Dies Irae 04

Matthias watched as the tears started staining her face, he gave her the comfort of his body and tenderly kissed her brow.

"I'm sorry for being a jerk."

"You weren't that far off the mark, we didn't have a passionate love for each other, but there was love, and a lot of understanding. At the time it made sense, and a part of me thought how happy and proud my parents would have been. Anyway, he did cheat on me but I also cheated on him, except he took it a little more personally, he got very drunk, beat me and forced me."

"He raped you?" he voiced in anger and squeezed her a little too tightly.

"I suppose you could call it that, but he's not a rapist, he didn't even remember what happened, and when he saw what he did to me, and this might sound odd, but I actually pitied him he was so pathetic."

"You didn't go to the police?"

"No it would have destroyed his parents, and he is suffering, he's made serious attemps to kill himself."

"I could help with that."

"Are you serious?"

"Deadly."

"Death is too easy, living is suffering."

"You don't seem to mind that it happened."

"It was beyond my control. I had the luxury of being able to disappear and meditate over it. If we had met even six months ago you wouldn't have found me so accepting. All experience can be good thing if you let it be, though life is fucking hard sometimes. Hey, do curses exist?" she suddenly thought.

"They do, but in my experience, and I've had a bit, life isn't just unfair it is mercilessly cruel. It's why most people believe in higher powers, it gives meaning to the inhumanity of nature. I doubt you're cursed but as you have Russian ancestry it's a possibility. You'd be better off talking to Nina, curses are definitely gypsy terrain."

"You know Beauty has been the greatest help." She smiled as she thought of her canine companion. "Dogs are such wonderful beings, they just live in the moment, the past and the future are irrelevant. I like that."

Matthias chuckled, "Diogenes would have liked you and he didn't really like anyone."

"As in Diogenes the Cynic?" Astor once again found herself agog.

"I was lucky enough to know him in later life when he had mellowed somewhat. He was very very funny and utterly uninhibited, you always knew where you were with him, he bit a man he once didn't like the look of and he used to growl at babies, more though to annoy their mothers."

Astor laughed, "You're unbelievable! I suppose you knew Aristotle too?"

He nodded his head modestly, "I've met many of the great and good..."

"... and are they seldom the same man?" she interrupted.

"Churchill was full of wonderful maxims and he was one who was good and great. People who seek greatness often seek power and usually at the expense of others. Hitler for example, great, but definitely not good."

"Did you know Churchill?"

"We met."

"Did he know you were a vampire?"

"He knew."

"Do you care to expand?" She said with a little irritation at his vagueness.

"Sometimes it has been necessary to reveal our existence. Hitler's true involvement with the occult has thankfully been covered up by the winning side. Do you know what a grimoire is?"

"Enlighten me."

"Essentially it's a book containing spells, many purport to allow the magician to summon demons, spirits and even angels. Fortunately the ones in common circulation are the works of imagination and fantasy, and merely serve as a appeasing distraction to the curious. Yet, there are a few Grimoires in existence that are dangerously real. Hitler managed to obtain one, found in the Vatican library, and had been using it to conjure Raum, one of the great Earls of Hell, bringer of riches and destroyer of cities. You are aware that 'Lebensraum' was one of the key ideologies of Nazism, they needed the 'living space' to be the great race Hitler envisioned."

Astor nodded with alacrity eager for Matthias to continue.

"Are you also aware that Hitler's so called suicide took place on Walpurgis Night?"

"That's the German Halloween right?"

"That's a good basic interpretation. It is one of the few nights of the year when all other beings are free to roam, mostly they just come to enjoy human pleasures, drinking and sex and all that jazz. We used to call it Dionysia." He added whimsically. "But they also serve another purpose, a sort of secret loop hole. Though demons can be summoned on these nights they cannot be controlled. That desperate night in 1945, as the Allies were closing in, Hitler conjured Raum, believing that the mystical night would only increase his power over the demon. How wrong he was." His eyes twinkled with glee.

"What happened?"

"Raum had taken no pride in doing Hitler's bidding; it's a fallacy that demons are wicked a lot have very good natures actually. Raum staged the suicides of Hitler and Eva Braun, for the demon is also a romantic at heart, which is why they are together suffering unspeakable pain."

Astor was dumbfounded. "That's unbelievable! How do you know this?"

"I was told by Albert Goering, a man I am honoured to have called a friend."

"He was the good Goering right?"

"One of the most courageous men I've ever met, he saved thousands at great personal risk. Of course Hermann's warmongering overshadows Albert's good deeds, and the surname caused him awful grief in later life but he refused to change it. Excluding Hermann he was mostly proud of his family, their mother even married a Jew."

"What did you do in the war?"

"Vat a thing to ask a German!" he said with a thick Bavarian accent and a huge smile.

"I thought you were Greek!" She quickly retorted.

"Technically I'm Athenian," he tittered smugly before explaining, "Germany, well the area now known as Germany, has been my main residence for over a millennium and I identify with the land as my home. I think they call this psychogeography, so many terms these days for things that are intrinsically human."

"Why Germany?"

"Before the invention of cars and planes it was a very convenient location for travelling about Europe, and politically and culturally the land was more liberal than most places. Having a hereditary title has been a good cover over the years, and when the Nazi's came to power my inscrutable Germanic heritage proved very useful. I was in New York when it became clear another war was on its way, I came back via Spain, which was in the throes of the civil war and where I encountered Alfonso. And when the Second World War officially started, to answer your earlier question, I essentially became a spy, passing cryptograms and other secret documents on to the Allies."

Astor sat in stunned silence just staring at Matthias in awe.

"You look a little overwhelmed," he said.

"I am overwhelmed! I think my head is going to explode from everything you've told me and I don't even feel I've scratched the surface of who you really are. I don't even know if Matthias is your real name." She spoke in an excited manner.

"It is a derivative of my original Greek name Matthaios, and we didn't exactly have surnames then. We've only known each other for a day, there will be plenty of time for us to get to know each other later."

"What if there isn't a later?" She said morosely.

"I'm an optimist, though we could increase your chances." He said suggestively.

"The thing is I'm not really sure how I feel about drinking blood, it's a bit gross when you really think about it."

"I understand but trust me you'll get over it. Every vampire remembers their first drink, it's ...it's" he closed his eyes and flicked back to his first time, "mind blowing," he opened his eyes and looked at Astor with pure lust.

Astor had a vicarious response to Matthias arousal and seamlessly their lips found each other. His hunger for her was clear as their bodies pressed together, mouths locked in passion, obliterating the pain and suffering of the past day. Simultaneously, their hands fell to their trousers as they hastened to remove the barriers that prevented them from melding to one. Matthias lightly ran a finger up through her lower lips and flicked her clitoris eliciting a rapturous cry from Astor. Without any further hesitation he thrust deep inside her that made them both gasp in exquisite pleasure.

He held himself there briefly, pausing to look into her hazel eyes that burned with desire. He stroked in out of her a few times, slow and hard. In response she bit her bottom lip in ecstatic anguish and murmured in need. He began to fuck her fervently, she arched towards him suckling and kissing at his neck, causing him only to increase his pace. Their grunts and moans filled the cabin as the tension between them swiftly built. Astor's orgasm came fast, her whole body contracted, Matthias could only manage a few more thrusts before he joined her in bliss,and even when he had finished cumming Astor still had little aftershocks of pleasure pulsating through her. Matthias slipped a hand between them and played with her clit, quickly stimulating another powerful orgasm.

Astor's physical release also brought forth an emotional one. Matthias softly kissed along the rivulets that flowed down her face and whispered to her, "I'm never going to let anything bad happen to you again."

She pecked his lips, smiled, and replied, "You can't promise me that."

"No I can't."

They shared a long, sensuous and loving kiss.

But reality soon made itself known. The captain's voice floated over the intercom; the plane had started its descent.