Archive of Our Own ^beta

The wind ruffled the short grass of the rolling hills beneath the gridelin sky. A spark erupted out over one of the crests, forming into a spiraling pentagram that expanded outwards, leaving ripples of power and a shadowy hole. Time seemed to stand still as a young woman dropped from it, down to the ground. She was finally home.

Straightening, Diana dismissed the gate to the human world with a wave of her hand and pushed her long brown hair back over her shoulders. She banished her glamour spell with a petulant frown, showing her true self: the succubus Ezaeur. It wasn’t much of a change. Her human form was a watered-down reflection of her, missing the violet stripes that wrapped about her body and her tall spiraling horns. She was happy to shed it. She preferred her demon form, but she would keep the name. She rather liked it. Diana. It rolled off her tongue with a purr and she reveled in the delight it gave her.

Diana stretched and checked her energy level. Opening the gate and returning to the Abyssal Planes was much easier than leaving it for the human world. A small pang of guilt at what it took the first time, the death of the human, was still enough to sting and she forced it out of her mind. She couldn’t change the past and she had other things to worry about. She needed to get her head straight. She needed a new plan.

Review. Then revise your plans. Her tutors always told her. So, she had sought her place of refuge in order to reflect.

Diana looked out over the rolling grassy hills that bordered her father’s kingdom, the Kingdom of Lilith. She deliberately kept herself from pacing, instead dropping down to sit in the grass. She felt the wind on her face and with a small smile she summoned slacks and a silk blouse. Human garb. It was a guilty pleasure she had picked up from her exploration of the human world, like her name. Her father would cringe to see her dressed like this. She was a succubus, a noble, a princess, a creature of sexual desire; Demons of Lilith didn’t bother with clothes. There were appearances to be maintained. But right now she would indulge herself a little. She needed it for her own mental sanity. The way the soft material wrapped around her legs felt like a soft caress, without the baggage of a lover.

Pulling her legs up, Diana clasped her arms around them and rested her chin on her knees, staring out over the fields, and finally let her mind think on all that had happened in the past week.

I love him.
The human girl’s voice echoed in her memory. She shook her head, partly denial, partly to halt that chain of thought.

The boys. Diana groaned. Covering her eyes with her hands, she fell back, her hair fanning out over the grass and looked up at the sky. She had thought it would be easy but it wasn’t. She was beginning to think nothing ever was. It was a simple task: Enter the human world. Find the Demon Lord’s sons.  Bring them back home. Her reward: marry the eldest and unite the kingdoms, with her as their Queen.

A simple task. So much simpler than the last three years she had spent manipulating the politics of the realm. Pushing her powers practically to the breaking point over and over in order to build her strength. Planting rumors and building a reputation for mastery in manipulation and mind alteration. Making her self a desirable asset from all aspects, a suitor worthy of the Demon Lord’s son. The hassle of forging and sending the proposal. The annoyance of convincing her father and her mother that marriage into the Demon Lord’s family was the only way to save their kingdom. The tiring politics with the other rebel leaders, convincing them to hold their actions until they had the upper hand. Every day, every action, every moment, Diana had been working towards that marriage contract, that goal. Queen of the realm.

Fetching the boys should have been easy.
But it wasn’t.

With another groan she pulled herself back up to sit once again, looking back out at the fields. Fertile, growing farmland as far as her eyes could see. Her father’s people were lovers, farmers, artisans. Not fighters. There were no real riches, no exotic exports to really be had. It was rather boring, despite the occasional ball, though the Demons of Lilith were divine in their own right. But it was hers.

The Demon Lord’s lands were extensive but far from self-maintaining. The stupid brute’s only thoughts were to conquer and destroy. He would take what he wanted by force and fulfill his own hedonistic pleasures. He had killed or conscripted many of those who had once worked the land for him, driving his own people to famine and thievery. Rather than help his lands to grow, he would just pluck the next kingdom and the next. It would continue on and on until there were none left. He was a tyrant that would take what little she had, unless Diana was smart. Unless she used everything she had to take what he had instead.

Diana had seen the Demon Lord’s ruthlessness the first time she managed to run away from the boring existence she called her childhood. She went looking for excitement and she had found it in a neighboring kingdom. Her foray to the town of Izitz had shown her all she needed to know. She had barely made it out in time before the entire village was slaughtered by the Lord’s brute demons, another kingdom swallowed by his greed. She had known right there and then that it was up to her to do something.

The Demon Lord couldn’t be stopped. By the time the realm realized what was happening, his strength was beyond control. The few remaining kingdoms were living on bought time. Time she herself had purchased with trying to link herself to that monster and his family. He couldn’t be stopped but he could be controlled. She was sure she could do it.

Diana shuddered when she thought about the look he’d given her. Sure she’d marry a son, but she knew who she would be serving. The world lived to provide the Lord with pleasure, stroke his pride and feed his ego. That was unless she found the opportunity to take it. And she had no doubt it would come. No doubt at all. She would be queen.

The boys.
The taste in her mouth turned bitter.

I love him. The human girl’s voice rang out in challenge.

I love her. A deep, masculine voice growled in return.

The Demon Lord’s sons. She hadn’t met them when she started moving her plan into motion, cloistered as they were in the castle. The Demon Lord kept his progeny on a tight leash. Five boys: four nobles and a bastard. One to rule in the Demon Lord’s wake, the rest for back-up. They were his legacy. They were his property. They only had what he granted them.  It hadn’t mattered.  They would be as bad as the father. Or not. Either way, she had no choice and would have to handle them when the time came. She would take care of them as she would their father. And who knows, maybe they would serve her well and she’d keep one of them.

There were rumors about the sons.  Diana remembered what little she had seen of three of them, trying to sneak through the castle halls to get a look at them while her father discussed the marriage proposal details with the Demon Lord. She did manage to sneak a peek at the three eldest: The tall, lanky incubus with his nose in a book, who didn’t even glance her way. The sharp-tongued charmer teasing a noble daughter while playing the harpsichord, too busy with the seduction at hand to bother with her. The sweaty brute wrestling with a gargoyle while spouting obscenities. She didn’t even pause to watch him before leaving. It was enough to have her dismiss them as easy, manageable and possibly entertaining.

Diana had been lucky. The Demon Lord had fallen right in with her plans and saw her as a tool for his eldest. Her powers would ensure that he and his son could handle the people as long as needed. Demons might not be as chaotic as devils, but press anyone long enough with violence and tyranny and they’re bound to slip the reins with the fires of rebellion. She would be the insurance against that. Little did he know that she was a part of that rebellion herself, but for her own reasons. Diana knew that violence wouldn’t win. While manipulation, manipulation could turn the tables. And if she could turn them far enough… The realm needed a ruler and why not her?

But the boys. She brought herself back from her wishing.

I love him.

I love her.

Gritting her teeth she forced the words away.

The plans were made, the contract set. Diana’s family made their way to the Demon Lord’s castle to seal the union. A quick ritual between her and the heir and it would be complete.

Then the Demon Lord’s sons had found their own way of escaping their castle. Not to see the realm as she had done. No, they had to be difficult. Instead, they left the Demon world altogether. Not rebelling, but abandoning. Somehow, someway, when no one was watching, they had secured a portal to the human world. They were gone with only a trace of the magic left. A mere whisper of a trail.

The castle was in chaos when Diana and her family arrived. The Demon Lord had killed his strongest magicians long before, not trusting them to remain loyal. It left him with shadows and imps. Still effective, but they were not as much of a threat and not nearly as skilled. No one had the power to track the boys down. Diana was the only one left to try and follow, her future tied to them as it was and her “loyalty” secure.

By the time Diana had found them, they had become a single unit. A family. Diana bit her lip in frustration. The boys, kept separate for the most part had learned how to work together, how to fight together. And they’d grown strong in their unity and resistance.

Raestrao.
The heir, now calling himself James.
He was tall and broad of shoulder, his amber eyes catching every detail. The eldest, the leader, and the one she had been betrothed to. Book smart, full of strategy and charisma. James had the pride and self confidence that being the only son to gain the approval of their father could have. He even had the stature and look of his father, the power and carriage of royalty. The Demon Lord was a prideful man. No wonder he chose James. Seeing himself in his son stroked his vanity like nothing else.

James would have made a desirable husband, Diana grudgingly admitted. He had the look, had leadership and a commanding voice. But like most other leaders, she had seen little else to truly make him stand out. Unproven, it would take the belief of those he was to lead to truly make him a leader. But he had the figurehead down and would look great on her arm.

James had the loyalty and support of his brothers.  The way he led and guided them... Rebels though they were, they obeyed him and followed him. They would do anything for him. Unfortunately, he would also do anything for them. It threw a wrench in her plans as nothing else could. She wouldn’t be able to manipulate him without resistance. Taking his father’s throne at her side would not make him easily mold-able, nor change his identity as she wished. His brothers would keep him intact. He now had a way of self-preservation.

Diana had watched James in the human world, hiding herself as she watched. She could hardly believe what he had become. How he took care of his brothers and that girl. The heir to the Demon throne, cooking and gardening for a human, it was insulting! Her husband, acting as a servant to a human girl!

Diana had hoped to play on James’ sense of responsibility, draw him into a dream of idealism in their world. Use him to manipulate the other leaders as well as his father. But when she had approached him, alone, he had rejected her, dismissed her. Turned violent with her, even!

James had scoffed and threw his heritage away. All I have to do is care about the ones close to me. He didn’t give a damn for the Demon world, only his brothers. He was a leader, why wouldn’t he step forward and lead? I don’t want it. He sounded like a petulant child to Diana’s ears. He was her husband! I do not belong to you. Together they could have built the world Diana had always known was possible. She would lead the Realm and he could be her servant if that was what he really wanted. Instead James turned the dream to dust and she left him. If he couldn’t be convinced, surely one of the other brothers would be.

Uzaeris.
The second son, who now called himself Erik.
Erik scared the shit out of her.
He had to scare the shit out of all of the boys. They just wouldn’t admit it.

Coppery pink hair that hid one of his sly eyes, in the popular style Diana herself employed. Erik was leaner and much more elegant than his brothers. A high courtesan of the Court, a man of service: charming, handsome, well-spoken and refined.  He was the epitome of a Demon of Lilith in every aspect: desirable and skilled.  He was notorious among the princesses of the realm. The stories and rumors about Erik had given her young self more than one fantasy in the dark hours of the night, no matter the partner she had picked up.

That was before Diana had followed Erik and his brothers, before she knew of his powers. He was a master of illusion and ethereal summoning. He had the ability to create illusions and then give those illusions substance to affect the real world. What he couldn’t manipulate with his words, his ethereal summoning took care of.  His preference: amorphous tentacles to grip and rend or ranged spiky thorns to slash, stab and kill. It was a macabre effect.

It wasn’t only his choice of “expression” that made Diana shudder. Erik had more magical power in his reserve than the next three brothers combined. His control was even more intimidating: the manipulation of a petal up to the grandest immersion of a memory. And Erik would use his power without remorse, if it weren’t for James. As far as Diana could tell, Erik had no moral compass. His mother had shattered it long before, not wanting it to interfere in her plans for him to lead through the ladies of the court. He would not lead himself, no. Not like his father. Instead, Erik was trained to be the perfect servant to the next queen.

Erik was raised to be cruel, to see everyone and everything as a means to an end, but somehow the end he had chosen was James’ happiness and the solidarity of his brothers. He had strolled through that gate with the rest of them, despite his skill and popularity. Why?

Diana had watched Erik in the human world as well. His very discourse sent a shiver down her spine. Erik’s words and tone were laced with sarcasm that was hidden just enough so that you would always doubt its existence, consider it an aspect of his amusement, part of the courting game. You knew it was there just the same, yet you still chose to disregard it. Princess… the word always had a hint of bitterness and a sharp edge behind the silk.

Diana watched him with the human girl, toying with the idea of taking what he desired from her. Acting like a cat, waiting, and pretending not to really want her even while purring his courtly flirtations. Diana truly believed he would have gleefully torn that girl’s heart to pieces as he had so many others before her after devouring every drop of energy she had to give, had James not stopped him that first night.

Rubbing her palms over her slacks in an attempt to alleviate their sweatiness, Diana recalled when she approached Erik to make the offer his father had given her. Erik had seemed amused at her appearance, she had maybe even managed to flatter him. And he had hesitated. Of all the boys, he had hesitated the longest, giving her a moment of hope. Perhaps he had been playing his game with her before denying her and throwing her offer back in her face. Perhaps she had pushed him too far. Either way, he called her bluff, laughing as he adjusted his court mask back into place.

Arrrrrrrrgh! Diana growled deep in her throat. She hated this! If only she could have tamed Erik! But he was already turned against her. They could have played well together; she would have given him whatever dalliances he’d want in the court while he serviced her, fulfilling his role. But Erik was no longer a slave in his own mind.

Frankly, she was relieved he had turned down her offer. Diana may be able to enthrall and command armies but she had no doubt that in the end, Erik would have been a royal pain in the ass to try and manipulate.

Zecaru.
Matthew was the second youngest son and the other magician among the boys.
A mage, a maker, the sage in the guise of the Fool.
Nearly the same age as Erik but still with the look and attitude of a child. Glossy black hair curled about his ears and collar and his big, bright blue eyes only added to the innocent affectations. He was smallest in stature, power and influence when you compared the sons.  To some, he was endearing and caring. To Diana, he was frivolous and immature. Fun? She didn’t need fun.  He held onto his childish act with both hands tightly, despite the world he grew up in. Or perhaps in spite of the world he grew up in.  

Matthew wanted to be James, anyone could see it. He coveted everything his oldest brother had. He wanted the mantle of leadership that James wore with such ease. He wanted to prove himself and earn the approval and respect of his father, of the kingdom. And yet Matthew didn’t want to grow up. His mother never had, so it was only natural he would follow in her footsteps. The only happiness he ever saw with her came from childish things: toys, games. So why should he let his childishness go?

There were times Diana had seen Matthew look at James with envy, jealousy burning in his bright blue eyes, but he never acted on it. He would blink and it would be gone. He never seemed to let it take hold. Instead he would laugh it off. He wanted to be the best, but didn’t want to make his brothers less.

Diana smirked in superiority. She didn’t have that problem, even with the other rebel leaders.

Matthew’s magic was extraordinary. It wasn’t limited as other magic was. His maker power may have been limited by size, much as he himself was, but Matthew could make anything if he set his mind to it. He didn’t need the elaborate illusion Erik used to make into temporary ethereal reality. His creations weren’t limited by time. They existed once he brought them into the world. Some of them were practically alive, homunculi to amuse and entertain.

Matthew was a conjurer who never seemed fatigued after using his power and never quite knew what he would get. It was dangerous, how he would blatantly summon whatever he wanted with half a thought. More often than not he was surprised at what he found in his hands. But Diana found it interesting that he was able to summon countless knives so flawlessly when he and his brothers fought those devils. Summon and dismiss them. Knives that cut finer than anything she’d ever seen.  What could he have given her armies?

Diana’s ambition flared as she thought about what would happen if Mathew ever set aside his childishness. He would have been useful and quite possibly amusing as a husband. She had no doubt she would have found some joy in having him as a mate. She could have handled him even as the child, though the games would have gotten old really fast.

Diana flinched, her pride bruised at how desperate she must have looked, chasing him around the island of the kitchen in that pathetic excuse for a house. She had even tried the leverage of how his mother was crying for him here in the Demon realm. To think she’d gone so far as to try a guilt trip! She had been trying to have a serious discussion. She had offered him what he wanted: the means to grow up in the eyes of the kingdom, prove himself a man and rule. Matthew had turned it into a game.  The runt of the litter shook her offer off with a shrug, like he did the rest of the Demon world, to play in the human world. Diana huffed out a breath, flipping her bangs up for a second before they dropped back down over her brow. Oh, well. No loss there.

Izroul.
Damien.
The youngest brother.  The bastard son of a harem slave.
Quiet. Reserved.  Damien was strong of body, lean and resilient, with the violet-blue eyes and copper hair of his mother. He was practically unremarkable in his appearance, no doubt because he didn’t want anyone to notice him.

Damien was a mind reader who couldn’t shut his powers off despite how badly he wanted to. Powers no one had ever seen before in the Demon realm. It was the one time the Demon Lord had been smart, keeping Damien from the slave pens, but was still too stupid to use him.

Damien was full of secrets. He heard everything in everyone’s mind around him and he could focus on individuals as well, able to decipher truth, motives and obfuscation. As a tool, he was priceless and James used him more than any other brother. Sam and Erik may have been James’ enforcers, but Damien was his wild card. Luckily for Diana, Damien hadn’t figured out how to focus on someone without totally giving it away. His closed eyes and fingers at his throat were the most obvious tells in the world. Yet still she would often forget him. He could stand right next to you and you’d forget he was there. Was that another of his powers?

Damien was a boy lost in the thoughts of others and only wanting to be himself. How much of your own identity could you have with everyone else living in your head? Was there anything left of him but his dreams? He was a mouthpiece. A conduit.  The most powerful tool the boys had. With Damien around there was no such thing as a surprise. Sure you could try to shield, but no other demon had that power. How long would it take to figure out the trick to silence your head when you weren’t the one hearing it? How mentally agile would you have to be to flood him with so much information, he wouldn’t be able to tell what you were thinking? Or silence your thoughts and still remain effective?

Damien was pathetic. He idolized his brothers. He idolized the humans! His existence was exhausting to Diana, surely to those around him, and probably to himself as well. No wonder he wanted to be human. If he couldn’t stand the silence after a lifetime of noise, he could at least kill himself. Demons were notorious self-preservers. They had to be temporarily stripped of energy, of their powers, before you could kill them. A demon’s body would keep going long after their mind was gone. Unpleasant indeed.

While she found the other boys droll, selfish and self-centered, annoyed, Diana pitied Damian. A part of her actually wanted to help him, but all she could give him was the illusion of silence in his head. She could try and strip him of his power, but would it work?  A mental manipulation to convince him that he didn’t have a power at all? It wouldn’t last. No charisma magic could. Wouldn’t that only be more cruel when the harsh reality came crashing back? She couldn’t decide. She didn’t know and wasn’t going to find out.

Damien had turned the offer down, blinking the tears back in his eyes, sacrificing his one wish in order to keep his brothers in the human world. His selflessness annoyed her to no end.  It repulsed her that he could tug at her resolve like that. It made her feel … She wouldn’t go there.  If she couldn’t get something out of him, then she didn’t need him. He could lose himself in the thoughts of the human world and drown in their heads, for all she cared.

It would have been a low blow to have to marry a bastard, anyway. He wasn’t worth it.

And lastly,
Aomaris.
Sam, the brute.

I love him. The human girl’s voice echoed in Diana’s memory.
I love her. Sam’s voice answered.

The middle son, he was brown of hair and green of eye, belying his tie to earth magic.
Half incubus by birth, he more resembled a brute demon. With the strength of his father, Sam was able to physically beat any single one of his brothers and all of them together. A beast: Sam was illiterate, tattered and shabby looking. Typical of his kind, he didn’t give a shit about appearance, or propriety.  

When Diana had first seen Sam, he had had barely a thought in his head except for fighting. He trailed after his brothers, their rude, crude enforcer. He would physically beat anything that went against James and his brothers. He was slow to act, slow to change, and yet the fastest when he finally chose to do something. His powers were speed and strength, pure physicality. Diana had toyed with the idea that he might have time manipulation and was just too stupid to realize it. Sam bitched like an old woman. Everything about him grated on her because she knew she’d never control him. Like Erik, he allowed James to be dominant.

Sam was the most caring out of them all, however. His mother taught him to care, though her sensitivities made her weak and disregarded. He was known for feeding the poor commoners around the castle. He was protecting the weak when they should perish to continue enhancing the strength of the race. Diana frowned as she realized she should have played the idealism tactic to him. Maybe that would have chained him. But the girl got in the way. Who would have thought?

A demon loving a human? They were food. They were sport. They had to be.

The human world, the humans themselves, were dangerous. Unpredictable. Humans danced on the edge of chaos and order, magic and technology. They played in the realms of evil and good with practically everything they did. Protected by the angels, coveted by the devils, their lives were a mass of contradictions. Their witches and warlocks wielded all manner of powers, all over the moral scale. They were not black and white; they were every shade of the rainbow.

Diana really hadn’t known much about them until she crossed through the portal following the boys. How was it that humans could shine so brightly in their world? They dreamed, they learned, they grew, they changed. The demon realm hadn’t changed for centuries, except for the bits brought in from the human world and other realms. Occasionally a demon would even steal a human back to the Abyssal Planes as a pet, when the angels weren’t looking; locked them away as a treasure, but it was risky.

Humans built amazing things and could change in a heartbeat. No wonder the realms worked to keep them ignorant and enclosed in their own world. The thought of bringing that chaos into the Abyssal Planes was frightening. How could anyone control it? The humans certainly didn’t and the more anyone tried, the more frantically it broke free.

Humans went where demons couldn’t go. Did what demons couldn’t conceive of doing. Like loving a demon.

Loving a demon!

Diana screamed, tearing out chunks of grass and whipping the leaves into the wind. It blew them right back into her face, making her cough and spit, bringing her back to the reality at hand, cooling her temper, showing her foolishness.

I love him. The girl’s voice echoed in her memory.

Diana could feel the power behind the words, the force behind that declaration, even though it was only a memory now. She could only imagine how Sam had felt. That look, those words, she could have loved that girl too. Way too easily. It would only have led to destruction.

Love was a fairy tale and a nightmare. The demons spoke of it in whispers, magical in a world of magic. Love to a Demon of Lilith, an incubus or succubus, was beyond comprehension. The unspoken dream they sought over and over again with every impersonal coupling as they fed, imagining the myth of the pair-bonded. The hollow human slaves who dwelled in the Abyssal Planes had never shown the love their race was known for. There was lust, idolization, passion, just as the demons around them had, but nothing close to the love she had seen in that girl’s eyes, the power she had felt.

It was a dream Diana wanted, but she knew it was false. Humans changed and so did their love for each other. It wouldn’t last. The fire was hot now for Sam and the human girl. He was deluding himself. But she couldn’t blame him. She would never be able to turn him now. A part of her wanted at least someone to have that dream.

Now that her anger had cooled, Diana’s mind was returning to its usual clarity. With a sigh, Diana rose and dismissed the clothes from her body, her mind flooding with new plans. She felt good, empowered, and delicious after having taken the power from that slip of a girl. Better than she had in weeks. The energy of a first love fulfilled from the human girl was surprisingly potent. That spark lit Diana from within, building her resolve, fueling her to fight.

The boys. Even if Diana had brought the Demon Lord’s sons back she could never have handled them.

Somehow while growing up in that awful castle, those boys had found each other and formed the foundation of that perfect team. While Diana tried to find a way to find them, the boys had walked the human world, changing and finding themselves in the process. The Demon Lord was such a fool! His neglect of them had backfired on him. Instead of controlling his progeny, he had made them into a force to be reckoned with. Did they even realize it? She doubted they were cognizant of it themselves.

Diana couldn’t drive a wedge between the brothers. They were unified against her. Now she just had to hope they stayed in the human world, well out of her way. As far as the boys were concerned, anyway she looked at it, she was fucked. Completely and totally fucked.

So what. She was far from defeated. The game wasn’t over yet and she would come out on top. Just wait. They wouldn’t believe what she was capable of. They wouldn’t believe what she did. She’s surprise them all. She’d knock this world to its knees.

“My lady, you’ve returned.” Diana turned at the soft, velvety voice. Saero, her guard, her confidant, had found her again, interrupting her chain of thought. He was not carrying his spear.

“How long have you been watching me?” Diana asked. Saero closed his brown eyes for a second. He always knew where she was in the Abyssal planes. He could feel her. But she didn’t want to hear it, didn't want to admit it.

“Not long enough.” He replied. Saero ran his eyes over her body, Diana seeing desire and for the first time, something more in them. I love her. She felt her heart stir... No. They had only been away from each other for far too long, she'd grown accustomed to his presence and had missed him. Saero blinked, sensing her struggle as she folded her arms and quickly turned away from him, trying to close him out yet again.

“I take it the wedding plans are no longer an option?”

Diana looked back over her shoulder at him, frowning. Was that hope in his voice? Was that hope in her heart? “No, they are not. But I have plans, a few things to take care of in the human world, before returning to the castle.”

“Should I prepare for your coming?” Saero asked, giving them the opportunity as he knew she would not. His pupils dilated as her smile grew at his words and changed.

“Yes. I would like that.” She purred and turned towards him, stepping up to him and reaching out with one hand to slide her fingers into his hair. She raked her nails over the back of his neck, just the way he liked it, before hungrily claiming his lips. After all, she’d need all the energy she could get.