by Cindy Mezni
“Tell me to stop,” he ordered me, his fingers insistently caressing my underwear.
He suddenly grasped my waist to pull me flush against him. His lips were so close that, when he spoke again, they brushed mine.
“Tell me you feel nothing, that you don’t want it, and I’ll stop.”
A part of myself was shouting at me to put a halt to this right now. The other part, the one which was one weaker, whispered to me to stop resisting, to enjoy what was going to follow.
“I . . .”
His hands wandered over my body again. One of them grabbed one of my breasts and caressed it through the fabric of my dress ass the other one was kneading my ass. By the Devil, I want more!
“You, what? Tell me what you want, my Queen,” he lasciviously whispered in my ear before drawing a wet furrow with his tongue along my neck.
“I want you to—”
By an extraordinary intervention of fate, somebody interrupted us by crashing the door open. In less than a second, the bottom of my dress was covering again what it had to hide and Nathanael found himself at a respectable distance from me. The newcomer, a red-haired lackey named Nolan, was staring at us wide-eyed. If he’d still been human, I was certain he would have blushed. The fact that Nathanael and I were intimate was no longer a secret for anybody, but rare were the ones who’d witnessed it with their own eyes.
“What do you want?”
Nolan’s interruption was maybe a good thing . . . or not. I had to admit I was frustrated by the brutal interruption of our foreplay. As if I needed to experience a different kind of hunger . . .
“Venom requests an audience with you,” he informed me in a toneless voice.
Her name fitted her well. She was a real poison for me, always bothering me when it wasn’t the moment for it.
“Venom can come here directly if she wants to speak to me and she knows it.”
By all the fires in Hell, what twisted idea did she have again? With her, I expected anything. Yet, I had absolutely no desire to deal with her umpteenth craze of the month.
“Uh . . . She told me that…”
He was hesitating. He seemed so embarrassed it was pathetic. How it annoyed me! He was a Nëphyr, not a teenager!
“Go on!” I said, losing my temper.
“She said she preferred to send me to make sure that when she arrived, she wouldn’t find you in a . . . compromising position.”
That was Venom to a T. She seemed to forget that it was her, most of time, who was in “compromising positions” when I went to her apartment.
“Is that all she said?” I asked, eager to see him disappear.
“Yes!” he told me hurriedly, as if he feared I would punish him.
Even if the idea was tempting, given the fact he wasn’t even able to deliver a simple message, I didn’t inflict a sanction to one of my people for just that.
“Tell her I’ll come to see her as soon as I have a moment. And tell her she’d be well-advised to be in her apartment. And alone, preferably.”
He nodded and left quickly, closing the door behind him.
“Always so eccentric and . . . surprising, our Venom.”
I refocused my attention on Nathanael who was apparently amused by what Venom’s henchman had told. He was the only one. Plus, with Nolan’s interruption, Nathanael’s charm didn’t work anymore. Even if I’d nearly succumbed to him, now I had a grip on myself again.
“You can leave,” I said to him..
Nathanael got closer to me. I raised my hand to signal him to stop. I didn’t want him to touch me or to whisper to me some salacious words in order to change my mind.
“I’m not your personal sexual object that you can use when your cunt itches and put back in a drawer when you have decided that you are done with it,” he pointed out to me, his jaw clenched.
Was Nathanael losing his legendary phlegm? Well, now that was starting to become interesting. My lips stretched into a derisive smile. It was so rare to see a role reversal between us that I had to take advantage of it. I thought I saw anger briefly flash in his eyes.
“Why do you smile like that?” he asked, tense.
“Because of you. To see the great Nathanael losing his eternal composure is . . . particularly pleasurable. And, trust me, I really needed that.”
In a flash, Nathanael’s hand was gripping my throat and I ended up trapped between the brick wall and his body. My smile still hadn’t disappeared.
“If you wanted pleasure, all you had to do was to ask,” he said, cutting.
I rolled my eyes.
“You always bring everything back to sex,” I told him with difficulty before snorting with disdain.
His hold on my neck tightened. I continued to give him my expression of superiority, the lack of oxygen not being too difficult to endure. The roles were finally inverted. This time, it was he who was weak and didn’t know how to behave anymore. He had an idea now of what I felt all the time in his presence. And just like me, he didn’t like it one bit. No surprise there. Nobody liked to feel inferior.
“But according to you, Nemesis, isn’t that the only thing that binds us?” he said, looking both angry and disgusted. “You treat me like your Prosä* and because of what? A bastard who treated you like that! All this because you’re a fucking mess and think it’s the only way to get back the control you lost with him. Now tell me which one of us is the most miserable?” [* Your whore (in this context)]
He snickered curtly. I felt the anger rising in me, the beast I was wanting to show up. He didn’t have the right to use that. To use him. Ezekiel. Did he really want to play at that game? Well, two could play at it! And I was going to win! I wanted to see him leaving my apartment now and I knew what to do for that. I didn’t need to stoop to choking him or wound him physically to hurt him. Words were much more formidable weapons against him. Or, more accurately, memories.
“You know what, Nael? Screw you,” I said in a steady voice.
I was proud of myself for not having resorted to violence because what I had done was so much more hurtful. He couldn’t bear to be called Nael. Why? It sent him back to his past life, his human life, and the oh-so-painful loss of his sweet fiancée who’d given him that nickname. If Nathanael and I had a single thing in common, it was that. Being remembered of our human existence was unbearable for both of us.
Our former King Efflamm had given me a very useful piece of advice that I’d always kept in mind: never tell anybody about your past. To give information about yourself to somebody was to give him the possibility to use it to destroy you. “Knowledge is power” was what Efflamm never stopped repeating to me. He’d been right about that.
It took a few moments for Nathanael to react but he did it: he slapped me. My head was thrown to the side due to the strength of the blow. I stared at him, my eyes bright with anger.
“How dare you to use—” He snapped his mouth shut, incapable to pronounce her name. “You little—” He gritted his teeth before he pronounced the fateful word. He groaned. “Even if you’re the Queen here, I’m older than you, thus you owe me respect.”
Logic would have wanted that my status prevailed over the age or the reputation and that everybody addressed me with deference since I was the Queen. But it wasn’t like that. We, Nëphyr, had to speak with respect when talking to an elder, no matter our rank. In other words, Nathanael was right, and I hated that. I had the sensation of being powerless, despite my status. And, when we’d taught me to be worthy of being called a Nëphyr, I’d been taught to hate everything that resembled weakness. That was why I couldn’t give in, even if I was in the wrong.
“Fuck you, Nathanael!”
I loved provoking him, but not to the point of calling him Nael again when he was in that state. My heart would have been out of my rib cage in the blink of an eye. The speed and dexterity of Nathanael were such that he was well-known among our race for his capacity to behead his opponents without them even noticing; people said that, when they
found them, their features were frozen in a furious expression, not even having seen death coming.
“Oh, but it’d be my pleasure, if such is your desire!” Nathanael exclaimed angrily.
One of his hands went under my dress. Before he could even touch me, I flexed my knee and hit him in the genitals with all my strength. He let out a furious howl, my powerful blow causing him to step back. At the same time, a ripping sound was heard. By Lucifer! This idiot had just torn my underwear. It was in tatters, lying on the ground.
“Get out of here now!” I shouted before lowering my voice and using a threatening tone, “Otherwise I swear to you I’ll task Xander with executing you, and you and I know he’ll be more than delighted to do it.”
His hand finally released his “war victims” and he straightened up. His face hateful, he took a step toward me, probably ready to fight back because his warrior instinct reminded itself to him. All of a sudden, he froze and closed his eyelids. He took a deep breath and reopened them. The change was radical. He was back to his cold composure. Obviously, he’d decided to opt for the wiser option and was finally going to leave. I was sorry for his cock, especially because it was often very useful to me, but it was his fault. If he hadn’t been so . . . stubborn, if he’d listened to me when I’d told him to go, none of this would have happened.
I went to the door, opened it and put myself next to it, waiting for him to leave the room. He walked to the exit, stepped across the threshold and, at the last moment, whirled around. He was still impassive. Still, I could guess what he felt as surely as if I’d read his thoughts. He was frustrated, disappointed, and furious. In spite of myself, I felt something strange. And it displeased me very much, because it wasn’t related to him. No, it was about someone else. Someone I’d like to never think about again.
“I wish I could hate you,” Nathanael whispered without any emotion.
A blade, a dagger, or at least a twinge in my heart. It was what I should have felt. I should have been hurt upon hearing that. It just wasn’t the case. I was a creature devoid of any feeling, except rage, revenge or desire. A certain someone had made sure of that, a long time ago.
“I wish you could, too,” I honestly answered him after a moment of silence.
Nathanael turned away from me and I turned my back to him, my mind burning with anger for the monster who’d made me as I was. Just like that, Ezekiel’s words came back to the front of my mind.
“I’m a monster and you’re only hatred. You’re only hatred and you hate me more than anything else in the world. And that’s what I want. Because it’s the only way for you to become like me. For you to belong to me,” he’d said.
Fury. I was only fury. Ezekiel. I hated this name and the one it belonged to. That fateful day, when he’d imprisoned me in the basement of New Hell, he’d told the truth: I hated him more than anything else in the world.
One impulse later, I caught up with Nathanael, forced him to turn around and put my avid mouth on his. I had to forget this name and everything that was connected to it. And I only knew one way to achieve momentous oblivion and its name was Nathanael. His tongue slipped between my lips to fight furiously with mine. He was mad at me . . . and yet he was still here. Just like his body was pressed against mine, his hand at the small of my back, and the evidence of his arousal against my stomach.
The anger, the insults thrown at each other, the violence… It was always the same old story with me. Always.
“You hate me more than anything in the world,” I heard the ghost of Ezekiel’s voice saying as if he was here, in the room.
I closed my eyes hard, wanting so badly to forget everything about him.
“I hate you,” I said aggressively when my mouth was separated from Nathanael’s.
“I wish I could return the compliment,” Nathanael retorted with sarcasm.
The compliment, as he said, wasn’t intended for him, but what was the point of correcting him? It was better for him to believe that, apart from what I was already giving him, nothing else was possible between us. Because it was the truth. Eager to erase all those thoughts from my mind, I grabbed Nathanael by the collar of his shirt. I kissed him fiercely, walking backward to go back into my room and hastily taking his clothes off, one by one. Finally inside, Nathanael’s hands saw to removing my dress as I closed the door with a kick.
4
Problems Galore
“I’m delighted to finally see you,” Venom said as she got up from her bed before turning her back to me.
A damn human, who was stark naked, stood up, too, and hurried to put a bathrobe on her. Venom went to sit down in front of her dressing table and began to brush her long golden hair. She was contemplating her reflection as if I wasn’t there. The mirror showed me the smile that was stretching her full and red lips. For my part, I wasn’t in such a good mood.
“I thought I’d made myself clear when I told your stupid henchman I wanted you to be alone when I’ll come to see you,” I told her.
“And you were,” she assured me as she turned her head toward me. “But you said, and I’m quoting the words Nolan told me: ‘And alone, preferably.’ Preferably doesn’t mean imperatively so I took the liberty to keep . . .” She frowned, looking pensive, before turning to the human. “What’s your name again?” she asked him.
“Evan,” he said, looking at her with devotion.
He stared at her as if she was a goddess. His goddess. Disgusting. And still, the word wasn’t strong enough.
“That’s it, Evan . . .” she repeated lasciviously.
She shook her head as if to think straight again.
“Anyway, I called Evan to ‘enjoy myself,’” thinking you’d ‘enjoy yourself,’” much longer with your Nathanael.”
I noted the touch of bitterness in her voice when she pronounced the name of my lover. She didn’t hate Nathanael, but the male-eater that she was had been offended by the unfaltering refusals of Nathanael when she’d suggested on several occasions that he could “enjoy himself” with her.
“He’s not ‘my’ Nathanael,” I rectified, not liking her innuendo.
Even if Nathanael himself had doubts about that, he wasn’t my object. I took advantage of him and his body and he did the same with me. He didn’t belong to me and inversely, period.
“If you say so!” she said, laughing while caressing Evan’s skin, as she would have done with a pet.
I noticed that this very pet wasn’t in a hurry to get dressed again, given his cock standing at attention and the sounds he was making. I sighed loudly. They didn’t want me to watch them having sex, too, did they?
I suddenly caught sight of something else I didn’t notice until then. There were marks on Evan. Hideous scars too old to have been made by Venom and her insatiable appetite. They’d been caused by particularly tactless teeth, but it especially meant he belonged to a vampire. He wasn’t a Släva, a human being who had become the temporary companion of a Nëphyr and was used as a source of blood and flesh until his inevitable death. He was a damn blood slave, a walking larder of a vampire. By Lucifer, what had this idiot of Venom done? I grabbed Evan by his hair and emitted a powerful growl as a warning to Venom to stay put. The human screamed and struggled as I held his scalp. How did he dare to complain! I could have seized him by another part of his anatomy that would certainly have made him squeal more or even faint. With a sharp move, I threw him against the wall. Evan was now lying motionless on the ground. Furious, I spun around to face Venom.
“I hope you didn’t damage him too much,” she mumbled, standing up with her fists on her hips.
“You better stop opening your mouth after what you’ve done!” I shouted vehemently. “Do you realize your stupidity? Where did you find this human?”
I moved toward her. Her nonchalance had now disappeared and she was worried to see that I wasn’t joking.
“I—In a club.”
“Which club?” I asked, pressing.
“The Man-Eater.”
/> I clenched my teeth and fists. I really wanted to tear her head off without questioning her more. This mindless creature had gone to one of the three famous clubs of creatures where orgies of sex, flesh and blood took place right under the human government’s nose. She had to be kidding me. There’s was no other possibility.
“Tell me it’s not true!” I said, beside myself with anger.
To Hell with my constant restraint and Nathanael’s good advice to have self-control! I was going to kill her and it would be very slow and painful!
“I-I—”
“You, what?” I interrupted her. “You’re the most idiotic Nëphyr walking this earth? Is that what you wanted to say? Because indeed, you are! You went out of our territory, without telling me, and could have caused a war with the humans if they got wind that we left our lands when the Treaty forbids it. And you did it just because your fucking libido was tormenting you? Hell! In addition to that, you went among our enemies and you came back with one of their fucking blood slaves!”
I paused to give more impact to my next words.
“You better find me a good reason not to execute you today and you better find it fast, Venom.”
She was used to my threats about the abolition of her privileges or a severe punishment, but I never spoke about execution before. Her eyes got wide when she heard the gravity of my tone and statement. She opened her mouth but she didn’t utter a single word. I was losing my patience here.
“You have nothing to say for your defense? Well, it’s no surprise because making so many mistakes is unforgivable. I wonder what I’m waiting for. I’d better call Xander right now.”
I whirled around and headed for the door.
“Wait!” she reacted almost immediately. “Please don’t call Xander!”
I inhaled deeply, trying to dominate my instinct, which screamed at me more than ever to tear her to pieces. She dared to implore me. I hated pleas so it was a wrong move on her part.