Devourer of Sins

DEVOURER OF SINS CHAPTER TWELVE (NC-17)
Disclaimers Apply


A/N Goddess Foxfeather, Queen of Mad Plotbunnies, Billy and Joaquin are on their way over to keep Lucas and Kristen out of the way while you get your computer in order. Ted's got the critters so you should have time to yourself now... :) InterNutter, TC and Maxwell Pink get sparkly faeries to do their housework for them because they archive. :) Readers/Reviewers: Are there such things as vampyre ducks? Ever since that one got me the other day, I feel powerful strange...I have the urge to float in the bayou and waddle after children now...


Breakfast was an awkward affair. Jean sat between Scott and y, hy, her head cradled in her hands and face ashy with pain and stress. Scott alternated between stroking her back comfortingly and picking at his waffles with an ill-disguised lack of enthusiasm. Kurt and Kitty were still in the infirmary and no one was saying just why, though rumors were thicker then flies in the summer. "Jean," Scott murmured, "you know you can talk to me..."
"I don't feel like it right now," she sighed, toying with her glass of orange juice. "Just...let me have some quiet time, okay?"
"Fine," he said softly, feeling a little cheated. _Why is she hiding stuff from me? _ "I have to go to the food pantry again but I'll be back around two...it's my last day."
"Ah."
Scott sighed roughly and looked across the table at Rogue, who was glaring at Rahne. "You coming with, Rogue? Or are you still working on the Blackbird?"
"Blackbird," she growled, "fucking plate I picked up for Logan wasn't thick enough and I have to get another one. Damn it."
"Ah. Well, I guess...I guess I'm going then," Scott sighed, looking askance at Jean, giving her one more chance to spill her guts.
She merely smiled weakly and said, "Bye, babe."
"Yeah...bye."
Jean waited until she heard the front door shut soundly before she sighed again. _I hate these migraine hangovers. I wonder when Kurt and Kitty can have visitors? _ Dimly, she realized someone was speaking to her. "Huh?"
"I said," Rogue bit out, "are you okay? You look like you've seen a ghost."
"I'm fine...just jet lagged, I guess," Jean lied. She knew well enough to keep their experiences in Mexico private just then, until things made more sense. "In fact," she said with forced brightness, "I'm going to go lay down now. A nap would help."
"Sure," Rahne said, nodding. "Those time changes are a pain, aren't they?"
"Mmmm..." drifted back of Jean's shoulder as she walked from the room with a careful gait so as not to cause undo pain to her already throbbing skull.
Rogue bit her tongue until she was sure Jean was gone. "Where did you and Todd go last night?" she asked Rahne, keeping her eyes fixed on the oatmeal before her.
Rahne shrugged. "Out..." In reality, they had gone Christmas shopping for their significant others, their tentative bond growing stronger as they debated the likes and dislikes of Rogue and Jamie, respectively.
"Out where?" Rogue said, a slight edge in her voice. Her spoon clanked against the edge of her bowl as she stirred roughly, seeking to appear unphased.
"Just...out..." Rahne eyed the other girl warily, Bobby scooting back as the gazes became glares.
"I...uh...promised St John I'd take him Christmas shopping. Bye!" He was gone so fast, Quicksilver would have been left in the dust.
"Out where?" Rogue dropped all pretense of mild curiosity and leaned across the table towards Rahne.
"Just out..." she growled back, the words bearing a faint tremor from her rising anger. "What's it to ya?"
"You two come breezin' in here yesterday gigglin' your heads off, Todd barely says anything to me, then you disappear for hours! I want to know what the Hell is going on!" A lump of icy fear had been sitting in Rogue's stomach since she saw Todd drive off with Rahne soon after they had returned. _He's tired of me...He wants someone he can touch wit alt all these fucking precautions...you can't just drop trou and go at it like rabbits if your touch will kill someone now can you? Rahne, though...she can touch him. And I don't think she's too tied to Jamie... _
Rahne took several deep breaths and responded carefully so as not to yell. "Rogue, we just went out for a bit. We're friends now, like it or not. Nothing happened, nothing will. Todd loves you and that's not going to change."
Rogue stood and swept her bowl and cup into the sink. "Stay away from my boyfriend, got it?"
"Rogue, don't be daft..." Rahne sighed. Jamie had not said a word about her going out with Todd, but, she reflected, he really had seemed out of it. Wonder if I'm gonna be getting this from him, too?
"I'll show you daft if you start tryin' to take up with Todd, Rahne!" Rogue spat her name like an invective and stormed from the room.
Rahne chewed thoughtfully on a piece of toast as Rogue's words died in her ears. _Maybe I'd better do damage control with Jamie, just in case Rogue twists this all to Hell...or maybe I'd better just let it lie...who knows who convoluted this could become if I start yakking. _

Jean waited patiently while Kurt and Kitty slept. She knew Kurt's stomach would wake him before long, IV drip or no. Sure enough, before she had been there for half an hour, he stirred and blinked, his voice muzzy with sleep. "What're you doing here?"
"Visiting...Beast says you can leave when you feel up to it...your vitals are good and you just need to eat some more."
"My tail hurts like Hell..."
"How did it happen?" Jean leaned forward to look at his splinted tail. "It's all swollen."
"She threw him," Kitty said, her voice a little rough from sleep. "That woman threw him..." She struggled to sit up but winced as her stitches pulled, opting instead to roll onto her left side and blink at them before continuing. "Hey baby..."
"Katzchen," Kurt said softly, "I was so scared for you."
"For me? You're the one porting on empty and breaking important body parts..." She managed a smile and then made a face. "My mouth feels like I've been eating cotton."
"You sleep with your mouth open," Jean said with mild amusement.
Kurt grinned at his girlfriend. "She's right, you know...and you snore."
"Shut up, Fuzzy." Kitty chuckled softly and smiled. "I feel like Hell. How are you two?"
"Okay," Jean allowed.
"Been better...my tail is killing me more than anything." Kurt's stomach rumbled in testament to his hunger. "Er...and I'm a little peckish."
"My poor Elf...starving to death..." Kitty sighed, knowing full and well that now that they were back at the mansion, Kurt would not let himself starve. "What the Hell was all that down there?"
Jean sighed. "I can only tell you what I know. First, tell me what you remember?"
Kurt and Kitty exchanged glances. "We have to be honest, Liebes," he said quietly.
"I know..." Kitty focused on Jean and said "Promise you won't tell the Professor or Logan any of this?"
"Kitty, you know I have to tell them any new information you have that I couldn't give them..."
"Well, can you edit it then?" she asked almost desperately. She did not want or need either man knowing about the lust crazed session in the chamber, the strangeness of her responses still haunting her. Jean nodded and Kitty told her everything she could remember, from the detectives coming into the camp to Itzli leading them out, filling in all the gory details. Kurt would nod or murmur agreement as she spoke, corroborating Kitty's details for Jean's edification.
Jean stared at her hands as the story wound down, their story and hers converging in her mind to make whole cloth. "I'll tell you what I know...the woman calls herself Tlazolteotl1, which means Devourer of Sins or Goddess of Filthy Things, according to what the Professor found. She was the woman from the plane, Kitty, the one you got sick on. Itzli was the small man. He was the one staring at me on the plane and again on the bus. Itzli is another Aztec name and it's the name of a god of stone, knives and sacrifices. And I bet they were the ones who came to camp saying they were detectives..."
"My mind is fuzzy but I'm sure you're right," Kurt said.
"So do these people think they're gods or something? Are they mutants?" Kitty asked, concern clawing at her voice.
"They'd have to be, I think. I know my telepathy was blocked somehow, and one of them was messing with your minds so you couldn't recognize them..."
"Why did Itzli lead us out?" Kitty asked.
"He thinks I'm Quetzalcoatl2," Jean said bitterly. "The Professor thinks it's because I have red hair..."
"Huh?" the other two teenagers chorused.
"In human form, he's supposed to have red hair. He's also a feathered serpent and rises from the dead in a fiery apparition to signal new life in the coming year."
"Ah," Kurt said, making a moue of disbelief. "You...a god..."
Jean shrugged. "I don't think he's all stable...and there's no way to find him, either. Logan lost his scent in the jungle and that woman is gone."
"She vanished," Kitty murmured, her voice taking on a dreamy quality.
"Did they do anything about the boy? The one in the camp," Kurt said urgently.
Jean shook her head sadly. "He was gone when Logan found us. There was a body with me, where they had me...He'd been murdered, too..."
Kitty blinked. "Serial killers?"
"Doubtful," Kurt said quickly. "Too complex for a serial killer."
"All I know," Jean said with an edge in her voice, "is that the Professor is busting his ass to find out what the Hell went on down there. He wants to keep the authorities out of it if possible, but his friend, the real Professor Simpson, wants to call the authorities."
"Well," Kitty said, "it involved murder."
"And mutants," Jean said. "We're still unknown to most of the world. And the few who know of us either want us dead or want to use us for weapons or something."
"Point," Kurt said, his stomach rumbling again. "I need to eat..."
"Well, breakfast is still on the table if you hurry," Jean said, rising. "I'm going to go wrap some presents that I didn't get around to before we left. I'll see you guys in a bit."
When Jean was gone, Kitty murmured softly, "Kurt, come sit with me."
"What is it, Liebes?" he asked, sitting gently on the side of the bed. He took up Kitty's hand that lay outside the covers in both of his own and kissed it tenderly. "Are you in pain? Do you need something?"
Her other hand tightening on the box she held under the covers, Kitty smiled slowly. "Oh, I need _something _ ¸ alright." A glint came into her eyes that Kurt was growing to know quite well.
"Katzchen," he said hastily, "we shouldn't...you're hurt and I'm still weak...it'll only make it harder for us to heal. We can wait."
"No, I can't," she said petulantly. "I want you. Now." She freed her hand from Kurt's grasp and raked her nails up the inside of his thigh, her touch stirring responses that he strove to subdue. "_Now _ ."
"Kitty," he said firmly, his voice much calmer than his inner state, "no. Wait until tomorrow at least, to see how we feel. I can't give you all that you deserve 'm w'm weak. And I don't want you to be in pain or pull your stitches because we rushed. Please, Kitty...just wait?"
She glowered, her fingers toying with the fur peeking over the waistband of his pajama bottoms. "No." Without warning, her hand dropped to squeeze his semi-erect member through his pants.
Kurt gasped and closed his eyes, forcing thoughts of every boring subject imaginable through his mind to lessen her effect on him. "Katzchen, all I'm asking is that you respect my request...please..." _This isn't like her...what the Hell is going on? _
Kitty's eyes closed for a moment and her hand fell away from his body. She inhaled deeply as if just waking from a long sleep and finally looked back at him. "I'm so sorry," she said, flushing deeply. "I don't know what I was thinking! I'm so embarrassed!"
Kurt exhaled shakily and rubbed her arm in a gesture of affection. "It's okay...we've both been under a lot of stress and jus just wanted to do something life affirming, ja?"
"Yeah...that must be it," she sighed. Rolling onto her back, she pressed a kiss to the palm of his hand and said very softly, almost too quiet to hear, "I love you."
"Me, too..." He caressed the side of her face and traced a line to her collarbone, smiling at her pink flush. "I'm going to go eat, okay? Rest here...your stomach must be killing you."
"Yeah, a little...I'll be up later, I think. Go on ahead without me."
Kurt rose slowly, careful not to jostle her and kissed her on the corner of her mouth. "I'll be back. I promise."
Kitty lay very quietly in the semi-dark room for a very long time after Kurt left, staring at the white tile of the ceiling. The box in her hand felt heavy and warm, seeming to throb with it's own pulse in counterpoint to hers. _Lust is a sin, Kitty. Lust is a betrayal of purity... _ Her lips curved into a mockery of a smile as she stroked her thumb over the surface of the box. _Betrayal is a sin, too...sins must be punished... _
1 Pronunciation guide (about time, huh?)...Aztec names are hard to write phonetically, just so you know. Itzli= eetzlee, Tlazolteotl =tlah (say lah with a t in front of it) oh zee aw tul, Tlaloc- tlah lock, Micapetlacalli-Mic ah peh tul ah calli. Chicomecoatl- chee co meh co awtl. Centeotl-sin tee awtl
2 one more... Ketz ah co wawtl