15 Sweet Flame

Miss Lucy smiled, again that simple, guileless smile. "Ah. An honest succubus! But why do you love him?" When Hyacinth remain silent, she chuckled. "There's no need to answer. I already know why. Humans are intriguing, are they not?"

Hyacinth blinked. Was this some trick, some kind of test? But there was no point being anything other than honest. Miss Lucy, as the mother of all lies, would know immediately if she wasn't. "Yes, Miss Lucy."

"And also sweet, at times? Adorable, wouldn't you say?"

Sweet and adorable? "Yes, Miss Lucy."

The Mistress of Hell lay back in her chair. "Once, Hyacinth, I knew a human as well. He was sweet, like yours is no doubt, sweet and kind and sensitive. He had so many great plans about everything. He was like a younger version of me, wanting to fix everything. He used to say he wanted to bring heaven down to earth. I tried to tell him that Heaven wasn't what he thought it was, but he was so earnest I stopped trying to change his mind. His earnestness was one of the things I adored about him." Lucy indicated the little donkey on top of her notes. "He was very handy, loved making things. I suppose I fell in love him because of that."

Hyacinth took a step back as if struck. "Love, Miss Lucy?"

"Oh yes," murmured Miss Lucy. She placed a hand against her chest. A soft beating came, then, growing louder. She closed her eyes, as if in pain. "His last gift to me, I suppose, before we were separated. Before the Power had him killed."

"Miss Lucy, I-"

The Mistress of Hell's eyes flew open. The smile was gone. "Hyacinth Thermise, I have no need of a demon who has a heart. You are spoiled forever, no longer of any worth to Hell. So I'm giving you leave to return to the surface to see your human one last time." Miss Lucy saw the sudden joy in Hyacinth's eyes and raised a finger. "But just once, Hyacinth. You know what you have to do, do you not, if you wish to be free of this pain in your heart?"

Hyacinth closed her eyes and nodded. "I do, Miss Lucy."

"Go then." She swept a hand at the elevator. "The elevator will take you to the surface. But before you go..."

"Yes, Miss Lucy?"

The Mistress of Hell's face had undergone a sudden transformation. Her eyes were eager, almost anxious. "Tell me. How was Abraxas?"

Hyacinth blinked. "You know Abraxas, Miss Lucy?"

"Of course, he's my nephew. I sent him to represent you." She leaned forward in her chair. "Tell me, please. Did he do a good job?"

Hyacinth, bemused, nodded. "Y-yes, Miss Lucy. He did. He was very... eloquent."

Miss Lucy sat back and grinned. "He was? Oh, I am pleased!" Then her face straightaway returned to that of the stern Mistress of Hell. She took the little carved donkey off her notes and picked up her pen. "Now, Hyacinth Thermise, if you don't mind, I have some paperwork to finish."

Hyacinth bowed and turned. She was nearly at the elevator when she heard Miss Lucy's voice resounding throughout the huge office after her.

"Goodbye, Hyacinth."

~oOo~

Hyacinth's shadowy form grew material again and she looked about her. His room was in utter chaos. Soda cans and food wrappers littered the floor as they had the first time she had visited him. Unwillingly, she looked towards the desk. The ash was still there, although some had fallen down and been ground into the carpeting. The sight pierced her heart.

It was as if all those beautiful nights with him had never happened .

Hyacinth turned to the lump in the bed. He was fast asleep. She could smell him from where she was. He seemed not to have washed in long time.

She approached the bed. He was lying on his back as so often he did when sleeping. His face was patchy, his neck and chin covered in whiskers, his hair greasy. And yet, to Hyacinth, to her heart, he was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen.

She leaned over him, her face hovering over his.

"I'm sorry," she whispered. "I had to come back. One last time. To tell you."

He stirred without opening his eyes. "A dream," he murmured. "A nightmare."

Hyacinth shook her head. "I came back to tell you the truth. To tell you I love you."

And then pressed her lips against his.

His eyes flashed open. He felt the heat of Hyacinth's tongue, the wetness, intense and real, and he gasped against her kiss. He jerked away and pulled himself into a sitting position on the bed.

"Hyacinth," he gasped. "You- you kissed me!"

Hyacinth smiled sadly, nodded. "I'm sorry. For everything. But I can't live with all this pain."

She turned and fled, willing herself to turn to shadow, to escape and find some quiet place to die, but her body refused to transform. Then the first wave of pain hit her and she doubled over and collapsed against the desk, pulling it down with her as she fell.

The sensation started in her wings first, those sensitive wings he had so delighted in touching. A tingling, then a pain, and then cold agony as they were enveloped in black fire, starting at the wingtips, then along the wings themselves, the thin membranes dissolving away as if dipped in acid. Her tail was next, searing down from the fork like it had been dipped in liquid fire. Then her claws caught the same conflagration and she fell to her knees, crying out at the pain, squeezing her claws together as the talons dripped away like melting shadow.

Through the pain she felt him throw his arms around her, crushing her disintegrating body to him.

"Hyacinth! Oh god, Hyacinth!"

"It's okay," she murmured. "It's okay." She smiled up at him. "I saw you one... last... time."

And then her horns burst into flame. Still he held onto her, but soon the fire spread across her entire body and she flung him away from her, knowing that he would be consumed as well.

"Hyacinth!"

She slumped onto her stomach as all feeling, all light fled from her and darkness, an iron sleep, came crashing down upon her unseeing eyes.

But she could still hear. A sound: th-thump, th-thump. Her heart, still beating, but growing slower, fainter... ever fainter...

So this is what it was like.

Dissolution. Sweet dissolution.