Dark Cotillion (First in the Brenna Strachan Series)
Page 18
Chapter Seventeen
“I need to sleep and I’m tired of the Demon cheating,” Gabriel smiled at me as he stood up.
“Me?” I looked at him wide eyed. “Would I cheat?”
“You have been all night.” He yawned. “Dawn is coming. It’s been two days since I slept.”
“I’ll sleep when you get up,” Anubis told him. “Fen, why don’t you join him?”
“Sure,” he stood up and both of them marched up the stairs.
I was left with Ba’al and Anubis in the living room. They were putting up the poker chips. I watched them do it.
“I feel different,” I finally told them.
“How so?” Ba’al asked as he finished stacking chips in the tray.
“I feel old.”
“That’s a good sign. It means you are probably completely mortal. I’d like to test it, but you are going to hate the test.”
“You’re going to cut me again,” I made it a statement and not a question.
“I could bite you if you preferred,” he responded. “If you are mortal, it will leave a hell of a bruise.”
“I think I would rather be bitten.”
“Really? Why?” Anubis asked.
“I don’t know. I just don’t like being cut. I heal those kinds of wounds all the time. They hurt. Not that biting doesn’t, it’s just a different kind of pain.”
“Okay, hold still,” Ba’al stood up and walked over to me. He moved my hair carefully. Next, he opened the top two buttons of my nightshirt and pushed it down to expose my shoulder. Anubis took hold of my hands.
“This is going to hurt and I can only help ease the pain a little,” he told me. “Give you something else to focus on.”
“I think I’m tired of distractions. Every time I’ve been distracted lately, its involved sex of some sort.”
“Sex is a good distraction,” Ba’al chuckled behind me.
“Just bite me,” I told him.
Ba’al did as I asked. His teeth broke the skin and found the bone beneath it. I didn’t scream, but I wanted to, very loudly. His mouth stayed glued to my shoulder for what seemed like ages. Finally, he drew back. A small trickle of blood ran from the wound. I looked. There were four fang marks and a few others that were deep enough to be bleeding. Most of it though was just the perfect imprint of Ba’al’s teeth. I stared at the wound, tried to heal it, and found I couldn’t.
“Well damn,” I looked at Anubis, “I think I’m going to need a bandage.”
“Of course,” Ba’al’s voice was somewhere behind me.
“Does it hurt?”
“Like a son of a bitch, but it is still better than a blade.” I told him.
“I’m surprised that you prefer teeth and fangs to knives.”
“I’m surprised you’re surprised.”
Ba’al began bandaging my shoulder while Anubis held my hands. I closed my eyes and enjoyed the sensations of the world around me. The sun was up now. I could feel it beating on the house. Again, I seemed to be channeling Gabriel’s powers to some extent.
“What are you thinking?” Anubis asked.
“That the sun is warm and it is going to be another very hot day.”
“Gabriel,” he said.
“Probably, I don’t normally give a toss about the sun or the temperature.” I didn’t really respond to hot or cold weather. It was a Demon thing. I could wear almost the exact same clothing year around because I didn’t sweat or shiver. Occasionally in Missouri it would get over 110 or under -10, at those moments, I would notice it. I’d have to add or take off clothing, the rest of the time though, it might as well be 70.
“Do you think there will be another attack?” I asked him.
“Yes, probably soon.” He let go of me. “Probably daily, starting yesterday. Each day, something different tested us to find our strengths and weaknesses.”
“Wish they’d get it over with.” I sighed and lit a cigarette.
“Don’t rush it,” Anubis told me. “We don’t know what it will be, so we can’t prepare for anything other than generalities. That is not the best form of combat.”
“Fine, I’m going to go shower.” I stood up and walked to the bathroom.
The water was warm. Demons like water. It is cleansing, healing, and magical all by itself. Had a bad day? Wash it down the drain. Want to have a good day? Start with a shower. I turned it up on very hot and just stood under it. The bathroom steamed up. There was nothing better than a steamy bathroom.
The door opened. I ran my hand over the shower door, clearing a spot to look out. Ba’al was coming in.
“What?” I asked, suddenly alarmed.
“Nothing, Anubis has gone off to sleep some too. He thinks attacks will come at night,” he spread his arms. “I’m here to protect you in case he’s wrong.”
“You’re going to protect me in the shower?” I asked.
“Yes, I can always sweep you into my wings if we get attacked.”
“You can’t keep hiding me in your wings. I will eventually be needed in the fight.”
“I know, but I can pretend.” He sat down on the floor.
“What’s your take on everything?”
“You are growing up very quickly.”
“I meant about the whole attacking thing.”
“Oh, I agree with Ani. Most of the attacks will come at night. Although, there is the fact that three of us are better at night. Gabriel is better during the day.”
“Better how?”
“Darkness gives us an edge. We can all see amazingly well in the dark.”
“Can you really turn to stone?”
“Yes, but you don’t want to see it happen.”
“Why?”
“Because when a Gargoyle turns to stone, it is a defense mechanism. It means whatever we are fighting is going to kill us. We encase ourselves in stone to protect our bodies. In theory, it helps.”
“In theory?”
“Our exterior layers of skin turn to stone. We are smaller and more fragile when we leave the stone exterior. For several days, we have to heal and our skin is pink and opaque. It’s not pretty.”
“Gotcha.” I rinsed my hair.
“Do you know what happens when a Demon breaks or loses a horn?”
“Fire shoots from the root.”
“It cooks anything it touches. Elders survive it, but like Gabriel’s light the other day, it creates some serious damage.”
“Your father?”
“Yes, he told me that if he ever breaks or loses a horn, I have to run away. He told me that as a child, before a really intense Council meeting. It was good advice. He didn’t lose a horn, but there was some serious cat-fighting during it.”
“I remember that meeting,” Ba’al gave a deep sigh.
“What do you really want?”
“The same thing any of us want at this point.”
“Since I’m only partially sure I have a clue what that is…”
“You to stay unmated,” he told me.
“Sex.” I frowned. “What is it with you guys and sex?”
“Honestly?”
“Yes, honestly.”
“Elder sex is rather uninspiring. There isn’t anything we haven’t done or tried. But being bound; now that is new. It isn’t just about sex either. It’s about intimacy. We have lovers, but we don’t love. We have sex, but it isn’t about intimacy. With you, there’s intimacy. We can share our deepest parts of ourselves with you. The parts we hid in the darkest recesses of our being. We all want what your father has.”
“What does he have that you guys don’t?”
“He has your mother.”
“So you all secretly covet my mother?”
“No, we all covet what he has with your mother. The intimacy that they share. It isn’t about children, sex, or anything like that. It is about merging, two beings becoming one.”
“No, we are obsessed with sex with you because we all love you and have an intimate, if at this time non-sexual relationship with you.”
“I’m still not sure I understand.”
“Okay,” Ba’al stood up and opened the shower door. He stood staring down at me. I didn’t cover up although that was my first instinct. “At this moment, it is taking every ounce of my power to keep me from touching you. You have no idea how long it has been since I have wanted to touch another being the way I want to touch you.”
“Okay,” I frowned, “that just confused me more.”
“I admit, I’m not explaining it very well. Let’s see how to word this. I want to fuck you, I want to dominate you, make you bend to my will, to my touch. After that, after I have had the initial contact with you, I want more. It’s that more that is so scary. I have wanted to fuck and dominate in the past, but once that is over with, it’s over. Not with you, I see the first time being what it always is for me, but I want to have a second encounter, I want to have hundreds of encounters. I want to memorize your body. I want to see how many times I can make you cum. Hear you moan my name in pleasure. I want to taste you, all of you. I want to feel you move. I want to explore you and I want to take my time doing it. I don’t just want to fuck you over and over again. I want to make love to you. I have never had that urge before. I’m sure none of us has. At the end of it all, when the sex is done and the lights are out, I want to lie next to you, share your bed all night. I want to tell you what I’m afraid of, what I fear I can and cannot do. I want to share my secrets with you. That urge is one that I know none of the other Overlords has ever had. We keep those things bottled inside. Hidden most of the time, we hide the need to do it even from ourselves. But Lucifer, Lucifer has shown us it is possible. At night, when he shares a bed with your mother, it isn’t just about sex. They talk; they talk, and talk, and talk. Elise knows every emotion Lucifer has, knows every secret he carries, understands his burdens and helps him to carry them. That is what we covet.”
“Ba’al,” his words were having an effect on me. I took a deep breath to steady myself. “Could it all be the power of the Maturing?”
“No,” he continued to look at me. “No, it has nothing to do with the Maturing except that the desire is no longer just a thought in the back of my mind. It is a pressing need.”
He shut the door.
“One that I cannot act upon yet, but the temptation is so damn strong.”
I took another shaky breath and put my head against the wall.
“You feel it too.”
“Yes, slowly I am starting to feel it with all of you. Not Gabriel, not yet, but when Fenrir touched me earlier. And you just now.”
“Gabriel will be next.”
“You don’t seem bothered or disappointed by this.”
“Jealousy is for mortals. I know that I will share you with three others and there will be times they share you with me. I also know there will be times when two, three, or all four of us will enjoy you together. Each will be unique and inspiring.”
“You think I will agree to group sex?”
“Yes, I think you already have and just don’t realize it.”
“Interesting.” The water was starting to run cold. I got out and wrapped up in a towel. Ba’al was leaning against the sink counter.
“No, it will be interesting to see how you react to each of us, individually and together. Fen will not always stay in Lycan form when you have sex. Gabriel will bring the power of light and dark to the bed. Anubis the Vampire powers, and me, well, I will bring something else.”
“What do you bring?”
“Something to be discovered later,” he was staring at my face. I opened the towel and let it fall to the ground.
“Tell me.”
“No,” he smiled at my baiting, “it is something that has to be seen, it cannot be told.”
I picked the towel up and wrapped it back around me, “Can’t blame me for trying.”
“No, and while I have told you what the others will bring, you will not understand, truly understand until it happens.”
“I’m sort of bored,” I told Ba’al as I exited the bathroom.
“The other reason Elders are obsessed with sex. It can last for hours and hours. It fills boring days.”
“Are there a lot of boring days in eternity?”
“Relatively speaking, no, but there are a lot of horny days in eternity.”
“Did you just say that out loud?” I giggled.
“Yes,” he smiled at me. “You’re already starting to notice. Sex is a pleasure of the Matured. You’ll enjoy it a lot more once the process ends.”
“Really?”
“Oh yes.”
“Do you remember your life before the Maturing?”
“Yes, but I don’t remember sex before the Maturing. It didn’t seem to leave much of an impression. I also remember that during the Maturing, I became exceptionally aware of my own sexuality. I thought about it all the time. I imagine that is part of our problem now. You are Maturing and thinking of it and it’s becoming more frequent, so the rest of us are as well.”
“I can have that impact?”
“I think it’s a side effect of the binding.”
“Oh,” I sat down on the couch.
“Are you going to sit around all day in a towel?”
“I figure I have to get used to it somehow.”
“Get used to what?”
“Nudity and sex,” I told him.
“Yes, but if we are attacked, it would be better to have clothes on.”
“Good point,” I got up and went to the bedroom.
The moment I walked in, my dresser drawer opened and began chattering at me. It could talk. I was pretty sure there was a soul trapped in it. If there was, it didn’t seem to complain, it just wanted to help me dress.