Lucifer was coming for me. Of that, I had no doubt. So apart from watching cautiously from a distance, I stayed away from Everly until that night.
She slept for hours, through the morning and into the evening, regaining her strength. Her dreams were fitful, but I nudged my energy against her mind, calming her swirling thoughts.
She didn’t wake until her sister pounded on her door, informing her that the family was going out for the evening and would return late.
“Better not go running off again,” her sister said. Everly managed to play nice and keep her mouth shut, but as her sister departed, there was a distinct scent of something burning in the air.
Waiting until her family departed in their large, shiny vehicles, I occupied myself with fantasies of their deaths. Ripping them limb from limb, scattering their entrails, and fucking my witch in the remains. Everly would look gorgeous bathed in the blood of her enemies, and these people she lived with were enemies indeed.
Once the others were gone, I returned to her bedroom window.
The moment her family departed, she scurried to the kitchen, gathering food like a squirrel stashing nuts for the winter. Fruit, bags of chips, a bowl of soup, and a plethora of cookies.
Perhaps her family was not providing her with enough food. The urge to chase them down and kill them nearly overtook me once more.
Patience, old boy, patience. They’d get what was coming to them.
Slowly, I eased the window open. She didn’t even notice as I crawled through the window onto her bed. She was seated at her desk with a small canvas before her, which she carefully drew her paintbrush across before popping a grape into her mouth.
I didn’t want to scare her. Most demons had a little psychic power and could influence the brains of other living things to experience certain sensations, so I reached out and nudged her mind, as I had the previous night.
Her body jerked, and she scrambled up from her seat, clapping her hand over her mouth to hold in her scream when she noticed me standing behind her.
Well. So much for not scaring her.
“Oh my God…” She uncovered her mouth. “I thought you were…shit…”
She stepped closer, pressing herself against my chest and letting out a heavy sigh when I embraced her. Even a few days without touching her had been too much. The way her tense body melted against me was sheer heaven.
If I could have swallowed her whole, just to have her live beside my heart, I would have.
“I haven’t had a chance to get the grimoire yet,” she said shakily. “They’re watching me so carefully. They’re suspicious. And they have the next sacrifice. Or they will soon. A girl named Raelynn.” She shuddered and shook her head. “I can’t watch anyone else die. I can’t do it, I can’t.”
“Don’t dwell on what may or may not happen.” I was far more concerned by the cursed magic locked around her wrists, and whatever the hell had happened in that cathedral. “These cuffs — do they hurt?”
“Not so much.” She drew back, staring at the glass bindings. “At least, not anymore.”
I drew her arm closer so I could have a better look at the damn things. The air around them vibrated with subtle energy, and despite being made of glass, the items smelled strange, like metal.
“You must be extremely careful with these,” I said. “They’re vampiric. The harder you try to use magic with them on, the more of your power they’ll sap, and the stronger they’ll become. Vile things.”
It enraged me to see them on her. No one should have been binding my witch, save for me.
“Easy enough,” Everly said, clearly trying to sound hopeful. “I won’t try to use magic at all, which…isn’t hard for me.”
“Says the woman who spontaneously teleports.” I took her into my arms again, and she gasped softly when I lifted her off her feet, carrying her back to the bed. Her bed was rather small, the soft green sheets and blankets tidily arranged, just like the rest of her room.
From what I had observed, the rest of this house was painfully sterile. White walls, white carpet, white furniture. Unnaturally bright, crisp, and clean. But Everly’s room smelled like pine and paint, like sweet magic and soft skin. Her belongings were scattered about on shelves or piled into corners; books and canvases, wooden knickknacks, and little glass figurines.
She was tense as she sat between my legs. She refused to lean into me, instead curling in on herself and shuddering for a moment. How I longed to read her thoughts, if only to know instantly what was bothering her so I could destroy it.
If I were to claim her soul, then I —
No, no. Although the temptation was there, to bind myself to another living being, to intimately feel their pain and terror every waking moment, to feel with certainty when they died…no.
Every binding, every connection, was an open wound, and I couldn’t bear any more injuries.
“What happened in the church?” She was so close to me, and yet she felt so far away. “The God spoke to you?”
She nodded, pulling up her knees and wrapping her arms around them. “It got in my head. I thought I could shut It out, but It was too strong. It —” She shivered. “I still feel It. I still hear It. Like It lives in my head. I’m scared, Callum. What if It never goes away?”
“I won’t allow that to happen. The God’s presence in your mind is an illusion. It is reaching you with psychic power, nothing more. Don’t think of It. Don’t give It any more of your thoughts. That’s exactly what It wants.”
Could I truly protect her? Or would I fail her like I’d failed the others?
This room was a treasure-trove of information about her; many of her books were massive volumes on history, languages, or ancient civilizations. But the ones closest to her bed had colorful elaborate covers, many of them featuring couples intertwined in each other’s arms.
She sputtered when I picked up one of the paperbacks, opening it to her marked page. “W-wait, um, that’s, uh —”
“Literary pornography.” I smirked as I read the first passage on her marked page.
“It’s not porn!” She looked scandalized I’d even say the word. Grasping her face, I dragged her closer, giving the silly little thing a shake.
“There’s nothing wrong with what you like. Humans have such a ridiculous habit of shaming each other for what they enjoy. Erotica, porn, sex, unusual fetishes — so long as the participants are willing, there is no shame in it.”
She looked confused. As if the concept of living without shame was new to her.
“Is there something in here you don’t want me to see?” I settled against her headboard with the book spread open between my fingers. “The pages smell like you.” Her face flushed a deep crimson as I scanned the page. “Ahh, so you like to read about a woman in charge, eh? Are you imagining yourself in such a position, or on the receiving end?”
“Oh, I, uh — both? Uh, yeah, both, I guess. I’ve never really been with another woman, but I’m curious.” She tucked back her hair, squirming awkwardly as I read. “I don’t know if I’d be any good at it though. Being in charge, I mean.”
She said it with such a defeated shrug that I burst out laughing. “Well, you’ve never tried it, have you, darling?” She shook her head, and I put aside the book. “Would you like to?”
Her eyes widened. “Try it? W-with you?”
“There’s no one better.” Although I tried to maintain my calm, I was practically foaming at the mouth for this.
“My father’s demon is downstairs.” She lowered her voice. “He’ll know you’re here.”
“He certainly won’t.” Nuzzling my face into her neck, I inhaled the sweet scent of her, and a deep growl rumbled in my chest. “If anything, all he’ll smell is you. He’ll think you’re pleasuring yourself.”
Her breath hitched before it slowed and deepened. “I-I don’t want him to think that.”
“Mm, are you sure?”
She wasn’t. She arched her back, pressing her ass against me, and giving me better access to her neck. Fuck, she was such an innocent little thing and yet so ravenous. She’d been starving for years, and one taste of the bliss she’d been denied was all it took to awaken her.
Everly was working herself up just from grinding against me. But I had a different plan for her; as much as I longed to feel her warm pussy clinging around my cock, her body was going through enough already with those cuffs locked on her. It was sapping her strength.
“Your grandmother was pissed at me for fucking you,” I said. “Nosey old ghost thought I might injure you.”
“You told her?” she yelped, then quickly clapped her hand over her mouth, aghast at her volume. “Callum, that’s — Goddamn it. That’s private!”
“Please, darling. In a house full of ghosts, nothing is truly private,” I said, chuckling at her mortification. “Besides, I made her a promise that I would give an equal opportunity to you to return the favor. Not that I wasn’t going to do so regardless.”
How could I resist? The very thought of this woman taking command of me was almost enough to make me cum without a single touch.
“What exactly do you mean?” Curiosity and confusion filled those beautiful eyes as I grabbed her face and kissed her, but she was smiling when I pulled away.
“It’s your turn on top,” I said. “I showed you how. Now you get to try it yourself.”
For a moment, she stared at me in confusion. “Woah, woah, you want me to…You want me to fuck you? Like, actually?”
It was adorable to see her so flustered. Smirking, I nodded my head. “I’ve thought of nothing else for days.”
I was careful to gauge her reaction, and beneath her nerves, only desire lay. If she wasn’t interested, I would have abandoned the idea without complaint; I was perfectly happy to be versatile. But her excitement made me more ravenous.
She rubbed the back of her neck. “Callum, I don’t exactly have the equipment to do that.”
Springing eagerly to my hands and knees, I said, “Don’t move a muscle. I’ll be right back.”
My departure wasn’t long. Knowing exactly where I was going, I teleported there and back again in a matter of minutes, my only delay being that I had to hide briefly to ensure the store employees didn’t see me. Hell’s council usually arranged for demons who spent time on Earth to have access to human money, but such access for myself had been cut off long ago. Doubtlessly thanks to Lucifer’s petty scheming, trying anything he could to make me return to Hell.
Everly jumped when I returned, reappearing in her bedroom with a bang as my feet hit the ground. I held out the box I’d stolen, watching the stages of confusion on her face as she figured out what it was.
“That’s a — Oh wow, okay, that’s a penis. With…a harness?” Her face couldn’t have turned any redder. She held up the toy with its adjustable straps, the length and size of it comparable to her forearm. “It’s a strap-on. Got it.”
Her eyes kept darting between me and the toy, growing wider with every pass.
“You want me to fuck you…with this?” Her voice cracked, and I couldn’t keep myself from laughing. “It’s…Callum, this thing is massive!”
“Afraid you’ll hurt me? You don’t need to worry, darling. Consider this your free pass to take out your frustrations.”
She lowered her eyes.
“I’ve never really considered myself to be very, um…” She licked her lips, swallowing hard as she looked at herself in the mirror hung upon the wall. “Very dominant.”
“It’s entirely up to you,” I said, standing close behind her. “If it doesn’t intrigue you, tell me no.”
“It does intrigue me.”
Her whisper sent goosebumps prickling over my skin. She was still staring at the mirror, and in the reflection, her gaze met mine. Was she imagining what it would be like? Could she envision me beneath her?
I sank to my knees before her. “I ask only that you remind me what it means to feel something, my lady. How ever you wish to do that, I leave it to you to decide.” But I knew by now that uncertainty made her freeze, and I didn’t want to make her nervous. So I kissed the back of her hand and suggested, “If you’re worried that you might hurt me, I am more than happy to prove I crave any pain you would be so kind as to grant me.”
She reached out slowly, brushing her fingers over my face. “You want me to hurt you?”
“You understand the desire, don’t you?” Leaning into her hand, I gave her my very best I’ll-be-a-good-boy look. “It’s easier to slap me down here, isn’t it? Try it, go on.”
She didn’t move. She took her time contemplating, then said, “You killed Sam, didn’t you? I saw the Missing Person signs.”
“Sam went for a walk in the woods,” I said innocently. “At night. Very foolish of him.”
She drew her lips between her teeth, suppressing a smile. “You shouldn’t murder people, Callum.”
“Punish me for it then.”
She tapped my cheek. I refused to call it a slap. To give her a little encouragement, I snapped my teeth at her hand, fangs clipping together just inches from her fingers.
This time, her slap rang out loudly enough to echo around the room. Within a split second, horror, fear, and then excitement flashed across her face. When she saw my grin, her arousal smoldered, flaring like gasoline poured on a flame.
With a groan, I said, “That’s it, darling. Harder.”
The crack of her hand rang out again, the sting blooming across my cheek. My bliss pushed even higher, and I laughed, reveling in the pain and the way her eyes brightened at my sounds.
“No need to be gentle.” I rolled my head back, gazing up at her. “I want all the pain my lady can inflict.”
She straightened up, her expression unreadable as her clever eyes examined every inch of me.
Then she lifted her bare foot and pressed it against my chest.
“Lie back,” she said, and I obeyed. My cock was rock hard and aching; I was dizzy with need. Skirting the edge of madness to please her.
She straddled my chest and used one hand to grip around my throat. Her fingers didn’t extend far enough to throttle me, but simply the weight of her hand was enough for me. She reached beneath her soft pajama pants and grinned when an unbidden growl burst out of me.
“That’s what you want, isn’t it?” she murmured. She rolled her hips, and I salivated at the thought of burying my head between her legs. “Will you beg for it?”
“You’re a cruel girl, aren’t you?” I could turn the tables on her easily. I could pin her down and have her screaming my name within seconds. But the struggle to earn her approval and her permission was far more pleasurable.
Blame it on a lifetime of living as nothing more than a machine built to kill, a warrior encouraged to be as vicious and violent as possible. Pain was a familiar, understandable comfort. Control was necessary for life itself. Without someone to counterbalance my baser desires, I was no better than any other wild beast.
“A little sadist hides behind that pretty face,” I said, as my hips thrust up mindlessly. She laughed, and my cock twitched with desperation as her delicate fingers tightened their grip.
“How can I resist when desperation looks so sexy on you?” She didn’t say it like it was a line, like she was trying to flirt. She said it as if it was fact, as if she’d only just begun to understand how her own desires tied into mine.
I couldn’t make her dominant. I couldn’t force her to feel confident in her power. I could only guide her in the right direction, and let her make the journey.
“You’re powerful enough to kill gods.” Her hand moved slowly, her eyes fluttering as she pleasured herself. “Yet you’re allowing me to push you around. Why?”
“You give me what no one else can,” I said. I lost myself in the scent of her arousal; mind hazy, body on fire.
“What do I give you, Callum?” Her voice was a siren’s song in the fog rolling over my mind. As I bucked my hips again, her nails pressed demandingly into my throat.
“Someone to please. Someone to serve.” I could feel her fingers as they moved, hidden by flannel as they pumped in and out of her. Her eyes were half-lidded, the air around her shimmering faintly.
“I’ve never met a demon who wants to serve a human.”
It was likely she hadn’t met many demons at all, but I wasn’t going to argue.
“When a demon becomes a warrior, we are trained to be violent.” I struggled to string together enough cohesive sentences to explain. “We are encouraged to abandon any efforts at civility or domesticity. We live to destroy. But destruction needs boundaries. Every weapon needs a handler.”
I didn’t expect to see such gentle understanding in her eyes…
Right before she lifted her arm and backhanded my face.
“Fuck yes, darling. Hurt me.” My hips thrust up and nearly threw her off balance. Her legs squeezed against my sides, and she moaned when my struggling pushed her fingers deeper.
“You need someone to control you,” she said, and I quickly nodded. “Do rules make you feel safe?”
The question made me bristle, and my pride wanted to deny it. But her asking was innocent, and she was right. Lucifer’s commands had once made me feel safe, until I lost my faith in him to lead. My commanders’ control once comforted me, until I rose through the ranks more swiftly than I was prepared for, and suddenly, the control was in my hands.
Control came with responsibility. It made me not only a leader but a protector. A master over my warriors but a servant to their well-being.
I didn’t want to think about that. I didn’t want to dwell on all the ways I’d failed.
“Callum.”
Her voice brought me back to reality, and I recalled she’d asked me a question.
“Nothing is safe,” I muttered. “But if I can’t be safe, I can at least be useful.”
Some things were better left unsaid. It worried me how easily I could blurt things out to her.
She gyrated her hips, grinding herself against me. I clenched my hands into fists so I wouldn’t seize her and flip her.
“You get to be useful by being my seat while I get off.” Her voice trembled, already on the edge. “Don’t touch. Don’t struggle. Just watch.”
“At least let me fucking touch you —” I snarled, only for her to slap me again and send me spinning off into floaty bliss.
“Do as I told you, Callum. If you’re good, maybe I’ll fuck you like you asked.”
Every time her tongue formed my name, it made me shiver. She didn’t need to force me to obey. My pleasure came from my sacrifice: from foregoing what I desperately wanted for the sake of obedience.
I lay there salivating, drunk on arousal as she got herself off. I watched her in awe, cursing as much as I begged. Her legs clenched around me, her breath shuddering, as I writhed beneath her.
I would accept her torture willingly, thankfully. The only sounds coming out of me were animalistic growls of desperation.
Everly withdrew her hand from between her legs, holding up her two fingers as she watched my face. The digits glistened with her arousal, as she brought her fingers to my mouth and slid them inside. Closing my lips around her, I sucked. She watched me with fascination and gasped when I clenched my teeth, not hard enough to hurt but enough to tease.
“I want to try it,” she said. “I want to fuck you.”
She was holiness and blasphemy all in one. A goddess of desire and innocence.
She allowed me to undress her slowly, taking my time to worship every inch of her. Kisses she responded to with praise, but smacked the back of my head when I would nip at her skin, giggling when I did it anyway.
“I would build a temple for you if I could,” I said, dragging my nose along her skin as I inhaled. “Lock you away like a gilded goddess and worship at your feet for eternity.”
“I bet you say that to everyone you’re with,” she said.
Clutching her hips, I planted a kiss beside her navel.
“I’ve been alive too long to speak idly,” I said. “I’ve uttered those words to no one else.”
Grabbing the toy from the bed, I tightened the straps around her hips, ensuring it was comfortable and secure. She swung it playfully, laughing when her cock slapped against my cheek.
“Did you get lube?”
Pressing my lips to the tip of her cock, I said, “I make my own.”
She inhaled as I took her into my mouth. My jaw stretched around it and my saliva thickened as I sucked, coating the surface. She didn’t take a single breath as she watched me, only exhaling when I drew back and grinned up at her.
“Wow.” She was barely able to bring her volume above a whisper. “That was — you’re — holy shit.”
Stroking the forked sides of my tongue around her cock, I said, “Fuck me, Mistress. Please. Where do you want me? On the floor? Or on the bed?”
She straightened her back, seeming to remember who was in charge here.
“On the floor,” she said.
Obediently, I turned my back to her, lying on the carpet. She knelt between my legs, her hands moving over me gently, appreciatively. The head of the toy nudged against me, but she was clearly hesitant to push any harder.
Reaching back, I spread myself open with one hand and arched my back, impaling myself on her. She swore softly as I groaned, working her cock deeper.
It had been ages since I’d been penetrated. It was agony and ecstasy rolled into one, the most overwhelming catharsis. “Fuck, you feel so good.”
“Watch your mouth,” she said softly, and my back tingled at her tone. Quiet but authoritative, still a little uncertain. But with far more confidence than I’d ever heard from her. “It’s not very respectful of you to swear at me, is it?”
Telling a demon not to swear was like telling a fish not to swim. Growling at her request with obvious defiance, I was surprised to feel her hand tangle in my hair, gripping the locks and shoving my head down. She pressed deeper until her hips were flush against me.
“It’s not very respectful of you,” she repeated. “Is it?”
“No, my lady, it isn’t respectful.” Her words were accompanied by a hard thrust, the sensation practically making my eyes roll back. It ached in the best of ways, and if she kept moving this slow, I was going to make an absolute whore of myself in my desperation for more. “Fuck me harder, please, come on —”
She giggled, causing a wave of heat that had my overstimulated body shaking. “Do you really want it that bad? Such a needy boy.”
She sounded so painfully sweet that I groaned. I was practically rabid, swiftly losing all decorum as she moved her hips, drawing them back before punching forward. She was clumsy with the strap, but every awkward, eager movement only served to turn me on more.
“I like hearing you groan,” she said. Her fingers pulled my head up, enthusiastically rough, her other hand pressing down between my shoulder blades. Her heartbeat was quickening, pattering hard and fast. Her breath was coming in quick, excited gasps. “If you want it harder, ask me nicely.”
“Fucking hell, if you keep talking to me like that, you’re going to make me come on the damn carpet, Everly.”
Her laughter in response was mockingly sympathetic.
“Aw, it’s so hard, isn’t it?” she crooned. “Is that all it takes to make you come? Just having your ass filled by a pretty girl’s cock?”
I wasn’t sure where she’d found this filthy mouth, but I was more than happy to let her keep talking. Arching my back and lifting my hips toward her, the toy was angled perfectly to push me over the edge the second she gave me permission, which I doubted she would grant unless I managed to get my rambling tongue under control.
The only words I could manage to speak were breathless oaths, swearing everything to her if she would only please, please give me more.
“Please, I’ll do anything you want. Anything you fucking ask, just…fuck me harder, please, just fucking kill me —”
“Killing you would be merciful,” she said. “You can’t suffer if you’re dead. But alive…” She tugged my hair, shaking my head back and forth as if I was the weak mortal and she the demon. “Alive, you get to endure whatever I decide to give you.”
She thrust into me, keeping a pace that had my cock leaking on the floor. Releasing my hair and dragging her fingernails down my back, she gripped my hips, finding her rhythm.
I could have truly died in that moment. My mind ascended to some other plane where all I could comprehend was the tight feeling of her moving inside me. My cock was grinding against the floor, the rough abrasion of the carpet stinging just enough to hold me back.
“Do you want to come?” she said, leaning over my back, her voice soft and sweet and so teasing.
“Yes,” I snarled, and she tugged at my hair.
“Yes what?”
My claws raked through the carpet, tearing it even more as she tsked in disapproval.
I could have taken her cock for hours, but I was also a greedy bastard who was so worked up I felt more like an animal than a demon as I said, “Yes, Mistress, please, let me come.”
She kept fucking me. I was about to start begging in earnest when she finally commanded, “Come for me, demon.”
My teeth clamped on my arm, clenching so hard I drew blood. I wasn’t sure if it was truly words or only snarled groans pouring from my mouth, but every sound was in worship of her.
It didn’t feel right to leave Everly alone, but her family would be home any minute. Climbing back out her window and watching her snuggle into bed by herself made my chest tighten with an unpleasant assault of irritation and loneliness.
“You’ll be close by, won’t you?” she said, leaning close to the window as she spoke to me. “If something goes wrong tomorrow, you’ll be there?”
My skin prickled. A creeping feeling on the nape of my neck told me I was being watched, and it stretched my nerves almost to their breaking point.
“I’ll be close, darling,” I said, leaning my chin on the windowsill. She kissed my forehead, to my surprise. It certainly wasn’t a gesture I was used to — gentle partners weren’t something I’d ever sought.
Whips, chains, and pain could undo me. But soft words and softer touches could tame me just as effectively.
“We’ll meet at the Historical Society tomorrow,” I said. “I’ll distract your father while you take the grimoire. I may not be able to kill your father, but I’ll gladly steal you from him.”
Her eyes lit up. “You’ll take me home?”
“I’ll take you wherever you wish to go.”
With a look of bold determination, she kissed me. My hand cradled the back of her head, pulling her closer. As her tongue parted my lips, a growl rose out of me, and my cock twitched, ready for round two.
But that persistent feeling of being watched distracted me. When Everly parted from me, I couldn’t help a quick glance over my shoulder in the direction of the trees.
Nothing. Not a soul to be seen.
But there was a familiar scent on the wind. One that filled me with alarm.
“I’ll see you tomorrow,” I said, cupping her face one last time before I sprinted away toward the trees. She’d been about to say something; I cursed myself for not lingering to hear it. But I was on high-alert.
Someone was here, and their presence was powerful enough it caused a change in air. The wind grew colder, the shadows darkened. Beneath the trees, the crickets didn’t chirp and the creatures of the night refused to emerge from their burrows. Crouching low in the shrubbery, I surveyed my surroundings carefully.
But not carefully enough. I heard the footsteps behind me in the same moment that magical bindings snapped around my limbs and darkness descended over my vision.
