Scorn of Angels by John Patrick Kennedy Page B

and once more closed her eyes. She reached within herself, found the glowing green power that was Epiphenia and grasped it.
    Pain.
    Instant, excruciating, and nearly overwhelming, the pain arched itself from Nyx’s cheek through her entire body in an instant. There was no sense of Epiphenia herself, no trace of that sweet Angel, only a sense of being invaded in a way that Nyx had not experienced even when the demons had mounted her. This was the pain of something growing under her skin. It was even worse than giving birth had been, though it happened much more quickly.
    Nyx’s eyes popped open. Tendrils of green were slipping through her skin, like roots growing beneath her flesh. As she watched, they spread down her arms, over her breasts and belly and down to her groin and her legs. She could feel them wrapping themselves around her spine and spreading out across her back and into her wings.
    I have wings. I’ve changed back to an Angel! Shit!
    The growing stopped. The pain vanished, and in its place was power.
    Nyx stood tall against the wall, wearing her true shape, save for the twisted patterns of green that ran through her skin. She held out her hands and looked at the earthy glow. She felt stronger than she had in a very long time. She could completely hide herself from Lucifer or any other Angel. She would be invisible to any sensing with their minds.
    Of course, if I do that, Lucifer will know I’ve gone.
    Nyx leaned against the wall, willing those who came and went to not notice her. To her surprise, it worked. Not a single Angel or demon looked her way.
    It can’t be that simple. Can it?
    Given the power that was thrumming through her body, Nyx began to believe that it was.
    What the fuck…?
    Nyx flapped into the air, circled, and flew in through one of the great windows. All of them opened on the central orgy room.
    The floor below was a mass of naked Angel flesh, all of it engaged in carnal indulgence of the highest and lowest orders. Angels reclined on benches and beds, floated in the air, swung on swings, knelt or crouched or lay on the ground. They licked, sucked, fucked, bit, and scratched one another’s flesh. Male and female alike penetrated and were penetrated by others. The demon succubae and incubi were beautiful in a different way than the Angels, their faces sharper and more exotic, their sexual parts exaggerated. Demons enjoyed sex, but in lovemaking like this, they were mostly aping their betters, with no notion of the exquisite pleasure that Angels were capable of.
    Despite the danger she was facing, the sight of all the Angelic flesh—the silky skin and perfect limbs, flowing hair, full breasts and muscular torsos—made Nyx incredibly horny. It had been more than a thousand years since she’d felt a male Angel’s embrace, or made love with more than two others. She sniffed, inhaling the glorious scent of immortal skin, of genitalia made only for endless and exquisite pleasure. Reproduction had been a much, much later idea.
    Focus, Nyx, she chided herself . First I find Persephone. Then I kill her, I get Ishtar and go to Earth.
    Then I’ll defeat the Son of God, Lucifer and all his armies.
    Then I can get laid.
    No problem. Really.
    Nyx smiled to herself, knowing how farfetched the words were. She was far more likely to end up back in the Lake of Fire, or turned to dust by Tribunal, than she was to come out of this alive. She took another look around, drinking in the sights and smells of the orgy around her. She remembered thousands of years of pleasure, in Heaven, Hell, and on Earth, frolics with Angels and humans—she avoided the memories of her most perfect lover, Tribunal—as she slowly circled the room in search of Persephone.
    The room had changed since she’d last been there. Of course, it changed regularly as the Angels got bored and redesigned it for new pleasures, or variations on old pleasures. This day, there was a large, rather gauche fountain in the middle of the floor,