Chapter 20

CHAPTER 20

A t first, the light was blinding. After the blackness of the void, even starlight seemed bright. But this… this was something else entirely.

Sunlight.

Seven hells, how long had it been since he'd actually seen the sun?

As his pupils narrowed, and his vision adjusted, Beliath searched the cloudless blue sky overhead. His eyes found that blazing yellow orb hanging close to the zenith, and he stared directly into it. A mortal could go blind doing that, but Beliath was no mortal. He let his eyes soak up all the brightness, even as his spread wings soaked up the warmth of the sun's rays, warming his blood.

It was…

A bit overrated, to be honest.

The moon was better. More sensuous, more subtle. Then again, Beliath had helped put the moon together, so his opinion was naturally a little biased.

Still, all this light really was a bit much. All this color, all this vibrancy. How the hell could anyone stand it?

"What have you done to my baby?"

The growl of Malissa's voice startled Beliath out of his reverie. He had been so distracted by the unexpected brightness, it hadn't even occurred to him how strange it was that the woman had summoned him during the daylight hours.

But it occurred to him now.

For a moment, he thought it was the equinox, but he immediately realized that was not the case. If today were the equinox, he would have felt it, would have felt the magic dancing through the air, through the trees, through the pillars of the darkstone ring.

That left only one other possibility. Malissa had come to him during the daylight hours because something was wrong. Something that couldn't wait til nightfall.

And what had she just asked him? What have you done to my baby?

Beliath whirled around to face her.

Today, she looked different. Partly it was the sunlight, which allowed Beliath to see her naked flesh more clearly than he had ever seen it before. That sight, combined with the smell of her sweat, sent the blood rushing into Beliath's cock.

But there were other differences too. Her hair, for example. Normally she let her long dark tresses hang freely down her back and shoulders. Today her hair was neatly braided. Beliath guessed that was how she normally wore it during the daylight hours.

Her face was different too. Her cheeks were wet with tears, and the skin around her eyes was puffy and red from crying. That sight made Beliath's heart pang with concern.

Behind her, at the edge of the clearing, a white horse stood tied to a tree. So, she had ridden.

"Answer me!" she shouted. "What have you done to my baby?"

"What are you talking about, Malissa? What's wrong?"

He desperately wanted to go to her and put his arms around her, but the magic barrier made that impossible. She would have to come to him.

"You know exactly what I'm talking about!" Malissa snarled. "You've put a curse on my baby."

" Our baby," Beliath said.

But the little queen didn't seem to be listening. She was hysterical, and she was hugging her midsection as if she were in pain.

"It's dying," she sobbed. "You put a curse on it, and now it's dying."

Beliath's heart stopped.

Their baby was dying?

"Malissa, what are you talking about? What's happened? Tell me exactly what has happened."

"You know what happened," she said. "You made it happen."

The way she looked at him was like a spear thrust into his chest. Did she really believe he would do something to harm his own offspring?

Then again, why wouldn't she believe it? Had he given her any reason to believe otherwise? No. As a matter of fact, he had done just the opposite. He had claimed to have put a curse on her that would strike her dead if she didn't free him before the baby came. Hell, he had reminded her about that every time she had come to visit him.

He had reminded her, because he needed her to believe that it was true.

Now he regretted it.

"Malissa, listen to me," he said, keeping his voice level. "I swear to you, I would never do anything to harm our child. But I can help. Come to me, and I will help you."

It was, he realized, exactly the kind of thing a liar would say.

The woman was conflicted. He could tell she wanted to believe him, but she didn't step into the ring. The tears had returned, and they were running down her face, leaving wet streaks on her cheeks.

"How do I know I can trust y— oh! "

She bent over, clutching at her belly as if she were in intense pain.

Beliath could not take it anymore. He needed her to be inside the darkstone ring with him. He needed to help her.

"Damn it, woman!" he roared. "Enough of this. Come to me right now! "

His words were so loud, the white horse at the edge of the forest reared back and whinnied in terror. Beliath was worried that he might have frightened the woman too. He had not meant to yell at her like that, and he was certainly not in a position to be issuing commands at her. He was the one trapped inside the darkstone ring. If he was going to help her, she would have to come to him freely, and yelling at her probably wasn't the best way to make that happen.

And yet…

It seemed to work!

The woman came stumbling into the darkstone ring with him, still clutching at her belly. Her legs started to buckle, and Beliath had to catch her to keep her from collapsing.

"Easy, little one," he whispered. "Easy, I've got you."

He lifted her gently and set her down on top of the stone altar so that her face was toward the sky. He had lain her atop that altar many times before, but today was different. Today was not about pleasure. Today was about saving their child.

The woman whimpered as she looked up at him with tears in her eyes.

"I'm so scared," she said. "Beliath, what's wrong with our baby?"

Our baby. He was glad to hear her say that. And he was glad that she no longer seemed to think he was the cause of her suffering. Yet at the same time, he was scared too. It was not an emotion he had ever experienced before. He'd never had anything worth losing—until now.

He did his best not to let his fear show. He needed to be strong for Malissa.

"I don't know," he told her, "but I'm going to find out."

Gently, he plucked her hands away from her belly. Then he rested his own hands there, directly over her womb. He focused all of his attention on the child growing inside her. He could sense its pain and distress.

And he could sense the cause of it too.

"This isn't magic," he growled darkly. "This is poison."

The queen's eyes went wide.

"Poison?"

Beliath nodded and gently palpated her abdomen, sensing the nature of the poison inside her.

"I know the recipe," he said. "It's an old one. Very old. It's meant to induce a miscarriage. Whoever gave you this poison wasn't trying to kill you . They specifically wanted to end your pregnancy."

"Who—" the queen started to say, but then shook her head, as if to say that question could wait til later. "Can you stop it? Can you save our baby?"

"Yes," said Beliath. "I think so."

He pressed his hands a little more firmly against her belly and sent his magic into her to fight the poison. She had taken a big dose. A very big dose. Beliath was amazed that the baby had been able to survive it.

Glad, but amazed.

It was Malissa's body that had saved the child. She seemed to have a natural resistance to poison—or rather, an unnatural resistance. An ordinary woman would have lost the child already.

Clearly, Malissa was not an ordinary woman.

Beliath already knew she was special, he just hadn't realized to what extent.

It took almost half an hour and most of the magical energy he had stored up inside him to eradicate the last traces of the poison from Malissa's system and the baby's. When it was over, he let out an exhausted sigh.

"Is it better?" Malissa asked. She still had tears in her eyes, but she had stopped sobbing. "It feels better."

"I have eliminated the poison," Beliath said, gently caressing her stomach. "The baby is alive, but very weak."

"Will he survive?" Malissa asked, fresh tears surging into her eyes.

"He will," Beliath reassured her. "I just need to heal him. But…"

"But what? What's the matter?"

"Malissa, I hope you will not think me crude, but I will need to pleasure you."

"Now?"

"I'm afraid so. I've expended all of my magic getting rid of the poison. Now I need to replenish it, and for that I need food."

"Food?"

"We Sabaoth do not feed on meat and bread as you humans do. We feed upon humans' sensations, pain and pleasure. Pain is the stronger of the two, but—"

"Then hurt me," the woman interrupted. "Torture me. Do whatever you need to do to heal our baby."

Beliath smiled. The little queen's courage pleased him. So did her newfound sense of trust.

"That won't be necessary," he said. "For what I must do, pleasure will suffice."

"Do you mean…?"

"Not sex," Beliath said.

He understood the woman's concern. She was not in the mood for sex at the moment—not with everything she had just been through—and frankly, neither was he. But there were other forms of pleasure besides sex.

"Roll over," he said.