Switch by KJ Kabza (M/M & F/F): a really interesting short story about angels without sex. Corusc is angel who is questioning the “no emotion” rule angels imposed on themselves, and every night he goes down on Earth misguised as Tentatio, a sex demon. And every morning he goes back home, in Heaven, trying to understand if he is alone in his feelings; in Heaven he is attracted to Nix, another angel, the only angel who seems to acknowledge him, who seems to have question in her eyes she is not able to formulate. I decided to use “he” for Corusc and “she” for Nix, since that is the gender they decided to take the first time they will meet in a sexual way, but actually both Corusc than Nix switches sexes more than once during this story, and they are actually without gender. In a way they are supposed to be without gender like they are supposed to be without emotions, but in the end, both assumptions will be wrong, and they will have to accept sex/gender as they will have to accept emotions.

Give & Take by Karen Cobb (M/M): Raphael and Sammael, Heaven and Hell, Dominant and submissive; it’s a play of give & take with them, Raphael gives to Sammael that punishment Sammael thinks he deserves, and that is for him, he thinks that is the barther, that Raphael is doing it out of love for him. Sammael doesn’t know that Raphael needs their meetings as much as Sammael needs them, and that the pleasure he receives in delivering the punishment is preventing him to deliver the same treatment to those other more innocent souls needing the kind Raphael; the dark one, the one who takes pleasure in Sammael, is someone he reserves only for their meetings, and so the give & take game is working both way.

Messengers by Tanya Ashbury (F/F): a story for of hope for peace among people, Huli Jing is a fox demon belonging to the ancient far east religion, while the stork woman is a Catholic angel. They meet and love at the site where people are building a new temple, and in the end, the temple will be devoted to the Virgin Mary, probably influenced by the presence of the female Angel among the builder, but in the end, the temple will welcome people from all religions, as it did for the fox demon and the stork angel at the beginning. And if the temple is also the place where the fox and the stork can meet again and again, then there is also romance other than hope.

Breathing Brimstone by Theorian D. Graves (M/M): a mix of erotica with a tinge of horror, it’s again the meeting of an Angel and a Demon, Hael and Amon, Hael the white, Amon the dark, Hael the innocent, Amon the devious. Again, the allure of wickness will be stronger than the cold satisfaction of being pure, Hael will realize that being Amon’s lover is a more passionate way of living. There is only one regret I have for him, that Hael was indeed different from the other emotionless angels, and that is also the reason why Amon spares him at first; Hael proved that he had his own judgement and that things were not black or white for him. But now that Amon bonds with him, he turned the Angel in a full Demon, and where before you could have accused Angels to not being able to see the wicked shades of life, now you could say the same, Demons are not able to distinct the pureness of an heart, for them if you are not a Demon than you are the enemy.

Seduced by Kate Vassar (M/M): who is seducing whom? Samael, a fallen angel, is trying to seduce Gabriel, one of the favourite archangel of God. Samael is convinced that, if he manages to seduce him, then he will prove that God themselves is wrong, that there is no meaning for Paradise. But step by step, while he is seducing Gabriel, the archangel continues to “behave” in the name of God, he continues to say that God is forgiving, that if Samael wants he can come back home, home in the arms of God, and as a consequence, in the arms of the same Gabriel. Who will be the winner in the end? Who will seduce whom? The tone of this story is less dark than the previous ones, actually sometime it was even sweet, and even if there will be a seduced and a seducer, I don’t feel there is a winner and a loser, both of them achieve what they want.

At the Crossroads by Monique Poirier (M/M): this story closes the anthology with a bow; a Demon whore and an Angel warrior, this time there is the nice contraposition that the stronger one is the Angel, while the Demon is blind and at the mercy of the other man. The story is told on a first point of view from both men, and it’s interesting to see how the Angel is seeing the lust that is pushing him towards the Demon like something of unnatural, like he is imposing himself on the “poor” Demon, and instead the Demon is considering the Angel like a gift of God (pun intended), like the first good thing he received in a long time. In the end, they will find a satisfying agreement for both of them, but an agreement that seems to me like a blessing for the Demon.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004WDZX5I/?tag=elimyrevandra-20