Chapter 49
Nala strained against the binds holding her to the bed. Our marital bed my ass! She had heard about this, but she couldn’t imagine it being a plausible part of her existence.
“Why are you resisting?” Varen leaned one knee against the bed while crossing her arms.
“This is a great opportunity for you, Nightingale. You’ve been chosen. By the last other succubus in this realm – to be her bride. Don’t you know what that means? Do you know how many of your sisters would have begged to have your spot right now?”
Nala grunted as she futilely pulled against the silk binds. “What makes you think I’m excited about this? Why would I want to become any creature’s thing?”
“One hour ago you were in that club rubbing up against me. How was that different?”
I had freedom! There was a huge difference between two of their kind mating and becoming a bride. That meant every bit of power shifted to Varen. It took all of Nala, except for her body, out of the equation. She would be no better than a mortal woman.
Varen had bound her. Enchanted her. Was she really a hunter?
She sure knew how to work like one. That’s why she was so good.
But deep down, she was still a plotting beast who would turn on her masters when the moment was right.
For if the last of their kind were to marry, the power could very well take down swaths of reality.
What better way to get back at her enslavers? By recruiting Nala!
She knew how this went. Varen would own her.
She would be Varen’s. There was no escape.
When two minutes ago Nala wanted to seduce her to secure her future, now she wanted nothing more than to be released.
Don’t say the safe word… She had to think that, taking herself out of the role-play she scripted.
This is a part of the fantasy, okay? Sometimes she got so into her world that she forgot she was supposed to be Nightingale, the last of her seductive kind.
The creature who managed to seduce Varen Lake.
She only hoped that Varen didn’t forget her part in the play.
From the way she tightened Nala’s binds a final time before grabbing one of her breasts and squeezing until she whimpered, she hadn’t.
“Be rough. Be demanding. Be everything you’ve fantasized about being with me.”
That’s what she wrote in the notebook in the corner of their hotel room.
Unlike Nightingale, the real Nala wanted desperately to be hers.
“Go ahead,” she whispered. “Make me your fucking bride.”
Whether Varen heard her affirmation while she straddled her and fixed a kink in the binds, Nala had no idea. Varen did not let on as she sat up and unbuttoned her blouse.
“Give up, she-demon. You’ve been trapped and caught.”
Varen lined her phone up so her screen was full of the intricate design she created on the headboard.
Yeah, add that to your artwork. Go ahead.
A flash nearly blinded Nala before Varen put her phone away.
“You belong to me now. When I’m done with you, you will know what it means to be my bride. You will want no one in the world but me.”
She lowered her head, hot breath cracking in Nala’s ear.
“I’ll do to you what our sisters have done for millennia. You’ll be the first siren to know what it feels like to be seduced and claimed by the entities you call yours.”
Nala shivered. Nightingale recoiled.
In time, Nightingale will submit. This is our origin story. The Nightingale of The Aviary was a trained succubus. Her Mistress? The greatest – and the last – woman of her kind to live.
She was Varen’s possession.
She was Varen’s bride.
Together, they would conquer the sinful.
First, however, they had to complete and acknowledge the erotic ceremony that made them as strong as they would be.
“I’ve been dreaming of this for so long.”
Varen carefully splayed out Nala’s hair, creating a halo effect across her pillow.
She no longer had the energy to fight Varen – she would rather save her energy for what Varen would do to her.
“The day I would have Nightingale in my bed and make her my bride.”
She lightly kissed her cheek. “I don’t expect you to go down without a fight. It’s not your nature to be controlled. As you’ve named yourself, you’re a bird constantly in flight. Constantly flying away, singing your sad song of seduction. I’m going to put an end to that today.
I’ll clip your wings and make you mine. After tonight? You will do my bidding. You will want to do my bidding. Together, we will rid this realm of those who truly deserve to be exorcised from humanity. I chose you not because your body calls to mine more than anyone else’s…”
Varen pinched Nala’s nipple, as she always loved to do.
Nala squirmed, whining in both pleasure and denial.
“But because you have the right personality for the job I have in mind. I need a bride who will fulfill all the right duties. Not only please me physically… but be the feisty bird with a set of fearsome talons I desire.”
She flicked the nightingale charm on the collar. Nala whimpered. A whimper of anticipation… and possibly love.
“I’ll know if I made the right choice when I make my claim on you. I’ve already caught and trapped you, Nightingale. You can’t escape… but you can prove yourself worthy.”
Shivers shook Nala’s whole body. Was it because her exposed skin was cold?
Because she couldn’t wait for what Varen would do to her?
Or because she knew she needed this as much as she did?
When this is over, we will be stronger than ever.
Nala knew it like she knew there were stars in the sky. A chasm of stars awaiting her arrival.
“When this is over,” it was like she read her mind, “I’ll be your Mistress.”
Varen’s hand gently landed on top of the collar, fingering the pendant before stroking the underside of Nala’s chin.
Deep inside, I am already in love with this woman.
But, right now, I need to fall in love with her all over again.
Varen would have to claim her. And Nala would have to put up a fight.
It was all part of the script. Something Nala had fantasized about time and again.
Yet now that they were at this pivotal moment?
A tiny bit of fear gripped Nala’s heart as if she really had something to be afraid of.
I trust you, Varen. I trust you to give me exactly what I want and to liberate yourself in the process as well.
This wasn’t only for her. This elaborate role-play, the culmination of their relationship so far, was as much for Varen as it was for Nala.
“I don’t need a Mistress,” Nala insisted, speaking on Nightingale’s behalf. “I cannot be tamed, and I cannot be made to submit!” In truth, Nightingale probably would have spat on this woman – but Nala figured that was taking things a bit too far.
“You say that now, but eventually, you will give in to the desires lurking within you. I will have you, Nightingale. You will be my bride from this night until the end of our lives. You think I give you nothing in return? You’re beyond wrong.
I will give you protection beyond your wildest imagination. You will never live in fear of being hunted or exposed. You will never have to worry about having a place to live or sustenance to consume. By becoming my bride, you can feed off my energy – as I will take from yours.
We will spare the innocent and only go after the guilty. You’re being given a gift. Fight me all you want, but you will see what I mean.”
She felt like a bird now, desperately flapping her wings in a bid to get the fuck out of there.
She needed to escape this beast before it consumed her – before it turned her into a thrall.
Every story Nala heard of one of her own taking a fellow creature as a bride ended with the death of free will.
To a siren? Free will was everything. It was better to die, to be exorcised to the other plains than to lose free will to anyone, mortal or not.
At least if she were a torn demon between realms, she would still be free, and still be herself.
“You will make a stunning bride,” Varen said, casting her shirt aside. She untied Nala’s ankles and caught them both in her hands. “When I’m done placating and taming you, you’ll see. Our shared power will change our fates.”
Nala did not let her have it easily. She strained against her binds, moving her hips erratically to outsmart Varen. If nothing else, she would go down knowing she did everything in her power, exerting the last of her free will.
“Hold still!” Varen lay upon her, and Nala knew she was in trouble now. “For God’s sake, Nala, don’t overdo it. I don’t want to actually hurt you.”
Varen’s break from character stalled the moment. Nala sucked in her breath, feeling Varen’s lips press heavily upon hers as she claimed the bounty of her long and arduous hunt.
For Nightingale, the long-lived entity who knew a thing or two about seducing, this was the worst part.
Because the moment Varen kissed her, her energy drained from her.
No, not her energy. Her essence. Varen took it from her, one penetrating kiss at a time as her hands roamed the length of Nala’s body, stopping to massage her breasts before yanking up her skirt.
Perhaps it was her real strength. Perhaps it was something else, but Varen managed to tear away Nala’s lingerie in one move and promised to tear more of her clothing if she continued to misbehave.
This was what it meant to be seduced. Except Nala was probably the first living being in history to not readily succumb.
I won’t go down without a fight. I will prove her worthy of me.
Nevertheless, she moaned against Varen’s mouth, her legs willingly opening around Varen’s waist and her body releasing what was the first of many waves of arousal consuming her loins.
No, no, no! Don’t fall for it! Euphoria.
A distanced detachment. Floating on air that was not really there.
If mortal women suffered like this, then how did a siren like Nala fare?
Was it worse? Better? Did she moan louder or make the meekest sounds known to man?
She already knew that Varen was making her the wettest she had ever been. With so little effort, too!