The altar creaked, but when Adam searched for the source of the noise with vision blurred from tears, he saw nothing out of the ordinary. His eyes wandered over the portrait of the former pope on the side wall and then up the figure of Eve, but despite his senses screaming in alarm, he couldn’t find the strength to move.
Something stirred in the wooden leaves of the Tree of Knowledge. His first thought was that perhaps it was the shadow of one of the tall poplars that grew around the parish buildings, but no.
What Adam saw threatened everything he believed about the world. The snake carved in wood over three hundred years ago twitched, and then its body slid down the trunk as if he hadn’t gained flexibility only seconds ago, but had always been made of flesh.
Adam jumped to his feet when the beast let out a hiss that echoed under the ceiling, as if there was much more space above than the physical size of the church should allow. The snake dropped to the floor with a wet slap and crawled towards him, leaving a bloody trail on the polished wooden floor.
“Oh God…” Adam’s first instinct was to escape the building the way he’d entered it, but the serpent already blocked his way, its thick flesh zig-zagging in a wave-like motion as it approached Adam at an unsettling pace. It wasn’t even made of wood anymore. It was alive. “It can’t be… you… you’re not real…” Adam’s breath hitched as he stumbled backwards, eyes never leaving the huge reptile. He had to reach the main entrance if he wanted to get out of this alive.
“This is my domain. Your God doesn’t reside here, Adam.” It was words and hissing at the same time, as if the serpent spoke straight to his soul.
Maybe it was the fear talking, but the snake seemed to grow as it approached Adam, followed by a path of darkness. The candles flickered and eventually waned, only to turn into black voids one by one, and all Adam was left with was the cool glow coming through the narrow windows.
“No… get away from me!” Panicked, he turned to face the main entrance and dashed toward it, desperate to leave the church. How could a demon enter this place? Had it been desecrated?
It might have been. After all, he could have drawn blood during the whipping, which meant that the demon was telling the truth—they weren’t in the house of God anymore. He’d soiled his one sanctuary.
The snake’s red eyes glowed like torchlights as it wriggled down the center of the nave. “I will rid you of your pain.”
Adam screamed, stumbling into the vestibule, and yanked on one of the heavy door bolts. His blood went cold when it remained immobile. “No… no… no no no!” He choked out a sob, frantically jerking the iron handle with trembling hands, even though deep down he knew it was hopeless. “God save me… please, save me!”
He spun around when the demon blocked him from running back to the altar, gliding into the vestibule with its bloodied jaws open to show two rows of needle-like fangs.
“I promised you peace, didn’t I? Do not be afraid, Adam. I know what you need…”
Adam’s heart clenched in fear, and he backed into the corner, wishing he’d worn a cassock after all, just to have another layer of cloth to protect him from the monstrous reptile and its teeth.
Those rows of poisonous spikes were all Adam thought about when he felt a burning sensation at the side of his neck. With a strangled cry, he tried to rip the snake off, choke it, squash its heat with his hands, but all his hands found was his own skin.
It was only when pain bit at his fingers as well, Adam realized holy water was boiling in the container above him, some of it splattering and spilling to pool on the floor. Twin flames loomed in front of him, and a chilling hiss trailed up Adam's body. His heart sunk.
Sensing his despair, the demon leapt forward too fast for Adam to react, and wrapped its thick body around his legs, its head held high like that of a dancing cobra. Adam's mouth fell open, his stomach shrinking into a tight ball, but before he managed to snap out of the trance, the serpent held his arms in a bruising grip. Moments later, he was eye to eye with the monster.
“Embrace it. You know you want to,” the demon hissed, opening its jaws wide enough to showcase the dark depths of its throat.
“No… no!” Adam squeezed his eyes shut, shifting his focus to prayer, rendered powerless by this creature that came for him straight from Hell. “Our Father, who art in heaven—”
Adam's words were cut short when his mouth filled over its capacity. Something hot was pushing in, gagging Adam when it hit the back of his throat. His eyes shot wide open, and he grabbed the snake where he could reach it, desperate to stop it from getting any farther, but he couldn’t even wrap his hands over the beast’s girth. The demon was entering him, inch by inch, and spread Adam’s jaw beyond capacity. He felt the serpent’s head moving down his throat, blocking his air duct. He couldn’t breathe. Dizzy with nausea, he started seeing double, and there was no one here to help him.
The world lost its color, darkening at the edges when Adam’s body shook with uncontrollable tremors, as if the demon were melting into his blood and making it boil the same way it had affected the holy water.
He was gone.
When two massive bolts of lightning hit the ground only a few paces away from Adam, sending sparks into the air, he realized he’d somehow gone outside while not fully conscious. The tall poplars surrounding church grounds danced with the howling wind as he walked past them, straight into a wide field of wheat, which glinted as if an invisible hand of the moon had dusted them with silver.
He could see everything despite the clouds obscuring both the moon and stars, he was breaking out in goosebumps from the cold, he smelled the crops, and his throat ached as if it had been rubbed raw. But he had no control over his body as he walked on, beaten and blinded by the harsh blows of rain.
Adam’s legs kept moving, ignoring his will to stop, as if all connections between his brain and muscles had been severed. As if he was sleepwalking with his eyes open yet unable to wake up. Cold wind blew into his back, pushing him forward, like a mother trying to usher her child to move faster. He was walking straight through the waving sea of wheat with no will of his own, buried deep inside his own body in the strangest kind of a coma.
You can’t wait, can you? A hissing laugh echoed beneath his skull.
The sky was so dark tonight, and the field smelled sweet, like sugar, as if it didn’t bear grain but the pastries the flour would be made into. The fat wheat heads tickled his outstretched palms as he passed between jolts of lightning, which kept descending from the heavens to show him the way. Even the wind tickling his ear made him shiver, reminding him of the way Emil had slipped the tip of his tongue over it.
Adam‘s eyes wandered to the thatched house at the edge of the forest. A faint yellow glow in one of the windows beckoned him forward like a lighthouse leading a ship to safe waters. Against the background of the woodland stretching behind it, the house created a sight otherworldly enough for Adam to expect a witch living there, and he half-wondered if the brown wood was in fact gingerbread.
The answer to his burning questions came in his own voice, uttered by his mouth. “What are you so ashamed off? Your body is a gift. Use it,” The demon said as Adam passed the wooden gate and approached the main door in the downpour. “He really likes your blue eyes. If you hadn’t moved away earlier, he would have kissed you.”
Adam stomped over a blood red poppy. Its color was so bright it hurt Adam’s eyes, and he curled up in the darkness inside, where the creature had banished him to.
Step by step, they neared the soft lights of the old house, and Adam’s mind went numb when he realized what would happen next. Something at the very core of his being wanted to protest, but it wasn’t what came out as words.
“I assure you, you will feel so much better once he buries his cock in you.” It came as only a whisper, because Emil was already opening the door for him, his eyebrows high.
“May I come in?” the demon asked through Adam’s trembling lips.
Chapter 9
- Adam
Emil’s brows lowered as he stepped back, letting Adam into the house that smelled of warm herbs and his delicious flesh. A candle was lit in the kitchen, but Adam could see a soothing glow past the open door that led deeper into the house, to rooms he hadn’t gotten to see yet.
His senses were in overdrive, taking in everything, from the way the wooden floor dipped under his weight a fraction of a millimeter to the aroma of coffee. And Emil. Everything about Emil screamed out to Adam, inviting him for a feast.
“Did something happen?” Emil asked, locking the door without hurry. He’d changed into a pair of loose sweatpants since they’d spoken, but the tight T-shirt emphasized his firm chest and showcased the dark hair on his sturdy forearms.
Rain beat against the thatched roof, like endless whispers enticing Adam toward Emil, and when Adam’s ears picked up the sound of a firm heartbeat, his gaze was drawn to Emil’s graceful neck. It made his mouth water.
“I’m here for you,” Adam’s lips said, and his body took him closer, so close that Emil’s smoky aroma became almost too thick to bear.
Emil, who had so obscenely tried to seduce Adam from the moment they met, blinked a few times and didn’t move a muscle. “You are?”
Adam took a deep breath of air that was so thoroughly infused with Emil’s scent it felt like gold dust in his lungs. “I won’t stop myself anymore. I’m my own master.”
Only that he wasn’t. The demon had complete control over him, and while he hadn’t tried to alter Adam’s thoughts, the things he was saying came from the deepest, most shameful places in Adam’s heart.
Emil’s mouth stretched into a smile, and when heat spread through Adam’s body in response, he knew the serpent had nothing to do with it. His desire for Emil was a deep, dark pit of tar, and Adam longed to bathe in it even if it was to sear his skin.
Emil grabbed his hand, and led the way farther into the house. The demon laughed in a playful manner Adam couldn’t have ever emulated in a situation so tense. “Take down that magpie. I can’t kiss you when it’s staring at us.”
Emil blinked, leaning forward as if he were about to steal a kiss nevertheless, but when Adam’s gaze didn’t flinch, he stepped back and hurriedly approached the stuffed bird before closing it into a cupboard by the window.
Adam had known Emil was beautiful from the moment they met, but the candlelight added a soft quality to the symmetrical yet strong features and colored his skin with a juicy orange shade, as if he were painted in sepia. Emil swallowed when he met Adam’s eyes again and approached him with determination worthy of their month-long wait.
“Now, take me to your bed,” Adam’s lips said. Those would have been his own words if the world he lived in were any different. If he didn’t have to feel shame every time he had sexual thoughts about men, he would have said this to Emil long ago. But as it was, the devil was speaking for Adam while he remained locked away, floating in his own body, yet unable to influence anything that was happening to it.
Emil leaned close to kiss Adam, his features relaxed, eyes radiating such joy Adam could almost forget he didn’t want this and that he’d been forced to come here, only a puppet in the devil’s hands.
As soon as the soft lips met Adam’s, he pushed until they hit the wall. Emil opened Adam’s mouth with his hot tongue, and despite loving each second, Adam couldn’t help but mourn his first kiss being stolen.
His hands found their way to Emil’s hair, just like he’d wanted but never dared, and he yelped into Emil’s lips when strong hands grabbed his ass and pulled him up.
The demon didn’t waste time and wrapped Adam’s legs around Emil, made his arms slide around that long, tempting neck, and then had Adam push his tongue into the scorching heat of Emil’s mouth. He tasted like fresh fruit, smoky meat, and honey, all combined into a primal feast. Adam’s mind drifted off, blurring as if he were drinking mead straight from Emil’s lips.
The long hair tickled Adam’s face, soft as the most expensive silk, and he shut his eyes, overtaken by the carousel of emotions spinning inside him as Emil carried him deeper into the house.
“I should probably feel ashamed of leading you down the wrong path, but I don’t.” Emil whispered into Adam’s lips as he rolled him onto the soft mattress. The ceiling moved above Adam’s head, and he saw a shadow pass across it, darting to the nearest wall. He wanted to follow it with his gaze, but the demon inside kept stubbornly looking at the gorgeous man above, the finest specimen Adam had ever seen.
“Nothing ever felt more right,” his lips said.
Emil’s skin was still covered with his cotton top, but Adam’s hands could sense its warmth pulsing against his palms as he sat up and nipped the salty flesh of Emil’s exposed neck. His mouth watered, and he knew that if he bit in, he’d taste roast pork with apricots and nuts, covered by the most divine crunchy skin.
“What changed your mind?” Emil asked, but when he covered Adam with his body and kissed him again, the devil’s wishes mingled with Adam’s own, to the point where it was hard to know anymore which ones were tainted by the demonic presence, and which were his.
“You’re constantly on my mind. It’s making me crazy,” Adam said, tightening his thighs around Emil’s hips. “And now I want to see you naked. All of you this time.”
The room around them blurred, as if only their bodies and the bed still held on to their physical form while everything else transcended into an ethereal state and might crumble to dust at the slightest gust of wind.
Emil grinned and backed away enough to sit back on his heels when he pulled off his T-shirt. No matter how pretty the soft candle light was, Adam craved—no, the devil craved—spotlights illuminating the gorgeous body from above.
“What about you? What would you do to have me?” Adam’s lips whispered, taking in the muscular chest partially hidden by the lush waves of dark hair. He wanted to suck out all of Emil’s blood and chew on his locks for dessert.
Emil’s gaze darkened, and he leaned forward to claim Adam’s lips in a breathless kiss. “I don’t know what it is, but from that night when I met you, I could sense… you were meant for me. As if we were supposed to meet.” Emil’s mouth twisted, and he looked away, letting his shoulders drop. “No. It’s stupid. I don’t want to overthink it.”
Adam grabbed Emil’s chin to make their eyes meet. “It’s not stupid. You’ll be mine to enjoy now.”
A bright flush crept up Emil’s face. “Whoa! Talk about escalation. You’ve been bottling this up for a long time, haven’t you?” He teased, and started lowering his sweatpants to reveal that he wasn’t wearing any underwear. The line of muscle at his hips was something Adam—the demon—wanted to lick, but his hunger only grew when Emil’s half-hard dick popped out, long, and smooth, and gorgeous from the tip hiding under the foreskin to the bush of dark hair around the base.
“Take off all of it,” Adam demanded, breathlessly watching Emil’s balls sway between his firm thighs, a treat he’d soon savor.
Emil got up to push off his pants all the way to the floor, and he stood in front of Adam in all his glory. His chest moved as if he were psyching himself up to step into the fire of Adam’s lust. All that imposing flesh, the buttocks, the cock, the pecs, the biceps, would soon roast, and Adam would be there to drink the juices.
But Adam wasn’t the only one to stare, and he relished the glint of excitement in Emil’s gaze. This man, who Adam had had endless dreams about, truly desired him as well.
Emil stroked Adam’s hair, as if he were caressing a beloved pet, and Adam found himself leaning into the touch. He was terrified of the way the demon took over his body with such ease, but Emil was there with his kisses, gentle hands, and glances that felt like honey on Adam’s tongue. If they survived this night, Adam knew he’d secretly cherish the memory until the day he died.
And yet no matter how much he enjoyed the illicit view, he shouldn’t. God, he shouldn’t. He shouldn’t be staring at a man as if he was to be indulg
ed in.
“Do you have… a preference?” Emil asked, massaging Adam’s jaw with his fingertips, as if he feared that he might scare him off by touching too firmly.
“I want to swallow your cock,” Adam’s lips said, and despite the fright lodged deep inside him like a splinter, he knew the demon wasn’t lying. Devoted to keeping eye contact with his soon-to-be lover, he stepped off the bed and unbuckled his belt before shoving down his shorts and underwear.
Emil’s pupils widened, and he licked his lips as his gaze became a dusky forest. “Oh, so that’s how it is.” His smile became predatory in the best of ways when it strayed to Adam’s crotch. “Go on then, do what you came here for.” He grabbed Adam’s short hair and gently urged him to kneel. “You’ve been hiding a gem under that cassock.”
Desire welled up in Adam’s chest as he followed the nonverbal order. He’d never been this intimate with another man. He’d never even kissed anyone, yet the demon took off all the layers of fabric that kept him safe and offered his body to Emil, as if his free will meant nothing. Naked and obscenely close to Emil’s growing dick, he could barely stand the green gaze studying the most private parts of him, yet it fed his arousal all the same.
“Only you’re allowed to see me like this. And only I can see you like this from now on.”
Emil blinked a few times, his chest sinking as if he’d forgotten to breathe. “Oh-okay. I can do that. I’d like that.”
Adam’s heart fluttered with emotion, and he leaned forward, embracing Emil’s waist and pressing his face to the trail of hair between Emil’s navel and his pubes. The stiffening dick pressed against his throat as he took a long drag of the rich scent vaporizing on Adam’s skin. It filled his lungs and went to his head like the purest spirit, invoking a vision of a whole herd of bison dashing across a meadow, tall mountains behind them, wolves howling in the distance.
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