Devourer of Sins

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

A/N Goddess Foxfeather, I'm sending Billy and Joaquin over with rubber mallets to beat your computer up with. Just to warn it about what'll happen if it crashes on ya again... InterNutter, TC and Maxwell Pink are superwonderful for archiving. Readers/Reviewers: The feedback monster is happy. Thank you. And might I add, QUACK!!!!!!!!!!



"I don't understand, Theo..." The Professor rubbed his temples wearily.
"Who else would know they are mutants? Who else would want them for..." Logan trailed off. He did not want to even think about what sort of purposes people would pick up teenagers for, even if they had no special powers.
Theo grimaced. "I know of a handful of mutants in central America. I'm sure there's more, but down here, their secrets are more closely guarded. Superstition runs rampant in the villages and hinterlands; people are more likely to cite demonic possession or curses than they are in New York."
"Where's the site you were working on?" Logan said, his own head throbbing in a tension headache. Kitty was out there somewhere, as were Kurt and Jean, and he felt like he had failed them somehow, like the deception had been his fault. _If I had just flown them down here myself, this would never have happened... _
"It's called Templo de Muerte, Temple of Death. It's thought to be the site of Aztec sacrifices....oh."
Professor Xavier rolled forward, leaning intently towards the other professor. "What is it?" Already, his mental fingers were questing, seeking what Theo knew.
"It's just that...I didn't even think to look for them there when you first told me they had come down already. What if they went ahead down there?"
"Who could've taken them?" Logan said. "These kids don't know their way around the Mexican jungle..."
"I don't know!" Theo sighed.
"Yes," Professor Xavier stated, "you do."
"What? How could I?" Logan was advancing menacingly and Theo was shaking. "I have no idea..."
"One of your workers...dark hair, olive complexion...you caught him one day in the recesses of the temple, he was talking to himself..."
"Yes...yes..." Theo nodded, the memory that was a ghost of a thought coming back full-force under the Professor's guidance. "He started raving about the secrets of the gods and needing to raise them from their sleep...I fired him on the spot after I caught him stealing one of the obsidian blades we had found in the altar area."
"Why do you think he has something to do with this?" Logan asked, catching the Professor's train of thought.
Theo shook his head. "I don't know...he just seemed strange, a little off. He kept going on about the old gods like they really existed, saying he needed young flesh to sacrifice to them, to make them alive...I mean, who believes in gods like that anymore?"
"Well, we live with a weather goddess," Logan mumbled, turning to pace to the window. "How would he have known about you having these three down here?"
"The only way is if he had been in my office and seen the itinerary. Or he's a telepath..." his weak chuckle faded away as Professor Xavier raised a brow. "Yeah..."
"Have you notified the authorities?" the Professor asked.
"No...you?"
"Not as of yet...I'm not sure what we're dealing with here and I hesitate to bring in outside help if this is something we can do on our own."
"Charles, we should call the authorities...The embassy needs to be notified that there are American students missing and..."
"Let me," the Professor said, stemming Logan's prepared statement about Kurt's appearance. "Theo, one of the students has a visible mutation. He...well, he is blue. With a tail, pointed ears, tridactyl hands and feet, and digigrade legs."
"And fur," Logan put in.
Theo Simpson stared for a long moment. "Oh. Well. I see...."
Logan cracked his neck loudly and sighed. "Look, Chuck, it'd be easiest if I went down to this Temple of Death place and scouted it out...you and Theo here can stay in the city and...do something."
"Logan, I really think it's best that I come with you."
"Charles," Theo said, "at the risk of being rude, this site is not exactly wheelchair accessible."
_You're slipping, old boy. Missed a prime piece of logic there... _ "Of course. I wasn't thinking. I'll contact Storm and Hank back at the Institute and keep them apprised of the situation. For now, we'll go with your plan, Logan."
Logan nodded. "Of course we will..."

Kurt did not think. Kitty's scream pierced the drug-induced stupor he was in, his subconscious crying for him to help her, move, save her. He did not stop to think of the effects of teleporting after days of poor nutrition, how his body would react to commands after being drugged, or even if he would survive the 'port. He just did it, oozing to the floor like Jello as he popped into Kitty's dimension. Kitty's scream still echoed off the walls, the guttering torches hissing and spitting in counter point to the ringing of her shrill cry. Forcing himself to his feet, Kurt took several staggering steps towards Tlazolteotl, her hands raised over her head as she murmured a soft chant, swaying in time with the words. "Sollte es nicht eigentlich ein Jungfrauenopfer sein?"1 he managed, swallowing the urge to vomit. He could not see Kitty past the woman's bare back but he did not like sme smell of the room, coppery and salty mixed with the dark smell of wet earth and stone and the acid of pitch.
The woman paused, cocking her head to one side as if trying to process Kurt's words. She turned slowly, her smile a red gash in her dark features. "That is your sin, is it not? What good would a virgin do for me? They are pure, you are not."
She took a gliding step forward and Kurt saw Kitty then, her eyes rolled back in her head and pale, sweat standing out like beads of diamonds on her skin. His eyes swept downward and he fell to his knees, unable to stop himself. The cut across her abdomen was clotting slowly, garish red and black in the flickering light. She was breathing, the air hitching in her lungs, and he could see her body shaking in fear and shock. "Katzchen," he gasped.
"She is not done yet...she still lives. I cannot take her while she cries-it sullies the sacrifice.2" Tlazolteotl frowned, and for the first time Kurt noticed the blade in her right hand. He stayed on his knees but crept forward a few inches, his eyes flashing between Kitty and the obsidian blade. "You will bring much power to me, blue one. You are rare indeed. Your sin is deeper, more giving, than hers. She is merely a harlot, debasing sacred space with her animal lusts. You...you have sinned greatly and must pay."
_I am really liking Confession now... _ "Who're you to say that I've sinned?" Kurt hissed, circling to the left. The woman kept herself between him and Kitty, though, fouling Kurt's initial plan.
"I am the Devourer of Sins," she said simply. "The Eater of Filth. You make me live." With a sudden, fluid movement, she slashed out with the knife. Kurt, though weak, was quick. He dodged away and as her arm passed his face, he latched on, wrapping his own long arms around hers like a limpet, sinking his teeth into the dark flesh there. "Heathen!" she screeched, her muscles like iron beneath Kurt's grip. His jaw ached from hanging on but he remained clamped to her, her blood slowly seeping into his mouth, making him gag. She dropped the knife and flung her arm, trying to send him flying but only succeeding in tearing her flesh when his weight made his teeth sink deeper.
"Kurt..." Kitty managed to husk, "help..." Her eyes were glazed and unseeing, her skin still pale and beaded with shock-sweat. Kurt growled low, his grip slipping from the woman's arm as she shook him one last time before shifting through her forms, each more terrible than the last. As a crone, she wrenched her arm forward and Kurt finally fell free, hitting the floor with a thud and a howl of pain. This was how Jean found them.
The first scream had reached Jean's ears faintly, layers of stone shielding the full impact. Kurt's howl, though, was nearly deafening. She was behind Itzli, his hand pressed to a massive stone door, when Kurt let loose his sound of pain. "Now," she hissed, thumping the man on the back without thinking. Itzli slid the door open and Jean bit back a scream of her own, the sight before her more horrifying than anything she could have imagined. "Kitty!" she cried, shoving Itzli aside and sprinting forward only to hit an invisible wall.
"You dare..." Tlazolteotl growled, blood dripping dark as rubies down her arm.
Itzli threw himself to the ground in a servile gesture, shouting "Goddess, it is the Feathered One! The Great Serpent walks among us!" Jea Jean tried to draw herself tall, mimicking every regal and arrogant gesture she had seen Amara make when seeking authority. The woman merely looked steadily at her. "You have not risen yet...your power is weak."
"But it's still my power," Jean countered, having no idea what she was claiming. _For all I know, she'll expect me to shoot lightening bolts from my eyes or something. _ She concentrated and felt the floor fall away from her feet; she rose until her head nearly touched the ceiling and scowled down at the assembled group, not missing Kurt's grimace of pain and Kitty's pants for breath, concern for her friends gnawing at her self control. "Let them go. They aren't worthy to...to sacrifice."
"You're wrong," the Goddess crooned. "They're very worthy...very...you cannot rise until the blood is poured for your ritual. I cannot help you until I am strong. They are impure and must be cleansed."
_This is going to be ugly. _ "Itzli," Jean said sharply, "free them."
"I cannot!" the man cried. "They belong to Tlazolteotl!"
Jean rolled her eyes inwardly. "If you truly believe I am your god, do it!" Itzli rose shakily and cringed before her and the other woman, his mind a visible wheel turning in confusion. Kurt was using the edge of the altar to brace himself as he stood, cradling his tail, visibly swollen and bent at an odd angle. _If I can keep that crazy bitch distracted, maybe Kurt can get Kitty untied... _
The bleeding woman sighed and began to sway, holding her hands out as if catching rainwater. Itzli murmured loud enough for Jean to hear "She is asking the gods for guidance...she thinks you are a pretended...she supplicates the Flayed One, the god of Sacrifice, to come and take the skin from her chosen ones as a sign she is doing the will of the heavens."
Jean nodded. "Er...yeah..." _C'mon, Kurt... _ The psychic blocks she had encountered earlier were minimal so she sent mental fingers out to guide Kurt's hand, help him unbind Kitty. They had released on arm from the ropes when Tlazolteotl's eyes snapped open and fixed directly on Jean's own.
"Yes...I see...I will...Devour from within..." she said softly. Whirling in a blur of skirts and skin, she threw Kurt back from the altar and grabbed the box from it's resting place on Kitty's sch. ch. Jean lowered herself to the floor, already moving towards the other woman, when the weird part happened. Tlazolteotl placed her fingers in the gash across Kitty's body and one hand on the box, threw her head back, and was gone. No smoke, no flash of light, just...gone. Kitty shuddered, coughed hard, then screamed, her body bending nearly double as if in great pain. As her scream died out, she fell flat on the altar and blinked blearily.
"I want to go home," she finally said. Kurt hid his tail from her view and leaned over Kitty, pressing kisses to her eyelids and his hand to her shoulder, careful of the cut. "I love you," she murmured against his mouth.
Jean peered at the gash. It was not deep, just long and wicked-looking. The edges were already red with infection, worrying Jean. "Itzli," she said, looking around for the slight man. He stood from his heap on the floor, tears streaking his face.
"I have failed her! The Goddess will punish me!"
"I'll protect you, Itzli..." Jean sighed. "Can you lead us out of here?"
"Of course," he said simply, raising his eyebrows in surprise. "Has it been so long since you were among us that you cannot find the way from your own temples?"
"I would rather you show me...er, to prove your worth." Jean hated this. _Why couldn't he pick a god I know? Something simple-Aphrodite, Athena...something we read in school... _
"I'll show you the way free. Great One," he said, moving closer, "but you must promise me shelter from the Master."
"The Master?"
'The one who controls us all..." Itzli shuddered. "Protect me from him!"
"We'll protect you," Jean finally agreed. "Just get us out!"
"Follow me, then!" he cried, scooping Kitty from the altar easily. Jean and Kurt exchanged glances and she offered him her shoulder to lean on. "Come on! The Master will be here soon!"
"Tell the Master we couldn't wait,"3



1 Isn't it supposed to be a virgin sacrifice?
2 Only sacrifices to Tlaloc, the Rain God and God of Waters, were permitted to cry since their tears were thought to encourage rain. They were usually small children as they were thought to bring the most water from their tears.
3 Old joke...if you want to know it, email me and I'll send it to you. The punchline is tell so and so we couldn't wait...