Hello, hello!

First, let me say this chapter did not AT ALL go the way I thought it would, but it just kind of...happened. Feel free to be upset with me, for there is some rather triggerish things in here, but my fingers have already done their work.

Besides, as one reviewer established, my perspective on Samael is a bit different, in part because I am basing him more off the actual demon/angel creature in mythology as opposed to Goethe's Mephistopheles, of which Kouta has confessed her character is based.

I also take this liberty with Amaimon, to some extent, but as Amaimon is rather ambiguous to begin with, it's hard to mess that up.

That said, I will tell you this much BEFORE you begin reading, because I realize most of you aren't as nerdy as I am.

Samael is, mythologically, the father of Asmodeus – yup, that Asmodeus. The demon of Lust and carnal desires – Samael is his dad, and boy, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

Samael is known as both an angel and a demon – a literal saint and sinner, both a prophet and a tempter. He once went into Jerusalem in the guise of a prophet, as I mentioned loosely in another chapter – but that same night, he went around seducing every woman he could find. Thus, he earned the title of "the seducer".

Samael is also, quite truthfully, a trickster. One who is known for using magic tricks and illusions to confuse people and make them do what he wants.

And, in the words of what is probably the most detailed book I've ever read containing Samael's entire, multi-religious mythos:

"Samael is either the purest of angels, or the foulest of demons, and there's little in-between."

OH, and do remember that canon bit of information about demons not being able to mess with you until you drop your guard and/or let them in. :)

WARNING: Some sexual content of...dubious consent. Lots of angst and "WTF" moments. You are warned.

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CH VI: Hallucinations – Stay Awake!

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"Take this kiss upon the brow!

And, in parting from you now,

Thus much let me avow —

You are not wrong, who deem

That my days have been a dream;

Yet if hope has flown away

In a night, or in a day,

In a vision, or in none,

Is it therefore the less gone?

All that we see or seem

Is but a dream within a dream."

~ Dream Within A Dream, Edgar Allan Poe

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Yukio woke in the night for reasons he could not immediately surmise. He knew something must have woken him, for him to be as alert as he was – but what?

A faint rustling sound from across the room began to answer some of his questions. He could tell by the sound that it was Mephisto moving around – but something still seemed off about it. Opening bleary eyes, he reached for his glasses, tucked into his pocket. At his movement, the demon stopped. Growing suspicious now, Yukio quickly adjusted his glasses – and rather wished he hadn't when he seen precisely what had been making the sound.

He should have known – it's not like that sort of thing was unheard of among demons, after all. It didn't affect them the same way, and so they had little to no instinctive avoidance to it. But that knowledge didn't stop him from awkwardly cringing at the sight of Amaimon situated very...suggestively, in the lap of their headmaster.

He almost wanted to cough to get their attention, but at the same time knew it really wasn't any of his business. Besides, they already knew he was awake – their stillness, at least, implied as much. Not that it lasted long before they picked up again their subtle movements, which really, were quite quiet. It just happened that Yukio was an infamously unsound sleeper who was quite used to halting his brother from sneaking out at night, and as such had trained himself to be responsive to subtle changes in sound like that. He rather cursed it now, of course.

He couldn't quite keep himself from watching for just a moment, however. As if to confirm that they were, indeed, engaged in such a manner. It didn't take long for the answer to become obvious as Amaimon shifted in Mephisto's lap and, facing forward, squeezed his lanky legs around the elder's waist, grinding his pelvis upward as he did so. Mephisto had his lips situated at Amaimon's neck, hovering obscenely over the scars he himself had made. He drew a hot-pink tongue over the area before slowly but sensually scraping his teeth, with all those threatening fangs, over his relative's neck.

Yukio fought a blush, and lost. Mephisto's hand drifted along Amaimon's waist, traveling upwards beneath his coat with one hand, whilst the other began a gentle travel to the opposite direction. Yukio wasn't one to be taken by things easily, but he had to admit that the sheer tenderness of the old demon's touch, feather-light against his sibling's clothes, made something stir in him – a longing, of kinds, for such a touch upon his own skin.

It was a feeling he had battled with many times before. The ache for human touch. He was never one to hand himself over to such desires, no matter how they manifested before him; and in this place, of all places, in this time of them all, he should definitely not be feeling these things!

But oh, he wanted to. It was more than just physical, at that point – some deep, reclusive part of his soul begged him to give in, to let his mind at least fantasize. To long for that touch, any touch. It was a deep and primal need, a facet of his humanity he'd very seldom let into the light. It wasn't as if the act disgusted him, per-se, but rather that he'd never been able to form a long or deep enough connection with another to feel as if he was rightfully deserving of that pleasure, of that human pleasure.

His torment did not go unnoticed. In and amidst his cloudy frame of mind, the exorcist heard murmured musings pass between the demons, whispering oh-so-quietly unto themselves. He was, then, quite startled when he was called out of his misty mind by a whisper passing through to him from the other side of the room, the calling of a literal demon.

"You're welcome to join us." The older demon mused, though his voice held a note of true invitation.

"No thank you." Yukio automatically denied.

"Are you certain, little human?" Mephisto chided. Yukio dare not look him in the eye. "You may not get the opportunity to release yourself like this again."

"And what of the others? What if they wake?"

"Don't concern yourself with that." Mephisto smiled from the corner of the boy's eye, an amused and coy-ish grin. "Should I bid them stay asleep, they shall. My older brother stripped me of my ability to manipulate space, but he did not precisely eliminate my ability to manipulate time."

Yukio thought on this, his mind struggling to lead him anywhere useful. It felt as if there was some censer in the room about him suddenly, at once choking and evoking in him a feeling of calmness. It was a strange thing, truly – a thing he felt as if he should be well and truly frightened of. Yet, he couldn't quite bring himself to be afraid of the sudden change.

"Hmn...It would seem you are not immune to them. Pheromones, that is." Mephisto grinned. "That is actually quite interesting." Somewhere in his foggy mind, he lost track of just where he was relative to the older demon, and now, somehow more awake, realized that he had moved considerably closer. Too close, almost.

"You see now what I can do." the older demon said, reaching a hand towards Yukio, who shut his eyes in anticipation – though of what kind he could not say. "There is a reason, little brother, they call me 'the seducer', and why I am father to Asmodeus." Mephisto whispered, leaning quite close. The strong, heady scent of the demon hit him with the force of a truck, making his head spin almost sickeningly. The smell was sweet, yet it bordered on being repulsively so – like fermented sugar, it was just a little bit too sweet. Beneath it was the lingering smell of Amaimon, who distinctively smelled of earth and pine resin mixed with just a hint of sulphur. It wasn't an unpleasant smell, to be honest, which was rather surprising since Amaimon was a famed scavenger, at least when it came to his meals. For someone who was known to choke down the remains of Naberius, he sure as hell didn't smell like it.

Underneath the lingering scent of the other demon, there was something distinct – the source of that heady smell, a combination of irrefutably male mustiness and a thick, sticky kind of smell, one which reminded Yukio distantly of cinnamon or true vanilla – the kind that stuck in your nose for hours after you smelled it, reminding you constantly of it's powerful scent even when you weren't thinking about it.

The scent of all that was completely intoxicating. But then, that was the idea.

A hand on his waist broke through some of the mist in his head. Mephisto had made physical contact now, a thought which at once thrilled and chilled the exorcist – his instincts told him that this was a dangerous thing he was being tempted into, and he wanted in that moment to put as much space between him and the demon as possible. However, when he leaned back, he was given a sharp shock at the presence of, not a steel wall, but a warm chest.

Yukio froze, a chill running down his spine like a fat drop of cold water. He knew, even without searching for the absent demon, that Amaimon had somehow slipped behind him. To have such a powerful and notoriously violent demon at his back triggered a deep sense of foreboding in his chest – and yet, he didn't quite feel afraid. Once again he had the distinctive sense that he should be far more scared than he actually was – and it was that feeling, not the demon at his back, which unsettled him.

He knew, rationally, that he was trapped. One demon knelt before him with a tender, but no less threatening hand on his waist. The other sat behind him, not directly touching him, but preventing his escape nonetheless. 'What am I to do?'

The thick, cloying scents of the two fused in his mind, dulling his senses. Yukio had only ever been high on accident once in his life, but given his present situation, he could safely presume to be intoxicated. Pleasantly intoxicated, if he were being honest.

And yet, there was something about all of it that just didn't feel right...

Yukio gasped involuntarily when the hand he'd forgotten was on his waist moved. Long fingers grasped his side, a narrow thumb caressing his flank in slow, lazy circles. He jumped out of his skin, or at least figured to do so, when he felt noticably less tender claws touching the middle of his back. His unease gained a rippling texture, coming and going like waves in water as those long, dangerous claws stroked up and down his spine, each time descending lower and lower toward his tailbone. One such stroke passed down to touch said bone, claws lightly grazing over it. A pleasant shudder went up the boy's spine – a tail he might not have, but his tailbone was still just as sensitive as that of any demon. As soon as the clawed fingers disappeared from the area, Yukio immediately wanted them to return, to stimulate those sensitive nerves.

His wish for further stimulation was granted, but not by Amaimon. Mephisto's hand left his waist, traveling down to his hip, where it paused a moment. Confused when the older demon moved his thumb into the hollow of his hip, he felt a sudden urge to writhe in conflicted pleasure when said demon squeezed down, pushing his thumb into that tender hollow. Apparently liking the response he got, Mephisto placed his hand on Yukio's other hip, now squeezing them both simultaneously. A rolling motion traveled up Yukio's body as he tried to move his hips closer, demanding more.

Lips at the back of his neck did not surprise him, but the slow, open-mouthed, but still tender, bite did. Teeth shallowly scraped his skin, squeezing the muscle underneath. The sensation was euphoric, causing the boy to lean his head back, exposing the more sensitive parts of his neck. Mephisto then took the stage, making full use of the invitation as his lips latched on, sucking roughly once or twice over his jugular. It was both nerve-wracking, and perhaps for that reason, extremely arousing.

Amaimon now took over for touching the boy's hips, his long fingers wrapping around far enough to massage both the hollow of his hip and the very edge of his tailbone. In combination with the sucking on the sensitive area of his neck where it met with his jaw, the sensations were enough to stir a soft but sultry moan from the normally silent throat of the exorcist.

Next he knew, Mephisto's fingers snaked their way underneath his clothes, flesh touching bare flesh, leaving trails like hot fire in the demon's wake. A tugging on the exorcist's waistband thrilled him, making his now hardened member throb in anticipation of what was to come.

Yukio had lost all sight of his surroundings by now. The only thing which existed was the hazy images in front of him, a picture of an old and powerful demon slowly, sensually seducing him, Mephisto's head slowly disappearing beneath the boy's chest, nimble fingers undoing his belt and zipper. A sharp thrill of pleasure engulfed him as a mouth, soft and wet, enclosed around his member, sucking in the same rough fashion as before.

Taken by the pleasure he was experiencing, Yukio failed to notice that the light had all but gone, leaving him in a twilight-ish darkness. A rough suck on his hardness came suddenly with a pinching pain of fangs pricking him lightly. Yukio quickly dismissed it as an accident, and resumed enjoying himself.

Amaimon nipped lightly a his nape, fingering his tailbone and the area between his cheeks. It then, out of nowhere, struck the exorcist odd that neither of them seemed to be interested in pleasuring themselves, or even each other at that point. But Yukio's mind couldn't hang onto the thought for long, as Mephisto began to lightly bob his head up and down the boy's length, lips a tight ring around the shaft as his tongue ran in smooth, supple circles over the head.

A sharp, searing pain erupted then from Yukio's shoulder, causing him to suck in a breath and hold it there. No, this wasn't right. Something was wrong. Very wrong. Looking slowly to his side, Yukio felt a body-wide chill consume him as all the blood rushed inward – for on his pale shoulder, there was a lot of blood coming out.

Confused, he went to look for Mephisto, anticipating an attack – and instead found a corpse, a half-rotted skeleton in his place. Shocked beyond his wit, he felt his senses come crashing back to him in one, swift, disorienting wave – it was enough to make him start to feel sick...

"OI, Yukio!" A shout brought the exorcist quite literally back into the light. Everything was suddenly too bright, too white, too much for his overstimulated mind.

"Yukio! Wake up!" Was that...Rin? "Yukio! YUKIO!" Slap. A stinging pain in his face made the exorcist suddenly hyper-aware, startling him upright. When had he lied down?

Looking around him, nothing had changed – well, that's to say, he was back to his senses and could see all the concerned faces of his students around him. Feeling dizzy, he rapidly sucked in a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding, trying to gain his bearings.

"Yukio, what the hell happened?" Rin, who was knelt beside him with a seriously concerned expression. "You were thrashing like a fish just now! I seriously thought you were having a convulsion or something!"

"That would be a seizure, dumbass, and so did I." Bon replied from the other side of the exorcist. Big, brown eyes looked to his teacher with cautious concern. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah," Shura jumped in, squating beside Rin. She looked the most like she understood something – but what Yukio couldn't exactly say. "You looked like you were being...well, I can't really say it any other way, but like you were being possessed." She said it half-lightly, but Yukio knew she was being serious beneath that.

...Possessed?

Yukio felt his heart hammering in his chest as the memories of what happened to him came flooding back. The touching, the pleasure, the terror – had all of that been...a dream? An illusion? His eyes quickly scanned behind his friends, first looking for the body. It sat, perfectly still, in exactly the place it had been...wait, was it yesterday? Today? How long had he been out of it?

"Yukio...Yukio! HEY! Quit spacing on me!" Rin shouted in his ear painfully, shaking his shoulders. "You're really starting to freak me out! Talk to me!"

"What..." Yukio began weakly, looking with a dazed expression at Shura, who seemed the more reliable right now, since she was the only one not panicking over his condition. "What time is it? How long was I out for?"

"Well, ya woke up just before the lights came on – I know, cuz I was awake too," Shura explained. "And then you seemed to fall back asleep, so I went back to sleep too – only, just a few minutes after the lights came on and everyone else started waking up, you began freaking the fuck out, thrashing in your sleep and shaking like a leaf. You had everyone worried sick that you'd somehow hurt yourself, or got too dehydrated, or something like that."

Wait...so...none of that was real? He'd only been asleep...a few minutes? Yukio rapidly brought his hand and eyes to his shoulder, looking for the blood which had so startled him before. But nothing – not even his clothes were out of place, not by a single wrinkle. It's as if he'd never been touched at all.

'Wait a second...where are the demons?'

Yukio scanned the wall opposite him, his eyes pausing briefly on Amaimon, who was situated near the still-growing moss, before settling on Mephisto, who sat ever-so-regally in the exact same corner he always sat in, looking perfectly ordinary – not a hair out of place. The only tell the demon gave away was the slightest upturning of his lips, which Yukio could still feel, somehow, against his neck... among other places.

And he boiled with rage.

"You...You slimy, sick , SON OF A BITCH!" Yukio was on his feet in an instant, a fierce and frightened rage completely overtaking his rational conscience. He was gonna kill him. Going to beat that slimy sack of repulsive, wicked demon into a bloody pulp – and he was going to enjoy every minute of it. For once, the exorcist understood how Rin felt when he lost his cool, and practically wished he had Satan's fire once more. He'd incinerate the bastard, kill him dead for humiliating him like that!

"Woah, Woah! Yukio, what the hell?!" Rin jumped to his feet, stopping his younger twin by sheer force of brute strength, halting him at the collarbone from charging at the rested demon fists raised. It took a lot more struggling than he expected to stop Yukio from marching over there with a death wish, Rin eventually resorting to directly blocking the rampaging exorcist with his whole body. Yukio punched him hard in the ribs in an effort to get his sibling out of the way, but Rin refused to budge – not until he knew why.

"Get out of the way, Rin! I'll kill that slimy scumbag myself! Kill him!" Rin was growing increasingly scared of his brother's irrational behavior, unaccustomed to seeing him in such a blind rage that he blatantly ignored his own warnings. In the heat of the moment, he threw a solid punch in the general direction of Yukio's chest, clipping his collarbone hard enough to send the taller of them stumbling backwards.

"Yukio, stop it!" Rin cried, a single tremble shaking his frame. "You're seriously starting to scare me! Snap out of it!"

"That bastard..." Yukio grumbled, baring his teeth animalistically. Though he largely lacked the demon traits of his older twin, Yukio did have a primitive set of fangs that would erupt when he was truly pissed off – such as now. The twin's narrowed gaze fell straight on the sights of his rage, the oh-so petty demon sitting the corner, looking not the least bit fazed. A half-lidded, smugly expression adorned the old demon's face. It was completely sardonic – an open effort to mock the tormented exorcist.

"YOU..." Yukio growled, pitch dangerously low as his hackles went straight up. "You bewitched me, didn't you?! All of that was fake! An illusion made just to torment me!" Yukio shouted at the demon, voice reverberating off the steel walls. "And for what?! So you can sit there and gloat?!"

"No."

"Then what? Tell me, what was all of that, huh?! Just what sort of sick game are you playing?!" He got no response this time, only a slight smirk. A triumphant smirk. "Answer me!"

"No." This time, the response was deeper, half-growled. The smirk on Mephisto's face quickly became a half-snarl that bore all his sharp, scissor-ish teeth bare. A feral look had overtaken his countenance, his own hackles beginning to rise to the challenge. "In case you haven't learned anything, Yukio, I don't take well to being given demands." The demon's voice was low, but smooth. "And I warned you, didn't I?" Yukio' s anger faltered a moment in favor of trying to recall that information.

"I told you, Yukio – you act like prey in the presence of a predator, and you are going to become prey." A wide, splitting grin adorned the demon's face, his expression completely losing it's human edge. He was all fangs now. Fangs, and a devilish temper. " Now, whose fault is it that they didn't listen to me?"

"I wasn't expecting you to bewitch me!"

"They never do." Mephisto said casually, a sharp, pitchy chuckle coming from high in his throat – a cackle that seemed more hyena than human. "But that's exactly why I did it, see?" Yukio's train of thought completely faltered in that moment, coming to a screeching halt. So, he did that on purpose...to teach him a lesson? What the fuck was he thinking? 'I am so confused!'

"So...what?" Yukio tried to wrap his head around this.

"Not all of you are going to survive. I assure you of that." Mephisto, taking a far more human countenance, replied much more calmly. "And I won't protect you from yourselves. I certainly won't be able to protect you from me, nor Amaimon for that matter." Mephisto's face grew increasingly sober as he regained his composure. "With that in mind, my self-control is beginning to wane, as I am sure you have noticed." Though he had calmed, there was still a wildness in the demon's green eyes. "Lucifer made a grave, grave mistake, putting me in a cell with another demon, another brother – another pack mate. Though, for his purposes, perhaps that was intentional." Mephisto looked over at Amaimon, who sat perfectly still, a nearly innocent expression on his face.

But something wasn't right. There was something behind him, near their make-shift latrine, though not touching it. Whatever it was, it was smallish and darkly coloured. Amaimon's body shielded the group's view, and as Yukio stared, it seemed he did so quite deliberately. A gut-wrenching feeling invaded Yukio then, his hunch from earlier returning ten-fold. Looking around at his students, it suddenly and painfully struck him that one of them was missing.

Konekomaru was gone.

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MWAHAHAHA! I feel really, really evil right now.

To be fair, this entire chapter was inspired by two things – a song called Sexual Hallucinations by In This Moment, (Which is actually about being high on Ecstasy, but it's kinda... creepy.) and on a rather odd horror movie that I watched all of 10 minutes of (because really, I'm a total chicken when it comes to horror movies – ironic, isn't it?) called In The Dark.

I hope you enjoyed (or, maybe didn't). Let me know in a review! I can't grow as a writer if I don't get feedback about what's working and what isn't!

Until the next chapter!