Chapter 9 Helayna #2
The absence of all sensation would drive me insane. Need would consume even my dreams until sleep eluded me. The need to feel. Something. Anything. Even pain and disgust at my own dark urges.
Her head hung low, her shoulders slumped.
If I had a heart at all, it would break at seeing my proud, courageous queen so distraught because of me.
I stared at her slim back, tracing the delicate ridges of her spine with my eyes.
Black sludge smeared her skin from wallowing in Dorr’s essence.
I hadn’t even known he carried so much Darkness it would leak out all over the bed. Let alone that she might—
She shifted her weight forward, which lifted her buttocks off my stomach enough for me to stare at the soft flesh of her pussy. She glistened with an oily sheen, a volatile mix of semen and Darkness and her own desire.
She still wanted. She still needed.
Transfixed by that realization, it took me a moment for my mind to register sensation. To make the connections.
Her fingers gripped my barbed tip in a surprisingly firm squeeze, making my eyes flare wide and my breath still.
“You’re my Blood,” she said in a light, agreeable tone of voice that rattled me more than her touch on the deadliest part of my anatomy. “So this is mine too, is it not?”
I had no response. I couldn’t even think. Frozen. With dread. Anticipation. Afraid she might try to fuck me, and then…
“I want an answer, Svar.”
She didn’t look back at me over her shoulder, but her tone lowered. The shadowed power she’d bound me with tightened with her will. The part in my mouth thickened and swelled, gagging me from speaking despite her words.
Because she wanted me to use the bond she’d forged in her blood.
I could feel each drop she’d given me burn against the Darkness I carried. Glittering rubies against an infinite night.
:Every drop of foulness I carry inside me is yours, my queen.:
Evidently she didn’t like my words, because the shadow in my mouth shoved deeper, forcing my jaws open wider. Though her voice lightened back to pleasant lightness. “That’s what I thought.”
Her buttocks lifted more as she dipped forward.
Tormenting me with what I could not touch.
Did not dare to touch. Not in this form.
The thought of sliding into her delicate, tight channel made me shudder.
Harder. Because her fingers danced along the flared ridges of my cock.
I strained against her bonds, desperate to escape.
Before I harmed her. One accidental touch on those edges would slice her open, causing irreparable damage.
Her moist, warm breath ghosted over my flesh, and I started to babble. :Please, don’t, I can’t allow you to do this. I’ll never forgive myself. Dorr should’ve left me in the pits. He should have tossed me back into the Slough himself.:
“Nobody allows me to do anything,” she murmured.
Her tongue. Risking all those brutal edges. Dripping poison. Hooks intended to grab flesh and bury deeper, embedding so my quarry couldn’t escape, even while I cut them to ribbons.
I strained harder, bellowing to her other Blood. :Goddess damn you, Myrk! Stop her before it’s too late! Dorr! Wake up, you fool!:
Myrk, the bastard, laughed in my head. :Sorry, brother. I would never intervene against our queen’s will. I recommend you shut up, take whatever she gives you, and count yourself blessed below all creatures of Darkness ever spawned in Hel.:
Her power tightened its grip on me, flattening me against the mattress. I couldn’t lift my head as shadows swallowed my face, covering my eyes.
Immediately, I was back in the Darkness of Hel, sinking like a massive boulder straight to the Slough.
I couldn’t fly my way out. I couldn’t see Yggdrasil’s massive roots like hills and valleys on the horizon.
No rocky ledges lined with chattering alfar, eager for the next battle. Only black emptiness. Swallowing me.
:I’m here,: she whispered. :You’re not alone.:
Everything inside me squeezed into a tangled knot of blackness. :I don’t want you here.:
My words hurt her, as I intended. Better my words injure her than the monster I’d made of myself.
Battle after battle, honing my body into weapons of destruction.
No other alfar had the same brutal arsenal—because I’d killed hundreds and more to create it.
Each victorious death twisted and shaped me. Sharper. More venomous. Fucking deadly.
:Dorr’s my Darkest.: Her words prodded through the tangled knots inside me. Worming and crawling deeper. Seeking something. My heart? My soul? I had none. :You’re my Deadliest.:
Falling faster, through the higher levels of rings.
Easier battles. The testing ground for creatures like me.
Where I’d learned my deadliest gifts. Deeper, now, to the rings of long waiting, which made for sweeter kills.
Anticipation flavored the meat. The more I killed, the lower I went, to the lowest of the low.
The Endless Slough. The pit that made me what I am.
The last, bottom, deepest pit. An eternally sinking ring of death.
It smelled as I remembered. The acrid scent of tar. Slow bubbling puddles of essence. Black rings of stone rising in steep cliffs above. Though instead of the clamor of the watching horde, the rings were silent. Their favorite killer had departed from the Slough.
I lay flat on my back in that ring as my queen touched me.
Her fingers traced the deep gouges and ridges that lined my cock. She kissed the barb and carefully licked the dripping fluid. I felt every brutally light stroke. While I could only lie there. And endure it.
Such exquisite torment I had never known. I never wanted it to end. Though I wished it could be different. I wished I could be safer. Easier to touch. Easier to love.
:I will always love you, Svar. Even if I could never touch you again.:
:Why?:
Her hands stroked my entire body. Her mouth. She sank her glorious fangs into my groin, and I couldn’t help but rage silently in our bond because I had no blood to give her. Only the foulness from which I’d crawled.
:You heard my Call.:
:Dorr—:
:You rose too,: she broke in. :You would have come if he hadn’t heard my Call.
There were hundreds of others of your kind sleeping in the wellspring.
Thousands. None of them heard me beg for help but you did.
You risked everything to save me, even if that meant I left you in Darkness and returned to my world alone.
Why did you hear me, Svar? Why did you come to my aid? If not for me to love you?:
Her precious face suddenly filled my vision. Even here in the infinite darkness of Hel, her beauty glowed with infallible light. Her hair tumbled about her face in short glossy curls. Even the whites of her eyes flashed like polished obsidian, gleaming with her goddess’ power.
:Killing shaped you into a weapon. Now let love reshape you into my weapon. My Deadliest weapon of all.:
I tried one last time to free myself. Roaring with effort, at least in my head. Straining against her control. Desperation hammered in my skull, mightier than Thunderer’s Mjolnir and AllFather’s lightning combined.
I even tried to spear myself. Tear myself apart. Better me than her.
I tried. Everything. In vain.
Trembling with effort, I finally did the only thing I could.
Svar of the Endless Slough sank even further than the bottomless pits of Hel could sink.
I surrendered.