Demonic Power

by Rena Marks

  Ace pushed her onto her back, covering her with his body as he plunged his thick cock into her.

  “You are so damn sexy when you come,” he muttered, looking down at her as he thrust his cock into her sensitive flesh.

  “I want my legs over your shoulders,” she murmured. “I want you to see my pussy as you thrust in and out.”

  He grabbed her legs hurriedly, throwing them up and over. It changed her position, and his eyes glowed as he looked down at the feast he’d sucked to completion.

  “You’re insatiable,” she murmured.

  “So are you, baby. I want to come home one day to see you masturbating, your fingers deep inside yourself.”

  “I want to go out to lunch again. And I want to be fingered under the table until I cream all over your hand.”

  His cock pulsed within her.

  “Baby, you’re going to make me come so hard,” he groaned.

  “Come deep inside me, Ace. But next time I want you to come all over my ass, so it drips down my slit.”

  “Fuck!” he roared, slamming into her. His hot ejaculation spread throughout her like molten lava, coating her and marking her as his.

  He dropped his head onto her shoulder, panting against her. He pressed kisses onto the top of her breast as his heart calmed.

  Holly caressed Ace’s slick back, kneading the muscles there lovingly. But something was wrong.

  He hadn’t said he loved her back. There was something she was missing here. He had to love her too. Didn’t he?

  Who laid their heart out and admitted to loving someone without the other person saying it back? Had she misread the situation and totally blown it? Didn’t he say he was laying his heart out for her?

  “We need to feed you, little human.” His voice rumbled.

  “Let’s go raid the fridge,” she said casually, hoping he’d forgotten about her declaration of love.

  “Mmm. But I think we should go out. Get you a little more exposure to the demons who live here.”

  He rolled up off her and stood over her. He reached a hand out. “Come on, baby. Let’s go have dinner in town, where people can see you. Start the fear working.”

  They shared the shower, making it quick. Holly was afraid to open the conversation to anything deeper than casual.

  They dressed silently, and Ace waited for her at the front door. Together they walked out of the gate that marked his yard. A few steps down the walkpath, and they arrived at the hilltop, where one could see farther out. Holly shivered.

  “What’s wrong?” Ace asked.

  “I can’t get used to it. How different things are. Every night.”

  Ace shrugged, holding her to him. “I don’t see it. Of course I’ve been here all my life.”

  He released her and took a step forward.

  She slipped her hand into his, following him. “Wait.”

  No sooner had she said the word than the world changed. It was like they’d taken a step into a bubble of swirling, condensed air that slowly thickened around them.

  “Shit,” Ace snapped. “We’re in a portal, Holly.” He turned to look behind them, but it was too late. The gate had closed, leaving them in a continually shifting bubble.

  “How can we have entered? I didn’t see anything.”

  “We were tricked. The boundaries shifted in a split second. It has to be Enishka, though I don’t know how.”

  Up ahead, the swirling air made it difficult to see through. Still, Holly peered. “Ace,” she yelled as the volume of the wind increased. “Those are lunatics. From an Earth asylum.”

  She’d seen enough of them to know, to recognize the scrubs and the straitjackets tied around the waists. The crazy people were trudging ahead, the wind blowing against them.

  Ace turned her away from the psychos. “Come on,” he yelled, grabbing her hand.

  They forged forward, running through the wind tunnel as best they could. As far as she could tell, they were getting nowhere fast, but it was getting louder with the winds howling around them, whipping her hair every which way. The crazy people were still behind them, taking their own sweet time. Suddenly it dawned on Holly—the psychos knew there was nowhere to run. Eventually they would catch up.

  “Where are we heading?” she gasped.

  “We’re looking for the other edge of the portal,” he yelled. “There!”

  The edges of the portal were blurry lines between realities. Ace ran to it, shifting so she was behind him, protected by his larger frame.

  He stopped abruptly when the wall hardened, and Holly slammed into his back. He turned, sheltering her within his arms.

  “The portal won’t close until someone goes through,” he said, yelling to be heard over the wind.

  “But we don’t know where it leads out?”

  “It’s Earth on the other side,” he said. “See the insane ones waiting there?”

  “Why are they there?”

  “Apparently Enishka called them to grab you there and hold you.”

  “But they’re on both sides of us!”

  The ones that had been chasing them weren’t moving very fast through the cutting wind, but then they didn’t need to. There was nowhere else to go. They were trapped.

  Holly took a deep breath. “How will we close it?”

  “When they get closer to us, I’ll drag one of them through it, as soon as the edges stop wavering.”

  She could still see the lines between the realities blurring. But as they became stronger, the lunatics behind them on Earth tried to cross through, arms held out like zombies.

  One was almost inside.

  “Holly, that dark spot!” Ace yelled. “It’s Luciefyiore!”

  Where had it come from? It wasn’t there a minute ago. But right now it shimmered like a black hole.

  “Jump!” Ace yelled, letting go of her hand.

  Through the portal she leaped. She jumped across the ditch, and the ground on the other side rose to meet her. But it wasn’t as soft as it appeared. She landed painfully, dropping and rolling. The air was knocked from her lungs, leaving her gasping. Still, she wrenched her head up to look behind her.

  Where was Ace?

  He hadn’t jumped with her.

  She turned just in time to see him, in the blurry cutout in the sky, watching her. From behind him, hands grabbed, just before the portal blinked out.

  * * * * *

  Dammit, how could she forget? Ace had said the portal wouldn’t close until someone went through.

  A human had to go through, not demon. That was the whole reason why Enishka used crazy people.

  Ace had let her assume he was going to shove a lunatic through. But apparently he didn’t think she’d be safe among them once they all attacked. He sacrificed himself for her, and somehow she had to get him back.

  Holly slowly stood.

  She was stranded in a strange place, where it was dark and confusing. She had to find her way to the safety of Ace’s house. She curled her fists in frustration. Damn him. He had known he was going to sacrifice himself to close the damn portal.

  Maybe Natalya and Jere could help. Maybe she could find the kingdom. Or the court. Whatever the damn place was called. The castle in the middle of the field.

  She looked around. Nothing looked right. Now even the portal was gone, so she couldn’t be sure if it had been behind her or in front.

  Even though she knew she had to hurry, it might be best to look in the morning. She limped alongside the ditch wandering and wondering. Hoping she was heading in the right direction.

  Eventually the area began to look familiar. Wait, she’d been here before. It wasn’t Ace’s neighborhood, but…oh.

  It was the vicinity of where she’d been abducted by the two demons after she’d touched the Valnaeus root.

  She was an idiot, wandering into even more danger. She paused, looking around to find her bearings.

  Rose petals were scattered across the ditch.

  Roses. She took a deep breath, reme
mbering the laughing rose from earlier. It had bullied the wildflowers and now here it was, shredded to pieces.

  Ace had told her just an hour earlier…bluster. Never show your fear in Luciefyiore.

  The seed of an idea planted itself in her brain.

  The demon kidnappers had been bounty hunters. Rivals of Ace. They would be angry at her, but their fear might be greater. Either of her power, or that she would tell how the two had been together.

  In either case, those two would get her to Enishka. And from there she’d find Ace.

  She didn’t have a plan to rescue both of them. But she was sure Enishka would agree to release him for her cooperation. After all, the demon lord wanted her.

  The sound of laughter and music echoed up ahead. Rows of round tables were scattered around. Holly stood, looking around at the sea of faces. Something dawned on her at that very moment.

  Demons were cliquish. All demons sat at a table of demons with the same color horns. Red-horned demons sat together. Blue-horned. Gray.

  And farther ahead…gold. Holly narrowed her eyes and stomped full ahead.

  Both the demons she sought sat with their backs toward her, though the other demons at the table watched her approach.

  She made her voice strong and hard. “Carinsyn. Belzar. You remember me. I’m Holly.”

  The men jumped to their feet, ignoring the rest of the group they’d been sitting with. “What the hell are you doing here?” Belzar said.

  “I’d like to talk to you both. Now.”

  “Who’s this?” asked one of the demons, looking her up and down appreciatively.

  “No one,” snapped Carinsyn.

  “A walk?” Holly asked, eyebrows raised. “To…talk,” she said mockingly.

  Carinsyn and Belzar met each other’s eyes then hurriedly strode to either side of her. They took her elbows, and a burn came from the skin contact. Ignoring the pain, Holly planted her feet in the ground.

  “Hands off. You don’t want to piss me off.”

  The rest of the demons at the table looked surprised at her strong tone, as if she should have run by now. But she had to set the rules. Show them who was in charge. Show no fear. Show no pain.

  But neither one dropped her arm. So she whispered, “Maybe we should just talk here, then. Really loud.”

  The burn stopped when the contact was abruptly removed. Apparently they had been trying to intimidate her, and one of them had the power of burning pain upon contact.

  “Wise choice,” she said in a smart-ass tone like her arms weren’t still throbbing.

  They moved down the sidewalk, a demon still on either side of her, but all three avoiding contact.

  “What do you want?” snapped Carinsyn when they were far enough to not be overheard.

  Holly tried to look bored. What was it that Natalya did? Holly mimicked her…by studying her cuticles slowly. She counted to ten mentally then spoke again. “When you took me, what did you intend to do with me?”

  “Get rich,” he sneered. “Sell the human off to Enishka. I was sure you were her.”

  “Well, I need you to get me there anyway.”

  “Riiight,” muttered Belzar. “Who would be willing go to the moon of their own free will?”

  “Your opinion doesn’t matter. You either do as I ask, or you’ll have to make sure you two are never in a room alone. Because you never know when I’ll sneak up behind you and blow a little kisssss…”

  She moaned the word and a tingle came from the roots of where her horns should be.

  “Stop,” roared Belzar. “It’s a deal.”

  Easier than expected. And she owed it all to Ace, because he had been the one to teach her how to control the power. In fact, he’d been the one to teach her she had a power.

  “We’ll take you back to Ace’s. He has a license to grow Valnaeus. You touch it, and when you’re out cold, we’ll contact Enishka.”

  “Why do I have to be unconscious?” she said, suspicion in her voice.

  “Are you kidding?” Carinsyn said. “He’s insane. He’ll smell a trap, especially when a demoness arrives instead of a human. With you unconscious, we can pretend a mistake was made. Hopefully he won’t flip off the deep end at us.”

  Ace had been right. The stigma of a male-male relationship was dreaded enough to make the demons agree to face the wrath of the demon king. What a crazy, mixed-up place.

  “Okay. I’ll touch it.”

  Chapter Seven

  Err on the Side of Caution

  Holly came awake slowly, wondering where she was. She couldn’t see. The world was covered in thick gauze.

  No, not gauze…it was a smoky mist, a fog without moisture. Almost like a thick haze of black smoke…yet it wasn’t burning. And she lay on the ground, not a ground of dirt like home or even in Luciefyiore, but a strange, spongy surface covered in finely ground powder.

  Aware of voices, she sat up.

  What the hell was she wearing? A black gown, nipped in at the waist and strapless. Ugh, a Luciefyiore creation, the skirt was a series of slits clear up past her hips to her waist. If she walked fast, everything would show, because chances were, there was nothing underneath.

  A demon in a hooded robe stood next to her. Although she couldn’t see his eyes, from the angle of his hood, his job was to watch over her. He tapped his staff three times, signaling her arousal to someone who sat on a throne of strategically placed boulders.

  The enormous demon sitting on his pretend throne reminded her of a huge Jabba the Hutt. He turned his massive head away from her in order to see her.

  His whole head had to turn, because his eyes were located on the sides of his face…near his temples. It was the only position in which he could see her.

  Shock made her gasp. He was a monstrosity. Not just the misplacement of his features, but of him as a whole. His horns were huge and massively thick, curled like those of a ram. His nose was widened with all the extra space between his eyes and his thin-lipped mouth was a tiny round hole. The top of his head was slightly pointed, like an egg.

  “You must be Holly. It’s about time you woke up, you lazy demoness.” The demon lord spoke in a singsong, as if he wasn’t fully sane.

  He stood suddenly, throwing his hands up in the air and yelling at the night stars. “Lazy, lazy. After all I’ve done for her! Does she even stand in my presence?”

  The robed demon used his staff to poke her harshly in the upper thigh. She looked at the area where his face should have been. As he moved slightly, the shadow masking his features lifted for the briefest moment.

  His flesh was crawling, alive with wriggling worms of decay, and he hissed at her. A piece of his lip fell off, dropping at the ground near her.

  She jumped to her feet, afraid of the contact with the rot.

  Off in the distance, Enishka clapped his hands. They were long fingered and hairy, with several knuckles spanning them, like the legs of a spider.

  “Oooh, she does love me!”

  He stomped his foot. Except there was no foot there, for the bottoms of his legs ended in claws. The long, curved toenails clicked on the rocks below. “And lookie, she’s dressed in wedding finery.”

  “I didn’t dress myself!”

  “Nonetheless, wearing the finery means you’ll have to marry.”

  Marry? This was the prophecy—how he’d nabbed Keara. He’d forced her to marry him, but made a mistake somehow? One that he would rectify with her?

  “Someone dressed me! I have nothing else to wear!”

  A long, skinny demon made a show of prancing by, naked. He turned to face her, stroking himself rudely, then turned, wriggling his ass as he walked away.

  “I will not go naked!” she snapped.

  Enishka smiled condescendingly. “As you wish, my sweet child.”

  A muffled sound came from her left. A man was tied, wrapped like a mummy, face away from her. But his horns had protruded in defense. He mumbled again, trying to tell her something.

  Sh
e’d know those green horns anywhere.

  She ran to Acel, ignoring the Rot Demon next to her. She reached Ace’s side, turning his head.

  His eyes were huge, looking past her. A gag was around his mouth, preventing him from saying anything. He was trying to tell her something with his eyes. She couldn’t figure out what before the Rot Demon reached out with the hooked end of his staff and caught her around the neck.

  She gagged, reaching up to insert her fingers underneath the hook. The Rot Demon was forcing her to stand. Blood poured from her fingers.

  No, not her fingers.Her neck. The staff had sliced her throat.

  She stood, knowing if she didn’t, she’d be beheaded.

  Ace was going crazy, squirming within his ties next to her, watching the blood continue to flow through her fingers. The Rot Demon kicked his head, and Ace was still.

  Glowing dots swam before her eyes, swirling, growing until they resembled tiny, pixielike people. Winged figures. Fairies.

  No, the fairies were real. One flew directly to her, hovering and buzzing like a bee. Her flaxen hair was the length of her entire body. She was dainty and delicate, with tiny fingernails sharpened to daggers. When the creature spoke, she had a mouth full of sharp teeth, filed to triangular points.

  “Are you human? I can’t tell. You seem like you are. But yet you’re somehow demon too.”

  Holly couldn’t speak, not with the staff around her throat. The fairy creature faced the Rot Demon, who dropped the staff and turned to flee. Pieces of him dripped off in his haste.

  The chatter of the demons present had ceased. Whatever these fairies were, the tiny winged creatures scared them. Even Enishka was subdued.

  Still, he spoke. His voice was the most sane it had been yet, pleasantly modulated. “She’s completely demon.”

  The fairy turned her head toward him. “She has no horns.”

  Enishka had no response.

  The fairy flew closer toward her, landing on her upper chest. The tiny being was heavier than she appeared, landing with a thump. She lapped at the blood pooled onto Holly’s breastbone.

  When she flew away, her mouth was bright red. And her teeth were bared in a wicked smile, sharp, little pointed teeth, double rowed, like those of a shark.