Ringmaster

by Aurelia T. Evans

  Together, they were the main reason that children weren’t allowed at performances.

  Lord Mikhail raised the pole even higher until he could place the rubber bottom on his head. He braced it only with his grip as Lady Sasha started to use the pole not to spin but to create sculptures with her body and test the bounds of balance.

  Then Lady Sasha climbed up and stood on her hands at the top before spreading her legs into the splits. And Lord Mikhail let go of the pole.

  He turned them around to all sections of the audience to somewhat less thunderous applause than they deserved, but that was only because some hands were as occupied as Kitty’s.

  She didn’t reach under Victor’s pants to satisfy him. Even in the dark audience with less attention on her, she was still too recognizable. She couldn’t let him touch her, and she couldn’t more thoroughly touch him. But she could revel in the helpless sounds that escaped his parted lips as she gently kneaded his shaft through his jeans—little more than a tease, just like Lady Sasha.

  It wasn’t a bad thing. Lady Sasha was best as a tease, after all. When it became something more substantial, lives were lost. Same with Lord Mikhail. So the good lord could tease her with that cute ass and the outline of his amazing, half-erect cock in his leather shorts, but these particular demons were all look and no touch. Kitty was perfectly content with that. She’d learned to savor their sexual tension in ways that not even most of the other cast had figured out.

  Before the performance was over, Victor turned her face toward his and kissed her, propriety and continuity be damned. He groaned lightly into her mouth as his hips jerked and he came in his pants. She smiled and took his lip between her teeth, sucking on it through the orgasm.

  “I know some of it is them, but God, you’re amazing,” he whispered.

  “Shhh,” she whispered back playfully. “Pay attention.”

  “Is it like this every night? I don’t remember it being this intense last time,” he said.

  “Every performance, yes. You don’t remember because you didn’t know what it was,” she replied. “Now shush. The clowns are next.”

  “You mean the child-eating clowns?”

  “Doesn’t mean they’re not entertaining.”

  * * * *

  “So which of the performers you didn’t see on the Row were demons?” Kitty asked as they left the big top arm in arm. She directed them toward the trailer caravan, but they stayed near the tent to get out of the flow of foot traffic following the performance.

  “Based on the time I met that tumbler guy with the British accent, I’m guessing he’s a demon. Those men who were awfully close during their aerial act, I think they were human.”

  “Very good. Voluntary or involuntary?”

  “Just a guess…involuntary. Hard to tell.”

  “You got it.”

  “Um, I think you said something about the high-wire chick being human. Maya, right?” Victor said.

  Kitty nodded.

  “Are her illusionist tricks with Bell always that…?” Victor spread his hands as though waiting for the right word to pass by.

  “Potent?” Kitty offered. “They’re hopelessly devoted to each other as only a jinni and a human can be when they’ve fallen in love.”

  “You mean that was love?” Victor asked with a frown—troubled, intrigued and disturbed all at once.

  “Bell isn’t pure demon. There’s more than enough room in him for love, no matter how despicable he can be.”

  “So you agree that he’s despicable,” Victor said.

  “That he’s sometimes despicable, yes,” Kitty replied. “He knows what I think about some of the things that he does, including things that he’s done to Maya and for Maya that he doesn’t understand why he shouldn’t have done them. I don’t hide how I feel, and he doesn’t care that I don’t. How I feel isn’t going to change the way he does whatever he wants in Arcanium, within the framework that he’s created.”

  “How do you live with it?” he asked, stroking the soft hair on her cheek above her braided beard. “Being around this—I’m going to call it like I see it—being around this evil. Even if it isn’t evil all the time, it’s evil some of the time. How can you just sit around evil and do nothing?”

  “Because demons will do what demons do whether I’m a part of it or not. I can’t stop them, and they can’t bother me. I let it go because they serve a purpose too, just not one that I’m thrilled about,” Kitty said. “Caroline interferes. She gets punished every time, but she still does it. I don’t think she’ll be doing it for much longer. She’s not stopping the evil, just delaying it. I think she’s starting to see the balance.”

  “Balance?” Victor asked.

  “Good and evil. Without evil working its evil, good can’t work its good. Caroline is an idealistic young woman, but I’ve been around long enough to recognize that balance—and to see being cast in Arcanium as probably one of the safest ways to encounter evil in the world. Bell’s an oddity himself among demons for making it so safe. The circus is his priority, not a disguise for some kind of demon dungeon, which is supposed to be common when demons gather together like this.”

  “Is that a thing?”

  “Clive Barker wasn’t too far off with his puzzle boxes, apparently. I never inquired about the details,” Kitty replied.

  “I don’t blame you,” Victor said.

  “You’ve got a lot to think about,” Kitty said, stroking up his abdomen, which twitched under her touch.

  “I feel like my head’s going to explode,” he replied.

  “Among other things,” Kitty said, letting her hands drift lower and gently push him against the tent canvas.

  “I’m randy as a twenty year old, yeah, but…fuck, Kitty, right here?”

  Kitty had lowered herself to her knees, lifting her skirts to avoid grass stains.

  “I don’t have a condom,” he said.

  “What kind of a Boy Scout are you?” she asked.

  “I was never a Boy Scout.”

  “I didn’t ever tell you because I knew you’d never believe me, but you don’t need condoms with me. You never did. It wouldn’t do for Bell’s people to get sick…or God forbid, pregnant. I’m guessing you’ll mostly believe me now,” she said.

  “You do realize that, bareback or not, this won’t convince me to stay,” Victor said, although there was a tremble to his voice as she undid his belt buckle and his jeans. She pushed his boxer briefs down so that his cock could swing free, bobbing under its own erect weight.

  “Who said this had anything to do with that?” Kitty asked. “This is just in case you say no. Because we’re long past the point where men look at me like I’m crazy and never take my calls again, and I appreciate it.”

  She licked a line up his erection, damp and fragrant from his pre-cum and the previous climax. She mouthed him clean, digging the tip of her tongue against him to be as thorough as possible. Victor pressed the back of his wrist against his mouth. This was far less private than their usual public venues.

  What he didn’t know was that the clowns were already patrolling and would ensure that they were mostly left alone. Any of the cast that happened by would either watch quietly or ignore them. Sex was such a commonplace thing to see in Arcanium after a performance that it was hardly noteworthy.

  But tomorrow—safely tucked away from Arcanium and in the grip of firmer reality than the circus offered—all Victor’s doubts, frustrations and hatred for parts of the circus would rear up, as would his skepticism that the magic he remembered had been real. And the succubus’ grasp upon his libido would be severed.

  Weighing a decision between dying his disease’s death and joining a demonic circus would seem much easier in his normal bed, surrounded by his normal surroundings and normal people. Or perhaps indecision would be his downfall. If Bell wanted to give Victor his untwisted wish in exchange for joining Arcanium, that offer wouldn’t be on the table forever. There was a limit to Bell’s potential mercy
.

  Kitty gripped Victor’s hips as though imprinting the way he felt under her hands into her memory. She bobbed over him in a furious rhythm, humming her pleasure as his cock caressed her tongue. Lord Mikhail had left his magical mark on her too, and it was so good to have Victor in her mouth, his cock heavy and hot. She lashed her tongue over him, sucking hard up his length to the tip. The canvas of the tent resisted all efforts to give him something to hold onto, so in a last-ditch effort to ground himself, he grasped the sides of her head, shoving his cock into her mouth.

  Kitty made a choking sound, but she closed her eyes and swallowed around the head, twisting her mouth over him. She held her breath for as long as she could. When she pushed against his thighs, he released her with a strangled, “Sorry.” She jerked off him with a gasp, but she also gave him a smug smile as she took a deep breath and let him plunge back in.

  “Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck,” he murmured through gritted teeth as he lost control of his hips, fucking her face until she scratched at his thighs so that she could pull back a little.

  She wrapped her hand around the base and pumped him as she sucked and licked at the head, swallowing down the thick, hot strings of cum that spurted into her mouth.

  “God, Kitty, you’re going to be the death of me,” he said, leaning against the canvas as though he couldn’t hold himself up anymore.

  “Nonsense. I’m nowhere near the death of you,” Kitty said.

  “I guess you’d know,” Victor replied. He hissed as she lapped his softening cock clean again and tucked him into his underwear. She slowly closed his pants and his belt before accepting his help to stand.

  “I’ll walk you to your car just in case the clowns or the succubus decide to harass you,” Kitty said.

  “Um…”

  Kitty turned to see that they’d amassed a bit of a crowd. Damn. That’s what she’d been hoping wouldn’t happen. Arcanium cast had gotten over Bell and Maya by now, but apparently Kitty getting some on circus grounds was still enough of a novelty to draw an unrepentant audience.

  Bell hadn’t needed to stay in order to know it was happening, but since he was carrying Maya’s naked body so her whip marks didn’t have to touch anything, she must have told him to stop so that she could see what was going on. On a hunch, Kitty checked behind her toward the back entrance side of the tent.

  Her stomach dropped when she saw not only Ciàran with Moss on his shoulder and Lennon and Valorie beside them, but also the Ringmaster, his arms crossed over his unbuttoned jacket, which gave a peek of naked chest dusted with hair as thick and dark as on his head. His glower now was indistinguishable from his glower before, except that Kitty knew for a fact that he shouldn’t be glaring like that right after Maya’s whipping, which he looked forward to even more than Maya needed it.

  Somehow, it was more embarrassing to be caught by the Ringmaster, who was rarely out and about enough to catch anything. And just in the last twelve hours, caught twice.

  But the rest of them, with their wicked smiles, could bite her.

  “What? It’s not like none of you have seen a woman go down on a man before,” Kitty said, tucking her arm into Victor’s elbow and determinedly leading him away.

  “True. Just not you, pretty pussy girl,” Moss called after her.

  “You going to let him call you that?” Victor asked.

  “Moss has a dirty mouth, but that’s all it is,” Kitty said. “He and Ciàran are nice enough demons, especially as demons go. Besides, I’ve heard so much worse.”

  “You didn’t seem nearly as shocked as I was that they were there. Were you trying to put on a show or something? Like, your version of the evening performance, since you’re not part of it,” Victor said.

  Kitty snorted. “No. I’d hoped that we’d finish before the majority of them came out or that they’d be too involved with each other to notice that anyone else in the world existed. That was my fault. I should have led you into Oddity Row—except the clowns tend to go there first, and I didn’t want the hassle of trying to convince Murphy that you’re allowed in before Bell could intercede, especially since Bell would prefer to focus on Maya tonight.”

  “What happened to her? Her back… It looked like she’d been whipped within an inch of her life. She looked awful,” Victor said.

  “Did she look awful or just her back?” Kitty asked.

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “I mean did her expression look awful or peaceful?”

  “Are you saying she—?”

  “I’m saying different people find peace in different ways,” Kitty said shortly. Maya’s story wasn’t hers to tell.

  “Wow. I’d heard of real masochists but never saw one in the flesh before,” Victor mused.

  “It’s not that simple,” Kitty said.

  “But that’s what happens to people when they’re punished too, right? That Ringmaster guy, he whips them?”

  “That’s his role when the curtain closes and the spotlight fades. And he’s good at his job,” Kitty said.

  “That’s what happens if you try to fight.”

  “Maya got ten blows. You’d get at least twenty for attacking the demons,” Kitty said.

  “This is normal for you, isn’t it? All this is normal. That’s how you can talk about it as though it’s nothing. This is just another night.”

  “This is Arcanium,” Kitty replied. “Its rules aren’t complicated.”

  “Just because they’re simple doesn’t mean they’re good,” Victor responded.

  “I never said they were.”

  “How many whippings have you had?” Victor asked, stopping them at the gate.

  “None,” Kitty said. “Voluntaries have fewer rules, though. As long as we show up on time, do our job and don’t get in the way of the clowns, the sex demons or the Ringmaster, we’re not going to get punished.”

  Victor lowered his eyes. He reached across the gap between them and took her hands in his like a man about to go down on one knee, but instead of nervous, he looked sad.

  “I know this is home for you. Okay. I can accept that. But is it all worth it?” Victor asked. “Leaving the world to hide here for…for what? Forever?”

  “Nothing is good all of the time,” Kitty replied, squeezing his hands. “It’s hard leaving home and family. You’ll have it harder than I did, since my family knows I’m alive and traveling the side roads of this godforsaken country. I don’t know whether it’ll be worth it for you. There won’t be any death by disease here. Or you can have one more year with your family and friends. Three more years? Five more years? Ten more years?”

  “Of draining every last resource they have,” Victor muttered. “Right before my parents’ retirement.”

  “But still with them,” Kitty said. “For some people, that’s worth the shorter lifespan—and the money.”

  “Would you do it? If you were me?” Victor said.

  “Why would you ask me that? I can’t tell you that. I don’t know you well enough to tell you,” Kitty said, stroking the hair at his temples.

  He pressed his forehead to hers. “If I do join, you’ll get to know me a whole lot better,” he murmured.

  “Victor.”

  He looked up.

  “Make this choice for you,” she said. “Don’t think of this as the demonic version of an engagement. We meet twice a year. We enjoy each other’s company for those few weeks. But I assume you have other women you’re with during the year. You already know I’m with other men.”

  He gave a half-shrug in assent. “And now I know why.”

  “I like my space and my privacy, and I like spending my time with people when I choose to. You join Arcanium, that doesn’t mean you get all my space, my privacy and my time,” Kitty said. “You’ll probably get more than you did before, because I like you. But we’re not going to be banging like gorillas twice every night, sex demons or no sex demons. I have other kinds of obligations, plus my obligation to myself.”

  �
��No, I get it,” Victor said. “Extremely close quarters, tightknit group, lots of people crowded around you during circus days. I understand the need for alone time.”

  “I know it sounds like the height of narcissism, but I just want to make sure that you don’t choose to join because of me. It has to be because it’s what you want, whether I’m here or not. I wanted you to know that you had another option with your disease. That’s all.”

  “You, narcissistic,” Victor said. He cupped her cheek in his hand and kissed her sweetly, like a first kiss on a porch before saying goodbye. “That’s as far from the truth as possible. You basically uprooted your whole day just to tell me I could do this. You don’t even know whether I will.”

  “I already told you I’m not nice, Victor,” Kitty said. “I’m selfish as hell sometimes.”

  “We’re human. It happens,” he replied. “You’re allowed to be selfish now and then.” He kissed her again. “I’ll keep all of it in mind. Every last bit of it, even the stuff I don’t want to think about. How long do I have to figure this all out?”

  “Knowing Bell, not long,” Kitty said. “We leave before dawn not this Monday but next Monday morning. I’m guessing that’s when this deal’s off the table, if Bell’s open to being generous at all.”

  “So I have a little over a week,” he muttered.

  “Not a lot of time for such a big decision, is it?” Kitty said. “Especially when you’ll never be able to take it back. I don’t envy you.”

  “Well, even if it was an easier decision for you, it was still a big decision,” Victor said. He forced himself to step away from her. “And if I say no, if I don’t join Arcanium, can we still… You’ll still call me, right?”

  “No question,” Kitty said. “Good men are really hard to find in this world. I’m not letting you get away that easily.”

  He smiled, the expression surprisingly boyish in a face that, underneath his healthy tan, was beginning to show the strain of chronic disease, in addition to the usual etchings of age.

  The golems were waiting for him to leave so they could lock up after him. They weren’t cognizant enough to be impatient, but they were motionless enough to be creepy just standing there, staring. Victor opened the gate and stepped out, but he reached through the bars to briefly take her hand again as the golems wrapped the chain around the doors.