The Hard Way (Box Set) (35 page)

“So… you are a demon.” Ash sighed, shaking her head. Trust her to wander through a hotel room and find a slinking sex demon.

“I am the child of lust, the forbidden child, a --”

“A pain in the ass.”

“That, too,” it snickered, “but above all else, I am a Sincubus. Because Mom and Dad were not made to mate with each other, pretty-pretty-pretty, I am a forbidden child. Succubae and Incubi are only to mate with approved human counterparts. My parents’ love was forbidden, as was producing me.”

“So… you are a freak of some kind?”

“I --” It rose up to its knees, anger growing in its dark eyes --”am not a freak. I am both succubus and incubus. I am both male and female, yet neither. I can feed off of anyone I choose, no matter the sex, either through orgasmic release or with a nice wine sauce and fresh jungle fruits.”

It gnashed its razor sharp teeth as its black eyes bored into Ash’s, making her heart race with both desire and fear.

“Which do you prefer, pretty-pretty-pretty? Either way, I dine well tonight.”

“Do I have a choice?” Ash asked, calmly staring up at the creature that loomed over her.

“No.”

“What happened? Mama never hugged you much?” Ash silently awaited this reaction. She needed to know how far she could push this creature before her skin… and her meat… became its next meal.

“Mama was Papa half the time,” it chuckled. “And then Papa became Mama when needed. Really, Incubi and Succubi are not supposed to mingle. No real seed to speak of.” He sighed, settling back and retracting his teeth.

Ash relaxed a bit, amazed that it was willing to talk. “Then how…”

“Oh, Mama stole some seed from some human and implanted it into Papa. Papa carried me, whelped me, and they took turns nursing me, hiding me from the elders.”

“Elders?”

“All races have some sort of society, vampire. Oh, yeah, I forgot. You lot are a bunch of bastard-like freaks too.”

“Um, I resent that,” Ash snorted. “We are a created race.”

“Yeah, well, all races are created from something. Maybe you should just get together and create a government of your own. Goodness knows you need some guidance. With your running around willy-nilly and biting people all the time, it’s a wonder no one has started a vampire hunt in recent years.”

“But not everybody knows we exist.” Who was this creature to lecture her? Oh, yeah, she thought as it flexed its talons and lapped at its fangs with a long red tongue. It was the one in control… for now.

“Yeah, and there are several thousand legends about my kind, and no one knows that I exist. My few brethren and I seem to be one of the universe’s best-kept secrets. You never hear about tales of the Sincubus.”

“True,” Ash agreed, “but you are stuck here, same as me.”

“True.” Its smile became a smirk as it again loomed over Ash. “But then, I don’t want to leave.”

* * *

Not want to leave?

Ash thought about the creature’s words as it cackled and rose to its feet. The golden armbands that encircled its biceps glistened as the sun that permeated the room began to set.

Sun?

She was… she was sitting in the sun!

It had been so long since she had seen daylight, and here she didn’t even pay it any attention because she had been either running scared or in the throes of passion. How could she not notice? How could she not notice… how warm it felt on her skin?

She closed her eyes and lifted her face to the waning sun, relishing the warmth that seemed to come with the slowly sinking golden orb.

“Oh, it’s not real,” the Sincubus interjected, making Ash’s eyes snap open in shock. Then a wave of depression swept over her. The creature -- the Sincubus -- was right. There could be no real sun, or she would have long since died an agonizing death.

“It’s one of the reasons I don’t want to leave,” it explained, drawing Ash’s attention back to him. “My kind really can’t exist in the daylight, either. We live in shadows and in dreams. It’s kind of hard to make someone sleep in broad daylight. We would quickly starve, pretty-pretty-pretty.”

“Yeah,” she agreed sadly. But oh, how glorious the sun, even this false sun, felt.

“There is that, and the fact that this place sends me all the meals I could want.”

“There is that.” Ash sighed, shaking off her melancholy to get back to the matter at hand -- finding as much information about this creature as she could and using it to get the hell out of this crazy place.

“Oh, the little vampire needs someone to drink,” it teased, absently running its hands over its full breasts, tugging gently at the gold rings that pierced its chocolate-drop nipples. “Be a good girl, and I’ll let you… have a bite.”

It laughed as it reached for its discarded robe, draping it around its body but not quite covering its admittedly attractive breasts and its thick, still slightly swollen cock.

For a second Ash admired the golden bars that traversed the length of that thick piece of meat, before she again shook herself out of her musings. This was no time to ogle the most attractive cock she had ever seen, not to mention breasts that seemed too pretty to be real. She had to find a way out of here.

“Pretty-pretty-pretty?” it asked, noticing her lack of comment. “Are you all right?”

“Ash,” she sighed, sitting up and crossing her arms over her breasts. “My name is Ash.”

“Ash,” it purred, making the name sound like sex and poison dreams on its lips. “Ash. It fits you.”

“And your name is?”

“Oh, I have no name,” it chuckled. “But you can call me what you will, pretty-pretty Ash.”

Ash eyed him again, noting the magnificent set of horns that twirled back into its hair, how that red, draping robe seemed to accent its unearthly beauty, how it seemed more… more male to her than female.

“I’ll think about it.” Then, looking him straight in the eyes, she asked, “Now about my supper…”

Sitting in the flowers at dusk and playing octopussy with a creature that had both a dick and a vagina was not how Ash ever expected to spend any evening. But here she was, in the nest of a creature she knew almost nothing about, trying to make heads or tails out of this new twist to her life.

She eyed the creature with some trepidation as it settled in beside her, a grin on its lips.

“Yes, pretty-pretty Ash.” He conversed as if having a chat with a creature that bizarre were commonplace. “I find myself not ever wanting to leave this place. It supplies me with all my wants and my needs. What more can a creature ask for?”

“Companionship?” Ash asked archly, trying to ignore the gnawing hunger that seemed to grow more intense the more time she spent with the Sincubus. “Someone to talk to? Friendship?”

“I am talking to you, Ash, and from the intensity of your previous orgasm, I am guessing that we will be good friends.”

Ash rolled her eyes, then wrapped both arms around her body, inching closer to the warmth the creature exuded.

“Are you cold?” it asked, actually sounding concerned. “I can do something to warm you up…”

“Just find my sheet. Or better yet, do you have another robe thing? That would help.”

“I thought vampires didn’t feel the cold.”

“And I never knew there was a soul-stealing creature with both sexes out there waiting to prey upon someone.”

“
Touché
.” It nodded, then leered at her. “Of course I have another robe, and the red color would complement your skin tone so. But the question of the hour is… what will you give me for it?”

“Give?” Ash arched her eyebrows as she stared at… it.

“Everything in life must be earned.”

“Like your earlier meal?”

“Hell, woman, you actually came on my tongue. Wasn’t that payment enough for one simple snack?”

“Snack!” Ash slammed her hands on her hips, glaring at the creature.

“Snack,” it assured her. “A full meal would have had my fingers in your ass, my dick up your pretty little pussy, and my tongue down your throat. Your fingers in my cunt would be nice too, but that would be just an added bonus.”

Ash’s eyes widened at its words. “You… you are depraved!”

“Thank you for the compliment.” It smirked at her, tossing its hair over its shoulders. “The more depraved I am, the more Mom and Pop did their job right.”

Well, it had her there, too. Ash huffed, then drew her knees up, resting her chin on them and wrapping her arms around her legs. She was not going to ask for clothing again.

“You really are cold, aren’t you?” it asked, watching as goose bumps rose on her dark skin. “I really thought that vampires didn’t feel the cold, on the account of what created you.”

“Yeah, well, I didn’t do a lot of things before I wound up at this hotel.”

“Why did you come in the first place?”

Ash looked up, and for once it appeared the Sincubus was being earnest. She sighed and drew herself in tighter, trying to warm her chilled body. “I wanted to get away, you know? I’ve been alive for so long and there’s so much I’ve seen. And it all passed me by. Everything. I saw history, but I wasn’t a part of it. I saw all these great things happening, and I had nothing to do with any of it. I guess… I guess I was tired, needed an out, needed to think some things over for myself.”

“Contemplating taking that final walk in the sun?”

She inhaled deeply as the truth of his words occurred to her. “Maybe,” she breathed. “Just maybe I was tired of it all, of this… this mere existence.” She slumped a little, slightly ashamed of her admission. “But I think I may be too much of a coward… There was this great guy, a dryad, I believe, over there in the next room. I think I was going to kill him. If I killed him, then I would have a reason to end my own life, you know? Guilt and all of that. But I remember fucking him, and I remember talking to him and discovering he was a bigger coward than I was.”

She chuckled as she tried to hold on to the memories that danced in her head, danced and swayed like fireflies enchanting a field with their mystical flame. But, like the elusive insects, most of the memories escaped to flutter just beyond her grasp.

“You fucked him, and you were going to kill him?” it asked, eyes wide in amazement, before it started to chuckle. “I think you are about as depraved as I am.”

Ash just rolled her eyes and pulled herself into an even tighter ball. “I mean, I killed many times after I fucked someone… but they were all bad and made pretty sour meals.”

“Hey, at least I am honest about my depraved acts,” it chuckled.

Ash felt a deep, tingling warmth as a long muscular arm dropped around her shoulders. “You… may not be so bad after all,” he chuckled, drawing her into his warmth. “You are somewhat honest and you smell good, after your bath in the spring. And I am really looking forward to fucking you, pretty-pretty Ash. Looking forward to fucking you rather than eating you.”

Ash nearly choked on her own gasp of shock as it pulled her in closer.

“I am hoping that you never want to leave, Ash. And if you want to die, may I have the pleasure of dining on your flesh?”

Ash looked up into his once again earnest eyes, then down to his razor sharp teeth. “You know,” she decided, shuddering in delayed reaction. “I think you’re good for me, um, Sincubus. Suddenly, I want to live.”

Ash had never passed an evening quite like that, curled up in a nest of soft fragrant leaves and flowers, in the arms of a hermaphroditic demon. It was warm and comfortable, even if the demon of her choice snored.

She sighed as she thought on their conversation of yesterday. She’d admitted to herself that her intentions, no matter how cleverly disguised, were to kill herself. Had life lost that much meaning to her? Was all she had to look forward a walk in the sun? She ran her hands over her eyes, upset and vaguely relieved by her painful self-discovery.

And this… this Sincubus?

What the hell was it?

Oh, she understood the make-up of it, but… Damn! Was it a boy or a girl? She had a tendency to think of it as a boy, she guessed because its overwhelming masculinity stood out. That and that penis was too big to be confused with a little clit.

But the way it touched her… Oh, yeah, it knew exactly what a woman wanted. Its technique was astounding, and the reason it gave her for this knowledge made sense. But still…

It needed a name. She couldn’t continue to use the generic “it.” This creature deserved to have someone at least acknowledge its individual existence, and not its forbidden child species.

And it kind of looked like a Nightshade… Well, maybe a deadly nightshade, she thought with a snicker, recalling all its natural weapons that could easily take her life.

Her life, she thought with a sigh.

But damned if she still knew weather her life was even worth it.

For so long she had fought to say alive. Spying the Dryad and entering this hotel had been justified by her need for revenge. But she had failed in that, feeling a bit sorry for the confused male. Hell, his confusion had been more amusing than hers. But in the end, she hadn’t killed him. Instead, she’d fucked him.

And now he was gone, and her problems still remained. What was she living for? Was it even worth it, this overdrawn life of hers?

What life?
she mused, pulling totally out of the Sincubus’ arms. She rolled over to get a closer look at the thing she was apparently going to be stuck with for a time.

It was attractive, she decided as she watched the creature roll to its back and settle deeper into the comfortable bed of fragrant foliage. Its hair spread out around it like a silken cloak. Even in sleep, the hair seemed to sparkle and snap with life. With its eyes closed, it was truly androgynous. Its eyes were delicately tilted, its cheek bones high, and its lips full and soft.

It was really an amazing creature.

Its body, on the other hand, was like one huge walking fantasy taboo made flesh. The breasts were small enough to remain perky when it was lying on its back, but they were well formed and firm. The robe shifted while it was sleeping, exposing one breast and its fascinating ring piercing. There seemed to be a sparkling diamond in the center, the connector that held the ring together.