Layers

Chapter Sixteen

By: Brenli and Jael

The night air seemed to calm her nerves enough to get her head on straight. But Serissa couldn't stop herself from pacing across the cracked sidewalk outside her warehouse. This... this was going to ruin everything.

How could she have been so careless? Jinho had followed her and she didn't sense it...

Serissa raked her fingers through her hair and took a deep breath through her nose. No. She could fix this.

The idea came to her and the wickedness of it made her heart sink. Things weren't supposed to be like this. She hated herself for considering it...

Sinking to the sidewalk, Serissa rested her face in her trembling hands.

"What are you doing?"

"I thought I told you to leave me alone, Azrael."

"Are you planning on pacing the sidewalk all night? We have a serious problem, and he's tied up inside."

Serissa looked up at her long time companion, searching for the words she would need to regain her solitude. She was on her feet the moment she saw red flecks on a grey shirt that had been immaculately clean only an hour before. "What have you done to him?"

''I didn't kill him, if that's what you're wondering."

"Damn it, Azrael!" Serissa hissed, fighting down the urge to strike him in her anger. She was on her feet in an instant, rushing back inside the warehouse and back to where she had left Jinho, chained and helpless in a chair. She let out a groan the second she laid eyes on the Vampire. Oh, the poor man…!

Jinho was bloodied, beaten, his eye swollen and red oozing from the corner of his mouth. His head was lolling back and forth, his strength threatening to leave him.

"Azrael, I didn't leave him like this so you could torture him!" Serissa snarled at the Rabbit behind her.

"I thought I could get information from him."

"Information? What information could he have that I don't already know, you idiot!"

Azrael bristled with indignation and watched Serissa grab an old rag from a table nearby and hurry to Jinho's side.

"Jinho, can you hear me?" Serissa murmured softly, gently dabbing blood off the side of his face.

As soon as the cloth touched his bruised skin, Jinho hissed and jerked away as much as his bindings would allow, the sound of her voice snapping him out of his pain-filled void. "You…! Don't touch me!" His words were pure acid, total anger directed right at Serissa. One ink-black eye, the other shut behind swollen tissue, delivered a hard glare.

"This wasn't supposed to happen, Jinho, I swear it."

His limbs twitched and strained uselessly against the chains that bound him. "Should I believe you? You're… you're a liar."

"Yes… I am, and I'm sorry." Serissa said sadly, stepping back enough for Jinho to give her the nasty glare she rightfully deserved.

"Who are you? Really?"

"It's a long story."

A frustrated muscle in his jaw ticked at her response. Oh, did he seem like he was about to leave? "Believe me, it's a story I'm willing to hear, right now."

Serissa sighed and pulled up another rickety chair, to sit opposite the bleeding and beaten dandy goth. "Do you even know what 'Serissa' means?"

The Gehenna Vampire's dark brows furrowed together, and he grumbled, "No. Should I?"

"It means 'Angel'. For years, Judas spat that name at me like a curse until it finally stuck. What's funny is that if he had taken a moment to learn my real name, he would have known that I was the one who took his Spear."

Jinho shook his head, though the action caused his vision to swim. "This doesn't even make sense. You're a Vampire. How can you be-"

"An Angel?" Serissa finished his accusation with a dry, sad smile. "I'm not quite sure, myself. But all I truly know is that it has something to do with my wing."

"Your wing?"

"Many, many centuries ago, I fought in the Great War. The war that cast Lucifer out of Heaven. I was wounded in battle… half of one of my wings was, well… bitten off by one of Lucifer's many monsters."

"If that happened, you would have turned into a Ghoul." Jinho said angrily.

"I should have, yes. But something about how much of my wing was left intact…? It crippled my astral powers significantly, but not enough for me to rot away." Serissa cast a glance at Azrael, who had settled in the corner of the room, arms crossed over his chest and glaring at her. She ignored him. "So… after I came to Assiah and Judas sunk his claws into me? Something changed. I'm not an Angel, and I'm not a Vampire. I'm something else, entirely."

"And the Spear?" He had to cough what must have been blood out of his throat. "Why did you take it?"

"I didn't, really. The Spear has a will of it's own. It bestows it's power onto a host of it's choosing, and it chose me. Why? I have no idea. But it has certainly proven useful."

"Useful?" Jinho scoffed. "Why are you doing all this? Why are you pretending to be on our side when you're really the one causing all our troubles?"

"I'm not causing anybody's troubles, Jinho. The rest of the world does that, for me. I'm trying to fix things."

"Fix things? How?"

Serissa smiled sadly. "I'm not a comic book villain, Jinho. I'm not going to spill my master plan. Especially not now, when you already know too much. As for me 'pretending' to be on your side? In case you've forgotten, I never wanted any of you staying at my mansion, in the first place. That was Judas' decision, not mine."

"And with all that power you have, you couldn't have just put a stop to all of it? Judas' abuse, us staying with you…?" Jinho hissed and pulled on his chains, his glare growing more and more incredulous and disbelieving.

"I would have risked exposure if I fought his orders. I can't let anybody know that I'm two different people. So I don't think I really need to stress how vital it is for you to keep this fact between us."

A sudden laugh managed to bubble up through the blood sitting in his mouth, enraged and reckless. "How can you expect me to keep something like this secret?"

"I know it's a lot to demand from you. But I swear no harm will come to your friends if you stay silent. I haven't hurt them yet and I'm not about to start... but if you do tell them?"

"Let me guess. You'll kill me."

"No. I'll kill Lilith."

He wasn't sure that he'd heard her right, at first, and so he'd chosen not to respond. But the silence grew into a horrible loudness in his ears. The glare in his eyes softened and his jaw gently dropped open. She… she was serious. Going in for the one thing that could set him off. "You… you vile, heartless…!" And then he was swearing in razor-edged Korean words, calling her every name under the sun. Chains clanked against each other and he wanted to curse the day he'd ever spoken to her about Lilith…!

"I swore a long time ago that I wouldn't shed innocent blood. So I need you to believe that I will do whatever it takes to achieve my goal... because I don't want to hurt Lilith. But I will... If you make me."

If he made her… how dare she put this on him! But the chains and the weight of her threat held him down, and all he could was scream out in rage and misery. Jinho's shoulders slumped and his head rolled back to stare at a flickering light set above him… and he thought of them. He thought of that entire group of brave and good-hearted people, and he thought of her. The bastard Princess of Gehenna, who deserved so much better than all of this… "... All right." The moment he made his agreement, he had to shut his eyes. Maybe this was a nightmare. Maybe he'd wake up, soon. "All right. I will tell no one."

"I believe you, and I thank you for it. I know that… you don't have any reason to believe me, but this is the right thing."

"You're right. I don't believe you."

"You won't have to believe me for long."

Jinho tried to ignore the ominous tone in her voice. After all, he knew she wasn't going to tell her anything of value. "Can I at least ask one question?"

"You may ask me anything you like." Serissa said softly.

"What about Uriel?"

Jinho watched the corner of Serissa's eye tick softly, and a the soft pinkness in her cheeks suddenly disappeared. "... What about him?"

What about him? Jinho felt a bubble of anger and dismay swell in his chest all over again. He remembered the state he had left Uriel in. The uncertainty that weighed on him… "You're… you're sleeping with him."

What happened next surprised Jinho. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Azrael tense, and his wide, shocked red eyes turned to Serissa, yet she only looked at her feet, as though refusing to look at Azrael would somehow hide the scarlet shame on her face.

"I'm not talking about Uriel."

"But he's-"

"Enough." Serissa was on her feet in the time it took Jinho to blink, and the sudden aggression rolling off of her body was enough to silence Jinho. Now that he saw her as who she really was, he found himself terrified by her. "I'll take you home, now."

"I don't need your help." Jinho muttered angrily, the injustice of it all burning a hole right through his chest.

"Maybe not. But I'm taking you, anyway." The odd, motherly quality Serissa had throughout their entire conversation had vanished with the mention of Uriel. Jinho theorized that it had something to do with the nasty, betrayed glare that Azrael was casting at her rigid back. Azrael clearly didn't know about Serissa's affair with Uriel… was that not part of their master plan? If not, then what was it…?

Serissa unlocked the chains that bound Jinho to his chair and let the man climb shakily to his feet. Jinho angrily recoiled away from her when her hands reached to help him. Serissa could do nothing in response but nod and give him a tight, indignant frown. "Go. I'll meet you outside."

She knew that Jinho had no intention of waiting for her, but it didn't matter, either way. If she wanted, she could catch up with him in an instant. When Jinho finally limped out of the room, Serissa felt herself rooted to the spot, still not willing to look at Azrael.

Damn Jinho for opening his mouth about Uriel… this little indiscretion of hers was not a thing she wanted Azrael to know about.

"You and him, huh?" Azrael's angry voice cut through the agonizing silence, and Serissa's eyes looked to the ceiling, as though trying to find some kind of hopeless defense for her actions. "Suddenly, you not wanting to sleep with me anymore makes a lot more sense."

"Azrael-"

"No. Don't say a word."

Serissa flinched when Azrael grasped her elbow, his touch gentle with a thinly veiled mask of aggression.

"Celestiel… I know that what you and I have is nothing." Azrael bent his head closer to gently inhale the scent that clung to her brown hair. "But don't let whatever you have with this… Earth Angel… turn into something."

Her body was trembling under the gravity of his words, and finally the real weight of living a double life started to truly register. True, she hadn't slept with Azrael once since Uriel had taken her in a moment of blistering passion against a bathroom mirror, but still she felt… dirty. Like a two-timing whore. Her heart split between two men she adored… two men who wanted completely different women for completely different reasons.

"I will always love you, my Celestiel." Azrael's lips brushed over her cheek and Serissa's mangled heart crumbled a little more. "Until the end…"

xXxXxXx

His room... he'd make it, ultimately, if he reached his room. He had blood there, flasks upon silver flasks of it, and though he rarely drank it undiluted, he knew he had no choice but to do so, now. He could hide himself in his room and drown himself in blood until the rich red fluid knit him back together, and no one would be the wiser...

No one would have any idea...

The guilt of what Jinho agreed to do weighed him down so hard that his battered knees fell upon the steps leading up to the second floor of Serissa's – or Celestiel's – mansion. The bone and cartilage protested, and he muffled a painful moan behind tan lips pressed into a thin line. He took his time trying to stand straight, but no sooner than he'd reached the top of this stairs, he was hunched over, again. A bleeding, beaten... frazzled... lying... mess.

The Vampire felt like throwing up and adding on to his destroyed countenance. He didn't have the right to be here, anymore. To be around this group, to be around the people he called friends when he had no choice but to work against them, now.

No. That wasn't the truth. He could tell them. He could tell them right now, even as he left little blood drops on the floor. Celestiel and Azrael couldn't stop him if he moved this very second, flung himself onto somebody's door to rouse them, and if he died for that after the fact... maybe that was okay. Maybe. But that two-faced woman had dangled his Princess – well, the Princess; he wasn't sure he had the right to call her his after agreeing to keep this horrible secret – over his sorry head.

What could he do? He wanted Lilith safe. He did what he had to do to ensure that, even if that made him every inch the snake Celestiel was. Some part of his mind kept screaming that this was no guarantee. Why was he trusting a masked woman to keep her word? Hadn't he learned so much better after all the years in Sheol? But oh, these days it seemed like the strength of his brain had begun to drown more and more under the pounding of his reckless, foolhardy heart. The heart that had gotten him into trouble, before...

His vision swam, and the heaviness of his heart sent him crumpling to the floor once more. Jinho wasn't sure if it was just the thudding in his ears that made his fall sound so loud... he hoped so –

"Jinho...!"

Suddenly he wanted to scream out against the world and how utterly unfair it was.

"Jinho, what the Hell...?" Of course it was her, of all people, of course it was Lilith. And of course, for all her coarseness, for all her cruelty, she was kind in this moment, trying to help him to his feet. "What happened to you? Who did this?"

He couldn't answer her, though he tried. He reached hard for words to calm her and shift her worry away from his sorry self. He sought out excuses. He prayed for lies to come to him, even. But his bruised cheek had found itself against her shoulder as she lifted him from the carpet, and all he could think of was... blood. He needed blood. She had blood. Plenty of it, coursing around inside of her; he could smell it. He could hear it. His ink-black eyes had fixated on the pulse of her neck, and he could see that pulse beating at him, beckoning him, and Korean swear words came out of his mouth. He pushed himself away and crashed hard against the wall across from her door...

But Lilith only became aggravated for it. "What the fuck, Jinho? I'm trying to help! Pull yourself together!"

The Gehenna Vampire laughed. Pull himself together. He wasn't sure that he remembered how.

Lilith's cat-eyed pupils sent him a hard glare... a scared glare. This wasn't the Jinho she knew, all neat and tidy and gentle and a voice like cool water running over stones. The Jinho who had let her weep into his cravat... It felt strange to admit that she wanted that man back. That she even wanted him around, at all. "... Who did this to you?"

The question was just vague enough to make him want to cry and scream and beg for forgiveness and sink his fangs into her golden skin, all at the same time. He supposed the conflict was written all over his face, because the Princess' hands were on him once more, righting his slumped back, turning him toward her.

"Was it Celestiel...?" The Evil spoke in troubled whispers. "Jinho, is she here?"

Is she here? Another laugh left him and then seemed to trip over itself, morphing into a gasp because merely inhaling the air had made him catch the sweet, welcoming smell of Lilith's blood again. He never let himself go thirsty. He hated how manic it made him; he hated how stupid it made him. He felt his fangs grow sharper, longer in his mouth, and suddenly he was all flailing limbs and desperate struggling. "Go. Go. Go..."

Something about his desperation made her desperate, and she couldn't begin to put it into words. He fought to leave, and she fought to keep him with her. "Let's get Raphael, okay? He can mend you up while you talk." It wasn't really in her nature to beg, but her voice took on those tones. Lilith didn't want him to leave...

"Go..."

Again with his senseless plea! If he wasn't already so hurt, she had half a mind to smack his face around! "I'm not going anywhere, you stubborn fucking idiot! I've talked to you! Now you talk to me!" The demands came out of her like fire from the core of her heart.

Some urgent burst of energy balled up inside of Jinho and exploded, sending a bizarre, almost animal kind of snarl out of his throat. His hands curled tight around the golden skin of her wrists, and he heard the hard thunk of her body against her door before he saw the way she winced and shuddered. Her heartbeat raced and suddenly all he could sense was the flow of her blood through her veins. He hated himself for it.

Lilith was afraid to open her eyes. Should she have expected this? Hadn't he blown up once before, grabbed at her throat? But she didn't regret making her demands. The last time they were together, she had let him in, and it hurt and soothed all at the same time. She wanted the tables turned. She couldn't explain why... Her fear spiked when Lilith felt pressure against the champagne blonde bangs hanging over her forehead, and she dared to look at him.

His forehead rested against hers, his fangs visible in his open, sighing mouth, eyes shut as every last bit of resolve crumbled to dust. "Forgive me..."

The soft beginning of a, "Wh-" was all that Lilith managed to say before trembling, needy fingers brushed aside her hair, before long, ready fangs sank neatly into the tender flesh of her neck, and... Shinryu help her. The pain was a flash, sharp, but quickly giving way to something different. Something so, so very different. How to describe it...? Warm. Warm like the weird little feelings that had come from her gut whenever she was near Michael... only hotter. Hotter, and higher than her stomach, and lower than her stomach.

Garnet eyes looked helplessly at the dark ceiling as she blushed and conceded that the embarrassing, tingly-hot blood rush escaped from her middle and had gone straight to her... breasts. To... the flesh between her thighs. She tried to speak all over again, but the only thing that left her was some breathy, overwhelmed sigh. Her knees buckled. Her arms began to go limp, and when his hands released her wrists, they audibly slid down the wood of her door and hung loosely at her sides. When Jinho's arms pulled her against the torn fabric of his dark shirt, an alarmingly needy cry left her because the pressure of his chest against hers was at once both relieving and torturous. It wasn't until one hand cradled the back of her neck that she realized her head had tipped back. She was utterly taken over... figuratively and literally consumed by him...

But then he tore his mouth loose, and doing so was the most difficult thing he had ever done. He'd known that there was a reason he didn't drink right from the vein. It was too good. It was warm and alive and rich and oh... maybe he could get used to drinking blood this way...! No more cheeky and amused jokes while eating bloody meat, or mixing it with tea, or sipping from his flask when in a pinch. She wasn't like his dearly departed six. She knew what he was. He could just have her, whenever he wanted.

Wait.

He'd been standing in the hallway, holding her up despite the way his battered body protested, with his mouth still open and bloody. As soon as he realized it, he was quick to close it, to run his tongue over his lips and taken in the last little bit of her wonderful, wonderful blood. Blood that made him dizzy and drunk... "More..." He needed more than the mouthful he'd taken if he wanted to mend. Needed more than the mouthful he'd taken... just because.

Lilith didn't see anything more than some kind of desperate need in his ink-black eyes. A desperate need that must have been reflected in her own, she just knew it. She felt it in every aching inch of her body. "More..." She wasn't sure what that word even meant, but she couldn't find it in herself to care.

As vague and open as that single word was, it unleashed the both of them. Freed them from themselves, and this time when his mouth descended, it was to kiss her lips and press her to her bedroom door, phasing through it with her. Lilith was too surprised to tell if she could taste any lingering blood on him. She didn't think that she could... Was this what 'more' meant? Kisses? The Evil thought she should have been angry, but her breasts ached and the slick skin between her legs tingled, and she couldn't say no. Did she even want to say no?

Before she could really weigh out her feelings, his fangs pierced her all over again. The other side of her neck, this time. A flash of pain giving way to an ecstasy that put any longing she'd thought she had for the Fire Angel to shame. She thought she'd known longing...

Jinho was already getting stronger, the aches from being battered slowly fading, being replaced with aches of a whole other kind. He felt dirty for it, though he'd never had any qualms about sex... He felt perverse for taking hold of her, for draining her of her strength, for filling her with venom that made her whimper uncontrollably. Maybe she was right all along. Maybe he was a lecher, because he loved this...

Two more mouthfuls of blood later, he forced himself to stop. He was strong enough to stand easily, to take the weight of her trembling body and revel in the feeling of her fingers clawing into the dark shirt. He dotted two kisses up to her chin before he remembered to lick the blood from his lips, and he moaned when he found her mouth already open and waiting for his. The venom had left her dazed but needy enough to kiss him back, and at first he laughed against her lips. These were her first kisses...

These were her first kisses.

Against the odds, guilt bubbled up and pushed words out of his mouth, words he shot into the darkness of her room in a hurting, begging Korean. Begging for forgiveness, but even now he wasn't brave enough to ask in a language she could understand. For soon, despite his guilt, he was kissing her all over again, pulling the strap of her white blouse away from her golden shoulder to brush his lips across it. The fabric had pressed lines into her skin... one of Jibril's blouses that had been donated to her, but Lilith's chest was too generous for it. How horrible, the Princess of Gehenna being relegated to clothes that didn't even fit her right...! It wouldn't do. Suddenly Jinho wanted nothing more than to free her body from the clothes that pinched at her. Suddenly that was exactly what he did, moving nimbly, catching her before she could trip out of the purposely-destroyed denim shorts that once hugged her hips.

Lilith's head felt like it was spinning, or like the world tipped wildly every which way. One moment she was kissing him – and oh, she felt giddy and stupid for enjoying the feel of his tongue on hers – and the next she was naked. The next she was falling, the next she was cradled in arms covered with long, dark sleeves. Was fabric supposed to make her feel... aroused? Her blushing felt like fire building under the skin of her face, and then she was laying on her bed. Jinho stood over her, dark pants, dark shirt, wild dark hair, even wilder dark eyes. She felt her body... clench, from within. Was him simply standing there supposed to make her feel aroused? He wasn't even naked. She was naked... The dizzy thought suddenly struck her hard, and she tried to cover herself, though her limbs were sluggish.

"Don't."

She couldn't do anything but obey, and whimper in reply. All he'd said was one word, but... she needed to hear him speak like that, again. It wasn't the cool water over stones that she missed, but she loved it, just the same. It was strained and ragged and needy and she felt every bit of herself reflected in it.

He began stripping, and she couldn't do anything but stare. Her first thought was that it was a crime that he covered himself up in all the layers that his usual suits required, shirts and vests and cravats and coats... and then she marveled that she thought that of him. But it was true; she couldn't fight the truth...! She wanted him in the lavish robes of Gehenna, or she wanted him in nothing at all, and there were no robes here.

Her other thoughts were, however, of utter dismay. He was littered with wounds...! Bruises that were a brownish kind of purple, places where his skin had split open, dried blood in spots where there once must have been some kind of blow. Blood helped to heal him... did that mean that he looked worse before he'd bitten her? How much worse? "Jinho..." Her voice was soft and worried and sad, and she never sounded like that for anyone. Who did this to him?

"Hush... I'll be fine." He sighed as he joined her, moving onto the bed with a smoothness that made her blush bright red... at least he wasn't distracted by the blood that rushed there, not anymore. It was her body all on it's own that drew him to her, made it impossible to end this. "I need you, but I'll be fine..."

His hips had caused her thighs to spread as he settled over her, and the first thing she managed to gasp in reply was, "Need me, for what?" Lilith's garnet eyes grew wide at herself, and when she met his ink-black gaze, she almost wanted to throw her blankets over her damn face. He was smirking at her, and it was horribly charming and wonderfully dirty and she hated it and she loved it.

"Who's the lecher now, hmm?" At least he was gracious enough not to tease her too much. "I need more blood..."

"We're naked." She meant to snap defensively. Lilith was alarmed that it came out more like a begging moan.

"We are." And that part Jinho couldn't come up with an excuse for. There was none to give, just like there was no excuse for the way he pressed his body against hers, the way he laid kisses on her collarbone, the way his hands had found themselves upon her bosom before he sunk his fangs into the flesh over her heart. He had no reason to take blood from the rise of her breast, but as the rich, perfectly warm fluid seeped into his mouth, as Lilith let out a cry gone wanton because his thumbs played across her nipples, he couldn't find it in himself to care. His head spun with the taste of her and with the feel of her body pressing, arching, writhing against his own.

Her head spun with... everything. The flash of pain came and went and then there was nothing but pleasure that made her frustrated, made her go mad. She would have thought that the caressing and teasing of her breasts would relieve her, but it only magnified that clenching ache between her legs. No amount of bucking against him soothed her core, and she knew it was because he was too low on her body. How could he be so patient? She'd seen him when he undressed. He was hard, long and ready. Didn't he need...? By the time he released her bosom she had been reduced to moans and sighs. Words couldn't find Lilith, anymore...

So when he moved further down her body, not up, all the needy Princess could do was whine... and then gasp out when he bit the inside of her right thigh, and pressed a single finger inside of her. Her vision blurred. She didn't have the energy to sit up, or reach for him. All she could do was grip on tight to her blankets and hope that she wouldn't die. She thought that she might... but she didn't. Against every panicked, overstimulated part of her mind, she held on, even when he finished feeding on her right thigh, only to begin feeding on her left. Another finger entered her, slipping along her wet flesh... beckoning her, that was the only way she could begin to describe what he was doing. Beckoning her, like she wasn't already there. Suddenly, she understood Nema's own loudness... but all the same she hoped that nobody could hear the reckless noises leaving her mouth. He released her thigh with a kiss upon the wound he'd left, sighing through his nose as he licked the blood that lingered on his lips. Ink-black eyes that seemed openly needy and yet secretive caught and held the gaze of her own bewildered ones...

His tongue touched some unbelievably tender bit of flesh between her thighs, and all hope that she might be quiet exploded. Jinho watched her, caressed her with his mouth, urged her on with his fingers. Her back arched dramatically... her cries filled the darkness of her room... She was scared and surprised and bewildered and lost in bliss, and she was beautiful. He sighed it to her when he'd finished carrying her through the orgasm, a word that punctuated a line of kisses as he slipped back up her body...

He hovered over Lilith for just a moment, looking at her half-closed eyes, her blushing face, her sighing lips... a lock of hair that had found it's way across her forehead during her thrashing... and he had to tell her just once more, before he also lost hold on any and every word. "You're beautiful..."

Her head suddenly lifted from the bed with a sharp gasp, sharp like the bit of pain when he pressed into her body. But so much like whenever he bit her, the pain was fleeting, fading as she held his gaze. He was still, his eyes half-closed, his mouth still open from the cry that had left him. Oh, she'd loved that moan, she wanted to hear it again...!

And yet he remained still, looking down at her, realizing what he had just done. In a matter of moments and a series of bites, he'd gone from the being the first to ever kiss her... to being the first to ever have sex with her. Guilt touched him, but didn't stay for long, immediately crumbling when Lilith's arms suddenly reached up, one draping across his shoulders, the other letting her fingers get lost in the messy waves of his hair as she pulled him down, claiming his lips in a kiss.

Jinho had taken enough blood to take care of the worst of his wounds. All he needed now was time, time that had broken down into a dizzying blur as their bodies moved together. He had no real way of knowing if that was because of all the blood in his system, or because of the feel of her wet core around his length. Maybe it was both, or maybe it didn't matter. Every now and then there were moments of clarity... the feel of nails biting into his back. Her body bucking hard against him, making him cry out. It took longer than it should have for him to realize Lilith meant make him moan aloud, that she craved the sound of it. So his hands pinned her hips down to the messy blankets, lest she carry him over the edge too soon, and he allowed himself to moan with abandon as he relished deeper, smoother, less-hasty thrusts. He saw no need to hurry...

And in a perfect world, there never would have been an end.

There were two more moments of clarity, amid the world-tilting ecstasy they shared... One was her orgasm, her chest pressing hard against his as she sighed it out, her quivering, clenching velvet core dragging him with her, pouring himself into her, crying out desperate Korean words of elation. Sighing into yet another kiss. He hadn't expected her to fall to pieces with him inside of her, though he'd done all he could to help her hurt less. The fact that he had driven her to the brink all over again made an ache start in his chest... a proud ache... a happy ache.

The other was settling beside her, seeing how quickly the pleasure had sent her to sleep, realizing that the sky was just beginning to lighten from beyond her curtains before his own blissful exhaustion overtook him.

xXxXxXx

Among the first thoughts to enter the mind of the Vampire, as he slowly woke up, was that Lilith needed better curtains. They weren't heavy enough to keep out the light, and what must have been mid-day sun had brightened up the room enough to rouse him. Yes, beggars couldn't be choosers, but that was the issue, wasn't it? Why was a Princess a beggar?

Reaching out to snap his fingers and send thick purple satin over the windows, unfurling from clouds of smoke, made Jinho's mind swim. He still felt dizzy... it had to have been the blood. He'd taken too much. Or maybe it was the sex.

That moment of clarity hit him like the force of a gentleman's glove slapping across his face, hard enough to make him roll onto his back and stare at nothing with bleary and despairing ink-black eyes. In it's stead came all the other moments that had somehow stayed vivid throughout the whirlwind of last night's transgressions, though they came in a scattered mosaic of lust and dismay, in horrible slices. Peeling off her too-tight blouse. Laughing against kisses. Fingers urging her body to melt. Thrusting into her. The word 'more.' Fangs sinking into her thighs. Her sharp gasp, head lifting from the bed. 'Hush... I'll be fine. I need you, but I'll be fine...' Him begging for forgiveness in a tongue she didn't know. The sound of her wrists sliding down her door to hang limply at her sides. His orgasm, the way he had thrust in deep and reveled in it. 'Who's the lecher now, hmm?'

He was. He was the lecher, now. Jinho slipped smoothly out of bed, not a single ache left in his body save the one that began to thrum hard in his head. His frown grew, his brows pinched together as he looked at her with her champagne hair gone frizzy, her golden face gone a touch pale from lack of blood... all the bites he'd given her...! Five! Five accursed bites on her body, on both sides of her neck, on her breast, on each of her thighs...! Five bites!

He had no right. Not after what he'd agreed to do, what he swore to keep a secret. Maybe that ridiculous group of old Evil men thought he had full claim on Lilith, but they were wrong. He hated them and they were wrong. He was a liar and a cheat, now, a betrayer to the entire group, to all of his friends, to Lilith most of all. Filling her full of venom... for all he knew that was the only thing that had made her so willing, too willing for her own good.

Shame made the Vampire turn his head away from her, and his gaze settled on his reflection in her vanity mirror. He was all smears of dried blood from disappeared wounds, unkempt dark hair, and a miserable face, and he suddenly had a frightening urge to crash his fists into the glass. To destroy this ugly side of him that came clawing out of him without warning, despite his efforts to keep it locked away under top hats and gentile manners.

Jinho couldn't stay here, anymore. He'd done enough damage.

He dressed quickly and snapped his fingers before he moved out of her room, leaving Lilith with a little plate full of sugary cakes he remembered seeing the last time he'd set foot in Gehenna, and a tall glass of orange juice on her bedside table. The least he could do was give her something so that she could take care of herself after what he'd taken from her. This and the new curtains... a pathetic excuse for apology gifts...

A sick kind of upset laugh left his mouth when he phased through his bedroom door. His room wasn't all that far from Lilith's... oh, if only she hadn't found him, if only he had made it to his room so he could shut himself up inside...! He'd still be a traitor, but at least he wouldn't have also...

Jinho shook his head, grabbed a quill and a bit of paper that he had left on his vanity, began scrawling on it even though his harried pen strokes left ugly drops and smears of black everywhere. "Hatter."

He didn't look up when his mirror turned black, when a top hat pushed through it, wild red hair fanning out from underneath. "Oh my." The Mad Hatter's lips, painted with red in the shape of a heart, gave him a smile. "Someone is very sloppy today!"

"Tell Lord Lucifer that I will be returning to court, now."

"Is that sex I smell?"

The blade of his quill tore an angry, jagged line in the paper. "Hatter!" Jinho's ink-black eyes were wild and mean, glaring at the Satan popping out of his mirror.

Pride's head tilted. "So angry, for someone who's clearly enjoyed himself, recently."

"I didn't call you here to be teased and harassed for the millionth time! I told you to deliver Lucifer a message. Do it!"

A perfectly manicured hand suddenly reached through and grasped him by his chin, the touch chilly like the smile that suddenly tensed in Belial's painted face. Her eyes were blue, sharp, and cold. "Oh dear, Park Jinho... Who do you think you're talking to?"

But he was broken down and jagged and reckless, batting the Hatter's hand away. "If you want to rip me apart for it, you can wait until I'm in Sheol again."

This time the Satan laughed like amused and threatening bells. "Save some of this attitude for Lord Lucifer. He'll want to see it...!"

Jinho took a deep breath in some hopeless attempt to calm himself and continued writing, finishing up his letter. Maybe it would be his last one, after the way he'd mouthed off to a Satan, and Pride out of all of them. But maybe he didn't care. Maybe it was a long time coming. He wasn't sure how he'd made it as long as he had, down there with all the schemes and the heavy air...

There was a knock on his door, and the Vampire mentally scrambled, scanned his horrible penmanship.

"It's very rude not to answer the door, you know."

"No one asked you, Belial!" Jinho snapped.

Painted lids half-fell over chilly blue eyes. "Be careful, Jinho. Your silver tongue has thoughtless barbs growing out of it. You might hurt yourself."

"Oppa...?" Came through the door in a muffle.

Suddenly Jinho crumbled from the inside, opening his door even as Korean curses left his lips. Of course the Hatter greeted Nema before he could. "Oh, it's my Lord's beloved sister-in-law. Lucifer sends his kind regards."

Nema's ruby eyes tried to look at Pride, but the quivering anger on her friend's face distracted her so much more. "I, um... I send them back in kind. Tell him I miss him?" That felt strange to say, she supposed... but she felt like she hadn't spoken to him in years. She felt like she'd been caged up in this mansion for years...

In any case, it seemed to move the Mad Hatter enough. "Oh... of course, of course I'll relay the sentiment. And Jinho?" Her smile was wide and chilly when he looked back. "Remember what I said. Be careful."

The Vampire's mouth thinned into a moody line when the Satan left, and the mirror went from black to a clear reflection again... and Nema looked like she hadn't slept.

"Are you okay?"

Ink-black eyes whirled around to look at her, instead of her reflection, and he lied. "I'm fine. I'm going back to Sheol."

She frowned and brushed her hair over her ivory shoulder. "... Why?"

He lied again, and he hated it. "Lucifer has a task for me."

"And you can't just... do it, while staying here?"

"No, Nemaelle, I can't!" Jinho snapped, and felt horrible for it when she jumped.

"Oh... okay." Nema felt like she wasn't even talking to the Jinho she knew, the Jinho she called oppa. "I guess I'll leave you to it, then... It was good seeing you-"

"Wait." He took hold of her hand, despised the way it trembled. The way he frightened her. "I'm sorry..." This was no way to talk to his closest friend, no way to treat her... even if he was already betraying her.

Her snowy brows pinched together, and she couldn't meet his eyes. "It's okay."

"No it isn't. I'm sorry." He wished she'd look at him, though he didn't deserve it. "I mean it..."

"I know you mean it." She laughed. Or, more accurately, attempted to laugh.

… Something was wrong, in addition to all the things that were already wrong. "Nemaelle, what happened?"

"Nothing... I'm..." Nema's lips quivered, and when her white lashes lifted, her eyes were lined in tears. "I'm tired, oppa..."

Of course she was tired; she'd been tired, and to Jinho it had been obvious, but there was nothing he could do for her. Yet he could feel her reach out in so few words, wanting the support from his traitorous self... And he hated how they stood there staring at each other with miserable faces, with oceans of words inside of them, and saying nothing. "I know..." Suddenly he'd released her wrist, only to take hold of her shoulders. "Listen. Just leave."

Nema blinked in confusion. "Leave...?"

Oh, he was toeing some terrible line between loyalty and betrayal... but even if he couldn't tell her plainly. And even if this wouldn't fix anything... he wanted some measure of peace for her, however brief it might prove to be. "Yes. Leave. Just leave, right now. Please. Leave. Take the kids, go somewhere you've never gone before. Ask Nathan where he wants to go and just... go. And don't even tell anyone. Just go..."

Her voice was suddenly cracked and ruined. "You think I should leave Michael?"

Black eyes stared into red ones, and he released her shoulders, stood up straight. Leave Michael...? Had he missed something? "... Nema... Talk to me; what's going on-"

Little white hands suddenly tried to wave what she said away. "Nevermind."

"No, what-"

"Drop it, oppa!" She exploded into hisses and ruby-eyed glares. "I'll let you get ready. I'm sure Lucifer's waiting for you." Her face softened just enough for Jinho to see her misery, again. "Don't be a stranger, okay...? You do that, sometimes."

He ought to be a stranger, now that he was a traitor. He didn't have the right to ever speak to her, again... "I'll be better about it, I promise." And now he lied to her, all over again... But what could he do?

She left, and half of him wanted to run after her, and another half wanted to disappear. That second half won with a snap of his fingers, with his feet hurrying through the swirling, smokey void and leaving everything in his room behind. His top hat. Every cravat, every pair of perfect gloves, every tidy suit. Everything, left to linger with his quill and the messy, torn up, ruined letter, ruined like him.

Jinho brought his cane, though. He was sure he'd need it.