LIV
Hell Hath No Fury Like A Half-Demon Scorned...
Arella heard Bruce's yelling from outside the bedroom door while she struggled to control her tears. Her daughter had made the same mistake that she had made herself, years ago. As a naïve teen, Angela Roth had been a lonely outcast, desperate for companionship. What she had found were people who willing to use her, to sacrifice her to Trigon. Raven had allowed Bruce Wayne to sacrifice her heart.
Did this brutish man not realize the burden Raven carried?! Azarath had been destroyed in a matter of minutes. If Raven were to lose emotional control, she would fulfill her destiny and personally bring her father to Earth. None would survive his second coming.
As the bastard slammed the door on Raven, Arella rushed past him and to her daughter. The tears still flowed down her flushed cheeks. There was a strange glow about her…
"Raven, you must calm down dearest. Remember your training, cast these worldly concerns from your mind. Deep breaths… deep breaths."
"No more, mother. I won't be that child any longer."
"You must dear. For the sake of all that is holy, you must! If you lose yourself… he will come." The next three words spoken by her daughter haunted her for the rest of her days.
"Let him come."
Arella watched as her daughter's indigo eyes changed to eyes of molten gold. She knew those eyes all too well, the eyes of her father. Eyes of anger. Her skin darkened to the red of fire-side embers as the demon in Raven's soul emerged. She was no longer the daughter she bore, she was now the child of Trigon.
"Azar…please…no." Arella watched as Raven disappeared into plumes of brimstone. The end of the world was coming and Arella would not have her daughter by her side any longer.
Entering his massive garage, Bruce Wayne ripped off his burnt and tattered shirt and tossed it to the floor. What the hell was that thing? He had decided upon the black Maserati GranCabrio for his joyride but couldn't remember where he left his jacket with his license. It was time for a little fun.
He smelled the black, sulfurous smoke behind him. Without turning around, he coldly called out to her.
"...You can't stop me, Raven."
"My love, I assure you... I can." She sounded… different.
Wayne spun around to confront his wife... and nearly fell to his knees at the sight of her. Eyes of luminescent amber with Merlot-shaded skin. Yet it was Raven. She stood with a brash confidence, defiant… exotic, demonic, and somehow …sexy?
Out of all the shocks he had endured this past week, this was the most unexpected.
"You've had your little speech, Bruce. Now I will have mine!" She glided directly in front of him, face-to-face, dark lips only inches away from his own. Wayne felt the heat of her. Felt her anger pulse through him. The slender accusatory finger raised to his face, ready to deflate the bubble of his manly confidence with a single jab-like puncture.
"You're right, I didn't know what love was… until I met you. But don't you dare question if I love you!
And I loved Richard too... I had no idea he had even died until you threw it in my face! It was you that told him to go serve his country. You sent him to war. You don't get to blame me for Richard.
You don't get to blame me at all.
Your life has been hard? You lost your parents? I beg the stars above every night that I'm strong enough to even face my father, to defeat him. Every single person I've ever known wishes I had never had been born! Do you know what that feels like, prince of Gotham? You still had people who loved you. Alfred, Dick... I had handlers!
And after all that...You were the one who wanted a nice, happy, little life. Do you think being chaste has been easy on me?! Who the hell takes my emotions?! My lust?! My fears?! I have to live with my own damned feelings tucked neatly away... right beside the ones you didn't want, because you can't handle them! You don't want to be hurt! You don't want to be afraid anymore.
There's something inside of you that scares the hell out of me, Bruce. I'm the daughter of the scourge of the universe and it felt at home in me. But I couldn't hold it. I shouldn't hold it. It wants you! It's yours, it's a part of you. I can't take away the suffering, the pain from you any longer… Certainly not as a witch... But how about you try me out as a wife?! Talk to me for God's sake! Be with me for who am I! Not what I can do for you!
But if you want to run to Barbara Gordon and make babies with her while the world goes to hell, you're right… I won't stop you." Raven placed her forearms across his bare chest while her hands cupped his face… glowing eyes piercing through his own. He felt her heartbeat, her innocence, her passion, anger and… worst of all, her hurt. The pain she had buried inside her.
"You only have to tell me one thing, Bruce Wayne. Just tell me one thing and I will let you go for eternity. The bonds of Azarath we swore by now reside in me and me alone."
"Raven… I…"
"Just tell me that you don't love me, Bruce."
Eyes of sunlit-gold stared into eyes of deep blue, casting aside the shadows of doubt and deceit. This was it - the moment of their truth. He felt as if the world hinged upon this very moment. This one answer.
"Raven… I just… can't go on… the way we…"
"I am yours, Bruce Wayne. My body can deny you no longer. I swear this to you... but you must… Do you love me?" Her fingers grasped and wove themselves into his hair while her lean body pressed against his. Raven…The very heat of her, her familiar shape, her form, sent a passionate surge to his manhood as only she could.
His lips quivered with anticipation with her lips so close, so agonizingly close… The anger that had filled him surrendered its heat to overwhelming passion. He had never wanted another woman…or loved another woman as he loved and desired her. No anger from Earth, heaven or hell could ever change that.
"Raven… I love you."
It was all she needed to hear. She brought his mouth to her hungry lips and wrapped her crimson legs around his muscular torso. Arms that begged to hold him for eternity embraced him, while her hands ached to feel every powerful inch of his body. Long-boiling passions erupted as their mouths tasted of the forbidden fruit, sweetly ripened over a year. Pants and stealth suit flew to the floor while Mr. and Mrs. Wayne satiated a season-ending hunger that had been allowed to consume them far too long. Raven straddled Bruce, her lips never leaving his, gasping as she forced her hips lower…
Epilogue
After leaving the bedroom, Alfred was preparing the meal he hoped would cheer up Mrs. Wayne when a distraught Arella slowly descended the stairs and stumbled into the kitchen. She was shaking, visibly upset.
"My goodness, Ms. Roth! Are you quite well?"
"It's the… end of the world. She's turned, Alfred… He will come! She will bring Trigon to this world. Where is Bruce?... If he apologized, begged forgiveness from her…possibly… "
"Master Bruce was going to the garage. Have a seat please, Ms. Roth." The gentleman pulled out a chair for her to sit upon. "I will see if he has departed and if he will listen to reason. An apology is certainly in order, I agree." Alfred straightened his shoulders, and marched to the garage. Bruce's behavior to Mrs. Wayne had been unacceptable.
A moment later, the old gentleman returned, a pallor surrounding the flush of crimson on his cheeks.
"Did you find him? Will he apologize?!" demanded Arella.
"…Ahhh… I'm afraid Mr. Wayne…Bruce will be… absent for some time. But I truly believe that Mrs. Wayne has a… firm hold… of the situation at hand… perhaps we should allow them… time to work it out… on their own…Would you like some tea, Ms. Roth? There's a lovely view from the balcony on the south side of the manor."
Alfred poured water into the kettle and smiled.
Author's Note:
I've based the demonic appearance of Raven on the "Ame Comi - Raven Demon Daughter Variant" figure. Feel free to google it. Much cuter than demon-raven in the comics.