Blood Rites 5, page 13
The demoness huffed through her narrow nostrils, gasping each desperate breath as the need grew stronger within her. But she nodded. A rattle of chains told Lazarus that Bella was working, though he couldn’t tear his eyes away from Selena’s face long enough to watch her work. Finally, a thick wooden dowel was pushed between Selena’s fanged jaws, which Bella tightened behind her head with a braided leather cord. It wouldn’t be strong enough to withstand being ripped off by the demoness’s powerful hands and arms. But with her wrists chained to the floor the gag would hold.
He hoped.
“Done,” Bella confirmed. “Hurry, Lazarus. Sylvia is getting tired, and I’m not strong enough to hold Selena on my own.”
Lazarus heard the words, but he found it impossible to follow the baroness’s request. His body felt as if it were being dragged along a razor of pleasure. He had no choice but to balance upon it, or risk losing the incredible high of Selena’s demonic allure. In that moment, Lazarus couldn’t think of anything worse than losing that feeling.
He had duties to attend to. He had a war to fight.
But the war would wait for him. Thaddeus could hold down the fort until Lazarus was finished here.
As much as he wanted to take his time, Lazarus knew the union with Selena would be passionate, intense, and impossible to sustain for long. It would be over soon enough. Too soon. He refused to allow himself to be rushed.
Keeping his axe in his left hand, Lazarus reached out to touch the demoness’s face, testing her control. Her shoulders heaved with each breath, but she held still as he stroked her cheek, trailing a finger over the sharp ridge of her cheekbone, along the side of her face, and down to her jaw. Lazarus grazed his thumb over her lower lip, pushed down by the dowel between her teeth, and felt the monstrous woman shiver beneath his touch.
In return, the jolt of power he felt touching Selena was stronger than anything he’d ever experienced, even when receiving a gift from the goddess. He felt himself grow thicker in response to the demoness’s presence, as if adapting to her massive form. She was helping him, giving him what he would need to force the monster into submission and to free the woman inside.
Selena whimpered as he grasped one of her horns in his hand, feeling its rough texture beneath his fingers. She shivered as he trailed his fingers along its curves and into the tangled hair around them. Her control remained, but Lazarus knew he was testing both of their self-control far past their limits.
“Good.” His voice came out strained and scratchy, and Selena responded to it like an intimate caress, releasing a shudder of pleasure.
A stream of saliva poured from the corner of her fanged mouth, soaking the dowel gag and dripping over her chin and down her neck. Lazarus followed this trail with his finger next, as Selena began to pant.
His fingers moved over the ridges of her collar bone, which felt as sharp as broken stone. She wouldn’t meet his eyes, though he could see the tendons in her neck straining as if she was fighting herself, fighting the urge to fixate on the man who should have been her prey.
He stepped closer to her, feeling the heat burning off her body, tugging at his loins. With his free hand he lifted one heavy breast and was shocked that it felt soft and malleable, despite the rough surface. Selena’s panting grew heavier, and she leaned toward him as if urging him forward. Lazarus slipped his fingers under the scraps of stretched leather and tore it free, exposing her massive chest in all its glory.
Selena moaned as he moved close enough to press his cock between her breasts. His pants slipped lower on his hips, opening wider. He reached up to grip her by the horn, pulling her head back and finally forcing her gaze to meet his own. The coal-bright eyes fixed on him, staring from beneath thick black lashes. Her mouth was stretched open and her teeth forced apart by the gag, but Lazarus could see her wet, red tongue moving as she attempted to swallow. Desire blazed in her face, so strong it threatened to burn him, but he couldn’t step away.
He thrust between her breasts as he forced her to look at him. The stone-like texture of her skin didn’t feel rough at all. It felt smooth and ribbed and vibrated along his length with every stroke. The pressure of her breasts swaying weight slapping against his thighs and squeezing his shaft sent his mind into a spiral of desire so strong he had to use Warrior’s Resolve in order to stop himself from continuing until he burst.
“Stop playing with her, Lazarus,” Sylvia warned, her voice cutting through the haze of his lust just enough to catch his attention. “As hot as it is to watch you fuck a pair of demon tits, I’d rather not have to watch an encore of her ripping your head off when my muscles give out.”
Selena nodded desperately, and attempted to force a word past the dowel. “—ow—” she said, which Lazarus took to mean Now!
Lazarus grunted as he made himself step back, slowly flanking the demonic giantess. Bella moved with him, attempting to keep the chains out of his way as he moved behind Selena’s crouching form. His breaths came in rough, staccato bursts as he saw the thick, round red-skinned ass and thighs presented to him through the strands of torn leather that used to be Selena’s skirt.
He didn’t even have to tear the material away to see the full, bare, pulsing lips of her sex protruding from her spread thighs. The black tail that grew from the bottom of her spine swished and flicked in the air as he got behind her. But when she sensed his nearness, the tail flipped up over her back, as if she were offering herself for his pleasure.
She was massive, he realized, standing fully behind her and having her spread her thighs wider to lower herself to his level. But as he pushed himself between her fat red cheeks, he sucked in a breath, shocked at how snug her passage was. Lazarus couldn’t restrain himself any longer, gripping her hip with his free hand and pushing his entire length into her slick, wet depths.
Selena’s pussy was tight and pulsing, as if her body were trying to suck him inside as he pushed deeper, holding onto him as he pulled back to thrust again. Her demonic juices tingled against his sensitive flesh, sending ripples of intense pleasure sizzling through his brain and forcing his hips to buck for more.
“Finally,” Belladonna moaned, her voice thick with desire so overwhelming she seemed to forget the danger they were all in. “Gods, Lazarus. Finish her all ready.”
Selena wrenched against the chains that bound her, fighting the act of submitting to a mortal, even as her ass dropped and lifted to accept his thrusts and her tail stayed flipped over her back, keeping her exposed to him.
Lazarus braced his axe hand on her back, pumping harder into her hot, squeezing slit. The way her body sucked back against him made every retreat a carnal gift. Every advance an inferno of passion. The chains rattled and clanked against the floor as he pounded into her.
Selena let out roar, forcing it past the dowel gag. Her bound wings attempted to beat against her back as she thrashed with desire or frustration. Sylvia shouted in alarm as she was suddenly wrenched forward, her silver-scales flashing as she fought for control of the chains.
Lazarus was aware of this, and yet not aware. His body lost in its urgent rut. His vision went red around the edges, like it did when he was taken by blood lust, but instead of defeating his foe with an axe he was spearing her with his cock, over and over, while she writhed beneath him, screaming for release.
Or to be released so that she could destroy him.
It didn’t seem to matter in the moment.
Lazarus’s body stiffened, every muscle clenching, as the peak of his climax approached like a storm bursting inside his mind. As if sensing the nearness of his release, Selena’s body clamped down, sucking hard against his pumping shaft and pulling the fire from his loins.
When he burst, it was like a floodgate being opened. He unleashed a river of seed inside the succubus, feeding her every drop of his essence as she milked him for more with the pulsing tug of her channel.
His release seemed to trigger hers, and she cried out, voice still muffled by the gag, chains rattling as her body clenched around him. Her thighs shook so violently that she collapsed on her floor, but her muscles wouldn’t release him, so she pulled him down with her.
Lazarus landed on the thick swell of her ass, his length still buried inside her, his hips still pumping. It was as if Selena’s need for him overrode his body’s natural systems, producing more seed, sucking more essence from him, and there was nothing he could do to stop it. He humped her furiously, knees scrabbling for purchase against the stone floor, which was slick with the evidence of their arousal.
With a flash of realization, Lazarus knew that this was how the succubus would drain her victims. She was lost to her pleasure. He was locked in the compulsion for pleasure that drove him like a rabbit, thumping against her thick red ass.
Not knowing what else to do, Lazarus invoked Aura of Resilience, granting himself, Bella, and Sylvia increased resistance to physical and magical attacks. Combined with the Warrior’s Resolve which still flowed through his veins, pumping like the blood in his heart and the seed from his shaft, he hoped it would be enough to survive the succubus’s final pull.
Sylvia gave a powerful wrench of the chains, pinning Selena against the hard floor. The succubus’s breasts squished out to the side with nowhere else to go. Her hooved feet thrashed in the air. Lazarus felt another wave of lust tearing through his body.
This is it, he thought, bracing for the release. Either this is going to kill me, or it will be enough to free her.
His body no longer cared what the outcome would be.
He bellowed as the orgasm hit him, harder than a battering ram, sending his thoughts scattering and his seed spraying. Selena moaned as her body shuddered violently, drinking in his offering until… suddenly… it stopped.
As if her pussy was finally sated, the succubus’s muscles relaxed, releasing Lazarus from their painfully delicious grip. His dominance was spattered all over her red, sweat-slicked form, pulsing from her body as her muscles continued to twitch and shudder.
“Is it over?” Sylvia asked, gasping. “Did you fix her?”
Selena moaned again, twisting against her chains. Her horns scraped against the stone floor as she attempted to push herself onto her hands and knees again, and she failed.
“I don’t think he fixed her,” Bella said, staring with wide dark eyes at the defeated demoness. “I think he destroyed her.”
Selena curled into a fetal position, dragging the chains—and the women holding them—in toward her core. Her tail lay limp against the floor. Her wings fluttered weakly.
“Selena?” Lazarus asked, his chest burning as he fought to catch his breath. “Selena are you all right?”
The demoness didn’t answer. But the chains continued to rattle as she shook, trembling like a person in shock. Her red skin began to fade, first to an orange color, then pink—losing its rough, stony texture. Her limbs shrank and her muscles smoothed as Lazarus gaped at her transformation. The matted white hair became lush and pale blond. The horns shrank, but didn’t disappear. As did her wings and tail.
In the demonic giantess’s place, a pale, naked woman now lay, completely drenched in the essence she’d used to cure herself of her affliction. She groaned and tried to push herself up once more but the chains were too heavy in her more human form.
Lazarus stumbled to her side. His entire body ached with the exertion of their union, but nothing like the ache in his chest at seeing Selena so hurt and vulnerable.
“Selena,” he whispered, lifting her into his lap and wrapping his arms around her torso. “Please tell me you’re all right.”
She trembled and moaned, leaning into his embrace. When she gazed up at him, it was with her uncanny blue eyes that were only rimmed with red, hinting at the demoness inside. “Lazarus,” she gasped, clawing herself up his lap and tighter into his arms. “You did it. You saved me.”
He squeezed her against his chest, kissing along her neck until he got to her luscious red lips.
Lazarus had wanted to kiss those lips since the moment he saw them. He never expected that he’d take her like he just had, and certainly not before he’d kissed her. But now, with her heavy-lidded gaze fixed upon his face, Lazarus lowered his mouth to hers.
“I told you that you weren’t a monster,” he whispered, their lips brushing against each other. Her hand reached behind his head and pulled him closer, as if she had another need to be addressed before she was done with him.
A need for tenderness, for love.
He lost himself in her warmth and softness, as if that kiss was a balm to soothe the violence of their union, and a promise that tenderness would always be at the heart of their bond to each other.
14
Freedom
Sylvia soared high above Crimson Keep, her dragon form gliding effortlessly through the crisp, late winter air. The sun's rays danced upon her shimmering scales, infusing her with a warmth that seeped deep into her bones. She relished the freedom of flight, the way the wind rushed past her, roaring in her ears and rippling through her scales.
She hadn’t known how much she longed for moments like these, for a release from the centuries of magical constraints that had barred her true form—had barred even the memory of her true form. Now, as she spread her wings wide, catching the currents of the air, she felt truly alive, her spirit soaring as high as her body.
After spending days trapped in the tower room with Selena as the succubus fought against her own transformation, Sylvia appreciated her good fortune even more. She could have discovered she was a demoness, or some other monster that she would always have to fight to keep restrained. Instead, bonding with Lazarus had set her free.
She hoped that Selena would find freedom from her inner demon as well, now that Lazarus had taken her into the harem.
And how he’d taken her… Sylvia felt her body flush beneath her scales as she remembered the passionate scene she’d witnessed. And then, still feeling the effects of Selena’s succubus charms, Lazarus had taken Sylvia and Belladonna while Selena recovered. There would certainly be advantages to having a succubus in the harem if it meant Lazarus’s needs would be so… unquenchable.
He’d seemed much more powerful, as if Selena’s magic had unlocked something new inside him.
There was something very different about that man.
Dragons, and other immortal beings, had a particular hatred for the so-called gods and goddesses of the divine realm. Sylvia could sense power in Lazarus that bordered on godlike—he’d managed to withstand the death-pull of a full-blooded succubus at the height of desperation and lived to tell the tale. Not just lived, but out-lasted her. Wore her out and then needed more. It was unfathomable, yet he’d done it.
But he wasn’t a god. He didn’t have that divine stench upon him.
And he wasn’t really a mortal either.
She found the conundrum to be intensely arousing and equally infuriating.
Sylvia pumped her wings, letting the cool, fresh air cleanse her of the niggling thoughts. It didn’t really matter what kind of being Lazarus was. Maybe the gods had interfered with him enough that he’d evolved into some different kind of being that they didn’t have a name for. Whatever he was, she belonged to him and a part of him belonged to her, and that was enough for Sylvia.
Below her, the landscape of Crimson Keep and its surrounding territories stretched out like a vast tapestry. Winter's grip was loosening, giving way to the subtle hints of spring. From her vantage point, she could see the frosty edges of the fields and forests beginning to thaw, the icy sheen on the rivers and lakes cracking and breaking up under the strengthening sun. The world was awakening from its slumber, yet the people below were still ensconced in the throes of winter, unaware of the shift in the air that Sylvia, with her draconic senses, could detect.
The recent events had left her physically drained but emotionally invigorated. Transforming Selena back into her human form had been a taxing ordeal, yet it filled Sylvia with a sense of accomplishment and pride. She had been able to use her strength, her half-dragon form, to aid her friends in a moment of dire need. The feeling of being a crucial part of Lazarus's plans, of being needed and valued, was exhilarating.
As she flew, her thoughts drifted to the chaotic night that had just passed—the attack by Sanguiana's cultists, the children's near-abduction, and Jace's unexpected transformation into a werewolf. It had been a night of turmoil and surprise—the worst possible time for Selena to have been plagued by her own, literal, demons.
Yet they had come out on top, all of them.
The community had rallied in the aftermath of what could have been a disaster. Rowan's rangers had taken charge of the clean-up, Aria and her apprentices had tended to the injured, and now Thaddeus and Herschel were ready to march their troops to Red Redoubt. It was all coming together, each piece fitting into the larger puzzle of their strategy against Sanguiana.
Sylvia could feel the tides shifting in their favor. The subtle balance of powers in the world… divine and mundane, magical and mortal… was changing. As Lazarus became more powerful, their odds of success in driving Sanguiana and Valka from the mortal realm only increased.
A ripple of pleasure lifted her scales in a cascading silver wave across her body.
It was good to be alive. It was good to be a dragon. It was good to be a chosen one of the man who would rule this world.
Sylvia grinned, stretching her lips away from her rows of savagely pointed teeth, and sent a burst of searing celestial light into the air before her. She would happily burn and devour any who stood in Lazarus’s way.
Below her, Crimson Keep looked peaceful, its towers and battlements casting long shadows in the morning light. It was hard to imagine that such a serene place had witnessed so much turmoil. But sometimes that was the nature of war—moments of peace punctuated by bursts of chaos and danger.
