How to Love a Blue Demon

by Story, Sherrod

  How to Love a Blue Demon

  Sherrod Story

  How to Love a Blue DemonALL RIGHTS RESERVED

  How to Love a Blue Demon Copyright © 2013 Sherrod Story

  Cover design by Kasey Doshier-King

  Publication August 2013

  Warning: Unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. No part of this book may be scanned, uploaded or distributed via the Internet or any other means, electronic or print, without the publisher’s permission. This book may not be reproduced or used in whole or in part by any means existing without written permission from the publisher.

  This e-book is a work of fiction. Any reference to actual historical events or locales, as well as the names of the characters, places and incidents are the product of the authors’ imagination or have been used fictitiously. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is completely coincidental.

  Warning: This e-book contains sexually explicit scenes, subject matter and adult language that may be considered offensive to some readers. This e-book is for sale to adults ONLY, as defined by the laws of the country in which you made your purchase.

  Disclaimer: The author will not be responsible for any harm, loss, injury or death resulting from use of the information contained in any of her titles.

  Chapter one

  “Well?”

  Eyoen shuffled his feet uncomfortably. He was more than 250 years old, and his father made him feel like a pup just weaned.

  “Well?” his father’s voice demanded louder. “What do you have to say for yourself?”

  “I didn’t know she was our neighbor, father,” he said softly.

  “You didn’t know that you were fucking our neighbor’s daughter?” his sire yelled. “That’s what I’m supposed to tell the man? My son defiled your oldest child, but he might not have if he’d known who she was? She hasn’t been home a full day, and he’s already preparing to send her back to the convent. The convent, Eyoen! How did you manage to corrupt a virgin in less than 24 hours?”

  Eyoen sighed. He’d heard that tone of disbelief so many times before. It was one of three tones he had heard from his father in his life: anger, disbelief and unremitting fury.

  King Carlow sighed and shook his head. “Oh, Eyoen.”

  He scowled. He’d forgotten one, disappointment.

  “You’re sequestered.”

  Eyoen’s head shot up, his mouth fell open in shock. Locked away from all of Cyanus? From all of the family?

  “I’m being banished.”

  His father sighed irritably. “Stop being so bloody dramatic! If I don’t punish you in some way I’ll have to throw your whoring ass in jail.”

  “Jail! For fucking some stiff necked little wanton?” Good grief. She hadn’t been worth all this. All she’d done was lie there with a shocked look on her face, making the same sound over and over with every thrust: “Oh, oh, oh!”

  She did have nice tits though. Round and firm, they’d bounced with every swing of his hips. He’d always been partial to the bounce and sway of a woman’s breasts, especially during the sex act. Her pink nipples had been sweet, he recalled. They’d budded with barely a touch, barely a look, really, pebbling like little fruit colored stones.

  But sequestered? This was serious business. He thought about lying, saying that he didn’t know she was a virgin. But he didn’t. Even if he could stomach lying to his sire, the girl had virgin written all over her.

  Hot virgin, true, but her innocence had been palpable. It was one reason he’d accepted what she offered in the first place. In his harem full of beauties, virgins were thin on the ground. He hadn’t initiated an innocent in so long. Strange. He remembered it being more fun.

  He sighed irritably. Having your virtue stolen wasn’t the end of the world, after all. Certainly it was no small thing, but sequestered? It was ridiculous. He hadn’t harmed a hair on the chit’s head, to be punished like this?

  He sighed again. He wouldn’t embarrass the girl further by telling his sire it had been she who jumped him, not the other way around. Honestly, he was a yellow blooded demon just like everyone else. What could he do when it was thrown at him? It wasn’t like there was anyone within 1,000 parishes who didn’t know his particular shade of blue skin meant royal family. Or that blue skin meant pleasure unparalleled thanks to the pheromones that turned the royal skin that shade of blue to begin with.

  The little nun, former nun, he corrected himself, had been so wet, he couldn’t resist her. The scent of her arousal, the sight of those high pink breasts when she stripped off her shift. She’d had an amazing nape he recalled. He’d bitten it as he fucked her from behind.

  “Eyoen!”

  Eyoen fell to his knees, forehead nearly touching the floor as the wind kicked up, blowing the drapes behind his father’s throne like fabric in a gale. He began to sweat as the temperature in the throne room rose at least 120 degrees. The water in the fountain in the center of the room began to steam along with his father’s anger, and the servants lining the walls seemed to wilt even as they produced fans and began to wave them frantically over the King’s head.

  “You will be sequestered in your rooms, away from all but three servants until I can convince our neighbor not to demand your imprisonment. You will stay there until I call for you.”

  Eyoen shivered at the warning he heard clearly despite his father’s quiet voice.

  “Rise, son.”

  Eyoen rose slowly to his feet and raised his eyes to his father’s. They looked so much alike. The same blue skin the color of a cornflower. The same tall muscular body, though Eyoen was a hair taller than his father’s 6’6”. Despite being the youngest he was the tallest of his six brothers, and only he shared his father’s golden yellow eyes.

  “I love you, Eyoen. But you’re going to be the death of me.”

  Eyoen sighed happily as his sire began to smile. He came forward slowly, respectfully, his hands folded behind his back, chin and eyes down as was proper.

  “Sire,” he said. “I’m sorry.”

  Suddenly Carlow laughed, his deep, beautiful voice ringing throughout the chamber and into the courtyard beyond. The heat died down as the King’s voice caressed ears nearby. The servants sighed, straightening as their flesh cooled; they put the fronds away.

  “How many times have you said that to me, imp?”

  No less than a million, Eyoen thought, thinking of himself as a tiny blue demon. He’d listened to no one but his father the first 50 years of his life, and half the time hadn’t even listened to him as he ran uninhibited through the castle.

  The last 200 or so years hadn’t been much different.

  “Your punishment begins now.” His sire turned away, and Eyoen bowed himself from the room.

  He sighed as he made his way to his apartment. Servants turned away as he passed. Until his father lifted his edict he would be unseen and unheard to all but three people, none of whom were his family.

  His punishment was severe for the crime, but Eyoen was not so spoiled that he thought he could do whatever he liked without fear of consequence. He never shirked a punishment or a duty, unlike many of his siblings, who would do anything to avoid their court responsibilities if it meant they could continue their pleasures without interruption.

  He frowned, his elegant stride faltering as he realized he wasn’t being punished for fucking that little virgin. His father was hiding him from sight because of what had happened afterward.

  In that moment Eyoen felt shame the likes of which he had never known. He wilted from it and blinked himself home to prevent anyone from seeing his drooping shoulders.

  He hadn’t meant to hurt thei
r neighbor. It wasn’t as if he didn’t know what his temper could do. He’d cultivated a mask of control so sure and strong it rarely slipped. But when the demon had sworn at him, had called him those low names and suggested that his actions – all perfectly normal for any Cyani male – meant he was unworthy of his royal title, he’d, well, he’d snapped.

  He hadn’t blustered back, hadn’t sworn, in fact, he hadn’t said a word. He’d just looked at the man, who’d gradually stopped swearing and yelling. The nun’s father got a strange, surprised look on his face, then slowly, drops of yellow blood fell from his nose. They fell faster, and faster until the demon’s chin and chest were tinged with yellow. Then his eyes rolled back in his head, and he fell to the ground unconscious.

  His brother Cinque had come running in response to the demon’s wife’s yelling, and seeing their neighbor on the ground initiated a healing spell that brought some color back into his face and stopped the bleeding.

  The royal physicians took over after that. They surmised he’d suffered some sort of stress-related attack brought on by his daughter’s incident. The demon would be fine, eventually, but he would have to live not only with the stigma of his daughter’s lost virginity sans marriage contract – though most would look the other way since it had happened at the hands of a royal and sex wasn’t so taboo on the star that women who had it were utterly ruined – but one of weakness. Few people on Cyanus were ever sick. At least, not sick enough to bleed and lose consciousness without suffering some sort of grievous injury first.

  That’s why Eyoen was being punished. His father knew what he had done. He’d done it before, hadn’t he? It had been almost 190 years since it first happened, but his father’s memory never faltered, ever. He could remember words his wife had uttered before they’d officially begun their courtship, business transactions of the smallest, most insignificant amount, the color of the helio balloons at a childhood birthday party for his 389-year-old brother.

  Eyoen sighed as memories surfaced of the last time he had yelled in anger. He’d screamed into his friend’s face, angered beyond reason by a silly wager. And poor Tegyr had bleed, not from his nose, but from his ears, and then fallen into a coma that lasted for almost a week.

  When Tegyr eventually woke he’d wanted nothing to do with Eyoen. He’d been in the wrong, but Eyoen had done everything he could to regain their friendship. Even Tegyr’s father had tried to patch things up between them, not wanting to offend the royal family or worse, lose the potential benefits that came from the connections, but Tegyr would have none of it. Eventually Eyoen’s father moved the entire family far enough away that they’d never heard from them again, after warning them never to speak of the incident. Eyoen was sent to a special retreat to learn techniques to control his anger.

  Now he’d let it get the better of him again, another demon had fallen at his feet, and his father knew it.

  “Sire.”

  Eyoen looked up and saw his valet Rierdane standing at a respectful distance.

  “Let us get you cleaned up.”

  He let the demon lead him away; he’d been standing in the middle of the hall like a statue.

  Good Gods. What if his control was fading? What if the episodes came more frequently, if his temper completely splintered? His family would be unutterably shamed. He’d likely spend the rest of his life sequestered, and though it would kill him, it would be preferable to bringing dishonor on his family. Worse, if left free to roam, he might kill someone with his mind.

  “You’ve never seen anyone more glad than I am to be sequestered, Rierdane.”

  His servant, who knew more than Eyoen would have ever believed, said nothing, but his hand clapped the prince’s shoulder briefly in sympathy.

  Chapter 2

  “You won’t leave him for a moment, Rierdane.”

  “No, sire.”

  “I don’t care if he’s hip deep in this Cass; you are not to leave his side for one instant. If Unjel finds him, he’s not going to just kill him.”

  “I know, sire.”

  Carlow sighed. “I know you do. I am sorry to have to burden you with my responsibility, but there is no one else I can trust with this task. You know that.”

  “I do, sire.”

  “You are dismissed.”

  Rierdane just inclined his head. Firmly entrenched in their respective roles while in the company of others – and there were almost always servants everywhere – each knew how the other really felt.

  Rierdane had served Carlow for centuries, had been around for Eyoen’s birth, for all of his siblings births. He’d stood bearing the rings at the royal wedding. He knew the King was scared. If he’d been the average servant this would have frightened him badly enough to loosen his bowels. But he wasn’t the average servant, so he wisely kept his counsel and put his faith in the King and his magic and the magic of his seed. It was magic that would save them, or else lead straight to all of their deaths.

  The job he’d been asked to undertake was a special one – consort and protector to the youngest prince on a space journey to a distant planet. Space travel was nothing new on Cyanus, but rarely did demons venture as far away as Earth, though everyone learned about the watery blue planet in school.

  Eyoen had been petitioning for a long time for this visa, but only Rierdane and the King knew this sudden approval of a trip to Earth was nothing but a diversion. Carlow could barely stand to have his youngest – and favorite though he’d have his claws gouged out one by one with a fire poker before admitting it – child in sequesterment, let alone as far away as Earth. But the enemy Unjel, an evil, jealous demon who’d been making a lot of dangerous noise lately, might force their hands at any moment. The King would not allow any of his flock to stray far from home without a good reason. He’d rather see them all dead than fall into the horror that awaited them if he lost control of Cyanus. And he would lose control if Unjel managed to kidnap Eyoen. He had seen it.

  Their way of life, the star demonarchy was in mortal peril, and its main savior had no idea what lay before him. Eyoen was a powerful and loyal demon, a good son, but his magic was untried. He had no need to practice. There were servants to grant his every wish before he could make one known.

  He’d gone through the Cyani guard, graduated at the top of his combat class, but that was still just a class. He’d engaged in two minor skirmishes in the field. During both of which he acted in a support role, well protected behind his father’s first impenetrable line of defense.

  Defense or offense would mean nothing if Unjel gained a foothold on Cyanus. He was devious and cruel, and he cared nothing for the rules of war. He would strike with the vengeful fury of a Cyani lizard, sinking his poisonous teeth in and slithering away to watch from a safe distance the chaos his actions had wrought. Then when Carlow was drawing his last, all footing lost, Unjel would return to pick apart the bones and pride of his enemy while he lay dying, dignity and defenses in the dirt.

  Few remembered, and those who did knew better than to recall the fact aloud, that once Unjel and the King had been best friends. They’d grown up together as boys. They’d run roughshod over other demons in their class until something happened – no one knew exactly what – to turn friends into enemies and to force Unjel off Cyanus to a lesser star where he’d plotted and stewed and nurtured a galactic sized grudge that now threatened to come to fruition.

  Carlow sighed. He wanted to share his burden, badly. But now was not the time. He didn’t have to be a seer to scry that. The voice of experience spoke loud and clear in his inner ear. He had to wait. Wait almost until the moment of death, of utter catastrophe in order to unleash the weapon they’d need to triumph. He prayed he’d have the strength to keep his family and his constituents’ safe until that time. He prayed that his sons would not have to stand with the guard to defend him and their home. That time and life on the star would continue without concern, normally. Happily.

  That was part of the reason he’d granted the petition to visi
t Earth. The King could have sent his son to a star so distant no one would think to look for him there. But he wanted Eyoen to fall in love with this woman he’d found, for them to treat each other the way he and his dear wife behaved. He refused to risk his youngest cubs’ life before he’d known the pleasure that he had known for centuries with his Queen. Love was only slightly less important than family, and both reigned supreme on the star.

  The King could only pray when the moment came he would be strong enough to guide his son, to guide all of his children, in saving their home and their lives.

  ******

  “What’s she doing now?”

  The prince looked absurdly childish lying on a fur on his belly, his strong chin propped on two large hands. His robes hid a tall, impressive body, but emphasized the wide cast of his broad shoulders. The veneer of childishness was exacerbated by the fact that he could stare into his Owe crystal for hours, completely absorbed by otherworldly happenings involving his favorite Earth celebrity, Cassidy Dodge.

  “Being interviewed by the box people.”

  “More TV, sir?”

  “Yes, the box people really love her.”

  “TV,” his servant corrected gently.

  Eyoen nodded, absently opening his mouth to receive one of the pink strita berries a female servant waited patiently to place on his tongue as another woman brushed a thick lock of shiny black hair out of his eye. She’d done the same thing every few minutes for hours and showed no sign of impatience for her repetitive task. Why should she? It was an honor to serve the prince in any capacity he might require. Any one of the servants currently dotting every room of the palace would have happily lay down and allowed members of the royal family to wipe their soft leather shoes on their backs if asked to do so.

  “I have news, sir.”

  “Can it not wait, Rierdane?”

  “Of course, sire, but it concerns your request to visit Earth.”

  Eyoen turned so quickly, the servant tumbled to the carpet, berries flying in every direction.