by C. Swallow
“What is she doing?” I ask.
“A lullaby for baby demons,” Zarcar explains, “Helping lure them here. Daytime demons do exist.”
“Here we are,” Lixar has appeared around a corner from inside, holding rusty iron chains with shackles.
The ones he was chained in.
“Chains already?” I ask, glancing at Zarcar who walks beside me.
“Yes, my sweet darling,” Zarcar turns to me now and I to him. Lixar sighs in annoyance as Zarcar leans down, holding my gaze, he doesn’t blink as he commands, “Today you must promise me. Do as I say – at all times.”
“I already do,” I complain.
“Today your obedience is more important than ever,” Zarcar keeps him calm, which is odd for him.
When I glance at Lixar, I see him walk down the steps with his chains wrapped around his forearms.
“In your demon from,” Lixar takes over, “You will lose control. We all do. But you won’t lose your hearing, or your ability to persuade the demoness. The force of your instincts will feel like another soul inside you, but it’s the powers granted to you. To control them is your biggest feat you will face… it is near impossible to control,” Lixar looks at Zarcar, who hasn’t stopped assessing my facial reactions.
“I’m listening,” I murmur, “What do you really want to say, Zarcar?”
“He has to tell you the truth,” Lixar speaks for him, “And he doesn’t want to.”
“The truth?” I raise a brow.
“The chances of you showing control are one in a million,” Zarcar forces the words out, “And depending on how much you lose control… could mean the difference between Rey giving a kill order… or… putting his trust in you. In your form you will attempt to murder him. You must. Not. Attempt such a thing. Or he will use it as an excuse to have some fun before he kills you –”
“Would you not protect me?” I ask, aghast, “If you’re my Venatores – you would not protect me?”
“She has a point,” Lixar tries to rub it in.
“Shut up,” Zarcar holds up a hand to Lixar and then backs off from me, looking me up and down, “Undress… more than any love for you, Chyronex… Rey, must, live. Or we all die, every single one of us,” Zarcar explains.
“Not this again,” Lixar rolls his eyes.
“We all die if Rey dies –”
“It’s not real,” Lix growls, “He says that to control you.”
“I believe it because I know it,” Zarcar snarls at Lix, “I saw the Surge beginning, the cracks in the ground are appearing all over the land. We will be swarmed. Without a King who can command them – we will be the last wall between those demons and the mortals. We can kill some at a time, not a whole mass population from Hell itself.”
“Rey can command these… I assume demons?” I ask.
“He can because he inherited the Command,” Lixar explains, “Rey is a Vampyre. Vampyres are demons with power equivalent to our kind whom are tied to the Draconess.”
“But who is Rey tied to?”
“Don’t tell her,” Zarcar.
“Lucifer himself,” Lixar explains, “The King of Hell. The death of his spawn, demons… are the descendants of the Queen, the Draconess. Whom holds the power to maintain balance and wipe out the bad demons. We’re the only good demons. Rey is and will always be… evil incarnate,” as Lixar finished, I stare at Zarcar to see him reluctantly nod.
“But, I believe he has mortal blood,” Zar pipes in, “He is the bastard of a Demon, not a full blood Demon. Half. That is why I trust him.”
“Let’s rather chain the young girl up, instead of starting this argument again for the thousandth time, Zar – you are wrong,” Lixar throws half the chains at his cousin.
“I have called the nearest demon offspring, a snake has heeded the call and will arrive by midnight,” Andoll calls out, “No other demons reside in our wake.”
“So, no practice then,” Lixar sighs, “Oh well… what a shame…” Lixar walks backwards into the temple, beckoning me to follow him as his hazel eyes trail up and down over my body, “Luckily I have another way.”
“What?” I ask, confused.
“Starvation, exposure and… stress… on your body,” Lix smirks, “…that’ll do just fine… to help you control yourself tonight.”
“Torture?” I ask, stopping in the entry.
“I said to undress,” Zarcar stops behind me and grabs the bottom of my brown shift, jerking it up and off my body. He pushes me to the centre of the temple and I cross my arms over my breasts.
“We’ll string her up,” Lix suggests, “Her wrists. Andoll can stay and lower her at regular intervals so she anticipates the relief… which will only worsen the pain.”
“You are serious?” I ask, confused.
“I’ll stay,” Zarcar murmurs behind me, trailing his finger down my spine, “I’ll help you pass the time.”
“You two make me want to shit out my breakfast and my dinner,” Lix smiles slowly, “If Zar stays… I stay…”
“No need,” Zarcar murmurs without looking at Lix, as my Warlord then walks around me, appraising me naked as if he’ll start drooling.
“Let me clarify, watching you flirt is sickening, just ram it into her already,” Lixar bites out his words with serious intent, “Must I watch such pointless foreplay?”
“I am going to eat some grass,” Andoll stands up with an irate look in her eyes, “I wish you much orgasm, my lady Draconess,” Andoll smirks at me, with what I consider to be ill-intent.
Although I am starting to learn all her smiles seem to appear evil, even when they are not.
As she leaves, I shiver with annoyance and skirt away from Zarcar.
I face both cousins naked, with a raised brow.
“Just explain to me… why being strung up… is necessary?”
“We’re weakening you so we can over power you if necessary when you shift,” Lixar explains, bored, “…you’re going to hate it when we… who knows… mount you… we might just… have to fuck you… into the temple ground… in front of Rey. Anything to calm his sensitive nerves from the hellfire that spurns from his very soul.”
Lixar clearly liked to talk shit.
Zarcar clamps one rusty iron shackle around one wrist while I’m distracted by Lix’s shit talking. Then Lixar himself pounces forward and lifts my other hand, kissing my knuckles as he clamps the second shackle over my other wrist.
And then I just say it.
Out of the blue.
I can’t hold it in with all this banter between us… this teasing.
“Rey wants me to fuck both of you,” I blurt.
Lixar freezes as does Zarcar, who’s narrowing his eyes at the floor.
“…probably one of the nicest commands he’s ever put out in my favour,” Lixar murmurs, truly astounded, “Wow. I may change my mind about our K–”
“Another lie?” Zarcar cuts off Lix and asks me, catching my gaze, “I will not share you – that is why you spurt lies. Why are you speaking nonsense, Chyronex?”
“What if you had no choice?” I ask it with a monotone. I am terrified but I try to hide it, “…what if Rey commanded it…he told me he would command me to fuck both of you. All of you.”
“It makes sense,” Lix buds in, cutting off a distraught Zarcar, “Wait, cousin…” Zarcar has released my wrist and walks off, storming his way to the exit. He leaves and I turn to Lixar who reaches out a hand, pops it under my jaw as my mouth gawks and he shuts my lips for me, “He really loves you, birdy.”
“Birdy?” I whisper.
“…just a cute endearment for you to remember…” Lixar murmurs, “…for when you shift into an ugly beast. Soo ugly we might never grow hard again and our balls will shrivel up and fall off like old fruit. Bruised and blue. Full with seed. How could we plant our cocks into such a wickedly monstrous demoness?” Lixar asks me, almost as if he’s flirting but also trying to distract me at the same time, “For your comfort, birdy, I don’
t eat people. I eat demons like Rey. Just as you kill demons like Rey. We have something in common, how about that?”
“You’re an awful flirt,” I growl, annoyed that Zarcar has left me with this annoyance.
“I’m just glad I can see your full tits out in plain view again, to be perfectly honest with you,” Lix licks his lips and jumps his brows up and down at me, threatening me.
“I wouldn’t dare try if I was you…” I growl low.
“But you must… eventually… allow me such a delicacy,” Lix winks at me as I shake my head, even though he is telling the truth.
“…unless I run away…” I whisper it, wondering of his reaction.
I even close my eyes as I inhale and try to reconcile my numb mind. This was all so overwhelming.
I just want to imagine a moment of freedom.
Just a moment where I didn’t have to deal with any of this pressure or stress ever again.
“Don’t try to run, Chyronex,” Lix sounds bored as he answers me, “You’d be caught, thrown in a dungeon, ordered fucked every day by your own Venatores, and let out only when Rey demands you kill for him…” Lixar is dead serious. I open my eyes to see him stand back, throwing the chains up with such power and speed, I don’t see it coming.
I go flying up as the power of his throw has me rising with the chains, that flip over a fallen pillar, looping around enough as Lix murmurs a spell.
“Oh, how sweet your petals are, Chyr- shit!” Lixar jumps to the side as I force myself to piss while in the air.
The tail end hits his cheek and I laugh loudly, even as my wrists are hung tight and my legs flail.
“Please continue your speech, you prick!” I chuckle as Lixar wipes his cheek and stand back, watching as my piss puddles below me.
I have no shame.
I’m just glad I dirtied the bastard.
“You missed,” Lix taps his lips, “Let me drink it next time.”
Ew!
What the hell!
I grimace and pretend to gag.
“That’s disgusting!” I scream at him as he heads off to the end of the temple, finding a place to lie down in the ruins.
“Shut up, birdy! Or I really will find a way to mount you in your Dragon form… you couldn’t handle a Dragon cock, baby. So, shut your mouth and hang their submissively – I’m taking a mid-morning nap!”
“Sleep as long as you want!” I yell out.
All he’d do is taunt me when he woke up anyway.
Lixar chuckles to himself as he collapses in the ruins, hugs a brick or two and rests his cheek on a jagged looking boulder.
What the-?
“I’m a demon, I like pain,” Lixar sighs, “Now stop thinking. I’m trying to snooze.”
I don’t want him reading my thoughts so I think about my wrists.
The pain in my arms, my joints and my hands, throbbing.
I couldn’t wait for this all to be over.
The pain might end tonight, but when I shifted for the first time, the situation would only get more complex, more problematic… and most importantly… more dangerous for everyone involved. Even the Immortal King himself would be at risk of the change.
I wouldn’t know how powerful it was, this shift…
…until it consumed me.
And then it would change me and my future forever.
Chapter 25
I remain strung up in the temple ruin, in extreme pain and sufficiently starved and tortured throughout the rest of the day until midnight. The one thing that gets me through is, ironically, the deluded state of mind I quickly regain after the fading Horse Root in my system is completely wiped out from my blood.
Lixar knows what he is doing, because the pain induces sweat that dehydrates my body and I’m exposed to the forces of magic and the Moon.
My skin itches, my temperature soars and I’ve begun to froth at the mouth as that strange sickness takes over my body as if rejecting this human form.
It makes the time pass awfully slowly and I feel my chains being loosened for the fifth time. I can’t see as my eyes are sealed shut, as if I’m meditating in the suffering. The wind which has picked up in strength, swipes over my fevered body as my feet touch the ground. The wind helps cool me and soothe me; …Zarcar.
It’s a brief thought.
I had been allowed rest at intervals as had been suggested and each time I collapsed in a pathetic heap.
Now as I collapse for the fifth them, my cheek presses against the cool marble floor and my eyes stay closed as I hear faded words around me.
“…it’s time, for release…mine…how perfect…now it’s my turn…”
It was finally time to be fully Awakened.
I peel open my eyes, which is a tremendous effort. Once I realise I’m not being strung up again off the floor, I relax onto the marble.
I raise my head, my senses clouded by midnight and my vision foggy.
I don’t see Lixar right away, who is meant to help me Shift.
The Immortal King is watching me from the other side of the temple, hidden by shadows. Rey is leaning down and beckoning something closer to him. I watch, spell bound… as a white snake lifts its head and curls along his wrist and arm.
I feel myself getting dizzier and the pain in my bones, blinds me as Rey turns and catches my gaze.
I felt like I was giving birth to a spirit from inside every part of my body.
I try to reject it.
Comfort.
I needed comfort.
I feel the Mystifyer’s present, as if their energy flows to my body to reassure me of their presence.
To the left, Lixar stands close and on edge, he’s in a squat, watching me intently. His hazel eyes are entranced by my pain, wondering about the change.
Zarcar is on the right, he hides behind a pillar, his anger loud and clear by the way he stands by that marble pillar, half hidden from view. His energy was darker and roiling with… possession. Lixar was more relaxed, his energy was hyper aware of the Shift. He was excited.
Andoll watches from behind Zarcar in the ash of the haunted little sect of Swendula. She’s chewing on more Horse Root, grinning at me as I promptly start to shiver with denial. I didn’t want to let this thing out.
No.
Something terrible might happen.
“Little birdy,” Lixar speaks and I’m surprised how clearly I can hear while in pain, “Look at Rey.”
I can’t speak as I press my forehead to the marble and breathe.
Up, above, in front.
Steps start toward me, one at a time. Relaxed and lazy. Arrogant and sending icey waves of cold power towards me.
Rey was asserting his authority over me.
Something inside me snaps, then.
In that moment.
I dare to glance up… I see the white snake curling around Rey’s shoulders and winding down his other arm… the demon snake wants to come closer to me.
“Don’t let it go just yet,” Lixar advises Rey, “She’s still thinking.”
“She’s had all day to think,” Rey drawls, “I don’t want Chyronex thinking I’m neglecting her as my Queen…” I watch as Rey looks at Zarcar, who steps forward in defence of Rey’s words. The way our King watches Zarcar, his silver, black veined eyes focus on the Warlord as if he is the threat, “Don’t you dare interfere, Zar. Lix will help transition our Queen. Another step and Lix will take your place as Warlord over my armies.”
Zarcar halts and slowly slips his black eyes to mine.
The demon in him is roaring to get out, the anger is excessive but he’s learned to control himself well. 290 Winters later he had perfected staunch control.
I turn back to Rey. I watch the head of the snake rise, the tongue flickers out at Zarcar as if mocking his poise.
The snake.
Demon.
Bad Demon.
Zarcar.
Mine.
Zarcar is a fire spitting, dangerous beast that should be unleashed to his ful
l power. He shouldn’t be contained nor disrespected. Zarcar has been protecting his Draconess.
Me.
Me.
I’m the Draconess he has been protecting.