White Wedding: Part 1

    He was dreaming of the sea--soaring above it as he dove from the cliff toward the rippling clear blue that rose up to embrace him.  It had been awhile since he swam in the ocean.  How long had it been since he got away from the grime of the city and the toils of demon hunting? He never did come to the conclusion.  He was jarred awake by the unusual sensation of the night air blasting against him.

    Dante opened his eyes and stared down at the top of the city below him, rolling by steadily.  It took him a few more moments to realize he was being carried by a Blood Goat, with one of its strong arms looped around his waist.  Hazily, Dante thought it was amusing to find himself being carried like a rag doll by a demon in flight.  He didn't know if he still had his guns.  He knew he no longer had his sword.  Dante squirmed, testing how strongly he was being held.  The demon Goat looked at him and made a sound that might have been a laughter.  

    After he had exhausted what was left of his energy, Dante felt himself being lulled back to unconsciousness again.  The poison in his blood was being roused again by the cold.  Somehow, he didn't care.  Dante shut his eyes to the world.  He was too tired to care where he was being taken or if he would wake up again.

    A velvet-like warmth embraced him as a gentle voice spoke to him.  He couldn't decipher what was said but there was a distinct care in the voice that made him smile.  

    "Good boy -- " the throaty voice whispered.  His body felt weightless, as if it was floating in the warmth.  Dante mouthed "papa" silently.  A chuckle answered him as a gentle hand weaved into his hair and stroked the strands gathered in the fingers.

    "My beautiful bride..."

    Dante's eyes snapped open.  He found himself pushing Remus back away as he stood from the bath he had been immersed into even before he realized where he was.  He nearly lost his footing and crashed back into the tub.  He pressed his back against the wall, drawing in deep breaths to clear his mind that was slowly fogging up. 

    "Sit back down."

    Dante shook his head, trying to clear his vision that had begun to blur.  The only words he could form came out in low guttural growls.

    "Your physical exertion will only quicken the effects of the elixir.  I suggest you sit down before you fall down."

    Dante took a blind swing at Remus that barely met its mark.  Remus let Dante's fist swing past then let Dante pitch forward into his arms.

    "Still want to do things the hard way," Remus laughed, patting Dante's backside affectionately then scooping him up in his arms.

    "Don't...touch..."

    "Have you thought about me?" Remus said with a small smile as he sat Dante back down into the tub.  "It has been nearly five years."

    "Don't..."

    "I've thought about you quite a lot," Remus said as he poured milk-like soap from a silver flask into the bath.  "Not just about my failure...but, I suppose what that failure meant to me."

    Dante stared at the soap foam.  Vanilla and lilac scents wafted from the the waters -- its sweet smell made Dante a little ill but he couldn't even turn away from it.  He felt like a doll with broken limbs simmering in a sugar pot.

    "I'm dying," Remus said after a long silence.  Dante looked at him from the corner of his eyes.  He thought he saw the slightest  hint of regret from the goat-king.  Perhaps it wasn't.  A thing like Remus could not know what regret was.

    "Our last battle had shortened the remains of my lifeline.  And now, I am dying and without an heir."

    Dante made no attempt to speak as he digested the fragmented information.  His eyes looked fixedly at the pools of soap foams floating by.

    "I've given up what is left of me to do this.  I think you will understand why I did what I did, someday.  You understand me more than you will ever admit."

    "Ba...stard..."

    "Point made," Remus said and leaned over to kiss Dante on his forehead.  "I wouldn't have you any other way, darling."    

    He was seated in a scallop-shaped chair with a high back that supported his neck.  His head still lolled to the side like a broken doll but Remus kept it straight as he brushed Dante's hair in careful strokes with a silver brush.

    "Yes yes," Remus said.  Dante watched him nod in the mirror in front of him.  "I certainly do like your hair like this.  Is it longer? I think it suits you to have longer hair.  It made you look even more beautiful.  So beautiful..."

    Then Remus frowned.  He cupped Dante's chin and pulled it up until Dante was staring straight up into Remus' displeased face.

    "While I was gone...have you been with someone else?"

    Dante blinked, unable to find any words to reply to Remus' sudden accusation even if he could find his voice.

    "Is that why you changed your appearance? For someone else? Who was it? How long have you been whoring on me?"

    "...fucking...insane..." Dante said in dry rasps.  

    The grip on his jaw tightened painfully.  For a moment Dante thought Remus was about to shatter his jaw by the pressure he plied on it.  As sudden as the anger had come, it left.  Remus bent over and kissed the half-opened mouth and slipped his tongue inside for a few seconds.

    "You would never cheat on me, love.  I'm sorry that I would even think of such terrible thing."

    Remus released Dante's chin and gave his hair a few more strokes before he nodded to himself approvingly.

    "Now, I know you shouldn't  wear white," Remus said as he slipped the towel off Dante's body before he picked him up.  "But, I still think it suits you wonderfully."

    Remus laid Dante in midst of folds of translucent white silk that had been spread out on the bed.  The fabric was cool against his skin.

    "Ah yes," Remus said as he took a step back to admire Dante.  "Pure white.  Makes you look like an angel."

    "Why...are...you..."

    Remus went to the dresser in the corner of the room and rummage through the top drawer until he found two white bands made from the same silk fabric.

    "Why am I doing this?" Remus finished for him.  "A little bit of hate but mostly love."

    Remus sat down beside Dante and placed the items on the side table.  

    "You took my life," Remus said, his voice softened as he passed a hand over his scarred face.  "And now, I expect you to return it to me through yours."

    Dante frowned.  Remus picked up one of the white bands and clasped it around Dante's neck.

    "Okay, I suppose that way -- it would be a little bit of love but mostly hate, but you know what I mean."

    "I..don't..."

    Remus shrugged and picked up the second white band.  He lifted Dante's right leg, running his hand along the length of it first before he slipped the band from around the foot and pulled it up to mid-thigh.

    "I don't think you will right now," Remus said.  "It doesn't matter.  As long as the ceremony goes well, nothing will matter."

    Remus folded the white silk around Dante's body, covering half of his torso and his legs.

    "Cere...mony..."

    Remus gathered the silk and Dante into his arms, careful not to disturb his arrangement.

    "Get a little bit of sleep, darling.  The ceremony tends to be draining, especially for the humans."

    Remus cradled Dante in his arms, rocking him slightly.  Dante felt a slight prick at his neck and the tiny spot of burn there told him Remus had given him a needle full of drug.  He fought the sleep that came over him for as long as he could.  Dante fell asleep with Remus speaking in dark language.  He was only conscious long enough to surmise Remus spoke about a child.  

    Their child.        

   He came awake in gradual degrees, listening to an angry argument spoken in the dark language.  His comprehension of his father's tongue was minimal.  When he was a boy, he had refused to learn it, unlike his twin.  Merely listening to it grates at his ears.  From the little he could grace from what he did understand, the speakers were arguing about breaking protocol.  Someone didn't care and repeated how he didn't care each time he was told he was unbecoming.  

    The argument came to a halt when he rolled his head to the side and stared at them.  Remus waved off the two old men with strong goat features and came to him.  The hate in the two elders' eyes were obvious as they stared, taking in a few more seconds of hard look before they turned and left.  

    He was lying on a hard platform.  From the feel, he was lying on a stone table with the damn silk loosely wrapped around him.  The scent of incense burning in the iron braziers made him even weaker.  It took him a few more seconds before he identified the opiate that was masked in the musk of the sandlewood -- opium.  It had intoxicated his human blood -- and it if weren't for his demon blood, he might have gone insane from the heavy dosage that was drifting through the air in the small, windowless room.

    "Are you well?" Remus said and sat down, carefully sitting Dante up in his arms.  "I'm sorry about the opium.  It'll make you very ill later but it will numb some of your pains and prevent your human blood going into shock."  

    Dante was limp in his arms -- he couldn't feel his hands or his legs.

    "Poor little angel," Remus said and kissed him on his cheek. 

    Remus stroked Dante's hair slowly, combing through the pale strands with his fingers.

    "No one understand my need...but I think you do."

    Dante was laid back down on the hard surface.  He quivered from the cold as the folds of white silk were unfolded and leafed open.  

    "You will be just fine," Remus said to him.

    The comforting words only made Dante more anxious.  The only thing he could move were his eyes -- they darted from corner to corner of the room, taking in the odd writings and symbols chiseled into the gray stone wall.  He vaguely saw Remus remove his clothing slowly, letting them drop into a neat pile on the floor.

    "The platform's not very comfortable," Remus said as he walked to the end of the stone table.  "But it has to be done in here."

    Dante shuddered as Remus' hands ran along the flat of his belly toward his hips and down his thighs.

    "It's been such a long time since I touched a human..." Remus said absently, his fingers traced the hip bones, pausing to touch the white band before moving downwards toward the calves.  "It seemed like an eternity since I touched you. I really did miss you."

    Remus raised Dante's right leg and licked at the arch of Dante's foot, working his tongue up toward the calves.

    "I missed your scent...." Remus said, kissing and licking at Dante's thigh.  "I miss the way you taste...everything."

    "Shit..." Dante hissed, wanting to crawl backwards and away from Remus but his legs and arms wouldn't move when he willed them to.  Dante let out a cry, the sound of it restrained and barely heard, as he felt a tongue dip into the cleft of his ass -- writhing until it forced itself through his hole and sheathed itself inside.  

    Dante panted, his head spinning faster with the opium becoming heavier in the air.  Small sounds came from the bottom of his throat although he didn't know why he was making them.  As Remus tongue-fucked him, he was only able to make his fingers move as they crumpled the white silk in his fists.  He didn't even realize it when his knees were lowered and Remus was licking and kissing a trail up from his belly up toward his chest.  Fingers pinched at his nipples hard, twisting them until a cry was wrenched from his throat.

    "Remember to breathe," Remus said softly and kissed Dante's mouth.  "It's important that you keep conscious."

    "You...fuck..." Dante rasped.

    "My adorable little doll," Remus smiled and walked to a small table in the corner of the room.  Carefully, he unlatched the box and picked up a dagger from it.  Dante's eyes stared fixedly at the crooked blade that looked like two stacked and interlocked "s".

    Remus pressed the tip of the dagger against Dante's lower lip, hard enough to nick the flesh and made a single droplet of blood well up.

    "You will be in severe pain, my little angel, but you can endure it."

    Remus bent forward and licked the droplet of blood from Dante's lip.  Remus' tongue slipped into his mouth, licking against his tongue but Dante couldn't even make himself into biting down.  Vaguely, he felt his legs being spread open again as Remus moved to straddle him again.  Fingers spread open his opening for the thick head of the cock that pushed its way through with slow, measured strokes.  It hurt.  It hurt worse than the first time Remus shoved his way into him five years ago.  He screamed but most of the sound died in his throat, strangled by Remus tongue still lashing against his, in his mouth.

    Even through the incense and opiate, he smelled blood.  Remus raised his head and let out a moan as he pushed in the last inch inside Dante, and rested there to revel in the hot tightness.

    "I hope to be alive to the day when this child is born," Remus whispered, fucking Dante in a slow drawn out strokes.  "Wouldn't it be wonderful to have many more children after this one?"

    Dante bit back the screams, panting heavily to remain conscious.  He wished the opiate would be strong enough to mask the horrible pain.  It didn't.  It seemed to make the pain more obvious and pronounced as Remus pumped in and out of him at a quicker, deeper pace.  

    "Crazy....fuck..." Dante breathed out.  His fists clenched so hard that he could feel his own nails biting into the palms of his own hands.  

    "Horribly ironic, isn't it? My heir will come from a thing that I've hunted for all of my life..."

    "I...would...rather...die..."

    Remus raised the dagger and made a hairline cut down from Dante chest straight down to the belly.  Beads of blood sprang from the cut and Remus licked them up before they spilled to the side.

    "You might get your wish, dear Dante," Remus whispered.  "I am the first of our clan to replicate through a halfling.  Humans will certainly die.  Halflings...might die as well.  Although I think it might absorb some of your powers instead."

    Dante watched the knife slid down and pause an inch above his navel.  The soft human flesh dimpled inward as the knife pressed down until the sharp tip sank in.  Dark red blood pooled up and flowed to the sides as the blade sank in deeper, swallowing the first "s".  The pain came, overwhelming him to the point of incapacitating him.  His eyes stared up -- stunned.  The scream that wanted to come refused to come.  

    The knife moved downwards and to the side, cutting diagonally.  He finally screamed, when the knife was pulled out of him.

    "It's almost over, my little angel..." Remus said as the dagger dropped out of his hand, clattering noisily on the stone floor.  "You have to survive this.  None of this will have any meaning if you die now, understand?"

    Dante didn't understand and he didn't care.  He screamed until he had lost his voice.  The wound in his belly remained open, refusing to close as blood flowed out and to the side steadily.  He could hear the tapping as the blood dripped into pools beneath the stone table.  Remus' picked up his pace again, moving slowly at first to remind Dante of the thick cock that was still in him.

    "Just a little longer, my precious.  This is wonderful, isn't it? After this, I will wash the blood off and put you back in white silk.  You look especially nice in white, do you know? Red is nice but it's not...white.  Maybe...if you wish for it, we can have a real wedding.  A nice, beautiful white wedding."

    Remus pulled his cock out -- the suddenly empty sensation in the ruined rings of muscle came as a different kind of pain.  The ache was dull and quickly forgotten as the cock was shoved into the cut.  Dante's mouth half open, caught in midst of a soundless scream.  He felt Remus' cock convulse and an acid-like burn that followed, searing through his belly and his chest and making its way toward his head and limbs.  He was being burned alive from inside out and all he could do was lay there and let the fire eat away at him slowly.        

    "This is the first day of the rest of our lives," Remus said as he leaned in and kissed at Dante's opened mouth.

    Dante's eyes flutter closed.  In midst of the pains that continued to fan out through his body, a  soft vision of the sea came again.  This time, Dante saw himself wrapped in a translucent sheet that rippled in the wind.  He cast the sheet aside and he watched the breeze carry it away until he could no longer see it.  He looked down at the calm water below, spellbound by the cerulean hue he had never seen before.  He spread his arms open and let himself fall into the sea.  He would embrace it, as it embraces him.  Like two lost lovers.