Chapter 3 Force
Chapter three
Force
We stare at each other for a loaded moment, and I revel in the connection. Finally, she sees me. And all it took was forsaking everything that’s just a bit good about me, everything half-decent.
“So this you love,” I spit out an accusation, already out of control. “But the ancient god who created the world, the powerful being all goddesses and witches lust after, you ignore.”
Her lips flatten, eyes filling with anger. She turns away but not before I see her hands shaking.
“Stop.”
I send out a shadow to wrap around her ankle, because finally, I can. When she wore the pendant filled with my blood, it prevented me from touching her with my magic. She doesn’t have that now. She’s in my power.
“Stay. Talk to me,” I growl, my pent up rage rising up my spine in hot, tingling waves. “I changed for you. It’s the least you can do.”
Her breathing is audible, fast and gasping. Her hands press to her chest, and I study her curiously, her skeletal back heaving with every rapid breath. Is she afraid? Of me? That’s precious.
“Leave me alone,” comes her gasped plea, and I huff, sending more shadows her way. Tentacles of darkness wrap around her waist and arms until the pleasure of touching her skitters down my vertebrae and settles between my legs.
I harden shamelessly. I didn’t get to fuck anyone or even do it myself for months when she was gone, too heartbroken and frantic to consider it. But that’s well over.
“You’ll never be alone, love.”
I stalk around her until she’s forced to face me, my shadows keeping her feet rooted to the floor. Her breathing deepens, little growls of fury falling out of her mouth with every exhale. Her face is mutinous.
“Let go or I’ll make you bleed.”
I laugh, delighted. “There she is! Claws, indeed. Try, love. I will not stop you.”
I expect her to reach for me with her untrimmed nails that are sharp and filthy, but instead, Jaga gives me a grim smile. Seconds later, my skin splits from my sternum all the way down to my crotch, stopping at the line of thorns.
“Oh, fuck.”
I pulse with fresh arousal, a glittering drop of precum bursting from the tip. It sparkles in the firelight like the precious gems in the walls, and Jaga makes a startled sound when she sees it.
My skin knits together, and the blood that gets out trickles down my stomach, through my thorns lying harmlessly flat, to wind down my shaft in brilliant rivulets.
Her breath catches, eyes shooting up. “You’re disgusting.”
“Yes.” I nod shamelessly, not trying to deny the truth. “So different from Weles, aren’t I? Such a base creature, the devil. Ruled by his lowest instincts, impulsive, greedy, cruel, and beastly. That’s what you fell in love with, poppy girl. You’re a little beast yourself.”
Unlike me, she doesn’t accept her darkness, so my words incense her. Jaga hisses, struggling against the tightening hold of my shadows that wind around her back and hips, some wiggling easily between her thin thighs.
“Hurt me again,” I taunt her. “I dreamed of this, poppy girl. You being alive, angry, fucking murderous. Hurt me. Show me what you want.”
A roar of rage tears out of her throat. A whirlwind of magic rises around me, the air smelling just like it does after lightning hits wet earth. Sharp, shallow cuts bite into my skin, and I hold my healing magic back, allowing my love to carve me into pieces.
My skin opens all over, red slashes on my chest, my stomach, my back. A cut splits my eye, and I hiss, letting the wet liquid from my burst eyeball trickle down my cheek. I can take pain and mutilation.
But Jaga’s strength is flagging, her outburst over before it properly began. She breathes hard, her eyes wild, teeth bared in a vicious snarl. The cuts stop falling, the whirlwind quieting. I stand in front of her, blood pooling at my hooves. Her tongue darts out to lick her lips.
“I will not let you fashion it into another amulet,” I growl. “But you can drink it. Here, love.”
Walking closer, I grab her head and tilt it back, pushing a finger against her lower lip to keep her mouth open. As my wounds close and my eye heals, I command my spilled blood to lift off the floor and float into her unresisting mouth.
She swallows, over and over, eyes closing in blissful defeat, and I get harder, greedier for my little witch now that she’s finally back. Tenderness and affection fly on the wings of lust, and I coo with satisfaction, uninhibited in my devilish form.
“Is it good, my darling? Why didn’t you want it before? I’ll always give it to you, I promise. You’re the only person who’s allowed to drink of me. You can have anything you want. Yes, see? It feels so good with my magic inside you. It feels good when we’re one.”
Already, her skin is brighter, regaining its healthy flush. Her cheeks fill out a little, her hair getting a bit of a shine, and she moans between swallows as her legs give out from pleasure.
I sweep her up in my arms and settle in a deep alcove, sending my shadows to cover the entrance. I’ll fuck her once she stops feeding. It’s only right.
When the final drop slides down Jaga’s throat, she heaves a deep sigh of well-being. Her head lolls back on my arm, her eyes glassy. Her mouth is red, wet with blood, and I want to lean down to kiss it, but perversely hold back.
It’s strange that her kisses seem more thrilling, more favorable than fucking. I’ll kiss her after. It will be like the delicacy of a dessert after a filling main course.
“I’ve got you,” I murmur, bringing her loose, sated body up until she straddles my lap, her stomach flexing against my erection. “Don’t do anything. I’ll handle it, love.”
“Waaait,” she slurs, her mouth too loose to speak with precision. “No… You… No…”
“No?” I chuckle under my breath. “Come on, love. I smell it on you. You’re always so horny after I give you my blood, and we’ve waited long enough. Let’s put it all behind us and have a fresh start.”
Let things go back to normal, as if my betrayal and yours never happened.
“Mm-mm.”
Jaga straightens with effort, her eyes focusing on my face. This time, she speaks clearly.
“No.”
“But you want me,” I say, confusion mixing with resentment. “What do you mean, no? I gave you my blood!”
“No. Mm-mm.”
She shakes her head, and my thwarted lust turns into anger. I hold back insults, just barely, and try to watch her instead. This is a symptom. There’s something wrong with her, something she keeps from me, and I need to find out what it is.
We’ll fuck later.
“Why not?”
She shakes her head again, bracing herself, and slides off me in a clumsy, stumbling way. I steady her, and she lurches toward the arch leading out of the alcove. It crawls with my shadows, and she stops, swaying on her feet as she takes it in.
“Let me out.”
“Not before you answer me. Why not?”
Jaga presses her hands flat against the shadows. I strengthen the barrier until it’s as solid as the wall next to it.
“Let me out.”
“Answer my question.”
She breathes faster, wheezing as sweat slides down the backs of her bare thighs. I realize she’s overheating, restless. My love is out of her mind with terror or something else, my blood giving her body more energy to fret and panic.
“Love, it’s only me,” I try to reassure her, my shadows caressing her damp, cold arms. “I’ll let you out as soon as you tell me. I promise.”
But she shakes her head so violently, her hair flies around it. A whine pours out of her throat, choked by her clenched teeth.
“Let me out!”
My heart wrenches with guilt, but she’s strong. She can withstand it.
“Tell me what’s wrong with you. Why are you so… So off?”
Her hands drop to her sides, curling into fists.
She’s silent, her back heaving, and I sit forward, excitement and dread curling in my stomach.
I’ve wondered this ever since I freed her from her grave.
She came back wrong, with something missing or misaligned, something beyond the natural scope of human suffering, fury, and betrayal.
I’ll finally learn what it is.
Jaga raises her fists in front of her, trembling. She grunts, a sound of deep effort.
“Let. Me. Go!”
Her fists explode outward and punch through my impenetrable barrier.
“What…” I stare in astonishment, not understanding what I see. It shouldn’t be possible.
Firelight from the outside spills in through two large holes in the fabric of my magic. Lines of cracks speed away in every direction, twin spiderwebs of fractures, and the wall of shadows falls apart, melting into the air. Jaga huffs angrily and storms out.
A second passes. Another. I blink away my shock and rush after her, my shaft hard and pointing the way.
“Wait!” I growl, reaching for her with all my power until she’s wrapped in a cocoon of shadows. She squirms in it, hissing like an angry cat, but she’s contained.
“How did you do that?” I ask, grabbing her hair until we’re nose to nose, her head tilted back as I hunch over her.
She growls and spits in my face. I laugh.
“Never mind, poppy girl. You’ll tell me later. I’ll fuck you now, because that was the most arousing thing I’ve seen in my life. You’re a force. So powerful.”
She stares at me, her eyes wide open, bottomless with fear, anger, and something else, something empty and dark.
I falter, my resolve unsteady. Her eyes fall closed, her face straining with effort, and suddenly, my cocoon of shadows falls apart, torn into pieces that float to the ground like shreds of fabric.
They melt away one by one, and Jaga launches into a run, halting, uneven steps taking her away from me as she sobs, or maybe laughs.
But she’s exhausted, probably on the verge of passing out. She won’t get far.
“You don’t get to do that,” I grit out, taking slow, measured steps as my tail swings with anticipation. “Stop running from me.”
There is an urgency boiling in my blood, a craving so deep, it claws at my insides like a monster. Everything else falls away. So what if she can break up my shadows? No one could do that before, but she is exceptional, and I’ll learn how she did that in good time.
Now… I must have her.
Jaga looks over her shoulder, panting. The action makes her lose her balance, and she falls with a gasp, crawling away from me on her hands and knees.
The future stretches ahead, perfectly clear.
I see myself walking over to her struggling form.
Kneeling behind her as I shape the ground to raise her up higher, until her hips are level with mine.
I imagine how it will feel to sink inside, where she’s still warm and wet from when she drank my blood.
She’d hate me. Irredeemable. No return.
I stop and watch her, lust blazing down forceful, glittering pathways through my bloodstream. I could make her forget properly, now that I know she can resist it. It would be all right. Just once.
“No,” Jaga breathes, as if hearing my thoughts vibrating in the air between us.
I could… I could.
But I won’t.
“See?” I ask, quiet, defeated, a monster. “This is why I didn’t change before. I can’t be trusted. Talk to me when I’m Weles. That's all I ask for.”
She stops, her frail back arching as she takes deep, wheezing breaths. I gather my magic around me, crackling and volatile, and let it shift my body and settle deep into my mind, reshaping thoughts and habits, breaking apart the pockets of fury and lust that make me unhinged.
Jaga gives up completely and just lies on the floor, her cheek pressed to the cool surface. Her eyes are dry but open, and she watches me in her periphery as I wrap my robe around me, no longer naked, no longer a beast.
“You have to eat,” I admonish her, crouching by her side, but not too close. “You’re weak. Yes, you learned new tricks, but that’s not enough. You have to get stronger to fight me.”
“Fine.”
Her voice is a quiet whisper. I close my eyes, wrestling away the mixture of defeat, self-disgust, and satisfaction. She’s speaking to me, after all. At least something good came out of it.
“I’ll carry you to bed,” I say but stay where I am, giving her time to protest.
When she doesn’t, I pick her up and walk through the Hall of Fires she never praised. When she dozes off, exhausted, I nuzzle my cheek against her hair.
“Sleep, beloved,” I whisper, my heart full of guilt, sorrow, and hopeless longing. “Sleep well and don’t dream of me. I’ll only mar your dreams.”