[FFML] [org][lime]LoveStruck: Seven Days Chapter 2 part 3

Let There Be Part Three

Mephistopheles glanced around the apartment, feeling the faintest echo of remorse. It was dingy, dusty and the little bit of light that came through the dust-encrusted windows did little to improve its appearance, but if he knew his best agent, it had not always been so. Yesterday, it had probably appeared a hundred times as large, and been impeccably neat, a lavish plush den suitable for lusty debauchery. The old rusted bed frame had probably been an oaken four post bed, perfect for bedtime sport. The cracked bathtub had probably been a spa filled with crystal water that flowed from golden faucets...

No, not clear, he thought. Bubbles... He smiled as he imagined those fine white breasts, their lush pink nipples bobbing at the waterline, laced in bubbles... But, time for those thoughts later. He had work to do.

He began searching the apartment, unceremoniously dumping and overturning the bed, the dresser, the closet... anything he could find, looking for clues to where the succubus might have gone to ground. In the process, the Demon Lord caught an item from his belt on a doorknob and it fell to the chipped concrete of the floor with a clear chime like a bell. He reached down and retrieved the silver hoop, tarnished nearly black, and stroked it fondly, reminiscing...

The entrance door slammed open, startling him into dropping the metal ring. It rolled across the floor and clattered to a halt against the far wall.

He looked up at the young girl who'd just entered so dramatically, taking in the knee-high blue leather boots, the lithe shapely body, the arsenal. He would have given nearly anything to have a way past that titanium chastity set she wore, but he never would, and he knew that trying would be his death. She was pure for a reason he feared as much as he desired, a reason not even his master Lucifer would cross lightly. She was the ultimate prize for the Lord of Temptation, the one woman pure enough to have born the Son of God... the Queen of Heaven... the Virgin.

"Mary," he said, his voice conveying disgust, but he couldn't hide the fear and desire he felt for her.

"Well, hello Mephie," she cooed, knowing how much he hated the nickname. She played with the keyless padlock that sealed her metal halter top. The small lock swung back and forth with a hypnotic rhythm between her shapely breasts. "You get manlier every time I see you."

He took a step back. "Don't try to vamp me, Virgin. Yours is one maidenhood I'd rather not claim," he lied.

Mary sauntered up to him and looked into his eyes with a sultry look. "But Mephie, you know how much I want you." Her hand casually cupped his crotch as she purred. "And you know you want me... It's not like my husband cares..."

The Demon Lord felt his loins starting to betray him, visions of Mary chained to a bed, nude, begging him to come and give her release playing across his mind. She was beyond any Angel, any being he had ever taken... perfection personified... He could almost feel her wings as they closed around him, forcing him down on her in her hunger... He could almost feel the ecstasy of plunging himself into her virginal body...

He pushed her and his fantasy away.

"I said forget it," he growled. "The Creator claimed you, and He would find out and we'd both pay... The G.O.D. may rule Heaven, but He rules you. I have no wish to suddenly cease to exist." He crossed his arms. "Why are you here, anyway?"

Mary laughed, "Why Mephie... I'm crushed. You wouldn't brave non-existence for..." She pulled her trench wide and inhaled. "Me?"

Mephistopheles closed his eyes to keep from being driven to an attempt he was sure to suffer for.

"Just answer the question,"

If only she was serious and not just trying to lead me to my own destruction... the back of his mind whimpered.

Mary stepped back, the glint in her eye telling him that he may have won this round, but she was confident of getting him in the end. "I heard an Angel had Fallen, and was captured by a Succubus who lived here. I came to either free her and slay her captors, or kill them all if she had already been corrupted." She paused and looked around the apartment. "One may ask why you are here as well. Hoping to soil another angel?"

"I was. However, as you can see, there is no angel here."

The steely gaze she fixed him with left no doubt what she would have done to him if she had caught him defiling the Angel, Demon Lord or not. "So it seems." she said in an icy voice.

"Now, now Mary, you know the rules. I'm not a valid target. Hell needs a Lord of Temptation. I'm just doing my job."

The look she gave him would have frosted the Lake of Fire.

"Oh, please," she snorted. "As if there aren't a hundred other demons, lined up to take your place."

Mephistopheles decided cowardice was the better part of valor and that leaving the apartment to Mary was a wise idea. "I suppose I should be going now," he said as he began to fade into teleport.

"You're up to something Mephie. What?" Mary asked, her arms crossed.

"I would stay to chat..." His words faded as he did. "But Bhaalor's..." His last words were lost as he vanished.

_Bhaalors?_ She thought. _As in more than one?_

She glanced around the apartment, trying to figure out what Mephistopheles had been searching for. Her eyes fell on the tarnished circlet. Her eyes hardened as a corona of silver fire flared around her, and she strode over to pick it up.

It was, or rather, had been, a silver halo.

Her corona flared even brighter as she hissed, "You fuckers will pay for defiling an angel." She clutched the circlet tightly.

Suddenly, the apartment was filled with the roar of an inferno. Mary leaped to a standing position, her free hand drawing forth the Desert Eagle from her hip holster. The smell of brimstone was heavy in the air as six demons appeared, armed to the teeth. With a start, Mary realized what Mephistopheles had meant.

"Well, well. Bhaalor's minions. How sweet. A welcoming committee for little old me?"

"Ah shit! It's the Iron Virgin!" one of the demons exclaimed.

"No matter!" The leader yelled. "There's only one of her and six of us!" He gulped as Mary's pistol spoke and one of his subordinates' head exploded. "Umm... make that five of us."

"Blessed bullets," Mary announced. "I've noticed your kind has an extreme allergy to them."

"You don't scare me, bitch!" the leader called, then looked at his subordinates. "Get her!"

As they lunged for her, Mary leaped up and grabbed on the chandelier, releasing a spray of gunfire into the demons below. She hit another one dead between the eyes, and grazed the arm of a third, the halo dangling from her wrist like an oversized bangle. She got off another round, but missed as the chandelier gave and she fell towards the waiting maws of the demons...

******

Lipton checked the address, then he checked it again, then a third time.

"This can't be right," he muttered. "I've seen nicer crack houses."

But the numbers matched and there was nowhere else on the corner it could be. The building looked like a converted warehouse, fairly common in New York, and in typical New York contrast, it was just off a street full of high rent high-rises. He supposed that in the dark, the fact that the block was deserted of all but derelicts might not be noticeable. A succubus could drain a man to a dry husk back here and the body would never be found.

He unpacked the twelve gage from his trunk to be on the safe side, double-checking to make sure the symbol laden slugs were still loaded. Blessed ammo, like all his guns, custom made for him by a friend who was a young priest and warded against evil with everything the Jesuit could dig out of the Catholic texts on exorcism. Never hurt to be cautious. He tucked a box of the slugs into his trench as well.

He kicked open the door, checking the hall beyond for demonic ambushers. When none made an appearance, he stepped inside. The hallway extended to a freight elevator, the doors to several apartments leading off. He tried the elevator, the noiseless ascension surprising him. The eerie silence of the building would have convinced him the place was deserted, but the sounds of gunfire upon his arrival at the top floor let him know otherwise.

He made his way cautiously across the high ceiling area around the elevator over to the door through which the sounds had issued, completely unsurprised it was the succubus's apartment. He peered in the doorway, shotgun ready, then stepped into the room, his jaw slack and his eyes wide.

Three demons had gathered around a figure of feminine proportions. Two of them held the girl pinned while the third seemed to be tugging and slashing at the metal bikini bottoms the girl wore. His talons were leaving no mark on the metal, and even though his claws were making small scratches, they barely marked the girl either.

Suddenly, the faint silver nimbus around her flared. Her foot lashed out with a kick that buried the bladed heel of her boot into the crotch of the demon trying to remove her bottoms. The force of the kick viciously ripped the blade back out as the demon was flung across the room. He howled in fury and pain as she brought her arms together and slammed the others' heads together. They fell back dazed. In a whirl, she retrieved her Desert Eagle and rolled to her feet, allowing Lipton his first really good look at her. He nearly fainted in shock. He wasn't given to being easily impressed, but she was an awe-inspiring sight.

Silver fire burned around her like a candle flame flickering in a gale, illuminating the dark hair which flew about under the blue veil that covered the back of her head. Above the veil, an ornate golden halo crowned her, nearly blinding in its brilliance, the rays of light streaming from it illuminating the demons starkly. Her body was lithe and voluptuous, athletically formed and covered only by the minimal metal halter top and bikini. She had an ornate crowned dagger strapped to her right calf. Twin holsters on her hips held the Desert Eagles, while a pair of nines rested in the shoulder rig. Over her groin, and on both breast plates, was a symbol Lipton had seen many times, the two Greek letters Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. Her face was young; Lipton would normally have estimated her to be only about thirteen, but he knew she was much older, and none of the thousands of pictures he had ever seen of her came close to the reality. And he doubted that anyone would ever have envisioned her with the bloodlust he saw in her eyes.

She fired a shot at the demon whose crotch she'd mutilated, his head exploding into so many bloody chunks, then she kicked at the one charging her from the left. He flew back, his face bleeding from where her heel had caught him, and she drew a bead on him. The third stepped quietly behind her, ruddy flames flickering along the blade he swung to decapitate her.

Lipton's shotgun kicked in his hand a second after the girl had fired, her bullet caving in her target's face. She whirled to see the last demon's corpse collapsing, most of his upper torso gone from the twin twelve-gage slugs. She looked at Lipton, her eyes blazing. "I had him covered!"

"Sure," Lipton said sarcastically. "I noticed."

For a second, the silver aura flared, tracing the pattern of glorious wings. It faded as she holstered the pistol with a huff, her halo fading to a simple gold circlet of light. "What the fuck do you know anyway. You're just a stupid cop," she muttered.

"Well, I can see we're just a two thousand year old bitch, aren't we?" Lipton responded angrily. "One wonders how you ever got the reputation for being merciful or forgiving."

"Excuse me?" She'd frozen in surprise and was staring at him. "You know who I am?"

"Lady, I've seen a lot of pictures of you. None of them did you justice," he looked her up and down appraisingly. "Sure as hell none of them ever captured this side of you."

"Artists have their visions. I'm under no obligation to live up to them." She cocked her hands on her hips and looked at him saucily. "Still, I think Michelangelo captured me best."

"What, a mother mourning her son?"

"No. A girl never allowed to blossom into womanhood," she plucked at the metal bikini. "My husband played a rather nasty trick on me."

Lipton gave her the eye. "I have bolt cutters in the car."

Mary laughed. "I think I like you, Detective Lipton. Not many people with the Sight actually treat me like a person. It's refreshing. But I'm afraid bolt cutters won't work. Believe me, I've tried everything. Do you have any idea how frustrating it is being forever a hormonally-overloaded thirteen year old when you can't even get yourself off?"

"Umm... well, I suppose that could account for the psychotic look in your eyes a few moments ago,"

Mary gave voice to a full throated laugh. "No, Lipton. That's from two thousand years of devout Catholics whining at me to do something for them. After a thousand years of that, I got very fed up." She smiled coquettishly. "You don't think that's unwomanly of me, do you?"

Lipton grinned. "Not at all." He gave her another look. "In fact, I'd have to say I'd probably be the same way in your shoes." He looked at the wicked blades on Mary's boots again. "Not that I'd ever fit in your shoes, that is."

Mary sat down on a dusty easy chair, displaying herself to good advantage. "So tell me, Detective. What brings you here?" Her voice was sultry.

Lipton swallowed hard. "Umm... I came to search the place."

Mary gave him a half lidded gaze. "So... why don't you?" Her voice left no doubt that she included herself in things to be searched. She toyed with an oversized hoop of tarnished silver around her wrist.

Lipton backed up a step. "Ummm... actually, I can come back. Why don't we go for a slice of pizza, and you can tell me why the Madonna is in a Succubus's lair."

She gave a disappointed pout. "Ok... Pizza and an explanation... but only if you tell me how you knew a succubus lived here." She stood and sauntered to the door, picking up her trench coat from where the demons had thrown it. Lipton followed her, bemused by the weirdness of it all.

"Pizza with the Virgin Mary," he muttered. "Won't my Catholic friends be so impressed..."