Chapter 4 #2
I stiffen and my eyes dart to the interest expressed plainly in his gaze. Heat scores my cheeks as they erupt into a blush. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. What happens if I leave?”
“First, I need more water.”
My brow arches. “You look wet enough to me.”
“I am now, but I won’t be for long. My body will dry out and fade from this realm if I am to remain in an uninhabitable part of it, human. You should know this if you summoned me.” His voice has that teasing tone to it again.
“I didn’t summon you.”
Or did I?
He looks me up and down. “Yes. You did.”
I point to the steam cleaner sitting to his left.
“No, I didn’t.” I push my hair back over my shoulder, and notice his eyes track its fall.
“Someone else left the summoning circle behind and I was in the process of cleaning it before you appeared, but I will get you some more water…” I slip my phone back into my pocket, and, feeling less like my life is in immediate danger, head back to the bathroom to fill a clean cup full of water.
“As long as you don’t hurt me, I’ll get you as much water as you need,” I say, walking back to him and carefully placing the cup at the mostly faded edge of the circle before backing away again.
“You can’t leave the circle, can you?” I ask as he reaches for the cup.
“I can if you finish destroying it.” He takes the cup and brings it to his lips, his eyes on mine.
And in a stifled, short silence we stare at each other while he gulps the entire thing at once.
As he pulls the cup away from his mouth, his tongue swipes his lower lip and he thrusts it back at me. “More.”
I point to the ground. “Roll it back over. I’m not reaching for it. I’m not that stupid.”
He smiles and tosses it to my feet. I head for the sink, then return with more water and kneel back at the circle’s messy edge.
“Why can’t I leave? I’ve never summoned or attempted to summon something before.
What happens if this,” I gesture at everything, “isn’t completed?
I need you out of here as soon as possible. ”
“You ask as if I have all the answers. Human, I am not here because I want to be, nor would I be willing to help any human who dared disturb me intentionally. But I will answer your original question for your gifts of water.” He slowly waves his tail back and forth along the rug, pulling my attention away briefly with how velvety it looks now.
“You should not leave because I do not want you to leave.”
I straighten, ready to head right out of here if that’s true. “I won’t go into a sneezing fit or be mauled by hounds?”
He laughs. “No. At least not the hounds. I have no hounds to set upon you. Maybe nightmares. As for the sneezing, I wouldn’t know. That is a human act.” His voice ends with a slight hint of disdain.
“Are you able to just… leave back to your world then? Because that would be great. You can just stay in there and head home and I’ll finish destroying it after you’re gone.”
“That’s not what someone in my situation expects to hear after the effort it takes to summon one such as I, even if it were a mistake… Perhaps it’s fate?” he suggests slyly.
“So we agree, I summoned you by accident then?”
“I have not decided.” He goes back to eyeing me curiously, like I’m something small and interesting and he doesn’t understand why.
It makes me feel oddly good, like maybe I am interesting in some capacity, but also nervous and on edge. Either way, it’s a reminder to keep my guard up.
“Can you just up and leave, please?”
His gaze narrows. “I would not be here if I could so easily. Yes, I could leave, if I really wanted to, but it would require me to break through the floor. I doubt you wish for me to do that.”
Ugh. I sigh, my hope dwindling. I lick my lips, glancing at the bulge hanging below his hips, then tear my eyes away, chastising myself.
I saw enough to be alarmed. Ughing again, I blink hard, forcing myself to focus. “The circle is mostly gone, though. Do you think it has to do with how or why you’re here?”
He shrugs and it’s a very human gesture, so normal that it throws me off. I think he’s trying to build my trust. I immediately trust him less.
“Since I do not sense mischief from you—which is a shame, little witchling—I will honor you by speaking truthfully. We seem, by some coincidence, to want the same thing. I cannot depart from this realm as I should be able too. I am heavy upon your circle, like I am being weighed down, and I do not believe it is because I am not within my usual element.”
I start to speak, but he holds up his hand and looks down at his tail.
I follow with my eyes as he moves his lower half over the edge of the circle.
After a moment it seems to get caught on something invisible, and he pulls it back within.
“Like I expected… Though what is holding me here is weak and becoming weaker, it will be some time before I am able to move freely in this realm or to return to my own.”
Sitting back, I nod. “That’s… good.”
He gives me a tight smile in response. “It is weakening, human.”
“Grace. My name’s Grace. Stop calling me human.”
He tilts his head to the side again, and I try not to let the way his lips curve into a smile twist my gut.
As to why I’m so curious about his… other parts, I know why.
He might not be beautiful, but he is still exceedingly attractive, and I’ve been starving for attention and affection for years.
Not because it wasn’t offered. Because I avoid it.
I have to avoid it. Sex led to dangerous things for me. I vowed never to do it again.
Considering such a thing, with him—it—a demon—isn’t smart. If anything, right now, I’m way, way out of my depth and mostly isolated with him until I can figure out how to make him go away.
He makes a thoughtful noise, reclining back on his elbows again. “Grace? Now I know it must be fate, because why else would you be named such an ironic thing?”
“I know what you mean and it’s just a coincidence, like everything else.” I don’t like his talk of fate. “What’s your name?” I ask, quickly changing the subject. “If you have a name, I mean.”
He leans forward and starts to slide toward me, his eyes narrowing mischievously. I grit my teeth, forcing my feet to remain in place. I will not let him intimidate me.
“Sepher is my name,” he whispers darkly. “It’ll be our little secret.”
My lips part as he gets right up to the edge of the circle, staring heavily up at me. The hints of mirth and darkness have all but vanished, leaving only his blatant curiosity behind.
Under his eyes, I feel my damp skin flush as the blush heating my cheeks spreads through the rest of me. I feel like a specimen under his perusal. Am I just as strange and intriguing to him as he is to me?
The idea gives me a new sense of power, and I relax, once more shifting my eyes away from his face and to the rest of him, taking my newfound shred of confidence and running with it.
“I like your name, Grace.” He says it the same way he’s looking at me, filled with fascination and something else, something I can’t or don’t want to place.
“I’m indifferent to yours,” I mumble, my eyes finally landing on his dick. Forgetting how close we are now, my attention is completely snared by the hefty mass I’ve been trying to politely avoid seeing, and suddenly I’m staring directly at it, figurative hellfire spearing through me.
Like a fat black and green eggplant, Sepher’s cock hangs from the front of his tail, just below his hips.
Large from base to tip, the girth of it is the same and completely smooth all the way through, rounding out at the top.
It rests on a sack that looks like it could be one large testicle and appears to be the source of his long, thin tentacles.
They originate from around the base of his appendage on either side, four in total.
Shifting along the floor and around in the air, he seems in control of them all the way to their fanned-out tips.
His cock jerks, swelling slightly, enlarging further, and my eyes go wide as I draw away.
“Holy shit,” I whisper, agog, imagining fitting such a thing inside me.
“There is nothing left holy about me, and that includes my genitalia, little witchling. Though I commend you for your courage. I have been told my cock is fearsome and given the way you are reacting, it is still true.” His voice is rich with self-satisfaction; I step back and press my lips together, averting my eyes again, unwilling to give him any more of it.
But my reaction is too little, too late.
He does have a fearsome cock, that much is true, and I’d just made it more so.
I made it hard.