The Pleasures of Hell
Copyright© 2023 by Novus Animus
Chapter 73
Fantasy Sex Story: Chapter 73 - An epic fantasy adventure through Hell, with demons and angels, and a couple humans with targets painted on their back. David and Mia didn’t want to be a part of this, but their unexpected first deaths land them in the middle of events grand and beyond knowing. Why are they in Hell in the first place? Why don’t they have the mark of the Beast, like other souls do? And why does everyone either want them, or want them dead?
Caution: This Fantasy Sex Story contains strong sexual content, including Ma/Fa Mult Consensual Reluctant Lesbian Heterosexual Fiction High Fantasy Horror Paranormal Demons DomSub MaleDom FemaleDom Spanking Gang Bang Group Sex Harem Orgy Anal Sex Double Penetration Exhibitionism First Lactation Oral Sex Petting Tit-Fucking Big Breasts Size
~~Day 95~~
~~David~~
The next morning.
They had to go talk with Septima and figure out what the plans were. She’d be staying in her spire, but he still needed to have a sitdown with her and make some plans about crossing the Scar, and whether he should stick to stealth or maybe get himself a force of his own, a small army.
But for now, fuck. He was tired. They were all tired.
He sat up and looked around at the girls, all naked, all cozy on the blankets, all snuggled up to each other—some more than others. Acelina and Caera had fallen asleep with David, and last he remembered, he’d fallen asleep on Caera’s breasts.
But these weren’t Caera’s breasts. The tiger lay beside his legs. And yes, Caera was huge and had large breasts, but whatever pillow his head was currently on was colossal. Acelina’s boob. He sat up and blinked down at the massive demon lying under his torso. Apparently, he’d moved around a bit in his sleep. Or maybe Acelina had taken him and put him to rest on her bust while he slept?
Was she still asleep? Nope. She reached up, put a hand on his face, and shoved him back hard. He fell back on the blankets with a flomp, spread arms and legs, staring at the ceiling. Okay, so much for bonding with Acelina.
Daoka crawled over, chirping and clicking, and pulled David’s head up onto her lap. But instead of helping him up, she kept his head there, smiled down at him, combed his hair with her claws, and chirped some more.
Caera got up, stretched out cat-style, stood up on her hind legs, and smiled down at David, too. “I suppose Dao deserves some time with you,” she said. “If Acelina is going to be a bitch.”
“I am not a bitch,” Acelina said. She didn’t get up, instead content to sit on her side, legs out to the side in her usual ultra-feminine way. “I am royalty. Latia. Laria. Lasca. Laara. Dress me.”
The little ladies hopped up, wiped the sleep from their eyes, and like good miniature demon soldiers, scampered around and fetched Acelina’s armor. They weren’t good servants. They tripped over some armor pieces, and the blankets, and several of the armor pieces they gathered and brought to Acelina weren’t hers. She scoffed, sent them away with a flick of her wrists, and they came back with armor attempt number two, and three, and five.
Moriah and Tsila both stood up, and Moriah summoned her potram clothes. But before Tsila could, Laoko came up behind the angel, set two hands on her shoulders, two more on her head, and lightly tugged on her long, black, braided ponytail.
“I enjoyed last night,” Laoko said down at the angel. Tsila tried to turn around, but Laoko didn’t let her. “I will take you again tonight.”
David pointed an accusing finger at the giant tetrad. “Leave her alone, Laoko. Tsila, I’m sorry about last night. Laoko—”
“It’s okay,” Tsila said. “They’re demons. I knew what I was getting myself into when I agreed to go on this journey. And I enjoyed myself.”
Laoko grinned with her usual, subtle, evil smile. “See?”
Cue the staring match. David eyed the tetrad, and she eyed him back, daring him to say what he was thinking. He didn’t. What could he say? ‘You got dominant with Tsila last night because you’re looking for other ways to usurp my strange position as ‘leader’ of this group?’ If Laoko wanted to initiate sex with the girls without him, he was hardly in a position to tell her no, especially with Tsila, who he’d never touched in the first place. The girls weren’t his.
Sighing, Daoka leaned down over David, kissed his forehead, and when he tried to sit up, she pushed him back down and combed his hair some more. Trapped. She wanted one-on-one time. He could do that.
Matching Dao’s sigh, Jes came over, sat beside David, and danced her claws down his chest. “Too many bitches in this group,” she said. “I vote we get rid of Laoko and Acelina.”
Before what was probably an innocent jab started a fight, David shook his head.
“Acelina and Laoko are way too useful. And I like them.”
Jes rolled her eyes. “You just like their giant tits.”
With an evil chuckle to match her subtle smiles, Laoko came over and knelt beside David. Her kneeling next to him was enough to bury him, Jes, and Dao under her shadow.
“Can you blame him?” she asked, and she used all four hands to play with her bust. Caressing, massaging, squeezing. Through it all, her skin stayed dark red, eliminating most of the jiggle, thank god. She wasn’t aroused, just playing her usual games.
Tsila came over, still naked, and knelt beside Laoko, leaving David encircled by naked women. Caera peeked up over the ring of ladies and looked down at him, raising an eyebrow at the sudden circle of ladies surrounding him. The Las joined in, too, fitting in the space between the ladies, and Lasca kneeling between Laoko’s legs; she had the room.
Daoka chirped and gestured at the women. They nodded. She clicked and chirped. They nodded and clicked back once. She gestured a few more times, patted David’s forehead, clicked twice, and the ladies all nodded yet again. Acelina, Caera, and Moriah stood around the ladies, looking down and into the circle, and Daoka made sure to gesture up at them and chirp at them, too, earning a smile from Caera, a groan and eye roll from Moriah, and a scoff from Acelina. But they all nodded eventually, too.
And no one translated a word.
Satisfied, Daoka smiled down at him and combed his shaggy red hair, like she hadn’t just given everyone a lecture that she refused to explain to him. And with his infinite wisdom, David didn’t press her for one. She gave him a big smile, leaned forward, and pressed her breasts together, burying his face and smothering him. This was apparently becoming a thing.
It only got worse. “Fine,” Laoko said, agreeing to whatever Daoka said. She leaned forward, and went breast-to-press with the satyr lady, and David disappeared under their busts. Uh oh. “But I think Tsila should be involved. She’s earned her place, has she not?”
Jes laughed. David could barely hear it through the layers of softness, like he was suddenly underwater.
“You got a thing for angels?” Jes asked.
“I do.” Laoko sat back, and David sucked in a needed breath. “Look at how soft.” The giant tetrad scooped Tsila up and set the angel on her lap, facing away from her. With a subtle grin, Laoko combed Tsila’s enormous wings, and the slim angel sighed happily, complete with the joyful expression of a cat getting petted just right. “And David has neglected her.”
“She’s not neglected,” Jes said. “Just new to the group. And besides, David doesn’t need to spread his legs for every girl who comes along.”
“Nonsense,” Laoko said. She wrapped Tsila’s neck with one hand, held her hip with another, and used two more to comb her gorgeous wings. “You do not understand gabriem like I do, gorgala. They are touch-starved. They spend thousands of years drowning in the gaze and caress of horny souls, and when they come to Hell, they are robbed of it. This little gabriem”—she gestured to the slim naked woman sitting on her lap—”cums with a mere touch. I think we should collar her, leash her, and treat her as our doting sex slave.”
Tsila’s eyes widened. She flapped her wings, but Laoko tightened her grip on the girl’s neck, the wings went limp and fell, and Tsila’s expression melted, too. Definitely touch-starved.
Moriah came to her rescue. She swatted Laoko’s head with her own wing and plucked her friend from the evil tetrad’s grasp.
“She is not a toy,” Moriah said. She faced the gabriem and eyed her. “Right?”
Tsila sighed and kicked at the blanket like a disappointed teenager. “I am not a toy,” she repeated monotone. She did not sound as if she agreed with her new babysitter.
“Get dressed.”
“Very well.” With another sigh, Tsila donned her potram rune.
That was the cue for everyone to get up and get dressed, and David used his God-given right to watch them get dressed. Laoko knew he would, too. She made sure to get dressed directly in front of him and made a show of putting on her breastplate, squashing her enormous breasts within.
“Daoka,” Laoko said, “may I speak with the boy for a moment?”
Daoka tilted her head and eyelessly looked down at David. Before he could respond, she nodded, got up, and left him to fend for himself from the giant woman now standing over him. He almost asked for help. Too late. Laoko reached down, scooped him up by his wrists, and walked him off to the side of the room.
The Las followed, but she shooed them away. “I wish to speak with our fearless leader for but a moment. Alone.”
The Las whined but walked away, and Daoka patted their heads, combed their dreadlocks, and helped get the little red goblins dressed in their armor.
“What do you want to talk about?” he asked.
Laoko set him down on his feet by the wall, knelt in front of him, and looked him in the eye. Close and personal. That was actually unusual for Laoko, eye-level communication. She usually preferred to keep a little distance, usually through her height.
Hey, look at him, analyzing behavior. Mia would be proud.
“I wanted you to know,” she whispered, “that I appreciate what you said yesterday. You like me.” She smiled, decidedly less evil than usual. “I like you.”
He froze and stared. This was like when you flirted with a girl and, against all odds, she flirted back, and your brain short-circuited, unsure of how to continue.
“Yeah?”
“Oh yes. The others, even Caera, they do not consider the large picture very well. The totality of the Great Tower? Of existence? You do. You see beyond the immediate, and that appeals to me. I appreciate your mind, little boy. And your body.” She teased a claw down his naked chest. He hadn’t summoned his potram clothes yet. Woops. “I fully expect to butt horns with you regularly.”
“Um, good?”
“Do you not wish for that? You said you enjoy arguing.”
“I do, very much. But, I mean, more like debating? I don’t want to argue just for arguing.”
“Of course.” She nodded, plucked at her very, very long dreadlock ponytail with one set of claws, and the other three poked him in the chest again. “I am simply warning you. I am used to being in charge, young soul. You will regularly have to fight me and challenge my opinions. I expect you to do so. That is the agreement, yes?”
He gulped. “It is, and I will.”
“Good.” She leaned in closer and nudged her nose against his. He froze solid. This was very affection for Laoko. “Do you realize how unusual it is for so many demons to congregate around a single soul?”
“It—”
“It never happens, little boy. Caera has bonded with you in a way most demons do not. Jes and Daoka adore you. Acelina likes you more than she would ever admit to herself. The Las idolize you. And Moriah finds herself drawn to you, despite the wound you dealt her.”
He squirmed and snuck a peek at the other girls. They were chatting, helping each other get their armor on, and even laughing.
“And Tsila?” he whispered.
“I am not sure about her yet, except to say that she is a gabriem, and that means she craves human touch with every ounce of her grace. You would do well to appease her.”
“I uh, I mean, I’m not against it, but I didn’t exactly plan to sleep with every girl who comes along.”
She shrugged. “As long as the demons closest to you are fine with it, does it matter? I know that betrayer Naoko would love to have a taste of you.”
He winced and snuck a peek at Caera. Thankfully, she didn’t hear, or she might have come over and started a fight.
“I don’t know. Caera—”
“You are no demon, David, and while the girls have explained it, I will explain it again. You are a soul, and demons crave you. Angels, too. But they know all too well another human can steal that away. Steal you away. Or have you not seen how humans behave with each other?”
“I get it. I do.” He frowned down at the metal floor and scratched his head. “Okay, I don’t get it. Why demons are okay sharing me with other demons, but not other humans? I still don’t really understand, but—”
She flicked his nose. He blinked.
“If you ever decided to fuck another soul, Caera and the others would be deeply offended. You are their bonfire, not to be consumed and stolen by another fire. But ... if the others brought Naoko to you, to be used like a toy by them upon you, they might not only agree, they might find it thrilling.”
“More thrilling than a succubus orgy?”
“Much more.”
He squirmed again. Laoko had obviously had some experience with human romances, and he dared not ask.
“Either way,” he said. “I’m not going to suggest it. I’m still trying to wrap my mind around the fact that I’m sleeping with so many women.”
“Your aura seems to thrive on it.”
“Pretty sure any horny young guy would have an aura like mine if he could.”
Laoko laughed, stood up to her full height, towered over him, and combed his hair with her fingers. One hand was enough to bury his head under her palm and claws.
“I will speak to Caera later,” she whispered.
“Uh, what?”
“About Naoko.”
“No no no, don’t do that. We don’t need—”
Laoko shoved his head, same as Acelina had earlier, back toward the pile of blankets. He landed with an oomph, and Daoka strolled over, chirping and clicking something at Laoko as she helped David back up. Another private conversation, no translation, earning another playful chuckle and wicked grin from the gigantic tetrad as she walked on by.
“Come on,” Moriah said. “Leave the boy alone. We must speak with Septima.”
They went back to the throne room, and David almost got PTSD thinking they’d need to scale the height of the whole damn spire again. They did not. Everyone got comfortable in the Hell-decorated room, Septima sitting on the far-too-large throne of bone, with several brutes standing around her. The angels didn’t wear their armor this time, either, just their potram silks. Maybe as a show of trust, or as a challenge, suggesting they didn’t need their armor or weapons to kick demon ass if it came to it. The brutes with Septima eyed the two angels, tiny eyes in their large, skull-like faces locked on them. Horny, maybe? It was the Scar. Everyone here was horny.
“We’ll be going soon,” David said. “Figured we should make some plans.”
“Yes,” Septima said. “Plans are good.” She’d donned her armor for the occasion. Maybe she wanted to look presentable, or command presence. No wonder Zab and Tacharius didn’t like her. She was the straight man in a world of horny jokers. “I am sending Tacharius with you.”
David raised an eyebrow. Sure enough, someone else stepped through the doorway, and everyone turned to look back as the incubus stepped into the room, wearing some black silks.
“Heya,” he said.
“Do we need him?” Laoko asked, gesturing back to the incubus. “We are entering the Red Pits. What value will he be?”
“Tacharius knows how to talk,” she said. “And because he’s going to talk to Tatiana. She’s going to join you, too.”
David tilted his head. Tatiana? Oh, right, the third and final bailiff of the Scar.
“Where is Tatiana, by the way?” David asked. “She must have come closer when Tarkissa used the spire aura and summoned everyone, right? I figured she’d be here by now.”
Septima groaned and idly rubbed her new horn, like a kid rubbing a fresh wound. “She likely did come closer, and then returned to her side of the Scar the moment the aura vanished. She has little interest outside of taking care of her side of the Scar and Floor, and it is that side that shares a border with the Red Pits. You will meet her, and you will take her as a companion on your journey, at least until you have stopped the unmarked from Navameere Fields.”
David did a double-take between Tacharius and Septima. Tacharius shrugged. Apparently this was par for the course, dealing with Septima’s bossy attitude, made a hundred times worse now that she was the spire ruler.
Laoko wasn’t so easily swayed. “I have met Khazeer. I can speak with him.”
Septima was not deterred. “I don’t know what history you have with Khazeer, but Tatiana knows him well. She has dealt with the spire ruler of the Red Pits multiple times before. She is going, tetrad. She is going because it makes sense, and if I am stuck here as spire ruler, the least I can do is make sure your mission to save the Great Tower goes well. A few incubi and succubi on your journey will hardly draw attention.”
“Few?” David asked, raising a brow. But a glance back at Tacharius explained, Zazee the succubus poking her head around the doorway from outside, and the three betrayers Fuad, Natalie, and Naoko behind her doing the same. Uh oh.
“They’ll help make sure nothing bad happens while you go through the Scar,” Septima said. “And when you reach the Red Pits.”
David winced. Mostly because if Zazee was coming, that meant Naoko was coming, and from the look Caera gave the betrayer, the petite Asian girl was likely to die in a sudden ‘accident’. So much for Laoko’s idea of the demons using Naoko like a sex toy.
“Any objections to this?” David asked his girls. “Anyone?”
Everyone looked at each other, scanning for any objections, any reasons not to let these tag-alongs join in. They didn’t look happy, but Septima did have a point.
“They will probably die,” Acelina said. Well, that was one reason, and it got a small gasp from Zazee and her betrayers.
Septima shrugged. “That is a sacrifice I am willing to make.”
David didn’t like ceremony, but leaving the spire was so unceremonious, he almost felt robbed.
He walked out of the spire with his crew, and David, his girls, Tacharius, Zazee, and the three betrayers started the march, same as they’d done weeks ago. A casual walk across the Scar. A few days ago, he’d had a small army following him. No more army. Domnius had gone in the opposite direction to start an army and be a blockade against the Grave Valley, but that army wouldn’t include the volas. And the volas had been all too happy to stop fighting and go back to their usual indulgences.
Well, it wasn’t all quiet. As he stepped out of the large, open area in front of the spire and back onto the terrace steps of the Scar canyon, succubi and incubi waved at him. Hundreds of them. Thousands, even, in the distance. Some cheered. Some jumped and waved. Some showed off their asses and squeezed their breasts, hoping for a distant touch, maybe. David waved at them, and several succubi on the step below giggled up at him, blowing kisses.
Okay, he felt better. A sendoff was nice. A good stroke for his increasing ego.
Zabulon the incubus waited for them, smiling. “I guess this is so long?”
“For now,” David said. “I’ll be back someday.”
“If you survive. If any of us survive.”
“Which reminds me. Domnius has already made a run for the border with the Grave Valley. He’s going to get every imp and grem he can to play guard and stop Azailia from being a problem.” David stepped up and poked the incubus in the chest. “You’re going to help him.”
“I am?”
“You are. Your club in the Floor is near the Grave Valley. If Azailia comes through and stirs trouble, your club is one of the first to fall. So you’re going to work your connections and make sure Azailia doesn’t come through. If that means arming a hundred thousand volas, and imps and grems too, then that’s what you’ll do.”
Zabulon sighed and let his arms drop. From running a club of indulgence to being on the front line of a potential conflict. Poor guy.
“I suppose if I must.”
“You must,” Laoko said. “Unless you do not mind Azailia taking over the Scar.”
“I mind. Quite a bit. I’m not a fan of her.”
Laoko frowned. Zab didn’t know Laoko and Azailia used to be friends, but the tetrad didn’t mention it. She walked past him, leaving the incubus with a raised eyebrow.
“Thanks for the help,” David said, and patted the much taller man’s shoulder. “I am serious. I’ll be back at some point and make sure things are going well. That also means you’d better follow the new rules. Stop treating damned souls like cattle. Capture and kill them, sure, but do not hold them as slaves or meat farms, or torture objects.”
“But they’re—”
David glared.
The incubus sighed again and put up his hands. “Very well, unmarked. The Scar will no longer trade in souls. God help us if Azailia and Khazeer both decide to punish us for that.”
“You’ll figure it out.” David smiled at the man and walked past him.
Time to start yet another fantastic, amazing journey, full of sunshine and rainbows.
Yeah right.
He looked back at the girls and smiled. Caera prowled directly behind him, with Jes and Dao at her sides. Laoko was ahead of him, with Moriah and Tsila, the most powerful of their group. Acelina and the Las hung out in the back, the little ladies running between Acelina’s thighs, risking getting stepped on but somehow avoiding it.
His girls. Or rather, he was their boy, if his conversations with Caera, Acelina, and Laoko were any indication. Even Daoka probably thought of David as ‘hers’, in a tender, motherly kinda way.
Behind Acelina and the Las, walked Tacharius, Zazee, and the betrayers Fuad, Naoko, and Natalie. They stayed close to their vola masters, but Naoko snuck a few glances at David and risked a thumbs up and grin.
David didn’t ask why they were coming along. Emergency food source? Battle fodder? Human shield? He didn’t want to know, but Zazee and Tacharius didn’t go anywhere without their betrayers.
“You know,” Jeskura said, coming up behind David and setting her claws on his shoulders, “we aren’t getting through the rest of the Scar quickly. It’s a long walk, probably fourteen days. I bet Septima would appreciate it if we visited some of the Floor’s clubs, and made sure they were obeying the new laws. Or at least know about the new laws.”
David rolled his eyes and smiled back at the gargoyle. “Up here, it’s a lot harder to get ambushed. No one can drop on us from above.” He gestured up at the giant mountain on the right, and to the left, at the canyon of the Scar, with various bridges below of bone and metal connecting to the opposite side where another mountain awaited. “But down there.” He pointed down to the left, and the terrace steps leading down into the Floor, where indulgences of every kind were explored. “Kind of easy to get jumped in a dark alley, you know?”
“Oh come on! People know who you are now, and they saw what you did in the battle. Plus, you got angels with you, and a tetrad. Even Acelina makes a good bodyguard; no one knows what to do at the sight of a zotiva outside her spire.”
He sighed, but Jes hooked her arm around his neck and pressed her forehead to his as they walked.
“Don’t act like you didn’t like it,” she said.
“Like what?”
“Having a bunch of succubi ride that dick? Dicks? Strangers, girls you’d never met, just throwing themselves at you? Stupidly hot women just cumming their brains out on you? Soaking you? You—”
Wincing, he pushed Jes away, but she was relentless and didn’t let go.
“Okay, yeah, there’s something sexy about that,” he said.
“Knew it. Perv.”
“But! But, it’s not what I’d prefer, you know?”
The gargoyle knocked on his head with her horn. “And what do you prefer?”
“Romance?”
She swooned and hugged him tighter. “That’s so sweet. Romance, with ten girls at once.” Something poked his back, and judging from the evil smile on her face, it was her tail. “Eleven if you seduce Tsila, too.”
“Ten? You’re including Laoko?”
“Of course.”
He groaned and looked ahead to Laoko and the angels. “I’m not sure romance is the word. Besides, I’m dating Caera.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. You’re dating all of us.”
With a quiet whine, David looked back to Caera for help. His girlfriend smiled at him and gently swiped at his ass once, making sure he felt the pinch of her claws, but she did nothing to save him from Jes.
“I’m not dating the Las.”
“Why not?” She grinned and kissed his cheek. “They’re sexy little ... what’s the word? You said it before. Goblins.”
He groaned again, but couldn’t help but smile a bit. This was what their journey was going to be like, a lot of teasing, all pointed at him. But sure enough, Jes leaned in and kissed his cheek again, rubbed her horns against the top of his head, and hooked a wing along his shoulder and back. It was nice. This was nice.
Moriah snuck a glance back at him, and unless he was seeing things, she smiled at him.
~~Day 98~~
~~Mia~~
Someone picked her up. She froze. Probably not the best reflex from being randomly woken up, but being stirred from the dead sleep of the afterlife left her stun-locked for a second.
Vin had picked her up. Thankfully, she didn’t scream.
The titan sat a little way from the group, limping with each step, and two arms hanging limp at his sides. But he had two to spare, and he set her on his lap with her standing, and his back to the cave wall.
“Vin?” she whispered. Even standing on his legs and looking at him, he was still taller than her.
The titanic creature sighed, one hand resting along Mia’s leg, another along her back, the two hands almost completely hiding her small body in his palms. But he said nothing. He simply looked down at her, and let out a slow, rumbling sigh. It was always hard to read Vin’s facial expressions since he basically had the head of a dragon, a demony dragon, with a short snout and skull-ish eyes. Not exactly to read the facial expressions of.
All she could tell was: this was new.
“Vin, what’s wrong?” she asked. It might have backfired, asking him. It’d probably have been better not to say anything at all. But Vin simply sat there, pondering whatever strange thoughts the old fossil liked to ponder.
So, she waited. Vin gently stroked her shoulder with a thumb, did the same for her leg, and said nothing. He took another slow breath, eyes locked on her and her body, but there was no sexual desire in his dragon eyes, far as she could tell. Fingers continued to explore her body, but did nothing more than lightly hold her and nudge her shoulders and legs.
“I...” Vin sighed and shook his head slowly. “Kasimiro would tell you eventually. I should tell you.”
“Tell me what?”
“When that invader kicked me. I fell into the canyon, and grabbed the wall. I almost fell in. Kasimiro saved me. He leapt across the ravine, scaled the wall, and helped me climb.”
Kas you big, beautiful shark dinosaur.
She did her best not to smile. “Yeah?”
“Yes.”
“He kinda did the same thing before, right? In the Black Valley? Xela’s headquarters, when you rescued James?” Thankfully Xela didn’t seem to follow in Vicente’s footsteps and chase them from the endless swamp.
“That was different. I was prepared to die, then.”
“And ... And this time?”
He sighed again, colossal chest rising and falling. “I did not wish to die.”
She gulped and stared up at the titan. “I’m confused. Have you ... Are you ... Have you been looking to die?”
“I ... do not know.”
She winced. Every red flag she’d read about started waving in her head, and if she’d been back in university, she’d have called the counselor immediately. But this was Hell, and there was no counselor. And it wasn’t like any demon would ever give a shit about another demon’s mental state. Probably.
“Is it because of the necklace?” she asked. “The leash?”
He shook his head. Good. Much as seeing Vin in this horrible state tore her little baby psychologist heart apart, she needed him. Without his strength, she didn’t know if she could get to False Gate and the Forgotten Place. And despite all their growth, she still couldn’t trust him without the leash.
She wanted to. Christ, she wanted to, but she couldn’t. Vin was a loose cannon who let himself go and did crazy, destructive stuff at the drop of a hat.
“Is it because of Zel? What she did to you?”
Again, Vin shook his head.
“Then ... what’s wrong?” she asked. “I mean, I know I can’t help. And I know you don’t want to tell me. But I still want to know.”
Another of his heavy breaths washed over her, each nudging her long red hair back.
“Things are different now,” he whispered. “I ... am different.”
“What? You—”
He shook his head again, ran a thumb over hers, and traced it along her hair. She did her best not to melt. No no, don’t do that. Vin was an ancient killing machine who’d done nothing but slaughter for thousands of years. It was all he knew. Don’t go thinking romantic thoughts. Nope nope.
He pulled her in a little closer, and she almost squeaked as she planted her elbows against his chest.
“I did not lie,” he said, “when I said I wish to devour you and eat your heart.”
She gulped. “I didn’t think you did.” And now she didn’t feel so safe in his hands, even with the necklace.
“But I do not wish to see you die.”