Rising From the Fire

Author's notes: Okay, if you read chapter 1 of this story you're probably confused as to why there's now a prologue, or maybe not. This story had a prologue when I originally started it over a year ago. Then a friend of mine only wanted an excerpt to review so I sent them chapter 1. When I finally figured out that I posted it without the prologue I went back and added it. Chapter 1 should make a lot more sense, no matter what order you end up reading it in.

Thanks to Kirk2004 for all your editing help.

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Prologue

I heard the screams of tortured souls, like the chaotic, unmatched notes of an out of tune orchestra, from just beyond the bend in the river of blood. I smiled at the thought of some deserving soul receiving his or her just penance for a life of sin on Earth.

This was the Hell humans should fear, the real Hell. Not some mythical dribble like Dante's Inferno or the Hell depicted in the Bible. No, this is the actual nightmare glimpsed, discussed, and recorded, by a few special human souls, but never quite the intensity of the reality of Hell.

A piece of Hell echoed in some soul's experiences, bleeding through into their next life, but the demon domain was mostly incomprehensible to humans.

I let Fire keep me too long again. Fire was always an interesting consort. He inspired and burned through me like an addiction, heat, passion, and desire all mixed up together in a suffocating way that I just couldn't get enough of him. As Fire traced the patterns of his namesake over my arms, I melted and accepted each despite the excruciating but exquisite pain.

The tattoos were a way to let others know that I belonged to him, his little way of connecting to me forever. Each Hellfire tattoo he'd placed on my arms said, "She belongs to me. If she is harmed, you will deal with me." Maybe it was a little bit corny, but I enjoyed them anyway.

"I have to go or daddy will kill me," I said.

I tried to untangle my limbs from his, but Fire kept pulling me to him, embracing me, and wrapping me in smoke to cut off my escape.

"Fine, do you want to go to dinner with me? Dad said it's a special occasion." I raised my eyebrows up and down at Fire until he released me with a laugh that I felt from head to toe.

"Of course there's something to celebrate, Nessa. I've left my mark on you after all these years."

Fire's eyes blazed with a campfire color, it was his eyes that made me almost forget that I really needed to go.

Finally, I was able to tear myself away from Fire. I sighed as I blinked out leaving Fire's place, appreciating the smell of sulfur that permeated everywhere. Nothing smelled as wonderfully rancid as Hell.

I didn't bother to dress. I had no need for clothes like humans. Even my dad's latest rant was all about how much humans were infecting his world.

All the demons, deities, and even elements took on human forms. He was truly upset at the visual changes in the underworld. It was like a fad running through Hell, and he didn't like it. My father was hoping that either Damien or I could stop it. Well Damien, my douche bag of an older brother, I just didn't care for humans or Earth.

I was accustomed to seeing their form around Hell, I'd even adopted one, but I mostly sported my demon looks. There was no hair anywhere on my body, and I had a bright amber skin tone that glistened in firelight with ropey strands of red veins. I assumed a human-like form for Fire because it allowed me to echo Fire's body, which made for creative sex.

I was late for yet another one of my father's dinner parties. Dad, the ruler of Hell, you know, the true evil one, so it was never a good idea to be late, planned weekly dinners for the family.

My father, Damien, myself, and the rest of my father's brood were sitting around the dinner table as a family. I was the one and only female out of seven offspring, and at a little over three hundred years old, the baby of the bunch. Weirdness, but Father wanted us kids to get along or so he claimed. Personally, I think he had the dinners just to annoy us.

Damien read his latest interpretation of an ancient Egyptian scroll to the room.

"The last spawn," he paused pointing at me, "Of the pride fallen angel," he paused again, and pointed at our father. "Will join with God's presence in Hell, to produce a child born into darkness. The death of the Morning Star will destroy and usher in a new world of light."

"There has to be a loophole, though!" I whined, after my father told me he was expelling me from Hell because of Damien's latest discovered prophecy. I hated to whine. It was so not sexy.

I was serious about a loophole, there are thousands of prophecies; you just don't know which one could come true. Even the one that applied to my situation was a little vague.

My much oldest brother, Damien, read prophecies like zealots read the bible. Most of the predictions were even in the bible. I had no interest in politics or world domination. I just wanted to fuck Fire.

"I can't make these things up, its right here in this blood scroll I dug up in Egypt." Damien said, setting the ancient parchment in front of my face, only I couldn't read it, dead language and all. I barely spoke English, not very well mind you.

My dad being who he is can't touch or look at prophecies, so he has them read to him by Prince Damien. Damien was almost as old as time itself and one of the first true demons. He was completely evil in a way that made my tainted existence cringed.

"You can't deny that in part it's already come to pass in some ways. You're the last of our father's seed, Princess Vanessa." Damien said my name as if it were bile passing his lips. He left the scroll over my plate while he sat down across from me. He played with his food. A truly devious soul was on the menu for the night, under different circumstances I'd find it delicious.

"No one asks to be born, Prince Nimrod, there's nothing I can do about that part," I yelled as my stomach plummeted.

"Enough you two!" Father yelled, louder than necessary, pounding his fists on the wooden table. "My decree stands. You have to leave Hell, Vanessa." He sighed and returned to his dinner.

I stood up, and blinked from the dining room leaving the rest of my dinner untouched.

I went straight to Fire's arms after my barely touched meal. When I finally stopped crying and explained what was happening to him, he took everything pretty well. He wanted to fuck. I bent over the stone bench near his fire pit as he entered me from behind. There was no fanfare, just quick and dirty sex. Fire reminded me that through the Hellfire tattoos on my arms, he could find me no matter where I ended up.

I went to Morty next, the head of the Grim Reapers being Death and all, also my best friend. Not like I had any choices at that point. If not Hell, Earth was the only other place I could go.

I knew Morty would be able to provide me with a body that still had enough life in it to be possessed. He found said body in Hell, Michigan, a porn star, that was quickly becoming a statistic by an overdose of cocaine and valium. I slipped in before she took her last breath.

I even liked the idea that if I couldn't be in the real Hell, a place on Earth titled the same was close enough. I thought that Morty picked it as a way to help me deal with my expulsion as if I'd take the whole situation better, and adjust to my new life with ease.

I just did not get it then, that by the rules of Hell, the same constraints would bind me. For example, deals sealed with sex or sex with an angel in Hell would lead to my father's demise according to another one of Damien's found prophecies.

Morty told me very little about Father Donovan. Death said I would be able hide from my father in case Damien convinced him to kill me, like for real now, since I was tied to a human body. I assumed that Father D would be a possessed body by a demon or something along those lines.

So, last week I was like every other spoiled, sadistic Princess of Hell, except for the fact that I was the only one. This week, well let's just say I don't know how humans handle being such fragile mortal beings.

This breathing thing alone is taking a lot out of me. On the other hand, how do humans deal with needing to move their arms and legs just to get from one place to the next? I mean I'm used to thinking it and being there.

I hate it here on Earth. If it weren't for Damien, I'd be safe at home in the real Hell. But no, stupid Damien, his stupid lies, and his stupid dumbass prophecy and I'm forced to live out my existence on Earth because dad thinks I'll fuck an angel and be the end of him. Like that could ever happen.