It rained at a nice steady pace on the streets of Chicago, just hard enough to wash away the sins of the world, if need be. Thunder boomed and lightning crashed off in the distance as a thick and heavy fog settled over the grassy areas of the hillside off the side of the road.

Two men were walking towards the front of the truck they had ridden in with bats in their hands sporting matching limps. One had sustained a minor injury in a bar as his stool fell away from beneath him and the other had received his limp from an unexplainable run in with a stranger on the street. He had tried to grope a woman after he climbed out of the truck with his friends and she fought back before being pulled into a dimly lit alleyway by one of the three men from the truck. There had been three at the beginning of the night and now there were two, presumably pissed off and distraught over the loss of their cohort.

They'd gone down the alleyway toward the dumpster their friend pulled the woman behind after hearing a blood curdling scream in a male voice. What they found was the black woman they had pestered on the street naked and writhing on her back in a pool of dark liquid, covered in blood with a look of sheer ecstasy on her face. They saw no sign of their friend and began searching for him. Moments later...while they called out to him, the woman was up and fully clothed with not an ounce of blood on her body and none left to step in on the ground. The wind kicked up high between the buildings and the woman took a step backwards into the shadows. She left that place with a gust so strong that one of the men was blown back into a few stacked wooden crates. The man left standing in the center of the alley shook with fear as he watched the black tails of Rhayna's coat fly by in a blur overhead on the wind.

There had been three and now there were two walking towards them tapping bats in the palms of their hands on wet skin. Rhayna walked slowly while hunched over to the back of the car as each rain drop soaked her through. Russ leapt from the driver's side and ran around to meet her. He brushed her hair back out of her eyes to see the swirling pools of brown sitting in a pale soft glowing green where the whites should have been. The sight caught his breath in his chest. The two men stopped at the front of the truck with scowls that were meant to hide the fear underneath. She could smell their fear emanating off of their bodies like ripe Georgia peaches on a hot wind. It was intoxicating and pushed her hunger to its limit. She hadn't eaten enough in the alley earlier. She'd been too preoccupied with meeting Russ at the bar so she settled for one and was content with the thought of coming back to hunt for the other two later. But it seemed to her that these men had thought her to be the prey. This thought brought a grim smile to her almost hollow face. She lifted her head to sniff the air then peered at them through low eyes before collapsing to her knees.

"Rhayna, come on sweetheart. These assholes aren't worth the time, trust me. Let's get out of here and get you to a doctor. Now!" Russ said as he lifted Rhayna to her feet. He listened as she said it once more for his understanding in that otherworldly voice of hers.

"I don't need a hospital old man...and neither will they."

Rhayna set her gaze on the two men. They had heard her. They heard her in their sober minds as they stood frozen with fear. She began walking slowly toward them. Russ grabbed her arm to stop her. She turned toward him pleading with her eyes for him to let her go and he did. He let go of her with a sudden realization that she needed this, them- she needed them.

Russ stepped back and watched as she walked with her head cocked to one side towards the thinner of the two men. The bigger one screamed at her, telling her how she would pay for hurting their friend and demanded to know where he was. The other backed himself against the grill of the truck with Rhayna standing at a paper's space in front of him. He dropped his bat to the ground while hyperventilating; breathing so heavy that it blew raindrops and the wind from his lungs into her parched and opened mouth. She closed her eyes for a moment taking in the slightest taste of him then startled at the sound of the big one banging on the hood of his truck with a bat from the driver's side door yelling for her to tell him where his friend Fuller was. Rhayna snapped her head toward him a bit too quickly for the big one's mind to process then clasped one of her corpselike hands around the thin one, Ricky's throat.

She spoke in a ragged echo, "You'll see him shortly." The bigger man of the group, Austin, with more fear than anger lifted the bat and ran towards her. Russ saw this and sprang forward in the rain towards the armed man with something a bit stronger than a football tackle sending him to the wet pavement and ripping the bat from his hands. He began to punch the man repeatedly in the face until he stopped moving. When he was still, Russ stood over him with the bat raised and looked over at Rhayna. She was shaking her head no. Russ hesitated and thought to bash in the man's skull anyway when he saw her eyes sparkle in those swirling pools of brown. He lowered the bat. He understood – somewhere in the back of his mind that she needed fresh meat, fresh man...not dead. He took a step back and was about to turn and walk back to the car when he felt a hand grab his ankle. He looked down to see Austin holding on to his leg and pulling a knife from his boot. Russ kicked his hand away but before he could bend down to punch the man one more time, the knife cut into his thigh, ripping his jeans and flesh open to the rain. Russ yelled out in agony then fell backwards gripping the inside of his thigh.

Austin rolled himself over on to this stomach, pushed himself up on his hands and knees then took a lunge at Russ. Russ quickly rolled out of the way and into the street, causing the man with the knife to stumble and slice into the air. He got to his feet and steadied himself as best as he could, looked over at Rhayna who still had her hand wrapped around Ricky's neck then beyond her; in the darkness and rainfall something moved. He couldn't be sure what or who it was -he had a more pressing issue to deal with. His thigh was cut and here was a man wielding a knife ready to slash at him again. The knife's blade shone in the flashes of lightning as it came towards him in a swiping motion causing three lines of crimson to blossom to the surface of his skin on his shoulder and pour down his arm. Russ screamed out in pain and with his good leg kicked Austin away from him. The man steadied himself and came back at Russ again taking fast and wide swipes towards his midsection. Russ's arm blocked his attack as the blade came in close to his body and with his other hand caught Austin's wrist then bent it backwards causing him to drop the knife. Russ threw a punch that landed just below his right eye causing the man's neck to snap back abruptly sending him heavily to the ground. Russ crawled over to check to see if he were still alive. He wasn't. He'd broken his neck and shot a remorseful and pained look in Rhayna's direction.

Rhayna turned her head slowly back toward her prey and with a quick swipe of her long and sharp fingernails, opened up Ricky's neck sending blood pouring out over his collar bone. He dropped to the pavement, flailing and grasping at his neck. She sat on his waist to pin him down then placed both hands in his blood and began to massage it into her face. She ran her tongue over and through her fingers – tasting him, enjoying him and nourishing her frail body. Her skin reacted to this; it had grown translucent and papery thin on her frame from hunger but now her skin was emitting a soft dull glow of green just as the white of her eyes were doing. She leaned down and ran her tongue over his face then began to lap at that gash in his throat. She drank until she could drink no more, being careful to keep her mouth over the wound so the rain wouldn't wash all of his blood away.

She had had her fill of blood and her skin was already beginning to return to the natural soft and supple appearance it had before. She needed to leave some life in his body for the last part of the feeding to feast upon his flesh. He was weak and paralyzed with fear. He watched as she lay him down flat on the pavement and proceeded to open up that part of her that consumed men. A hot white light began to glow weakly at first from her body's center. She removed her clothing and let the cold rain wash over her bare skin.

The man's eyes focused on how the water ran over her skin causing it to shine and glisten in the strikes of lightning. He watched as she turned her face up toward the sky and stretched her body upward then how that glow just above her pelvis beneath her skin began to grow stronger. His eyes followed the streams of water as they snaked down her body from the top of her head, over her face, down the side of her neck and over the large soft mounds of her breast and the rigid tips of her nipples. He felt a heat well up inside of him and all the pain bleed away as he watched the stream of water flow down her toned stomach and merge in a small waterfall in the well manicured bush of her vagina. Her naked body arched as she straddled the thin man's waist then slowly, that light that shone through the center of her body began to seep out from between her legs and cover him. Spreading over him in all directions like a luminescent oil engulfing his body. An unusual warmth emitted from this light and onto his skin. He wanted the warmth, the parts of his body that had not been covered seemed to be freezing and he wanted that warmth all over. He was done fighting, he was done being angry and hateful. Right now he just wanted to be Rhayna's dinner because he knew that's what was going to happen to him. He knew he'd be eaten and it didn't bother him. She was warm and beautiful and she would love every ounce of him. He would feed her and make her well again, she needed him, his blood, his flesh...his life and he was all too happy to give it.

Ricky fought to stay conscious; he wanted to see what was there inside the light. A smile crept over his lips as the spreading glow finally made its way toward his face. It crept up his neck then spilled slowly over his lips and nose. He blinked and in that half a second he found himself outside of his body, walking in a strange and beautiful place. Leaves crunched under his feet as he headed towards a great tree. His hands reached out towards it and as he did so, he could feel a pulling sensation on his spiritual body. A small orb of light left the center of his ethereal form and bonded with the tree at one of its long limbs near the ground. It was there that a golden piece of fruit began to grow. It was then that he'd begun to feel as if he were a part of the great garden, a part of the great tree and a greater purpose altogether. He could feel the life of the tree surging through his being and the warmth that overtook him, he wanted to stay, he mistook this beautiful place as Heaven though it was not. As he neared closer to the tree, he could feel a pressure at his back pulling him away, away and out of the garden. In a brief swirl of light and color he found himself looking down onto Rhayna's face and standing next to a tall dark haired winged man with glinting eyes and a disgusted look on his face. A silent gasp left his lips as the last bit of his head was consumed by the light. Rhayna stretched her body once more and Ricky's body began to shudder and writhe beneath her. The teeth within Rhayna's vagina bit into his body, chewing and gnashing – chomping and tearing away at his flesh as his body was pulled deep within the depths of her.

The winged man gave a visible shake of his body as if overcome with cold chills then looked into the eyes of the soul floating near him. "Go now departed one...there is nothing more for you here." Samael spoke with a sadness the man did not understand. The spirit of the Ricky began to float himself down towards Rhay. He reached out towards her, pleading with her to take him again. He didn't want to leave her – he wanted to stay and remain with her. Samael didn't understand. He'd just been devoured by the creature and he still wanted her. Samael thought he'd seen horrific things within her just as he had with Lilith and still wanted to stay with her. A feeling of pity overcame the Angel of Death. He lifted the spirit to his eyes then blew a small wind into its face and the newly departed was sent to meet the Creator. Any man devoured by one of Lilith's kind must be sent directly to the Creator and placed in His care for these souls will likely know torment in the hereafter having been through such an ordeal. After he had sent the spirit on, Samael's gaze fell back upon Rhayna who was now glaring with dark eyes up at him. He set his feet on the ground next to the corpse of Austin. He looked down at him then over at Russ, regarding him with a strange interest. Samael ushered Austin's spirit into the darkness of the inside of his overcoat. His overcoat had carried many souls since his appointment as The Angel of Death into the afterlife; as it is the vessel used to collect the souls of the departed.

Rhayna rose up and stretched her body with her back to Samael and Russ. Her body held that soft green glow beneath her caramel skin while the tendrils of white light retracted slowly like submersed ghostly ribbons into the depths of her body. Samael mentally noted the differences between that of Inanna and her mother. He'd noticed it before some years back when he had decided to be present at what he wanted to be her death. The thing that devours Lilith's victims is dark in spirit, malicious in nature and devoid of any semblance of color. It looks like glossy black tentacles adorned with spikes and miniature suckers and it is always hungry. The teeth always need to feed. It was the single most hellishly monstrous thing that Samael could think of and give to her. He praised himself on its creation and cursed himself later for having been its first meal.

Though looking at Inanna's strange inner being seemed to unsettle him; not just because of his former trauma but because it seemed to be just as beautiful and as much a part of her as was her own hair. She was born with this thing and it was his fault, something he both loathed and suffered over. His feelings about it sickened him. Looking at her and knowing what she was, who her mother was, what she was capable of and what lay inside of her as it did her mother, sparked a rage and anger in his heart. Whether it hurt Lilith or not, Samael decided that Inanna's life was to be over and that he could no longer allow the abomination that she was to roam free on earth. But...the Creator had given him rules. Only if it is their time to depart the earth, shall you collect them. These words rang in his mind as the desire to kill her came over him.

Rhayna turned around showing her full naked body to Samael and Russ, unashamed and without inhibition. The pools of her brown eyes swirled in their sockets as she set her gaze upon Samael. She read malice on his face and sensed his fury radiating off his body. The white light that pulsed at her center reacted to his anger and hate by pulsing brighter with the thrum of her heart. Samael could not kill her unless he was given cause to. It was then that he looked down on the man that was healing quite quickly from his wounds. The cuts on his arm had already disappeared, however, due to the depth of the cut on his thigh, it was taking longer to heal and he had already lost a significant amount of blood. Samael cocked his head to one side as he looked down at the rain soaked and bloodied human then turned to lock eyes with Inanna. He lifted his foot and brought if down heavily on the knife wound on Russ' thigh. Bones cracked and his inner thigh muscles and femoral artery squished under his weight.

Russ screamed out in agony, "You son of a bitch!" He attempted to squirm from beneath his boot but to Russ it felt as if 4 cinder blocks had been dropped on his leg. No amount of wriggling, pushing or punching would move Samael. In fact, he did not move until he saw Inanna take a step closer. He marked her sympathy for the pathetic human of his bloodline then lifted his foot and set it on the pavement. He addressed Russ while he laid panting and screaming his pain into the torrents of rain.

"Quick healing is a magical thing, human. Let's see you heal from this."

Inanna stood still, she watched Samael with great concentration – her eyes did not part with his. Samael bent down with his eyes still locked on her and lifted Russ up by the neck then tossed him onto the hood of the truck with so much force that his back shattered the windshield and his body dented the hood. Russ looked over at Inanna through the rain and saw her staring back at him. He heard her voice in its double echo in his mind, "Heal. Heal yourself and run!" Russ looked at the Angel of Death as he strode toward him, reaching out to grab him.

. He felt around for a sharp piece of glass and held it his hand. The world seemed to move in slow motion as Samael came toward him. Russ gripped the glass tightly in his hand causing it to cut into his palm, then just as Samael grabbed his leg; he drove the dagger shaped piece of glass deep into his arm. Samael yanked his arm back and away from Russ, letting loose a scream of the highest decibel detectable by human ears and a sound that could only be described as light shattering with columns of steel being torn in two. He pulled the glass from his arm then rushed towards Russ and before he could see Samael reach him, the world fell away to darkness behind his eyelids. Inanna lifted her hand away from Russ' head and gave her full attention to Samael.

Samael grabbed Russ' ankle. While his hand was wrapped around his pant leg, a silvery and black mixture of Samael's blood poured from the wound in his arm. Several droplets of his blood trickled into Russ' open wound bringing him back to consciousness with a fire coursing through his veins. Samael lifted Russ by the leg and flung him into the ditch at the side of the road as if he were nothing more than a mere rag doll.

The storm raged ferociously all around them. Lightning struck taking out the power all around the city except for the small drag of street near the bar where its patrons were none the wiser as to what was going on outside its door.

Russell Poole had known the effects of drugs coursing through his body. The 60's were filled with bad choices and experimentation. Russ' bad experiment of choice had been that of heroin. It was the popular drug then and it seemed to be the musician's answer to writer's block, the stresses and woes of life, bad runs at the track and cheating wives. He knew what the addiction was like and what getting clean entailed but what was happening to him in the ditch was like no pain he had ever experienced from any "cold turkey' cure he had ever felt.

Russ writhed in pain as the Angel of Death's blood rushed through his body like a tidal wave of fire. Every crushed bone in his thigh mended with painful accuracy. The injuries he sustained from being tossed aside like a human bag of rubbish, no doubt Samael thought him as much, left his body torn and broken inside and out. His displaced collar bone shifted beneath his skin back into place and the ribs jutting out through his side slid back in and replaced them-selves within the ribcage, while fibers of muscle and tissue moved within his body like tiny fleshy threads resealing their broken ends. Every fracture and crushed bone, all of his cuts, scratches, scrapes and bruises in and on his body healed. A strange set of markings, sleeves of ancient text and symbols appeared with a fiery glow on his arms and a wheel of hieroglyphics of the arcane on his back. He could feel his skin searing with each new marking as they were branded onto his body. Russ could feel a change happening within the inner landscape of his body as well. He heard and felt a series of snaps and crunches around his rib cage and back. He felt the bones of his back protrude and bulge beneath his skin before settling again. His body twisted in agony. He screamed and gnashed his teeth together as he lay in what seemed to be an everlasting pain.

Images flooded his mind. Nothing he could have possibly seen as they weren't from anything that he had ever experienced in his life. They were of Samael. His eyes rolled back into his head as scene after scene imprinted on his brain. The acres of Heaven as they stretched on for an eternity in the vast sea of divine sky, the armies of angels in perfect form as they stood aligned to guard the throne and the countless souls performing the duties assigned them by the Creator. The next scene, a huge tree that sparkled with golden fruit, a tree in the most beautiful and lush garden ever known to man, earth's first garden as it was presided over by earth's first man and woman standing at the back of the great tree naked and arguing. Then two women were talking closely near the tree – one whispered into the other's ear. The scene flashed again, this time Russ found himself staring right into the face of the one called Lilith and he is telling her that he will care for her. The scene moved like a blur from Lilith's smiling face to Lilith's terrified and crying face as he has the woman pinned to the ground kicking and screaming then suddenly gripped with an inconsolable pain in lower regions.

A bright burst of light filled his eyes as he moved to the next vision, no longer by the sea near the Garden of Eden but dropped into the dry and burned out lands of what looks like the desert of the Apocalypse. Madness swirled around him, black shapes slid across the landscape and a million voices spoke at once, moaning and wailing for mercy, for forgiveness and for salvation. Bodies littered the earth and the blood of the fallen stained crumbled brick as fire sailed through the sky and struck homes, businesses and places of worship. A broken mass of the city's tallest structure smoldered as the east wing was engulfed in flames and began to topple over. The Tower of Babylon was no more. Russ felt his feet walk across the damned landscape and he saw his hand reach out to those that beckoned him to come but he would not, for this was the Creator's judgment.

Russ left that scene with his hands covering his face, tears in his eyes and fear in his heart. He found himself in a place of pure light and silence. All was bright and calming to his senses. A disembodied voice asked as it vibrated through this place of no walls, "What did you see Samael?" A voice unlike any he had ever heard before; strong, demanding yet soothing and serene all at once. Powerful and compelling, Russ found his lips mouthing Samael's words, "The gates of Babylon lie between her legs." He took his hands away from his face and looked in the direction of the Father.

Russ lay in the ditch and lifted his hands to his eyes. They burned. They burned as if acid had been poured right over his pupils and the words of the Creator echoed loudly through his head, "What did you see?" He screamed out and rolled over onto his stomach and scooped rain water that had collected in the ditch into the palm of his hands. His ear drums pulsed against his brain as he tossed the water into his eyes. Image after image continued in a steady barrage against his mind and his senses until he was once again in the Garden standing before the Tree with his arms open wide and wings outstretched. The tree glowing with its golden fruit sparkling amongst the warm leaves of autumn within the Garden of eternal fall.

And it was the image of the Tree of Knowledge in its state of perpetual autumn that was branded onto the surface of Russ' eyes where the blue of his irises and the black circle of pupils should have been. Russ fell still and silent. Out of breath and so much more knowledgeable than he had been in all of his 52 years of life, he cried. He cried softly in the harsh cold blanketing rain. He prayed silently to God for the forgiveness of seeing and knowing things that he knew he should not have. He prayed and the Creator heard every word.

Samael grinned at Rhayna and laughed heartily at her sentiment over the human he had just thrown away.

"Tears...really Inanna? I thought you would have made him your dinner by now. Your weakness for these puppets astounds me."

Inanna narrowed her eyes and parted her lips to show the sharp and pointy tips of her teeth in her anger. Her voice echoed through the air as she spoke, "Why did you not kill him?" Samael laughed again and began to pace the street back and forth.

"What makes you think he is still alive?"

"You've not collected him. You wouldn't let his spirit wander here freely, that is not the job you were given."

"Oh? He means nothing to me and don't presume to know the details of my function child." Samael said to Inanna with poison dripping on the very tip of his words.

She saddened at the thought of her friend laying dead in the ditch behind her deprived of paradise. Her heart felt heavy in her chest and the rain, which it had not until that moment, felt cold on her skin. A thought passed over her face, one that Samael was able to read loud and clear.

"Come now Inanna – let us drop these falsehoods and become our true selves!" Samael yelled to her. "You are Inanna child of Heaven and Earth. Eater of men, the Demon Spawn of Lucifer himself and I...."

Samael removed his coat, pulled his long brilliant sword adorned with markings of the Divine on the blade from the inside of it and tossed the vessel into the street then set his massive dark wings to stretch out behind him.

"I. AM. YOUR. DEATH!" Samael stood with legs apart and arms out at his sides, sword in hand ready for her attack.

"So be it." Inanna's body rose into the air. The bright white glow pulsating at the center of her body flashed outward and engulfed her entire frame. Her body lost its caramel complexion and became translucent. Her eyes shined a bright green and the brown swirling pools of her irises became amber in tone. She was illuminated. Her hair swung around her head in the wind and rain of the storm, the sharp points of her teeth glinted in the flashes of lightning and a rippling effect of small iridescent scales raced across her body. Light continued to pulsate from her body as flares and shafts of it shone behind her like a pair of ethereal wings. Samael subconsciously took a step back from where he stood as he regarded the creature Inanna in her true form and froze.

"God in Heaven! What have you become Inanna? What in the abyssal regions of Hell are you?" Samael spoke half intrigued and half frightened. Inanna came back to earth with the long talons of her toes clicking on the wet pavement. Behind her in the darkness of the ditch a figure began to shuffle forward slowly. Inanna turned her head slightly towards the sound, perking up her pointy ears. If ever a monster could look beautiful – Inanna did, almost angelic. She sniffed the air and ran her tongue across her lips before turning back to Samael and parting them in a smile of satisfaction.

"What are you smiling at beast?" Samael said with every note of malcontent he could muster. Inanna leapt into the air and hovered so that Samael could see what lurked in the dark. She watched as his facial expression twisted in absolute horror as Russ walked into view, his hands gripping his arms with the dark wet curtain of his hair that shielded his face, body still experiencing the soreness of mutation and transformation. He stopped just short of the road's embankment beneath a street lamp. The light shone on his pale and chest bare muscle toned body now covered in the brandings of the divine. He tilted his head toward the black of the night sky, allowing the rain to fall its steady stream into his face as blood trickled from his nose, eyes and ears. In a hoarse and ragged voice Russ whispered the word stop and the storm ceased to be over the Midwest; as if it had been turned off by flipping a switch.

Some strange and ancient power breathed through the night and knocked The Angel of Death off his feet, sword from his hand and the wind from his lungs. The same energy sent Inanna tumbling and sailing through the air, smacking her body into the side of a vacant building. Russ fell to his knees screaming and gripping the sides of his head as the air whistled with a million voices all around him. Strong winds kicked up through the city; an unnatural wind with the scent of everything dead and decaying on its tails. The ground shook beneath Inanna, Russ and Samael. The nearby bar shook on its foundation as the patrons inside mistook the wind and shaking as a tornado touching down in the area. Inanna was the first to her feet and aware of the new presence in the dark. She knew this presence as sure as she knew her own heart beat.

The shadow of a curvy silhouette with red glowing slits for eyes appeared standing over Samael.

"Hello lover." Lilith giggled.