“No, Alyssa.” He gave me a small humorless smile. “Us. Those were human crusades against us. And I fought against humans.”
“You fought humans?”
“Sometimes other demons too, but rarely. Mostly humans. For as long as I can remember until recently, until the treaty was signed and the new order had been established.”
“Those must have been very bloody battles, Sytrius. More like a slaughter, really. Humans are so much weaker than you physically. They wouldn’t have stood a chance…”
He exhaled slowly, avoiding my eyes.
“Yes. It was a slaughter. Most of my waken memories are of killing soldiers on the battlefield or murdering monks who hunted those of us in Deep Sleep. They believed there was a way to kill us for good and practiced different techniques, trying to find it for centuries. They never killed any demons, of course, but made many suffer. Burning. Decapitating… ” He exhaled again closing his eyes. “A lot of my memories are of being in Deep Sleep. I believe I spent more than half of my life in it… You see, Alyssa,” he looked at me again with the same rueful smile, “there is a downside to remembering. Some things are better left forgotten.”
“So much human blood, so much incubi pain and all for nothing! Nothing had been solved by the treaty, can’t they see? Humans are still being abused, and incubi are still tormented by Deep Sleep and hunger,” I said, thinking out loud, and then added cautiously, tracing circles on his chest with my finger, “Do you think I should get involved into Andras’s proposal? Do you think my help would make any difference?”
He shook his head.
“I’m still mad at Andras. Pity I can’t kill him, but I’m sure as hell willing to try killing him for a while!”
“Shhhh,” I pressed the tip of my finger to his lips, “Leave the poor man alone. He was just trying to help his friend.”
He kissed my finger at his lips, and I asked another question, partially to take his mind off things but mainly because I really wanted to know.
“How were you feeding before the treaty?”
“Skimming mostly. From soldiers, villagers outside of settlements, whoever came my way, really. Councils didn’t have organized feedings back then. Some things were allowed, but we were still required to keep a certain distance from humans and live in isolation.”
“Do you remember ever having sex with a woman? Or a man?” I added, remembering Grayson, the flight attendant.
One side of his mouth curled up, and he raised an eyebrow at me.
“Are you trying to find out if you have been sharing a bed with a virgin? Would you let me make love to you sooner if I was? Or if I wasn’t?”
“I don’t think it would make any difference in your case at all. I know for sure that you are an expert in lovemaking, virgin or not.” I tried to play it cool, but I still felt blush creep up my neck and colour my cheeks with the turn the conversation was taking.
He shifted a little and brushed his fingers along my flushing cheekbone, before continuing in a quiet voice. He was still looking at me, but at this point, it felt like he was looking past me and into his memories.
“It is embarrassing, really, my memory of it. I remember dusty skirts flapping around the bare legs of a laughing woman running in front of me. She is teasing me, looking over her shoulder, tempting… I follow her behind a large wooden structure, a barn maybe or stables… I remember pushing her against the wall, her legs wrapped around me, her skirts bunched up around her waist… I remember her laughter being replaced by loud moans of passion. I remember moving against her, inside of her… surrounded by the colourful tornado of her arousal and then by the bright pulsating light of her climax bursting all around us. I remember the indescribable ecstasy I felt emptying into her and filling to the rim with her powerful energy, at the same time…”
I stopped breathing altogether, is that what sex felt like to him? Is that what sex would feel like with him?
“Well, then through the ruby haze in my eyes, I remember seeing her face distorted by pure, undiluted horror… Next thing I remember, she is screaming and running away from me… I remember standing there alone afterwards, filled with more energy than ever, yet feeling incredibly empty and hollow inside…”
“Why did you feel that way?” I whispered looking up at him. His playful tone was long gone, and a somber expression settled on his face.
“This is what I am, Alyssa. And Andras is right about one thing: intense arousal first and extreme terror right after. Those are the only natural emotions humans were meant to experience around us. This is how it has been for centuries.”
“That’s not true, and you know it! How about me? How about all this tangled mess of thousands of emotions that I feel about you?”
“You, I can’t explain.” His lips stretched into a beautiful smile again, and he lifted my hand to his lips. “You are my very own miracle. Nothing tastes the same, nothing feels the same as you do.” He propped himself on one elbow and looked at me, seeing right into my heart. “…There is this light inside of you, you have it just for me. At first, it looked like affection, but it has grown so much bigger now. I’m not sure what it is. I had never seen it burn for me like that in anyone else.” He moved a stray lock of hair from my face and continued softly. “It’s there all the time, even when you’re upset or angry with me. All your emotions are now tinted with it, constantly. It’s pure and wonderful. Emotions of other people taste bland and look pale in comparison. I can’t stand the thought of them polluting any part of you inside of me.”
“What does it look like?” I was completely still now, afraid to move, afraid of what was to come and waiting for it…
“It’s beyond beautiful! Of no particular colour, because it has all colours at once shimmering alive like northern lights. And, Alyssa,” his voiced rose, and his eyes opened wider looking at me in wonder, “it is endless! I don’t think I could ever take it all even if I tried. I could feed off it forever, and it just keeps burning with more and more power that astonishes me.”
I knew what feeling he was talking about. I had just been too afraid to acknowledge it yet, even to myself. I dreaded it and cherished it. There were times when I thought I could fight it…
“It’s my love you’re seeing inside of me, Sytrius,” I whispered, looking up at him through the haze of moisture gathering in my eyes. “I love you.”
“What? How?” He set up on the bed abruptly pulling me up with him. Then he took my face in both of his hands and lowered his head to mine, looking through my eyes into my very soul. “How is that even possible?” he whispered reverently.
“It’s impossible not to, Sytrius!” I cried, no longer able to control the tears streaming down my face. “It’s impossible not to love you. Believe me, I tried.”
“Oh, Alyssa, you are a true miracle!” The reverence on his face was then replaced by a frown, as some troubling thought must have entered his mind. “You deserve so much more. You deserve everything! I yearn to give you the world, yet I can’t give you the basic things that any human man would: love, children, forever…”
“My forever is different from yours.” I smiled through tears. “All I would be asking are some measly 60-70 years of your time.”
“I may not even have that much.” He wiped my tears with his thumbs still holding my face in his hands. “The hearing may not go well, and I would be exiled out of this world for centuries. I may never get to see you again…” His hands slid from my face down to my shoulders and he gave me a little shake emphatically, as if trying to shake some sense into me. “You can still have a beautiful life. I’ll leave you money…”
“Oh, my God, Sytrius! What are you even saying?” I breathed out. I have been avoiding speculations about the outcome of the hearing on purpose. I couldn’t stand to think about the possibility of being left without him. During the past several days, we had been inseparable. Having to part with him now would be like severing a limb. “The hearing hasn’t even happened yet! You can’t push me
away now.”
I lifted my hand to his face and he turned his head leaning into my touch then kissing my palm. He pulled me to him by the shoulders as his mouth moved to my wrist and then continued the journey along the inside of my arm towards my shoulder, causing shivers to run along my skin, heating my body from inside out.
“I cannot push you away. Never could.” He groaned low and moved his head away from my shoulder. I noticed the deep orange glow of my emotions in his eyes when he shook his head. “Your own doubts about us were the only thing that made me keep the distance from you. With them gone… I cannot fight this. I want you… all of you. But I have to do at least something right by you.” He lowered his gaze, avoiding my eyes and removed his hands off my shoulders with a visible effort. He then got up to his feet, still without looking at me, walked towards the trap door and lifted it, leaning it against one of the sloped walls.
“Sytrius? What are you doing?” I got off the bed too and walked a few steps towards him.
Finally, he moved his gaze up to me, and I stepped back in shock. His eyes were the same black tornadoes of pain that I saw back in the cell once. Back then he took my grief and loneliness, choosing to suffer for me. Now, he was giving me up, thinking he could save me.
“You have to leave… Fast. Please. ”
He stood over the opening of the trap door. His head low, his shoulders raised, his hands fisted tight at his sides, his feet planted wide with the heels rooted into the floor in the effort to control himself, to restrain his body and to keep himself in place.
“Run, Alyssa,” he grunted in a barely recognizable voice. “The house is empty right now. I want you to run downstairs into any of the rooms. Don’t let me in, no matter what happens. Stay there until Andras comes back in the morning. He will keep you safe from me and will help you start a new life anywhere.”
I saw the thick veins bulging across his beloved face as he forced himself to remain in place when I moved closer.
“Run, Alyssa! I can’t stay away from you much longer…” He groaned low, pleading with me now. “Run.” His eyes lost all human appearance, black swirls moved with menace inside the crimson pools of liquid fire.
But I was not afraid, and I didn’t run.
Didn’t he see it was too late for me to escape him? Hadn’t I tried to stop my feelings for him before, only to make the full circle and find myself back in his arms, more consumed by him than ever? I was no longer a person standing at the edge of the cliff, somebody that he could still warn away and save. It was too late.
I was no longer a moth flying towards the flame; I was already engulfed in flames, burning bright. I had already stepped over the cliff days ago and was in free-fall now. There was no longer saving me.
The happy, normal future filled with love of a family and laughter of children was something I would never have with Sytrius. The idea I found devastating still a short time ago. Now, the hypothetical family and children were just an abstract notion for me. They didn’t matter. The whole world no longer mattered if Sytrius was not in it.
I shook my head and didn’t hesitate.
“How about now, Sytrius?” I asked. “You may not be able to give me forever but you can give me now. I want it… Even if it’s all we have. I want you…”
He knew exactly what I felt: he could see my conviction.
He growled low in his throat.
“You have no idea, no idea what you had just asked for.”
Without taking his eyes off me, he kicked the trap door shut with so much force I thought he broke it. The loud noise of the door crashing down made me jump, and then I felt the tightly coiled spring of control snap in him and the leopard pounced…
In one leap, he closed the distance between us and grabbed me, swiftly moving towards the bed. I squeaked more with excitement than fear and buried my face in his neck just above the shoulder, whispering, “Where would I run, Sytrius? Where could I ever run to be free from you if you’re already so deep under my skin that I don’t know where you end, and where I begin?”
The amount of tension I sensed in him earlier made me half expect to be ravished to pieces by him now, rendered into nothing… Instead, he lowered me on the bed tenderly, carefully, as if I was made of glass.
“No more running, Alyssa,” he said low, his lips placing soft swift kisses all over my face. “I won’t let you run anywhere.” His hands literally ripped my clothes into useless shreds, rushing to get them off me.
“You’ve missed your chance,” he stated, his voice calm, too calm in contrast to the frantic movements of his hands now attempting to get his t-shirt off and, instead, ripping it in two in the process.
“Now, you are mine.” His voice was low, almost threatening, as he slid his body down along mine, placed his hands on my knees and pushed them apart. “All of you.” He lowered his head between my thighs and dipped his tongue inside me. All air left my lungs at once…
And that was it. I let it go… All the tension, all the doubts, all the fight I might have still had inside of me disappeared. The whole world disappeared. It was just he and I. It was just this moment right here, right now. It felt true, and it felt right. I was born to be with him. I was born to be his.
Alyssa. His temptation, his addiction… The intense, undiluted, physical desire for her was driving him to madness.
She looked at him with her eyes the colour of late summer moss, her pale hair spread across the pillow glittering silver in the moonlight, her love for him radiated from every feature of her face.
Breathtakingly beautiful…
He felt all her defenses fall and saw the freeing feeling of sweet surrender explode out of her in a sparkling cloud blushed with desire like the sky at sunrise. He dove into it with her, enjoying the warm caress of her love mixed with her burning need for him in a heady powerful cocktail that made him feel like he was invincible. It made him want to slay dragons and move mountains for her.
He felt her taste on his tongue and her very essence in his heart as he kept drinking from her, unable to stop.
“Sytrius… Oh, Sytrius…” She chanted his name between short breaths in the rhythm that he set for her to follow. She rolled her head on the pillow, fisting handfuls of his hair between her fingers.
He waited for that perfect moment, when her pleasure was so intense – she felt she would die before she could take any more of it – and only then he let her fall. The force of her climax hit him like powerful ocean surf. He dug his fingers into her hips, anchoring his body to hers, letting himself to be swept away with her, consuming wave after wave of her ecstasy in their entirety.
Intoxicating.
“Alyssa,” he moaned into her delicate skin, pressing his face into her inner thigh. “My queen, my angel. You should have run when you had a chance… I’ll never let you go now.” He looked up at her dear face still flushed from her climax. “I’ll want it all, your body, your mind, your heart and your very soul… All of you is mine now!”
There was no terror in her when she looked into his eyes glowing deep red with her energy. She smoothed the tangled hair from his forehead, and he saw no fear in her, only love and acceptance for him, just the way he was.
“Come here, Sytrius. Come to me,” she called, making him slide up to her.
“I am here, Alyssa,” he replied, covering her body with his, supporting his weight on his elbows.
“Make love to me,” she asked in a tender whisper and moved her thighs further apart, cradling him in between.
His painfully throbbing erection brushed against her slick wetness, reaping the raw groan out of his chest. His hips rocked against her on their own volition.
“Make love to me, Sytrius,” she repeated, wrapping her arms around his neck and pulling him closer.
He could give her that. For once, there was something he could give her.
He entered her in one swift movement feeling her push her hips up, meeting him.
“Yes!” she exhaled.
�
��God Almighty…” His world stopped turning for a moment. The wonderful moment of being inside of her!
It’s been so long, so very long since he was with a woman, any woman. Being with Alyssa brought a whole new level of ecstasy. It was like fulfilling the one and only purpose of his existence. It was like finding home when he never thought he could have one.
All of her was his now, and he took and took, unable to stop. The shameless, selfish, greedy demon that he was. Until there would be nothing left separating them. Until she became a part of him. Until they were one and the same…
He moved inside of her, building up the speed and intensity. Her desire was now mixed with his own sensations, joining the mesmerizing hurricane of their fused passion swirling tight around them. The perfection of it astounded him. This is how it was meant to be. He and Alyssa. Together as one.
“You were made for me,” whispered Alyssa with conviction he now fully shared.
“My angel,” he murmured into her neck. “My very own.”
He made her fall over the edge again, the screams of his name falling off her parted lips caressing his very being, stroking his pride. He gave it to her. He could not give her love, but he could make love to her. All day, every day, for as long as they had…
“Alyssa!” He grunted out her name when it was his turn to follow her. He collapsed over her, buried his face between her neck and her shoulder, breathing her in. Spent, motionless, happy, complete… “Alyssa…” He whispered her name again like a prayer.
Her hands slid up and down his back, his neck, his shoulders in tender soothing movements, calming both of them down from the crest of passion. So good, so very good… He closed his eyes, melting into her.
“I love you, Sytrius,” she breathed in a barely audible whisper.
His body tensed. He would have given everything he had; he would have given up the eternity and would die a happy man tomorrow if he could only say these three small words back to her now.
“It’s okay.” Her hands continued their soothing journey up and down his body, accepting all of him with all of her. “We will be okay, Sytrius. I have enough love for both of us.”
Demon Mine Page 26
