Redemption

I'm not going to bore you with a big intro, just a friendly reminder that comments and suggestions are greatly appreciated and encouraged.

*****

The chairs to either side of him moved. Lucien kept his eyes firmly on his drink as Devon and Remi flanked him. Zak sat on Remi's right and Seth to Devon's left.

"We'll have whatever he's having," Remi told the Gruesh bartender.

Lucien sighed. He should have known they'd follow him. Still keeping his eyes on his drink, he asked, "Where are the girls?"

"They're sitting this one out," Devon answered.

That made Lucien look at his brother with a raised brow. "This one?"

Ashriel stood behind Devon, black wings slightly spread to shield him from view.

Devon's inky hair covered half his face—like that would do anything. Lucien turned to look at the bartender who was still standing in front of them, eyes glassy and jaw slack...just staring at Devon.

Angel-struck idiot.

Lucien leaned forward, getting in the man's line of view and snarled, "snap out of it."

The Gruesh male winced, his blue eyes going to Lucien's face. He gulped and turned to prepare the drinks.

"Are you crazy, walking into a place like this?" Lucien told his brother.

Devon turned in his seat to face him fully. "You have the same effect I do on these people."

Lucien was about to laugh in his face until he saw the crowd that stood around them. Most hadn't noticed Devon yet, with Ashriel standing just mere inches from him and keeping him out of sight with his wings. They were focused only on Lucien.

Lucien scowled and turned away. A male vampire had taken over for the Gruesh attending them.

Ignoring everyone again, Lucien tossed back the contents of his glass and motioned for a refill.

"We're staying out tonight to play," Remi began. "You sure you can handle it with all the alcohol you're ingesting?"

"What are you, my fucking mother now?" Lucien snorted.

"I don't spawn ugly children, fuck-face," Remi said with a smirk.

Lucien raised an amused brow at him. "Says the man who nick-named me Mr. Blond and Beautiful."

Remi's grin widened. "It's called sarcasm."

"Enough already," Devon deadpanned.

Remi trapped the silver stud on his tongue between his teeth as he chuckled, a flame of red flickering in the pupils within the blazing green of his eyes.

Lucien wanted to slap the hell out of him, but the fucker was too quick. Somehow Zak always got every blow directed Remi's way.

Lucien raised his glass and saluted Zak , who was next to Rem. Zak just gave him a baffled looked. He had no idea.

Lucien snickered before downing his drink. "Another one here."

"I still think he shouldn't stay out here with us," Seth grumbled.

Lucien ignored him and reached for his sixth drink...or was it his sixteenth?

Remi watched him with narrowed eyes and asked the bartender for a whole bottle. Competition time—yay.

"I'll have one too," Lucien seconded, "to hell with it."

"He's anointed now," Devon told the weretigri, frowning as Remi and Lucien clinked bottles and began chugging them down. "They can't touch him..." Devon's glowing blue eyes narrowed even more when Zak did the same, "unless he allows it." He watched them tip their heads back, bottles pressed against their lips.

Lucien felt Ashriel's glower, rather than saw it. He knew the reaper still itched to run him through with his divine sword. He was just still pissed Lucien had been Anniel's lover back in the day. He wondered if the big reaper knew Devon had also enjoyed the same privilege and that Zak had been all but drooling for the chance to bed the dark-skinned beauty while she suffered from her heat cycle during her pregnancy with Gareth.

Lucien slid his narrowed gaze over his shoulder to the scowling reaper and then to his too beautiful brother. Unable to keep a smug smile from crossing over his face, he said, "You think I still might turn again?"

Devon's hand twitched and Lucien felt ready to recoil. He knew Dev wanted to touch him. Instead though, Devon smiled, eyes full of love that made Lucien want to vomit. "I know you won't, baby brother."

Lucien snorted. "Fuck you. You're only a few minutes older according to Remuel and Zakreel."

"You're all crazy if you're planning on staying out past curfew," the male vampire serving their drinks said.

He was dark, like Anniel, also with piercing golden eyes and long nails painted black.

The man wore the usual black uniform the other bartenders wore, but he had a silver pin of a dragon with a lance through it over his pectoral.

Lucien sipped his drink and stared at the pin, wondering about its meaning.

"We're demon hunters, "Seth told him.

The vamp smiled broadly, showing his inch-long sharp fangs as his eyes fell to Remi and Zak. "Big deal. I'm a dragon hunter."

Lucien's arm shot out at the same time Zak clamped a hand on Remi's shoulder when the red weredragon almost shot over the bar. An animalistic snarl erupted from Rem's throat.

"Simmer down, hot-head. He's just yanking your chain," Lucien snapped, before realizing his hand was right on Remi's chest. The heat of the red weredragon filled his hand, making him desperately want to snatch it away. Unfortunately keeping Rem on their side of the bar would mean Lucien could keep drinking a bit longer. He was still too sober to suit himself. Everything around him was not really wavering all that much.

Thankfully, Remi settled back in his chair but glared at the bartender.

The gutsy vampire just snickered as he polished a glass with a white hand cloth. "Only idiots stay out after curfew, Demon hunter or not."

"You can't hunt demons if you don't look for them," Devon said.

The vampire narrowed his eyes on him and then looked at Lucien. "Neither of you are vampires. What the hell are you?"

Lucien laughed softly and Devon grinned. What were they, indeed—the spawn of the fallen angel, Davariel. It was his brother who answered. "We're demons."

The vampire's eyes widened before he frowned and moved away.

"I want to leave," Ashriel stated behind them. "People are stroking my feathers and I don't like it."

Lucien laughed as Remi stood up off his chair.

"No worries, Ash," Remi said pulling his shirt off. Lucien watched the red weredragon's back muscles contort before his skin stretched and ripped, freeing enormous opalescent red dragon's wings. "I'll distract them with my magnificence," he finished, his voice now deep and bestial.

A horde of women flocked over to him and stroked everything from his wings to his chest to his hair. Remi just folded his arms over his chest and grinned back at Ashriel smugly.

"Remien Fyre, what the hell are you doing?" Rowie called out from the entrance to the bar.

Lucien grinned and leaned back with his bottle of Black Death, ready to enjoy the upcoming show as the crowd parted to let her through. Her usually jet black eyes were ringed in red and her fangs were bared as she rushed toward Remi.

"B-baby, it's not what you think," Remi stammered comically, desperately trying to disengage himself from the adoring females clinging to him.

Rowie finally reached her mate and hissed at the females pawing her man. Once they released Remi, she shoved him against the edge of the bar and sank her fangs into his throat.

The sound of sharp teeth breaking skin had Lucien's stomach roiling. Crimson ribbons flowed down Remi's bare chest. He closed his eyes and groaned in ecstasy as the bloody rivulets coursed over the ever-growing bulge in his leather pants.

"Seriously?" Seth snorted. "Are these amorous displays really necessary?"

Devon and Zak chuckled.

Lucien just turned his face away, doing his best to keep the memories of how he'd been bitten and mauled while in hell at bay.

Angel and Anniel came in after Rowie. So much for them sitting this one out.

"And the reapers?" Lucien asked.

"All but Abdiel will be joining us after sundown," Devon informed.

Lucien frowned. "Why not Abdiel?"

"He's staying behind to guard where we live just in case. Boy Rayne and Girl Rayne are still there," Ashriel replied.

Boy and Girl, his naughty charges. Lucien closed his eyes and raked fingers through his hair. He could feel Devon's eyes on him now.

"They both feel for you, Lucien. You don't have to pick one," Devon began.

"Will there be children?" Lucien interrupted, eyes still closed.

The answer terrified him. Children. What would they be like? Would his father's tainted blood produce another demon hybrid? Jazriel had come out with Devon's tainted blood. So far, he hadn't manifested anything negative, but would the same hold true for Lucien's future offspring? Would they suffer they way he'd suffered? The thought had sweat beading on his forehead and moistening his back with dread.

Lucien turned his head to stare at Devon. Angel stood next to him.

"I feel something, but..."Devon began.

When he didn't say anything further, Lucien clenched his fists and hissed, "but what?"

Angel placed her hand on Devon's arm. Lucien noticed her faraway look, signaling she was having a vision.

Devon gripped Lucien's arm before he could move away and the scene hit his mind like a slap.

He was engulfed in strong arms, his fingers buried in a mass of blond curls...a thousand shades of gold. Enormous wings, covered in blue-black down spread to either side before him. Lucien's fingers trailed down a strong neck to rippled shoulders and biceps. He didn't hold a child. It was...

"Ozzy," Remi gasped, startling Lucien from the trance.

Remi was leaning against Lucien's back, eyes glassy, still caught up in the shared vision.

Suddenly, Lucien didn't care that Devon still held his forearm, and Remi had his chest plastered to his back.

Lucien turned to grip Rem's biceps and shake him a little.

"Who the fuck is Ozzy?" Lucien demanded staring into Remi's befuddled green eyes.

Another vision assailed him, but this time Lucien saw the face of the young reaper he'd held.

With a cry of outrage, he shoved Remi away.

"That's my father," he grated, immediately garnering Ashriel's undivided attention.

The reaper's eyes went black and he shoved his way over to them, forgetting to cover Devon.

Ashriel's fists gripped Lucien's shirt, hauling him up into his face.

"What did you just see?" Ash asked deadly calm. Meanwhile Anniel gripped his arm and demanded he leave Lucien alone—if anything those meaty fists of his gripped Lucien's shirt tighter. The sound of material ripping incensed Lucien further.

"Get your fucking hands off me," Lucien demanded between tightly clenched teeth.

Remi shook his head, slipping out of his stupor and put his fingers around Ashriel's wrist. "Let him be, Ash."

"Look," the male vampire began, "You people need to get out of here. Now."

"Ashriel," Anniel said, panic clearly in her voice.

He shoved Lucien back down into his seat and took a step back.

Seth pushed Devon closer to Ashriel, his eyes flicking back and forth in the room beyond them. "That's good advice. Damn-it, Ashriel."

Lucien frowned and that's when he noticed almost every patron in the bar had their eyes on Devon.

There were about fifty people in the bar, some alien, but most Edenian. Still something wasn't right.

Lucien was accustomed to the enchantment Devon inadvertently caused most humanoid beings, but this was different.

Lucien turned to the vamp and discovered him gone, as well as the Gruesh and Lizdrac that had been standing there only moments before.

Growling made him direct his attention back to the bar room. Some of the men and women present rushed out in terror. Those remaining held Lucien's attention completely.

Eyes that had once looked normal were now ringed in red and teeth were bared, showing yellowed fangs.

"Master," a few of them hissed.

"Possessed," Ashriel said in a low voice as he slowly unsheathed his divine sword.

Devon gripped his arm. "We're only allowed to kill Demons, not possessed."

Lucien grabbed his bottle of Black Death and gulped it down quickly, his eyes never leaving the mob of growling, snarling creatures before them.

This was going to get fun.

"If we don't kill them, how are we supposed to leave here?" Ashriel rasped.

From the corner of his eye, Lucien saw Remi move. "Like this," Remi snickered.

Lucien laughed when the crazy red weredragon let out an ear-piercing roar and threw himself headlong into the seething mob before them.

Yeah, that Fyre hadn't changed one damn bit, pussy-whipped or not. Zak, Rowie, and Seth jumped in after him.

Lucien just rolled his shoulders and head, taking a deep breath before joining in as well.

It was too crowded for anything fancy, no kicking out or back flips, just an out and out fistfight. He ducked a few chairs and spun out of the way when a crazed female came at him with a metal spike. Anniel gripped the woman by an arm, slammed her down, and knocked her out with one hook to her chin. A burly man with a green Mohawk gripped Lucien around the throat. He did his best to nail the five hundred pound bruiser in the face, but the crazed man only laughed hysterically. He lifted Lucien by the throat with one meaty fist and slammed him on a table.

"What a pretty boy-what a pretty boy," the man cackled in hysteria.

Wood splintered beneath his back and spots danced before his eyes as he continued to pummel the man in the face. Blood gushed from his nose when it crunched under Lucien's fist, skin cracked open over a shattered cheekbone, and a few teeth flew out from between split lips, his aggressor's face was turning to mush, but the fucker would not stop choking Lucien.

He couldn't breathe and knew he had seconds to get the stupid bastard off before he passed out from asphyxiation.

A white, muscled arm wrapped around the bruiser's neck and his face turned purple beneath the streams of gushing blood. Lucien closed his eyes, and when he opened them, it was to see the man's head flying off to the left. The pressure on his neck stopped and he coughed as Devon pushed the dead body off him. His brother helped him sit up on the decimated table.

"I thought we weren't supposed to kill them?" Lucien croaked between gulps of breath.

Devon frowned. "I wasn't going to let him kill you."

A lump formed in Lucien's throat, nothing to do with the bruising the demonically possessed man's choking had caused. There was no time to speak however, because Remi landed next to them with two screeching females intent on ripping him to shreds.

Devon slammed into one, rolling away into the melee with her as Lucien gripped the second one. The female was foaming at the mouth, her eyes blood-red. She looked like a fifty year-old woman with short salt and pepper hair and heavy-set. Lucien probably outweighed her by a hundred or so pounds with his height and muscle mass, but the female wrapped around him like a snake and sank her teeth into his shoulder.

Terror slammed into him at the feel of her bite. Another possessed gripped his legs and bit him on his thigh. It was Hell all over again and he found himself reaching for his swords.

Concealed in a pocket of glamour just behind both his shoulders, they flared to life as he touched the hilts.

Both the rabid female and the young male gnawing his leg screamed in terror when he unsheathed his swords. Everything slowed down, sound distorted in his ears. Amongst the crazed people, Lucien saw them. They crawled on the living like roaches, little devils with smoky gray bodies, pointed little horns and needle sharp teeth. They stared at Lucien with button black eyes. Only Ashriel moved faster than the rest, his head turning to regard Lucien with a frown.

Lucien could feel electric-like power surrounding his body, coiled back. Lucien released the flow of power and watched, fascinated, as the tiny devils screeched before turning paper white and then disintegrating into fine grayish-white ash.

He saw more power ripple out from Ashriel, like rings upon the surface of water. Everywhere the rings touched, devils turned to ash. Ashriel just stared at Lucien as every devil around them dissolved.

The pulsing flow of power coiled back around him and he felt when time snapped back into place, making Lucien feel disorientated. The bodies of the possessed dropped into lifeless heaps on the floor of the bar. There were still people there, screaming, and trying to run for cover.

Ashriel stomped over to Lucien and hauled him up.

"What the fuck, man," Lucien snarled trying to yank his arms free.

Ashriel pulled him close, bottomless black eyes boring into Lucien's.

"How is it possible?" Ashriel said, incredulity coloring his words. "You have the powers of a reaper."

Lucien tried to shove him away. "Fuck you. Like hell I do."

Devon gripped Ashriel's hands, but his eyes were wide, staring at Lucien in shock.

Ashriel finally let him go as the others gathered around.

"Lucien," Devon said, blinking. "Your eyes..."

He was still seeing kind of strange and his hearing was off too. Must've been from almost being choked to death, plus the alcohol.

"Baby," Anniel said caressing his cheek, "Your eyes are completely black like Ashriel's."

*******

Girl Rayne wrung her fingers as she paced back and forth inside the tiny dwelling. The sun had long since gone down and Boy stood on the balcony looking down. He'd rolled a metal shutter attached outside the wall so that it covered half the round window. In the corner of the eating area he'd placed a glowstone that had been absorbing energy from the sun moments before sundown on their porch. It lit the tiny dwelling with a soft golden glow. Lucien still hadn't returned and the reapers had taken off from the balcony just as the sun dipped below the horizon behind the tall buildings around them. Across the street, the red lettering of the Hotel Rohello cast an eerie glow on everything outside.

"Boy, where could he have gone? Is he angry with us?" she called out.

When he didn't answer, she leaned her head out the window. Boy stood at the railing with his back to her. His long white hair danced in the breeze, bathed by the red light from the building cross the way. He wore a pair of soft drawstring pants.

She began to climb out, but he swung around and snapped, "go back in. It's dangerous out here."

Girl flinched. He'd never spoken to her so brusquely before. "Then why are you out there?" she asked without heat for once in her words.

He turned without answering her, his hands gripping the railing again.

Was he angry with her too? Everyone thought she wasn't strong enough to defend herself...even Boy. They'd all left, she didn't know where. Lucien had brought Boy along. Maybe Boy was angry he'd been left behind to babysit her.

Anger and hurt stirred within her. Feelings of insecurity assailed her. Lucien loved Boy. Boy would give him a baby—something she was incapable of. They didn't need her, did they?

She suddenly couldn't breathe. Turning on her heel, she darted to the door and began to manually disengage the locking mechanisms.

When she tried to haul the metal bar off the holding brackets, Boy's hands clamped on the metal beam, holding it in place.

Girl hadn't realized she was panting, but her breath hammered in and out of her open mouth as Boy's warmth pressed her against the door.

"What are you doing?" he asked softly near her ear.

Rayne blinked, her face pressed against the cool metal double doors. If only she could make Boy want her, maybe Lucien would consider keeping her with them. He wouldn't send her away.

Closing her eyes she thrust her hips back into Boy's groin. He stiffened. Slowly she felt him begin to grow in his pants as she rubbed her ass against him.

She heard him swallow hard and a soft purring began rumbling in his chest.