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[charmscale]

Songbird: The Awakening Chapter 5

It was over an hour before I heard anything else from my team. As I was beginning to wonder if I should summon another spirit and send it to check on them, I got a call from, of all people, Lucky.

  “Yo, Songbird,” he said, voice crackling due to poor reception. “Alpha asked me to give you a call to let you know we’re alive.” 

I sighed with relief. “What happened?” 

Lucky chuckled. “Well, for starters, you saved our bacon. I don’t have any idea how you convinced a shadow spirit to serve you, and, frankly, I don’t want to know, but she, the beast spirit, and, most especially, that uber guardian spirit you summoned kicked some serious ass tonight. Geeked some Lone Star thugs, and scared away the rest. Then the guardian spirit carried Shark and Jazz to the van, and we got hell out of there.” 

I frowned. “Carried? Shark and Jazz needed to be carried?” 

“Yup,” Lucky said. “Frankly, I have no idea what happened, but both went unconscious when the lights and everything went out. That’s why we couldn’t contact you, by the way. None of our comlinks were working until we got out of the area.” 

“Lucky-” I began. 

“Hold up, Song. We’re coming up to some sort of Lone Star blockade,” Lucky interrupted. “Alpha’s going to need me. One way or another.” And the call ended. 

I sighed. “Well, that explained absolutely nothing,” I muttered. 

“At least you know they’re alive,” Ember said. “That should count for something.” 

“It does,” I replied. “It definitely does.” Provided, of course, I could trust Lucky’s word. “So, what were you doing while you were gone? You said it had something to do with me?” 

Ember glanced at me, amused. “Now you want to talk about it?” 

I shrugged. “I’m not as worried anymore.” 

“Not as worried?” Ember asked. “But you’re still worried.” 

I nodded. “I won’t stop worrying until they’re all home safe. Something could still happen. But I’m calm enough to talk about whatever it is you wanted to talk about.” 

Ember nodded. “Good. Now, you’re probably not aware of it, but there’s a sort of bar for spirits in the city. It’s called the Ethereal Touch. Obviously, most spirits can’t drink, but we can hang out, chat, and watch the entertainment.” 

I frowned. “Entertainment?” 

Ember shrugged. “Various stuff. Most spirits like music, and astral displays are always cool. Apparently there’s a task spirit who does puppets who’s a regular entertainer. And there’s a few other acts.” 

“So you were hanging out at a bar? What does that have to do with me?” I asked. 

Ember chuckled. “I wasn’t just hanging out. I was talking to the earth spirit who runs the place, Mama Geo. She’s always looking for new acts, and, when I described your singing, she was intrigued.” 

I frowned. “I can’t perform, Ember. I wish I could, but I can’t.” 

Ember frowned. “Why not?” 

I sighed. “It will draw too much attention.” 

“And that’s a problem why?” Ember wanted to know. 

I was silent, wondering how much to share. And how would I explain everything, anyways? It was so complicated. 

Ember looked at me thoughtfully. “In the car the other day, you mentioned a ‘family situation.’ Is that why you can’t perform?” 

“Yeah,” I admitted. “That’s it.” 

“What is this ‘family situation,’ then?” prodded Ember. 

I sighed. “Well, for starters, my mother is Eva Kaur.” 

Ember looked blank. 

“She was the founder and head of Kaur Industries,” I explained, realizing he likely hadn’t heard of her. “It’s an AA corporation. Basically, one of the biggest and most powerful companies in the world. Only AAA corporations are bigger and more powerful. My real name is Sarah Kaur.” 

Ember nodded slowly. “Are you hiding from her?” 

I shook my head, blinking back tears. “No. She- she’s dead. I’m pretty sure one of the other members of Kaur’s board had her killed. And her private secretary, Handel, was pretty sure I was next.” 

“Go on,” Ember encouraged, squeezing my hand. 

I took a deep breath. “Handel thought the best way to protect me was to hide me, and set a high powered group of runners to protecting me. That’s where Alpha, Shark, and Jazz come in. They were originally my bodyguards, and they hid me well. While I was hiding, Handel was supposed to figure out who had my mother killed and deal with them.” 

Ember frowned. “That’s a lot of loyalty for a personal secretary.” 

I shrugged. “You’re right. I didn’t find out until after he died, but Handel…”

I remembered the last message I’d received from him, delivered to my commlink via dead man’s switch. “If you are reading this,” it read, “I am dead, and am no longer able to protect you. I have hidden funds enough for you, and the runners I hired, to have platinum docwagon contracts for as long as you live. If you ever die, the contracts will end. That should incentivize them to keep you alive. Unfortunately, I was unable to hide much by the way of funds for your personal use. You will have to do the best you can in that area.” 

“I am not sure how to tell you this,” the message continued, “Or even if I should. However, I would like you to know. Around the time you were conceived, your mother cheated on your father with me. He found out shortly after you were born. That is why they separated. The three of us decided jointly not to do a paternity test. Your father already loved you very much, and wanted to be a part of your life. I wanted the same thing.”

A tear fell on my commlink as I continued to read. “Please, know that I love you, and that I am proud of you. I just wish I could have done more. Be safe, my daughter. And good luck.” 

Back in the present, I continued. “Handel might have been my father.” I paused for a second to wipe the tears from my eyes. “He- he died. My team investigated, a bit, and found out that another runner team had killed him. Probably because he was trying to figure out who killed my mother.” 

Ember nodded slowly. “And you’re worried that, if you draw attention to yourself, whoever killed your mother will find you.” 

I nodded. “Yes.” 

Ember snorted. “That won’t be a problem. Very few meatpeople know about the Ethereal Touch, and we spirits want to keep it that way. No meatperson will ever find out that you are performing there. And Mama Geo has promised that, if what I told her is true, she will pay well for your services.” 

I frowned. “Let’s talk about it with the team when they get back.” 

Ember’s brow furrowed. “But-” 

“If you drop it, I’ll sing to you more,” I suggested. 

Eyes brightening, Ember nodded. 

*

Half an hour later, I heard the key turning in the lock for the front door. I hurried to the entrance of our apartment, Ember following behind. 

The first one to stagger in was Jazz. She looked dazed and confused. Alpha, who appeared to be limping, gently guided her to the couch. Shark stumbled in behind. While his eyes were sharp, his movements were slow and clumsy. He slumped on the couch next to Jazz. 

Lucky stood in the doorway. “Whelp, this is where I leave you,” he said. “I’ve gotta go.”

Alpha nodded tiredly, propping herself against the wall. “You do that. Take care of yourself, Lucky.” 

Lucky nodded. “You, too.” He turned and limped away. 

When the door shut behind Lucky, I locked it. Then I turned to the team. “What happened?” 

Alpha sighed. “I’ll explain in a minute. Right now, I want to know how the hell you have a shadow spirit working for you.” 

I blinked. “I, ummm… I’m frankly not entirely sure. I think she likes my singing?” 

“I do,” an eerie voice confirmed as the shadow spirit materialized. “I want to be close to you. To help you. It is… A strange feeling.” 

Alpha shook her head. “Ok, then. I suppose I’m not going to get a better explanation than that.” 

The guardian spirit materialized. “It is dawn. I must depart.” He looked at me. “I hope we meet again, little one. Be safe.” With that, he faded away. 

Jazz looked vaguely at the place the guardian spirit was. “He was nice,” she slurred. 

Shark snorted. “He was nice because Song ordered him to help us.”

Jazz closed her eyes. “I guess. I’m going to sleep now.” 

Alpha looked at her worriedly. “I hope that, whatever happened to her, it’s nothing permanent.” 

Shark stroked his girlfriend’s hair tenderly. “I hope so, too.” He pressed a gentle kiss to Jazz’s forehead. 

I looked from Alpha to Shark. “What happened?” 

Alpha sighed. “Well, we blew up the building. That, at least, went as planned. However, as we were heading back to the van…” She shook her head. “Something strange happened. All the lights went out. Shark and Jazz passed out, and-” 

“I did not pass out,” rumbled Shark. “I was unable to move.” He shuddered. “I haven't felt that helpless since...” He trailed off. 

Alpha put her hand on her arm. “Hey, big guy. It’s over now.” 

He frowned. “I hope so.” 

Alpha turned back to me. “I think this was some sort of experimental weapon, one that turned off every electronic device in a certain radius. The only thing that worked was our guns. Even Lucky’s taser wasn’t operational.” 

“What did you do?” I asked. 

Alpha shrugged. “What could we do? I can carry Jazz, but we couldn’t lift Shark, and it was a dangerous neighborhood, so we couldn’t leave him. I was going to send Lucky to try to find the edge of this thing, so that he could call for help, when Lone Star arrived. They had us pinned down for quite some time, but we were able to keep them from flanking us. Eventually we started to run low on ammo. At that point, I was thinking of…” She bit her lip. “I was thinking of, of just leaving Shark, at that point. I’m sorry, big guy, but-” 

He raised a hand to cut her off. “I understand. If anything like that ever happens again, and I hope to hell it doesn’t, but if it does…” He sighed. “Leave me. Get Jazz, and yourself, to safety.” 

Alpha looked at him, eyes serious. “I’m not leaving you behind unless there isn’t any other option.” 

He nodded. “I know. But, Alpha…” He looked down at Jazz. “I’d rather die than lose her,” he said softly. “Remember that.” 

Alpha’s eyes softened. “I’ll remember.” 

I swallowed. I’d come very close to losing, at the very least, Shark last night. If I’d waited a bit longer to send Paw… 

“So Songbird saved you again,” said Ember, amused. 

Alpha nodded. “Yes. She did. That guardian spirit was strong enough to lift Jazz and Shark, and…” She looked at the shadow spirit. “You scared the shit out of Lone Star.”

I could hear the smirk in her voice. “I know.” 

Alpha continued. “After that, we made it to the van, which was luckily out of the blackout zone, and drove off. There was a short car chase. I had Lucky call you as soon as we lost Lone Star.” She sighed. “And then there was the blockade. I thought we were done. Fortunately, I can shapeshift, the van is a common model, and Lucky is a very fast talker.” 

She shrugged. “Shortly after that, Jazz and Shark woke up, and then we got home.” 

Alpha turned to the shadow spirit. “I can’t keep calling you ‘the shadow spirit.’ If you’re going to be following Song around, like Ember is, you need to give us something to call you.” 

The shadow spirit made a thoughtful noise. “I’ve never worked with meatpeople before. Or, frankly, any entity that wasn’t another shadow spirit. Give me a minute to think.” 

“How about Carmilla?” Alpha suggested. 

“Why Carmilla?” I asked. 

Alpha shrugged. “It’s a name with history. The vampire novella Carmilla predates Dracula, and is considered one of the main inspirations for the fifth world vampire genre. I thought it was appropriate.” 

“I’m not a vampire,” said the shadow spirit, amused. 

“You share characteristics,” noted Alpha. “You both feed off others. Actually, shadow spirits have more in common with certain vampire myths than modern HMHVV victims do.” 

“How do you know so much about old vampire stories and myths?” I asked, curious. 

Shark chuckled. “Alpha is a fan of fifth world fantasy novels. Particularly vampire stories.” 

Alpha sighed. “It’s entertaining, ok?” She began to shift, her breasts becoming gradually smaller and her muscles more pronounced. However, as Alpha transformed into a man, his apparent ethnicity did not change. “Everyone needs a hobby.” He shrugged. 

Shark, chuckling, threw his hand up over his face in the classic Dracula pose. “I van to zuck your blood!” 

Alpha shoved him. “Don’t think that our recent adventure means I won’t kick the shit out of you.” He grinned. 

Shark laughed, a full throated guffaw. “Like you could.” 

“Just watch me!” Alpha said, trying to look fierce. His lips twitched up in an amused grin. “Just watch me.” 

The shadow spirit looked between them, amused. “Carmilla works.” 

Ember nodded. “Carmilla it is, then. Now, don’t you and Song have something you need to do?” He looked at the shadow spirit expectantly. 

Her glowing green eyes blinked. “Yes. The binding. I must give you my true name, Songbird. And you must complete the ritual.” 

She glided into my room. I followed. When Alpha started to follow me, I stopped him. “I think Carmilla would prefer if no one else knew her true name.” 

Alpha nodded. “Makes sense.” He looked worriedly at Jazz. “I should probably give Jazz a medical examination anyways.” 

As he knelt next to the unconscious Jazz, Ember drifted past me into my room, and I shut the door. 

It didn’t take long to set up the binding circle. I’d never performed a true name binding before, so I had to look up how to do it on my commlink. Once it was done, I turned to Carmilla. 

“You sure you want to go through with this?” I asked. 

Carmilla nodded. “Yes. Provided you promise to never reveal my true name to another soul.”

“I promise,” I told her. 

Carmilla’s true name was long and complicated. In some ways, it had more in common with a serial number than a human name. I wrote it in the circle, and added it to my notes for the ceremony. I would burn the notes afterwards, or, rather, have Ember burn them. 

The ceremony took several hours. By the time it was done, it was late afternoon. I yawned, and handed Ember the notes to burn. “I need a nap,” I mumbled.

Ember chuckled. “Of course. You’ve been awake for over 24 hours, and a lot of that time was spent performing powerful magic. Rest, Song.” 

I stumbled over to my bed and crawled in. Ember and Carmilla were both watching me, but I was too tired to feel creeped out. I was too tired to do anything but sleep. 

*

When I woke up, Ember was gone, but Carmilla was still watching me. I blinked at her. “Have you been hovering there the entire time I was asleep?” 

She chuckled. “Of course.” Her eyes glinted. “Fear never sleeps.” 

I yawned. “Great. Where’s Ember?” 

“He is talking with your leader,” Carmilla said. “I believe it is about a potential job as a singer.” 

I got out of bed, sighing. “Wonderful.” I’d gone to sleep in my clothing, so it was all wrinkled. I started to change. “I’d better go referee.” 

As I left my room, I could hear them arguing. “I am not letting you put Song and the rest of the team in danger!” snapped Alpha. 

“It wouldn’t put anyone in danger,” argued Ember. “No one from the meat world would ever know.” 

“How do you know that?” Alpha snarled. “How do you know no one will talk?” 

Ember chuckled. “When is the last time you saw a free spirit tell a meatperson anything? We keep our own counsel. Song won’t be put in danger. I wouldn’t be suggesting this if she would be. And, by extension, neither will any of you.” 

Alpha sighed, rubbing his forehead. “Let me think about it.” 

Ember’s eyes narrowed. “It’s not your choice.” 

“It kind of is,” I put in. “If Alpha thinks it’s a bad idea, I won’t do it. I trust his judgement.” 

Ember looked incensed. “And not mine?” 

“She’s not saying that,” Alpha soothed. “I just know this world better than you, so I am more qualified to judge the risk.” 

Ember snorted. “Perhaps you know the material world better than me, but I know my fellow spirits. We won’t talk.” 

“What if there’s another spirit hanging around with a metahuman?” asked Alpha. “Like you’re hanging around with Song. This spirit might mention it to their friend.” 

Ember looked thoughtful for a second. Then he shook his head. “They won’t say anything. Talking about the bar without Mama Geo’s permission is against the rules. If she finds out, they’d get barred.” 

Shark looked over from where he was warming up some soyburgers. “The first rule of Fight Club,” he rumbled, “Is that you don’t talk about Fight Club.”

Ember and Alpha looked at him blankly. 

Shark sighed. “It’s a quote from an old movie. And I think there was a book?” He frowned. “Someone told me there was a book.” 

“What does that have to do with anything?” wondered Ember. 

Alpha snorted. “Nothing. As for what we were discussing, we can talk about it more later. Right now…” He turned to me. “How are you feeling?” 

I shrugged. “I’m fine. How’s Jazz?” 

Alpha sighed. “Still sleeping. If she doesn’t wake up soon, I’ll take her to a street doc.” 

Jazz appeared in the doorway of her and Shark’s room. “I hate doctors,” she muttered. 

Shark’s eyes lit up. “Jazz! You’re awake. How do you feel? Are you still woozy?” 

Jazz shook her head. “I don’t think so. But I just woke up, so…” She shrugged, and then yawned. “I’ll be able to judge it better after a soycafe.” She trudged over to the fridge, and pulled out the carton of soycafe. Then she fumbled in the cabinet for a mug. 

Shark pulled one out for her. She smiled at him. “Thanks.” 

After sticking her soycafe in the microwave, she looked around at us. “What happened? One moment we were walking away from the warehouse after blowing it, and the next I was waking up in the van.” 

Carmilla drifted out of my bedroom. Jazz shrieked and jumped behind Shark. 

Alpha sighed. “It’s ok. The shadow spirit is bound by Song.” She looked at me. “She is bound, right?” 

I nodded. 

Jazz peered out from behind Shark, eyes wide. “You bound a shadow spirit? How?” 

“I gave her my true name,” the shadow spirit explained. She looked Jazz over, seeming unimpressed. “So this is the technomancer?” 

Alpha sighed again. “Yes. Her name is Jazz. Jazz, you can call the shadow spirit Carmilla.” 

Jazz nodded, eyes still wide. “Ok.” She looked at me. “Song, you have officially graduated from kind of useless to really scary.” 

Ember sniggered. 

Alpha ignored him. “You wanted to know what happened, Jazz?” 

Jazz nodded. “Yeah.”

As Alpha explained, I warmed up some food of my own. Then I joined Shark at the table. 

Alpha finished with. “And that’s when you woke up.”

Jazz nodded, looking thoughtful. “Anything happen after I passed out the second time?” 

Shark smiled at her. “We all got some rest.” 

Alpha’s commlink dinged, and he checked it. “The client paid,” he announced. “I’ll send you each your shares now. Song, you’ll get a share too.” He snorted. “I know I said that you wouldn’t get a cut for this one since you weren’t going, but I think you earned it.” 

I blushed. “The spirits did all of the work,” I mumbled. 

Alpha shrugged. “Yeah, but you summoned and sent them. Without you, they wouldn’t give a damn about our sorry asses.” 

“You’ve got that right,” muttered Ember. 

Alpha glanced over at him, and then away. “So you get a share. If you want to spend it on something nice for Paw and Carmilla, that’s up to you.” 

Carmilla sneered. “The meat world has nothing I want.” She turned to me. “You could sing to me, though. I’d like that.” 

Paw materialized. “I’d like that too,” he piped up. 

I smiled. “Sure, guys.” 

Alpha looked at me. “You ready to go on that spell, Song?” 

I nodded. “Yup.”

Alpha smiled. “Good. Fortunately, the pickpocket case is not particularly time sensitive, and neither is the run Stan’s got for us. I suggest we rest a few days.” He prodded his side, wincing. “I’ve got a few grazes I need to heal.” 

Jazz frowned. “Do you think we’ll ever find out more about the weapon that was used last night, Alpha? The one that took down me, and all the electronics?” 

Alpha shrugged. “No idea. We’ll have to just wait and see. With any luck, we’ll never have to deal with the thing again.” 

“Sound like famous last words,” rumbled Shark. 

Alpha frowned. “Yeah, I know.”

[charmscale]

Songbird: The Awakening Chapter 4

I stared in shocked horror at where the shadow spirit had been. More that a few people went limp as they chased it in the astral, and I saw Alpha’s eyes glow, which, I remembered, meant she was astrally perceiving. I remembered that I could do the same thing. Blinking, I peered into the astral.

The bar was an emotional maelstrom of shock and panic, with more than a little bit of rage mixed in. Lucky, I remembered, had lost his girlfriend to a shadow spirit. He’d left town on a job and come back to find a skeletal husk, so obsessed with her painting that she’d forgotten to eat and sleep.

She’d died in the hospital a few days later. That had been a muse spirit. There were other types. Nastier ones. As I looked around for the shadow spirit, I wondered what type this one was.

Whatever it was, it was gone now, at least to my eyes. I blinked, and my spirit settled back into my body, allowing me to see the mundane, material world again.

Shakily, I left the stage. Ember took me by the arm and led me back to my seat. The other spirits appeared to have dematerialized, including Paw. I wondered how many were still hanging out in the astral. Probably most of them. The only spirits with a reason to be in this bar were ones bound by the mages currently hanging out here, and bound spirits liked to stay with their summoners.

I looked at Alpha, whose eyes were no longer glowing. “See anything?” I asked.

She shook her head. “It must have left immediately after it dematerialized.” She frowned. “I wonder why it decided to materialize here. Shadow spirits normally go after weak, undefended targets, not bars full of armed runners.”

Ember shifted uncomfortably. “It, umm, may not have had a choice. I know I wasn’t intending to materialize. But so little of the song filters into the astral. I just had to hear better…” He shivered. “So beautiful…”

I looked at the rapt expression on his face and swallowed. “I really didn’t intend…” I trailed off, shrugging helplessly. The way Ember was looking at me gave me an odd sense of power, and I didn’t like it.

As more and more mages returned to their bodies, Alpha stood. “This is not the place to talk about this.” Gesturing for Jazz and Shark to follow, she hustled me out of the room.

Tiger fell in behind her. “Alpha, we need to talk about what just happened.”

Alpha didn’t stop. “This is team business, which means that it is none of yours.”

Tiger darted around to block her. “This doesn’t just involve your team. It’s-”

He froze as Alpha’s combat knife poked him in the gut. Alpha’s voice was low. “Tiger, I like you, I really do. But if you don’t get out of my way, I will gut you like a fish. Scan?”

Swallowing, he nodded, and stepped aside. The four of us, Ember having vanished into the astral, piled into the van. Before I could even buckle my seatbelt, Alpha roared out of the parking lot.

Eyes on the road, she asked me, “Song, did you know you could force spirits to materialize?”

Ember materialized on the floor of the van. “I wouldn’t say force. Coax or seduce, yes. Maybe even compel. But not force.”

Alpha snarled as she wove in and out of traffic. “Whatever you call it, you just caused every spirit in the bar to materialize. Did you know you could do that?”

I shook my head. “No. I had no idea.”

“I did tell you that your singing was magical,” Ember reminded me.

I shrugged helplessly. “I thought you were overreacting!”

Alpha growled. “Song, you should have realized he was serious. Ember, you should have come to me with these suspicions. What happened just now, that drew attention to the entire team, and we can’t afford to draw attention!”

I nodded. “Because of my… Family situation.”

“It’s not just about you!” Jazz snapped. “I’m a technomancer. Because of that, I have a corp bounty on me. A bounty I’m sure a lot of people would love to collect. And then I’d end up in some fragging corp lab, and I really don’t want to go through that again!”

I looked at her, startled. “Again?”

“We all had lives before Handel hired us to guard you,” Alpha snapped. “And some aspects of those lives make attention dangerous.” Stopping at a light, Alpha turned to look at me. “Song, I consider you a part of the team. However, if you routinely put the rest of the team in danger, that could change.”

“Calm down,” Shark rumbled. “Alpha, she’s just a kid.”

“She can’t be a kid,” snapped Alpha. “Not anymore. Shark, you know as well as I do that kid runners die young.”

“This kid runner recently saved all our lives,” rumbled Shark. “Or had you forgotten?”

Alpha visibly calmed. “Right. Of course.” She looked at me. “I’m sorry, Song. I was… startled by what happened in there.” As the light turned green, she sighed. “I shouldn’t have yelled at you.”

“Yes, you should have!” snapped Jazz. “Another big show like that, and-”

“And we’ll just have to make sure that doesn’t happen,” Alpha cut her off smoothly. “Song, no more singing in public, and if you develop any more weird powers, please let me know.” She sighed. “I suppose I was the one who pushed you up on stage.”

“You were,” Ember agreed, his narrowed gaze fixed on Jazz.

“I’m sorry about that, then,” Alpha sighed. “I suppose that makes this fiasco my fault.”

“You didn’t know,” Shark rumbled. “Not your fault. Not anyone’s, really.”

Jazz snorted. “I still blame-”

Shark cut her off. “Not Song’s fault, either.”

Jazz glared. “I was going to say Ember.”

Alpha sighed. “Of course you were.” The car pulled to a stop in front of a familiar dilapidated apartment complex. “We’re home.”

As we unloaded ourselves from the van, Alpha told us, “Get some sleep. We’re going after those last three hellcows tomorrow.”

*

It turned out there were only two hellcows. The two that had been hanging out together had, as I predicted, attacked each other. One was dead. The other was seriously injured, and was easily dispatched. The uninjured hellcow wasn’t much more difficult. And there were no more unexpected surprises.

We returned to the apartment, where Alpha reminded us of the three other jobs on our roster. “Ok, we finished the hellcow run. We still have the one that involves exploding a warehouse. We’ll have to hire another runner for that- Unless one of you has demolitions skills I don’t know about?”

Jazz, Shark, and I shook our heads, but Ember said, “I could burn it down.”

Alpha shook her head. “The Mr. Johnson specified an explosion. Says he wants to ‘send a message.’” She shrugged. “The other two shouldn’t require extra help. Remember, there’s the unspecified job from Stan, and one involving the pickpocket.” She looked around. “Jazz, have you done any searches about info on pickpockets?”

Jazz shrugged. “The casefiles for the local Lone Star aren’t connected to the matrix anymore, remember? Direct plug in only. Very retro.”

“Also very secure,” rumbled Shark.

Alpha sighed. “So, to get any info on local pickpocketing, we’ll need to break into a Lone Star station. Fragging great.”

Jazz shrugged. “Without that data, we won’t know where to start.”

“We could try to get the pickpocket to target us,” Shark suggested. “We know roughly were the original theft was.”

“Roughly,” Alpha agreed. “But that plan will go better if we have an idea of where the pickpocket is usually active, so we can go straight through the middle of their territory.” She chewed her lip, thinking. “Song, did you pick up that invisibility spell formulae I suggested? The one that also fools cameras?”

I nodded. “I picked it up, but I haven’t had time to study it yet.” I made a face. “It’ll probably take 4 or 5 days to learn it.”

Alpha nodded. “I have an idea on how to get into the station, but to get the data tap in place, we’ll need someone invisible. Song, you get to work learning the spell. In the meantime, we can do the demolitions run. It’ll take a few days to line up a runner who can do what we need, anyways. I’ll talk to Lucky. If he can’t do it, he’ll be able to find someone who can.”

I blinked. “Lucky does demolitions?” From what I’d seen of him, he was a bit… cavalier to be a successful explosives expert.

Shark sniggered. “Yeah, I know what you mean. He hasn’t blown himself up yet, though.”

Jazz snorted. “He’s gotten lucky. No pun intended.”

Alpha shrugged. “Whether through luck or skill, he’s good at what he does. And that’s what we need.”

Discussion over, I headed to my room to begin studying, with Ember following close behind.

*

Three days later, I was almost done. If I studied late into the night, I’d be able to finish tomorrow. And then we could get started planning the lone star run. Unfortunately, tonight was the night of the explosives run.

Alpha stood in the doorway of my room. Today she was a short, asian woman with a crew cut. “You need to sit this one out, Song.”

I frowned. “Can’t you delay the run for a few days?”

Alpha shook her head. “No. After this, Lucky isn’t available for another month.” She sighed. “Don’t ask me why. He won’t say.”

“Probably going to be out of town,” rumbled Shark behind her.

Alpha shrugged. “Probably. We’ll be fine, Song. I trust Lucky to have our back. He’s a bit secretive, but he’s solid when it counts.”

I nodded unhappily. “When should I expect you back?”

“We’ll be in before 3 am,” Alpha told me. “Is Ember back yet?”

I shook my head. “Nope.”

Alpha sighed. “I wish he’d told us where he was going. Or when he’d be back. Or, well, anything about this little errand of his.”

I shrugged. “Technically he’s a free spirit. I can’t control him. He just likes me enough to do as I ask him. Sometimes.”

Alpha frowned. “I don’t like leaving you alone like this.”

I shrugged. “I’ve got Paw, and, if I need to, I can summon another spirit.”

Alpha nodded. “Still, stay in the apartment, if at all possible. The security Jazz set up isn’t ideal, but it’s better than nothing.” She turned toward the door. “See you later, Song.”

Shark turned as well, but looked back at me over his shoulder. “Be safe.”

I nodded. “You too, guys. Be safe.”

I turned back to my studies, worry twisting into a knot in my gut.

*

Four in the morning. The others weren’t back, and I was worried. I paced in my room as Paw watched anxiously from a corner. “Can you sense Ember at all?” I asked Paw.

It shook its head. “No.”

I dialed Alpha on my commlink again. It went straight to voicemail, again. So did Jazz’s and Sharks. I swore. Alpha and Jazz might have turned theirs off so the noise wouldn’t give away their position, but Shark’s commlink was implanted. With no ring or vibration to worry about, he never turned his off. He didn’t always answer, but he never turned it off.

Whatever had happened, it was likely over already. But I still had to know. I turned to Paw. “Find Alpha, Jazz, and Shark. If they need help, help them. Then come back and tell me if they’re ok.”

Paw hesitated. “Do I have to? I don’t want to leave you alone.”

I rolled my eyes. “I’ll be fine. Go.”

As my bound spirit, Paw had no choice but to obey. With one final lingering look at me, it dematerialized.

I sighed, and began to pace again. What if Alpha, Jazz, and Shark were dead? I swiped away a tear, but could do nothing about the pain and terror that spiked through me. It wasn’t just the fear of losing three close friends, though that in itself was bad enough. It was the fear of losing the safety they represented.

No one besides them had a reason to give a drek about my life. That was the chip truth. My mother was dead, likely murdered. Handel was dead as well, definitely murdered. My father had died long ago. No one cared about me, and many had reasons to want me dead.

Unreasoning terror spiked through me. If they were gone, what would I do? Where would I go? What if someone figured out who I really was? What if-?

I broke through the terror. Something was wrong. I’d spiraled into unreasoning fear way, way too quickly for it to be natural. “I know you’re there,” I said, trying to sound confident even though I was still shaking in fear. “You’ve got 5 seconds to scram, and then I summon something powerful and come after you on the astral.”

A shape materialized. A robed figure. The shadow spirit from the bar. I raise my hands, ready to cast a spell. “I said scram!”

The figure laughed. “You don’t scare me, little mage. You are weak, and so very, very alone.”

Fear rose to choke me. I backed towards the door. I couldn’t seem to look away from the spirit, caught, like a deer in headlights, in the gaze of two glowing green eyes. I could feel the spirit pulling at something inside me, drawing energy from the core of my being. I shook. Tears streamed down my cheeks. I had to do something… I had to… I…

My trembling fingers couldn’t seem to work the latch on the door. I couldn’t get it open. I was trapped. Trapped in a room with a nightmare.

The nightmare glided towards me. Closer… Closer… I wailed in terror.

The shadow spirit froze, trembling. The terror that imprisoned me eased. My trembling lessened, and I remembered I was a mage. A mage. I could fight back.

I closed my eyes and opened my mind. I needed a protector. A guardian. A powerful one…

With a hollow boom, my summoned spirit appeared between me and the nightmare. It looked like an enormous suit of medieval armor, so tall it had to crouch slightly to avoid touching the ceiling. Its visor was down. Nothing was visible of whoever, or whatever, wore the armor.

It casually backhanded the shadow spirit, sending it crashing into the wall. Then it turned to me. “What is thy bidding, my lady?” Its voice was deep, and had a slight metallic echo.

I blinked, still dizzy from drain, and wiped my nosebleed with my sleeve. “Ummm…”

“I presume you wish me to deal with this ruffian?” It gestured toward the shadow spirit, which rose, hissing, from the floor.

I just stared, shaking, as the shadow spirit glided towards me once more.

“There is little I can do without your command,” the guardian spirit reminded me. “Do you wish me to deal with the nightmare? A simple yes will suffice.”

I took a deep breath. “Y-yes!”

Without another word the guardian spirit thrust a fist into the shadow spirit’s robed form. It dematerialized. Seconds later, the guardian spirit vanished as well.

I leaned against the doorway, panting and trembling. I knew that, on the astral plane, my summoned spirit fought the nightmare. I tried to plan what I would do if my spirit lost. Should I summon another? If I did, I might end up passing out. That would not be good.

The guardian spirit reappeared. I breathed a sigh of relief. “You won?”

“In a manner of speaking, my lady,” the spirit told me in its deep voice. “The shadow spirit surrendered. She wishes to make recompense.”

I blinked. “Make recompense?”

The shadow spirit rematerialized. I squeaked, and she winced. “I’m sorry. I promise, this time I did not mean to frighten you.”

I blinked. “Ok.”

She looked away. “I… I heard you sing the night I… Well, you remember. I’ve been following you ever since. And tonight you were alone, and already frightened…” She looked down. “I thought you would be delicious.” Then she met my gaze, green eyes bright with malice. “And you were.” She laughed.

The guardian spirit cleared his throat. The shadow spirit looked away again. “I won’t do it again. And not because this hulk beat me. Though he did. When you cried out…” She trembled. “It touched me. Deep inside. Like your singing, except… Except it hurt. I could feel your terror. Your pain.” She shivered. “I want to make it up to you. To help you.” She reached out to me with a skeletal hand.

I drew away, shaking.

The spirit sighed, and dropped her hand. “You’ll drive me away, won’t you. If you can. I’m frightening. I’m dangerous.” She looked at me thoughtfully. “But what if you had a way to control me? Would you drive me away then?”

I swallowed. “What are you talking about? Control you?”

The nightmare met my gaze. “I’m talking about binding.”

I blinked. “Shadow spirits can’t be bound.”

I couldn’t see her smug smile, but I could feel it. “That’s because, if you didn’t summon a spirit, you need its name to bind it. With normal spirits, like this big guy, there are ways to find out. However, a shadow spirit’s name must be freely given.”

“And you’ll give me your name? Just like that?” I asked.

Her green eyes pierced me. “No. Not just like that. You must promise me you will never, ever share my name. With anyone. For any reason. I won’t serve just any meatperson. I’d rather die. But you’re different. I’ll serve you.”

“How sweet,” a voice said from the opposite corner. I whirled. There was Ember. His eyes met mine. They blazed. “Songbird. Where is Paw? Why wasn’t he here to protect you? Or to fetch me?”

I blinked. “The others were late. I sent Paw to find out if they were alright.”

Ember’s voice was cold. “You should have sent him to fetch me first.”

I sighed. “I didn’t want to bother you.”

“And I don’t want you to die!” Ember snapped. “I will admit, this little disaster worked out just fine without me. But what if it hadn’t? You’re vulnerable, Songbird.”

“The fire spirit has a point,” boomed the suit of armor. “You are delicate. You must be protected.”

I glared at them both. “I protected myself just fine for years before I summoned either of you.”

“I’m not sure how,” snapped Ember. “It’s a dangerous world out there, Song, and you don’t seem to realize that.”

“Ummm…” This voice came from the direction of my bed. “It’s kind of crowded in here, so I materialized on the bed. I hope that’s alright.”

That was Paw! I turned to face him. “Are Alpha, Shark, and Jazz ok?”

Paw shook his head. “Not really? They sent me to ask you for more help.”

I turned to the guardian spirit. “Go with Paw. Help Alpha, Shark, and Jazz however you can.” He vanished.

I turned to the shadow spirit. “If you’re so serious about helping me, you should go with them and help.” She dematerialized. A second later, so did Paw.

I turned to Ember. His expression was mullish. “I’m not going anywhere.”

I sighed. “Fine.” A shadow spirit, a guardian spirit, and a beast spirit were probably more than enough anyways. I settled down on my bed to wait.

Ember settled down beside me. “Are you wondering where I was?”

I shook my head. “Not really. That’s your business.”

Ember sighed. “It’s actually kind of your business too, Song.”

I looked at him. “Can we talk about this later? I’m worried.”

Reluctantly, Ember nodded. “Of course.” He paused. “Can you sing to me?”

I nodded. “What should I sing?”

He shrugged. “I don’t care.”

I took a deep breath.

“Shadows and moonlight,

Bargaining with the night.

Sold and bought

Devil’s delight.

“The deal that I made,

On the edge of a blade.

Run and fight

Seduce, persuade.

“The guns and the knives,

Then we run for our lives.

Pray and dream

That hope survives.

“Sold and bought,

Run and fight,

Pray and dream,

This is my life.

As I finished, Ember sighed. “That was beautiful.”

I smiled. “Thank you.” Looking down shyly, I added, “I wrote it myself.”

Ember leaned against my shoulder. “Sing to me more.”

I complied.

[charmscale]

Songbird: The Awakening Chapter 3

My astral form drifted through the meatpacking plant, Ember close at my heels and Paw trailing behind him. As we left the holding pens and entered the actual meatpacking section, I wrinkled my nose. “So much death.”

Ember nodded. “The aura is quite disgusting. Let’s find the hellcows and get out.”

Three had been in the holding pens, surrounded by the remains of their fellow cows. None were in the slaughter area. Maybe they found the aura of death just as disgusting as I did, I thought. Unlikely. Hellcows didn’t astrally perceive.

One was in the sausage section, chowing down on the conveyor belt. The aura of hungry hellcows, I noted, was different from their aura when full. Maybe we could use that?

The final two hellcows were munching on the crates of meat in the storage section of the warehouse. They were together, I noted, and would need to be faced together. Not good. Perhaps we could wait to face those two. Eventually, they’d probably fight, and one would eat the other.

I remembered what Jazz had told me earlier. “The horrible hellcow problem is probably because their supplier has been feeding waste from the plant to his cows. That’s illegal, by the way, which is probably why they brought us in to deal with the results. Hellcow disease is a prion disease, like mad cow disease, and it’s passed around by cows eating cow parts. The big difference is that it affects the infected cow’s offspring. The gestation period is shortened, and, well…” She’d trailed off. “One day a female cow looks fine. The next day the baby hellcow bursts out of its womb and eats it alive.”

Back in the present, I winced.

Ember looked at me. “Are you alright?”

I shivered. “Just thinking about… Well, hellcows. They’re pretty nasty.” And so are some people. Forcing ordinary cows into cannibalism… I shivered again. “I guess that’s a runner’s life. Dealing with the nasty drek.”

Ember looked at me. His aura was unreadable. “You deserve better than this.”

I sighed. “I haven’t exactly got other options.”

Ember cocked his head. “Why not?”

I sighed again. “It’s a long story.”

Paw perked up. “I like stories!”

I couldn’t help smiling. “Later. Right now, I’ve got to get back to my body.”

Getting back to the rendezvous point took seconds, but when I got there, I found that my team was not alone. They had been surrounded by members of a go-gang. Bikes rumbling and belching nasty smoke, they circled the van.

Alpha seemed to be trying to talk them down. I slipped into my body. It was possible I could help.

Back on the material plane, I listened to Alpha speak. “Trust me, chummer, we’re more trouble than we’re worth.”

As I sat up and peered out the window, I heard the group leader snort. “There’s three of you, and nine of us. You’re outnumbered. Give us the van, and you live. Fight, and…”

Several members of the group laughed. One shot a gun into the air. “Face it, you’re fragged, keeb.”

Alpha smiled. “I wouldn’t count on that. Our razorguy is seriously wired, and I’m not just a pretty face.” He spread his hands. “The kind of fight you’re going to get into, it’ll get messy.” He looked around, smiled widening. “Maybe we’ll win. Maybe we won’t. However, I guarantee some of you lot are going to die.” He cocked his head. “Is this van really worth dying for?”

Out of sight of the gang members, he signaled Shark. Shark nodded, and opened the back door of the van. Baring teeth in a hostile grin, he stepped out.

One of the gang members jerked back. “It’s a fraggin’ trog!”

Ember materialized. His form was human, but he was covered in flames. He laughed. A few more go-gangers drew back, but the gang as a whole was still circling.

The gang leader swallowed, looking nervous before regaining his former bravado. “Still nine to four, dandelion eater. Give up now.”

Still in the van, I murmured a spell. Fear was an easy emotion to enhance.

Hand on his gun, the leader snarled. “It’s a drek van, anyways. Not worth getting your blood on our clothes.”

Ember laughed. “Coward.”

Alpha gave him a sharp look. “You’re right. It is a drek van. Not worth your time.”

Ember locked eyes with the leader. “You don’t have the balls to mess with us, meathead. So just run along with your little friends back to your mother and cry.”

Enraged, the leader raised his gun. “Get them!”

Roaring, the gang charged.

Alpha didn’t bother opening the door. He just threw himself out the open window, rolled once, and was on his feet, combat knife in hand. Shark stepped away from the van and opened fire on the go-gangers. One of them fell off his bike and hit the asphalt, bleeding from several holes. With his other hand, Shark shoved his katana into a motorcycle wheel. The cycle flipped, sending the unfortunate go-ganger flying. She landed on her face and didn’t move, blood spreading in a puddle around her head.

Alpha was on the leader in a flash. He stabbed him in the throat with the combat knife and shoved him off the bike. Taking control of the motorcycle, he wheeled to face the remaining six go-gangers.

I dipped into my pocket, grabbed some reagents, and cast a quick spell to enhance my reflexes. Reagents drained, I dropped them, and shuddered as I resisted the drain from the spell. Then I cast a manaball at one of the go-gangers. Force 6, the most powerful I could cast without risking physical drain. It took him down.

Abruptly, I realized I should have taken physical drain when I summoned Ember. How… No time to worry about that now. Dizzy with drain from my first two spells, I grabbed another handful of reagents.

Ember, I noted, had set two go-gangers on fire. One had obviously been blasted. He was desperately trying to put out himself and his bike. The other appeared to have gotten too close to Ember while attacking him with a crowbar. The crowbar was lying, half melted, on the asphalt, and the go-ganger herself was a charred mess, still alive but only just. A shot from Shark finished her off.

With only 4 of their number left, all injured, the go-gangers fled. Alpha sighed, and dismounted from the motorbike. He turned to the leader of the gang, who was gurgling his last on the sidewalk. “I told you you couldn’t take us,” he sighed. “You didn’t listen...”

Half an hour later, we’d piled the bodies in a dumpster. With any luck, it would be awhile before someone found them. I stared at the dumpster silently. While I’d seen people die before, this was the first time I’d been a part of it.

I jerked around in surprise as Alpha rounded on Ember, combat knife in hand. “What the hell, Ember?”

Ember looked startled. “What?”

Alpha sighed. “I had it handled. I convinced them the van wasn’t worth dying for, so they were going to walk away. Then you insulted them.” He sighed again. “To go-gangers, reputation is everything. Reputation, and pride. Their leader couldn’t let that insult go unpunished, not if he wanted to stay leader.”

Alpha thrust his finger into Ember’s no longer flaming chest. Had Alpha grown taller? Or had Ember gotten shorter? Either way, Alpha towered over the spirit, glowering menacingly. “Next time, I do the talking. You say nothing. Scan?”

Ember glared. “Are you threatening me?”

Alpha’s eyes narrowed. “Yes. I may not be able to banish you, but I can disrupt you. I don’t know if you can return after that or not, but, either way, it’ll hurt like hell.”

Ember grew taller. “I’m not sure you know what you’re dealing with, meatperson.”

Alpha growled. “I know perfectly well what I’m dealing with, and I could take you. If I wanted.” Abruptly the anger left him, and he cocked his head thoughtfully. “Also, the more we stay out of combat, the less likely it is that Song will get hurt. I can talk my way out of a fight. You can’t.”

Ember nodded slowly. “You have a point.” He looked at me. “I’m sorry I nearly got you shot, Songbird.”

I shrugged. “It’s ok. Just, in the future, try to remember that there’s a reason we let Alpha do the talking.”

Ember bowed his head solemnly. “For you, I will try to remember.”

Alpha nodded decisively. “Good. Now, I think we’re not too badly hurt to take down a hellcow or two. Does everyone agree?”

Shark grunted. “I got shot, but I used the medkit, and it’s not that bad. Ember? Song?”

Ember chuckled. “Nothing that lot was carrying was capable of hurting me.”

I yawned. “I’d rather rest for an hour before throwing any more spells around. Is that ok?”

Alpha nodded. “Of course, Song.” His gaze softened. “I should have realized you’d taken some drain. Sorry.”

I sniggered. “It’s not as obvious when I don’t get a nosebleed.”

Then I remembered. “Ember, when I summoned you, I should have taken physical drain. It should have almost killed me. Or, you know, maybe not just almost. Do you have any idea why it didn’t?”

Ember frowned. “No.”

Alpha looked thoughtful. “This could be useful. If summoning powerful spirits is less dangerous for you than for most people…” He trailed off speculatively.

I snorted. “I only managed to get one service when I summoned Ember.”

Alpha shrugged. “If we’re ever in that kind of a bind again, one service could make a big difference.”

Ember’s eyes narrowed. “I’d prefer it if Song was never in that much danger again.”

Shark snorted. “She’s a runner. Danger is part of the job.”

Ember growled. “Not if I can help it.”

Alpha stepped between them. “Ember, we try to minimize risks, but sometimes the drek hits the fan, and there’s nothing we can do about it. The run you came in on, that was some really unexpected drek on what was suppose to be a milk run.”

“No such thing as a milk run,” rumbled Shark.

Alpha snorted. “You’re probably right.” He turned to me. “Get some rest, Song. You’ve got an hour, and then we’re going in.”

*

One hour and an episode of “Amish Runners” later, I was ready to go.

Alpha snorted as I removed the episode from my commlink. “I don’t know how you can watch that drek. You do realize ‘reality trideo’ is a misnomer, right? That drek is just as scripted as regular trideo. It’s just scripted badly.”

I sniggered. “Of course. But the more mindless and inane a show is, the more I zonk out, and the more I zonk out, the faster I heal.” I shrugged. “Weird, I know, but true.”

Alpha chuckled. “Well, if you’re done zonking out, we have a job to do.”

Alpha had changed while I was resting, and was now a human female again, this time rather ridiculously well endowed with bimbo blond hair. I looked her over. “What’s with the double ds?”

Alpha raised an eyebrow. “They make me feel pretty. Problem?”

I took a step back. “No, not at all! I was just… I mean, if they get in your way…”

Sharks rumbling chuckle was as much felt as heard. “I’ve seen her kick ass with bigger tits than that, and in high heels, too.” He stepped out of the van, making the suspension creak. “Now that was quite the run. Remind me to tell you the story sometime.”

Alpha snorted. “You are not telling her that one.”

Shark rumbled again. “Why? It was quite impressive, especially when you put your heel right through his-”

Alpha cut him off. “Time to go. I’ll take point. Ember and Song can be in the middle, and Shark, you can guard the rear.” She turned and stalked toward the meatpacking plant, her own rather large rear swaying with the motion of her hips.

We entered the meatpacking plant, guns at the ready. The first hellcow was in a cow holding pen. It ignored us as we lined up shots. Then, at Alpha’s signal, we opened fire.

Now full of holes, the hellcow charged. “MOOOO!”

Shark moved to block it. Grabbing it by the head, he threw it to the ground, but not before it took a chunk out of his arm. Worried that I’d hit Shark, I held my fire. Alpha, who was a much better shot, buried another three rounds in the unfortunate cow, and Ember scorched it with his fire.

Shark’s katana came down, almost slicing it in half. With a final angry below, the hellcow died. Another hellcow, attracted to the commotion, came charging out of another holding pen. I dove aside as it came right at me. Ember moved between me and the hellcow. With a blast of flame, he set it alight. The hellcow bellowed in pain and rage.

Now, with the flames wreathing it, fangs bared, and eyes flashing with rage, it really did look like something from the pit. Ember wouldn’t let anything happen to me, I reminded myself, and fired. I hit it right between the eyes. The hellcow crumpled to the ground just as Shark opened fire. Burning and full of lead, the hellcow died.

Breathing heavily, Alpha looked around. “Everyone ok? No serious injuries?”

Shark, now doctoring the bite on his arm, shook his head. “I’m good.”

Alpha turned to me. “Song? Did the hellcow get you when it came in from behind?”

I shook my head. “I got out of the way in time. I’m fine.”

Alpha nodded. “Artic. Let’s keep going.”

Shark looked at the partially charred hellcows speculatively. “I wonder what hellcow tastes like.”

Alpha shook her head. “We’d never get all the shrapnel out.”

Shark frowned thoughtfully. “Maybe if we didn’t pump the next one full of lead-”

Alpha snorted. “That would make it much, much harder to kill. Weren’t you the one talking about how dangerous hellcows are?”

Shark snorted. “Point.”

Our next fight was uneventful. The placid, well fed hellcow looked at us dumbly as we lined up our shots. When we opened fire, it died before it could retaliate.

Alpha nodded. “So far so good.”

We had to go through the slaughter section to get to the next hellcow. The doors were locked, but, instead of contacting Jazz, Shark broke them down.

The slaughter room was eerily silent when we entered. Silent, and dark. Our footsteps echoed through the chamber as we walked, and the smell of old blood made me gag.

Alpha froze, gesturing for us to stop. “Something isn’t right.”

Ember rolled his eyes. “The room is empty. What could possibly-”

The machinery roared to life. I shrieked as mechanical arms lifted me onto the conveyor belt. Clamps made to hold cow feet clamped around my legs. Behind me, Shark was getting the same treatment. Alpha managed to dodge the arms. She whipped out her combat knife, but it just clanged off the hardened steel.

Ember looked at her. “What do we do!?! I can’t- If I attack the machine I’ll burn Song!”

Alpha grunted as she bent over backwards, dodging the arms. “Shark! Call Jazz!”

I screamed as a blade, made to cut cows cleanly in half, whirred to life in front of me. Ember grabbed the conveyor belt, trying desperately to hold it still. Groaning, it slowed, but I was still headed for the whirring saw. I drew my gun and opened fire on the blade. I winced as the shot ricocheted.

“Song, stop that! It won’t do any good!” Alpha yelled, still dodging. “Shark!”

“I’ve got her!” Shark bellowed. “She’s on it!” He cocked his head, listening. “She says it’s a xenosapient AI!”

“I don’t care what it is!” Alpha screamed. “Tell her to stop it before it kills Song!”

Ember grunted as the conveyor belt moved forward another inch.

That was when the loudspeakers crackled to life. “Guys, it’s Jazz! I’ve hacked into the plant!”

Alpha gasped as an arm missed her by inches. “Shut this down! Now!”

“I can’t!” Jazz wailed through the loudspeakers. “The xenosapient-”

Alpha cut her off. “Then think of something else! You’re good with machines! How do we shut this shit down manually?”

Silence. Then the loudspeaker spoke again. “Ember. I need you to listen to me very carefully. You need to let go of the conveyor belt.”

Ember grunted as the belt came to a full stop. “NO!”

“It’s ok! I’ve got it! For now.” Jazz sounded shakey. “Let go, and listen to me very carefully.”

Ember growled. “Talk fast!”

“Do you see the box next to the conveyor belt? The one with the computer screen?” Jazz asked.

Ember looked around. “Yes!”

“Melt it! Now!” Jazz ordered.

Ember growled, and released the conveyor belt. True to her word, Jazz was keeping it still. Mostly. I screamed as it jerked forward another inch.

Ember was working fast, enveloping the box in flame. The screen was blackened, and the case began to melt. I saw bits of smoking circuit boards and computer chips through the melted gaps in the case.

The conveyor belt jerked forward another inch. I leaned away, as best I could, and felt the blade slicing through my jeans. I fought back a scream. Distracting Ember would not help.

There was a burst of static from the loud speakers, and the blade stopped. The clamps on my legs snapped open, and, still leaning away from the blade, I toppled over backwards.

Shark caught me. He was crying. “Oh, Song… Are you ok?”

I looked down at the thin slice in my jeans. No blood. “I’m good. It…  It just got my pants.”

Alpha, panting, knelt on the floor. She laughed shakily. “Well, that was a workout.”

Ember continued to melt the box, snarling.

The loudspeakers crackled to life again. “Ember. It’s over. You can stop now. You forced the xenosapient from its home, and I killed it.” And electronic sigh. “It’s over.”

Ember stopped, but flames still crackled around him. He shuddered, and then visibly calmed. The flames went away. He turned to Alpha. “Was that what you meant? About drek hitting the fan?”

Alpha, still shaking, nodded. “Yeah. It seems like there’s always something, something we don’t know, or didn’t account for.” She shivered. “This was… Worse than most.”

Shark, still holding me, stepped down from the belt. “I don’t know about that,” he rumbled. “No one actually got hurt. Remember that run last December?”

I shivered. “You’re not the one who nearly got sliced in half.”

Shark shrugged. “Point. But last December, I nearly died when the run went south. It took me weeks of rest to recover, and I had to get my cyberarm replaced. Remind me to tell you the story some day.”

Alpha visibly pulled herself together. “I think that’s enough for today. I need to contact our client, tell them what we did to their computer and why. And then, I, at least, need a drink.”

Shark grunted. “We going to the Legless Worm?”

Alpha nodded. “The Legless Worm.”

*

The Legless Worm was a runner bar. I’d been there once before, when I’d first met the team. That had been purely business, and Handel had been with me. This was different.

Jazz was on the dance floor, bopping to the music. Shark was watching her fondly, drink in hand, as he chatted with a few other trolls. Alpha was with me, and we’d been joined by a couple of other runners.

“And then I said, what do you mean? I thought she was an elf!” a human runner concluded. He’d introduced himself as Sam, but everyone at the table called him Lucky.

The rest of the table laughed. Alpha was still in her well endowed female form, and was flirting with an elf named Tiger, who was also an adept. Her ability to change her form was no secret in the runner community.

“Yeah, elf posers are a pain in the ass,” Tiger said. He turned to Alpha, who had opened her mouth. “You don’t count, love. For all I know you are an elf!”

The table laughed again. “Yeah, Alpha,” chimed in a gnome. Her name was Cheeri, and she was a rigger. “What is your metatype, anyways? And what do you really look like?”

Alpha grinned mischievously. “I’ll never tell.” She took another swig of her drink.

“My money is on elf,” Tiger said, putting his arm around Alpha.

“Dwarf,” chimed Cheeri. “She’s really a dwarf.”

“Maybe she’s secretly an orc,” Lucky/Sam chortled. “Or a troll!”

Alpha snorted. “You know I can’t even take orc or troll forms.”

Lucky raised an eyebrow. “Can’t you? We’ve only got your word for that.”

Alpha snorted again. “It’s a question of mass, stupid. There’s not enough of me to make an orc or a troll.”

“Mass, smass,” Lucky laughed. “Nothing a bit of magic can’t fix!”

Cheeri elbowed me. “What do you think, Song? What is Alpha’s metatype?”

I blinked, surprised to be so suddenly addressed. “How should I know?”

Lucky looked at me mischievously. “You’re on her team. You’d have a better idea than any of us.”

I looked at Alpha, and thought about how charismatic she was. That was an elf thing. On the other hand, she seemed to prefer human forms most of the time. She almost never went dwarf, and I was pretty sure she didn’t have thermographic vision. That meant dwarf was likely out. “She’s not a dwarf,” I offered.

Cheeri grinned. “You sure?”

“Of course she’s not sure,” Alpha put in. “I’m a woman of mystery.” She shrugged. “Or sometimes a man of mystery. Whatever.”

Everyone laughed. “So, what’s your story, Songbird?” Lucky asked. “How did you end up running in the shadows?”

Alpha leaned into Tiger’s embrace and laughed. “She pissed off the wrong people. Just like you, Lucky. What did that wageslave call you, again? Right before he hit the alarm?”

Lucky laughed, and launched into the story of the fiasco that had landed him in the gutter. “I should have died,” he concluded. He winked. “But I didn’t. And I decided that, since I was officially a dead man, I might as well use the fact. So I started a whole new career, and it’s been great.” He grinned. “Next round is on me!”

The table cheered. No one seemed to have noticed Alpha’s adroit topic change.

Not long after that, the bar’s owner booted up the karaoke machine. Jazz was the first on stage. She sang badly, as usual, but no one seemed to care. Then Lucky egged Tiger into singing a duet with him. When Lucky made his choice on the screen, grinning wickedly, Tiger nearly walked off the stage.

It was a love duet. Lucky sang the girl’s part, and Tiger, a surprisingly deep baritone, sang the guy’s. It wasn’t that bad, I thought, grinning. The two came back to their seats. “Next time we do that,” Tiger growled. “At least choose something gay. I felt so stupid calling you my cherry blossom.”

Lucky laughed. “So, Songbird, are you actually a good singer?”

I blushed. “I’m not bad.”

Lucky thrust his finger into my chest. “Prove it!”

I winced. “I don’t think I-”

Alpha pulled me to my feet. “She’s amazing, guys. You’ve got to hear!”

Urged onto the stage, I stood before the karaoke machine. “Umm…” I stared, bewildered, at my huge number of choices.

Alpha slid briefly onto the stage. “Try this one.” She picked a song for me. Fortunately, it was one I knew.

The music started. I took a deep breath, and sang.

The bar went silent.

I fought not to let my voice wobble. Everyone was staring at me. Lucky and Tiger looked poleaxed. Shark was smiling from ear to ear, eyes closed. Cheeri looked awed. Alpha grinned smugly. Even Jazz was enjoying the music, nodding along and smiling wryly.

And everyone else… Up until now, I hadn’t realized how full the bar was. And it got fuller, I noted, as several spirits materialized, including Paw and Ember. I gripped the mic with white knuckles. I could feel my knees shaking. But I never missed a single note.

Suddenly, a robed form materialized in mid air. It reached out with a skeletal hand, and a female voice murmured. “So beautiful…”

Someone pointed at it. “That’s a shadow spirit!” Someone else screamed. Another drew a gun and aimed it at the spirit, who abruptly vanished back into the astral. My song trailed off, as, shocked, I stared at where the thing had been. What the frag?

[charmscale]

Songbird: The Awakening, Chapter 2

I entered the kitchen in silence, my body wrapped in a large brown towel. Another towel kept my hair from dripping everywhere. I walked past Alpha, Shark, and the newly awoken Jazz with a nod, and bent over to open the freezer drawer. After selecting a meal, fettuccine with dairy free alfredo, I popped it in the microwave and started it heating. Then I pulled a generic cola from the fridge, popped the tab, and took a long swig. Caffeine and sugar. Just what I needed to boot up my brain.

I turned to the kitchen table where Alpha, Jazz, and Shark were sitting. Jazz was wolfing down something that looked like chicken. Shark was nursing a hot, black coffee, his one vice, and Alpha was busy on her comlink. She had it plugged into her datajack and the screen off, so she could be doing anything from tapping contacts to surfing Jackpoint to beating her high score in Jelly Bear Rumba. Given the situation, I hoped that it was one of the first two, or that she was trying to get in contact with our employer.

Our employer for the job that had gone bad was the mysterious 8-Ball, a fixture in the Dallas runner community. An information broker and fixer, 8-Ball seemed to know everything, but no one knew anything about them. If you needed hard to find info, you went to 8-Ball, provided, of course, you could pay the price.

The mysterious 8-Ball seemed to use most of the proceeds from their business for charity runs. Funneling medical waste to ghouls, taking down certain gangs, that sort of thing. Some of the runs they commissioned were a bit weird, though. Before I joined them, 8-Ball had commissioned the team to clear out and burn down an abandoned factory. They’d paid extra to ensure that, while the plant itself was burned to the ground, no other buildings caught fire.

Because 8-Ball seemed to know everything, most of the shadowrunning community was convinced they’d hacked security cams and surveillance satellites. Alpha said she doubted the answer was that simple.

Jazz looked up from her meal. “Alpha, I’ve been thinking,” she said.

The corner of Alpha’s mouth turned up in a amused smile. “Isn’t that my job?”

Jazz snorted. “Very funny. Alpha, 8-Ball is usually pretty reliable when it comes to information. I’ve never known them to miss something as important as… Whatever those things were. Do you think they set us up?”

Alpha shook her head. As she did so, her hair, now unbraided, shortened and darkened, turning into a black crew cut. Her small breasts flattened, her shoulders broadened, and her musculature became more pronounced. Soon she was obviously a he. His eyes shifted to a brown so dark it was almost black, and his skin darkened, too, from latte to milk chocolate. Blue tribal tattoos traced their way across his dark skin, and his ears became more pointed. Soon, where there had been a pretty human woman, there was a rather intense looking, and obviously elven, man of african descent. “No,” Alpha said. “Why would 8-Ball do that? We’ve been reliable. Swift. Reasonably priced. There’s no reason for them to betray us.”

Jazz shook her head. “I hate it when you do that.”

“What? Poke holes in your ideas?” Alpha smiled.

“No. Shift all of a sudden like that,” Jazz replied. “You know it creeps me out a bit.”

Alpha laughed. “Last time I shifted privately, you almost shot me.”

Jazz shrugged. “I didn’t recognize you. For all I knew, some strange elf had wandered in off the street.”

I hadn’t been here long, but I’d already heard this same tired argument play out several times before. I tuned out the friendly griping and peered into the microwave, watching my meal. The microwave beeped. I opened it and poked a finger into the creamy sauce. Too hot. I jerked my finger out and put it in my mouth.

The subject turned back to the mission. “If 8-Ball wasn’t setting us up,” Jazz said pointedly, “Then why didn’t they warn us about the… things?”

Alpha cocked his head thoughtfully. “I don’t think they knew. I think the facility was a blind spot on their radar, and they sent us in to correct that. They didn’t know it would be as deadly as it was.” He unplugged the datajack. “I think they’ll pay us for the information we got, even if we didn’t plant the bug.”

Alpha was correct. When he checked his bank account, he found that the payment has been transferred, with a bit extra. According to the memo on the transfer, the extra payment was for unforeseen dangers, and 8-Ball hoped that the run wouldn’t affect their professional relationship with the team.

“You already informed them?” I asked.

Alpha shrugged. “That’s what I was doing when you walked in.”

“Quick response,” Jazz said, eyes narrowed.

Alpha shrugged. “8-Ball is generally on top of things like that.” He scrolled through his messages. “Now, we’ve got a few messages about jobs. One is from a Mr. Johnson we’ve worked for in the past. He wants us to…” He blinked. “Blow up a warehouse. Ok. That’s a new one.”

He paged through his emails. “There’s job from Stan. You remember? The fixer, has connections in the black market antiquities community. He says he’s got a job that would be ideal for our talents.”

Shark sighed. “More smuggling?”

Alpha shrugged. “Maybe. Then there’s… junk mail… junk mail… ah. Here’s another one. It’s from a different Mr. Johnson. Apparently he’s had problems with a pickpocket.”

Jazz snorted. “Call the police.”

“I’m betting whatever got stolen is illegal,” Alpha said. “You can hack police files, Jazz, see if there’s been any other pickpocketing in the area. Fourth job is from the fixer Ginger… It involves killing hellcows. Apparently a meatpacking plant has become infested with them.”

“Infestation? How many are we talking about here?” Shark rumbled, sounding dubious. “Those things are hard to kill.”

Ember, who was leaning against the kitchen door frame, snorted. “Not a problem. Hellcows burn like everything else.” His eyes flared red. “You’d burn too. If I wanted.”

Jazz looked at Alpha. “Do we have to keep him around?”

Ember chuckled. “You could try banishing me. I guarantee it would not go well.”

Jazz eyed him. “Song would be the one banishing you. You wouldn’t attack her.”

“I am perfectly capable of knocking her unconscious without doing serious harm,” Ember told her. “And I’d just kill anyone else who tried.”

Alpha raised a hand. “It’s a moot point. He’s staying. He’s useful, if only because he’ll protect Song.”

I made a face. “And I kind of suck at banishing, so…” I shrugged.

Ember smiled at me wickedly. “Good.”

Alpha scanned the list of jobs. “Hellcows first, I think. Tom says it’s pretty urgent, and if we don’t contact him today he’ll hire a different team. The others are giving us a few days to decide if we want to take the job.”

Shark frowned. “You sure we can handle the hellcows?”

Alpha shrugged. “Hellcows don’t tend to hang out together. We can take them out one by one, and we can always spread the fights out over several days if we can’t take them all in one run.” She looked from me to Shark to Jazz. “Any objections?”

Shark grunted. “Sounds good to me, Alpha. If you think we can do it.”

I nodded my agreement. Jazz shrugged.

Ember frowned. “Do I get a say in this?”

Alpha shrugged. “Technically, you’re not part of the team, but, if you don’t like it, I will take that into account.”

Ember looked thoughtful. “Money is a necessity for material beings, yes?”

Jazz snorted. “Only if you want to eat, and stay someplace with a roof. So yeah.”

Ember looked thoughtful. “This shouldn’t put Songbird in undue danger. I give my approval.”

“I’m so glad,” Jazz said dryly. “Whatever would we do if you didn’t approve?”

Ember’s eyes narrowed. “I’d kill you right now if you weren’t Song’s friend.”

“I wouldn’t call her a friend,” Jazz told him. “More a necessary irritation.”

Flame gathered around Ember’s hands. “Then maybe I should-”

I stepped between him and Jazz. “Please don’t!”

Ember lowered his hands. “As you wish.”

“While we’re on the subject, I’d appreciate it if you didn’t kill anyone unless I ask you to,” I told Ember. “Or set stuff on fire.”

Ember stretched, and leaned back against the door frame. “As you wish.” His eyes glittered. “But don’t think you can dictate everything that I do.”

I took a step back, nodding nervously. “I understand.”

“Jazz, you should sit this one out,” Alpha said, picking up her commlink. “Last time I checked, hellcows don’t use the matrix.”

Jazz glared at her. “I can shoot shit too, you know.”

“Not very well,” Shark rumbled. “And you aren’t that good at defense.” He gave her puppy dog eyes, which he was surprisingly good at for a huge troll. “I don’t like it when you get hurt.”

Jazz sighed. “Ok. For you, Shark.”

“Be available on commlink. Just in case,” said Alpha.

Jazz rolled her eyes. “Yeah, you might need me to unlock a door, or something.”

Alpha sighed. “Jazz, please-”

Jazz raised a hand. “I’ll be online if you need me.”

Alpha nodded. “Thanks. I’ll tell Tom we’re taking the run.”

Nightfall. The sky glowed orange as city lights reflected off the smog, and a distant siren pierced the sounds of late night traffic. My room was as dark as my ancient blinds could get it, which wasn’t very dark at all. I was use to Dallas’s bright, noisy nights, though, so the environment wasn’t what kept me from sleeping. It was Ember. The spirit had taken his normal, fiery form and was hovering in the air above the foot of the bed, stretched out lengthwise as if reclining, and staring down at me.

I considered asking him to slip into astral space, but the idea of him staring at me invisibly was just as creepy as his current position. I could tell him to go away, but he had no reason to listen to me and an apparent desire to keep me in view.

I sat up, sighing. “You said you can’t leave me alone. What’s that like? Is it like a leash? A binding? Maybe if we can figure out what’s keeping you here, you can leave.

Ember frowned. “It’s not really either. I left not long after sunrise, and I didn’t plan to come back. I got pretty far away, too, but, the entire time, I couldn’t… I couldn’t stop thinking about you.”

“Thinking about me?” I asked. “What sort of thoughts?”

Ember sighed. “I was mostly wondering about what was happening to you. If you had woken up yet. How your injuries were healing. If you were safe…”

I frowned. “Sounds like some kind of compulsion. Or… Like you have some sort of crush on me.” I shook my head. “But spirits don’t get crushes.”

Ember drifted to the floor and went dark.

I stared blindly into the sudden dimness. “Ember…?”

After a moment, my eyes adjusted and I could make out Ember’s human form. Another moment, and he began to speak. “It’s not what humans call a crush. Not really. It’s…” Ember shook his head. “You have so much potential. So much, almost all of it unrealized. I saw that, when you summoned me. And then… And then you were dying. All that bright, beautiful potential, and it was fading as I watched. Guttering like a candle in a high wind.”

He sighed. “Seeing that… It left a mark on me, I guess. Not like a human crush, but just as strong, and just as irrational.” He shook his head again, looking away. “I didn’t realize it until now, but that’s why I need to be near you. To protect you.” Ember smiled wryly. “So, the compulsion, or whatever you want to call it, it’s not anything you did. It’s who you are, who I am, and what happened between us. And there’s no changing that.”

Ember sat on the edge of the bed. “Get some sleep, Songbird. You need it.”

I yawned. “Can you not stare at me? It’s kind of creepy.”

Ember looked away. “Of course.”

After that, I drifted off to sleep fairly quickly. If Ember watched me as I slept, I did not know.

I sighed as I renewed the glyphs covering the walls of my magical lodge, aka my closet. It was time to bind my first spirit. I looked over my shoulder at Alpha. “Do we really need more spirits? Isn’t Ember enough?”

It was Ember who answered. “I am more than enough. However, Song, now that I’m here, I’d like to enjoy the material plane a bit.” He sighed. “Unfortunately, if I leave you to your own devices, you’re likely to get yourself killed. You need another spirit, one who is, at the very least, capable of fetching me should the need arise.”

I adjusted the hang of the deer pelt on the wall. “Any opinions on what sort of spirit I should bind?”

Ember said, “Fire,” at the same time Alpha said, “Beast.” The two looked at each other, annoyed.

“Beast spirits can control animals,” Alpha told me. “That might be useful with the hellcows.”

Ember shrugged. “He has a point.”

Jazz peered in at us through the doorway of my room. “Or she could summon a task spirit. Get this dump cleaned up.”

Alpha sighed. “Pretty sure task spirits aren’t part of Song’s tradition, Jazz.”

I blinked. “What do you mean they aren’t part of my tradition?”

Alpha frowned. “Mages can only summon the 5 spirits associated with their tradition. You’re Sioux, right? That means your spirits are beast, plant, fire, air, and guardian.”

I shook my head. “My dad was Sioux, but he and my mother taught me as a basic shaman. Neither one wanted me raised in the other’s tradition, so…” I shrugged. “Shaman was the only tradition they both found acceptable.”

Alpha frowned. “Pretty sure fire spirits aren’t a shaman thing.”

I shrugged. “I’ve definitely summoned more than 5 types of spirit. Maybe you’re remembering your magic stuff wrong?”

From the doorway, Jazz said, “She’s right, Song.” There was an odd look in her eyes, something almost like respect. “Most mages are limited to 5 types of spirit. Shamans are beast, water, earth, air, and man. I just looked it up on the matrix.”

Ember snorted. “Song can summon anything she wants. She’s special.”

Alpha laughed nervously. “I guess so.” He shrugged. “Could be useful. Now, Song, do you want privacy while you do this, or should I hang around in case you need backup?”

I shrugged. “Either works. Remember, though, the binding will take a few hours.” I closed my eyes and began the summoning.

A form began to take shape in the center of my magical lodge. In a few seconds, a large animal was standing in the center of my closet.

It looked a bit like a cross between a bear and a crocodile. It stood on its huge, clawed hind legs, and it was covered all over in brown fur. Its tail was croc-like in that it was almost as thick at its base as the body it was attacked to, but it was as furry as the rest of the animal. Black, crocodile- like ridges traced its spine, continuing down the tail to its thin tip. It had the ears and eyes of a bear, but a croc’s toothy snout. Oddly enough its front paws were almost like hands, if you ignored the razor sharp claws, the thick coating of fur on the back, and the heavily calloused skin as black as pitch.

The creature yawned, and sank down to all fours. Where before it had towered over me, now its head reached no higher than my chest. “Hello, mage,” it mumbled through a menacing mouth full of teeth. “What can I do for you to-” Suddenly, its voice cut off. It blinked at me. “Wow. You’re…” The spirit rose again on its hind legs. “So pretty…” It leaned closer to me, deadly mouth agape.

I tried not to freak out. No matter how scary this spirit looked, it was currently on my side. Right up until I used up my last service, and then all bets were off. I swallowed.

I heard a low rumble from the spirit. At first I thought it was growling. Then I realized it was purring, like a cat. A giant, scary cat.

The spirit dropped to all fours again and circled me, alternately peering at me with its big, brown eyes and rubbing its side against me, again like a giant, scary cat. When it touched me, I could feel its rumbling purr deep in my chest.

Suddenly the spirit withdrew. “You’re frightened. What’s wrong?” I could feel it examining my aura.

Ember chuckled. “I think you’re scaring her.”

The spirit drooped. “Oh.” It looked up at me plaintively. “Sorry.”

Over in the corner, Alpha struggled not to laugh.

“I wouldn’t hurt you,” the spirit told me, brown eyes wide. “And not just because you’re my summoner. I like you. Your aura is…” The spirit shivered. “It’s nice.”

“That’s a bit of an understatement,” Ember said. He stretched, and then leaned against the wall. “I’m Ember,” he told the new spirit. “That,” he said, nodding to me, “Is Songbird, or Song for short.”

The spirit nodded. “That’s appropriate. Song… Your aura is so beautiful. It’s almost like music…”

I shrugged, suddenly self conscious. “I chose the street name because I like to sing. Not because of what my aura looks like.”

Alpha shrugged. “No offense, Song, but I’ve never thought your aura was anything special.”

Ember glared at her. The new spirit sniffed. “Well, I think it’s special.”

“Do you have a name,” Jazz asked, rolling her eyes, “Or do I have to keep thinking of you as the bear-croc thing?”

“Call me Paw.” Paw looked her up and down, unimpressed.

“Prefered pronoun?” Alpha asked.

Paw blinked. “Pronoun…?”

Alpha sighed. “Are you a guy spirit or a girl spirit?”

Paw frowned. “Not really.”

Alpha cocked his head. “So your preferred pronoun is they?”

Paw wrinkled its nose. “Of course not. That makes it sound like I’m a whole pack of something. I’m just me.” It frowned thoughtfully. “‘It’ works.”

Alpha stared a Paw incredulously. “It? Your preferred pronoun is it?”

Paw shrugged, looking self conscious. “I don’t really care that much. Language… It’s not terribly important, really. Saying ‘it’ gets the point across better than anything else I’ve heard.” It sniffed. “Getting hung up on gender is so… meatperson. In the worst possible way.” Paw flinched. “I mean no disrespect to you, Miss Song.”

I blushed. “It’s just Song. Ummm… I kind of summoned you so I could bind you. Is that ok?”

Paw smiled a toothy grin, and then looked down shyly. “I was hoping you would.”

The binding took six hours. Paw seemed… Somehow more relaxed afterwards. Eyes half lidded, it rubbed against me. “What next?”

I yawned. “Now I take a rest, to heal some of this drain.” Alpha and Jazz had wandered off a long time ago, so it was just me, Ember, and Paw. I sat down on my bed, and pulled out my commlink. “Either of you know how to play backgammon?”

After a few games of backgammon, and zonking out to an episode of ‘Gardening with Plant Spirits,’ I felt much better. I messaged Alpha on my commlink, and the team got together in the kitchen. It was… A bit crowded. Even with Ember lounging in the doorway.

Alpha sighed. “Paw, you mind slipping into the astral?”

After a quick glance at me for confirmation, Paw vanished. Its musky smell still hovered over the room.

“Ok, here’s the game plan. Ember and Song go into astral-”

“While who is watching Song’s body?” demanded Ember.

Alpha sighed. “While Shark and I are watching her.”

Ember’s eyes narrowed. “And you’ll be watching her? You won’t wander off?”

Alpha sighed. “Read my aura. I care about Song. So does Shark.”

“It’s not just that,” Jazz put in. “As long as Song is alive, the team has Super-Platinum Docwagon contracts. A gift from her departed mum. They didn’t activate last night because we were on corp property, but if we’re anywhere else and one of us goes down, we’ll have armed medics there to help within 10 minutes.” She shrugged. “It’s a powerful incentive to keep Song alive. Not to mention, we won’t be on corp property while Song is scoping out the place. Her body will be fine.” Jazz smiled crookedly. “The question is, do we trust you to protect her on the astral?”

Ember’s eyes narrowed. “I can protect her just fine.”

Alpha sighed. “I’m sure Song will be fine in both the physical and astral planes. Now, the game plan involves Song and Ember locating the hellcows on the astral. Hellcows don’t tend to move when there is food in reach, and they consider everything food, so odds are they’ll stay put while we pick them off one by one. I’ll engage the hellcow in melee while Shark and Song shoot it. Song, I want you to keep your magic in reserve unless someone needs healing. Ember, I’d appreciate it if you would help, too. If we get into trouble, Song can call on Paw to distract the hellcow while we retreat. Scan?”

Everyone nodded.

Alpha nodded decisively. “Good.” She looked around at the five of us. Six, if you counted Paw. “Anyone got any ideas on how we’ll all fit in the van?”

[charmscale]

Songbird: The Awakening Chapter 1

Shadowrun is a catch all term for illegal activity. Someone wants some private info off a corp computer? It’s a shadowrun. Need something stolen? Shadowrun. Want an assassination? It’s a shadowrun, though hopefully not one I’ll ever have to do.

A shadowrunner is, by definition, someone who completes shadowruns. That’s me, now. I swallowed. And this was my first shadowrun.

Our job was to plant a bug. Plant a bug, and either keep it on the down low or make it look like a robbery. The client would prefer it if there was no incident, but knew that wasn’t always possible, so they had offered an alternative.

In the van, I shifted nervously. My gear was the best money could buy. Smartgun pistol made of light, undetectable polymers? Check. Bulletproof vest? Check. Bulletproof helmet with trodes for matrix connection? Check. Goggles, with smartgun targeting, nightvision, heatvision, vision magnification, and vision enhancement? Check. Biomonitor, connected to a super platinum Docwagon contract? Check. Top of the line commlink? Check.  Experience with this kind of drek? Uncheck. Nope. None.

Beside me, Jazz was, as usual, bopping to music only she could hear. The spikes of her purple hair bobbed as she nodded her head, and her purple sparkly nails flashed in the light as she waved her hands to the beat. Eyes closed, she silently sang along to the words. Key word, silently. No one wanted to actually hear her sing, not even Shark, her boyfriend.

While Jazz was human, like me, Shark was a troll. He had to crouch on the floor and hunch to fit in the back of the van, and, even then, his horns brushed the ceiling. He looked uncomfortable. I flashed him a sympathetic smile, and he flashed me one back. His tusks plus the dual rows of sharp teeth that gave him his name looked intimidating as all hell, but I had known him long enough to know he was a softie at heart.

He was our street samurai. One mechanical arm held a machine pistol. The other held a electrified katana. Top rated wired reflexes, plus some reaction enhancers, made him insanely fast. His muscle augmentation made him insanely strong. Muscle toning, insanely agile. Titanium bone lacing added to his natural troll toughness, as did his orthoskin. The shark like roughness of the orthoskin was the other source of his moniker. I wasn’t sure what else about him was modified, and I didn’t really care. Despite being more chrome than flesh at this point, he had a big heart in more than the literal sense.

The van stopped. Alpha, our genderfluid team leader, turned and gripped my shoulder. Tonight she was female, though small busted, with red hair in a waist length braid. She’d decided to add a tat to her tanned skin, a butterfly covering all of one cheek. As I watched, its wings fluttered slightly. “You ready, Song?” she asked me.

Jazz smirked nastily. “Yeah, Songbird, time to show us what you’re made of.”

Alpha gave her a dirty look. “Jazz, shut it. Remember, you were new once, too.”

“We all were,” rumbled Shark.

“Well, the rest of us were never pampered corporate-” Jazz stopped at the look on Alpha’s face. “Sorry, boss.”

“It doesn’t matter what we were,” Alpha said firmly. “All that matters is what we are now.” She turned to me. “Song, go.”

I closed my eyes and slid into the astral plane. Shark was the muscle. Jazz was the hacker. Alpha was the brains. I… I was the magic.

Everything always looks so different on the astral plane. Alpha’s aura shone the bright, martial colors of a powerful adept. Shark’s was dim, almost smothered by the chrome. Jazz’s was pretty normal, at least at first glance. It took some really deep assensing to see her true power.

Astral travel was fast. Slower if you were sneaking, but still fast. Within seconds I was inside the compound. Most places had security against exactly what I was trying, but I thought I could get around it. Provided it was a mana barrier or critter, that is. Spirits, I wasn’t so sure.

Something about my aura made me more visible to spirits of all sorts. It also made them like me more, but the added visibility was a big problem. When I’d been a kid, Dad’s ally spirit, Willow, could always find me, no matter where I tried to hide. Mom’s fettered spirit, Tenriu, could do the same. Now that I was a runner, my added visibility was more than just a nuisance, or a way for parents to track me. It was dangerous.

And it looked like my luck was in. Their version of magical security was hellhounds. The dogs patrolled with their handlers outside the building. I counted six. Ok, not good, but doable. Definitely doable.

Walls were no barrier to my astral form, so I melted through them, into the building. It was a research facility, full of labs and top notch security. The security tonight seemed to consist primarily of the hellhounds outside and a few patrolling guards. Well, the magical and living security, at least. The technological security was Jazz’s problem. I knew that, as I scouted the astral plane, she scouted the Matrix.

I decided to check the labs, just to be thorough. I poked my head through one of the lab doors.

Immediately, I jerked it out again. If I had a body, my heart would be pounding. As it was, it was a good thing there was nothing around that could look into the astral, because I had slipped abruptly into full visibility. Shaking, I slipped into astral sneak mode once more, and peered through the door again.

The wrongness about the lab that had shocked me before was still there. Four silent, vaguely humanoid forms were the source. I couldn’t tell what they were, but something about them was so very, very unnatural. I shuddered.

I tried to tell what the forms were, but something about them kept sliding my astral sight away from them, like my brain didn’t really want to believe they were there. After a few long minutes, I gave up, and headed back to my body. Alpha had to know about this.

“So what’s the scoop?” Alpha asked me as, back in my body, I opened my eyes.

“There’s something...” I realized I didn’t know how to explain what I’d seen. “There’s something horrible in one of the labs. Something… wrong.” I remembered what I’d seen, and I felt sick. “Excuse me…”

I opened the door of the van, leaned over, and puked onto the asphalt. Alpha placed a concerned hand on my shoulder. “Breathe, Sara. Just breathe.”

Behind me, I heard Jazz ask, “What the frag is up with Song?” Shark rumbled a quiet answer.

I sat up. Alpha handed me a water bottle and a packet of tissues. I swished some water, spat out the door, and took a big gulp. Then I wiped my mouth with a tissue. “I’m good,” I mumbled.

“Is the run off?” rumbled Shark.

Alpha looked thoughtful. “Can you tell me more about the… whatever it was you saw, Song?”

I shook my head. “It looked wrong!”

“So you said. Did it also look dangerous?” Alpha asked.

“No, but-” I began.

“Was it near the camera plant site?” Alpha asked.

“Well, no,” I admitted. “But, Alpha, I’ve never seen anything like it! It was-”

“Wrong. So you said.” Alpha chewed her lip thoughtfully. “Provided you don’t look at it in the astral again, it shouldn’t be a problem.” She looked to each of us. “The run is a go.”

I frowned, but didn’t object further.

After a brief discussion of Jazz’s recon, in addition to the other things I’d seen, the four of us filed out of the van. Alpha nodded to Jazz. “Lights out.”

Jazz closed her eyes for a few seconds, and, suddenly, the lights within the perimeter went out. In the distance, I heard swearing, and a dog howl.

“You’re certain the guards were all human?” Alpha asked me. I nodded. “And, Jazz, you took out their nightvision glasses?”

Jazz grinned. “The idiots slaved them to the same comm. Easy.”

Alpha nodded. “I’m on point. I want Songbird right behind me. Shark, you’ve got our six. Go.” With that, she vaulted the recently de-electrified fence. Shark boosted me up, and then Jazz. Then he hauled his own bulk over, making the fence groan under his weight.

“Who’s there?” A voice nearby called. “You’ve got 5 seconds to identify yourself, and then I sick the hound on you!”

Alpha drew her pistol and fired several silent shots. The dog yelped, and went down. Its handler swore, and punched a button on his comm. Nothing happened. Then Shark took him out with a fist to the head.

We were almost to the door when Jazz hissed. “Alpha! Their security spider is online!”

Alpha grimaced. “Hold them as long as you can, Jazz. Shark, stay with her. Song and I will-”

And then all hell broke loose.

The lights snapped back on. Jazz collapsed with a scream, clutching her head. Someone shouted, “There they are!” and suddenly every hellhound was racing toward us. But the worst, the worst, was the thing that came through the door.

It looked like regular, augmented human, but there was way, way too much chrome. And the eyes… There was something incredibly wrong with its eyes…

It opened fire. Shark grabbed Jazz and looked around for cover, but there was none in sight. Alpha went down under the barrage, bleeding from several bullet holes. Three more of the things burst through the door. Shark shoved me and Jazz behind him, and opened fire on them. The hellhounds were getting closer.

I tried to attack the things with a manaball spell, but it just bounced off. I gaped. My manaballs weren’t the best, but they usually had some effect.

My dad’s mentor spirit had been the Firebringer, but I had no mentor. It would have been nice, right about now, to have something to pray to. We needed help.

Help… I looked at my hands. I had the training to summon spirits, but I didn’t do it very often. Spirits I summoned tended to act weird. Some hovered over me and fussed like hens with only one chick. Others got tense and angry, deliberately misinterpreting my commands as often as they could. Still others got nosy, trying to find out as much about me as they could. They asked lots of questions, and often seemed unsatisfied with the answers.

A force 12 spirit should be able to turn this fight around. I grimaced. Summoning a force 12 spirit would also likely take me out of the fight, not to mention probably hurt. However, my manaballs didn’t affect the things with the weird eyes, and Shark’s bullets didn’t seem to have much effect either.

It didn’t look like the things had much protection against heat. A fire spirit, them. I closed my eyes and began the summoning.

There was a crack as the spirit appeared, and I collapsed to the ground. I had only one service, but, with luck, that would be all I needed. I wet dried lips, and tried to speak.

The spirit, a man made of flame, looked at me. “Yes?”

One of the things threw a concussion grenade. As the shockwave rocked Shark and I,  dizziness threatened to overwhelm me. I felt myself begin to lose consciousness. I managed to gasp out, “Help… me…” Then everything went black.

I awoke to the feeling of being watched. I opened my eyes, shrieked, and fell out of bed.

The man who had been staring at me from across the room narrowed his eyes. “What?”

I sat up. “Who… who are you?”

“I’m your fire spirit,” the man said, frowning.

I looked out the window at the bright, sunny day. “That’s… That’s not possible. I only had one service, and I used it. Also, summonings end at sunrise. It’s past sunrise. There is no possible way-”

Suddenly, the man was replaced by a familiar fiery shape. “Are you calling me a liar?”

I swallowed. “No. I just don’t know why you’re still here.”

The fiery form collapsed back into a man. “You don’t? Really?” He frowned.

“I take it you don’t know, either,” I surmised.

The spirit shook his head. “It feels like I’m become a free spirit. I’ve got so much new power, but I can’t… I can’t seem to leave you alone!” He huffed. “I should be back home, or able to go wherever I want on the astral plane, but I’m stuck with you instead!” His gazed softened, and he stepped toward me, knelt, and brushed my cheek with his hand. “And a part of me is not so certain that’s a bad thing.” He sighed. “You really have no idea what you’ve done to me?”

I shook my head. “If it was up to me, you’d be free to go. I don’t trap spirits.”

The spirit’s mouth quirked up at the corner. “Not on purpose, anyways.” He sighed. “You should rest. Here, let me help you.” He gripped my arm, and helped me back into bed. For a moment, his gaze was gentle. Loving, even. He cupped my cheek with his hand, and brushed my hair away from my face. Then his gaze hardened, and he jerked away. “Your name is Songbird, yes?”

I nodded. “These days.” I thought back to the parking lot, where Alpha had used my real name. “What can I call you?” I knew better than to ask for his name. Spirits were very secretive about their true names, and for good reason. A free spirit could be bound with their true name.

“Ember,” the spirit told me. “Call me Ember.”

Appropriate for a fire spirit. “What happened?” I asked.

“After you summoned Ember,” Alpha said, appearing in the doorway, “He held off the hellhounds and the… things while Shark brought me around. Then, I carried you, Shark carried Jazz, Ember opened up a hole, and we ran for it.” She scowled. “We never completed the mission.” Her gaze softened. “I’m sorry, Song, we should have listened to you when you said something hinky was going on. I should have called off the mission until we figured out what you saw.”

“You saved us all,” rumbled Shark from behind Alpha. “Thank you.”

I frowned. “Is Jazz ok?”

“She’ll wake up in another day or so,” Shark rumbled. “She took a lot of damage from whatever hit her in the matrix. We won’t know what exactly happened until she wakes up.”

Jazz was our only hacker, so no one had eyes on her in the matrix. Since she was a technomancer and manipulated the matrix directly, she took damage directly instead of to whatever device she was using. Most hackers used things called cyberdecks, or decks for short. They were called deckers, for obvious reasons. Technomancers like Jazz were rare, and extremely useful since you didn’t have to worry about someone shooting their deck.

I looked at Alpha. “Do you have any idea of what those things were?”

It was Ember who answered. “Abominations,” he growled. “Prisons for spirits.”

I blinked, remembering the things. The look in their eyes. It was someone staring out at me, begging for help.

Alpha frowned. “You didn’t tell me that.”

Ember looked at her, eyes hard. “I had no reason to tell you.”

“You have no reason to tell Song, either,” Alpha pointed out.

Ember looked at me. “She’s different.” He turned back to Alpha, eyes hardening further. “I will tolerate the rest of you, and even help you, because you help her. Do not expect anything more, and do not presume you can tell me what to do.”

Alpha looked at him thoughtfully. “Alright, then.”

She turned to me. “Why don’t you use spirits more often? You could have had half a dozen bound last night, and then we never would have been in danger.”

I shook my head. “My father was against the binding of spirits. He said it was cruel.”

Alpha raised an eyebrow. “When you signed on, you said you would do your best to help the team. Not summoning spirits when you are a powerful summoner does not look like your best to me.”

I blinked. “Ummmm…”

“Just think about it, Song,” Alpha told me. “That’s all I ask. For now.” She stepped forward and patted my arm. “Get some rest. There will be food waiting for you in the kitchen when you wake up. We'll discuss what to do next then.”

When I woke up the second time, Ember was still staring at me. I yawned. “Don’t you have something better to do?”

Ember shook his head, his expression mulish.

I yawned again. “Fine. Do what you want.” I realized I needed to pee. “Just please don’t follow me into the bathroom.”

Ember nodded, eyes softening. “As you wish.”

As I stumped off to the bathroom, I considered the situation. My relationship with spirits had apparently reached new levels of weird. Ember should have no compulsion to stick around, or to listen to me at all. And yet, there he was, watching me from my bedroom door.

The bathroom was empty, which was not a given when four people shared a restroom. I emptied my bladder, and then turned on the shower. Hot water would, hopefully, make me feel human again, instead of like a drowsy, sweaty lump.

I dropped my clothing on the floor. It was the stuff I’d worn on the run, so it was dirty with grime, sweat, and the blood from my nosebleed, a side effect of taking a lot of Drain, or damage from using magic, in one go. Nothing caused Drain like summoning a powerful spirit.

When the water was warm enough, I stepped into the shower. Then I just stood there, letting the hot water pound my weary form. God, that felt good. I could feel it washing away the blood and grime from the failed run, and, with it, all my worries and doubts. They would be back, of course, those worries and doubts, but, for right now, I was free.

I considered what Alpha had said. My father had said binding spirits was cruel, but the spirits Mom bound didn’t seem to mind that much. They didn’t act like prisoners. More like slightly overworked employees. Even Tenriu, not only bound, but fettered, hadn’t seemed too unhappy with his lot. I would never fetter a spirit, binding it to me for life, but the more usual, temporary binding, just once per spirit, shouldn’t be too bad. Especially not if I asked the spirit first if it minded. Some of the spirits I summoned seemed to like being around me. Surely one of those wouldn’t mind being bound for a bit.

The idea of having 6 spirits bound, all available at a moment’s notice if I needed help, was soothing. Ember had really made a difference last night. What would it be like to have so much potential backup? To be able to keep myself and my friends safe, no matter what?

Mother would want me to do my best to keep myself safe, but would Dad have understood? Would he have agreed that keeping the people I cared about safe was worth a bit of compromise? And Handel… What would Handel want me to do?

I wasn’t use to considering Handel in such musings. Up until my Mother had died, Handel was just her secretary. He was damned good at his job, but easy to forget. I wasn’t even sure if Handel was his first or last name. Often, he was the one who picked me up from my father’s home. Sometimes he was the closest I got to my mother during my entire visit to her.

After Dad died, Handel was the one who often showed up at school functions, standing in for my mother, or so I’d thought. Now I wasn’t so sure that was his primary motivation.

I let go of my musings, letting the water wash them away with the grime. Humming, I reached for the shampoo, squirted some out, and began to lather my hair. I began to sing. “Un bel dì, vedremo…” I dug my fingers deep into my black locks. I use to have cotton blond hair, but now I kept it dyed, and used a solution that made it curl. I also cut it much shorter. Where before it had cascaded down to my waist in a gorgeous pale golden waterfall, now it tumbled barely to my shoulders in tight black curls.

That wasn’t the only thing that was different about me. Now my pale blue eyes were frequently obscured by goggles, and Alpha was discretely working on getting me a supply of brown contacts. My skin was kept tan with a cream. Now, when I looked in the mirror, I saw my father’s daughter, a child of the Sioux, albeit one with a white man’s curls. It was strange when, for most of my life, I’d looked in the mirror and seen my mother’s striking coloration. Strange, but not unpleasant. If I’d realized that looking like a real Amerindian was this simple, I’d have dyed my hair and colored my skin a long time ago.

“Vedi? È venuto! Io non gli…” I stepped back into the falling water and let it rinse the lather from my hair, closing my eyes so a not to get soap in them.

I heard a strange hiss, like water hitting something hot. Then a warm hand touched my cheek. I gasped, going stiff all over, afraid to open my eyes. Then I heard Ember’s voice. “Please,” he whispered, running his hands through my hair. “Please, keep singing.”

As a general rule, naked bodies meant nothing to spirits, and few really understood metahuman nudity taboos. Some didn’t realize such taboos existed until they’d upset someone. Ember was not here to oogle me, and would likely not understand if I accused him of doing so.

“Please,” Ember begged, his voice so soft I could barely hear it. “Please, I’ll do anything you want. Just keep singing.”

I opened my eyes. Ember stood before me, fully clothed, and, despite the shower’s spray, completely dry. Any water that hit him hissed away into steam. His red hair had been replaced by flickering flames, and his brown eyes were opened wide is awe and desperation.

I took a deep breath. “Mi metto…”

Ember closed his eyes, a look of absolute bliss on his face. I saw his lips form the word “Beautiful.”

I continued to sing, all shyness forgotten in the face of such platonic admiration. I had a good voice, and my mother had paid for expensive singing lessons to train me to use it. She had considered it an exercise in discipline and self control, and had been upset, to say the least, when I’d expressed desire to become a professional singer. After that, I’d been forbidden to perform in public. Now she was dead, but my career as a singer was still denied to me. Drawing that much attention to myself wouldn’t be safe.

When I finished Madame Butterfly’s aria, Ember sighed. “That was beautiful.”

I smiled. “Thank you. I’ve got a good voice. Now, would you mind getting out of the shower so I can finish washing?”

Ember shook his head. “There was more to that than a good voice! You have power.”

I looked down, embarrassed by his praise. “It’s just good singing, Ember. I mean, it’s certainly very pretty, but-”

“It was not just pretty,” Ember interrupted me. “It was magic.”

I blushed. “Thanks. Please let me finish my shower.”

Ember opened his mouth, closed it, sighed in frustration, and left. I finished cleaning myself in silence.

[charmscale]

The Lady Paladin Chapter 1

There is a creature deep in the southern forests known as the Spider King. According to legend, this evil being has four arms with fingers tipped in claws, the strength of a dozen men, inhuman speed, and the ability to spit a sticky, strong substance similar to spider silk. Oh, and treasure. Lots and lots of treasure.

It is my duty, as a paladin of the realm, to seek out evil and eliminate it, in the name of my king, my country, and my God. The Spider King is a being of great evil, left over from the dawn of civilization, when he bartered with false gods to become unaging. Therefore, I have journeyed deep into the southern forests with the goal of slaying him. Many of my order have undertaken this quest. None have succeeded, and few have returned. I am the first woman to begin this journey. I will, by the grace of God, be the one to finally triumph.

It took me many days, many battles, and a great deal of searching to find The Spider King's lair, but I have finally done it. The local fairy folk, beings of less than a foot in height, pointed the way, with the usual riddles and requests for bribes. And much giggling. Unusual, that. They are seldom merry in this day and age, as the Church's policy towards them grows less lenient. They are neutral beings, not evil, but the current high clergy find that just as abhorrent. In the night, I wonder whether they are right. But it is blasphemy, of course, to doubt the priests, who speak with the voice of the one true God.

I shake my head to clear it of such distracting thoughts, and survey the forest warily. The trees here are large and old, with little underbrush on the ground between them. Nothing moves. No animals. No birds. No insects. Not even a slight breeze. The forest is watching. Waiting.

Just under the place where a partially fallen, rotting tree meets its healthy neighbor is a hole, just as the fairy folk said. It is large, but mostly lost in the shadow of the long dead behemoth and the surrounding giants. I sit at the edge of the hole, and then slide down into darkness, ducking my head to avoid cracking it on the trunk above.

The light from the entrance fades quickly as I continue down the earthen tunnels. Fortunately, I have a stone imbued by a priest with the light of my God. It is one of my most precious possessions, second only to my sword in utility, as I must often travel in darkness. When I activate it, it sheds a bright, slightly blueish glow which passes through the skin of my hand, outlining my bones. With my other hand, I draw my sword.

The tunnels are gradually transitioning from soil to stone. I slow my pace, and soften my footsteps, but I can still hear the sound my boots make against the surprisingly smooth stone floor. The passage opens up into a room. I lift my holy light stone high above my head to push away the shadows around the edges, and see the glint of gold.

I take a step forward to get a better look, and I am immediately struck from behind. My light stone clatters away. I stumble forward, never losing my grip on my sword, and whirl.

The Spider King is sitting, crouched, on a protrusion of stone above the chamber's entrance. He is magnificent to behold. His four arms are thick and muscular, with smaller claws than I expected, and his chest is equally muscular, bare of clothing, and very broad. He will make a fine trophy. I find myself having difficulty believing him capable of speed or grace until he leaps from his perch, landing behind me and striking me yet another blow to the back of my head. I whirl again and sway, dizzy from the abuse, but keep my sword in the guard position, as I have been taught.

He is smiling. “You will regret having found my cave, paladin,” he tells me. Then his eyes widen in surprise. I abruptly realize my helmet has been knocked off.

“A woman,” he breathes. I take advantage of his distraction to strike. He jerks back in time to prevent me from skewering him, but I draw a line of blood across his chest. First blood. Victory shall be mine.

I press the attack, shouting, “Die, foul beast!”

He avoids my strikes handily, backing away. “Do you really find me foul, my lady?” he asks, peering with bright green eyes from under black bangs and long lashes.

I don't, not really. He is actually quite attractive, especially in only a loincloth. But I can't tell him that. “Evil is always foul in my sight!” I proclaim, dodging an almost lazy flash of silver claws.

“Really?” he asks, relaxed and curious, almost as if we were meeting at a party, not fighting in a dank cave.

“Yes!” I answer in almost a grunt as I strike, yet again, and again draw a thin line of blood as he dodges.

“Why are you here to see me, then, if I am so foul?” He takes another swipe at me, and I again dodge it easily.

“Because, by the will of the Lord, evil must be slain!” Is he even trying to hit me, I wonder as I dart away from his claws.

“How do you know I'm evil?” he asks. “It has been, oh, hundreds of your years since I have done anything you might consider bad. What if I've changed my ways?”

“You murdered my fellow paladins!” I retort, as I aim for his neck. “That's evil!”

He dodges. “I defended myself when they invaded my home. Surely that is acceptable, non evil, conduct?”

I frown. I never thought of it that way. “They were doing their duty! They were sworn, as I am, to defend the land from threats!”

“As I said, it has been a long time since I have done anything evil. How am I a threat?” he responds. “How is sitting alone in my cave threatening anyone?”

I can think of no reply to this question, so I stay silent, concentrating on the fight.

“So why are you here, if not to dispose of a threat?” he asks, eyes glinting from the shadows. He is now between me and my light stone. It makes him difficult to hit.

“You're still evil!” I grunt. I am starting to get out of breath.

“Just by being?” he asks. “Is evil really something you just are?”

I don't answer. The current leadership of the Church would have responded to his question with a definitive yes. But, alone in my bed at night, or on the ground beneath the stars, I wonder.

“So, if you aren't here because I am evil, or because I'm a threat, why have you come, lady?” He smiles. “Is it because of my treasure?”

“No!” I grunt. “I've never even...” Gasp... “considered it.” But we both know it is a lie.

“Hmmm... Killing someone for treasure... That kind of sounds... Evil. If it wasn't a paladin doing it, of course. But that brings us back to our earlier question. Is evil something you are? Or is it something you do?”

I step away as he advances, and feel the cold of stone against my back. The bastard. He was distracting me with his serpent tongue, and has maneuvered me against a wall. I will need to finish this quickly now. I lunge, aiming for his heart.

He catches my blade between his hands, and snaps it off effortlessly near the hilt. Throwing the broken blade aside, he grabs the wrist of my sword hand and forces it up against the wall. He leans his head back, and jerks it forward, letting loose a glob of what can only be his webbing. In an instant I, now weaponless, am stuck to the wall.

“You evil bastard!” I cry as I try to free my hand.

“There's that word again,” he says, mockingly. “Do you truly know what it means? Perhaps I'll show you.”

He spits again, and again. My legs are now stuck as well. He snatches my final free limb. I fight him with all my strength, but he slowly forces it against the wall by my side. “There's no escape now, paladin. You may as well stop fighting,” he tells me, sounding almost kind.

“Go to hell!” I shout as his spit traps my free hand. “Go to hell and burn!”

“Maybe. Someday,” he says, absently, looking me up and down. His eyes linger where I'd rather they wouldn't. My breasts are small, but still noticeable beneath my leather armor. My cheeks burn.

His claws flash. I close my eyes. This is it. The end. But, strangely, there is no pain. And a cold breeze hardening my nipples. I look down.

The Spider King has, with great precision, sliced open my armor.

Shit.

My leather leggings and thigh length modesty skirt are next. I curse at the Spider King, calling him every vile name I can think of, and struggle to free myself. It is to no avail. His loincloth is bulging now in a rather alarming way, but he takes his time in stripping me, until all I am wearing is my boots. I can feel the cold stone against my ass. The cold stone, and the Spider King's surprisingly warm hand. He squeezes slightly. I expect to feel the sting of claws, but I don't. Two of his other hands are stroking my breasts, and playing with my nipples. The fourth hand slowly undoes the clasp on his loincloth. It falls to the floor, revealing something the legends did not mention.

“Fuck,” I whisper.

He smiles. “Precisely.”

He has not one, but two huge, curved cocks, each larger than any I've seen before. Not that I've seen many. The oath of a paladin is not one of chastity, but pleasures of the flesh are discouraged. His balls are large as well, dangling in a way I would normally find lovely below his erect members. He also has something very odd wiggling above his cocks. It looks a bit like a third phallus, but shorter, a bit thinner, and tapered in the end to a thin tip. It is moving in a very alarming manner, darting about as if searching for something, and vibrating as it does so.

“What the fuck is that?” I ask, alarmed. Is he really going to cram all three of his... appendages into me?

“They are called penises. They are used for sex. I understand that, as a paladin, you may not be familiar with this.” He pauses, and then adds, “Also, I seem to remember that human males normally don't have two. Do you require further explanation?”

“No! I mean, yes. What the fuck is that wiggly thing?” I ask.

He frowns, puzzled. “Do human men not have a tickler? Strange. My kind considered it very important, back before there was only one of us left. Females would often choose their mates based on the tickler's size and shape, and how hard it vibrated.”

I am reeling from shock. A tickler? What the fuck? Also, his kind? There use to be more than one of him? “What happened? To your kind?”

I only realize I have asked my last questions aloud when he answers. “Did you not learn your history? Or have we been forgotten?” He sighs, and tells me, “Your order happened, and your god. They decided we were immoral monsters, worshiping evil gods, and slaughtered us, destroying our entire civilization. Our homes. Our libraries. Our temples. I managed to survive, through the strength of my magic, and our gods gave me immortality, strength, and power, that I might live to serve them.”

Genocide. Or near genocide. I can't wrap my head around it. My order cannot have been capable of this... This evil! We are sworn to uphold the law and the light! “You fucking liar! We would never-” Suddenly one of his hands is over my mouth, and his green eyes are full of fire. Literally full of fire. They burn.

“I think I have heard quite enough from you, lady paladin.” He smiles. “But I can't just keep my hand over your mouth the entire time. I'm going to need my hands. Now, what can I gag you with?” His smile widens. “Ah, of course.”

He pries my fingers, one by one, from the hilt of my broken sword. Then, after pulling his hand away, he swiftly jams it, lengthwise, into my mouth. I try to spit it out, but he holds it there, and secures it with his spider silk. I shake my head, but am about as successful in dislodging it as I have been in freeing my limbs. “Mmmnnph!” I protest. He only laughs.

His claws retract, leaving only short nails at the end of his fingers. He reaches into his mouth, and pulls out a strand of silk. He presses the tip of it against one of my nipples, where it sticks. The other end is then stuck to my other nipple, so that my small breasts are pulled closer together. He tugs on the line experimentally, and then laughs at my swift blush and muffled protest.

How could the fight have ended like this? I am stuck to the wall, naked but for my boots, and gagged with my own broken sword, helpless even to curse as my foe does what he wishes with my body. And it's not over yet. I pray he will be quick about it, and then end my inevitable pain and humiliation.

He doesn't, though. He must enjoy toying with me, because he slips, not one of his cocks, but his finger, into my womanhood. Another finger enters my ass. “Try to relax,” he tells me. “We've got to loosen you up. Don't want to tear anything.” I struggle to force his fingers out, and he sighs. “Must you make this difficult?”

He hisses something, and his eyes briefly glow. “There, that should do the trick.” I find my muscles, against my will, relaxing as he slides his fingers further in. “Mmmph!”

He grins, and leans closer to lick my ear. “Did I not mention that, when my people were alive, I was a powerful priest? I did not lose my power when the cities fell. Quite the opposite, in fact.”

As I fight harder against my bonds, the Spider King laughs. “Don't worry, this is the only magic I'll use on you. My order had rules about forcing magic on people, and I find myself not wanting to break them, even after all these centuries.”

He tugs on my nipples again as he begins to move his fingers in and out. It feels surprisingly good. Then he thrusts his hips toward mine. His tickler brushes my clit.

I scream, the sound muffled by my sword. He immediately jerks back. “Did I hurt you?” he asks, frowning as he examines my womanhood. I shudder, face reddening. He smiles. “Ah. I forget, you aren't use to the tickler's vibration.”

He presses his hips toward mine, more gently this time. I try to stop the tickler from finding my clit, but I can barely move, and the tickler is soon pressed against it once more. To my shame, I whimper. Please, God, forgive me for enjoying this violation.

He tugs again on the line between my nipples, and the fire in my belly increases. When one finger thrusting into each hole becomes two, the pleasure is almost unbearable. I close my eyes, but I can still see his muscular physique and his two enormous cocks in my mind's eye. The vision excites me. How could it not? I am only mortal, after all, for all my saintly aspirations.

There are now three fingers buried deep inside each of my holes. I have never been stretched this much in either hole, let alone both at once, but it doesn't hurt. I feel full in a comfortable, erotic sort of way. I feel good. Lord, forgive me. I can feel an orgasm building. I fight it, pushing the fire back, but it only grows stronger.

I cum, against my will, harder than I ever have before. I am screaming around my broken sword, arching against my restraints, and pressing my body, the best I can, against the Spider King. I feel his hard muscles. Strength. Size. Power.

He pulls away a bit, and it is a relief. His fingers are still inside me, but his tickler is no longer setting my clit on fire, and he has released the cord tugging on my nipples. I come down from the high slowly, panting. I open my eyes.

The Spider King is smiling at me, and his twin cocks have swelled to an even larger size and are covered in slick, shiny precum. He kisses me gently on the forehead. “It has been far, far too long,” he tells me, “Since I have heard the sounds of a woman's passion.”

I try to tell him to go fuck himself. The words are unclear, but he understands the tone. He laughs. “The spirit of a warrior,” he tells me, “I like it. It arouses me, makes me hard.”

The Spider King pulls his fingers free, and I know what is coming next. When his cocks enter my ass and pussy, ever so slowly, they stretch me even more than his fingers did, and the curved shape presses them against my insides in a way makes me shiver. I never knew I could feel this good. Or this helpless. Or this full.

The tickler finds my clit again, and I moan, my eyelids fluttering. I hate this, that I am enjoying this so much. He is evil, an enemy of my faith. This violation proves it. But my hatred turns swiftly into a different kind of fire.

He unsheathes his claws, and, before I can wonder why, he is cutting my legs free. He grips my calves, wrapping my legs around himself and pulling my ass away from the wall. I try to kick, to lash out at him, but he is too strong. He thrusts into me, and I fight to stop myself from responding. He thrusts again, and slips one hand behind my ass, forcing me against his hips. I don't fight this as hard as I should. If I were to give in, to let him have his way with me, who would know but us? Who would care but me?

The rhythm of his thrusts picks up speed. His one free hand caresses my breasts, and then grips the line between them. He begins to tug on it to the tempo of our movement. I feel the heat beginning to build again.

I can no longer fight my body. I am using my legs to pull myself toward his thrusts like some back alley whore, instead of a paladin of the Lord. If I try to stop myself, his hands keep me moving until I find myself moving with them again. I can't stop this. I can't fight it. I am lost in the passion.

His members swell further inside of me as another orgasm builds. I am panting, gasping, whimpering as he fills both my holes, stretching them to their limit. The Spider King is moving faster now, almost faster than I can take. He stops. Shudders. Thrusts deep into me one last time.

The vibration against my clit intensifies as he shoots his load, hot and heavy, deep inside of me. It pushes me over the edge, and I cum. I cum so hard I can't even scream.

He doesn't pull away this time to allow me time to recover. I don't think he can. When my orgasm finally ends, he is still pumping his seed into me. My belly is visibly swollen. The sight and the continuing vibration push me over the edge again. I cum, screaming.

The vibration ends abruptly, but it takes me a bit of time to come down. With one final whimper, my orgasm ends.

He sighs in contentment. “Far, far too long,” he murmurs as he pulls his now limp cocks out of my holes. A gush of semen follows them, puddling on the floor. He releases my nipples, and runs his hand through my hair. “Sounds like you had fun, too.”

I am too tired for bravado. Also, telling him no would be a lie neither of us would believe. I have never cum so hard during sex before, and never, ever more than once like that. I didn't even think that was possible.

When he releases my legs, he doesn't bother tethering them to the wall again, and I don't bother trying to kick him. What would be the point? Besides, I feel so good. I just blink up at him sleepily.

“If I were as evil as you think I am,” he tells me, “This is where I would kill you, after having my wicked way with you. That's what your order did to my wife.”

I look up at him, suddenly wary. Although, if he did decide to kill me, what could I do?

He smiles. “But I am not evil, and I am no paladin, either. I'm going to let you go.”

He spits blue liquid onto the gunk keeping my sword in my mouth and my hands fixed to the wall, as well as the line between my nipples. It starts to dissolve. “In a few minutes, you will be able to pull free. I will be long gone by them, with my treasure. I hope you will not try to find me again. Next time we meet, things might end very differently.”

Suddenly he smiles. “But what if you forget me? Perhaps,” his smile widens, “Perhaps I'll give you a memento of our... Encounter. Or two. Perhaps some of that treasure you came for.”

He turns and walks over to the pile of gold I still cannot see clearly. There is a clinking, as if he is searching for something. As he returns, I can see he is holding a thick golden necklace shaped like a series of snakes biting their tails, each one a sideways figure eight. The work is very detailed, with emerald eyes and lots of tiny golden scales glittering in the light. As he gets closer, I realize many of the scales are, in fact, tiny, lifelike spiders. He is also holding a simple wooden bowl. The Spider King clasps the golden chain around my neck. “This should help you pay for new armor, and another sword. At the very least. If,” he pauses to spit silk on the clasp and grin, “You can manage to get it off. Good luck with that.”

“And just in case you do manage to get it off,” he adds, grinning, “Here's a little something you won't be so easily rid of.” I wince as his claws flash and blood wells from a complex design carved between my breasts, just above my heart. He draws a handful of purple powder from the bowl, and throws it at the wound, hissing a word in a strange tongue.

The powder fills my vision, and I sneeze. When my vision clears, there is an odd, embellished oval filled with squiggly marks on my chest in purple and red. As I am wondering how I will explain this to the rest of my Order, not to mention the clergy, the Spider King hisses another word. As his eyes flash with green fire, the strange rune fades. “Just to warn you, none of your priests will be able to find that,” he says, “So there's no point asking them what it means. But you'll find out eventually.” He laughs.

As he vanishes into thin air, his laughter is the last thing to fade, echoing through the cave long after he is gone. A few seconds later, I am able to pull my hands free. I remove my sword hilt from my mouth, and shout, “Fuck you!” into the darkness of the empty cave.

There is no treasure left, save for the necklace I am wearing, but I do manage to find my dented helmet and reclaim my light stone. For some reason, I can find no broken blade. I put the helmet back on, and carry my sword's hilt and the light stone through the passage, out of the hole, and back to where I left my pack by the base of the dead tree.

I don't know how I will explain this to my order. I don't even know whether I want to return. The idea that the Church destroyed an entire race isn't so unbelievable when I think of what they are currently doing to the fairy folk. What if everything the Spider King said is true?

I do know one thing, though. Sex will never be the same for me again.

[charmscale]

The Bottle Chapter 1

It was a small bottle, roughly the size, as well as more or less the shape, of a pear. Made of milky white ceramic, it was covered in a beautiful geometric pattern in deep blue. I never tired of looking at it, of turning it over and over in my palm. I liked the weight of it, how it was heavier than a clay bottle really should be. Maybe the weight came from the lead that stoppered it, but I doubted it. The way the weight moved had almost a liquid feel to it.

I’d wanted to open it up and look inside for years, ever since I inherited it from my grandparents along with a bunch of other souvenirs from their youthful travels. There were times when I wished I’d inherited a journel of some kind as well, something to tell me the origins of my various odd treasures. Some were obviously cheap tourist junk, but some, like the bottle, were harder to classify. If I had to guess, based on the type of artwork, I’d say it was of middle eastern origin, and either very old, or, more likely, based on the vivid color, a copy of something very old. Though hardly an expert opinion, it wasn’t a shot in the dark, either. I’d been majoring in art history for the past four years, and was about to enter a graduate program.

In honor of my acceptance into the graduate program, I was planning on finally opening the bottle. I’d borrowed oxygen-acetaline torch from a professor who liked to mold lead, as well as a metal bowl, goggles, and heat resistant gloves. If I heated the ceramic slowly, and then allowed it to cool slowly afterwards, it hopefully wouldn’t be too damaged.

Half an hour later, I was pouring the lead into the bowl. Then I set the bottle down on a heat pad. Now, if I didn’t get too close, I should be able to peer into the bottle and get my first look at what was inside…

I jerked back in shock as I saw the crackling glow within. The contents of the bottle were on fire! Then the flames began to swirl up and out of the bottle in a strange tornado. I tried to run, but found myself unable to move my feet. I tried to scream, but couldn’t seem to find my voice.

The column of swirling flame grew and grew, until it was touching the ceiling. Then it fell back in on itself, and, suddenly, there was a man sitting on the counter in my kitchen where the bottle had been. He was tall, and dark skinned, with long dark hair and piercing orange eyes. He wore nothing but loose green shorts, a green vest, and a large amount of jewelry. And I mean a large amount of jewelry. It was mostly in the form of golden rings and earrings, but he also had two thick golden bracelets covered in intricate carvings I automatically identified as middle eastern, probably arabic, and a golden pectoral that looked very ancient egyptian. Oddly, most of his earrings were on one ear, his left, in a great golden arc from his earlobe to his slightly pointed ear tips. His right ear only had one earring, a tiny golden loop with a miniscule blue bead.

“W-Who… What?” I gasped, my voice having returned to me.

“My name is Algave, and I am a djinn,” said the man. If man was the right word. “You have freed me from my prison of over a millennium. I thank you for this.”

He had a deep, soft voice, very pleasant to listen to. I wasn’t sure I liked how he was looking at me, though. “A djinn? Like in One Thousand and One Nights?” I had started reading an english translation of it last night.

“Funny you should mention that particular book,” Algave murmured. He gestured, and I flew backwards to slam against the opposite wall. “There is a story in it, I believe, about a djinn in a predicament similar to mine. In the story, he swears that, if someone liberates him in the first hundred years, he will enrich him greatly with gold.” I knew this story. I had read it last night. I did not like where this was going.

“No one frees him for a hundred years, so he swears that, if someone were to free him during the second hundred years of his imprisonment, he would heap him with silver.” I was trying to sidle slowly away now. Algave must have noticed, because he gestured again, and arms grew out of the walls to grip me.

“Again, no one frees him, so he swears that, if someone lets him out during the third hundred years, he will give them three wishes.” I struggled, but was unable to move very much. I couldn’t even scream; there was a hand over my mouth. What made me nervous, though, was the way the arm sprouting from the wall between my legs gripped my inner thigh.

“He is not freed in this hundred years. It has been three hundred years by now, so he swears that he will give his liberator nothing but the power to choose the manner of his death.”

Algave smiled dangerously. “A millennium ago, I swore a similar oath. I swore that, if a man freed me, I would kill him in the most painful manner I could concoct.”

By now I was struggling frantically, and making muffled noises through the hand over my mouth.

“However, if a woman freed me,” Algave said, and my heart stopped with sudden hope, “If a woman freed me, I would make her my own.” He snapped, and my clothing was suddenly a few feet to the left of where I was standing. It hovered there for an instant, as if I were still inside it, and then crumpled to a heap on the ground. The djinn looked me up and down in a very lascivious manner. “And you,” he purred, “You are a better looking woman than I had ever dreamed of.”

Personally, I thought I could stand to lose some weight, but I couldn’t argue. My mouth was still covered.

Algave stood, placing the bottle on the counter. The hands holding me had now moved to distinctly suggestive positions, with two gently cupping my breasts, and another gripping my ass. The ones holding my legs began to force them apart. Algave stared thoughtfully at my womanhood. “Why on earth is did you shave it?” he muttered. “I mean, I suppose it is convenient for a lover, but it just looks so odd.” He snapped his fingers again, and suddenly it was as if I had never picked up a razor. He smiled in satisfaction. “Much better.”

Two hands gently pulled apart my labia, and the djinn knelt in front of me. He breathed in deeply and sighed. “How I have missed that scent. Those pheromones. And when I think of how much better it will smell when I have you aroused…” Delicately, he licked me from clit to asshole. I blushed. I’d had a lover go down on me before, once, but he didn’t really know what he was doing, and he was really only doing what was expected of him. Algave obviously relished the task, and equally obviously had had some experience performing it. He was also significantly hotter than any human lover. In temperature, I meant, not in looks, though he was hot is that way, too.

His finger slipped into me, and I whimpered. Algave looked up at me. “So very sensitive. How lovely.” Then he began to lick more vigorously at my clit. I moaned, eyelids fluttering. I could feel a mixture of my own juices and his saliva running down my inner thighs. I was already close to cumming.

A second finger slipped in between my pussy lips, and began to rub me in just the right way. I’d stopped struggling. There was no use, and any movement would just turn me on that much more. Not that I could avoid cumming for very long, whether I moved or not.

With his right hand, the djinn was unfastening the tiny, hair thin ring on his right ear. The left hand was still finger fucking me, to great effect. I could barely stand the pleasure. In fact, if the wall hadn’t been holding me up, I suspected I would barely be able to stand, period. I was breathing hard now, huffing air into and out of my nose. I could feel myself reach the point of no return. Cumming was inevitable now. Soon…Soon... Now.

I came, screaming into the gagging hand over my mouth, and arching against my bonds. Algave showed no mercy, licking and fingering me harder than before. I came again, and again in a rush. Finally, gasping, I began to come down from the high. The djinn’s tongue and fingers withdrew. I looked down just in time to see him place a finger on either side of my clit. I wondered what he was doing, and then felt a sharp, thoroughly confusing pain in my clit as a thin line of light shot from one finger to another, going straight through the nub of flesh. I winced, whimpering. Then I watched helplessly as he threaded the tiny ring from his ear through my newly pierced clit. “MIne,” he whispered, giving my pussy another vigorous lick. “All mine.” Then he stood and repeated the process with two of the smaller rings from his left ear and my nipples.

Afterwards he snapped his fingers, and the rings began to vibrate. I squeaked, and tried to jerk away. “All mine,” the djinn repeated, and laughed. An upwards gesture increased the vibration. I came several times in quick succession. When I came back to myself, Algave had shucked his pants, and was slipping his cock into my pussy. I tried to protest, but he just smiled. “Lets see how many times you cum before I do, shall we?”

I’m not sure about the exact number of times I came as he pounded me mercilessly, but I know it was in the double digits. Every time I thought I was done, that I could not possibly cum any more, he turned up the vibration.

Finally he was satisfied, and, shuddering, shot his hot load deep into my pussy. I was too busy cumming myself, one final time, to worry about that. Then he withdrew, and snapped his fingers. The vibration ceased. I moaned with relief, sagging in the grip of the wall hands. Algave smiled. “How was that? Did you have fun?”

Unable to speak, I just glared at him.

“And, just think, you can look forward to the same thing every night for the rest of your life.” The djinn chucked. “And you will have a very long life. I will make sure of it.”

He turned to pick up the bottle. “Just to warn you, when I visit you, you will be the only one able to see me, unless I wish otherwise. And I will visit often.” He smiled. “Now, I’ve got to go take care of a few matters. Don’t worry, I’ll be back.” And, with that, he vanished.

[charmscale]

Illithid’s Tale Chapter 1

I woke up slung over the back of a donkey, with my face a foot from the ground. I tried to shift, and found myself bound tightly in rough hempen rope. A thick, slightly smelly cloth in my mouth, bound in place with more rope, kept me from crying out.

The last thing I remembered was bedding down for the night by the campfire. Apparently I had been ambushed while I slept. I had been on my way from one bardic school to another with a package. It hadn’t been anything particularly important; otherwise they wouldn’t have sent me, a mere apprentice bard, to deliver it. Therefore, it was unlikely I had been waylaid for the package. Perhaps it was… No, that had been 10 years ago. It was unlikely he still cared. I shuddered, and prayed to the gods I was right. He hadn’t been the forgiving sort.

Perhaps I had been captured by monsters. Ogres, or goblins, or the like. Most of those, however, regarded a donkey as a source of food, rather than a way to transport prisoners, and were unlikely to keep said prisoners alive. Hmm…

Well, odds were I would find out who had captured me, and why, when we got wherever we were going, or when we stopped for the night. A bush smacked me in the face. Hopefully we would be stopping soon.

I hummed a few bars. If my captors didn’t know they had a bard, they were going to find out the hard way. I began to plan what I would do when they removed my gag.

  Soon the forest we had been traveling through gave way to scrubland. I welcomed this. It meant fewer bushes in the face. Then the scrubland gave way to rockier country. This was… Less welcome. There were few places in the area where the bones of the earth were so close to the surface, and all of them were bad news. The rocky mountains to the east were dragon country. To the north, a stony desert held little aside from scorpionfolk. We were, however, headed west. So be it, then. I resigned myself to my probable fate.

As we began to climb, I heard a voice in my head. -Who goes there?- it boomed. -And to what purpose?-

I heard my captor’s voice for the first time. “I am the apprentice bard Thom, and I come to ask a boon of you. To this end, I have brought you a gift.” Thom, I thought. The bastard. I’d never liked him, but I hadn’t thought him capable of this kind of treachery.

I was the gift he had mentioned. He was going to hand me over to the lone illithid.

The lone illithid lived in a cave near the top of a small mountain. He was unusual in a number of respects. Firstly, unlike most illithids, he didn’t live in a illithid community. Secondly, he didn’t even live in the underdark, a system of caves, tunnels, and abandoned mines extending under the whole continent. All illithid communities were in the underdark, and all other illithids rarely left it. Thirdly, he was an accomplished wizard, while most other illithids relied on their formidable psionic abilities for fighting. Finally, most illithids were as sexless as worms, incapable of, and uninterested in, sex in any form. According to rumor, the lone illithid was not only capable, he enjoyed it immensely.

However, like other illithids, he ate brains, yanking them out of the heads of his living, conscious victims. I shuddered. No brain left no possibility of resurrection. In addition, the process was said to be incredibly painful. The only question was, would the lone illithid just eat my brain, or would he rape me first?

-You may approach,- the lone illithid’s mental voice said.

As we continued to climb, I wondered what the lone illithid would do to Thom. Hopefully he would decide that Thom’s request was unreasonable, and kill him. I would still be just as dead myself, but it would be satisfying to know that the traitor Thom was dead as well.

The trail leveled out, and we entered the mouth of a cave. I heard Thom swing off his mount, and, a moment later, felt him loosening the ties that held me to the donkey. I was lifted off, and Thom gripped me by the hair to show me to the lone illithid.

The lone illithid looked like most of his kind. He was tall, almost 7 feet, and dark purple. His hands were mostly humanoid, but with longer, more slender fingers than most people had. Black robes extended down to his booted feet. The top of his head was wrinkled and ridged, like a brain, and he had two catlike, piercing green eyes. Below where his nose would have been, if he’d had a nose, were four tentacles. They looked about a foot long at the moment, but I knew they could extend to up to four feet if he desired them too. Beneath the tentacles, I knew, was a lamprey like mouth, dripping with mucus and digestive juices. I shuddered.

“Does my gift please you, my lord?” asked Thom.

The lone illithid looked at me critically. -Come closer,- he told Thom. -So that I might see her better.-

Thom approached cautiously. “She is the apprentice bard Kara, my lord. An accomplished singer and lute player, and a half elf. Quite attractive by both human and elf standards. Not as long eared or slender as a full elf, obviously, but-”

-Be quite,- the lone illithid ordered. He produced a knife from inside his robes. I felt Thom stiffen.

Delicately, the illithid cut through my blouse, exposing my breasts. -Large for a half elf,- he noted, prodding them with a tentacle. -Almost large for a human.- The tentacle coiled around my left breast and tightened around the nipple. I whimpered. My nipples had always been sensitive. Though it was hard to tell, the illithid seemed pleased.

Next, he opened a slit over my pussy. I closed my eyes as a tentacle probed my insides, but opened them in surprise as another one prodded my asshole. Instantly I clenched tight. -Resistant,- the illithid murmured, -but that is to be expected at this stage.- The slit was opened further, until the illithid could reach in and grab my ass. -Nicely round and firm,- he noted, -but not too firm.- The illithid stepped back, and added, -A worthy offering. I will hear your request.- As Thom began to speak, he raised a hand. -But not here. You must be tired from your journey. Come.-

The illithid turned and led the way deeper into the cave. Thom fumbled with the rope around my legs, and then, when I could just barely walk, shoved me forward ahead of him into the cave.

There were lights along the walls, I noted with surprise as we went deeper. Not enough to see properly, but some. Odd. Most illithids prefered darkness.

The ropes around my ankles were loosening. Soon they were loose enough for me to run. I kicked backward at Thom. A yell, followed by a groan, told me that I’d connected with my intended target. I turned and bolted.

I’d barely made it a few steps when I felt something akin to a blow against the back of my head, except it was inside my mind. An illithid mindblast! I struggled to remain conscious…

  When I came to, the first thing I noticed was a distinct chill. Cold metal against my arms and legs. Cold air brushing against my private parts. I opened my eyes.

I was naked, chained at the wrists and ankles, still gagged, and sitting in the illithid’s lap. A tentacle coiled delicately around my neck, and forced me to look up into the illithid’s eyes. -If you try to escape again, things will go hard for you,- he told me. -In fact…-

Suddenly I felt a pressure inside my mind, an incredible, impossible weight. It increased rapidly until I couldn’t think, couldn’t move, couldn’t do anything except watch the darkness rise behind my eyes…

As abruptly as it had come, the weight lifted. I gasped in relief. -Interesting,- the illithid noted. -She won’t break.-

Thom shrugged from his seat on the other side of a small table. “She is trained as a bard, my lord.”

-I’ve broken bards before,- the illithid said. -Bards, wizards, monks, many others. This resistance is... Odd. Still, if I cannot make her my thrall, perhaps I can make her my puppet.-

I felt the pressure in my mind once more, but it was different, this time. Instead of trying to crush me, it seemed to surround me. Without me willing it, my hand lifted, and my fist clenched. My body rubbed up against the erection I could feel at my back.

The illithid’s chuckle echoed through my mind. -She has no resistance against this, I see.-

Fucking bastard! I struggled against the pressure, feeling like a butterfly in a jar. It abruptly released.

-Enough games,- said the lone illithid. -What do you wish of me?-

“I wish simply to hear your story,” said Thom. “Why you are different from other illithids. How you came to settle here. All the bits in between. I wish to write it into a song.”

The illithid leaned back in his chair. -A song... - he mused. -Yes, I think I can grant this request.-

A scantily clad, blank faced woman entered, carrying a tray. On it were two glasses of wine. She served her master first, and then brought the other glass to Thom. Another woman entered, bringing silverware and napkins. A third came bearing two plates of food.

-You must be hungry,- the illithid told Thom. -Dine with me, and I will tell you my story.-

After they had both been served, the illithid began. -My name is Serasis. The story begins with my birth. I assume you know about illithid reproduction?-

Thom shook his head.

The lone illithid sighed. -Every twenty years or so, an illithid, by a hermaphroditic process, produces about a hundred eggs. These eggs are placed in a special pool, where they hatch into tadpole like creatures. After ten years, each of the surviving larvae is placed in the ear of a host, usually a human, drow, elf, gnoll, goblinoid, or orc. The larva consumes the brain of the host and transforms the body in a process known as ceremorphosis. When the process is over, you end up with a physically mature but mentally newborn illithid.-

“Interesting,” said Thom. He looked a bit green, I noted. I knew I felt a bit sick.

-My ceremorphosis went normally, save for one thing. My host body’s transformation was not complete. I still had genitalia.- Serasis shrugged. -Sometimes it happens. Occasionally, due to some failure of the process, you get a being that looks exactly like the host, but with an illithid’s mind and powers. My situation was unusual, but not unheard of.- The illithid took a sip of wine. His other hand stroked my breasts. -Had the illithids supervising my ceremorphosis realized the genitalia was still functional, I have no doubt I would have been killed.-

-For the first 18 years of my life, I had no inkling I was different in any significant way from any other illithid. Then, one morning…-

I listened for awhile, and then closed my eyes. This was an interesting story.

 Serasis paced in his quarters, staring down at the thing extending from the join between his legs. Panic filled his mind, dulled slightly by the soothing resonance stones set into the ceiling of his small apartment. He had always known he was a bit different from other mind flayers. None of the others had genitalia. What he had not known, however, was that genitalia could develop a mind of its own.

Should he contact another mind flayer? Or the elder brain? No, he decided. Young as he was, he knew there was only one way of dealing with a mind flayer with something so badly wrong with him. And Serasis didn’t really want to die.

But, now, the thing was losing its hardness, and shrinking back to normal size. Serasis signed in relief. It was over.

Except it wasn’t. The next morning, he awoke to find a strange, slippery substance in his bed, and his genitalia slowly shrinking back to normal size. He went to the library, careful to keep exactly what he was looking for secret. He found nothing.

Now, though, other mind flayers were starting to notice his worry. He wasn’t sure how much longer it would be before one would ask him what was wrong, or worse, tell the leader of their community, the elder brain. Perhaps, before it came to that, he should run away.

Still pondering, Serasis went down to the slave pens to get something to eat. As a young mind flayer, he wasn’t allowed to go out on raids for brains, so he had to make due with what the other mind flayers brought home. He looked over the captives. His eyes were caught by a young, rather pretty female elf. Suddenly, to his horror, he felt it beginning to happen again. He would have turned to leave, but it would look suspicious if he left without feeding. Instead, he grabbed the female elf.

Soon Serasis was alone in his apartment once more, save for his meal, which was chained to the wall. He removed his robes.

It was worse, this time. Before, one or the other of the things called penises had been swollen and hard, but, this time, both were large and solid enough to be used as batons. He moaned aloud.

“I could help,” said his meal.

He whirled around to face her. -Who says I need your help?-

She recoiled, frightened, but then seemed to gather her courage. “You’ve got no idea what’s going on, do you?”

Serasis’s eyes narrowed. -No. But you do, don’t you.- His fist slammed the wall beside her head. -Tell me now!-

“It would be better if I showed you,” she wheedled. “Please?”

He hesitated. -Very well.- Then he unlocked her chains.

She immediately knelt down, taking one of his penises into her mouth. The other was gripped tightly in one of her hands. The other hand reached down to her own genitalia.

Serasis moaned again as a strange, oddly pleasurable feeling filled him. -What are you doing?-

“Just relax,” she told him, removing the penis from her mouth briefly. “I’ll take care of everything.”

He would have demanded a more thorough explanation, but whatever she was doing down there felt so good! Instinctively he thrust his hips forward. The elf female moaned, and sucked harder at his cock. The hand between her legs was moving quickly, doing something he couldn’t quite see.

Then she released her grip on his cocks and stood. Serasis glared at her. -Keep going!- he ordered. -It felt… I was so close!- Close to what, he couldn’t say.

“I can make it feel better,” she murmured. “Lie down on your bed.”

Warily, he lay down. The elf straddled him, just above his twin cocks, and then she slowly lowered herself. He felt himself enter her, her pussy and her ass, and it was all he could do not to cry out.

The elf female continued lowering herself until she was sitting on his hips, and his entire length was buried deep within her. He whimpered. -Please,- he begged, unsure of what he was asking for. She began to work his cocks in and out of herself, moaning softly as she did so. His pleasure rose, as did hers, until-

With a shout, muffled by her hand over her mouth, the elf spasmed. Her pussy and asshole tightened around his length. And he…

It was impossible to describe. Overwhelming pleasure shot through his body. It was all he could do not to scream. He felt himself shooting something into her, deep into her pussy and asshole.

Afterwards, he felt a profound sense of satisfaction. His two cocks were limp, and slid out of her easily. She sighed, and lay down beside him.

For a moment they just lay there together. Then Serasis realized… He wrapped a tentacle around the female elf’s neck. -That explained nothing!- he accused.

“Didn’t it feel good?” the elf asked.

Serasis hesitated. -Yes,- he admitted. Then his grip tightened. -But if you don’t explain right now, I’ll eat your brain.-

Wheezing slightly through her constricted windpipe, the elf explained.

Serasis shook his head, and loosened his grip. -Your species really reproduces like this? It seems… Inefficient.-

“But you’ve got to admit, it’s fun,” the elf said with a smile.

-Yes,- Serasis admitted. -It is. But why am I like this?-

“Thousands of years ago, my tribe of elves made a deal with a god of sex,” the female elf said. “The details of the bargain have long been lost, but the gist of it is that we have increased prowess, stamina, desire, and, well, an extra something to have sex with.”

-Something extra?- Serasis wondered.

“An extra cock. Most male humanoids have one,” the elf explained.

-Ah. But I made no deal with any god, sexual or otherwise.- Serasis noted.

“But your host body… Well, it must have been one of my people. The deal, it must have carried over,” she explained. “Luckily for you.”

-Luckily?- Serasis’s telepathic voice held an ominous tone.

The elf shrank back. “It’s just that, well, your method of reproduction isn’t much fun at all, and-”

She screamed as Serasis gripped her head. “No, please!” She began to thrash in his grip. “Don’t!”

And then she was gone. Serasis finished her brain, and then murmured to her corpse, -If any of my people find out about this, they will kill me. And you say I’m lucky.-

  -Of course, she was right. I am quite lucky. Most illithids don’t feel true happiness, you see. The best they get is a sort of cold satisfaction, while I,- Serasis said, stroking my inner thigh, -I experience sexual pleasure. True, I will never be able to return to my people, but the reward vastly outweighs the cost.- He sighed. -I wish I hadn’t killed her. It would have made my life a bit easier, if she had lived.- He raised his hand, and one of the women in revealing clothing stepped forward. -My thrall will show you to the guest room, and bring you anything you might require. We will continue in the morning.-

Thom nodded. “I have composing to do, in any case.” He followed the woman out of the room.

Serasis led me to his own quarters. The chains around my ankles were just barely loose enough for me to hobble. I wondered what he was going to do with me now. Would it be sex, or would I be his next meal?

Definitely sex, I decided as the illithid laid me down on his bed. I felt his mind close around mine once more, and was unable to struggle as he unchained me, and then rechained me so that I was spread eagled on the bed. When he released my mind, I tested the strength of the shackles, and then lay still. Fighting would only make it more painful. I knew that from experience.

Serasis disrobed. I stared up, horrified, at his two massive dicks. I’d known he had two from the story, of course, but I hadn’t expected them to be this large, or to have two huge sets of balls dangling beneath.

The illithid did not immediately mount me, however. He looked me over with a possessive eye, and caressed my breasts with his long fingered hands. -Beautiful,- he murmured, almost to himself. Then, to my surprise, he knelt between my spread legs. A tentacle gently stroked my clit, and then wrapped around it with a dexterity unavailable to a normal lover. A slight tug made me whimper. Another, followed by a soft stroking, made me moan. A second tentacle slid up inside of me, and prodded around until it found my g-spot. I gasped. A tight, hot feeling began to build within me.

The delicate manipulation of my clit continued, and the tentacle within my pussy began to thrust, pounding against my g-spot with relentless power. The illithid’s two other tentacles wrapped around my breasts, and tweaked my nipples. I squealed. -So sensitive,- murmured the illithid. -Delightful.- His long fingers lightly stroked my inner thigh.

I expected, at any moment, for him to tire of this game and mount me, but he didn’t. He just continued his expert manipulation. Eventually one tentacle withdrew from my breasts and slithered into my pussy, joining the other in pounding my g-spot. He took the nipple it had been stimulating between thumb and forefinger. Twisted it. Gently squeezed.

Why was he doing this, I wondered. If he kept it up I was going to...  

I came, screaming into my gag. Serasis let out a shout of triumph. His merciless stimulation did not lessen, pushing me to an almost painful level of pleasure. It took me awhile to stop cumming.

When I was finally finished, the illithid slid one of his cocks into me. Not both, as I had been expecting, but just one. The other lay against my stomach. I’d never been stretched quite like this. I felt so full, and knew it would have hurt if I hadn’t been so aroused. Because I was aroused, though, it felt good. Serasis began to thrust. His other cock, sandwiched between our bodies, rubbed against my clit. Soon every hard thrust elicited a breathless squeak from me. Serasis moaned aloud, and gripped my breasts in his hands. -So lovely,- he sighed. A tentacle undid the gag, and thrust into my mouth. I twisted, trying to dislodge it, but another tentacle gripped my head. The tentacle in my mouth coiled around my tongue. And still the illithid kept thrusting.

Soon I realized I was going to cum again. This illithid, this loathsome thing, was going to be the first lover in my life to make me cum twice.

The tempo of the thrusts increased, and I realized Serasis was reaching his peak as well. So close… Almost… Now.

I came, and Serasis came with me, his shout of pleasure echoing through both the room and my mind. I felt him inside of me, both in my pussy and in my head, feeling me cum. And I felt him shooting his load within me and broadcasting his pleasure. His joy fed mine, which in turn fed his, which fed mine… It was incredible.

Finally we both came down from the high, but it wasn’t over. Serasis removed his now limp lower cock from my pussy, but quickly replaced it with his other, still hard, dick. He began to thrust again. I moaned, my eyelids fluttering, as I swiftly drew close to orgasm once more. I came. He came. Once again, our orgasms intertwined. It was glorious.

As we both finished cumming, I realized with alarm that the first cock was sandwiched between my asscheeks, hard once more. Serasis pulled the upper cock free, and lined up the lower one with my pussy.

It was going to be a long night.

[charmscale]

A Demon’s Lust Chapter 10

Anita

Awareness came back to me abruptly. So, too, did the knowledge of my situation. I was, through the betrayal of Master Yuriel and my own stupidity, powerless and at the mercy of a demon lord. I couldn’t blame Master Evona, really. She had just been trying to clean up my mess. But, whoever I blamed for my predicament, death was inevitable. The only question was how long would the demon toy with me first. Perhaps, if I pretended to sleep, I could stave off my death for a little while…

“I am aware that you’re awake, you know.” I could feel Saban’s breath against my cheek. His voice was quietly amused. “I heard your heartbeat speed up. You might as well open your eyes.”

Shit. So much for that idea. I opened my eyes. The first thing I saw was Saban on top of me. He was, oddly enough, still wearing the handsome male form I had chosen for him when I had first summoned him. I wondered why he hadn’t returned to his natural form. He couldn’t like the shape I had forced him to wear for so long, could he?

His lips brushed my cheek, and he murmured, “I see your magical reserves have recovered somewhat in sleep. Your mind, however, has not. This means you can neither wield magic nor command me with any real chance of success. Please do not try. I would hate for you to hurt yourself.”

Saban was right, I realized as I probed the mental channels within my mind that I used to direct my magic. It would be at least another few days before I would be capable of doing anything to free myself. I wouldn’t even be able to try until then.

This was probably why he wasn’t bothering to gag me. He knew I couldn’t command him, and he was probably hoping I would beg for mercy. Well, I would not give him the satisfaction. Glaring defiantly, I spat in his face.

Saban wiped it away and shook his head, smiling. “Brave to the end, I see.”

I began to try to squirm out from under his body. “Fucking bastard!”

“You know, a more impulsive demon than I might decide that you needed to learn some manners,” Saban mused.  Abruptly, I was pinned to the bed by tentacles extending from his back, unable to do anything more than fruitlessly struggle. Saban moved back until his head was level with my pussy. “Fortunately for you, I am very patient, and more interested in your pleasure than your pain or fear.”

His tongue flicked out. Found my clit. Caressed it. Then Saban drew back briefly and delicately licked a finger before inserting it into my pussy. Soon after he returned his oral attention to my clit.

I ignored my rising waves of lust. “Go back to hell,” I snapped, struggling.

Saban shook his head, sighing, as his finger began to work in and out. “Your mouth says one thing, but your body says another.” A smile flickered across his face. “I think I know the problem.”

Removing his finger from my pussy, he moved up my body to murmur in my ear, “I think the problem is that you’re use to being on top.”

Swiftly Saban switched our positions. Soon, instead of being pinned beneath my captor, I was being held in a kneeling position above him with my pussy carefully positioned just over his mouth. Tentacles around my legs prevented me from moving, and another tentacle bound my hands behind me. I squirmed uncomfortably.

“See? Easy fix,” Saban said with a chuckle before burying his face in my pussy. I felt his tongue flick out again.

It was eerie. We had held this same position so many times before as I allowed Saban to feed, but now he was in control. The sense of powerlessness, of being held helpless, was oddly arousing. As Saban slipped his finger into me once more, I moaned.

“Good girl. Just relax, let the pleasure flow through you.” Saban’s voice was muffled as he continued to lick me.

“Like hell I will!” I growled, renewing my struggle against his firm grip. “I am not cooperating! I will never cooperate with you!”

He pulled back, laughing. “Oh, you will, whether you wish it or no. It’s only a matter of time. And speaking of time…”

I was lifted up and moved away from Saban’s mouth. His tentacles positioned me just above his enormous cock. “Don’t you dare!” I yelled. “I’ll kill you! Let me go! I’ll kill you, you fucking bastard!”

I continued to scream threats and insults as I was slowly lowered onto his cock. First it brushed past my clit. Then it entered me, moving slowly deeper and deeper as I twisted helplessly in Saban’s grasp. Despite my efforts to fight him, I was soon sitting astride the demon’s hips, his cock buried deep within me, glowering down at him.

“You’ll pay for this!” I threatened, impotent. I fought not to be aroused by the tight, full feeling inside me as my pussy was stretched to its limit. The sheer girth of Saban’s cock pressed it firmly against my g-spot, and its length pressed it gently against my cervix. It was a perfect fit. I squirmed briefly, trying in vain to free myself, and instantly regretted it as my arousal spiked. “You'll pay,” I moaned.

Saban bucked his hips up briefly, and I gasped. “Once again, your mouth says one thing, while the rest of you says something else entirely,” Saban mused. “Which should I believe?” He smiled, and bucked his hips up once again, eliciting a strained whimper. I closed my eyes, praying that this humiliation would end soon.

“Now, there is something I’ve been wanting to try for awhile now,” Saban told me. I opened my eyes again. I wanted to see what was coming next. I needed to be ready.

Saban lifted a finger. As I watched, it began to blur and buzz with vibration. I shivered. How could I fight this? I was already so aroused. My eyes tracked Saban’s finger, horrified, as he moved it towards my clit.

The merest brush was like fire in my belly. I screamed. Saban’s finger jerked back. Head cocked, he looked up at me. “Now that reaction,” he admitted, “was a bit more extreme than I had expected.” He smiled. “Let’s try that again, shall we?”

I shook my head, my vow not to plead for mercy forgotten. “No, please,” I begged. “Please, I can’t take that. Not again. You’ll drive me mad!”

Saban ignored me. I fought hopelessly to free myself as Saban reached for my clit once more. Again, his finger brushed against it.

I screamed, trying to jerk away, and found, to my amazement, the bonds around my legs had loosened. I pulled up, trying to get off Saban’s cock, away from the-

Except I couldn’t. I was brought up short just as I was about to dislodge the intruder and free my clit from the overpowering vibration. Sobbing, I moved in small circles around Saban’s supernaturally hard cock, inadvertently working it inside me as I struggled to get away. The fire in my nether regions increased.

Then, with a jerk, I was once again pressed against Saban’s hips. I struggled, and the pressure forcing me down loosened. I rose to the end of my tether a second time, gasping, only to be was pulled down to Saban’s hips once more.

Soon a rhythm was established. I would jerk up and away in an instinctive motion, and Saban would force me back down, working his cock within me.  With every repetition, the burning feeling in my nether regions increased. I soon realized I was about to cum.

I’d only ever experienced a forced orgasm once before. That had been a bit more intense than a regular orgasm. This was…

As it began, my scream caught in my throat as every muscle in my body tightened to the point of pain. Distantly, I could feel the tug on my magic as Saban fed. I could also feel the vibration as it gradually increased in intensity. In addition to strengthening the vibration, Saban was forcing my frozen body up and down, keeping his thick cock moving within me.

I came down from the high slowly, as if the orgasm was reluctant to let me go. As it ended, I was almost instantly catapulted back into the arms of bliss, unable to fight my own body. This happened two more times before I managed to come down enough for rational thought.

Saban wasn’t going to end this, I realized. I was going to die as I came, again and again, unaware of my own demise.

 Saban

My beloved came again, this time cursing like a sailor. She came down slowly and then met my gaze, pleading in her eyes. I shook my head, laughing, and, with a yelp, she came once more.

I wondered when I should end this. I had finished draining all of Anita’s magic a few orgasms ago, but I was enjoying watching her cum again and again, helpless against my continual stimulation. As an added bonus, with the pledge intact, the bond between us remained, so I could distantly feel the intensity of her pleasure. Perhaps I should wait until she was too exhausted to cum anymore?

No, I decided. I needed to be careful. I didn't was to hurt her. Reluctantly, I stopped vibrating my finger and lifted her off my cock.

Anita came down from her final orgasm, gasping. She looked dizzily down at me from her place astride my chest, blinking slowly. “Am I dead?” she slurred.

I shook my head, frowning. “No.”

She blinked again. My grip on her was the only thing keeping her from tipping over, I realized. Perhaps I had overdone it a bit?

“I was expecting,” Anita told me, voice still slurring, “To be dead.”

I felt a pang of guilt and pity. Of course she was expecting me to kill her. I had never told her I wouldn’t.

Gently, I laid her down beside me. Then I released her. She didn’t try to move. Through the bond, I felt the beginnings of despair.

As I was trying to figure out what to say, Anita spoke. “When?”

“Excuse me?” I asked, sitting up so I could look over at her.

“When are you going to kill me?” She sounded very young and small. “I’d really like to know. Please?”

I mulled over how much to tell her. How to get her to believe. “I suppose you have a right to know.”

She shook her head. “I don’t have any rights. Not anymore.”

I blinked. “Anita, I-” I struggled to find the right words. How should I tell her this? Would she believe me? Or would she think it a cruel lie?

Finally I decided to just spit it out. “Anita, I love you.” But, I realized, I had waited too long. Anita had drifted off to sleep.

 Anita

I woke up in Saban’s arms, clutched to his chest like a child’s favorite toy. His arms were wrapped around me, right under my breasts, and several long, black tentacles were coiled around my stomach, arms, and legs. I squirmed uneasily. Saban shifted in his sleep, sighed softly, and tightened his grip on me.

If I had been any sort of threat, I knew, the demon would already be awake. Even in sleep, some small part of his mind was aware and searching for danger. But, as I could do nothing to harm him, or even free myself, he slept on.

While we were sleeping, darkness had fallen outside, and someone had brought dinner. Roast chicken, carrots, and potatoes. My stomach rumbled. Having low magical reserves always made me hungry.

But should I eat, I wondered. I was done for. I didn’t doubt that now. But, outside of this room, the rest of my order, of my kingdom, still had a chance. If I didn’t eat, my magical reserves wouldn’t restore themselves anywhere near as quickly, which meant that Saban wouldn’t be able to feed as deeply. This would weaken him. Hungry as I was, for the good of my people, I couldn’t eat.

Saban’s eyes opened. Shifting, he looked at my defiant expression and smiled. “Still full of spirit, I see. How are you planning to fight me today?”

I didn’t answer. I just glared at him.

Saban stretched, and glanced over at the table. “Looks like Evona has held up her end of the bargain,” he said. “We have food. Time, I suppose, for you to eat.”

He rose and scooped me up in his arms. After carrying me over to the table, he sat me down in his lap. My arms were free, but tentacles wrapped around my legs and torso prevented me from rising. Saban pulled the plate over, filled a glass of water from the pitcher, and then patted me on the thigh. “Eat up, little one,” he said.

I shook my head. My belly growled.

Saban sighed. “This gesture of defiance will get you nowhere.”

Still I refused to eat or drink.

Saban sighed again. “Very well, then. If I must demonstrate my power to you, I will.”

He wrapped another tentacle around me, pinning my arms to my sides. A hand in my hair and another under my chin tilted my head back. I clamped my jaw shut tight, but it was no use. A tentacle forced my mouth open, pressing against my tongue and sliding down my throat. I fought, but Saban had always been much stronger than me. I was helpless. He could do as he wished with me, whether I liked it or not.

Another tentacle slid into the pitcher of water. For a moment, nothing happened. Then water began to pour down my throat, straight into my stomach.

“Nmmmmmph!” I protested. I struggled, but Saban’s grip on my head was firm, and his tentacles were too strong to resist and too tough to bite. “Nnnnn…”

Saban kissed me lightly on the forehead. The flow of water ceased. “Now,” said Saban, “do I have to repeat my demonstration with the food and the rest of the water, or will you eat?”

His tentacle withdrew, allowing me to speak. “I’ll eat,” I said in a small voice. I was a wizard; wielding power was what I did. What I was, to a certain extent. I hadn’t felt this weak since before my magic had awakened. Suddenly I was 5 years old again, being pushed around by the village bully.

The food was tasteless in my mouth. I felt my eyes burn with the beginnings of tears. I will not cry, I told myself. I will not give that monster the satisfaction. But, eventually, a single tear trickled down my cheek. Soon it was joined by many more. I put my head down on the empty plate and wept.

I had expected laughter from the demon. I had expected glee. But Saban’s hand stroked my hair, and his voice murmured in my ear, “It’s ok. It’ll be ok. Please, don’t cry. Please.”

I blinked in surprise. My tears stopped. I turned to look up a Saban. “Why?” My voice was barely a whisper.

Saban opened his mouth. Shut it again. Opened it again, grimaced, and shut it. Finally he said, “Remember when I saved you from the spider?”

I nodded. That had been… Puzzling.

“I’ve been around for a long time, Anita,” Saban told me. “It gets boring. This world, though, you, well, it’s interesting. So is this new way of feeding you inadvertently showed me.”

He leaned back in the chair and pulled me close. “I like it here. I don’t really want to rule. I’d just spoil it if I was in control. And if I have to obey you to stay here, well, that’s a small price to pay.”

I blinked. “You… You’re not going to kill me?”

Saban shook his head. “No. I’d like to make an agreement with you, Anita. I’ll behave. I won’t hurt anyone, and I certainly won’t hurt you. I’ll do pretty much everything the binding told me to do. In return, when I release you, you won’t bind me again. And you won’t use the cage, or the chains. And you won’t dismiss me. ” He paused. I got the impression there was more he wanted to say. Then the moment passed, and he said, “Deal?”

I blinked. This was… Unprecedented. So he liked it here. Huh. That was interesting. And kind of odd. Also, normally a demon wouldn’t make an agreement this fair unless he had no other choice. But, in this case, he was the only one with any real options. I wanted to live. “Deal,” I agreed.

The question was, should I honor our agreement? There was little doubt in my mind, though, that if I didn’t dismiss him, I’d end up at Saban’s mercy again at some point. He was just too powerful for me to completely avoid that. If I was in his power, and I hadn’t kept my end of the deal, things wouldn’t end pleasantly for me. As for dismissing him, well, I liked the idea of having a demon lord at my beck and call. It would mean I was well protected from any future assassination attempts, for one. And he, I knew, would honor his half of the agreement because he didn't want to be dismissed. It was really in my best interests not to attempt a double-cross.

I yawned. Saban smiled. “I’ll let you go in three days, when your mind starts to recover enough for you to command me. Until then, though,” Saban said, scooping me up into his arms, “You are mine. Agreed?”

I nodded sleepily, my body already slipping into a healing slumber. “Agreed.”

  I woke slowly. Again, I was clutched against Saban’s chest, but, this time, I didn’t feel like his helpless toy. I sort of was until my mind recovered, but at least I knew I wasn’t going to die. That made me feel much more secure, even if I wasn't really in control. I looked up at Saban’s face. He was already awake. He smiled. “Good morning, pet. You slept well?”

I nodded. A quick probe of my magical reserves showed that they were almost full again, courtesy of a good meal and a full night’s sleep. Well, time to start feeding my magic to Saban. I shoved the demon onto his back.

He chuckled. “Enthusiastic this morning, I see.” Before I could mount him, suddenly he was on top of me. “But who says that, this time, you get to be on top?”

I sighed. “I won’t fight you. We might as well do this on my terms.”

Saban grinned evilly and, suddenly, there was a tentacle in my mouth. “Mmmmph!” I protested.

“It’s a funny thing, little one,” Saban began, “but I’ve noticed a strange trend.” A vibrating tentacle brushed my clit. I protested again, louder. “You tend to cum harder,” Saban added, pinning my arms and legs, “When you’re not the one in control.” I had to admit that he had a point.

Pinned in a spread eagled position and gagged, I couldn’t do much to fight back. A few more seconds of hard vibration, and Saban decided I was ready. He slid into me, filling me to my limit once more. I moaned. Saban chuckled. “See my point? You wouldn’t be anywhere near this aroused if you were telling me what to do.”

I closed my eyes, waiting for Saban to start moving within me. Instead, I felt something probe my asshole. My eyes flicked opened. “Mmmmph?”

“Yes,” Saban said, chuckling. “Exactly.”

Gently, the oddly shaped tentacle slid into my ass, one rounded segment at a time. I’d let a lover enter my back door once before, but that had been more uncomfortable than enjoyable. This was different. This felt good. I shuddered, and then shuddered again as Saban began to move within me.

The tentacle gagging me slid aside as two other tentacles began to play with my nipples. “Fun?” Saban asked.

Another segment of tentacle slid into my ass. “Fuck you!” I snapped, my voice high pitched, breathy, and wobbling slightly.

Saban laughed, and pressed his mouth to mine. I twisted away until he caught my head in his hands and forced me to be still. Then his tongue slithered into my mouth to brush the tip of my tongue. Another segment of tentacle was forced into my ass.

The vibration on my clit, the movement in my pussy, and the weird stuff going on in my asshole was too much, too much. When one of the tentacles tending to my nipples developed a mouth and started to suck, I slipped over the edge into orgasm.

Saban surprised me by immediately pulling the tentacle in my ass out. Segment by rounded segment popped free. The feeling was unexpectedly satisfying. I screamed as my orgasm intensified.

This time, Saban let me come all the way down from the orgasm instead of forcing me into another. It was a relief. Or, at least, it was a relief until Saban murmured into my ear, “Let’s do that again.”

 To be continued in A Demon’s Child...

[charmscale]

A Demon’s Lust Chapter 9

Anita

I watched the first few matches from the stands, sitting among my fellow apprentices and their demons as the crowd cheered the displays of magic below. A thick magical shield kept the stands safe from the roil of spells in the arena below.

Apprentices of the same level were rarely friendly. Marian and I were the exception, not the rule, and we’d only dared become friends because she’d never expected to be down in the arena. Trev was also an exception. He was a manipulative bastard, but everyone, including our fellow twelfth level apprentices, seemed to genuinely like him. They laughed at his jokes, and listened to his advice. I had never been popular among my peers, but I would be downright hated after I killed Trev.

I looked over at Saban. He was watching the fighting below intently, his eyes darting around to follow the action and his brow furrowed in concentration. “You ready?” I asked. “This fight isn’t going to last much longer, and we’re in the fight after the next. We should go below and prepare.”

He nodded and rose as Terian broke Lizbeth’s shield. As she cowered, defenseless, he raised his hand, crackling with magic, and the crowd roared for blood.

Below, in the ready room, it was blessedly quiet. Jann, who would be fighting Yeth in the next battle, waited, white as a sheet. Her demon, in the form of a clawed, robed figure, waited with her, cackling softly. It quieted as Saban entered behind me. I wondered at that, a bit.

The only other person in the room was the journeyman wizard who maintained the sound dampening spell over the room and the shield over the opening to the arena. She looked away from the aftermath of the last fight at Jann. “You ready, kid?” she asked. Jann nodded, though she didn’t look ready at all. “Ok, ready on this end,” she said into a hand mirror.

“Ready on this end,” replied a voice from the mirror.

“Count of three,” said the journeyman. “One, two, three!”

On three the shield over the entrance vanished. Jann walked into the arena on one side as Yeth entered on the other. The journeyman wizard swiftly pulled the shield back up as the fight began.

“You Anita Kirith?” she asked me.

“I am,” I replied.

“Great. You’re up next,” she said as she peered out through the shield. “Don’t think this one will last long,” she added as blood splattered the ground outside. “Oh, yeah, not long at all, he’s already through her shield, and his demon is…” she shuddered. “Poor kid.”

Saban looked at her coldly. “Do you mind? I think my mistress would prefer not to have a play by play.”

She ignored him. “Oh, she’s losing a lot of life force! Ouch, broken leg, that’s got to hurt.”

Saban was next to her in a blur. He gently placed his hands around her throat. “I said shut up.”

“Hey! Anita! Control your demon!” she gasped, eyes wide with terror as Saban tightened his grip.

I glared at my familiar. “Saban,” I began, and he released her.

“It looked like it was bothering you,” he explained as he came back to stand at my side.

I opened my mouth to speak, but the journeyman wizard cut me off. “Anita, you ready?” she asked, massaging her throat and glaring.

“Ready,” I confirmed.

“Okay, ready at this end. On the count of three?”

“Yeah,” confirmed the mirror. “Count of three.”

“One, two, three.” And the shield was down. Heart pounding, I entered the arena to the roar of the crowd.

 Saban

“You have my permission to shapeshift,” said my mistress as she cloaked herself in a swirling blue shield. “And to harm or kill Trev and his demon.”

I felt the binding lift slightly, and I nodded, glaring out over the arena at Trev, the wizard I needed to kill, and his hulking beast of a demon. “It will be as you wish, mistress,” I promised. “He will die.”

Then I charged. I dodged one fireball, which fizzled out harmlessly against the dirt, but blocked the next so it didn’t hit Anita’s shield. It hurt, but I could take it.

“Ignore protecting me!” Anita called. “I can take care of myself. Head for Trev’s shield!”

“Marmoth!” Trev ordered his demon. “Charge!”

The hulking demon lowered its head and charged. I grabbed it by the horns and hurled it away as electricity crackled past me, heading towards Anita’s shield. She yelped as it hit, but her shield held. Marmoth came at me again, to Trev’s shouted orders. This time, I materialized a sword, and impaled the hulking beast. Time to take it out of the fight. As I was hacking its legs off, another bolt of lightning joined the first, this time streaking out of Anita’s hand toward Trev’s shield.

He laughed. “Is that the best you can-” Then he turned white as the ground began to shake beneath him. He darted to the side, narrowly avoiding ending up inside the fissure Anita had opened. With a growl, the intensity of his lightening increased. So did Anita’s.

I threw Marmoth’s legs across the arena. It would take him some time to get to them. In the meantime, I charged Trev’s shield once more.

My impact into his shield cause Trev to turn white and whimper. “Marmoth!” he gasped. I smiled. “Marmoth can’t-”

Something wrapped around one of my legs. Shit! Had Marmoth been given permission to shapeshift as well? Of course he had, I chided myself as I was dragged off my feet, away from Trev’s shield, by a long, scaly tentacle. As I wrestled with the other demon, the wizards’ duel continued. The ground beneath Anita started to turn to mud as water bubbled up from below. She, with an effort of will, levitated off the ground, and increased the intensity of the spell, causing the entire stadium to go muddy. Trev slipped and fell. His shield went off briefly. Wrestling with Marmoth, I couldn’t take advantage of the fact, but Anita could. She just floated there, face pale. The crowd booed.

With a growl, I plunged my hand into Marmoth’s chest, ripping out a handful of organs. He writhed beneath me, fighting to regrow them as I ripped off more and more of his tentacles. Soon Marmoth went still. At that exact moment, Trev set another bolt of lightning hurtling toward my beloved. She gasped as it hit. Her shield flickered, and then faded as she came crashing down to earth.

Trev raised his hand. I sprang to my feet and ran forward through the mud, knowing I would be too late. A fireball began to form around his hand. I was too slow, too slow!

Anita’s shield came back on, and the fireball splashed off it. I gasped in relief, then changed my trajectory so that I was headed directly toward Trev.

The fireball seemed to have taken the last of his reserves. His shield was flickering. As I slammed into it, it shattered. Trev grunted and crumpled to the ground. My hand plunged through his chest.

Anita glided over to where I stood, contemplating Trev’s still beating heart in his split chest. He was using magic to keep himself alive, but that wouldn’t last very long.

Trev looked up at Anita. “Just tell me one thing,” he gasped. “Why did you kill Antona?”

Her eyes widened in surprise. “What? She attacked me! On your orders, I thought.”

Trev coughed up some blood. “I never… Told her to do that…”

“Then who?” Anita wondered, frowning.

Trev began to cough up more blood. “It… must have been…” With a last gasp, he died.  

 Anita

I left the arena deep in my own thoughts, none of them good. If Trev hadn’t asked Antona to kill me, who had? How many of the other things I had previously attributed to Trev had this mysterious someone been responsible for? Had I just killed an entirely innocent man?

Not that I had really killed him. It had been Saban, in the end, who had done the deed, albeit on my orders. I had hesitated at a critical moment, and it had almost cost me dearly. And this had been while I believed Trev to be a killer, intent on taking my life even outside the arena. Was I just too weak to do what needed to be done? My magic was, and always had been, more geared towards war than anything else. The council of masters had decided long ago that, if I survived to become a journeyman, I was to be a warmage. How could I be a warmage and defend my kingdom if I couldn’t kill?

As I exited the arena, I looked over at Saban, who was walking beside me. He looked angry, and was walking as if he expected trouble. He saw me looking at him. “May I speak?” he asked. When I nodded, he continued, “If Trev was telling the truth, and if Antona wasn’t just acting alone, there is still someone out there who wants you dead.”

“True enough,” I agreed, wondering where this was going.

“Well, right now, you’re worn out from the duel. If I was them, I’d try something now,” Saban said, looking around the room where I was to receive my journeyman’s certification.

“Quite clever, for a demon,” said a voice from nowhere. Suddenly we were surrounded by an orb of green light. “Also surprisingly forthright.”

Saban growled. “Show yourself, coward.”

“Gladly,” said the voice, and Master Wizard Yuriel stepped out of thin air.

Saban slammed against the barrier.

“None of that,” said Master Yuriel, waggling his finger. “You’ll just hurt yourself.”

My eyes widened. “Master Yuriel! You were Antona’s mentor! She attacked me because you asked her to.”

“Clever girl,” Master Yuriel approved. “But not quite clever enough. If you’d really been smart, you would have realized that I was behind a lot of the things you attributed to your rival Trev. The attempts on your life. Your dead fellow apprentices.” My mouth opened in shock. “And now,” Master Yuriel added, shaking his head, “You’re going to ask me why I am doing this. The answer should be obvious, dear girl.”

He started weaving a spell in the air. I desperately tried to figure out what it was, so I could counter. “I like being a master wizard,” Yuriel continued. “And, if I must kill the best and the brightest of your generation to remain a master wizard, then I will do so.”

“But if you kill me now, like this, the rest of the council will know,” I told him.

His eyes widened in mock surprise. “Kill you? I’m not going to kill you, my dear.”

Behind me, Saban growled.

Yuriel’s smile widened. “Your demon is going to do it for me.” With a flick of the wrist, he loosed the spell. The binding snapped with an audible crack.

The backlash from the broken binding hit me like a club. Dizzy, I swayed back into Saban’s waiting arms.

 Saban

My heart sang. All I wanted was now within my grasp. I wrapped my arms protectively around my prize.

Anita whimpered. “Saban,” she said, her voice slightly slurred. She was trying to command me, I realized. “Don’t-”

I covered her mouth. “Shhh. You can’t muster up the mental strength anyways. Might as well not try.”

Terror surged within her. She began to struggle weakly within my grasp. Her eyes looked up at me, pleading. I laughed.

“What are you waiting for?” asked the old wizard. Yuriel, I remembered. She had called him Master Yuriel. Well, he was no master of mine. “Aren’t you going to kill her?” Yuriel continued. “Or at least start draining her?”

I laughed again, and took a sip of sweet, sweet terror laced magic. “Why on earth would I do that?”

Yuriel sighed in annoyance. “Well, if you won’t, then- Werithies!”

Another demon lumbered into the room. It looked like a particularly large male human.

“Kill the girl,” Yuriel ordered.

I grinned. This was going to be… Amusing.

“Bow to me,” I told the demon.

Yuriel frowned. “Why on earth would I-”

“I’m not talking to you,” I said. “Werithies. Shake off that stupid binding, and bow to me.”

Yuriel gasped in shock as the binding broke. Werithies knelt before me, head bowed. “Lord,” the other demon intoned. “What is thy bidding?”

Yuriel started to back away. “You, you’re a demon lord!”

“Fast study,” I chuckled. “Werithies. Grab him.”

In my arms, Anita moaned. I looked down into her expression of pure, abject horror. “Shh, little one,” I soothed. “I’m not going to hurt you.” I reached down into her robes, and gently stroked her clit. Her eyes widened in surprise.

Weakened by the breaking of the binding, Yuriel couldn’t put up much of a fight. “Let go of me!” he tried to order Werithies as the demon dragged him back before me.

I nodded to Werithies. “You may feed as you wish,” I told him. “Make it quick.”

He grinned ferally. “Yes, Lord.” And then he broke the wizard’s arm.

 Anita

Lord? Saban was a demon lord? I moaned in terror. How could this have happened? How could I not have recognized him for what he was from the start? How could I have been so dumb?

“Shh, little one,” Saban murmured. “I’m not going to hurt you.” Then he reached into my robes, and gently stroked my clit.

Shock rolled through me. I was helpless. He could feed as he wished. And he wanted to feed like that?

I watched Yuriel fight his demon, attempting to order it to let him go. Saban was having none of that. He told Werithes to feed.

I felt a certain amount of satisfaction as Yuriel’s arm snapped. Yuriel turned pure white, and screamed. He, at least, would be getting his comeuppance.

The shield fell. Saban scooped me up in his arms, and then stepped forward, placing his hand on Yuriel in order to feed. He sighed in satisfaction as Werithies broke Yuriel’s other arm. “This is what you get,” he informed the master wizard, “For trying to hurt what is mine. In fact,” he added, eyes sparkling, “Let’s make this a bit more public. Werithies, follow me. Bring the wizard.”

The barrier to the arena offered little resistance. After all, it was designed to keep demons in, not out. As Saban stepped into the arena, the current fight fizzled to a stop. Both combatants stared. The crowd went silent.

“I am the demon lord Saban,” my former familiar informed the crowd. “This man,” he said, gesturing to Yuriel, “has tried to hurt what is mine. Specifically, my Anita.” He looked down at me possessively. “This,” he continued, “is what happens to those who hurt me or mine.”

Werithies broke Yuriel’s arm again. Yuriel screamed, and then screamed again as Werithies made the total of breaks four. By now his magic was gone as Werithies fed. Yuriel began to shrivel. “No, please!” he begged as his lifeforce was drained away. “Noooooo…”

I closed my eyes as his corpse crumbled to dust. This was, very soon, what would happen to me. I shuddered. Then my eyes blinked open in shock as Saban gently stroked my hair. “Shhh…” he whispered in my ear. “You’re ok. It’ll be fine.”

The shield over the arena fell. Both combatants fled.

Saban turned to leave. “Werithies,” he began, then stopped short as another master wizard levitated down into the arena.

With a gesture, the master wizard Evona sent Werithies back to hell. My heart rose. Was I saved?  

“That’s not going to work on me,” Saban told her. “I have an anchor.” He looked down at me.

Master Evona nodded. “I was hoping we could negotiate, actually.”

Saban nodded slowly. “That is,” he admitted, “A definite possibility.”

“Firstly, you get to keep the girl,” Evona said.

“Master Evona, please,” I began. Then she gestured. I recognized the spell just before it hit me. I fought it as best I could, but was unable to stop myself from drifting into an uneasy sleep.

 Saban

My eyes flared red as Anita’s eyes closed. “If you’ve hurt her,” I began.

Evona shook her head. “No, no, I wouldn’t dream of taking your prize. She’s just sleeping. She’ll wake in an hour or so. Plenty of time for us to talk.”

I listened to Anita’s heartbeat. It was slow, but steady. I nodded. “Very well.”

“I only wish to keep this kingdom safe,” Evona told me. “You will not be allowed to rule here. I think I’ve proven that I can get rid of your anchor anytime I like. However, I would prefer to resolve this amicably, so that no one gets caught in the crossfire. If I leave you in peace, will you finish her off, and then return to hell?”

I had no intention of finishing Anita off, as she put it, but I had no reason to tell this Evona that. “Three days,” I replied. “I will spend three days in Anita’s room. You will see to it that we are sent food and water enough for her, and that we are not disturbed. In return, I will not attempt to rule here. Agreed?”

Evona nodded. “You have a deal. Remember, if you try to break it, I can make things very difficult for you.”

“And I for you. But I see no reason the outlined agreement won’t work,” I said.

“Neither do I,” said Evona. “Now, do you mind if I escort you to Anita’s room?”

“Not at all,” I replied, with a smile that didn’t quite meet my eyes.

She would eventually pay for her willingness to give up Anita to what she believed to be certain death. But, I decided, not today. Today, I thought, looking down at my sleeping Anita with a smile, today I had better things to do.

[charmscale]

A Demon’s Lust Chapter 8

Anita

My belly aching and heavy with eggs, I struggled to stand, but was unable to do more than flop about uselessly, bound as I was in spider silk. I looked imploringly up at Saban. He was bent over me, hand resting lightly on my cheek, feeding on my pain and terror. He laughed and, leaning close, he began to whisper in my ear, describing exactly what would happen when the eggs began to hatch. I whimpered, helpless and frightened. Behind him, the spider lay, bleeding and twitching feebly.

With a gasp, I awoke, drenched in sweat and tangled up in my sheets. Automatically, the lights came on. I was in my room at Rowan Castle, in my own bed. Safe. Thanks to Saban, the spider was dead, and the eggs were gone.

I managed to rip the damp sheets as I fought my way out of the tangle. Soon, though, I was sitting naked in the middle of the bed. I drew my legs to my chest and wrapped my arms around them.

My nightmare was no surprise, not with what had happened on the way back from the capital. What was surprising was that real life hadn’t ended in exactly the same way. Saban was a demon. Looking out for number one at the expense of others was what being a demon was all about. And yet, in real life, Saban had saved me from the demonic spider and removed the eggs, all without taking advantage of my weakened state in any way. Killing the spider made sense; the binding would force him to protect me. Afterwards, however…

Afterwards, I would have been bound in spider silk, helpless. The silk and the eggs were too indirect a threat to trigger the binding. Saban would have been free to feed as he wished. Instead, he had gone out of his way to save me.

The only logical reason for him to act like he had was the binding. It must be stronger, and more sensitive, than any binding ever laid before. However, in the testing I had done since arriving at Rowan Castle, I had seen no evidence of that. No evidence, that is, aside from Saban’s undeniable actions in the forest. And even then…

In the forest, Saban hadn’t acted compelled to save me. He had acted concerned. Gentle. Kind. No level of binding would explain that. Perhaps the binding had forced him to save me, and he had been trying to manipulate me into thinking otherwise? No, that didn’t make sense either. Saban had admitted, when asked, that the binding was what had made him save me. Or, rather, I thought he had until the test results had picked up no evidence of an unusually strong binding. Had he been lying? Why?

I sighed, and glanced over at my demon in his cage. He looked back at me. Between the noise and my fear, the nightmare would have awoken him. He looked concerned, and was shifting uneasily in his chains, not quite fighting them, but close.

Knowing it was silly, and wondering why I was doing this, I told him, “Go back to sleep. I’m fine.”

He gave me a disbelieving look, and held up his hands in an obvious request for me to unchain him.

“No,” I told him. “I’m fine.”

He glared at me.

I pointedly turned my back to him. Fishing a book on demon bindings out of the stack on the bedside table, I began to read.

 Saban

Angry now, and mildly concerned, I fought the chains. Soon, however, I had to admit that, when combined with the cage, the chains wouldn’t be breaking anytime soon. Then I just sat on the cage floor and sulked.

I hadn’t realized there were ways to test a binding, aside from viewing its effects, when I had lied about why I saved Anita. After a long nap, she had spent significant time testing the bindings on me, and was now thoroughly puzzled. I saved you because I love you, I wanted to say. But I couldn’t. For one, was it even true? What was love, when you got right down to it? I felt possessive. Protective. I wanted to hold her, to please her. To just sit and talk to her. But was that love?

For another, she would never, ever believe me. And what if she did believe me? What would she do then? I knew her well enough to know that things she couldn’t explain freaked her out. Would my revelation, if she believed it, scare her enough that she would dismiss me? The idea of being dismissed filled me with despair. Odds were high that, if she dismissed me, I would never ever see her again. And that was unthinkable.

 Anita

I awoke to the sound of the morning bell. Blinking blearily, I wondered why I was at my desk, with my cheek plastered against the page of a book, instead of in bed. Then I remembered. I glared over at my demon. “You,” I informed him, “Might just be more trouble than you’re worth.”

I decided to feed him this morning, instead of in the evening. For one, that meant I could spend my evening in uninterrupted study. For another, I was rather horny. Without bothering to dress, I unlocked the cage. “Get out and kneel,” I told him.

When he was kneeling before me, and I had removed his gag, I spread my pussy lips, pulling aside the hair to reveal pink flesh. Before he could do much more than lean forward, I raised a hand. “Wait,” I told him. “When I ask you to, not a second before.” For a moment, we just waited. For once, the demon didn’t appear angry about being stopped. He looked content to wait as long as I required. Finally I nodded. “You may begin.”

Instantly his nose was pressed up against me as his tongue delved deep. I gasped as it rubbed against my clit, and then pressed my g-spot, both with pinpoint accuracy. Soon I was swaying gently. I gripped the cage to keep myself upright. He pulled back just a little, and blew on my engorged clit. I shivered. I was close. “Ok, that’s enough,” I gasped. “Get back in the cage.”

Saban’s eyes widened. “But I-”

I shoved the gag back into his mouth, and swiftly secured it before he could force it out. “You heard me. Get back in the cage,” I ordered. He didn’t move. For a moment, as my head began to ache, I wondered if I could force him to obey. In the end, however, he broke first. As he settled onto the floor of his little cell, I slammed the door shut and locked it. Then I fished my vibration stone out of a drawer.

 Saban

She had been close. I had felt it. But, it appeared she was not kidding when she said it would be some time before I would be allowed to bring her to orgasm again. I wondered how long she could keep her vow. Lust was, after all, a kind of hunger. It would build and build until- I blinked as she fished a rock out of a drawer. It had a number of runes carved into it, and was obviously charged with magic. It didn’t look like a light stone, and, anyways, the room was already bright enough. What was it, then? And what could she want it for?

I got my answer quickly enough. Anita laid down on the bed, closed her eyes, and activated the stone. It began to vibrate. She pressed the vibrating stone up against her clit, and moaned softly.

My first reaction was fascination. Who knew simple vibration would have such an effect on her? I vowed, then and there, to give it a try myself when the binding inevitably broke and she was in my power. I could vibrate much, much harder and faster than that little stone if I put my mind to it.

My second reaction, as her moans turned into pleased gasps, was rage. How dare she? How dare she replace me with- with a rock! My eyes flared red, and I fought the chains, but she didn’t even notice. She was close now. I could feel it through the bond created by the pledge. She was close, and I wasn’t the one bringing her there, bringing her to orgasm. Jealousy flared within me. I imagined, with great pleasure, crushing that little palm sized stone into a fine powder.

Then Anita came. The bars of my cage crumpled within my grasp as I fought to be free, free to touch her, free to feed. Unfortunately, while I could mangle the bars, I could not force them apart enough to let myself out, and I could not break the chains. Furious, but impotent, I stewed silently as she came down from the high of orgasm.

Anita opened her eyes. She blinked once, and then focused on the bent bars of the cage. She glared at me. “Did you really have to do that? I’m going to have to spend all evening getting them, and the spell, back into shape.”

I schooled my own glare into an imploring plea, and then held up my cuffed hands.

Anita sighed. “I suppose, although I am tempted to let you just sit there after you damaged the cage.” Standing, she added, “I will need your protection today, after all. If Trev could manage two attempts on my life- the archers and your faulty manacles- while I was away, who knows what he’ll try now that I’m back.”

Let him try, I thought, remembering what I’d heard about this rival of Anita’s. He cannot stand against a demon lord for long. And, I added in the privacy of my own mind, neither can you, my dear.

 Anita

Aside from another combat practice, which Saban again ended almost before it had begun, the next two weeks were uneventful. My worry for Marian was steadily increasing. She didn’t have much time left before the trials. In fact, I realized as I woke the morning of the fourteenth day, the trials were five days away. Marian would need to start for home today with or without her journeyman status. If she didn’t arrive before the trials, the master wizards might declare her rogue, and rogue wizards, ones who didn’t obey the Council of Masters and the King, were killed on sight. I decided to contact her by mirror. If she hadn’t gotten her journeyman status from the king, we would need to discuss our next step. It could be that the risk of being declared rogue was the lesser of two evils.

After dressing, I sat in front of the large mirror on my vanity. After incanting a short spell, I leaned forward and breathed on it. The entire surface immediately fogged up. “Marian Dayasauder,” I whispered to the mirror. The fog cleared to show the underside of the lid of Marian’s handheld mirror. I sighed, and, with a gesture, increased the volume on her side of the connection. “Marian!” I called. “Marian!”

The lid lifted, revealing a close up of Marian’s nose. “Pull back so I can see your whole face, please,” I requested.

“Only if you turn down the volume,” she countered.

“Can’t you?” I asked.

“I never got the hang of the mirror spell,” Marian admitted. “Please?”

With a gesture, I lowered the volume. “Better?” I asked.

Marian set the mirror down where I could see her whole face, albeit at an angle. “Much better,” she said. “So I see you got home safely.” Now she sounded a bit piqued.

I winced. “Sorry, I forgot to mirror you then.”

“But I see you remembered now that it’s time for me to head home?” Marian pointed out, still annoyed.

“I’m sorry, I was just worried-” I began.

“So was I!” Marian snapped. “It’s been over two weeks!”

“Marian, I’m so, so sorry,” I apologized frantically. Marian being angry was like a sheep salvaging a wolf. It happened, rarely, but it was always a shock when it did. “Is there any way I can make it up to you?”

“Next time, mirror me!” she snapped.

“Okay, okay, I promise I will!” I said. There was a pause. “Better?” I asked.

Marian sighed. “Much. Just so you know, I didn’t spend the whole two plus weeks worrying. Papa contacted the council for me.”

“Good,” I said, relived. “Now about your journeyman status-”

“Oh, I got that a week ago,” she said, shrugging.

“Marian!” Now it was my turn to be annoyed. Then my mouth quirked up in the corner. “I suppose turnaround is fair play.”

Marian grinned. “Yes, it is. So, other than alive, how have you been?”

Marian wasn’t the only one making the journey from the capital to Rowan Castle. People had been arriving for a week now, filling the inns and the taverns surrounding the castle, as well as the castle’s guest quarters. The Trials were always well attended. In fact, the day before Marian was due, the king himself arrived with his entourage of servants, courtiers, and knights and settled into the royal quarters in Rowan, as well as half the guest rooms. Everyone enjoyed the trials. Well, everyone except for the prospective journeyman wizards.

The morning of the trials, as I entered the hall, I could have picked out the 12th level apprentices by their pale faces alone. None of them were eating much. Even Trev was barely picking at his food. I sat with Saban beside me, and just looked at the plate of bacon and eggs Marian pushed in front of me.

“You need to eat,” she admonished when she saw me staring at my food. “You’ll need your strength.”

I pushed a piece of egg around with my fork. “Marian… “ I started.

She looked up. “Yes?”

I sighed. “Nevermind. Just, I can’t eat.”

She looked at me, concerned. “Are you feeling well? Perhaps I should-” She reached toward my forehead, hands glowing.

I dodged the diagnostic spell. If I was ill, it wouldn’t do me any good to know about it. It wouldn’t get me out of the trials, and even Marian couldn’t cure me quickly enough. Besides, I didn’t feel ill. Not exactly. “I’m fine,” I insisted. “I just don’t feel like eating.”

Saban looked concerned. He opened his mouth as if to speak, and then closed it again.

“Why not?” Marian asked, brow furrowed.

“Marian…” I felt like I was going to cry. “The thing is, if everything goes as planned today, I’m going to kill someone.”

“Yes, you’ll kill Trev,” Marian said, with a certain amount of satisfaction. “They already put up the lists of matchups. Not that there was ever any doubt you two would be fighting.”

“But I don’t want to kill him. I don’t want to kill anyone.” The faint whine in my voice, as I fought not to cry, irritated me. I sounded weak.

Marian took my hand. “He’s a bad man, Anita. Very bad. He’s tried to kill you three times over the last month, and you know he’s killed others. I, at least, won’t mourn him.”

I sighed. “I know. But-”

I stopped as Saban bent over my plate, frowning. He sniffed my food.

“What is it?” Marian asked brow furrowed.

“Poison,” he said. “A very subtle poison.”

I looked down at a ring I wore. It should have begun to glow in the presence of poison. I glared at Saban. “That’s not possible,” I said.

He raised an eyebrow. “You doubt me? Then eat it. It isn’t enough to kill you. If I’m right, all this dose should do is make you a bit dizzy. Just in time for the trials.”

I frowned. I couldn’t waste magic on the kind of detailed scan required to confirm this, not right before the trials, but it was possible my ring wouldn’t register a nonlethal dose. “Why are you telling me this?” I asked suspiciously.

He raised an eyebrow. “Don’t you remember? I’m bound to protect you.”

There was no way a dose of poison that couldn’t kill me could set off the binding. However… The incident in the forest… The silk and the eggs shouldn’t have set off the binding either.

Marian laughed nervously, and pushed her food away. “I guess that makes four murder attempts.”

I shrugged. “I guess it does.”

And now I had an excuse not to eat. Just as well. Killing Trev still didn’t sit well on my stomach.

 Saban

As my mistress pushed her food around on her plate, trying to make it look like she was eating, I puzzled over her reluctance to kill. It made little sense to me. I didn’t hesitate to kill anyone who tried to kill me, or harm me in any way. Or even mildly offended me, come to that.

If she hesitated to kill when the chance arose, well, that would make keeping her alive just that much harder. Still doable, of course, but harder. I wondered, now, if I would need to reveal that I was a demon lord in order to keep her safe. If it came right down to it, and taking command of Trev’s demon was the only way to save her life, I would do it, potential dismissal be damned. I would rather her be alive and not mine than dead. In life, there was hope that we could be together. I thought briefly of the demongate in Cendan. If she died, there would be no hope at all.

[charmscale]

A Demon’s Lust Chapter 7

Anita

As I was finishing my packing later that evening, Marian entered my room. She looked at my packs, almost ready to go on the bed, and frowned.

“You’re leaving? Why?” she asked.

I looked up from the dress I was carefully folding. “I wanted to study earlier, so I chained up the demon,” I lied. “He… he managed to break the chains.”

Marian shuddered. “What happened? Are you ok?”

“Don’t worry, I’m fine,” I told her, deciding not to mention my decidedly low power reserves. Those would recover soon enough.

“Why are you leaving? You have backup chains, right?” Marian asked.

“Who’s to say he won’t break those?” I replied. “I’m sorry, Marian, but I’ve got to go back to Rowan. I’ve got to be able to cage him, as well as chain him, next time I sleep. Who knows what he might do if he breaks free when I’m not able to get him back under control?” I finished folding the dress and carefully inserted it into my bag. I was officially packed.

“But the trials…” Marian looked scared. My heart broke.

“You’ll have to convince the king on your own,” I said quietly. “I’m sorry.”

Marian shook her head. “Don’t be. Just get back home safe. Ok?”

I nodded. “Ok.”

“So you won’t be sleeping the next few days as you travel?” Marian asked. When I nodded, she said, “I’ll get you some of my keep awake herbal tea.” She smiled. “Remember that assignment? Mine was so strong it kept the test subject awake for two days, and he only had one cup.”

I sniggered. “And I started a fire trying to enchant the leaves they gave us. I remember. I almost failed that class.”

“My tea’s probably lost a bit of potency now, but still, be careful,” Marian said. “A cup a day should probably be enough.”

I nodded. “You should go get it. I’d like to leave by sunset.”

 Saban

As the sun rose the next day, my mistress and I were on the road once more. I could tell she wanted to hurry, but she kept to a relatively slow pace. Probably worried about the horse. After all, it had only gotten to the capital recently, so it hadn’t had much time to rest.

I was… Uneasy. To defend herself on the road, Anita needed to be able to use magic, but her power reserves were dangerously low, and she wouldn’t rest to restore them out of fear of what I might do while she slept. I had tried to convince her to rest while at the palace, but I could barely believe my feelings for her myself. How could I expect her to believe in them? And my aversion to hurting her didn’t exactly apply to other mortals, so maybe she was right not to trust me.

We came to a fork in the road that evening. Well, sort of a fork. One path, the one we had arrived by, was well traveled, with deep ruts left by wagons and lots of hoofprints, and the other was barely a path at all. There was a sign denoting the well traveled path as the Rowan Way, and the grass covered trail as the Cendan Border Road. My mistress stopped, chewed on her lip for a bit, and then took the less traveled side of the fork. I grabbed her horse’s bridle. “Shouldn’t we be going the other way?”

She looked down at me impatiently. “This is a shortcut. Let go of the bridle.”

I knew a bit about Cendan from the memories I had acquired during the summoning and pledge. It was a rocky country with poor soil, forever raiding its neighbors for supplies. Its capital city was the interesting part. It apparently had a portal to my world, the demonrealm, in a large temple there. Sacrifices, usually captives from raids, were thrown in, and demons came out. Or, at least, they use to. I seemed to remember that, while the priests of Cendan still summoned demons regularly, the portal had been quiet for about 200 years or so. I wondered idly whose territory the portal was in, and why this demon lord wasn’t taking advantage of such a useful thing. The mortal population believed that the demon lord had lost interest. I doubted that. No demon lost interest in potential power.

I was also wondering what my mistress thought she was doing. “If it’s a shortcut, why is it so little used?”

My mistress snorted. “Because it’s considered dangerous. I, however, am a wizard. I can take a few wild lesser demons. Now, shut up and let go!”

Not with low power reserves you can’t, I thought as I was forced to obey. She was probably doing this because she wanted me in a cage as soon as possible. I hated that my actions were causing her to take risks like this.

The first hour or so was uneventful. Then we entered the forest. Soon, a thick canopy of leaves blocked out the meager light of the moon and stars. My mistress summoned a light. It was very dim, barely enough for her horse to see where it was going. Fortunately, I had good eyes, and could see well in the dark.

We stopped for a rest an hour later, and my mistress kindled a fire so she could have a cup of keep awake tea. I noticed that she used a flint and steel, not her magic. Her reserves were very low indeed. I felt a bit guilty.

I protested a bit when she chained me up and gagged me. “I want to relax awhile,” Anita impatiently explained. “And I can’t do that while you’re loose. Or talking.”

Because of the gag, I was unable to warn her when I felt another demon approach. It was a lesser demon, moving quickly. I began to fight the restraints. I could break free, but could I break free in time?

 Anita

I was just starting to drink my tea when the demon began to thrash. I groaned. “Stop that,” I ordered without looking over.

He was fighting my orders much harder than normal. I was just beginning to wonder why he was so frantic when, suddenly, I was encased in a translucent, sticky net. Before I could begin to cast a spell, before I could even think about what to cast, a giant spider was on top of me. My horse panicked, pulling free of its tether and bolting. I couldn’t blame it. The spider was bigger than it was.

The webbing the spider began to loop around me was thin, but strong. Soon I was too encased in webbing to gesture or speak. As the spider bared its fangs, I began to form a fireball in my mind. I hoped it would be enough.

As the spider’s fangs sank into my arm, I felt a sharp pain. Then, seconds later, all thought of fighting back faded from my mind as waves of bliss washed over me. I smiled.

 Saban

As the spider attacked, Anita’s command faded from my mind, and I renewed my struggle against the shackles. Soon she was encased in webbing. When the spider bit her, I began to panic. I knew of this breed of lesser demon. The real danger was its venom. Anita smiled woozily up at the spider, and I knew it was up to me to save her from whatever it decided to do to her. If it was a female, it might… I growled at the thought.

 Anita

The spider pulled its webbing away from my crotch, and ripped through my traveling pants like a kid opening a present. I continued to grin. Whatever she wanted was ok with me. When my loins were bare, the spider began to insert its ovipositor into my pussy. My smile broadened. I was going to be a mommy.

Her member was thicker than Saban’s, but, oddly, it didn’t hurt. It just sent waves of shuddering pleasure through my body. I moaned, and arched up toward my lover as best I could while bound in webbing. The ovipositor went in deeper and deeper. The spider shuddered, and I felt warm liquid gush into me. I closed my eyes and sighed happily.

Soon after the first egg, big around as a man’s fist, began to make its way down the tube. As it shoved its way into my pussy, past my dilated cervix, and into my womb, I came, hard. It was magnificent. I never knew I could feel this good. I had just come out of the orgasm and was blinking dizzily up at her, the spider, the source of my pleasure, when the second egg entered me. I came again. And again. And again. And again.

 Saban

I fought helplessly, growling, as the spider began to fill my Anita with its eggs. She came each time one entered her womb, though it should have hurt like hell to have something that big stuffed into her. The eggs came faster and faster, until she was basically having one continuous orgasm. My eyes glowed red.

Soon her belly began to bulge with the intruders. Still the eggs kept coming, and still I couldn’t break free. I focused my efforts on the shackles around my legs. When they finally snapped, Anita looked 9 months pregnant. The spider began to withdraw its ovipositor from her thrashing form.

I awkwardly maneuvered myself to my feet, and charged the spider. My head rammed into its abdomen. It squealed, and tried to wrap me with webbing, but I was stronger than its webs. I heatbutted it again. It squealed again, and began to retreat, attempting to take Anita with it. I was not about to let that happen.

The shackles around my wrists, weakened by my long struggle, finally gave way. I materialized a sword in one of my hands, and plunged it into the creature’s abdomen. The spider screamed as I split it open. Eggs and ichor gushed from the wound. I shoved Anita away from the rush of acidic blood, and shielded her with my body. Patches of my skin dissolved away in the flow, and then grew back almost instantly as I healed.

In a last ditch effort to survive, the spider tried to bite. I blocked with my arm. One of its fangs sank into, and through, my hand. I gripped the fang and ripped it out, unleashing another rush of black blood. I plunged the fang into one of its eyes, and my sword into another. The spider stumbled back. It twitched madly, then fell over on its back, dead.

I turned to Anita. Carefully, I removed the spider’s silk from her. She blinked up at me, confused, and then smiled as I carefully inserted my hand into her pussy. Her cervix, which had been dilated by the liquid the spider released into her pussy, was already beginning to close. I doubted I could remove an egg without seriously tearing something. Not with these large, clumsy hands. I removed my gag.

“Anita,” I told her gently, “I need you to do something for me.”

“Mmmmmmm…” Anita slurred. “Where did the spider go?”

“Anita, I need to remove these eggs,” I insisted.

“I like the eggs,” Anita murmured. “They feel nice. Saban? Why are you so worried?”

“I’m worried because, when your cervix closes and the egg fluid dries, it will be nearly impossible to get the eggs out. Then, pretty soon, as the painkiller wears off, they won’t feel so nice. And then they’ll hatch, and-”

“And I’ll be a mommy,” Anita sighed happily.

“No, they’ll eat their way out from the inside, and you’ll die. These eggs will kill you, Anita!” I was close to yelling.

Anita closed her eyes. Her breathing began to deepen.

“Anita. Snap out of it.” I was close to panicking now. “You’re a wizard. Snap out of it!”

I slapped her. Not with my full strength, of course. It was a human level slap. It was enough, however, to bring her out of her stupor.

“Wha-” Anita blinked. “Saban?”

“Anita,” I said. “Listen to me. I need you to allow me to shapeshift. Ok?”

Anita’s eyes narrowed suspiciously. “Why? What happened? What did you do?”

“You got attacked by a Demon Spider,” I explained, guiding her head to look down at her bulging stomach. “It laid eggs in you. Remember?”

Anita turned pale. “Saban-”

I covered her mouth. “No, listen to me. I need you to allow me to shapeshift. Ok? We have to remove the eggs now.” I lifted my hand.

Anita swallowed. “You have my permission to shapeshift.”

“Good girl,” I said. I shifted one of my hands into a slender tentacle, and reached into Anita’s pussy.

At first I thought that I was too late, that her cervix had closed, but then I found the opening. It was still just barely dilated enough. Quickly, but carefully, I extracted an egg. Then another. Soon her stomach was just stretched, not bulging. But her cervix was still closing, and I hadn’t gotten all the eggs out. The next one made Anita wince.

“Painkiller wearing off?” I asked.

“Keep going,” she ordered.

After that each egg removal got progressively more painful as her body remembered that being stretched like this wasn’t a good thing. Anita bit her lip until it bled. “No one will think less of you if you cry,” I told her.

“Shut up,” she ordered through clenched teeth, and I had no choice but to be silent.

I was beginning to wonder if I would finish before the size of her cervix opening made removing the eggs unfeasible. I was having to carefully pop each egg free now. Despite herself, Anita was starting to cry.

I was reaching for another egg when I realized that this was the last one. I was going to make it, I realized with relief. This one, though, came out a bit bloody as her cervix tore, just a little. Anita screamed, and then began to weep, losing her hold on the command preventing me from speaking. I pulled her into my lap and made soothing noises. “It’s over now. You’re ok.”

Anita stopped crying abruptly. She looked up at me suspiciously. “Why?”

“Why what?” I murmured, lightly kissing her on the forehead.

“Why save me? Why not feed while I was in pain? Or while I was euphoric? Why in the hell are you being so nice!” Her last question was closer to an exclamation than a question.

She tried to stand. I tried to stop her. “Let me up!” she ordered, and I obeyed. As she stood, wincing, she told me to go find the horse. This command I fought. I didn’t want to leave her alone.

“Aren’t most lesser demons territorial?” Anita snapped. “Particularly the animal-like ones? What are the odds of another being nearby?”

She had a point. I reluctantly went to fetch her horse. It wasn’t a particularly flighty animal, and had been trained to tolerate demons, so it hadn’t gone far. When I got it back, Anita didn’t let me help her mount up. She didn’t even let me touch her. It was... Irksome. I had just saved her life, after all.

We reached the town surrounding Rowan Castle around dawn. Apparently the Cendan Border Road really was a shortcut. By then, Anita looked a bit less suspicious. More smug.

“I really did a number on you, didn’t I?” she asked abruptly, as we walked through the gate, past the sleepy guards, and into the empty town.

“Excuse me?” I responded, looking up at her.

“The binding. I did a really good job. That’s why you saved me, isn’t it?” she queried, sounding very proud of herself indeed. “It’s the only logical reason.”

She would never believe the real reason. It was far, far from logical. Reluctantly, I nodded.

“So you couldn’t have actually done anything to break the binding back at the palace, when you overpowered me. That would put me in danger, and you’re not allowed to endanger me. I was perfectly safe the whole time,” she said.

And why shouldn’t she be proud of herself? I wondered. Why shouldn’t I give her this moment of satisfaction? “Yes, mistress,” I pretended to admit. “While I did greatly enjoy your fear, you were never in danger.” That, at least, was true. I did enjoy her fear, a bit, and she was really never in any danger.

I looked up at her hopefully. “Does this mean I will be allowed to bring you to orgasm again?”

She considered it. “Not immediately. You still need to be punished so you learn to behave. But, eventually, yes, you will.”

And, suddenly, everything was alright in my world. Anita was safe, and she, believing her binding kept me from mischief, would allow me greater freedom in the future. And, best of all, I could make her cum again. Well, I would be able to eventually. I was a patient demon. I could wait.

[charmscale]

A Demon’s Lust Chapter 6

Saban

It was a bad night. As I lay there in Marian’s room, tightly bound and gagged, visions of what must be going on in Anita’s room paraded through my head. Maybe, at this very moment, that bastard was licking her pussy, and then kissing her with slightly damp lips. Perhaps she was riding on top of him, impaled on his cock. Maybe they were-

I tried to drown out the thoughts by imagining what I would do to to this Lord Umbron if I ever got the chance. First I would break both his legs, so he couldn’t run, and his arms, so he couldn’t even crawl away. Then I would shove something up his ass to give him an erection. Even with the pain of four broken limbs, I knew I could make him hard if I manipulated him just right. And, once he was hard, I would skin his dick, sliver by bloody sliver. I would make him watch as his cock was slowly reduced to a thin, bloody bit of meat. All the while I would be feeding, too, first on the little bit of magic even non wizards had, and then on his life force, so that, as I reduced his manhood to a red ruin, his hair would grey and his skin would shrivel with premature age. I would torture him further, slowly draining him of life. Then, as he finally expired, I would pluck his balls from beneath the thing that use to be his penis, and eat them like grapes.

I would make Anita watch as I did this, and then, after he died, I would fuck her on top of his body, his blood still wet on my lips, all the while reminding her that, if she had just told him no, Umbron might still be alive. The look of horror and revulsion on her face as I forced her to cum…

Wasn’t satisfying at all, for some reason. Quite the opposite, actually. The idea of hurting her like that bothered me. Maybe I wouldn’t rape her on top of Umbron’s corpse, then. But I would tell her that it was all her fault. Or, well, maybe not. And perhaps I would let her look away, if she liked, as I tortured her lover. In fact, perhaps I could do this while she was somewhere else entirely. And not tell her about it. Ever.

I blinked in confusion. Revenge was a traditional demonic pastime, but, for some reason, the idea of avenging myself on her, my Anita, wasn’t pleasing me, angry as I was with her. Why? In fact, why was I angry at all? She was just having sex. Why did that mean anything to me? Regardless, the idea of her touching him, and letting him touch her, made me livid, but, despite my rage, I didn’t want to hurt Anita. At all. Ever. Why?

It was morning now. Marian woke up, and a servant brought her breakfast. I wondered if she would unchain me. Probably not. Not without Anita.

Through the bond, I felt Anita approaching. When she got close enough, I could feel that she was angry. At Umbron, perhaps? The idea pleased me.

The door opened, and Anita stalked in. “Marian? Do me a favor. Next time I decide to spend quality time with Lord Umbron, remind me what an arrogant prick he is.”

Marian looked up from her breakfast, startled. “I take it last night didn’t go well?”

Anita sighed. “Last night? Last night went fine. Last night was great.”

I felt a surge of rage as visions of what last night must have entailed danced in my head. My chains rattled as I fought them.

Anita continued, “It’s this morning that was the problem.”

“So he spent the night? What happened this morning?” Marian gestured to her bed. “Sit down, eat something, and tell me all about it.”

Anita sat and grabbed a sweet roll. She took a bite. It seemed to calm her somewhat. “So, yeah, he spent the night. When we woke up this morning, he wanted to go again, so I said ok, and we were just getting started when a servant boy walked in with breakfast.” She growled. “Umbron hit him.”

“I wouldn’t be happy if someone walked in on me, either,” Marian commented, brow furrowed.

“Well, the kid was just doing his job. Granted, he should have knocked, but I, personally, think hitting him hard enough to break his nose was a little uncalled for.”

“You’re right, that was a bit much, if all he did was open the door,” Marian said. “I take it you gave Lord Umbron a piece of your mind? And he didn’t take it well?”

“Yeah, pretty much. We ended up having what basically amounted to a really heated debate on peasant rights. He tried to prove his point by ordering the kid to suck his dick. I kicked him out of my room.”

“I can’t blame you. Is the kid ok?” Marian asked.

“Yeah. I took him down to the palace healers and paid for a full healing before I came here.” Anita put her head in her hands. “You know what really bothers me though? About the whole thing? More than Lord Umbon, or anything else?”

Marian put her hand on Anita’s shoulder. “What?”

“The kid was going to do it. Suck Umbron’s cock.”

Sensible of him, I thought. The best way to deal with a more powerful being was to acquiesce. It was the driving force behind demon society, such as it was.

“Marian, I just… Well, I don’t know anymore. My parents, especially my father, brought me up to believe that everyone is equal. Some people are born with more money, or power, but that doesn’t… That doesn’t change the fundamental personness of a person. You know?” Anita sighed. “Am I actually making any sense?”

Not really, I thought.

Marian nodded. “I get you. It’s like you always say, what a person is capable of doesn’t define who they are.”

Anita nodded. “Exactly. And I understand it when people like Umbron think they’re better, more important, than other people. It’s kind of, like, natural, for a person to think like that. I hate it, but I understand. What I don’t get, what bothers me, is when other people believe people like Umbron, believe that he’s on top, and they’re on bottom, and stuff. It just…” Anita shook her head. “It doesn’t make sense to me. Humbleness? Like the reverse of pride, or maybe just a different kind of pride, or something like that.”

Marian gave her a quick hug. “I know. I grew up a noble, remember? You see a lot of that sort of class consciousness in servants. I never did get it myself. But it’s how people are. And you can’t change that.”

Anita looked thoughtful for a second, and then shook her head. “No. No, you can’t change how people are. Even if you could, it wouldn’t be right. Even if it would fix things.”

Mortals. So sentimental, I thought. So hung up on guilt and what was ‘right.’ But I wouldn’t have them any other way. It made them so much easier to manipulate.

Anita looked down at me. “Did he keep you awake at all?”

Marian shook her head. “Quiet as a temple mouse.”

“Good. So, what are the plans for the day?”

Anita

I yawned, exhausted, as I handed my reins to a stablehand. I hated hunting. I really, really hated hunting. If it were anything less than my best friend’s life on the line, or if the king hadn’t been attending the hunt, I would have made an excuse not to come. On the plus side, Saban had been a sight to see, with his perfect ass, running down a stag, and bringing it back to throw at the feet of my horse. And his impressive performance had led the king, mostly sober for once, to seek me out and chat with me. I had been able to mention the matter of Marian’s special dispensation, and he had promised to look into it. I looked over to my familiar. “You’ve earned your feeding this evening, demon.”

His eyes gleamed. “Does that mean-”

“Yes. When we get to the room,” I promised as I smiled and waved at Marian and her parents. They were having a private family dinner this evening.

I stopped by the kitchens to grab some dinner. Might as well save the servants the trip. Then I headed up to my room, with my demon behind me.

I closed and magically sealed the door, and then turned to my familiar. “You know the drill,” I told him. “Turn around with your hands behind you.” Grudgingly, he obeyed.

Once I had chained his wrists and ankles, I made him lie down on the bed. He acquiesced readily, eyes gleaming. Somehow I was no longer as tired as I had been immediately after the hunt.

Mounting Saban on a bed, as opposed to in the woods, felt different. More intimate. It made me a little nervous as I lowered myself onto Saban’s face. As he began to lick me, I closed my eyes. His rough penetration of my pussy with his tongue, combined with his continual attention to my clit, made me moan. I was ready very quickly indeed, but I waited a bit longer, until I was close to cumming, to disengage myself from his tongue.

As I lifted myself away from Saban’s busy mouth, he growled and fought his restraints, trying to follow me. “Calm down,” I told him. “I’m not ending the feeding. I’m just moving.” Saban quieted.

With a quiver of pure pleasure, I began to lower myself onto the demon’s cock. He immediately thrust upward, filling me completely. I yelped in surprise, and then yelped again as he immediately began to move within me at an almost painful pace. With a shudder and a cry, I began to cum.

Abruptly there was a snapping noise, and then another. Before I could wonder what it was, before I could even come out of my orgasm, Saban’s hands were out from behind his back. One swiftly captured both my wrists. With the other, Saban grabbed me by the hair and forced my mouth, still open in an orgasmic yell, against his. His tongue quickly surged between my lips, preventing me from speaking.

As I began to come down from the high of orgasm, I was flipped over on my back so Saban was on top of me, pinning me down. He tangled his legs around mine, preventing me from kicking. I began thrash frantically, trying to get free. With my wrists caught, and my mouth full of Saban’s tongue, there was little I could do. I began to form a spell in my mind, one that wouldn’t require gesture or voice, to send Saban flying across the room.

However, Saban was making it very difficult to concentrate. The way his tongue moved against mine and the pressure against my clit were very distracting. When he began to gyrate his hips against mine, moving his cock within me, I almost lost the spell. And I would lose the spell if he kept this up. I was going to… I was gonna…

I came. My scream was muffled, and my movements confined, but I was cumming all the same. I lost the spell. Panic, oddly enough, added fuel to the fire, lengthening my orgasm. “Mmmmmmmm!”

When the overwhelming pleasure finally subsided, I began to form the spell again. This would be my last chance. My power reserves were low. Next time I came, Saban would drain my magic dry. I would be helpless. The binding on him that kept him from harming me would break. I had no doubt he would start draining my life force then, as slowly as he knew how. When that was gone, I would die.

I was fighting to form the spell, and, at the same time, fighting to force down the growing heat in my nether regions as Saban stimulated me mercilessly. He wasn’t taking much magic, oddly enough. Probably waiting for the big finish. I whimpered as he pulled out of me to rub the tip of his cock against my clit. I didn’t have much longer.

Fortunately, I didn’t need much longer. I unleashed the spell, and Saban went flying across the room to slam against the opposite wall. “Freeze!” I ordered him. He fought to move, to come pin me down once more. I glared at him. After what felt like an eternity of mental struggle, he stopped fighting, and lay frozen on the floor.

I stood, ignoring the parts of me longing for another orgasm. The remains of Saban’s chains lay on the bed. They, and the spell that reinforced them, were shredded. I shuddered. If I had been just a bit slower in forming the telekinesis spell… But I hadn’t been. And that was what mattered.

I clenched my fist. Saban, still unable to move, moaned. “Thanks to that little stunt,” I told him, “I am never, ever going to let you bring me to orgasm again. You will still be allowed to feed by pleasuring me, but you will never, ever taste my magic as I cum again. This isn’t just a punishment. It’s a natural consequence. I no longer feel safe letting you make me cum. Are we clear?” I released Saban.

He sighed in relief as the pain subsided. “I understand,” he said. He looked up at me. “You will regret it.”

“I would regret it a lot more if you’d managed to kill me,” I told him evenly.

“I wasn’t-” Saban began. I clenched my fist. He whimpered once, and was silent. I released him.

“As I have said before, never, ever lie to me,” I told him. “You might not have been planning to kill me immediately, but you would have eventually gotten around to it.”

Saban

It was useless to protest that I would never dream of hurting her. She wouldn’t believe it. Hell, I had a hard time believing it myself sometimes. I wasn’t sure exactly what I had planned on doing once I had drained all of Anita’s magic, but I wouldn’t have touched her lifeforce.

Anita informed me that we were leaving the capital tonight, and bound me in a spare set of chains as she began to pack. I could tell by the way she was looking at me that she was expecting me to break these, too. And I could have, if I’d wanted. Now that I’d broken the chain spell once, I knew where it was weak, and could break it again much more easily. But I didn’t want to. Not right now. It would serve no purpose.

I remembered the sudden sense of freedom as I had broken the chains that first time, and then the surge of joy as the other set broke as well. I remembered the feeling of Anita, fully in my power, thrashing beneath me in a mixture of fear and pleasure. And, best of all, I remembered the taste of her magic as I forced her to cum.

I also remembered how much weaker the arm chains had gotten once I had broken the ones around my legs. Was that suppose to happen? My knowledge of the more intricate aspects of magic was limited, but I knew some. A spell like that would be crafted so that, if one part failed, the other would get stronger as the remains of the first part reinforced the second.

This seemed like something Anita should know. “Mistress-” I began.

Anita silenced me with a glare and a partially clenched fist. “I’d really rather not talk to you right now. If you know what’s good for you, you’ll be quiet.”

“It’s important,” I insisted.

“It had better be,” my mistress warned.

“The set of chains around my arms were easier to break once I broke the ones around my legs,” I informed her. “Is that important enough for you?”

Anita went to examine the shackles where they lay on the bed. Her eyes glowed briefly as she examined the spell in more detail. She turned pale. “Fuck.” She turned to me, suspicion in her eyes. “Why are you telling me this?”

I shrugged as best I could from my position on the floor. “It seemed like something you ought to know.”

She examined the chains I was wearing, eyes glowing once more. I considered breaking free and overpowering her, then and there, but decided against it. Her power flexed, and suddenly the chains were just a bit more difficult to get out of. I would still be able to do it, but it would take a little more time and effort.

“The chains were sabotaged,” she told me, still suspicious. “Very subtly. I wouldn’t have known if you hadn’t told me what to look for. Why?”

“Why does anyone sabotage something like this?” I asked. “They wanted you dead.”

“I know that. What I want to know is, why warn me about the sabotaged chains? What’s in it for you? It seems a little counterproductive, you telling me this,” she said, eyes narrowed.

I met her gaze. “It seemed like something you ought to know,” I repeated. In truth, it was all about lulling her into a false sense of security. Well, mostly about that. Partially. A little. It was mostly because some part of me honestly felt I ought to tell her things like this. It was… An odd feeling.

Anita sighed. “Whatever your game is, it won’t work, demon. But enough of this. I have packing to do.”

As I watched her pack, I wondered what would happen, what she would do, if she found out I was a demon lord. I imagined her look of panic, horror, and regret. She would immediately dismiss me, of course. When she first summoned me, that was all I wanted. Then I wanted to stick around to get my revenge, and being dismissed would have been irritating. And now… Now the idea of her dismissing me sent a jolt of panic through my mind. I didn’t want to leave her. I wanted to be with her, to have and to hold her, to protect her. If she ever found out what I really was…

[charmscale]

A Demon’s Lust Chapter 5

Saban

“You will be on your best behavior tonight,” Anita ordered me, trying not to move her lips as a maid carefully applied her makeup. “Understand?”

“Yes, mistress,” I replied in the appropriate subservient tone. And I would be on my best behavior, too. The happier I kept Anita, the more likely she was to reward me with a feeding.

She really did look lovely tonight. Not as delicious as when she was naked, of course, but quite lovely, in an aesthetic sort of way. Her long, flowing dark blue dress, clinched tight at her usually nonexistent waist, was dotted with magical lights, giving the impression of a night sky covered in stars. Her figure, usually boyishly flat, now had curves, thanks to the careful artifice of whalebone and fabric. A small, magically lit tiara graced a hairstyle it had taken an hour with a hairdresser and some careful magic to achieve, and a glittering necklace pointed to the suggestion of breasts and lit delicate shoulder blades. Sparkling high heels were barely visible below the waterfall of skirt. Even her face, usually vaguely draconic in appearance, looked ladylike thanks to the heavy application of makeup. Her green eyes peered imperiously out from under magically lengthened eyelashes and a set of artfully disarrayed brown curls.

Marian opened the door. Her dress was spring green, and a bit more revealing, mostly, I suspected, because it actually had something to reveal. Her hair and dress were covered in flowers, charmed not to wilt or fade, and several enchanted butterflies flew lazy circles around her. Her hair looked like she’d just gotten out of bed, a style, I suspected, that had taken even longer than Anita’s to achieve. I could definitely sense a lot of magic holding it in place.

I myself was wearing my usual tight black leather armor, today with the addition of a stylized sword I had been told not to use and a ridiculously rakish black hat. I sighed. Mortals. So concerned with appearances.

The wizard behind the lights adorning my mistress, the flowers, the butterflies, the more subtle hair magics, and various small illusions peered in behind Marian. His name, I remembered, was Antoni. He was wearing purple and gold. “Almost ready?” he asked, nervously wringing his hands. “Bianca, please tell me you are not using that shade of eyeshadow.” He bustled over to my mistress, shooing the maid away, and delicately wiped away the offending blue makeup.Then he began to apply something dark brown. “Much better,” he said with satisfaction. “We are presenting my daughter at court this evening; we all must look our best. Thank you, again, for everything you have done for my little girl.”

“Dad,” Marian sighed. “I’m not a little girl anymore.”

“Of course you’re not, precious,” said a voice from out in the hall. A women entered the room, and looked Anita and I critically up and down. “I don’t see why the demon can’t wear something more stylish. Also, she,” the woman gestured to my mistress, “should be showing more cleavage.”

“She hasn’t got any, dearest,” explained Antoni. “And the demon should look impressive, not stylish.”

The woman huffed. “He could be impressive and stylish at the same time. Also, what is wrong with illusory cleavage?”

“I think they look fine, Mom,” Marian said. “And you know Dad can’t ever get the bounce right.”

Before the woman could reply, Antita, eyeshadow finished, stood. “Lady Daya. A pleasure to see you. It’s been, what, a year, since I saw you and Journeyman Wizard Antoni last?”

Lady Daya smiled. “Longer than that, Apprentice Wizard Anita. Sorry for my poor manners.”

“Not at all, my Lady,” said Anita. “This is a trying time, after all. Your daughter’s future is at stake.”

Not to mention her life, I thought. But to mention that would be rude.

“Yes, very trying,” replied the Lady. “I have been quite distraught.” She dabbed at her eyes with a handkerchief, careful not to smudge her makeup. The pair of doves perched in her hair cooed. I wondered how they were kept from crapping all over her fake blond hairstyle. That would be tricky magic.

As the polite discourse continued, they moved out of the room. Anita ordered me to follow. I did so, staying the prescribed two paces behind her.

When we entered the ballroom, I was nearly overwhelmed by the lights, music, and color, not to mention the various spells about the room. Charmed animals were apparently all the rage with the ladies this season. One woman wore a long rodent of some kind draped around her shoulders. Another led a bear on a slender golden leash. And the charms on the animals were only the most obvious of the spells. I saw mage lights, and heatless flames. Illusions of all sorts concealed and altered. Protective spells were in evidence as well. Even the food was spelled, probably to keep it from spoiling, or, in some cases, melting, though who could tell with mortals. And in the center of all the magic and hubbub, wearing the most impressive set of protective spells I had ever seen, was the king.

I followed as my mistress, Marian, and Marian’s parents made their way over to the throne where King Hector lounged, eating a large turkey leg and drinking a cup of wine. As we approached, his jester said something to make him laugh.

“Your majesty,” Lady Daya said, curtsying. My mistress curtsied as well, as did her friend. Antoni bowed.

“Bow, demon,” Anita ordered in a whisper. I complied, not fighting the compulsion, but bending as little as possible all the same.

“This is my daugher, Apprentice Wizard Marian, and Apprentice Wizard Anita,” Lady Daya continued. “And you know my husband, of course, Journeyman Wizard Antoni.”

“Who’s the young man?” King Hector asked, giving the group a cursory once over.

“The demon Saban, your majesty,” answered Anita. “My familiar.”

“Ah,” said the king, looking back at his fool. The man did a trick, and the king laughed and clapped. “Can he hunt? Or do any tricks?”

“He does what I tell him to, your majesty,” replied my mistress. “I’m sure he’d make an excellent hunter. He has keen senses, and is skilled in combat.”

“Oh, good,” said the king distractedly as another group approached him. “Carry on, then. Enjoy the ball!”

As my mistress's group walked away from the drunken fool of a king, Anita asked Lady Daya, “Why didn’t you bring up the special dispensation?”

“It doesn’t do to rush things. We have time,” the Lady responded.

“Besides, he was drunk. He would have forgotten it by the end of the ball,” Antoni said. “He’s usually drunk,” he added glumly.

My mistress sighed. “I suppose we just circulate, then?”

“And dance, and make merry,” said Lady Daya. “Enjoy yourselves, like the king said.”

“But be careful not to muss your dresses or smudge your makeup!” added Antoni.

Then Lady Daya spotted someone she knew, and led her husband away to talk to them, leaving my mistress with myself and Marian. For a while the two hung out together, talking to various nobles of their age and daintily nibbling on delicacies. Then Anita spotted something.

“Is that Lord Umbron?” she asked Marian.

Marian giggled, and the noble ladies she had been talking to tittered. “I believe it is. You should go talk to him!” she said.

Anita hesitated. “I thought he went to his family’s estates.”

“He came back,” one of the noble ladies offered. “About a month ago. Go talk to him!”

“Yeah, go get him!” Marian chimed in. The other nobles offered various encouragements, some slightly suggestive. I growled, low in my throat. I wasn’t sure why.

Anita smiled. “You’re right. I should. It was nice talking to you all.” And with that, she headed off towards Lord Umbron.

A few minutes later I watched, unsure what to do, as Lord Umbron made out with my mistress on an empty balcony. Their lips were pressed together, and spread wide open. His hand wormed its way between their tightly pressed bodies to cup one of her breasts. I growled. He had no right! Why wasn’t she stopping him?

Anita pulled back. “Stop that,” she ordered, abruptly silencing me. I bared my teeth, unable to make any noise. My eyes glowed red.

“Is he jealous?” the young lord asked incredulously.

“No, he just tends to get like this sometime,” she lied. “I’ve got to go. Meet me later, in my rooms?”

The bastard smiled. “I thought you’d never ask.”

Anita towed me back towards her rooms. I fought her orders, snarling when I was able, and glaring when I wasn’t.

She shoved me into her room, and slammed the door. Instantly I was on her, pinning her to the door, pressing my lips to hers, and trying to capture her hands before-

I was abruptly pushed backwards by an invisible force. Anita clenched her fist, and I doubled over in pain. “Let me go!” I managed to snarl through clenched teeth.

“No,” my mistress said. “Turn around, and put your hands behind your back, or the pain gets worse.” I turned, and presented my hands. She cuffed them, and my ankles, tightening the chain until I would not be able to walk, and could just barely stay balanced. Then she released me from the agony.

I snarled, fought the chains, and fell over. With the shackles so tight, I was unable to get myself upright again. I lay there on the floor, feeling foolish. Humiliated. Betrayed.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” Anita snapped. “You just tried to feed without my permission, you growled at Lord Umbron-”

“You just barely met him!” I snarled. “You just met him, and you’re kissing him, and letting him feel you up!”

She sighed. “For one, I did not just barely meet him. He is a former lover of mine. For another,” she said, clenching her fist again, making me whimper. “My sex life is not your personal property. You should be grateful I allow you to feed the way you do, not jealous of the men in my life. Is that clear?” She released me.

I stayed silent. Why was I so angry? She had to feed me every day, as she’d promised, or I’d not longer be bound to obey her. And this Lord Umbron wouldn’t stop her from feeding me the way I now preferred. So why did I want so desperately to rip out and devour his still beating heart? Was this… Jealousy? What did I have to be jealous of?

If Lord Umbron were a demon, this would make sense. A demon might feed, stealing from my source of magic. But he was no demon.

It would also make sense, in a way, if Lord Umbron were a threat to Anita’s safety. I was now determined to keep her alive, in order to keep her for myself. But he was a simpering courtier, and not in any way a threat. So why did I feel so…

“I said, is that clear?” Anita asked.

“Yes, mistress,” I murmured. But it was not clear at all.

Anita

I loosened the chains around my demon’s ankles, allowing him to walk. Then I led him to Marian’s room. She had just gotten back, and was in the process of getting ready for bed.

“Mind if I leave the demon in your room for the night?” I asked. Saban growled softly. “Stop that,” I ordered. “We just discussed this. No growling.” The demon stopped, but didn’t look happy about it.

“Sure. Just make sure to gag him so he doesn’t keep me up all night,” said Marian. “I take it things went well between you and Lord Umbron?” She smiled.

I grinned back. “Oh, yeah. He’s coming to my room later this evening.”

“Well, then, what are you waiting for?” Marian enthused. “Go get ready! Need to borrow any lingerie?”

I laughed. “Like anything you own would fit me.”

She giggled. “You may have a point. Now, go!”

I went. Back in my room, it took me awhile to get out of the dress and all the underclothes required to look good at a formal gathering. Then I had to carefully wash off the makeup, which, if left on, would just smudge, and undo my hairstyle, which wouldn’t hold up during any strenuous activity anyways. I left on the necklace, for now, anyways, and fished some lacy panties out of my bags. I sighed. Most of my racier dresses and lingerie had been left at Rowan Castle, so this would have to do.

There was a knock at the door. “Who is it?” I asked, heart pounding.

“It’s me. Umbron. May I come in?”

I hurriedly arranged myself on the bed, trying to look relaxed, and, at the same time, sexy. “Yes, you may.”

Lord Umbron opened the door. He looked me up and down, and smiled. “Anita. You look gorgeous. Good enough to eat.”

I stood, trying to look graceful as he closed the door behind himself, and then I knelt and began to undo his pants. As he took off his vest and shirt, I took his cock in my mouth, as deep as I could without gagging. He sighed, and leaned forward, pushing it just a little bit deeper. I gagged and pulled back.

“Sorry,” he apologized. I shrugged. No point in trying to talk with my mouth full.

As I licked and sucked his dick, it grew hard, filling my mouth. I looked up at Umbron. He smiled down at me, eyes half closed. Then he pushed me off his erection, pulled me to my feet, and led me to the bed, kicking off his pants and shoes as he went. I lay down, and he knelt between my legs, pulling my panties down to expose my already damp pussy. “Wish you’d shave it,” he commented. “Or at least trim it short. I hate getting hair in my mouth.” Before I could reply, he pulled my pussy lips apart, grimaced, and began to lick.

For some reason I thought of Saban, and how he seemed to love the task of licking me. Lord Umbron was just doing what was necessary to get me ready to fuck, but Saban really liked it. Of course, that was because he was feeding, but I remembered this morning, how he took a long, deep breath before beginning, as if to savor the smell. Would Saban enjoy it almost as much, I wondered, if he didn’t feed?

Lord Umbron pulled away with a relieved sigh. “Looks like you’re ready,” he said. “Mind if I’m on top?”

“Not at all,” I answered, smiling in anticipation.

I moaned as he slid into me, spreading my pussy wide. Not a thick as Saban, but then, a shapeshifter could choose his dick shape. I pressed my lips to Umbron’s neck, licking it. He shivered. “Keep doing that,” he murmured. “Keep going.”

I pressed myself upward, the best I could, while he pushed himself down into me. We pulled apart, slightly, and then came together again. As we established a rhythm, I licked his neck harder, and gripped his ass in my hands to press him down harder into me.

Umbron gripped my chin and pulled me away from his neck to kiss me. His tongue darted into my mouth, touching the tip of my tongue. I moaned in delight, and tried to wrap my tongue around his. One of his hands began to play with one of my nipples, and I shivered. And, all the while, he kept pounding me, first picking up his pace, and then slowing, and then speeding up again.

I came first, and, as I whimpered and spasmed, he came, shooting his load into my pussy. Then we lay there for a moment, panting. He rolled off to lay beside me. “That was wonderful,” he said. I nodded, but couldn’t help thinking of how hard Saban could make me cum.

“Mind if I spend the night?” Umbron asked.

“Not at all,” I answered, and we settled down to sleep.

[charmscale]

A Demon’s Lust Chapter 4

Saban

“So, are we good to go?” my mistress asked her friend, Marian. “Did the council give their approval?”

Marian nodded. “Yep! Did you get the supplies we need for the journey?”

“Yes. We just need to load them onto the pack horses.” Anita looked at me. “You’ll do most of the heavy lifting. No complaining.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it, mistress,” I purred, stroking her hair. She slapped my hand away.

“Stop that,” she hissed.

Marian giggled. “Sure is friendly, especially for a demon.”

I looked at Marian, idly wondering how her power would taste if I pleasured her. The idea was intriguing, but I knew my mistress would never let me do it. To make up for that, I placed my hand suggestively in Anita’s lap.

She stood, dislodging it. “I’ll go start carrying stuff out of my room.”

Marian stood as well. “I’ll come with you, then.”

“But you aren’t finished with your breakfast,” Anita pointed out.

“Neither are you,” Marian said.

“I’ve eaten enough,” my mistress said, stepping away from me and slapping my hand away from her ass.

“You just sat down,” Marian protested.

“I’m… not hungry,” my mistress said. Before her rumbling stomach gave her away, she hurried out of the dining hall, ordering me to follow two paces behind. I fought the command, not because I didn’t want to follow, but because I wanted to walk beside her. Maybe grab her ass. Perhaps… Hold her hand? Where did that idea come from?

She did not give me an inch, and I was forced to follow her, two paces behind, like a slave. She would pay for the indignity, I promised myself. The idea didn’t please me as much as usual.

She was hurrying a bit, I noted, and from the bond I sensed… Anger. Anger didn’t taste nearly as good as pleasure.

When we got to her room, she slammed the door behind us, making the maid jump. Anita opened the door again. “Out,” she ordered the woman, then belatedly added, “Please.”

When we were alone, she turned to me, and clenched her fist. I groaned, and sank to my knees.

“If you ever,” she growled, “Touch me like you did in the dining hall again, without my permission, I will make your life miserable. Starting with revoking your pussy privileges. Are we clear?” She released me.

I collapsed on the ground, panting. “Yes, mistress.” I acquiesced. “May I ask, why?”

“Why? Why?” she snapped. Then she calmed herself somewhat. “How would your fellow demons react if they knew what we were doing?”

I shrugged. “I doubt they would care. Feeding is feeding.” Besides, as a demon lord, I could do what I wished.

“Well, my fellow wizards would care if they knew I let you pleasure me,” she said with a glare. “I would be a laughingstock! And so, by extension, would you. Do you really want mere mortals laughing at you?”

“No,” I admitted, remembering our first breakfast in the dining hall. “No, I would not.”

“Then don’t touch me unless we’re alone,” Anita said with a final glare.

“As you wish,” I murmured, head appropriately bowed. I still ached from the punishment.

“Good,” said my mistress, somewhat mollified. “Now, grab those saddle bags.”

Anita

It was evening, first day of the journey. I already had saddle sores. I groaned. “You ready to stop for dinner yet?” I asked, shifting uncomfortably in my saddle.

Marian looked back at me from her horse in front. “Sore?”

“A little,” I admitted.

“If you’d mentioned that when we stopped for lunch,” she said, “I could have done something for you.”

“I wasn’t sore yet at lunch,” I said, glancing over at my demon. He was loping beside us, easily keeping up whether we walked, trotted, or cantered. Right after lunch I’d briefly urged the horses into a gallop, both for the fun of it, and to see if he would fall behind. He didn’t. He also didn’t even appear to be winded. Interesting.

“Then you can go a bit longer, just until sunset,” Marian said.

I sighed. “If you really want to.”

When the sun started to set, we found a campsite near a small stream. I set about warding it, while the demon gathered firewood and Marian cared for the horses. Then I led the demon off a little ways for some privacy while Marian started dinner. I pulled the chains from my pack and ordered the demon to turn around. He did so, grudgingly but without a fight. Good.

As I cuffed his wrists and ankles, I murmured in his ear, “We’re going to have to be quiet this time. Otherwise, Marian might suspect, or, worse, come to check on us.”

He smirked. “I’m not the noisy one.”

I pulled out a handkerchief. “I know. That’s why I’m using this. But, keep in mind that all I have to do to command you is spit it out. Right?”

He nodded. “Of course.”

When he started to kneel, I stopped him. “I want to try something different this time. Lie down. And get rid of your clothing.”

Saban seemed to understand what I wanted. As he lay down, his clothes vanished, revealing an enormous erection. I shuddered. I was already a bit wet. “First you will lick me, to get me ready,” I told him. “And then… And then we’ll see.” Although there wasn’t much question in my mind about whether I’d be using that delicious looking cock tonight.

After I pulled off my pants, I stuffed the handkerchief in my mouth, and then knelt over his face, looking at his cock. He obediently began to lick me, stimulating my clit and penetrating me with his rough tongue. I whimpered in delight, the sound muffled by the handkerchief. It wasn’t long before I was ready.

I turned around and moved back until I was just above the demon’s huge dick. It was nice and thick, just the way I liked it. I began to lower myself. Penetration. I moaned, eyelids fluttering, and thrust downward until I had taken almost all of it in. It felt exquisite. The demon thrust upward, forcing those last few inches into me. I gasped, almost inhaling the handkerchief.

We began to move together, him thrusting upward while I thrust down, and then pulling up as he relaxed. His cock was entering me in just the right way, angled so it rubbed a little against my clit, and curving in a way dicks normally did not to rub against my g-spot. I closed my eyes, and began to lose myself to the rhythm. Oddly, the demon was behaving himself tonight, as far as feeding went, drinking my power in a slow trickle. Probably still full from yesterday.

Saban

Hungry though I was, I paced myself, drawing in just enough magic to get the taste. If I tried to drink the power in quicker, she’d just stop me, and possibly end this. I loved her muffled whimpers. If I closed my eyes, I could almost believe I was the one gagging her, and that she was in my power. I loved the idea. I would take good care of her when I finally did capture her, so she would live a nice long time. If I kept her mostly content, and pleasured her regularly, perhaps she wouldn’t fight me too much. That would be nice.

I began to pick up my tempo, thrusting upward with speed, strength, and endurance not available to mortals. The muffled whimpering increased. I lifted my head up until I could suck on one of her nipples. I was more flexible than most mortal lovers, as well. It would be nice if my hands were free, I reflected. Or, better yet, if I could shift properly. Then I would be able to get both nipples at once.

I imagined cradling her against my natural, rather amorphous form, with two mouths, bereft of their usual rows of sharp teeth, working on her nipples. My tentacles would hold her arms, gag her, and grip her legs, forcing them apart to reveal the sweet pink flesh between. I would thrust into her, just as I was doing now. Maybe take her ass for good measure. And I would make her cum and cum and cum.

Speaking of cumming… Her power held that special taste now that indicated she was reaching orgasm. I slowed my pace. She glared at me, but didn’t spit out the handkerchief. I just grinned. Then, just as she was about to slip over into orgasm anyways, I picked up speed again, and lightly bit her nipple.

She practically exploded with delight. I drank in her power greedily as she came hard, shuddering and moaning with her eyes shut tight. She appeared to be incapable of voluntary movement, I noted as the handkerchief fell from between her lips. Perhaps I could use that.

I shifted slightly to pin one of her legs. Not enough to truly trap her, but enough to keep her from disengaging herself swiftly as her orgasm ended. I used the brief period of struggle as she fought to get free to stimulate her more. Sensitive as she was after orgasm, it shouldn’t take much to make her cum again.

I was, however, just a bit too slow in getting her to her peak. Anita pulled her leg free and stood. “Do that again, and I will make you pay,” she snapped.

“Yes, mistress,” I said meekly.

She snorted. “I will. Don’t doubt it.”

She uncuffed my arms and my legs, pulled on her pants, and then withdrew a knife from her pack.

“What’s that for?” I asked, curious.

“So Marian doesn’t suspect,” Anita explained as she drew the knife down her arm.

“Ah. That makes-” Suddenly I froze. Something wasn’t right. I heard a twanging sound.

Anita

Saban froze. Then he moved in a blur, and suddenly, there was an arrow right in front of my eye, gripped between his thumb and forefinger. I gasped. Then Saban flung the arrow aside and pushed me to the ground. Another arrow buried itself in the tree behind me.

“Can you protect yourself from arrows?” Saban snapped as an arrow buried itself in his shoulder. He blocked another with his hand.

“Y- yes!” I stuttered, and began to form, in my mind, an arrow ward.

“Then do so,” he said. Another arrow lodged in his forearm.

“I’m trying!” I snapped. “Give me a second.”

“It’s not me you need to worry about,” he warned, catching another arrow inches from my face.

The arrow ward was complete in my mind. I said the words that would make it a reality. Fortunately, this one didn’t require gesturing. The arrow ward sprang into being. The next few arrows bounced harmlessly off it.

What to do next? If I moved, the arrow ward wouldn’t move with me, but if I just stayed here, eventually I would run out of power, or my mind would be worn down by the effort, and the arrow ward would fall. What could I do?

Duh. I ordered Saban, “Capture whoever is firing the arrows! You have my permission to shapeshift.”

Immediately he was off, blurring with speed. I wondered a bit why he didn’t fight the command. If I died, he would be free. Perhaps he enjoyed feeding on me using sex that much. More likely, after all I had done to him, he was bent on killing me himself, slowly and painfully, and would not allow someone else to kill me first.

Off in the underbrush, there was a brief, intense struggle. Then Saban came back at a more sedate pace, carrying two men by the back of the neck, one in each hand. “That all of them?” I called.

“Do you see any more arrows?” asked Saban. “That is all of them.”

I stood, dismissing the arrow ward. Saban threw the two men down at my feet. One tried to rise, but Saban pinned him under his heel. “If you know what’s good for you, you will stay down,” he told them both, sounding a bit bored. Then he looked at me. “Are you hurt?”

I shook my head. “No.”

“Good. What do you wish to do with them?” Saban asked. “Should we kill them now, or question them first?” One of the men moaned. Presumably he knew what sort of methods a demon might use to question.

“No killing,” I said firmly. “We’ll bring them to the capital, where they will face the king’s justice.”

Saban sighed. “You’re no fun,” he complained. “So should we take them back to the campsite, and Marian?”

I froze. “Marian! Oh gods, I forgot about Marian!” Turning, I raced towards the campsite.

“Wait!” Saban called. “Anita, wait!”

“Come on!” I ordered. Seconds later, Saban blurred past me, and then slowed his pace to match mine so he was running just ahead of me. He still had an arrow in his shoulder, I noted, with the only part of my brain that was not panicking over what we might find at camp.

As we neared the campsite, Saban stopped, almost making me crash into him. “What the hell?” I asked angrily as he grabbed me to prevent me from racing past him.

“Let me go first, mistress,” he pleaded in a whisper. “I’ll make sure it’s safe, and then I’ll call you.”

“Like hell!” I snapped. “Marian could be hurt! She could be dying!” And, besides, I trusted Saban about as far as I could throw him. He could be genuinely trying to protect me, for his own twisted purposes, or he could have some other scheme in mind.

Saban hissed in annoyance, eyes flaring red. “You’ve given our position away anyways, with all this shouting. I suppose you might as well come along now. At least approach slowly.”

“That I am willing to do,” I agreed. Cautiously, we approached the camp.

As we cleared the bushes, Marian looked up from the pot. “Good timing! Supper’s just ready! What was all that shouting about?”

I let out a sigh of relief. But we weren’t out of the woods yet, so to speak. “Saban, search the surrounding woods for any more archers. Or anything else that might be a threat.” I paused, remembering. “What did you do with the first two archers?”

He shrugged. “What could I do? I couldn’t race through the woods holding them, and your binding wouldn’t let me kill them. Or even break both of their legs. I left them there.”

I sighed. “Go see if you can find them. But don’t go so far you can’t hear me if I call. And check the surrounding woods while you’re at it. Subdue any threats, and bring them to me.”

He fought the order. “I think I ought to stay with you.”

“I’ll be fine. Once I activate them, the wards I set up will even keep out demons. That’s why they took me so long,” I said. “You can enter, and I can enter, and Marian can enter, but nothing else. Not even an insect.”

He nodded. “Good.” Then he trotted off into the thick underbrush.

“What archers?” Marian wanted to know. “What happened?”

“I’ll tell you,”I said. Or at least I’ll tell you most of it, I thought. “But first let me activate the wards.”

Saban

I lay in the darkness, bound in chains, as per usual, and stewed over the escaped archers. If only Anita hadn’t raced off when she did. If only I’d been allowed to kill or maim the archers. If only… I would have given a lot to know that they were safely dead. No one would steal my prey from me. No one. I looked over at Anita in her bedroll, wishing I was not bound, so I could guard her as she slept.

No, no one would take her from me.

[charmscale]

A Demon’s Lust Chapter 3

Anita

“You look tired,”

“Hmmm?” Startled out of a light doze, I blinked sleepily at Marian. “What did you say?”

“I said, you look tired.” Marian poured me a cup of coffee. “Late night?”

I swiftly stifled an urge to look guiltily at the demon. She probably thinks you were up late studying, you dope, I thought to myself as I took a sip of the coffee. There’s no way she suspects…

“After all, you do have a rather hot young man sleeping in your room now,” Marian said, giggling. “One who has to obey your every command.”

I choked on my mouthful of coffee, spraying a considerable amount of it out my nose. Marian, still giggling, handed me a napkin. “He’s a demon!” I protested as I wiped my face off. “I would never-”

“I know, I know,” said Marian. “I was just trying to wake you up a bit more.” She giggled again. “Looks like it worked.”

“Thank you ever so much,” I sighed.

“Well, we do have combat practice this morning,” she said.

I was even more awake at that. Combat practice was suppose to be less deadly than the actual duels, but people still got killed. “I thought that was next week!”

“They moved it, remember? Don’t worry, I’ve got my normal dispensation,” Marian said. “I don’t have to fight.”

I sighed in relief. “Good.”

Marian looked at me, concerned. “You’ll be ok, right? I mean, you are kind of tired.”

“I’ll be fine,” I reassured her. “Especially since I’ve got a demon now.”

“But the two of you have never worked together,” Marian protested. “What if he gets in your way? What if he won’t do what you tell him? What if-”

The demon looked a bit miffed. He opened his mouth to speak, looked at me, and then changed his mind.

“You have something to say?” I asked. “You have my permission to speak.”

“I would just like to point out that I am a seasoned combat veteran,” Saban sneered. “Not some imp. I’ll do my part. I don’t have a choice. Just stay out of my way.”

“I’m hardly a greenhorn,” I growled. “And you’d better remember who’s in charge when we’re fighting.”

Saban gave me a look of pure hate. “Like I could forget.”

“Ummm, maybe we’d better finish eating,” Marian suggested. “You know, so you’re not fighting on an empty stomach.”

“That’s a good idea,” I agreed. “Demon, shut up.”

The demon gave me one more icy look. “As you wish, mistress.”

“Don’t take that tone with me,” I snapped.

“What tone?” His voice was all innocence.

“Nevermind. Just shut up,” I sighed. Sometimes, I hated my life.

Saban

I stared in disgust down at the line of blood dribbling down Anita’s arm. “You’ve got to be kidding me,” I growled.

Anita looked down at her bleeding arm, perplexed. “Excuse me? Don’t you want to feed?”

“I want to feed like I did last night,” I informed her.

“Out of the question,” she snapped. “You get this, or nothing at all. Take it or leave it.”

I’d take it, of course. Magic was magic, after all. But… “Surely you don’t honestly prefer to be in pain,” I purred. “Remember how good it felt, last night, when I-”

“Mention last night again, and you will regret it,” Anita warned me.

“What are you so afraid of?” I murmured, kneeling down before her. “You’re the mistress. You’re in control. And I can make you feel so good…” I began to lift up her robes.

Then I froze, groaning, as her fist tightened. “I said no,” she snarled, taking a step back and straightening her robes. Then she released me, and held out her arm again. “Now, feed.”

I sighed, and fed. After last night’s meal, this pain based fare was almost too bland to eat. When I got free, I would feed how I liked from her, I told myself. Pleasure, agony, whatever I chose. And she would scream, and scream, and scream.

Anita

Greater demons were renowned for their persuasive powers. I knew this. They could twist words until you would swear that up was down and green was red. And they were only ever interested in one thing, themselves. I knew this, too. So why was I considering Saban’s words?

What was I afraid of? Just the unknown, in the end. I was a wizard. We weren’t suppose to fear the unknown; we were suppose to conquer it.

And, in the end, I was in control. I was the mistress. With the proper precautions, I could even let him bring me to orgasm, I thought with a shudder, and he would still be incapable of harming me. And pleasure was oh so much preferable to pain…

“Anita Kirith!” With a start, I jerked out of my musings. I realized, with embarrassment, that this wasn’t the first time the professor had said my name. “Yes, Master Yurial?”

“Now that you have rejoined the world of the waking, could you please recite the 12 types of shield?” Master Yurial said as the rest of the class tittered. “And then go take your place in the circle. I will put up the shields to keep the magic inside the circle, and you will fight Walie. Please try not to kill him. Or fall asleep.”

I recited the requested information, grateful it wasn’t about the different grades of fireball, which I could never remember, and then stepped into the circle in the middle of the classroom. Combat practice. Brief periods of excitement interspersed with longer periods of boring. And now it was my turn.

Walie wasn’t one of Trev’s lackies, so I could expect him to follow the rules and not “accidently” kill me. Probably. But it would not do to lose, all the same.

I ordered Saban to stand in front of me, the better to block any sudden spells from Walie as well as rushes from Walie’s demon, who looked like a goat. Master Yurial raised the wards, and blew the whistle.

As the echoes died away, I began to look for an opening in Walie’s defenses, as, presumably, he began to do the same to me. The goat watched Sabam warily, while Saban looked over at me.

“Are we starting?” he asked.

I grunted as Walie sent a stream of fire at me to break against my shield, and growled, “Yes!”

Saban shrugged. “Alright, then.” And he rushed the goat.

Next thing I knew, he had the goat’s back legs in one hand and its front legs in the other. With a crack, the thing’s spine snapped. I jerked in surprise, almost letting my shields fall. The goat bit at Saban, who avoided it easily and then tore it in half. He casually tossed the pieces aside, and then reached right through Walie’s shield to grab him gently around the neck. The other wizard sputtered. His shields fell. I swiftly sent a sleep spell his way, and he crumpled in Saban’s grip.

“Put him down!” I ordered my familiar. “Gently.”

Saban scowled, but he had no choice. He put Walie on the floor of the classroom. The pieces of the goat demon were trying to squirm back together. Saban kicked one away. The head of the goat squealed.

He looked at me expectantly. “Done now?” he asked.

I looked at Master Yurial, who was now a bit white. “Not until he blows the whistle and dismisses the wards.”

Master Yurial came back to himself with a start. “Right,” he muttered. The whistle blew, and the wards fell. “Good… Good show, Anita. The rest of you take note. The proper use of a demon can make the difference between victory and defeat.”

I sat down, wondering at my swift victory. Saban was a powerful demon. That much was obvious. He also took more initiative than a bound demon usually did. Most bound demons, as far as I’d seen, were content to wait for orders, or react as their binding prompted them too. Saban… I suppose he figured, since he was going to fight anyways, he might as well do a good job. Or maybe he was trying to impress me, so that I might consider his… Suggestion.

I was definitely considering it. The vibration stone I’d spent hours making last night didn’t vibrate hard enough to suit me. I wanted, no, needed, to get off. And if giving in would encourage further good behavior in battle, so much the better.

Saban

I watched the other duels from my usual place behind my mistress. It was a bit boring, in all honesty. What a waste of magic. I tried to pass the time by evaluating the other demons, trying to figure out which I would cull, keep, promote to commanding positions, or breed if they were in my army.

None really showed the initiative I looked for in an officer. Few demons ever did. I’d been short a second in command for awhile now because of this. It was irritating, especially since, without a second to take charge while I was away, my lands and armies would be in quite a state when I got back to the demonrealm. Perhaps I was hoping for too much as far as initiative went. Maybe what I needed, instead of an intelligent, ambitious second I’d be forever having to watch for signs of mutiny, was a demon who was really good at following orders.

No. Following orders was all well and good, but even I couldn’t consider every eventuality that might occur. I needed a demon who could think, and there were precious few of those. I sighed.

As I was musing, the bell rang for the end of class. There was an immediate rush for the door. My mistress was more sedate, taking her time to gather her things and thank the teacher before finally leaving. I followed.

Now that she was out of the classroom, she hurried, walking swiftly, not towards the library, as I had expected, but towards the part of the castle where the apprentice wizards had their rooms. I could feel her arousal and expectation through the bond. I smiled. Looked like she was giving in, both to her desires and my own.

We entered her room, and she ordered me to close and lock the door. I obeyed, eager to get this started. However, when I turned from locking the door, I found her holding the cuffs and leg restraints she used to chain me up in the cage while she slept.

I frowned. “Is that really necessary?”

Anita ignored me. “Turn around,” she ordered, “And put your hands behind your back.”

I fought the command. “This is not needed.”

We stood there for a moment, locked in mental combat. I found myself turning, and growled.

“Turn around,” she ordered again. “Now.”

I turned, fighting all the way, and, snarling, presented my hands to be bound. She cuffed me, and then bent to chain my legs. “Now, kneel,” Anita ordered. I knelt. She swiftly shucked her robes, and stood in front of me. I buried my nose in her bush with a sigh, and began to lick.

She slapped me away. “Wait for the order!”

Eyes narrowed, I waited. She stared at me for a moment, and then spread her pussy lips, revealing the moist, pink bits. “Now you may pleasure me.”

With my hands bound, my tongue was the only tool I had. Bound by magic, my shape shifting abilities were limited, but I used what I had to lengthen my tongue and increase its strength. Anita shuddered as my tongue slid over her clit, and then shuddered again as I forced it past her pussy entrance, into her moist center. In and out I moved it, flicking over her clit, and curving to rub the inside of her pussy in a way I somehow knew would make her go wild. The taste was incredible, and the feel of the power I drew as I pleasured her made me shudder in delight.

“Slow down,” she ordered. “Don’t take too much too quickly.”

I rebelled against her command, but the power I drew still slowed to a trickle. The taste taunted me. I wanted more. If I could make her lose her concentration on the command…

My tongue moved faster and faster. I made it bumpier, the better to stimulated her, and then flicked briefly out of her pussy to lick along her taint. She gasped. Her concentration wavered, and the flow briefly increased. Somehow, it tasted even better than before.

My tongue was not enough. I struggled to break free of my restraints, to get my fingers into play. The runes on them flared. “Keep doing that,” Anita murmured, looking down at me, “And this stops now.”

I ceased my struggle and focused my efforts on pleasuring my mistress. She shuddered and moaned. The flavor of her magic changed slightly. She was close. Close to what, I wasn’t sure, but she was close.

Her pleasure briefly plateaued, and then…

If her power had tasted good before… Now it was incredible. And, as her command to me faded from her mind, I was able to pull more and more of her power into me. It raced through me like an electric shock. I moaned, eyes closing, as I fed deeply. She was shuddering, crying out, and gushing with liquid. She was cumming, I realized suddenly, connecting the word with the action. That impossible taste was her pleasure as she came.

Anita stepped away and leaned against the wall, panting and grinning. I tried to sidle closer so I could lick her pussy some more. She raised her hand in warning, partially clenching it. “Don’t. Enough.” I reluctantly stopped. She didn’t seem to mind, however, that my hand was on her foot, allowing me to feed on her post coital contentment. Although not as overwhelmingly delicious as her orgasm, it was still very tasty in its own unique way.

When I finally broke free of the binding, I would definitely keep her alive, if at all possible. Keep her, and pleasure her daily in order to feed. It would be tricky to prevent her from taking command of me again, but worth it if I could feed like this as often as I wished. I would see how far I could push her into orgasmic bliss, or how long I could keep her from it before she finally came, and I would drive her insane with lustful pleasure. And she would be mine. All mine. I smiled, content, for the moment, just to feed and watch her breathe.

Anita

I ran a hand through my hair, panting. My other hand rested lightly on my pussy, idly rubbing my now overly sensitive clit. I wondered how quickly the demon could bring me to orgasm again, now that I was tender with lust following the previous one. Probably very quickly indeed. Saban seemed to know his way around a pussy. Funny, that. I doubted he had had any real experience. Perhaps he had picked up a few tricks in the information download when he was summoned. Or, well, demons tended to have an instinct for torture. Perhaps this was instinctive as well.

And if I allowed him the use of his fingers… I shuddered, both aroused by the idea of additional stimulation, and dreading what he might do while I was too busy cumming to control him.

No, it would be best not to allow Saban to make me cum again so soon. My magic was already dangerously low. He had fed heavily while I came. I kicked his hand off my foot, preventing him from feeding further. He growled, but did not attempt to place it back on. Good. He was learning.

I rubbed my pussy one last time, and then removed my hand. “Get in the cage,” I ordered, and, for once, he obeyed without any protest, even throwing in a polite, “Yes, mistress,” as he went. Probably on his best behavior to assure that I fed him this way all the time.

I gagged Saban, again without any protests from him, and locked the cage door. I needed a nap, and then I needed to go down to the village to buy some travel supplies for the trip to the

capital. We would leave tomorrow. Hopefully the trip there would only take a few days, and the stay would be over quickly. It made me nervous, leaving the cage behind, and only using the chains. But the cage was redundant, after all.The chains were all that was needed. Hopefully.

[charmscale]

A Demon’s Lust Chapter 2

Saban

I slept fitfully that night, chained as I was. Fortunately, demons typically don't need much sleep. I awoke to the light of dawn.

Dawn. I knew what it was, thanks to memories of this world I had absorbed from the wizard when she had summoned me, and others I had received when I pledged to her. But a memory of what a thing was, from the point of view of someone use to such things, did not do justice to this... this... This explosion of color and light. And, apparently, it happened every day, along with a mirror image of it known as sunset.

Days were another thing I was not use to. A regular period of light, followed by dark, followed by more light. There was a rhythm to it, like music, so totally unlike the chaos of the demon realm, where a darkness as black as pitch might be broken suddenly by harsh, blinding light for no discernable reason. Not that light was terribly common in the demon realm. Mostly, things were pretty dim there. Dim, and cold, or harshly hot. It was a land of chaotic extremes, where no mortal could survive for long.

My thoughts were interrupted by the ringing of a bell. Its simple tune echoed throughout the room. I closed my eyes, savoring the sound. Music. Yet another thing I knew only from another's memory.

My captor stirred under the covers. Her eyes slid opened, and she yawned and stretched. As she sat up, the covers slid away to reveal her naked breasts. Naked, and oh so tender. I longed to rend them, to make her scream, and beg for mercy.

Her eyes met mine. She frowned. "Have you been staring at me all night?" she asked testily.

I couldn't answer, of course. I just smiled with my eyes, trying to unnerve her.

She snorted, unimpressed, and slid out of bed to begin her morning routine. Once she was washed and dressed, she lifted a key off her bedside table and unlocked my cage. Another key undid my bonds. Finally, she slid the gag out of my mouth.

I smiled. "Good morning, mistress," I said, voice dripping with sarcasm. "I trust you slept well?"

Then I doubled over in agony as she clenched her fist. I gritted my teeth, determined not to give her the satisfaction of hearing me scream.

"Once again," she told me, coolly, "I must remind you only to speak when spoken to. Now, clothe yourself. We must go down to breakfast."

As a greater demon, I was capable of materializing simple inanimate objects, as long as they were touching me. It wasn't a power I had used frequently. It took me a moment to remember how to do it, and then it took me several tries to find clothing she found suitable. In the end I wore tight black leather armor. As I was mostly immune to physical damage, there was no real point to it, but it seemed to make the wizard happy.

"You look good," she commented, a strange, almost hungry, look in her eyes. "Now, follow. Stay two paces behind me."

Anita

When I entered the great hall with my new demon, all of my fellow apprentices went quiet, and stared at me. I smiled. No longer would they consider me weak for not summoning. No longer-

A sixth level apprentice whistled. "What spell did you use? Summon eye candy?" She laughed, and her friends joined in, and then the rest of the hall.

"Lonely night?" another apprentice called.

"Nice ass!"

"Can I borrow him?"

"Want me to come by later, sweetheart?"

I ignored them, and stalked over to my usual table, where Marian was already seated. She was almost the only one not laughing. "Sit," I ordered the demon, pointing to a chair, and, silently, he sat. His eyes glowed red, and he glowered around the room. "Don't even think about it," I cautioned. "You know the rules." Although, with Trev, vibrating with mirth, nearby, it was tempting to make an exception.

Soon the talk returned to normal. I began to fill my plate from the dishes at the table. They had bacon today, and the cinnamon buns I favored. I began to feel better.

Marian laid her hand on my arm. "Is that a demon?" she asked, frowning.

"Yes. My new familiar," I told her, grabbing another cinnamon bun.

"Why?" she asked, still frowning. "I thought you hated demons."

"Things change," I told her, and then explained about the attack last night.

She whistled. "Wow. I never thought Trev would go that far. The Council of Masters has to listen to you about him now."

I sighed. "No, they don't. There is no evidence Trev was involved. Just Antona."

Her pretty forehead wrinkled in another frown. "Oh. That sucks." Her clouded eyes cleared, and she leaned forward eagerly. "I almost forgot! How did the date with you know who go?"

"Nonexistently," I told her testily. "He dumped me."

Her blue eyes widened in shock. "What? Why?"

"I don't want to talk about it," I answered.

"But-"

"I said I don't want to talk about it!" I snapped. It still hurt, the idea that I was somehow too good for Zek. The last thing I wanted was for Marian to get it into her silly head that the same thing applied to our friendship. We were both wizards, but I was by far the more powerful of us two. Marian was the best healer the kingdom had seen for some time, but healing was the only thing she could really do, while complex healing was one of the few things I was incapable of.

"Ok. Is that why he," she said, gesturing to the demon, "Looks like such a stud?"

"No! Well, yes. Sort of." I sighed. "I was trying to set his form, and I kind of got distracted."

Marian giggled. I glared at her. "Don't you start," I warned her.

"Sorry," she said. "It's just that you don't lose control like that very often. It's kind of sweet that, even though he dumped you, you know who can still distract you to that level."

I sighed. "Sweet it may be, but it's also dangerous. Any loss of control is dangerous, especially when you're dealing with demons."

She shrugged, and smiled. "I forget, sometimes, that your magic is so much more dangerous than mine. I mean, if I lose control, the worst that might happen is I heal a bit more than I intended to, and get tired. If you lose control, you could kill someone. Especially now that you're controlling a demon."

I frowned at my familiar. He glared back at me hatefully. All this time, part of my attention had been on him, making sure that he didn't do anything other than what I had told him to do. Another part had been on the hall, alert for attack. The only time I ever really relaxed was when I was in my own rooms. Now I couldn't even relax there, unless the demon was chained up. I sighed. Sometimes I really wished I hadn't been born a wizard.

Marian had it easy. She had to be a bit wary, sometimes, but since she was no threat to anyone, everyone left her alone. It helped that they knew that, if they harmed her, they risked my wrath. The master wizards might also intervene for her where they would overlook harm to another, because she was such a good healer. The kingdom needed good healers much more than they needed powerfully dangerous wizards like me. Sometimes I was jealous of her safety, but, most of the time, I was glad. It meant that she retained her cheerful disposition and overall positive outlook. Unlike me.

Marian noticed me staring at my familiar. "Think he'd like a cinnamon bun?" she asked, eyes twinkling.

I sighed. "He's a demon, Marian. He doesn't need to eat."

"That doesn't mean he can't enjoy it." Before I could stop her, Marian handed the demon an apple. "Try that," she told him.

He looked down thoughtfully at the red fruit. Then, slowly, he took a bite. His eyes closed as he chewed, and he smiled.

Marian giggled. "He likes it!"

"Wonderful," I answered. Only one small corner of my attention was on my familiar and the apple. The rest was on the master wizard who had just entered the hall.

There were only 13 master wizards in the entire kingdom. Any 12th level journeyman who wanted the title could challenge one of the current masters for their position and duel with him or her, or wait for a master to retire, and duel other 12th level journeyman wizards to the death for the honor. There were seven masters in the castle now. The one who had just entered the hall was Yurial, an elderly man who was close to retirement. In fact, many thought he should have retired a while ago, when his eyesight had begun to fail him. No one who had dueled him thus far had managed to replace him, however, so he retained his title.

The hall began to quiet down as he entered, and was completely silent by the time he had made it to the podium at the front of the hall.

"I have a few announcements to make," said the elderly wizard, using magic to make his quavering voice audible to the entire hall. "Firstly, you may have noticed that one of your fellow apprentices, Antona Liris, is missing from this hall today. She was killed last night when she attacked the apprentice wizard Anita Kirith." He paused for the murmur that ran through the hall. From a nearby table, Trev glared daggers at me. I wondered why they had asked Yurial to make the announcement of her death. It seemed cruel. She had always been one of his special favorites.

"Also, King Hector has decided to make a few changes to policy. Firstly, the 12th level apprentices are now all required to participate in the duels at the end of the year."

The outcry at this was much greater. I turned white. Because of this change in the rules, Marian, who had been a 12th level apprentice for 3 years, would be forced to duel another apprentice at the end of the year. In other words, soon. And, with only healing magic to call on, she would die. Marian began to sob.

"Quiet! Quiet, please!" Yurial boomed over the noise. Slowly, all the apprentices quieted. "Secondly, there is now a way for apprentices to become journeymen without dueling. They may petition the council of masters and the king for special dispensation. Both the majority of the council, and the king, must approve for the apprentice wizard to advance." His announcements done, Yuriel left the hall. Immediately, talk started up again.

"It's okay," I told Marian, whose lovely face was now streaked with tears. "We just have to get you special dispensation, is all. We'll petition the council. You know they value your healing magic, so they'll definitely approve it."

"But the king," Marian whispered, falteringly.

"We'll go to court in person to petition the king," I told her. "And I'll keep my mouth shut and wow everyone with my magic, and you'll charm the heck out of everyone, and then there's no possible way he'll say no."

Marian smiled though her tears. "But you hate court," she said.

"I hate demons, too. And that didn't stop me from doing what needed to be done," I told her with finality. "I'll go to court with you, and you'll get your special dispensation. You'll be fine."

Saban

The apple didn't taste anywhere near as good as the wizard's blood and magic had last night, but it was new to me, and, thus, something to be savored. I closed my eyes to analyze the flavor, so very different from that of flesh or blood.

I barely paid attention while the elderly wizard made his announcements, except to note that he had made my "mistress," Anita, very upset. No upset enough to distract her from me, unfortunately. Marian, the one who had given me the apple, was crying. I wanted to reach over, to touch her, to feed, but I could feel Anita's attention on me, and I knew I would not be allowed to do so.

Then Anita and Marian talked. Apparently we would be going to court to see the king. I smiled. If I broke the binding while we were there, I could easily take over the kingdom.

I spent the morning following Anita to various classes. I played the perfect obedient slave, hoping to lull her into a false sense of security. It didn't work as well as I hoped. Anita still watched me suspiciously out of the corner of her eye, and I could feel her attention. Lunch was uneventful, until Marian offered me a piece of ham. Anita rolled her eyes, but let her. She appeared to have a soft spot for her friend. Maybe I could use that…

After lunch, and a quick trip to the library, we went back to Anita's room, and I was forced back into the cage. I struggled as best I could, but, with the binding in place, was unable to hurt her. It was... Frustrating. Very frustrating. I promised myself that, eventually, she would suffer for this. Oh, yes, she would suffer…

As the afternoon turned to evening, I noticed that Anita seemed distracted from her studying. Her eyes would run over the same text multiple times. She would sigh, and fidget, moving from a chair to the bed and back to a chair. Sometimes she would touch herself between the legs, and then she would cross her legs, sigh, and go back to her reading.

The bell rang. It was time for dinner. I wondered if there would be another apple, or more ham.

Anita

I couldn't stop thinking of Zek. It made it very difficult to concentrate on my studies. I ran through our time together in my mind, wondering. If I had done something different, would things have turned out better? I found my thoughts lingering on the time we had spent in bed. He wasn't the world's best lover, but he was caring, and he hadn't stinted on foreplay.

My thoughts wandered to my other lovers. The first boy I had kissed. That time I had gone to the capital for the Right of Spring, and met that young lord, and then one thing had led to another... I didn't regret the loss of my virginity, and I certainly didn't regret repeating the experience another three times that night. I remembered that mercenary, and my parent's farmhand. The ambassador from the north. My former mathematics teacher. A wandering minstrel.

As my mind lingered on the memory of many different hands, and tongues, and lips, and cocks, I found that my hand had gone to my pussy. I frowned, removed my hand, and crossed my legs. Then I tried to focus on my book. It was a guide to illusion magic, I remembered, but I didn't remember what type, the bending of light or of the mind. As I flipped back a few pages, trying to figure out where I'd gotten distracted, my mind went to Zek...

Finally the dinner bell rang. With a relieved sigh, I closed the book. I was horny and frustrated. I resolved to masturbate after dinner, before I went to bed.

But, when I got back to my room, after I had put the demon back in his cage, I couldn't find my vibration stone. I had a vague memory of taking it to Zek's place. With a sigh, I set about making another one.

But making a vibration stone took hours of delicate work. That was too long. Much, much too long. I could use my fingers, but I'd never been good at that. Not good enough to make myself cum, anyways. But what other alternative did I have? My eyes fell on the demon.

Saban

I was locked in a cage, bound and chained and mulling angrily over my predicament, when I felt my captor's gaze on me. I looked up from the floor of my cage to meet her eyes. She had that strange, almost hungry look on her face again. I wondered what it was she wanted.

Swiftly she unlocked the chains and the cage door, and then ordered me to kneel. I obeyed, grudgingly. At home, I knelt to no one; other demons knelt to me. I swore, once again, that she would suffer for humiliating me.

Anita lifted the hem of her robe and pulled down her underwear, revealing her hairy pussy. "Lick it," she ordered me.

The command forced me to lean forward, but I fought it, pulling my head away from her thick bush. "I will not!" I growled through clenched teeth. "I will not be your... Your toy!"

She grabbed me by the hair. "Yes, you will. And you will do a good job, too, or you will suffer for it. Now, lick!"

Between the physical force and the power of the command, my head jerked forward, burying my nose and mouth in her hair. Against my will, my tongue flicked out.

The taste and the smell of her womanhood made me shiver. Again, my tongue flicked out, involuntarily, but not, this time, against my will. She tasted even better the second time, and better than that the third.

As I reluctantly carried out my humiliating yet tasty task, Anita closed her eyes and moaned. I shuddered and began to lick harder and faster, compelled by some instinct I had never known I had. I focused on the clitoris, both because she seemed to respond best to that and because something in me said that this was what I was supposed to do. I reached up, slipping a single finger into her flower as I continued to lick. She shivered at my touch, and I reveled in it. Because of our magical bond, I could feel her pleasure in the back of my mind as I worked my finger within her. I could also feel... Her magic?

It was flaring out around her, as it had last night when she had cut herself, and then again when she had reopened the cut. Hesitantly, I took a taste.

It was incredible. Indescribable. Ambrosia, the food of the gods. My eyes closed, but my hand and tongue never stopped moving. I gently slid a second finger into Anita, and began to work them more vigorously inside of her. She swayed, and I reached up behind her to steady her and press her harder against my mouth. I fed more, at first taking tentative sips, and then drinking the delicious power in greedily. I knew that different emotions changed the taste of power, but, until now, I would have sworn that pain was the choicest of emotions. Until now, I has not tasted desire.

Anita's eyes snapped opened, and she stared at me in shock. I realized, too late, that she must have felt the tug on her power as I fed. She tried to shove my head away, but, as I was much, much stronger than she was, it had no effect. I continued to pleasure her, and to feed. Then she shouted a word of power, and I went flying across the room to slam against the wall.

"You... you were feeding!" she accused me.

I shrugged. "You presented me with the opportunity."

"I didn't..." She paused, thinking. "Did you know you could do that?"

"Do what?" I asked, smiling.

"Feed. From my desire." I didn't answer. Her eyes narrowed. "You didn't, did you?" I just smiled knowingly. "Answer me!" she snapped, clenching her fist.

"I... Did not know..." I answered through clenched teeth. I was getting better at resisting the pain, but it was still unpleasant.

Anita released me. "I suppose giving pleasure, not pain, never occurred to you bastards before."

"Not that it ever occurred to you, either," I muttered.

"What was that?" Damn, my wizard had sharp hearing. For a human.

"Oh, nothing," I said as I smiled sweetly. "Nothing at all."

Anita

The demon Saban graced me with stony silence when I put him back in his cage. At least he was cooperating. When he fought me, I got a headache. I frowned, wondering about that. My mind should not be so strained by dealing with a demon, even a greater demon. Perhaps I was out of practice. I decided to meditate for a while before I went to bed.

It was easier said than done. My continuing arousal made it impossible to properly empty my mind of thoughts and emotions, which, in turn, made the next step, my mental exercises, impossible.

I had just about managed to clear my mind when the final bell of the evening rang. Its sonorous voice echoed all through the castle and the surrounding town, interrupting my concentration and making me curse. There was no real point in staying up. As I was unable to concentrate on my studies, it would be a waste of time. I sighed, and began to get ready for bed.

Getting ready for bed, for the most part, just involved cleaning my teeth and stripping off my clothes. I said no prayers to any god, though I was no atheist. Just currently unaffiliated.

The covers were warm, and the bed was soft. I sighed, and let my mind wander.

Trev. My enemy. I wondered what he was doing now. Was he studying late, even as I thought this? Did he watch the stars? I had a hard time imagining the cold calculator doing anything so whimsical. Probably studying then, or asleep. I wondered if he slept naked, like me. My mind flashed an image of him lounging naked half under the covers, with his erect cock peeking out from between the folds of cloth. I scowled, and shook my head to clear it.

Across the room from me stood the demon, chained inside his cage. It made me nervous to even have him in the room, though my logical mind assured me that there was no way for him to escape, or, if he did, for him to hurt me. I wondered if anyone else knew that demons could feed using desire. It was probably in a scholar's footnote somewhere. As much as it unnerved me, it probably wasn't, in the great scheme of things, that important.

What if it was, though? What if this little piece of knowledge would someday lead someone to solve some great problem on the nature of demons? And what if I had been the one to discover it? I wondered, if my research turned up nothing on demons and desire, how I would present my findings. I would be embarrassing to admit I'd ordered the demon to pleasure me. I imagined the Council of Master's reactions, and winced.

I realized that I was staring at the demon's cock, and, in fact, had been staring at it for the last several minutes. I was also stroking my clit. I sighed. I was never going to get to sleep while I was this horny.

My eyes flicked to the demon. No way was I letting him anywhere near my girly bits again, though the memory of what he had been doing made me shiver with excitement. And no way could I just cum on my own. I sighed, and got out of bed to spend the rest of the night working on a vibration stone.