Demonfire (22 page)

The pain was growing, burning
him from thigh to belly to chest, but he worked it, touched it, tried to make
it his as he’d done earlier tonight. His hand trembled when he traced the line
of the snake’s head. Its tongue flicked across his palm.

“Shit!” He snatched his
fingers away, raised his head, and stared directly into Eddy’s eyes. She stood
on the far side of the bed with her fingers pressed against her lips, her eyes
wide in absolute horror. The pain intensified. His demon roared a silent scream
of frustration. Dax felt a tearing sensation—the snake tattoo was pulling
itself away from his body.

Eddy suddenly sprang to life.
She raced around the end of the bed and slammed her hands against his chest,
against the three-dimensional head of the snake as it twisted away from Dax.

“No!” She raised her head and
stared at him in wide-eyed horror. “No,” she said, softer this time. “I won’t
let it do this to you. I won’t.”

Dax covered Eddy’s hands with
his. Together they pressed the snake’s head back down against his chest;
together they held it in place. He had no sense of the demon now, but the snake
writhed and twisted, and the heat was intense. Eddy never wavered. Neither did
Dax, though it killed him to think of the pain she endured…for him. She held
her hands to the scalding heat of the snake with a look of grim determination
on her face.

Slowly the three-dimensional
head of the snake flattened out beneath their hands. The texture of scales and
muscle faded back to mere ink over cool skin, until, after a few long minutes,
it seemed the most natural thing in the world for Dax to tilt his head, for
Eddy to raise hers, for them to find a connection of hands and hearts and lips.

Dax had kissed her before, but
never with the intent of taking the kiss beyond a meeting of lips and teeth and
tongues. This time, with Eddy holding the snake at bay, with Dax holding Eddy
and their bodies fresh from the shower, both of them still damp and warm and
entirely naked, it felt right to draw close. Right to wrap an arm around Eddy’s
waist, right to pull her slim body tightly against his.

Right to spread his legs wide
and draw her in to the cradle of his thighs, to tilt forward just so, until the
heat of his erection nestled at the juncture of her thighs, pressing upward
along the soft swell of her belly.

Her hands moved away from the
now cooled and quiescent tattoo and slipped higher, trailing over his
pectorals, across his collarbones. Her fingers tangled in the damp hair curling
against his neck. One fingertip traced the edge of his ear, raising shivers
along his spine.

She tilted her hips forward,
pressing harder against his erection, teasing him with the soft brush of her
pubic hair where it tickled the underside of his shaft. Her lips parted for
him; her tongue dueled his in a sensual dance that left him breathless, wanting
more.

Needing more. He cupped her
firm buttocks in his palms and lifted her. She seemed to flow against him, and
her long legs wrapped around his waist. He walked her to the bed and leaned
forward with her still clinging tightly to his body.

When her back touched the
mattress, she released him and sprawled shamelessly across the sheets. Her lips
were swollen and shiny from their kisses; her nipples had tightened to dark
points that called to him.

He couldn’t avoid comparisons.
Eddy was perfect, and there was nothing in his past to compare. Demons were
neither male nor female. They’d been created out of the muck and residue of all
creation, not born. Some had breasts and genitalia that included multiple
penises or both male and female organs on the same body. Others had no
genitalia at all. It didn’t matter. When one demon conquered another it either
ate the vanquished foe, or dominated it sexually. No matter if there wasn’t a
conventional orifice. Anything would work.

A demon’s cock was as much a
weapon as fangs or claws, as apt to ejaculate murderous venom as any other
demonic fluid. When two demons came together, it wasn’t about sex or pleasure
or desire. Sex was a weapon, another method for conquering the opponent. It was
all about force and pain, about taking control of a weaker foe.

He had survived untold
millennia as a demon, had defeated and known defeat, but the law of survival
was one that allowed no weakness. There was no emotion, no desire beyond an
uncontrollable frenzy to vanquish and subdue.

Win or lose, conquer or be
conquered. Fuck or get fucked. It was all about domination and power and
survival.

This was different. So
wonderfully different.

Dax looked down at his hands
and realized his fingers trembled. They were hands with the power to throw
flame and ice, yet they trembled before a woman. Standing here now, beside the
bed, with Eddy sprawled in all her soft and feminine splendor, unmanned him as
no more powerful foe ever had. He wanted her so much he ached.

He feared her just as badly,
though not for what she could do to him. No, he feared loving her, knowing it
would change him forever. And he realized, in that brief moment when all his
battles, his wins, his losses, and all his timeless past flashed before him,
that it was worth the risk. Worth the pain when he finally lost her. Worth
whatever it cost him for this one night. This moment in time, spent in Eddy’s
arms.

He leaned over her, one knee
planted firmly on the edge of the bed, one big hand hovering over her breast.
He had to touch her, wanted to taste her. He glanced from her inviting breasts
to see an even greater invitation in her eyes.

“Make love to me, Dax.” She
raised her hands and brushed her fingers across his chest. Ran her fingertips
over the snake, beginning at the fearsome head and trailing along its sinuous
length. When she trailed one fingertip across the hard planes of his belly, he
sucked in a harsh breath.

Her fingers brushed the thick
root of his cock, lingered but a moment and then moved beyond, to trace the
multicolored snake along the top of his thigh to the very tip of its tail. Fire
followed her touch, but it wasn’t the fire of the demon’s curse. No, this
heated his blood, made his heart beat faster. His breath escaped in tiny puffs,
so quick and short he was hardly aware of drawing air inside in order for it to
escape.

He’d never made love, never
covered a woman before with a human body. Had no idea how to make it right for
her, no knowledge beyond plunder and plunge deep, thrust hard and fast, take or
be taken.

“Eddy…I…”

She brushed her fingers across
his lips. “It’s okay,” she said. The knowledge of ages was in her eyes. “Follow
my lead.”

He nodded, but he moved
slowly, still unsure. His body thrummed with growing pressure, with a need that
filled every cell, tightened every fiber of every one of his human muscles.
Eddy sort of rolled up and curled around until she was kneeling in front of him
as he half knelt, half stood beside the bed. She sat back on her heels and
gazed up at him with her velvety brown eyes sparkling. She ran her fingers over
the tattoo once again, as if she calmed the beast within.

Then she cupped his balls in
her warm hands and wrapped her fingers lightly around the hard length of his
shaft. Dax groaned and thrust forward into her grasp. His demon roared to life,
and he fought it back until his entire body quivered with the restraint he
forced on himself. Denying the instinct to shove hard and fast, to cover Eddy
with his larger body and force himself deep inside her feminine heat, had him
trembling as if he suffered from a palsy.

Eddy held him a moment longer.
Her gentle touch had him clenching his muscles until his buttocks and thighs,
chest, and jaw were hard as rocks. Then she leaned close, curled her spine, and
brushed her lips over the broad crown of his penis.

Dax sucked in a breath. His
body went rigid. He held himself still, concentrated on maintaining control, on
holding the beast at bay while her lips and tongue ravaged his senses. He
clenched his fists at his sides and felt the nails dig in to the fleshy swell
beneath his thumbs. Her lips danced along his heavily veined length, and when
he thought he couldn’t take it any longer, Eddy opened her mouth and wrapped
her lips around the upper third of his cock.

He arched his back, but she
held him in place with one fist wrapped tightly around his shaft while the
other cradled the heavy sac beneath. Held him and took him to heaven and beyond
with the sweep of her tongue and the warm suction of her full lips and the wet
cavern of her mouth.

Time seemed to stand still as
she loved him with her mouth, but when he knew he couldn’t last, that he
couldn’t hold on another moment, she slowly released him, licking along his
full length, nibbling the flared crown. She dipped the tip of her tongue into
the weeping slit at the end of his cock, swirled lightly, and then sat back on
her heels.

Her lips were shiny and soft,
her breasts seemed somehow fuller, and when given the choice between lips and
breast, Dax, leaned forward and wrapped his lips around her nipple, right over
her heart. She threw her head back, thrust her chest forward, and he suckled
her nipple into his mouth, tonguing the tip, nibbling, and then licking, until
she held his shoulders in both her hands and pressed her breast against his
mouth.

He didn’t remember moving, but
he was above her now, his knees between her thighs, his cock resting against
her damp cleft. He suckled first one breast, and then the other, fascinated by
the taste and texture, the sense that this amazing act was something his human
body recognized.

Dax, who’d never nursed at a
mother’s breast, had never touched a woman, seen a woman…made love to a woman.
Suddenly presented a feast, he was unsure where to begin. He trailed kisses
along Eddy’s ribs, dipped his tongue into her navel, kissed the crease between
her groin and thigh.

So close, he was drawn by her
scent, by the rich, feminine perfume between her thighs. He scooted back and
lifted her legs, presenting her for his own perusal. At first she tried to
close her knees together, but when he glanced up, stared solemnly at her, and
shook his head, she lay back down, and the tension went out of her thighs.

He leaned close, touched his
tongue to her mound, and swirled the tip through her crisp curls. Her labia
glistened with tiny drops of dew, and he ran his tongue between her feminine
lips, lapping slowly. He quickly realized that when he laved the small bump at
the top of her cleft, her body jerked and she pressed closer to his mouth.

So he did it again, and again,
slowly, lightly, teasing Eddy just as she’d teased him until she suddenly cried
out. Her body jerked, and her thighs closed against his ears as she arched
closer to his mouth. Acting purely on human, not demon instinct, he pressed his
lips around the swollen bud and sucked lightly for a moment longer, until her
convulsive movements ended and her body relaxed in his hands.

Her eyes were bright in the
dim glow from the bedside lamp when he finally moved over her, settled himself
between her legs, and used his hand to guide his erect penis between the damp
and swollen entrance to her body. She arched into him as he thrust forward.

Her opening was hot and very
slick, yet he was so large the fit was tight and his progress slow and not so
steady. He buried himself deep, and deeper still until he was fully engulfed in
hot rippling flesh.

He’d never felt anything
remotely as wonderful, nothing that could compare to the hot clasp of Eddy’s
sheath around the thick length of his shaft. She filled him with life. Her muscles
pulsed along his taut length; heat and moisture enfolded him. She lifted her
hips and took him deeper; he recognized her rhythm and slipped into it as if
they’d done this act together all their lives.

In and out, thrust and
retreat, instinctive movements as old as time, but it was nothing like he’d
ever experienced before. Nothing in his entire life had prepared him for this,
for the overall sense of fulfillment, of pure, unadulterated ecstasy as his body
became one with Eddy’s, as his heart found a rhythm that matched perfectly to
hers.

And he knew, somehow he
understood, that this was not the way it always was for all humans. That this
perfect synchronization of hearts and bodies, of minds and needs, was unique to
the two of them, totally encompassing every desire he’d ever had, every dream
he’d never known to dream.

This was what Eddy said when
she called it making love. This was love. This was more than their bodies, more
than their minds—it was every cell, every thought, every need and desire,
fulfilled and made whole.

Eddy’s body tensed beneath
his. Electricity arched between them, dragging Dax into a new rhythm, a more
powerful lead. The demon stirred, slipped beyond his defenses, and took
control.

A deep, unearthly roaring
filled his ears, a familiar, fearsome sound, one Dax thought was gone forever.
He—both the man and the demon—thrust into her hard and fast, his hips moving in
a compelling tempo racing against the beat of his heart, the rush of blood, the
harsh intake of breath. Slamming into Eddy time and time again, until his balls
slapped the curve of her buttocks and the sounds of wet flesh and hot suction
and gasping breath all mingled and melded with Eddy’s cries and Dax’s hoarse
roar of completion.

A final thrust, and his body
hung rigid and unmoving above her. His sac drew up hard and tight between his
legs. His cock jerked deep inside Eddy’s clasping sheath as he emptied himself
in spurt after spurt, trapped as he was by clenching, spasming muscles, the
hard muscles of her thighs wrapped around his waist, her heels locked together
against the small of his back.

He had no idea. Hadn’t
suspected, hadn’t known enough to even wonder what this would be like. Rearing
back on his heels, Dax wrapped his arms around her and dragged her against his
chest. Slowly the demon subsided, retreated, and faded into the back of his
consciousness. Dax held Eddy close with her legs wrapped around his body, his
cock buried inside, still jerking with each pulsing release, filling
her…claiming this woman as his own.