Devourer of Sins

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

A/N Goddess Foxfeather, Queen of Mad Plotbunnies, don't look know but Kristen and Lucas are pilfering your pecans. Ted tried to stop them but a spat broke out between Dodo and Joris and well...it just wasn't pretty. InterNutter, TC and Maxwell Pink get hordes of elves that are more than happy to do their bidding for archiving! Readers/Few Reviewers: One of the ducks bit me! I wouldn't be worried except for the fact I think my toes are growing webbing...and I have the distinct urge to eat dry crackers thrown to me by old men...


_Okay. Enough of this crying, Jean Grey. Calm down. No use giving yourself a headache...if we can keep a clear head, we're more likely to get out of this in one piece. Kurt and Kitty are still out there somewhere and we're not going to leave them alone! Why am I speaking in plurals? _ Jean felt gross; her hair hung in lank clumps from her scalp, her skin felt oily, she smelled of sweat, dirt, and fear, myriad bruises and scrapes dotted her body from attempts to find an exit, and she had torn more than one nail to the quick from the efforts. The dead man was starting to smell, a faint sickeningly sweet odor that permeated the room. He had jerked in rigor mortis soon after Jean found him, making her scream until her throat was raw, images from every horror movie she ever saw dancing through her head until she finally screamed herself hoarse. Forcing herself to ignore the corpse, to ignore her body and its protest to the situation, Jean closed her eyes and sat against the wall, focusing on feeling safe, feeling confident. _I can do this. I am strong, I am a survivor...Damn it, I am a mutant. Nature made me to adapt! _ Gathering all of her energy, Jean let her mind flow, calling out to anyone who could hear her for help.

"Nothing here," Kurt called from the ceiling, dropping to land at Kitty's side.
"I've been over this room so many times I could draw it with my eyes closed," she sighed. "How the Hell do they get in and out of here?"
Kurt thought for a moment before answering carefully. "Maybe you're not the only one who can phase..."
Kitty bit her lip. "It's not exactly a common mutation. I mean, I'd expect a telepath or a telekinetic before someone who can phase. Maybe there's something we're not seeing, a hidden door..." Her eyes roamed the chamber restlessly, finally pausing on the dais. "Kurt...we didn't look here..." she murmured, her eyes never leaving the stone platform as she strode forward. It was painted like the rest of the room, mostly red, black and white with a bold mural, seemingly a continuation of the on ton the walls. Kitty dropped to her knees and ran her fingers over the flat stone surface before her, Kurt looming behind her in curiosity.
"Katzchen, I don't think there's a door in there...it's solid stone!"
"You're just guessing...for all we know it's hollow behind one of these panels. C'mon! Help me look!"
Kurt sighed. He had eaten the large bowl of food Kitty had given him, belatedly suspecting that she had forgone eating to make sure he did not get sick, but he still felt weak. Whatever the noxious gas was in the chamber they had fallen into had affected his night-senses, making him unable to get a fix on the magnetic lines around him or even smell Kitty's scent as he usually did, the complex layers of smell that were undetectable by those with less acute senses but drew Kurt to her like a bee to pollen. He closed his eyes against the now constant frustration he was feeling and knelt on the other side of the dais, feeling as Kitty was for an unseen door. "Nothing."
"Here either." Kitty's head popped into view over the stone surface. "There's something we're missing."
"Obviously..." Kurt looked over the dais at her and Kitty saw his eyes widen to near-perfect roundness.
"Eat," a low voice whispered.
Kurt was over the table in one leap, putting himself between Kitty and the snake-skirted woman. "Who are you?"
"Eat," she said a little louder. The slight man Kitty had seen earlier scurried to join the woman at her elbow. He nodded encouragingly to her, his stance shifting to one of protectiveness when he took in Kurt's demonic appearance.
"Kurt, they were here earlier...they didn't hurt me." Kitty laid a placating hand on Kurt's shoulder but he did not move. "Kurt..."
"Who are you?" he growled, pushing Kitty further behind him. The snake-woman sneered and shoved the bowls at him. Kurt stalked forward, crouching in an almost instinctual stance, prepared to spring forward if she so much as looked like she might attack them. "How did you get in here?"
The man was the one who spoke. "Stupid child! Do not approach the Goddess! She feeds you from her own hands and you repay her with insolence!" He moved so fast that Kurt was caught off guard. One moment, the man was standing at the woman's elbow, the next, he was on Kitty, pinning her to the ground, long, pink tongue snaking out to lick at her neck. "Do you know how sin tastes, Demon? Do you?" Kitty whimpered, frozen in shocked fear as the tongue again darted out to taste her skin.
Kurt howled in rage and lunged forward, jerking the man's head back with a snap. Kitty rolled away, crashing into the stone dais in the process, as Kurt fell back with the man in his grasp. She was feeling dizzy again, her mind trying to fill a hole in her memory that she had been unaware of before their entrapment. The snake woman had not moved but instead smiled, her full lips curving into an expression that made Kitty cringe. Kurt's tail lashed dangerously as the two men circled each other, too near Kitty for her comfort. She forced herself to her feet and backed against the platform, one eye on her boyfriend and one on the snake woman who was merely watching. "Goddess," Kitty said suddenly.
The woman snapped her eyes to the girl. "Eat," she hissed.
"Goddess of what?" Kitty challenged. "No goddess I know of has to trap children and torment them. Who are you really?"
The man froze, and Kurt with him. "Stupid girl," the man gasped.
Kitty knew exactly what he meant when the bowls clattered to the ground. The woman shifted and changed, growing while staying the same. Her presence filled the room as she became _more. _ The snakes on her skirt seemed to writhe to life as her aspect became first that of a young woman, then a temptress with flowing black hair and jewel-colored lips, then the form she had been in first, power oozing from her aura, then an ancient hag, terrible to behold. She roared tremendously, shifting to her original form, and reached out an impossibly long arm, Kitty dimly aware that it was an impossible feat for her to reach across three meters or more without moving, grabbing Kitty by the shirtfront and dragging her to face-level. "Know me, sinner. I am Tlazolteotl, devourer of sins. You are mine!"


The silence was deafening. Bobby, St John, Jubilee and Remy huddled on the divan, straining it's delicate Chippendale legs. Scott, Rogue, Lance and Amara were crowded onto a loveseat. Logan glared at both sets of teenagers, daring them to so much as breathe loudly. The Professor hove into view around the desk and finally broke the silence. "Things...did not go as we had hoped. While the food pantry duty will continue until the day after tomorrow, the bell ringing duty is canceled. Those who had bell duty will now assist in decorating the Institute for the holidays. Rogue, you will assist Logan with the repairs to the Blackbird. Bobby, St John, since you are staying with us for the holidays after all, you have a choice of helping to decorate or assisting at the food pantry."
"Professor," Scott piped up, only to be cut off by one raised finger from his mentor.
"Yes, Scott...you will still be assisting Nettie even though you were scheduled to be on bell duty for the remainder of the work session. I spoke with her just a few hours ago and she's very pleased with how you are all doing there."
Lance blushed deeply. Amara had taken to giving him "incentives" to work harder every time he grumbled or slacked, which, he admitted to himself, he had taken to doing quite often. "Only a few more days," he said out of the side of his mouth to Scott.
"A few more days of Nettie snarking at me all day!" he hissed back.
"Enough!" Logan snapped. Storm had yet to call that evening and he was feeling antsy, taking it out on his charges more than usual.
"Logan, calm down," the Professor murmured. "Now, are there any comments on your new duties?"
"No, sir," chorused several voices.
"Good...now, it's late. I suggest you all get some rest. Good night." He dismissed them with a genial nod.

"This sucks," Jubilee sighed. "Oh, higher!"
Remy smiled, shifting the pressure on her foot to her ankle, rubbing small circles with his thumbs. "Oh, it ain't a big deal, chere. Jus' some tinsel and some garland..."
"No, about Rogue being all bitchy! I didn't do anything to her and she jumps me!"
"Actually," Remy began inching his hands up her legs, so slowly that Jubilee did not really notice, "I know why she be all snappy."
"Oh? Care to enlighten me, Gumbo?" Jubilee settled back against the pillows as Remy caressed her knees with feather-light fingers.
"Sure, p'tite...she jealous."
"Jealous?" she snorted. "Of what? Todd's following her around like a lost puppy, she apparently adores him, though I can't figure out why..."
"Chere, he ain't followin' her 'round...he ain't here!" Remy pinned her with his gaze, smiling as the light of realization washed over Jubilee's features.
"Rogue misses Todd!" The idea was so amusing to her that she burst into gales of laughter. "She misses him!"
"Why dat be funny, chere?" Remy asked, faintly amused at her giggles. "She love him, he love her...c'est natural dat she miss him!"
"I just don't get it...Toad!"
"He ain't all bad..." Remy sighed, moving to rest his chin on her exposed thigh, the boxer shorts she wore to bed riding up enticingly.
"That's because you don't have to kiss him."
"Neither does Rogue...she wants to." Remy grinned up at her. "Like I wanna do ta you."
"Oh, really?" She tilted her chin in invitation.
"Well, mebbe not 'zactly like I wanna do ta you..." He turned his face so that his mouth brushed the inside of her thigh, her stifled gasp encouraging him to dart his tongue in tiny licks in a line up her leg until he reached the edge of her shorts, her center already radiating heat. "Defin'tly not what I wanna do ta you..."
"Remy," she sighed as his fingers worked inside the leg of her shorts, finding her damp warmth welcoming him. She arched to his touch and let her eyes close as he exposed more of her femininity, his tongue quickly joining his fingers in pleasuring her. She was reduced to sighs and mewls as Remy practically purred against her, his own sighs and rumblings of pleasure at her taste making her all the more wet with desire. In one slow movement, he slid two fingers inside her and began suckling the source of her desire in earnest, nipping and licking between long, slow sucks at the tiny bud of nerves at the juncture of her thighs. Jubilee clutcht tht the sheets in an effort to be quiet but failed, her gasp loud in her own ears. She cried his name, the sound torn from her throat as she released against his mouth, his fingers pumping in time with her internal contractions, his lips closing around her clitoris as she thrashed her head from side to side. He withdrew his touch and kissed her stomach, breathing harshly as he attempted to control his own desire to free himself from the constraints of his pants and take her hard and fast in his bed. There were several moments of gasping and murmured love-words as Jubilee regained her composure, dropping her hand to tangle in Remy's hair. "If she wants Toad to kiss her like that, I sure as hell don't want to know..."
"Cherie, you got one sick mind..."
"He does have that tongue, though..." Whatever else she was going to say was cut off in a rain of kisses, both participants falling into the activity with enthusiasm.

"Xavier Institute for Gifted...a-CHOO!" Original Jamie said thickly into the receiver.
"Yes, I'm looking for Charles Xavier...is he in please? This is Professor Theo Simpson."
"Hold on a sec..." Jamie put the phone on the table and shuffled to the door, sneezing twice in the process. "Professor!" he croaked.
Lance stuck his head around the corner. He had taken it upon himself, though he could not figure out why, to make sure Jamie was doing okay while he recovered. "What do you need him for?"
"Phone..."
"I'll get him. You get back to bed. If you're still sick on Christmas, I'm kicking your ass."
"Yes, sir," Jamie said, oddly comforted by Lance's attentions. He was slow enough to hear Lance call for the Professor, then hang up the phone in the study.
"Theo...I was thinking about calling you...How are the children doing?" Professor Xavier was settling in for a companionable chat with an old friend, nearly dismissing his apprehensiveness of the previous day.
The voice across the line was tinny with a poor international connection but his Boston accent was strong. "What're you on about? They're with you...that's why I called, to see if maybe you could free them up for later in the break, before they have to go back to school."
"Theo, I'm confused," the Professor felt very ill all of a sudden. "I sent them to Mexico four days ago..."
"Someone called me at my office at the university four days ago, said they were you...they said something had come up and Kurt, Kitty and Jean couldn't make it. They were tied up with school work or something." The line fell silent for a long moment. "Charles..."
"I'll be there in the morning."