Gabriel stifled a snuffle, not wanting to risk even the slightest sound as he crept along the corridors outside his dormitory. Father Toledo would have him doing dishes for a year if he caught him slinking about in the dark. "A man of God ought to find comfort in prayer at an hour like this!" he'd bellow. The old goat was right; Gabriel ought to be in bed or on his knees at a time like this. Not...creeping.
The pewter crucifix in his pocket weighed at the young seminarian's shorts uncomfortably. He couldn't rightly come up with a reason for having brought it, but it felt comforting to have the thing with him now. He wasn't sure it'd do him a lick of good, but at least he had it if he needed it.
He padded toward his destination silently, a hand feeling along the rough hewn brickwork of the old monastery walls. Sure that this was the spot, Gabriel squinted into the dark and chewed his lip nervously, debating whether or not to call out into the darkness. The matter resolved itself for him a moment later.
"You came," whispered a sinuously familiar voice.
Gabriel had to choke on his reply a few times before he could make it. "I...I did," he offered back in hushed tones. "Where are you?"
"I'm here," she replied, though the shadows offered no sight of her. "Come closer. Let me look at you."
Refusing to let himself chicken out now, Gabriel summoned his courage and toed into a sliver of moonlit hallway. "H...H...Here I am," he stammered.
The thing clicked her tongue in the darkness, apparently irritated. "You made me wait," she hissed, "I don't like to wait."
"I'm sorry! I am! Father Toledo walks the halls at night and I..."
A hand SLAMMED into the wall next to Gabriel with enough brute force to crack the aged limestone loudly, the shock of which frightened him half to death. He kept his eyes screwed shut as tight as he was able; in the moment of her revelation, Gabriel knew he'd made a most unholy mistake.
"I don't CARE about that old fool!" she spat. Though he shook like a leaf, Gabriel was overcome with curiosity; though the thing had whispered to him in the darkest, lonely hours of the night for months, he'd never actually looked upon her form. Having her here, now, so close to him was almost too much.
"I'm sorry," he muttered. The air felt as though it moved around him, gusting softly with the gentle beating of leathery wings.
"Oh shush," she commanded. "And open your fucking eyes already."
Gabriel did as he was told, slowly testing his vision in the low light, one eye at a time. Heeled leather boots and stockinged legs met his gaze first, his eyes cast to the ground as they were; he chastised himself for expecting hooves. Inch by inch, he dared to look up along her body; bands of creamy thigh showed over the tops of her high legwear in a way that made him gulp involuntarily, and the purple bodysuit...thing...that covered her torso made him recall the girls in the swimsuit magazines his bunkmates had smuggled in during primary school. The flickering sight of her tail and wings, slowly carving the air behind her in lazy waves, was almost a relief - at least two of his assumptions were correct. Daring to look further, the nervous priest-in-training fought with himself to get passed her chest; surely the Lord would judge him less if he didn't linger there. Still, he did linger, and his long-repressed urges nearly destroyed him as the soft, pale swells of her unholy tits threatened to damn him.
"Look at me," she demanded, cupping a taloned hand under his chin, forcing his gaze to meet hers.
He welcomed his eternal damnation with open arms.
Rosy red cheeks, flush with haughty indignance, and a stern pout set to her ruby-red lips almost made Gabriel burst out in relieved laughter; if not for the horrific horns set in the crown of her head, she might have looked very nearly...cute. No, he corrected himself, she was cute. She was adorable! Little pointed ears knifed out from under her shock of purple hair impishly, and it was all he could do not to giggle fanatically.
"What?" she demanded angrily.
"You're...It's just...It's nice to meet you!" he said with enthusiasm. She squinted suspiciously, her pursed lips twisting as she tried to puzzle him out.
"Is that so?" she asked. "Why've you got that...thing...in your pocket then. eh?"
"Oh I, uh..."
"Shut up," she insisted, changing her mind. "Come on."
Taking him by the hand and whisking him back into the shadows, the thing tugged Gabriel into a nearby bathroom just as Father Toledo's lilting footfalls echoed from down the hall. Gabriel heard the man call out into the dark, but was powerless to do anything about it.
