Pretty in Orange

by J B Trepagnier

  Alozan just laughed. “Oh, sweetie, it’s not just demons in Hell. All of you are not the first to be claimed by a demon and given sanctuary here. There're witches, warlocks, Vampires, wolves, and we even have a few elementals now.”

  Serafina nearly spat out her wine. “You have other elementals here? They took demon lovers?”

  Amduscias seemed pretty shocked at that too. I think I was the only one who wasn’t surprised. It just made sense. If Serafina was willing to let me bite her, hadn’t rejected Skoll, and wanted Amduscias, it just made sense. You couldn’t judge all elementals just because a lot of them happened to be insufferable snobs. Just like there were wonderful people and terrible people everywhere, I just knew there had to be more elementals like Serafina out there.

  “Oh, yes. They are quite lovely. They didn’t take as many lovers as you seem to, but they are quite bonded to their demon. We don’t have any fire elementals, but we have earth, air, and water. They help with our society when we need them. I can invite them over if you’d like to meet them. I can also have a physician over in the morning. I should probably do that for all of you since you’ve been living in that prison eating rotten food for so long. You all look very pale.”

  Amduscias squeezed Alozan’s hand. “Always looking after me. I’d like the physician to look at all of us. They would not allow us outside, and none of us have seen the sun in centuries except Serafina, who was just incarcerated. They carried experiments out on Roman and Serafina, and a doctor we trust should look at them. It’s up to Serafina if she would also like to discuss birth control.”

  “I’d like to talk about it. What are the options in Hell? I had a plastic implant in my arm cut out without my permission.”

  Alozan just smiled. “Oh, we have plenty of options. They’ve compounded some plants into a pill or a shot in your arm. We also have something inserted under the skin, but it’s made from natural materials, not plastic. That one is the preferred method down here because it’s effective, you don’t have to remember to take a pill, and you don’t have to wait for the shot to wear off when you want to be with child. You can discuss all that when the physician comes.”

  Serafina surprised me. The other elementals hadn’t exactly been kind to her, both in prison and out. Another elemental family could have taken her in off the streets when they realized what she was, and they hadn’t.

  “I wouldn’t mind meeting the other elementals here either. If we will be living down here, we should make friends. Maybe I could chip in and find a way that my fire could help down here.”

  We all needed to do that. We needed to find a way to contribute down here. What was I good at that would fit into the modern world? I had no idea. I still didn’t know half of what I was looking at in this castle. I had always been an excellent tracker. Maybe that could still work in the modern world.

  Everyone had just finished eating dessert. Serafina held up her wine glass.

  “I know how I want to finish celebrating. I want to show you all the magic of all the enormous plasma televisions in this castle.”

  Alozan just smiled. “We have topside television shows, and demon televisions shows here. We also have every streaming service available.”

  “The bed in my chambers is big enough for all of us, but I still don’t know the purpose of that television,” Amduscias said.

  “Well, that settles it then. We are all snuggling and watching the greatest movie series ever made. I’m exposing you all to Star Wars, and if you hate it, you aren’t getting laid when I get my birth control.”

  Chapter 21

  Skoll

  M

  y wolf had the entire thing planned as soon as he saw the massive bed in the room they gave me. The place was perfect for marking our mate in. Amduscias had excellent taste in decorating. We would get her permission after everyone went to bed and make it special. I thought Roman would understand since he’d already bitten her, and I knew Amduscias would wait because he knew my wolf was getting antsy.

  Modern birth control was sophisticated and frankly, as confusing as the television we were about to experience. Back in my day, you wrapped your cock in sheep’s intestines if you didn’t want to get a woman pregnant. Now there were pills, injections, and they implanted things into the women. What did I know, anyway? Back in my day, sometimes even with the sheep intestines, you still ended up with a baby.

  I wanted to put my pups in her, but not until she was ready. I wasn’t prepared either. Not with everything going on. Eiltan Sunshadow had been trying to create an elemental wolf hybrid in Scorchwood. As much as I wanted to have pups with this woman, it wouldn’t be until she wanted it, and they would be safe from the Fae. Did Eiltan even know there might be some elemental demon hybrids running around Hell right this minute?

  As much as I’d planned to mark her tonight, that wasn’t what she wanted to do until she’d seen the physician, and I wasn’t that kind of wolf. She wanted to snuggle in bed and show us what television was. I could do that. She said she liked this Star Wars thing, and she wanted to show me. I wanted to know every insignificant thing she loved so I could get it for her when the thought just crossed her mind she wanted it.

  Amduscias was right. His bed was enormous, and we all fit. I spooned her back and smelled her hair. Whatever shampoo they had given her in her room smelled like honey and wildflowers. It mixed well with her natural scent of vanilla and musk that my wolf loved so much.

  She grabbed some small device and pointed it at the television. I watched the screen light up, and it seemed to change as she pressed buttons on the device in her hand. I didn’t know that I would ever get used to this and not thinking it was some sort of magic.

  “Ha! This demon streaming service has all three movies from the seventies and eighties. We aren’t watching the prequels or the later movies. Sit back and enjoy one of the greatest movies in cinematic history.”

  I was so confused when this movie started. Words started scrolling across the screen. Was this movies? Books that moved all over the screen? If it was, I think I preferred books where I could just mark my place when I wanted to take a break. I could go back and reread passages if I wanted. These words just seemed to scroll and not discriminate if you wanted to reread something. Still, I’d read this movie since she liked it.

  Suddenly, the text ended, and there were people trapped in the television. Roman sat up.

  “Are they stuck in there repeating this movie for anyone who wants to watch it?”

  Serafina just giggled.

  “They are actors. It’s like a play that you watch on television. It’s recorded onto devices, and you can play the movie wherever you want. No one is trapped in there. The actors are all human, and this movie made them famous.”

  I decided to just sit back and enjoy this strange movie now that I knew no one was stuck inside the television doomed to repeat this over and over for viewing pleasure.

  I didn’t know the first thing about traveling to space. That wasn’t imaginable back in my day. You could only see the stars from the ground. But the more I watched this movie, I could see why she liked it. I was rooting for the space pirate and his big hairy friend. I wanted them to beat the man with the deep voice and the strange mask. My pulse raced, and I was talking back to the people on the television, trying to give them moral support to beat their foe.

  I wasn’t the only one. Roman wanted the wicked man in the mask to die, and he thought the way the little green man talked was cute. He kept trying to mimic it. Amduscias was talking up a storm too. He thought Darth Vader had no honor because he hurt his own men. He wanted someone to kill him as well. Serafina never commented, but she had seen this movie before. She just lay there, snuggled with us with this content smile on her face.

  We ended up watching three movies total, and I had no idea the awful man was really the good guy’s father. I didn’t see that coming. What a plot twist! I decided I liked movies and modern fiction. I wanted to read more of them with spaceships and li
ttle green men. I wanted to snuggle with Serafina while she showed me more of her favorite movies.

  She finally clicked the button on the device in her hand, and the television screen when blank. She fell out laughing.

  “You are all totally adorable, but just a bit of advice. If there are movie theaters down here and we see a recent movie, we may get beat up by a bunch of demons if you talk back to the screen. You can talk around me any day of the week, but in the theater, people usually get mad.”

  “How will anyone know you approve or don’t approve? If the actors are not really there, you can’t throw fruit at them if they are bad,” Amduscias said.

  Serafina fell out laughing. “You usually just post something online where they might see it. I’ll teach all of you to use the computers in the morning.”

  “What is the point of computers?” Roman asked. “Did it just house all of Rathmore’s nasty research?”

  “Well, you can store documents and photos. People use them to write books and make art. You can watch porn, or you can access information about almost anything you want to look up on the internet.”

  “They let anyone have access to all the knowledge in the world?” Roman asked. “Isn’t that dangerous?”

  Serafina just laughed. “Most people just look at porn and pictures of cats.”

  “You said porn moves now?” Amduscias said.

  “Oh, yes. I must show you. Let me see if I can find porn on one of these streaming channels. But don’t get any ideas. You all passed my Star Wars test, but none of you are getting in my pants until I’ve got birth control.”

  Space pirates and moving porn. I was learning so much about the modern world tonight.

  Chapter 22

  Fergus

  I

  stayed mostly silent during the feast and movie marathon. I still had the contents of Rathmore’s hard drive to process, and I wanted my own private celebration with my Ena. I slipped into her dreams as soon as she slipped off to sleep. As soon as she realized, she flung herself in my arms.

  “Are you upset with me, Fergus? You hardly spoke during our celebration.”

  “I didn’t experience Scorchwood the same way the four of you did. I let you celebrate your freedom together, and I was working on processing that hard drive. I thought we could have our own celebration in your dreams.”

  She ran her finger down my chest. “I want to have sex with all of you. I’ve never been around men who make me so horny in my entire life, and it was agonizing being in that filthy prison where I wasn’t about to act on it. I would fuck like a bunny with everyone tonight, but Rathmore had to go cut my implant out. If my father wants hybrid children that badly, I can’t give him what he wants. But I can’t get pregnant from dream sex. Make love to me, Fergus. Can I wish you real now?”

  I wanted to make love to her more than anything, but she needed to understand she wasn’t safe. I couldn’t hold her outside of dreams just yet.

  “I can’t be real yet, Ena. Like I was the only person who could leave Scorchwood, I’m now the only person who can get back in. I’m also the only one who can get into the Fae realm if I have to. It might be a good idea for me to go there and find out if Eiltan is acting alone or the entire Fae are involved in this plot.”

  She yanked at my tunic. “I know why we need to wait, but I can’t wait until this is over and I can have all of you in the bed at once. Make love to me, Fergus.”

  She didn’t need to tell me twice. I didn’t care how forbidden this was or how many lines I was crossing as her guardian. She wasn’t a typical charge where the rules applied to us anyway. A halfling had never had a guardian before. That was special in and of itself. What we had was also unique and stupid Fae rules shouldn’t prevent us from being together.

  I snapped my fingers, and a gigantic bed appeared. I could have snapped my fingers and rid both of us of our clothes, but I didn’t want to rush this. I wanted to cherish my first time making love to her, even if it was just in her dream.

  I kissed her gently. It was her that pulled me closer and deepened the kiss. Oh, she tested my control more than any woman when I was alive. As a member of the Royal Guard, I wasn’t allowed to marry, but I took my share of lovers from the women of the court. I may have been a hero on the battlefield and died saving my king, but I was callous when it came to women when I was still alive.

  I took them to my bed until they started getting attached, then I wanted nothing to do with them. It wasn’t because of the rules that came with being a soldier either. I slept with them and romanced them. I did everything needed to make them love me, but I never loved them.

  Not like I loved my Ena. It was almost like my punishment for how I behaved when I was alive. I finally meet a woman who is so passionate she captures my heart, but I am an ethereal being and her guardian to boot. The only way to be with her was to break every rule I’d lived by ever since becoming a guardian. I was okay with that now. I didn’t care. I loved her that much.

  She tugged my shirt off and kissed my chest. She looked beautiful in that outfit she wore to meet the king of Hell. She looked like some Victorian steampunk princess. I couldn’t resist talking to her then and telling her how beautiful she looked. She was out of the corset now. I’d dressed her in her favorite pajamas for her dream just in case she only wanted to talk. I was so glad she didn’t because I wanted to rid her of that pair of shorts and tank top and taste every inch of her.

  I said I wanted to take my time, but she was leaving little bites on my chest, and my cock was so hard it hurt. I yanked her tank top off and buried my hands in her hair to pull her into a kiss. She moaned and started stroking my cock. When I was alive and taking women to bed, I was always in control. This woman could make me throw all reason and control out the window.

  I picked her up and started walking to the bed with her. She wrapped her long legs around my waist and started nipping and sucking on my neck. Her touch set my body aflame like no other woman. It was like our fire was meant to mingle with each other.

  I fumbled onto the bed with both of us. We were both trying to rid each other of our clothing as quickly as possible. I was getting frustrated with the dress. I wanted my naked skin pressed against hers. I wanted her to come on my tongue again. I snapped my fingers and just made our clothes disappear.

  “I was wondering when you would do that,” she growled, yanking me on top of her.

  I kissed her until we were both breathless, but I wanted more. I wanted to kiss every inch of her. I started with her perfect breasts and suckled and bit her dusky nipples. Her back arched, and she pulled my hair. Her reaction to my bites was just inflaming my lust. I wanted her just out of control, as I felt. I wanted her pulling my hair and clawing my back. I wanted to hear my name on her lips as she screamed it in pleasure. I wanted to taste her. I wanted all of her.

  I dove between her thighs and tasted her sweet honey. I fucked her with my tongue before I set all my attention on her clit. I slid two fingers inside her and started massaging her g-spot. She was writhing on the bed and yanking my hair. It wasn’t enough. I wanted to hear my name on her lips. I wanted to listen to it in pleasure. I doubled my efforts. My tongue flicked harder and faster.

  “Oh, shit, Fergus!” she yelled.

  I felt her flutter around my fingers as she came. I slowly licked her clit, drawing out her orgasm for as long as possible. Only when her body stopped shuddering and she collapsed on the bed did I stop and kiss my way back to her mouth. I pulled her to my chest, and she nestled in. Her hand reached down and started stroking my cock.

  “Can I return the favor?”

  Oral sex felt good, sure, but it wasn’t my favorite. In bed, I preferred either giving pleasure or sharing pleasure. I knew a lot of Fae men liked it and demanded it without returning the favor, but that was never me. It felt selfish to have a woman on her knees pleasuring me when there were so many things we could do together.

  “I’d rather do things that feel good together. I’d like to
make love to you if you’ll allow me now. You can return the favor if it means a lot to you, but I prefer giving and sharing over only receiving.”

  She growled and bit me again. “Then make love to me, Fergus.”

  She didn’t have to ask me twice. I rolled her on her back and just stared down at her beautiful face. I would never tell her this for risk of offending her after what her father had done, but the Sunshadow women were all known as exceptional beauties in the Fae realm. She had a lot of Sunshadow features like the startling green eyes, wavy blonde hair, and pointy chin, but the features she must have gotten from her mother made her even more beautiful than the Sunshadow women to me. And she loved me back after I confessed my feelings. That was the greatest gift I had ever received in my entire life.

  It was like this surge of fire when I slid into her. Her fire got deep into my very soul. I could see flames flickering in her bright green eyes. I was sure the same was in my hazel eyes. I tried to start slow, but it was never like this with any other woman, and I’d been with Fae who controlled fire before.

  We were both out of control, and it was like being in the middle of a raging inferno. Her fire was pouring into me, and I knew mine was doing the same. She was clawing at my back, and my name was on her lips. Hers was on mine too. The only thing I was capable of was her name and telling her how much I loved her.

  I felt her flutter around my cock as she came. Her nails raked down my back, and she bit my shoulder. It just spurred my lust. I wanted to feel her come again. I reached between us and started rubbing her clit with my thumb. My orgasm was barreling at me so hard it felt like I might die when it finally hit me, but I couldn’t let it come until she did. I wouldn’t let go until we had our release together.

  It didn’t take long. I knew her signs. She bit her bottom lip and clutched my arm. I could finally let go when I felt her clamp down on my cock. I saw stars. I saw those two beautiful moons in Hell. I saw all the beauty in the realms I’d visited so far as I came so hard I nearly fainted.