Chapter Twenty Six

As the trio left the stage Diana and Angela moved closer together as Lucy faced them. He was not happy. They knew from the fire in his eyes. The fire that glowed in the oblong slits his pupils had transmogrified into.

His voice was soft, but it dripped sparks. “I’m most disappointed,” he said. “You told me you had, for once, a perfect cast. But they are flawed.”

Diana fidgeted. “I’m sorry, but their track records... you saw them. You saw the data.”

“And the data lied.”

“I thought Thornton was quite brilliant,” said Angela nervously sounding out the situation.

“So he was,” said Lucy with ominous softness. “But I wanted the trio.”

“What about Winter?”

“Flawed.”

“But just a little, I’m sure ...” Lucy’s stare silenced her.

“You’re sure of what?” he asked

“My instincts told me Winter would be fantastic the moment I set eyes on him,” said Angela. She stopped.

“And?” prompted Lucy.

Angela felt a ray of hope. “I could hardly keep my hands off him. We should give him a chance. With the right coaching he’d make the grade. I’m sure.”

“And you’d be the coach?” Lucy was taunting.

Diana tried to stop the impending disaster for her sister in crime. “You don’t think personal feelings are clouding your judgement?” she asked urgently.

Angela thought and then answered. “I do want him, yes, I must admit that, but he’s so young and has so much raw talent. I think it would a shame to let him go. I’m sure I could work miracles with him.”

Lucy’s eyebrows rose. “Miracles! When did we move into the area of miracles?”

“You know what I mean,” said Angela softly, a flush on her face.

“Lucky for you I do,” said Lucy. “But I can’t afford to make a mistake and taking on someone with mere potential would be a mistake. We will stick to standard operating procedure.”

“If we could pull it off though, we’d score a great coup,” persisted Angela.

She didn’t see the irritation in his expression. Angela was intent on getting her own way. “I could mould him. He would be a sensation.”

Diana tried to help. “She could be right. And it is difficult to resist a temptation like that.”

Angela cut in eagerly. It was two against one now. “It wouldn’t even be a gamble,” she said. “In a week I’d have him flawless.”

“I’m sorry, Angela. Winter is out.”

“Not even for a minor role?”

“We can’t use him.” The voice now had an edge of steel.

“But ...”

The rest of her statement was left unsaid. Lucy pointed. Talons sprang from his hand. He raked them across Angela’s face. Blood and puss mingled as she screamed. As her mouth opened the talons clawed between her lips and fastened onto her tongue. Soft, pink, pointed. Then it was ripped from her mouth and thrown onto the floor where it wriggled like a newly dead chicken.

The claws razed across Angela’s face and body. The clothes ripped and burned. Blood and fire mixed. Diana stepped quietly out of the way. She had tried to help, but Angela’s pride had come between them. Punishment was Lucy’s right.

Boiling tears seared Angela’s bloodied face. The smell of burning flesh assaulted Diana’s nose. It was a delicious perfume. Angela’s agony screamed through her eyes, but nothing but gurgles came from her mouth, which gushed with putrid blood.

“We can’t use Winter, do you understand?” Lucy’s voice was gentle, cajoling.

Angela’s head nodded, blood flew into the air. It spattered over her golden hair. Lucy pointed to the still quivering tongue on the floor. “If you want to speak again, pick it up and eat it.”

Shaking uncontrollably Angela fell to the ground and picked up the soft, pink object. Kneeling, she raised it to her mouth.

“Stop!” Lucy’s voice was more strident. Angela stared at him. She felt the rising of lust even through the agony. Lucy stood before her. His body grew and ripped through is clothes. The well-formed calves turned into sinewy muscled animal haunches. The twin phalluses pulsated in front of her. With a gurgling frown Angela fell on them taking each in turn into her hot and bloody mouth.

It was too much for Diana. With a mighty groan she joined Angela on the ground sharing in the majestic glory of her Lord. Lucy shouted with ecstasy as he thrust deep into the women. Then came the climax, the ejaculation of white hot lava, the stench of burning, and then the miracle of healing.

Lucy stepped back. The animal slid back into its shell. The clothes mended and he stood, barely a breath out of place.

Diana slumped on the ground, voiceless, but replete and Angela was whole again, whole, beautiful, and more respectful.

“So,” said Lucy. “Thornton?”

Angela stood and immediately picked up the tone. “He’s perfect,” she said.

“Never has anyone been more perfect for a role,” agreed Diana.

Lucy cast an amused glance at Angela. “Well almost anyone,” he said. “I seem to remember one young woman who was destined for stardom the moment she... auditioned.”

A peal of genuine laughter rang from the blonde, her eyes mischievous, captivating as she recalled her first meeting with Lucy and Diana. It was in America, the land of the free.

Her hunger for cruelty and excess drove to wilder and wilder acts of debauchery. But the sweetness of her smile and innocent looks remained. Only those who had known her fury believed the stories that circulated. There was always a long line of men waiting to take up the reins, a line that never diminished.

The career their little angel had chosen was hard enough for her parents to bear, but when the stories began to appear in the gossip magazines. It became completely unbearable. They pieced together her past and knew deep inside that the stories, denied with wide-eyed indignation and a toss of her beautiful hair, were true.

It drove her father over the edge of sanity. He could no longer accept the girl the press depicted as his daughter. He killed his wife and then himself in a murder suicide. “Devil’s spawn,” he had called her.

Angela remembered the moment with pride. How right he had been. She was on her way to visit them, to deny the latest scandal. She was about to knock on the door when she heard her father’s squeal of anguish.

She realised he had already seen the magazine. The pornographic pictures, pictures so gross, that after the session even Angela has been satiated. She had crept to the lounge window and had watched from the window of their home as he shot his wife and then turned the gun on himself. She could have stopped the massacre, but she preferred to watch, enjoying pain she was seeing.

At the funeral her tears were so natural, and the grief so heart-rending that even those who had suffered at her hand, melted and loved her again.

Angela chuckled. “It was the performance of a lifetime,” she said.

“Indeed it was,” said Lucy, “the child actor reaching maturity.”

Diana smiled. “I could hardly keep my eyes off you from then on,” she said.

“And I didn’t even know you existed.” Angela put her hand lovingly on Diana’s shoulder.

Diana sighed. “Such was life.”

They both burst into laughter. Lucy joined in. “A talent worth nurturing,” he said. “The first recruit to my inner cabinet since, well since the beginning.”

Angela dipped her head in supplication. “An honour I will forever treasure.”

“You will indeed,” said Lucy.

Angela closed her eyes and lived those final days before she met her match and her master. The punishments she meted out became heavier. The pain she inflicted was sometimes fatal. Some people said she was insane, others said she was possessed. She was neither. She was simply a rare example of living evil. In an earlier time she would have burned as a witch - and with every justification.

Her mistake was to kill too slowly.

The screams of her victim, bound and naked, as she inflicted cut after cut onto his body, were too loud and went on for too long. She enjoyed this man who she seduced on his honeymoon and led unwitting to the web of a black widow spider. She stopped when he fainted only to start again when he awoke.

Her enjoyment was so intense that she was still cutting flesh and licking the blood when the police burst into her room.

This time the victim survived. The evidence was so overwhelming that even her wide and innocent eyes didn’t help. She despaired of her freedom when the jury found her guilty.

But she had no need. For the first time in fifty years the State brought down the death penalty. There were too many stories, too many witnesses to pain.

She died well. Smiling to the last as the switch was pulled. She smelt the burning before she blacked out and was surprised that it was still there when she awoke.

She sighed at the fond recollection. Here, on this stage she had met Diana, the goddess who knew more about gratification that anyone Angela had ever known. She knew more about inflicting pain too. But every experience was exquisite.

Lucy had watched as Diana put the newcomer through her paces. The girl was perfection. Angela Caduti indeed, an angel fallen to join the others. She was almost kin. She was so wonderful, he needed little persuading by Diana to create the second trinity.

Angela looked fondly at her master and his right hand angel; Verdilet, the angel who fell with Satan, his own master of ceremonies. Theirs was a marriage made in Hell and it suited each of them.

Lucy sighed. “If only all recruitment were so easy,” he said.

“It was pleasing to know you had no doubts about me,” said Angela.

“Oh, I had my doubts,” said Lucy. “Never forget that. You were human, blurred with imperfection, a not quite flawless diamond.”

“But a diamond nevertheless,” whispered Angela.

“A diamond nevertheless,” repeated Lucy.

Diana snuggled closer to Angela. “I never had any doubts about you,” she said.

Angela looked into her eyes. “I know”, she said.

“So,” said Lucy, returning to the business in hand, “do we have doubts about our Mr Thornton?”

“None,” said Diana. “He will be a phenomenon.”

“He will be monumental,” said Lucy. “Your talent scouts were right about him at least.” He focused on Angela, who hung her head respectfully. “I’m sorry about Winter,” he said. “He is good I grant you that, but he is not flawless.”

“You have always been a perfectionist,” said Angela. “I should have known better.”

“And will in the future, I’m, sure.” There were maggots in his teeth as he smiled. “So Winter is out and Thornton is in. I take the decision on Finnegan is unanimous?”

“Absolutely,” said Angela.

“He was a total disaster,” added Diana. “I shall deal very harshly with whoever recommended him.”

“Good, good,” said Lucy. “Use your authority.”

“It’s amazing he even got this far,” said Angela. “Imagine if he had actually got through.” A shudder of fear wracked her body.

“But he didn’t,” said Lucy. “That’s why we are here, to make the final judgement. And you, my closest associates, are here because of your uncanny assessment of character. Once again, you have once again proved my judgement to be infallible.”

“Still,” sighed Angela, “only one out of three...

“That,” said Lucy, wood sparks twinkling in his eyes,” as they say, is show business. Shall we proceed? Angela, would you mind fetching them back?

Angela smiled prettily. “Of course,” she said and making the most of her body movements she walked into the wings.

Lucy watched her appreciatively and then cast his over Diana. “You’re a well-matched pair,” he said.

“Angela’s easy to work with,” demurred Diana. “Always has been. Her enthusiasm when we gave her the job has never waned.”

“And I doubt it ever will. She’s so attractive too - and always so... willing.”

Diana licked her lips. She knew how willing. “She is beautiful,” she said, finally. “But she needs to be watched.”

Lucy said nothing, but waited for her to continue.

“She is very persuasive - and she is inclined to let her personal feeling sway her.”

“Winter?”

“Exactly.”

“But she was punished, and she usually remembers her lessons.”

“For a while, she does,” corrected Diana. “Then she reasserts her power.”

“And she certainly has that,” concurred Lucy.

“That sort of power can be dangerous.”

Lucy’s eyebrow rose again. It was a favourite mannerism. “Against me?”

“Against the system,” said Diana.

“I am the system,” said Lucy softly.

“You were beaten once.” Diana was taking a huge risk.

Lucy looked at her, anger flecking his eyes, but he subdued it. The defeat was not her fault. But it still smarted at times. He wanted it all, and all he got was the earth. A smile escaped his frozen lips. Still, it had been rewarding to see his meagre kingdom grow. The smile was wiped. “I shall keep an eye on her. This business is risky enough as it is. There’s never a guarantee of success. We can’t really have more than one... angel... can we?”

He burst into wild laughter. Diana held her breath. He could turn any way now hand out more pain or more pleasure. He stopped. His wildly rolling eyes slowed and he smiled. “This is nearly over. We can soon go home.”

Diana sighed. “Home; that would be nice...” Visions of heat and the noise of souls in torment took away her tensions.