Rebirth of the Nephilim

“Two! Two confessions! Both at the same time! You’re a fucking legend!”

Jay let out a sigh as Kerr cackled with unrepressed delight. The irrepressible rabblerouser was holding Noct’s letter in one hand as she lay with her head hanging over the side of the bed. Her legs kicked the air as she giggled and snorted, clearly having the time of her life.

“I do not think it is polite to laugh at Noct’s letter,” Eir chided the therion from where she sat on top of Jay’s back. “In fact, I would say that is quite rude to make light of her feelings.”

“I’m not laughing at her,” Kerr replied, her voice still bubbling with amusement. “I’m laughing at Jadis. She’s such a sex beast that she can’t help but drag all the finest of ladies towards her through raw animal lust! They all want to climb her pulsing pillar of perverted penis and it’s fucking hilarious!”

“What the fuck…” Jay smothered her disbelieving grin into a pillow. “Don’t call it that!”

“Less alliteration?” Kerr said in a facsimile of propriety. “How does ‘throbbing meat tower’ sound?”

Jay didn’t reply, partly because she couldn’t think of a good response, but mostly because Eir had at that moment found a sweet spot between her shoulder blades and had dug in hard with the heel of her hand. So long as her sweet Eir was rubbing her back, Jadis was willing to let Kerr have her fun unimpeded.

Revenge could always be had later.

The whole group had gathered together in the sitting room of the suite they had been given in Ulya’s temple. The two attached bedchambers were too small to fit everyone at once, so furniture had been moved around and the beds had been pulled out to fill the space next to the couches and cushioned chairs. One of the bedrooms had been turned into Hope’s nursery, while the other was acting as a glorified closet. The Sleep of the D symbol had been set up, which was the only reason why everyone was still awake despite the late hour. There was no rush to get to sleep when they could be well rested from just a few hours.

Jadis had wanted to discuss her hallway encounters with all of her lovers right away, but she had been forced to delay until she could gather them all in one spot. She had included Maeve in that number, which had apparently taken the shapeshifter by surprise since she had gone and found her own room in the temple. After dragging the embarrassed Fetch over to their room, Jadis had caught everyone up to speed concerning both Amarantha’s oddly cryptic interest, and Noct’s boldly announced intent.

“Well, hey, I get their reasoning,” Bridget said as she walked over and took the letter from Kerr’s hand. “You are damn near irresistible, Jadis. I didn’t even really like girls before you, and now here I am, face buried in breasts and twats on a daily basis.”

“You were not interested in women?” Sev perked up from where she was sitting at a side desk, head bowed over an open book. “You were courting men before?”

“Can’t say that I did any courting with anyone, really,” Bridget admitted as she walked over to where Syd was sitting on the other bed in the room and plopped down next to her. “But I pictured marrying a man, yeah. Definitely not complaining about the change, but I had not thought I’d end up with a woman. Well, a sort of, I guess. And then sharing her with all of you. Bugger me, weird set up we have when I think about it.”

“You’re telling me,” Syd said as she wrapped an arm around her orc lover and gave her a kiss on the cheek. “Ecstatic it happened, though.”

“It has to be a potion that will make her human.”

“Is that even possible?” Dys asked as she massaged Sabina’s shoulders. “She’s a cat. Well, Lares, but you know what I mean. That would be a massive transformation.”

“I don’t see why not,” the smith replied as she leaned into Dys’ hands. “You have a spell that can double your size, and one that can give you wings, and one that can give any of us penises, and also there’s healing magic that can restore limbs, and also Maeve. If all of those things are possible, why not a potion that turns a Lares into a human?”

“What about me?” the shapeshifter asked.

“Oh, I just mean that you can transform into just about anything, right?” Sabina said as she opened her eyes and turned slightly on Dys’ lap to face the Fetch. “If you can do that, I don’t see why a Lares couldn’t become a human or an elf or an orc with the right potion.”

“Wouldn’t it make more sense if the potion turns her into a Nephilim for a while?” Sorcha asked as she frowned at the hand of cards she had been dealt. “It’s being made with Nephilim goo, after all.”

“That would make some sense,” Aila agreed as she put down a card and picked up another. “Ah, triples.”

“Blood and piss,” Sorcha groaned as she tossed her cards down.

“I believe I can continue,” Meli said as she took a new card herself.

Leaning over the Dryad’s shoulder to see her cards, Thea slowly shook her head. When Meli pointed at one of her cards with a raised eyebrow, the shieldmaiden gave her a sad look and shook her head again.

“Oh. I, too, forfeit.”

“The next shoulder massage is mine, then,” the redheaded mage announced when Maeve’s hand showed that she couldn’t beat her.

As Aila swept up the cards she and the others had been playing with and began to shuffle, Maeve leaned forward so that her chin was resting on top of her cupped hand, and her elbow was on her knee. With a somewhat mystified tone, she mumbled to herself just loud enough for those sitting in the circle of card players to hear.

“You know, when I was invited to join you all in this room, I was expecting a different sort of nightly activities.”

Aila paused in her shuffling of the cards to look at the orange woman with a raised eyebrow.

“What did you expect? That we were having sex all the time as soon as the doors were closed?”

“Well… yeah,” Maeve shrugged with one shoulder. “It kind of seemed that way whenever I spied on you all.”

“Clearly you did not do a thorough job of invading our privacy.”

As Aila and Sabina switched seats and Thea dealt the cards out for the game to continue, Alex left Hope’s nursery and quietly closed the door behind her. Sliding over to take a seat between Sabina and Maeve, Thea included the Demon with her own hand of cards. As Alex carefully arranged what she had been dealt, she turned a question towards Dys.

“Do you… Believe… Noct is… Dangerous…?”

“In general? Yeah, probably,” Dys said as she dug her fingers into Aila’s shoulders, seeking out any persistent stress knots. “Whatever she’s got going on was shockingly intimidating. She could scare the shit out of people in a haunted house or something like that.”

“What is a haunted—”

“Definitely an Ea-arth thing, don’t worry about it.”

“Earth, not Ea-arth,” Syd corrected Sorcha’s mispronunciation.

“Who names their world dirt? That’s weird,” Sorcha scoffed as she exchanged a couple of cards.

“I’m still grappling with the not-from-Oros weirdness…” Maeve muttered while Meli nodded in agreement.

“Anyway!” Dys cleared her throat. “My point is, Noct is pretty scary. Definitely dangerous. But she’s also not actually a threat. She wasn’t hostile. Just… riled up.”

Alex seemed to consider Jadis’ explanation for a few seconds before quietly nodding to herself and taking a single card from the pile.

“She tastes… Like desire… When she is… Near you…”

“Desire?” Dys asked, pausing in her massage.

Alex frowned, then shook her head.

“Not like… The Bitch… Noct tastes… Of lust…”

“Oh, okay,” Dys relaxed as she resumed giving Aila’s shoulders the proper attention. “Yeah, that makes sense. I mean, even if she hadn’t written me a letter conveying her interest in me, she comes across as someone who is severely pent up, in my opinion. Definitely repressed.”

“Repressed, possibly,” Aila murmured as her head lolled forward under Dys’ ministrations. “There could be many reasons for that. I’m more curious about her race and how that plays a factor in her behavior. I don’t know anything about Valravn.”

“Very few do, as the mix between Seraphim and Valbjorn are uncommon even among hybrids. Fortunately, I have some answers for you.”

Severina’s words were accompanied by her movement as she stood from her chair and walked over to Aila and Dys with her book in hand. Passing the open volume to the mage’s hands, the justicar pointed out a long passage on one of the visible pages. With a flutter of her wings, Sev settled down onto the same bed that Bridget and Syd had chosen to occupy.

Reading out loud for all to hear, Aila repeated the start of the passage that Sev had indicated.

“The Valravn embody Valtar’s pursuit of justice and Charos’ lust for war. It is said that a Valravn on the warpath is a more terrible thing than a rage-filled Valbjorn, but a Valravn pledged to service is a more loyal steward than even the staunchest of Seraphim. It is in their nature to hunt their enemies and quench their restless hunger for battle with the blood of mighty foes. It is also a Valravn’s nature to punish injustices and uphold the will of those they swear their fealty to.”

“So… they’re battle maniacs,” Syd summarized. “Like Valbjorn. But they have a stronger moral compass because of their Seraphim side?”

“That is what the scholarly essays say on the matter, yes,” Severina agreed.

“Alright, well, that doesn’t seem so bad, really. Not sure why she feels the need to hide her race. Or why her parents are helping her keep it a secret. Seems unnecessary.”

“It’s probably because of the blood drinking.”

“What?”

Severina blinked in surprise at all three of Jadis’ exclamation. Even Jay had rolled over, forcing Eir to sit on her lap as she sat up to stare at the Seraphim. Looking slightly taken aback by the reaction, Sev turned her head to address Syd directly.

“I presume it is because Valravn drink blood. The passage Aila just read was not entirely metaphorical when it said, ‘quench their restless hunger for battle with the blood of mighty foes.’ Valravn quite literally drink the blood of their enemies. I have been led to understand that for some of their kind, the desire is a minor one and can be sated by regularly drinking a cup of blood from slaughtered livestock. For others, the hunger is far more compelling and can lead to acts of great violence. I suspect that Noct is of the latter variety, and she may struggle with controlling her urges.”

The room was silent for several seconds as the group digested the information. When Jadis broke the calm with a nearly triumphant shout, she got quite a few looks of bewilderment.

“She’s actually a fucking vampire!?”

“A what?” Sev asked as several others in the room voiced their own confusion.

“Holy shit,” Syd laughed with disbelief. “I thought I was being dumb. But you’re telling me Noct actually drinks blood?”

“If she is truly a Valravn, then yes,” Severina answered, though she was still giving Syd a look. “What is a vampire?”

“It’s a monster from Earth. Lots of different stories and interpretations about their powers and weaknesses and what they do. But in every version of vampires, they always drink blood. That’s a constant. They’re usually damaged by sunlight, too. Are Valravn allergic to the sun? Wait, no, I’ve seen Noct standing in the sun plenty of times, even without her armor. How about garlic? Do Valravn hate garlic or something like that? Maybe silver?”

“I… have no idea,” Sev replied, her blue eyes wide as she leaned back from Syd’s eager questions. “I have never heard of anything like what you are describing.”

“Why do you seem so excited by this?” Aila asked as she tilted her head back to look at Dys. “Vampires are monsters from your world, aren’t they? I would think that you would be upset to learn that Noct shares traits with such a creature.”

Aila’s question caused Jadis to fall silent as she failed to meet anyone’s gaze.

“Well…”

“Jadis, are you blushing?” Kerr asked incredulously as her eyes darted between the three of her bodies.

“Look, there may have been some books that I read when I was younger that I was really into and they might have influenced some of my feelings about vampires and I really don’t want to talk about them any further, okay? Just… trust me when I say that some versions of vampires can be kind of sexy.”

As Kerr’s laughter once again filled the room and Jadis’ blush deepened, Jay rolled over to bury her face in a pillow again while Syd grabbed a blanket and threw it at the hysterical therion. Dys tried to ignore the myriad stares being sent her way while she redoubled her efforts at massaging Aila’s shoulders but was interrupted by the freckled redhead herself.

“…what were the books about?”

“D, kill me now.”