v2 CHAPTER FIFTEEN: In which a case of empyrean infestation is self-diagnosed, and a palliative proposed.

Una and Susan soared high over the trees, down from the cliffs towards the surface of the river, gaining speed. It might be romantic to fly with her in my arms like this, Una thought, if I wasn’t racing to save Susan from… what? Her own body? Angelic power?

Susan’s weight in her arms felt limp, but she seemed to have gained some strength after expelling the drop of liquid. Una felt the other woman’s arm tighten around her neck, and Susan pressed her head closer to Una’s in order to talk. She did her best to raise her voice over the noise of the wind; conversation was easier when they were gliding. When the beating of Una’s wings lifted them, the sound of her great feathers drowned their words.

“I’m overloaded with energy,” Susan gasped. “It keeps trying to escape my body, but I don’t know why—I can’t let it.”

“That drop of golden stuff… it’s the same as the seed?” Una asked. “You called it a pearl of divine grace, when… that creature made you swallow it?” She knew she remembered that moment differently than Susan.

Months ago—months that felt like a lifetime, well before Spencer’s thugs kidnapped Una—she and Susan received a visitation from a strange apparition. The phantom-like being emerged from the wall of Susan’s bedroom just after an intense sexual experience. Susan had perceived this stranger as an angel, but to Una it had seemed a cold, inhuman thing, terrifying in its strangeness.

“I chose to swallow it,” said Susan, as close to Una’s ear as possible. “But look where it’s gotten me… swollen to bursting. It’s like I’m pregnant, all over, with more of the same energy. I… I think I could use your help to remove it.”

Una thought for a moment, as she angled their flight to swoop beneath the girders of the George Washington Bridge. “How? What can I do… I mean, that stuff burned like acid, and I felt… out of control!”

Susan let out a long sigh, her breath hot on Una’s ear. “Your simile is quite accurate. Your body teems with demonic energy, and that cancels out the angelic power of the seeds. But just like mixing an acid and a base, the results release heat and gas, and… emotion, it seems.”

“My demonic nature, trying to cancel out your goodness?” mused Una after a moment. “I’m not sure how I feel about that.” After gaining some elevation, they soared swiftly towards Susan’s uptown neighborhood.

“I’m not sure I’d call it goodness,” said Susan. “I don’t know what it is… or what I am. I’ve never been good, so I doubt that word applies.”

Una frowned and bent her head to look at her lover, trying to catch her expression. Their heads, pressed together to speak and hear, were too close together. “Don’t talk like that,” she yelled, any nuance lost in the wind. “I mean… what is an angel, anyway? Do you believe that… creature was from God?”

Susan remained quiet for a long while, her cheek pressed against Una’s while the succubus angled her wings to catch the wind. I don’t believe, she thought. Not the way I used to, and not in that thing. The Catholic position on angels had remained surprisingly consistent despite the tumult of Portal Day: doctrine affirmed the existence of angels as pure messengers of God, but the Vatican refused to recognize all but a handful of angelic visitations.

The apparitions at Kibeho, Knock and Fatima… all notorious, even among the clergy, for how innocuous God’s messages turned out to be. Be good, repent and pray, or dreadful things will happen. Angelic visitations had become vastly more common ever since portals opened from other worlds. Notably, Vatican investigations in these years had all resulted in negative verdicts. Rome declared repeatedly that apparitions were likely fraudulent, supernatural tricksters preying on those of innocent faith.

“I just don’t know.” Susan finally spoke, her voice loud in Una’s ear. “I felt… something like a peaceful, accepting love. From very far away… but touching me up close at the same time.” Very far away, Una thought, at least we agree on that. For me it was a terrible, alien distance… but how much of that is because I’m a demon? Maybe I’m the evil influence here…

Una realized with a start that she’d passed over Susan’s building and circled to descend towards the roof.

***

Una lay Susan on her bed, in the very room where the angelic visitor had first appeared. She glanced up at the wall above them, decorated with devotional artwork and esoteric charts. It felt both strange and familiar to be back here, especially now that they both had changed so much, through experience as well as physical transformation.

At first, Una had thought she’d made a mistake landing on Susan’s roof, since the door into the building was locked. As always, Susan had a plan. Una watched as the muscular form of her lover, still clad only in loose white robes, clambered down the fire escape. She dropped into the rear courtyard of the building to retrieve her spare keys, hidden inside a combination lockbox. Susan let herself into the building, then ascended to meet Una.

By the time they reached the bedroom, Susan was breathing heavily once more and leaning on Una for support. A return to her own bed seemed to ease some of her tension. “Could you turn off the light?” Susan asked, so Una moved to flip the switch.

“This will make it easier to see what’s going on inside of me. I discovered… the phenomenon, I guess I’d call it… while you were away. Or abducted, I mean.” Susan unwrapped her robes and bindings from around and under her exaggerated curves.

Una smiled faintly. “And here I thought you’d spent all your time tracking down my whereabouts.”

Susan lay naked on the bed, resting on one side. Her breasts were full and swollen, hanging heavily from her chest. The engorged nipples capping those breasts looked as if they might begin leaking milk at any moment. Her thighs had become thick and muscular beneath hips that widened dramatically from her waist, making her ass incredibly round and heavy.

Susan’s skin looked taut, as if stretched perfectly over every inch of her flesh, with nary a wrinkle or fold. Her belly rippled with muscle but also gave the impression of roundness and fertility, the bones of her pelvis rising proudly at either side. Her whole body, looking like a powerful avatar of fertility and strength, glistened with sweat. Una thought Susan’s skin might be glowing—but that could have been a glimmer of dusky light from the window, reflecting from her lover’s golden-hued skin.

The smell of Susan’s sex hit Una’s nostrils in a dizzying wave: she was like a freshly trimmed garden in springtime. All the odors of the living world decayed and regrew over and over in that smell: the fragrance of wet grass, crushed petals and rain-drenched pollen mingled with an undercurrent of ethereal incense, or burnt offerings.

Susan sat up. She was saying something. Una steadied herself against the wall, trying to pay attention. “Can you see it? Maybe if you look at my aura, the same way you did when we met Maria, or at the party beforehand.”

Una kept forgetting about her ability to glimpse currents of energy, a kind of sight that didn’t quite use her eyes. She let her gaze unfocus, then stared intently, tilting her head slightly to let her goat-like pupils regard Susan’s full form.

Golden light ran throughout Susan’s body, along a network that looked like a diagram of lymph nodes, but with arcane flourishes. The shape of this network didn’t resemble any anatomic chart she’d ever seen; it centered on a glowing orb just above her sternum, and another between her legs. The network spread from there: upwards into shapes like branches, downwards in a long trunk through her belly with roots extending down her thighs.

“The… sacred tree?” asked Una, remembering strange words Susan had uttered after swallowing a drop of golden liquid. “Is this what you meant?”

Susan managed a wry grin. “I can only guess. That was a visitation, a shared vision, maybe. I was practically speaking in tongues, as if something beyond me placed those words there. I have no idea what sacred tree I was referring to.”

“Whatever it is, it seems to be growing in you! Oh, Susan… I never meant for this to happen.” There it was: the horrible feeling of guilt. Una had asked Susan to name her true desire. Susan’s answer—that she wanted to serve Una and sing her praises forever—had summoned the strange angelic visitor.

Una felt her mouth tense, and her expression grow despondent. In response, Susan rolled forward, cradling the succubus’ red cheeks in her hands. Her skin felt smooth as silk, but her touch rippled with strength.

“You didn’t do this, love. I spoke my wish, and something other responded. You changed to become who you are, and then… that wish changed me. All I can do is ride it, try to stay myself. I can feel the tendrils; sometimes I can see them. I’ve been trying to keep them from spreading into my head.” Susan stretched her neck, and Una noticed how the branches of golden energy thinned in Susan’s neck, fading into dim wisps.

“Whatever’s in me, the seed… it seems to respect my wishes, if that makes sense? But when I force it down, I… expel even more energy, in concentrated globules.” Susan sighed. “At least it makes me invulnerable. That’s been a real perk.” Her tone sounded sarcastic, but Una could sense the heaviness in Susan’s voice.

“So you’re saying something could happen if it reaches your brain? In that case… how the fuck do we rip those roots out of you?” Una stood up and paced nervously.

Susan giggled. “You’re still walking back and forth when you’re worried.” It was the same habit she’d had as a priest, Una realized.

“I have to say,” Susan continued, “the effect is very different with hooves and sexy hips than in a priest’s cassock.” She sighed and grew serious again. “I don’t know if we can rip it out, not without killing me. I accepted it… the seed changed my destiny, from what I’ve divined about my fate. Like you, Una, I must try to make it my own.”

Una sat on the bed and took Susan’s hands in her own. “You must have been researching this for months now. I realized you must have, but I never asked. I’m sorry—I was too scared to find out what I’d done, and that was cowardly of me.” She swallowed. Father Michael spent much of his life running from feelings, staying scared. As Micki, she’d begun turning that around, and now she’d keep moving forward. “Tell me what you’ve learned about angels, or whatever this is.”

Susan’s eyes glimmered with golden light. The effect made it hard for Una to tell whether her lover was crying or serious. “Don’t apologize, love. You were going through a lot yourself. And I haven’t learned… anywhere as much as I’d hoped. Nobody can agree on angels. Beings like the one we saw have been sighted now and then in recent years. Sometimes they just hover in one place, or float around making strange music before disappearing.”

The scholar’s gaze drifted upwards, and Una’s eyes followed, to a faded old poster of an archangel blowing a long trumpet. Gabriel, of course, thought Una. But he looks like a friendly cartoon hero, not a statue from outer space.

“All I could find in older records were the typical stories of apparitions and miracles. Some significant sightings were associated with the Crusades. There was a being, or a group called Justitiarius that hunted demons—but I’m not even sure that’s a kind of angel. Since then… not much.” She shrugged.

“After the portals opened, some reports of angels claim they’ve destroyed people, or supernatural beasts. Of course, there’s a community of angel believers who see that as a sign of divine battle against the unholy and sinful. But you already know that the Church urges caution—that we can’t know if the so-called angels are truly divine or just another kind of supernatural being.”

Una nodded. “And all supernatural beings are suspect, of course. But what do you feel, Susan Sunghi Miller?”

Susan took a deep breath and lay back on her pillow, staring at the ceiling. “I feel like… a great power has chosen me, and I’m terrified. Of losing myself, or of being unworthy… I don’t even know what I’m afraid of. It’s as if I’m on a path to an unknown destination, and my feet keep walking as if they know it’s right.”

She turned to regard her demonic lover with eyes full of golden, moving flecks of light. “Um… I’m sorry, Una. If I turn into an angel, or some kind of inhuman divine servitor… I hope you can still accept me.”

This time, Una came to fold Susan in her arms. “What are you saying? Of course. This all happened because you wished to be with me always. For me to be your mistress. I don’t care about what came after that wish. You asked me to grant that wish, and no power can sever that bond, even if some weird power… superseded me!”

Una was waving her hands around, then tossed her head angrily, her horns glinting in the light. “Look, Susan. Even if you’re becoming something else… you’ll still be mine. Whether you’re an angel, human, or something beyond understanding.” Susan looked as if she might burst into tears, but she took a deep breath instead.

“Don’t—don’t make me cry right now, you… I might produce more drops of golden light. I’ve… I’ve been swallowing them again, or putting them in sealed jars, because I don’t want them to end up in the groundwater!”

She laughed weakly. “Isn’t that environmentally conscious of me? For all I know, this is how angels reproduce. But I’m worried about letting more out. I’m too full, Una…” She winced, and Una clasped her arms in worry. “I need you to help me, to… burn off more of those droplets, if you can.”

“Because I can neutralize it? Demonic energy meeting angelic? Won’t I end up bursting into flames?” Una felt nearly frantic with worry tinged by fear. The sensation of the golden liquid contacting her hand had felt like acid etching her bones.

Susan shook her head. “I have… I have an idea. That tear that fell on you… it was concentrated energy, squeezed out from a tendril. But if we used a… a mediating influence, through an emotional bond and diluted by… my organic systems… it should be easier to absorb. Internally.” Susan seemed dizzy, her words growing garbled.

“I don’t understand, Susan…” Una squeezed her hands into fists. “But I’ll do anything, even if it hurts… just tell me what to do, okay?” Una was unzipping the jacket of her bike suit, wriggling out of it to move more easily. Her scarlet breasts bobbed, restrained by a simple triangle bra she’d borrowed from Susan after her dip in the Hudson River. The bra was too small for her, and now too small by far for its former owner.

“I need you to… drink from me. My body’s fluids must flow into you, mingle with yours.” Susan smiled. “I swear this is not just me being my thirsty, slutty self.”

Una’s eyes grew wide. “Drink from you, like…”

Susan lay back, exhausted. “I don’t really want to piss in your mouth, beloved. But your tongue’s always gotten me off… my theory is that the sexual connection between us should help. So yes… I beg that you devour my cunt, dark mistress.”