How to Love a Blue Demon

by Story, Sherrod

He did, watching her closely as she traced each healing spot on his body with loving fingers and lips. His once perfect blue skin was marred nearly black by bruises in some places, and Cass wished they could resurrect the demon Unjel just so she could kill his sorry ass again.

  The day before she’d quietly asked the Queen what happened to Unjel. The Queen’s beautiful face tightened into an angry mask.

  “He and his lieutenants were tried and convicted of treason and executed. His army’s dead were shipped to their home worlds, and the survivors released in a gesture of good will. They’ve all been warned that should any of their demons or allies raise arms against Cyanus again, there will be no quarter. They will be executed on sight.”

  But Cass quickly put away her blood thirst. She let every ounce of her feeling for him bleed through those touches. Eyoen felt her heart beat more heavily, pleasurable thumps in her chest to reflect the pulse of healing love energy that traveled from her body to his.

  “Yes,” he whispered, head thrashing slowly on his pillow. He shivered as her love ran over and through him. “Yes,” he said again, back arching as his hips writhed, seeking.

  Cass ran both hands from his neck, down his chest, stopping every and anywhere she liked on the way down while her mouth opened over that questing blue cock. She licked its large cap gently, and Eyoen cried out.

  “My love,” he said, offering a low, broken moan of appreciation as she began to suck.

  She hummed around his shaft, her hands busily shaping and rolling his balls beneath the healing pink water. She moaned too, happy to have him inside her again in this small way. Her pussy clenched empty and needy, and she shivered as the water seemed to tingle excessively on those parts that missed her demon most.

  When his breathing grew rough, and his limbs tense, she sucked faster, harder, her hands and mouth moving greedily over him, demanding, insistent until he gave up his seed in a trembling rush.

  “Oh, my love,” he whispered, eyes closing as he reluctantly succumbed to fatigue. “I would fight a thousand battles to keep the pleasure of you for me always.”

  For the next few days, Eyoen and Cass were never more than a hands span apart. He rested. Sometimes he fell asleep with his brothers and sisters still talking to him. They were often in his chamber, lounging on the bed until it was a crowded tangle of blue limbs. Cass occasionally had to fight her way free, but she didn’t mind. She knew having them close was good for him. Not only did their energy feed his healing, their presence fed his spirit.

  She’d quickly broken them of their habit of giving her an almost worshipful thanks. She had not saved their star, she insisted. She’d simply done her part, as they all had. But no one believed her. Gifts from all over the star poured into the palace. Cass commissioned a gown be made from some of the gifted fabric, and a hat made from others, adorned with precious metals and stones that were also gifts. She wore slippers from one citizen, earrings from another, and anything else that caught her fancy when she and the other members of the royal family appeared at the council celebration for the victory.

  The entire star seemed to be in attendance, and when cries of peeshu! Peeshu! rang out, Cass looked at Eyoen and then at the King and Queen. When they nodded, she began to sing for the first time since the battle.

  “What a difference a day makes. Twenty-four little hours…” the old Dinah Washington tune seemed appropriate.

  When she finished the applause was practically deafening. She gifted the crowd with a beautiful bow and a curtsy so long and low demons swooned at this evidence of her majesty. She had won the hearts of the people long before the battle with her kindness and her curious enjoyment and appreciation for all things Cyani. Her voice had enchanted them, but now, knowing she had been the key that turned the battle against the enemy Unjel in their favor, she could do no wrong.

  The King and Queen couldn’t contain their smiles, and Eyoen and his siblings laughed aloud and clapped like they were in the audience, pride demanding a physical demonstration unlike anyone was used to seeing from the royal family.

  The King winked at her, and Cass’ happier than she’d ever been in her entire life, winked back.

  Chapter twenty-one

  It had been two weeks since the battle, and Cass was preparing to go home. Her work commitments were drawing near, and enough time had passed that people were starting to get a bit squirrely wondering where she was, since, naturally, no one had heard from her except Priti, and that had only been once. Inter-planetary calls were not cheap, even for a royal.

  Cass was sad. For the past week she’d been revisiting her favorite places on the star. She spent several days at the spa, where she stocked up on hair cream, and was buffed and massaged down.

  Her voice, which had gotten rough following The Battle, was the impetus for several new inventions. One remedy, a foul tasting gargle that made her gag so terribly Eyoen’s claws had to be pulled from the healer’s throat, proved successful almost immediately. Just a few minutes after she very gratefully spit it out, her voice was perfect again. She was also the inspiration for a new burn cream, which she informed Eyoen hurt worse than the actual burn.

  He didn’t react well to that one either. He was beside himself that she had not told anyone she was injured. But she’d ignored the burn because she was focused on his injuries. Hers began to heal without attention thanks to all the time she spent beside him in various healing pools.

  When the healer applied the ointment to the spot on her calf she’d screamed blue murder, and Eyoen had roared in outrage, backhanding the demon across the room. The poor healer had to have another healer come and reset his jaw and shoulder, but a few minutes later her skin was perfect again.

  But on the day before they were scheduled to return to earth, Cass was sick at dinner. She hadn’t been feeling the best since she woke up, but not wanting Eyoen to freak out and potentially cancel their return trip home, she tried to hide it. Unfortunately, the scent of the after dinner ale they usually drank sent the rest of what had been a lovely meal straight up, out and into a plant near her chair.

  Eyoen poofed in so many healers, no one could hear over the din. Finally the King took over, banished everyone except for Cinque, the Queen, Eyoen and Cass, and it was Cinque who pronounced, “She’s breeding!”

  He and the King slapped a dazed Eyoen on the back several times, their faces split from ear to ear with grins, and the Queen was practically vibrating with happiness at the prospect of another grandchild.

  Cass, prostrate on a stuffed couch with the Cyani version of a wet towel on her forehead, blinked a few times, and said, “Shit.”

  “Well,” said Cinque, knowledgably. “You may be having some human symptoms of pregnancy, but at least you won’t have to gestate for nine months. Just a few short weeks and – ” he trailed off, looking from Cass’ appalled face to Eyoen’s glare to the King who was examining the mosaic pattern on the ceiling.

  He cleared his throat. “Well, I have some matters of state to attend to,” and quickly took his leave, the King and Queen following close behind.

  Cass sighed gustily and plopped the herb anointed towel back over her eyes. She felt a vague sense of movement, and when she moved again she was lying in their bed.

  “A few weeks?”

  “Yes, my dear.”

  “When were you going to tell me?”

  “I wasn’t hiding it from you. We’ve never discussed pregnancy. I, well, I suppose I forgot to tell you about the differences.”

  Cass rose slowly, thankful the nausea had faded. She tossed the towel aside and scowled at him.

  He grinned happily, and before she knew it she was smiling back. He sat beside her and took her face in his hands for a lavish, worshipful kiss. “You’re pregnant.”

  She nodded and sniffed. “Yeah.”

  “I know you may feel dazed and a bit confused right now.”

  She snorted. That was an understatement. Her mind was in such a fog if someone had told her the world was up
side down and she was on a tilt she’d have believed them. God only knew what she was in for now – she was brewing a baby demon!

  “But I’ll be here to guide you through it all.”

  That was a huge relief.

  “Hell,” she whispered. “What next?”

  Eyoen laughed and rolled them into the covers, their clothes vanishing like smoke. “Indeed. You’ve experienced interplanetary travel, integrated successfully with an entirely new species, saved my home with your wonderful voice and withstood a star takeover. You’ve been fully blooded. What’s a tiny, flying demon between soul mates?”

  Cass sat up abruptly. “Flying?”

  Eyoen nodded. “Yes, my dear, once Cyani demons hatch, they –”

  “Hatch?”

  Eyoen laughed when realized he was making the situation worse. He sobered at the appalled look on Cass’ face and wondered what to do to make it better. His beloved looked frightened, so he figured he’d stick with the basics. He pulled her into his arms, looked deep into her eyes. “Hatching,” he began, “Is just another way of saying give birth. And our little demon will only fly to get into your arms faster.”

  She smiled, as he’d intended.

  He snuggled her close as he quietly told her about the birthing chamber, similar to the healing chamber in that all of her labor would take place in a pool of blessed, medicinal water. The Queen would attend her, as would all of his sisters.

  “Where will you be?”

  “Banished,” he said matter of factly. “Male demons are not allowed to participate in birthing rituals.”

  “It’s a similar situation on Earth except that many of the doctors are men.”

  Eyoen scowled. “There will be no male demons near you before or after you hatch.”

  He subsided when she laughed and said, “Good! I’d probably throw something if I saw a man during that time.”

  She would have to postpone returning to Earth until after the birth, he told her.

  “Shit. I don’t know how the hell I’m gonna explain where I got a baby from. And my body’s gonna be jacked up! I may lose my contracts.”

  “You won’t.”

  “No?”

  Eyoen shook his head. “The Cyani birthing process is not as tough on the body as it is on Earth. Your system will recover more quickly and no will notice anything different about you physically.”

  Cass thought about that and realized The Queen and Eyoen’s sisters didn’t look as though they’d had children. In fact, none of the mothers she’d met on Cyanus did.

  “Wow.”

  Eyoen nodded. “As for explaining our baby, we’ll employ a little magic to blur the timelines a bit. No one will notice anything strange.”

  They lay quietly together, lazily touching, Eyoen investigating her body and thinking clearly of the changes that were coming. How her breasts would grow heavier, her stomach curved round by his seed. She’d have to temper her long stride to accommodate her new body, and he sighed happily thinking of sleeping wrapped around her, his demon incubating safely in her belly.

  Cass stared at him as he stroked her still flat stomach. Sifting through his thoughts she realized he was already in love with her pregnant body and it hadn’t grown in yet.

  “I love you,” he whispered.

  Cass laughed softly and kissed him. “You better. ‘Cause you are puttin’ me through it.”

  “Yes, my dear,” he agreed.

  “I wonder what color the baby will be?”

  “Blue.”

  “Blue,” she repeated.

  “That will be his base shade, yes. Although I suspect his disguise shade will be a mix between our two.”

  “So he’ll know immediately how to disguise himself?”

  Eyoen nodded. “And I shall protect him if he slips up, never fear.”

  Cass sighed, relieved. “That’s cool. I had a bad moment just now, thinking of him turning blue in front of people. I don’t know how the hell I’d explain it, and what if somebody takes his picture before you can poof them straight? The paparazzi are gonna be on my tail for real now that I’m a mother.”

  “Don’t worry. I will protect our seed. He will never be in any danger. For one I doubt my father will allow us to travel back to Earth without a guard to protect his granddemon.”

  Cass laughed. “Will your parents want to come to Earth for our wedding?”

  “We will marry here.”

  “We will marry on Earth too.”

  Eyoen raised his brows. “Okay.”

  “We need to tell my mom the deal. I don’t want to fool her with magic. And I want her to be at the weddings.”

  “Do you think she will accept me when she finds out I’m not a human man?”

  Cass shrugged. “I don’t see why not. She knows I’ve never been one for doing things the conventional way.”

  Eyoen laughed. “That is true, my dear.”

  “And she’s one of the most open minded people I know. She certainly won’t hold the difference against you, especially when there’s a grandbaby in the mix for her to spoil. She already loves you as a man. I doubt it will take much for her to love you as an alien, as strange as that sounds.”

  “That is good,” said Eyoen. “I want her to like the real me.” He nuzzled her, and pulled her beneath him, sighing happily when Cass opened her legs and obligingly wrapped him close. “Family is important, but I confess, my Cass. You are my primary concern, and thankfully you’ve already figured out how to love a blue demon.”

  He talked to her then, of all sorts of wonderful things while he stroked slowly inside her. He told her how he’d first come to know her, by flipping interplanetary “channels” on his Owe crystal. He fell out of bed, so taken with her he barely realized he was picking himself up off the floor.

  A servant appeared, drawn by the unusual sound, and Eyoen waved the demon away. He watched the crystal for the next two days, barely moving even to eat or bathe, star struck.

  “Isn’t that what you say when you meet someone you can’t take your eyes off of?” he asked.

  Cass nodded, smiling. He’d never told her these things, and she loved hearing them.

  “I knew then one day you would be mine. Of course, I told you my sire didn’t make it easy. I had to campaign long and hard for permission to come to Earth and see you.”

  He told her of the work he’d done, traveling far and wide to speak with interplanetary couples, learning their stories to use as fuel for his case. Eventually, he suspected, he’d just worn the King down.

  “Even granting my wish he threw a wrench in the works.”

  They were both quiet as they thought of poor Lee.

  Cass had given her permission a few weeks before to bury him, and she’d ensured that his funeral on Earth was well attended. Priti and Boyd, Lani and Tommy had attended.

  “I am grateful to him,” Eyoen said quietly.

  “You’re okay now with the fact that I loved him?” Cass refused to hide her feelings for the other man. She felt Lee deserved that respect, though she didn’t deny she’d fallen out of love with him by the time Eyoen came along.

  Her demon nodded. “I have. I shall always be grateful to him, my dear. I wish he had not had to die. But I got you,” he said simply, letting his pheromones loose as he sped up the pace of their lovemaking. He reached down, began to play with her sweet spot, grinning when her breaths grew heavy signaling an oncoming orgasm. “And you, my dear, are worth any price.”

  Cass wanted to return his beautiful words. Wanted to tell him that she adored him, that she loved every inch of his hairless blue body. She could have relayed how much she loved his home, how much she’d come to love his family, how much she looked forward to marrying him, to “hatching” his demon spawn, but she gave him something he wanted more than words. She came.

  The End

  About the author

  Sherrod Story is a Chicago native and a lifelong romance novel junkie. She read her first Harlequin at the age of 12, long be
fore she understood exactly what she was reading, and hasn’t stopped since. Her work spans contemporary, young adult and paranormal themes. She loves to hear from readers.

  Find her at:

  Blog: http://sherrodstory.wordpress.com

  Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Sherrod-Story/234450623256173

  Twitter: @sherrodstory

  If you enjoyed this book please show the author some love and leave a review on Amazon! You may enjoy other books by Sherrod Story available in the Kindle store

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