GRIT

by Elle Cross

  As if they all had one collective mind, a few of them started speaking up at the same time when they saw us approach. Pretty soon, they were all shouting at us.

  "We did nothing wrong."

  "Human laws don’t apply to Remnant God tribes. That means we don't have to follow our laws regarding you, including kidnapping and murder."

  "Gentlemen, let's be reasonable. She's just a little slut—"

  Corso lashed out at the man that said that, whipping his power through the cell walls.

  Well fuck, was that ever the exact wrong thing to say. I blinked in surprise. Those walls were supposed to be impenetrable.

  The man was hurled against the wall, his face sliding down it with a squelch that would have been amusing in a different context. Corso paced in front of the cells, seething, all but begging for someone else to say something incredibly stupid.

  The men were outraged now. Mainly out of fear that something could penetrate the Sylvan blessings of the plexiglass walls. Some even asked for their phone call and their lawyers. They were even saying crazy things about how when they were done, they'd be the ones throwing them in these cells. And then, the rest of the Remnant Gods could leave as well.

  The collective anger of Deimos's men made ice feel warm. It trickled into the air, filling every available molecule of space. Deimos kept me close to his side, pressing as much of his body against mine. The cold didn’t affect me, but I still took the comfort freely offered.

  Deimos allowed for another moment of rising anger from the prisoners until their voices raised to a cacophonous pitch.

  "Silence.” Voice. Like a deadfall, that one command killed the noise from the cells. Even the world around us heeded Deimos’s call of power. It was like the silence of space.

  In the hush, Deimos’s voice surged forward, curling toward the men like a dense fog over moors. "You are here for your involvement in the taking of Remnant Gods,” his hand curled tightly on my shoulder, “and, for killing them.”

  His words lingered in the air. The weight of judgment clung to them, waiting to be unleashed.

  “You acted in line with the old laws, and will be judged by those laws. You are correct that there is no law to govern things like murder and kidnapping, because those concepts are foreign to us.

  “We take and we kill, knowingly paying the price for our actions. Those who do not owe a price, no payment will be required of you, and you will be passed over. The rest? The payment for your actions are due in full. Now."

  Then the light shut off above the cells, leaving only the ambient light from the open building to see by, which wasn’t much. I wasn’t afraid of the dark. I actually found it somewhat comforting. Perhaps it helped that I had Deimos at my back.

  The glyphs from the circle of power glowed then, washing us in a kind of darklight.

  Something stirred within the cells. A slithering raked against my ear and made my hair stand on end. It was the sound of nightmares, a tremor that spiked the adrenaline.

  Deimos wrapped me tight against him.

  My eyes adjusted to the dark. Deimos’s guard must be able to see clearly since they watched each cell attentively.

  A flutter of movement caught my attention. At least, it was what I thought was movement. A sigh, then a clatter of sharp claws against tile. There was a shadow under the bench, something darker than the pitch-black night, and in that shadow, there glowed yellow and green eyes. There was something under the bench, something that I couldn't see, but in every aspect should have been able to see because it wasn't like the bench was huge or anything.

  The spindly fingers of something shot out from beneath the bench of the middle cell and wrapped around a man's legs. He went tumbling down with an oof! Blood spurted from the man even as he screamed. He was slowly pulled down into the impossible blackness under the bench.

  The crunching. The gurgling. The man's fingers broke and bled as he desperately tried to save himself, but still he was dragged into that faceless abyss.

  The other men had scrambled back, tried to claw away from whatever it was that waited for them below. They banged their fists against the glass. Threw their bodies against it. Shouted. Pleaded.

  Something stretched itself out from beneath the bench then. It was paper thin and ribbony, waving along the floor like a flat worm. But when it rose, it was a skeletal ghoul, long spindly fingers that snicked and snacked like scissor blades as they brushed against each other.

  Liliths. They were the things that made you fear the small spaces. Under the bed. The closet. They were always hungry for fresh meat. And, relished the sounds of their victims' screams.

  She went to each man one by one. Some thought to work together to overpower her. While one distracted her, others had attacked her from behind. Quick slashes of her claws left them eviscerated and twitching on the floor.

  More Liliths peeled from the in-between places then, feasting on the quivering flesh of the prisoners while they lived. Flaying the skins from some to collect for trophies later.

  Wherever there was a bit of shadow, there the Liliths were able to emerge. Some small, some tall, all impossibly flat and thin. They gorged until they breathed heavy, until the blood and gore was thick over their body, worn on them like a dress.

  And then, they slipped back into the shadows, dragging the skins of their victims behind them like clothing.

  None of the men were passed over. They were all complicit. Their deaths left me empty.

  "Now may I take you home?" Deimos asked.

  I nodded vigorously.

  "Darling."

  I had surfaced from my dreamless sleep even as he spoke. I could never tire of that voice. That voice could call me back from the dark embrace of death, and I was sure I'd answer him.

  He had proven almost as much already, down in oubliette. It had been a pocket of an otherworld, Deimos said. Kind of like a fold in space and time that contained power and kept them separate and hard to track. That was why it was so difficult to find Owen. Jack.

  But Corso had been able to trail me, running after me all the way there so he had been able to find the way back for the others.

  I pushed that nightmare aside. I didn't want it here with me. With us.

  I stayed curled on my side. My eyes didn't want to open. Deimos was stretched out behind me.

  It had to be more night than morning. The man had something against sleeping in.

  "Nothing against sleeping in, my darling." He tiptoed fingers up from my waist and down my hip. The intrepid explorers didn't stop until they made their way between my legs.

  I laughed into the pillow. "Deimos, I—" the next word got caught up in a sharp intake of breath.

  "Hm? Yes, darling, I see your point," he said, like we were having an in-depth discussion. "Just checking out my handiwork. I have to make sure everything is working right." The smile in his voice was impossible to resist. Deimos healed my body, and he was doing everything in his power to heal my soul.

  I giggled, and pivoted my hips so that I was out of his reach.

  He responded by scooting closer, pressing the length of his body firmly against me. His hard cock nestled against the small of my back. His long fingers curled around the rise of my hip again.

  I was wide awake now and moved against him. My body was already warm and limber. My skin sang with the slightest touch, the barest breaths.

  Deimos knew it, felt it, sensed it. Every bit of it.

  That excited me even more.

  His fingers gripped my leg. I looked over my shoulder at him and met his gaze measure for measure. I curved my arm up behind me, grabbed hold of him and pulled him down to kiss me.

  "Lift your leg," he said against my mouth.

  I did and he pushed his hard length inside me, slowly, so that I felt every inch of flesh that slid against me and stretched me taut. He stayed, unmoving, as he was buried inside me. I wanted him to move, touch my clit, to give me the release that had been building. Something.

  I sta
rted to grind against him, but he grasped my hip.

  He chuckled deep in his chest, vibrating against me, inside me, where we were joined. "I've been waiting patiently for hours as you slept, and here you are demanding release immediately," he tsked, kissing me soundly.

  I just giggled against his lips, grinding myself against him. He chuckled in response.

  Still deep inside me, Deimos held my hips and rolled on to his back with an exaggerated sigh. "Here you go, darling." He held me against him, grazing his hands down the front of my body as I lay on top of him, but he didn't hold me down when I levered myself on to my knees.

  I didn't give him the option to change his mind.

  I worked myself up and down, loved the feel of his hard cock inside me. Took what I wanted from him. Slid up, worked the tip of him with a few quick pops of my hip, then slammed back down. Again. And again.

  His hands tightened on my hips, but didn't hold me down. "Slow down, darling," he growled out.

  I didn't even think of stopping or slowing down. I flipped my hair over my shoulder to look back at him. "Or what? You'll come first?" I shrugged. "You'll just have to get hard again then fuck me senseless."

  I switched positions so I faced him, planted my feet on either side of his hips, and bounced on him, slick and fast. "Either way, I get what I want."

  He smiled, a flash of white in the darkness. In a fluid move, he gripped me so that I was still, and shifted beneath me so that I hovered over him. Then, he thrust up into me, fast and furious, like the driving of pistons.

  There was nothing I could do except take it. The sweet friction made my whole body hum. I arched my back, leaning back to grip my ankles for support, leaving my body on display for him. And, he took advantage of it.

  He ran his hands over my breasts, teasing my nipples. He thumbed circles on my clit, whispered promises of licking and tasting me there. He brought me over the edge, and I cried out my orgasms, the echoes of them rang in my ears. Over and over the waves of pleasure coursed through me.

  He gripped my hips and slammed up into me fully, buried to the hilt, as he found his own release.

  He pulled me down on top of him. I laid against him and gloried in the thundering heartbeat in his chest.

  He laid a gentle caress down my spine. I shivered, my skin still sensitive to the sensations. He rolled me on to my back then, covering me with his body. "My darling, you came first, and yet I'm hard again,” he said in a mock pout. He pressed himself against my leg as if to prove it. "Do I still get to fuck you senseless?" That quirked eyebrow. That half smile.

  I bit my lip in answer.

  He sucked my lower lip, nipping at it as well. Then forged a trail down my neck, sucking and nipping as he continued lower down my body. My breasts. My belly button. My pelvic bone. Finally, he sealed his mouth between my legs, flicking his tongue in hypnotic circles until I was nothing but mindless sensation.

  He rested his hands on my breasts, tweaking my nipples between his fingers.

  My skin was on fire. Every muscle in my body tightened and clenched. I forgot how to breathe. I came for him again, my bucking hips immobile under his weight, his teasing mouth driving me wild.

  He kissed my clit, slipping his fingers in and out of me, drawing out wrenching, guttural cries from me. He blew a cool jet of air over me, and I shattered.

  He chuckled. "Too much for you, darling?"

  Dazed, I met his gaze across the peaks and valley of my body.

  I wanted more.

  He smiled again. That smile that seized my heart. He rose onto his knees between my legs, lifted my hips off the bed, then rubbed himself along my wet heat. I shuddered from the delicious friction.

  He angled our bodies and plunged inside me. He played my body like a gifted artist, timing each stroke with his thrusts. He lifted one of my legs up against his chest, my ankle resting on his shoulder. I wrapped my other leg around his waist. I clutched at the bed, keeping balance. He drove into me, hard and deep.

  Tendrils of his aura thrummed against me, trailing light feather kisses against my clit and nipples. He thrust faster, grew harder inside me.

  Then, he folded me in half, tossing both of my legs over my head, one hand gripping my ankles together.

  He pounded against me with hard, sure, long, strokes like he had no intention of ever stopping. He slipped a finger between my folds, playing circles around my clit. The sensations were too much, the feel of him growing even bigger, ever harder inside me. I clenched around him in answer.

  He hissed a ragged breath between his teeth. His eyes shone red and gold, the tendrils of his aura grew heavy, gaining substance and weight. Thrummed more intensely against my body, held me tight, wrapped me in his hold and kept me still when I wanted to flail and move.

  My only outlet was to scream and scream I did. His name was a litany and prayer and mantra and I invoked it over and over.

  He didn't stop thrusting as I rode the orgasm. A finger played around the overflow of juices, then, probed my anus. He slipped his finger between my cheeks, slowly, a contrast to the hard thrusting. I adjusted, relaxed around his finger as I crested toward a building orgasm.

  He stroked his thumb along my clitoris. I came, screaming mindlessly.

  His rhythm became jerky, then. Frantic. He emptied himself into me and I took all of him in, all he gave me.

  He pulled out of me, and gently rolled me over face down. Sweat slick and quivering, the electric heat of our bodies left me panting. He kissed my shoulder then up to my neck. He lifted my tangle of hair away from me and blew a cool breath down my back. I shivered and tensed in anticipation. He stroked my back, light and innocent. But his building erection against my thigh made me believe he still wasn't done.

  He slipped a hand under me, found my clit. I smiled, and ground myself against his fingers. "You're so wet," he whispered, proud. "Always wet for me." Just a few swift strokes and I came for him again, my throaty cries muffled against a pillow.

  I hissed a ragged breath when he maneuvered me into a wide straddle on my knees, angled my ass up into the air, bent me forward on my forearms.

  With all of me exposed to him, he lapped up my slit. He alternated between swirling his tongue over my clit in hot circles and delving into my wet slick heat. He pushed fingers inside me, diving in and out. They played an intricate dance in and around my folds. Then, he danced his slick and drenched fingers between my cheeks, rimming my bottom.

  He drove his erection into me as he pushed his fingers into my bottom. I gasped. He waited for my body to adjust, probing slow and gentle.

  He moved again, sliding his length in and out of me. His other hand fondled my clitoris, pinched my nipples. He pulled his cock out of me, then skimmed its length between my cheeks, lubricating me there with my own juices. He did that a couple more times. Thrust into my wet pussy, then rimmed my bottom, over and over, sometimes using his fingers to probe me until all the sensations became too much.

  My muscles clenched and tightened, I clawed at the bed, dug my fingers into the mattress. "Please," I whimpered. "Please."

  Then, he leaned over sucked my earlobe and spoke. I didn't comprehend the words. They rumbled out of him like storms roiling over an ocean.

  I shuddered apart, a full body tremble that had me seeing stars.

  From one thrust to the next, he pushed himself between my cheeks.

  He drove me to dizzying heights, wrenching orgasms from me, the contrast of his gentle thrusts at odds with his frenetic fingers. My body burst apart until I was little more than quivering, heaving flesh. I bucked against him, reeling from the intense pleasure that racked my body, scorched my skin.

  Tendrils of his aura wrapped around me in a tight embrace. He buried his face in my hair. Hands gripped my waist. Thrusts erratic. He roared above me.

  I drifted slowly back into my body.

  He gathered me to him, kissed my face gently, whispering softly. I didn't understand the words, but I understood the emotions behind them, b
asked in the scents they brought with them. Storm clouds and wind. Dewdrops and petals.

  Each fragrance said variations of the same thing.

  Mine.

  Cherished.

  Loved.

  They made the words "I love you" seem small and meaningless. Like an ill-fitting suit.

  But I had no other words to give him. And so I said them.

  He stilled beside me. Space and time froze as well.

  I felt the span of millennia between heartbeats.

  After what seemed like another century, he trailed his fingers over my face, then kissed me, soft and sweet.

  "My darling," he murmured against my lips. "I want to show you something."

  He waited. He didn't ask for permission. That wasn't who he was. But he didn't order me, either. And so he waited.

  I nodded. Then said, "Yes," knowing that he preferred hearing my consent.

  He kissed the back of my hand. Then his power wrapped around us, black and sentient like the night.

  One moment, we were snuggled atop his massive bed. Then, we were in a room facing a panorama of stars courtesy of the floor to ceiling windows that comprised the entire back wall.

  There were framed art pieces along the walls and sculptures precisely placed throughout the room. I didn't need to turn the lights on to know that this room housed my art. It vibrated from the energy I'd put into creating these works. Pieces of myself.

  I walked toward them. Among them. Each piece placed exactly as I would have placed them. Each one greeted me like I were an old friend.

  I sank to the floor, overcome with emotion.

  Deimos wrapped himself around me, nestled me against his chest. He stroked my hair. "I heard you. From the first piece, I knew you. I heard you, calling out. I heard you, and tore the universe apart looking for you. I never stopped looking. Would never stop looking. And then, one day you walked into my life." He kissed my temple.

  I smiled against his body, brushing the tears away from my cheeks. "Does that mean that I found you?"

  "I'm ever so grateful you did." He kissed me again, holding me close. A shadow flickered over his face, a glimpse at the ancient within him. It was gone in an instant, but it still made me shiver.