by Heidi Belleau;Ally Blue;Kari Gregg;Peter Hansen;Laylah Hunter;Brien Michaels;Sam Schooler
“Then say it.” He grunted in my ear, and fuck if it didn’t sound so much like Jason I almost came on the spot. “Say yes and I’ll give you the world.” He pushed all the way in, mashed against my prostate and stayed there.
No one could do that like Jason. But it wasn’t him. Reality steamrollered into me, threatened to bring me to my knees. The sex was an amazing imitation, and I wanted to give myself over to the sensations, but that’s all it was. A cheap knock-off of something sacred with the man I loved.
Fromunder pounded into me. Tears welled behind my eyes, promising to spill. I wanted to drown in the sorrow. Maybe then I could die in peace.
Something shifted inside me. Fromunder’s curse reared its head again, brought every sensation to the forefront. Everything suddenly seemed hypersensitive. Sweat rolled down my skin, each bead like a waterfall. Every inch of cock pushed me closer to ruin, pushed rational thought that much further into the recesses of my mind. I didn’t want it to end.
He hit that spot again, ground against it. I thought my eyes would bug out of my head, but I pushed back as much as I could, desperate to get him deeper.
“Say it.”
“God, yes! I’ll do anything!” I didn’t even know what I was agreeing to. The only thing that mattered now was keeping Jason fucking me forever.
“That’s my boy.”
He stroked and fucked me in tandem. I was on the edge in seconds. “Here it comes, baby. Here it comes!”
He pulled out. I felt the shift a second before I remembered it wasn’t really my lover. It never had been. But I was already too far gone to stop my orgasm. Leaves sprouted beneath my feet, moist and lush—Fromunder had taken his true form. Where there had been nothing but concrete only a second before, the floor now looked like a field thick with foliage. The first string of cum jettisoned from the tip of my cock, and the leaves glowed where it landed.
I fell to my knees as my climax crashed over me, the sensation of being fucked still as strong as if it were actually happening. I felt the demon’s pleasure as my body released my seed, permeating the air like strong cologne. Fromunder never felt this kind of satisfaction unless he was feeding, and it sickened me. I wanted the bastard dead, not stronger.
Finally, I gained the energy to climb to my feet and turned around.
My stomach churned, and it took everything I had to keep my dinner down. The cellar looked like a forest. Fromunder had grown more massive since the last time I’d seen his true form.
And the men hadn’t been visible the last time. Any time.
Stalks protruded up at seemingly random intervals around the room, and each of these stalks held a man, some to the point of emaciation, some obviously fresher. God, help me, I remembered every one of them. All of their heads were bowed backward, tentacles forced down their throats. The demon had told me he took good care of the men until he was done with them, but I’d never dreamed that this was how. Each man had a second tentacle in the ass, moving gently as though swaying in the wind. It must have been milking their prostates. That was the only thing I could think of to explain the final tentacle, which was shoved into the tips of their dicks.
I swallowed my horror, but didn’t dare move. I had no way of knowing where the head of this beast was, and if I stepped on it, I’d likely come away without a foot.
Just as quickly as everything had appeared, it vanished. It seemed to implode, and then Fromunder was in front of me again, wiping his mouth with a leafy hand.
“You taste sweeter than I remember.” He smiled. “I may need to feed on you more often.”
“That’s what you do with them? You’re killing them.”
“Get a grip on yourself. What did you think I did?”
“You never told me they wouldn’t survive. You never—”
A tentacle lashed across my face. My cheek burned, and when I touched it, my hand came away bloody.
“What I do with them is none of your concern.”
“You said you’d bring him back,” I said once I found my voice. “Please . . .”
Seeing Jason alive and well wouldn’t be able to erase what I’d just seen, but holding him in my arms might make me feel better about the monster I’d become.
“I will. You have my word on that. But there’s one more job I need you to do for me first.”
I closed my eyes. Whatever he wanted wouldn’t be easy. But I didn’t have a choice if I wanted Jason to come back to me. “What do you want me to do?”
I watched Noel Eckhart for the better part of a day. Observed what habits I could, gathered all the information I would need. I’d never been the type of guy to go in blind, and if I expected to accomplish what Fromunder wanted, I would need to do as much prep work as possible. Finally, I felt comfortable enough to confront him.
I ambled into the bar Noel had chosen for the night, dread curling in my belly, tensing my muscles. What if I couldn’t do it?
I shook the thought away. There was no choice in the matter.
The air tasted like stale beer and, for a Friday night, the bar seemed deserted. A few scattered patrons sat here and there. Some of them were watching whatever game was on the television, others were in booths, making googly eyes at one another. I knew those looks. They’d be getting laid tonight.
But the one I wanted was seated at the bar, chatting up the bartender.
I slid onto the stool next to him and ordered a scotch.
“You look way too young to be drinking scotch,” Noel said. He drained whatever was in his glass and pushed it to the edge of the counter in a silent request for another.
“I get that all the time.” I turned to face him full on and was stricken by how green his eyes were. They sparkled like emeralds, a sure sign his smile was genuine. For a second, it seemed as if he were trying to read my mind. Or put me under a spell. A stupid grin pulled at the corners of my mouth. I’d been around Fromunder too long.
But tonight, all my attention was on Noel, and holy shit was he hot.
“Not that there’s anything wrong with that. I’ve just never seen anyone under forty drinking scotch before.” He held out his hand. “I’m Noel.”
“Brant.” I took his hand. My fingertips tingled. He licked his lips, and my cock jumped in anticipation.
Focus! You aren’t here to fuck. But already the gears of Fromunder’s curse were spinning. I got so turned on from a mere touch. A glance. All for the demon’s own twisted pleasures. Noel gripped my hand a little tighter, smiled. I couldn’t help but wonder what those lips would feel like wrapped around me. What sounds would he make as he choked on my dick? How long would it be before he demanded to be inside me?
I wasn’t sure how I’d survived so long without contracting something.
“You okay?”
“Yeah. Sorry.” I dug my nails into the flesh of my palm to try to bring myself back to reality. My instructions were to kill this guy, not sleep with him.
“No worries.”
The bartender delivered my scotch at last and I downed it all with no hesitation. My throat caught fire, and it gave me something to focus on besides my raging hormones.
“Nice.” Noel’s eyebrows raised. His gaze dropped to my neck, undressed me. He bit his bottom lip. Great. The last thing I needed was someone so hot possibly coming on to me. “You live around here?”
I cleared my throat. Lifted my hand to order another scotch. “Sort of. I inherited that mansion on the edge of town.” It wasn’t exactly a lie. I did live in the place, even if it was against my will. Fromunder had murdered the house’s real owners before taking it for himself.
“Really?” He whistled. “That place is kind of creepy, don’t you think?”
“A little. But it gets easier once you’ve slept in it a few times.”
He smirked. Fuck, was that the wrong thing to say. “That an invitation?”
“No,” I said, perhaps a little too quickly. For that one moment, I remembered my humanity, understood how wrong this was. Jason’s seve
red head rolled into my mind’s eye as though it had been pushed there by one of the demon’s tentacles. I recovered as fast as I could. A hopefully coy smile. “Maybe.”
Noel raised an eyebrow as though he knew exactly what was going through my mind. “Forgive me if I’m being too forward.” He gestured toward his freshly refilled glass. “But I’ve had about six of these, and it’s not gonna be long before my cock starts doing the thinking for me.”
“You don’t even know me,” I said, hoping my desire didn’t show in my voice. This nymphomania was really a burden sometimes. It made life so much harder when I could barely go a few hours without sexual contact. And now I’d made the fatal error of adding alcohol to the mix. Fuck, I was done for.
“I don’t. But I’ve seen you around.”
I swallowed. Hard. Was I that terrible a spy that I’d been discovered already? “Have you, now?”
“I have. You used to hang around the Mortimer, right?”
My stomach dropped. The Mortimer was an upscale sex club in town. That’s where I’d met Jason the first time. He’d been the only man who could sate my voracious sexual appetite. I’d always liked to fuck, and Fromunder had latched onto that desire. Used it to mold his curse. In the beginning, he’d sent me to the Mortimer to look for guys.
Fuck, had I already slept with Noel and forgotten? “Yeah. I don’t remember seeing you there, though.”
Noel shrugged. “I usually wore a mask. But I saw everything that happened.”
I didn’t know what to say. My body was cursing me for not dragging him off into a bathroom by now, but the small bit of sanity I had left told me that Jason’s resurrection had to come before me getting laid.
Noel’s hand found my thigh and gave it a firm squeeze. “Would I be wrong for the approach?”
I paused, taken aback. No one had ever phrased a question to me quite that way before. His touch moved a little higher, and he traced the outline of my cock with his index finger.
All reason left me. I could kill him after we fucked, right? My brain said no, but my mouth said, “That depends on how good you are.”
His smile melted the last of my resolve. “Let’s find out, shall we?” He dropped enough money on the counter to pay for both our drinks. “I’ve always wanted to know what that old mansion looks like on the inside.”
“Then let’s go.”
Once outside, we climbed into my beat-up old Mazda. “So . . . who’s taking advantage of whom right now?” Noel asked.
“Does it really matter?” I pulled out of the parking lot and headed home. My heart thudded in my chest the entire way. I’d never taken a life before. What would it be like? How would I feel afterward? Hell, would I even be able to go through with it? My breath caught at the thought of killing Noel. Despair filled my gut. My lungs. I rolled down the window to get some air.
I wouldn’t be able to come back from killing a person. It would haunt me forever, surround me like deep, dark water ready to suffocate me at any moment.
But then something in my brain shifted. I saw myself wrapping my hands around Noel’s throat, squeezing until the life left his eyes. Or maybe I could stab him while he slept. It would probably be easier that way, since I didn’t think he’d willingly let me strangle him. I knew the demon was in my head. Nothing else could explain those fantasies.
I looked at the clock and my heart thudded. I had to have this done by midnight if I ever wanted to see Jason again.
“You a top or a bottom?” Noel asked, prying me away from my homicidal plans.
“Bottom. Almost exclusively.”
“Excellent. I’m verse, and I’ve been wanting to top that hot little ass of yours for a long time.”
Something deep in my belly tightened. I couldn’t wait to get this man inside me.
I pulled into the driveway and parked the car.
“It’s even worse up close,” he said, worry in his voice. “How do you stay here?”
“It’s just a house to me. It’s not too bad until it starts making sounds in the middle of the night.”
Noel’s unease radiated off him like heat. For the first time, I hesitated. A man this put off by the idea of a haunted house couldn’t have posed a threat to a demon who’d walked this realm and countless others for millennia. What could Noel have done for Fromunder to want him dead?
“If I wasn’t so horny right now, I’d turn around and go back to the bar.”
I chuckled softly. “There’s nothing to be afraid of.” The lie in my words stung me even as I climbed out of the car and led the way to the door. Shit, I didn’t want to do this. But I took him inside anyway.
I knew something was wrong as soon as I stepped into the house. The air felt different, somehow. Almost feral. Was Fromunder waiting in the shadows, watching to see if I’d do as instructed? I felt along the wall until I found the light switch.
God, it was worse than I’d imagined.
Vines covered virtually every inch of the living room, leaves growing menacingly from the ceiling and walls. How was this possible? What had he done to those poor men to become this massive in such a short time?
“What’s wrong?” Noel asked.
I turned, hoping my stunned disbelief didn’t show on my face. Noel was looking around the room as though nothing was out of the ordinary. Did he not see it? Was this one of Fromunder’s tricks for only my benefit?
The door slammed shut. My heart sped. The demon now had total control of the situation. He pried his way into my skull again, the tendrils of his telepathy wriggling over my brain. Don’t chicken out on me now, Brant. You’ll never see him again if you do.
I took a breath. Fortified myself.
“So this place really is haunted?” I couldn’t be sure what that edge was to Noel’s voice. “Why won’t the door open?” Noel jiggled the lock, but it was no use. The damned thing wouldn’t turn until he was dead.
“It gets stuck sometimes when it’s cold out.”
“So how do you get it open?”
The vines and tentacles receded, leaving the living room as pristine as it had been this morning. Relief flooded me. This whole thing would be a lot easier without me being on edge.
“Why don’t I show you around?” I snatched Noel’s arm away from the door and turned him around. I could almost see one of those tentacles wrapping itself around his wrist and dragging him off to the same fate as the rest held captive within the demon.
“Sure thing.”
There wasn’t any part of the house I actually wanted Noel to see, so I led him straight to the bedroom. We could make this as quick as possible, and then I’d be back in my lover’s arms.
“You’re not playing any games, are you?”
“What can I say?” I shrugged out of my jacket and slung it across a chair. “When I see something I want, I go for it. Don’t really like wasting time.”
“So what are you into?”
I pulled my shirt off, tossed it across the room. “Whatever you are. Never met a man who was too much for me.”
Holy fuck, that was a sinister grin.
“I can get pretty twisted, man. You sure you’re ready for that?”
“Try me.”
“Okay. Where’s your bathroom?”
“Right through there.”
Noel disappeared through the door, and I threw myself on the bed. At this point, I didn’t know whether I was more nervous about the sex or murdering an innocent man. But something about his words intrigued me.
Just how twisted could he get?
He was gone so long I nearly got up to check on him, but then his voice drifted out of the bathroom. “Wanna see something cool?”
“Yeah.” I sat up, interest piqued.
Noel strutted out of the bathroom, far sexier than he’d been when he’d gone in. The beginnings of a beard covered a strong jaw. His hair spiked upward where it hadn’t before. He sauntered toward me, exuding sex with every step. But something was different. I was seeing exactly what I wanted, fro
m the sparkling smile down to the suddenly-too-tight clothes that showed off every muscle in his body.
I knew this feeling.
“What are you?” I asked, the final piece of the puzzle falling into place.
I tried to move, but it was no use. The jig was up; it showed in his expression. “I don’t think that matters very much right now,” he said, face elongating. He opened his mouth, and tooth after tooth fell out, replaced by lethal fangs dripping something florescent that was probably venom. I opened my mouth to scream, to cry for Fromunder to come to my rescue, but Noel was on me before I could draw breath. The flesh melted from his bones, replaced by something scaly and coarse. His eyes popped out of his head, rose on stalks that seemed to scan the entire room at once. “Where is he?” Claws dug into my skin, drawing blood.
“I don’t know,” I breathed.
“Liar!”
Agony exploded in my midsection and warm blood trickled down my stomach as he dragged his claws through my flesh. My shriek rang in my ears, but then there was a tongue forcing its way down my throat, injecting me with something vile. The creature’s tongue felt like curdled milk, its breath like rotting garbage in my mouth.
Noel tore my clothes away, still holding me with whatever magic he had concocted.
“What’s the problem?” he asked. “I thought this was what you wanted.”
He climbed off the bed and I took in the full view of his new body. This demon was the color of fire, its skin thick and rock-like. Nails like talons extended from his fingers, and when he took breaths, I heard wailing. Was this another creature like Fromunder? One with tortured souls trapped within him?
“What are you?” I repeated, though as soon as I spoke I had to fight the urge to vomit. Something moved inside me, struggling against the lining of my stomach. “What did you do to me?”
The demon grinned, and I swore I saw the flames of Hell in his smile. “You’ll know soon enough. Now again. Where is he, human?”
I wouldn’t tell him where Fromunder was. Sure, Noel could kill me now, but if I survived, Fromunder would make the rest of existence a living nightmare. I already had it pretty bad, but it could always be worse. I could be one of those guys inside him, fed through a tentacle while my semen was stolen.