Chapter 5
CHAPTER 5
DESMOND
M y nails grew, talon-like, the color of the darkest storm clouds. My presence consumed every shadow from the night as I reverted to true form. But the transformation felt different now. A cross between my human guise and my ancient primordial form. Two halves of a whole.
"Open your eyes and look at me." My garbled growl retained a trace of humanness. "I want to watch you when I take it."
My mistress obeyed, her mouth parting. It shook slightly.
I could no longer wait. I sank into her, and she gasped a breath. I pressed my lips to hers and bestowed a kiss that would leave an infernal watermark on her soul. She sank into the kiss, and I sucked harder. The husk of mine began to fill. Belladonna's eyes rolled back. Her fingers grasped by hair. Her essence, once hidden deep within her, had now exploded over my lips. Overflowing, flooding into me. Ah, so close.
Her eyes fluttered, and pleasure blurred into pain. She gripped the back of my head, clutching for something to anchor her from the discomfort. Tears rimmed her eyes and a claw finger slowly wiped them away. I might've said gentle, but gentle to a demon was still painful to a human.
It mattered not. In moments I would have it, all of her. Her essence saturated itself in my mouth as her eyes drifted low. Her hold on me slackened. The secrets of her soul spilled into my mouth. All the years of our contract culminated in this moment. Close, damnably close. She would be eternally mine now?—
I wrenched myself away and drew in a sharp mouthful of nothingness.
"What—" Belladonna panted. "Why didn’t you...?"
Why indeed? My tongue stroked my fang.
“I merely thought we might renegotiate our agreement…and form a new one."
"What sort of contract?"
I leaned in closer, my breath tickling her ear. "A more intimate arrangement." My eyes bore into her dilated pupils. "Is my mistress familiar with Hieros Gamos?"
She slowly nodded. "Doesn't it mean 'sacred marriage' in Greek?"
"Indeed. A play between a god and a goddess. Of course, it hardly means marriage in the conventional sense of the word, but rather a sacred sexual ritual between human beings and something divine. How the soul becomes whole through another."
"I would hardly think a demon would care for the sanctity of anything, especially that."
"You are quite right, mistress." A smile twitched at my lips. "While Hieros Gamos unites two souls to become whole, in the unholy union between a demon and prey, the demon and their prey become soul-bound. The demon becomes whole through devouring its prey.”
“An unholy union.” Her face burned at the implication. “Of course, you would have perverse ideas.” She tried to speak evenly. "I presume you've collected many souls with this method before."
"No," I said and then paused, as though judging if I should say more. I didn't.
"How many, Desmond?"
My lips pinched. "You shall be the first, mistress."
And there it was. The naked truth snatched out of me.
"Out of the different methods of soul collection...this is your preferred method for mine?"
"Well," I said, "if you prefer something less pleasant…"
"Oh, forget it."
“Do you accept the terms then?”
“I do.” She closed her eyes, like she was bracing herself. “Well, you best get on with it.”
I kissed her temple. “I shall make it pleasurable for you.” I removed her from the confines of her corset. The strings hissed their release, and she inhaled sharply. I trailed a finger between her breasts, and she squeezed her thighs together.
I unbuttoned and angled myself to her soft mound. She was already so wet for me.
She spread her legs wantonly and her eyes were wet, shining. Flaring.
Tendrils radiated from my being and swarmed Belladonna. I swallowed her small body in my true form, engulfing us both in a gyration of shadows. Tendrils, hundreds of them, and every sensation acutely sharpened. Over her, around her, inside her.
I would claim every centimeter of her for myself. The tendrils writhed over her wide and dilated eyes, plunging into her frozen mouth, slinking between the small cheeks, thrusting into her. She made a strangled noise. Poor thing. Her mouth was too full of myself to speak. I contracted my form and some of the tentaculum fell away until I could make out her flushed face.
The dancing shadows materialized as tendrils once more. They grasped the underside of her thighs unceremoniously and kept her spread. My black nailed fingers intertwined with hers. I took her rough this time, sinking into a pleasurable rhythm. Deep, sharp thrusts in and out, but never breaking our carnal connection. Panting, she swiveled her hips to meet each thrust.
"D-Desmond..."
My hungry mouth found her nipple and sucked. All the while the tendrils played with her breasts. One of the tendrils traveled across her stomach, her abdomen, lower. Until it found the bundle of nerves between her legs. It caressed softly, gently. A mocking contrast to the rough, incessant thrusts.
My talon-tipped thumb trailed the rim of her eyes, wiping away the wetness. "Come for me." A soft hiss all around her. "Look at me when you do."
Mouth gasping, she looked at me with shining eyes. Sharp, soft. I shivered. The urge to engulf her burned within. Yet, my control in this volatile form was strangely holding. Realization unfurled from my core like tendrils. I had come upon a new power. In Belladonna, I had found my power, my control.
"Desmond," she whispered again and her eyes deepened to a strange glow. "I...you."
Belladonna didn't need to elaborate. Her incoherence was perfectly clear. I already knew. Had known for a while. Who else could she ever say those words to?
“I love you too, little witch.”
A flicker of emotion, something I hadn't felt in centuries, stirred within me. Instead of her soul, I had stolen her heart, and she had done the same for me, though I long thought it was an impossible feat. As we leaned in for another kiss, a new dawn was breaking.