Chapter 8 #3
Only all of those people would have unknown fae ancestry and be utterly fucked because science is all but useless in the face of fae magic.
Ancient fae like The Cody are completely immune to cold iron and all its effects. They’re as much a part of the world as the rocks and dirt covering it, so most rules of magic don’t apply.
Wraith and I had checked in on Isa and Wraith’s cousin Briar the day before, and both had seemed unaffected by the bells, though Wraith assured me that it was early days for both of them. Briar was young, and Isa was an infant when it came to his fae abilities. Anything could happen with them.
I liked to keep track of Isa because he’d interacted with Wraith’s magic, taken on a portion of it, and hadn’t gotten cursed. Or, at least, it seemed that way so far. Only time would tell.
It was only four p.m., so the bells didn’t toll for long. My world began to realign, and I started to believe I was about to make it through unscathed once more, when I realized Echo was holding my hands.
“Vale…Vale…” He called my name softly, worry painted across every feature.
In the dim light of my lab, he managed to be more appealing than anyone or anything I’d ever laid eyes on.
It seemed only natural to pull him to me and bury my face in his sweet-smelling neck. Only natural to take another bite.
Echo gave a small gasp, half surprise, half joy.
Unlike the first time, I tasted him slowly. Savored him. When his memories began to flood me, I allowed them, sifting greedily through them, gorging myself on every moment of his life. Time seemed to stop as I landed on a particular moment.
Echo was on the cusp of manhood, slim and lean, but he still had a touch of childish roundness to his features. He sat by a window looking out over a well-manicured garden. He seemed to be in a medical facility of some sort.
“He hasn’t spoken since they brought him in.
” The voice was from a woman in a tasteful pantsuit holding a briefcase.
“He’ll be a ward of the state unless he can recover enough to take care of himself.
” She handed a folder to a man with gentle, starlight eyes.
“Brandon, this is your new social worker. He’s going to do his best to help you. ”
At first, I didn’t know who she was talking to until she walked over to Echo and patted him on the shoulder.
“Thank you, Miranda.” The man said, opening the folder.
He looked through it until the other woman left. Once she was gone, the man put the folder down and kneeled down next to Echo.
Echo didn’t move, didn’t seem to even notice the man was there.
The man sighed, and his starlight eyes were full of sadness when he said, “Oh, honey. Life has done a number on you, hasn’t it?”
Echo huffed, showing that he was, in fact, aware of what was going on around him. He’d just been refusing to acknowledge it.
“You don’t know me, but my name is Cal, and I’m not actually a social worker.”
The young man’s head tilted minutely toward Cal, though he didn’t face him.
“I know I don’t legally belong here, but I am supposed to be here.”
This time, Echo fully turned to look at Cal, showing a hint of curiosity on a previously expressionless face.
“I go where I’m needed, you see. And you need me here right now. It’s better if I have your permission to help you, but the magic will happen regardless. I’m sorry, but I can’t control that part.”
Echo snorted, gave Cal a dirty look, and turned back to stare out the window once more.
“I’m not joking. You’re on the cusp of something new.
A rebirth of sorts. I don’t know exactly what’s going to happen for you, because I’m just a vessel and can only get an idea of what’s to come.
I promise you this is something good for you.
My… benefactors are truly benevolent… um…
people.” Cal looked away and to the left as he said the last part.
Echo turned so he was sitting sideways in his chair, showing every bit of body language possible that he wanted Cal to leave.
Cal stood, and his hand hovered over Echo’s head a moment before retracting. The air shimmered where his hand had been. “You’ll be okay, honey. I promise. Just try to relax and know that something good is happening for you.”
Echo huffed angrily, and Cal turned to go. Before he reached the door, he said, “Good luck,” and then he was gone.
Shortly after Cal left, the shimmer grew to envelop Echo’s body, and he slumped in his chair, fast asleep.
The memory blurred to the next morning, when Echo was meeting with Miranda. She was talking to him about a new social worker he’d be getting. Instead of looking confused, he nodded.
I found it interesting that neither of them seemed to have any memory of Cal’s visit.
Miranda, seeing Echo show engagement over anything for the first time, spoke excitedly about Ms. Carver and how good she was at helping older teens in need.
When Ms. Carver arrived, she greeted Echo first, not allowing Miranda to speak for him. “Hello, Brandon. Do you know why I’m here?”
Echo looked the woman up and down slowly, assessing her before saying clearly, “Call me Echo.”
Miranda gasped in delight, shouting, “I’ll go call the doctor!” before running out of the room.
“She’s a bit excitable, isn’t she?” Ms. Carver asked dryly.
Echo nodded and said, “Excitable.”
Ms. Carver gave him a level stare. “They told me you don’t talk. Is this new?”
“This is new,” Echo confirmed.
The conversation continued with Ms. Carver quickly realizing how to communicate with Echo. Before the doctor arrived, they’d already agreed on the steps they would take toward getting Echo out of the hospital and living on his own.
Once the doctor arrived, Ms. Carver bulldozed her way through arguments and protests from both Miranda and the doctor before finally securing their agreement that Echo would be released into her custody the next morning.
I exited the memory with a start, pulling away from Echo’s neck, and once again, terrified that I would find myself holding Echo’s corpse in my arms.
Instead, I found a feverish, highly aroused Echo grinding against my body and making needy whimpers.
“Fuck,” I growled.
I used to think I had self-control. It had taken me years to win out against the monster, fighting tooth and nail so that only fresh blood could trigger it into taking over. It had left me with the ability to resist anything. Or so I’d thought.
But resisting a needy, desperate Echo, handing himself to me on a silver platter, had my control shattering.
“Tell me you want it,” I growled in Echo’s ear. “Before the option stops being yours.” My hands had a vice grip on Echo’s hips, and I wasn’t sure I could let go. The monster was so close, I could almost feel it breathing down my neck.
“I want it, I want it,” Echo chanted, almost incoherently.
“Good.”
It was hurried and almost violent, like before. I cleared the nearest surface with a swipe of my arm, sending books, laptops, and stacks of notes to the floor without a glance.
I tore Echo’s clothes from his body, stripping him from head to toe with his eager assistance before scooping him up and depositing him onto my empty desk.
I ripped a drawer out of my desk, sending it crashing to the other side of the lab, through the wall, and into the wall on the other side of the room beyond, easily snatching a bottle of lube free at the onset of the drawer’s journey.
The monster was more in control now than I was, and I could only hope it wanted Echo alive more than it cared about sating itself.
I didn’t want to lose such a precious thing right after finding him.
Echo panted, stroking his cock as he watched me using my power so freely. His eyes shined with excitement, and I knew it was only partially from arousal. Echo wanted me to kill him. He wanted me to fuck him to death, and he believed it was about to happen.
“No,” I snarled, as much to myself and the monster as to Echo. “You will not die today.”
Echo’s excitement dimmed. “I want it. Please. You owe me.”
“I owe you no such thing.” I pulled my shirt over my head and unbuttoned my pants as I continued. “I’m going to fuck you until you forget every name but mine, but I won’t kill you.”
Echo nodded reluctantly, but then he got a sly smile. “Today.”
And knowing exactly how little control I had over my monster currently, I understood that Echo might be correct. At the moment, I believed I wouldn’t kill Echo, but I couldn’t promise that tomorrow would be the same.
All I knew was that I didn’t want to.
“I won’t kill you today,” I said, stepping out of my pants and moving into Echo’s personal space. I pressed my body against Echo’s, nudging his cock with mine. I dipped my head to capture Echo’s mouth in a kiss so he’d stop saying such horrible things.
I kept my mouth on Echo’s as I poured a generous amount of lube into my hand and Echo’s. Echo began to stroke our cocks in tandem while I positioned Echo so I could reach his eager little hole.
“So eager,” I murmured. “My eager little hole.”
Echo cried out as I slid two fingers in at once. Echo wanted it to hurt. He wanted me to tear him apart and kill him. And while I wasn’t going to kill Echo tonight, I didn’t mind hurting him a little if it would make him happy.
I barely prepped Echo at all before pushing into him.
Echo egged me on by saying, “Want this…want this. Your… little… hole.”
I only stopped myself from biting Echo again by fucking him brutally. I held myself back from damaging Echo, but only just.
“Needy… greedy… little… hole,” I whispered, punctuating each word with a kiss. “My little hole.”
I stroked Echo’s cock, just as eager as his hole, as I drove into his body, making wet, filthy slapping sounds, all but drowned out by Echo’s wails.
“Come for me, little hole,” I ordered, and Echo’s cries as he complied were a thing of beauty to my ears.
I clung to Echo, using his body mercilessly to chase my own release, clutching him tightly as I came. Echo had gone limp as a rag doll and allowed me to use him as I pleased.
What a good little toy.
I pulled out of Echo, watching as his pink, puffy hole twitched. Echo was absolutely wrecked and had a dreamy smile on his lips. His fingers played lazily with the pool of cum on his stomach.
“That was amazing,” Echo said in awe.
You’re amazing, I wanted to say, but I was too entranced with the sight of Echo sprawled on my desk, playing with his own cum while leaking my cum onto a stray lab report that hadn’t made it onto the floor.
I scooped Echo off my desk and began to carry him to the bed I used more often than the one in my room.
“Not today?” Echo asked sleepily.
I pressed a kiss to Echo’s forehead. “Not today.”
Not ever.