And that would make him…a clerk? I couldn’t help the smile that spread across my face. He must have picked up my thoughts because he sighed heavily.
“Oh sure, laugh it up,” he told me somewhat bitterly. “You have no idea what a temptation you were. Unfulfilled contracts aren’t easy to come by.”
“I’m sorry Kit; it’s just hard to picture you standing behind the DMV counter processing paperwork. Here I was thinking Hell was an exciting place full of torture and dammed souls and orgies and I can’t even think what all,” I teased him.
“It is, if you were once human and sold your soul! Or one of the more powerful Demons, but for the rest of us it’s just a nine to five job with the annual two weeks vacation. Unless you land a contract, which can get you out of this place permanently.”
“Ah Kit,” I asked, glancing around the room. “If you don’t like it why did you bring me back here?”
“Because I used up my vacation getting your name on the contract and until I fulfill my portion I’m not free to stay topside.”
He’d used his vacation? But he’d only been there a day. Oh yeah … must be that time differential thing. “And what happens if you don’t teach me something soon?” I asked, starting to worry slightly.
“Let’s just say I won’t be going back to my clerk job,” he muttered from beneath his arm.
I thought about that for a moment. I actually liked Kit. Aside from the fact that he could be a pest at times, he was still likeable. And I couldn’t help feeling a bit empathetic with him; after all I’d been a hunter for years but had to keep a boring day job to hide myself amongst the population. Not that it was anywhere nearly as terrible as working as a clerk must be. Still it was a menial job and I could relate to the boredom that created. Could I really let him get into trouble because he’d stolen my contract and tried to better himself? Yet if we managed to fulfill his portion, then I’d be stuck with him for life. Would that be such a bad thing? At least he had a wicked sense of humor and interesting skills. Plus he’d belong to me, which meant hopefully I could make him behave, or at least I hoped so. Having made up my mind, I nudged him with my knee. “Okay, take off the chains and I’ll cooperate.”
He moved his arm off his face and turned his head back to me. “You mean you want to keep me?”
“Yes I do, my word on that. But I need to read the contract first and the two of us need to agree on what it will mean to us. But first give me back my clothes and take these chains off me.”
Eager now that he’d gotten my promise, he sat up, snapped his fingers and my dress and top were back where they belonged. I sat up and reached for the contract. He didn’t try to stop me. Surprisingly it was written in English and I scanned through the entire document, biting my lip and frowning in several places. Apparently he’d given me the gist of it. The only thing that really stood out was that I’d need to use him. And not just to create havoc amongst the humans. No, I was actually gaining a…dare I say it…playmate. With all rights and privileges granted to me for as long as I lived. Apparently this wasn’t an open-ended contract, but actually quite finite. He became my problem, end of story. And I could do with him whatever I wanted as long as I actually used him. Had this gone to a pain or vengeful demon I could only imagine the type of destruction I could have caused. Not that a Lust Demon was going to be any better, but at least we should be able to minimize the effects. Fortunately for me there didn’t seem to be a time limit as to when I began using him.
I also thought I understood why he’d been angry earlier when we hadn’t had intercourse. Apparently one of the stipulations was that if he wasn’t strong enough to seduce me into pleasure then the contract was null. Of course the contract didn’t indicate exactly what type of pleasure he was supposed to seduce me into. Obviously my admitting he had pleasured me was enough to kick start the process. Had that not been the case, the consequences could have been very bleak for Kit.
He was sitting up watching me intently as I finished, rolled up the scroll and handed it back to him. First things first and I mentally yelled for Mi. Kit jumped on the bed and I glanced at him and raised one eyebrow. “You do want my help, don’t you?” I asked him calmly. When he nodded, I folded my legs and silently sat waiting.
Luckily Mi didn’t keep us waiting long and she appeared on the bed in front of me looking extremely displeased and started right in. “You do realize they are nearly berserk upstairs right?”
I nodded and waved my hand at her. “I can’t help that right now. I need to know if you ever did to me what someone did to Owen,” I asked rather abruptly. It had come to me that having Lust Demon in my blood would have been a difficult thing to deal with as a child, let alone as a teenager, and it might account for why I’d felt like I was five up until about six months ago. Maybe I was breaking through some of my blockage.
Mi sat down and glanced between Kit and myself. Her amber eyes taking their time perusing Kit’s naked body before she turned back to me and nodded. “When you were a baby you started attracting…all sorts of interesting creatures. It got so bad you’re Mother and I agreed to… ah… restrain you mentally.”
“And you didn’t think to say something to me about it?” I asked, not really upset. On top of everything else I actually could understand how that might have been more than either of them could deal with. But it did annoy slightly that they hadn’t mentioned it to me when I’d moved in with Mi. After all at the time I was really feeling like a freak, can you imagine, twenty four years old and no sex drive?
“Your Mother and I agreed that the best course of action was to let you find yourself on your own.”
“What?” That just sounded lame.
“You would have preferred wondering if Jace and Gareth wanted you for you, or because you had Lust Demon in your blood?”
Oh well, when she put it that way perhaps it wasn’t such a bad thing. “Okay I agree,” I told her, nearly taking the wind out of her sails by being so agreeable. She actually opened her mouth, then closed it abruptly. I’m sure she wasn’t expecting that response from me. Beside us on the bed, Kit looked very excited and I could tell he was having a problem restraining himself from interrupting. “But now? Can you fix me now?”
She glanced between Kit and myself and nodded. “But I’m not sure this is the best place to do that,” she said, glancing around the room with a grimace on her face. “It’s Hell here, Lexi, are you certain you want to risk attracting something you can’t handle?”
I chewed my lip and stared back at her, then looked at Kit, who’d gone from excitement to horror at the thought. “Kit can’t leave again, and I can’t leave him here, until I learn something from my powers which will seal the bargain my Father made and release him topside with me.”
Mi tilted her head to the side and didn’t say anything.
I chewed a little more and then asked, “Do you know how my powers work? What they are?”
“Of course,” she replied. “As an infant you could move objects and creatures were just naturally drawn to you. It wasn’t a bad thing; at first we didn’t think anything of it since you were such a beautiful baby. But eventually we realized it was something more than cute rosy cheeks and your golden reddish hair that was drawing attention. That, and the fact that your Father contacted your Mother via a dream. She wasn’t too happy with him, as I recall.”
I nodded and asked, “So can either of you teach me the basics to moving something with my mind, something small that I can do quickly. Can you help me remember back to the time when I could move things? I think if we do this quickly we can get out of here and back where we belong before anything bad happens.”
“I think if you raise your shields first, then when I unblock you we can prevent any broadcasting.”
“Both shields or just my lower one?”
“I think just the crystal one, but to be safe let’s use both.” I raised my shields and waited. Mi glanced at Kit and said, “I believe you need to do this or the credit will
go to me instead. That won’t help either of you.”
Kit nodded and moved onto his knees. He snapped his fingers, and in his hand was small perfect gold statue of a Dragon. In fact it looked a lot like me and I smiled. He placed the Dragon on the bed and gave me a serious look. “When the Merecat does whatever she is going to do to you, I want you to look at this Dragon and picture it in your hand.”
“Do I need to snap my fingers?” I asked, having noticed that Kit did that whenever he wanted something.
He nodded thoughtfully. “If it makes you focus more easily.”
“Then you don’t need to snap your fingers?”
He smiled sheepishly and replied, “No, I only do it for effect.” That made me smile. “Just picture the Dragon, the weight of it in your hand, and imagine it moving from the bed to your hand. Just as quickly as you move the object we’ll be gone from here,” he assured me.
Mi stood and moved toward me around the Dragon. She glanced between Kit and me and I nodded my head at her. “Concentrate,” she told me, and then she reached up with a paw and brushed my temple. “Remember.” Her touch blew away my upper shield, leaving my crystal one intact.
The room shifted and I was looking at Kit and the red haze that surrounded him. “Wait,” I breathed, as I glanced at Mi and realized she was wrapped in an opalescent glow of her own. “I can see your auras!”
Kit glanced at Mi and grabbed the contract as the bell sound rocked the room again, just as it had in the elevator. As Mi disappeared, Kit’s face split into a huge grin. I reached for the Dragon as he snapped his fingers and my world lurched. I was briefly surrounded by lights of all colors just before everything tilted and I plopped down in the middle of Jace and Gareth’s living room on one of their sofas.
Then there was yelling and I was yanked off the couch into Gareth’s arms, and I’m fairly certain I flashed everyone in the room as my top climbed above common decency. Kit had reverted to wolf shape and was sitting on the floor with his tongue lolling out, his red eyes dancing joyfully. Clenched in my fist was the golden Dragon and I squeezed it tightly, realizing I’d just bound a Demon to myself for life.
The Dragon flowed around my right hand and shifted into a little golden bracelet which wrapped around my wrist and fastened itself there with an ominous snap. I stared at it for a second, then got distracted again by Gareth, who didn’t want to part with me, even to Jace, who had elbowed his way to me and gently detached me from Gareth so he could feel for himself that I was really there. Apparently we’d been gone for over and hour and the two of them were beside themselves with worry.
Cursed and Amras weren’t much better, but it was Owen that surprised me the most. Apparently he’d tried going after us and been rejected from Hell and he was not at all happy with Kit. Not too surprising, except he’d mentioned going to his brother for help. That in itself didn’t surprise me as much as the fact that his brother, Odin, wasn’t all that happy to see him strolling the chambers of Valhalla. That little tidbit nearly sent me into a flurry of questions which I just managed to restrain myself from asking. There would be time later to pull him aside and get his story.
They all seemed relieved to see me but all of them wanted to kill Kit. I’m sure if I hadn’t been there to stop them, they might have tried too. Most of them settled down though, when I informed them that I had not been hurt, we had not had sex, and Kit now belonged to me, lock stock and barrel. And… neither one of us would be returning to Hell, ever. My news seemed to create mixed feelings, since Owen, Amras, and Cursed hadn’t forgotten our conversation in the elevator earlier and must have still been hoping Kit had paved the way, so to speak, for them.
Jace was the first to tell me that they had heard the bell and the next thing they knew the others were telling them that I had disappeared with Kit in a most disturbing way. Then he admitted he’d called for Mi when Owen had been unable to track us.
I told them that Kit had needed to return to Hell and had taken me with him, and it wasn’t until I could see auras that we’d returned. That little gem got Kit some dirty looks, all of which he ignored. He’d moved to one of the couches and was lounging across it, his black and silver hair getting everywhere, as he watched the group with what appeared to be extreme satisfaction.
The most interesting part of the situation was that every man in the room’s aura was dark green except for Kit, who had remained the same color of red-orange it had been earlier. I wondered if red-orange wasn’t the color of Lust? And if I looked in the mirror if my own aura might be that color too? Just thinking about it made me suck in a breath and freeze, causing everyone else in the room to also.
“What is it?” Gareth demanded, his aura shifting from green to yellow. Wow! This aura thing was kind of cool. I glanced around the room and everyone else’s auras were changing to different hues. I’d have to check with Kit to find out what they all meant.
I wasn’t certain I wanted to blurt it out, but as I glanced around the room I decided if anyone needed to know it was because of them. “Mi showed up and she did to me what she did… to Owen,” I finished rather lamely.
I was sitting on the couch with Jace on one side and Gareth on the other. Amras and Cursed were facing us on the other side of the coffee table and Owen was seated in one of the chairs to my left. Kit had taken the couch across the room and had his head on his paws, his wine colored eyes glued to me.
“What exactly does that mean?” Jace asked, as Gareth tensed on the couch next to me.
I took a deep breath and leaned back against the cushion. “I’m not certain but I think it means…. I am going to be more trouble than we imagined.”
Kit made cuff cuffing noises which I took to be his wolf laugh. Cursed glanced at him thoughtfully but the rest of them simply ignored him until he replied, “It means the Cat released her and now she’s going to have to learn how to control the Lust Demon parts of her.”
Just mentioning ‘lust’ made me think it, and that caused a ripple effect, which I could now see flowing out from me like red-orange waves through the air and brushing everyone in the room. Beside me Gareth and Jace growled. Amras, Cursed and Owen all stiffened as if this wasn’t the first time they’d been hit by lust. All three of them looked just short of frantic and managed to hold it together, although all of them clenched their fists. Kit simply lifted his head and licked his lips. “Ahh… I think I’m going to need to um… so sorry about that, guys.” I squeezed my eyes shut as all of their auras turned a bright red-orange, just like Kit.
Cursed sucked air in through his teeth. “Interesting,” he replied softly.
“Please don’t do that again,” Jace whispered next to me.
I turned to him and gave him a sickly smile. “I didn’t do it on purpose.”
“Even so, is there no way to control it, whatever it is?” Gareth breathed. He was slightly bent at the waist and leaning his elbows on his thighs. He looked like he was in pain and I wondered if lust worked hardest on those that enjoyed sex often or those that hadn’t had it in…a very long time.
“Can we not test that theory?” Owen asked calmly. He of all of them seemed the least affected, his aura merely a light red, maybe that was because he’d been exposed to Frigga, his brother’s wife, and if memory served correctly, she was the Goddess of Fertility and Love. So perhaps a little lust couldn’t compare.
“Don’t sell yourself short,” Owen told me quietly. “Without lust there is no love and fertility becomes a painful duty.”
“Well said,” Kit responded, drawing all eyes to himself. “The trick is how to control Lexi’s new power, which I must say is more intense than I’d dreamed. Not quite full Demon strength, but remarkably powerful, all things considered.”
All things considered? Like the fact that I was part Elf, part Dragon with just a breath of Lust Demon? I could feel the new power in me; it was like a pale red haze over my senses saturating everything except my shields. Circling my mind, looking for something, a hiding place maybe? Perhaps
I just needed a place to put it, like Goldy in her cave? Having thought this I glanced up at Kit, who winked back at me and lowered his head back onto his paws.
“Amras, can you help me?” I asked, turning to the Elf with a plea in my eyes. “I need to… construct a shelter or a shield.”
The Elf stepped forward and went down on one knee. I could see the beaded sweat on his brow and realized he was struggling to control his desire. If he dropped his shield… Cursed stepped forward and placed his hand on Amras’ shoulder. On the couch I leaned forward and slowly lowered my crystal shield. Beside me Gareth and Jace reached for me almost involuntarily. Amras rocked back and Cursed leaned forward. Owen grasped the armrests as if to hold himself in his chair.
Then Amras and Cursed were both in my mind. Their touch was cool and impersonal. “You must form a binding circle” Amras whispered, and I wasn’t certain if he spoke aloud or only in my mind. “To do so you must…” and then he showed me. It was like building another shield, only it looked and felt like the funnel of a tornado, reaching down into the area of my mind that was creating the lust. At the end, he was straining toward me while Cursed held him back. But I had a new shield, one that was shiny and light red and rolled like a storm on the sea. Before he drew back he showed me how to open a portal that I could walk through, or open, to let out the lust that swirled like a roiling boiling storm inside of my funnel. And when he was done he slumped to the floor, his head resting against his thighs. Everyone in the room breathed a sigh of relief except Kit, who had shifted to his human form, crossed his arms and legs, and shot a disgusted look at Amras’ bent head.
I would have gone to Amras to thank him, but Jace held me back. A hand on my arm and a look in his eye that indicated unless I wanted to relieve his suffering, it was best not to touch him just yet.
The thought that I had caused him, or any of them, physical pain was like a knife in me and I bit my lip, pressing back into the couch, rethinking my situation. I wasn’t certain how long we could go on like this. It just didn’t seem fair to any of them.
Dragon Lust Page 32
