Speak of the Devil?

The Scourge awoke with a start. She sensed his presence before she woke, but still could not help being startled. He had opened the bed curtains wide, exposing her to the last rays of the setting sun. His perfect form stood silhouetted in the window.

"What the hell? Don't DO that!" Asta shouted, but he just turned and grinned.

"Not like it's noon. Besides, I wouldn't hurt my little serpent," he purred as he sat on the edge of her bed.

She threw the covers down and pouted and sat up, crossing her arms. She could sense the pheromones even from that distance. What was the point of being so seductive if he lacked the equipment to do anything about it?

"You've gotten lazy," he said, glaring at her. "You haven't done anything for me."

"Not sure if you've noticed, but I'm a bit of the black sheep around here now. Do anything for you? Me and what army?"

She sprung up from the bed and stood facing him. Standing, she was barely the same height as he was sitting.

"Besides, there's other sins, you know," she cooed. Damn him, he turned her into a little girl. She was just unable to help herself.

"I'll have you know that I'm doing my part to promote greed. And, for whoever pays for it, either lust or sloth. Maybe both, I guess, if it comes to it."

He sighed. "The great general brought down to this. Oh, have the mighty have fallen." He rolled his eyes at her.

"Don't think of it as me, then. Think about it as being Astral. I'm sure if there is any part of him left, he hates it."

"He hates you. He hates how you respond." He reached out and touched her thigh, just below the hem of her tight shorts, and grinned as she shuddered. "It's strange how you do."

"I'm sure we could fix that." His fingers moved slowly upward. "I could get rid of those useless human bits. Then you could focus on me."

She growled, baring her fangs at him, and he laughed. "I'm only kidding, of course." She glared, not completely convinced.

"You're a tough one to figure out," he said, studying her. "You crave power, but crave the men behind it even more. You refuse to submit to a sire, and yet that's what you want from a partner. Strange." 

After a pause, he continued. "You know you're not going to find a partner. None of them want that. None of the strapping gentlemen you've been getting worked up over. When any of them speak, you're as bad as you are with me.

"It's not very becoming, you know."

She sneered. He was hitting too close to home. She had spent the first few months since she arrived secretly pining after Capadocious, and, after he was lost to the Shadows, mourning angrily at her loss. Then she tried to start a few feuds, but the battle never came; instead, it was slowly turned into an excuse to flirt. Now, almost any conversation was turning into an excuse to flirt.

"This is why angels, both heavenly and fallen, do not have those bits. Keeps them focused on their duties."

He stood, and drew her body into his; The Scourge, the great vampire warrior, melted. "But, you know, I think I like you better this way. Much easier to control."

He whispered into her ear, "Yes, I could make you kill for me right now, if I wanted to."

"You wouldn't have to ask. I'd do it for the fun."

"Remember you said that, little one. Keep your eyes open, listen for whispers." He slapped her ass. "You're forgetting Pride to go along with Greed and Lust."

He let go of her and headed toward the window. "Have your fun now, because when the time comes for Wrath, you're mine and no one else's."

The Prince of Darkness stepped out the window, and Asta saw a large black crow fly across the sky. Gone again.

Asta groaned. The auction's end would not come soon enough. If she were bought to merely shine shoes, she might just tear out her master's throat.

"Well, shit," she cursed. Asta had two options, and neither of them was anything good. The first, and the more desirable in her current state, was to take up one of the males on their offer. She could get her urges taken care of if she were to contact one of them, she was sure of it. Or there was the other option, the more logical one: hope that bloodlust would be enough to satisfy lust itself. At least if she went with that option, she would not inadvertently decrease her price at the Auction. If the buyer did wish to use her body in such a way, they would not only be the only vampire she had since der Tote, they would be the only male she had BESIDES der Tote, probably the closest thing to virginity that the city had seen in a long while.

Logic won out. The Scourge would hunt tonight.

She was in luck. She spotted the hunter before he spotted her. He fired one bolt from his crossbow, catching her square in the shoulder. Asta did not even stop to pull the bolt out. She let the pain from its penetration into her flesh fuel her, and the hunter only made it one block before she caught up to him.

Asta ran straight into him and his shot flew wide as he attempted to escape. She plowed into him, tackling the hunter to the ground with a force greater than he expected from her small size. She straddled him, a glint of madness in her eyes. Bearing her teeth, she gripped him by the collar of his shirt, stood up, and lifted him. Before he could react, her fangs sunk deep into his throat.

The hunter attempted to scream, but the sound was cut off by her canines piercing through his windpipe. Within seconds, his blood was drained and his throat bitten clear through. Asta spat the bit of flesh out in disgust. Most of his blood ended up on her instead of in her, but at least she was beginning to calm down after her encounter with the Prince of Darkness.

With a renewed sense of tranquility, she walked back toward the armory. There were plenty of swords she could polish to pass the time.

Whole

Jenna Martinez was not having a good day. Her boyfriend, that creep, had dumped her that afternoon, after admitting that he had been cheating on her for weeks now, with her ex-roommate. To cheer her up, her friends dragged her to a club. But now, they were on the dance floor and she was sitting at the bar sulking. She rested her head on her hands, her thick dark brown hair covering her face like a curtain. She felt miserable.


“You look miserable!” a young woman’s voice said to her. Jenna barely acknowledged the girl who, annoyingly, had sat next to her. “It could be worse, you know.”


That angered Jenna. “How could it be worse?” she snapped, but as soon as the words left her mouth, she saw how it could be worse. The girl sitting next to her had scars on her face, and her right eye, or, at least, the place on her face her right eye should have been, was covered by an eyepatch; she was leaning on a cane.


The other girl grinned. “Like I said it could be worse. But you know what? I’m still here. Car’s not, but I am.” She held out her hand. “I’m Astrid. Astrid Jorgensen.” Jenna shook her hand and introduced herself.


“Why’re you sitting around by yourself, anyway?” Astrid asked. Jenna told her the story, to which Astrid replied, “You need a drink then!” She signaled at the bartender. He was tall and pale, but still had a sort of darkness about him. “Two baybreezes, please! Put it on my tab.” The bartender nodded, and silently got their drinks. Jenna just stared. She had never actually seen anyone with a tab. Astrid answered the question in her eyes. “My family lent the owners the start-up cash for the place.” It was partly true-Astrid had given them the money herself, but she did not want to open up discussion as to where it originally came from.


The two girls chatted for a while while Jenna drank her sorrows away. After what was possibly a few hours, Astrid gave an almost imperceptible nod to the bartender. It would be their last drinks of the night. Astrid was a good judge of the other girl’s drunkenness. Once she downed this last drink, Jenna really started to feel drunk. And nauseous. And like she was going to pass out at any moment.


“Oh my God, you’re going to be sick! You need to get home,” Astrid said worriedly. “Can you call a cab?” she asked the bartender, then turned to Jenna. “Let’s get you outside for some air at least.”


Jenna vaguely recalled leaving the club, but nothing after that. She passed out almost as soon as the two girls got outside.


---------


“Are you sure you want to go through with this?” The demon voice of Astral, Fallen Seraph of Death, filled the head of Asta the Broken.


“We have come too far. I will not stop now,” she replied out loud.


If Astral had a body, he would have grinned. His moment of victory was at hand. Soon, he would be at his full power, and he would not need to deal with the pathetic girl anymore.


“You know what to do,” he said to her. Just as he had instructed, she drew the lines on the floor of the armory in the abandoned castle. Soon, the floor was covered in the ancient language, the symbols of Astral, Lucifer, and Asta’s own blood rose scattered throughout the words. She set up the candles at the spots where Astral had specified. The way the flames danced reminded the demon of hellfire-the hellfire he would bring to Earth.


A part of him would miss the weak little nuisance. She did his work so well. The sacrifice, bound, gagged, and naked in the corner of the room, was perfect. But she had been his burden for far too long. Naive little thing would never know what happened. He had her trust now. She thought that the binding would combine them into one spirit with two minds. Foolish girl! Astral would absorb her power, tiny speck that she was, and take over the human body once and for all. Soon, Asta would be no more. It was all Astral could do to keep his laughter from leaking out while the girl prepared the spell that would be her undoing.


-----------


Asta took a step back to admire her handiwork. The room was prepared, the sacrifice was obtained, and whatever happened this night, she would no longer be broken. At Astral’s instruction, she stripped off her clothes, playing dumb. She knew full well why she needed to be nude for the sacrifice: Astral expected to take full control of the body and banish her forever. It would not be a binding at all. She had figured it all out when der Tote knocked the demon unconscious. But she would not let him know that she had figured it all out.


She saw motion out of the corner of her eye. The sacrifice was waking.


----------


The floor was cold and hard beneath her. The last thing that Jenna remembered was Astrid telling her that she needed to go home. She quickly came to the realization that she was stripped and bound. She tried to scream, but the gag cut her voice off. Jenna rolled over and was horrified at the scene. What horrified her even more was the look on Astrid’s face.


Except it wasn’t Astrid. No, this was a creature from nightmares. The Not-Astrid’s face was scarred and beaten, and its red eye had a slight glow. Its body was covered in scars like slashes and burns. Its skin looked like stone.


The Not-Astrid grinned, revealing sharp fangs on both her upper and lower jaws. “I wasn’t expecting you to actually wake up,” she said, casually. “I’ll make you a deal. You behave and maybe, if we survive this, I’ll let you live. Not LIVE, live, of course, but at least you’ll still exist here. It could be worse, after all.”


The vile creature walked away for a moment, and Jenna struggled, fruitlessly, to be free of her bonds. It returned in moments with a pewter goblet in hand. It tore the gag from Jenna’s mouth and, with one fluid motion, held her jaw open. The other hand poured the wine down Jenna’s throat. Soon, the world became black once more.


------------


“Fucking bartender!” Asta swore as she dragged the human’s limp body to the circle. “He must have used the cheap shit. When I’m done here, oh, is he going to get it!”


She stepped into the circle, taking in the sights around here.


“I am sure about this,” Asta the Broken said to herself.


“We will most likely be trapped in this plane, unless things change,” the voice in her head replied.


“I’m trapped here anyway! You made sure of that!”


“What of your humanity, then? Do you really wish to throw that away?”


Asta scoffed. “What humanity? I gave that up when I left der Tote. He was the only thing keeping me human. I am as much a predator as you.”


Asta sat cross-legged in the center of the circle and began to chant in the ancient language that Astral had taught her. Soon, her voice was joined by a second, deeper voice-the growling voice of the demon inside.


--------




Der Tote sighed as he navigated through the abandoned castle. She could have been a bit more specific. Asta spoke in riddles when she gave him the instructions. He knew why, of course. She could not chance the demon learning that she had figured out his plot. Still did not make things easy on him!


He could sense her presence, and followed that sixth sense like a hound on a scent trail. As he approached the door to the armory, he noticed a folded paper nailed to the wooden door. The paper was inscribed with the words “For You” in the jagged writing style of his ex-wife. He opened the note, expecting some sort of instruction. The note merely said:


“Hold him down.”


The Dead One rolled his eyes. So much for that. He pushed open the door and absorbed the scene in the room.


Swirling above the body of AstaTheBroken were two distinct mists. One was golden in color, while the other was a deep blood red. Occasionally, they would seem to take shape. The gold one bore an uncanny resemblance to the body sitting cross-legged on the floor, while the red one shifted into an imposing six-winged demon. He immediately knew what he saw from his experience traveling through the different planes of existence-the souls of Astrid Jorgensen, now Asta the Broken, and Astral the demon.


The empty body reached for the human sacrifice and began to drain the blood. That was der Tote’s cue. He calmed his body and reached out with his mind, gathering the red mist and holding it down. The golden mist took full form for a second, and the shape of Astrid winked at him. Then the gold mist spread thin and began to engulf the red mist.


-----------


Astral was scared. He tried to break the ritual, but as the volume of his voice lessened, hers became greater. Either way the ritual ended, it would be a battle of wills, a battle of survival. If he wanted to exist as himself, he needed to stop her, stop her now! The traitor, she double-crossed him, even as he had tried to do so to her! He used his last moments of existence to curse that conniving bitch.


-------------


As the spirits became one, the body at the ground burst into deep red flames. Black smoke billowed up, hiding both the body and the bronze-colored mist above.


Then, suddenly, the flames and smoke were sucked back down. A bronze spirit, in the shape of a comely woman, grinned and entered into the body below. She had won.


There was a flash of golden light, and then the body stirred. She had been knocked into a lying position when the flames went up, and she lifted her head off the ground. Wordlessly, she bit into her wrist and dribbled blood into Jenna’s mouth.


“The castle is abandoned. There are bedrooms in the towers where you can find some clothes. Do not rely on me to help you. I won’t. Have fun getting your revenge on Devin,” Asta said stoically. Jenna stared at her as the realization sank in, then she ran from the room, not even noticing der Tote.


It could be worse, she admitted to herself.


---------------


“Thank you,” Asta said to der Tote. “I’m finally rid of him. I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you what was going to happen. I couldn’t let Astral know that I knew, and I couldn’t let you try to talk me out of it.


She smiled, sadly. “It’s a bit of a shock, though. Would you mind leaving me to myself for a bit? I need to process his old memories, it’s a bit much.”


Der Tote pursed his lips. He was still protective of her, not to mention angry that he’d been duped, at least, partially. His shoulders dropped, as he resigned himself to the fact that Asta was being Asta. Since she was not the most emotional of creatures, she did not always think about the emotions of others.


“You know where to find me when you need me,” he said as he walked out the door.


-----------------


Not only did Asta need to get used to the new memories, but she also needed to get used to her body again. When she absorbed the demon’s soul, she had absorbed his power, and her body showed it. The scars on her face, her weak point, were nearly gone. They would never truly heal, since they had been there before she became a vampire, but they were not so noticeable any longer. Her eyes were hers again, both the color of amber, though they were now slitted like a cat’s. Her blonde hair was full and streaked with both red and black. It again tumbled to just past her shoulders, where it had been before she had unceremoniously hacked it off a few months ago. Her finger- and toenails were black, and she eyed her hands curiously. She nearly put an eye out when she flexed her fingers-retractable claws. Convenient, yet deadly. She was taller now, though not by much, and it was all in her lean legs. She still stood at barely 5’3”, and still had her curvy figure, which was, if anything, even more seductive. Her top-heavy hourglass shape curved in sharply at her small waist, only to flow back outward in womanly hips. 


“Like a succubus,” a smooth, seductive voice said behind her. She did not even have time to react before a pair of male hands grabbed her shoulders and turned her around.


The part of her that was Astral was repulsed and tried to push him away, but the part of her that was Astrid the human was under his spell. He kissed her and her body melted. She was under his power.


“You knew that I banished Astral from my realm,” Lucifer said, “yet you still stole his soul. That takes chutzpah. I like it.” The vampiress merely stared at him.


“I’ll make you a deal. You do what I want, and, when the end of the world comes, I’ll at least let you come with me. You wouldn’t want to spend eternity alone, banished from both Heaven and Hell, would you?”


She was skeptical. Asta had seen deals with the devil in the past, and they rarely turned out well. “What do you want?”


“The vampiric race had gotten fat and lazy. My little creations, brought here to do havoc, and, yet, all they do is sit on their haunches counting their gold. You, my pet, are to remind them of what they are. Violent, evil predators. Make them move. It’s not like you have a soul to bargain with anyway. Let me claim what is mine or spend your afterlife in a fate worse than Hell. It’s up to you.” He already knew what her decision would be.


“Is that all that’s in it for me?”


He laughed and she had to hold in a moan. For not having the requisite parts, the fallen angel was indeed sexy. “You drive a hard bargain. Tell you what-Astral had been one of my generals. When the time comes, if you have held up your end of the deal, I’ll make you a general in his stead.”


“That’s more like it.”


He leaned in and bit her neck, and Asta squirmed underneath him. “Seeing as how you aren’t broken anymore, the name no longer suits you,” Lucifer said. He released his hold and walked out of the room. As he reached the door, he turned back to look at her.


“Take up your mantle of destruction...Asta the Scourge.”