Corpse Curses

by Jen Ponce

  Lux only grinned and I took that as a yes.

  11

  KORRI

  I popped some of the pain pills from Poppy’s special stash, then grabbed a beer from the fridge and went to my bedroom, disappointed there wasn’t a stranger in it.

  I set the beer aside and peeled off my clothes, tossing them into the corner. Bruises spread across my chest like wings from where the Keeper’s magic had struck me. My eyes were still somewhat puffy and streaked with red. I had a smaller, fist-sized bruise on my stomach and when I twisted around, I had a bruise spreading across my lower back and gravel burn on my shoulders and right cheek. Face cheek. My ass had been spared.

  Nice.

  I showered off the remaining gravel, wincing at the sting of the hot water on my skin, figuring it was my punishment for my idiocy today.

  I left the bathroom with the towel wrapped around me and stopped dead.

  The hellhound and the demon I’d released both stood in the middle of my bedroom. The hellhound, at least, was still very much interested in me.

  The grey one took me in, his face expressionless. “Lux tells me you’re in the business of setting us free.”

  My hair was wet, I was in a towel, and definitely wasn’t up to speed, strength-wise. Talk about a disadvantage. Still, I had my attitude and that could not be discounted. I plopped a hand on my hip and said, “Yeah. And?”

  The grey one’s mouth quirked. Then his chin lifted as if he were sniffing the air. “You’re right, Lux. She does smell good.”

  The hellhound’s eyes met mine and my whole body flushed at the memory of our last night together. He was remembering too, though he made no move toward me.

  “What do you want?”

  The grey one moved around my room, touching my things, inspecting the bits and baubles from my childhood and my life now. He was solid enough to move them, pick them up, look at them. “While I appreciate you freeing me, as you can see, I am not quite whole.”

  The hellhound—Lux—kept his eyes on me. I wanted to get dressed, but Lux was in front of my closet and besides, I didn’t want to let them know I was uncomfortable. “Not whole? That’s why you kind of look all misty?”

  His mouth twitched again.

  Gee. Glad he found me so hilarious. “And what is it you need from me?”

  “I don’t. Need anything. But perhaps we could make a deal.”

  I laughed. “A deal with a demon. That’s one of those big no-nos, according to the magi.” He moved behind me and I had to either turn my back on Lux or the grey guy. I chose the grey guy, preferring not to let him know he kind of creeped me out. My skin crawled, though not in a bad way, while he was behind me.

  “And you are such a devotee of the magi?”

  I sighed, not wanting to play games. I was tired and wanted to get into my bed. Either with a certain hellhound or not. “No. What kind of deal?”

  He brushed past me and I shivered, my body lighting up at his touch. What was it with these demons and my sex drive? It was like something inside of me snapped to awareness when they touched me. “Help get the other part of me free and we’ll assist you on your little quest.”

  “What do you know about my quest?” Calling it that made it sound almost noble. Silly, that. I was straight-up murdering people. There wasn’t any nobility in that. A certain satisfaction, sure, but nobility?

  “You’re hunting them, are you not? I understand your release of Lux was an accident, but now you know what they dabble with. The capture and torment of my kind for their gain.”

  I licked my lips, my mouth dry. And since my body was still achy and the pills hadn’t kicked in yet, I decided they’d have to deal with me sitting. I eased myself onto the bed. “Right. I am. For a friend.” And for my daddy and mama. “But I don’t see how you can help. If they’re summoning you, can’t they just call you back after I free you?”

  “Not if we change our names. Our true names. It takes power, a lot of it, and I cannot do it in this state. Lux is safe, however. He was able to protect himself.”

  “Good.” I smiled at Lux, and his eyes darkened. I liked that he wasn’t wearing clothes because I could admire his … attributes, but it was fucking distracting, too. He’d brushed his long hair and it was no longer a wild mane around his head, though he still didn’t look like a tamed beast. Good thing. I liked him wild.

  “He is handsome, isn’t he?” the grey one asked, returning to the place he’d started, not a foot away from Lux. He lifted Lux’s hair and let it waterfall down, his eyes on me, Lux’s eyes on me. It was strangely erotic, and I wouldn’t be able to look away even if Poppy walked in now screaming the apartment was burning down.

  “He is,” I said.

  “Did you enjoy him yesterday?”

  He fucked me hard, harder and then his grip tightened, painfully, deliciously. He shuddered, I shuddered. He filled me with his hot, wet sperm as I came again because his power was still prodding me, arousing me. I swallowed. “Yeah.”

  “Perhaps I’ll watch while he fucks you today.”

  You ever have one of those moments where you were so horny you couldn’t breathe?

  “Or,” he said, leaning close to Lux, “I fuck him while you watch.”

  Guh.

  “Will you take the deal, Korri”

  The way he said my name sounded like a pact, like he was setting the words down in some sort of spiritually indelible ink. I could say no, but I was just one witch and the Lodge was a world-wide organization. I had my work cut out for me even limiting myself to taking down the magi in Bolger. “Deal.”

  His smile spread like a sensual promise across his face. “All right. Now, choose.”

  “Choose?” I squeaked.

  “You or him.”

  I looked at Lux. What did he want? He hadn’t spoken since I’d walked in. I reminded myself they were both demons. I wasn’t sure why I reminded myself of that, considering I didn’t know anything about demons except the lies the Lodge told about them.

  “Tick tock, Korri.”

  “Him.”

  A slow smile spread across the grey guy’s face. I should have asked him what his name was, but it was too late now. He moved closer to Lux whose own lips played host to a faint smile. He was remembering us together last night, as was I. And now, I would watch him get fucked and oh sweet baby crow I didn’t even know what to do with myself. I dug around in the nightstand’s drawer to find a bottle of lube. Just in case.

  The grey one turned Lux’s face to his and kissed him, lightly at first, his fingers gripping Lux’s chin. Lux’s eyes closed as they kissed, moving into the grey guy more fully, his cock rock hard between them. The kiss was everything; I’d never watched anything quite so erotic, at least, not in person, not in the same room, not between two men, one of whom I’d fucked.

  I loved it.

  I vacillated between wishing I’d said me and glad that I’d said him. I wished I was Lux, then I wished I was the grey guy. I was all over the place and I didn’t know what to do with myself.

  The kiss went on, Lux’s hands now resting on Grey’s hips, his thumbs caressing the inguinal crease along Grey’s hips. The V muscle, Poppy called it. She was always lusting after men who had it, though I didn’t think her boyfriend did. Holy Hell, why was I thinking of Poppy right now?

  Sorry Poppy. Fuck off.

  Lux’s hand was behind Grey’s neck now, their bodies mashed together. I didn’t know if it was me or the room that had heated up. I was gripping the towel so tight, I probably looked like a shrinking virgin. Grey’s hands moved to Lux’s ass, his muscled, tight bubble butt that just begged to be bitten. Or maybe slapped.

  He’d left without spanking me last night, damn it.

  As if he heard me, he turned his head to look at me while Grey sucked at his neck. In those eyes held a world of promises. At least, I hoped so.

  Then his attention was back on Grey, on Grey’s cock, now in his hand. He stroked him in a familiar, easy way and I imagined t
he warm, hard length of that dick in my hand, or my mouth, or my pussy. I suddenly wanted to taste them both, to have them both but when I moved, Grey said, “No, Korri. Not this time. This time you watch. Think of it as a reward for letting me go … and a punishment for putting yourself into danger to do it.”

  I narrowed my eyes. “Who are you to punish me?”

  He laughed, turning Lux so he could see me over the hellhound’s shoulder. “I’m considerably older than you, for one. And considerably more powerful, once I’m whole. Are you telling me you don’t get off on being told what to do in the bedroom?”

  Uh. How the hell would he know that? And I didn’t always. Sometimes, yes. Sometimes I had to be the bad bitch in charge. It was a give and take sort of thing.

  “Take off that towel,” he said, then went back to nuzzling Lux’s neck, his eyes shutting as if he expected me to obey him.

  What good would it do to lose the towel if I wasn’t the one getting fucked?

  “Now.”

  The bite in his voice turned me on so hard.

  I got rid of the towel.

  Bare ass naked, I moved until my back was resting against the pillows stacked up against the headboard. Grey gripped Lux’s ass as he sucked, backing Lux up until his knees hit my bed and he sat, Grey coming down over the top of him. His predatory, confident gaze met mine and I swear to sweet fucking baby crow I could feel that look.

  He pushed Lux back and shifted so I could see the hellhound’s cock jutting upward. His hand stroked it again, gliding along the smooth shaft, his eyes on mine as he did, Lux’s eyes on Grey’s hand. I wanted so badly to touch but I stayed where I was, caught up in whatever spell Grey had cast over me.

  “Lux is a man who likes pleasure and pain. He loves affection, too. Gets off on it,” Grey said, tenderly running his fingers over Lux’s chest, only to tweak the man’s nipple hard enough to make him gasp in anticipated pleasure. “We’ve known each other a long time, haven’t we?”

  “Yeah,” Lux growled, his hips moving under Grey’s masterful touch.

  “He likes to give, dear Korri, and he likes to take. He truly is a marvel.” And when he gazed at Lux, I saw the affection in his eyes. Lux, for his part, was almost too glazed over with lust but there was a vulnerability there and trust in Grey that took my breath away. I wanted him to look at me like that. I wanted to be in the middle of that, under those hands, on that cock. But this was part of whatever game Grey was playing, and so I sat there and watched and yearned.

  Grey bent his head and took the head of Lux’s cock in his mouth. I’d watched gay porn, but I’d never had two guys naked in my room before, never had one of them performing for me before, and I was pretty sure every little bit of me was on fucking fire right then. I moved my hand to my sex, wanting to at least enjoy myself a little bit and Grey made a noise.

  Lux tipped his head. “Stop.”

  “What?”

  “This time, all you get to do is watch.”

  Oh, crow. My fingers curled up and my lust spiked. I was such a crazy bitch. Why did that turn me on more? Here were two hot men, buck naked on my bed, one sucking the other’s cock and here I was, hotter and wetter than I’d ever been and all I got to do was watch? And I was okay with it?

  Hell yeah, I was okay with it. Grey was the master of both Lux and me at this moment. Stupid people might think he wasn’t in control since he was the one with his lips wrapped around Lux’s cock, but he was playing us both like a maestro.

  He also gave good head, gliding his lips over Lux’s turgid shaft elegantly, taking him all in, fondling his ball sack as he sucked. Lux growled, that deep, rumbly noise he used while fucking me, and my body remembered the hammer of his cock inside me and begged for more.

  Not now, I thought, unsure what to do with my hands if I couldn’t touch myself with them. I curled my fingers in the sheets and pictured myself as Lux, then as Grey, getting sucked and sucking. Lux’s head was thrown back, his hips pumping into Grey’s mouth. When he came, he shouted, lifting his back off the bed, arching into Grey’s mouth. Grey swallowed him down, too, his eyes half-lidded, pleasure written all over his face. When Lux finally settled onto the bed again, Grey didn’t miss a beat, rolling him over so that his ass was exposed to his gaze.

  I fumbled for the lube and tossed it to him. He caught it handily, taking off the cap with a twist of teeth. Then he slathered his dick with the lube, making it glisten, making it slick and ready for Lux’s ass. They’d done this before, he’d said, and I believed it the way Lux was already grinding on the bed in anticipation. Grey was rubbing his fingers between Lux’s ass cheeks now, his fingers finding his puckered hole, teasing it open with his lubed fingers. Lux gasped and grinded, grinded and gasped, grunting when Grey’s fingers slid home, first one then the other. Grey pleasured him while he watched me, and I didn’t even know what kind of expression was on my face. I couldn’t look away, couldn’t think of anything else but how Lux must feel under Grey’s ministrations, wanting to be Lux so bad … wanting to be Grey too, getting ready to fuck Lux in the ass.

  When he spread Lux’s cheeks with both hands, I sucked in a breath and when he pushed his hips forward, my eyes went to Lux’s face. His eyes were on me until the pressure increased and they swept closed, his mouth opening with his moan. Grey slid in balls deep and the look on both of their faces. Oh. My. Crow. Grey had the look of a satisfied man, an arrogant man but one who still cared about his partner’s pleasure. His eyes were on mine as he thrust into Lux and with every pump, I felt it down deep in my bones. But whereas he would come, I wouldn’t. I would have to suffer. I’d have to wait.

  And oh crow that drove my lust even wilder.

  “Harder,” I whispered, and saw Lux’s mouth twitch into a smile, then he moaned as Grey obeyed and a little thrill of pleasure rolled through me that he had. My bed jerked under me as Grey fucked Lux, as Lux cried out with the force of it, as Grey’s control slipped as his body sank into the sensations, as he dropped down into the movement, as his hips thrust forward, burying his dick deep in Lux’s ass. Soon Lux shouted his release and still Grey rode him, rode him, pumping him, fucking him until he went rigid, his whole body shuddering as his cock spurted deep inside Lux.

  I needed to come too, so badly, but even as I asked the question with my eyes, Grey, the bastard, the glorious bastard, shook his head no.

  “Not tonight, Korri. But I do believe Lux has something for you.”

  Everything churned inside me, my need aching in my belly. What did he have for me if I wasn’t allowed to come? What could he possibly give me that would make up for that?

  Grey withdrew his dick from Lux’s ass, his hand pressing down on Lux’s back as he did. I imagined the wet, sticky cum sliding from him and nearly touched myself at the thought. At the last second, I stilled my hand, not sure why I was obeying, not sure why I was playing along.

  Oh Hell, I knew why. It was fun. It was good, clean, torturous fun.

  Lux pushed himself off the bed with his arms, muscles flexing as he did, veins snaking under his smooth skin. “Come here,” he said. I looked to Grey then back to Lux and crawled over the bed to him, uncaring that I looked—and sort of felt—like a bitch in heat. I wanted to be fucked so badly and I hoped …

  Lux twisted, jerking me with him so that I splayed over his legs.

  “What are you—” I squawked, then remembered. He’d promised me spankings, but I’d fallen asleep and he’d left. “Too late. You can’t—”

  His hand came down on my ass and I yelped. He hit hard and oh, it felt so good. That Grey was watching this just made it that much hotter, knowing he was seeing my ass, peeks of my pussy, watching Lux smack me—Oh! Another and another and soon I couldn’t keep track. He knew just how to space them out to drive me crazy, where to hit and how hard to intensify the sting until it was all I could feel, until everything was focused on my skin getting hotter and hotter under his palm.

  I didn’t even know when he’d finished. I was panting,
so close to coming it wasn’t even funny. “Fuck me,” I whimpered.

  His hand came down—gently this time—and rubbed the infuriated skin, making it better, making it worse. “Not tonight. You’ll go to bed wanting us and you won’t touch yourself or get yourself off any other way. We want you yearning for us, Korri.”

  I don’t want to yearn for you, I whined in my head. I want to fuck you. But all I said out loud was, “Why?”

  “Because for some intriguing reason, your desire makes me happy,” Grey said. His fingers traced the outline of one of Lux’s handprints on my ass. I shuddered, though not in release. Damn it all.

  Lux rolled me onto the bed and kissed me chastely. “Sleep well, dear Korri. We’ll be back tomorrow.”

  As if I would get any sleep, keyed up as I was.

  I watched them with desperate eyes, but they left me without another word. They actually fucking left me. And they expected me to just not touch myself? Ha!

  I squeezed my eyes shut and tried to think of anything else, but the memory of Grey deep inside Lux’s ass kept dancing to the surface. The sting of Lux’s hand. Grey’s lips stretched over Lux’s cock. I’d never get to sleep. Not ever. Not without pleasuring myself.

  But eventually I did slip into a disturbed slumber, cocks and lips and stinging slaps filling my dreams.

  12

  I was halfway through my shift, still horny as Hell when the summons came. My grandmother’s man, Dempsey, came into the shop in full regalia: black suit, crisp white kerchief and tie, black hat, white gloves, spats, and handed me an invitation written on thick parchment paper. It was even sealed with wax. That my grandmother was pretentious enough to have a wax seal didn’t surprise me. “I’m working,” I told the guy.

  He didn’t answer, just handed me two boxes, one stacked on the other. “You shall arrive no later than six forty-five.” He turned on his heel and left, the bell above the shop door tinkling.

  Alice sauntered over, looking impressed, though she didn’t want to be. “Who was that?”