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Malcubus Ch. 01: Cherry

By: Elecebra



"She's my cherry pie, cool drink of water such a sweet surprise..."

Eyes still closed, I groaned. That's the downside of musical alarm clocks. No matter how much you might like the song at first, you always start to hate the noise that wakes you up.

"Taste so good make a grown man cry, sweet cherry pie..."

I staggered upright, not from my bed but from the floor, knocking over a candle as I moved. I'd slept sprawled across the floor in the middle of my room, and I wasn't sore enough to wake up my higher brain functions and wonder why I had done that.

The clock was just getting to "I scream, you scream, we all scream for her" when I made it to my bedside table and hit snooze. 07:50 blinked at me, and I blinked back in a stupor even deeper than my usual morning sluggishness. Sleeping on the floor really takes it out of you, I figured.

The bed was right there, inviting as heaven itself, and I did still have ten minutes until I absolutely had to be getting ready for work. It seemed an easy enough decision to make; I flopped onto the mattress and wriggled under the covers without once looking back towards the middle of my room, or even thinking about last night.

Stupid, yes, but compared to what I'd been doing before I fell asleep on the floor, it was small potatoes.

Something rustled, and I thought of my dad coming to enforce the alarm clock's edict. "Ten more minutes," I mumbled.

It actually was my dad. It had to be, because I heard footsteps approaching my bed, although the door hadn't opened. Already falling back into sleep's warm embrace, I grunted at the thought of the day to come. "Fuck."

Someone sat on the foot of my bed and leant forward over my legs.

"Not yet, my master," said a voice like Persian silk. "But give it time."

That woke me up right quick, and I immediately noticed a few things that had slipped right past my sleep-drunk awareness. There was a girl curled up on the end of my bed. She was, as far as I could see while we were both lying down, stark naked. And one of her hands had just snaked under the covers to grasp my dick.

I spasmed upright with a cry; she slid forward slightly to keep her hand at my crotch, stroking my cock with a feather-light touch. I made incoherent sputtering noises for a couple of seconds, staring at her lithe form. Even curled up with most of her pale body hidden from me, she was beautiful.

The girl frowned, bow lips crinkling. "You okay?"

The dream. The deal. The demon. "R-Rosmerta?" I stammered.

"You do remember," she smiled. "I mean, I'm pretty hard to forget, but it's always nice when they still know your name in the morning."

"You're - you're - " I wasn't doing very well here.

"A succubus, here in your room, and very much real," she said, counting down on the fingers of her left hand. Her right was still on my dick, brushing up and down the underside of my shaft with a gentle, teasing rhythm. "We covered this ground last night, stud. Do you need me to draw you a flowchart?"

I'm not much of a morning person, and I'd definitely never been woken up with a handjob before. Both factors were making it very hard to think. "You're, uh, a succubus, a demon. I summoned you."

"Full marks, so far," she nodded. "Now let's see how you do on the practical exam." Her thumb closed around my shaft so that her fingers were properly holding me, and with the increased pressure came an increased pace. One of my legs kicked reflexively beneath the covers, and I emptied my lungs.

"Uhh, uh, what are you doing?"

She stuck out her tongue at me. It glistened pink. "'Playing with your cock."

Ask a stupid question. "Why?"

She shrugged without slowing her pace. "Well, I didn't want to take you inside me just yet -- that should be something you're awake enough to savour. I'll wake you up with something more elaborate tomorrow, though, I promise." She winked, smiling, crinkling the freckles beneath her hazel eyes. "In the meantime, just lie back and enjoy this." As she spoke, her thumb stroked over my glans and pressed against the eye of my cock. I groaned audibly, blinking, feeling pressure building above my groin.

"I - wait - slow down."

She raised an eyebrow, but her steady jerking of my shaft stopped. That left her fingers holding me in a tight ring beneath the head as her thumb rubbed my precum across the glans. That wasn't any better.

"Okay," I said. "First of many questions: you're different from last night." The girl curled over my legs might have had arcane runes marked on her skin like pale green tattoos, but she was most definitely human. "You had green eyes, redder hair, wings..." Horns as long as my forearm. Fangs like a fucking cobra. You know, normal stuff.

"You have strange priorities."

"Well?"

"If you must know," she said with a brain-blasting twist of my dick, "I can take mortal form to hide my true nature. I thought that, if one of your parents were to walk in on us, they would have fewer questions for a human girl..."

"Oh, shit," I said belatedly, and sat upright. "My parents!"

And right on cue, there was my dad calling down the stairs. "Eric! Wakey wakey, hands off snakey! You've got work in an hour!"

Can a father tell when his son's got a huge erection, just by the tremor in his voice? That's a question you don't want to think about at any hour of the morning. "Coming, Dad!"

"Not at this rate, you're not," Rosmerta pouted. She started stroking me properly again, before my dick could possibly start softening.

"Wh- no! Get off, Rosmerta!"

"You first," she said. "Bam. Master, you're just walking right into these."

"I - " I considered physically pushing her off me, and thought better of it for a few reasons. "Please, I don't even wank when my family's in the house..."

She gave me a confused look. "Then where do you bed the maidens you seduce?" Her puzzled expression cracked into a grin within a second. "Kidding. Wizards generally aren't great with the maidens."

I already knew I was a social reject, I didn't need her reminding me. It was hard to get mad at her, though, when she -- "Rosie," I said, "you're still stroking."

"Just another minute! And I'll lick it all up afterwards, don't worry. If the summoning spell hadn't drained you last night, you wouldn't be lasting so - "

"Look, they can't find out about you!"

She blinked, looking... crestfallen? Could demons be offended? "Why not? If they think I'm a mortal woman - "

Now was not the time to explain what a social reject I was to the stunning demoness giving me a handjob. I tried to calm down, gave up, and settled for looking into her eyes. "Rosmerta, please. I'll explain everything, we can talk as long as you like, but right now I need to get ready for work."

Looking into her eyes probably wasn't a good idea. They were bewitching spirals of blue and green, shaded with stormy grey around the edges, drawing me in like a tempest towards the pupils black as the abyss itself, pulling my soul into their depths, not letting me look away -- 

"Okay," she said, and let go of my dick.

As soon as her hand left me, I wanted it back. I wanted to grab her and throw her to the bed and... I lay back down and closed my eyes. Even the bed sheet falling back over my groin felt good, so aroused had I been. I bit the side of my hand, hoping the pain would wake my brain up and help me forget her crinkled nose, that freckled face framed by auburn hair, those damned eyes...

"Are you still naked?" I asked after a minute.

"Of course," she replied proudly.

"Could you... not be?"

"Um... Why?"

"Rosmerta, please. If we're going to talk, I need to be able to think."

"There are better things to do than talking, stud," she said, but after a second I heard her rummaging around in my closet. "Not a lot of lingerie in here..."

"Track pants!" I managed. "T-shirt!"

"Used to be a man would dress his girl up nice," she muttered.

While she got dressed I felt around on the floor for last night's clothes. My boxers were actually torn open - I couldn't remember that happening in the course of the spell, the night was a bit of a blur - but my dressing gown was still intact, and I put that on. From upstairs, my dad yelled something cajoling. "Getting up right now!" I replied. Then, to the succubus: "Are you decent?"

"Well, I missed out on my breakfast, but..."

She was wearing track pants and my stormtrooper t-shirt. The man's shirt strained to contain her bust, and her posture wasn't helping. My dick, which had started to sag from the fear of discovery, bobbed back up a little. Those bewitching eyes of her noticed, and she smiled cheekily.

"Alright," I sighed, yanking my uniform out of the closet. "You look..."

"Overdressed?"

"Stunning. You need a burqa or something if we're going to have an actual conversation."

"You don't need to compliment me, master," she said, swaying her hips a little. "But I'll reward you for it anyway."

"No - no!" I needed a shower. My whole room stank of sex and black magic. "Look, Rosmerta, I have a job. Do you - do you know what a job is?"

She let a bubble of drool escape her perfect lips. "Job is where daddy go to work. Two plus two is... four?"

Now the demon I had summoned was giving me attitude. "Well I have a job. Look, as much as I would love to pick up where we left off - "

"Oh, you have no idea."

" -- I'm not exactly a model employee. If I miss this shift I'm fired. And you can't stay here today, my dad or my sister will find you."

"Well, I could always introduce myself and get acquainted with - "

My brain screamed FUCK NO loud enough to drown out the real world for a moment. "No, no, fuck no! My family cannot know you exist, okay? Look, I can't... I can't deal with this right now. Fucking hell, I summoned a -- " My voice was getting too loud. Even on the floor below Dad and Cassie, I couldn't risk them overhearing. "I summoned a demon last night," I whispered, "and now magic is real and there's a demon in my room and I'm going to be fired from work and -- "

"And you haven't even lost your virginity yet," Rosmerta said sympathetically.

So help me, I turned red. "How do you know that?"

"The summoning spell requires a virgin's semen, so it's not a crazy deduction to make. Plus," and here she looked at me with almost frightening hunger, "you smell so damn delicious."

Gulp. Where was I? "Do... look, this is amazing, okay? But I need time, space, I need..." An idea came to me. "Look, I've summoned you once. If I... if I unsummon you, I could do it again, right?" It would certainly be convenient if I could make her go away until I had some spare time to actually sort this out, although getting all the right ingredients together at another full moon would be a pain in the ass. Distracted as I was by the difficulty another summoning would pose for me, it took me a second to wonder about the difficulty for her. "Wait -- wait! If I unsummon you, you'd be back in Hell? Would that be, uh, bad for you? Painful?" Fuck, I was an idiot. Most of my arcane knowledge came from Hellsing episodes and cheap horror flicks. If I banished Rosmerta until the next full moon, would she be forced to spend a month recreating one of the bad Hellraiser sequels?

"Is that a joke? No, of course not -- don't be silly, master." Her voice had certainly lost its bubbly tone, however, and her next words were quiet. Hurt? "I can return to the Umbra, if that is what you desire."

"I don't, uh, actually know," I sighed. Not only could I drive away human women, I could make a succubus upset. "Fuck. I am not a morning person, I can't deal with this." I didn't even know what an 'Umbra' was.

Rosmerta sighed, folded her arms, slouched a little. That shouldn't have been sexy, but it was. "You want me to go away."

"Not - " No. No, I didn't want her to go away. My dick was still glaring at the ceiling, and even with the clothes between us she made it hard to think of anything other than naked flesh. "No, just for my shift. Unless you want to hide in the boot of my car all day."

She looked up at me, blinking. "You still desire my service, master?"

"What? Yeah, of course." I desired everything about her, that was the problem.

Rosmerta's voice was hopeful. "Then I may remain within the Fundament, by your side?"

I took a deep breath. "Um, Rosmerta, I should probably tell you: I've kind of lost track. Assume that I'm an idiot who knows nothing about anything, and tell me why you don't want to go back to H- the Umbra."

Rosmerta frowned, blinked at me, and frowned again. "Because I would be separated from you," she said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

This was all too much for me. Here I thought succubi were all about the casual sex and damnation, and here was the most beautiful woman I'd ever seen talking like she was confessing her love for me, and top of it all -- 

"Eric!" came Dad's voice from outside my room, on this level, approaching my door. Shit. "Sun's up, it's a beautiful morning, and your gainful employment awaits you!"

My heart hammered in my chest. The tableau in front of me was the perfect storm of being kicked out of home. Which would my dad find most offensive -- the strange girl wearing my clothes, me and my clearly visible erection, or the arcane paraphernalia scattered around the cardboard summoning circle on my floor? I shushed the succubus with a finger to my lips while trying to sound casual. "I'm very much awake, Dad!"

"There's coffee if you need it," he said from right outside my door.

"I'll come up and get it! Five minutes!"

There was a grunt of assent, and then his footsteps thumped back down the hall. I could barely hear them over my own heartbeat, and I stayed silent until I heard him climb the stairs.

"You have a caring father," Rosie said quietly.

I did, and that would make it damn near impossible to hide the fact that I was a bloody demon-summoner. Except... "He's going away for work after the weekend," I said. "FIFO -- um, you wouldn't know what that is, but I won't need to worry about hiding you for a bit, Cassie never comes down here. Um, Cassie's my sister. Fuck. That just leaves work." I pushed my hair back. Was I seriously considering this?

Rosmerta knew I was, and she was unable to hide her joy. Her smile, crinkling the freckles around her nose and shining out of her enchanting eyes, made my decision for me. "You'll let me stay?"

"Um... Fuck, maybe. I really, really want you to, you have no idea."

She tipped her head towards my groin. "Perhaps some."

Conscious of how ridiculous it was, I turned around a little to try and hide my erection, as the dressing gown clearly wasn't cutting it. "Uh, sorry, I -- Rosmerta, I have to work this shift. It's a really short one, only five hours, but I need to work it, and I don't think I can leave you here in the house until I get back." She looked at me expectantly so I continued. "And I can't really take you to work at McDonald's with me."

"I'd be a good girl," she said with a smile. "I'll even wear a leash if you want."

Gah! No wonder it was so hard to think, with three-quarters of my blood pooling between my knees and navel. "That's -- okay, at the very least I need to leave for work, otherwise Dad really will come in here. I need to have a shower. Can you stay here and not, um, make loud noises or corrupt anyone's soul?"

The succubus rolled her eyes at me. Ever the optimist, I took that as assent. On my way to the door I almost kicked over another one of the candles from last night's spell, and a thought struck me. "How did you get out of the summoning circle, by the way?"

Rosmerta looked utterly perplexed by my asking the question, but she answered gamely enough. "The candles are part of the warding locus, master. You knocked one over when your alarm clock went off."

"Right," I said. "You'll stay in my room though, right?"

"Why would I possibly want to leave?" she said, gesturing at the mess of dirty laundry, piled paperbacks and ad hoc occult tools. "It's palatial."

"Ha."

In the bathroom I opened up my dressing gown and looked down at my aggressively hard dick, still glistening with precum from the demon's handjob. I was going to need a cold shower. A very cold, very long shower.

The 'long' part wasn't practical, of course. Dad knew I was on shaky ground at McDonald's, and he wouldn't let me get fired if he could help it, so dawdling would not be tolerated. Plus, you know, I wasn't entirely comfortable with leaving a demon from Hell in my house unsupervised. Call me prejudiced.

The shower thus ended all too briefly, which left me struggling to zip up my uniform pants over my still semi-hard penis. My head was buzzing with visions of the succubus smiling up at me, the succubus stroking my dick, the succubus vanishing from thin air in a swirl of heat. A half-remembered dream of wings, tail and fangs, stark naked in the middle of my room. I almost walked into a wall on the way back to my room thinking of that image: Rosmerta, lying in the centre of that stupid cardboard pentagram, green eyes blazing up at me from a frame of scarlet hair and pink, pointed horns. The succubus. MY succubus. My hands felt clammy when I opened the door to re-enter my room.

Rosmerta was sitting daintily at my desk, poking at my computer keyboard with one finger. She hadn't managed to get it off the desktop, but her face shone with glee nonetheless. "So this is where the internet comes from," she said. "I don't know to browse it with this machine, though."

Still lost in her smile, it took me a moment to think of an appropriate response. "Uhm. Wait, you have internet in Hell?"

"Duh."

"But not keyboards?"

"That's what this is," she said, picking up mine with a scientific curiosity. "I was never quite sure what the word referred to."

This was why I'd wanted a bit more time to adjust to the whole 'demons exist' thing.

It only took me a few more minutes to gather all my stuff from around my room. Breakfast was a wash, but I could sneak a nugget or two at work to get me through. Rosmerta followed my orders gamely enough, turning off the computer and sneaking out the side door ahead of me as I loudly farewelled my family. She even kept her oohs and aahs nonvocal when getting into my car, although she gave a tiny happy squeak when I accelerated out of the driveway and onto the street. That had to be the first time my shitty Toyota Corolla had ever impressed anyone.

"I guess you don't have cars in Hell either," I said.

"None in my realm," she said. "I've seen them on the internet, and when I visited the 4th Circle of Avarice, but it's still exciting to finally ride in one."

Well, that was another dozen questions I could ask her. Even more distracting was when I looked over to see her stretching out, getting comfortable in the passenger seat. Her motion stretched her bust, warping the logo of my t-shirt. That, plus the expression of quiet pleasure on her elfin face and the unmistakeable points of her nipples against the fabric made it very hard to notice anything else.

I noticed the red traffic light approaching, but just barely.

***

"So, my master," the demon said by way of conversation, "what should I call you in public?"

In public. I gulped. "Um?"

"Obviously we can stick with 'master', but that might invite some awkward questions. Same goes for 'wizard', 'lord', 'arch-stud', and 'cock that I long for'," she said, deadpan. Then she punched me lightly in the shoulder. "I'm asking for your name, dummy."

"Oh my -- " I hadn't even told her my name. Man, I was just awful with women. "Eric. Eric Cooper."

"Pleasure to meet you, Eric," she said, and her tone made it clear that pleasure was at the forefront of her mind. "You gave that out a bit quickly, by the way; you should be more careful in the future. Names have power."


Malcubus Ch. 01: Cherry



"Right. For magical spells. Still getting my head around that." I looked at the road for a while, playing the responsible driver, before speaking again. "That wasn't a threat, was it? You're not going to, I don't know, invoke my full name to steal my soul?"

She giggled. "Your s- you've got a funny sense of humour, master."

"I do?"

"I certainly hope so, or you're even more out of your depth than I thought, which is just adorable." She stroked my arm affectionately. "Of all the demons of every vice, I'm about the only one you don't have to keep a watchful eye on. Speaking of which, have you decided what you're going to do with me today?"

I had not. Looking back it seems ridiculous that I was going to work that morning. Sure, I needed my job, but my life's script had just been flipped so hard it rewrote itself to be nothing but sex scenes. Compared to the enchanting, terrifying and relentlessly sexual creature in my passenger seat, minimum wage labour should have been even less tempting than usual. I guess that was my problem -- temptation. I don't think I was afraid for my soul or anything, but change is scary. I wanted to keep up the pretence of normality for just a few more hours, perhaps, before losing that crutch forever.

"I'm not sure, and I think it depends," I said, "on how well you can blend in."

"Oh, I understand the value of discretion," she winked, squeezing her breast blatantly.

"You see, that's what I'm talking about," I said. "You know what a computer is and you talk like, well, you don't even have an accent... but you've never been in a car and I don't even know for sure whether you understand the nudity taboo."

"Calm down, master."

"Look, I just want to know whether I can leave you at the library for a few hours without you, I don't know, seducing a priest or eviscerating a toddler or holding a black mass in honour of -- "

"Pull over, master," she whispered, slipping an arm around my shoulders. The gesture was almost as comforting as it was terrifying. When I found a park along the side of the road she pressed up against me in a hug, head pressed against my side, a gesture as tender as it was chaste. My boner still strained against the seatbelt.

"There's nothing to be worried about," she said quietly, soft against me. "I'm bound to you, Eric: always and forever. I'm here to serve you, to pleasure you, to be yours. You don't need to stress about me; because of me, you'll never need to stress again."

Her hair smelled like summer rain and peaches. "That's... that sounds nice, Rosmerta, it really does. But you are, well, a demon, aren't you?"

She kissed me on the shoulder, making me shiver. "I'm your demon, Eric. Now that you've bound me, that's more important."

"Does that mean you're not going to, um, kill anyone? Do anything demonic?"

She lifted her head up to lock eyes with me. It was like staring into the maw of a hurricane; this close, her eyes were things massive and majestic, more like a landscape than another person. "It means I hold your will, your nature, your desires above my own. And I'm pretty sure you're not a demon of Wrath," she said, tapping my nose, "so no massacres, don't worry." She backed off from me a little, keeping her arms around me affectionately. "Are you seriously asking if you can trust me?"

She was acting like we both knew something important, and I had no idea what it was. "Uh, I don't want to keep retreading the same ground, but... you are a demon." This was becoming as awkward as my last relationship.

Rosmerta looked befuddled, but clucked her tongue and moved past it. "Am I not being clear? I'm bound to you -- why would I ever do something that could cause you harm? I'll be your lover, your confidante, your doting servant, the instrument of your sin, your eager fuckslave -- "

I choked a little on my saliva.

"- but not your enemy." She leaned up towards me and pecked my stunned lips, then gave a grin bright enough to restart my stopped heart. "Feel better?"

Most parts of me did. Some parts of my logical mind were unconvinced, and my dick was about to commit mutiny and take command of my whole body, but overall I felt better. "Some. I..." The dashboard clock ticked forward another minute. "Shit, I guess I kind of have to take it or leave it, don't I? I'm gonna drop you at the mall across the road from my work. They've got a decent public library where I'd really prefer you to stay -- you can catch up on history, get someone to teach you how to use a computer..."

"That sounds great!" she said, clapping. "I've got so many questions about this century, but I didn't want to bore you with them."

"You wouldn't bore me -- but the library will be good, it'll be safe for you. And... here, I'll give you money for lunch."

Her face perked up further at the word 'lunch', but she waved away my wallet. "I'm not in the mood for mortal food, don't worry." She nodded down towards where my seatbelt trapped my groin. "I'm only hungry for one thing, and waiting will make it all the tastier."

Not sure how to deal with that, but with my heart soaring in my chest, I nodded and pulled back into traffic. The drive was only a few minutes longer, and I spent most of it giving Rosmerta guidelines for blending in at the sleepy public library. Clothes yes, loud questioning of strangers no, mentioning Hell or demons definitely no, that sort of thing. She seemed a bit bemused by the whole thing, reassuring me that she knew the basics norms of mortal society, although she wasn't particularly clear on how. Maybe Hell was one big mall.

I pulled up close to the entrance in the mall parking lot, looked over at 'my' succubus, and blew air out through my teeth.

"What?"

"Just... trying to trust you," I said. "I want to, I really -- you have no idea. But, hell, I have trouble trusting my tute buddies to do their share of the assignment."

Rosmerta looked at me with pursed lips for an uncomfortably long time, to the point where I felt like I should say something further just to break the awkward silence. Then she shook her head and smiled at me ruefully. "Fire and brimstone, Eric. You really didn't know what you were doing, did you?"

"You only just met me, so I'll warn you: I never know what I'm doing."

"Getting that impression. Alright, how about this?" she asked, bending down to the passenger seat foot well and coming back up holding a coil of thick chain bound in rubber. "Bike chain, right?"

"Yea- wait, you know what a bike chain is?" Was cycling a tool of the devil?

"Watch this," Rosmerta said, holding the chain up in front of her. The next few actions took place very quickly, before any of it could really sink in. First she slid a fingernail along the green rubber coating, slicing through it and pulling it away in one motion. She reached in to grab two of the links in the chain that she'd revealed, holding them daintily with just two fingers each. And then her wrists just twitched and there was a hard smack like a cricket bat connecting, and my bike chain was in two pieces.

Rosmerta shook the snapped link off and twirled a half-chain idly around her finger while smiling at me serenely. "Not to disparage your manly muscles, but if I wanted to run away and do whatever my will dictated, I could. It's not like you could stop me."

I was silent.

The demon put the chain pieces back in the foot well. "You can trust me or not, Eric, I'll serve you either way. But if you really doubt the strength of our bound, you shouldn't think you have any other hold over me."

After a few moments I swallowed. It took a couple of tries. "I think I get it. Either I believe you or I don't. If I believe you, fine and dandy. If I don't believe you... then I should just accept that you're free to do whatever you want."

"And look at how few hellfires I've lit since being summoned," she said cheerily. "You're my master, master; whether you believe it or not, I'm still gonna make your dreams come true." She nodded pointedly at the dash clock. "Now, can I go read about all the latest mortal shenanigans or not?"

Well, I was hardly about to keep her in the car with physical force, so I nodded. "I'll pick you up after my shift -- shit, they're probably gonna keep me late. Call it 4:30pm, I'll come in and get you at the library entrance. Okay?"

"I'm a big girl, daddy," she said huskily. "I promise I'll be good."

I wasn't sure if my libido could handle seeing her naughty. "Good. Please be... just don't get into too much trouble," I said.

It was almost awkward, waiting for her to go. She sat there looking at me for several seconds, judging and questioning and reassuring and wanting me with her eyes, and I was just wondering whether I should lean in for a hug or something when she bent over with pursed lips. The succubus didn't go for my cheek or even lips, though. Instead she bent all the way over and planted a hard kiss on the zipper of my work pants, pressing her lips against my bulge. "I'll miss you," she whispered with her head in my lap.

And then the door opened, and she was gone.

***

ROSMERTA

This mall serves a fairly small suburban community, and is thus modest: more grocery chains than clothing stores, and the hardware depot across the parking lot is almost as big as the whole mall complex itself. Nestled at one corner of the squat, block-ugly building is the public library. Inside, a few senior citizens browse the shelves, a mother shepherds her two school-dodging children towards the kid's section, and a couple of soul-crushingly bored public employees restock shelves. It's cold; fat air conditioning units hum and wheeze, and the air bites with a sterile chill.

The demon acts against this by her mere presence. The seat where she's read for the past two hours is warm to the touch, and the ambient temperature of her little nook has climbed up to 'comfortable'. 

Rosmerta, Spawn of the Flooded Flame and Resplendent Courtesan of the Palace of Scented Silk, has become quite comfortable indeed. Now, and only now, her mind begins to wander.

She has had much to process. The night spent meditating at the centre of her Master's summoning circle gave her time to become accustomed to the sensations of a physical body, from simple things like mass and inertia to stranger elements, such as a cardiovascular system. Self-reflection had diverted her from spending too much of the evening staring at her Master. Sleeping in a drooling bundle just outside the circle's wards, He certainly hadn't looked like an arch-mage or eschatological savant. He looked like, well, a dumb kid. And yet she felt His essence marking her very soul, binding them together as surely as sin itself. It was incredible, historic, terrifying -- and when He had awoken, Rosmerta's newborn life had become truly exciting.

She had not anticipated the intensity of her new body's sexual desire, for one thing. Lust really does feel different when filtered through Fundamental meat, as it turned out. This morning she had contained herself and comported herself with remarkable restraint, as far as a demon of Lust was capable of -- but not for much longer. He too is a virgin. Soon His labours will end, and he will return for her, and they will discover the joys of sin together. Simply thinking about it makes her wet.

The books are a comforting distraction, if an incomplete one. A demon can never be wholly ignorant of humanity, any more than a shadow can be independent of its caster or a text divorced from its author. That being true, however, there are many mortals doing many things, and all at such a fixed rate of time. In the twisted chronoscape of the Umbra, following a linear history is somewhere between boring and entirely futile. Now that she too is swept up in time's currents, it is amusing to see what new depths mankind has sunk to.

Amusing, but not quite enough so to occupy her for the whole of her Master's shift.

The Lust burning within her has distracting physical effects, inextricable from the mortal form she has taken. Her nipples remain hard, tingles fire down her thighs when she crosses and uncrosses her legs, and she can't help but reach inside the track pants to stroke herself every few minutes. A climax is impossible, of course, but it feels good nonetheless.

Not good enough; she needs more. She needs more, and her Master is not here to satisfy her, to fuel her, to fill her with sin until power flames in her soul. She wants it, she needs it, and she can get it nowhere else.

If Rosmerta wasn't so deeply bound to Eric Jared Cooper, she would be feeling pretty frustrated by him right now.

Soulbound or not, a demon of Lust is hardly a devoted monogamist. Although the library is fairly quiet at this time of day, with only the prohibitively old and prohibitively young in attendance, her eyes wander and find prey.

The boy and girl wearing library name tags around their necks are of an appropriate age. Both wearing mirrored expressions of dutiful boredom, the female sits behind the help desk while the male stocks shelves. After a moment's contemplation of the new feelings in her nethers, Rosmerta decides to test the limits of the soulbond and walks towards the male.

Anthony Cruz is 24 years old. He is not a regular employee of the library, but his mother (who is) has fallen ill and he is sufficiently directionless in life that he has no difficulty covering her shifts. He has taken worse jobs for less pay, but it is hardly demanding or stimulating work -- at least until the cute redhead who'd been reading in the corner walks up and says hello.

"Hi," he says back, stunned. Wearing a faded t-shirt and stained sweat pants, she is the most beautiful woman he has ever spoken to.

"Anthony, right?" Rosmerta says, waving. "Nametags are handy."

"Uh, um... yeah. I'm Anthony. Can I help you with anything?" He is off-kilter already, but her stare makes him even more uncomfortable. He feels like she's dissecting his every word, his every movement and facial expression.

"You're a pretty handsome guy, right Anthony?" Rosmerta asks. "I mean, you're not stunning or anything, but you've had girlfriends, right?"

He doesn't know what to say to that, and so says nothing for several seconds before stammering out "I guess."

Rosmerta purses her lips. "That's what I thought." And yet -- staring at his eyes, seeing the curve of modest muscles beneath his shirt, watching the bulge grow in his pants without his notice -- the succubus feels nothing in her soul. Certainly her arousal is undiminished, but neither does it grow. This man is merely another mortal, not a meal.

It was impossible to mistake the touch of soul-binding for anything else, but this confirms it even further.

"Are- do I know you?" he asks. And she is certainly standing quite close; she needs to smell him, after all. He does not smell anywhere near as delectable as her Master.

"Very unlikely," she says. "Do you mind if I -- " she reaches out and strokes his bicep, squeezing with scientific detachment. "Mm. Superior to Him from a technical perspective, but..." She shrugs and steps back before Anthony gropes her in return, or goes completely cross-eyed. "Sorry, Anthony. Any other life -- any other spell, really -- I'd have you, but it appears He's fiddled with my wiring. Probably unintentional, I don't think He would know how to do it, but maybe He really is just playing very dumb..."

Anthony cuts through the most confusing conversation of his life to act with genuine courage. "Am I crazier than you," he asks with desperately faked confidence, "or are you hitting on me?"

"I'm afraid I'll have to disappoint you there," the succubus says, and her apologetic smile is almost cute enough to make up for the heartbreak. "Are you going to be angry if I explicitly reject you?"

"I'm, um, mostly just really confused," he admits. He has only just noticed the small bumps atop the mad girl's bust, and most of his brainpower is thus diverted to the image of this woman without a bra.

"Don't worry about that, everyone up here is," she tells him. "Come on, I'd like your input for the next part." She turns and walks to the end of the aisle, and what can he do but follow her? He'd follow her into traffic at this rate. No bra, his brain mumbles.

Rosmerta stops at the mouth of the aisle and nods towards the help desk near the library's entrance. Right under a fat air conditioner shivers Anthony's co-worker, currently explaining return policies to an elderly man. She is young, brunette, and would be pretty (in a homely sort of way) if not for the acne along one cheek.

"What's her name?" Rosie asks, pointing. Although Anthony takes a moment to take stock and respond, the girl doesn't notice their staring.

"Uh, that's Makenzie. She, uh, this is her first job out of school," the man says.

"What do you think of her?"

"I'm sorry?"

"I know you're trying to look down my shirt, Anthony, and you're welcome to, but if you can't focus I'll leave you alone. What do you think of Makenzie?"

The man recovers with admirable speed. "...what do you mean, exactly? She works here with me. I don't know her that well."

"You think she's cute enough, right? Not unattractive? You would be willing to have sex with her?"

Anthony's jaw works up and down a few times. "Look, is this a prank?"

"I'm sorry?"

He takes a step back. "This is some sort of setup. I haven't done anything, okay? I was just doing my job and you come up here and, and ask me..."

"I think you would have sex with her," Rosmerta says, and turns back to gaze at the worker. "I would have sex with her," she notes distantly. "I'd gain no Lust from the act, not without His help... but I would enjoy it anyway. I wonder why I feel that way about her, and not you."

Anthony has no idea what is going on, and her mad words don't diminish his attraction to her, but he flushes bright red. Rosie notices after a moment and bites her lip apologetically. "I've offended you -- that wasn't my intention. Say, I've got a bit of time to kill -- I'll make it up to you."

Anthony, not daring to hope that he heard her correctly, nods vigorously.

Rosmerta jerks her thumb towards the help desk. "But, seriously. Are you at all attracted to Makenzie over there? Not asking you to propose or anything, just making sure my own tastes aren't completely out of the mainstream."

Anthony swallows a few times and once more does the courageous thing. "Really? Okay, look: sure. Makenzie's cute enough. I'm not saying anything, not saying I'd do anything, just that I'm not gonna, you know." He looks down at the floor. "Your tastes aren't out of... well, people love who they love, right?"

"I'm not meant to be able to do that," Rosmerta muses, "but who knows how deeply He's messed me up. Oh, right -- making it up to you. What if Makenzie wanted to fuck you?"

He blanches. "That's -- shit, this is a set-up. Who put you up to this? Come on, just tell me why you're doing this!"

"No-one, and because I'm bored. If I wasn't chatting with you I'd just be sitting in a puddle waiting for Him," she answers honestly. "Anthony, if Makenzie liked you and was open to being wined and dined, would you?"

"Um." He clenched and unclenched his fists. "If she was, and I didn't have to worry about this weird bullshit? Sure. I'm, uh, not so good with the wines, but..."

"Just an expression. Look, do you want me to put in a good word for you or not?"

"Oh god. No, please, don't say anything to her!" He steps forward to block her view of the help desk.

Rosmerta rolls her eyes. "You're just like Him, with the worrying. I'm not about to go up and say 'Anthony and I think your face would look nice with a dick fucking it' -- "

He snorts a laugh, accidentally, unconsciously. He doesn't know what's real anymore, real people don't talk like this. "Please don't -- don't do -- "




Malcubus Ch. 01: Cherry



"I'll just do what I was spawned to do. Your job is stand here and be cool."

"She is gonna kill me. Kill me forever."

"I won't even mention you! I won't hint at you!" The auburn-haired girl reached out and pushed him back into the aisle of books with surprising strength. "Just stand here and be cool, dude. That's your job. In half an hour or so, go up and chat to her. Maybe find an excuse to touch her, all friendly-like. Then ask her out for coffee or something. She'll say yes."

He looked at her sceptically. "You are so full of bullshit."

"Nobody up here has trust anymore. I'm telling you, she'll be hanging off your arm by tonight."

Anthony chuckles nervously, another reflex. "Who are you? Some sort of... fairy goddaughter? Cupid?"

"Nah, I'm the angel on your shoulder," Rosmerta says breezily. "Just hang out with the books for a bit, and then get friendly with Makenzie. Trust your guardian angel, Anthony."

"Holy shit. You aren't really an angel, are you? I'm going crazy."

"Not crazy, Anthony," Rosmerta says over her shoulder as she walks away. "Pretty naive, but that's half the fun of finally coming up here, isn't it?"

Anthony stares as the girl walks over to the help desk. Even with the ridiculous scenario (and probably awful consequences) playing out, he spends most of his brainpower staring at her ass. Who the hell can show off the tightness of their tushie while wearing track pants?

Angels, apparently.

The redhead leans over the desk to say hello to Makenzie, asking some question with an innocent expression. Within a few seconds his co-worker is smiling in a friendly manner and the two are chatting animatedly. Anthony can't hear anything properly from his position in the shelves, but he can clearly see when the redhead walks around behind the desk and stands beside Makenzie, still speaking amicably. His co-worker gets up, gesturing helpfully, perhaps offering to find or do something, and then hesitates, staring at the redhead's face. Makenzie is frozen, her smile slowly fading. The redhead steps in and embraces her in a hug, leaning into the crook of Makenzie's neck, then moves back with a friendly pat on the back. Makenzie seems dazed, sitting down gingerly as the redhead hops back out from behind the desk and walks away into the shelves of the library. Anthony wants to follow and question her, but he's distracted by Makenzie: still distracted-looking, staring blankly at her computer screen, ignorant of her silent audience. Soon enough she returns to normal activity, tapping away idly at her computer and helping a lady check out some books, but she does it all with a red flush to her cheeks and a distracted expression on her face.

Anthony cuts his observation short, belatedly trying to find the auburn-haired girl in the book stacks. Although it is a small library, he patrols it twice before realizing that she has left, and once more before accepting it. He thinks of all the things he could ask her, and that he never learnt her name.

Soon enough, however, he works up the courage to approach the help desk. Makenzie's eyes are half-lidded and she sits relaxed, so he thinks she might be falling asleep, but she jerks upright when she hears him beside her and presses her legs together tightly, scooting her chair under the desk and quickly putting both her hands atop the keyboard.

"Tony! Tony... everything okay?"

"Fine," he says. "I, uh, finished restocking T."

"You -- oh, um, yeah, that was what I... yeah." Makenzie's brow, he notices, has a few trace beads of sweat atop it. "Yeah, nice work."

"Are you okay, Makenzie?" he asks.

"Fine, why would you ask?" she says casually, then frowns. "Although, there was... I thought I saw this girl."

His heart races. "A girl? Did she say anything to you?"

Makenzie gazes off into the distance. "I don't think so, I..." Her absent gaze falls across Anthony and she closes her mouth, wriggling further upright in her chair as she looks up at him. To her, he looks tall, imposing, masculine. He's standing over her like he's her boss, after all, even though she's been working here far longer than him. "See, it all blurs together. That's what happens at this place, Tony."

"Lucky us," he says, and she feels that she is the lucky one. "I had a weird conversation myself, but I much prefer talking to you. You're normal."

"Not too normal, right? I know it's boring in here, but there's nothing to talk about. Nothing happens."

"Right. What do you do to entertain yourself, sitting at this desk all day?" Anthony asks. 

The question is innocent enough, but Makenzie blushes bright red and has to force herself not to glance down at her lap. "Um. Not much. Just sit. Mostly I don't entertain myself, and I do get bored. God, I want to do something exciting." She leans back a little, trying to suck in her miniscule gut, and wishes she didn't have acne across half her cheek. "I could really use some excitement in my life."

For the third time today, Anthony is brave. "Well, I can't promise excitement, but I was wondering if you wanted to..."

He gives her the usual soft pitch -- coffee, rather than a drink -- but instead of rebuffing him as expected, Makenzie's eyes light up. Within five minutes they've planned to make the most of their Friday night and find a bar. Within an hour she's actively flirting with him.

Within four hours his shift is done. Makenzie still has another two hours to go, but the library is almost empty, and she feels safe enough to slip a hand beneath her skirt once more.

***

You: Warren. Buddy. Gotta talk serious for a moment

0455 352 909: bad srs?

You: Not sure yet, but hope not.

0455 352 909: Shoot

You: You've dated two really clingy girls.

You: 2 questions. 1, does clingy doom the relationship from start? = never go near ever, or just a downside that can be balanced or managed?

0455 352 909: srs answer?

You: Pls

0455 352 909: Clingy's great while together if you like the girl/hanging out with girls in general

0455 352 909: Affection, constant sexting, etc. Plus after being apart, reunion sex = amazing.

0455 352 909: Let me know when I'm bragging

You: Q2, how soon did you know Ichiko was crazy clingy? Were there early warning signs? Crazy eyes?

0455 352 909: Wait. You haven't met a girl have u Eric?

You: ...there may be a girl.

0455 352 909: HA

0455 352 909: FUCK YES

0455 352 909: You have no idea how happy I am

0455 352 909: anyone we know?

You: No, and pls don't get excited. I don't know whether this will even be a thing

0455 352 909: It has to be a thing

You: 1: I refuse to get hopeful, it's really hard to believe this is happening

You: 2: Reasonable Eric is screaming that it would be a TERRIBLE idea to go after this girl

0455 352 909: DO IT FAGET

0455 352 909: but seriously do it

0455 352 909: if I survived Ichiko you can survive desperate girl

0455 352 909: NOTHING wrong with desperate chicks btw

You: I'm hesitating because she's almost certainly batshit insane by any normal human measure.

0455 352 909: all the more reason to go for it

You: Isn't the rule 'don't have sex with crazy chicks'

0455 352 909: no, it's 'always have sex with crazy chicks'

You: ...

0455 352 909: which of us has more experience with women, bro?

You: Point.

0455 352 909: srs talk

0455 352 909: crazy chicks are great. They give you tonnes of shit, but that keeps things exciting, and predictable comfortable relationships kill girlboners dead. YOU have to break up w/ crazy chicks

0455 352 909: point two for crazy chicks: sure, eventually you'll have to break up w/ them. But until then the sex is AMAZING

0455 352 909: srsly bro, crazy chicks are always best at sex.

You: In this case, I actually believe you.

You: Not sure how helpful this has been, I'm still pretty sure this is a terrible idea that will haunt me for all eternity

0455 352 909: as if you're gonna reject ANY non-landwhale girl. If you really want a no-go order I'd have to meet her

You: Not a good idea yet. Fuck. If I run into serious problems with this shit, you'll help me right?

0455 352 909: Bro. You'll be fine. And on the tiny chance shit goes shitty, I'll help you out. 

You: Thanks Warren. Here's hoping you don't come to regret saying that.

0455 352 909: sounds like you'll be doing any regretting first. Jks. Go for it bro. Every hole's a goal.

You: I think she'll be going after me.

***

"Hey, sexy," Rosmerta said as she approached.

I tried to act cool as I put my phone away, as if I hadn't been sneaking glances at the library entrance for the past fifteen minutes. "Uh, hi."

The demon looked none the worse for wear -- no obvious bloodstains or other-fluid-stains, hair still straight and shiny, the same perky expression she'd had when I'd dropped her off. She sidled up to me and slid a svelte arm around my side, familiar as anything. "Did you miss me?"

"What do you think?"

"I wouldn't presume to know your mind, Eric," she said with a flutter of her eyelashes. "But I know I missed you."

"Really?" I asked, gormlessly.

"Really," she insisted as we walked out to the car. She shifted into a whisper when we passed a woman pushing a shopping trolley. "I didn't realize what it would be like, with a body of flesh. The need... I'm so horny for you, master, I can't stand it."

That made walking a little less comfortable.

Rosmerta sniffed appreciatively as we reached the car park. "You don't smell like grease."

"I, uh, ducked into the gym to take a shower. How do you know what grease smells like, anyway? Does McDonalds have a franchise in, um, in the Umbra?"

"You have a gym membership, I know what grease smells like. We certainly are a well-rounded pair of individuals, aren't we?"

She hadn't answered my question, but by the time we spotted my car I'd come up with a better one. "Wait... 'body of flesh'. What did you mean? Is this the first time you've been summoned?"

Those entrancing eyes blinked at me like I'd just blown a long, loud raspberry. "Well, yes, of course. I can hardly wander about the Fundament in my original form; I developed this body upon your spell."

It was good that nobody was around, because this was getting weird. "This isn't what you really look like?"

Again with the desultory stare. "This is the real me, master -- well, technically my other form is the real me, but I think you see the resemblance." I recalled the half-remembered image of last night -- wings, horns, tail -- before she continued. "My Umbral form was similar in theme, I suppose, but it certainly lacked all the fluid this body produces."

"Okay, I think I get it. Being summoned was like a chrysalis. This is the real you, you just matured as of... shit, almost sixteen hours ago." We'd arrived at the car, and I felt a twinge of regret when Rosmerta parted from my side. I opened the doors. "Like demon puberty?"

"I suppose, although you're not going to have to worry about any monthly bleeding from me," she said, then looked at the ground shyly. "At least in general. I suppose technically I'm still a virgin."

My keys missed the ignition slot. I stared at her. "What?"

A cute blush spread across her face, making her freckles stand out.

"No, seriously, what?" It seemed almost ridiculous enough to laugh at. "You're a succubus! I thought all you did was, you know, have sex!"

"All I want to do is have sex," she said, "with you."

"You're really a virgin?"

"Not quite as much as you are," she said, regaining some confidence, "but functionally, yes. There is little Fundamental matter in the Umbra at all, let alone mortal males. Who would have deflowered me?"

No dudes in Hell? That was reassuring, but it was remarkably hard to focus on theological quandaries with a cute girl next to me talking about her hymen. "That's... um. Okay. You know, if I'm being objective, that's by far the least weird thing about this whole day."

"You're not disappointed?"

"What?" I reached out and took her hand. "Rosmerta, are you a complete idiot? Of course I'm... Look, you're amazing, and... Ah, shit." I squeezed her fingers. "Being completely honest, I'm actually kind of glad we get to lose it together."

She grinned at me evilly. "Trust me, my master: you have absolutely no idea."

My destination -- our destination, I supposed, if I was really going through with this -- lay several kilometres away. My beat-up Corolla was no-one's idea of a sweet ride, but driving always relaxed me nonetheless. Heading away from the city towards the less populous suburbs, there was little traffic.

The succubus played with the radio for a while, oohing and aahing at the various stations. Apparently there was plenty of mortal music in the Umbra, but nothing like this. When I asked her what was the most recent decade they played down below, she just shrugged.

"Surely you know what year it is when you're, I don't know, pirating mp3s off our internet or something?"

Rosmerta shook her head. "Time is different in the Umbra, if it truly exists there at all. We can scry upon the Fundament, but its years and dates are hard to comprehend, and to be honest, not particularly interesting. Mortals don't really change, after all."

"Different," I mused. "How do you mean?"

"How should I know?" She poked me gently below the ribs. "Maybe you summoned the wrong demon. Should have gone for a child of Envy, they're obsessed with you mortals."

"But you aren't?"

"I'm obsessed with one mortal," she grinned. Pulling open the waistband of her track pants, she slipped a finger out of my view. "Want to guess just how much?"

My eyes bugged at the sight of movement under the fabric, and I forced my gaze back to the road before we ploughed into the curb. "Bloody hell!"

"It's not either of those things, trust me."

"Fucking..." She'd turned the radio off, and I could hear her masturbating. The road was starting to curve up into the hills and I needed to play closer attention to it. Apparently that offended Rosmerta because she cleared her throat at me, then did so again when I kept my eyes ahead and my knuckles white on the wheel.

"A-hem. Pit take you, Eric, this isn't as much fun if you don't look at me."

"I'm trying to -- " I made the mistake of turning around, and the lazy grin stretched across her lips was almost as alluring as the knowledge of just what she was doing with her hand. "C-can you please stop that?" I stuttered.

"Why?" she asked innocently. "I've been waiting for you all day, and now you expect me to just sit here staring at you and not touch myself?"

I slowed down to reduce the likelihood of dying horribly on the next few turns. There was no-one immediately behind us, thankfully, because when Rosmerta gave a gentle sigh of pleasure I almost took out a speed limit sign.

"Fuck, stop it, you crazy bitch!" Profanity slipped out as my heart rate spiked.

"Ohh," she sighed, "call me that again."

"Rosmerta!" I begged, "I know you're horny, but I am hornier."

"Doubt it."

"Seriously, this is obscene, and I need to be able to focus to drive safely. You know that comes with a 'body of flesh', right? Injury? Dying?"

"I'd rather the little death... Fine. We'd better reach wherever you're taking us soon, though." She straightened up in her seat and slid her hand back out of her pants. Although I was trying hard to be a responsible road user, I couldn't help but notice the faint sheen of moisture upon her index and middle fingers. I gulped even harder when she raised them to her pink lips.

She noticed my furtive glances. "Oh, sorry, I'm being rude," she said. "Do you want a taste?"

Her fingers were waving under my nose before I can react, and I could smell them, smell her. It was a vital odour, not pungent or fishy like people say, but very much organic. Like the sweat across your own shoulders after a light workout, like an unidentifiable whiff from a restaurant across the street. Like fruit and fire.

I knew that if I let that finger enter my mouth, we wouldn't be driving anywhere further tonight.

Shaking my head furiously, I let go of the wheel with one hand to push her away. "No," I said as firmly as possible. "We're getting where we're going, Rosie. No more temptation until then."

Although I was trying to not have any peripheral vision whatsoever, I heard her snort. "Fine. But I'm not letting this go to waste."

I heard a wet sound, soft in both texture and volume. The tight jeans I'd changed into after work were causing me serious discomfort.

After a while Rosmerta spoke, and her voice had mercifully lost its husky, seductive tone. Now she sounded genuine, girly, and perhaps touched. "You... called me 'Rosie'."

"Uh, yeah, I just... It's an abbreviation. Most people do that, with names, this century. I can - "

"I like it."

My ears popped. I kept driving.

As the setting sun started casting its light through rather than over the trees, I told 'Rosie' where we were going.

Going back to the house with the succubus was ill-advised at this time of day. Both Carrie and my dad would be home soon and the risk of them noticing my companion was too great. That left precious few places, however, that we could go to be alone and to... to do whatever the hell it was I was getting myself into. A shitty motel, while affordable, certainly didn't seem appropriate for what was about to happen.

And if I'd completely misread the spell instructions and this was the last big mistake of my life, well, I wouldn't mind dying somewhere nice.

The lookout was a small one, ten minutes down dirt roads from the larger lookout that got most of the sightseers. This one, a simple semi-circle of cleared grass among the trees clinging to the mountainside, had less glare at this time of day... and we were unlikely to be interrupted.

"Back before my mum left," I said, "we used to live near the foot of the mountains. It was pretty far from the city, but nice, you know? I'd bully Dad into taking Warren and I up here some weekends -- there's rainforest, and there are some waterfalls and stuff that you can swim in."

"It sounds lovely. Could you take me there, someday?"

I was a little surprised by the request, but thinking about it made me feel happy rather than merely horny. "Uh, sure," I said. "I think I'd like that."

She nodded towards the lookout clearing, just visible down a thin path from the roadside where we'd parked. "Is this the place?"

"Yeah."

"Looks like we've got it all to ourselves."

"Uh, yeah," I said nervously.

Rosie patted me on the shoulder sympathetically, then smiled. "Come on, I'll race you!" She was out of the car and down the path before I could say anything.

Slowly, I got out of the car. Deep breaths, Eric. Grabbing the picnic blanket and a pillow from the boot, I started away from the road and down the path, a big knot of energy untangling itself in my stomach. Maybe it was untangling lower down as well. This was all I'd been thinking about all day.

A magpie crowed in the trees above me, bringing me back into reality. Framed by the sloping rainforest on either side, I could see half the city coloured amber by the setting sun behind me. I could see the hilly clump of buildings where I worked, and the reservoir near where I'd gone to school. I could see the shadows lengthening as afternoon waned to twilight.

And I could see her.

Rosmerta had stripped off my sandshoes and squatted barefoot in the grass, gazing around her in wonder. One hand clenched in the thick, wild grass, and the other held a magpie feather like it was a made of sterling silver. She spoke without looking back at me. "It's beautiful," she said without looking back at me.

Nervous energy roiling in my stomach, I spread out the picnic blanket beside her. "No trees in the Umbra?"




Malcubus Ch. 01: Cherry



"Not like this. Not with -- just not like this," she said. When she noticed me standing awkwardly beside her she cracked a grin. "Sorry. Can't believe I actually got distracted for a second." She hopped up to her feet, childlike nature-watching forgotten, and stood with slanted hips. "It's impressive, but it's not you. Fuck, master, you've kept me waiting so long. I need it so bad."

"Just -- just wait," I said, my voice a little rough with nerves. "I wanted to talk with you before -- I just want to talk."

"Oh, we'll talk," she said. "You even brought the pillow. But that's for after."

"Rosie -- Rosmerta, just listen -- "

She ran a finger down the neckline of her t-shirt and it ripped like it had been cut with a razor. She stopped just before her breasts spilled out. What she revealed was almost more tantalizing: pale cleavage dashed with a few faint freckles, with lines of green runes curving down around her breasts towards her navel. My objections collided in my mouth.

The succubus's yearning expression eased for a moment as she gazed at my face. "You're afraid." She seemed surprised but not offended.

"I, uh, hate to keep retreading this ground," I said, "but you are a demon."

"So they tell me." A car passed by on the dirt road, out of view, and quickly fading from earshot. Rosmerta asked seriously: "Eric, when I call you 'master', what do you think I mean?"

"Um. Well, I know it kind of turns me on..."

"Duh."

"...and I summoned you. Bound you to follow my will and, uh, 'aid me in my endeavours'." It was hard to remember all the details from that damn parchment; it was amazing I'd gotten the ritual correct at all. "So you call me master."

The demon nodded. "All true, of course, but that's only a tiny portion of it. Eric, I've been in the Fundament for over sixteen hours now. Have you seen me drink anything?"

"Uh... no?"

"My body isn't like yours," she said, "but it does need fuel to survive. It needs sin. It needs Lust."

"Lust?"

"Your lust, Eric. I need it. I need you." She patted her belly, making the torn t-shirt flutter tantalizingly about. "That's the most binding component of the spell: I can only reap the Lust of mortals through you. And I need the Lust of mortals to survive."

This was some heavy stuff. If she was saying what I thought she was saying, then... "What about in the Umbra? I thought there weren't any mortals there?"

"I did say that. I also said that I did not have a material body down there. Now the Fundament wears upon me, and it will crush me if you do not share your mortal vigour -- your sin."

Although her expression was deadly serious, her words rang a little melodramatic. When you took things down to surface appearances, we were two teenagers standing in a picturesque clearing, talking about dying of supernatural starvation. "It's a little hard to believe," I said. "I mean, I wank a lot, and my stuff's never seemed particularly potent or, or 'sinful' before."

Rosie sighed. "I didn't think I'd need to explain this to you of all people, but... you know what my bond to you means, don't you? My body is just the start. You will command all my power, and I'll use it in your service."

She'd taken another step or two without my notice, and her almost-bare chest was terrifyingly close. "All the kingdoms of the world, and heaven too?" I asked. My voice was a little dry.

"I can't offer quite that much," she said with a tinkling laugh that made my heart ache. "But you'll be my king, and I will change your life. Plus, I don't demand your worship. Only your lust."

She was standing so close to me, her tempest eyes sucking me down. I wanted to lose myself in her depths, to stop thinking and give in to what I'd wanted since the moment she'd appeared in the summoning circle. Only the last remnants of fear made me speak. "What if you're lying?"

Rosie looked truly sad at my continuing doubt, and the pall across her elfin features made me want to take her in my arms right then. Holding out took all of my strength. She thought about my question for a few moments, staring at the ground, before answering.

"If I was lying to you... if I could lie to you..." She looked up at me with sudden intensity. "Then I would not be bound, and never was. You would have no power over me, except that which I let you believe you held."

Ah. Fear was making a potent resurgence now, especially when she took one more step forward and ran a gentle finger down my chest. My shirt didn't rip, but I got the feeling all it would take was a flick of her wrist.

"If I was not yours, Eric? If I wanted you this badly, but had no respect for your will, your wishes, your future..." Her finger went down past my navel before withdrawing, teasing me. "Then I'd throw you to the ground and rape you util you lost consciousness," Rosmerta said. Her voice was quiet and emotionless. "Once you awoke I'd fuck you again, and again, until you were screaming from the pain and you couldn't get hard to save your life. Then... then I'd have to get creative."

I was seriously considering running when Rosmerta dropped to her knees.

"But I'm not lying. Your will is mine to serve. My body is yours. And right now," she looked up at me with a crooked smile, "your slave is begging you to fuck her. Pretty, pretty please."

There was no decision to make. My head was nodding before my brain could put a coherent thought together.

Still on her knees on the grass, Rosie giggled in excitement. "Fire and brimstone, yes. Alright: how do you want me?"

"I -- I, uh..."

She snapped her fingers up at my face. "Like this? Or in my demonic form? It's up to you."

Trying to focus on her spoken questions was like trying to guide the direction of a dream. "You said... you said that your other form was more, uh, true. That it was more like the real you."

"I would be equally happy to remain -- "

"Rosie," I said, kneeling down to touch her cheek with my hand. God, it felt awkward, but it also felt right. "This is our virginity we're talking about it. I want you to be you."

Her cheek moved under my fingers as she smiled again. "You're a romantic, Eric. I'm so glad you bound me." She gently removed my hand. "Your wish is my command."

There was a blurring heat haze accompanied by a waft of brimstone. Even expecting some sort of magical effect, I staggered backwards a couple of steps.

Rosmerta was kneeling just beside the picnic blanket, eyes closed as the last of the heat haze faded. Whispers of wood-smoke rose from the grass in a circle around her. She blinked and looked up at me. "Wish granted, master."

Rosie looked different.

The original summoning was indistinct memory, but now that I was once again looking at her true form, I couldn't imagine how I could ever forget the sight. In my room this morning she'd been a petite little girl with auburn hair and cute freckles; beautiful, sexy, stunning, but still NORMAL, for whatever value that word retained. The thing in front of me still resembled that girl, but some things had changed pretty drastically.

She was bigger. Her skinny teenage frame had been poured into a Venusian hourglass, and even kneeling she was obviously a full head taller than 'human Rosie'. Auburn hair had become fiery scarlet, and flowed in straight sheets over her shoulders down her back, almost touching the ground. A few locks had fallen in front of her, concealing her nipples while making it nigh-impossible to look away from her cavernous cleavage. I managed it, but only because my eyes were drawn down towards her tattoos. The pale green runes, traced in curving letters of some ancient inhuman alphabet, wrapped around her body like vines. They only accentuated her curves, and seemed to direct my gaze downwards to where her clasped hands concealed her sex. She saw me looking and smiled. Plump pink lips sat perfectly on a face so pale it almost hurt to look at. Her eyes had become a brilliant green even more hypnotic than her tattoos, entrancing and bewitching and brighter than the bloody Garden of Eden in summer. I swayed, looking into her smiling eyes.

Oh, yeah, and she was a demon. 

Big pink wings were furled behind her back, folded between ruby 'fingers' like a bat's. A spade-tipped tail curled around her kneeling legs, across her lap, and flicked lazily back and forth. And she had horns, great twisting horns like an antelopes, horns the pink of a desert at sunset stretching up from her scarlet hair.

Once a minute of gobsmacked silence had gone by, she spoke. "I can go back to my human form, if you'd like."

"Uh - what? No," I shook my head. "No, this is... You're... Wow."

She giggled. I melted. "I'm afraid you have me at a disadvantage, master. I'm on display for you to see, while you're still sinfully fully-dressed."

I cleared my throat. "Ah. So, uh... what happens next?"

Rosmerta raised an eyebrow. "I thought we might go fly-fishing."

"Ugh." My knees were weak. Why were my knees so weak? "And you won't steal my soul?"

"Scout's honour," she said with crossed fingers. Her other hand remained in her lap, concealing. "And a bound demon's word, which is honestly more reliable. We covered this."

"I know, I know, I... Fuck, I'm an idiot for it, but I do trust you." I trailed off, staring at her form. Even with the inhuman wings and horns, she was a thousand times hotter than any woman I'd seen before.

She put her hand back in her lap and sat there on her knees. I could feel those green eyes looking at me as I studied the dirt between my shoes.

"You're stalling, Eric," she said.

"Yeah."

"Are you still scared of me?"

"It's not - it's not the horns, or the wings, or that," I stammered.

"You sure? Really, I can go back to - "

"No, I - Actually, I... find them kind of... hot," I managed.

"Aww, you're blushing - right, not helping, sorry master."

I folded my arms, hugging them against myself. "It's just... I'm not exactly a..." I shrugged helplessly. "I'm just a bit new to all of this." 

"Hey, so am I, and I'm a sex demon. Let's both do something about it," she said.

I was definitely blushing now. Some kids get cold feet when asking a girl out, or when trying to cop a feel. I was getting cold feet in front of a wet-dream succubus who had practically thrown herself at me. I rubbed my forehead and tried not to look at the vision. "But what if I'm not, you know..."

"What?"

"You know. Not, not good enough."

The horned demon before me rolled her eyes. "Master, if sex is a meal, a virgin's first time is a five-course feast. One I, again, physically need to survive." She winked up at me, and it was like the human girl was at the foot of my bed all over again, jerking me off and waking me up to a new life. "That's right, Eric. If you don't fuck me right now, I will literally die."

I coughed out a little laugh. "I should try that line in bars."

Perfect white teeth glinted in the sunset light as Rosie smiled. Gradually, gracefully, she rose to her feet. Her legs never even parted - she simply rocked back on the balls of her feet and unfolded herself, from standing to kneeling in a few seconds. I could see the muscles flexing in her creamy thighs, her wings pulling further back behind her to counterbalance, her half-concealed breasts swaying slightly as she rose. She giggled when she'd finished showing off.

"Your mouth's open, stud."

"Uh - " Her hands were still clasped in front of her groin, and her hair covered the tips of her breasts. She was technically PG13, and I felt one movement away from coming in my pants. "Sorry."

"Don't be. A girl takes it as a compliment," she smiled. A perfect calf stretched out and she took a step towards me, one and two, out of the circle of burned grass. She was a metre away from me then, arm's length. Standing, she was the exact same height as me, and I'm a gangly 6'3". Rosmerta wasn't gangly. She was smooth, and curved, and so soft in the deepening shadows.

My mouth started moving, unbidden. "We, uh, we could go back to the car if you - "

"Sshh," she said, placing a finger against my lips. Keeping her groin covered, she reached up to her hair and flicked first one, then the other carmine tress behind her shoulders, off her tattoo-framed breasts. I blinked. I couldn't look up from the pink buds of her nipples.

"I've unwrapped your presents, Eric," she whispered. "Aren't you going to play with them?" Her hand took mine, and gently drew it to her breasts.

I'd felt breasts before, when I was going out with Moira. That was awkward and hurried and always through her top, but it was still one of the highlights of my life so far. Compared to this, it was... At that moment, I couldn't have remembered my ex's name if I'd tried.

Rosmerta's wings flared behind her as I caressed her breasts. The latter were firm and heavy, but pliable enough that my fingers almost vanished in her creamy flesh. She made a noise at the back of her throat, a happy hum.

"That's it, just like that," she whispered. "Feel me up. Feel my tits."

"Your, uh..."

"Oh, they're tits, Eric. You don't need to call sexy fucking things like these 'breasts'; they're my tits, and now they're yours as well." She smirked. "Enjoy them."

Both hands on the wheel, I squeezed a little harder and watched the wobble travel up and down her cleavage. I wanted - I'm not sure what I wanted. I wanted a lot of things. Shelving all thoughts for the moment, I took my thumb and brushed her right nipple. Her eyelids fluttered at that, so I started rubbing around her pink peaks.

"A little harder, please, Eric," she said. Her breath was hot against my face, her green eyes filling my vision. "And while you're at it... Do like the lobster says and kiss the girl."

I thought, they get Disney in hell? Then Rosie's lips pressed against mine, and I wasn't thinking anymore.

The world was spinning. Her lips were so soft, so moist, pressing and moving against mine, retreating by the tiniest fraction only to massage against them again. Her hand came up to cradle my cheek, then her lips parted and her breath was in my mouth, her tongue-tip was touching mine, and all the while her breasts swayed in my hands and I swayed on my feet and there was nothing but breath and warmth and woman. Fire burned in my groin. I was making noises, but I couldn't hear them.

Rosie came up for air, eyes sparkling. "Not so scary now, am I?" Her wings cast long shadows behind her as she kissed my cheek, then again, kissing back towards my lips. "Pinch my nipples a little," she breathed as her tongue slipped back in my mouth. She cooed when I did so, and cooed again in joy when I pressed my tongue forward into her mouth. Her saliva was so warm, fresh, almost sweet; it almost tingled against my tongue. I squeezed her nipples again and she shuddered; worried I'd hurt her, I tried to pull back, but her hand kept my head pressed against hers, and she grunted into my mouth. "Mgh."

"Hnh?"

"More."

I don't know how long we kissed. I felt something wrap around the small of my back, then started then I realized it wasn't her hand - I'd almost tripped over before I realized it was her tail, wrapping around me lovingly. Rosie tried to apologize, offering again to return to human form; I silenced her by sticking my tongue in her mouth until both of us were panting through our noses.

"Stop," I gasped eventually, taking a step back. "I need - just a second..." I was burning. My dick was still trapped beneath the zipper of my jeans, rubbing against my boxers every time I twitched, and I couldn't allow this to end so soon. This could never end.

"Oh, don't be silly, master," Rosie said. "Succubi don't stop."

She folded herself down to her knees again, and once her lower body was out of my field of vision she reached up with both hands and freed me from my jeans quicker than I could have done myself. My cock sprang up past the elastic of my boxers, japs eye winking at Rosie's nose.

"Well, hello again," she giggled.

"No, wait, Rosie - "

"You're very polite, Eric," she said as her fingers pitter-pattered up my shaft. "You kissed me first like a real gentlemen, but you're clearly in desperate need of relief, and you only had to ask."

I groaned. "Gonna cum..."

"That's the idea," she grinned. Her hand tightened around my shaft. She flicked the tip of it with her tongue, parted her lips, and took me into her mouth.

My balls contracted almost as soon as her wet mouth engulfed me, and I staggered over, putting a hand on her shoulder for support as I came. Her cheeks tightened around my cockhead and she sucked, sucked the seed out of me, tongue dancing on my prick. Sensations blurred together. My eyes rolled back a bit.

She kept sucking even when my hips had stopped jerking, just hard enough to keep me twitching, keep me from tracking the time. Eventually my balls started to lower again, my cock started to soften, and she released me from her mouth with an audible 'plop'.

I was burning again, but this time it was with shame rather than pleasure. I tried not to curse, or even to cry like a complete pussy. "Rosmerta... Rosie, I'm sorry."

Her eyes were closed as she swallowed, a beatific smile on her face. When she opened them, she saw my expression. "Sor- oh, master, don't be ridiculous! Advice from a girl to a man: never apologize for anything. And from a succubus to her master... Never, ever apologize for giving me a thick, hot load. For sin's sake, Eric, you taste amazing."

I swallowed, my throat rough. Already my penis was tilting down towards the horizontal, right next to her perfect face. "Sorry, I'm just... didn't want it to end."

She giggled at me, eyes flickering, her horns catching the last of the fading daylight. They were a rich pink, as beautiful as they were inhuman. "Master, you think you're getting away from me after one load? What am I," she muttered as she took hold of my cock again, "an amateur?"

She smiled as she swirled her tongue around my still-wet cockhead for a moment, before drawing me back into her mouth. Coming down from the orgasm I was sensitive and softening, so she was gentle. She bathed me in her mouth rather than sucking, lapping around the edges of my glans with her tongue, humming a nameless tune. I could feel the vibrations right through my body; her tail moved again, wrapping around my leg.

I moaned. "That's - that's amazing, Rosie, but I don't think I can - "

She took her left hand off the base of my cock for a moment to raise a finger, shushing me. Then she went back to her ministrations. A blissful minute passed before she pulled off me, regarding my dick with a clinical eye. "That should do," she said.

I wasn't so sure. She'd halted my softening, but my dick was still barely above horizontal and I didn't feel much of the burning lust I had just a minute before. I felt happy, relaxed, satisfied, but not lustful. I was about to tell her so when she approached my cock from the side, opened her mouth, and bit me.

"Agh!" I yelped, more from surprise than pain. She retreated; I couldn't see any blood, just a pinkish patch by the big vein.

"What was that?" I asked.

"Just a little pick-me-up," she said and smiled wide, showing me her teeth. For a moment, I could have sworn her canines were long and needle-pointed.

For a moment she just massaged my legs with thighs and tail, and I didn't feel much. I felt the evening breeze on my bare ass, I saw lights come on across the city spread out before us. Then it hit. Warmth spread through my groin, to my balls, filling and heating up my dick. I saw it rise in a matter of seconds, swinging up until it was pointed at Rosie's face like a drawn sword. And I felt the hunger, the need, the burning urge to fuck and fuck and lose myself in this woman.

"Fuck," I mumbled.




Malcubus Ch. 01: Cherry



"Fuck?" she asked with raised eyebrows.

"Fuck!" I cursed, and wrapped a hand around one of her horns. It was warm to the touch and slightly soft, like her scalp. I used it as a lever, guiding her face back onto my cock. She dived onto me with an appreciative moan.

I ran my other hand through her hair, closing my eyes as she worked. Her lips formed a tight seal around my cock, her cheeks hollowed out as she sucked. Then, millimetre by millimetre, she lowered her head, humming that nameless tune as she did so. Her hands were pulling me into her mouth, her tail wrapped around my leg. I moaned. Her nose pressed against my belly, and deep inside paradise, my cockhead pressed against the tight circle of her throat. Her humming cut off as I pulled forward on her horns, feeling my very tip seal her throat. I started moving her head by the horns, pushing her back enough for her to suck in air through her nostrils, then pulling her down again. As her cheeks and throat massaged my shaft, her tongue licked around the underside and then wrapped around it like a snake.

After a few minutes of deep, hard bobbing, I let go of her horns. She gave my shaft a gentle bite on her way back up - her incisors, not her fangs, just teasing - and finally came off my dick with a gasp. Saliva speckled her chin, and a string of drool still joined her mouth to my dick. She wiped it away with a giggle.

"That was alright?" I asked. My voice sounded wrong, croaky, deep.

"Definitely," she said with relish. "I'm wetter than Jonah... And I think you're ready too, Mr One-And-Done. What do you say?" she asked, planting a sloppy kiss on the side of my dick. "Are you ready to lose your virginity?"

It was getting dark in the lookout, and a little chilly with it. I noticed that only in an intellectual sense when Rosie tore my shirt off like crepe paper.

When she stood up this time, she wasn't concealing herself. "Do you like my pussy, master?" she asked, faux-shy.

I stared. Tight and slim, her pink outer lips had parted slightly like a mouth, glistening with her arousal. It was the first vagina I'd ever seen in real life. It looked so wet.

Rosie snapped her fingers under my nose. "Focus, I'll let you taste it later. Lick me, explore me, figure out what makes me scream - right now, I'm fucking you."

I numbly reached out towards her, but her tail lashed forward and pushed my hand away. "Nu-uh," she shook her head, "this is your first time, and it should be special. Let me do the driving."

"Isn't it your first time too, technically?"

"Technically." She gave me a hungry grin. "But I was spawned to do this."

She helped me move the picnic blanket over to where an overhanging tree would keep the harshest of the sunset glare away The pillow went up against the tree's trunk; as far as impromptu seats went, it was as good as we were going to get. Planting a wet kiss on my forehead, the succubus gently pushed me down onto the blanket. She was above me, filling my world, sinking to her knees with her pussy over my waiting prick.

Rosmerta really was a vision of beauty. Her creamy skin like snow, those plush, pendulous breasts, the eyes that could catch you from across a busy street. My hands reached up to her soft thighs, and she didn't object. Instead she sat in my lap, the outer lips of her pussy pressing against the shaft of my cock. I gurgled something and she placed a finger on lips.

"Sshh, Eric. Let me do all the work. You can hold my hips if you want, or my tits, but the important thing is that you relax and feel me. Don't think about my pleasure, don't think about how soon you should cum, don't think at all. Just feel."

With that her wings unfurled behind her, catching in the branches above us and lifting her up. One of her hands was on my chest, stroking me tenderly; the other was on her hip, fingers entwined with mine. Her tail wound down between us, its spade tip catching my cock and pointing it up at her drooling pussy.

"Feel," she whispered, and lowered herself onto me.

The soft lips of her pussy slid down over me like silk. She took me into her tight warmth - so tight, tighter than her mouth, like a fist gripping my cock - and slowly descended my shaft. I realized I could feel her muscles gripping me inside, pulling me deeper into her in waves, sucking at my flesh hungrily. There was a moment when I felt an obstruction inside her, something my cock pressed hard against, and our eyes met. Perhaps she gave a soft, strained moan. Then I was through, and she was mine.

Her soft ass came down onto my thighs and her wings stretched taut. We cried out together. I bucked against her, hips shaking, and her fingers tightened in mine.

"Oh, master," she moaned, face raised to the sky as if in worship. From my position below her, it was her who looked like a goddess. I felt her quiver atop me, saw her stomach muscles ripple, felt the contractions around my cock as she shuddered. She came just from that first penetration, dousing my cock in warm juices. They dribbled out and ran through my pubic hair in little rivulets.

I bucked under her, full of need and fire and lust, but her hand was like a vice on my chest and her thighs kept my groin locked in place. Slowly, torturously slowly, she began to rise again, bouncing on my cock. Her vagina seemed to mourn every upstroke, lips clinging to me as her wings pulled her upwards. On each downstroke her tight slot seemed to clench me tighter.

I shook and shuddered and shouted. Time was nothing, there was only her, her and I joined at the hips. I want more of her, I wanted to be in her, I wanted to become her and her me. Rosmerta herself was lost to passion, her tail coiled painfully tight around my thigh, her hands up and clawing at her own tits, hard enough to leave red marks. I reached up to help, took hold with one hand, and twisted her nipple. She squealed hard enough to set birds crying out in the trees above us, and her pussy clamped down so hard I was afraid my dick would break off in her.

It was around then that I gave up on keeping my eyes open. She was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen, the most important sight I would ever know, but I could barely even hold on to her hips, let alone keep my head raised. I sank back and followed her command, feeling. Feeling her warmth. Feeling her tightness. Feeling her pleasure.

Whatever venom she'd injected me with had been amazing stuff, but even it couldn't hold back the flood forever. I felt the fire shoot up through my balls, and tried to warn her I was coming. It came out as a strangled "cmmhhnn!"

My balls contracted and my spine arched. I really did go blind this time, vision ceasing to matter as Rosie screamed on my cock. Her vagina was a muscle, squeezing and milking, milking every last drop of cum from me. She came too; even if she hadn't screamed hard enough to wake the dead, I could feel her squirting again on my cock, her fluids spilling across my belly. I was cumming everything into her, pouring into her, my whole body nothing but a channel for my lust...

"Aiiighghh..." Rosie's screams trailed off with a ragged cry, her wings released the branches, and she fell over me like a blanket. Her pussy gave a last squeeze before relaxing on my dick, her head nestled in the crook of my neck. Her wings covered us like a funereal shroud.

I gasped, breathed, breathed some more.

I was still alive.

That had been... I hadn't even felt human. As the pleasure faded, warm exhaustion spread through my body. My limbs felt like lead; it was a Herculean effort to raise one arm and let it fall on Rosie's back in an embrace.

She was still panting, breathing hotly into my neck, occasionally twitching from the belly as she came down from her own orgasm.

I coughed. My balls ached. My cock, beginning to slip out of her warm folds, could barely feel anything. I wriggled my toes, just to make sure they still worked.

"Did, ugh," I cleared my throat, "did you feel that?"

Rosie gave a high, lilting moan that was probably meant to be a giggle. "Thank you," she whispered huskily, "master."

We lay in the afterglow for another minute before I realized that the sun was well and truly down. Although the view was still clear, it was getting darker here in the lookout itself. I struggled to sit up, muscles numb, her weight clinging to my chest.

"Rosie," I said, then again: "Rosie!"

"Mmm?"

" We can't stay here."

"You're tired. Sleep."

"We're on a mountain!"

"I'll protect you."

"While also sleeping?" I stroked her hair, fingers brushing against a horn. On impulse, I kissed her forehead. "Get up."

"Ugh. Fine." She raised her wings with a flap and used them to lever herself into a sitting position. That kicked up leaves from the grass bordering our blanket; I coughed. What did you say in this situation?

"You say thanks," she said.

"Wh- fuck, you can read my mind?"

"I can read your face, Eric," she said, without the energy to giggle. "You really haven't done that before."

"Uh, no. No, definitely not. That was..."

"Transcendent?"

"I was just thinking, I don't know how anything could ever be better than that."

"Oh, master," she grinned down at me, "don't go and say silly things like that where someone might hear you."