Chapter 14
14
Nicole
I nvi helped me climb out of the water, then quickly inspected the area to make sure it was safe.
The underground stream was body temperature. The air wasn’t cold either. But without the sun, I felt the chill in my wet clothes acutely.
Shaking, I hugged my arms.
“Is he really gone?” I asked cautiously, not taking my eyes off the river while half-expecting that thing to show up again.
“I believe he is,” Invi assured me. “The beasts are sometimes confined to one section of the maze. Once we left his section, he couldn’t follow. I can’t sense him at all now.” He scooped the water from the river in his hand and took a drink. “It’s safe to drink, Nic, if you’re thirsty.”
I didn’t wait for him to offer it twice. Kneeling on the rocky riverbank, I drank the tepid water from the river greedily.
Once the thirst was gone, fear returned.
“Can there be other monsters in here?” I glanced around, scanning every little rock and shadow for hidden dangers.
“You mean other than me?” Invi smiled.
It took me a moment to understand the meaning of what he said because I no longer viewed Invi as a monster.
“I was so stupid to ever fear you,” I admitted.
“I’m just glad you don’t anymore.” He gently lifted my hair off my shoulders and squeezed the water out.
“What was that thing that chased us? I’ve never seen anything so…repulsive.” I shuddered in disgust.
“I honestly don’t know,” he said. “I’ve never seen anything like it before, either. It appears to have started out as a minotaur, but then something went wrong with its design.”
“Who made it?”
“Probably Ira. He has a creative streak in him, and making all these creatures provides an outlet for his anger. He populates the maze with all possible kinds of nightmares.” He glanced up the stream, making sure the beast indeed was gone. “He might’ve thrown this one in here on purpose, to slow Gul and me down and allow him to win.”
If it wasn’t for Invi’s quick thinking in the river, there’d be no prize to win. I would’ve suffocated in the tunnel. Just in the past few hours, Invi had saved my life more than once. But he wasn’t safe either, and I worried for him even more than for myself.
“The mortal sins are worse than men to each other,” I said. “Siblings' rivalry between you is out of control. Ira could’ve killed you with his beasts—your own brother.”
“I can’t die, Nic.”
But I wouldn’t have it. Thinking about Invi getting hurt made me sick to my stomach. Even if the maze couldn’t kill him, he didn’t deserve to suffer.
“You could’ve been hurt, trapped, or sent down to the actual hell.” I took a step closer, needing to touch him if just to reassure myself that he was indeed safe and sound after literally shaking a few monsters off his tail.
He ran a hand down my back and over my soaked skirts. “You’re cold. We have to get you out of these clothes.”
“Do we now?” I smiled, which would’ve been flirtatious if my teeth didn’t chatter so much.
He chuckled at my clumsy attempt at sexy teasing. “Let me wring out your dress before you catch a cold.”
I lifted my arms for him to slide my dress off over my head, leaving me only in my bra and panties.
Acting quickly and efficiently, he wrung the water out of the delicate fabric, then laid it out on the nearby rock.
“It won’t fully dry.” He straightened out the skirts over the rock. “But it’ll get a little bit drier by the time we’ll figure out where to go next.”
“How are we going to figure it out?”
He turned back to me and paused, taking in my half-naked, shivering figure.
“Come here. Let me keep you warm.” He took me in his arms.
His tail coiled around my legs, sharing his shimmering warmth with me.
“It’s nice.” I leaned into his chest, savoring his closeness. “How do you stay so warm?”
He shrugged. “It’s a sin thing, I guess. Isn’t there a saying in your world 'Hot like sin?’”
I laughed. “I don’t think that saying refers to the body temperature. But if it does…” I snuggled closer, “lucky me.”
He kissed my hair. “It’s me who’s lucky. Lucky to have found you.”
Was it luck or fate that led me to him? Still a little while ago, I would’ve called meeting him a misfortune.
“We may have to stay here for some time, Nic,” he said.
“Why? Is something wrong?”
“The river is flowing away from the exit from the maze. If we keep following it, we’ll keep descending when we need to go up. If we swim back up the stream, we’d return into that bull-octopus-spider abomination’s territory again.”
“Oh please, no.” I cringed. “Anything but that.”
“I whole-heartedly agree with you. But there is no other exit from here right now. I think we should wait until the maze moves again and hopefully opens another passage for us.”
“How big is the chance of that happening?”
“The maze is built to be used. The isolated pockets of space like this one are rare and happen only temporarily. It’s safe to assume one passage or more will open up with the next move.”
“Okay, we can wait. I trust you.”
He kept his eyes on mine for a moment.
“You do?”
Things had changed since when I first woke up in Purgatory. I’d been steadily running out of reasons to doubt Invi as he kept proving himself to me over and over again.
“You care about me,” I said. “You saved my life out there. I know how little the spirits in Purgatory care about having a body, but you do, simply because it’s important to me. I trust you, Invi. I trust you with my life.”
“Will you also trust me with your heart?” he asked tentatively.
I glanced away quickly, unsure if I could take the intensity in his gaze.
“Maybe on a trial basis, for now?” I smiled. “To see how it goes?”
“I’ll take it on any terms.” He grinned so wide, as if I’d already agreed to marry him.
It was hard to jump in like this, even on a trial basis. So many things could go wrong. How did one ever try to have any kind of a relationship with a mortal sin personified? But when he held me like this, I felt warm and cozy in his arms, safe and happy. And everything seemed possible.
“You know what? I don’t care who wins today,” I said softly, sliding my hands up to his shoulders. “I just want to stay with you for however long I have in Purgatory. I want to sleep in your bed with the white curtains and wake up to the butterflies fluttering around. I want to have breakfast with you under the willow tree, surrounded by the calla lilies that smell like jasmine. And one night, I still hope to see your two dicks that you’re yet to show me.”
He snorted a laugh, nuzzling the top of my head.
“It’s impossible to be sad or upset for long with you around, Nic. Your spirit is a true ray of sunshine, capable of defeating any darkness, no matter how grim or desolate.”
“I’ve heard that before. Only in a far less flowery language. And from friends, not from someone I was interested in romantically.”
“Oh, I’m very, very interested in you romantically.” He slid a finger along the strap of my bra, then lifted it with a frown. “Your undergarments are also wet.”
“They sure are,” I wiggled my bum. “More than you realize.”
There I was, flirting again. I was so not good at it, but Invi didn’t make me feel bad or embarrassed about that, and it was easy to be everything I wanted to be with him, both sexy and silly.
“We’d better take them all off then.” He matched my tone, unclipping my bra.
“Only if you get naked too.”
His eyebrows rose in surprise. “I’m always naked, my dear. I hardly ever wear clothes.”
“Not wearing clothes doesn’t mean being completely naked in your case,” I teased. “I still haven’t seen it all, have I?”
I reached up, cupping his face for a moment before stroking his horn. Pink sparks shot through his shape from where I touched his horn, and I loved how visual Invi’s arousal was.
“Nic.” A warning note sounded in his voice.
“I know what I’m doing, Invi. I want you horny, my sweet, hot sin.” I circled his horn, sliding my hand up and down its spiral.
He moaned, rolling his shoulders back.
“You don’t like it?” I asked innocently. “Then tell me to stop.”
“You’re such a little vixen,” he groaned.
Loosening the coils of his tail from around us, he spread them wider over the ground, then placed me over them.
“Well, these are certainly coming off now.” He slid my panties off, then tossed them on the rock next to my dress.
He leaned over me, licking his lips with the most adorable expression of anticipation, but I closed my legs so fast, my thighs slapped against each other.
“Nope. Not until I see them .”
Propped on his arms over me, he dropped his head between his shoulders.
“Be careful what you’re asking for, sweetheart. You tempting me may end up with you being thoroughly fucked.”
“I’m sorry. Did I not make it clear?” I batted my eyelashes at him before reaching to stroke his horns again. “That’s exactly what I’m hoping for.”
“Fuck,” he growled, but didn’t move away. Instead, he tilted his head into my caress. “It feels so fucking good, Nic. I’ve forgotten how good it can feel.”
“I guess there was no time for this during that night of three-hundred-and-fifty souls, was there?”
“Will you ever forget about that night?” He winced.
“How could I?” I smiled. “It’s an achievement, honey. And all achievements should be celebrated, no?”
He cupped my breast, sliding his thumb over my hardened nipple. I arched my back with a moan, and Invi smirked.
“I’ll make you forget, my dear Nicole. I’ll fuck you so hard, you’ll forget your own name.”
“Promise?” I quipped, making him chuckle.
“You got your way, bold little wench.” Pushing away, he straightened his back and placed his hands on his hips.
Arousal rippled through him in pink swells. The squares of his abdomen flexed. The outline of the lowest pair of them wavered, then split low in the bottom.
A massive cock sprang out, hard and straining. It seemed bloated in the middle, with round little bumps dotting its entire length. It leaned to the right, as the second one, identical to the first one, emerged leaning to the left.
“There really are two,” I gasped in disbelief.
Knowing that fact beforehand didn’t fully prepare me for this sight. Each of the cocks was thicker and longer than my forearm.
Invi inhaled, stretching his back. His magnificent dicks bobbed in the air, turning from green to the most vibrant magenta. I reached to stroke them both.
“How does it work? Do you come from both of them at once? Or from one at a time?”
“I feel climax with my entire body, darling. For a spirit, sex is not for procreation but for pleasure. And pleasure is everywhere… Nic, please…” He dropped forward, propping himself on his outstretched arms as I kept touching and squeezing his double equipment. “You have to slow down, or I…”
He thrust his hips into me, making me lose my grip on his cocks.
“I want to see you come, Invi. Can I keep touching you, please?”
“I’m not coming alone, sweetheart. You’re coming with me.”
“Except that neither of these will ever fit in me. Forget about both at once.” I sighed, disheartened.
“I’ll make it fit.” He grinned. “Which one do you want? The left or the right one?”
I bit my lip, eyeing his cocks.
“It’s hard to choose. They both are so perfect. Well, let’s start with the left one. What do you think?”
“The left one it is then.” He stroked his cock, and it shrank in his hand, both in girth and length. “How small do you want it?” He stroked again, making it even smaller.
“Wait.” I stopped him mid-stroke. “Let’s not overdo it. May I?” I took it from him.
The appendage was harder than the rest of Invi’s shape, but it still had a pleasant give when I squeezed it lightly.
Invi used the moment to slide his hand between my thighs.
“If you’re playing with me, let me play with you too,” he murmured, circling my clit with his finger.
Desire swirled through me, and I shifted my legs open for him.
“That’s a good girl,” he said softly, slipping a finger inside me. “Look at you, hot and wet for me already.”
When it came to Invi, it proved easy for me to be ready for him because even his casual touch often felt like a foreplay—gentle and caring.
He dragged a tongue over my nipple, sending another rush of excitement through my body.
“Oh, Invi…” I writhed under him as he pumped his finger in and out of me, with his thumb dancing on my clit. I feared I might not last long. “Now, please,” I punted. “I want you inside me, now.”
His finger slipped away, and the thick crown of his left cock pressed against my opening.
“Are you ready to take me, sweetheart?”
I nodded, my inner muscles clenching in anticipation.
He slipped in slowly, pushing in at a steady rate. My body stretched around him, straining to accommodate his still sizable girth. Maybe I should’ve let him make it a little smaller, after all. But the pressure added a new layer of pleasure too, with the hard bumps on his cock tugging at the edge of my opening before sliding in to rub inside me.
“Oh, it’s so good,” I moaned as he paused, giving me a moment to adjust. “You feel fantastic inside me, Invi.”
He groaned in approval, pushing just a little further before sliding back a notch.
The faint buzzing of his rattle came with a gentle vibration against my thigh. Excitement bubbled through me, and my arousal spiked when the rattle touched my clit.
“Ahhh…” I gripped his arms as he pumped into me in earnest.
The power of his thrusts contrasted with the gentle vibration of his rattle, resulting in the most exquisite sensation. I could no longer keep the pleasure at bay. It took over me completely. I forgot where I was or how I got there. I forgot my own name. But I remembered his.
“Invi—” I panted, before the orgasm cut off my voice, and pleasure was all that remained.
He pumped once more with a strangled growl. The pink ripples ran from his groin outwards, blending with the emerald green and the brilliant gold like the most spectacular fireworks. Rings of light and color rolled up and down his long tail, casting multi-colored glow on the walls of this dreadful place, making it beautiful.
“Invi.” I took his face between my hands. “You are the most fantastic, stunning being I’ve ever seen.”
“My sweet, darling Nic…” Catching his breath, he peppered my face with quick, tender kisses. “What we share, dearest… It’s bigger than me. Bigger than anything.” His arms shook, and he collapsed over me, hugging my legs.
“It’s okay, darling,” I whispered soothingly, running my fingers through his long, silky hair. “It’s all good. We’ll take it one day at the time. One wonderful day after another.”
I smiled as tenderness flooded my chest in a warm wave.
Here, in the gateway to hell, I felt happy. And it was all because of him. Invi might be the actual mortal sin but with me, he’s always been kind and gentle. He had a good, kind, reliable spirit that I would’ve cherished if found in a human.
He stilled, hugging me tightly, and I wondered if he felt it too, our connection.
Playing with his silky strands, I realized that my sorrow from the thought of ever leaving him had grown greater than even the sense of duty to return home.