Fallen Angel

Chapter 36.2

The door creaked open, and a slender female figure gracefully crossed the threshold. Joan gasped when she recognised the red locks and youthful face. It couldn't possibly be...

"Céleste?"

The name fell from Joan's lips as she found herself in the presence of the teenage prostitute who had been one of the many followers of her army, all grown-up now.

"Not quite." The woman smirked villainously. "Though you must admit, I couldn't have picked a better name to attract you. I mean, a girl with such a holy name; how could you possibly resist?"

"Wh-What?" Joan stared at her in confusion.

"Hm, yes, you were so eager to 'save me from my plight'. It really was quite laughable. Seeing you burn made the humiliation of posing as a weak mortal worth it."

"I-I don't understand, who —?"

"Perhaps you prefer I speak in a voice you will recognise?"

Joan's mouth hung slack when she heard the voice of the Blood Countess. Then she noticed the broken pendant around her neck giving off a faint reddish glow.

"N-No." She groaned in pain and shock. "Y-you can't be. Bathory wasn't even born when I died."

"You still don't get it, do you? I'm not the real Erzsebet Bathory. That crone was cast into oblivion the minute she died. No, I am much older than the Countess. Much older than sweet Céleste. Much older than most of your friends. I am the first. The one created with man, but ignored by history. I... am Lilith."

Joan's heart clenched in terror. Lilith — Adam's first wife and the first being to be consumed by darkness. The mother of the beasts of Hell and self-proclaimed Queen of the Circles. If there had ever been someone even the Archangels feared, it was her.
Lilith stepped forward. Isabelle brought her knife up, but Lilith ignored the brave woman, keeping her ruby eyes fixed on Joan's face.

"You have no idea how many years I've dreamt of this moment, Joan. It should never have taken this long, but you just had to play hard to get. You had to be the stubborn shrew and make us all wait endlessly for what should have happened the moment you got into the Vale! I spent weeks teaching you how to screw that deplorable excuse for an angel, and it still took you six hundred years to go through with it! We almost started believing God had made a mistake in choosing the two of you to create his new ultimate super-angel." Lilith pretended to gasp then, feigning consternation. "Oh, but that's right! You don't know about that yet, do you?"

"Kn-Know what?" Joan bit her lip to hold back a scream as she felt another contraction.

"Dear, dear Joan... You were never supposed to die on that pyre. You were meant to save France from England and bring about a new age, living a long, rich life at the side of the Dauphin as his advisor. But when God realised His beloved Messenger had fallen in love with you, His representative in the Mortal Realm, He decided that you two were the perfect test couple for His little experiment. So with a snap of His fingers, He took that glorious future away from you and put you on the path of death. All so you could be where you are now, pregnant and about to lose everything all over again."

"Do not believe a word she says, Joan," said Isabelle.

"What would I possibly gain from lying about this?" Lilith threw Joan's mother a dirty look. "Come, Joan, you know it's the truth. You showed your plans to me that day, remember? You knew the territory around Compiègne inside and out. Then, all of a sudden, you found yourself in between two forces, driven to surrender. What was it they said? God forsook you because you failed in your mission to Him? You never failed Him. God didn't abandon you. He just changed his mind about you because you weren't of any use to Him alive."