A Demon's Contract

by Delmire Hart

  Reaching back, he ghosted his fingers across the half-hard length twitching behind him.

  “Can I?” A resurgence of embarrassment flamed through him as he lost his words, unable to say exactly what he wanted to do. Hopefully the touch was enough for Zaxor to take the hint, although he expected the demon to take the opportunity to tease him.

  Instead, Zaxor brought his hands up to rest against the pillow at his head, the muscles of his body straining as he stretched before he relaxed back again. “Be my guest.”

  Barkley stared at the demon in surprise. He was so relaxed, so open, yet he seemed as confident and in control as he always did. It didn’t make sense to him, but damn, if it wasn’t the sexiest thing he’d ever seen.

  “You seem surprised,” Zaxor drawled, the familiar tone of arch amusement creeping back in as Barkley kept him waiting. “I admit, I generally prefer to be in control, but not always. And I’m certainly not going to turn down an eager partner looking to pleasure me.”

  That was all it took for Barkley to regain his wavering confidence, along with a now fully hard cock, and shuffle his way down Zaxor’s sleek body. Settling between his thighs, he thought about what he had enjoyed, but it was hard to concentrate when there was a very enthusiastic looking cock straining towards him. Instead he gave in to the urge to touch, to explore, now that he felt like he had been given permission.

  The body underneath him was all sleek lines of perfectly sculpted muscle, firm under his hands, and skin warm to the touch. Thighs parted eagerly as he caressed along them before moving up to smooth across a flat stomach. The muscles there jumped under his fingers as he explored, but Zaxor’s hum of approval kept him going without pause. Over and around he went, every inch of skin within reach mapped under his fingers. Zaxor was practically purring, an odd sound that Barkley didn’t know he could produce, with his tail caressing his back or thigh in encouragement to keep going.

  A throaty groan met his ears when he slipped low enough to pay Zaxor’s leaking cock attention. It stood tall, straining for Barkley’s attentions, encouraging him more than words ever could. There was something thrilling in knowing he could spark such feelings in the demon, such wanton desire. Zaxor’s fingers carded through his hair, not forcing but encouraging nonetheless. There was even a hint of demand to the touch that had Barkley fighting off a grin. The confidence that swelled through him was quickly harnessed into action as he grasped the length in front of him.

  Barkley stared for a moment more, his inexperience leaving him unsure where to begin, before he gave a mental shrug and leaned in to lick a stripe up the underside. The way the thick cock pulsed in his hand told him he couldn’t really go wrong. For every teasing lick and suck, Barkley catalogued Zaxor’s reaction. The demon was surprisingly loud, wanton moans dropping freely from his lips regularly. As surprised as he was, Barkley found he loved it and delighted in learning how to pull more from his lover.

  That’s right, his lover. His own cock throbbed where it sat neglected and leaking between his legs, but Barkley didn’t care. A warmth that was more than just arousal flared through him as he sank his mouth over Zaxor’s cock, swallowing what he could manage. His feelings towards the demon were becoming fond, affectionate, and the warmth those feelings gave him heightened all the other feelings circling within him.

  A large hand tugged gently at his hair, not controlling the pace but encouraging what felt good. It curled tighter when Barkley hollowed his cheeks and sucked, the brief loss of Zaxor’s control immensely satisfying. It was almost impossible to smile around the cock in his mouth, but Barkley felt he must be grinning like a fool.

  A garbled word that Barkley didn’t recognise was all the warning he had before the body underneath him tensed and he was hurriedly trying to swallow. The liquid in his mouth was bitter and thick, not entirely pleasant, but not the worst thing he had ever swallowed. Barkley wasn’t able to make the act of his partner finishing as sexy as Zaxor had when their roles were reversed, but he didn’t think the demon cared overly much.

  Zaxor melted back into the bed for a moment, eyes shut in bliss, as Barkley sat up wiping ineffectually at his face. He had done a poor job of swallowing everything and his lips and cheeks were sticky. That became the last thought on his mind when large hands pulled him forward, and Barkley yelped as he flailed his arms out to stop himself from collapsing on Zaxor’s chest. The demon gave him no chance to gain his bearings as one hand settled about his waist to hold him still and the other roughly twisted around his cock.

  Barkley groaned, his own desperate arousal shooting painfully back to the fore at the touch. A dexterous tail urged his head down so Zaxor could lick into his mouth, heedless of the taste of his own spend. The rough, passionate kiss and a few expert tugs were all it took for Barkley to come to his own peak, spilling over Zaxor’s hand and stomach. His arms gave out and Barkley collapsed forward, breaking the kiss as he planted his face into the pillow, narrowly avoiding Zaxor’s horns.

  They lay in a messy, panting heap for long moments before Barkley began to laugh. It started out as the barest giggle before his entire body was shaking with the force of his laughter. There was no reason for it other than the feeling of affection and happiness bubbling out of him. It was as though his body couldn’t contain the warm feelings so they found a way out in the shaking of his shoulders and the barely stifled laughter falling from his lips.

  “Care to share?” Zaxor’s voice was rough from all the breathy moans, and a little thrill ran through Barkley that he was the cause.

  Barkley shook his head as he sat up, looking down at the demon splayed out under him. What could he say? He was laughing because he was giddy with happiness over successfully blowing his demon lover? The absurdity of the situation sent his head spinning. Perhaps it wasn’t just affection and happiness that caused his laughter. He felt free from all the stress and tension he had been carrying around with him lately, all thoughts of obligation, pain, and fear had been stripped from him in his intense focus on Zaxor. He felt like he was floating with the feelings left behind in their place.

  “Was I good?” he asked instead, suddenly shy. Zaxor stretched languidly, a grin curling his lips.

  “Oh yes, quite the fast learner, aren’t you?”

  Barkley flushed with pleasure at the praise. “I’m surprised you were so loud, I didn’t expect you to make so much noise.”

  “And deprive my lover of the pleasure of reaping the rewards of his hard work? Humans have some truly odd notions about how they should sound and what they should reveal in the bedroom. ‘You are only a man when in this position during sex, anything else is lesser’. ‘Don’t show your pleasure or they’ll have power over you’.” Zaxor snorted in derision as he waved his hand to float a cloth over and cleaned them up. “Why should I not enjoy myself to the fullest? Why should you miss out on the satisfaction of knowing what pleasure you gave me?”

  “You were purring.” Zaxor glanced up at him, amused, but said nothing as he continued to wipe their bodies as clean as he could. Barkley knew he was still grinning stupidly, but he hadn’t yet come down from his high. “What did you say at the end?”

  The demon paused in his ministrations, head tilted as he mentally replayed the past few minutes. “Ah, I swore in demonic. It’s the equivalent of the human word ‘fuck’.” There was no shame in his tone or posture, only amusement and lingering satisfaction.

  It made Barkley think of his home village and how people gossiped behind their hands about who slept with whom. Cruel laughter, subtle mockery, and whispered secrets. Barkley had stayed clear of most of that, preferring to keep to his books when he wasn’t helping with the family farm. Zaxor’s unashamed honesty about his pleasure left no room for mockery or embarrassment. It was not something that Barkley had thought about during their previous exploits, but he found he appreciated it now.

  “Now, let us take a nap. You’ll need it for when you return to the human plane, especially because I plan to fuck you in the
morning when you are nice and relaxed from sleep.”

  Zaxor grinned at him, sharp and predatory, and Barkley felt his pulse jump at the sight. The heady rush of arousal swirled through him as he was pulled against Zaxor’s chest, his spent cock twitching weakly in interest. A quiet chuckle ruffled his hair, felt more than heard, but Zaxor said nothing, merely pulling up the blankets then settling back for sleep.

  For all that Barkley was awash with the beginnings of desire and curious thoughts of the morning, he drifted off surprisingly quickly. The tension of stress had not yet returned to him and the slow, even breathing of Zaxor lulled him into a dreamless sleep.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  “You’re late.”

  Barkley looked up at the frowning officer before glancing around the room he had been teleported to. He didn’t remember this man’s name, only that he was higher ranking than Jerry. The man’s posture and tone suggested that he wanted an answer, but Barkley found that he didn’t care to give him one. He was still floating high after that morning and would rather not deal with petty army politics. Barkley was here for a reason, and that reason didn’t include bowing and scraping after this man.

  “Zaxor needed to regain his magic,” Barkley said stiffly by way of explanation. “No one cared what we thought of the mission, better for him to regain his magic while you wait for your official report.”

  The soldier’s frown deepened, a mulish look setting across his features. Ah, maybe Barkley had messed up by speaking to him so candidly, but he was currently outside the army ranks. He wasn’t bound by their rules. After the colossal waste of time that was the Loria Academy, Barkley didn’t have the patience to deal with ‘the way they did things’ here. He would not dance to someone else’s tune again, instead he was determined to forge his own path like Zaxor had encouraged.

  “Your orders were to return here once the mission was complete. You do not—”

  “You don’t command me,” Barkley stated abruptly, cutting across the man. “I am here to end the war; nothing more, nothing less. Once that’s done, I’m gone. I don’t have the luxury of time to deal with in house army politics.”

  With that, he turned on his heel and strode from the room that was set up as the central command post. No one else had been present, possibly due to the early hour, and Barkley was glad. He doubted that he could have gotten away with such actions had someone witnessed them.

  “I’m impressed,” a warm voice said, interrupting his thoughts.

  Glancing to the side, Barkley found Zaxor walking beside him as he strolled aimlessly through the sea of tents surrounding the small once-village. The demon grinned, the look almost feral and showing too much teeth. His tail whipped back and forth and he seemed pleased, incredibly so.

  “Threatening a commanding officer? I never would have taken you for the type.”

  “It wasn’t a threat,” Barkley replied.

  As they walked, soldiers gave them a wide berth, and there was a new look of fear in their eyes. News about the mission last night must have already spread. Interestingly enough, for all the fear, he received a number of very respectful head nods of acknowledgement, even more than he had the day prior. The soldiers might not trust or understand the power that Zaxor wielded, but it was working for them and they seemed to acknowledge that. The lieutenant he rode with yesterday even greeted Barkley by name as he strolled past.

  It struck Barkley, as they continued on after returning the greeting, that this camp looked much the same as the one they had torched last night. An abandoned village with only a few buildings still standing taken over for an army headquarters close to the frontlines. A sea of tents fanned out in neat rows around the wooden structures, the only interruption the odd campfire where soldiers gathered when off duty. Men in various states of dress strode down the beaten earth lanes between the tents, off to the latrines or a guard post or other duties.

  The only thing separating the two camps was their nationality, denoted in the different styles of dress and varying colours of skin. Quathians tended to be paler while Rilians tended toward a more olive complexion, especially those from the warmer, southern part of the kingdom. The differences were so minor now that Barkley had placed them, it was almost jarring. It cemented the feeling of how human their enemies were; a dangerous line of thinking with what he had planned.

  “You are thinking awfully loudly again.” Zaxor’s deep voice broke the easy silence between them, pulling a sigh from Barkley.

  “This camp looks much the same as the one from the raid last night. In the end, we’re all just human, aren’t we?”

  “Dangerous thinking during war time,” Zaxor replied, echoing Barkley’s earlier thoughts. “But yes. Unlike the stories would have you believe, there is no evil side, no good side. Just an array of humans all thinking they are doing the right thing. Only the victor determines what is right and good.”

  The words were a cold comfort, but Zaxor leant closer as they walked, their arms bumping together, offering physical comfort in its place. They continued their walk in silence, winding around through the entire camp before ending up outside the command post once again. Zaxor vanished with a small ‘pop’, leaving Barkley to amuse himself. He contemplated calling Zaxor back to take Barkley to the demon realm with him, but he supposed he needed to stay here until they organised the next plan.

  After asking around the command center, all Barkley achieved was annoying the bigwig in charge and finding out that the planning of the next raid was underway. He was ordered to stay in the human plane and not vanish off to ‘damned knows where’ with his demon, causing Barkley to roll his eyes. So, he ended up sitting on a spare bench around the back of the command building, a massive tome in his lap. It probably appeared very magey, like he was studying the great arcane mysteries of their world, but instead it was an anthology of Althulean fairy tales translated by Frederick.

  Everyone moved around him, leaving Barkley in relative peace until hunger made him seek out lunch. He didn’t know quite what to do as he hadn’t been given a place in the army, probably due to his words earlier, but he was saved by the lieutenant from last night. Harding caught Barkley hovering around the command post and dragged him back to his group’s campfire once he realised why.

  The man and his companions weren’t exactly friendly, but they were respectful and seemed happy enough to share the leftovers of their rations. Especially once Harding reassured them he’d see that Barkley gets a set army ration to contribute to every meal as well. So, he sat and listened to their quiet chatter while he ate; lower ranking officers bitching about the conditions here, others grumbling about latrine duty. An older veteran, judging by his steel grey hair and scarred hands, sat quietly next to Barkley, sharpening his blade.

  “You know,” the old soldier started, his gravelly voice breaking their companionable silence. “You’re awfully young to be the great demon tamer mage.”

  Barkley blinked in surprise. “Demon tamer?”

  “That’s what they are calling you.” Barkley was vaguely aware that the other officers around the campfire had stopped talking to listen curiously as the man spoke. “Barkley Demontamer.”

  “That’s…” he trailed off, Zaxor’s sharp, smirking arrogance coming to mind. Then the way he had foiled his mage exam, growing tall with his different shape, voice booming as his body seemed to be made of swirling black mist. “He is very far from tame.”

  His voice sounded weak in his own ears, more a token protest than a true denial, even if it was the truth. As ludicrous as calling Zaxor tame was, it was somehow even more ridiculous calling him ‘not tame’. The words couldn’t encompass the expanse of wild intelligence and cunning that made up the demon, nor the immense power than he wielded so casually at the snap of a finger.

  “He comes when you call though, doesn’t he?”

  The tone of the soldier is light, but Barkley can hear the curiosity in his words. He remembered calling Zaxor to his side just before the raid, the de
mon’s name a bare whisper from his lips. The soldiers with him must have heard in the quiet stillness of the night and mentioned it when they returned. Still, it’d been less than a day since they had returned, how quickly did gossip spread?

  “He does,” Barkley replied slowly, choosing his words, “but that doesn’t make him tame. It cost me a great deal to strike a contract with him; he listens only to honour that arrangement.”

  That wasn’t entirely true, but trying to explain the tangled mess of obligation and mutual desire between Barkley and Zaxor was not something he was comfortable with.

  “Demontamer, hmm?”

  Barkley turned to give the demon lounging beside him a flat look. Zaxor reclined across the dirt as though it was a bed of the finest silks, a smirk on his face and the feeling of power radiating from him. It was an intentional show in mockery of the nickname the soldiers had gifted Barkley.

  “Do you have nothing better to do than eavesdrop on my conversations?” he snapped, irritated.

  Zaxor’s tail whipped up behind him, hovering like a serpent in the air and conveying his amusement. “I am not some fool who cannot do more than one thing at once.”

  “How do you even listen in, anyway? Is it because of our contract or the anchor?” While many intricacies of magic still eluded Barkley, he remembered Zaxor saying that most of the magic that went into binding them together was to make Barkley himself act as an anchor for the demon.

  “Ah, clever.” Zaxor’s smile widened, becoming more genuine instead of taunting. “The anchor. There is a way to peer through the planes to see what is directly around the anchor without teleporting there. Have you not wondered why we never arrive standing awkwardly on tables or chairs? It would be rather detrimental to your body to teleport and land part way into a table.”

  Truth be told, he’d never thought about it. Barkley had assumed it was all part of the magic of the spell, but it seemed there was more to it than he realised. Zaxor must have the act of checking quickly then moving between planes down to an art to have such abrupt departures.