by Sarah Hawke
“Oh, gods,” Jorem stammered, covering his face and turning away from the gore.
“Just stay back,” I warned. I grabbed the door’s iron handle and pulled with every ounce of my Senosi strength, ripping it off its hinges as easily as if I’d been a stone giant. Bracing myself for the worst, I tucked my legs into my chest and rolled inside.
The maneuver saved my life. While I tumbled end over end, I heard the click of multiple crossbows and felt the whistle of air in my ears as the bolts streaked past my head. But when I finally popped back to my feet, I was greeted by the weathered, bearded face of the most wanted man in the whole city. As his thugs reloaded, Sobren Lecasi thrust out his hand and conjured sparks of electricity—
And then realized his mistake an instant before the lightning left his palm.
“Senosi!”
The word was as much of a command as it was a revelation. He had evaded my sisters long enough to understand the danger of our powers as well as anyone—he knew that if he blasted me, I would only grow more powerful. But he also knew that his only alternative was to flee, and so that’s exactly what he did.
Shifting his aim to the desk in front of him, he unleashed a sudden gust of wind powerful enough to rip it from the floor and hurl it towards me. I leapt straight upwards, but I was a fraction of a second too slow—the desk caught my foot and tripped me in mid-air, and if not for my Senosi durability I would have shattered my forearms when I crashed back to the floor.
Sobren had already dashed through a hidden door in the back of the room by the time I regained my balance. I tumbled forward as another crossbow bolt whooshed past my head, and I growled in annoyance when the two remaining guards shifted to block my path. I looked up just in time to watch the one who hadn’t fired line up a shot straight for my face—
At which point a bolt of lightning arced across the room and struck him squarely in the chest. He slammed into the wall and slumped over, and I risked a quick glance back over my shoulder to see Jorem standing there, his fingers still crackling with energy. Unfortunately, the last guard had also noticed the new target. His repeating crossbow clicked as the cartridge reloaded, and he pointed the weapon at the sorcerer and fired.
I have no idea why I did what I did. The distraction gave me the perfect opportunity to lunge forward and kill the guard, and I could have easily followed Sobren and probably overtaken him. The safety of a fugitive sorcerer shouldn’t have been my concern—if Jorem died in the pursuit of my real target, so be it. The Inquisitrix would have been thrilled on two fronts.
But apparently I wasn’t willing to make that sacrifice. I dove protectively in front of Jorem just in time for the crossbow bolt to pierce my chest instead of his. The pain didn’t hit me until after I had fallen to the ground, and when I glanced down I saw a veritable river of blood hemorrhaging from my chest. I probably wouldn’t die—the charged vatari crystal had given me more than enough strength to endure punishment that would kill a normal human—but it was still a far more severe a wound than when Jorem had shot me yesterday. I gasped for breath even as he blasted the last guard, and in between long, languid blinks I saw him leaning down over me, his lips moving as if he were trying to say something…
And then the darkness overwhelmed me.
3
I awoke atop a hard wooden table inside a dank, dimly-lit room. When I tried to sit up, I belatedly realized that my wrists and ankles were tied down. My first thought was that Sobren’s goons had captured me, but I quickly dismissed the idea. The Brotherhood wouldn’t have bothered taking a Senosi prisoner—they would have just slit my throat and dumped me off the pier.
“You’re safe. For the moment, anyway.”
I licked at my dry lips and craned my neck backwards until I could see Jorem lurking behind me in the shadows. The two of us were alone, as far as I could tell.
“I would have tried to heal you myself, but you’re immune to restorative magic too,” he said, stepping forward just enough that I could see his face. “Not that it matters. By the time I got you out of there your wounds had already sealed shut. Sadly, your dress isn’t so lucky.”
I flexed against my restraints. The leather straps binding my wrists weren’t particularly thick, and under normal circumstances I could have ripped them apart with ease. But regeneration took an enormous amount of energy, and I was completely tapped. My skin was pale, my throat was parched, and I had no doubt that my eyes were bloodshot. Worst of all, the pangs of my Senosi hunger were getting worse and worse by the second. I could feel Jorem’s heartbeat from here, and I would have given just about anything for a single drop of his blood…
“Sobren…” I rasped.
“He’s long gone. More of his thugs showed up after you went under, but they weren’t prepared to face a sorcerer without their boss.” Jorem grunted and shuffled forward until he was standing over me. “Welcome to my home. It’s not exactly a palace, but thanks to your kind the cistern is the only safe place to live.”
I locked eyes with him. “Release me.”
“You mean you can’t bust out yourself?” he asked, folding his arms across his chest. “You ripped an iron door off its hinges.”
“Because I had just fed,” I said, struggling to produce enough spit to actually swallow. My throat felt it like was clogged with dust, and my hands were trembling. If I didn’t feed soon, the tremors would spread through the rest of my body.
“I wondered about that,” Jorem said. “There are all kinds of rumors in the underworld here. Some people say that when the Inquisitrix wants to punish one of her Senosi, she doesn’t bother locking them or whipping them. She just chains them up somewhere in the Castarium and lets their hunger consume them from within. It sounds pretty nasty until you think about the way they treat innocent sorcerers.”
I tried and failed to swallow again. “I already promised that I wouldn’t harm you as long you held up your end of the bargain.”
“True, but that was before you started shaking like a lotus addict.”
“There is another charged crystal in my necklace,” I told him. “What did you do with it?”
“It didn’t make it,” he said. “Neither did that needle you used to rip out the throats of all those men.”
I hissed between my teeth. “Then I need your help. Please, I only need a few drops…”
“I’d rather keep my blood, thanks.” His lips curled into a dark smile. “Do you have any idea how much coin I could make if I turned you over to the Brotherhood right now? Or any other gang, for that matter? I bet they would pay me just for the pleasure of watching you suffer.”
I grimaced. I had never been one to panic even in the midst of a losing battle, but suffering through the pants of Senosi hunger was different. I would rather been stabbed to death by a thousand swords than left to rot from within.
“If you wanted me dead, you could have just left me with the Brotherhood,” I said, glancing down to the tattered remnants of my dress. “Why did you bring me here?”
“Why did you leap in front of that crossbow bolt?” he countered.
I pursed my lips. “I don’t know,” I admitted. “A moment of weakness, I guess.”
“Apparently those are going around.”
I struggled against my restraints again, acutely aware of how closely this situation mirrored our first encounter last night. Turnabout may have been fair play, but fairness was overrated. Winning was a lot more fun.
Jorem grunted softly as he paced around me. “Honestly, you look like you’re in pretty bad shape, but I’m really not interested in bleeding myself out just so you can get a quick meal.”
“All you have to do is cast a spell on me,” I said. “A spark of electricity, a puff of flame…anything.”
“I could do that, but channeling runs the risk of getting caught by your sisters. You can all sense when a sorcerer draws power from the Aether, can’t you?”
“Yes,” I said, wondering how much I should actually tell him. Our ability to
track sorcerers through the Aether greatly exaggerated—the Inquisitrix had started the rumor as a pure fear tactic. If they all thought we’d show up at their doorstep when they wove a spell, they would be much less likely to abuse their power.
In truth, our range was severely limited. My eyes could piece any illusion and my skin could absorb a bolt of lightning, but I couldn’t actually track a channeler across the city just because they had cast a single spell. Jorem could have known that…or he could have been toying with me. It was impossible to tell.
“Then I’m not sure what else I can do to help you,” he said, tracing his fingers along the length of my forearm. The tiny hairs on my skin stood at his touch, and my hunger cried out for the blood in his veins. “I guess you’re out of luck.”
He knows exactly what he can do, but he wants me to beg for it. He wants to debase and humiliate one of the women who have made his life a living hell.
I almost grinned despite myself. I should have been furious, but for some twisted reason I actually respected him more for playing me like this. It was exactly what I would have done—it was exactly what I had already done.
“I saved your life,” I said. “I could have let that man kill you.”
“The only reason he was shooting at me was because of you,” Jorem pointed out. “Sorry, sweetheart, but you don’t get to play that card.”
I bit down on my lip, imagining all the ways I was going to get revenge on him later. The instant he fed me, I would have the strength to break free…but of course he already knew that. The fact he was still here meant he was just playing a twisted little game to amuse himself.
That should infuriate me, but instead it’s just making me wet. Why?
“You can do whatever you want to me,” I said, spreading my knees as far apart as I could with the restraints. “But please…please just give me what I need.”
The faintest hint of a smile touched his lips. “And what’s that?”
“Your seed!” I shouted. “Please, give me your seed!”
His smile widened devilishly. “You’ve no idea how much I wish my friends could hear that. A Senosi whore begging for her prey to fuck her…”
Jorem dragged his hands further up my thigh and beneath my dress. I moaned uncontrollably when his fingertips traced along the outside of my panties.
“Gods, you’re already soaked,” he said. “Do you always get this wet when you’re hungry?”
“Please,” I begged again. I pawed at the bulge in his trousers with the tips of my fingers. “Please, just give it to me…”
After staring at me for another moment, Jorem abruptly ripped my panties in half and pushed my skirt all the way up to my stomach. I kept my knees opened wide when he stripped off his trousers, and I fully expected him—and I desperately wanted him—to dive on top of me and ram his stiff, throbbing cock into my cunt. But he didn’t.
He crawled up onto the bed, wedged himself between my legs, and dragged his cock across the full length of my sodden slit. He eased the tip inside slowly, tortuously, until I began to whimper so pitifully it was genuinely embarrassing. A bloody sorcerer was humiliating me, but I didn’t care in the slightest. If anything, it was just making my quim burn even more.
“How can anyone this wet also be this tight?” Jorem asked, clenching his teeth. “I guess if you have a figure like an elf, you’re bound to have a cunt like one too.”
“Please!” I gasped. “Please fuck me!”
He ignored my protests and continued sliding into my inch by throbbing inch. Once he had finally buried himself to the hilt, he pulled back out and did it again.
“The way I figure it, you can’t feed if I don’t cum, right?” he asked. “So I might as well take my time.”
I tugged against my restraints, but I could have sworn I was growing weaker by the second. I clenched and unclenched my abdominal muscles, hoping to milk the seed out of him. But he kept up his slow, languid pace, and every once in a while he even stopped to enjoy my smoldering embrace.
He couldn’t last forever, though, not even like this. I felt a climax building within him, and I braced myself for the coming flood. The things I was going to do to him once I had my strength back…
“Fuck, I could do this all day,” he cooed. “You ready for it, sweetheart?”
I nodded frantically. “Yes. Yes, please !”
“Well, too bad,” he said, abruptly pulling out and pushing my knees together. “You’ll have to work a bit harder than that.”
He crawled up onto the table and straddled my stomach. My breath caught in my throat, and my toes curled in anticipation at what he might do. I didn’t completely understand why—I was the Huntress, and he was the prey. I enjoyed being in control. I enjoyed watching his body twist and writhe uncontrollably at my touch. I enjoyed the power of knowing how much a man wanted me and how easily I could deny him. But this…I had never been a man’s mercy like this before.
And I had never realized how much I liked it.
Without warning, Jorem grabbed the torn fabric of my dress and ripped it open, freeing my breasts. I gasped uncontrollably when his lips kissed my nipples, and then again when his hands squeezed them together. All the while I felt his raging hard cock press deeper into my stomach. I closed my eyes and bit down on my lip as the first tremors of a climax shuddered through me…
But then he stopped. My eyes fluttered back open, and I saw him grinning down at me. He knew how desperate I was, and he seemed determined to deny my release over and over.
Clever boy.
After leaving me paralyzed and breathless for several seconds, he eventually shuffled forward until his cock was dangling right in front of my lips. I could feel the blood rushing through the stem; I could feel the first drops of seed yearning to escape the tip. And I had never wanted anything more in my life.
“There’s only one way you’re getting fed today,” Jorem said. “Do you still want it?”
“Yes,” I whimpered.
“Then beg for it. Tell me that you want my cock.”
“I want your cock.”
“Tell me that you need my cock.”
“I need your cock!”
He leaned forward and placed a hand on either side of my head. “Tell me that you want me to fuck your face.”
“Fuck my face!” I pleaded. “Fuck it like a cunt!”
He did. The head of his thick member slipped effortlessly between my lips, but he didn’t stop there—he kept pushing deeper and deeper, utterly unconcerned by my gaping eyes or choking gurgles. I relaxed my throat as much as I could when the tip slid past my tonsils, but he wasn’t done. He pinched my nostrils shut and sneered.
“Air or seed…I wonder which one you need more?” he asked. “I guess we’re about to find out.”
He pounded me so hard the only sound I could hear over my pleading gasps was the rhythmic slapping of his testicles on my chin. I couldn’t move; I couldn’t breathe. I was completely at his mercy.
And I loved every second of it.
“Feeding time,” he blurted out, yanking his cock free a moment before I suffocated. I gasped desperately for breath, wondering why he hadn’t flooded my throat. I didn’t figure it out until he grabbed ahold of his shaft and started frantically pumping right in front of my face.
I climaxed the instant the first searing jet splashed against my cheek. Every muscle in my body seemed to heave at once, and I barely even felt his second, third, or forth volley splatter across my nose and drizzle down my lips into my gaping mouth. Desperate for sustenance, my Senosi hunger began siphoning the latent magical energy from his seed before I even knew what was happening. My quim burned, my toes curled, and my eyes rolled back into my head.
“Holy shit,” Jorem gasped.
His voice echoed as if he were shouting across a great distance. My mind left my body entirely. I had never been this euphoric after feeding before, not even when I had been magic-starved for a week back at the academy. His seed was so rich, so pure , th
at was like I was drinking from a fount of pure Aetheric energy…
My eyes finally flicked back open, and I could see their luminous green reflection on the buckles of Jorem’s tunic. He reflexively scooched backwards, his now flaccid cock drawing a line of residual seed between my breasts. As his lust subsided, fear quickly took its place.
“Uh oh,” he muttered.
Snarling, I leaned up and snapped out of my restraints with ease.
I leaned up and snapped through my restraints with ease. He tried to leap off me, but I wasn’t about to let him get away so easily. Grabbing onto the collar of his tunic, I whirled off the wooden table and slammed him down in my place. He cried out in shock, but before he could speak a word of protest I shuffled forward, swung my leg over his head, and lowered my sopping wet cunt onto his face.
At this point, I was so hot that I would have gladly suffocated him with my thighs if it forced his tongue into my slit for even a fraction of a second, but thankfully he didn’t resist. He eagerly sucked my clit into his mouth, and his tongue thrashed against me with every bit as much skill and vigor as one of my Senosi sisters. I threw my head back and cried out in pleasure even as I licked the beady strands of seed from my lips.
When the last waves of ecstasy finally shuddered through my body, I slumped forward and panted for breath. His semi-rigid cock stirred just a few inches from my lips, and I stared down at it in wonder. I had always enjoyed the brutish, primal sensation of a thick member sliding through my lips and pounding my throat, but I couldn’t believe how much I had enjoyed feeling its hot gratitude spackle my face. He had effectively turned my body into a towel. It was so unbelievably degrading .