My monster is ravenous, and a filling meal is only feet away.
I could technically cleanse his sins while devouring him, but my sin eater side likes to make a show of it.
My head falls back as the monster takes over. Everything turns hazy and muted, except for the heat signature of the angel.
My magic propels me forward, and I wrap my clawed hands around his shoulders as his wings slam against my chest. Pulling him back, I spin and slam him into a nearby tree.
I suck in a deep breath, and my jaw falls to make extra room to feed. The double layer of razor-sharp teeth that appear on the top and bottom of my mouth would frighten anyone, but they’re mostly for show. I’ve never actually used them to attack someone.
Black plasma filled with flickers of his sins flies from his mouth to mine. Replaying someone’s worst acts is actually my least favorite part of feeding, but it helps me feel confident that I’m making the right call.
His victim probably thinks a monster is kissing her attacker. My mom always picks on my dad by saying it looks like he’s making out with his victims when he feeds. Our mouths never actually touch, but I do get close to prevent spillage.
That would count as food waste.
I’m lucky that there are enough sins to go around to keep me well fed all the time.
Something clicks inside me as I watch the memories of his darkest moments.
He is an angel.
About to bewasan angel.
His light blond hair falls over his forehead, and his gray eyes betray his terror as he slams his fist into the side of my skull. It’s barely noticeable, and it certainly doesn’t deter my monster.
Huh.
I always figured killing an angel would be swinging outside my weight class, but apparently that’s not the case. The last bitsof his sins flicker in the plasma that contains them, flowing from his body to mine.
Power pulses under my skin, and the sin eater recedes to give the reaper agency to take over.
The angel groans, falling back against the tree. “What the fuck are you?”
I look over my shoulder at the woman now that my face no longer looks like a monster. “You’re safe. He won’t hurt you again. You should go. This part isn’t pretty.”
The last time I saw her, she was on her back on the dirty ground, but she got to her feet at some point.
“Thanks.” Her eyes are almost comically large as she nods, backing away with her palms raised. “Yeah, I mean, I’m gonna go. Thank you.”
My hood fell when the sin eater took over, but I focus on the angel and answer his earlier question. “Something the world hasn’t seen in millennia, but there was a need for my kind, so here I am.”
My hand rests over his heart, and his soul feels lighter without the weight of his sins to drag him down. My face transforms as my jaw falls open, and my appearance changes into some combination of the sin eater and the reaper.
I guess it’s both and neither, considering I’m each and somehow something else entirely. Taking a deep breath, I suck up his soul, devouring it as it nourishes my body.
One of my fathers believes I have the ability to rehabilitate beings by consuming their sins without devouring the soul. Basically, it would require only allowing the sin eater to come out to play. If that were to work, it would essentially be a full reset of their soul, similar to what happens when a reaper reaps someone for rebirth in the pit. Only without the additional step of him having to serve out his penance in the bowels of Hell.
I have a reaper for a father. When he deposits a soul in the pit in Hell, it’s completely reset, thus losing all memories of its last life. They spend however long the universe has assigned for their crimes in the pit, atoning for all the evil they did.
Being cleansed in the pit can even wipe away their powers, although I’ve always wondered if that could extend to species too. Like, do extremely terrible humans end up as demons upon rebirth after the pit, or will they always reincarnate as a human?
Those answers are above my pay grade.
Ultimately, all of that is irrelevant, anyway. Even if I could simply reset him, I wouldn’t for two reasons.
First, I find sex crimes abhorrent. There will be no rehabilitationeverfor beings like that under my watch. And secondly, I’m too hungry to resist such a filling meal.
The angel turns to a desiccated version of his former self, and I retract my claws, stepping back and allowing him to slump against the ground on the roots of the tree.
