Chapter 5 #2
Eyes closed, lips parted, the Inquisitor leaned her chest forward, her fingers sinking into my hair to keep my head in place as I continued to suck on her. The scent of her arousal had my blood rushing to my groin. I instantly throbbed, my cock aching to bury itself deep inside her warm depths.
Ignoring these unwelcomed urges, I focused on the task at hand.
As expected, my serum mingled with the poison, and I ended up draining as much of it as of the poison.
Slipping my left hand under the open panel of her vest, I pressed my palm against this side of her flat belly and released small bursts of electricity.
The woman gasped, and the scent of her arousal went up another notch as a needy moan rose from her throat.
This wasn’t meant to arouse her, but only to help push more of the poison towards the wound so that I could drain it faster and with greater ease.
As I had to move my hand over her body to help guide that poison, I feared she would perceive it as me taking advantage of her temporary vulnerability to grope her, but Eleni didn’t balk. Then again, I kept my touch as clinical as possible.
It took about four minutes to conclude my task.
Her fever immediately broke. Instead of pulling my fangs out as soon as I was done, I lingered much longer than necessary.
This time, I drank a bit more of her blood to shamelessly plunder her memories.
I went farther and deeper than the surface memories I had skimmed over in the crematorium.
Even as I gorged on everything that she was, a tiny voice at the back of my head berated me for that stupid endeavor.
The first drink in the crematorium had already made me insanely attracted to her. But this...?
Eleni was deeply flawed, just like me. Unspeakable horrors haunted her past, many of them hard to fully comprehend as was often the case with the sketchier memories of early childhood.
Some memories, I couldn’t say for sure if they were real, hallucinations, or just difficult to comprehend due to the possible side effects of drugs, medication, or illness.
And yet, there was incredible beauty and strength in her.
I wanted to drown in the wonders of her psyche, wrap them around me, and bask in the maelstrom of emotions that made her the most fascinating creature I had ever encountered.
The thought of experiencing all that she was in the real world thrilled me beyond words.
But would she even want to let me get to know her?
With much reluctance, I finally removed my fangs from her and licked the puncture wounds so that the regenerative properties of my saliva would accelerate their healing, including the one where the Oni hair had penetrated her skin.
Looking a little groggy, like someone who was just starting to come down from a high, the Inquisitor studied my features as if she was seeing me for the first time, the strangest mix of awe and suspicion settling on her face.
“There, all done,” I said nonchalantly.
“Thank you,” she whispered, her voice filled with genuine gratitude.
“You’re welcome,” I replied in a similar fashion.
“Why did you save me?” she asked.
“Because I wanted to read your thoughts and find out what you knew about Ranael,” I said with a shrug.
I almost laughed at her shocked expression. However, the discreet glimmer of disappointment—almost of hurt—that flashed through her beautiful green eyes stung in a way I couldn’t explain.
“Wow, that’s kind of rude,” she replied, unimpressed. “You could have just asked.”
I waved a dismissive hand. “You were dying. There was no time to give you a proper interrogation, nor was it the right place.”
“Am I to understand that, had you not been curious about what I may or may not know, you would have just left me there to die?” she challenged.
“Maybe,” I said with a shrug.
She gaped at me in disbelief. “Wow! You’re a charming one.”
I smirked. “So I’ve heard. It’s in my nature.”
She snorted and shook her head at me. “So why didn’t you just drink my blood right there and then? Why bother carrying me all the way here, cure me, and then drink?”
“The sun was about to set,” I replied in a self-evident manner. “I didn’t want to get more company than we already had. I like working at my own pace with no external pressure.”
She narrowed her eyes at me, unconvinced by my explanation.
“You drank from the others and immediately released them so that they could escape. So why didn’t you do the same with me?” she insisted.
I made no effort to hide the contempt the other two Inquisitors awakened in me.
“They were irrelevant,” I said dismissively. “They knew nothing and had nothing to offer that would help my cause. You possibly did.”
“And now that you’ve had my blood, do you still think that’s a possibility?”
“I don’t know,” I said pensively.
She raised an eyebrow. “Which means?”
“I’m debating whether to eat you, fuck you, collaborate with you, or simply release you,” I mused aloud.
Instead of the panicked reaction I maliciously hoped to elicit from her, Eleni cocked her head to the side in a similar fashion to mine earlier and studied my features as if I was a mystery she wanted to solve.
“Fancy choices,” she said pensively. “Technically, options one and two could be combined, depending on the type of eating we’re talking about.”
I snorted and stared at her with a mix of amusement and disbelief.
Totally unfazed, she continued her reflection out loud, as if speaking to herself. “Once I get to know you better, I wouldn’t object to that. But I’m absolutely onboard with options three or four.”
“Sorry to disappoint you,” I said tauntingly. “But I wasn’t referring to that type of eating.”
“Bah! Figures,” she retorted with a long-suffering sigh.
My brow shot up as I stared at her, incredulously. “You want me to eat you?!”
She shrugged. “Now that you no longer have the monstrous features that you displayed in the crematorium, I find you rather hot. Your kind is also reputed to have a very wicked tongue.”
I burst out laughing at the matter-of-factly way she stated all of this. “Indeed, we do. But aren’t you a cleric?”
It was her turn to wave a dismissive hand. “A cleric, yes. But I’m not a nun. Inquisitors are not required to make vows of chastity.”
“So I noticed,” I said, scrunching my face as I replayed the scene from the crematorium in my mind’s eye. “However, I doubt the Church would agree with you fucking a demon.”
The woman further surprised me by shaking her head with conviction.
“You’re not a demon. And even if you were one, not all demons are evil. They are just a different breed of people,” she said calmly.
“I am evil,” I retorted, a hint of threat seeping into my voice.
Totally unfazed, she shook her head again. “No, you’re not. You certainly can be if you so choose, but you’re not intrinsically evil.”
“Says who?” I challenged, my curiosity piqued by the certainty with which she spoke.
“Your actions,” she replied in a self-evident manner.
“You saved me when you could have just read my thoughts before discarding my dying body in the crematorium to be eaten by those monsters. You let the other two women go when you could have also killed them or left them to be devoured by my side. Someone evil would have reveled in our demise and maybe even made it last for his own sadistic entertainment. You made certain to make me comfortable while you drained all the poison out of me, even making it enjoyable. So no, you’re not evil. ”
I studied her features in silence as if they held the key to the mystery that she was.
I loved the cockiness with which she addressed me, and how she skirted right at the edge of flirting with me.
I hated how much she was growing on me, and it made me wonder if this behavior was in fact her manipulating and playing me while I fell for it headfirst.
“I really want to eat you,” I growled.
“Do you?” she asked, raising a dubious eyebrow.
“Yes.”
She stared at me for a second, glanced around the room, then locked eyes with me again.
“If that’s the case, why bring me to your bedroom instead of your kitchen?” she taunted.
“This is not my bedroom,” I countered in a neutral tone. “This is just one of my guest rooms.”
Her eyes widened with genuine surprise. She quickly recovered, her face melting in a softer expression laced with something akin to awe.
“And here you are with even more proof that you’re not evil. To me, this indicates that you have no intention of forcing yourself on me.”
I stiffened and glared at her. “Sex should never be forced on anyone,” I hissed.
The brightest smile stretched her sensuous lips, and that soft expression settled on her face again. It did the strangest thing to me.
“See? I was right saying you were a good one.”
I narrowed my eyes at her. “Why are you flirting with me?”
My question took her aback. She didn’t answer right away and seemed to sincerely reflect on it before shrugging.
“It’s my way I guess.”
“Do you think that will save you from any harm I might decide to inflict on you?” I challenged.
Although she instantly shook her head, she didn’t answer right away, weighing her response first.
“I think you’re someone who will do whatever you set your mind on, and to hell with the consequences. So my flirting with you, or any other way I might try to influence you, would have no impact,” she mused aloud.
I smiled, impressed. “That’s an accurate assessment.”
Her eyes widened.
“Why are you surprised?” I asked, curious as to that odd reaction.
“I didn’t expect you to be so honest,” she said, looking at me with fascination.
“I’m a doppelganger. We cannot lie,” I retorted in a self-evident manner.
“Right,” she responded, slowly nodding before giving me an assessing look. “Do you wish me ill?”
“I don’t know,” I replied truthfully. “The feral side of me wants to, but the other doesn’t.”