Plague of Angels (38 page)

She had finished her sixth shark when she realized what was happening to her.

Screaming, Nyx launched herself out of the water. Her swollen belly, now larger than a pregnant cow’s, made it near impossible to fly. She screamed for Ishtar and Persephone, who dove down and hauled her into the air, flying her back to the island, where they laid her once more down on the bed of leaves and flowers.

“Fuck me!” Nyx screamed in fury. “God fuck me! Bastard! Asshole! Pig-fucking—. AAAAAGGGGHHHH!!!”

“What’s happening?” demanded Ishtar, adding to Persephone, “If she dies here then the other Angels will come and we’re fucked.”

“Not… dying…” gasped Nyx. “Fucking… pregnant! AHHH!!!” Her stomach shifted and swelled even further.

“Pregnant?” repeated Persephone. “We’re going to have a baby Angel?”

“NNNNNGGGGGGHHHUUUUGGGRRRR!” Nyx drew in a breath. “Not we, goddammit. Me! And not a baby. Angels can’t be babies.”

“They can’t be pregnant, either,” said Ishtar, staring at her stomach. “Fucking hell, Nyx, what have you done?”

“GET ME FOOD!” Nyx screamed. “ALL THE FOOD! NOW!!!”

Persephone took off so fast the air shook with the sound of her breaking the sound barrier. Ishtar stared in horror as Nyx’s stomach continued to swell, then she, too, took off.

Nyx was ravenous when they returned. Ishtar came first, bringing back three dead sheep. Nyx devoured them, flesh, bones and all, and still her stomach swelled. It pushed up her breasts, and hung down her legs, and she could feel whatever was inside it moving and squirming. It hurt like a dagger poking into her each time it moved. And still her stomach kept growing.

Persephone landed with an entire roast ox in each hand, and the smell of it nearly drove Nyx insane. Persephone handed the first one over and Nyx tore through it, leaving only grease behind. Nyx’s belly was now so large she could no longer stand; could barely sit up. Still she kept eating.

“MORE!” Nyx screamed. “MORE!!!”

The two Angels flew off again, and to Nyx’s surprise, were back before an hour had passed. Hanging between their two bodies, thirty feet long, was the squirming body of a small fin whale. Nyx’s mouth started salivating even before it had hit the ground. She tore into it with gusto, as her body swelled larger and larger.

There’s no way I can be eating this,
Nyx thought as she ripped through the flesh and bones of the whale.
No one can eat this much food. Not even the whales eat this much food.

When the last of the whale was gone, she felt full. To her surprise, she had not become as big as the whale itself, though she should have. She was huge, though, her belly as large as the entire rest of her body. She could not even begin to sit up, pinned beneath the weight of her own flesh. She was sated, though, and that was all that mattered to her.

“How…how are you?” asked Persephone. “Do you need another one?”

“No,” said Nyx. “I’m fine.” What little she could see of her body was covered in blood and filth. “Clean me.”

The other two had a quick discussion, then cradled Nyx between them and flew her down to the ocean. Together they washed her swollen, roiling body, watching with horror as something pushed at her from the inside. It took longer than Nyx would have thought possible, but they cleaned her and brought her up to the temple again. They lay her in her nest of grass and flowers in the sun until she was dry.

Nyx lay there, waiting, feeling the pain of the Angel moving inside her and wondering what was going to happen next. Angels could not give birth. Their bodies were designed for pleasure and joy, not gestation. There was no way an Angel could leave her body as a human infant might.

So how will it get out?
she wondered.

God surely did not go through this to make Angels.

The sun was just beginning to set when Nyx started screaming.

“What the fuck?” demanded Ishtar, spinning to see who was attacking.

“It’s coming out!” screamed Nyx. “It’s coming out!”

“How?” yelled Ishtar. “That’s not going to fit!”

“It’s not coming out there!” screamed Nyx and the first claw ripped through her flesh from the inside. She was still an Angel, though, and her body healed as fast as it was hurt. Every time the claws ripped at her from the inside, her body healed itself. And every time Nyx screamed with the pain.

Dammit, I am tougher than this,
she thought.
I fought fucking Archangel Michael and I’ve been near killed a dozen times why does this HUUUUURRRRRTTTT!!!

The creature inside her tried to tear its way out again, and she could no longer form a rational thought. For the next five hours she screamed and squirmed as the thing within struggled to free itself. It didn’t help. There was nothing she could do to speed the process, and nothing the thing inside her could do to escape.

“She is fucked,” said Ishtar, watching Nyx open her mouth to scream for the hundredth time. The noise didn’t bother Ishtar at all. She had heard worse – had caused worse – in Hell, and in truth she was rather enjoying the agony it was causing Nyx. But then, Nyx had left her in agony for sixty-six years. This, as far as Ishtar was concerned, was a good start. “She’s healing too fast for the thing to get out.”

“We have to help her.”

“If she was human she’d push it out her twat,” said Ishtar. “Since she’s not, there’s not much we can do.”

Persephone’s eyes narrowed. She drew her sword and, with a thought, shrunk it into a curved, razor-sharp blade. “There is one thing,” she said.

“Wait until sunrise,” advised Ishtar. “You can see what you’re doing better.”

“I can see through the darkness of Hell,” Persephone returned. “This isn’t even dark, here.”

“Wait anyway,” said Ishtar. “See if it can get out by itself.”

“I’m not sure we should,” said Persephone.

“Have you dealt with this sort of thing before?” asked Ishtar.

“No, and neither have you.”

“True, but when humans and animals give birth it takes time, so let’s see what happens by dawn. Maybe her body has to change.”
And that way I can listen to the bitch scream a while longer
.

When dawn came, Nyx was still screaming.

“Guess I was wrong,” said Ishtar. “Go for it.”

Persephone stepped forward and with a quick cut, sliced open the huge bulging mass that was Nyx’s stomach.

Silver blood sprayed everywhere, rising out of Nyx’s body like a fountain as the layers of flesh pulled apart. Something tall with bright red hair pulled itself out of her stomach and launched itself into the air, silver ichor splattering from it as it rose. The excess flesh on Nyx’s body immediately began retreating, pulling in on itself even as it sought to knit itself back together. Nyx screamed once more then, to her own surprise, blacked out.

Lucifer was raping Ninurta, a pretty male Angel and one still loyal to Nyx, when he felt the world change.

It was odd, he had thought, that some of Nyx’s Angels still refused to show proper obeisance, even though a thousand years had passed. Some of Nyx’s Angels had even tried to rebel against him.

Lucifer switched from his own form to his dragon form, which was three times his size and which made the Angel scream.

Lucifer’s legion – the 666
th
, purged of all Nyx loyalists – had destroyed the rebellion, of course. The leaders had been tossed into the Lake of Fire, their arms, legs and wings weighted with the heaviest of Hell-stone, and left there to burn and writhe in their agony. The lesser ones were staked out on the fields of Hell, tortured until they were ready to admit Lucifer as their Lord and Master.

Ninurta was one of the lesser ones. Slim of body and limb, with olive skin and dark hair, Ninurta’s fighting prowess had earned him him a place in the 666
th
and made him a War God in Mesopotamia. Ninurta had never had it in him to be a leader, but had cut down a dozen of Lucifer’s Angels before being overwhelmed.

Lucifer had been sure Ninurta was close to breaking when he had the Angel dragged to his castle. Ninurta still resisted though, still refused to open his mind to Lucifer and end his suffering, even as Lucifer had him staked out face down in a brazier of Hellfire and ravaged his flesh.

No matter,
Lucifer had thought.
The strong ones are the most fun to break.

Dragon-Lucifer, pounding hard into the Angel’s bloody, torn backside, was just about to climax when the world changed.

Lucifer stopped in mid-thrust and pulled out. Ninurta’s screamed turned to weeping. Assuming his own form, Lucifer walked away, saying, “Cut him to pieces. Slowly,” over his shoulder. The surrounding demons fell on the Angel with glee, and Ninurta’s screams began anew. Lucifer didn’t care.

He stepped out of his castle and onto the mountain, looking up at the sky. The portal to Earth was there again. He could feel it. It was ready to open at his command.

“At last,” said Lucifer. He felt like a predator too long denied its prey, prey that had been suddenly released to the hunt. The new Angel was born. Heaven and Hell were open again and he, Lucifer, would rule Hell and Earth.

One of Lucifer’s small red shrikes flew up and hovered in front of him. When it spoke, it was with Tribunal’s voice.

“The time has come, Lucifer,” said Tribunal’s voice. “Remember your promise.”

Lucifer grinned. “I have not forgotten. Not at all.”

A thought brought his armor over his body, and the great whip into his hand. “66
th
!” he shouted, and his voice echoed throughout Hell. “Come to me! It is time to pay that bitch Nyx for once and for all!”

From across Hell he heard the sound of ten thousand wings flapping as five thousand Angels took to the air. Lucifer laughed and spread his own great black wings. Rising high into the sky he flew toward the Lake of Fire and the portal to earth that floated above it.

Nyx groaned and opened her eyes. They didn’t focus properly, and all she saw was blurs of color and light, and in their midst, a streak of red and white that glowed in her wrecked vision.

Nyx closed her eyes and let them heal, then opened them again.

She was inside her temple, and sunlight was streaming in through the windows, sparkling off the murals that had become fresh and new when she had said the Word. Images of plenty, of grain and fruit, meat and of wine, mingled with images of dancing and lovemaking. The light that shone on them seem to make the fields of grain ripple and the leaves on the trees move in an unseen breeze.

Of course, I could still just be messed up.

She pulled her gaze down and saw the Angel, its white glow lighting up the room.

It was supposed to be a boy,
Nyx thought.
It was supposed to be Descended.

The Angel wasn’t either. She stood where Nyx’s statue had stood, her long, white wings folded over its naked body. Her hair was flaming red and went halfway down her back; her skin was the purest white save for the red of her lips and the tips of her perfect breasts. Her eyes were a piercing blue that looked right through Nyx’s soul.

She’s perfect,
thought Nyx, her heart filling with a love she hadn’t felt since she had been cast out of Heaven.
A pure, perfect Angel.

I can’t kill her.

The realization made Nyx gasp. Everything had changed. She had changed. The very thought of killing her Angel made her sick. The thought of anyone killing her Angel made her furious. Nyx struggled to her feet, trying to reach the Angel before Ishtar or Persephone.
No one will touch her. No one will hurt her. Ever.

It hurt, standing up, so much so that Nyx nearly collapsed again. She looked down and saw the scar on her belly, red and raw and a foot wide, though it was shrinking. The muscles underneath felt as if they had been shredded. She forced herself to ignore it. Her body was still healing and it would take time.

“Are you all right?” asked Persephone.

Nyx spun, the motion making her cry out in pain and nearly causing her to fall over. Persephone and Ishtar were both standing behind her, both unclothed.