Chapter 19

Mari stared at the wall opposite her desk as her fingers played over the details of the necklace welded to her with magic more complex than any she'd ever felt. It was a thing of dangerous beauty, circling her neck with a motif of roses and thorns sharp enough to cut. Cisco had already sliced his hands several times trying to remove it, even with his tough skin, though it never seemed to hurt her. She traced the flower at the base of her throat, ruby petals surrounding a large, dark sapphire at the center. Greta had said that sapphires were the spellstones of demons. Was that what Dohal was? Whenever she touched the gems like this, she could feel an answering tug against her magic.

The necklace was a mark of ownership, as surely as the one her father had placed around her neck was, but for some reason, this one felt different. Rather than stealing her power, this one amplified it. She suspected it also linked her much more closely to Dohal. And no matter what they had tried, they couldn't get it off her neck.

"It's really creepy the way you stroke that thing sometimes," Cisco said from the doorway.

Gesturing for him to come in, Mari smiled. "Just trying to figure it out."

He crossed to her desk in a couple of steps and leaned on the edge. "Maybe the sex witch Esmé recommended will be able to help you figure out how to get it off. She's supposed to be here the end of next week."

She nodded. "How's Rio?"

"Feeling better, though he pouted when he discovered that you'd left without waking him up. I brought him breakfast in bed, and now he's napping again."

"Good." The image of her sweet kitty curled up in bed made her warm inside, but she steeled herself for what she knew was coming. "How about our guests?"

"Kima growls whenever I get near the door, which I suppose is to be expected from a lion shifter. Giselle says they've been eating, so I think we just need to wait for them to emerge from the guest room."

"And you think they aren't a danger to us?"

"I think Kima will be an asset if we can convince her to stay. But if they want to go, then we should let them."

Mari nodded. "I saw Willow at breakfast. They didn't seem inclined to go home, which was a surprise."

Cisco shrugged. "I think they want to talk to Rio, but he's not ready for company yet. I let Esmé know they were safe."

With reluctance, she moved on to the part of the conversation she was dreading. "You want to ask me about it now?"

Cisco looked her over carefully. "If you want to talk about it."

"Honestly, I'm never going to want to talk about it, so we might as well get it out of the way."

"What was it?"

Mari shrugged. "He looked like a demon, but I got the feeling he only took that shape because it was a familiar one for me. I'm not sure what he actually is. Maybe some kind of demigod?"

Cisco frowned. "And it blew Argento into atoms?"

She shook her head. "I don't think so. He said he stopped protecting Argento, and that whatever had been after him, whatever my father and the other incubi had been running from, finally found him. But it happened in a fraction of a second."

"So they were keeping it captive here, using you to feed it, in order to protect themselves from something even worse?"

"That's the impression I got."

"And you don't think it wants to hurt you?"

"No, I really don't. I mean, the whole thing was really intense, but if he had wanted to hurt me, he had every opportunity."

He picked up one of her hands and examined the mark of Dohal's claws on her wrist. "These look like they hurt."

She remembered how it had burned, how she had screamed, but somehow, the memory didn't cause her any distress, as if the pain had been incidental. "Not in a bad way."

Cisco looked skeptical. "In a sexy way?"

Mari blushed as she remembered how Dohal had made her feel, like she was on fire but never burned. "I guess."

He rested their joined hands against his thigh. "Okay, what is it you aren't telling me? I know there's something."

She exhaled a long breath. "He made it sound like I was made for him. Like to be his perfect mate or something."

Cisco searched her face for a moment. "Do you think that's true?"

"I have no idea. Honestly. It makes a certain kind of sense, that they would want another layer of control over him, especially if they thought he was making attempts to get free."

He rubbed her hand with his thumb. "There's more?"

Mari nodded. "He made it sound like I wasn't just a sex witch, like I was something else. Like my father and the incubi had created me with a purpose, made me into something else."

"Something like?"

"I don't know exactly." Mari shrugged. "He used the word goddess a lot, but I don't know if that was literal or metaphorical." She swallowed because the last part was difficult to come to terms with. "He said they wouldn't have been able to control me forever, that I was too wild. Maybe too dangerous? I'm not sure."

Cisco pulled her up out of her chair gently, bringing her closer to him. "You're not dangerous, Mari. No matter what the creature thinks." He curled an arm around her and kissed the side of her face gently. "And just to put things in perspective, I'm sure that I called you a goddess first."

She laughed as he cuddled her closer, basking in the warmth and safety of his body. "Fair enough."

"And how about us, are we okay?

"Hmm?"

He pulled back so he could see her face, his hand rising to push her hair back behind her ear. "I sprung the bond on you in the middle of a crisis and didn't really give you the chance to tell me you didn't want it."

"I want you, Cisco." She reached up to stroke his horn the way she knew he liked, enjoying the tension that flared through his body at her touch. "I have for so long I don't really remember a time before that." She pulled back on his horn so his chin lifted, and she kissed the hard edge of his jaw. "And now that you're mine, I don't ever intend on letting you go."

He groaned when she bit the tender skin of his throat. "Saints, I love the sound of that word on your lips." His arms tightened around her to bring her closer. "Say it again."

"Mine." She nipped his chin just before claiming his mouth in a blistering kiss. She tugged on his horn again to pull him back. His lips were parted, and his eyes were dark with desire. "Lean back so I can take what's mine right now."

He complied without saying anything, leaning back with his hands braced on the desk. She tore open his shirt, heedless of the buttons, exposing the acres of dark muscle like a feast just for her. Mari paused to slip out of her dressing gown, letting it glide down her body as he watched with a hungry expression.

She grinned as she reached for his belt, taking her time to fondle him as she undid his pants. He murmured appreciatively when she finally released the hard length of his cock. She didn't waste any more time before climbing onto the desk to straddle him. She slid her hands up his chest and to his shoulders, using his body to lift herself up so he was poised at her entrance.

Mari gazed down at him, relishing how he looked up at her like she was everything he'd ever wanted. She stared into his eyes as she impaled herself on him, inch by gradual inch, taking her time to enjoy the sensation of being filled by him. His tail coiled around her forearm to hold her lightly, as if he craved as much contact with her as possible. When she'd taken him down the last ridge, she arched her back and grinded against him.

"That's right," Cisco purred as he smoothed one hand over her ass. "Take me slow and dirty. I want to feel every inch of you clenching around me."

Every inch of you is mine, bavi. The words Dohal had spoken to her rang in her head.

Her necklace warmed suddenly. The metal felt heavy around her neck, more present. The piercings in her body all throbbed at once, potent with her simmering magic. Around her, time slowed to a crawl. She could still feel Cisco's hands and tail on her and his cock stretching her, but it was as if the time between the seconds expanded. Her power thrummed inside her as her hips continued to move, but much more slowly. Beside her, the shadows shifted and coalesced, gradually becoming the shape of Dohal, as if she'd summoned him by thinking his name.

Dohal began to move before he'd even fully taken shape, the shadows soft and wispy around him, circling them. He seemed unaffected by whatever had slowed time. "I can see why you enjoy this one. He's very pleasing to the eyes." He focused for a long moment on where Cisco's cock pushed inside her in slow motion. "And other parts of you."

Every sensation seemed more intense at this speed, going on for minutes rather than seconds. Her magic swelled dangerously when his cock reached the spot inside her that always made her toes curl, but rather than receding as it normally did, it was held in that heightened state as what would have been a moment in real time went on and on. She gasped as it filled her to bursting, but she couldn't hold on to it, and it detonated from her like a shockwave. And all the while, her body never stopped in its slow, torturous glide back and forth over Cisco's cock, as if she had no control at all of what she was doing.

Dohal made a thoughtful sound as her power swirled around him, curling over his body like a caress before rushing into him. "He enjoys being taken by you this way, your body devouring him. He would give you everything. He would bleed for you, suffer for you, as is your due as his goddess. So why shouldn't you accept it?"

After a while, when she didn't respond, he focused on her face again. "He won't hear if you speak to me. We're in your mind."

She didn't know if it was unwise to respond to him, if it would just encourage him to do… whatever this was. "I won't harm him."

"That is such a human sentiment. I'm surprised, hearing it from your lips, considering who raised you." Dohal shrugged. "What you do with your toys is your business, I suppose."

"What are you doing here?"

"This is your mind, bavi. You summoned me. I only responded to your call, as I always will."

She wondered again what that word meant. The shape of it seemed familiar somehow, but she couldn't quite grasp it. "I didn't call for you."

"You did. You thought of me in the midst of this carnal act with your paramour and drew me like a moth to a flame." His generous lips turned up at the corners. "Which I am very appreciative of, by the way. Watching you claim him like this is enthralling." His eyes wandered over her body, and she could feel the heat of his gaze as it crept over her.

Her power detonated again when she canted her hips at exactly the right angle and Cisco's cock whispered over the spot that always ignited her once more. She moaned, long and low. The magic raced out of her and into Dohal, who watched her with a slightly amused expression. When she had recovered, she glared at him. "What are you doing to me?"

"I'm not doing anything. This is your mind. You are sharing this moment with me. Though I'll be honest, as much as I enjoy it, I'm not sure why. Are you trying to make me jealous?"

She didn't know if she believed him. Had she called to him? "Are you even capable of jealousy?"

He seemed to consider her question carefully. "I feel a great deal of possessiveness over you. And as much as I wish it were my cock you were taking with such devotion, I know it's not possible right now."

Mari didn't miss the fact that he hadn't actually answered her question, but there was something much more interesting in what he had said. "Why not?"

Dohal's black eyes devoured her until she thought she would catch fire just from how he watched her. "Are you looking forward to that as much as I am, bavi? How I ache to feel you trembling under me." He chuckled when no response came. "I used a great deal of the power I had been hoarding to come to you physically when you called the last time because I knew you were in peril."

"So you have to recharge before you can do it again?"

"Exactly right." He paused briefly, his eyes raking over her as her magic crested and surged once again. "I enjoy watching you take your pleasure from him since I can't give it to you myself."

His deep voice was a velvet caress against her skin, tempting her with dark promises of what he might do when he finally could. She tried desperately to focus amid the warren of distractions and managed after a moment. "And what are your intentions now that I've freed you?"

"Well, as soon as I can manifest physically, first, I intend to use every inch of your body so thoroughly that you'll need a week of rest just to recover from the wicked things I'll do." He licked his lower lip slowly. "And then I'll probably take all of the power I've drawn from your still quivering body and destroy this wretched city you call home."

She stared at him, unable to form a single word as the horror twisted inside her, tugging against the desire so that it stole her breath.

"I will enjoy listening to you beg me not to destroy these ants you seem to care for so much. I wonder what you'll promise me to spare them," he murmured softly. "What will you offer me, bavi? I can't wait to find out."

He smiled with an edge of cruelty as another orgasm crashed through her, exhaling a deep, satisfied sigh when her power sought him out. The necklace tightened around her throat, the echo of what his hand might feel like there, the thorns digging into her skin. The pain only intensified the pleasure wracking her body. She sobbed every time her body contracted around Cisco as the sensations became too much.

Dohal's laughter buffeted her as the world around her sped up again, just in time for Cisco's tightening grip on her ass and his groan of release as he drove up into her.

Mari shuddered as her muscles continued to pulse around Cisco. What could she promise a twisted demon of hunger to stop him from destroying those he thought had wronged him?