Demon Seed

by Demon Seed (lit)

  She was in no shape to leave now, she thought angrily. She had only just given birth! A day might have passed since, perhaps even two, but Nuri surely could not expect her to be able to walk out?

  Maybe he just didn’t care so long as he was rid of her?

  She thrust that thought aside. Maybe he didn’t, or maybe he was just too damned single minded to remember that she was mortal?

  Her clothes, altered to suit her burgeoning body, hung on her. She was so near to fainting by the time she’d managed to dress herself that she was tempted to simply climb back into the bed. Her anger had not abated, however. Resting briefly, she moved to the door and went into the corridor.

  In the distance, she heard the wail of a baby. Her breasts tightened instantly and began to throb painfully as milk surged into them.

  Her original purpose forgotten in that moment, Colette lifted her head, listening. Finally, she began to move slowly down the corridor, pausing now and then to make certain she was going the right way.

  The wails grew steadily louder. The would pause for a moment and then began again, louder and angrier than before.

  Puzzled as much as she was unsettled, Colette paused at last before the door at the turn of the corridor, listening for several moments before she twisted the knob and pushed the door open.

  The sight that greeted her rooted her to the spot for many moments.

  Nuri was sitting on the floor with his legs crossed. In one hand, he held a screaming, red faced infant. The entire front of his shirt was stained. Next to him on the floor was a bowl. As she watched, he dipped his small finger in it and lifted it to the infant’s mouth. The squalling instantly stopped and the baby sucked his finger. The minute he pulled his finger away, the infant screamed furiously.

  Something seemed to fist around her heart as she watched Nuri and the baby.

  Without even realizing it, she crossed the room and knelt down in front of Nuri.

  He looked up at her then, apparently so deafened by the infant’s squalling he hadn’t realized she was there until he caught the movement as she knelt, or perhaps he had thought that it was Jala returning?

  Colette was fairly certain she had never seen a more miserable being in her life, for there was fear, desperation and wavering patience collided in his expression and in his eyes as he looked at her.

  On impulse, she placed her palms on his cheeks and leaned toward him, kissing him lightly on the lips. “I love you,” she said, misty eyed as she pulled away from him and took the squalling infant from his arms, ignoring the stunned expression that washed over his face.

  “Shhh!” she said soothingly as she moved to the bed nearby and laid the infant down. He had thoroughly drenched his nappy, which accounted for much of the stains on Nuri’s shirt. Poor darling!

  Removing it, she looked around and finally simply dropped it on the floor, grabbing the cloth Nuri placed beside her and covering the baby’s bottom again. When she had unfastened the dress she wore and bared her breast, she lifted the screaming infant to her.

  He quieted instantly, snuffling as he searched briefly for her nipple and then clamped down on it once he’d found it hard enough she winced. Humming to him to sooth him, she glanced around and finally moved to a chair and settled in it, chuckling at the infant as he opened his eyes to glare up at her as if he was wondering what the hell she was doing perched over his dinner.

  He had a shaggy thatch of hair on his head, she saw, and eyes just like his father’s. On either side of his head, beneath the hair, she felt a tiny nub--horns, no doubt--she decided, running a hand along his back where she discovered another two nubs--wings?

  “He is the image of you,” she murmured, looking around finally for Nuri and discovering that he was still standing near the bed where she had left him, his expression unreadable.

  As if her gaze brought him from his preoccupation, he shrugged out of his wet shirt and dropped it next to the nappy on the floor, kicking the bowl of milk over as he strode toward her and knelt in front of her.

  She studied his face, but she could tell nothing about his expression. “I won’t go,” she said evenly. “He needs me and I love him and I’m not going to leave him here.”

  An almost comical mixture of emotions chased each other across his face. “You said you loved your family.”

  Colette gave him a look. “I do, but now I have a new family to love.”

  “You said you hated me,” he reminded her tentatively.

  Surprise flickered through Colette. “When? You mean when I was so angry with you? But--you weren’t even there! And I didn’t mean it. I was just furious that you wouldn’t tell me what I needed to hear.”

  He tilted his head curiously. “What?”

  Colette reddened uncomfortably. “It doesn’t matter now. I want to stay. Don’t send me away.”

  He swallowed hard. “I never meant to send you away. I only wanted to give you the choice of whether to go or to stay.”

  Relief flickered through her. She lifted her free hand and stroked his hard cheek, smiling faintly. “Jala was right. You are a wise man.”

  He looked disconcerted. “Am I? Do you think of me as a man and not a beast?”

  “I think that I love you and it doesn’t matter to me what you are, man, or demon, or Halfling.”

  He rose after a moment and began to pace the room restlessly while she moved the baby to her other breast and fed it. When the infant had drunk its fill and drifted to sleep, she rose and tucked it carefully in the cradle that sat near the hearth, humming and rocking the cradle gently until the baby quieted.

  Nuri ceased his pacing and moved to stand behind her, peering down at the infant.

  “He is not fond of me,” he growled when she turned to look at him questioningly.

  Colette smiled. Impulsively, she turned to face him and tweaked his nipples. “Because you have no dinner for him,” she said, chuckling at the look on his face.

  He looked disconcerted, but after a moment, he slipped his arms around her and pulled her tightly against his chest. “I think I love you, too,” he muttered against her hair.

  “You think? You don’t know?” Colette asked teasingly.

  “I am fairly certain,” he said a little doubtfully. “I have felt as miserable and hellish as they describe it in the books.”

  Colette couldn’t help but chuckle. She tightened her arms around him. “Then it must be love.”

  Epilogue

  Colette smiled faintly at his bemused expression as she knelt on the floor in front of the chair where Nuri sat. “That went well,” she said wryly, reaching for his shirt and slowly dragging the tails from the waistband of his trousers.

  His stomach tightened as she slipped her hands beneath the fabric and caressed the hard muscles of his belly and chest. “You are pleased?” he asked doubtfully.

  Subtlety wasn’t one of Nuri’s strong suits. She chuckled. “I was very pleased to see my family. I have missed them. I don’t think they were terribly happy that you brought them here to see me. They looked very confused and just a tiny bit nervous and frightened.”

  He frowned. “They made you unhappy?” he asked, anger dawning.

  “No,” Colette said soothingly, pushing his knees out of her way and leaning close so that she could explore his flesh with her lips and tongue as she explored him with her palms and fingers. “I enjoyed the visit, even though they were jumpy and fearful about being brought here. I’m just not sure they enjoyed it as much--though, they did seem almost as taken with little Kimi as they were horrified to discover they had a grandson that was a Halfling--until he bit Brigit.

  “He did let her go almost at once when I popped him on the head, but he is a very naughty boy. Very much like father,” she murmured as she worked the opening of his trousers and delved inside, pulling his engorged cock out.

  He grunted, sliding his hips forward on the seat, his eyes closing tightly as she began to stroke his member, moving her hands over him with a practiced touc
h that had him struggling to control himself within moments, breathing harshly. His fingers tightened on the arms of the chair as she began to alternate between massaging his scrotum and his shaft.

  Her eyes narrowed with satisfaction and her own rising desire as she watched his face. When she felt tremors begin to radiate through him, she opened her mouth over the head of his cock and began to suck him. He speared his fingers through her hair, clenching them almost painfully against her scalp, obviously torn between the need rising inside of him and the unwillingness to culminate so quickly.

  She allowed him no respite, moving her mouth and hands over him with increasing vigor until she felt his cock jerk and his hot seed flooded her mouth, sucking him until his body ceased to convulse in release and he uttered a groan of near agony at her continued caresses.

  Releasing his flaccid member at last, she burrowed beneath his shirt once more, kissing and licking her way upward until she could reach no higher. She got up then, straddling his lap and nuzzling her face against his neck before she tilted her head back and nipped at his earlobe. “I adore you, demon lord,” she murmured.

  Catching her buttocks in his palms, he stood with her and strode to the bed. Tossing her upon the mattress, he followed her down, settling beside her and studying her face as he stroked his hands down her body. He swallowed thickly after a moment. “My need for you--scares me,” he said finally.

  Colette lifted a hand and caressed his cheek. “It thrills me.”

  He swallowed again, frowning. “I am a beast. I can not seem to control myself. When I touch you I can not think. All that I know is that I want to burrow deeply inside of you and stay there, but I would rather cease to exist than hurt you.”

  “I am not nearly as fragile as you seem to think, and I will be very disappointed if you do not love me thoroughly.”

  He studied her doubtfully. “You are well enough?” he asked tentatively.

  Her gaze flickered over his face. “Did you plant your seed in me purposefully? I mean--could you have prevented impregnating me?”

  His skin darkened. An expression of guilt crossed his features. “I wanted you to bear my son. I thought--I thought it might make you want to stay and I knew you would not give me what I needed from you until you wanted to stay.”

  “What did you need?” Colette whispered, tracing his lips with one fingertip.

  “Your love.”

  “Because?”

  “I love you,” he said gruffly, sucking the tip of her finger into his mouth and curling his tongue around it.

  Heat blossomed low in her belly. “Let’s wait a little while before you give me a Halfling daughter. I’d like to enjoy it being just the three of us for a while,” she murmured, lifting her head to nuzzle her face against his neck.

  The End