The Modern Prometheus

This is my entry for the Literotica Halloween contest, my first contest entry ever! I really wrote the story more for me than the contest, but I think everyone will enjoy it just the same. Votes and comments appreciated, and as always, this is a copyrighted work. Happy Halloween, everyone!

"I'd never given much thought to how I would die. But dying in the place of someone I love seems like a good way to go. I can't bring myself to regret the decisions that brought me to face to face with death. They also brought me to Edward."

"Oh. My. Fucking. God. Why is that Twilight shit playing on my television?!"

Brie Ashlocke squealed in surprise, upsetting her entire bowl of caramel popcorn onto the living room floor -- and her Hello Kitty pajama-ed lap. Whirling around to face the unexpected intruder, she felt the color drain from her face as Des, her gay Welsh housemate, ambled into the room decked out in complete Jeffree Star get-up, his glittery platforms clunking on the floor with each step. Behind him was Christopher Reeve reincarnate, though not as tall or as successful, as a complete antithesis. Dressed entirely in black and his garnet eyes lined by kohl, Eli looked practically demonic.

Des took control of the situation by pressing pause on the vampire movie and staring down at Brie with an expectant look in his wide green eyes. His purposefully dyed pink hair tied to the side bobbed in unison with his sashayed hip as he struck a pose worthy of being on the catwalk.

"Meow, princess," Brie told him as she dusted off a kernel and popped one into her mouth. Des eyed her in disgust but she just shrugged. "Too good to waste," she explained. "And you're home from the costume party early." She looked over at Eli briefly before turning back to her best friend. "Did he turn you down?"

Des gave her a flat look but Eli chuckled.

"Despite appearances, Brie, I'm a top," Des said matter-of-factly, giving her the "oh-no-you-didn't" finger wave, head bob included. Des pouted his full pink glossy lips over at Eli. "And so is he," he muttered regretfully.

"The party was a bust," Eli explained, his Deep South drawl making Brie shiver a little. Des cocked an eyebrow in response before lowering himself down onto the sofa, his bony knees purposefully knocking into her back.

"I'm sorry to hear that," Brie replied, shooting Des a warning look of "BEHAVE" when Eli wasn't looking. "Well, all I'm doing is watching bad monster movies and having my own Halloween pity party. You're welcome to join me."

"Yay, just like high school," Des said with a snort, the crude noise at odds with his pink and glitzy finery. He played with the flaxen pink strands of his hair and tilted his head at the frozen image on the television screen of a well-dressed back attacking a deer. "This can't be any worse than when you forcibly made me watch an Underworld marathon."

Brie didn't let her eyes wander over to the stack of movies by the 54" flat screen, but Eli's did. He cracked up laughing and snatched up the stack, waving them as evidence at Des. Des gasped in horror and tugged on Brie's electric blue hair in retribution.

"Haven't I taught you anything?!" Des practically screamed.

"I think you've insulted the horror show queen," Eli chuckled as he plopped down onto the sofa beside Eli, earning a smack on his broad chest from Des and a swipe on the shin from Brie.

"Only I can insult Brie," Des told him, flipping his hair over a creamy white shoulder adorned with fake tattoos that Brie had helped spend hours applying for him. "Obviously," he directed this at Brie, "you're in need of a re-education, so I'm going to give it to you." He sat up and straightened his glittery silver mini-dress, swearing as he teetered too far forward for a second on his platforms.

"God I fucking hate these things," he growled, sounding like his usual grumpy self. Brie and Eli watched him stalk out of the living room and clomp up the stairs, still swearing under his breath as he went.

"His date didn't show, did he?" Brie asked quietly, eying the kernels on the floor in mourning.

"He showed," Eli replied huskily. "He just...brought another date with him."

Brie dropped her forehead onto her palm and let out a soft curse. Eli chuckled again. "If he doesn't get laid," Eli drawled softly, "living with him is going to become a nightmare."

Brie ran her hands through her hair, blowing at a strand that got into her eyes. "Yea, well, the last time I tried to help Des out, I summoned an incubus and Des thought he was in love! It took three weeks of sleeping drought to make him forget that fuzzy freak ever showed up!"

"I thought he never forgot," he reminded her. Brie shot him a dirty glare and fingered her fading hair to distract herself from the memory. Within seconds the powdery blue color was as vibrant and electric as the day she had first cast the spell.

Eli smirked at the display and pulled out a pack of cigs, showing them to her. Brie made a face and shook her head before sitting up to begin cleaning the mess she had made. "You may not want to do that in the house though," Brie stated absently. "In Des' state, he may gut you with the heel of one of his Jimmy Choo's."

Eli blew a thin stream of flame over the tip of his cigarette, the fire reflecting in his eyes. "Thankfully I have a little white witch to heal me, don't I?" he teased, the garnet red in his irises practically smoldering when their eyes connected.

Brie flushed, cursing her pale, freckled skin and its transparency of her emotions. When the taste of cinnamon and spice ran over her tongue, Brie fought to control the passions it arose within her.

"You still haven't told him, have you?" Eli asked quietly, the humor gone from his voice.

Brie pulled away from his reach and heard the audible hiss of his anger as she scurried into the safety of her kitchen, hiding behind plants of dubious origin and her antique cookware.

When her sensitive oleanders began to whither, Brie knew that Eli was in the room. Soon her entire herb and flower collection withered into ash in their pots, exposing Brie at the tiny kitchen sink. Warm hands, roughened by a century of work, trailed down her trembling twiggy arms before trapping her wrists to the counter tile. The window by the sink began to fog and sweat with Eli's heat, his rage tampered only by the fact that if he lost control, Brie's sensitive human skin would burn.

But there had been a time when he had lost control of his fire and heat -- and instead of burning up in the inferno, Brie had drawn it into herself, down into her very womb and soul. Those flames became a part of her then, connecting her to Elijah in ways no mortal or immortal had ever before.

And he had been chasing after her ever since.

"Brie," he grumbled, "have you told him?"

Brie shook her head and the pale blue tresses of her hair fell into her face. A hand lifted from her wrist and examined the strands. A second later a huff of irritation left Eli's nose.

"You dyed your hair to spite me, didn't you Brie?" Eli growled. "Because I told you that we matched, blood for blood."

Brie shook her head again, trembling harder now. The heat from Eli's stolen flames were fanning her insides, leaving her will crumbling in its wake. She was lying, they both knew that, and he was right -- but she couldn't cop up.

Blood for blood.

Her garnet strands, a gift of her human mother, were the same exact shade as the pair of eyes Brie could feel boring into the back of her head.

After that night, that one night, when she had escaped her pain in the comfort of Eli's arms, he had said those exact same words. Blood for blood. But then, he hadn't been talking about aesthetics. He had been talking about souls -- about the match of their blood.

Of mates.

"You sacrificed your gift for me, Brie," Eli whispered against the curve of her neck, his warm breath filling her mouth with cinnamon and desires of the night in their past.

"I still have my gift," she shuddered out, gripping the tiles beneath her palms with serious force.

"But you were willing to give it up, for me," he countered, reminding her of how far she had fallen. "For us to be together," Eli murmured against her ear, his lips playing over the flesh.

"Eli, stop," Brie whispered hoarsely, tears of anger, want, and irritation seeping past the corners of her eyes. The sound of the glass warping beneath the combined pressure of Eli's heat and Brie's spell to contain the inferno within was nothing of the shock compared to the tell-tale bitchy chuckle that came from the kitchen doorway.

Brie's eyes shot open in horror and caught the glowing red ones that peered back at her in the glass. A flash of pink over Eli's shoulder confirmed her worst fear.

Busted.

"So...since my date left me high and dry, are you two putting on a free show to make me feel better?"

Brie growled in irritation and wriggled free of Eli's grip, twirling away from him and grabbing another bag of Cracker Jack from the pile of treats that had been haphazardly thrown onto the counter. "Don't be such a cad!" she shot at Des as she passed, her face hot with mortification and Eli's heat.

"Uh, don't be such a prude," Des shot back, his arm coming around to catch her, though she nimbly darted out of reach. He sighed dramatically and put his hands on his narrow hips. "Are we still having this movie marathon thing or are you flaking out on me because you're embarrassed I caught you?"

"We weren't doing anything!" Brie snapped. Instantly, white sparks shot from her fingers and caught the settee on fire. At the same time, the kernels in her bag overheated and exploded into her face, filling the air with the smell of burnt popcorn and leather.

Swearing, she threw out a spell to calm the flames, only to have another spell -- a more controlled one -- block hers and take the energy of the fire. Brie studied in awe as the golden flames turned garnet red before retreating back into a new entity -- Eli's.

Brie swallowed hard as the flames she had stolen from Eli swirled inside her, responding to the magic that the fire demon had summoned. Eli met her gaze, his eyes darkening with promise. She had stolen his flames last Halloween -- now it was his time to return the favor.

"Holy shit you two!" Des moaned in irritation, fanning his flushed skin with his hands. "Any hotter and I'm going to burn okay? I have a photo shoot tomorrow, so for the sake of my fair beauty can you two tone it down a notch -- or ten?!"

Brie and Eli dropped gazes and after a few long seconds, the room became cool and crisp, ventilated by the autumn night's chill.

Des let out a frustrated huff, pushing back his pink hair off his forehead. "Look, I love the both of you, but this entire bloody charade has to stop!" Des turned to Brie and raised his back-to-normal dark eyebrows up at her. "You need to forget that arsehat warlock, babe. Henry is probably wading in some hot spring surrounded by nymphs, charming them with his knock-knock jokes."

Brie glared at him, but he was already turning towards Eli to vent and didn't see it.

"And you had the bloody nerve to shag my best friend and lie to me about it?!" Des demanded, getting in Eli's face. "I cannot believe the disrespect I'm getting right now!"

Eli exhaled and crossed his arms, the sleeves of his black leather aviator jacket tightening around the muscles there. He shifted his weight, drawing Brie's attention to his narrowed waist and the black jeans that did nothing to hide his toned thighs -- or the sizeable bulge that hung in between.

"Des," Eli said quietly in a tone that meant business, "this is between Brie and me. I need you to respect that."

Des stamped his foot. "Dammit, I told you not to go near her!"

Brie flinched at the sound of Eli's threatening growl as it rumbled like a rolling bass cadent throughout the old house. Des scoffed and crossed his thin arms, clearly not amused. Brie swallowed hard and found the courage to say the words Des needed to know.

"It wasn't his fault, Des," Brie whispered.

Des turned his eyes on her, the anger in them almost frightening. "It wasn't?" he asked thinly, the vein in his temple throbbing. Brie shook her head slowly and watched his face and bitchy stance crumble. "Brie...Brie what are you saying?"

Brie caught Eli's eyes and watched as he masked the hope in them instantly.

And here goes the peace and normalcy I had been hoping for...she thought bitterly.

Brie let out a shaky sigh and began to explain. "Eli came by the house looking for you, but you were off Halloween shopping for the party that night. Henry had just dumped me and I unloaded everything on him," she began, gesturing towards Eli. Brie swallowed at the disgruntled look on Des' face at the mention of Henry but continued, her voice trembling a little. "He...he was just trying to be helpful until you showed up and saved him, I think. But...but I pushed things and we...we...well." Brie pushed her hair back nervously. "I startled Eli and you know how he gets -- he burns things. So...so...at the end, he..."

"Oh my God, out with it already!" Des griped.

"When I came, I nearly burnt her alive -- nearly, because she took my flames inside herself," Eli finished, his voice absent of the stuttering embarrassment that had plagued Brie's. "She's my mate, Des. The moment she kissed me, we knew."

Des put his hands over his lips, the pink fingernails flashing in the light of the plastic Halloween jack o' lanterns that were strung up throughout the living room. His eyes went back and forth between the two of them and for long seconds only the dim click of the grandfather clock down the hall was to be heard

.

"And you've been running from him for a year," Des pieced together, his voice slow and methodical. "So that explains the heat wave of sexual tension inside our house?" he asked Brie in confirmation. She nodded and watched as he threw back his head and laughed -- hard.

Brie threw her burnt popcorn at him, but Des was too busy cackling his head off to notice, his tall, lithe body falling back against the wall as he stumbled for support. Clutching his ribs tightly, he gasped for air around his guffaws until finally he began to wind down.

"I don't see what's so funny," Brie stated flatly, crossing her arms with a glare.

Des wiped at his eyes, sniffling a little. "Babe, the irony that the two people I thought would hate each other most would end up shagging -- and being mates on top of it all -- is just too much," he chuckled, straightening up with a sigh. "A demon and a witch," he muttered thoughtfully a few moments later. "Who knew?"

The three of them fell silent then, for the irony of the situation was pretty remarkable.

Brie had been born of an incubus and a human mating, retaining the superhuman powers and abilities of her demonic father. In modern times, "cambion" had been replaced for "witch" or "cunning-folk", to which Brie responded to both. Growing up without either of her parents (her father had never been in the picture and her mother died from complications of her birth), she had been raised by her mother's three other sisters: Aunt Flora, Aunt Rowan, and Aunt Celine. She had been taught the magick, right here in this very house, and she had been taught well. She had practiced her magick on both animals and people to hone her skills. One day, after a "wish" to make the pesky new neighbor go away backfired, Des had been part of her life ever since.

Brie had grown up with the stories of the realms parallel to the human one, each realm filled with a new magical being that Brie had devoted endless hours to memorizing even the most minute detail about: the realm of ice and crystal was ruled by the gentle giants called today 'Bigfoot' or 'the Yeti', another realm belonged to those of the fey and the witches (where her aunts had retired to) where the earth was alive and magic was used all day long. One realm, wreathed in fire and rock and volcanoes, was where the demons roamed. They lived in houses of black obsidian or in caves burrowed into the rock, absorbing the molten lava and the heat of the world around them.

That was where Eli belonged, and for only three days a year, beginning on October 31st, could he leave his realm to travel to those beyond it. And five years ago, when he had escaped into the human world the night of Halloween, he had stumbled on (quite literally) Desmond "Des" Clarke and somehow coerced into attending lunch, where his housemate -- Brie -- was making gumbo.

Brie had known the moment Des and Eli had walked into the home that something was amiss -- her glasses tucked away in their cabinets had hummed with energy, the house shifted nervously beneath her feet, and her pet raven named Edgar (yes, a cliché, but the bird responded well to the name) had flown the coop in fear of being grilled and tossed into the gumbo by this strange new entity. And when Eli walked into the kitchen, sparks of a different sort altogether had sent Aunt Flora's fine china bursting into a million different pieces and the house levitating on its supports.

After that, Brie had to explain to a frantic blubbering Des that the house wasn't possessed by a poltergeist, but by a witch, and had proved her magic to him whenever he demanded it. By default, Eli's world had to be explained as well, and finally Des had succumbed to the truth that the humans were not "the only ones", and Brie had to learn to live with Eli and vice-versa.

For five years Brie and Eli had skirted the truth, and each other, allowing Des to believe that they harbored born sentiments of hatred so deep that they couldn't stand being in the same room, but tolerated it merely because the human asked. That plan had worked, splendidly so, until last Halloween.

The Eli standing in front of her was nothing like the fiery, passionate being that had taken her that night. Unlike his current form, his skin had become the same rusty red as his eyes and thick black leathery wings protruded from his muscled back, the place where they met in the middle sensitive to fingers -- and tongues. The fire within him could be seen swirling beneath the skin, glowing like a small sun within his chest. His transformation would be complete with a red forked tail that despite the sharp, pointed tip could be gentle and controlled and used to arouse beyond belief.

Brie had not had many lovers prior to Eli (though the list was fairly colorful), and after tasting his flame and after the night...and morning...spent in his arms, she had never been able to take another. There was simply no possible way that any man -- or not-quite-man -- could ever equal to that night with Eli and she had never been eager to disprove that theory. In her mind, it just simply could not be. But with that realization came a price.

Eli was a demon, not born of the human world. He was immortal, impervious to disease or time or any human-made weapon, chemical or otherwise. Brie...was not. She was a gangly, summer-cold-prone human that was dying with each sunset and aging further yet with each sunrise. His world was poisonous to her lungs and his kind was cruel to her people. Her world could not sustain him and there wasn't a place of in-between for either of them. And as a demon, he was subject to rules: three days in the human world, and no more.

Brie had realized long ago that she would have to settle with three days of her demon once a year...or to not have him at all.

And like a coward, she had copped out.

Too ashamed by her own fear and worries, she hadn't stopped to think of what Eli had felt. A night of kisses and fire and wordless promises wasn't enough to know someone; no matter how connected to that person you may feel. And Brie was connected to Eli without a doubt. The bond between them was so strong that even in a realm beyond her own; it vibrated strong and true, not weakened by her age or summer colds or distance.