Chapter 38 #2
She cried out, throwing her head back so her black hair danced across her back, and he bent and licked up the blood trail coming from the puncture wounds in her neck. Her legs spread apart across his thighs, and he held her in place as he moved inside her, her arousal soaking his shaft to the base.
She gripped his shoulders, her claws sharp against his skin, and tilted her head forward to face him. Their gazes met. There was a look of uncertainty, of vulnerability, in her eyes. Her body trembled on the verge of a climax.
He knew what she needed, and he told her with his gaze, I see you. I see you and I have you. You’re mine, and I’ll never let you go. Fall and I will catch you.
And she did. Her body shook, and her cries cut off as she gasped. He felt her clench around him, her inner muscles rippling with waves of release.
The sight of her surrender undid him, and he soared into his own climax. And he experienced his own moment of uncertainty. Because this was about so much more than a physical release.
But she was right there with him, riding the waves of her own pleasure, her beautiful, lithe body spread out and vulnerable before him, her surrender complete. And that was all he needed.
They came down from the high together, clutching each other, their skin slick with sweat and their intermingled releases.
He wrapped an arm and his tail around her hips and held her close, his shaft still inside of her, flexing with residual pleasure.
He stroked her hair with his other hand, smoothing it off her sweat-slicked neck.
Bending, he licked another trickle of blood from her closing wounds.
Her eyes shut, and she sagged against him, resting her head against his shoulder. He kept stroking her hair. She hummed softly, and then she turned her head and pressed the softest kiss against his skin.
And for the first time, Murmur gave thanks for the soul he’d evolved that gave him the capacity to love her.
Hours later, they lay sprawled in Suyin’s bed. He’d made love to her a second and third time until they’d both worked out the tension from their time apart and could finally rest.
“Why didn’t you use your ghosts to restrain me?” she asked. She lay with her head on his chest, his arm around her, and she traced the line between his pectorals with a light touch. She was back in her human form, her fingertips soft as she stroked him. “I know how much you like that.”
“Do you?” he asked, petting her hair.
“You know I do.”
“Hm.”
“What?” She lifted her head so she could meet his gaze. There was a red mark on her cheek from being pressed against him, and he smiled at the sight.
“I only have three souls at present. I lost my entire army when I died.”
Her eyes widened. “All of them?”
He nodded. “Every single one.”
“Aren’t you upset? You don’t seem upset.”
He smiled. “I’m not upset. I suppose it was high time I let those souls go. I tortured them long enough.”
She rested her head back down. “They knew what they were getting into. They have no one to blame but themselves.”
His smile grew. His witch could be a bloodthirsty little thing when she wanted.
He approved. “Yes, but some of them had served me for thousands of years. After enough time, that torture is worse than whatever they would’ve had to face in the Nine Rings.
They screamed incessantly in my head, crying for their freedom, and it drove me mad.
Now, they’re gone, and I find I’m enjoying the peace and quiet. ”
“But you’re still rebuilding the army.”
“Yes. I have to keep up appearances after all. And I still have a territory to defend.”
“But?” she said, sensing there was more he hadn’t said.
“But,” he affirmed, “I won’t build it to the same size as before. And I won’t keep the souls forever. I think I’ll let them go after a couple hundred years or so.”
She lifted her head and gave him that soft smile that he’d come to cherish. “That sounds an awful lot like empathy, Necromancer.”
“Yes, well, this pesky little witch came around and made me feel all these inconvenient emotions, and I can’t seem to turn them off anymore.”
“She sounds like a handful.”
He reached down and pinched her bottom lightly. “You have no idea.”
She chuckled and lowered her head again. “I’m glad you have peace and quiet in your head, Murmur.”
“So am I.”
“Do your new souls bother you?”
“Not really. They still think they’re winning, having escaped the Rings, when all they had to do was agree to serve the Necromancer.”
She scoffed. “They’ll learn eventually, I suppose.”
“No doubt.”
“You still haven’t answered my question though. Why didn’t you use them to restrain me?”
“Well, for one, since there are only three, one is currently busy patrolling the newly fortified borders of my territory, the other is moving some furniture, and the third is currently floating somewhere above us, keeping watch over you.”
“Moving furniture.” She laughed. “Why am I not surprised?”
“And for two,” he continued, “I suppose I was reluctant to touch you with them again. I know they frightened you, and I didn’t want you to think that I don’t care for your comfort.
I won’t do anything to you without your permission, and there will be no more negotiations or bargains between us.
If you need something, you will ask, and I’ll give it to you if I’m able. ”
“Murmur.” She lifted her head again and then leaned in and planted a light kiss on his lips. “That’s so sweet.”
“I live to serve,” he said wryly, still not sure he enjoyed being called “sweet.”
“I’ll admit the ghosts restraining me while we had sex freaked me out at first. But … it was a good kind of freaked out.” She grinned. “The kinky kind. Like when you used your tail venom on me. I was apprehensive as hell, but damn, I was glad I gave it a try afterward.”
His lips curved. “I’ll keep that in mind, witchling.”
She stuck her tongue out at the use of the nickname, and then she moved down to lay on his chest again. Silence fell for some time, and he contented himself with petting her silky hair and soft skin.
“So what happens now?” she asked after a time.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, I’m still a human—”
“Half human. I felt those little claws shredding up my back.”
“Half human,” she corrected unapologetically. “And you’re a demon. And I live on Earth, and you’re a total misanthrope.”
“So are you,” he shot back. “Let’s be honest.”
“Fine. Humans suck. I agree. But you hate your human form. And you have a territory in Hell and a bunch of demons who call you Master and think the sun shines out of your ass, and you can’t just abandon them.”
“I know,” he grumbled.
“So?”
“So what? So we make it work. There’s nothing else to do.”
“I guess so.”
“But I have to warn you … I’m a bit of a wanted man at the moment. Lucifer knows it was my magic that got Belial into his territory to free the souls. He’ll want vengeance, and I have every reason to suspect my territory will be the first he attacks when he’s ready for vengeance.”
“So what are you going to do?”
“If it were just me, I’d cut and run. But I have all these pesky demons looking up to me now, and I suppose I have to take care of them.
So I guess I’ll have to stay and fight and then figure out an escape plan when that inevitably goes to shit.
Also, I told Belial I would help him, and I suppose I’d better keep my word on that so he doesn’t kill me and undo all your hard work. ”
She snorted. “Does that mean you’ll be able to visit me on Earth?”
“Of course. I’ll be here with you every possible second I can spare. There’s nowhere else I’d rather be.”
She turned her face into his chest and kissed his skin in response.
“But I’ll need to figure out a way to disguise myself while I’m here. It’s technically forbidden for me to visit the Earth plane since I have no special dispensation to be here.”
“Well, I know how to fix that.”
“You do?”
“Sure. All you have to do is talk to Sunshine.”
He frowned at the mention of the angel who had once broken into his territory. Playing nice with Belial and his allies was going to be a challenge for his pride.
Suyin looked up at him without lifting her chin and smiled. “I feel the same, by the way. I want you here with me whenever you can be.” Her smile turned to a contemplating frown. “Can I visit you in Hell too?”
His brows lifted. “You would want to?”
“Duh. I haven’t forgotten about your library. I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of that room.”
“Then it’s yours to visit whenever you wish.”
She grinned. “I’m loving this new agreeable you.”
“I told you, there will be no more negotiations between us. Whatever is mine, is yours.”
“Thank you, sweetness,” she purred with a teasing glint in her eyes, and he growled. He prodded her ass gently with his tail barb.
She laughed and tried to squirm out of his reach, but he tightened his arm around her.
Rolling to his side, he pinned her beneath his much larger body and bit lightly at her shoulder. “I think someone needs to be reminded which of us is the big, scary demon and which is the soft, delicate little human.” He punctuated his words with another nip at her neck.
She giggled in a decidedly un-Suyin-like way and reminded him, “Half human.”