stone bender

Nathaniel looked through the small dingy window in the door.  

“Lovely, Shiv.”  The angel didn’t bother to hide an ounce of bitterness.  “This is what was so important for me to see?”  He looked over at Shiv skeptically.  “Not like you to rub it in.”

The demon did his best to hide an expectant smile, but couldn’t mask the excitement in his voice as he pointed to the girl passed out on a pallet in the gray room behind the door.  

“Look again, Nate.  Can’t you see it?  Christ, can’t you smell it in her?”  

He let that float for a second.  He could tell by the way the angel’s eyes had started to burn that he’d gotten the picture.  But because he was the type to rub it in, regardless of what Nate might have thought, he kept going.

“Can’t you smell me in her?”  He’d leaned in close, and asked it with a lover’s whisper.

Nathaniel’s reaction was priceless, and exactly the sort of thing Shiver loved about his adversary and friend.  The angel had backed away, but only slightly, his eyes flaring and teeth exposed.  If his wings had been showing, Shiv was certain they’d be flexing a little.  It made the demon smile.  It made the demon lick his lips.  It wasn’t that he wanted to antagonize Nate, but the rage pouring out of the warrior angel was exquisite.

“Damn you, spawn.”  He hissed, leaning forward as his stance widened.

Shiv smiled even wider, tilting his head.  “If you could arrange that, I’d be most grateful.”

The angel was having none of it.  He’d have reached for the pommel of his sword if it wasn’t so damned anachronistic (not to mention illegal) to be wearing one.  

“I should just kill you.” Nathaniel managed to growl through gritted teeth.

The demon nodded, not in the least concerned with the threat.  But he dropped the levity, locking serious eyes with the angel.

“And it would be very noble of you to die trying.  But it would do nothing to help this girl in her plight.” 

  He looked back at her, patently disregarding the angel as a threat.  It had long ago been established who was the stronger of the two, and time had done nothing if not tip the balance of power even more into his favor.  He let the angel calm himself before he looked back.  Nathaniel glowered at him, but seemed to have gathered his wits.

“What game are you playing, Shiver?  Why do you want me here?”

The demon nodded.  This was good.  Wether the angel chose to see it or not, this bright eyed, scheming and suspicious state was Nathaniel’s place of power.  And he needed nothing if not for this angel to be well-grounded at the moment.  Not that he would ever let on to any living creature that he needed Nathaniel.  And maybe, to be honest, need wasn’t precisely the right term.  More like very badly wanted what the angel was capable of giving.  Enough to make a deal that he would never, ever admit to making.  So Shiver gave his best dirty grin, and prepared himself to lose a bet he had no intention of winning.

“Haven’t claimed her yet, angel.  Thought I’d give you a shot at it.  You seemed kinda low the other day.  Figured this might cheer you up.  If you think you’re up for it.”

Nathaniel shook his head.  “Not yours?  You’ve impregnated her, you bastard.  She’s practically yours by default.  I bet a single sentence could claim her.”

Less than that.  But he had been very careful not to let it happen.  Especially after…  He shrugged again, letting his voice drop.  “She’s wide open, Nate.   A true believer after everything I’ve done to her.  Primed to believe anything that walks through that door.  Show yourself to her, give her what she needs, and she won’t just follow you wherever you lead.  She will never stop giving her love to you.  You have the makings of a damned miracle cult, here.  Fatima all over again.  Or who was the one with the passions?  Hell, you could end up giving rise to your own little saint.”

He loved blaspheming around his angel friend.  It pushed him.  Shiv liked to think it reminded him of all the counterfeit claims that had been made in order for that little human-angel symbiotic relationship to exist.  At least as a demon, he always knew his role was counterfeit, from inception to disillusion.  After all, he was a parasite.  He only needed one moment of agreement from his prey.  And he never had to promise an eternity of bliss to have his needs met.  Angels were so fucking complicated.  Thinking about it always filled him with mirth.

Nate was not amused.  Probably knew exactly where the demon’s mind was wandering.  Not like they’d never spoken of it.  Not like the angel had ever hidden his outraged disgust at the nature of demons, either.  It kept them on common ground, this mutual disdain.  

The angel shook his head.  “You make it sound like a walk in the park.  Again, demon.  She’s carrying.  There’s nothing ever-so-simple about that.  You’ve touched her in deeper ways than I really want to consider, and in order to fix it, I’d have to do the same.  What in god’s name makes you think I would want anything to do with that mess?”

Nate liked to blaspheme as well.  But his reasons for it were something the demon didn’t bother delving into.

Shiv smiled again.  “Oh, come on.  Not like it would be the first nephilim to grace this planet.  Not like it would even be your first, skinwalker.”

That was old history.  The kind the angels and the church had had to work very, very hard to re-write.  Much to the amusement of onlooking demons.  And not at all to Nathaniel’s amusement.  Probably not the kind of argument Shiv should have brought up, but a certain degree of permissiveness in the back of one’s mind, even if it had been consciously denied, could grease wheels unexpectedly.  Sometimes.  Although by the look on the angel’s eyes, it might not work in his case. 

Nate shook his head and answered vehemently.  “And there’s a whole bunch of damn good reasons why we stopped doing it, bottom-feeder.  The last thing I want to deal with is a child.”

Bottom-feeder. Well, he guessed had deserved that for bringing up the whole flesh-bound issue with an angel.  They were very proud of the purportedly selfless reasons why they stayed in the mire, and hated being reminded of times when they had gotten a little… selfishly carried away.  And the insult was true, anyway.  Earth-bound demons were the bottom of the demonic food chain.  But Shiv liked it that way.  He liked the dance with these delicate and delectable humans.  He didn’t really care to be in hell, constantly measuring his dick against every asshole who wanted to take a bite of him.  At least here he stood a good chance of being the one to end up with a full belly when another demon got too frisky.

He hoped the angel had enjoyed the dig.  He hoped Nate thought that he had scored a point against him, because he needed a good reason to start playing hardball without the crafty angel wondering about Nate’s insistence.  He looked away from the angel, bringing his face so close to the window that his nose nearly touched it.  Shiver was very careful not to let Nate look him in the eyes as he spoke.  There was way too much that angel could read, as unmentionable emotions threatened to break through his act.

He let his voice get very quiet.  He knew every word would be heard.  “Look at that girl, Nate.  She may not be pure, but she is innocent.  Sure, I can keep her alive on my blood, but you know what will happen if she brings the child to term, don’t you?”  He paused briefly, speaking before Nate could muster a response.  “Her flesh is too soft, Nathaniel.  Eventually, the child will chew its way out of her.  It will eat her from the inside out.” 

There was an edge of horror to his voice that surprised him.  What right had he to feel horror about the nature of his kind?  He should be applauding his own act.  He should be looking forward to that feast of pain and torment.  Shiver hoped that Nathaniel would interpret the tone as a dramatic flare.  Not good to show weakness, even in front of an enemy who had become a sort of comrade after the millennia they had shared. 

Apparently, the angel either hadn’t noticed or discredited the demon’s inconsistencies.  His eyes had narrowed as he stood next to Shiv, looking in the window as well.  His response was a pissed-off whisper, much to the demon’s relief.

“So that’s the game, eh?  Forcing me to procreate, to bring that sort of chaos into the world, in order to save her life? You know how much that would bind me to her.  Do you intend on stealing her from me after that?”  He turned to face Shiver, leaning in the way the demon had done earlier, the fire in his eyes now colored with amused self-confidence.  “Do you really think you could?”

Although he wouldn’t let it show, the truth was that Shiver wouldn’t begin to presume.  After she met that holy fucking bliss, what could he possibly have to offer that would even compare?  Sure, a demon could steal a soul that an angel had claimed, but he had taken the girl all the way down the rabbit hole, had shown her way too much of him for her to harbor any doubts about his nature, and consequently, any doubts about Nathaniel’s as well.  And the things Nate was going to do to patch up Shiv’s mistake, well, that would pretty much seal the deal with even the hardest bitten soul.

Shiver smiled as he looked back at the angel, letting him think that he’d figured out exactly what the nature of Shiv’s plans had been.  He played the best cocky and arrogant bastard that he could, answering as if he was sharing a private joke.

“Well, I did say I missed having a challenge, didn’t I?”

Nate let one of his beautiful smiles slide out as he shook his head.  “This is one game you aren’t going to win, hell-spawn.  You don’t stand a chance.”

Shiver hid the flood of relief that washed over him.  The creature had taken the bait.  Halle-fucking-lujah.  He grinned like he liked the challenge, and nodded toward the girl.  Nathaniel chuckled as he turned the knob and slid inside.  The angel was glowing, no doubt with some beneficent light, no doubt burning away the cloudy muddled high that demon blood induced.

The girl sat up and watched him slide to his knees in front of her.  By the time he had his face in her hands, tears were pouring down her face.  They were both lit golden, and he leaned in close so that they sat, foreheads touching, as her shoulders shook from the memories that were surely now coursing through her.

Shiver turned away, walking slowly, feeling complete confidence in the angel’s skills.  He was going to purify the girl.  He was going to wash away her sins, her sorrow and her shame.  He was going to help her understand how she had been tricked and coerced, and eventually by some trick that he could never, ever understand, he was going to end up slipping his angelic dick between her legs, and she was going to think of it as some sort of exquisite consecration.  But at least by the end of it she wasn’t going to be eaten alive by her own fetus. 

Shiver had yet to figure out why he even cared in the first place.  He could have just killed the girl after things had gone sideways, that would have solved the whole problem without having to turn to the enemy for help.  But something about that just didn’t sit right with him.  And he did have to admit, although he had no idea what sort of abomination Nathaniel was on his way to helping him create, its birth would most likely cause one hell of a ruckus on three distinct planes of existence.  And if there was anything Shiver was all for any longer, it was chaos.  On a large scale.

But that had not been his intention when he had walked that girl into the dingy back room of the abandoned warehouse.  He had seen her as a meal.  Not a physical meal, he had no intentions on chewing on that lovely pale skin of hers.  Much.  But lately he had found himself capable of feeding off of emotions with much more ease than he used to.  And this girl was an absolutely delectable combination of tormented feelings.

It never ceased to amaze him at the hell these creatures could put each other through with no help whatsoever from his kind.  Then again, that was probably what had attracted his kind to this plane in the first place.  That and the human capacity to feel so intensely…

Can you feel that? He had asked as he let his tail slip up her spine.  He had let her see it, had let her see his horns as well after he had given her a taste of his blood.  She had shaken. He had felt her shudder as he held her, his dick hard against her belly, that powerful tail pushing her against him.

Fucking a human was no complicated matter.  Fucking a human without killing them in the process was.  It had taken all the self control he had to keep her alive.  His blood running through her also helped.  It kept her pliant and submissive, which helped keep him from going completely feral and tearing her heart out as demons so often did while screwing.  The self-control had been well worth it.  Her feelings had been so powerful, so amazing as she squirmed against him, not fighting him, but fighting her own self.  

Feeling it.  She felt his tail, and knew exactly what it was.  She felt his tail and fought with all her might not to, and not to feel that urgent hunger welling up inside of her, and not to feel the shame that came right along with it. 

He had nurtured that shame over the previous weeks.  He had worked very diligently to reach this moment, where he was her drug and she had to see herself for the sick little junky she had become.  He made her slide down to her knees.  He made her hold his substantial dick devotionally, let her feel it, let the fear sink in with the knowledge that having all of him inside of her was going to hurt, and that having all of him inside of her was something she wanted more than air.  He laughed as her tears fell on him, commenting that she was lucky he wasn’t showing her his real size.  He didn’t mention that if he had, she would have died before he could have had much fun at all, having actually cleaved her in twain.

He fed on her torment, delighted in the bounty she provided.  The girl was a damned tidal wave of pain and guilt and shame and hunger.  Self hatred and the desire for debasement struggled with the very real fear over what he was and what he was doing to her.  What he could do to her.  He let that terror rise as well, giving her glimpses of his true essence as she groaned helplessly under his hands and mouth.

He had lost track of himself, at some point.  Lost track of time and almost everything other than fucking, feeding, and not killing.  He had found delight in the way that he could make her beg in spite of herself, in the way that she could sob and come at the same time, begging for more while moaning in agony.  Oh, it was all far too delightful.

Which brought him to the point when his dick was buried to the hilt inside of her.  She was pinned against him, on him as he stood.  Her feet couldn’t touch the ground and her thighs had lost the strength to grip his waist.  She could hardly move, but even her breath caused waves of violent sensation, and she was moaning quietly.  She begged him not to make her move, and he smiled indulgently.  And just as she relaxed and slipped that much more into him, he slid his tail down her spine again.  And let it slide further down.

She shed more tears, then, but begged him not to stop as he feigned concern.  He slid inside her ass, and she tried to accommodate until she couldn’t anymore, until she was completely defenseless against him and knew herself to be utterly powerless.  That break, that moment he had been waiting for.  After all, she had fancied herself a strong and proud young thing when he had met her.  Now she had to see herself for the soft and defenseless animal she really was.  He drove the moment home as he rubbed against that bundle of nerves deep in her ass, making her come despite herself again and again.

All that tightening, the shudders and the squeezing had done the trick on the impersonation of a human dick he wore.  He came.  And came again.  And kept at it as she sobbed and screamed for more, until his seed was running down their legs.  He had to laugh, he had to set her down and make her feel how much of him was inside of her.  He slid his tail back up her ass as he slid her fingers into herself, so that she could feel herself come, and feel his seed spill into her hand.  There was shame in that as well, yes.  And in her desire to smear it over her body.

But then there had been a moment of absolute terror.  A panic which went beyond the moment, and she had asked in a startled tone if he could get her pregnant.  This was truly the moment of his ruination.  If she had not believed that it was possible, her body would not have accepted his seed.  That was the way of things with his kind.  The female has to take in the seed, in mind as well as body. Repeatedly. All he would have had to do was to tell her that it was impossible.  It was a very simple lie for one of his kind to tell.

But her fear, her spiritual fear, that very big feeling of fear for things beyond just that moment in that room… well, he couldn’t turn his back from it.  So he made a believer out of her, convincing her, coming repeatedly into her, willing her body to find itself in the right term.  He conceived with the girl, not out of some perverse desire to kill the girl in the most excruciating way possible, not out of some deep instinctual need to spawn, and certainly not as part of some devious master plan to fuck with an angel he might have considered a friend.  It had been a mistake.  He had lost his head.  He had let his appetite, hell, he had let his dick do the thinking.

And that was why he let her live.  That was why he destroyed an eons old friendship.  Demons might not believe in atonement, guilt or penance, but they sure as hell believed in punishment.  And utter stupidity deserved punishment.  Not that he was about to admit his actions to anyone, as a show of weakness that magnificent would bring assholes crawling out of the woodwork for a piece of him.  Nor was he about to go whip himself in a closet.  Honestly, he didn’t feel that bad about it.  He doubted he fundamentally could feel that bad about it, as guilt just simply was not a demon thing.  But he did figure he deserved to forfeit this little girl.  And forfeit her in a big way.

He breathed deep as he let the warehouse door slam shut behind him and walked into one of those glorious days that had him wondering if there actually was some sort of an intelligence behind the creation of the world he walked in.  He didn’t doubt, however, that if there was a grand creator out there somewhere, that bastard had nothing to do with him.  Or that angel who was most likely blessing the brains out of that messed up girl behind him.  The girl, on the other hand, well, she was all his.  And maybe this was all His way of messing with these interloping otherworldly creatures who had come to steal away all those pretty pretty souls he had created.

Because the dirty truth of it was that neither he nor Nathaniel nor any other angel or demon had any right to claim a single soul they took.

okay, I lied. One more thing..  Here’s an excerpt of the latest work of trash lit I am producing…..

“What… the… fuck?!”  Rain was practically panting with rage.

Trevor tried to stay calm.  “Easy, Rain.  Calm down.  Nothing happened… It was nothing.”

Rain let go and stepped back, but he was still nearly yelling.  “Nothing?  I can smell her, Trevor.  I can smell her all over you.  I can smell what you were– Fucking Christ!  What the hell were you thinking?!?  Nothing happened?  It’s a goddamned miracle you’re still alive!”

Trevor stayed right were he was, backed up against the wall.  He knew he should probably just keep his mouth shut, but he wasn’t in the mood to play meek.  “Yeah, well, I’m not dead, and it’s over, so can we just get past this?”

“Get past this?  Fine.  Let me just kill the bitch and then I’ll get past it.”  Rain took a few steps to the balcony, but stopped short at Trevor’s shout.

“No!  Leave her alone, Rain.  She didn’t come to hurt me.  She’s on our side, Rain.  Or at least she’s on Gin’s side.  He didn’t kill her, and he warned her that she was getting played.  I guess she felt she owed him.”  Something in his gut warned him to leave the whole crush business out of it.  He had a feeling that would go down as smooth as drano.

Rain barked out a short laugh.  “And she came to show her gratitude by fucking you?  You do realize how that show usually ends, don’t you?”

Trevor couldn’t quite make eye contact.  “Yeah, Rain.  I know.  She just came to try to warn me.  The rest was my idea.”

Rain wasn’t dense on any day.  Trevor knew what the stunned silence meant.  He just waited for Rain to absorb it.

Rain had cooled considerably by the time he spoke.  His voice was quiet, but it held a dangerous edge.  “Did you know you weren’t going to die, Trevor? Before you let the little cunt strip you naked?”  

Even though the smartass in him wanted to, Trevor didn’t point out that that wasn’t exactly the order it happened in.  He just shook his head and braced himself.  Rain let out a cold hiss and turned his back, holding his head with his hands.  Trevor could tell Rain’s teeth were clenched when he finally did speak.  What he hated to hear was that little broken edge in the kid’s voice.

“Did you want to die, Trevor?”  Trevor could damn the kid.  Just like that, he wanted to do anything possible to make things better.  Rain just sounded so hurt.

He shrugged and mumbled a reply.  “It wasn’t like that.  It just… happened.”

“How come she didn’t kill you?”  Was that suspicion Trevor heard?  Was the whole wounded-child bit just an act? As if he wasn’t on edge enough as it was.

Trevor swallowed, shaking his head.  “I don’t know, Rain.  I was almost dead, and then, all of a sudden, I wasn’t.  It was like something else took over in me, and then she wasn’t killing me anymore.  She couldn’t kill me.”

Rain was piercing him with his gaze.  “Just like that, Trevor?  Something happened and poof you’re indestructible?”

Well, when he put it that way it did sound pretty ridiculous.  All Trevor could do was nod.  Rain walked around a little, talking out loud, making Trevor feel more and more foolish with every step he took.

“So, girl comes in, says ‘Oh Trevor, you’re in trouble!’  You say something like ‘You don’t know the half of it.  Come sit on my lap…’ and then what?  She refuses halfheartedly?  She lets herself get pulled in? ‘Oh, no, I couldn’t!  Well, okay, maybe this once…’ And she lets you fuck her.  And she almost kills you, but then she doesn’t?  And that’s because she can’t?”  

Rain stopped dead in his tracks.  Moments like that, Rain reminded Trevor of Gin.  Not that Rain would ever want to hear that.  But if he kept up with the falsetto much longer, Trevor was going to say it.  That and probably a bunch of other things.  But the kid had a point.  Looked at objectively, without all the blood running out of his brain, the whole thing did seem like a setup.  Seemed, but it hadn’t felt that way.  

Not that he could explain it to Rain.  He doubted Rain was looking for any sort of an explanation.  Rain had already made his mind up about what had gone down.  For some reason that realization brought cold sweat down Trevor’s spine.  Rain was staring at him, but Trevor could hardly make eye contact.  Which must have done wonders to ease Rain’s suspicions. 

Sure enough, his question was cold and hard.  “What did she get from you, Trevor?”

Trevor shrugged and shook his head.  “Nothing.”

And instantly Rain was in Trevor’s face again, hissing through his teeth.  “Enough bullshit, Trevor.  What did she take from you?”

Trevor shook his head again, shrinking away from him.  “Nothing!  I swear– she didn’t ask for anything, she didn’t take anything.  We just…”  

For some reason he couldn’t finish that.  What was he supposed to say?  Fucked? But it had been more than that.  Made love?  Hardly.  It was undeniable that there had been something between them.  And Rain could see that Trevor was holding something back, he just had no idea what.  So he reacted exactly the way Trevor should have expected him to react.  He got scared.  And when Rain got scared, he got mean.

A fist buried itself in the wall right next to Trevor’s head, and Rain’s face was right up against Trevor’s, lips pulled back to show Rain’s wicked array of fangs.  “Tell me that again, Trevor.  Please.  Just say ‘nothing happened’ one more time…”  Trevor kept his eyes lowered, didn’t even dare to breathe.  “Do you really want to die, Trevor?”

He hadn’t expected that, and glanced briefly up into Rain’s eyes.  He had asked himself the same as he lay half-asleep with Silky.  And he’d had to admit to himself that he had been sick of trying to survive.  Even before Silky had shown up with the easy out.  It wasn’t so much that he wanted to die, but he sure as hell didn’t want to keep living like he was.  Somewhere along the line he had lost faith that anything was ever going to get better.  His hope had eroded away, and it was fast running out completely.  Trevor wasn’t sure how much of that Rain saw in his eyes, but it was enough.

Rain grabbed Trevor hard by his shirt.  “No, Trevor. You hear me?  You are not going to leave me.  Not here, and not for some conniving little fuck-monster.  I need you, Trevor.  I need you…”

Trevor slid out of Rain’s grasp by slipping out of the stretched shirt, leaving it in Rain’s fist.  His blood had started boiling too, and as long as he could stay out of the kid’s reach, he wasn’t going to back down that easy.

“Need me?  The fuck you do, Rain.  All you need is this fucking thing.”  He yanked the amulet off his neck and threw it at Rain.  Rain caught it without even looking at it.  He let out a deep inhuman growl.

But then he got very, very still.  “You have no idea what I need, Trevor.”

Every fiber in Trevor’s being was lit alive by the instinct to run, and Trevor did try, but Rain was so damned fast that he had him pinned to the ground in seconds.  He tried to fight, but blunt teeth and short nails had little effect on demon skin.  In very little time, Rain had Trevor’s arms pinned under his knees.  He was still holding the amulet, speaking words that settled stones in Trevor’s gut even though he couldn’t understand a single syllable.

The chain that had held the amulet slipped out of Rain’s hand and hit the ground half-melted.  Trevor could see a glow coming from the hand that was holding the amulet.  He tried to yell, he begged Rain to stop, but it was hopeless.  He might as well have been a sack of meat.  With a final hissed word, Rain lifted his hand high and then slammed the nearly melted amulet down onto Trevor’s chest.  Trevor screamed in a way he had never known he could.  The pain he felt was terrifying.  It was a deeper pain than one that lived just in his body.  It was the pain of total loss, of helplessness and horror.  He could feel the amulet in his chest.  Not on it, but in it, traveling bullet-fast all the way to his spine, then rebounding back up again.  It felt like someone had pushed a steel pipe through him.  He could do nothing but beg for it to stop.

When the pain slowly faded, he was trying to crawl away, and Rain was by his side.  His voice was human again, and he was holding Trevor as best he could, having shifted to his scrawny teenaged form.  He was weeping, crying apologies, begging for forgiveness.  When Trevor reached his hand up, Rain took it in his own and held it.  Trevor was too weak to fight it, but the truth was that he had been reaching up to strangle the little demon fuck.  He passed out, grateful for the black.  But even as he slid away, he was thinking about how right everyone had been, and what an idiot he was for playing best friends with a demon.

Working title: Magnificent Wicked

“Gin, look at me.”  

He did as she slid off the bed.  He didn’t just look at her face, he looked at all of her, his face still devoid of all emotion.  

She continued, feeling her heart pick up its pace.  “Gin, I want your honesty.  Your total honesty.”  

He only nodded in response, but she could see a small glint of alarm in his eyes.  

She swallowed reflexively, then continued.  “Do you want me?”

He couldn’t hide his feelings, they were part of the total honesty she  demanded.  She could read them all, fear, sadness, desperation, lust, and even tenderness.  

He took a breath, then responded in a torrent, begging in a whisper, “Please, Cory, don’t do this.  Not like this, not after he touched….”

She interrupted forcefully, “Yes Gin, both after and before. Didn’t you say  it takes many passes to make a demon soul?  And you didn’t answer my question.  Would you like me to ask you a third time?”

He hissed, but she could see the truth under the anger and resentment.  She just waited for him to admit it.  “Yes, okay? Yes, I want you.  Even as your slave, I want you.  Even though I hate you for this, I want you.”

She took a breath, but even then, she couldn’t raise her voice above a whisper, as she looked him straight in the eye.  

“Then come.”

It wasn’t a choice, for him.  The only choice she gave him was not in if, but in how.  So he came in fast, like she knew he would, gripping the back of her neck, kissing her ruthlessly and tearing the pearls off, sending them scattering throughout the room, pouring all his rage into that one act.  He could not hurt her with more than words, even if she asked him to.  But he could treat her as if he owned her, and this he did, glancing in her eyes from time to time, waiting for her to stop him, daring her to.

She said nothing.  She was his vessel.  She let him pour all his venom into her, she did not care.  He took her, in an altogether human form, he claimed her for himself, and she yielded, completely.  Eventually his grip softened.  His touch became caressing as he cooled and quieted.  That smell of his, the spice he emanated, seemed to increase, and everything he did shifted into sensuality.  

She knew what he was doing.  He did not hate her any less, he had just gathered his wits about him.  He probably realized that she wasn’t going to tell him to stop, so he was doing his best to seduce her, to make her beg for him, to own her in another way.  This she did not mind either.  This she had also expected.

When he had enough of putting her on her knees, he changed again.  What came as a surprise, what she had not expected, was his tenderness.  Ice cold, his heart was, locked away with centuries of bondage and helplessness.  And yet, he was gentle.  He spoke of how she drove him mad, and confessed to delicate emotions.  He looked at her with fondness, he talked to her as if she meant something to him.  He treasured her and smiled, and knew just what to say to strip away her guard.  She knew it was a game.  She knew, but even then, for a moment, she let herself believe that he could love her back.

He seemed to know just when that moment came, and with a sneer went back to ruthlessness, finishing hard and fast inside her.  When he was done, he  stood over her.  

  Wiping his hair off of his brow and grinning his most cruel, he laughed, “Keep dreaming, little bitch.  Just remember, if you tell me to fuck you, I will.  Every time.”