The Feast

by Rowan Bree

  You cover your face with your arms, unable to bear the embarrassment as the knight tears at your dress. He grabs an exposed breast and twists the nipple, giving the sensitive flesh a slap after releasing it.

  You kick and struggle as he tries to pull your panties off you. You can feel the fabric sliding down your thighs and catching around your knees.

  The knight puts a hand over your mouth and nose, nearly blocking your breath.

  “Quiet,” he breathes in your ear. “Or I’ll leave you to the demons.”

  You struggle as he forces his cock between your legs. The bastard is smiling even as you continue to fight. You try to hit him but he grabs your wrist.

  “No no,” he tells you. “Can’t damage this face. You know how many women throw themselves at me?”

  You wrestle against his grip and he yanks your arm painfully over your head, pressing it into the mud. His face is inches from yours.

  “Too bad I only like the ones that put up a fight.” He growls the last word as he thrusts deeper.

  You stifle a whimper.

  “What was that? I couldn’t hear you.”

  He becomes rougher, trying to force you to make a noise. You bite the back of your hand to not give him the satisfaction. The rougher he gets, the more your stifled whimpers start to sound like moans. Is it possible some part of you is enjoying this?

  The idea scares you and you redouble your efforts to fight him off. He smiles a sadistic smile and fucks you even harder, pulling your hair and biting your chin, your jaw, any part of your flesh he can get his teeth on. His body clenches, his teeth threatening to break skin. After an agonizing few moments he relaxes and lets go.

  You quiver underneath him, your body in near shock.

  “And I thought I was the sick one,” he says with a grin.

  The weak light of dawn casts everything in shades of grey. You sit up feeling achy, the cold ground not nearly as comfortable now as it was when you fell asleep exhausted the night before. The wall alcove is deserted, no sign of the knight or the others who had huddled here for safety. Did they leave you behind? Were they taken by something unholy?

  You follow the tunnel and find that it leads further into the castle’s waterways. Every once in a while you pass a grate that opens to the outside. Peering through the bars you can see the forest, but there seems to be nothing amiss. You can see no people or animals but the sky is no longer an oppressive black. There is no sign of the apocalypse you witnessed the night before.

  You reach the end of the tunnel system leading out to the forest. An open iron gate stands before you. Just as you are deciding whether to step out into the open, a creature comes bounding out of the trees straight for you. It looks almost like a naked man on all-fours, but with the head of a dog and half-human, half-canine limbs. Its long tongue lolls out of its mouth, its eyes two red darts.

  You turn and run for your life back the way you came. You don’t dare look back but you can hear the creature’s panting and know it is close. You round a corner and spot a low tunnel in one of the walls. Without thinking you dive for it and pull yourself in. You disappear just as the creature turns the corner.

  You squeeze your hands over your mouth to quiet your breathing, but it doesn’t matter because the creature has already sprinted past your hiding place. You wait an extra minute before descending further down the tunnel.

  Epilogue.

  You lunge at Vale, tackling the mage to the ground. None of the Order members try to intervene. Perhaps they are not sure whether to help their leader or their trapped god.

  You can see the hilt of Vale’s dagger poking out from his robes and make a grab for it. The mage deflects your arm and punches you in the stomach. The pain doubles you over. Vale pushes you off him. He takes the dagger from his robes, straddling you. There is no mercy in his eyes.

  Grab his hand.

  Grab his throat.

  You close your hands around Vale’s delicate neck and feel a pain as intense as if you’d stuck your hands in a flame. You try to let go but find that your fingers are stuck.

  You scream, asking the demon what is happening to you.

  “You didn’t know, did you?” the demon says. “He never warned you.”

  Vale puts his arms around you and pulls you into an embrace. A burning need fills you—anger, desire, and suffering beyond anything you have ever felt before. You want to consume, to destroy.

  Vale laughs in your ear. “You’re mine, kitten. Mine forever.”

  You plead for the demon to save you even though you know he is bound to the circle and cannot do a thing.

  The demon tells you, “There is dark place inside the mage, a hole in his soul carved out for the Old Ones to inhabit. But it is not only the Old Ones who can reside here. If any creature with a soul touches Vale’s skin, they are sucked in and trapped. You, my unfortunate dear, are his now.”

  Your body sinks into Vale’s as your soul is consumed. You can feel his flesh, his muscles, his bones, even the magic surging through his every nerve. You feel Vale inside you. His arousal becomes yours, as does his torment.

  You can feel yourself disappearing. Or rather, sinking into the mage’s darkness like a dragon into a tar pit.

  “Stop fighting, kitten.” The rumble of the mage’s voice vibrates up through your being. You try to grow cold, to shut him out, but the demon was right. You are his. It’s getting harder to tell where your soul ends and the mage’s begins.

  “That’s it,” Vale purrs.

  You feel a hot tendril of pain grow through your body as he gains control. You beg him to show you mercy but he only laughs.

  “No one’s ever shown me mercy even when I begged for it. Do you want to know what torture really feels like?”

  Flashes fill your mind of a fiery hellscape. You feel lashes across your back, leather splitting skin. You can hear the mage moaning for mercy, sputtering and sobbing with no sense of pride. You cry out for him to stop the vision.

  “Now it’s not all bad,” he says. “Let me show you.”

  Your vision clears and you find yourself looking out at the room. You can feel your hands, your feet. The comfort of a solid body. You bring your fingers up to your face. Real flesh. But the angle of the jaw is too harsh, the nose too pointed. You draw your hands from your face and find the mage’s slender fingers where you thought your own would be.

  You sit up and look around the room. The demon is there in the binding circle. The guests are in chaos as the demonic creatures run free. A body lies beside yours, a woman in a midnight blue dress. You turn away feeling sick

  “What is this?” you ask, your voice coming out whiny and weak, but most definitely male.

  The mage’s real voice rings in your head. “I’m letting hold the reins of this body we now share. Or rather, the body I’m holding you captive in. Rest assured kitten this is only a momentary gift. I need to show you what things are going to be like from now on.”

  You try to move the mage’s body and feel a fresh prickle of pain as it refuses to obey your command. He has taken back control.

  He stands. His hand goes up to the collar of his robes. You can feel the starched fabric slide past your fingertips as he undoes the clasps. He forces you to look down. His smooth abdomen is the palest white, leading down to his hairless cock. You hope that he is only toying with you, that he will soon stop and let you live out your imprisonment in peace.

  He sighs. “If only it were that easy,” he says. You can feel a smile on your lips, at odds with your own feelings of panic.

  The mage’s fingers trail down his own body to close around his cock. It is already hard, and you can feel the enjoyment welling up inside him at your own revulsion.

  The demon growls and stomps his hooves. Vale stops stroking himself to pick up the ceremonial dagger and carve a symbol into the floor in front of the binding circle. The symbol and circle glow red and the demon appears to be sucked down into the stones. />
  Vale stands and resumes stroking himself.

  “I think you’re beginning to see all the fun to be had,” he teases as his hand begins to move up and down. You feel a knot in your stomach, his stomach, a quick clench before the warmth starts to spread from his cock.

  He strokes quicker, his breath quickening. The room spins before your eyes and you close them for fear of fainting. You feel your own body coming back to you. Your female body with its welcome curves and softness, and that familiar feeling of arousal that try as you might are unable to deny.

  But there is something hard here too, an unwanted feeling of fullness between your legs. You open your eyes again to find the mage on top of you, his silvery hair half-obscuring his expression.

  He pauses mid-thrust and strokes your face. You think he is smiling.

  “Now that I control your very essence, I can do as I please. My only limit is my vast imagination.”

  You seem to be trapped within the mage’s mindscape. Your mind, body, and soul are his to play with. And you have no idea if escape is even possible.

  “At least you can’t get pregnant,” the mage says, his thrusts quickening. He pinches your nipple. “Nothing I do to you in here has consequence. I can torment you all I want, push you beyond the limits of the human body.”

  He pinches your nipple harder until you cry out for him to stop. He smirks and brings his hand to your throat. Your breath hitches though he applies no pressure.

  “Scared, are we?”

  He kisses you deeply and you can feel his cock pull out of you. Warm seed splashes onto your stomach. Still kissing you, he rubs his hand into the mess and spreads it across your body.

  “I was nice this time, kitten” he whispers, a string of spit still connecting your lip to his. “Next time I won’t be.”

  Epilogue.

  You grab his hand, wrestling the dagger from him. You bring your knee up into his crotch. He doubles over in pain. You crawl over to the circle and strike the dagger into the stones. The steel sparks and the bindings are broken. The demon advances on Vale.

  “You disgusting little snake,” the demon growls. He grabs Vale by his hair and pulls him upright.

  Vale kicks and struggles but it is no use. He is forced to face the god he betrayed.

  “Please,” Vale begs.

  The demon lifts the mage higher, forcing him to stand on tip-toes so that his hair is not ripped from his scalp.

  “Beg her,” the demon says. “She gets to decide what to do with you.”

  Vale turns to you, his eyes red with tears. His full lips blubber apologies and supplications for your mercy. You remember how he forced you completing the ritual with him, how he used pain to threaten you and keep you in line. If the demon hadn’t helped you, where would you be now? Would you be among the shackled slaves offered to the nobles? Would you be somewhere worse?

  Spare Vale.

  Destroy Vale.

  You spare the mage. He would suffer more watching you enjoy the power he so desired, ruling the new world by the side of one of the gods he spent his life serving.

  “So be it,” the demon sighs. He drops Vale, who kneels to grovel at the feet of his masters. The demon stomps his hoof and Vale recoils, scurrying to the corner to watch you both from a safe distance.

  The demon turns to Vale’s guests who are still standing in shock. “Go back to your homes,” he says, “and spread word of your new rulers. In time we will visit each and every one of you to make sure you are adjusting well.”

  The guests look as though they have been released from a binding spell of their own and the room is soon empty. Only Vale remains, curled in the corner like a kicked puppy.

  “My master—” he starts.

  The demon gives one look at him and he shuts up.

  Without a word, the demon takes you by the waist. He bites your neck and undoes the back of your dress. He takes you right there on top of the broken binding circle, in the room that only moments ago contained the most powerful people from all over the kingdom. You scream out in pleasure, knowing there is no one to hear you except the mage.

  When you finish, the demon tells Vale to wait in the next room. Once you are alone he gives you a choice—to restore your memories from your life before, or let them fade away forever.

  Ask for your memories.

  Tell him the past doesn’t matter.

  You ask the demon to restore your memories. You close your eyes and can feel them stitching themselves back together. You catch glimpses of dark caves, a wagon wheel, and people in dark robes before you finally remember who you are.

  You see your childhood in Doria, a girl from a lowly family playing amongst the rocky caves near your home. You hear chanting and scramble over the rocks to find a circle of men in dark robes. A boy is there too, watching the men with his odd violet eyes.

  Vale tells you all about the Order, how the kingdom slaughtered them though they had done nothing wrong. Your parents refuse to talk about the Order, though the members seem nice and often give you food and copper coins whenever you and Vale go to listen to them chant.

  As you grow older, the Order becomes more powerful in Doria until they are as common as rain clouds in the overcast city. You come to serve the Order in their citadel in the mountains, watching as Vale rises through their ranks. You never join the Order yourself and Vale never pressures you to. He seems content to have you as a servant, calling you kitten and showing you a condescending sort of kindness while treating others with the utmost severity.

  You keep to the shadows mostly. It’s where you get in the least trouble. The Order becomes bolder with its magic and begins to call on the Old Ones. Sometimes you hear shrieks and inhuman wails in the night. Young women begin to go missing. You clean the blood off Vale’s robes and scrub it from the floors, but never see what happens to the women.

  You do hear things, though. Two men stand in a dark, cave-like room, with one end open to the cliff it was carved from. Torchlight dances on the walls. A faint, female moaning is coming from another part of the room but your view is obscured by the thick red curtains you are hiding behind. They hang from the high ceiling like great waterfalls of blood.

  Vale is shirtless, his pale skin nearly transparent and hair damp with sweat. His chest heaves from recent physical exertion.

  “The ritual failed again.”

  “We’re running out of time.” His companion is fully dressed in a stiff black robe. His face is wrinkled and hardened like the shell of a walnut. “The king’s feast is coming up. I’ll need you in Tyven with the others.”

  Vale clenches his fists. “I can do it. I just need a little longer.”

  “Doria will run out of women before then. We will have all the time in the world to complete the ritual once the king is ours. Our Order is old. The mages have endured without their masters’ presence in this realm and will continue to do so. Such foolish pride as yours will only hurt us.”

  You hear no more of the conversation as you turn away, running down the dark corridor with a desperate sense of urgency to reach the capital to warn them of the coming danger. You can’t let the Order take over Tyven. You need to stop them from killing any more people in the service of their dark gods.

  Outside the sky is brilliant with stars. You run until the moon gives way to the first light of dawn, and continue running until you make it nearly to the capital. But Dorian guards find you in the forest and capture you. You find yourself shackled in a convoy heading back to your homeland to be tried for treason.

  Your convoy is stopped by a man with brilliant green eyes and a charming grin. He seems to be alone. He stands in the middle of the road blocking the path of the wagons. He tells them to surrender you or face death. The Dorian guards laugh at him, only to find themselves ambushed. You fear for your life, not knowing if these attackers are bandits or worse. The man with the green eyes climbs onto your wagon. He frees you of your chains and tells you he’s fig
hting the Order just like you.

  The prison convoy flees before all their men are slaughtered. You fall off the back of the wagon and hit your head. Before you lose consciousness you feel someone slip something into your pocket. It must be the note you found when you awoke.

  You open your eyes. The demon is watching you closely. You ask him why no one ever told you who you were.

  “People are selfish. They serve their own needs and desires without a care for others.” He cups your face with his hand. “But that world is gone. You are the only one that matters. All now live to serve your will.”

  Epilogue.

  You ask the Old One to restore your memories. You close your eyes and can feel them stitching themselves back together. You catch glimpses of dark caves, a wagon wheel, and people in dark robes before you finally remember who you are.

  You see your childhood in Doria, a girl from a lowly family playing amongst the rocky caves near your home. You hear chanting and scramble over the rocks to find a circle of men in dark robes. A boy is there too, watching the men with his odd violet eyes.

  Vale tells you all about the Order, how the kingdom slaughtered them though they had done nothing wrong. Your parents refuse to talk about the Order, though the members seem nice and often give you food and copper coins whenever you and Vale go to listen to them chant.

  As you grow older, the Order becomes more powerful in Doria until they are as common as rain clouds in the overcast city. You come to serve the Order in their citadel in the mountains, watching as Vale rises through their ranks. You never join the Order yourself and Vale never pressures you to. He seems content to have you as a servant, calling you kitten and showing you a condescending sort of kindness while treating others with the utmost severity.