by Aurelia Fray
“That is not what I meant!” I hollered, angry at her assumption.
Voraya leapt across the space aiming her claws for my face, but Raphael lifted a hand and held her in midair. She was trapped mid-strike. The fury and disgust etched onto her face made me hurriedly crawl back to the headboard.
“What did you mean then, little one. If you do not want me, I am bound by law to leave.”
“I didn’t think I could have you. All these years you were in my head, a figment of my imagination, a ghost from years gone by. How was I to know you could appear? That you would return? I thought if I forgot you, moved on with my real life, that I would be okay.”
“And if I could be here, what then?”
“Then I would want you. I would want nothing else but you,” I admitted.
Raphael flicked his hand lazily, sending Voraya into the opposite wall. Her hands splayed out as though chained. She wildly bucked and fought her invisible bonds, but her efforts were futile. Raphael was stronger. He barely even acknowledged she was there.
Gavin stared on wide-eyed and open-mouthed: He was rooted to the spot. He flicked his head from Voraya to me.
He couldn’t see Raphael.
Voraya, mumbled incoherently over tears of light. They fell from her eyes in little glowing splashes. She begged each of us in turn:
For Raphael to not do this.
For me to stop Raphael.
For Gavin to run.
Futilely she began to repeat her desperate words, somehow hoping that Gavin would hear, but her words were lost to him. “Get out get out get out get out get out. . .” she prayed over and over.
“Show the boy what he wants to see, little one.” Raphael instructed, ignoring Voraya’s weak plea.
“Turn to face me and show him the delights of your pretty slit.” Raphael’s words lit me on fire. My core thrummed with his glorious tenor. I turned, as asked, and stared into the solidifying face of my creature. My eyes traced his face; soft golden skin shimmered with a burgeoning light that I had never before seen from him. Gone was the cloak of darkness he wore. He had never seemed more beautiful or more deadly.
“Up on your knees, my little one; give him a good view. Show him where that fat little cock belongs.” I couldn’t believe he was going to encourage me to sleep with another man. Yet, I couldn’t refuse his commands either. Something inside me wanted this. I had agreed to it after all.
I pushed my bottom out and up, tilting so Gavin had a good view of what I offered on Raphael’s behalf.
“Look at him, little one. Look at the way he swells for you. He desires you. He wants to spill himself inside you and we want to let him. Invite him to you, my love. Tell him you have changed your mind.”
I risked a glance back over my shoulder and, true to his word, Gavin watched me intently, his eyes filled with the fires of lust. He held his penis firmly in his hand, his thumb teasing both the frenulum and corona in soft strokes.
“Gavin, this is what you wanted right?” I asked sweetly, wiggling back and forth a little to break his staring gaze.
“You…you want me to?” he asked, shooting a confused look at Voraya, who shook her head emphatically and wept.
“Forget her. She is jealous. I want you,” I said, turning back to stare all the while at Raphael so that he knew my desires were for him and him alone. The bed dipped behind me as Gavin climbed up. His hand gripped at my waist whilst the other held himself steady. He ran himself up and down my slit, smearing my juices across his tip and then plunged into my tightness with a painful thrust. He held still and I sucked in a sharp breath, readying myself for a rough pounding but it never came. Raphael chuckled in front of me and Voraya sobbed loudly from the wall behind me.
“He is ours now. You are gifting him to me, little one,” Raphael whispered against my cheek. He peppered my face in tiny kisses. “We shall feed from him together. He gives as I take. You host my sustenance,” he explained. With that he sealed his lips over my own and pulled with his breath. I felt as though he was yanking Gavin up through me. A deep wash of energy and emotions waved through my entire being. All of Gavin’s happiness, pain, love, and suffering swept through me to feed Raphael.
I was his conduit.
Then, as I felt about able to burst from the swelling sensation, it ceased and Raphael withdrew. Gavin shook behind me and tumbled onto his side. His cock as shriveled as his newly devoured soul.
I panted, sucking in huge gulps of air to fill my empty lungs. My knees gave way beneath me and I rolled away from Gavin. Raphael stroked my face. He shimmered bright gold now; his light as bright as the midday sun. The bed dipped again as he lifted Gavin up and removed him from my room. He was still breathing, but there was no light in his eyes, no nuance of expression upon his face. We had erased the man he had been and as much as I should feel badly for my part in it, I did not.
“Why?” a creaking, crackled voice asked from somewhere in the corner of the room. My shocked mind recalled Voraya and I lifted my head slightly to see her better. She was no longer pinned to the wall. Her light had gone and she slid back and forth, along the back wall, in a pillar of indistinct smoke.
“You were about to do the same to me, Voraya,” Raphael stated, reentering the room and striding to my side. He lifted me up like a doll and sat me on his lap. I curled into his nakedness. It was not a new sight for me but it was always a welcome one. I had traced every peak and hollow of his muscles in my dreams and now he was here, physically here, before me. His light shimmered where we touched and my eyes grew bizarrely accustomed to it.
“I would not. You had not claimed her. My actions would not have harmed you,” Voraya wailed weakly.
“She was my chosen. You had no right to harm her. Did you think I would not sense her fear? Would you have hurt her just to keep me in my darkened state? Are you that jealous of me, sister?”
“You spent years in command. Years, Raphael! You were one of His top four! No one could question you and no one else could get near to Him. It was my time, brother.” she sneered. “When your host died and you did not claim another that night, you left Him with no other choice but to remove you from your duty. He chose me, Raphael. He. Chose. Me.”
She wept now, understanding what she had lost. I could make neither head nor tail of the conversation, although I had a feeling it had little to do with me.
“Voraya, if I wanted to return to Him, I would have chosen another host. If I wanted you ruined, I would have killed your host. I do not wish to return. Had you just come to me and told me your feelings, you would have learned this for yourself. Instead, you tried to hurt my little one and you had to be punished.”
“He is alive? Why can I not feel him?” Voraya asked stunned.
“He is empty. I left only a glimmer of his original light. If you want to survive this, you will have to live within him for the natural duration of his lifetime.”
“What? No! How could you do this to me?”
“Either that or you cease to exist, Voraya.”
The shadow woman sobbed uncontrollably and then drifted from the room. I heard a shuddering breath and a deep cough before footsteps made their way to my bedroom door.
“Hello?” Gavin called through.
“Gavin?” I asked, surprised to hear him and not Voraya’s crackled voice. Raphael continued to stroke my hair and press his soft lips to my forehead.
“Melanie? Is that you? What am I doing here?” he asked, confused and fearful.
“Lie to him, little one. He does not remember,” Raphael whispered.
“Gavin. We went for a drink tonight and you got completely drunk. I let you sleep it off on my couch. Don’t you remember?”
“No. Um, I guess that makes sense. Thanks Mel. I feel okay now so I guess I will just head home?” he was so confused that he was asking me what to do. I felt bad for him.
“Sure.”
“Um, Mel?”
“Yeah?”
“Can I get my clothes please?”
I chuckled. Here was that same, lost, little man I knew. I jumped up, with the sheet to cover me, and gathered his things. Leaning out of the door, I gave them to him and caught his grey eyes. They swirled with black, Voraya trying to push her way to the surface presumably. I watched as he dressed. He smiled at me sheepishly, ruffling his hair with his hands, and then exited. He walked out into the night, confused and a little upset.
Raphael stayed close to me the entire time.
“You are mine now, little one. I have claimed you and you have accepted,” he said to me, an eager smile tugging at his lips.
“What does that mean though? What exactly are you?”
“I am a succubus. Voraya was an incubus. I drink up life force through you and Voraya inserts a part of her own life force into a being to feed from them. The myths that confuse you originate because of our hosts. Your myths would think of you as the succubus and Gavin as an incubus, but we have always remained unseen except to our hosts. You understand?”
“Yes. What will happen to me? Am I in danger?”
“No. Normally something like this would never have occurred. There are strict rules forbidding any of us from interfering with another’s host. Voraya was carefully treading the wording of the laws. As for how our relationship affects you, how do you feel about living a long and healthy life?”
“How long?”
“About five hundred years or so?”
“With you?”
“Always.”
“Where do I sign up?”
“You already did,” Raphael laughed, sweeping me up into his arms and carrying me, on swift feet, back to my room and my bed.
“Raphael?” I asked between kisses.
“Hmmm?”
“You said it was symbiotic, our relationship I mean,” I stated, trying not to become distracted by his swirling tongue at my rigid nipple. We had dropped the sheet at the door and Raphael had been lazily licking my tingling breasts since he’d laid me down upon the soft mattress. His forked tongue shivered against the swollen nub, creating the strangest sensations. It moved with such speed it could barely be seen. He was a humming bird feeding at my breast.
“Hmmm?”
“Well how does that work?”
Raphael sat up and leaned a little away from me so he could look into my eyes. His were so soft now. Gone was the red glow that had once scared me and thrilled me.
“You have seen how you feed me but I have yet to show how I feed you,” he answered, running his hands up and down my thighs. Each stroke had me aching for him. Every touch felt familiar and forbidden all at the same time. I knew I was his now and he was mine for as long as I lived, but my mind could not even absorb the vastness of our future together, not when I couldn’t see beyond the here and now and his delicious caresses.
“Show me. Please,” I begged shamelessly.
Raphael slid himself up so that he faced me, his lips hovering at mine, our noses touching. He reached an arm around my back and rotated us so that I lay on top of him. He lifted a knee, spreading my legs apart and then lifted the other so that he pushed me wide open. The cool air wafted against my wetness; the reminder of my own desire created a needy yearning deep within me.
He positioned me over him. Reaching down, he placed his tip at my entrance and then stopped. I eyed him curiously, looking for some indication as to the meaning of his reticence. He looked at me with a deep longing and nodded. He wanted this to be my action. He wanted me to make love to him.
He was as hard as steel beneath me and I slipped down upon him easily. He did not move a muscle. He simply watched as I rode out my pleasure upon him. When I came, I felt as if the whole world had exploded into white light around me. The white flare wiped out my little room and belongings, it enveloped all except for him and me.
Raphael reached up and cupped my face. His touch sent the white receding but instead of fading out, it pulled inside of me, it filled me up.
“Oh, that was…that was absolutely…totally—”
“Just a starter, little one. That was all you. Your energy, your life force,” he explained with an indulgent smile. I did that? That was my light?
“I haven’t even started with you yet.”
With his words of promise came a chuckle. His hands gripped my waist and lifted me off him, as though I was made of air and not the other way around. He lifted me further up his body until I straddled his face. I tried to pull away. The intimacy of his action and the fact that I had recently come had me retreating from him.
Raphael held me firmly and lifted his head until his whole lower face pressed hotly into my soaking slit. He withdrew and grinned with his slightly sharpened teeth. I coated him, my essence covered his face. With that simple act he removed my concern.
Relaxing and shaking my head with a nervous giggle, I watched as his forked tongue flickered out and lapped up the mess he created. He hummed in appreciation, causing me to blush a deep scarlet.
“You taste divine. Just as I knew you would,” he praised. I couldn’t reply. I had just come to the realization that he was going to use that fabulous tongue on me and if he could move it as fast and skillfully as he did at my breast, then I was in for a whole world of pleasure. He caught the stunned wideness of my expression and shivered his tongue in a tease across my clit.
My knees gave way.
I collapsed onto my arms to stop from landing on his face. He laughed against my flesh, shuddering and causing me to lose my composure once more.
“Perhaps we should put you on your back for this, little one?” he teased, doing exactly that before I could utter a single syllable. I settled into the mattress with Raphael between my thighs.
“Ready?” he asked. I didn’t know how to answer. I just stared at him with a wide-eyed expression that thankfully he took for a yes. He began with kisses; with each gentle press of lips I relaxed and enjoyed the sweet sensations. As my breathing grew rapid, Raphael grew more intent. He bared his teeth, and with the lightest of traces, he moved the sharp points up and over my pussy. He nibbled at me with pins-and-needles sensations. When I began to squirm, my excitement evident in the pooling of my essence, he unleashed that tongue. My clit was thrashed until I screamed and came. Then, without allowing me reprieve, he dipped it inside and flicked it up, deep within me. I could feel every double touch of that clever tongue. Each tickle sent me closer to an edge that I had trembled upon since he began.
As I tumbled over into oblivion he pushed his breath inside me, and with it, his entire self. He fed me his essence, his life force, as I came. He gave me his emotions. He gave his past and present and future. I swelled with him inside me. Two souls inhabiting the one form and felt sated. I felt whole. I was complete.
I did not register the coming dawn.
I did not hear him part or get to say goodbye.
I did not wake from whatever enthrallment he held me under.
Not until it was too late and the day arrived to find me alone.
Filled with a heady euphoria, I fought the sorrow of losing him to the daylight. What kind of life would I live where he was my night? Would I be able to exist without sleep? Would I have to give up the sun to be with him? These thoughts and unending questions ate at my high. I came down with a thump.
I was going to be late for work. I had yet to face Gavin and worse was that I had to wait until sunset to have Raphael with me again. I climbed out of bed, still wearing the scent of a gratified night of sex and made my way to the shower.
Under the hot spray, I collected myself for the coming day. Still, for every sensible thought, every plan of action or remembrance of a chore to complete, my head wandered to the feel of Raphael’s hands upon my skin. I could almost feel him, gripping my ass, layering kisses down my spine, slipping his hand between my legs to play at my waiting bud.
“Little one, are you planning on ignoring me?” Raphael’s voice teased at my ear. I spun around, opening my eyes, seeing him there, still corporeal and still with me
.
“You didn’t disappear?”
“I made you breakfast. I didn’t realize you would shower first—”
I cut off his words with a kiss. I reveled in the fact that he didn’t leave me.
“I thought you couldn’t be here in the daytime.”
“Only because I hadn’t officially claimed you. You fed me last night and made me whole again. I exist wherever you are, no matter if there is sun or moon or stars to light our way. I am yours, little one.”
“Mine,” I agreed and kissed him once more to be sure.
THE PRICE
A Red Sun Rises Short
Victoria Kinnaird
“I’m going to fucking kill him.”
Jasper Hart took a long drag on his cigarette, holding the smoke in his lungs for a long moment before it trickled free on a shaky exhale.
The smoke lingered in the clear evening air, the same consistency as the apparition of his dead partner.
The ghost of Andy McAbrahms smiled. His shy, toothy grin was exactly like Jasper remembered it – understated but blinding all the same. He moved with the same careful consideration he had carried himself with when he was alive, like he was painfully aware of how tall and broad shouldered he was.
Jasper sucked in a breath as the ghost sat down beside him, stretching his long legs out across the creaking porch steps. Andy had spent countless hours sitting on that porch, staring out over the All Hallows Forest with Eren Anderson beside him. Eren, who became a vampire at seventeen. Eren, who turned out to be the most powerful spell caster The Order of Our Mother had ever seen. Eren let go of the trappings of normal life to become a Gatekeeper, one of the immortals who acted as a conduit to bring forth the magical power of Mother Earth.
“Don’t be angry with him,” Andy said, sighing as he gazed out at the familiar view. The trees stretched their twisted branches to the darkening sky, either in celebration or a display of agony, Jasper couldn’t tell.
“This is fucking cruel,” Jasper spat, flicking what remained of his still burning cigarette to the ground before stomping it with his boot.