Love as a Form of Binding Ch. 09

Tisiphone stood just outside the wall of the roadhouse and looked across the parking lot. There was still only Jeff's pickup truck, but on the other side of that, under the boughs of a large and tall evergreen, she saw a tall thin form looking like a dark shadow in the snow. They looked at each other for a moment, and Tis walked over. The other one remained still, wrapped tightly in her own wings.

"I never knew that you really existed," she said in a bit of wonder.

The other wore much the same expression, but she nodded, "Nor I you," she said, "I only knew that three of us were named as sisters in a legend." She smiled a little, "I always thought that it was just a bit of Greek nonsense, but I was passing just now and I felt, ..." She shrugged, "I felt who you were and I knew that you are another one. I am-"

"I know," Tisiphone said, "Alecto," she said trying not to stare at the other's olive skin and long black hair. Her gaze shifted to the golden orbs which looked back at her.

"What's going on in there with the man?"

Tisiphone looked down a little uncomfortably, "I was trying to trap someone, but the wrong man walked in. I know this one, and it's bad enough that I'm hungry, but he's done nothing to merit, ..." She shrugged, "I'm just a little stuck here, that's all."

They both faded from sight as a second vehicle pulled into the lot.

The large and heavy man got out of his car looking at the bar and the pickup truck parked out front. He drove this way to work and back most days, and he'd never seen the place. There had been no signs of construction or anything lately, and a place like this didn't just grow out of the ground. He walked to the door, and finding it open, he stepped inside.

Carl looked around, and was impressed. How did anybody just put this here, and nobody knew? He saw the man sitting on the bar looking at him. "Nice place." Carl remarked.

The man put down his mug. "Yeah. You want a beer?"

Carl broke into a grin, "Sure do. What's on tap?"

The man shrugged. "Well, the left tap has Guinness in it, I'm pretty sure. Don't know about the others. Grab a mug and try it out."

Carl looked at him cautiously. "You mean it's alright? Do you own this place?"

Jeff shook his head. "Nope. I was just passing through. The lady who owns it told me it was on the house. She'll be back in a minute, I guess."

Carl ran behind the bar, and tried the center tap. His mug began to fill with Old Milwaukee. He couldn't believe it, and confirmed it with a taste. "Well, what she don't know won't cost me nothin'" he said as he drained the mug as fast as he could, and poured himself another. "So you just thought you'd stop in? What's she like, the owner?"

The man smiled. "She's beautiful. Plain and simple." He looked at Carl's hands. "You been in a fight?"

Carl looked down, "Naw, my old lady was just getting on my nerves. Had to show her a thing or two."

The man winced. "Um, just so you know, I can't leave the place. The door won't open for me, feels kind of rubbery when I try it. Maybe you ought to try it."

Carl cast his neighbor a sideways glance, "You tryin' to get rid of me or something so you can have the beer for yourself?"

He shook his head. "Not at all. The uh, lady who owns this, she's not uh, normal. You're not going to believe me anyway, but just before you showed up, she was going to take my soul. If you're here now too, it might be a bad thing for you."

Carl laughed, and put down his mug. "Mister, you're cracked. I never heard of such crap." He grabbed his mug again, and tried to put a little distance between them.

The man just smiled slightly. "Like I said. You'd better try the door."

Out in the parking lot, the dark-haired Fury looked over. "I can help if you wish, "Alecto said quietly. "I think that I'd like to talk with you."

Tisiphone nodded.

Carl stumped over to the door, but couldn't get it to open. He looked at the man who smiled again.

"Guess she wants your soul too," he said to Carl.

Carl put his mug down on a table, and picked up a chair. He was about to throw it through the stained glass panels on the door when he heard a distant shriek. The volume grew steadily, and then he found himself thrown backward to land on the stone floor some twenty feet from where his boots had last touched the floor.

Carl tried to get to his feet, but he was picked up bodily, and found himself hanging in the air. Tis regarded him coldly. "Well Carl, I guess this is where I tell you that you have one chance to confess and repent. If you do that, I'll be quick."

Jeff stared, looking at the scene before him for a moment before he noticed that there was now a second demon in the room. She stood still and silent, regarding only him.

Carl began to stutter. "I d-don't know what y-you're t-t-talking about. P-put me d-down!" He found himself on the floor again with a sprained ankle. He groaned in pain.

Tis smiled coldly, "You've just lost your one chance at an easy death. You are such a stupid shit-bag, Carl. Tell us what you did, Carl. Say it. Tell us all what a tough guy you are, beating the crap out of people who love you. I want a complete list of their injuries."

A foot was on his throat. He couldn't move it, and felt the pressure on this larynx begin to increase. He suddenly found the desire in him to confess to her. When he was done, he found that he could no longer speak. Tis reappeared next to Jeff. "I don't know how things work in your world very well. Is there a way to help his family?"

He looked at the phone behind the bar. "Does that work?"

She nodded, "It does now." He beckoned her to him, handed her the receiver, and dialed 911. It rang twice.

Tis spoke to the operator in a voice exactly matching Carl's. Carl's eyes grew wide, and he struggled to shout, but no sound came from his throat. Tis, as Carl, confessed to beating his wife and child, outlined their injuries, and the address.

"I'm having trouble locating you on our grid," the operator said, "where are you?"

Tis simply said. "Don't worry about it. I'm going to off myself. Have a nice day." She hung up the phone and turned to Jeff. "Now you'll get to watch me work. This might fix your sappy tendencies."

Carl found himself lifted again, and Tis calmly began to beat him. He flew all around the room, from pillar to post from her punches and kicks. She was very careful to only administer a beating that corresponded to an eye for an eye. At last he lay unconscious at her feet, complete with broken ribs, missing teeth, internal bruising, and a broken jaw.

Jeff looked at the silent one and saw something that chilled his blood, something that might have been described as a rather dark angel. If it might be said that the angels of Heaven exuded light and hope, what stood across the barroom floor had quite the opposite effect. Jeff had no idea who this was and he stared dumbfounded.

Carl began to stir. It took him a few minutes before he was fully cognizant, and he trembled as he looked at Tis standing nude before him in all her demonic splendor. He had a great deal of trouble speaking through his jaw. "I..I'm shorry. Can I g-go now? You t-took it out on me pretty g-good. I w-won't ever do it again, I p-promish you. Pleash?"

Her featureless eyes glowed as she smiled at Carl sweetly. She added half an inch to her fangs to help the effect. "I know that you won't ever do anything like that again, Carl. And do you want to know how I know that?"

Carl really didn't care, but decided to show interest. "H-how?"

Jeff felt her hoof falls through the stone floor where he stood as she walked over to Carl. She wrapped her claws around his throat and picked him up. The stones under him grew wet as he lost control of his bladder. He clawed at her hand, but made no marks on it.

Tis grinned coldly. "Because, Carl, I'm hungry."

He began to whimper, and finally realizing that there was nothing that could help him, he began to pray as quickly and as fervently as he could.

Tis chuckled, "Oh, I just know that'll help, Carl. I hope you're not expecting the cavalry to come through the door to help you."

She let go of him, and he hung in the air, unable to move his limbs. Tis began to use her claws to slowly disembowel him. He shrieked and cried out in agony. His guts tumbled out onto the floor, the rest hanging in thin strands from the hole in his belly.

She walked over to the bar. By the time she reached Jeff, her hooves had turned to feet, and she was slightly shorter than he was. She picked up her mug, and drained it. It was full again as soon as it touched the bar.

She looked over at Jeff. "How do you like the show so far, Handsome?"

He stared in mild horror at Carl, and the reek of his bowels on the floor made his stomach churn, and then he looked at her again. He looked from her spattered breasts down her bloodstained abdomen to the most pronounced mound that he was sure that he'd ever seen. He guessed that demons just didn't grow pubic hair or something. His gaze carried on down her long legs.

She cursed under her breath when she saw his expression change back to the same look of wonder that she'd seen before. The blood and gore lifted from her skin and disappeared in a red mist.

She wondered to herself what it was going to take to make him afraid of her.

She raised her right hand to Carl and he burst into flames. He began to scream piteously, flopping in the air.

"I'd have thought that seeing all of this might change how you feel, but it really doesn't, does it?"

He smiled and then shrugged, "I can't help it, Tis. I'm really confused now. What are you? I really want to know. I've never heard of a demon with such a sense of well,...vengeance before."

Tis shook her head, "I'm more than a demon. Maybe you'd call me a super demon. Many of us have walked the planes of earth, what you call Heaven, and what you call Hell long before there was such a thing as civilized man. I'm a bit younger, but not much.

The Greeks lumped two of my kind and I together, and called us sisters. Until now, I've never even met them. They named us the Furies. You're right. I do have a penchant for vengeance. I've never been able to change that. I've changed some over the years, but I'm still the same girl I always was. The best description I can think of to help you to understand is that I am a kind of demon known as a soul reaver. I take the souls of others to live. Alecto there is another Fury. We've just met for the first time."

Turning to poor Carl, she said, "I guess he's had enough. You can watch if you want, but it might disturb you."

She walked up to him and stared into his empty eye sockets. He became quite agitated, and began to flop around in the air. Tis ignored him. A white mist began to drift from his eyes, nose, and mouth into her mouth. Within a few seconds, he hung limply. She turned and walked away, as Carl's body fell to the floor and disappeared.

"I uh, ... I've got an idea," Jeff began, "Let's go to my place, and discuss this some more there. I don't see any reason that you can't do what you need to do to me there."

"That's a great idea," Alecto said.

Jeff spun and saw her standing next to him. She smiled, "Tisiphone's legend is accurate from what I see," she said, "A real sense of justice. It guides her actions, and without a reason, she feels reluctant to take you."

He searched his memories of what he'd read, but couldn't recall the driving force for this Fury. She sensed his thoughts, and at the same instant, Tisiphone knew the hopeful, self-centered and dangerous game that he'd been playing.

She finally felt his sense of fear rising as he watched Alecto's eyes begin to drip and run with blood. "I am under a little less in the way of having my deeds restricted. She is vengeance. I'm all about that too," she grinned, "but if anything, I guess that you could call me implacable anger."

A minute later, the pair of Furies flew off, headed for Jeff's home. His ruined body lay next to Carl's in Carl's car as it burst into flames.

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They stood together in the kitchen of Jeff's home as Tisiphone spooned some ground coffee into the coffee maker. Alecto tilted her head, "What is that?"

Tisiphone shrugged, "I'm making coffee. It's something I like to drink when I'm among them and I noticed that he has everything here. You ought to try it." She turned to step back into the other Fury's arms for a minute after turning the machine on.

"I never had the thought of ever feeling close to someone," she said, "I guess that he just started the feeling in me, though he wasn't really what I wanted. What has it been like for you? I mean, I'm just the way that I've always been, but I know that you began a lot differently than I did."

"I can show you," Alecto offered, "Would you like to see me that way?"

"The way that you looked last night is fine, unless you have another idea."

"How's this?" Alecto asked as Tisiphone stepped away to take out a pair of mugs after a bit of a search through the cupboards, "This is how I looked when I first walked the earth."

"Who were you then?" Tisiphone asked, as she turned.

The sight of her took the horned one's breath away.

"I was born the daughter of a high priest, a sorcerer, one who spawned me because he craved the power that I could bring him above all else. My poor mother was torn apart giving me life" Alecto said with some sadness," I wish I could have known her."

She was shorter, and her skin was slightly more golden than it normally was. Her hair was so black, it almost looked blue. It hung very long and straight. The eyes before her were bright amber ones which regarded her affectionately. She was thinner, her figure almost boyish, though when she held her hair away from the front of her so that Tisiphone could see her better, she instantly recognized her breasts as the same ones that she'd loved last night, only smaller somehow.

She read the other's mind, "Well, I was a bit younger when I became what I am now.... You looked a little hesitant to turn around. Why?"

The horned one chuckled, "I didn't know if I'd be looking at a cave-girl, or what, you know? I was afraid that you'd be standing there covered in hair, all stooped, and looking at me from underneath a six inch shelf with one long eyebrow. I do have some minimum standards..."

Alecto laughed. "Then I guess this will do." She instantly changed from an obvious nineteen year old to a thirty year old that could pass for twenty-two in a pinch. It took nothing from her beauty. They smiled at each other for a minute while the coffeemaker burbled.

Tisiphone sighed. "I told you. You were fine as you were last night when I met you. You didn't have to do this, though this is wonderful too."

"I know it is," Alecto smiled, sensing at the beginnings of Tisiphone's arousal with a giggle, "I just felt like going back to this suddenly. Since you obviously like me like this too, I can switch back and forth to keep you from getting tired of me."

"I don't know how much of a problem that'll be," Tisiphone grinned, "we only met last night." She held out a mug of coffee, "Here, try this."

The other Fury tried it cautiously, and was instantly delighted. "Oh, this is good!"

They sat at the table and Tisiphone smiled, "I heard that you were born a human, what happened to you?"

Alecto sighed, "I don't want to remember some of that. My father didn't love me, he only wanted to spawn a powerful servant. My mother was chosen by him for this. When she had trouble birthing me, he tore her open and left her to die in agony. I found that out later. He couldn't wait for me to develop power. I learned from the little that he had the patience to teach me, and from his scrolls and clay tablets when he slept. He became impatient when I matured, but didn't begin to have the time of women every month.

Then he began to treat me worse. He almost beat me many times, but he had begun to be afraid of me, so I think that stopped him. I grew stronger and found that I had many abilities that other girls didn't have. I found that I could see the thoughts of others, and know their hearts. I knew that he wanted me to bleed for the first time, so that he could rape me. He thought that if he could do that, then I would remain his servant." She took a sip of the coffee and thought back.

"I was lonely. My father kept me away from others, but there was a servant boy who became my friend. He would creep to my chambers, and tell me of the world. We eventually found that he loved me, and I thought that I loved him, but I now know that I just felt loyalty for his friendship. He told me what men and women do for each other, and I wanted this for us. I wanted to be his wife, though he didn't know what I could do."

She sighed as her tears began. "It's been thousands of years, but I still remember him. He died because he loved me. My father caught us just as my friend had gotten inside me. I had been distracted because it hurt, and couldn't warn him that my father was coming. My father beat him and threw him across the chamber against the wall. His head was bleeding, and I knew that he was dying."

Alecto began to sob, and Tisiphone felt her own eyes well up. She had always been conscious of the feelings of others. That's why she was allergic to sad love stories, she'd always joked to himself. But now she was surprised that she could actually feel Alecto's pain, and it really hurt. "What happened?"

Alecto looked at her new lover. "Many things at once. I remembered some tablets that I had read, and I straddled my friend's chest. My father knew what I was going to do, and he watched with glee. He felt joyous that this had caused what he thought was my awakening. In truth, I was already awake, as he thought of it, I just hadn't gotten the chance to exercise it openly. I kissed the bloody head between my knees, and took my first soul. It was hard to reave from him, but I thought that if I could do this for the only friend I'd ever had, then it was better than just watching him die, since I couldn't save him.

When it was done, I stood in my bloody nakedness and faced my father. He ran for the door, but I hung him in the air, and sealed the door with my mind. I had always been neutral, empty of feeling, somehow. But I changed when my friend was beaten. The little demon daughter that he had wanted so badly came into her own that night, but not to serve him.

I had learned all of his magic, even what he could not understand. And I had learned much more from other demons, who had been watching over me. Some had attacked me, and I learned to protect myself. Some even taught me, because they told me that I would need to know. In the end, all of my father's worthless spell-casting just made me angrier as I countered every one that I could, and knocked the rest aside. Every one only brought more of my nature out. By the time that he'd given up, and begged me for his life in despair, my body looked as you now know it. He had nothing to do with it, and though he was desperate to save his own skin, he couldn't stop my change into what I really was all along."

She came back to herself, and looked at Tisiphone. "Since he'd been trying so hard to save his miserable hide, that was the first thing that I took from him. Let's just say that I slew him, and leave it at that. The whole building was for his uses, with paid servants scurrying to do his bidding. All of them had seen me, and knew what I had been made for. None had tried to help me, ever. I razed it to the ground, and left it burning. I slew every last one of his servants."

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Tisiphone looked across the table in Toby's kitchen, "I was happy and aroused and confused and afraid for us at the same time, "the demon explained to her sisters, "I didn't know what to do. I called to Mother, and she told me of what you did. We think that we'd like to join you, Tobias." She looked down, "I have never been bound," she said, "Is there pain?"