She glided closer, running her other hand up his chest, causing him to look down at her. I realized he was barely breathing.
“Yahweh’s angels have always reminded me of little birds… Cats eat birds, you know,” she hummed into his ear, and he met my gaze over her shoulder, a sinister smile curving on his lips. His hands found her hips, and I watched him brush his thumbs in slow, lazy circles over the silk of her robe. She pulled away from his ear, and he looked down at her, his eyes filling with what I was starting to recognize as lust.
“Wouldn’t you rather be a cat than a bird, Shemhazai?” she asked him. I watched him search her eyes, and I held my breath. Finally, he gave her a very small nod, and the smile that spread across her face could have dropped angels from the sky.
The decay from her fingers crept across Shem’s cheeks, and I watched as she forced him into his angel form. He roared in what sounded like a cross between pain and ecstasy as she stripped him of his wings, rotting them out of existence before my eyes. Just as she had melted the jungle cat into the earth, she melted away Shem’s old form and gave him new life. He was reborn as a black cat, and I knew he was no longer of Yahweh. He was of Lilith, and he was no longer an angel. He was a demon.
She bent down and slipped her hands under the crooks of his forearms and lifted him up, rubbing her nose happily against his little black cat nose.
“A cat’s eyes are the windows to the soul,” she told him, her voice soft and full of love. To my absolute pleasure, he began to purr loudly. Curling Shemhazai into her chest, she turned to face me.
“What about you, Ramel?” she asked me, with that ever-present smile still painted on her perfect, pink lips. “Are you ready to shed your wings for something more suited to you?”
“Hell yes,” I whispered, wrapping my hands around her waist and pulling her into me, Shem purring loudly between us.
With a stroke of her hand, I felt the painful burden of Yahweh’s wings burn away, and I was reborn in shadow. My own hands turned black and became stained with death as she shrouded me in night, crowning me her Reaper of Nightmares. I felt the darkness thrum through me and had never felt more complete or alive. This was who I was and who I had always been meant to be.
I was Lilith’s nightmare, and I belonged to her and her alone.
Year: 3663 BC
“The devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.”
–REVELATION 12:9, ESV
Ihad fallen in love with Lilith quickly, but Shem fell even faster. Lilith taught him about death and pleasure. Between the two of us, Lilith and I helped Shemhazai see Yahweh’s lies, though it didn’t take much.
“I always knew He was a fucking prick. I just didn’t realize how deep it went.” Shem scowled one day. Lilith was curled between us in bed, and I watched hungrily as Shem laid gentle kisses down the side of her neck.
“He is angry that you have not returned,” she said, looking up at me as Shem continued his leisurely exploration down her side. I reached out and stroked her face, feeling the usual tug at my heart that seemed to happen every time I touched her. I loved her so much that it made my chest tighten and my eyes burn. She had given me everything when I had not even known that I had nothing.
“Fuck Him,” Shem growled against her flesh. He lifted her arm, sucking and nipping at the skin on her ribs. “Mmm… I never realized how much I like putting my mouth on things,” he murmured, more to himself than either of us. I chuckled ashe nipped at the side of her breast. She shivered beneath him, and I reached out to pinch the tip of her nipple, a thrill of adrenaline coursing through me as I watched her body writhe for us. I loved that we had the power to make her react like that.
“You need to officially tell Him that you are leaving Heaven,” she sighed, leisurely stroking her fingers through my hair. “He has been sending an angel each day for months to collect you. I have held the gates, but it would be easier if we could end this amicably.”
I made eye contact with Shem and pursed my lips. “I will go. You stay here to keep her safe.”
Shem nodded, his eyes darkening. He wrapped his arm around her soft waist and tugged her closer to him possessively.
She laughed, softly smiling up at us. “You two are sweet, but I do not need your protection. Neither Yahweh nor His angels can take me from Hell against my will.”
“We will protect you anyway,” I growled, leaning in and claiming her mouth. I stroked her tongue firmly to remind her that she was mine and that I would burn the world to the ground for her if it came to that.
I left for Heaven,and the brightness burned more than it ever had before. The darkness in me had spread, and I was now a black stain in the middle of an endless expanse of purity. I fuckingloved it.
Yahweh waited for me by the Sorter of Souls with Rafael, an archangel who had served beneath me in our choir.
I had been stronger than Rafael as an angel, but the Reaper that Lilith had gifted me was stronger still. Even Yahweh did not strike terror into my heart the way He once had. The power and control that He exacted on me through my angel form had been removed, and I could freely refuse Him now in a way that I had never been able to before.
“You have sinned, Ramel,” Yahweh boomed, His voice echoing through the vast expanse of Heaven. I curled a lip at Him in disdain, and Rafael’s wings quivered in fury. Slowly, more and more angels floated out through the clouds, their many eyes watching. I tensed, worried for a moment that they would attack, but soon found that they were just observing.
They were curious.
Never before had one of God’s angels defied Him. This was an opportunity. Lilith had said she wanted to build a queendom in Hell. Well, this was my chance to gather recruits.
“Please, oh great mighty Yahweh. How have I sinned? Enlighten me,” I drawled, ensuring my tone was every bit as patronizing as I intended it to be. Iexamined the fingernails on my death-ridden hands and felt my mouth curl at the nervous ripple of feathers that rustled through the audience of angels.
Yahweh’s fury was palpable, but I was not afraid. I was no longer His to punish.
