6

Beelzebub

I'd barely fully undressed by the time I came. After rolling onto his back, Wally pulled me in close, and I kissed him again and again, seduced by his panting. He craved air and me, only able to choose one, he chose me. This continued for a time until I released his lips from mine, and he rested his head on my shoulder.

Already aroused, I wrapped my thighs around one of his, letting my semi-hard bulge rub against his leg.

Wally rolled on top of me in a blur, channeling essence. I wasn't sure when, but his assertiveness had blossomed tenfold since unlocking a few of my Diabolic abilities. His orange aura radiated against the sunlit bedroom. Crimson coursed from his core, feeding upon his magic at the singular act of harnessing Diabolic speed. Well, to a point. His movements were fast for a mortal but paled in comparison to what I'd used in the bedroom, the living room, private lounge of that club in Denver—honestly, wherever and whenever I could ravish him.

It was important I shared my demon essence with him, keeping us bonded, but it required a delicate balance. I made certain never to offer him so much the essence would devour him entirely as I sought to keep him safe, not in danger.

I sat up only for him to shove me back onto the bed, a hand pressed between my pecs.

He adjusted his glasses, staring down at me with a fiery passion. Leaning close, his breaths hit my ear. "Let's not allow conversation to interrupt this time."

I smirked. "You're the only one talking."

He shushed me by placing a finger over my lips, holding a subservient gaze that had all my attention and my body's attention, too.

Our lips locked in a passionate kiss. My tongue massaged his, and he panted, pulling back only long enough to bite my lower lip before shoving his tongue back into my mouth. Wally ran his hands up and down my biceps, finally reaching my clawed hands and interlocking our fingers. He guided my hands, craving them, desiring me to caress his supple flesh, all the while keeping us locked in powerful kisses directed by him.

Such a commanding lover whose kisses stirred my insides, sending a warmth through my chest further down.

He kissed my collarbone, trailing his way down my chest and stomach and sliding his tongue lower and lower, following the trail of warmth where my blood surged. The lightest graze of his teeth along my abs, tickling, taunting, tantalizing me with bites. It made me hard. Made me want to snatch his hair and jerk him up here so I could bite him. Taste him. Tease him.

He'd slipped to the end of the bed, kissing my hip bone.

I gently ran my fingers through his curls before grabbing a fistful of hair.

Wally ran his tongue along the length of my shaft as I clutched his hair, yet he controlled his own movements—for the moment.

He teased me with his tongue, demanding my authority. Gods, how I relished his submissive dominance. Always eager, always willing, always mine…

His mana radiated a delicate orange aura joyfully swirling through the room as my crimson essence captured and ravished his magic, adding to the humble dominion I'd created in this hovel. Not nearly as vast as the Diabolic voids I'd once had, but enough to stretch the length of the town. Given his new job might take him to and from Chicago, I should trickle my essence through the nearby city.

I groaned. The warmth of his mouth enveloped me, and I rolled my eyes back, taking in the blissful sensations.

Allowing him his fun, I added more power behind my grip, ignoring his muffled gulps. He would have it no other way, so I lay there, steadily pushing his head further until his nose reached the base. When his hands squeezed my thighs—not my hips or butt to maintain his grasp—I relented. A subtle cue we had when he couldn't handle it…when his throat needed a second to adjust. Allowing him a breath, he took several quick, heavy inhales. Only after he'd caught enough air did I push him back down, which he didn't resist.

The arch in his back lessened, and his muscles tensed, but he continued bobbing.

Finally, I pulled him off my dick and zipped behind him. I spun him around and flipped him onto his back before he realized what had happened.

"Relax, love." I grinned down at his head hanging over the edge of the bed.

I removed his glasses, already sliding off his upside-down face, and then slipped my cock into his warm mouth. Leaning forward, I kept his hips steady as I slowly sped my thrusts. I hadn't pushed the length of my shaft all the way in, allowing his throat a chance to adapt to this new position, but once his reflex stopped constricting and his gagging gulps turned into steady inhales, I lifted a leg onto the bed, arching over him and took a jackhammer position pounding into the back of his throat, the sudden slap of my skin against his face served the count of seconds passing to minutes.

I continued until I felt myself nearing, slowing my hips every few pumps to alter the rhythm enough to help deescalate my own pleasure in his tight throat; I stalled finishing so I could stroke him closer to completion.

His legs twitched as he came, and he moaned with the full length of my cock inside his mouth, making it impossible to hold back another second. I gripped the sides of his head, groaning as my cock vibrated; a euphoric explosion shot down his throat.

Gently, I rubbed his Adam's apple until he swallowed. "That's my little mage. Nutritious, delicious, and offers far more inspiration than any Fae seeds could."

"You're an ass," he said, spitting out my flaccid cock, clicking his jaw back and forth to remove the tension.

"As the mortals say, ‘you are what you eat,' so I suppose you're to blame for my behavior." I winked, to which Wally responded by taking my fine silk shirt and using it like a common cum rag. "Dick."

"You are what you eat or whatever, right?" Wally chuckled—a cute, carefree laugh not holding the weight or burden of a ploy we still had to discuss. Instead, lost in the afterglow of sex, he tossed my ruined shirt at me, catching it on my left horn. "Damn. Was aiming for the other one."

"Shocker, Walter's aim being off."

"You're one to talk, considering…" Wally tipped his head, giving me the worst judgment face. "Sacramento."

"Don't you dare. That doesn't count." I huffed. "Too much tequila and not enough unicorn."

Wally put on his faded pink briefs. It'd taken time, but I'd managed to turn them into such a cute color and ripped apart the other pairs with insatiable teeth. For whatever reason, Wally deemed himself above wearing pink, but I loved him in such soft colors.

"No post-coital cuddles?" I plopped onto the bed as he finished dressing.

"I have to finish that clock, then I have some incantation spell pages to cloak, which will need to be shipped like two days ago. Also, there's that troll decoction I needed to create a comprehensive list of ingredients on, and I should probably…hmm…"

"Other work can wait."

"Yeah, I guess, um, I should contact, you know." Wally stretched his lips wide, fighting a frown but unable to smile.

"Contact that Fae lord?"

"The baron, yeah."

"Same thing." I rolled my eyes, retrieving the card I'd slipped off Wally's worktable. "You might need this."

"When'd you take that back?"

"I didn't take it back." I dangled the card in front of him, smiling as he jumped, unable to catch the card or my tail. "I simply retrieved it when you pushed me into the bedroom, demanding satisfaction only my dick could offer."

Wally squeezed my tail. His tight grip was unrelenting. I tossed the card to another tail. I could play this game all day.

"We need to finish our conversation before you move into accepting this Fae's proposition for a position."

"It sounds weird when you say it that way." Wally scrunched his face.

"Let us contact the noble, where you'll accept his offer on the contingency I remain present. He'll certainly not object, considering my presence may, in fact, be part of his objective. Also, I made it clear last night, I do not abide well when lacking your company."

"Wait. So you don't trust me to handle this alone?"

"I do."

"Then why are you going with me?" Wally's brow creased into his pouty scowl. "And if, like you said, you're his objective in this mystery to traveling through Diabolic realms, then shouldn't you not be there? You know, not walking into a trap? If this is actually a trap and Mora hasn't simply gotten the details wrong."

I did trust Wally. I didn't trust this baron who was brazen enough to kidnap, bind, and possibly kill demons in great numbers. A group of mages or Mythics banding together to take down a single Diabolic threat, I could respect, but the gall of a single entity holding their own against my brethren, the ability it required—that was a danger unlike any other. I had limited experience with the Fae. Perhaps I'd underestimated their capabilities or overestimated Diabolic powers. Either way, I wouldn't send Wally into a wolf's den alone.

Wally continued staring while I was left smirking in silent contemplation. "I do trust you to handle this alone, which you'll be doing. You'll be alone with the Fae in his villa while I excuse myself to use the little Diabolic's room. You'll keep him busy and distracted—again, alone—and I'll search for clues."

"All the while remaining close by."

"Only if you insist, sweetheart."

Wally glowered. "Let's just get this started."

Wally muttered half-concocted theories on the complexities of the card for the better part of an hour. Turned out the damned thing required deciphering, which proved difficult—even by Wally's standards.

He said a few Fae phrases, and the card twinkled. As he continued, the shimmer fizzled out, and he grumbled.

"What's the problem this time?" I asked, standing over him while he sat in the center of his office floor with Mythic books surrounding him, each a codex on different linguistics.

"It's weird," he said.

"That much I gathered."

"I didn't realize this would be such a complicated read. The Sylvan symbols used are mostly elementary phrases anyone could learn. Even people with no understanding or knowledge of magic." He waved a hand at me, head buried in a book. "Hell, even you could grasp these terms."

"Screw you."

He completely disregarded my comment, lost in his research. "The problem is they're rearranged with what I thought were incorrect letters, but they're actually other languages. A few human and some mostly dead Mythic dialects." He laughed to himself over what I could only guess was some trivial nerd humor. "Guess he made the decryption as a test of sorts. Make sure he didn't make a hasty choice in offering me a position. That would be flattering if the position were genuine and not like a trap."

"The only one you better be flattered taking positions for is me."

"This is serious, Bez."

"I'm very serious."

"Oh, I think I got it." Wally scribbled some notes, copying the symbols from the card onto a piece of paper in a different arrangement. "Ready? This should theoretically bring him here or his villa."

"As long as he doesn't break my things."

"It shouldn't be phased with our reality." Wally stood with the paper in hand.

All the same, I coiled a tail around Wally's waist, claws drawn and essence stirring. I wouldn't take the trickery of the Fae lightly a second time around.

Wally began reciting the incantation, summoning this Novus Fae to us, where I'd do my best to play nice for Wally and Mora's sake. My own too. Only long enough to uncover his secrets, then I'd accidentally knock him off a high ledge, into a sharp stake, or into a boiling cauldron. I couldn't be faulted for clumsiness.

The paper in Wally's hand burned pink, crumpling to ashes. "Shit, I think—"

He exploded into glitter, lost from my grip as each sparkled before fading to nothingness.

I zipped about the office, searching for his scent, his presence, his anything. He couldn't vanish into thin air.

Not again.

The card remained, and I snatched it up, trying to mentally rearrange the slew of symbols Wally had rewritten on the now-burned paper. I couldn't recall. I hadn't paid attention and didn't know the first thing about the Fae alphabet.

I shouted, fighting back the panic of quick, wispy breaths. Was this panic mine or Wally's? It had to be mine. I couldn't sense any trickle of his being.

Not a trace. It was like he'd moved dimensional planes and teleported all at once while also closing the door behind so seamlessly it left this plane undisturbed.

I dove into the shadows of my void realm, hoping the ethereal sensation of running through the pocket world sparked some extra connection to our bond. Perhaps something bordering the walls of this plane would help me find Wally. Feel our bond. Sense his mana. Anything. The faintest tug of his link.

Nothing.

I soared throughout the town of Galena, veiled behind my Diabolic web, searching for signs, but I couldn't feel him anywhere.

I sprinted from across town back into our house in a fraction of a second. Once I emerged, I searched the room—every room—for dimensional tears, tiny fractures like at The Chicago Theatre.

Nothing.

My chest tightened with each failed lead; a heavy pressure like iron made of fear and guilt weighed heavy on me.

Raged seethed out in a maelstrom of black lightning, surging with a gust throughout the main living space. Electricity crackled, knocking kitchenware from the cupboards, and wind hurled furniture everywhere. My claws and tails slashed through everything in my path. None of it soothed my fury.

I stormed into Wally's office, tearing at the fibers of energy in the room, searching for any trail. Still nothing.

Antoninus, the most irritating and worthless scorpion that ever existed, hissed.

"I don't speak annoying fucking insect. But if you're warning me not to disturb Walter's belongings, I hate to break it to you"—I smashed a trinket meant to pass off to Mora for payment—"he's already gone."

Wait. Mora. She put me up to this. Risked Wally's neck, and now I have no way to help him. But she knew something. She must have. This was her lead, after all, and she found the Fae Divinity performance where no one else could.

I quelled my essence and went to retrieve my telephone, ignoring the clatter of the scorpion's claws and profane hisses. The tiny bug scuttled into the living room carrying the card used to steal Wally.

"You're trying to tell me something?" I knelt in front of the creature, waiting for a response when he dropped the card, pointed feet walking over one symbol in particular. The insect walked over this one sign three times over. "You want me to say this?"

Antoninus didn't respond. Of course not. Despite sharing knowledge from the wealth of Wally's mind, this tiny, insignificant creature lacked proper civility.

I read the phrase. He stepped onto another set of symbols, and I followed suit by speaking them aloud until I reached the third one.

The scorpion stung me.

I growled. "I don't know how to say it."

Antoninus pointed his stinger at a collection of books, which I'd have to root through since the tiny fucker couldn't flip to the necessary passage.

"If we don't find Wally, I'm going to eat you," I said, flipping pages. "After I boil you in chocolate cheese."

We worked together, me doing all the heavy lifting of identifying what this bug wished me to read and translate next. Either I mispronounced something or skipped over something because he kept hissing.

"Unless you're going to tell me how to properly say it, shut the fuck up." I huffed. "Just click your claws or something when I say a word correctly."

The scorpion hissed.

I squinted, desperately attempting to decode these symbols and rescue Wally.