by Heidi Belleau;Ally Blue;Kari Gregg;Peter Hansen;Laylah Hunter;Brien Michaels;Sam Schooler
I wanted to say I’d die before I told him anything, but when I opened my mouth, whatever he’d put in me squealed in fiendish delight and tried to climb its way up and out.
“You can save yourself, you know. Simply tell me, and you go free. Otherwise . . .”
A sound like shifting stone filled the room, and something fell and dangled between his legs. Fuck, that couldn’t be his cock. It came nearly to his shin. I’d never be able to take that.
Yet he slinked closer, positioned himself over me. I tried to close my legs, to roll away, to do anything that would put distance between me and this beast, but I still couldn’t move. “If you don’t tell me what I want to know, I promise it won’t be pretty for you.”
Once again I tried to speak, but this time the thing he’d put inside me was ready. It made a break for it, up my esophagus. I swore I felt my throat widening as it slithered upward. Noel pressed a hand over my mouth. “Not yet, my pretty.” Tears poured down the side of my face when the creature wriggled back toward my stomach.
“I was hoping it’d come to this,” Noel said. “I haven’t fucked in so very long.”
Please. I pushed my thoughts out to him, hoping he could hear them. Please don’t do this. Not like this.
There was that grin again. But something about it this time was softer. “You humans are funny creatures. You don’t mind my raping you just so long as I don’t look like this. Such fickle beings. How about this?”
In the blink of an eye, he looked like Noel again. After the monstrosity he’d just been, he almost looked more stunning than before. “If I look like this, will you tell me what I want to know? Or will I still have to fuck it out of you?”
I didn’t want to risk speaking, so I nodded. Though even I wasn’t sure which I was agreeing to. Damn Fromunder and his curse.
I felt the vines before I saw them, slinking along the side of the bed, wrapping around my wrists.
“You’re weaker than I thought.” Fromunder emerged from the shadows, eyes glinting more malevolently than usual. Gone was the green, leafy skin I’d grown used to. He looked human. Except for those eyes. And the head-to-toe “tattoos,” any of which could peel away on command to become a tentacle. He must have had something planned. He didn’t take fully human form very often.
Noel chuckled. “I was beginning to wonder how long it would take you to show your face.”
“I give you one simple instruction,” Fromunder said to me. The restraints around my wrists tightened and burned with his fury. “The only thing you had to do was kill him, and I would have given you the world.”
Shock registered on Noel’s face. “Kill me? Is that the price of one broken heart in this world?”
“Broken heart? Is that what you think this is about?” Outrage danced across Fromunder’s expression. “You murdered my sister!” A tentacle glided up the mattress, between my legs. Through the slime, I felt the heat of it on the inside of my thigh.
“I thought we would be past this. It was so very long ago.”
“A century! Did you really believe I’d forget your betrayal after such a short time? Four hundred years of companionship, and then you did that. How could you think we were past it?”
The tentacle gripped my cock, stroked it. I wanted to interject, try to defuse the tension between the two of them. But my instincts warned me against it. Hell hath no fury like a demon scorned. Especially one with as many tricks up his sleeves as Fromunder.
“So, what? You sent a human to kill me? You know what I used to do to you when you upset me, and you thought this one would have the power to end me?”
Fromunder’s pulls became rougher. I was already hard and the sensation fed my sexual appetite, but if he didn’t stop soon, I was afraid I wouldn’t have a dick much longer.
“It wouldn’t have been difficult. Not in your human form. If he hadn’t brought you back here and you hadn’t sensed my power in the air, would you have changed?”
“Yes.” Noel took a defiant step forward. “I could feel his desire from miles away. If anyone in this pathetic dimension could take me in my true form, it would be him.”
“Shut up,” Fromunder spat.
There was more heat on my cock than I liked. “Um . . .”
They both growled at me, a warning sound I couldn’t ignore.
“You’re jealous, aren’t you?” Noel stepped closer still, caressed the side of his ex’s face. “You want to know why I’d take him and not you?”
“I want nothing except you dead.”
“I don’t believe that.” Noel undid one of the buttons on the demon’s shirt. “If that’s what you wanted, you would have stopped me before I was able to do that.” He undid another button. “And that.”
“Fuck you.”
But Fromunder’s resolve had started to waver. I could feel it. Was he still plugged in to my mind? It was the only thing I could think of to explain the connection.
“I know you want to.” Their lips brushed, and Fromunder’s arousal burned inside me like fire. He needed Noel’s lips on him like nothing else.
The pull on my dick slowed, softened until it was nothing more than a fondle. Slow strokes that drove me crazy and had me writhing on the bed before long.
“Don’t do this to me,” Fromunder whispered. I’d never heard such vulnerability in his voice before. What past did these two share that could elicit that kind of response?
“Why not? I thought you missed me.” Noel kissed him again, this time deeper. The pressure around my cock alternated between rough and soft; it seemed to depend on how close Noel held Fromunder to him. Whatever the reason, my climax inched closer.
“I don’t think you’re going to need these anymore.” Noel gripped Fromunder’s hair and the demon’s clothes vanished.
I couldn’t remember ever seeing him naked in human form before. His body was incredible. Muscles that could crush someone’s head. Pecs that screamed to be grabbed. Abs you could grate cheese on.
“I’d forgotten how lovely this is,” Noel said, taking Fromunder’s cock in his hand and stroking it until it stood erect.
I started as all of my restraints tightened. I bit my lip, the fire of the demon’s lust burning hotter inside me. I’d never felt this link before, but it was an amazing, if terrifying, glimpse that this creature had developed human emotions.
Noel fell to his knees and kissed the tip of Fromunder’s cock before wrapping that sickeningly long tongue around his length. My knees locked and I stifled a moan.
“You know what I like,” Fromunder groaned, tossing all resistance to the winds. Noel put his lips around the head and sucked as his tongue massaged the demon’s cock. I gripped the sheets. Fuck, I didn’t know if I’d be able to make it if they went all the way.
Fromunder groaned, tangling his fingers in Noel’s hair. Tentacles sprouted from his shoulders, arms, legs. For one horrifying moment, I imagined them all converging on Noel and tearing his limbs away. But they didn’t. They writhed in the air as if doing some absurd victory dance as Noel took Fromunder’s cock to the root.
“I want you inside me.” If I didn’t know better, I would’ve sworn I’d heard a whimper from the demon.
Would they really make me lie here and witness this? My stomach churned, though I didn’t know if it was from that visual, or the thing Noel had put there.
Noel stood. He must have been projecting some kind of glamour, because he’d become even more attractive than before. What was he planning? He held a hand out in apparent invitation for Fromunder to climb onto the bed. Why hadn’t they taken their true forms? But honestly, how could they? Fromunder was a giant plant and Noel looked like the Thing. Fucking like that would have been impossible.
“I want you to suck the human while I fuck you.” Noel stroked Fromunder’s back as he spoke.
“What?” we said in unison.
“You heard me.” The command in his voice was undeniable. I felt Fromunder’s displeasure as the tentacle fell away from my cock
and the two vines holding my wrists disappeared. I was free to move, but I didn’t dare try to run. I knew Fromunder wouldn’t kill me, and Noel probably wouldn’t either. They’d keep me around as some pet to touch and tease and feed on whenever they damn well pleased.
Once again, Fromunder groped around inside my head, and when he spoke, it echoed so loudly I struggled not to wince. If you tell anyone of this, I’ll rip your tongue from your mouth.
I nodded, and he took me in his mouth.
Holy fuck.
I’d never been anywhere so warm, so wet. Noel grinned behind him, apparently pleased by the sight. He lined up and pushed inside the demon.
Fromunder’s sob racked his entire body, and his mouth vibrated. He shoved all the way down on my cock and the head curved into his throat. Losing control, I bucked upward, trying to get as far as I could. Before I could stop it, I shot my load.
I felt that shift, like he was about to take his true demonic form, but he stayed human. I tried to pull his head away, my dick far too sensitive, but he wouldn’t stop. He sucked me until I was dry and kept me hard.
Noel fucked him like he hated him. Hips gripped in a death lock, veins bulging, strokes deep and merciless. Pure loathing burned in Noel’s eyes, and from the way Fromunder grunted with every thrust, I was sure he was in pain. But he never complained, never asked for reprieve. Noel’s glamour was starting to fade. His body shimmered around the edges as though he was having trouble holding on to human form. He must have been close to his own orgasm.
“This what you wanted?” he asked, breathless.
Fromunder nodded, tongue still working my cock like a nine to five.
Noel’s strokes had become erratic; I knew it from the way Fromunder sucked me. It had to be nearly over.
“Here . . . it . . . comes!” Noel let loose an unearthly wail as he pushed into Fromunder and held on, trembling violently.
Fromunder let go of my cock at last, and when he looked up at me, his eyes glowed. “My turn.”
Noel’s shudders subsided. He reached forward, put his hands on either side of Fromunder’s head and twisted. A blood-chilling crack rent the air as he wrenched the demon’s head from his body. A bright green spray of blood splattered over my face, wet and hot. It wriggled down my neck, cooling before heating right up again. Holy fuck, it burned. I used the blanket to wipe away as much of it as I could before it ate through my flesh. The stench of rotting meat filled the air, made my stomach churn.
That hadn’t happened. It couldn’t be real.
I cracked an eye open. Noel’s tongue slithered, snakelike, from his mouth, licked one of the tendons hanging from Fromunder’s neck. He tossed the demon’s severed head across the room.
Acid green blood oozed between my legs. My mouth fell open.
“You never learn.” Noel pulled out and shoved Fromunder’s body aside. “I guess this means you’re mine now.” He crawled closer, through the green blood, and positioned himself on top of me. “Don’t look so shocked. He’d developed human emotions, and they made him weak. He wanted me to go down that rabbit hole with him, so he had to die. I’ll be weak for no one.”
Noel leaned in. Tried to kiss me. I turned my head in disgust.
“I can see that you won’t make this easy. Very well.” He traced a finger down my throat, over my Adam’s apple. “Come to me, my pretty.”
I shrieked as whatever he’d put inside me earlier tore my stomach up trying to get out. It clawed its way up my throat. I opened my mouth and an overgrown slug spilled out onto my chin and slithered down to my chest, leaving a trail of slime and blood as its underside shredded my flesh.
Noel leaned in and sucked the thing down his gullet.
I watched in horror as he shifted—
—and became me.
“Wild, huh? I can become anyone I wish with a bit of help from my little friend.” He wrapped his hands around my throat, pressed down on my larynx. I clawed at his arms, but it did no good. My eyes bugged out, my vision grew dark. Instinctively, my body tried to draw breath. I could practically feel my cells seize from the lack of oxygen. But I struggled not to fight him. Death would be better than whatever he would do if he left me alive.
“Fool!” Fromunder cried. Noel stopped his assault and both our heads turned. His in stunned disbelief, mine in a desperate bid to breathe.
I threw him off of me, rolled to the floor.
Fromunder’s head was near the door, red eyes radiating brighter than ever. Tentacles protruded from the bottom of his neck and acted as feet. His head walked toward Noel.
“Did you believe I wouldn’t have a plan in place? It is you who never learns.”
The ground rumbled. Fromunder’s corpse jerked. Twice. Three times. A strip of skin peeled away. What the fuck?
The rest of it tore away then and hung in midair, an absurd costume of human flesh. I’d thought the smell couldn’t get any worse. It seemed magnified now. Like I was bathing in it.
The carcass was the same acid shade of green as his blood had been. Muscles, veins, and leafs stuck out at random intervals. Would it change the rest of the way? Back to his plant form?
“What is going on?” Noel demanded.
“I’ve been collecting for years. Just waiting for the right moment.”
“The right moment for what?” For the first time, I heard fear in Noel’s voice.
“The human male’s seed is remarkable for creating more of my kind. It didn’t take long to figure out.”
The belly of the corpse split open. A tentacle wriggled out. Then another.
“Impossible!” Noel spat. He saw what I saw. It was right in front of him. “You are not capable of reproducing without another of your species.”
“I thought so, too. But then I slept with my first human male. For no other reason than to get off, at first. No one used condoms back then, and he refused to pull out.” Noel’s face was a mask of horror. “As soon as I felt it moving inside me, I knew what it was. And I knew then how I would exact my revenge. Which is going to happen right . . . about . . . now.”
Hundreds of tentacles erupted from Fromunder’s chest. The sound of cracking bones filled the air as the tentacles launched at Noel and consumed him. He tried to fight his way out. One of his arms made it through the mass, only for them to snap closed around his elbow. The limb fell to the floor, landed with a dull thud. His head appeared at the top, and I had a horrible image of the same thing happening again.
But a good look at his face wiped that from my mind. The tentacles must have been coated in acid. His flesh seemed to be melting away. He looked as though he was trying to change back to his other form, perhaps in the hope that the acid couldn’t eat through rock. He was wrong. Eroded stone was not pretty. Tentacles pulled him back down, covered him completely. I covered my ears against the screech of agony.
A moment later, the tentacles receded, leaving nothing behind. Then they lifted the remains of Fromunder’s corpse and carried it out of the room.
Fromunder’s head walked toward me. “Things may not have worked out quite the way I’d planned, but he is dead nonetheless.”
I blinked, tried to make sense of what I’d seen. “I’ve never . . . I didn’t know . . .”
“There are a lot of things you don’t know about me, Brant. I’ve done things it would kill you to even think of.”
I didn’t doubt that. Fromunder was a different brand of evil.
“I’ve been plotting his demise for decades. And now, thanks to you, it is done.”
“What about them?” I asked, pointing a shaky finger toward the door.
“They have their instructions. But that’s not important right now. Do you still wish for your lover back?”
I nodded. Disbelief and hope warred within me. Would he really keep his word?
“Then he is yours. You’ve done me a great service, Brant.” The glow of his eyes subsided and he turned toward the door. “He’ll be up for you soon. You may want to make yourself a little m
ore presentable.”
And he walked out of my life, hopefully forever.
I crawled toward the bathroom and pulled myself up at the sink. Mirrors didn’t lie. I looked like shit. Trails of blood and slime down my chest. Pale, sweaty skin. Dark circles under my eyes as though I hadn’t slept in months. I turned on the water and splashed it on my face. I dabbed a wet cloth at my cuts and hissed because it burned so badly. Would they ever heal properly?
Footsteps in the outer room alerted me. “Jason?”
Jason appeared in the doorway.
My eyes went immediately to his neck. Not even a sign that he’d been decapitated. The memory shot a pang of guilt into my gut, but I ignored it and took a cautious step forward. I wanted desperately to believe it was really Jason, but I’d already been through so much. What if something else had taken over his body before I could get to it? Would his skin be hot to the touch when I tried to embrace him?
“What happened to you?” Jason asked. He looked confused. How much did he remember? His eyes quivered with concern. He started toward me, but I held a hand up to stop him.
I just needed another second.
Everything about him looked as it should have. Maybe Fromunder had wiped his memory of those last few moments in the cellar.
Tears welled. Finally, I allowed us to touch. My fingers trailed along his face, traced the strong outline of his jaw. I memorized every inch with my hands, and only then did I let him hug me.
He pressed my body to his, held me tight enough to shatter every bone inside me. Happiness bloomed. This was really Jason, and the whole ordeal was really over. I wrapped my arms around him, squeezed him. I’d never let go again.
“Where’s Fromunder?” he asked. “What happened out there?” He jerked his head in the direction of the bedroom.
“It’s over.”
Jason kissed me. Tingle in my lips. All the way down to my toes. No one could make me feel like he did.
“I’m gonna run you a bath, all right? And then you’re gonna tell what’s going on.”
I wanted to resist. He’d only been alive again for a few minutes and I just wanted to bask in him. But I knew it wouldn’t do any good. So I eased myself down onto the lid of the toilet bowl while Jason ran the water. He carried me to the tub. Lowered me gently into the hot water.