9. 9

9

Beau

T hey burst through Beau’s front door, lips attached hungrily and Kassel’s hands splayed on Beau’s thighs as he held him up.

Beau didn’t know what to do, where to hold back. His awkward, inexperienced hands simply held on for dear life. All he did know was that he didn’t want Kassel to stop.

They hit the wall, Kassel cushioning him from the impact, but not his weight, making Beau gasp.

“They were all looking at you,” Kassel growled against his mouth, the sound vibrating between them.

“No.” Beau tried to argue because it wasn’t true. Nobody paid him any mind; they never did.

Kassel pulled back, eyes moving over his face.

“You don’t see. You only notice the surface, but my eyes can tell. They stared at you. Lusted after you.”

Beau’s head was spinning, both from the words and the assault of Kassel’s lips and hands on his body.

“It’s just because of Dave. I’m invisible.” Beau struggled to get the words out when Kassel’s lips dove back in and landed on his neck, pulling at the skin there. He knew there would be marks there tomorrow, knew people would know what he’d been up to, and his cheeks flamed with the notion.

Kassel detached from him with a wet smack and looked up, glowing eyes too intense as they saw through him. Right down to the core of who he was.

“Invisible?” Kassel asked.

His fingers tightened on Beau’s thighs, and he walked them toward Beau’s bedroom faster than should have been possible. He deposited Beau on his bed, making him bounce on his back, completely breathless and enamored as he stared up at Kassel’s looming figure.

The room was dark, just the string of fairy lights Beau wrapped around his window frame glowing faintly. They reflected off the ice on the glass, fracturing into diamonds on the walls and their bodies.

“Invisible?” Kassel asked again, coming to kneel next to Beau on the mattress, running a hand over his body but not touching. Just… gliding it through the air over Beau.

It still felt like the most intimate touch Beau had ever experienced. It made him desperate for more, the tease too much for his touch-starved body.

Once. Twice. The third pass took Beau’s clothes with it.

He gasped.

He was left naked. Exposed for Kassel to look at. Vulnerable in a way he’d never been before.

His hands rushed to cover himself on instinct, grasping for a blanket and pulling it over half of his body and up to his chest. One leg and one arm were left exposed, and he froze before he could cover them as well, meeting Kassel’s burning gaze.

He watched, hypnotized, breath caught in his throat as Kassel leaned down slowly and kissed his bare thigh. It was a damp, rough brand against the virgin skin. Exploring. Enticing.

Beau’s eyes fluttered shut, heat climbing from his chest to high on his cheeks. The fingers holding up his blanket trembled. He could feel his body reacting, pushing against the blanket. Even coming in Kassel’s arms hadn’t felt like this. Nothing could have prepared him.

Kassel kissed every inch of bare skin, finding the joint of his hip and scraping his teeth over the bone. Beau shivered, knowing he should feel like prey under a huge beast, the definition of a virginal sacrifice ready to be defiled by a thing with wicked intentions.

It only made him hotter. Made his heart beat faster.

Kassel moved to his arm to work his way up to the curve of his shoulder, tongue dipping into his armpit before going higher still.

“You shine,” Kassel said in a deep rumble before kissing him behind the ear.

“What?” Beau asked, blinking his eyes open to half-mast and finding Kassel staring at him with every single one of his. Unblinking. Completely focused.

“Brighter than anything I’ve seen before,” he said. He placed his clawed hand over Beau’s clenched one in the middle of his chest. “You’re not invisible, Beau. Humanity is blind.”

His insides melted and his heart threatened to drum right out of his chest. Nobody had ever said anything like that to him before. Nobody had ever made him feel like he was worth the air he was breathing and the space he was taking up on this planet. He always felt like he was intruding, stealing from someone more worthy of it all.

Kassel made it seem like it was all meant to be his. Like he deserved it.

Beau let the blanket drop.

“Kiss me,” he whispered.

Kassel descended on him like he was starved, his tongue in Beau’s mouth, his huge body pinning him to the bed. Beau fell back in wanton surrender, fully giving himself over to Kassel.

The leather of his clothes stuck to Beau’s naked skin, catching and scraping. He wanted purple and scaly skin, molten hot, brushing against his, fusing them together, touching every inch of him.

He needed it, he needed it, he needed it.

“Off,” he begged through the kiss, tugging weakly at Kassel’s clothes.

Clothes that, between one breath and the next, were nowhere to be found.

Kassel was on top of him, naked and warm and so heavy Beau was struggling to breathe, but he’d suffocate before admitting to it. He moaned, overstimulated by so much skin to skin, but he never wanted Kassel to move.

Kassel’s chest was echoing Beau’s heartbeat, the rough skin teasing his hard nipples. Beau’s legs were wrapped around trim hips and the length digging into his stomach was…

“Oh…” He gasped, rolling his hips into the enormous length seemingly without his control. The precum made the glide easier. He didn’t know who it came from, but there was a lot of it spread all over his lower stomach, seeping into his skin.

His cheeks flushed but he did it again, something else driving his lower body. He couldn’t see straight. It was so hot he was sweating. Goodness, he was so empty. He could hear himself moaning, feel himself writhing on the sheets, but it felt like it was a million miles away.

“Kassel, Kassel…”

Kassel wrapped his fingers around Beau’s hip and stilled his movements. It felt like a punishment, and Beau could feel tears gathering. He didn’t understand.

He wiggled against Kassel’s hold, stomach burning with the need for more. Kassel wouldn’t fit. That was more than obvious to him because the length and the girth of him was out of this world. Quite literally. He was over ten inches and girthier than a closed fist. And yet his rational mind was nowhere to be found, jumping that hurdle and careening straight into begging for it.

“Kassel, please… I want you…” He gasped, head thrashing against his pillow, thighs squeezing him.

“Settle down, Beau,” Kassel said.

“No.” He shook his head, feeling more tears gathering, spiraling and unable to stop. “I don’t wanna settle, I just want you. I need you. Please.”

“You have me,” Kassel said. “But we need to talk first.”

“Why?”

“You’re not quite yourself right now, and it’s my fault,” Kassel said.

“You’re right. It is your fault,” he said in a voice that sounded nothing like him. “Sexy demon.”

He grabbed for Kassel, sliding his hands from his shoulders down to the base of his tail, but before he could really touch, Kassel was off him and sitting at the edge of the bed.

Beau sprang up into a sitting position, bereft and dizzy. He had to brace a hand between his legs to balance, the other reaching out and pleading. “Come back.”

He glanced down his body to see what had suddenly changed. Why Kassel had been so reverent one moment and then distant the next. That train of thought screeched to a halt when he noticed the iridescent lavender fluid on his trembling stomach.

He reached out and ran a finger through it, coating it in a pearly shine.

“It’s what’s making you so desperate for me,” Kassel said.

Beau snapped his head up to meet his gaze. He felt shame and confusion pool in the pit of his stomach. “I’m sorry,” he whispered.

A clawed hand wrapped around his ankle and Beau shook even from that. “Don’t be sorry. I like that you want me.”

“But you wanted to stop…” Beau started, but Kassel shook his head, running his hands over him and making the pearly shine disappear from his skin.

The moment it was gone, the desperate ache in Beau’s stomach started to dissipate. He still wanted Kassel, was still hard for him, but the despair wasn’t there anymore. He didn’t feel like he’d burn to ash if Kassel didn’t touch him.

“Remnants of olden days,” Kassel said, large hands encompassing the span of his waist easily. “We affect human virgins like this.”

“Really?” Beau squeaked, allowing himself to be tugged closer again, happy to go.

“Just because they’re sacrificed to us doesn’t mean it has to be unpleasant for them,” Kassel said. “Our… fluids make them experience pleasure like never before.”

“Oh…” Beau said. He was truly a well of clever retorts. “But you got rid of it.”

“I removed its influence,” Kassel agreed, stroking over the small of his back. “I don’t want you to do something you don’t really want.”

Beau stared, eyes wide and incredulous before he broke out into breathless, relieved giggles.

“Beau?” Kassel asked.

Beau shook his head, uncoiling his body and crawling the remaining distance between them. He shyly hooked a leg over Kassel’s thighs, awkwardly sitting too far back before Kassel helped him out and nudged him closer. Beau flushed but held his place, not letting his inhibitions send him running for the blankets again.

“You think that’s what made me want you?” Beau asked.

He didn’t wait for an answer. Instead, he tipped forward, rolling his hips gently into Kassel’s again.

He watched Kassel’s eyes darken, not breaking their stare even though it made him squirm.

He felt the second precum oozed again, shiny and sticky and coating them both. The frenzy picked up again, getting its hooks into him and spreading into his bloodstream. The storm raged like it had never stopped.

But he knew his mind.

“I've wanted you since the moment you appeared,” Beau moaned, head tipping back. “I don’t know… I don’t really know how to make you feel good but… I want to.”

Claws indented his skin, urging him on.

He ran his hands down Kassel’s body, fingers shaking and unsure, but he was determined as he reached between them and let his fingers wrap tentatively around Kassel’s length.

Kassel grunted, arching up into his hand.

The tips of Beau’s fingers could barely touch around it. Huge. Kassel was huge.

He’d break Beau in half.

“Show me?” he whispered, peeking up through his lashes. “Please?”

Beau found himself on his back again, fingers forced around his bedframe, legs up in the air and spread wide, and Kassel between his thighs, breathing him in, lapping at his hole, pushing his pointy tongue inside Beau.

Fire rose and swallowed him in its wake.

He was screaming. At least he thought that was him. High-pitched wailing sounds that made his throat hurt.

Kassel didn’t let up.

He used his own precum to spread over Beau’s hole, and Beau wished he could see if it was still shimmering down there, painting him prettily for Kassel. Fuck, he wanted to be pretty for him. Wanted Kassel to want him just as much.

He let go of his bed and wrapped his hands under his own knees, keeping himself open. Stars danced before his eyes, and everything was purple and ash.

Kassel worked his fingers in, watching him from above. A claw prodded at his prostate gently, just a tiny little prick, and Beau screamed again, shaking so hard his bed rattled against the floor.

He’d die. He was sure he wouldn’t live to see another day. He just hoped Kassel would be inside him when he did. He wanted to go out with their bodies joined as one. He didn’t want to die alone.

“Kassel, please. I want you inside.” He panted, mindless of the fact that there was no possible way of Kassel putting his whole dick inside him. Not without actually tearing him to pieces. “Just a little. Just the tip. I need you…”

“Hold still,” Kassel said, breath hot and humid against his thigh, eyes glowing up at him. The epitome of a demon between his thighs. “You need to stay still, Beau, or this won’t end well.”

“I will,” Beau said, doing anything but. “Promise I will. Just… please.”

Kassel moved, bracing himself between Beau’s legs and guiding the blunt head of his cock against his hole.

Beau moaned, his eyes rolling just from feeling it there, teasing his stretched rim, spreading the precum around and making Beau crazy. Then he started to push in, and stars exploded in front of his eyes.

It was too much. He was going to break. There was no way it was going to fit.

He shook his head from side to side, mouth hanging open.

And then the tip slipped past, breaching him and leaving him speared and at Kassel’s mercy. Beau whimpered and Kassel groaned. The pain was dulled somehow by pleasure so intense Beau was sure he’d faint from it.

“Move,” he moaned, burning from the inside. “Please, Kassel, move.”

“Don’t want to hurt you,” Kassel said, infuriatingly still inside him. “Come here.”

Kassel rocked back a half an inch and toppled over, flat on his back, his tail holding Beau around his waist while his hands gripped his thighs, preventing him from sliding any lower on his cock.

The jostling made him scream though, his hole barely able to take it. He held on to Kassel’s hands, unable to reach anything else.

“Beau.” Kassel stared up at him intently, hair spread out around him, horns arched back and digging into the bed. He looked beautiful. “Ride me.”

Beau’s thighs trembled, insecurity fighting through the lust.

“I don’t… I don’t know how,” he said.

Kassel sat up and took his mouth.

Beau moaned into the space between them, arms going around Kassel’s neck as he met his tongue with his own. Meanwhile, Kassel used the grip he still had on him to lift him up easily, nearly slipping out of him before lowering him again on his bulbous tip. He did it again. And again. The ridge catching him and making him shudder.

Beau broke the kiss and panted against Kassel’s cheek, eyes slipping closed as he was seduced with carnal movement until something inside him snapped.

His hands found and gripped Kassel’s horns. He rocked up and down, frenzied, wild.

He could hear Kassel’s grunts beneath him as Beau clenched tightly. He was a ball of pleasure. And it only took moments for that pleasure to build, wildfire rushing through his body and erupting through his untouched cock.

Kassel came too, painting his insides, filling him up to bursting. With his last conscious thought he kissed Kassel’s lips, rested his forehead against his, and felt eyes blinking against his skin.

And then he was gone.

He woke up clean, warm, and mostly comfortable, the dull ache radiating from his lower body telling him everything he needed to know. Darkness was thick around them and his breathing was the only sound in the silence.

But he wasn’t alone.

An arm was wrapped around his back under the covers, warmth radiating along the length of his body, a hot chest under his cheek. Beau’s body was thrumming and exhausted in the best possible way. He could feel Kassel all over him. Inside him. There were traces of him in bite marks on Beau’s chest and thighs, the scent of him branded into his pores.

It might have been Beau’s first time, but it had felt like a religious experience all the same. The thought was sealed with the church bells going off in the distance.

He glanced over to his bedside table and the digital clock there, barely able to make out the time.

12:01

It was Christmas.

And then he giggled because… church bells, when he was lying naked with a literal demon after being defiled within an inch of his life by said demon. He could barely believe his life.

He could feel many curious eyes on him.

“Merry Christmas, Kassel,” Beau whispered.

“Is it Christmas?” Kassel rumbled.

“It is. Can you hear the bells? It’s midnight.”

“Merry Christmas to you too,” Kassel repeated by rote, just to please him, clawed fingers sweeping up and down Beau’s back. Beau felt him lean down and brush his nose against the top of his head.

Casual affection. Mindless and free and for no other reason but to do it. It was what Beau craved beyond all else.

“The merriest yet,” Beau said, cuddling closer, kissing Kassel’s chest, wrapping his arm around his waist and hoping it would be enough to trap him in his bed forever.

“It is?” Kassel asked and something in his voice sounded different.

Hopeful, almost.

Beau lifted his head and found all of Kassel’s eyes trained at him, looking so gentle. Like he was the only thing that mattered in his eyes.

He’d never felt such pure happiness in all his life.

He felt something in his chest snap suddenly, making him startle.

He felt Kassel’s hand tighten on him like he’d felt it too, a ricochet passing between them and making Beau feel suddenly untethered, unaware he had been weighed down in the first place. And then he realized…

The summoning.

Dread filled him.

It had broken.

For the first time in his life he hadn’t felt alone. He’d been indescribably happy.

And now Kassel had to go.

Tears began to well, sadness bubbling up and killing the joy viciously, but it didn’t matter how fleeting the feeling had been. The summoning was fulfilled.

“Beau,” Kassel said quietly, looking like he was searching for words.

“You made me feel seen,” Beau whispered, heart stuttering in his chest. He didn’t want to say it, didn’t want to put an end to any of it, but he owed it to Kassel to hold up his end of the bargain. “For the first time in my life someone saw me and took the time to learn things about me.”

“Beau.” Kassel raised his hand to cup his cheek. His eyes were restless now, wide and focused, and Beau knew. He knew Kassel understood what was going on. “You don’t have to…”

A near hysterical hiccup left his lips.

“But I do,” he said, a tear slipping down his cheek. “I have to let you go. It’s done. It was never forever.”

His hands tightened around Kassel as he said it, like his body was at war with his mind. He buried his head in Kassel’s neck and inhaled as deeply as he could, hoping that scent would never fade from his memories.

“Maybe you can come and visit sometime,” he got out over his tears.

Kassel squeezed him closer, a hand finding his hair. “Time moves differently in Hell. It’s not linear. A day there could mean ten years pass up here. Five minutes here could mean a week in Hell. I… can’t promise…”

That was the thing Beau had learned about Kassel. He would never lie. Couldn’t. Not even to let him live in delusion.

More tears fell.

So, this was it.

He’d never see Kassel again.

He’d never be held by him again.

Never be kissed by those lips or looked at with the eyes he’d grown to cherish so much.

Kassel was leaving.

And Beau had to let him.

“I don’t want to,” Kassel said. “I don’t know… I…”

He sounded so confused, and Beau sobbed, shaking his head against Kassel’s neck.

“I don’t want you to either,” Beau whispered. “But it’s how it works, isn’t it? I called you for help, and you did what I wanted you to. I’ve never felt more like a human than I did this week we spent together. I’d never felt like I mattered quite the way you made me feel.”

“I didn’t do much.”

“You did everything,” Beau whispered. “You are everything. But you have a home to go back to.”

“Hell isn’t going anywhere,” Kassel said, still holding Beau close like he didn’t want to let go either. Like he felt the exact same way Beau did.

He didn’t know if that was better or worse.

“Maybe I’ll see you there then,” Beau said.

“You won’t,” Kassel said. “You’re too good for Hell.”

It was so unfair.

“I’m selfish,” Beau said, tears pooling on Kassel’s chest. “I want you to stay. That’s bad, right?”

Kassel stroked a thumb down his cheek, gathering the tears on his clawed fingers.

“You want to honor the summoning more than you want to keep me, though,” Kassel said, and Beau sobbed again, feeling like he would fly apart as he nodded miserably. “Too good for this world.”

Beau broke.

He fell into Kassel’s arms, crying his heart out as he gathered up the courage to say what he had to say. Forcing himself to find the evil inside him and make Kassel stay. Hating himself for even thinking about it. Hating that he couldn’t do it.

Surging up, he glued his lips to Kassel’s, the kiss messy and wet with tears, desperate and bruising. He wanted to climb inside Kassel’s skin so he’d take him with him. To Hell, to wherever he was going, just as long as Beau got to come along.

He poured everything he had into the kiss. Everything he was and everything they could have been together.

“Don’t forget me,” he pleaded against his lips. “At least for as long as I live. Can you give me that?”

“Beau,” Kassel said, his voice strangely shaky.

“It’s not long by your standards,” Beau said, breathing him in. “I just want to live knowing somewhere out there, you’re thinking of me sometimes. And then when I’m gone…”

“I won’t forget,” Kassel said, gripping his face with both of his hands now. “For as long as I live… I won’t forget.”

Beau found there was nothing else to say.

He kissed Kassel one more time. Wrapped himself in his arms and hid his face in his neck. Inhaled the ash and fire from his skin.

“You made me feel less alone,” Beau said, before whispering the words that would take Kassel from him. “Your summoning is complete.”

He felt lips on his temple. Claws on his back.

And then nothing but his empty bed, smelling of Kassel and loneliness deeper than ever before.