Chapter 50
Oryx
Iclamped my jaws around Benedict's head and felt it give way like an overripe fruit. Pain shot through my skull as something tore. I'd unhinged my jaw too far.
A crack echoed from the petrified section of my face. Bellowing in agony, I expelled his severed head, watching it tumble across the floor with dull, unseeing eyes.
I cupped the side of my skull and licked the blood around my face. Veylor was there in an instant, his shadows encompassing us.
His eyes flicked from me to the headless corpse, then back again, a grim satisfaction in his gaze. "It is done," he murmured, his voice a low rumble like distant thunder. He reached out, his fingers tracing the crack that had formed on my face, his touch surprisingly gentle.
"You pushed yourself too far, Oryx," he chided, but there was no rebuke in his tone, only concern.
I leaned into his touch, feeling the coolness of his shadow seep into my skin, numbing the pain. My breath came in ragged gasps, my body trembling from the exertion and the residual adrenaline. I could feel my hearts pounding in my chest, the beat slow and heavy, like a funeral drum.
Veylor's shadows pulsed, and I felt them wrapping around me, cocooning me in an embrace of darkness. The world outside faded, Veylor’s voice muffled as if heard through a thick fog. I closed my eyes, letting the shadows do their work, knitting together the torn flesh and cracked bone.
"Rest now, my love," Veylor whispered, his voice a soothing balm. "Let the shadows heal you."
Instead of resting, my cock hardened with his nearness. Now wasn’t the time to get hard, but I was hungry. The blood I had eaten only intensified my empty stomach.
By this time we were supposed to be with Vesper, I would have fed, I would have been connected to both of them.
I half whined, half growled and pulled him closer to me. The petrified portion of my skull already mending and my cock pressed firmly against Veylor’s stomach.
Veylor groaned and tried to push himself away, but the hunger was too strong, I couldn’t let him go. “I’m starving.”
Veylor sighed and let me pull him to me. He didn’t care about the blood that covered my torso, instead his hand wrapped around my lower back.
“He won’t be able to concentrate if he’s hungry…”
He tells himself this, but I know he wants me too. I can smell him, taste him. A tiny snack of his desire would be nice. I pushed him to the cell wall as my tongue ran down his neck.
Clothes tear away in seconds—my tail ripping my trousers to ribbons while my claws make quick work of his garments. Before I can even register the cool air on my skin, Veylor has dropped to his knees, taking me into the wet heat of his mouth.
Fuck.
I growled into the wall, his tongue lapped at the head. The edges of his mouth turned black with my seed. “Yes, put more of myself into you.”
I bucked forward, fingers tangling in his hair to anchor myself.
He pulled back as he gagged, wrapping his fist around me, working in rhythm with his mouth.
My suction cups latched onto his skin but couldn't hold against the slick evidence of my need.
Each obscene, wet stroke along my ridged length only intensified my hunger.
Veylor’s wet hand grasped my balls then reached around to my backside. I whimpered feeling him probe my asshole and I relaxed myself as two of his fingers pushed inside.
I snarled when he started pumping slowly, more of my seed slid down to my balls onto his arm.
I stomped my hoof on the floor, he let go of the head of my cock with a pop and gathered the slick of my arousal that coated his fingers.
My tail whipped back and forth, my hearts raced with anticipation.
“Easy now,” he panted. “Let’s get you stretched, you haven’t had it in the ass yet in this vessel have you?” He slowly added another finger, and another.
"Veylor!" His name tore from my throat as I ground my hoof into the stone floor.
My head snapped back, spine arching as four of his fingers breached me.
My previous form would have tensed at just two digits, but this new vessel hungered for the stretch, the burning fullness that bordered between pleasure and pain.
He chuckled and continued to coat his hand with lubrication, pushing his fingers in and out, scissoring his fingers to stretch me.
After a few moments he slid his fingers out of me. I whimpered and Veylor stood up from his position between my legs.
“I’ve got you, love. Put your hands on the wall,” he purred. He ran kisses down my back and nudged my tail out of the way. “That’s it.”
He rubbed his four fingers against my entrance, slick with my own desire.
I could feel the heat of him, the pulsing need that matched my own.
He pushed in slowly, inch by agonizing inch until all four fingers were there again.
My body yielded to him, the burn of his entrance making me gasp and push back against him.
"More," I grunted, my claws digging into the stone wall, leaving gouges as I fought for control. Veylor's hand gripped my hip, his shadows wrapping around my shaft, creating a pulsating cocoon that throbbed.
He chuckled, "I’m going to take such good care of you.”
He withdrew slightly before pressing forward again, his knuckles stretching me wider than before. The slick coating eased his passage, but I still gasped as his entire hand disappeared inside me, the burning fullness made my vision blur at the edges.
I growled.
“Look at you, you took my entire hand.”
His shadows caressed me, their cool touch a stark contrast to the heat that I felt. They snaked around my cock, stroking and squeezing in time with Veylor's thrust of his arm.
"Faster," I demanded, my body trembling with need. Veylor complied, his arm moving with a desperate urgency. His arm pounded into me, his shadows jerking my cock in perfect rhythm. The room filled with the obscene sounds, grunts and growls and the wet slap of flesh and shadows.
Veylor's free hand reached around, his fingers finding and pinching my nipple, sending a jolt of pleasure-pain straight to my cock.
My body convulsed, my cock throbbing as I came undone, spilling my seed into his shadows.
They milked me, their touch drawing out my orgasm until I was left panting and spent.
Veylor's grip on my chest tightened, his cock brushed beside my hip and I felt his come spurt down my leg, his shadows brushing me as if they continued to pump his cock. His body shuddering against mine, his shadows retreated, leaving us entwined and breathless in the dim light.
We stayed like that for a moment, our bodies joined, our breaths synchronizing. Then Veylor pulled out, a soft hiss escaping his lips as we separated. I turned to face him, my body already missing him, but my belly was full.
His eyes met mine, a soft smile playing on his lips. "Better?" he asked, his voice barely above a whisper.
I nodded with a contented, "For now," as I pulled him to me with my tail, tasting myself on his lips. But the hunger was already beginning to stir again, the beast within me demanding more.
But we couldn’t, not with Vesper gone. My stomach was filled and now my strength had returned ten fold.
Veylor
Yanking on fresh clothes, I felt Oryx's breath hot on my neck as he hovered close behind me. Chaos reigned throughout the manor. Faes darted frantically through hallways, some battling flames with buckets of water while others hauled charred remnants of chairs and tables toward the exits.
Oryx panted heavily as we sprinted toward the lab, his breath ragged with exertion. Through our connection, I sensed the fear. He hated fire, heat ghosting across his skin though no fire touched him.
For once I am glad he didn’t remember the memories of how he died and that he had not gone so far as to unlock the box inside my mind that hid them.
“What can I carry?” He interrupted.
I pulled several bags off the lab room table. They contained only rune dust, a few vials of random potions, blood… to be honest with myself, I didn’t know what I was taking. I just took what I could find and shoved it into my cloak.
“You carry your strength,” I panted and pulled my hair above my head. “That is all we need. Sylvaine is powerful, and he had the element of surprise on us, but look.” I nodded to the window where the moon was now setting. “His power is weakening drastically. Now is the time to strike.”
A long, haunting yowl pierced the chaos. We both spun toward the doorway where George sat watching us, his tail sweeping methodically.
Oryx growled and stomped his foot at him. “Be gone, feline. Go find some rats!”
George hissed, and his hair stood up on end. He came into the lab and jumped onto the exam table, and Oryx jumped back. “What’s wrong with it?”
George’s eyes were no longer dark but bright amethyst. When Oryx tried to touch George with his tail, George swiped at him. Long white claws extended before the strike.
I grabbed Oryx’s tail and pulled it back. “Get away from it, it isn’t a feline!”
Oryx snarled and puffed up its chest. “I’ll destroy the demon! How dare you come near us, dare to hurt the hands that feed you!”
George didn’t do anything back, instead sat down and his tail flicked back and forth and bowed its head.
The cat's fur receded like a tide, revealing luminous alabaster skin beneath.
Its form stretched and reshaped hind paws elongating into feet, front paws unfurling into graceful hands, spine extending into a slender human torso.
Cascades of silver-white hair materialized, flowing down to veil the newly formed naked figure.
As this is happening, I grabbed on to Oryx and we backed away, watching the scene unfold.
While there are shifters in this realm, they don’t shift like this. It is a painful, gruesome thing to watch and those shifters are more canine than feline.
My throat tightened as we watched the final, seamless transformation. “By the shadows,” I whispered and held onto Oryx’s arm.
“Do I kill it?” He muttered to me.
I shook my head. “No. Not yet, at least.”
As the final lock of hair fell into place, the bowed head rose and the familiar amethyst eyes that were on George earlier were now staring at the both of us.
Oryx stiffened. “He’s naked.”
I pinched the bridge of my nose. “That isn’t all. I think we just found Vesper’s father.”
Oryx ears twirled. “The cat is her father? Isn’t that illegal? Even for humans? Maybe that is why she is so flexible.”
"For shadow's sake," I said, running my hand down my face. "He wasn’t in his feline form. Someone transformed him." I gestured toward the pale figure who watched us with glittering amethyst eyes, one corner of his mouth quirked upward.
The former feline George cleared his throat. “Am I allowed a towel or are you just going to stare?”