Layers

Chapter Ten

By: Brenli and Jael

Uriel lay awake in his bed, staring at the dark blue canopy of his four poster bed in a fruitless attempt to sleep. On his bedside table sat a full and forgotten glass of Jack Daniels, watered down from melted ice, the outside dripping with condensation. Beside the glass, the red numbers of his alarm clock glowed a soft 11:30pm.

The time marked nearly twenty four hours since he had returned to his room after his... talk with Serissa. Twenty four hours since she had tasted his blood and left him hungry for a bit more. He remembered their pact to see each other again that night, and the thought of it had turned the taste of Jack sour in his mouth.

He threw the covers off his legs and tightened the string of his black silk pants. Something didn't feel quite right...

xXxXxXx

"Judas, it's almost midnight," Serissa said, sweeping her hair back and out of her tired eyes. "What are you doing here?"

The Vampire King only smiled, slipping his hands into the pockets of his custom tailored suit. "You haven't come to see me in a while. I thought I should come and check on you and your... children."

Serissa bristled. "The kids are asleep." His mentioning of the children made Serissa rightfully uneasy. Judas had always been the type of man to exploit weaknesses... and he knew better than anyone, that her children were her Achilles' Heel. She knew Judas well enough to recognize and predict what would follow that sadistic glint in his eye.

"As most children should be, at this hour."

"What do you want?" Serissa's hazel eyes narrowed suspiciously. She dropped her purse onto the table beside the front door.

"I want to know where you've been. I want to know why you haven't been checking in with me."

"I've been busy. Between running your Safe House and cleaning up the messes your guests keep making, I haven't had time."

"Such a temper you have, tonight. You've fed from a vein recently, haven't you?"

"Yes. I have." That much wasn't hard to admit. Judas couldn't have done a thing to harm Uriel, being Assiahbound. His hatred for anything Angel was nothing more than a deep-seated jealousy and fear of what he couldn't control.

"Ah. And who is the lucky man, I wonder?"

"None of your goddamned business." Serissa muttered. "Judas, please. I'm tired. Just tell me what you want so I can go to sleep."

"Fair enough." Judas kept that perpetual smile on his, a type of smile he always had when he looked at her. A strange look of amusement and condescension. "How old is Aaron, now?"

The pause that followed was painfully long, as Serissa stared at Judas with a cold feeling seeping into her bones. "He'll be ten, next month." She emphasized his age with a slight crack in her voice.

"Perfect." Judas smiled wider, his eyes glittering with a secret malice. "He will be old enough for me to take under my wing."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean I've always wanted a protege. He would be perfect, I think."

"But he's a child, Judas. You can't just take him away from his sister, or from me."

"I can do whatever I want to do, Serissa." He emphasized her name in a way that sent a violent shiver up her spine... but it wasn't because of fear, anymore.

"... Why do you still hate me so much? After all this time?"

"You know exactly why."

"All these years, you've been punishing me. And I've taken it with no complaint... you can't drag Aaron into this."

"I can, and I will. Because I know how much it will hurt you."

Serissa saw red. She charged forward, all anger and shouts. She should have known better... As soon as she was in arm's reach, Judas reached out with a clenched fist and struck her across the jaw. Seeing stars, she fell back and slammed into a shelf of knick knacks in her foyer, pieces falling to the floor and shattering. She grunted when she felt his hand around her throat.

She couldn't remember the last time she had truly been afraid of Judas... Even then, with his hands wrapped around her throat, she felt no fear. But for the first time in a very long time, she felt something.

Burning rage.

It would have been easy, so so easy to fight back for once. Fight back and show Judas that she was much stronger than he thought she was. And in that moment, she did more than just consider it. Her fists clenched tight and her body coiled to spring...

A dark-skinned hand came out of nowhere and clamped tightly around Judas' wrist. Serissa gasped for air when he was dragged away from her.

With a look of shock on her bruising face, Serissa watched as Uriel caught Judas with three hard strikes to his face and one a final blow to the stomach. Judas had no time to react before he was left dazed and dizzy, hunched over his chest as he struggled to reclaim air that was knocked out of him.

Uriel pulled him straight just so he could look at Judas' face, just so Judas could see the look of pure murder in his stormy green eyes. "Put your hands on her again," He said, his false voice a low and threatening growl. "I'll kill you."

He shoved Judas away so roughly that the ever-graceful Judas stumbled. With an indignant cough and a glare, Judas straightened his suit jacket and gently dabbed at his freshly split eyebrow. "Made a friend in a high place, I see," Judas said, tossing a nasty glare at Serissa.

Uriel held out an arm, just to sweep Serissa protectively behind him, using his body as a shield to block her from Judas' killer look. "Get out of here," He sneered. "Don't let me catch you around here, again."

Tension crackled in the air, so thick it was nearly suffocating. Still too shocked to speak, Serissa's fingers gently laced into the back of Uriel's flimsy white shirt.

"I'll be seeing you soon enough, Serissa."

Uriel didn't take his eyes off of Judas until he left and the door closed behind him. When it finally latched after what felt like an eternity of agonizing tension, Uriel spun around, and cupped Serissa's face tenderly in his hands to assess the damage to her lip. "Are you okay...?"

"You didn't have to do that," Serissa said quietly.

"The Hell I didn't... Come on." He took her by the hand and lead her away.

xXxXxXx

A short time later, Serissa was sitting on the counter of a sterile white bathroom, slouching horribly. The strap of her dress had fallen off one shoulder, the hem of it was hitched a little higher than what made Uriel comfortable. He tried desperately to keep himself from focusing on that exposed thigh of hers. Instead, he tried to rationalize what he had done to Judas. He had never been a particularly violent man. Truth be told, he hated violence. But when he saw Judas' slimy hands around Serissa's throat like that...? It called up a fire within him that he didn't even know he still had.

"Keep the ice against your lip, Serissa." Uriel murmured, as one hand slowly pulled her dress back down over exposed thigh, and the other moved her hand and the ice pack back against her swelling mouth.

"I don't know why you're bothering. " She said miserably, watching him open the first aid kit he placed beside her. "It'll be healed up by tomorrow night."

"That doesn't matter." Uriel said softly. "I hate seeing you like this..."

"There isn't anything you can do."

"Maybe that's true. But that doesn't mean I don't want to try." Frowning, Uriel pulled a piece of gauze out of the open first aid kit sitting beside her on the counter. "What does he want with Aaron?"

"To keep him as a damn pet," Serissa said savagely, blinking hopeless tears out of her eyes. "He wants to hurt me by taking him away. Judas knows exactly what those kids mean to me..."

"Why is he doing this to you...?"

Serissa sighed and gingerly touched the wound on her lip. "It's complicated."

Uriel took her hand in an attempt to keep her from touching the open wound. "I'd like to hear about it..." His touch was as tender as his voice as he silently pleaded with her, almost desperate to know more about the weight on Serissa's shoulders.

"Perhaps another time?" Serissa said, the corner of her mouth lifting into a crooked and pathetic smirk.

"I'll hold you to that." Uriel returned her sad attempt at a smile and set back to work, gently dabbing away the extra blood on her mouth.

"I would walk through fire to protect those children from anything and everything that would hurt them." Serissa said after a long pause. Her eyes were slightly glazed, and Uriel watched her speak, wondering if she even remembered he was standing in front of her. "But I don't know why I even bother. I can't protect them forever... soon this life will betray and destroy them from the inside out and there isn't a damn thing I can do to stop it... And they'll be just as miserable as everybody else is."

Uriel felt an uncomfortable pinch in his chest as he listened to what she said. True, he knew exactly what Serissa thought about life and it's general hopelessness... but to see her losing faith in the innocence of the children she cared so much for...? He wasn't prepared for how it tore him up inside.

"Serissa. Look at me..." Uriel took her face in his hands, tilting her gaze up to meet his. He brushed tears off of her cheeks. It horrified him to see her crying, and he wondered if she had been crying the whole time she sat on the counter, and he just hadn't noticed. "Shhh... Listen to me. I don't believe you for a second, you know. I see you fight to keep those kids happy everyday. And that's more than you... or me ever had. They're going to live an amazing life because of you. And that's worth fighting for." He forced a soft smile for her. "So don't give up. Don't ever stop fighting for them."

Serissa's lips parted in a soft sigh, her tear-filled eyes gazing up at him with a look he dared to call awe. "You have no idea how much it means... for you to say that to me."

And in that moment, in her vulnerability, she had never looked more beautiful. Uriel's hand cupped the back of her neck, and he thrust his mouth against hers, wound be damned.

He expected her to shove him back. To slap him across his presumptuous face and curse him for being so bold... but she didn't. She exploded against his kiss, her hands gripping his shoulders to pull him closer, tighter. And in that moment, Uriel hoped he could have been honorable enough to stop them both... but he wasn't. A hunger inside of him fanned into a flame, and suddenly his hands were wandering all over her body, touching, pulling at her dress. He kissed her hard enough for their teeth to clash together, and she only moaned and pressed harder against his mouth. Between beats of their fiery and wild kiss, he released soft and desperate groans.

He felt the erotic sting of her nails against his skin, and it felt better than anything he could have imagined. A sweet and pleasurable pain that only fueled his desire.

His hands worked to her hips as he pulled her off the bathroom counter, pulled her to the other side of the room. He pushed her against the floor length mirror, towards it, and her breath misted the cold glass surface.

What was he doing? This was so fast. So wrong...!

"Don't stop...!" Serissa moaned, her voice a strained whimper.

Something primitive had taken over his mind, his body. His fingers ripped through the delicate fabric of her panties, and he tossed them carelessly aside. Meshing his fingers with hers, he pinned her palms to the glass. He nudged her thighs apart with his knee.

So close... so achingly close.

Through the haze of desperate lust, Uriel managed to grasp at his final thread of sanity. This was so fast... did she even really want it?

He gently bit the flesh of her shoulder, his tongue worked over the sting. "Tell me you want me," he whispered huskily into her ear.

"I want you...!"

Her response was so quick. Just as husky, pleading... desperate. But still, he hesitated. This was insane... all of it. So dirty and shameful.

"Please," was her small cry, her desperate form of begging.

And that was it. He slipped the band of his silk pants over and beneath his aching erection. He pushed inside her, and their combined cries of rapture fogged against the mirror. Their fingers clenched tighter as Uriel's hips rocked hard against her. Again, their cries rose together.

Uriel had never experienced such perfection. Such pleasure. Such exquisite wetness clamped so tightly around him. He buried his face in her hair and inhaled that sweet, flowery scent. He listened to her moaning, her soft cries of pleasure.

How he had missed this. The rushing feelings. The excitement. The racing pulse. He felt alive again, like he wasn't a ghost. And yet the injustice of it made him want to weep.

Was this all he was meant for?

Serissa melted against him, her body turning into putty under his hands, and he supported her weight against the mirror.

She let out a strangled cry, "Har-der...!"

Everything male in him was eager to comply. He took her arms and pulled her away from the mirror. A heartbeat later, they were back against the counter. Uriel put a hand on the back of her neck and bent her over. The first aid kit clattered into the sink as it was swept aside. She eagerly lay forward and he pushed deeper inside her, giving her as much of him as she could take.

She spasmed and her cries echoed through the bathroom, and Uriel clamped a hand over her mouth, his chest pressing against her back to trap her. "Shh...!" He hissed in her ear, and yet his physical motions never let up, as though he were secretly challenging her. Making silence impossible. And he didn't mind. He kept his hand pressed tightly over her mouth, hunching over her, thrusting hard enough to bruise her hips against the hard edge of the counter.

His free arm wrapped tightly around her stomach, holding her body right where he needed it to stay. His mouth found her cheek and his teeth scraped the flesh over her jaw, his own strained cries mixing with her muffled ones. He could see her face in the reflection of the mirror in front of them, and he loved the look of her half-lidded eyes. Of the ecstasy that resided in them.

Sooner than he had hoped, he felt the familiar tingle in his thighs. He welcomed the feeling, relished in it as he let it take him over. His arms clenched impossibly tighter around her body as he climaxed, his final thrusts punishing.

As the madness finally settled and Uriel's arms loosened around her, he listened to her labored breathing. He pressed his cheek against the base of her neck. The reality of what he had just done to her rested in his chest and grew impossibly heavy... painful, even. What had he done...?

He pulled away from her, and when her dress slipped back into place, when his limp and spent erection slipped out of her, she moaned again. Her legs wobbled and she supported her own weight against the counter.

Catching her gaze in the mirror, guilt exploded in his chest like a bomb. "I'm... I'm so sorry...!"

He wanted to run, so he did. His feet carried him out of the bathroom and as far away from her as they could. His legs felt nearly collapsed beneath him, riding the aftereffects of his orgasm. How could he do that to her? What kind of a sick monster was he?

After all she had just been through... to take advantage of her like that? To treat her with such disrespect...? She deserved better. So much better...

Uriel locked himself in his room and leaned against the door. He closed his eyes and didn't bother to keep his self-loathing at bay. Somehow, he felt like whatever he had with Serissa, he had just ruined. He had just torn it apart and burned the pieces.

He slumped to the floor, uninterested in climbing into bed. Uninterested in going back to Serissa to apologize again and again. He wanted to disappear into that floor and never be seen again.

xXxXxXx

"Chiyo, what are you doing out here?"

The young Rabbit girl looked up from hands folded in her lap. Serissa stood over her with a blanket wrapped around her shoulders, shielding her from an early morning chill. The sun hadn't risen yet, and even Lilith and Michael hadn't emerged to perform their normal morning training. Chiyo frowned when the first thing she noticed was a scab on Serissa's lip. Seeing wounds like that periodically on Serissa's body was certainly nothing new, but it never ceased to anger Chiyo.

"... Are you okay?" Chiyo asked, her voice careful and calm.

"I'm fine."

Chiyo knew she was lying. As much as Serissa tried to hide the turmoil inside of her from Chiyo and her 'siblings', Chiyo was no fool. Over the course of the previous year, Chiyo had seen a strange change in Serissa. She didn't smile as much, anymore, and even the ones she forced were too strained to be believable anymore. But Chiyo never pressed or asked questions. She knew better. The woman she called her mother was stronger than any person she had ever known.

"I'm just checking out the backyard." Chiyo said, answering Serissa's question before she could repeat it. "Our tree is burned."

"I saw that. I imagine Michael and Lilith's training sessions are getting more intense, now that the Dragonmaster has... uncovered new abilities."

"Why do they have to train here? They're wrecking the yard."

"It's only a yard."

Chiyo frowned. This place was more than just a backyard. Some of her fondest memories had taken place right here, in this very grass. Under the tree the Fire Angel and his stupid little apprentice had treated like a training prop. "It isn't just a yard. This is our yard. This is my yard!"

"What's wrong, Chiyo?"

"What isn't wrong? I hate that they're here. I hate it! Being around them... around Michael and his stupid wife. It's killing me, Serissa...!"

"I don't know what you want me to say, Chiyo. I've told you why they're here and why we just have to... put up with this, for a while."

"I want you to tell me that someday Michael is going to get what's coming to him...!" Chiyo fought back a sudden wave of tears with an angry sniff. "You've always told me that every decision has it's consequences... but why is he so special? Why does Michael get to live a happy and perfect life after all the lives that he destroyed? It isn't fair...!"

"I don't know how to answer that, baby. The cycle of Karma isn't in our control."

"Well why not? Why can't we do something? Look what you have to deal with because of Judas. Why don't you do something? Why don't you ever fight back?"

"Because life is never going to be fair, Chiyo. And if you spend your whole life fighting it, you'll never enjoy what little good there is. You have to choose your battles."

"I don't want to choose my battles. I want to fight them all until everything is set right!"

"And who are you to decide what is right, Chiyo?" Serissa said softly, gently brushing her fingers over Chiyo's tousled white hair. "If all you want is revenge, then you're no better than the ones who started all this, in the first place."

Chiyo's lip quivered as she looked up at her caretaker.

"I'm sorry. Really, I am." Serissa crouched to her knees and pulled Chiyo against her chest, threading fingers through her hair. "If I could make it all better, you know I would in a heartbeat."

Chiyo found herself crying silently in the warm shelter of Serissa's arms. "I'm so tired of feeling so angry, all the time."

Serissa didn't say another word, knowing that there wasn't really anything left to say. Her broken heart ached for the young girl in her arms, a girl far too young to have suffered through the things she had experienced. There were many times when she thought that Chiyo had healed, that she was better. That she had done her job in sheltering her from any other horrors life had in store for her.

Serissa knew she had failed the moment Michael and Nema were granted permission to stay in her home, under the same roof as the young girl whose life they had unintentionally destroyed.

The sound of a soft tapping brought Serissa's attention away from Chiyo. Her breath left her when she saw Uriel standing on her back porch, looking haggard and sheepish, hands in his pockets. He offered her a shy and apologetic, miserable smile.

"Chiyo... Go inside and get something for breakfast, okay? I know you must be hungry."

Chiyo pulled away from Serissa and cast a confused glance at her, but stayed silent when she noticed Uriel standing a short distance away from them. Once the back door was closed behind her, Uriel spoke. "How is she doing...?"

"She's still struggling with all of this." Serissa swallowed the lump in her throat and tightened her blanket around her shoulders. "It's hard for her to see Michael, of all people."

"Why him?"

"When I first found Chiyo, I tried for a long time to find any family she might have had that were still alive. I found an aunt... Her mother's sister. Chiyo was seven when I told her the news." Serissa's lips formed a soft frown. "I should have waited to tell her... a short time later, I found out that this aunt of hers had passed on several years ago. One of Michael's victims during the Genocide."

Uriel's eyes widened in a mild display of horror. "... Oh." Uriel didn't think Michael or Nema knew that. He didn't know if they had ever been confronted by a family member of one of the several hundred Rabbits Michael had murdered during that very dark time in his life.

"You look like Hell." Serissa said, in a rapid attempt to change the subject.

"I haven't slept, yet." Uriel said, hating how he couldn't even bring himself to look her in the eye, after their previous encounter, mere hours before.

"Mmm." Serissa said with an understanding nod.

"I just wanted to say I'm so-"

"Don't." Serissa cut him off, offering him a soft, genuine smile. "Really. You don't have to apologize. This may sound... a bit depraved, but I didn't mind. At all. In fact, I enjoyed it."

Uriel felt a blush heat his cheeks and he shifted his weight to his other foot. "I just don't want you to feel like I used you."

"But you did use me... and that's okay." Serissa moved closer, only to side step around him and head for the door. Before she passed, she reached out a hand from beneath her blanket to gently squeeze his forearm. The action sent a shiver through him. "Truth is, I was using you, too."

That didn't make him feel better. At all. A knot twisted in Uriel's stomach. He rested a gentle hand on top of hers. "I won't do that to you, again. I promise."

"Perhaps that's for the best. I think we have bigger things to be concerning ourselves with now, anyway."

"Just so you know?" Uriel swallowed back his nervousness and forced out his words. "I meant everything I said to you."

"I never thought otherwise." She squeezed his arm one last time before pulling her hand back. "You're a good man, Uriel."

Uriel forced himself to smile. "You have no idea how much it means... for you to say that to me." He repeated her words back to her and watched something stir in her eyes. That simple look kicked him in the guts, and it was all he could do to not pull her back into his arms and repeat his previous mistake.

Serissa didn't say another word, and Uriel knew that was the best thing she could have done. She left him standing on the back porch, alone with his thoughts and the chill of the morning breeze. He decided he didn't like any of the things that were running through his head. He didn't like how his guilt had somehow lessened in the span of their short conversation. He didn't like how he craved more of her with each new moment that passed.

She was becoming a poison far sweeter than the taste of Jack Daniels.

xXxXxXx

Author's Note from Jael: Okay this chapter was kind of a killer to write. T.T