16. Florencia

16

Florencia

S hock and pain stupefied me, leaving me with my mouth agape as I looked down at my bleeding thigh, the thick puncture wounds dripping with crimson. The rational part of my brain told me I should be afraid, maybe repulsed, or that I should walk away from this situation. But my legs felt like jelly and my body was on fire, desperate for a relief I felt only he could temper.

The bite tingled, my pulse thrumming with the beat of my heart at the innermost part of my thigh. His wings were open wide, leather and spikes caging us in this corner, in our own little dark oblivion. My legs squeezed, his head still between them, when his eyes finally searched for mine.

There was a tenderness in his gaze, and I wanted it forever engraved in my memory, this misshapen love formed from lust and anger and fear weaving the pattern of our story. No one would understand it but us.

Camazotz lowered me down slowly, my back sliding down the wall until I could wrap my legs around his waist, refusing to disconnect from him. His tail danced along my skin, twisting around my ankle before he laid me on the bed. The smile on his face was one far too gentle, too raw and pure, doing something to the very center of my chest that made it ache.

I reached up, wrapping my arms around his neck and pulling him into a kiss once more. I needed to be closer to him, to feel him everywhere. As if answering my thoughts, his tail uncoiled from my leg, grazing up my inner thigh like a snake memorizing the shape of its prey.

"Camazotz." It was worrisome how right his name felt between my lips when I was angry, upset, or driven mad with pleasure. His name was mine to use, to curse and scream.

His response was a breathy laugh, his tail sliding through my folds and sending a shockwave of pleasure through me. "If you think my fingers feel good, wait until I stretch you with my tail and prepare you to take all of me at once."

He slid down my body, his mouth kissing my breasts, my stomach, and everything in between on the way back to my pussy, his tail never relenting as it worked me into a frenzy. I reached for his hair again, pulling tightly each time another burst of pleasure threatened to send me over the edge.

"I'm close," I whispered, feeling the tightening in my core.

"Not yet, Haxia," he ordered, his tail lifting away and hanging midair.

I whined, my thighs clenching shut with a need to alleviate the desperate throbbing between them. He gained pleasure from that, satisfaction painting over his face as he looked up at his tail hanging above me. My arousal dripped from the cone-shaped tip, falling onto my stomach before he moved his tail just centimeters from my lips.

He grinned a devilish smile. "Lick it."

The arrow-shaped tip wasn't hard like I first imagined, but malleable. It was flared at the base before the length of his tail continued behind it, and though the pointed end looked sharp, I was proven wrong. With barely parted lips, he pushed the tip in my mouth, forcing it open until nothing but the wide base stuck out. I circled my tongue, licking my own desire from it, watching the way his eyes narrowed and the way his jaw ticked from pleasure.

Pulling out with no warning, my drool dragging in a long string as he pulled his tail behind him once again, he spoke, "I'm going to fuck you everywhere now, Florencia. I'm going to fill you up so well, your mind won't have room for thoughts outside of me."

His mouth was silent then, unable to speak as he dropped his lips to my pussy again, his tongue doing things I couldn't possibly visualize, his fingers stretching and curving as he stroked all the right places. And then, his tail was there again, sliding between my folds, coating itself in my slick before he pushed it in.

Oxygen left my lungs, the feeling of his tail invading me, filling me with a pleasure I'd never experienced before. I was so full, but I needed more, so much more. "I need… I need…" I whined, trying to verbalize what I needed when I felt so close to coming undone.

"Beg me for more." I knew he couldn't read my mind, but it was in those moments, when he knew exactly what I needed, that I questioned if it was truly him or his brother I was designed for.

"More," I moaned, his tail leaving me hollow, but only for a moment before his fingers filled me again, this time a third working its way in. I shook my head in defiance, still needy and desperate. "More."

His tail pressed at my ass, slick with my arousal as it threatened something sinister. I looked down at Camazotz, still buried between my legs, as he lifted his eyes to meet mine, a wicked grin stretching from ear to ear while his fingers continued to work my ruin.

There was a burning, a painful stretch, as his tail pushed its way in, but just when I tightened my grip on his hair, his face disappeared. With his tongue lapping at my sensitive clit, I relaxed, my entire body melting and releasing with wave after wave of pleasure as he coaxed what felt like a never-ending climax from my body.

He wasted no effort, using the distraction to push his tail the rest of the way in until I felt the flared end fully inside me. I gasped, "It's too much," my body still convulsing with aftershocks of pleasure from the orgasm he refused to let die, his tongue still circling feverishly around my clit.

Instead, another orgasm hit me before the other could even end. I should have felt dirty; everything about this was wrong. Getting off to the man who stole me from my soulmate, getting off to the man who had been holding me captive, was wrong . But Camazotz was no man—he was a god, a king. Maybe falling in love with a god meant getting to choose your own destiny.

Pleasure coiled inside me, the acceptance of who I was and what I liked hitting me at once. Power flowed through my body, my fingertips tingling like a spell I couldn't hold back. My soul hummed with a power that felt similar to the forest, and another climax was as inevitable as my connection with Zotz.

I shattered in a silent scream, dark purple light obstructing my vision. I thought I was hallucinating, finally seeing things after going so long without proper sleep. Instead, Zotz pulled me into his lap, letting me come down from the high in the safety of his embrace.

"Look at that raw energy. Your magic, little Haxia," Zotz said, proving that whatever had happened was very real.

It was my power .

We watched the dancing lights in silence, only my breath forcing its way out in a steady rhythm. My body was warm, my mind tired and ready for rest. Zotz took the lead, untangling our bodies and leaving me empty as he pulled out of me.

"Don't go," I whispered, unsure if that had even been his plan. He shifted, moving to the side of the bed and bringing me into his arms. I rested my head over his chest, watching the way it remained perfectly still, with no need for air.

I began tracing patterns along his skin.

"I can feel it inside you," he said, eyes closed, enjoying my touch. "Electricity when you touch me."

"I feel it too," I whispered. "It's like it's finally accepting me."

He shook his head. "You are finally accepting who you are."

I agreed with a small nod.

He didn't open his eyes again, a giant god of a man purring under my touch like my own pet jaguar. Camazotz didn't know how powerful those words were. I felt uncertain my whole life, frozen in a memory.

Now, the truth stared back at me, the feeling of belonging like a warm blanket, comfort I never had or dreamed to have. I was still awake when Zotz disconnected from the world, his choice to sleep when his existence as a god wasn't needed.

I watched him for too long, the way his eyelids moved as if he was somehow dreaming too. I lowered my eyes to the cord around his neck, the iron key too loud in telling me its purpose.

This god slept like a man, not even twitching at the feel of me ripping the key from his neck before tucking it away for safekeeping.

What did a god of nightmares dream of? The thought was fleeting, reminding me that dreams were the cause of all of this. I could stay and cuddle with the nightmare god, let him bite my flesh and play with his monstrous pet. It almost felt like it was what I was intended to do.

But I couldn't.

I left my soulmate caged in a dungeon, chained to a wall.

His haunted eyes were the only image I could see with every blink.

Carefully, I reached for the key Camazotz kept around his neck, and I put it around my own. Then, I untangled myself from his arms, slipping on the same pants and boots combo as before, and then searched for the jaguar. Kame was asleep in front of the bed, as if somehow fully domesticated.

I crouched down to him. "Hey, big boy."

He stretched his paws, waking from slumber but readying to follow me wherever I went. "You stay here and take care of him."

Kame whined in disapproval but didn't disobey, staying in place and huffing loudly as he slumped back down to the ground. With one last scratch between the ears and a kiss on his forehead, I walked away.

Downstairs, every painting I walked past looked haunted. I made my way through the kitchen, where The Silent waited like statues for their next commands, and then to the narrow passage that led up to the small gate.

The Stonecrux lifted their hands, large eyes peering at me but their bodies not moving, only watching as I sprinted past them, leaving the safety of the Nightmare Castle walls.

Without another thought, my feet pounded below me. I moved fast so I couldn't have time to fear. I moved fast so my thoughts wouldn't stop me. I moved fast in case anything decided to chase me.

And then, there I stood, at the edge of the nightmare forest.