Chronicles of the Fallen: Layers

by brenli

7 years after the events of 'Improper Guardian,' Heaven finds itself threatened with another violent rebellion... involving a deadly masked woman who has plans for something more devastating than even the Dragonmaster of Gehenna could predict.

21. Chapter 20

Authoress Notes: Language Lesson – Appa: (Korean) Dad.

Umma: (Korean) Mom.

I am pretty sure I already listed those words earlier in the story; however, a refresher can't hurt...!

Layers

Chapter Twenty

By: Brenli and Jael

Jinho was surprised that he was still alive. He found himself lying in bed, impossibly dark eyes opening to stare at the canopy hung over him. The sheer black fabric had all been pulled to the posts and secured, and his door left open.

"Ah," The Mad Hatter's voice came from the direction of his vanity, but he didn't muster the effort to turn and look at the Satan. "The dragon man wakes."

"Why am I not dead?"

"Do you want to die?" The Hatter answered question with question, moving to sit on his bed, leaning over him leisurely.

Jinho shut his eyes and pretended Pride wasn't hovering over him. "Maybe I'm already dead. Ruined. Nothing that I used to be... I've changed."

"Everyone in Sheol changes, silly boy from the land of Evils." Long nails traced the line of his face, where a gash had once lingered, and when the Vampire smacked that hand away, the Hatter only smiled. "You were given a transfusion to heal you up. And you also have a gift."

His ink-black eyes opened again. "Of all things I could get, it's not a knife in my throat? It's a gift?"

"Oh... Park Jinho, don't you know us all better than that, by now?" A flip of the wrist, a wave of the arm, and a platter appeared with a single chalice placed in the center. "It is assumed that surely a drink would be much nicer than another transfusion."

He sat up and tried to think nothing of the fact that his vest and his dress shirt were missing. They'd been stained with blood from the wound once on his shoulder... perhaps he should be thankful he didn't have that fabric sticking to his skin. Jinho took the chalice with one hand, his thumb tracing over the carvings all around it. Bodies. Limbs and torsos tangled together, entwining, suggestive as he swirled the blood around in the cup... and then poured it out onto the platter, watching the blood begin to froth and eat a hole through the metal.

Black eyes met blue ones, as he shook the last drops out of the poisoned chalice. "Asmodeus will have to try harder than that."

"Yes, I had told the Lusty Prince as much, but he wouldn't listen. He never does." The Jester's smile grew wider as she waved the ruined platter away, taking the chalice with it, straight from Jinho's hand. "And there is much more."

"More gifts?" He began feeling around for his cane, pulling it from where it rested beside his bed.

"News." Pride's head tilted as the Vampire armed himself. "How much of it you would consider a gift, I can't be sure."

If there was anyone Jinho ever had extreme difficulty reading, it was the Hatter. Perhaps others would have disagreed, but for himself, he even found the Dark Lord himself a little easier to understand than that very Lord's Jester, who merely gave him the usual harlequin smile... "Then it is good and bad news." He couldn't begin to fathom what that could mean. Maybe he was going to die; maybe Lucifer wanted him killed for lashing out against a Satan.

"Some good, some bad, some in between."

"Can you stop being vague?" He snapped, and when the Hatter's fingers violently cupped his chin, he was quick about drawing his cane blade and pressing it against the Satan's flat, delicate stomach.

The Mad Hatter gave a laugh like honey that was far too sweet, suspiciously sweet. "Oh, Jinho, is that your weapon prodding my body, or... your other blade?"

His mouth was a charming, threatening smile as he muttered, "It's my weapon, I promise. Now tell me all this good, bad, in between news and leave me alone."

"Ah, but it is not news I have been allowed to relay." Pride took him by the shoulders so swiftly, his first instinct was to strike, even as the world tilted and blurred and suddenly he was standing in the King of Hell's office chamber in bare feet, wearing only his black slacks and holding the blade of his cane in one hand, the sheath in the other. "How rude...!" The Satan's tongue clicked against the roof of her mouth, looking down at the gash made in the black and white diamond print silk. The Hatter wore an open-mouthed frown, looking like a living tragedy mask. "What's wrong, dear Jinho? Don't you trust a Satan?"

"That's enough," Lucifer spoke upon entering the room, striding right past them and immediately seating himself in the large, wine red leather chair.

"Of course, my Lo-"

"Get out of here, Belial."

Oh, he was especially cold, but the Hatter reveled in it with a smile so wide, the makeup ringing those blue eyes crinkled. "At once, my Lord...!"

The departure of Pride didn't do a thing to change Lucifer's countenance, sitting straight and noble in his chair, his arms resting regally on the rests. Outwardly calm-faced like a marble statue... but with the faintest downward tilt of the corners of his mouth. That tilt meant everything, though Jinho supposed he would have been one of very few to make note of it. "What are we going to do with you, Jinho?"

The Gehenna Vampire wasn't sure that he heard Lucifer right, standing there only partially dressed and unkempt and with his weapon drawn. "I'm surprised you kept me alive."

"Is that what you want? Would you like me to order your execution?"

When Asmodeus had threatened to kill him, it had been easy to encourage that threat, to welcome it. Under the plain speech of the Devil, though... "Is that what my Lord Lucifer wants?" He felt his grip on his cane blade tighten, even with the knowledge that this man he worked for likely saw his weapon as a toy.

Steel-gray eyes shut for a brief moment, and despite that brevity, Jinho knew it was too significant to ignore. "I can't have a man working through negotiations and correspondence for me, if he has developed an interesting streak as a loose cannon. However entertaining it might be."

His tan lips pressed into a thin line. "I'm sorry, my Lord... I haven't been myself."

"Clearly. You've been pointing that piece of metal at me this whole time."

He looked down at himself and gave a defeated sigh as he put his cane back together. He tapped it quietly against the floor, resting both hands upon it.

Lucifer's gaze was palpable, and Jinho could feel his skin prickle from it. "You realize that the reason I have kept you here is because of how effective you were, don't you? You were prompt, always ready, perceptive-"

"I am still all those things, my Lord."

"-and remorseless, when you needed to be." Lucifer's eyes narrowed just barely, but the warning was clear enough. "You did not kill often, but when you had to, your wrath was quick and cold. Apparently my brother got to see a bit of that, when that little mansion you've all been staying in was under attack."

Jinho clutched onto his cane and endured the verbal beating. "Lucifer... What happened in the throne room was a one-time incident."

The Dark Lord gave the softest scoff. "Don't lie to the Devil. If you thought the Satans didn't like you before, Lust outright hates you, now. You're one in a sea of errand boys in his eyes, and you gouged two of his three heads."

He insisted, "That won't affect my ability to work for you."

"You expect me to believe that?" Lucifer's gray eyes were sharp as the steel of Jinho's blade. "Is that all it takes to set you off? Mentioning your sex life? Your six wives from your days in Korea?"

"It's my private life!" The Vampire snapped.

"It's your Achilles' heel. I knew you were too good to be true."

"My private life does not affect my work!"

"You're confusing me with someone who wants to risk that." Lucifer's eyes followed him as he began pacing, his cane stabbing at the floor. "Look at you. All I've done is mention your weakness and you're pacing. I have never seen you pace. You look like a caged lion, Jinho."

"How do you expect me to look?" Even as the reasonable, polished dandy goth within him fretted over this conversation, Jinho kept on yelling, kept on crossing back and forth and glaring at the Dark Lord. "You're telling me that my wives are detrimental to my serving you! I have years that prove you wrong and it means nothing to you! What do you want? An apology from my wives?"

"Can you get me an apology from six dead wives? Because I doubt that." Lucifer met the enraged, ink-black glare with chilly gray eyes. "Maybe Lilith could apologize on their behalf." When the sharp, shining metal cane blade was drawn and pointed at him, he didn't so much as flinch.

"Lilith doesn't answer for them." Jinho's voice was low with warning.

"Oh..." Lucifer gave him just the faintest whisper of a smile, coming and going so fast it would have been easy to mistake as a trick of the eye. "But she seems to answer for you."

"No. She doesn't."

"I say her name and you recklessly point a weapon at the man you're working for, Jinho. Yes, I'd say that she does."

The Vampire took a deep breath through his nose, his mouth a tense line as hopeless black eyes briefly turned to the ceiling. "My mistakes are my own. Stop looking for people to blame!"

"You didn't turn out this way for no reason. Apparently you've had this anger locked inside of you the entire time, and now you're crumbling, for it-"

"So are you getting rid of me then?" Jinho bellowed.

"Yes."

That was certainly enough to shake the Gehenna Vampire, to make his cane slip in his hand. Lucifer was getting rid of him. He didn't want his services, anymore... "I'm out."

"Yes." Lucifer merely repeated himself.

"... I've never heard of anyone being fired."

A corner of Lucifer's mouth just barely lifted. "Firing isn't a common... method of removal, here in Sheol."

Then it was every bit as terrible as Jinho had thought. He pulled back his blade, but held it at the ready, and waited from the murder to come. Waited to go down swinging and stabbing...

But Lucifer shut his eyes, the brief but significant small moment of sadness. "Nemaelle would have been inconsolable if I killed you, Jinho."

Only then did the sharp point of his blade point to the floor. "... Would have been."

This time the Dark Lord could not keep from frowning deeply. "Both her and Nathan have been murdered by that reckless leader of the Uprising. Michael informed me yesterday, not long after I put an end to your brawl."

Dead... Nema was dead. Two times before, Jinho had dealt with news like this... The first time had been easy enough; he'd found her parents' bodies joining her in death, and knew that somehow she would be fine. The second time had been rough, though he remembered once putting forward the idea that Alexiel might try to seek out her Ghoul form. But this time... was the third time supposed to be a charm? A horrible charm...? He had told her to leave, to go somewhere no one would find her. He had told her...!

"I may not have always trusted your association with her, Jinho, but you proved yourself to be her closest friend." Lucifer spoke quietly as ink-black eyes turned to the floor. "I am sorry for your loss."

But he wasn't the only one who had lost someone dear to them. "... I am sorry for yours."

Black eyes met gray, and time stretched on in silence, in respect for the dead. "At least there is some good news to be had, for you."

Jinho couldn't muster anything more than a hurt little scoff of a laugh.

"For instance, I should congratulate you on becoming a father... also-"

"Father?"

Lucifer watched Jinho's ink-black eyes widen before he replied, "Yes, which is why I'm not sure why you returned here in the first place. I didn't ask for you."

"I..." He hated being speechless, but he didn't know where to begin with this. A father...? After all the ways he had betrayed the Princess... he had gotten her pregnant? "You're sure?"

"I don't see any reason why Michael would lie about it. Same for Raphael. And your little Princess of Evils didn't deny the claim when I extended my congratulations to her."

The back of Jinho's blade-wielding hand pressed against his forehead. "I didn't... I didn't know. It was... we were... It was only one night, I..."

"It only takes once, technically." Lucifer allowed the Vampire a moment to attempt digesting what he'd just told him, reading the way Jinho's breathing quickened, the way his dark brows furrowed together. "I assume from your reaction that this is not good news, then?"

It was too much to bear, that's what it was. On top of everything else... all the betrayal, all the guilt, all the anger. Being fired. Losing a friend. And now this...? Jinho's mouth opened, but he couldn't will himself to speak. Words used to come so easily to him. Not anymore.

The metal of his blade sang against the sheath, and Jinho left.

"Jinho." Lucifer called out, firm and authoritative, but the Vampire slipped through the wood of the door. He didn't follow him, didn't demand that he be restrained and brought back. The Devil only sighed quietly, and turned toward the second door behind him. "My Queen is in the habit of eavesdropping, now?"

The door swung open, and Alexiel stepped through and reasoned calmly, "Only when I hear bellowing."

"He's fine. Or, as fine as he can be within the circumstances."

"But you didn't tell him everything."

Lucifer's lips curved upward, just slightly, his fingers drumming on the arms of his chair. "He has some business regarding the Princess that seems to need attending to, first. In any case, I think he might have imploded if I told him everything, all at once."

"Then the position stays open." She mused as she rested her hands on the wine red leather of the chair's back, and he nodded.

"For now."

xXxXxXx

"Traveling in her condition tends to be a very delicate matter. It can be done, but isn't advised."

"I don't imagine we'll be moving anytime soon... unless the Prophecy she made comes to a head, soon."

"Oh... That may be an issue."

"How?"

"She's in no condition to do battle, if that's what the Prophecy culminates in. We hadn't considered that..."

Raphael pinched the bridge of his nose with frustrated fingers. "We'll have to take it day by day. Hopefully that's not what it comes to."

"Rest assured that no matter what happens, she'll be fine under our care." The Rabbit bowed, a few bells tied to her ivory ringlets tinkling from under her sheer, violet veil. "Thank you for taking care of her in our stead."

As hard as he tried, it just seemed strange to see a Rabbit in what he could only assume was more traditional Gehenna dress, in veils and metals and embroidered silks. Even now it never quite sunk in that the Rabbit Hunting had driven refugees so far from Heaven... "Of course. I wish I could have done more."

"The best anyone can do during her pregnancy is alleviate the illness as it comes. But if I've learned anything about the Evils, it's that they're very resilient. Oh!" A sudden smile spread wide across the Rabbit woman's face. "Princess? Are you all right?"

All right was relative... Lilith couldn't begin to think of an answer to that question. The fevers had been quelled to an unimaginable degree thanks to the tinctures prepared that morning, though that was several hours ago. Now all she had was a queasy feeling in her stomach, and yet she knew that had more to do with stress and less with illness, less with her pregnancy. She looked down at herself, at her deceptively-flat stomach.

"Is your fever returning? You should be due for another tincture, soon..."

"No..." She spoke faintly, but not from fatigue. "I just wanted out of my room."

The Rabbit smiled, though it was soft and sad. "A walk wouldn't do any harm; I can accompany you."

Really, really not what she wanted... "I'm not leaving the house or anything."

"... I am afraid that I must insist."

Of course the poor woman sent to tend to her must insist. "Why?" Lilith didn't try to keep the bite out of her voice.

Raphael watched the Rabbit fidget and admit, "The Council was very clear about keeping you under watch."

She knew the healer was only doing as she was told, but Shinryu help her, Lilith wanted to tear the veil from her head and scream. She suddenly burst past the pair of people in her doorway, rushing down the hallway, fighting the dizziness that tried to claim her.

"Princess!" The woman attempted to follow, and felt herself caught around her snowy-pale arm by the Wind Angel.

"Let her go on her own. Making the decision to tell all of you what's happened was difficult for her to do..."

The Rabbit's sorry eyes seemed to understand, but still she pulled her arm free. "The Council is at their wit's end because of this. I won't give them another reason to be angry." But being stopped by Raphael had given the former Dragonmaster just enough time to reach the first free door there was... well, only free because it's occupant had been gone for over a week.

Lilith pulled the trailing, sheer scarlet silk into the room and shut the door, locking it just in time to keep her appointed healer from entering. Her mouth was a quivering frown as she looked down at the fabric... royal clothes. Royal maternity clothes, the red and gold top splitting open at the center of her chest so that her belly would be allowed to blossom, to grow full and round with child... The floor-length skirt, hanging so low around her hips for the very same reason... It was enough to make her want the clothes she wore before she'd sent word of her pregnancy, all those too-tight things from Jibril.

"Princess, please...!" The woman called through the door. "I'm due to end my shift, soon! How am I supposed to explain that you've locked yourself away?"

She'd known this would happen; she'd known that the moment the Elder Council learned she'd gotten herself pregnant, they'd be horrified that it had to happen out of wedlock. They'd want her caged up and watched like a hawk...! Anguished anger pushed a cry out of her throat and made her tear the golden circlet from her head, throwing it at the door. She shouldn't have told them. She should have kept them in the dark!

But Raphael and his wife were both right when they told her it was best that she get help from those who knew how to care for a pregnant Evil. They did all they could, but her fevers still came back dangerously high, and only herbs from what few fertile lands were left in Anagura would help her.

She stumbled blindly through hurt and hopeless tears, and it wasn't until she found herself tripping back onto a bed that she actually looked around. All throughout this horrible week she'd been strangely nervous about entering his room, but in that moment, it was the only part of the entire mansion that felt like a safe haven, and she couldn't explain why. It wasn't as if she'd ever been in it before. The door had always been shut, hiding it from view.

It was surprising well-decorated. Not that she expected him to have poor taste, but these rooms weren't theirs. At least, that's how she felt about hers... but Jinho had clearly made his a home. Beautiful pieces of wooden décor, angular but not overbearing, and swirling golden pieces that she recognized as being similar to the kinds of things hung all about the Palace... but smaller. As though for a more modest house. Pieces from Gehenna and pieces from his life in Assiah, somehow placed side-by-side in a way that both contrasted and complimented. Plants, too; Jinho had put plants in his room, some with great big fronds of waxy green leaves and some twisted and tree-like.

But she supposed that with the kind of power he had, making his quarters entirely his own was as easy as snapping his fingers. Maybe leaving had been that easy, too...

Lilith couldn't decide whether to cry or find something else to throw at the door, at the voices she heard just outside of it – the Rabbit woman and an older man, and judging from the instructive tone, that woman was getting the man ready to replace her for the next several hours. Well, if that man ever got into this room.

Hopefully he wouldn't. She knew that was harmful thinking; she knew she needed to be cared for lest the fevers come back in full force... And all the same, she hoped she'd never be found again. By anyone. What was there to miss, anyway? A bratty, bastard Dragonmaster who was no longer a Dragonmaster, who meddled with people in love, who got knocked up and abandoned?

She stood up from Jinho's bed and looked at herself in the vanity mirror, hands pressed over her belly. Yes, pregnant and abandoned by her own arranged partner. Why else would he disappear, turn up fine in Sheol over a week later? Or at least, 'not dead' in Sheol? Lilith wanted to wish him ill for it. He'd come upon her that night beaten and bruised and bleeding, and she wanted to hope he was in the same inexplicable condition, now...

But she couldn't. She couldn't find it in herself to think horrible things of him, even now. Even all alone and carrying his child in her womb. The very idea of a Jinho who would claim her and run from her didn't match up to the Jinho who had held her as she wept into his cravat...

Pictures in hexagon frames formed a perfect line to the right of that vanity mirror, six of them in all, and when they caught Lilith's eye, she couldn't look away. Women. Six women.

Jinho's infamous six wives.

They all... looked alike. Very strikingly similar, though a couple had features that didn't quite match up. One had a longer face than all the rest, and one had a smaller nose than the others. Other than that, they all had a very similar face, and none of them looked like her. Gentle faces, every single one of them, though the one at the bottom had a very playful, maybe mischievous smile. Different... styles, too. The first two were in some kind of robe, one dark and one light, the images in shades of gray. The fabric reminded her of home, but not the cut, not the way the robes were wrapped around them. Their shoulders weren't revealed, like they would have been in Gehenna. One woman wore a simple dress in a floral pattern that would have looked very busy if the color hadn't been a very subdued rose... pulling all the attention to a necklace, pink jewels and delicate, swirling silver. A necklace from Gehenna. Yet another had amazingly thick hair, dark and shiny and feathered, flipping outward... her hair took up so much of the photo that Lilith could only see a sliver of her blue shirt. The last one seemed like the most daring, wearing a gray vest over a white blouse that pinched her breasts together. They seemed like they'd stepped out of different eras.

A dizzy wave of nausea hit her, made her knees buckle, and she leaned against the vanity to steady herself. Paper crunched under her hand, torn, ink splattered all over. Was Jinho a sloppy writer? That didn't seem like him, but if so...

Lilith mentally shook herself. She didn't want to learn about things that she might find endearing about him, not now, not when he was far off in Sheol and she was all alone. She lifted her hand from the paper, and she caught her name, scrawled in the language of Evils, hurried but somehow still graceful, even with the ink splatters...

'Dearest Lilith,

I can only assume that your wonderful, bold self will break down my door once you've awakened. No amount of apology will change what I have done, what I have taken from you wrongfully. I'm a horrible person, Lilith. I'm sorry for everything. I am returning to Sheol to take up my post as Lord Lucifer's aid once more. I have no right to be near you, anymore.

Deepest regrets,

Jinho'

She read it, over and over... Deepest regrets... horrible person... taken from her wrongfully. Wonderful, bold self...? He'd written her an apology letter and just left the thing in his room on the assumption she'd break in and find it? Lilith didn't know whether to be relieved that at least he felt bad, hurt for his guilt, or even more angry because he'd left a note right here and assumed she'd just break in like she owned his room. Even more angry that he still chose to leave...

A stressed, shaky sigh left her, and that was when she noticed the replacement healer standing behind her. He was hunched in his blue and teal robes, gray-streaked hair slipping over his face, and the Princess' first instinct was to scream as she turned, backed up tighter against the vanity. She'd locked the door! She hadn't heard the lock being picked!

His loose, long blue sleeves swayed through the air as his arms waved, as his back suddenly straightened. "Lilith, it's me! It's me...!"

His voice was only slightly gruff with age, but Lilith blinked and suddenly that man was gone. Tan skin became smoother, dark hair lost the gray streaks, and he tossed those waves out of his ink-black eyes. "Ji... Jinho?" She managed to gasp out with wide garnet eyes. Was that really what it was like, when he manipulated his age? Blink of the eye changes?

The Vampire stood there with his hands still cautiously raised, a tiny bottle full of her tincture clasped in one hand. "... Lucifer told me. I had a feeling you told the Council, already..." He spoke quietly.

… Already? How much longer was she supposed to endure those fucking fevers? Lilith could take no more, striking him hard across his face, and once she started, she couldn't stop. "You left me! You had me and then you left me! I didn't see this fucking letter of yours until just now. I've been sick all week long; Raphael had to dunk me in ice water and of all the stupid ways to find out that you got me pregnant, that's how! That's how!" She hit and screamed and wept. "I told the Council 'already?' My head has been boiling off and on for over a week; what are my options? What the fuck are my options? The Shinryu know I didn't want to tell them anything, and I had to make that decision alone because you left me!"

"I'm sorry; I'm so sorry!" Jinho had only weakly fought her assaulting hands. He deserved it. He knew he deserved it for leaving her like that, but the horror of what he'd done – to everyone, but especially to her – had driven him away... and now it pulled him down onto his knees before her. Made him beg for forgiveness with tears on his face, kneeling like she was a statue, an idol to be revered. Oh, she looked the part, dressed in all that royal finery... glaring down at him with all the hurt and all the anger he never wanted to give her. He felt her hands upon the crown of his head, heard her give a shaky breath. "I never meant for this to happen..."

Lilith fought back the warning of a fever, but couldn't keep the weakness out of her voice. "Then why did you leave me?"

Jinho's dark eyes turned up to her, and for the moment, his guilt didn't matter. Her health did. "Come here," He pulled the stopper from tiny bottle and bade her drink the tincture, all while guiding her to his bed.

But even as she drank and leaned back against the headboard, she was asking, "Why, Jinho...?"

His mouth was a quivering frown. "Is that all that matters to you...? That I left? Nothing else?"

Her champange brows arched together. "What else is there? You abandoned me."

"No, I...!" But however much he hated the word, she was right. "I... took advantage of you, Lilith. Proved myself to be every bit the lecher you said I was. I couldn't face myself, knowing that. I still can't."

Lilith turned away, her fingers gently picking at the sheer folds of silk that split open across her still-flat stomach. "How was it taking advantage of me?"

He paused and stared at her as she continued looking down at herself. "I bit you... Filled you full of venom. It pacifies people, Lilith. Pacifies them by arousing them." By now his voice had grown small in all his shame.

"Yeah... I noticed."

Was that really all she had to say about it? "How can you be willing if-"

"Why don't you let me decide whether I was willing or not? It's my body!" Suddenly she'd gone from being tired and ill and sad to being fiery in her rage. "I'm so fucking sick of people dealing with my body like it's not mine! Throwing it at would-be suitors! Forcing me to take those fucking youth potions because I won't marry! Telling me whether or not it wanted to have sex! It's my body; let me decide!"

Jinho had looked at her with wide, hurt, ashamed eyes. Ashamed that even when he tried to considerate of her, he hurt her. "I'm sorry..."

She took a breath through her nose to calm herself and heard it come across as a pathetic sniffle. She hated being this weepy. It was almost as bad as the fevers. "I definitely felt the venom... working. But it didn't completely incapacitate me. I know that I could have told you 'no,' and I know you would have listened. You were the one begging me to leave you alone." Lilith frowned. "So maybe it's the other way around."

"No," Jinho took the empty bottle from her, held on to her hand. "Lilith, needing blood and needing you might be two different things, but..."

Urgency had driven the confession out of his mouth thoughtlessly, speaking purely from the core of his heart, and making both of them pause and mentally scramble. "You don't need me."

"... Don't I get to decide for myself, too?"

"I'm the bastard Princess-"

"You're Lilith." Jinho insisted, hands cupping her face. "And you deserve so much better than everything that's happened to you."

But even as his touch brought heat to her face – a welcome heat, the soft heat of blushing – she spoke softly, "You don't need me. You have six others." That... clearly that reached him, making him lean back and release her. "Every suitor the Elder Council ever picked for me had something that made me so... so scared, Jinho. Something that made me afraid of being with them. They told me you had six marriages like it was supposed to reassure me, like you have so much experience..." She watched his face begin to pinch together in pain, and felt hers doing the same, "But I don't want that life, no matter how well you might treat me. No matter if I'm the most prestigious wife of yours. Call me selfish; the Council certainly did. But I don't want to be part of a collection-"

"I have no wives."

Yet another confession, and while it made the pained look that Lilith wore melt away into shock, the Gehenna Vampire was suddenly in tears.

"I have no wives, Lilith," Jinho's voice was shredded on the jagged pain he never visited, never wanted to visit unless it was to place flowers at six graves. "They've died, and it blows my mind in the worst way that in all this time, all this time, the Elders never once thought to explain that to you. Ever. Lilith, I lived in Assiah; I was born and raised in and around Seoul. Every wife I ever had was human, and every wife I had to let go..."

She watched him turn despairing eyes to the ceiling, the six pictures of his wives hanging on the wall behind him, and embraced him. "I'm sorry..." Oh, she'd done so much apologizing for things she'd done wrong, lately, but she knew each apology was well-deserved. Including this one.

"You didn't know."

"I didn't try to know. I'm always shutting out the Council, because they're always hurting me."

"Would anything have changed if you did know...?"

She heard the doubt in his voice... but she knew that question was painfully valid. "By that point... I didn't trust anyone."

He sniffed in an attempt to compose himself, though after all the ways he'd broken down and blown up, he wasn't sure the effort was worth it, anymore. "But maybe that's fair, after the way they've treated you."

"But you're not them." She pulled away and sat up, gently swinging her legs over the edge of the bed, and when he attempted to move away, she stopped him. Her golden fingers curled into his long, blue sleeves. "... Are they reincarnations?"

Jinho paused and wondered why she wanted to ask. What did it matter, to her? Those six women were the thing she had actively repelled... "I have no way of knowing," he admitted, "But at the time... that's what I had hoped. My parents would warn me constantly, that I was only hurting myself. And even though I knew they were right... I needed her in my life, even if her name changed and her habits changed..."

"But you stopped... after the sixth?"

That caused him to shut his eyes, as though that might block out some of the pain. "The circumstances around her leaving me were... too much. She'd been drained by a Vampire... some man who thought it would be a great idea to take advantage of what she wanted."

Lilith could feel his arms shaking from within his sleeves. "She wanted to become like you...?"

"She wasn't even supposed to know! None of the others had. I would age alongside them and sneak blood into my food when they weren't looking; as painful as it was it always seemed to work...!" He wept. "But Minji was so different from the rest. She was forward, outspoken. Open... and she wanted to share everything with me. Everything. I couldn't eat with her. Not without her possibly taking in blood, but I just... I couldn't let her go. I told her what I was and it just made everything worse. She badgered me to make a Vampire out of her, and when I told her that I couldn't, that I literally am not capable of turning her, she didn't believe me. She was furious; I didn't know what to do...!" Jinho jumped when he felt her hands brushing aside the wide hems of his sleeves, but when her fingers curled about his, he responded in kind. Oh, he needed that touch, no matter how small. He couldn't think of a time he'd ever spoken so much about any of his wives, and he couldn't decide if it hurt more or helped more. "I made the mistake of telling her I wasn't Assiahbound, and that led me to explaining what that even meant, and that led to her... actually trying to find one. I didn't think she'd succeed." He looked down at their joined hands, and it only pushed another wave of tears from his eyes. "This was all because I couldn't eat around her...!"

Lilith released his hands and found herself cupping his face, so much like he'd done to her. It had comforted her; she could only hope it would do the same for him. "I wish that... I wish I'd asked you about this."

"I'm not sure how much it changes. They will always be a part of who I am... And you don't deserve feeling like you're competing with memories."

"But this is so much different than what I'd thought!" She tilted his head up, bade him look at her. "Why didn't you tell me...?"

Ink-black eyes gave her a sorry gaze. "Do you not remember when we first met...? And how you called me a lecher? And how you screamed that you didn't want to be in a harem?" He saw her lip quiver, and that was all the confirmation he needed. "Lilith, I saw red. There I was, trying to convince myself that this is what I needed, that I had to move forward, and you... threw my wives back into my face. You slandered them."

New tear trails ran over old ones in the Princess' face. "I'm sorry..."

He shook his head and found himself relishing the way her hands cradled him as he moved. "You said it yourself. You didn't know. And I didn't have the patience to tell you."

"I'm still sorry. This is so far from what I thought...!" She pulled one hand away from him to make some attempt at brushing those sad wet drops from her cheeks. "I don't know, maybe if I'd asked, or you'd told me, maybe..."

"Maybe what? You had no trust for anyone. You said that yourself."

"I know!" She snapped, but it was a desperate snap, a plea to be heard. "But being a widower is nothing like being a lecher with a harem. It just isn't...!"

"... Then what?" Jinho asked quietly. "You'd compete with memories?"

Lilith sighed and softly shook her head. "I am such a fucking mess and we both know it... but I know how to respect the dead. Whatever we could have, whatever it is... it doesn't delete them, and they don't delete... us." The word came out in another sigh, a surprised sigh, like an untold epiphany she kept locked inside of her. "It doesn't have to ruin us..."

Ink-black eyes met garnet-red ones, and he felt her gently pulling him closer. "I... I could kiss you, right now..."

"Then kiss me," She whispered, but the only thing her lips touched were the tips of his fingers.

Despite the long-lingering weight that had been lifted, there was still so much more. Newer weight, bearing down harder, pulling the corners of his mouth into a frown. "After everything I've been told today... a part of me wants to disappear with you. But another part of me knows that's unbelievably selfish..."

Lilith gently took his fingers from her lips. "Lucifer told you about Nema... didn't he?"

He shut his eyes against the reminder. "He also removed me from serving him."

"... What?"

"I got into a... physical altercation with Asmodeus, Count of Lust. Lucifer seems to think that's a sign that I'm no longer capable. He let me go."

Lilith took Jinho's flowery words and cut right through them. "He fired you because you beat up a Satan?"

The Vampire gave her a small, ashamed frown. "I don't see it as a great reason to get rid of me, to be honest, but I can't change Lord Lucifer's wishes. No one can."

"But why did you even pick a fight in the first place?"

"I'm not the one who started the fight!" Shinryu help him, he felt like a child pointing fingers. "Lust was being ridiculous, just like he always is!"

"If that's true then what was so different this time?"

"He spoke ill of my wives; he spoke ill of you!" Jinho suddenly bellowed. "Very ill of you! I maintain he should be happy I didn't cut out his tongue! If Lucifer hadn't stepped in then I think I would have!"

"... O-"

"All three of his tongues!"

"Okay..." Briefly, Lilith was reminded of his hand at her throat, of him releasing a growl as he threw her up against her bedroom door. Only... for once, the wrath was directed elsewhere. It wasn't any less jarring. "Jinho, that's... that's not good..."

But the Vampire was already taking deeper breaths in an attempt to calm himself. "At first, I didn't think so, either... but maybe it is." His fingers flexed before cupping her face. "The only reason I ever ended up in Sheol was because I unwittingly befriended Lord Lucifer's so-called niece, turned actual sister-in-law, and he didn't trust me. I did what I had to in order to just... survive, down there, and now I don't have to. I can go to Gehenna, with you... Stay there. It's where everyone is expecting me to end up, anyway..."

She thought her heart might break with how hopeful he sounded. "But you're not among Lucifer's Demonic ranks, anymore..." She watched the frown slowly form across his face, and she answered it with her own frown. "Jinho, how do you think they even heard about you...? They wanted your title and all the power that comes with it, that is all they ever fucking wanted!"

"... So they would take a father away from his child." Jinho said flatly, impossibly black eyes looking as sharp as obsidian knives. "Really."

Lilith's hand rested over her belly. "This child is no better than I am, not to them! The things they said to me..." Her voice dropped into a low growl... a hurt growl. "'A bastard growing inside of a bastard.' They hate it!"

"They're the ones who wanted you to bear children so badly, and now they're upset because of the timing?"

Oh, if nothing else it felt good that they were sharing in their anger. "They don't want a bastard heir!"

"And they can't perform the rites now that I'm here with you?"

"Not when you have no title!"

"Fuck my title!" Jinho was suddenly tearing his hands through his dark hair. "Why are they like this? The line of Dragonmasters is nearly extinct. They're not in any position to be this strict!"

"I've asked myself that my entire life." She gently caressed her stomach and murmured, "But now what do we do...?" His hand joined hers, and though she had a long while before she would begin to show, that little action meant so much, said so much.

"I won't leave you alone in this. I promise."

Lilith wondered when she would be out of tears to shed... "It's not a promise for you to make. Once they find out about you, the betrothal will be off. They won't want you around..." Her fingers met his, laced with his, and as comforting as that simple touch was, it wasn't enough. "I've spent so much of my life being selfish... and now I feel like I can't stop. All I want is to disappear. Have us go somewhere and hide and never have to deal with Sheol and Gehenna and Lucifer and the Elder Council... never, ever again..."

His fingers stilled across her belly. "... Seoul."

"Not even Sheol."

"No, Seoul. Here in Assiah. Seoul." The more he said it, the more that sprawling, massive city became a reckless light in the midst of all the darkness. When he looked up at Lilith, his eyes seemed to shine with it. "If they'd really keep us apart... We could go there. So many people everywhere; they won't know where to begin looking. We could stay with my parents. Appa seems to like you-"

"Jinho."

It was only when she reached out to brush her fingers across his cheek, that he realized she'd been attempting to cut into his sudden idea.

"... Why are you the one saying this?" Lilith wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry more. "I'd hoped you would try and keep me grounded..."

"I wish I remembered how to be grounded..." Still, his eyes were pleading. "After everything that's happened... Life is too short. Even for people like you and I..." Jinho sought out her hands and held them tightly, and he felt... young. Young like he was when all he knew was Korea and he'd fallen in love for the first time. "Run away with me."

The way her breath hitched, the way her golden cheeks turned pink, seemed like good signs until she said, "... They won't see it as me running away with you."

"How will they see it?"

"They'll see it as you kidnapping the Princess."

"A Princess they've treated as though they never wanted her." A growl touched his voice.

In a shameless way, she liked it, even as she missed the softer, cool water over stones kind of voice... "It's treason, Jinho. They could have you killed..." She expected that to wake him up from his too-hopeful reverie, to save him even though it ruined any chance for... whatever it was they had. Lilith wished she had a word for it.

But instead he only leaned ever closer to her. "Life is... so short. Too short, Lilith."

Apprehension prickled along her spine and made her sit up straighter. "... You're trying to tell me something, without telling me."

The Vampire hung his head. "It's too soon for me to be this hopeful... when you don't know the entire extent of my guilt."

"Jinho, I thought we agreed that we both wanted what we did-"

"You don't know..." Jinho interrupted her, his voice like the sure, steady cut of a knife. "Why I was beaten half to death. Who did that to me..." He waited, watched Lilith's face sober before he finally confessed, "Earlier that night, I had a run-in with Azrael. Both he and Celestiel captured me, and he beat me before releasing me."

Shinryu help them both... she'd asked if it was Celestiel that had hurt him. She'd asked and he never answered her...! "Why didn't you-"

"I was forced into secrecy." Jinho hated admitting it. He almost wished he'd rather refused that two-faced Angel... but only almost, in the light of her threat. "She threatened to have you killed if I told anyone... Lilith, I couldn't let that happen. Not to you. And not after seeing a mere taste of what she could do, when she attacked Nema..." He could feel his hands shaking in hers. "Even now I'm... I feel like I'm throwing you to the wolves, just by telling you. But I already lost my closest friend because I didn't reveal the truth." His jaw set firmly as he summoned up his conviction. "I won't let anyone else be lost, for it."

But her brows furrowed together. "Celestiel used me... as blackmail against you? She doesn't know a single fucking thing about... about whatever you feel for me." Why, oh why couldn't there have been a word for what they had...?

"She knows exactly what I feel for you. She knew... even before I did, I think." Jinho hated how he could marvel at the way their enemy had read him so well, too well. "Celestiel and Serissa are one in the same, Lilith."

The Princess' hands suddenly clutched onto his, hoping he was lying, knowing he would never lie about something like this. "We are living in Celestiel's house...?"

"And that's why I need to get you to Seoul. Now. You have to get to Seoul and everyone else needs to leave, somewhere, anywhere that isn't here." He stood, gently pulling her to her feet. "I'm no Dragonmaster, but everything about this seems too much like it could do with the Prophecy. The fact that the Shinryu had you gather everyone and put you this close to her, the fact that the Uprising's antics have ended up damaging our group to an unimaginable extent... it doesn't feel like a coincidence. Not at all."

Already he was pulling her to his door, albeit delicately, his hands releasing hers only so that one could rest on the small of her back. Funny, how before that touch would have sent her into a fit, but now she needed it... "But the Prophecy still calls for the Elementals and I-"

"If you need to group up, do it anywhere but here. All of us need to leave. Every moment we stay here is another moment someone could be killed..."

"And the actual healer who's supposed to be here, soon?"

"The sooner he or she gets here, the sooner we can force them to go back. Umma can help with the fevers." Jinho paused just before his door, and he murmured to her, "I need to make things right..."

"Me too." Suddenly she was kissing him, finally kissing him, their fingers lacing together. "I knew it..."

He was afraid to open his eyes, lest he find that he was dreaming this... "Knew what...?"

Lilith didn't want to open her eyes, either, though she remembered perfectly the way the blue and teal robes draped across his body, could feel the fabric on the bare skin of her stomach. "That you look best in traditional clothes..."

Despite the risk of what he was about to do, he smiled. "No top hats and cravats, then?"

Their eyes opened at the same time, and she shook her head. "No, those are fine, too... But I'd have you in Gehenna's clothes more often, if I have any say in it."

"You have a say in it, Lilith."

She was sure that meant a lot more than what it seemed. "... Seoul, then."

The Vampire nodded, reaching out to take the cane he'd propped up against his little table, pulling the Princess tight against him before slipping through the locked door with her. "You'll like it, there... I promise."