women in rags cackled. Her eyes narrowed and dirty little children scurried out of sight like small animals who knew that a disaster was coming.

“Something to eat and something to drink isn’t too much to ask.” Lexa said coolly. “We had a deal…”

“I’ll give you something to eat!” one of the men sneered, obscenely grabbing his crotch with one hand as he reached out to grab her with the other.

Belial watched as Lexa deftly wove away from the man, and snake-swift, her hand went to the whip curled at her hip. It unfurled with a quick snap of her wrist. The man who’d tried to grab her, screamed as he held his bloodied hand.

“You ungrateful bastards!” Lexa hissed, her wrists rolling and twitch, daring for someone else to come at her.

Belial raised an eyebrow, intrigued by the whip she wielded. He had heard many rumors about how she favored that weapon, and for the first time in a very long time since his exile, he felt the first embers of desire begin to burn in him.

“Get her!” another man growled.

“Go to hell!” she barked, defiant, as others moved to try grabbing her.

Lexa reached behind her and Belial thought that she might pull the shotgun from its sheath that rode low on her back. To his surprise, she pulled another whip, she became a deadly dance of black tendrils. The snap of supple leather lashing out at the men who attacked her, was music to his ears, his cock growing hard at the sound of it.

Fury lit Lexa’s blood; she hated these ungrateful people almost as much as the demons she slew to protect the likes of them. She kicked a man away as she cracked one whip across the tender flesh of the neck of another. Her whips came around in deadly arcs, as she laid two more low.

By the time she was done, the floor was a mess of moaning, bloodied men, as she wound her whips back up, disgusted.

Belial’s wings rustled excitedly behind him and a smile tugged at the corner of his glacially pale mouth. Lexa’s powerful display had left him nearly breathless, his lips slightly parted, exhaling ragged breaths. She hadn’t used any magic at all, and he could only imagine what she was like when she was on the hunt. Lexa was every bit the furious grace Belial sought and he watched as Lexa backed out the door and into the night.

****

This was a hard life, Lexa knew that. Everything was hard after the Fall, everything was scarce and crumbling, including people keeping their word. She’d made vows to fight for humanity, but it seemed that humanity never recovered. Vows aside, she wondered why she still did this at all.

She shook her head as she hurried in and out of shadows cast by the frost light of the moon. Twisted, skeletal remains of steel that that hand once been buildings, loomed threateningly as she hurriedly passed them by.

“Lexa…,” a sonorous, masculine voice intoned, her name reverberating through the air.

She stopped abruptly in the middle of the blasted street, unable to tell which direction it came from. Lexa reach for the shotgun then, barely twisting away as something tried to grab her. Lexa felt the demonic presence, dark and cloying now, as she hefted the shotgun up to aim. The barrel was roughly carved with arcane sigils and they glowed a faint blue in the night.

Out of the corner of Lexa’s eye, she saw a dark shape dodge past her. She turned abruptly, trying to train the shotgun on it. It was too dark for her to see what was moving around her.

Is this how I die? she wondered vaguely.

Lexa always asked herself that; ironically it was her lucky charm. She lightly pulled the trigger back on the shotgun, ready.

“Fiat lux,” she muttered and a bright ball of light sprang up at her shoulder, casting its strange, bluish witch light around her immediate radius.

Lexa turned slowly, shotgun still up and ready, not seeing anything around her. She felt days of hunger gnawing at her stomach and the weight of little to no sleep crashing down on her. Lexa briefly wondered if she was hallucinating.

No,she thought, gritting her teeth and forcing herself to focus. No–something called my name, damn it..,

Lexa reluctantly started to drop her guard and the dark shape that she had glimpsed before, was nearly on her. She jumped back, shotgun raised, the business end of it started to fiercely glow with arcane energy. It was a demon–the biggest one she’d seen in a while. It probably stood seven or eight feet to her five.

“Lexa,” he intone, once more. “I mean you no harm.”

There was a rustling in the shadows, and the demon emerged, dark wings behind him.

“Right,” she snapped. “Just like I don’t mean to put a bullet through you, and send you back to hell!”

Fiery–Belial liked that, but there was something else, something more potent in the air around Lexa. He inhaled slightly, catching the rich scent of her arousal underneath all the aggression and fear. The fight she’d just been in at the make-shift bar had done something for her, but he sensed something old, something unfulfilled about it.

“Such a vulgar thing,” Belial murmured, gesturing to the shotgun with a clawed finger. “I rather prefer you use the whips.”

Lexa pulled the trigger without another thought. The demon leaped, as the shot rang out and she heard the rustle of large wings over head. She turned abruptly only to find him behind her and she leveled the shotgun at him again.

The demon was close enough now that Lexa saw his unearthly beauty. His bare, glacially pale chest was taught with wiry muscle. Deep, crimson hair spilled around black, curling horns and down past his shoulders. It was his eyes that held Lexa in that moment. Those chilling, alluring eyes amber with black sclera and the pupils where ringed in a dark, bloody scarlet.

A Noble of Hell? The demon had to be a Noble of Hell. He was a far cry from the ugliest of demons that roamed around here on earth. He was far too pretty to be anything else. The Nobles were largely legend — rumor and hearsay. Lexa had never actually seen one or known anyone who had ever seen one, and lived to tell about it.

“I mean you no harm, Lexa.”, the demon repeated, taking a tentative step closer to her. “I have a proposal for you.”

The closer he got to her, the more he sensed her arousal sharpen. Perhaps this could work out for both of them.

“That’s close enough,” Lexa snapped, her finger on the shotgun’s trigger again. ” I don’t make deals with demons. I kill them.”

“That’s precisely why I’m here.” the demon said, “I need you…”

Lexa laughed — she actually laughed at him. This demon could rip her throat out before she even uttered a ward of protection. Yet, he only looked at her with a vague smile on his face.

The demon saw that she was ragged and tired, no doubt hungry, and bordering on hysteria of some sort. He reached out to stroke away some of her short, dark hair from her face when she dropped the shotgun, grabbed for her whip, and unfurled it with a snap of her wrist. There was a faint arcane glow to the black leather as it lanced out and snapped the demon across his arm.

“Don’t touch me,” she growled.

Lexa glanced up at the chilly moon over head that wasn’t quite full. Had they finally figured out that she was tied to the moon? Had they sent a demon to try and seduce her? She felt that ever-present, nagging ache between her legs, the one that she was constantly forced to deny. The longer she looked on the demon’s unholy beauty, the harder it was for her to resist. Guilt and repulsion washed over her and she steeled her resolve.

The demon recoiled as the sweet sting of her arcane lash burned his arm. A faint violet welt started to rise and he smiled darkly at her, showing his fangs.

“Ah…,” he purred, his own ardor sparked all over again. “There it is. Such prowess; your reputation with the whip is not undeserved. I need you, Lexa. I need your…protection.”

“You’ve got to be joking” Lexa uttered harshly, as her wrist rolled idly, her whips dancing in the dirt like an anxious snake ready to strike.

“I’m quite serious, Exorcist. I require your services.”

This was madness! There was a demon in front of Lexa, requesting her protection. She cracked her whip again, catching him across his bare chest. He hissed, baring his fangs, the searing pain only served to feed his growing cock, as he was driven further back by the magic she channeled through her whip.

“What must I do to gain your trust, Lexa?,” he growled.

Her scent was palpable all around him now, and the arcane energy that pulsed through her whip, he realized was fueled by her angry arousal.

“There’s nothing you can say,” Lexa said through gritted teeth, as she raised her whip again, “that would make me trust you.”

“Belial”, the demon said suddenly, before Lexa could strike him again.

“Belial?” Lexa uttered, confused, jumping back as she drew her other whip. “What the hell?”

The demon’s name resonated around her with a force all its own as he fell to his knees. He’d given up his true name; a demon would sooner die than give up their true name. To give it up, meant to give power over them.

“Please,” Belial growled, deep and sensuous from his chest. His large, clawed hand took hold of Lexa’s thigh, pulling himself closer to her “I need you…”

The heady scent of Lexa’s arousal combined with the divine pain that she had inflicted on him, made him want her all the more as he rubbed his pale cheek against the top of her leg. Belial ached to feel the flesh beneath the cloth and his claws curled into the side of her thigh a little harder.

Lexa’s mouth hung open, as she looked down at the demon, deeply confused by his behavior. She saw his hard cock jutting out of the dark wrap around his waist that no longer hid it. The shaft was slightly curved and the conical head was elegantly tapered with three pronounced ridges just below it. A long line of delicious bumps on the underside, running from small to large all the way down to the base. The base, itself was a sinful set of thick ripples that begged to be fucked.

Her breath caught at the sight of Belial’s cock, and Lexa was mortified at how incredibly wet she got for the demon. Lexa tried to push him away but he clung to her, desperate to feel her flesh just as much as she was desperate to feel him inside her.

“Belial,” Lexa cried out sharply, “Let go!”

The arcane power of Belial’s own name sang through his blood as it passed over her lips. There was pleasure and pain as he moaned and was made to bend to her will. Lexa watched as he sat on his knees, head tossed back in the moonlight. His hard, aching cock was completely exposed, and flushed dark a purple at the tip. The sharpness of Lexa’s command was exquisite, combined with the power of his name, and he growled fiercely as he came.

Belial’s head snapped forward and hung there, as he remained kneeling in front of Lexa. He panted hard, his wings rustling uncontrollably from his violent release.

“Lexa,” he murmured, shaking as he looked up at her with those infernally beautiful eyes that still smoldered with desire. “Mistress…”

It almost sent Lexa over herself, but she gritted her teeth and bit the inside of her lip against her orgasm. She looked up at the moon and took a deep breath. She couldn’t–not yet, or she’d be compromised.

One thing was certain: Belial was frighteningly serious. It troubled Lexa that there might was something out there that had driven this demon to seek her out. Lexa was overwhelmed then, from hunger, from exhaustion and lust. The stars that she looked up at, swam in front of her eyes, and she abruptly collapsed into darkness.

****

Lexa slept for days as Belial watched over her. The Exorcist collapsed in the street two nights before, exhausted. When he’d come back to his senses, he gathered her up in his arms and found a safe place for her to rest. Belial need Lexa; he wasn’t about to leave her there in the street, prey for something else.

He knelt next to what passed for a bed and smelled the scent of desire that still clung to her, even through her clothes and the tattered blanket that he’d found and wrapped her up in. Lexa was suffused with it, and Belial idly wondered why she had denied herself the release he knew she craved.

Belial dipped to down to Lexa for a moment, his black, leathery wings curving around her, as he barely traced the arc of her soft neck with his nose. He longed for Lexa to speak his name again, for her to command him, and most of all, to feel the exquisite pleasure brought on by the pain of her whip.

Lexa murmured something in her sleep, turning over on her side and setting her face to face with Belial. He was inches away from her soft lips, aching to kiss and nip at them with his fangs. He lightly ran his claws through her dark hair and Lexa stirred. She woke and uttered a cry at the sight of Belial above her.

“What… What happened?,” Lexa asked, abruptly sitting up and pulling the thin blanket around her as tight as she could. “Where am I? What did you do to me?”

“You collapsed in the street.,” Belial said simply. “You’ve been sleeping. I’ve done nothing to you, Mistress–you’re safe, I assure you.”

“Don’t call me that.”, Lexa muttered, annoyed. The events of the last time she was conscious were still somewhat hazy. “I’m not your damned Mistress. What do you want from me?”

Belial remained at the side of the bet before Lexa as he leaned a little closer toward her.

“I told you, I need your protection.”

“Like hell you do!” she snapped.

“My father’s kingdom was subjugated by a ruthless succubus and her army.,” Belial said, ignoring Lexa’s outrage. “As long as I’m alive, even in exile, there’s always the chance that I could take back what is rightfully mine.”

“What do I care?”, Lexa said as she pushed away from Belial. There was some clean water in a container nearby and she shimmied out of her pants intent on some of the blood off them and herself. “Kill each other. Leaves less work for me.”

Belial stood for a moment, as he watched Lexa wrap the small blanket around her waist, unwilling to expose herself too much to him. She was strangely beautiful when she was angry, but a frown darkened his handsome face. Even though he had given Lexa his true name, she still resisted the power that he’d bestowed on her over him.

“How long was I out,” Lexa asked curtly as she washed her face, arms and legs before she turned to her pants.

“You slept through two days.”

The demon Prince slowly came behind Lexa as she worked. She turned abruptly and found herself caged between Belial and the ruined wall. His large arms were to the sides of her and she gazed up at his his infernal beauty. Lexa’s pants dropped from her hands, momentarily forgotten. She swallowed hard, and there was a nervous, audible click in her throat.

“You want me, ” Belial growled, low and dark, in her ear, his wings instinctively curving around Lexa. ” I saw the way you looked at my cock, the way you wanted to come. I smelled how close you were then. I can smell you now… Do you want to come? You must be so wet and aching between those pretty legs of yours…”

“Belial!”

Belial snarled and his ebony claws dug into crumbling plaster. His cock started to harden at the harsh sound and the power of his name on her lips. Lexa ducked under the demon’s rigid arms and darted away from him. Belial still had his claws in the wall, as his breath came in heavy gasps, and she saw his turgid cock already pushing aside the wrap at his waist. The longer Lexa started, the more a familiar, perverse lust stabbed at her.

The moon is still full, Lexa thought absently as she glanced out the window. I could…

Belial turned his head just enough to see Lexa standing there staring at him, her eyes hazed with a pent-up desire that he knew all too well. Lexa’s brow furrowed and she suddenly shook her head.

Belial pulled himself away from the wall and walked towards her, his wings slightly out and Lexa couldn’t tear her eyes from him.

No, not with him–not with a demon!

“I gave you my name.,” Belial intoned quietly, holding out a glacially pale hand to her “I’m yours to do with as you desire, Mistress. All I ask is that you help me in return.”

The demon Prince slowly walked towards her, his wings rustling slightly behind him.

“Stop, Belial. Stop!”

Belial immediately stopped. She stared up at him, and her breath caught in her chest. His amber eyes glittered in the dim moonlight, streaming brightly through the window. Something in Lexa wanted to reach out and stroke his curling, ebony horns, to run her hands over his flesh, feel the curve of his wings around her, to feel all of him around her, inside her.

“On your knees.”, she managed, barely aware of her own voice.

Belial grunted softly as he sank to his knees before Lexa, moved by her abrupt command and the arcane demand of his name. Her eyes roamed over Belial, inch by glorious, devious inch. A demon Prince who had given himself over to her, now knelt at her feet. The thought of it made her ache more fervently between her legs and her clit throbbed, begging to be touched. A gasp escaped her lips, and she tentatively reached out to touch those magnificent, ebony horns, only to snatch her hand away.

“Mistress…” Belial murmured, sensing Lexa’s intense spike of arousal. He reached out for her, his hand wantonly sliding down the side of her hip and down to her bare legs. Belial gasped softly at the feel of her warm skin against his palm.

Lexa’s body was taught and begging for his cock, her breath heated and heavy. She wanted, needed him, but she was repulsed by it at the same time. Lexa stared down at Belial for a moment. She had spent so much time killing demons, that she couldn’t possibly take what he wanted to give her, could she?

“Make yourself…,” Lexa whispered finally, as she thought of how Belial had looked in the moonlight, his head thrown back in feral ecstasy that had made her throb with such demanding lust. “Make yourself come, Belial. I want to see you come…”

Lexa stared, transfixed as the demon obeyed and wrapped a pale, taloned hand around his flushed, ridged cock. Belial’s beautiful black and amber eyes slipped shut as he worked it a little faster. Lexa’s breath came harder, now, as she felt her swollen clit throb at the sight of the demon’s display, and Belial growled at the rich, musky scent that drifted from between her thighs. It only provoked him more, and Lexa watched as he hissed and bared his fangs. He clutched, needy, at her thigh, his face twisted in the self-pleasure she commanded.

“I want to touch you,” Belial begged between clenched teeth as he reached up towards the swell of Lexa’s pert breasts that were peeking out of the top of her tank top. “Let me feel you, Mistress!”

“No,” she breathed sharply, stepping back from him slightly, his hand falling to her hip and leg.

Belial snarled as he brutally fisted his aching cock hard and fast. Lexa suddenly felt hot gouts of come splash against her leg and she let out a soft, strangled moan as she came with him, untouched, just like she wanted to when she had watched Belial come in the middle of the blasted street. He looked up at Lexa and grinned, panting, as she backed away from him, but she didn’t look at him. Belial sensed the chaotic torrent of conflict in her, of hating that she had enjoyed him making her come with his display.

“Get up…,” Lexa muttered, shaking, as she picked her pants up from the floor where she had dropped them.

She’d had her release, but it wasn’t enough for her, Belial knew and not for him either. From the darkness in the rafters high above, neither was aware of the two softly glowing eyes that watched them before they winked out.

****

“I found him!” the imp chattered with glee as it hovered near Keziah. “I saw the exiled Prince open a gate to a place that humans once called New York. He was carrying a human woman; a most tasty looking pet!”

“Was she the one?” the demoness snapped, as she restlessly paced across the floor.

“Lady?”

She turned, easily snatching the imp out of the air by his neck, her empty, black eyes boring into it.

“Was she the one?,” Keziah snarled, as she started to squeeze the life from the imp.

“I,” it choked. “I saw it… on her back–the red Exorcist’s crescent! Saw it while she slept!”

“What else did you see?,” she demanded, as she abruptly let go of the imp and it fell unceremoniously to the floor.

“The Exorcist commanded him,” the imp said, his voice quavering.

Keziah let out a roar of rage. The sheer force of it caused an obsidian pillar in her dark, opulent suite to buckle and shatter. The imp was thrown back against another of the elegantly carved pillars, and slid to the floor. It struggled weakly to get up as the demoness’ tantrum subsided.

“Belial gave her his true name!,” the demoness hissed. “He’s desperate for allies… Just like the son of Sescael to associate with filthy humans. That whole House always had a perverse liking for them. Sescael’s whole line was tainted with human blood even before the Great Rift was opened to their world.”

Keziah smoldered as the spike heal of her sleek, thigh-high, leather boots clicked across the marble floor. Belial had found the human Exorcist, and to started bind himself to her. If he managed to get her to fuck him of her own free will, he’d have a powerful ally. The two of them together, would cause much chaos and destruction if he managed to turn her to his cause.

“They must be destroyed at all costs…,” she murmured harshly. “I’ll put an end to them both.”

The demoness roughly picked the imp up off the ground and threw him into the portal she’d summoned. Belial had escaped her once, when she conquered his father, Sescael’s, realm and he’d evaded capture many times since.

Keziah was going to wipe out this New York and everything in it. Not even Belial’s little Exorcist could save him this time.

****

Lexa searched the pockets of her pants and found one more cigarette. She considered lighting it, as she sat on the wide ledge of a large, shattered, dingy window. The place that the demon had chosen had no doubt been a fine hotel room or spacious apartment once upon a time. The taste of stale food that Belial had managed to find, lingered on her tongue but at least her belly was full for now.

She watched the full moon rise over the decimated city. The broken buildings cast shadows like aged tombstones in a forgotten cemetery as the moon managed to peek through the heavy gray clouds. The cigarette was halfway to her lips when Lexa thought against having it.

Better save it for later… Can’t get anymore of these. Lexa thought, as she errantly stuffed it back into a pocket.

She supposed where she was, didn’t matter now. Lexa didn’t know what she was going to do about this demon, Belial, either. Lexa scowled at that as she looked up at the moon and, not for the first time, cursed the Order of the Red Crescent.

I gave you my name. I’m yours to do with as you desire, Mistress., she recalled in Belial’s dark, bewitching voice All I ask is that you help me in return.

Lexa recalled Belial’s delicious display that she had commanded of him. He’d made her come and she hadn’t even touched herself. Lexa cheeks burned hot with a shameful, lust-induced blush.

I get three nights out of the month to come without compromising my magic, if that, when I’m not hiding or fighting. She berated herself, The first night I get in months, I waste it getting off by watching a demon!

Lexa pushed some of her short, dark hair behind her ears. As ashamed as she was, Belial’s obedience to her proved that she did hold some sort of power over him with his name, now.

“Why should I even help you…,” Lexa muttered to herself, as she looked down on the dark city.

“Because all of this,” Belial said quietly, as he appeared at her side and gestured out the window. “is dead.”

Lexa looked up at him, her hazel eyes cold, mouth set in a hard line.

“It’s because of your kind!”, Lexa hissed. “You demons came through and killed everyone, everything in your path. You destroyed my home, my world!”

“I was in exile during the Fall, trying to evade the succubus that destroyed my father’s house. I had precious little time to be concerned with humans. For what it’s worth… I did not approve of what happened here. What demons did when they crossed over to here.”

“It’s not worth a lot.” she scowled and made disgusted noise.

Lexa looked away from the demon then and up at the night sky. She felt Belial’s hand settle lightly on her shoulder but did not move to brush it off. There was a scent about him, something vaguely sweet mixed with an earthy musk, and unbidden, it provoked a wanton warmth low, and deep inside her again. Lex squeezed her thighs together but it brought little relief.

“The fact remains,” Belial said softly, bending to Lexa’s ear now, “that your cause is lost. Humans don’t care about what you risk for them, what you strive to try and give back to them. Most of all, they have no respect for the kind of power that you wield. You were right to teach those people in the last city about how to respect you. I rather enjoyed watching you punish them.”

“I was only defending myself,” Lexa murmured, as she breathed in Belial’s scent. It was strangely comforting to her and for a moment, she allowed herself to give into it.

“You wouldn’t have had to if they had respected you. They hate you because you are strong and they can’t defend themselves like you can. When was the last time your services were appreciated, Exorcist?”

Lexa didn’t know. As much as she hated to admit it, the demon had a point.

“Freehold–there were good people there.” Lexa mused sadly.” They had respect for what I did for them, but they’re gone now, all gone.”

She stared at the stars for a moment. There weren’t too many places that she roamed anymore. The Midwest was a wasteland where nothing lived, the West out where Vegas had once been a playground was home to nomad tribes of cannibals and after she had nearly fallen prey to them, she swore that she would never set foot in the West again. The South was overrun too much for even her to handle alone which only left the North and East for her to try and save and it wasn’t very much.

How much more good could she do? Maybe Belial was right, maybe this world was dead and there was nothing she could do about it anymore. She was so tired of trying save this corpse of a world, tired of the sacrificing. So damned tired.

“I could appreciate you, Mistress,” Belial murmured, his nose inches away from nuzzling Lexa’s neck. “If you let me.”

Lexa sighed, annoyed, and half-heartedly pushed the demon away with more ire than she felt, but it only heightened Belial’s ardor for her.

“Why do you feel ashamed of your desire for me?” Belial asked quietly, “You enjoyed watching me pleasure myself, commanding me. It made you come…”

Lexa drew her knees up to her chest, but she did not look up at the demon Prince. Instead, she kept her eyes on the stars as their pin-prick light drifted in and out of the heavy clouds.

“You’re a demon,” she said finally, trying to hide the tremor in her voice. “I spent a lot of time killing demons; I saw all the horrific things they did. I can’t…”

Belial slipped two fingers under Lexa’s chin and gently raised her face to his. His dark, amber eyes were apologetic and sincere. Their surprising gentleness held her gaze for a moment.

“I’m not them. I’m not that kind of demon,” he said simply, as onyx claws combed through Lexa’s dark hair. “You enjoyed yourself–that’s nothing to be ashamed of. Who will judge you in this bygone world? No one.”

“My vows,” Lexa croaked, her throat suddenly tight.

“Vows,” the demon Prince sighed, as his wings came around to lightly drape themselves over Lexa’s shoulders. “It sounds more like torture, to live in shame and deny your desires. Surely, that is more of a hell…”

You have no idea, Lexa thought, allowing herself to have a moment of comfort with his wings around her.

“I’ll do it.” Lexa murmured finally, as she abruptly pushed past, Belial’s leathery wings and slid down from the large window sill. She paused for a moment and ran a hand over her face; it stopped to cover her mouth, as though it were trying to keep her words in. “I’ll help you and then we’re done. What else am I going to do now?”

“Thank you, Mistress.,” Belial said, inclining his head, his majestic horns tipping up.

Lexa wasn’t even aware of the slight smile that touched the demon Prince’s lips.

****

After a few hours of uneasy sleep in the crumbling building they inhabited, Belial opened a shadowy rift in the room and they passed through to the dead city below. Lexa stepped out from beneath the shelter of Belial’s wings, and into the cool night air, thankful not to be so close to him again.

Ever since he had given her his name, he seemed to taunt her, to tempt her by being as near to her as possible. It tortured her just as much as it tortured him, and she wondered idly, if he provoked her on purpose. He must know that she couldn’t stand it

“So do you have a plan?”, Lexa asked, as she checked that her whips were in place. She hadn’t bothered with the shot gun. Her last few shells had been wasted on Belial and all she had now were two whips and a seven foot demon at her command–mostly.

We’ll have to rely on each other, Lexa thought, annoyed, Great.

“We go to Menasha, which is just outside of Abaddon. Once there, we’ll join with my army and–”

“Wait a minute! The deal was that I’d protect you.” Lexa turned to Belial, furious. “You didn’t say anything about going to Hell! You said you were in exile!”

Belial stepped to her, towered over her, practically, but Lexa stood deliciously defiant in his shadow.

“It’s not Hell, itself.” he said quietly. “Think of Hell as what you humans would call a… capital city in the center of the netherworld. Abaddon is a layer outside of that realm, and there are many layers…”

“Going to a suburb of Hell, doesn’t make it better!”

“You’ll ensure my safety, Exorcist–you gave your word.

Lexa exhaled hard. She did say that she would help him, and she cursed the fact that she hadn’t asked for anymore details before she had agreed. She assumed that since Belial was in exile, other demons were hunting him. She hadn’t expected to get dragged into a demon’s war. The humans already had their war, they lost and she was damned tired of war as it was.

“So let me get this straight: you want to drag me off to someplace outside of Hell so I can protect you during whatever coup you’ve managed to plan while you’ve been in exile so you can retake you realm or house, or whatever?”

“You are the last, most important piece in my army, Mistress.”, Belial murmured, as he stepped closer still, his wings curving around Lexa slightly. “I’ve sought you for a long time. I need you to preserve me during this battle. Quite simply, you’re my Champion, my chosen Champion for the House of Sescael.”

Belial brushed the back of his cool hand across her cheek and Lexa pulled away from him.

“No. No way.”, she muttered. “I do this for you, and then we’re done. I’m not your Mistress and I’m sure as hell not your Champion!”

Suddenly, Lexa caught the stink of rotting flesh in the air and the grave and she felt something grab at her leg.

“What the–”

She couldn’t move and Lexa looked up to see a wicked looking scythe materialize in Belial’s hands. The blade was such a deep crimson, that it was nearly black, and it blazed with dark hellfire as the scent of ozone pierced the air.

“You fucking bastard!”, she screamed at him as she went for her whips. Belial’s scythe came down as she unfurled them.

He’s going to kill me!

There was a flash of crimson near her leg before she could even act, and she felt herself jerked away from the spot where she’d been rooted to. Lexa landed awkwardly against the hard, bare muscle of Belial’s torso. When she looked up at him, his handsome face was twisted in a snarl as he held the scythe out before them. Lexa turned around in his arm to see by the unholy light that his scythe threw across the dark city ruins and she saw clawed hands dragging their corpses out of the ground.

“Keziah!”, Belial hissed as he released Lexa.

Lexa summoned her own bluish witch light and saw that the corpses stretched out for as far as her eye can see.

“We’ll talk about her later!”, Lexa snapped. There was a sudden crack as the Exorcist let one of her whips fly. It glowed with blue fire down its whole length as it sheared one of the zombies in half with an amazing show of force.

Behind her, Belial stood to her back and swung his hellish scythe. Lexa could hear it scream as though it cut through the air, and tore through the first line of undead. The sheer force of his swing leveled the next few rows and they struggled to get up from the crushing blow.

Lexa saw the path he’d started out of the corner of her eye. If she could get in there while they were down and clear them out, they might have a chance at clearing a path. She darted away from Belial and tried to grab her, but she deftly sidestepped his grasp as she made for the hole he tore in the undead.

“Belial! Swing that thing again!” she yelled through the moans and shrieks of the sea of undead. She heard that scream go through the air and knew that he was right behind her.

Lexa got herself roughly in the middle of the fallen and snapped her way through some of the ones that were spilling over, eager to rend the flesh from her bones.

“Eloha Elah Elohim!” she chanted, swinging one of her whips in a bright, glowing circle around her.

Lexa’s whip glowed bright, pulsing with the same sort of energy and potent arousal that Belial had sensed before. The circle suddenly exploded out from her and washed over the undead like a wave. Ash fluttered in the air where the dead had been and Belial instinctively closed his wings around himself against the shockwave. He felt himself being pushed back even though the force wasn’t nearly enough to hurt him. When he opened his wings again, he saw that Lexa was a flurry of snapping leather as she laid into the undead around her.

The demon Prince was at her side again, and she had nearly caught him with one of her whips. Lexa looked over her shoulder briefly as he loomed over her with his scythe.

“They just keep coming! There’s no way we can get through all of them!” She yelled above the din of moaning, thrashing dead.

Belial quickly looked around as Lexa sheered pieces off one walking corpse after another. Out of the corner of his eye, He glimpsed a figure high up on one of the buildings. Lexa screamed and Belial saw an undead shred one of her arms with its viscous claws. Belial wrapped a wing around her and more claws skittered off, as the dead surged forth at the smell of the Exorcist’s blood.

With unimaginable, infernal strength, he grabbed Lexa and threw her up towards the night sky. For a moment, Lexa seemed to float and she saw the same figure that Belial had seen on one of the roof tops. Undead swarmed Belial, and Lexa panicked as she fell towards the earth again. She watched, helpless, as the demon Prince swung his scythe, making another huge hole in the dead ranks. He vanished and she felt something hard catch her in the stomach, knocking the wind out of her. Belial had snagged her out of the sky and she couldn’t even cry out at the jolt that hurt her arm more as he winged over the tops of the buildings, high above the sea of snarling, raging undead.

“You’re hurt.” Belial said, feeling Lexa’s blood wet his arm.

“Yeah, I’m human!”, she snapped as pain shot up her arm and through

her shoulder. “I’m a little fragile! I saw something on the roof–Keziah, maybe? Let’s get this finished, already!”

“You’re useless to me hurt!” he growled. “Or dead.”

“I don’t do things half-assed, demon!”

Rage flowed off her, and he felt it just as intensely as he felt her arousal before. The rumors he’d heard said that Lexa was good, excellent, even, but none of them had mentioned that she was mad.

“We get rid of her, and get the hell out of here! I’m not leaving a horde of zombies run rampant!”

“Another time!” Belial argued.

“Damn it, Belial I said we finish this!”

The demon Prince snarled his objection even as he changed course against his will. Keziah, if it was her, was not one to be trifled with. There was a reason Belial had spent all this time running and hiding from her. She was powerful, and Lexa didn’t understand that, or maybe she did, and she didn’t care. He felt her squirm out of his grasp as he flew lower and she dropped to the ruined rooftop with a bone-jarring thud as she grit her teeth against the pain of her arm. Adrenaline was starting to kick in again, and her pain already started to fade.

The demoness turned to see the Exorcist there, bloodied and her whips twitching defiant and anxious to dispatch her.

“Keziah!,”, Lexa yelled, checking the weight of her name. It didn’t resonate like Belial’s had; there was no hope of using it against her.

“Ah.,” the demoness smirked. “The Prince’s newest pet.”

“I’m no one’s pet,” Lexa spat.

“You’d think that, little one.”

Keziah saw Belial drop down behind Lexa, scythe drawn, and her smirk broadened.

“Getting a human to fight your battles, these days? It isn’t enough to take them to your bed anymore, is it, my Prince?,” Keziah sneered “Your line is truly an abomination!”

“Traitor!,” Belial snarled “You betrayed my father, your Lord and Master!”

“It was a most delicious betrayal,” the demoness laughed. “At least he still had the taste for his own kind!”

Before Lexa could act, Belial let out such an inhuman roar that it made her blood curdle, as he surged forward, scythe in hand, ready to strike Keziah down. Lexa watched in muted horror as the demoness simply waved a hand and sent Belial through the low concrete wall of the roof and into the next building.

Should’ve listened to Belial, Lexa thought numbly, as she looked back at the demoness. Her hands tighten on the familiar leather of her whip’s handles. If she was going to go, she was going to go out with a fight.

“Just you and me now…” Lexa spat with more confidence than she felt.

“I’ll enjoy tearing your flesh apart!”, Keziah hissed.