Pharon's Demon (5 page)

She placed her hands deliberately on his
chest, feeling the hot burning muscles leap beneath her touch. “Are
you so merciless to your mates? Show me,” she purred. “Why don’t
you show me what they will do to me?”

”They will savage these,” he promised. He
took her nipple into his hot mouth. She could feel the heat
transferring from him. Building.

She pushed the blacksuit off, feeling the
teasing trickle of beads of sweat rolling down her exposed flesh.
The heat was incredible “Doesn’t the heat end?”

He shook his head. “Never.”

“How can you stand it?” She wanted to scream
from the sensations.

He shook his head. “No more questions. No
demands. Captives do not speak. They are quiet.”

Just three minutes. Hand strokes down her
back and between the curve of her cheeks. Kinky, then. The fingers
of the other hand rested on her pussy.

“Open yourself for me,” he ordered.

She pulled the lips of her sex apart and
shuddered at the agonizing rush of sensation as the lips parted.
The swollen, damp feel of her own flesh met her. She was slippery
with her own juices. His fingers did not hesitate, driving deep
inside her flesh, probing, finding a hidden, sweet spot that made
her arch her back and whimper with the pleasure.

“You could take many men this way,” he
promised. “One cock,” he shoved and his own slowly slipped inside
her. “Maybe two. They would try.”

His fingers pushed inexorably inside. Full.
So full. Stretched. Aroused and vulnerable. And yet there was a
thread of gentleness beneath the dark promise of his words. His
fingers moved in counterpoint to his cock until the pleasure
threatened to tear her apart.

“There would be a half dozen at the least,”
he continued. “More waiting. One or two to take your mouth. As many
again for your pussy. And then,” his other hand stroked down her
back, “another for your ass.” Dark pleasure unfolded in her. His
finger stroked the smooth, hidden skin between the opening to her
pussy and her asshole, tapping lightly so that pleasure strummed
through her.

“Have you been taken here, Bennu,” he
demanded. “Have your captors stood you up against the wall, made
you hold apart your own cheeks while they reamed your pretty, pink
ass?” Gods, she couldn’t think. Could only feel as he filled her
and filled her.

He pulled free from her body with a wet
sound. Short, stinging slaps landed on her ass.

“Tell me,” he demanded.

She couldn’t think, couldn’t respond to his
erotic authority, could only remember that one dark, forbidden
encounter. Another theft. The male who’d found her bending her
over, pulling down her blacksuit until it pooled around her ankles.
Parting her cheeks with a darker promise, the blunt fingertip
tracing the seam of her ass and then forcing its way into her
asshole, twisting until a dark pleasure spiraled through her. Only
his finger, moving ruthlessly in and out in the enveloping darkness
while she moaned helplessly, trapped by that single digit,
connected to him by an unspeakable pleasure that followed the dark
pleasure-burn of each invasion.

Mkhai could do this for her.

Would
do it for her. If she could
convince him to remain with her.

“And why shouldn’t I take my chances with
them, Mkhai? Why not?”

“Because,” he said fiercely, “for them it
will not be a mating game. They will not stop and they will not
care if you find pleasures—or not. For them, it will be a death
sentence that they will care out and you will find, my
femi
,
that you do not care for sadism even if you do enjoy it when I
paddle your ass for you.”

Truth, she acknowledged. She’d seen sex
slaves before, slaves who were expendable and whose owners were
both harsh and brutal. “Why else?”

“Because,” he said with a groan, “even if I
am one of Pharon’s demons, I cannot bear to hand you over to them.
I would keep you, my mate.”

He gently bore her to the ground again, and
she did not protest as he pulled the blacksuit open again and
plunged deep inside her with his cock. She screamed, but with the
pleasure of it, as he drove into her again and again, seeking and
finding pleasure together.

***

“Your three minutes are up,” she whispered
hoarsely. “Have you been convinced?” She had forgot their game at
the end, lost in the sensation of their joining. If he had been
serious in his demands, she had lost.

He shook his head in despair.

“You must listen to me,” he warned. “When the
others come, I will do what I can, but you must promise that you
will do precisely as I ask.” He laid a warning finger across her
lips. “There is no time to dispute this. You must decide. Trust me.
Don’t trust me. If you would prefer to take your own chances, I can
buy you, perhaps, a five minute’s head start down the tunnel. I can
tell you where some of the traps are. The rest of it will be in
your hands and up to your ingenuity.”

Her emotions were a welter of conflicting
desires. Sexual pleasure hummed through her, but she also could not
deny the sheer beauty of looking at him. He radiated strength, both
inside and out. She’d known him for a matter of hours. She wanted
to know more. He would be as strong emotionally as he was
physically—he could truly match her. “I’m not ready to say
goodbye,” she decided. “Tell me what I need to do.”

Before he could say anything, the first pack
of demons burst out of the darkness.

The demons possessed the same eerie,
skin-deep sort of beauty she had first noticed with Mkhai. Tall and
muscular, these males came with the same golden skin and dark,
flashing eyes. They were all hard planes and sculpted muscles.
Flowing with the same uncanny grace, they glided across the stone
ground rather than walking. The differences were in their faces—the
bones had formed themselves differently for each male—but, most of
all, the differences lay in their eyes. Theirs were the eyes of
predators. Cold, flat, assessing. These were not Mkhai’s eyes.

The eyes stared first at her and then at
Mkhai.

“Mkhai, stop,” hissed the first. “She has
stolen from Pharon.”

The stones burned in her pouch. What could
she say?

Mkhai’s hard gaze met those of his brothers.
She could feel his body readying for battle, the orb of air and
light drawing in closer around them. Snakes began to boil around
the ankles of the demons outside.

“Turn her over for justice,” urged another.
“We will see to her punishment if you cannot.”

“He is made weak by the summer heat,” the
first demon argued. “The heat has addled him; he does not see his
duty clearly.”

Was it just lust? Could it be the heat and
nothing more? It didn’t matter, she decided. Faced with a pack of
vengeful demons, she would take help in whatever form it came in.
Even if it was an uninvited demon mate. She could sort out her
emotions—and his—later. On the surface. Away from these beings who
wanted nothing more than to kill her.

“I do see my duty,” Mkhai said calmly. “Quite
clearly.”

The demons looked at him expectantly, lust
and greed painted across their faces. How had Mkhai learned a
different emotion? Why was he capable of it—and they were not?

“Good,” said the first. “It had been years
since we had so pretty a captive. I will enjoy it.”

Mkhai shook his head. “No.”

“No?” The demons advanced, light and air
swirling around them. Even as their eyes began to glow, dust rose
in the corridor. Snakes struck against the orb, testing the
strength of Mkhai’s shields.

He wrapped one thick arm around her throat.
“I have decided to keep her. She will be my mate.”

He bent his head to whisper in her ear. “Be
ready,
femi
. When I drop the shield, they will attack.”

“And then what?” she answered hoarsely. “I
have my blaster in my bag, some flares.” She could and would help
him. She was no pale, virginal maiden to be rescued from the big,
bad demons. Although, she thought with ill-timed humor, if Mkhai
wanted to play out that particular vignette in their bed, she would
be game. Nothing like the virgin-and-the-warrior for hot sex. She’d
bet that he did a mean bit of role-playing.

“No. Those weapons will have little effect on
my brothers. I will take us from here, but you must trust me and
hold on. Do not unsheathe your blaster.” She nodded. After all,
she’d agreed to trust him, hadn’t she?

The taunts of demons grew louder, the snakes
beginning to wriggle through the orb. A terrible pressure and heat
built around them and the rock walls started to shimmer, licking
with fire. Mkhai remained unconcerned, a dark solid presence at her
side.

“Mine,” he said again to the demons that
threatened—them. He had chosen sides, she thought with
exhilaration. He had chosen
her
.

He dropped the shields. Waves of power poured
from the other demons—vengeful, determined, a dark, twisted
pleasure. One of them hesitated. “Do you not fear the vortex? Will
you let Pharon send you back from whence you came?”

The eyes of the demon that hesitated
flickered, and for a brief moment Bennu saw an elemental fear
reflected there,

Would Mkhai be punished for aiding her
escape? Bennu filed the demon’s comment away for future reference.
She could not let Mkhai suffer for helping her. She would not.

Now he was spinning, a column of liquid flame
that wrapped around her gently. Protectively. Rather than burning,
she was consumed, possessed. Her body flew through the tunnels in
his fiery embrace, propelled upward to the surface through one of
the sunken shafts. The smooth rush of the air fed the fire until
her body ignited, the erotic sensations coursing through her. It
was the ultimate possession of her body, Mkhai streaming through
her body, her mind.

To her surprise, she found that she welcomed
the unexpected closeness.

They spilled out of the shaft and onto the
nighttime beach. The heat cooled and the flames died away until
they lay entwined on the sand, flesh pressed to flesh.

The dark night water of the lagoon washed
gently around them, leaving lacy twists of salty, white foam on
their skin.

Mkhai had never walked the abovelands,
although, when he had been a newer demon, he had stared at its
unfamiliar landscapes from the security of the mineshafts. As a
youngling, the abovelands had fascinated him. Now, as a refugee
from all he had been bred to, the strange new world still called to
him. Everything was alien and unfamiliar, from the soft, dark air
to the warm rustling of the palm leaves in the night breeze. This
world was strangely open and frighteningly large without the
protective twists and turns, the insurmountable walls and rock
faces of his underworld. Nevertheless, it was also dark,
sweet-scented, and pleasantly warm.

For the first time in weeks, his skin cooled,
the flush fading. The burning summer heat left him and his senses
cleared. He could hear the smooth crash of the surf on the black
sand, depositing a creamy white lace where soft ground met water.
He crouched down and ran the sand through his fingers. Powdery
soft, it was interwoven with small shells and bits of flotsam. The
entire abovelands was bursting with life. He could hear the land
animals moving swiftly about, searching for food or sex or mates.
The lagoon was alive as well although, since the sun was still
down, it was the predators who swam steadily through the dark
waters, long, tensile sharks and hunting eels.

Nevertheless, he felt strangely peaceful.

He looked over at his
femi
, who was
staring at him with wide eyes. Desire built in him, a hot hum of
interest. Some things had
not
changed. He still had a mate.
He took her hand, smiling as he tugged her towards him.

The sharp hum of blasters being leveled at
him halted him in his tracks. Danger scented the air. Three males,
all topping six feet high in blacksuits, frowned at him. A small,
bullet-shaped silver flying ship hovered over the far end of the
beach. He rolled to protect his
femi
, calling on the
elemental spirits that were woven deep into his essence. To his
relief—and, somewhat to his surprise— the powers were still there.
Light hummed from his fingertips, building into a searing glow.

“Damn,” groaned the first. “She’s not only
stolen topazes, she’s stolen one of Pharon’s demons.”

“I can explain.” His
femi
rose up like
an avenging fury. She would have made an excellent demoness.
“Brothers,” she spat, looking at Mkhai, clearly willing him to
understand. “You can’t kill them.”

He sighed. Even he knew that that would have
been the simpler course. Who wanted their sister to mate with a
demon?

There was a sharp cough. Bennu’s brothers
looked away, a dark flush crawling over their respective collars.
“Lost something, Bennu,” one of them muttered.

“Clothes,” the second added. The third was
too busy laughing. Bennu smacked him as she pulled on the blacksuit
she’d abandoned on the sand.

“Mkhai,” she said, “Meet my brother. Anhur,
Kneph and Kontar.”

***

Apparently, fetching a demon from the
underworld was not necessarily grounds for being dismissed from the
Agency, nor did it count as too much of a black mark against her
piracy record. Amazing.

“The demons mentioned a vortex.” She shot an
inquiring look at Mkhai. He stopped examining the console and
shrugged uncomfortably.

“It is possible,” he admitted, “that Pharon
will be able to send me back to the vortex. He has sent others when
they displeased him.”

“
Will
he be displeased?” Anhur leaned
back in his chair and stared at the demon.