by K D Grace
“It is but a small thing for me,” He said, running a tongue I couldn’t see over my flesh and parting me with slow wet kisses. “And I am most curious. Therefore, I shall do as you ask, and I shall give you the mind of God.”
I think I might have screamed as His presence moved into me, as my body stretched and spread and expanded outward like the beginning of the universe. Then, just when I was certain I would fly apart into nothingness, the world righted itself, and my body was filled completely with Him. Before I could adjust to the sensation, He spoke.
“I shall enjoy wearing the flesh of a woman.” As though it were no longer mine, my hand caressed my breasts with the awkwardness of a teenage boy, while He slowed my efforts between my legs so that He could explore the flesh He now possessed.
I felt split in two, and at the same time, for the first time in my life, I felt whole, feeling the rhythm of my heart beat, beat, beat, against the solid stone of Magda’s talisman.
“Oh yes, it shall be a pleasure for both of us, my little scribe, but only until the angel gets here,” He added quickly. “For without the angel’s body, I will never be to you more than a touch you cannot see, a caress you cannot return. I will have his flesh, possess it as my own, and then, my lovely, I may service you as you deserve.”
Chapter Thirty
Michael eased open the kitchen door of Chapel House, still miffed at Susan, who had shoved her way out of the Land Rover before he could find a parking place. The woman had no sense of self-preservation.
As he shut the door behind him, he was instantly drawn by the sounds and scent of sex, amplified by the Guardian, like a homing beacon pulling Michael to Him as surely as if He had thrown a rope around his neck and tugged him down the hall toward the makeshift guestroom where Susan had slept.
In spite of himself, in spite of the promise he had made not to feel anything, the sight of her naked and writhing on the mattress, the knowing exactly what was happening to her, how the Guardian was making her feel, stiffened Michael. The more ashamed he was that he could respond so inappropriately under such dire circumstances, the more aroused he became.
But there was little time for thoughts of his shame. It was as though a very large dog, wild with pleasure at the sight of him, suddenly overwhelmed him, nearly knocking him off his feet before wriggling and shifting and twisting until it had worked its way up inside him, right into the very centre of his heart. And then, just when he felt as though his chest would burst, just when breathing became impossible and he was on the verge of panic, the feeling spread throughout his body like a wave washing up on a beach. He was taken aback by how pleasant the experience was, though he had once known that sensation well. In fact, he had once anticipated his joinings with the Guardian more than he did his next breath.
“Michael, my darling angel, welcome home! I knew in time you would come back to me, and indeed, the timing could not be more perfect,” came the voice inside his head. “If one of us can pleasure our lovely little scribe well, how much better can we two together please her? Oh, the thought of the three of us together so delights me, my darling! I am filled with such anticipation.”
Yes, Michael thought. Yes, it delighted him too. And it made so much sense now that he thought about it, now that he could see the logic of it. How much better could they pleasure Susan together?
His cock jerked against the fly of his jeans in anticipation. Almost before he knew what he was doing, his hands were on his zipper, then awkwardly groping his cock with delight. The fact that his hand seldom left his cock when the Guardian was in residence had been one of the ways Michael could tell He was present when their relationship had gone tits-up and the Guardian had resorted to sneaking inside him while Michael slept.
Though Michael could not imagine now how their relationship could have been anything but exquisite. Surely the fault must have all been his. Or perhaps it had all been Magda Gardener’s fault. Perhaps she had lied to him about the Guardian, planted seeds of doubt in his mind about the Guardian’s love for him.
“Oh, how I have missed the feel of your manhood, lovely boy, and the many fine uses we put it to together. But back then, we had not our lovely little scribe. I can hardly contain myself with thoughts of the heights of ecstasy we three shall reach together.”
Michael shared his anticipation with a pounding pulse and a weight in his balls that was almost unbearable. It was Susan they both wanted, Susan they both loved, Susan they would pleasure together. He smiled at the thought of just how she would come, just how she would writhe and moan as they serviced her.
“I want you inside me, I want you inside me, I want you inside me,” came Susan’s breathless mantra from the mattress, and he was only too willing. Perhaps this decision was the wise one, after all. Perhaps the three of them could be happy together.
He found himself wondering how he ever could have doubted. Perhaps he would just tell the Guardian about Magda’s plan. Though the Guardian couldn’t defeat her, surely he could thwart her. Surely he could find a way to keep them safe from her so that they could be together as the Guardian had always intended.
This was his chance to make Susan happy again. Certainly she had not been happy when they’d left High View, and neither had he. After the interminable ride together from the vampire’s lair, with her too angry to even speak to him, ripping his heart out every mile of the journey, after she had shoved open the door and pushed on ahead of him as soon as they’d arrived at Chapel House, it was balm to his soul to see her writhing for him, aching for him, as he was for her.
“How shall we take her, my angel?” the Guardian asked, still fondling his cock with Michael’s hand. “What shall we do to her? Shall we pleasure her first, or punish her for leaving us, for making us suffer, for leaving us alone? She must be punished, you know.”
With borrowed eyes, He glanced down at the hand on Michael’s cock, then pulled it away and wriggled his fingers as though needing to understand how they worked. “I have never had flesh with which to punish my lovers before, with which to cause harm for betrayal. How delightful this shall be. I think that before we give her what she so longs for, before we pleasure her into unconsciousness, we should punish her the same.”
To his surprise Michael found himself dragging his belt from its loops with spastic jerks. When it was at last free in his hand, almost before he knew what he was doing, he had lit a candle that sat in a saucer on the chair which served as a makeshift nightstand. Then he held the oblong buckle of the belt over the flame until the room smelled of hot metal, while on the bed, Susan only mewled and writhed, gasping over and over for him to put it in her.
“I have never marred human flesh,” the Guardian said inside Michael’s head. “My lovers have always been only too happy to inflict the punishments on themselves at my demand. Oh, what a treat this shall be! Besides, if she wears our mark, then she won’t soon forget what happens to those who disobey us, will she, Michael?”
Even as it disturbed him, he couldn’t stop himself from kneeling on the bed next to Susan, leaning forward to press the hot metal of the buckle into her bare breast. Even as he drew nearer, she ignored the danger, as though the pain of the burn meant nothing compared to the desperation of her need as she begged him again and again to mount her. To his horror, he found that the hand not holding hot metal opened her legs for just that purpose, as if the pain of one would in no way diminish the other. Even as he cried out and tried to pull away, his body did the Guardian’s bidding, just as it had always done, even as he screamed and begged for Him to stop.
“Oh, God! Oh, Christ! No! Please no! Please, Magda! Do it now! Please do it now, only don’t let me hurt her. Dear God, please don’t let me hurt her.”
He fought his way up from under a wool blanket, in the back of a stripped-out van drenched in icy sweat, still yelling, “Magda, do it now! Please, don’t let me hurt her!” at the top of his lungs before a hard hand clamped over his mouth and he found himself staring up into Reese Chambers�
�� sun-freckled face.
“Shut up,” the man said without preamble. He looked tired and worried.
Before Michael could ask what the hell was going on, Talia climbed into the van looking nearly as tired as Reese did. As she slid the side door shut, he noticed the steeple of Chapel House looming over the row of bungalows they were parked in front of.
“Oh good, you’re both awake now,” the succubus said. “That makes my job easier. And frankly it was getting pretty tiring keeping you both dreaming. I’m good, but even I have my limits. Give her back her glasses,” she said to Reese. It was then that Michael noticed Magda sitting on the floor next to him, looking slightly worse for the wear, hands bound behind her back, eyes covered in a thick blindfold.
“What the fuck’s going on?” Michael exploded up from the floor, knocking Reese on his arse, and was surprised to find himself the victim of a well-executed leg sweep, landing him practically in Magda’s lap. Before he could even blink, Reese had him in a chokehold, and he was seeing black spots, on the edge of passing out.
“I suggest you calm down and listen, before you make Talia angry,” Reese said, barely breathing hard. “She can be rather foul-tempered when she’s tired.”
Michael tapped the floor as he’d seen wrestlers do to signify their submission. Reese loosened his grip, but just enough so that Michael wouldn’t pass out, just enough to be sure that he would keep his word. “Where’s Susan? What the hell’s going on?”
“Susan’s with the Guardian,” Magda said, taking her glasses from Talia. She waited while the succubus slipped the knot on the blindfold, then she popped them on. “It appears we’ve been sabotaged,” she nodded to Talia and shrugged. “Everything you’ve experienced up until now has only been a dream. Our resident succubus has been a busy little bee.”
“Jesus! Do you have any idea what you’ve done?” Michael had to use all of his restraint to keep from throttling the succubus, though he figured if anything, she’d be more dangerous to tackle than even Reese was.
“We’ve given her a say in the matter,” Talia said. “And if you two would have trusted her enough to do the same, you might have remembered, she’s a fucking scribe.”
“She’s untrained,” Magda added.
“Untrained, my arse. What the hell do you think she’s been doing all these years, writing stories, getting paid for a craft she was born to. All she needed was to understand what was required of her, and you two were too full of yourselves to give her that chance. If anyone could come up with an alternative to your train wreck of a plan, it would be her.”
“And your solution is to turn her over to the Guardian alone?” Michael shoved his way to his feet again. He had to get to her. He had to go to Susan. Maybe it wasn’t too late.
This time it was Magda’s hand on his arm that stayed him from opening the van door and heading straight for Chapel House. “She’s not alone.”
He froze.
“Alonso’s with her,” Talia said.
“Alonso?” He felt the burn of jealousy low in his belly. “Why?”
“Because the Guardian won’t be expecting someone who’s not… living,” Reese said. “He won’t detect Alonso’s presence unless Alonso wants to be detected.”
“And by the time Alonso reveals himself,” Talia added, “it’ll be too late.”
“He should be announcing his presence any time now,” Reese glanced down at his watch, then back up at Talia expectantly.
“That means we’ll be needing your help.” Talia nodded to Magda and Michael.
“Then perhaps you should tell us exactly what your plan is so we’ll know what to do.” Magda lifted her still bound arms slightly and winced. “I’m a captive audience.”
“I swear, if any harm comes to Susan because of what you lot have pulled, I’ll snap both your necks and stake the vampire.”
Talia offered him a bland shrug. “You’re welcome to try.” She cut through Magda’s bonds with an efficient upward slice of her Swiss Army knife.
“No harm is coming to anyone,” Reese said. “The plan’s a good one.” But Michael could see that Reese had his doubts too.
“Tell us, then.”
While the succubus shared the plan, Reese filled Styrofoam cups with tea from a flask. Michael listened in horror as the details unfolded, unaware that he had crushed the cup in his fist until Reese knelt in front of him and mopped up the spilled tea with an old towel.
“I can’t believe the goddamned vampire would drag her into something so insane. Magda, we can’t let her do this. It’s not too late. I know the Guardian will still be expecting me. We can still make this work. We’re not letting her do this. We’re not letting a vampire call the shots.”
“It was her plan,” Reese said between clenched teeth.
“Oh right, like I’m going to believe that she—”
“What?” Talia cut in. “That your little pet could actually think for herself? Did it ever occur to you that she turned to Alonso, to us, because you two shut her out, because you two wouldn’t talk to her or listen to her?”
“Lest we forget that it was your fucking big mouth that got her into this mess in the first place. I trusted you. I fucking trusted you!”
“But you didn’t fucking trust her, did you?”
“Shut up, both of you! All of you.” This time it was Magda who spoke barely above a whisper, and the van was suddenly silent. She waited until all eyes were on her, then she turned her attention to Talia. “Now, what do you need us to do?”
“Magda, you can’t mean that,” Michael said. “Dear God, you can’t really mean that.”
“The succubus is right, Michael. We should have trusted Susan. It’s a good plan. Solid.” She gave a lopsided shrug and shoved her glasses up tight against the bridge of her nose with her index finger. “It makes more sense than sacrificing you.”
Before he could argue, she raised a hand, her gaze locked on him, and he felt the chill of it down his spine. “Michael, she’ll need you more than ever once this is over, but if you can’t see that, if you can’t see this plan through, then we’ll just leave you in the damn van.” She nodded to the zip ties that had bound her. “You may be strong, but you’re not that strong.”
Just then Talia’s phone buzzed an incoming text. She peeked at it, then stuffed the device back in her jacket pocket. “He’s going in. We’ve got five minutes. Are you two in or out?”
Chapter Thirty-one
“What is this strange feeling?” the Guardian asked from wherever He was settled inside me, a place that, when I thought about it, felt like it might be just behind my breastbone. “I feel giddy, like your flesh has suddenly gotten heavier, and I can hardly keep my eyes open.”
“I’m just tired,” I said. “Having lots of sex does that to a mortal body and, though Michael doesn’t need rest, or didn’t when he was with you, it truly is one of the best parts of sex—that slide into the warm cottony afterglow of sleep after you’re well sated.”
“Then I must experience it,” He said as I yawned mightily. “Oh, Susan, I must experience it all! I had no idea just how delightful female flesh could be to inhabit. My darling, you have opened up whole new vistas for me, for us. Perhaps I shall divide my time between inhabiting your flesh and my angel’s, now that I know you are strong enough to house me. I think I should love to know what his cock feels like to you. I believe his substantial size would be a delightful pleasure thrusting up inside you.”
I only nodded and yawned again. Though I would have much preferred to stay awake, I had to sleep if the plan were to work. Talia had assured me that I would find sleep with no problem when the time came. I wasn’t sure what she had done to me, other than kiss me on the mouth and stroke me behind the ear, but it didn’t matter as long as it worked.
“Then let us experience sleep together, my little scribe. When we awaken, I shall summon our angel, and perhaps we shall punish him together for keeping us waiting.”
And we did. We slept, or at
least I thought I slept. I thought I dreamed. I thought surely it must be Talia’s doing. I drifted for a long time, aware of the foreign presence inside me, aware that it was only Magda’s talisman that kept just enough of me safe and focused. Without it I would be easily taken over by that presence.
It was the champagne bubble effervescence coursing over my entire body that roused me from deep sleep to the place almost of waking, but not quite. The feel of a feather touch raised the fine hairs on my forearms, up my spine, on the back of my neck, goose fleshing the tops of my breasts and tightening my nipples to points.
“I’m here now, my darling girl. Don’t be afraid. It will hurt but a little, and then you will feel nothing but pleasure.”
I felt myself being lifted, cradled like a child in strong, hard arms. Then I inhaled the cold wild scent of the high fells and below it earth, solid and warmed by moss and fallen leaves, and I could have wept with relief, even as fear shot along all my nerve endings.
“Scribe, why is the vampire here with us?” The Guardian’s voice was more curious than upset.
“We’re dreaming,” I mumbled. “A dream brought on by our self-pleasure, no doubt.”
“How so?”
“Perhaps you don’t crave the flesh of a vampire, but I assure you, we mortals do.”
“Why?”
“Because vampires have what we don’t—eternal life.”
“But they are dead,” He said.
“We mortals don’t see them that way. To us they’re powerful, beautiful, because they symbolize lust and virility, and we fantasize about being taken by them.”
There was a soft chuckle next to my ear and cool fingers against my bare nape, pushing my hair aside. “I did not know,” the Guardian said. “It seems very real.”
“Powerful dreams always do. Sometimes when we’re in them, it’s very difficult to tell if they’re real or not.”
“Then how do you know that this dream is not real?”
