“How are you doing this to me?” he gasped.
Autumn merely smiled. She wasn’t completely unaffected, but between the two of them, Irdu was the one being driven mad. Remembering his reaction last time she’d played with his piercings, she gently closed her teeth around the top one, and tugged. Irdu’s hips bucked, and he let out a low, fevered moan. He gripped the sheets with clenched fists.
“Do you like that?” Autumn asked.
“Yes.” His breath was coming in desperate pants, his hips flexing in minute, measured thrusts.
Gripping the base of his cock, Autumn took the piercing between her teeth and tugged again, harder this time. Irdu groaned desperately, his hips thrusting, his erection pulsing hotter and harder. Autumn licked the tender skin she’d just tormented, and then licked up to his shining purple crown. She took him into her mouth with soft, wet suction. Irdu’s hips bucked, pushing him deeper into her mouth. She allowed it, taking him to the back of her throat, using her hands to grip the extra inches she couldn’t manage to take in.
“Ah!” Irdu writhed beneath her. “Autumn! What—I can’t—” His words died on an incoherent groan as she began to work up and down his shaft, licking and sucking and squeezing. She trailed gentle fingers over his testicles, teasing and caressing. She felt them tighten against his body, and when she thought he was close to the edge, she released him from her mouth.
He let out a desperate moan, sagging back against the mattress.
“Whose are you?” Autumn asked.
“Yours!”
She advanced along his body until she straddled his hips. Gripping his shaft, she guided him to her slick, swollen folds. Sinking down, she took his length inside her with a satisfied sigh. Working her hips, she rode him slowly at first, slowly gaining speed. Irdu’s back arched, his jaw clenched, fangs bared, fists still clenched in the sheets. At last, he couldn’t take it anymore. Autumn felt his climax tear through him.
And then, to her utter shock, she felt something else—the warm, hot spill of his seed deep inside her. It was a delicious, intoxicating heat. It intensified, spreading through her whole body in wave after wave of brilliant pleasure. For the second time, Autumn felt herself plunge away from the constraints of her physical body and drop abruptly into complete and utter darkness.
The endless black resolved more quickly this time, revealing the tower again. This time she was closer. She could see sparks flying from the red-hot glow of the forges. She could see the faces of the builders, creased with agony, rigid with terror, as they labored beneath the demons’ vicious watch. The frigid evil emanating from the tower cut through Autumn like a knife, stealing all of her pleasure and replacing it with painful emptiness. The tower loomed larger and larger, the cold becoming deeper and sharper. Through a window, she saw a figure—a naked woman, with ice white hair and eyes that gleamed like cut diamonds. Those eyes flicked to Autumn, held her gaze.
They were utterly inhuman, and filled with a power beyond Autumn’s comprehension. The force of the woman’s gaze ate at her like acid. She felt herself disintegrating away to nothing. But then she remembered why she was here, why she needed to see the tower and its sinister occupant.
Irdu.
She shuttered her gaze and pulled his face to her mind. Irdu, she whispered in her mind. Irdu… Irdu…
“Irdu!”
Her eyes flew open, and she was back with him. He was still inside her, still shuddering through the last tremors of his orgasm. The powerful warmth of his orgasm still resonated inside of her. She slid off of him and pressed her fingers between her thighs. Instead of coming away sticky with semen, they were wreathed in a blue smoke that dissipated quickly.
“That’s... strange.”
Irdu lay beside her, still looking an absolute wreck. For a brief moment—so quickly she could have imagined it—his skin flashed to the tan shade he’d shown her in her dreams. His human skin. Autumn did a double-take, but by then, he was back to his cuneiform-marked blue skin.
Finally, Irdu seemed to be regaining his wits. He lifted his head weakly, stared at her, and then dropped it back down. Autumn stretched out beside him, stroking his hair while he recovered.
“Are you alright?” she asked.
“I—without—shouldn’t have…” He shook his head and stared up at the ceiling. He laughed, and then he groaned. “I don’t know what we’ve done,” he said, his words shaky and slurred. “I don’t know what this means.”
It means I’m saving you. “Just relax. Do you want some water, or something?”
“I don’t need water,” he said. “You know that.”
“Not usually…”
He blinked at her. “I…yes. Maybe some water would…” He shook his head again and let out an incredulous laugh.
Hiding a manic grin, Autumn went to the kitchen and filled a glass of water. It took her a second to get her face under control before she could return to him. She handed him the glass of water and watched with nervous hope. He took one small sip, then another. After a moment’s hesitation, he drained the entire glass.
“That was… good.” He stared at the empty glass. “It felt good to drink water!” He looked up at her as if he’d forgotten she was there for a second. “Autumn,” he said heavily. “You’re… you’re…” He went back to staring at the glass.
“Are you alright?” Autumn asked gently.
“I think so,” he said faintly.
“Okay. Good.” She gently prized the glass from his grip and set it on the nightstand. “So, we should probably talk about what just happened.”
“I don’t even know where to begin.”
“Let’s begin with the biggest surprises—you came without me. And you ejaculated… sort of. And I think I took some kind of… energy, maybe… from it. And it made me come. I think we did some sort of switcheroo.”
Irdu sat bolt upright, his expression stark with horror. “No. No. That can’t be!”
“Irdu, it’s alright, calm down.”
“You don’t understand!” He caught her by the shoulders, looking urgently into her eyes. “I told you—there is a way for me to escape my bondage. Do you remember?”
Autumn froze. “Somebody else has to take your place.”
“I will not let that happen to you.” His grip became painful, claw points sinking into her skin. “I will let myself dissipate before I’ll—”
“No!” Autumn nearly screamed. “Promise me you won’t do that. Now. Promise me you’ll never—”
“I can’t make that promise.”
“You told me you’d give me everything!”
“Yes. And if I have to give my life—meaningless as it has been until you—then I will do so.”
“Irdu, no!” Tears welled in her eyes. “Listen, that’s not what’s happening. I’m not taking your place.” Even as she spoke the words, she knew they were lies. Why else had she been seeing the Underworld when he gave her pleasure.
He looked at her sadly. “I hope that it’s not.”
“There’s some other explanation.” She cast around frantically, trying to come up with something. “Maybe when you tried to return some of sexual energy back to me, we opened up a new pathway. One that runs in both directions. Now I can take from you, and you can take from me.”
Irdu’s expression blanked. He went perfectly still. Autumn could see thoughts racing behind his eyes. Suddenly, he grabbed Autumn’s shoulders and hauled her towards him for a wet, smacking kiss. He let out a shaky laugh. “Of course. I haven’t done any of the ritual for exchanging souls, so it must be something else. A new connection.” He laughed again, sounding a little hysterical.
“There’s a ritual?” Autumn asked. “How does it go?”
“I’m not telling you.”
“But what if some other demon comes along and tries to trick me into exchanging my soul? Shouldn’t I know what to look out for?”
Irdu’s brows lowered, a dark line over brooding eyes. He let out a sigh. “Don’t let a dem
on feed you. Ever.”
But what happens if I feed a demon? she wondered, but didn’t dare voice it aloud. He’d start talking about dissipating himself again.
“And never let them mark you. Not a drawing, a tattoo, anything.”
What about bite marks?
“And never give them your full name.”
Do I know your full name? Are you just Irdu, or is there more you haven’t told me? “You know my full name.”
“But I haven’t done anything with it. I’ve never called you by it.”
“What would happen if you called me by my full name?”
“Nothing, because I wouldn’t have any intention of using it for ill purposes.” He looked disgusted with himself, holding the end of his tail in that nervous way that he did when they’d first met each other.
Autumn leaned forward and plucked his tail out of his hands. She stroked her fingers through the tufted end. “I trust you. I know you would never hurt me.” She bit the tip of his tail playfully and grinned when he jumped. “So, if I just harvested sexual energy from you, thanks to our new two-way road, does that mean your tank is empty? I don’t want to send you away without the energy you need.”
Irdu’s gaze was hesitant. “I… yes. I can feel that you’ve depleted me.”
Her grin spread. “I’m that good?”
Irdu’s hesitancy gave way to a bemused smile. “The best I’ve ever known.”
She gave his tail a little tug. “Then come here and return the favor.”
10
When Autumn woke the next morning, the rising sun was casting long fingers of light through her window. Beside her, a brown-skinned, black-haired man lay in her bed, asleep.
She’d never seen Irdu asleep. The sight was more alarming than seeing him in human skin. It suddenly occurred to her that she was seeing him in… daylight. Her eyes grew round. She reached out to touch him, certain she must be dreaming. But before she could lay a finger on him, his skin melded black into tattooed blue. His horns and fangs reappeared. His eyes blinked open, met hers, and then he was gone.
Autumn bolted up and to the window. The sky was pale blue, with no hint of predawn darkness. She scrambled for her phone, looking up the time of sunrise for the day, then checking it against the actual time.
He’d stayed eleven minutes past sunrise.
Autumn spent the day cooking, waiting for Irdu’s arrival.
Bare minutes before sundown, there was a knock at her door. She nearly jumped out of her skin at the sound. Her building had an intercom system. Anybody coming by would have to buzz her unit from outside so she could let them in. Making it extra weird, there was nobody in town who’d want to come by except for maybe Liz. But it was Christmas day and Liz was with her family.
Wiping flour from her hands, Autumn went to the door and peered through the peephole. She physically recoiled.
Dylan.
She stood at the door, frozen. Part of her wanted to stand in silence until he left. The other part wanted to rip the door open and scream obscenities at him. After a moment, she managed to accomplish a compromise between the two—she wrenched the door open and stared at him without speaking.
“Hi, Autie.” He gave her a wounded smile.
“Don’t call me that.”
He straightened. “Sorry.”
An uncomfortable silence lapsed. Dylan looked as good as he ever had—better, even. Tall and lean, he was dressed in rich-guy casual—a dark green cashmere sweater over a chambray shirt, with perfectly fitted jeans and immaculate white sneakers, all topped by a tailored black coat. His thick, auburn hair was beautifully cut and artfully tousled. His beard was growing in better than it used to, the cheeks finally filled in, and all of it neatly groomed.
Autumn, on the other hand, was wearing a frayed Green Bay Packers sweater and bleach-stained leggings. Her hair was piled on top of her head into a messy topknot and she didn’t have a lick of makeup on. She’d been planning to change quickly and let her hair down before Irdu arrived—the thought of which sent her into a wild panic. Irdu was due to appear any minute. What would happen when a giant blue demon manifested in the middle of her tiny apartment, right before Dylan’s eyes?
“I’m really not interested in seeing you,” Autumn said coldly, pushing the door shut.
“Wait, Autumn, just give me a second.” Dylan caught the door. He didn’t step into the apartment, but he didn’t let her shut him out either. “A few people have told me things have been rough for you since we broke up, and I wanted to come by and make sure you were alright.”
Autumn pushed against the door, but Dylan’s strength outmatched hers. Giving up, she let the door swing open. At this point, she wanted Irdu to appear in front of Dylan. She’d love to see him scream. “How the hell did you get into my building?”
“Your neighbor was coming in when I walked up, and she held the door for me. Listen, I regret how things—”
“How do you know where I live?”
“I’ve kept tabs on you, Autumn. I still care about you. You were a big part of my life. You were there when I was nobody. You were by my side when I became somebody.”
“You have money, so now you’re somebody? Glad to know I can add shallow and greedy to your list of faults.”
Instead of taking offense, Dylan smiled warmly at her. “Always so principled. I used to think of you as the ‘good angel’ on my shoulder.”
Autumn glared at him, confused and agitated. “Why are you here? Is this some Ghost of Christmas Past bullshit? If you’re looking for forgiveness, I don’t have any.”
“I just… I want to help you.” He looked around her tiny apartment, his gaze lingering pityingly on the bed, mere feet from the kitchen, shoved up against a frost-glazed window.
“I don’t want your help, Dylan. I want you to leave.”
“Can we please talk? Just for a few minutes?”
“No.”
“Fine. I’ll just say one thing. Leaving you was the biggest mistake of my life.”
“Actually, Dylan, I left you. You were perfectly happy to keep me while you were fucking other people.”
He winced. “I’ve had a lot of time to think about the mistakes I’ve made. If you think you can ever forgive me, I’ll do everything in my power to win you back.”
She wasn’t expecting that. “What?”
“I ended things with Alesandria.”
“Did she catch you cheating on her, too?”
Dylan’s repentant expression flickered to annoyance. “Still a ballbuster, I see.”
“Careful with the compliments. I’ll swoon.”
“It was a compliment. I always liked your toughness.”
Autumn didn’t have a snappy response for that one. That had been one of the nice things about Dylan—he had genuinely seemed to like that she was stubborn and blunt. He’d told her multiple times that his favorite pastime was watching her argue with idiots.
“Listen, I know you’re not going to forgive me overnight. I took way too long to reach out, way too long to apologize, and way too long to come to my senses. But I know you’re still working at that sham foundation—”
“None of your fucking business.”
“—and I know you’re not dating anyone.”
“I am actually dating someone,” she said primly.
Dylan looked staggered. “What?” His expression transformed to anger. “Who is he?” The anger cooled to suspicion. “If you’re seeing someone, why isn’t spending Christmas with you?”
“He had to work today,” Autumn lied easily. “He’s going to be here any minute, so if you wouldn’t mind?” She shooed him back, but he wouldn’t be moved.
“If you can forgive me Autumn, I’ll spend my entire life trying to make it up to you. I want you back in my life. Anything you want, I’ll give to you. You can have your job back at Apollo Tech. I’ll get you a better place than this—your own place—while we work things out. Clothes, jewelry, cars, whatever you want.”
&
nbsp; Autumn’s expression hardened. “You didn’t used to be the kind of man who thought he could buy women.”
He sighed. “Most people can be bought, Autumn. I wasn’t trying to insult you. I just want… I want you back.”
“I want you to leave.”
Dylan stared at her, genuine grief writ across his features. Finally, he pushed away from the door. “I’ll… I’ll be in touch. Merry Christmas, Autie.”
A lump rose in her throat at Dylan’s old nickname for her. She closed the door without responding.
When she turned around, Irdu was standing behind her. She nearly jumped out of her skin. “Irdu!” She clapped her hand over her racing heart. “When did you get here?”
“A few minutes ago.”
“What! Did Dylan see you?”
“No. I couldn’t fully materialize while he was here.”
“You heard the whole conversation.”
“Yes.” He was fiddling with the end of his tail.
Autumn crossed the distance between. She pulled his tail from his hands and wrapped her arms around him. “Hug me,” she said, pressing her face into his chest.
His arms came around her, strangely perfunctory. “He can offer you everything you need,” Irdu said in a hollow voice.
Autumn pulled back from him. “Everything I need?” she repeated, feeling her hackles rise. “Are you telling me to take him back?”
“He can give you gifts. He can take you anywhere. He can be with you in the daylight. He has money. A great deal of money, from the sound of it.”
Anger and sadness warred in Autumn’s chest. “I don’t need to be given anything!” she snapped. “What I need is somebody who treats me well, who makes me happy, and who appreciates me. If I wanted money from him, I’d go after him for never paying me for all the designs I did for his company.”
Irdu’s expression jumped from resignation to astonishment. “He owes you money?”
“Not really. Well. Sort of. I mean, it’s not like there’s an itemized invoice that he’s refusing to pay. When he was just starting out, he was getting nowhere. So I designed a website and did all the corporate branding for his company. It was a tiny company then. And I did it to be a supportive girlfriend, not to make a buck. But, since there was never any kind of financial exchange, he technically never bought the rights from me, so I hold all the copyrights on the designs. Which Apollo Tech is still using, even after he hired a new brand manager.” She shrugged. “I could probably demand payment. Shortly after we broke up, I started looking into it, but then I realized I was only acting out of bitterness. If we were still together, I’d never have asked to be paid.”
Demon Lover Page 12
